Friday, May 30, 2014
APPLICATION TO DATE MY DAUGHTER
NOTE: This application will be incomplete and rejected unless accompanied by a complete financial statement, job history, lineage, and current medical report from your doctor.
NAME_______________________________________ ALIASES ______________
DATE OF BIRTH_____________ HEIGHT___________ WEIGHT____________
IQ__________ GPA______________ SOCIAL SECURITY#________________
DRIVERS LICENSE #________________ IQ _________ BLOOD TYPE _____
BOY SCOUT RANK AND BADGES________________________________________
HOME ADDRESS_______________________ CITY/STATE___________ ZIP______
Do you have parents? ___Yes ___No
#of years they have been married ______
If less than your age, explain why ______________________________________
If not explain why ___________________________________________________
ACCESSORIES SECTION:
A. Do you own or have access to a van? __Yes __No
B. A truck with oversized tires? __Yes __No
C. A waterbed? __Yes __No
D. A pickup with a mattress in the back? __Yes __No
E. A tattoo? __Yes __No
F. Do you have an earring, nose ring, pierced tongue, pierced cheek or a belly button ring? __Yes __No
(IF YOU ANSWERED 'YES' TO ANY OF THE ABOVE, DISCONTINUE APPLICATION AND LEAVE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY. I HIGHLY SUGGEST RUNNING AS I AM A GOOD SHOT.)
ESSAY SECTION:
In 50 words or less, what does 'LATE' mean to you ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
In 50 words or less, what does 'DON'T TOUCH MY DAUGHTER' mean to you? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
In 50 words or less, what does 'ABSTINENCE' mean to you? ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
REFERENCES SECTION:
Church you attend _______________________________________________
How often you attend ____________________________________________
When would be the best time to interview your:
father? __________ mother? _________ pastor? __________
SHORT-ANSWER SECTION:
Answer by filling in the blank. Please answer freely, all answers are confidential.
A. If I were shot, the last place I would want shot would be: ______________________________________________________________
B. If I were beaten, the last bone I would want broken is my: ______________________________________________________________
C. A woman's place is in the: ______________________________________
D. The one thing I hope this application does not ask me about is: ______________________________________________________________
E. What do you want to do IF you grow up?__________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________
F. When I meet a girl, the thing I always notice about her first is: ______________________________________________________________
G. What is the current going rate of a hotel room? ______________________
RULES:
Initial each Rule after reading.
Rule One: If you talk with foul words and dress like swag, a punk or a wanna-be-gangster I will toss you right out on your tush.
Rule Two: If you date my daughter you date only her. She has a kind heart and I will not have you make my her cry; if she does, I will make you cry. You may only date ONE of my daughters. EVER.
Rule Three: You must know how to cook as well as I have taught my daughter(s) to cook. Frozen dinners do not count.
Rule Four: Do not be hurt when my daughter chooses a day at the spa with me over sports or gaming time with you. She was raised that family comes first and until there is a ring on her finger, I am her family, not you.
Rule Five: Do not date my daughter for her money because I am her bank. Do not expect gifts, she has been taught to be a savvy shopper.
Rule Seven: Do not lie to me. I may appear to be a pudgy, baggy-eyed, last-season, has-been. But on issues relating to my daughter, I am the queen of her universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth. If you do not I will ask her. Do not trifle with me.
Rule Eight: My daughter has been raised to respect herself, so keep your hands to yourself. Offending body parts will be removed by me with a dull spoon.
Rule Nine: Do not be hurt when my daughter chooses spending time with me over spending time with you. She was raised that family comes first and until there is a ring on her finger, I am her family, not you. Yes, I know this is also Rule Four. It is an important one.
Rule Ten: My daughter is not a toy. She does not have Hasbro, Mattel or any other toy company tattooed on her person. Hence, she is not an object for you to play with, manipulate, and discard at your leisure. I suffered through 42 hours of labor to have her, and will unleash an unimaginable amount of anger such that the movie 300 will look like an episode of the Little House on the Prairie should you cross me.
I SWEAR THAT ALL INFORMATION SUPPLIED ABOVE IS TRUE AND CORRECT TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH, DISMEMBERMENT, NATIVE AMERICAN ANT TORTURE, CRUCIFIXION, ELECTROCUTION, CHINESE WATER TORTURE, RED HOT POKERS, AND HILLARY CLINTON KISS TORTURE.
_________________________________________________________
Applicant's Signature (that means sign your name)
_______________________________________________________________
Mother's Signature & Father's Signature
_______________________________________________________________
Pastor/Priest/Rabbi State Representative/Congressman
Please allow four to six years for processing.
The garden update
Here's what I had planned
In the pots by the retaining wall...
Tomatoes - 6 romas 2 cherry and maybe 2 slicing
Green Beans - 6
Peppers - 3 spicy - 3 mild (I might be finding homes for the extras)
In the old garden that is now very shady...
Squash in the only part that gets any full sun...where the strawberries used to be (I'm currently digging them out, because 1) they don't produce very well any more 2) the birds eat what I am able to produce)
Spinach
Lettuce
Onions - currently growing from last year
Carrots - currently growing from last year
Here's what actually happened...
Tomatoes - 4 larger roma (Health Kick) plants & 2 smaller Heath Kicks. + 2 yellow grape + 2 Tommie something - they're a cherry that is supposed to like to hang...although I have no where to hang them from.
Green Beans - I planted 3 varieties and 6 seeds each. fingers crossed there as the nursery didn't have anything but soybeans & black eyed peas.
Peppers - 2 sweet peppers and 4 jalapenos. I might toss in some chili seeds too...might as well.
Squash - I got two zucchini plants and then put in some seeds. - hopefully my seizure inducing balloon keeps the birds from eating all my seeds.
Spinach & Lettuce from seed - although I have some of both that were volunteers from last year. YAY
Onions from last year - I dug up the old ones and spread them out and replanted.
Carrots - I dug up the old ones and composted them...then planted new seed. fingers crossed again.
brocolli - experimenting as it hasn't done well before.
I also put in some chard (I've never eaten this before), radishes and brussel sprouts- I sure hope that they like to live here.
I still need to go get some herb seeds as I thought I had some and all I had was parsley, which I dug up the old stuff to dry and didn't put any new in as we don't eat much of it.
In the pots by the retaining wall...
Tomatoes - 6 romas 2 cherry and maybe 2 slicing
Green Beans - 6
Peppers - 3 spicy - 3 mild (I might be finding homes for the extras)
In the old garden that is now very shady...
Squash in the only part that gets any full sun...where the strawberries used to be (I'm currently digging them out, because 1) they don't produce very well any more 2) the birds eat what I am able to produce)
Spinach
Lettuce
Onions - currently growing from last year
Carrots - currently growing from last year
Here's what actually happened...
Tomatoes - 4 larger roma (Health Kick) plants & 2 smaller Heath Kicks. + 2 yellow grape + 2 Tommie something - they're a cherry that is supposed to like to hang...although I have no where to hang them from.
Green Beans - I planted 3 varieties and 6 seeds each. fingers crossed there as the nursery didn't have anything but soybeans & black eyed peas.
Peppers - 2 sweet peppers and 4 jalapenos. I might toss in some chili seeds too...might as well.
Squash - I got two zucchini plants and then put in some seeds. - hopefully my seizure inducing balloon keeps the birds from eating all my seeds.
Spinach & Lettuce from seed - although I have some of both that were volunteers from last year. YAY
Onions from last year - I dug up the old ones and spread them out and replanted.
Carrots - I dug up the old ones and composted them...then planted new seed. fingers crossed again.
brocolli - experimenting as it hasn't done well before.
I also put in some chard (I've never eaten this before), radishes and brussel sprouts- I sure hope that they like to live here.
I still need to go get some herb seeds as I thought I had some and all I had was parsley, which I dug up the old stuff to dry and didn't put any new in as we don't eat much of it.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Theater season is over for the year
Darly & cast finished up their season with a wonderful performance of Guys & Dolls. I wish I could say that they performed to a packed house, but alas that is really hard to do when the show is scheduled for the middle of May...prom & graduation season. Hopefully the plan for next year is for April instead.
At the end of the show I ended up packing my poor car to the gills with all the stuff we needed to return to the costume shop. I'm getting really good at packing my car and driving with no visibility through the back. lol
Now on for summer plans. I have got to get my garden going as I'm running a bit behind. Hubby seems to be more and more determined for me to give up my silly idea of growing my own food. :p I am not sure what his motivation is. It isn't as if I am forcing him to eat what I grow or hiding the offending foods in his meals. I grow because I like to (yes, I am a bit lazy about weeding) but it makes me happy...so buzz off DH. ;)
The plan for this year...
