Thursday and still hacking. I'm going to have to get on with the healing if we are going for a visit on Sunday!
I haven't felt like doing much, but yesterday, spurred by predictions of rain for today, I got half my multipliers into the garden — about ten sets. Fewer than that remain; I planted the smallest. I dug a trench, put potting soil in it, stuck the onions in, and covered them with more potting soil. I planted only half in case the Miracle Gro is the wrong kind for onions. Bag says your plants will be twice as big, but doesn't say what kind of plants it's for. I may use bagged topsoil for the remaining bulbs; it worked pretty well last year.
Dave had relayed the prediction to me when he went out to plant his Ohio Buckeye tree. It has nice fat buds, but the bare root looked rather pitiful. He used a bag of dirt to fill the hole, and dumped what he'd dug out on a low spot on the lawn.
I thought I'd use my grumpy time to edit Rough Sewing, but it seems that I don't have any in-progress revisions among the icons on my desktop.
Time to purge the icons. A utility that promises to remove unused icons pops up now and again, but I won't trigger it for fear that it will remove without asking, and I have a lot of icons that I'm saving for later. Just because I haven't clicked it in over a year doesn't mean I don't want it!
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Some pseudophedrine sneaked past the drug warriors, and now stuff comes out when I blow my nose and stuff comes up when I cough, and I don't think my ear is as clogged as it was.
But twelve-hour tablets of stuff that you must have completely out of your system at bedtime? What *were* they thinking? I ground a tablet in a mortar, and hope that six hours will be enough time for it to work through.
Yes, that makes a stronger dose, but Dr. Casey told me to take a dose and a half (and then don't take more). Mentioned it to Dave and he said that Casey hadn't said anything to him about pseudoephidrene, but did tell him that one should take twice what over-the-counter medications tell you to take. Perhaps that's because Dave is bigger. Was bigger; I'm carrying sixty pounds more fat than I did then, and Dave has been pretty good at controlling his weight.
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I didn't feel up to meal planning, so I went to Penguin Point and bought a five-piece dinner, with both sides fries. We have three pieces of chicken left: a leg, a wing, and either a thigh or a piece of breast.
My sinuses must be empty; coughing and nose blowing are back where they were, but don't hurt as much or happen as often. The ear still feels odd, but doesn't feel closed.
Took another pseudoephedrine this morning — not getting as much gunk out this time.
I wrote the family that we won't be down for Easter.
I had a chicken wing for breakfast — I think I'll have a bowl of cereal for lunch.
Dave came in to say he'd got his old computer back in service. One of his computers died, he ordered a new one — and in the process of installing it, discovered that the old one had a defective power cord.
We keep finding new versions of "it wasn't plugged in". But the computer is also damaged; he says that when the capacitors blew they damaged the Windows boot something or the other, so only Linux works.
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We didn't even talk about going to First Friday. The theme seems kinda lame anyway.
Supper was hamburger and cottage cheese, a side of raw veggies, and some chips and yogurt.
I considered hot-and-sour soup, but neither of us felt like going to fetch it.
Just swapped keyboards with Dave; main difference seems to be that this one is white instead of black, and the edges are ornamental curves instead of straight lines. I think it's the curves that made this keyboard look so big; it occupies the same space on my cardboard box. Sideways, that is; it comes close to hanging over in the back and front.
I do keep an eye out for eighteen-inch tables every time I shop — but I appreciate the box being lightweight and having a handle on top when I clear the sewing room for the Roomba.
I think the feet in the back are shorter than those on the other keyboard — I'm going to have to find a ruler to set them on — and it bothers me that "F1, … , and F12" are on the fronts of the keys instead of the tops.
Drat — there are ten extra keys across the top of the board and I thought "user-defined keys!" — but only those that print letters can be redefined, and redefining one of those also redefines the same letter on the main bank of keys.
Yesterday I spent some time trying to write on Dave's laptop. I think the impossibility of writing on it in the hotel was caused by setting it on a desk that was WAY too high for a keyboard.
When I tried it on my lap, I discovered that the excess space in front of the keyboard is actually functional — it keeps the weight of the monitor from tipping the computer over. It also allows you to put the keyboard at a repeatable distance from your belly. I think I *could* write on the thing while sitting beside the road.
Still, I'd like one without the "palm rest", and a monitor half as high, to make less volume to lug around. A portable computer of exactly the sort I want was already possible when we bought the TRS-80 MOD II, and it's been cheap to make for at least ten years, but I'm the only person in the world who wants one and I'm not willing to pay the development costs.
