This is two days late, but I'm going to pretend
it's Saturday night, so y'all will have to wait a
month for the latest news.
(I don't expect to
say anything interesting today anyhow.)
I bundled the papers yesterday, but when I threw an ad into the bin this morning, it already contained a substantial amount of paper.
I pulled some newspapers off the bottom of the stack to stabilize bundles with. When I finished, there were newspapers left, but not enough to make a bundle, so I threw them into the bin. Later I decided to re-make my insulated pannier in case I feel like going to Leesburg tomorrow, and there were a lot of papers to discard because I'd made the insulation extra-thick last time. And when I finished re-insulating, there were some newspapers left over.
Yesterday was Roomba day in the hallway, so we moved Al's water dish into the bedroom. When I got up from the computer at bed time, Al accosted me. I finally figured out that he wanted his water dish put back where it belonged.
I don't think *I'd* like to have an open container of beverage right next to my toilet.
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I considered driving to Warsaw Health Foods for some corn flour today, stopping at Owen's on the way back to buy milk and Mountain Dew. I've been searching for corn flour in the freezer, but zilch. There is a canister marked "corn", but it's grits. But it's so unpleasant out that I stayed home.
While purging my inbox, I found some messages about the corn-flour drop biscuits I made last month, and I know I didn't use up all the flour. So I made another search; still nothing, but hey, it's been a long time since I had grits; I'll make some tamale-pie mush for lunch.
Under the bag of grits was a bag of flour.
So I made cornbread to go with the left-over bean soup we had for supper, and it was delicious. (I used the recipe on the bread page of the cookbook.)
I should add a recipe for tamale-pie mush to the cookbook.
I woke up at half-past seven, when the almost-full moon was two fingers above the horizon and the sun wasn't quite up. This would have given me an early start on my ride to Leesburg, but I'm not in the mood, and I'm not sure Sunset Drive is drained.
There are still puddles on the beach, but everything that was dry land when we moved here is above water.
There was an article in the paper about quarreling neighbors who blame the new house for the unusual rains. None of the disputants appear to be aware that they have built their homes in a lake.
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When I was in Meijer last Monday, I noticed an ice-cube tray that made sticks of ice for putting into water bottles.
At Panda Express, I finally remembered that I had a "VIP Card" to get a discount on my meal. It expired last month.
I bought some stir-fry beef when I rode to Owen's for milk today. It's now in the rice cooker on "keep warm". I brought the broth and vegetables to a boil before I turned it down and put the meat in.
Just took a sample: the meat is kind of dry; I think Dave will like it very much. [And I liked it with crisp-tender celery.]
About noon, I went off in search of a bazaar that the Kosciusko County web site said was today. I snarled "vaporware" before I started waiting for a chance to dash back across Center Street, but I think I should have descended one more cliff, and inquired at the Wagon Wheel. At the first hotel I came to after crossing Center the first time, there was a truck parked in front that said something like "Kozy Kloset", which appeared to belong to someone who sold clothing at bazaars.
So I toured Sprawlmart, and now it's too late to get a nap in before supper. I got home about half past three.
I was hunting for all-synthetic tights to wear over other tights, and found them twice, but didn't buy any. At Carson's, I saw a clearance rack of black tights for four ninety-nine, but when I approached it, the smaller type said that that price was for community-coupon shoppers, and everyone else would have to pay thirty or forty dollars. So I have no idea whether any of them were suitable. (I'm not sure I remember "community coupon" right. It was all over the store.)
At K-Mart, I found some queen-size "leggings" that were all synthetic, thick enough to be warm, and very stretchy. But I hunted and hunted and couldn't find any clue as to how much they cost. I kept my eye out for a bar-code reader on my way out, but I don't think K-Mart has any.
If the leggings are still there the next time I go to Sprawlmart, and if K-Mart has finished re-arranging that aisle, I may buy one of each size, to wear one over the other.
The cops need somebody to move into the empty building at the end of Sprawl Three — saying "in front of the old Aldi's" is going to get confusing as soon as the new store isn't news any more.
'Course they are still saying "old Owen's" and "new Owen's". I *think* that "old Owen's" is Owen's West; it's certainly older in style. But Owen's East has been updated at least twice.
I can't work up any enthusiasm for riding to Leesburg tomorrow, so I've planned a dump tour for Saturday, with a side trip to the last Winter Market in the Center Lake Pavilion.
Saturday is predicted to be sunny and dry with a high of forty and very little wind.
I ironed a shirt and trimmed off a ragged elastic casing today. I don't know what I did with Wednesday.
Now I remember where Wednesday went, and also Thursday and Friday: I found a small error on one of my Web pages.
Spent today taking exercise. A good bait of strong tea drunk between 11:30 and 12:30 lasts until 5:30.
Perhaps because I ordered a "medium" tea at Panda Express, forgetting that "medium" these days means a pitcher for four. I had that in addition to the pint of very strong tea I'd brewed at home.
Good news at Aldi: potato salad is back in season! I'd been afraid I'd have to wait until Memorial Day.