Seeing as we're getting a great start to our season with our usual Hail storms, I am considering moving the garden temporarily to the back porch so the plants have a fighting chance. Then I'll move them back to where I had them last summer by the retaining wall.
In the pots by the retaining wall...
Tomatoes - 6 romas 2 cherry and maybe 2 slicing
Green Beans - 6
Peppers - 3 spicy - 3 mild (I might be finding homes for the extras)
In the old garden that is now very shady...
Squash in the only part that gets any full sun...where the strawberries used to be (I'm currently digging them out, because 1) they don't produce very well any more 2) the birds eat what I am able to produce)
Spinach
Lettuce
Onions - currently growing from last year
Carrots - currently growing from last year
I've had to reinforce the fence around the old garden as my sneaky dog loves to help herself to my carrots. I had one big beautiful carrot about to go to seed and she ate it. buggar!
The hope for the spinach & lettuce is that the shade will keep them from bolting.
Oh, herbs are going in and around everything else.
I had better get dressed and go to work!
At the end of the show I ended up packing my poor car to the gills with all the stuff we needed to return to the costume shop. I'm getting really good at packing my car and driving with no visibility through the back. lol
Now on for summer plans. I have got to get my garden going as I'm running a bit behind. Hubby seems to be more and more determined for me to give up my silly idea of growing my own food. :p I am not sure what his motivation is. It isn't as if I am forcing him to eat what I grow or hiding the offending foods in his meals. I grow because I like to (yes, I am a bit lazy about weeding) but it makes me happy...so buzz off DH. ;)
The plan for this year...
Seeing as we're getting a great start to our season with our usual Hail storms, I am considering moving the garden temporarily to the back porch so the plants have a fighting chance. Then I'll move them back to where I had them last summer by the retaining wall.
In the pots by the retaining wall...
Tomatoes - 6 romas 2 cherry and maybe 2 slicing
Green Beans - 6
Peppers - 3 spicy - 3 mild (I might be finding homes for the extras)
In the old garden that is now very shady...
Squash in the only part that gets any full sun...where the strawberries used to be (I'm currently digging them out, because 1) they don't produce very well any more 2) the birds eat what I am able to produce)
Spinach
Lettuce
Onions - currently growing from last year
Carrots - currently growing from last year
I've had to reinforce the fence around the old garden as my sneaky dog loves to help herself to my carrots. I had one big beautiful carrot about to go to seed and she ate it. buggar!
The hope for the spinach & lettuce is that the shade will keep them from bolting.
Oh, herbs are going in and around everything else.
I had better get dressed and go to work!
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
There is NO free lunch - and other Facebook complaints!
I know, I know. You thought I was dead. Most of you have probably moved on and mourned my passing. Alas, I'm still here...sort of. I'm "livin on the air of Facebook" now.
And that brings me to my post.
Today, yet again I saw the "Share this picture of Bill Gates and he'll give you $5K" meme. Okay, who is still believing this carp?!?! Probably the same folks who fall for the Nigerian scam. *eyeroll*
1) Nobody, I repeat NOBODY will give you money for sharing ANYTHING on Facebook! Just quit it people! (I really don't understand the mentality of the folks who start these memes. I suppose there is some sort of God complex that "I made something that is going viral." thing.)
2) Even if Bill Gates wanted to give everyone who shared his picture money...how would he do that exactly?!?! Facebook doesn't know where you live, unless you told them. If you told them you are crazy!
3) the picture mentions that it is time he finally started giving back to the people.
sigh! next
The same goes for the share this nice picture with nice words and you'll receive a miracle or if you love Jesus. Some go so far as to tell me that I must hate Jesus if I don't share it. Again with the viral thing. Oh and that goes for the "We're trying to see how fast things spread on the internet" memes. Duh!
So if you recognize yourself as one of those "sharers" know this... I WILL NOT SHARE ANYTHING! Unless it's a really cute picture of a bunny. I have my standards ya know. ;)
on to other stuff...
If you post something on your Facebook wall... everyone that your settings allow will see it.
If you post something on your friends' Facebook wall...everyone that their settings allow will see it.
If you want to tell your friend something in private...that's what the Messages part is for.
If you REALLY want to tell your friend something...use your email, texting or call them. :p
okay, I think I'm done. If you have a Facebook sin that bothers you...feel free to share it below in the comments. :D
And that brings me to my post.
Today, yet again I saw the "Share this picture of Bill Gates and he'll give you $5K" meme. Okay, who is still believing this carp?!?! Probably the same folks who fall for the Nigerian scam. *eyeroll*
1) Nobody, I repeat NOBODY will give you money for sharing ANYTHING on Facebook! Just quit it people! (I really don't understand the mentality of the folks who start these memes. I suppose there is some sort of God complex that "I made something that is going viral." thing.)
2) Even if Bill Gates wanted to give everyone who shared his picture money...how would he do that exactly?!?! Facebook doesn't know where you live, unless you told them. If you told them you are crazy!
3) the picture mentions that it is time he finally started giving back to the people.
- Bill already gives MILLIONS to his charities... heard of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation?
- It is Bill's money, he can do with it whatever he wants?!?! Do YOU want the internet telling you to give your money away?
sigh! next
The same goes for the share this nice picture with nice words and you'll receive a miracle or if you love Jesus. Some go so far as to tell me that I must hate Jesus if I don't share it. Again with the viral thing. Oh and that goes for the "We're trying to see how fast things spread on the internet" memes. Duh!
So if you recognize yourself as one of those "sharers" know this... I WILL NOT SHARE ANYTHING! Unless it's a really cute picture of a bunny. I have my standards ya know. ;)
on to other stuff...
If you post something on your Facebook wall... everyone that your settings allow will see it.
If you post something on your friends' Facebook wall...everyone that their settings allow will see it.
If you want to tell your friend something in private...that's what the Messages part is for.
If you REALLY want to tell your friend something...use your email, texting or call them. :p
okay, I think I'm done. If you have a Facebook sin that bothers you...feel free to share it below in the comments. :D
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Office Window - Progress so far
Since my last window post I ordered the panel system and purchased the curtain rod for what I'm planning.
The panel system was not supposed to arrive until March 12th. So I was pretty shocked when it got here on March 6th. That meant it was time to get busy!
First I had to take down the old curtains and fit them to the window...before they were rather sloppily hanging over both the slider and the arch window. So I took the curtains down to the basement (where I have enough floor space to spread them out) and got them measured for cutting to fit. When I did this, I realized that I might have enough fabric to make a curtain for the arched window too. And although it took a bit of rigging, I was able to do that. I found some trim in the garage from my father in law's stash to make a curtain rod out of. (the "rod" is just the trim shoved into the window frame.)
Here's the new arch window curtain.
While I was up on the ladder, I realized how badly the wall needed to be painted. So I decided to paint an accent wall in here.
Then hubby & I went and bought the 2x2 for the header to screw the panel system into. We dug through an entire bin of wood to find some that was not too bowed or full of knots. But that's where things stalled. The wood sat on the office floor.
Monday hubby was home from work sick. I thought that perhaps this project would get moving again. But hubby just wanted to sit and hog my computer all day. :p So to annoy him into doing something, I started measuring the wood (it was on the floor behind him). And that worked. He took the wood from me and cut it. Then asked if I wanted to help sand it (only bringing one bit of sand paper though). So while he sanded, I cleaned up after the dog in the yard. He also got two coats of paint on the wood.
And now that's where we are. The wood still sits in the basement "drying" (it's been dry!) and here are pictures of my window treatments.
Unfortunately it looks as if I won't be able to get this finished until at least Sunday, because hubby won't work on it if I'm not here to pester him and this week is busy for us as my little actress starts rehearsals for Guys & Dolls this weekend.
I hope to have an updated photo of the completed window next week. Wish me luck!
The panel system was not supposed to arrive until March 12th. So I was pretty shocked when it got here on March 6th. That meant it was time to get busy!
First I had to take down the old curtains and fit them to the window...before they were rather sloppily hanging over both the slider and the arch window. So I took the curtains down to the basement (where I have enough floor space to spread them out) and got them measured for cutting to fit. When I did this, I realized that I might have enough fabric to make a curtain for the arched window too. And although it took a bit of rigging, I was able to do that. I found some trim in the garage from my father in law's stash to make a curtain rod out of. (the "rod" is just the trim shoved into the window frame.)
Here's the new arch window curtain.
While I was up on the ladder, I realized how badly the wall needed to be painted. So I decided to paint an accent wall in here.
Then hubby & I went and bought the 2x2 for the header to screw the panel system into. We dug through an entire bin of wood to find some that was not too bowed or full of knots. But that's where things stalled. The wood sat on the office floor.