Just looked up TRS-80 Model 100 in Wikipedia. Description suggests that stealing its keyboard would be a very good place to begin designing my notebook.
Abrupt change of topic:
I've often remarked that Al regards all human food as disgusting, with a grudging exception for liverwurst. This morning, while cutting up a piece of excellent pre-cooked ham for breakfast, we discovered that he has another exception that isn't grudging at all.
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Ran out for bread and milk after my nap. Since I didn't feel like planning and executing a menu to use the excellent ham, I stopped at Penguin Point for another five-piece dinner with both sides fries even though we still had half a piece of the previous dinner.
On the way out, I noticed that there is a walk-out basement in the new foundation hole on Park Avenue. Something odd about it, but from the car I couldn't make out quite what. The previous time I passed it there were a lot of steel rods sticking up from what appeared to be a foundation.
After supper I took an abbreviated point eight — I came back along Cherry Street instead of the last small loop. Some daffodils in the fern garden that I consider the best artwork along the Heritage Greenway are starting to bloom. Also some other flowers that I couldn't focus well enough to identify.
When I got back, I thought something yellow was in bloom in our lily bed, but it turned out to be the tips of two leaves on the narcissus. But I did see a surviving minor bulb while collecting the remaining dead stalks of the lilies.
After passing the fern garden, I saw some stakes and some fresh-cut small trees that suggested that I'd found the place where they plan to bridge Cherry Creek for the extension to Grace College. But I can't remember now whether that was before or after I passed the big tree in the middle of the trail.
Google Maps thinks the extension already exists. I haven't been able to find any of the "Our Plans for the Greenway" pages that used to be on the Web; even Warsaw's official site that pats itself on the back for having Greenway plans has nothing but a dead link.
I cooked the corned beef that I bought on clearance after St. Patrick's day.
Dave made a cylinder of hardware cloth to protect his Ohio Buckeye from the deer. I helped sew it together with twist-ties.
I forgot that I meant to go for a walk after supper.
Dave says that he thinks he's almost over his cold. Since he started a week before I did, that means I'll probably be able to go to church next Sunday.
I forgot to wash his yellow coat *again*. Perhaps I should just put it through in a load by itself. Or with the four socks I somehow missed when I put the whites in.
I can talk this morning; also feeling a little strange in the head, and I didn't have any pseudoephedrine, which confirms the theory that when I have a good coughing fit, I hyperventilate.
I thought the bit of breast left from the previous Penguin-Point dinner was too little to make into chicken salad, not to mention that we're pretty well fixed for lunch meat right now, so I decided to have chicken fried rice for breakfast. (Putting it that way makes me want to see some chicken-fried rice.)
But there was less rice and more chicken than I expected, so what I had was fried chicken salad. (Raw egg instead of mayo.) Pretty good — there was also half a slice of bacon in it — and I don't think I'm going to want any lunch.
Did you know that whimpering sounds a lot like wheezing?
I rashly went to the "online manual" and tried to get it to tell me how to scan a book page with the CanoScan LiDE 120. I not only couldn't get it to divulge anything specific about scanning documents, about half the links I clicked took me to a page listing every gadget Canon ever thought about manufacturing, so that I'd have to start searching for scanners in general and my scanner in particular all over again. I did manage to find a list of formats that the scanner will save in — IT DIDN'T INCLUDE BITMAP!!!
It's misting rain, and predicted to do so off and on until Friday. That should bring up the multiplier sets. I set out the remaining half dozen yesterday, in a different brand of potting soil, and buried one bulb in mulch from the pile of stump-grinding chips.
Yesterday, I walked up Park Avenue to look at the new house, and came back by Grace Lane to look at the other side. Someone was running a machine that looked like a polisher or sander over the newly-poured concrete floor; wasn't grinding anything off, and the concrete was set enough to walk on; I wonder what it was doing? It left streaks the way a vacuum marks carpet.
A wall parallel to the south wall puzzled me until I realized that it was a giant window well. No well on the north side, and the black coating suggests that they plan to pile dirt over the bottoms of the two longer windows; I presume that they will have individual wells. I still can't make sense of the square protrusion in front; it looks like the foundation of a stoop such as we had on the New York house, but is on the walk-out side of the basement, and it's open in front.