K-Mart still had the fleece tights, and I found a price scanner. I found two, actually; when I saw the second, I remembered that the bottle I bought at the Trailhouse still had a bar code on it. Somewhat the worse for wear, but bar codes are designed to be robust. So I scanned it just to see what would happen. The price was "see shelf label".
So I spent $28, plus tax, on four pairs of tights — they had four sizes, and the smallest, near as I could make out (the size chart needs copy editing) was my size, so I should be able to wear all four at once. I hope it's next winter before it gets that cold!
Each pair is visibly larger than the one I think is marked smaller, so I do have four different sizes. First thing I'll have to do is to mark them so that it's obvious after they have been unfolded. Perhaps bar tacks resistor-coded two, three, four, and five. Zero and one wouldn't show up on black.
The chairs and table have been restored to the Winter Market. Pity this was the last one. I think that this was the first I attended this winter. I didn't see anything new — well, there were containers of sprouts called "microgreens".
I noticed this morning that the refried beans I bought on Tuesday are fat free. Lard is the main point of refried beans, so I put the can into my bike basket. It will be reasonable to drop by Our Father's House on my way to Leesburg tomorrow, and *somebody* likes fat-free beans or they wouldn't sell them.
I accidentally spent yesterday preparing a holiday meal. I bought a frozen game hen to be our Thanksgiving dinner, then changed my mind and bought a fresh chicken. On Monday, I decided that that hen had been in the freezer long enough and put it into the fridge to thaw. (Though quite small,it still had ice in it on Wednesday.)
On Tuesday I went to Aldi to stock up on frozen meals, saw chicken-flavor stovetop stuffing, and bought a package.
On Wednesday, I reflected that I often oversleep at nap time, and spent the morning getting things ready to pop into the oven at four thirty.
I opened the package of chicken in a saucepan to catch the melted ice, then I filled up the chicken with chunks of onion (we are out of apples), fitted it into one of my smallest skillets, covered it with plastic wrap, and put it back into the fridge.
In another of my small skillets, I tossed some vegetables in a little olive oil, covered it with plastic, and left it on the counter because most of the vegetables were frozen. Also, I wanted to toss it again and olive oil freezes at refrigerator temperature.
I mixed potato flakes, salt, and milk in a well-buttered mini casserole, put a lid on it, and put it into the fridge.
During the above, I cut up a stalk of celery, put it and a can of chicken broth into the saucepan with the melted ice, brought it to a boil, covered it, and set it aside to cool, near a medium-small skillet, an egg, and the box of instant dressing.
By then it was time for lunch and a nap. I was nearly out of skillets to cook my lunch in!
After nap time, the skillet the chicken was in had filled up with melted ice, so I drained it into the saucepan. (While baking, the skillet filled up again with fat and chicken broth.)
I beat an egg into the broth, then dumped in the dressing. There was nothing but crumbs in the bag; I assume that they baked seasonings into the bread. That would make this brand of dressing useful when you don't want to use the whole box. I let that soak for a while, then packed it into a well-buttered skillet.
Everything went into the oven together, but I should have held the vegetables back for a while. After half an hour, I took them out and left them over a pilot light for fifteen minutes, then put them back in for the last fifteen minutes to warm up again.
Somewhere along the way I decided I might as well go whole hog, and made gravy out of an ounce of butter, an ounce of white-wheat flour, a cup of milk, and two bouilion cubes.
Everything was delicious and we pigged out, but I forgot to serve melon for dessert. We did split an orange later in the evening.
Yesterday I finally rode to Leesburg, a twenty-mile ride, and came back certain that I could have afforded to put in a few extra miles to miss three of the four sections of SR 15 I used this time — and the fourth hasn't been all that bad since they re-paved the sections on each side of the bridge over the Tippecanoe.
But I won't be able to stir up interest in Leesburg again until we have eaten at least half of the thirty stuffed chicken breasts I bought.
On looking out the window, I see the tips of tulip leaves, and there are flower buds on the daffodils.
Today's paper says that my fourth-of-July party will be on June 30.
I found someplace safe! When I got back from mailing a letter and a post card, I put the receipt someplace safe. A couple of hours ago, I saw it lying on the ironing board and punched it into Quicken. Then I put it back onto the board, because I plan to log in and give the clerk a good review.
There's twenty-eight dollars, plus tax, down the drain. I think I posted here how pleased I was to buy four pairs of tights at seven dollars each. I should know by now that you don't buy anything you can't thoroughly examine in the store at K-Mart.
I tried on the two smaller pairs a while back, then re-packaged them for Goodwill. This morning I tried on the largest pair, intending to wear them this afternoon — I started to try them on, then stopped when I found that they were sewn shut at the bottom: I looked at the package, and the illustration clearly showed footed tights. Oops! Repackaged for Goodwill.
Then I tried the second-largest pair. It's to fit women up to 250 pounds, so surely it will be just the ticket to wear over two other pairs of tights. But I could just barely get them on over my bare skin, and they have half a seat on both sides so that no matter how you put them on, they are on backward. So now there are four pairs of tights in a clear plastic bag waiting for my next dump tour.