Monday hubby was home from work sick. I thought that perhaps this project would get moving again. But hubby just wanted to sit and hog my computer all day. :p So to annoy him into doing something, I started measuring the wood (it was on the floor behind him). And that worked. He took the wood from me and cut it. Then asked if I wanted to help sand it (only bringing one bit of sand paper though). So while he sanded, I cleaned up after the dog in the yard. He also got two coats of paint on the wood.
And now that's where we are. The wood still sits in the basement "drying" (it's been dry!) and here are pictures of my window treatments.
Unfortunately it looks as if I won't be able to get this finished until at least Sunday, because hubby won't work on it if I'm not here to pester him and this week is busy for us as my little actress starts rehearsals for Guys & Dolls this weekend.
I hope to have an updated photo of the completed window next week. Wish me luck!
Saturday, March 08, 2014
Congratulations!
First they bought a little farm and had a dream. Now their story is a book that you can read. With over 500 copies sold. w00t! http://www.5acresandadream.com/2014/03/giveaway-celebrating-over-500-copies.html
| 5
Acres & A Dream The Book: The Challenges of Establishing A Self-Sufficient Homestead by Leigh Tate |
|
 |
What
does it take to become a successful homesteader?
Based on her popular homesteading
blog, 5
Acres & A Dream,
Leigh Tate shares
how she and her husband Dan are facing the challenges of trying to
establish a self-sufficient homestead; from defining their dream,
finding property, and setting priorities, to obstacles and difficult
times, to learning how to work smarter, not harder. She shares what
they've learned about energy, water, and food self-sufficiency for
themselves and
their animals too. Included are copies of their homestead
master plan plus revisions
and a sampling of Leigh's homestead recipes.
List price: $12.95
Available from CreateSpace eStore Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.co.uk Amazon.fr Amazon.de Amazon.es Amazon.it Amazon.jp Barnes & Noble Books-A-Million BookDepository Foyles UK Rakuten.com |
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
"Instant" Chicken with gravy
I've been planning to make chicken with gravy for a while, I just didn't have the time to slow cook it all day.
So I pulled out my pressure cooker! I've been storing up bones and vegetable leavings in the freezer for a while with the intent on making broth...and one day that will happen. Yesterday was not that day.
First I needed some broth. So I put what I thought were chicken bones (turns out they were turkey...no big deal really) and carrot, onion & celery in the pressure cooker with water and let that pressure cook for 20 minutes. all totaled it probably took about 30 minutes as the cooker needed time to heat up.
Then I strained the broth and put it back into the pressure cooker with two frozen chicken breasts. I added salt & spices here. Another 30 minutes and I was ready to tear apart the chicken, add flour slurry and tadah I'm done.
all day flavor, about an hour & a half of working & cooking...mostly cooking.
If only I had remembered to make biscuits for this!
So I pulled out my pressure cooker! I've been storing up bones and vegetable leavings in the freezer for a while with the intent on making broth...and one day that will happen. Yesterday was not that day.
First I needed some broth. So I put what I thought were chicken bones (turns out they were turkey...no big deal really) and carrot, onion & celery in the pressure cooker with water and let that pressure cook for 20 minutes. all totaled it probably took about 30 minutes as the cooker needed time to heat up.
Then I strained the broth and put it back into the pressure cooker with two frozen chicken breasts. I added salt & spices here. Another 30 minutes and I was ready to tear apart the chicken, add flour slurry and tadah I'm done.
all day flavor, about an hour & a half of working & cooking...mostly cooking.
If only I had remembered to make biscuits for this!
Monday, February 24, 2014
Office Window
Hey remember me? I know, I know... I've been over on that Facebook thing and totally neglecting the blog. If I have any readers left it is a miracle.
So last week I went to open the blinds in my office and they broke! :( Who knows how old these blinds are, but they've been faithful until now. However the ones in my kitchen broke many years ago, so I'm sure it was just a number of uses thing. I've used up all it's uses.
So I've been looking at options on what to replace the blinds with. Part of my decision is that when the blinds were bought for window there was a different style of window. When we bought the house, the office window was a double hung. However, when we went to replace our windows with new energy efficient windows, our city's building department declared that since this room has a window and a closet (not really as the closet is the foyer closet with a door slapped on the back...someone in their infinite wisdom thought they were doing us a favor and increasing the home's value by making this room "legally" a bedroom) it is a bedroom. So since it is a bedroom it required a window that a fireman in full gear can enter through a single pane.
note: our arguments that 1) it is NOT a bedroom and would never be considered one as there is no bathroom on this floor. 2) the front door is right by this room and easier access to the room than the window. 3) a fireman in full gear is going to take his ax and bust through the window to get in if he needs to, so how big the pane is doesn't matter.
so now instead of lovely double hung windows we have a stupid slider window...which looks like a mini-sliding glass door. Our small victory over the building department is that my sewing room has a double hung window instead as it also has a casement window that fits the stupid egress rules. :p
So now the blinds in this room don't match the window. To open the window, you have to fully open the blinds...which of course led to their demise.
So it makes sense to replace the now dead blinds with ones that hang vertically, like the style of the window opening (note: all the bedrooms upstairs have the WRONG style of blind on them!) So I have been researching vertical window coverings for this window.
While I'm doing my search...husband chips in with his opinion that whatever I put on the window should match all the other window coverings...because he likes things to match! We have so many arguments on this subject!
sigh
So first I don't really like traditional vertical blinds. Having all those strips of cloth flopping around drives me nuts and doesn't look good to me. I like the look of vertical cellular blinds...when they are new. But when they are old, they don't hold their shape and no matter how much you paid for them (btw: Starting price $350 for this window!) they look terrible.
I found a vertical panel system that we can get. It appears to be a good looking system that will fit the bill and shouldn't break the bank. The problem with it... well two problems actually... 1) clearance. The track for this system is 3inches. I was hoping it would sit flush inside the window. I only have about 2 inches of clearance. But the panels "should" sit on the window sill still. 2) installing them. from what I have found they install by either attaching to your ceiling or to your wall.
I've forgotten to mention that this window is really a set of two windows...the sliding window and a half circle arch above it. So to install the panel system, I would need to put in some sort of "header" to screw the track into or install it outside of the window...which in my opinion would totally ruin it!
I wish that I could see the system in person so I know how long the screws are, as that would determine how wide the header needs to be, although I could replace the screws with shorter ones and just put in a lot more of them.
The thing is, the panel system would mostly be viewed from the outside as I have curtains over the blinds. The header can be painted to match everything else. And the panel system is adjustable, so differing lengths wouldn't be a problem.
Still thinking about this.
So last week I went to open the blinds in my office and they broke! :( Who knows how old these blinds are, but they've been faithful until now. However the ones in my kitchen broke many years ago, so I'm sure it was just a number of uses thing. I've used up all it's uses.
So I've been looking at options on what to replace the blinds with. Part of my decision is that when the blinds were bought for window there was a different style of window. When we bought the house, the office window was a double hung. However, when we went to replace our windows with new energy efficient windows, our city's building department declared that since this room has a window and a closet (not really as the closet is the foyer closet with a door slapped on the back...someone in their infinite wisdom thought they were doing us a favor and increasing the home's value by making this room "legally" a bedroom) it is a bedroom. So since it is a bedroom it required a window that a fireman in full gear can enter through a single pane.
note: our arguments that 1) it is NOT a bedroom and would never be considered one as there is no bathroom on this floor. 2) the front door is right by this room and easier access to the room than the window. 3) a fireman in full gear is going to take his ax and bust through the window to get in if he needs to, so how big the pane is doesn't matter.
so now instead of lovely double hung windows we have a stupid slider window...which looks like a mini-sliding glass door. Our small victory over the building department is that my sewing room has a double hung window instead as it also has a casement window that fits the stupid egress rules. :p
So now the blinds in this room don't match the window. To open the window, you have to fully open the blinds...which of course led to their demise.
So it makes sense to replace the now dead blinds with ones that hang vertically, like the style of the window opening (note: all the bedrooms upstairs have the WRONG style of blind on them!) So I have been researching vertical window coverings for this window.
While I'm doing my search...husband chips in with his opinion that whatever I put on the window should match all the other window coverings...because he likes things to match! We have so many arguments on this subject!
sigh
So first I don't really like traditional vertical blinds. Having all those strips of cloth flopping around drives me nuts and doesn't look good to me. I like the look of vertical cellular blinds...when they are new. But when they are old, they don't hold their shape and no matter how much you paid for them (btw: Starting price $350 for this window!) they look terrible.