Doesn't seem to be misting at the moment; perhaps I should take another walk.
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Went out after my nap. The shoulder-high square in front is two compartments, and they appear to intend to fill the inner compartment with dirt. I still have no idea what it's for.
I noticed, today, that the big hole that is probably going to be filled with an overhead door is the only hint of doorways, so I guess it's a drive-out basement. If the garage door doesn't incorporate a man door, they are going to regret having to open the big door every time they want to go out on the Park Street side — especially if it is an electric door.
No clue yet as to whether they plan to put in steps so they can walk around the house.
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The garden is nicely damp, but no sign of life among the multiplier sets. I'm tempted to brush the dirt off and look!
'Bout time I went back to Open Air Garden Center and bought some potato and onion sets.
Poor Al. He tried to relax in the hallway — it's Roomba Day in the hallway. So he went into the parlor to nap on the love seat and found me studying a slipper pattern spread out on the coffee table.
When I got up to fetch a pencil and a sheet of spreadsheet paper, he got onto the deer pelt draped over the back of the love seat, and all was well.
Slippers are about the least-urgent sewing project on my list — I won't need them until fall, and I have a perfectly-good, almost-new pair. But it's something that I can finish quickly, without engaging too much brain.
"If I don't take a drink RIGHT NOW I'm going to CHOKE!" isn't my favorite way to wake up. I averaged doing that about once an hour last night, clustered toward morning.
Dave cheerfully reminded me that after three weeks he still isn't quite over it. He also said I had been doing some heavy-duty coughing in the night, which might have something to do with the unquenchable dryness.
Sewing: I duplicated the vamp pieces for convenience in laying the slipper pattern out on fleece, then put the pattern back into the envelope and put the envelope back into the chest.
Today, I cleared the eating table off and I'm about to evaluate some bias linen scraps to see whether there is enough fabric to cut out a bra.
Misting rain. I see a weed coming up, but no onion sprouts. Multipliers are slow to sprout, which is why they keep so well that I could keep back one bulb to plant next year. That habit has saved the clone more than once.
I set the washer for "hot" to sterilize my dish towels. The washer decided that that meant that I wanted undiluted cold water. Turning off the cold valve had no effect whatsoever. I don't see how a valve could fail so thoroughly. That will considerably complicate installing the next new washer.
I went for a ride around the block on my real bike Saturday. The other end of the construction is a lot of stakes with red streamers and a few chopped-down trees, like this end.
On the way I noticed a crosswalk connecting the "bike lane" leading to the Greenway to a "bike lane" on Faunn Street. So I followed the lane, and it led to Bibler Park — but didn't come back again! There is no "bike lane" on the return side.
On the way back, I noticed that the crosswalk connects the *beginnings* of two "bike lanes": each is one-way away from the crosswalk.
This makes more sense once you realize that despite the bike-shaped logos stenciled on them, these are actually walkways.
Weather Underground says that tomorrow would have been a better day to wash, but I'd put the dish towels in to soak before looking at the forecast.
Besides, Dave is out of socks.
10.5 miles — now that is more like a Tour d'Warsaw. It took more than five hours, because I stopped a lot of places. I was at the library nearly an hour, but decided not to check out a book.
Tour went pretty much as planned: Drop magazines at the Emergency Room and _Final Diagnosis_ at the library, check out the construction on Lake Street — I couldn't see much through the reflections on the glass, but what I could see looked more finished, and a van marked something Electric drove up and the driver went inside. Also saw keys in the lock of a door that he hadn't used; I wondered whether I should call his attention to them, but I couldn't see him at that time.
Open Air Nursery now has bedding plants and vegetable plants, but I didn't see any herbs yet. Hope I remember to rake the leaves out of the herb bed tomorrow. I've been eating garlic chives for a few days now — the herbs in the Joe Rickets bed aren't producing yet, but I saw flecks of green when I trimmed the winter savory. (That was after I cut off the winter-killed twigs of the lavender plant; no sign yet that it made it through the winter, but a lot of the strawberries are alive.)
I bought a handful of onion sets and a few seed potatoes, then went through the roundabout to Penguin Point. I contemplated buying a chicken dinner and bringing the leftovers home for supper, but I hadn't brought any ice and there wasn't a nearby supermarket to buy frozen juice in, so I had a Big Wally. Turned out that along about then Dave was eating a Half Pound Freshburger at Wings, so we were both pretty well stuffed and it's fortunate that I didn't bring home great greasy gobs of chicken. Dave had fries and I didn't, so I was better off in the evening. But man, I *wanted* those fries! Maybe next loop, I'll just have fries.