This morning I *finally* remembered that I need to take sunglasses to an eye appointment. But my appointment this afternoon is with a skin doctor. I did make an appointment with my eye doctor yesterday — for September.
I started to put my black-tube reading glasses back into my Little Bag of Stuff, then realized that the black tube was already in the little bag and what I had in my hand was the blue tube that has been missing for days. I've no idea where I picked it up. Um, I think I got it out of the linen jersey I wore the trip before last. And just felt it through the cloth and assumed it was the pair I was looking for.
There are lots of narcissus leaves in the lily bed.
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It's lucky that I didn't cancel the appointment when the bump fell off on its own. While the assistant was taking my history, I scratched my head and said, "Oh, there's a bump on my forehead." I have an appointment to have it taken off on April the fourth.
It works! A week or three ago, PC-Write's defined keys, recorded ruler lines, and spell checker quit working. A few clumsy work-arounds — such as copy-pasting and then editing the date header on these entries — allowed me to continue writing. I vaguely recalled that when we installed Windows 98 we had to put a line into the computer's start-up file to tell ED to read the folder PCW, but I can't remember which file and Dave has forgotten the incident completely.
Yesterday I copied WORDS.MAS and ED.HTM into the folder I write the Banner in. That got the spell checker back, but not the defined keys. This morning I copied ED.DEF into this folder, and now I'm back to normal.
Except that "enter" no longer leaves the cursor at the point where I want to resume typing, and I have to take my fingers off the keyboard to press "home".
Tadah! One of my clumsy work-arounds was still in place. All is now well.
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My new Farm-Bureau card came in today's mail. When I put it away, I saw my appointment card and said whoa, I'd better write that on my calendar. Whereupon I discovered that my only previous appointment in April was on the same day, at practically the same time.
A few minutes later, I discovered that the office had just that minute closed for the weekend.
In hindsight, I went *expecting* to make another appointment; I should have taken my calendar with me.
At five minutes to six, my tea wore off.
⁂
So I lay down for an hour and a half, and woke up with my bad leg stiff.
I bought a four-wheel walker because Dave's father's two-wheel walker creaked and wobbled under my weight, but it has proven most useful when I put no weight on it at all. I'm amazed at how often just resting my hands on it makes my leg stop hurting.
I saw streaks of molasses or whatever it is they put down before snowstorms on most of the streets I used, starting with McKinley. I hope the street guys don't know something that Weather Underground doesn't.
The wind was ferocious. At one point, I needed my lowest gear to ride downhill. The east wind became light and fitful as soon as I reached my easternmost point and started back, but there was at least one good gust. (I was headed north at the time.)
Still, I'm in better shape than I thought: I missed the turn at 250 East because I didn't think it could be so soon. By good luck there was no traffic on Wooster when I wanted to turn around.
Been a long time since I've been to Aunt Millie's. It looks nicer and it's easier to get around in there, but they have less stuff. I bought some Slimwiches and a box of english muffins.
Yesterday, I stood in at least three check-out lines, and got a slight back-ache. I should have taken the walker or the flatfoot to church, but couldn't be bothered. I'll be extra-careful tomorrow.
I bought King Oscar anchovies at Martin's, and came home to find that the half pint of anchovies Dave ordered on line had been delivered. Fortunately, canned goods keep forever. I'm baking a frozen pizza tonight because Dave is eager to open the glass jar of anchovies.
First thing Monday morning, I called Ashton's office. The assistant was quite cool about my goof, and re-scheduled for the following Friday. Just before ringing off, she asked whether I was on aspirin, I said no, but what about fish oil, and she said to knock it off, starting now.
Re-stocking my pill stick this morning felt queer. I load in strict order to be sure I don't forget one, and I'm forgetting one on purpose.
Started preparing to put elastic into the waist of a pair of store-bought tights yesterday, between loads of wash. Today all I need to do is to cut thirty inches of elastic, thread it through the buttonhole worked yesterday, and sew the ends together. But it's nap time and all I've done is to determine that it *is* thirty inches that I need to cut.
Well, I also cleaned Roomba's brushes, and hosed off the wheels of the walker after rolling it through cat vomit. It's in the garage drying now.
And I sent three e-mails that I wrote yesterday, after editing.
Dave put a new washer in the hot-water valve of the shower. He said he'll do the cold-water valve tomorrow.
We're purt-near out of March. Where did the month go?
Today was a dry day, not too windy, and nippy enough that my duck-leg confit didn't thaw on the way home. I probably rode an honest quarter century.
While lunching at Stacy's, and packing a piece of fish, a bunch of dill-pickle slices, and a steak roll into sandwich bags, I commented that I ought to know better than to order the special. The crunchy potato wedges alone were more than I should have eaten, and I made away with all the tartar sauce and two-thirds of the fish.
But when I do order the special, I get out of cooking supper. Dave built an excellent submarine on the steak roll while I was peeling off layers, and we shared it for supper. Then we split the fish and pickles for dessert. (We also had some fresh watermelon.)
On my previous trip to Leesburg, I had a half-order of the special, and brought home enough corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage for Dave's supper. And he didn't eat much of the cabbage.