I found a vertical panel system that we can get. It appears to be a good looking system that will fit the bill and shouldn't break the bank. The problem with it... well two problems actually... 1) clearance. The track for this system is 3inches. I was hoping it would sit flush inside the window. I only have about 2 inches of clearance. But the panels "should" sit on the window sill still. 2) installing them. from what I have found they install by either attaching to your ceiling or to your wall.
I've forgotten to mention that this window is really a set of two windows...the sliding window and a half circle arch above it. So to install the panel system, I would need to put in some sort of "header" to screw the track into or install it outside of the window...which in my opinion would totally ruin it!
I wish that I could see the system in person so I know how long the screws are, as that would determine how wide the header needs to be, although I could replace the screws with shorter ones and just put in a lot more of them.
The thing is, the panel system would mostly be viewed from the outside as I have curtains over the blinds. The header can be painted to match everything else. And the panel system is adjustable, so differing lengths wouldn't be a problem.
Still thinking about this.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Not a lot going on...
which means I'm frustrated!
DH & I can both agree on one thing for sure... we NEED to redo the kitchen! The kitchen sink faucet was leaking when we bought the house in 2001 and of course it hasn't gotten any better on it's own. And if you're going to replace the faucet...you might as well replace the sink. And if you're going to replace the sink with an undermount to make me happy, well you might as well replace the counter tops. btw: now 12 years later the countertops also need to be replaced because...
1) they're formica and just damaged from 17 years of abuse & use
2) they're white (what genius thought that white formica countertops were ever a good idea?!?!)
3) for some odd reason the dishwasher vents steam not only from it's proper vent but also from the other corner which makes the chip board under the formica chip apart (although DH has quick fixed that by sealing it.)
So we're agreed that the kitchen sink, faucet and counter tops need to be replaced.
the cabinets while still in great shape could use some updating...and since you're doing the countertops, you might as well do that too.
and then the kitchen floor needs to be replaced because the dishwasher leaked under it on one end of the kitchen...then the refrigerator leaked under it on the other end...and then there's also damage by the back door. Sorry, but who thought that hardwood was a good idea under water leaking areas?
I'm all about practicality. surfaces in the kitchen should not only look good, but be completely functional.
So to that end I want "bullet proof" surfaces here!
But I don't like tile or granite. I butted heads with DH forever on this. I wanted solid surface counter tops. To me having the completely sealed surface that holds up to most anything seemed like the way to go. I don't care that realtors are pushing everyone to have granite (we couldn't sell MIL's house because it didn't have granite counter tops...even when we included an allowance so the new owner could redo the kitchen any way they wanted...the house wouldn't sell until WE put in the granite. And then we got $20K more for it!!! *eyeroll*)
I do not like granite. It is cold (I don't know why, but my kitchen is already too cold to get dough to rise...rock isn't going to help) It isn't as durable as they first told us...drop something on it and you have a real mess. If you don't get the good stuff, it pitts making for a real bacterial breeding ground! And I just don't like the look of it.
I also like the option of having the under mount sink that is fused with the solid surface counter top. To me this seemed like a much better solution for cleaning. Our current sink with it's lovely lip is a bugger to keep clean...of course the white counter tops that catch every stain don't help at all.
So I wanted... Corian counter tops & sink. Vinyl laminate flooring. Reface the cabinets and add some new trim.
Nothing was happening because hubby didn't like my plan. I still can not convince him that this is MY kitchen. *eyeroll*
So the other day in an effort to get the darned kitchen finally done...I gave in. A total concession on my part. I told him he could have the stupid granite counter tops...if we can find one that looks close to wood. He argued that if I went with something that looked like wood, it would be too dark in the kitchen. ?!?!?!?
I don't know what granite he thinks we should get, but I'm really mad now. As I don't want the stupid rock to begin with! ARGH
DH & I can both agree on one thing for sure... we NEED to redo the kitchen! The kitchen sink faucet was leaking when we bought the house in 2001 and of course it hasn't gotten any better on it's own. And if you're going to replace the faucet...you might as well replace the sink. And if you're going to replace the sink with an undermount to make me happy, well you might as well replace the counter tops. btw: now 12 years later the countertops also need to be replaced because...
1) they're formica and just damaged from 17 years of abuse & use
2) they're white (what genius thought that white formica countertops were ever a good idea?!?!)
3) for some odd reason the dishwasher vents steam not only from it's proper vent but also from the other corner which makes the chip board under the formica chip apart (although DH has quick fixed that by sealing it.)
So we're agreed that the kitchen sink, faucet and counter tops need to be replaced.
the cabinets while still in great shape could use some updating...and since you're doing the countertops, you might as well do that too.
and then the kitchen floor needs to be replaced because the dishwasher leaked under it on one end of the kitchen...then the refrigerator leaked under it on the other end...and then there's also damage by the back door. Sorry, but who thought that hardwood was a good idea under water leaking areas?
I'm all about practicality. surfaces in the kitchen should not only look good, but be completely functional.
So to that end I want "bullet proof" surfaces here!
But I don't like tile or granite. I butted heads with DH forever on this. I wanted solid surface counter tops. To me having the completely sealed surface that holds up to most anything seemed like the way to go. I don't care that realtors are pushing everyone to have granite (we couldn't sell MIL's house because it didn't have granite counter tops...even when we included an allowance so the new owner could redo the kitchen any way they wanted...the house wouldn't sell until WE put in the granite. And then we got $20K more for it!!! *eyeroll*)
I do not like granite. It is cold (I don't know why, but my kitchen is already too cold to get dough to rise...rock isn't going to help) It isn't as durable as they first told us...drop something on it and you have a real mess. If you don't get the good stuff, it pitts making for a real bacterial breeding ground! And I just don't like the look of it.
I also like the option of having the under mount sink that is fused with the solid surface counter top. To me this seemed like a much better solution for cleaning. Our current sink with it's lovely lip is a bugger to keep clean...of course the white counter tops that catch every stain don't help at all.
So I wanted... Corian counter tops & sink. Vinyl laminate flooring. Reface the cabinets and add some new trim.
Nothing was happening because hubby didn't like my plan. I still can not convince him that this is MY kitchen. *eyeroll*
So the other day in an effort to get the darned kitchen finally done...I gave in. A total concession on my part. I told him he could have the stupid granite counter tops...if we can find one that looks close to wood. He argued that if I went with something that looked like wood, it would be too dark in the kitchen. ?!?!?!?
I don't know what granite he thinks we should get, but I'm really mad now. As I don't want the stupid rock to begin with! ARGH
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
5 Acres & A Dream is now a book!
My friend (I think I can call her a friend...we've never met in person!) has written a book about her experiences in starting her homestead... working off the grid and becoming self-sufficient.
Here's the info http://goo.gl/5qOFUa
I've been following Leigh for years now and been very jealous of her 5 acres. So much so that I've been known to look into finding my own spot of land nearby. I also recommend her blog to everyone.
If you're at all interested in farm life, check this book out.
Note: I'm not being paid to write this. Look baby goats! :D
Here's the info http://goo.gl/5qOFUa
If you're at all interested in farm life, check this book out.
Note: I'm not being paid to write this. Look baby goats! :D
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Hey! Long time no see. ;)
Is anyone still out there? I don't blame you if you've moved on. I haven't been around much, so why should you.
Seems that every time I have something that I might want to blog about that I remember all the folks who could see what I have to say and decide that it really isn't all that important.
And of course since I'm on Facebook so much, I really haven't spent much time anywhere else. I do check to see if any of you that I'm following have posted anything new. And with the exception of a few, I'm not the only one to have moved on...so I don't feel too bad.
In an attempt to update you...
Back in July I put myself on a diet and managed to lose 20lbs. Which now that it's the holidays, I seem to be trying to gain all back. LOL actually I've been trying to counter all the calories by also consuming large amounts of fiber...so far so good. Hopefully by January I won't have much to resolve.
I've also started a new adventure. After over 17 years of not working, I took a part time job. It's less than 20 hours per week, but it's money. Which reminds me that I need to turn in my time sheet.
This year's Thanksgiving was a very small quiet affair. Just Dh, Darly, Lilly & me. Here's what we had...