Swerved onto Leiter Drive instead of going all the way to Hepler, and wandered to Hepler through the housing development. Later, studying the map, I saw that Leiter goes all the way to Center Street, so I went a little farther than I needed to. At this point, it was nap time and I hadn't quite finished my tea — I didn't start on it until I stopped for lunch, and lunch was an hour late because I dilly-dallied at the library.
So once on Center Street, I decided to pick up a few things at Marsh and go straight home. Did stop at the Recycling Center's giffte shop, but didn't see anything interesting. By the time I got out of Marsh, it was time to wake up and I'd finished my tea, so I felt better and stopped at both Sherman & Lin's and the Bargain barn. Bought some jam and a gift pack of two pieces of Ghirardeli peppermint bark at S&L; ate one for dessert, and put the other on the table when I got home; later, I saw an empty wrapper.
I didn't see any changes in the new house going up on Park Avenue when I rode past it on the way came home, but I didn't slow down to take a good look.
For supper I fried one brat (I'd bought a partly-thawed package of "beer brats" at Marsh) and baked two "take and bake" bread sticks. The "sticks" are just the size and shape of hot-dog buns, and quite a lot better. Dave was still feeling his fries, so I ate a quarter of his share.
An hour or two later, I remarked that I felt queer in the belly — as if I were hungry and overstuffed at the same time. Dave said he did too. We shared an orange, and the feeling went away.
With all that exercise, and getting only half a nap, I expected to sleep like a rock last night. Instead I tossed and turned, got up at four and read Usenet until five, tossed and turned some more, and woke up at half-past ten feeling Not Fit to Drive, which put the kibosh on my plan to drive to Sprawlmart and buy kitty litter.
We are out of squirrel peanuts. I've been feeding Spot cracked wheat I've been wanting to get out of the freezer for years. Cracked wheat is more compact than peanuts in the shell, so I fear that I've been overfeeding him.
We use a lidless splint laundry hamper as a wastebasket in the bedroom. It was handy not to have to bend over to get rid of fine nylon threads clinging to my hand when I was working on my windbreaker. (I'm still carrying the windbreaker folded and in a bag, instead of wadding it into a gap between other stuff like the old ragged one, but it's not as neatly folded as it was at first.)
The hamper was almost full of tissues, and we are behind on carrying out the trash, so while I was on my bike ride, Dave burned the contents on the outdoor hearth I built for my baking kettle. He said it took only a few minutes.
Burning is the best way to get rid of biohazards.
I didn't cook on the hearth last summer, but did use it to dispose of sticks. I wonder whether it's still flat enough to support a dutch oven.
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We went to the Redwood for supper. It's a beautiful place, excellent service, and the food was good. For dessert, we ordered a slice of cheesecake to go; we plan to eat it about ten tonight.
I woke up from my nap with a backache, but it didn't spoil our outing, nor did it interfere much with cleaning out the herb bed before we left. I even pulled up a few young trees, including one that had been cut back last summer. (Freshly-thawed earth is softer, I presume.) I did fetch a stool from the house to sit on while cutting dead stems out of the lemon grass.
At that point, I realized that sitting at the computer was aggravating my backache and I ought to walk around a little, so I used the doorknobs to pull myself out of my chair — and just barely made it to the bed. When I thought I'd been lying flat long enough, I tried to get up and ended up on the floor. Managed to get up on my hands and knees, but couldn't crawl: I could move my knees, but I had to have absolutely equal pressure on my hands at all times.
To make a long story short, Dave brought me the walker and I managed to get back into bed — discarding my clothes with no thought of getting back into them again; I never did find my bra this morning. Dave hunted down my everyday pants.
And even though I brought in a hard chair, I think that that is as much typing as I can do in one session.
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When I went in for a nap, I saw yesterday's shirt and bra on Dave's dresser. Apparently I did think about having to bend over.
I can walk short distances with no support now, which is very handy when I want to carry a glass of milk from the fridge to the table. Still need the walker to sit down or get out of a chair, but I don't need to be so careful. I took the flatfoot out for a trial run; if I figure out a way to strap the walker onto the back, I can "walk" anywhere I please.