1/2 a Turkey. The last time I made a turkey, I decided to take half of it and put it back in the freezer. So I pulled that out, it was already brined and ready to go. We're going into day 3 and still have plenty for dinner. Eaten by: everyone
Mashed Potatoes - I think that I made too many as we still have a lot left-over. Made with butter & milk. So partially fatty. ;) Eaten by: everyone
Gravy - oh boy did this give me fits this year. First the turkey didn't want to give me any drippings (probably due to being just half and the way I cooked it.) So I pulled out some turkey broth. Then I got the pan too hot, so I had lumps and had to strain those out. I did manage to get a decent gravy...it just took a lot more work. Eaten by: DH & me
Corn - Darly made this...just dump frozen corn in dish and microwave it. Eaten by: everyone
Green Beans - These were from fresh and Darly was NOT pleased to have to wash and snap all the beans, but so worth it. We just steamed these in the microwave with salt & seasonings...Dh won't eat the casserole, and I don't need the calories. Eaten by: Dh & me
Squash - Butternut squash. I learned a tip online for getting these buggers cut...microwave them for 3 minutes. This helped a lot with cutting through the seedy part, but the stem was still as hard as ever to cut...oh well, at least I got help with half of it. Speaking of half, since I'm the only squash eater...I put half of the squash right into the freezer for later. Eaten by: just me
Rutabaga - speaking of hard to cut...whoo! I took my meat mallet to slam the knife through the rutabagas, which since DH was in the kitchen caused a lot more fuss than it should have. He didn't appreciate the extra noise. I pressure cooked them with some brown sugar...oh so yummy! Eaten by: just me
Yams - Darly fixed these. We got the canned yams, she added brown sugar and butter...then baked them. I hear they were wonderful. I wouldn't know as I don't like them. Eaten by: Dh & Darly
Mushrooms - This is my stuffing replacement. The pickies won't eat stuffing, and I don't need the extra calories, so I just steam the mushrooms with seasonings. Gives me the stuffing feel w/o all the extras. Eaten by: just me
Cranberry sauce - just the jellied stuff from a can. Eaten by: Darly & me.
Rolls - from frozen dough. A bit burned on the bottoms...bad oven. Eaten by: everyone
Pumpkin Dessert - yummy dessert from DH's family. It's like an upside down pumpkin pie with more seasonings than your traditional pie. This year I made the recipe which should go into one 9x13 pan in two 8x8s so that we could take one to Church for Thanksgiving Eve service. Small turn out so we had more than half left over... we still haven't started the second pan yet and I'm looking for someone to donate it to. Eaten by: everyone
DH complained that I made too much food. He doesn't like (for some odd reason) seeing so many dishes. Yet I argued that half of the dishes were foods I made for just me that he won't touch. His parents drilled in his head this silly "clean your plate" thing and his mom always insisted that they finish all the left-overs. Hard to break the habits even though I've had him longer than his parents did. sigh!
We forgot to take Thanksgiving pictures...so last night I set up the camera and took our picture. It came out blurry...I had space issues. Sorry.
Seems that every time I have something that I might want to blog about that I remember all the folks who could see what I have to say and decide that it really isn't all that important.
And of course since I'm on Facebook so much, I really haven't spent much time anywhere else. I do check to see if any of you that I'm following have posted anything new. And with the exception of a few, I'm not the only one to have moved on...so I don't feel too bad.
In an attempt to update you...
Back in July I put myself on a diet and managed to lose 20lbs. Which now that it's the holidays, I seem to be trying to gain all back. LOL actually I've been trying to counter all the calories by also consuming large amounts of fiber...so far so good. Hopefully by January I won't have much to resolve.
I've also started a new adventure. After over 17 years of not working, I took a part time job. It's less than 20 hours per week, but it's money. Which reminds me that I need to turn in my time sheet.
This year's Thanksgiving was a very small quiet affair. Just Dh, Darly, Lilly & me. Here's what we had...
1/2 a Turkey. The last time I made a turkey, I decided to take half of it and put it back in the freezer. So I pulled that out, it was already brined and ready to go. We're going into day 3 and still have plenty for dinner. Eaten by: everyone
Mashed Potatoes - I think that I made too many as we still have a lot left-over. Made with butter & milk. So partially fatty. ;) Eaten by: everyone
Gravy - oh boy did this give me fits this year. First the turkey didn't want to give me any drippings (probably due to being just half and the way I cooked it.) So I pulled out some turkey broth. Then I got the pan too hot, so I had lumps and had to strain those out. I did manage to get a decent gravy...it just took a lot more work. Eaten by: DH & me
Corn - Darly made this...just dump frozen corn in dish and microwave it. Eaten by: everyone
Green Beans - These were from fresh and Darly was NOT pleased to have to wash and snap all the beans, but so worth it. We just steamed these in the microwave with salt & seasonings...Dh won't eat the casserole, and I don't need the calories. Eaten by: Dh & me
Squash - Butternut squash. I learned a tip online for getting these buggers cut...microwave them for 3 minutes. This helped a lot with cutting through the seedy part, but the stem was still as hard as ever to cut...oh well, at least I got help with half of it. Speaking of half, since I'm the only squash eater...I put half of the squash right into the freezer for later. Eaten by: just me
Rutabaga - speaking of hard to cut...whoo! I took my meat mallet to slam the knife through the rutabagas, which since DH was in the kitchen caused a lot more fuss than it should have. He didn't appreciate the extra noise. I pressure cooked them with some brown sugar...oh so yummy! Eaten by: just me
Yams - Darly fixed these. We got the canned yams, she added brown sugar and butter...then baked them. I hear they were wonderful. I wouldn't know as I don't like them. Eaten by: Dh & Darly
Mushrooms - This is my stuffing replacement. The pickies won't eat stuffing, and I don't need the extra calories, so I just steam the mushrooms with seasonings. Gives me the stuffing feel w/o all the extras. Eaten by: just me
Cranberry sauce - just the jellied stuff from a can. Eaten by: Darly & me.
Rolls - from frozen dough. A bit burned on the bottoms...bad oven. Eaten by: everyone
Pumpkin Dessert - yummy dessert from DH's family. It's like an upside down pumpkin pie with more seasonings than your traditional pie. This year I made the recipe which should go into one 9x13 pan in two 8x8s so that we could take one to Church for Thanksgiving Eve service. Small turn out so we had more than half left over... we still haven't started the second pan yet and I'm looking for someone to donate it to. Eaten by: everyone
DH complained that I made too much food. He doesn't like (for some odd reason) seeing so many dishes. Yet I argued that half of the dishes were foods I made for just me that he won't touch. His parents drilled in his head this silly "clean your plate" thing and his mom always insisted that they finish all the left-overs. Hard to break the habits even though I've had him longer than his parents did. sigh!
We forgot to take Thanksgiving pictures...so last night I set up the camera and took our picture. It came out blurry...I had space issues. Sorry.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Changes and such
Lots of stuff going on...
First it's not even 6:30 and I'm up. #stupidbladderalarm!
We're dog sitting this week, but he's going home today. Which means that Lilly will go back to her regular diet that doesn't include breakfast with left-overs in it. See border dog is free fed all day, but Lilly would eat all his food. So both dogs are getting breakfast & dinner with something extra to make sure they eat it. Lilly doesn't need the extra, but it makes sure she doesn't spit out her pills. Border dog spits out his kibble.
This week is tech/show week for Darly. We'll be at the Theater pretty much all week. Changes there mean that DH will have to find his own meals. He's a big boy so this shouldn't be too much trouble for him. Darly & I will have to figure out how to eat at the theater today & tomorrow as there is no scheduled meal break.
Darly is also busy getting ready for the next audition. She really wants to get a part in this next show...but then so do all of her friends. There are a few parts that she doesn't want, but I'm hoping that if she's lucky enough to get one of them that she accepts the challenge gracefully.
The weather is turning fallish now. We've already had two snow storms. Our first frost was nearly a month ago now...it took out my garden for good. :( Although the onions and carrots are still doing well. Our trees actually have color this year...thanks to that flooding rain we got a while back. For some odd reason our aspens always turn last, must be the watering situation. But we finally have yellow.
I finally found Pumpkin Spice seasoning this year. I've been adding it to my coffee. Yum
First it's not even 6:30 and I'm up. #stupidbladderalarm!
We're dog sitting this week, but he's going home today. Which means that Lilly will go back to her regular diet that doesn't include breakfast with left-overs in it. See border dog is free fed all day, but Lilly would eat all his food. So both dogs are getting breakfast & dinner with something extra to make sure they eat it. Lilly doesn't need the extra, but it makes sure she doesn't spit out her pills. Border dog spits out his kibble.
This week is tech/show week for Darly. We'll be at the Theater pretty much all week. Changes there mean that DH will have to find his own meals. He's a big boy so this shouldn't be too much trouble for him. Darly & I will have to figure out how to eat at the theater today & tomorrow as there is no scheduled meal break.
Darly is also busy getting ready for the next audition. She really wants to get a part in this next show...but then so do all of her friends. There are a few parts that she doesn't want, but I'm hoping that if she's lucky enough to get one of them that she accepts the challenge gracefully.
The weather is turning fallish now. We've already had two snow storms. Our first frost was nearly a month ago now...it took out my garden for good. :( Although the onions and carrots are still doing well. Our trees actually have color this year...thanks to that flooding rain we got a while back. For some odd reason our aspens always turn last, must be the watering situation. But we finally have yellow.
I finally found Pumpkin Spice seasoning this year. I've been adding it to my coffee. Yum
Friday, October 18, 2013
My Washington DC Vaction
I'm really torn about how to post this...
On the one hand I would like to really write a scathing letter to both our president and to the GOP dude yelling at them for a totally ruined vacation.
On the other I could post about how we were able to make the best of a terrible situation and get something good out of our trip.
I'm really ticked that GOP waited until the very last minute to finally pass the debt increase without getting ANYTHING in exchange for it. I'm also really ticked at the president for all the crappy things he did, like not signing the executive order to pay military families of fallen soldiers and for keeping the congress gym and golf courses open while keeping closed the monuments that really don't require any security when open...yet spending a lot of money to keep them closed.
I'm also ticked that while some furloughed employees got time off with pay, my husband was deemed essential so he got to work with no guarantee of pay.
So let's back the train up a bit here. We bought our non-refundable tickets to DC back in August...long before there was any hint of the government closing. In fact we had to schedule for the week of Columbus day due to all the meetings that hubby had to spend more government money! (awarding contracts for use or lose monies). So we had our flights and hotel already booked and paid for.
And then Oct 1st hits and there isn't any deal. Hubby should have been sent home, but that didn't happen because he was needed to oversee the projects that had already been paid for. Later congress agrees that the military should be paid, but after the debt gets raised (note: I'm avoiding using the term debt ceiling here because really there hasn't been any ceiling to this debt for decades!)
So we take off for DC with the hopes that congress will get their poop together and open up at least the monuments...we had some hope seeing as they let the vets into the War memorial.
Okay, lesson #1... NEVER fly east after 4pm Mountain time. EVERYTHING WILL BE CLOSED WHEN YOU LAND!!!! We actually got into DC a bit early, but the food shops on our terminal were all closed. There was no food to be found. I called up our hotel to find that there was NO airport shuttle to pick us up as it ended at 10pm when we landed. :p
So we decided to take the metro as close as we could get to our hotel to save some of the money for the taxi fare. Once we got to our station we had a lot of "fun" (read with dripping sarcasm) finding our way OUT of the metro. We first ended up in the mall that is over the metro station. and of course it was completely closed, yet not locked up?!?! We wondered around the mall for quite a bit trying to find our way out and also still in search of food.
Once out of the mall/metro we needed to get to our hotel...but we were right in front of a Ritz Carlton. LOL! They were very nice about it and called us a cab (tip the bellman!) Drive to the hotel who drops us off at wrong end of the hotel (tip the cabbie) and walk to the hotel.
We ended up having sandwich crackers, peanuts and Doritos for dinner! Luckily there was a free breakfast in the morning.
Day 1 of our vacation we take the metro into town and go to the National Geographic Museum (a bit overpriced I thought). Once we find it, we enjoy the exhibits and then start walking south toward the White House. Note there are a LOT of folks with mental illnesses living in our nation's capital. We saw someone who might not have been dressed in Lafayette's Square. We also witnessed several guards with heavy armor and weaponry guarding the White House. In fact when taking our picture, hubby had to wait a bit for a guard to pass so he wasn't an unintentional photo bomb. We also witnessed a motorcade bringing someone "important" to the White House, but judging from the amount of vehicles and the lack of ambulance it was not the president. However, folks were herded out of the park before the arrival.
We continued walking south toward the National Mall and went to the WWII Memorial. It was supposed to be closed, but this was the one memorial that the vets crossed the barriers on the first day of the shutdown and those barricades while still there are all pushed open. We took pictures of just me standing defiant behind them. bwahaha!
Next we headed over to the Lincoln Memorial. The "barricades" for the reflecting pool consist of rebar with ropes tied between them. As we approached the Lincoln we could see folks up in the memorial, but soon security arrived and drove them out. Bummer! We were able to get some pretty good pictures of the memorial, but were not able to go up into it. :(
We now had a very tired of walking Darly on our hands so we headed past the Washington Monument and to the metro station with her whining the entire way.
The mall I mentioned earlier proved to be very handy as it had a food court where we ended up eating our dinner every night. The only problem with this is that all the school groups that were visiting DC were also eating their dinner here, so we had to share our dinners with a lot of tween/teen kids. For the most part they were respectful, just loud.
Day 2 we went to the Spy Museum which was pretty good but very expensive. Hubby got a discount though. Darly thought that the museum was set up in the wrong order. She would have rather have seen the historical spy gadgets first. We all felt that they were letting far too many people into the museum at a time as it was VERY congested with loads of pushy kids and adults. We had decided earlier that since we couldn't get into the museums that we would take a trolley tour. This tour drives you by each of the museums and monuments and stops to let you out if you like, and you can just catch the next trolley coming in 30 minutes to continue your tour. It was very nice and filled with historical and funny stories about everything that we saw. Did you know that in Georgetown (named for King George, NOT Geo Washington!) that they had to pay their taxes based on how wide their home was on the street...so most of the homes there are very thin yet very deep to keep their square footage. There is actually the skinniest home that is only 9 feet across on the street. I forget how deep it is. I don't know how you fit a bed in your house that way. The Spite House in Alexandria is actually only 7 feet wide and is the skinniest house in the US.
Day 3 (our last day) we went down to Alexandria to see a really cool Apothecary shop.
The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum was a family business founded in 1792 and operated in this location from 1796 until 1933. It represents one of Alexandria's oldest continuously run businesses that combined retailing, wholesaling, and manufacturing. The museum boasts a remarkable collection of herbal botanicals, handblown glass, and medical equipment, much still in its original location. It also has a spectacular collection of archival materials, including journals, letters and diaries, prescription and formula books, ledgers, orders and invoices. The names of famous customers appear in these documents, including Martha Washington, Nelly Custis and Robert E. Lee.
Since 2006 when the museum was donated to the City of Alexandria, the museum continues to evolve as new research is uncovered and the museum expands its understanding and interpretation of the medical and business history captured by this site.
We all really enjoyed this tour. I learned that the "fictional names" of some of the medicines in the museum were REAL! Dragon's Blood is from the sap of a tree and that Unicorn is from a flowering plant. Wow! We also learned that Mandrake Roots are not just from Harry Potter fame and they do resemble human legs (no screaming heads though!)
We also went to the Gadsby's Tavern Museum which was very nice, but we felt REALLY rushed through. The one lady at the Gadsby mentioned a "Spite house" in town, but we never did find that. Darly was tired and hungry by then. And from this article it doesn't appear that we missed much. ;) Although she told us that the house was built to keep one particular resident from parking his carriage on the land, this article states that it was to keep everyone out. I just googled the location and I don't see why anyone was trying to get back there...perhaps it really was just the neighbor parking there.
After lunch we jumped back on the Metro to try to make it to Arlington Cemetery on our Trolley tour, but that never panned out due to me needing to make a pit stop at Union Station...we would have made it if hubby hadn't decided AFTER Darly & I went to go himself. :p By the time we got to the transfer stop it was too late to catch the trolley back to the cemetery. bummer
Now the fun of getting back home... Our flight out of DC was at 6:20 in the morning. We knew that we did NOT need to be at the airport 2 hours early, but still getting there one hour was tricky. I had planned on us taking a taxi to the metro (our hotel shuttle didn't start until 6am)...I had NOT planned on the metro not even being open until 5am. oops! I figured that our taxi driver was lying to try to get more of a fare from us, but he wasn't. So we called for another cab because I didn't trust that catching the metro that may or may not show up at 5am would get us to the airport on time. So we were waiting for our cab and there were other folks waiting for a cab...they snagged our cab!!! So I called again (the operator at the cab company was annoyed with me!) But I was annoyed also. The cabbie who picked up the other folks told us (as I was on the phone with the cab company) that he would send for another cab. Soon a totally unmarked car showed up, and asked if we needed a cab. At first I was very skeptical about taking this car, but then we realized that this was the same driver who had been driving the shuttle from our hotel to the metro every day! :D We learned that when he wasn't driving the shuttle, he was a cabbie. He was able to drop us off right at our terminal (the metro, if it had been on time would have dropped us off at the station near the center terminal and we would have needed to take a shuttle back to our terminal).
We made it quickly through check in as at this hour the airport was empty...at least at ticketing. We almost made it through security smoothly except I was "randomly" selected for a TSA "screening" (aka groping). So they explained what would happen and offered to do this in private. I decided that I would rather do this in the open (the more viability, the quicker and safer for me I felt. I'm also hoping for more public outcry in the totally inappropriate and unnecessary groping of innocent people. While I totally agree that we need to keep safe on our aircraft, I do not believe that these screenings help at all.)