More good news: I got up from my nap early because I was bored. Up until then, I've been content to do nothing while resting my back. I hope that getting so tired means that I'm using all my resources to heal.
Speculating on what brought it on: for a while there coughing hurt almost as much as it did when I had bruised ribs; enough to make me say "ht!" when I wanted a deep, lung-clearing cough. So it could be that I sprained something during a paroxysm, continued coughing kept it from healing, then I took five hours of exercise. But saying that it didn't show up in the morning because I'd slept badly is a little thin; I'm pretty sure I had the equivalent of a nap not long before getting up.
Cool! I thought that it was time for a walking break, and when I came back, I absent-mindedly sat down without leaning on the walker!
On the other hand, it's about time for my latest dose of aspirin to take effect.
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Yaaay! A while after after devouring the Domino's pizza that was delivered at half past five, I got to thinking that I'd sat at the computer reading funnies too long and walking wasn't helping very fast, so I went to the bedroom to lie down for five minutes and let things flatten out. When Dave woke me just before nine to ask where we keep the canned cat food, I discovered that I no longer need the walker! Then I absent-mindedly set the saucer of food on the floor!
I'm keeping the walker handy, just in case.
Woke up feeling perfectly normal this morning — with twinges of "Don't get frisky". Left the walker beside the bed, so as not to twist anything getting in or out.
The rain barrels filled up while I was out of it. I didn't notice the rain.
The bedroom doormat is soggy; perhaps it was last night. (Dave says it was the day before last. Still, it's soggy out there this morning.)
Pushed the Culta-Eze around the garden a little. Stopped before finishing for fear of getting frisky. I dug up a winter onion that was in an inconvenient place and made it into scallions; also pulled up one of the leeks that overwintered, and plowed up a nubbin of carrot.
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Woke up sore after my nap. I wasn't surprised; it's going to take a while to get back to normal. I haven't seen fit to take any aspirin today.
My new EZ-Eyes keyboard has a wonderful feature: there's a power switch where the print-screen button belongs. Fawchunately, I hardly ever use "print screen" and always look at the keyboard before pressing it. To make room for it, they pushed PRNT SCRN down to where insert belongs, pushed insert down to where delete belongs, and pushed delete down to fill up the space that should separate the page keypad from the arrow keypad.
Since that keyboard is on the computer I use only for the Web, switching it off by mistake isn't likely to be a disaster. But it was annoying that I had open tabs that I hadn't read yet when I discovered the feature.
I just heard the Wildman's dinner bell. Spring is officially here. The hyacinths are out and there are daffodils and narcissus all over the place.
Bad news: when I wanted to put my shoes on, I discovered that it's cottonwood gunk season.
Good news: I am capable of putting my foot into the sink to scrub it.
Better news: I was had enough sense to sit on the shower stool instead. The hose on the shower head is long enough that I can wash my feet without getting anything else wet. And no risk of twisting anything in my back.
Our redbud tree has red buds for the first time. The crabapple is also preparing to bloom, and the buckeye tree Dave planted is leafing out. The tiger lilies are coming up, and I dead-headed two daffodils.
The spot that was the focus of my backache has been sore today. Seems to me I've been sore in that precise spot several times before; I wonder whether I've got a defective muscle.
We still haven't Roombaed the bedroom. I didn't think of it today until I was too tired to clear the room.
This morning I carried a chest of patterns back to the sewing room, but I don't feel like going out in the rain to empty the cat box. It's getting on towards time for the next bedroom-cleaning day, so I think we'll just skip last week's sweeping.
I wish I'd gotten my potato sets and onion sets into the ground before the rainy spell started. The earlier-planted multipliers were up the last time I went to the garden; the rest must be showing by now.
Oops! On Sunday I took some containers for the Fellowship Committee's "in case of left-overs" cupboard, washed them, put them into the drainer, and forgot to go back after the service and put them away. And I think Kiddie Kollege is in session.
Winona Lake Preservation Association meets tomorrow night. Dave doesn't think he wants to go; I don't want to go alone, so we'll give that a miss.
I'd better go shopping tomorrow morning: I ate the last crumb of cold cereal for breakfast, and there are a number of other things on my shopping list.
I've still got a sore spot on the lower left. Not interfering too much, but keeps me from trying to get back into shape.
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Trashday tomorrow: Dave says there weren't very many tissues in what he gathered up.
About four, I drove to Owen's to pick up my pills, and collected a two-piece dinner with fries on my way back. I'm glad I didn't buy extra chicken; it had been under the heat lamp for hours. On the other hand, I had to wait for them to fry the fries.