The rest of our trip was totally uneventful, except that we now have found our new favorite carrier. Oh and I must say that flying on Frontier is no longer worth it. They have totally turned into a charge for everything airline! :p They charge for your checked luggage, if you book your ticket through anyone but them, they also charge for carry on bags and for drinks & snacks! note: when booking through a 3rd party company it isn't mentioned that you'll get charged extra.
Jetblue on the other hand did not charge us anything extra for anything. We also had more leg room and could have as many snacks as we wanted. :D YAY Jetblue!
On the one hand I would like to really write a scathing letter to both our president and to the GOP dude yelling at them for a totally ruined vacation.
On the other I could post about how we were able to make the best of a terrible situation and get something good out of our trip.
I'm really ticked that GOP waited until the very last minute to finally pass the debt increase without getting ANYTHING in exchange for it. I'm also really ticked at the president for all the crappy things he did, like not signing the executive order to pay military families of fallen soldiers and for keeping the congress gym and golf courses open while keeping closed the monuments that really don't require any security when open...yet spending a lot of money to keep them closed.
I'm also ticked that while some furloughed employees got time off with pay, my husband was deemed essential so he got to work with no guarantee of pay.
So let's back the train up a bit here. We bought our non-refundable tickets to DC back in August...long before there was any hint of the government closing. In fact we had to schedule for the week of Columbus day due to all the meetings that hubby had to spend more government money! (awarding contracts for use or lose monies). So we had our flights and hotel already booked and paid for.
And then Oct 1st hits and there isn't any deal. Hubby should have been sent home, but that didn't happen because he was needed to oversee the projects that had already been paid for. Later congress agrees that the military should be paid, but after the debt gets raised (note: I'm avoiding using the term debt ceiling here because really there hasn't been any ceiling to this debt for decades!)
So we take off for DC with the hopes that congress will get their poop together and open up at least the monuments...we had some hope seeing as they let the vets into the War memorial.
Okay, lesson #1... NEVER fly east after 4pm Mountain time. EVERYTHING WILL BE CLOSED WHEN YOU LAND!!!! We actually got into DC a bit early, but the food shops on our terminal were all closed. There was no food to be found. I called up our hotel to find that there was NO airport shuttle to pick us up as it ended at 10pm when we landed. :p
So we decided to take the metro as close as we could get to our hotel to save some of the money for the taxi fare. Once we got to our station we had a lot of "fun" (read with dripping sarcasm) finding our way OUT of the metro. We first ended up in the mall that is over the metro station. and of course it was completely closed, yet not locked up?!?! We wondered around the mall for quite a bit trying to find our way out and also still in search of food.
Once out of the mall/metro we needed to get to our hotel...but we were right in front of a Ritz Carlton. LOL! They were very nice about it and called us a cab (tip the bellman!) Drive to the hotel who drops us off at wrong end of the hotel (tip the cabbie) and walk to the hotel.
We ended up having sandwich crackers, peanuts and Doritos for dinner! Luckily there was a free breakfast in the morning.
Day 1 of our vacation we take the metro into town and go to the National Geographic Museum (a bit overpriced I thought). Once we find it, we enjoy the exhibits and then start walking south toward the White House. Note there are a LOT of folks with mental illnesses living in our nation's capital. We saw someone who might not have been dressed in Lafayette's Square. We also witnessed several guards with heavy armor and weaponry guarding the White House. In fact when taking our picture, hubby had to wait a bit for a guard to pass so he wasn't an unintentional photo bomb. We also witnessed a motorcade bringing someone "important" to the White House, but judging from the amount of vehicles and the lack of ambulance it was not the president. However, folks were herded out of the park before the arrival.
We continued walking south toward the National Mall and went to the WWII Memorial. It was supposed to be closed, but this was the one memorial that the vets crossed the barriers on the first day of the shutdown and those barricades while still there are all pushed open. We took pictures of just me standing defiant behind them. bwahaha!
Next we headed over to the Lincoln Memorial. The "barricades" for the reflecting pool consist of rebar with ropes tied between them. As we approached the Lincoln we could see folks up in the memorial, but soon security arrived and drove them out. Bummer! We were able to get some pretty good pictures of the memorial, but were not able to go up into it. :(
We now had a very tired of walking Darly on our hands so we headed past the Washington Monument and to the metro station with her whining the entire way.
The mall I mentioned earlier proved to be very handy as it had a food court where we ended up eating our dinner every night. The only problem with this is that all the school groups that were visiting DC were also eating their dinner here, so we had to share our dinners with a lot of tween/teen kids. For the most part they were respectful, just loud.
Day 2 we went to the Spy Museum which was pretty good but very expensive. Hubby got a discount though. Darly thought that the museum was set up in the wrong order. She would have rather have seen the historical spy gadgets first. We all felt that they were letting far too many people into the museum at a time as it was VERY congested with loads of pushy kids and adults. We had decided earlier that since we couldn't get into the museums that we would take a trolley tour. This tour drives you by each of the museums and monuments and stops to let you out if you like, and you can just catch the next trolley coming in 30 minutes to continue your tour. It was very nice and filled with historical and funny stories about everything that we saw. Did you know that in Georgetown (named for King George, NOT Geo Washington!) that they had to pay their taxes based on how wide their home was on the street...so most of the homes there are very thin yet very deep to keep their square footage. There is actually the skinniest home that is only 9 feet across on the street. I forget how deep it is. I don't know how you fit a bed in your house that way. The Spite House in Alexandria is actually only 7 feet wide and is the skinniest house in the US.
Day 3 (our last day) we went down to Alexandria to see a really cool Apothecary shop.
The Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum was a family business founded in 1792 and operated in this location from 1796 until 1933. It represents one of Alexandria's oldest continuously run businesses that combined retailing, wholesaling, and manufacturing. The museum boasts a remarkable collection of herbal botanicals, handblown glass, and medical equipment, much still in its original location. It also has a spectacular collection of archival materials, including journals, letters and diaries, prescription and formula books, ledgers, orders and invoices. The names of famous customers appear in these documents, including Martha Washington, Nelly Custis and Robert E. Lee.
Since 2006 when the museum was donated to the City of Alexandria, the museum continues to evolve as new research is uncovered and the museum expands its understanding and interpretation of the medical and business history captured by this site.
We all really enjoyed this tour. I learned that the "fictional names" of some of the medicines in the museum were REAL! Dragon's Blood is from the sap of a tree and that Unicorn is from a flowering plant. Wow! We also learned that Mandrake Roots are not just from Harry Potter fame and they do resemble human legs (no screaming heads though!)
We also went to the Gadsby's Tavern Museum which was very nice, but we felt REALLY rushed through. The one lady at the Gadsby mentioned a "Spite house" in town, but we never did find that. Darly was tired and hungry by then. And from this article it doesn't appear that we missed much. ;) Although she told us that the house was built to keep one particular resident from parking his carriage on the land, this article states that it was to keep everyone out. I just googled the location and I don't see why anyone was trying to get back there...perhaps it really was just the neighbor parking there.
After lunch we jumped back on the Metro to try to make it to Arlington Cemetery on our Trolley tour, but that never panned out due to me needing to make a pit stop at Union Station...we would have made it if hubby hadn't decided AFTER Darly & I went to go himself. :p By the time we got to the transfer stop it was too late to catch the trolley back to the cemetery. bummer
Now the fun of getting back home... Our flight out of DC was at 6:20 in the morning. We knew that we did NOT need to be at the airport 2 hours early, but still getting there one hour was tricky. I had planned on us taking a taxi to the metro (our hotel shuttle didn't start until 6am)...I had NOT planned on the metro not even being open until 5am. oops! I figured that our taxi driver was lying to try to get more of a fare from us, but he wasn't. So we called for another cab because I didn't trust that catching the metro that may or may not show up at 5am would get us to the airport on time. So we were waiting for our cab and there were other folks waiting for a cab...they snagged our cab!!! So I called again (the operator at the cab company was annoyed with me!) But I was annoyed also. The cabbie who picked up the other folks told us (as I was on the phone with the cab company) that he would send for another cab. Soon a totally unmarked car showed up, and asked if we needed a cab. At first I was very skeptical about taking this car, but then we realized that this was the same driver who had been driving the shuttle from our hotel to the metro every day! :D We learned that when he wasn't driving the shuttle, he was a cabbie. He was able to drop us off right at our terminal (the metro, if it had been on time would have dropped us off at the station near the center terminal and we would have needed to take a shuttle back to our terminal).
We made it quickly through check in as at this hour the airport was empty...at least at ticketing. We almost made it through security smoothly except I was "randomly" selected for a TSA "screening" (aka groping). So they explained what would happen and offered to do this in private. I decided that I would rather do this in the open (the more viability, the quicker and safer for me I felt. I'm also hoping for more public outcry in the totally inappropriate and unnecessary groping of innocent people. While I totally agree that we need to keep safe on our aircraft, I do not believe that these screenings help at all.)
The rest of our trip was totally uneventful, except that we now have found our new favorite carrier. Oh and I must say that flying on Frontier is no longer worth it. They have totally turned into a charge for everything airline! :p They charge for your checked luggage, if you book your ticket through anyone but them, they also charge for carry on bags and for drinks & snacks! note: when booking through a 3rd party company it isn't mentioned that you'll get charged extra.
Jetblue on the other hand did not charge us anything extra for anything. We also had more leg room and could have as many snacks as we wanted. :D YAY Jetblue!
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Menu Planning
after living and learning for several years, I've learned that in order to get meals on the table that my family will eat AND to get groceries at the store that actually go into those meals that it is best for me to sit down, look at our week's schedule and plan out a menu.
I've also learned that for us it is helpful for me to make "plan-overs" where instead of cooking a meal each day, I make a double batch on my cook day and then we eat what's left-over on the next day. Now that our life is back into theater mode I TRY to plan it so that the left-over day is on a day where we are busy so that I don't have to figure out dinner and rely on "PizzaGuy Pizza"* too much.
Recently when trying to figure out what meals to plan out a friend told me how she has a rotating menu of the same 17 meals that she uses. That idea seemed good to me. And it was helpful that I already had from many years ago come up with a similar list only I hadn't put it into a rotation. I had just wrote out all the meals from each protein that we typically eat. Which got me thinking about this video, but of course my pickies aren't going to eat items from a Chinese take out menu. lol
So after my friend made the suggestion, I took all of our list and started putting it into a rotation. I tried to organize it so that we weren't having silly mix ups like barbeque chicken and barbeque pork in the same week because certain family members would get upset. Here's my list...
For now I don't intend on forcing myself to stick ridgidly to the list. I'll just take 5 or so meals to plan out my week and put them in where they fit best. I also don't plan to be making hot soups and stews over the summer months...those might get converted to salads or grilling.
I only started this recently (as in this week's grocery shopping). I only needed to purchase one meat item to make it work as I had already stocked up on the rest of what I needed before. YAY! Nice to go to the store and only need milk. lol
I'm hoping this makes things much easier. We'll see.
*many years ago Darly got a Barbie doll house that had a sound chip in it. Two of the phrases on the chip refer to the Barbie family ordering from PizzaGuy Pizza. So now our family's running joke is to call up dad at work and request PizzaGuy Pizza. Which means he stops by Little Cesars' Pizza on the way home from work.
I've also learned that for us it is helpful for me to make "plan-overs" where instead of cooking a meal each day, I make a double batch on my cook day and then we eat what's left-over on the next day. Now that our life is back into theater mode I TRY to plan it so that the left-over day is on a day where we are busy so that I don't have to figure out dinner and rely on "PizzaGuy Pizza"* too much.
Recently when trying to figure out what meals to plan out a friend told me how she has a rotating menu of the same 17 meals that she uses. That idea seemed good to me. And it was helpful that I already had from many years ago come up with a similar list only I hadn't put it into a rotation. I had just wrote out all the meals from each protein that we typically eat. Which got me thinking about this video, but of course my pickies aren't going to eat items from a Chinese take out menu. lol
So after my friend made the suggestion, I took all of our list and started putting it into a rotation. I tried to organize it so that we weren't having silly mix ups like barbeque chicken and barbeque pork in the same week because certain family members would get upset. Here's my list...
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I only started this recently (as in this week's grocery shopping). I only needed to purchase one meat item to make it work as I had already stocked up on the rest of what I needed before. YAY! Nice to go to the store and only need milk. lol
I'm hoping this makes things much easier. We'll see.
*many years ago Darly got a Barbie doll house that had a sound chip in it. Two of the phrases on the chip refer to the Barbie family ordering from PizzaGuy Pizza. So now our family's running joke is to call up dad at work and request PizzaGuy Pizza. Which means he stops by Little Cesars' Pizza on the way home from work.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Squee!
Friday, September 13, 2013
Look-it what I did! :D
So I started by taking the 4 gallon sized bags of tomatoes in my freezer and washing them (as I didn't wash them before freezing). Then I cut them in half and roasted them in the oven for an hour.
After that I ran them through my food mill, that removed the skins and some of the seeds. If you look closely at my jars, you might notice there are some seeds in my sauce...but I'm not worried about that.
Then I slow cooked the sauce overnight so it could reduce...there is a LOT of water in tomatoes.
This morning I heated my jars and got ready. I put the sauce in the heated jars, added lemon juice and the lids and put them in my pressure canner (yes you can just water bath tomatoes, but I needed to try out the pressure canner and I've heard that you can get an off taste with water bath. I wouldn't know as I've never canned anything.)
So then I followed the directions for pressure canning that came with my canner, and also checked out my county extension office since we're at altitude. That meant don't bother trying the lower pressure...go full force for 15 lbs.
I went ahead and added 5 min to the processing time as it's better to overprocess than under. When it was done, I shut off the stove and just let it sit all day to cool. In fact I didn't even check the seals until we got home at 9pm and I was done with the heat at around noon! I was a bit worried that if one didn't seal then I would end up with lost sauce, so I'm so glad it worked.
As you can see for my 4 bags of tomatoes, I only got 3 quarts...but that isn't quite right. I actually got another 3/4 of a jar of sauce (and I had some sauce for my lunch while I was making it). So I have some more tomatoes that I'll add to the other jar and I may water bath process it, just so I can learn it and then see if I can tell any difference.
Day book
FOR TODAY
Outside my window...It’s still raining. Something was banging against the house which is why I’m up so early. Probably a good thing as the clouds have eaten the sun.
I am thinking... Well I woke up thinking about costumes and as I write this I’m still thinking about them.
I am thankful... That we live so high up that flooding won’t be an issue for us but worried about others affected by it.
In the kitchen... There’s a crockpot of tomato sauce waiting for me to attempt to can it.
I am wearing... pajamas
I am creating... ideas and lists
I am going... to rehearsal later to fit the kids into costumes
I am wondering... when I’ll get the emailed list I was promised last night for more characters in the show
I am reading... I just finished Prairie Rose…might have to look for Prairie Fire
I am hoping... to take pictures of the kids in costumes so the director can approve of them sooner than Oct 19
I am looking forward to... what God has in store with all this rain
I am learning… I’m sure there’s something. Brain not fully engaged yet.
Around the house...something smells bad
I am pondering... hopefully the smell is an easy fix
A favorite quote for today... it’s too early for quotes
One of my favorite things... this bathrobe. Oh and coffee
A few plans for the rest of the week: costumes, more costumes, the observatory (probably a rainy night tour) and then more costumes.
A peek into my day... Once I get done with my morning chores, I’ll start canning that tomato sauce and then head to the basement to work on the costumes.
diet update: down 15 lbs since the beginning of my saga. I still think 5 more might be good, although they're tougher to move now. I'm adding carbs back in small amounts, but tacos with rice can't be resisted. the rice was thai black rice which really does NOT go with tacos, but it tastes good.
Outside my window...It’s still raining. Something was banging against the house which is why I’m up so early. Probably a good thing as the clouds have eaten the sun.
I am thinking... Well I woke up thinking about costumes and as I write this I’m still thinking about them.
I am thankful... That we live so high up that flooding won’t be an issue for us but worried about others affected by it.
In the kitchen... There’s a crockpot of tomato sauce waiting for me to attempt to can it.
I am wearing... pajamas
I am creating... ideas and lists
I am going... to rehearsal later to fit the kids into costumes
I am wondering... when I’ll get the emailed list I was promised last night for more characters in the show
I am reading... I just finished Prairie Rose…might have to look for Prairie Fire
I am hoping... to take pictures of the kids in costumes so the director can approve of them sooner than Oct 19
I am looking forward to... what God has in store with all this rain
I am learning… I’m sure there’s something. Brain not fully engaged yet.
Around the house...something smells bad
I am pondering... hopefully the smell is an easy fix
A favorite quote for today... it’s too early for quotes
One of my favorite things... this bathrobe. Oh and coffee
A few plans for the rest of the week: costumes, more costumes, the observatory (probably a rainy night tour) and then more costumes.
A peek into my day... Once I get done with my morning chores, I’ll start canning that tomato sauce and then head to the basement to work on the costumes.
diet update: down 15 lbs since the beginning of my saga. I still think 5 more might be good, although they're tougher to move now. I'm adding carbs back in small amounts, but tacos with rice can't be resisted. the rice was thai black rice which really does NOT go with tacos, but it tastes good.
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