Owen's had a clearance on "finishing butter" next to the eggs — yes, I've bought eggs again already — and I bought a tub of lemon-garlic butter. We had some with supper. I can't detect any lemon flavor, but there's a hint of tartness on occasion. We both liked it; I told Dave he should buy some more bread sticks.
And I got milk and a box of cold cereal.
The car is parked funny. I backed in a little crooked, and a little too far, planning to straighten out when I pulled forward. But Spot came dashing out of the park and got so close to the front of the car that I couldn't see where he was.
I didn't give him a peanut.
How windy is it? There's not only breakers all over the lake, there's rough water in the rain barrels.
I put the walker back into the closet this morning.
When I got up from my nap, I went out to cultivate the garden and make furrows to plant onions, potatoes, and carrots. After pushing the Culta-Eze back and forth once, I decided that this was a wonderful time to finish cutting out the linen I put on the card table in the garage yesterday. It wasn't the wind chill — I couldn't keep my balance!
Ground is a shade too wet anyway, said the fox.
Supper will be a small, tough-looking steak I bought yesterday. I also bought five pounds of potatoes to make into salad for Sunday's birthday party. I have no suitable container, and I've been looking every time I shopped for months, so I've little hope of buying one by Saturday. There are so many kinds of picnic supplies everywhere that you'd think someone would be selling a container that can keep a salad on ice! I couldn't find anything on the Web, either.
Haste makes waste. I couldn't be bothered to wash my feet and put on socks and sandals before I moved the cat boxes this morning.
It's so windy I knew that draping the plastic over the line after I hosed it off wouldn't do, so I took the clothespin bag out. Turned out that in addition to being windy, it's cold enough to make the plastic stiff. Putting a pin every inch along stiff plastic while the wind is yanking at it is not easy. By the time I finished, my toes were aching from the cold.
And I've got cottonwood gunk on them.
I finished pushing the Culta-Eze around after the wind dropped to ten mph yesterday evening, but still haven't made furrows. I'm going to put on footwear and an extra shirt before I go out to do it!
The steak was delicious, and we ate every bit of it.
When I got out of bed, I thought that putting the walker away was premature, but the stiffness worked out. My right thigh, which has been bothering me off and on for weeks, ached ferociously in the night, but it appeared perfectly normal at time to get up.
We decided to sweep the bedroom today and the hallway tomorrow, instead of the other way around. The Roomba has finished and Dave has cleaned it and put it back on the charger, so I guess I'd better get on with emptying and cleaning the cat box I set out on the picnic table.
First, I'm putting on shoes!
We had appointments with Dr. Gilbert today. Dave got a bunch of spots frozen.
I learned that the skin tags in my armpit really are skin tags, the bump near my eye is still behaving itself, the scaly spot on my leg is an actinic keratosis, and the bump on my neck is an "Eff Kay". That remark was part of the record he was dictating to his secretary, and I didn't have an opportunity to ask what it meant. He didn't think it was important.
I have to go back on May 14th, so he can shave the basil-cell carcinoma that inspired this visit, and he says he wants to take another sample of my age spot, since it's been a long time since the last biopsy. He speculated that the carcinoma was a regrowth of the one he took off a few years ago; I should have Dave take a picture of my face so we can tell next time.
We weren't quite hungry yet, so instead of having lunch at Wings, as we'd planned, we stopped at the North Side Grill in Columbia City on the way home, intending to share one of their huge tenderloins. Alas, a sign on the door said that it was the last day of their vacation and they wouldn't be open until evening. So we went on, debating this and that alternative, and overshot Spring Creek — I was resigned, but Dave made a U turn at the next side road, confusing the GPS, and we bought two chunks of swiss cheese (one sharp and one mild), two bags of candy, peanuts in the shell, and a bunch of other stuff. I remarked that it was a mistake to shop while hungry; the proprietor disagreed.
Before we got to Pierceton, Dave remembered that we'd never eaten at The Depot, so we swung in there and had the special of the day, a barbecued-beef sandwich. It was excellent, and the service was great. The proprietor himself waited on us, and we overheard a great deal of history. Dave thought Mr. Frush looked familiar, and discovered that he was the son of one of Dave's classmates.
We are definitely going back.
Got the onions planted yesterday. Potato sets are still on the card table in the garage. I bought only three potatoes, but they cut up into a rather large number of sets.
Spent the morning at the church making meatloaf. I brought home some surplus shredded celery to put into my potato salad; I should have taken some of the left-over carrots as well.
Urk. I bought a red bell pepper specifically to put into the potato salad, and forgot all about it. I can use it to make garnishes in the morning. I can't pack the salad into the serving containers tonight because the containers are in the freezer: my ugly old standby of two half-gallon semi-disposables, with water frozen in the lower one. I made two sets this time — I plan to put the one with thinner ice on the buffet and hold the other one back.
I made the entire five-pound bag of potatoes into salad, because we are expecting guests who don't carry in. Put in four boiled eggs. Also a bunch of onion tops and a little garlic chive. "Kow Choy" is a better name than "garlic chives", but I have to look it up every time I want to use it.
Man, what a party!
We didn't remember candles for the cake, but I'm just as glad not to have eighty candles lit.
A good time was had by all, and there was enough food left to serve at least that many again — there were some dishes that never made it to the buffet table. I kid you not, there were *devilled eggs* left over! Perhaps that was because they were at the end of a very long buffet.
Pastor Rick is serving cake at You Turn tonight. In about fifteen minutes; You Turn is at eight and it's a quarter til. I slept until after six after getting home after four.
Bright and sunny, so I put the whites in first (overlooking a towel and a pillow case), but when they came out, I consulted the results of overdoing yesterday and put everything but a bath mat and two pillow cases on a rack. Which turned out to be wise; the items on the line are flopping furiously in the wind.
Last month, I discovered that I can put one jaw of a pair of needle-nose pliers between the cap of a prescription bottle and the granny-resistant jacket, and bend back the retention ridge. Disable the ridge a little more than halfway around, and the undamaged cap pops right out.
So I did all three — and when I got this month's prescriptions KROGER HAD NOT CHANGED ITS BRAND OF BOTTLE and I was able to use the defanged caps on this month's pills!
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The pillowcases weren't perfectly dry when I hung out Dave's heavy jeans, but I brought them in anyway.
Should have turned the bath mat over to flop the other edge, but I just now thought of that.
There were an even dozen potato sets. I laid them in a furrow, spaced them by eyeball, and put a shovel of stump-grinder mulch on each one.
Now if only I had done this just before our prolonged rain. Weather underground says there's a chance of a little sprinkle on Thursday and a good chance of a quarter inch next Monday.
Progress: I stooped without hurting myself. Backache seems to be improving as the day wears on. I suspect that moving around gently is what does it.
Is this the sort of backache that is improved by cycling or the sort that is aggravated? So this morning I suited up — I'd nearly forgotten how — and rode to Owen's. Dave came back from Martin's with a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread just before I left, but we still needed cottage cheese. And I bought steak, forgetting that I'd put venison in the fridge to thaw for meatloaf tomorrow.
I actually forgot that I had a backache! Until I signaled a right turn onto McKinley on the way back. I had been using a mouse to play computer games, and the effect on my right arm when I pointed to the right with it reminded me of my other pains.
At the moment, it's my left arm that's sore. I don't know what I've been doing to it.
Also did some token sewing in the evening.
I made the meatloaf yesterday, baked it today, and it was delicious.
In the morning, I rode my bike to Owens again (carrots and eggs), and pushed the Culta-Eze through the garden. The earliest-planted multipliers are the most vigorous. I think I'll let more overwinter this year. No sign yet of the onions and potatoes, and Dave hasn't gotten around to planting his carrots.
At suppertime, I pulled two more of the volunteer onions for scallions. The winter onion is getting hard to cultivate around. Last I looked, the winter onions I planted on the south side of the house are at least surviving.
Each time the winter onion tried to spread, I planted the bulbils on the south side of the house.
The house a-building on Park Avenue now has a floor over the basement, and a bunch of partitions in the basement, and we can see where they plan to put the staircase. Still no sign of what the coal-bin looking protuberance on the front is, or the door-like window over it. Dave and I took a walk past it in the evening.
XP stopped talking to 98 after I let AVG update. Turned out that I'd inadvertently installed the paid version; Dave uninstalled it, installed the free version, and now all is right with my network. Somehow, sampling the paid version doesn't make me want to buy it.
KVC says that Phend & Brown will move in on the Greenway project in May. Which is tomorrow.
Oops, time to proofread and mail this file. Mañana.