E:/LETTERS/DECBAN10.TXT December 3, 2010 I may have to move before I'm done -- we are getting our ducts cleaned. Al has been shut up in the shop with food, water, and box -- when I went to check on him, I got a long lecture. The vacuum cleaner is parked near the shop, but it beats being in here -- if only because he would fit quite easily into one of the suction hoses they are using. In clearing the way to the vent in the sewing room, I gained access to the stuff that's been falling behind the ironing board for years. Haven't quite picked it all up yet -- most of it is trash, but not *all*. I'm glad they are cleaning the bedroom vents first. Between the excitement and coming down with whatever sent Dave to the doctor yesterday evening, I'm going to want my nap. Dave is off filling the prescription now, and buying Ricola. Should have told him to get some of the cough drops I like too. I got chased out about then. Dave had come home, bearing his prescriptions, Ricola, and Smith Brothers cough drops. Smith Brothers are in a bag like everybody else now, but still have portraits of Mark and Trade. Terry Howie is here too, working on the air conditioner. I didn't find the "Gear '89 Saratoga" clothespin that I dropped behind the sewing machine. Didn't think to look down the heating duct until after it had been vacuumed. ------------------------------------------------------------ The rec.food.cooking FAQ says that there are 5.1 grams of salt in a teaspoon, and five grams of water in a teaspoon. A milliliter of water weighs about a gram. The rubber bible says that .357 grams of salt will dissolve in a milliliter of ice water. That makes 1.785 grams of salt in a teaspoon of saturated salt solution. 1.785 is .35 of 5.1 -- so about a third of a teaspoon of salt in every teaspoon of garlic vinegar. It tastes like a lot more. Perhaps I should run the numbers again with the value for boiling water. Which is .3912 -- so less than four tenths of a teaspoon no matter how you slice it. ------------------------------------------------------------ I forgot all about the First Friday party downtown tonight. Probably wouldn't have gone anyway. I had a coupon for three little poultry pies when I went shopping Wednesday, and tonight I was glad that I used it -- so nice to pop supper into the oven and not have to think. Good pies, too, even though the turkey (and Dave's chicken) was in neat little cubes that suggested spamification. I wonder whether there's a generic term for Spam, bologna, hot dogs, and most lunch meats. Lunch meats can be classified under "sausage", but not Spam, and not the cubes in the pies. So far, my infection is still viral. Perhaps if I rest a lot and drink plenty of fluids and eat another tangerine, it will stay that way. 4 December 2010 My knees would be in better shape if I'd worn wool socks to bed. Despite putting an extra blanket, folded in half, on my side, and having Dave for a heater, I was cold all night, and every time I started to straighten my legs, oops, cold sheet! and I'd go back into my tight little ball. So I was pretty cramped when I woke up, and I'm still a little sore. Probably some of that is general cold symptom Took my temperature upon rising and it was 100F. Also had a lot of trouble breathing; there seems to be a valve in a clogged nose that makes it easier to push a breath out than to draw one in. So I took three Sudafed this afternoon, and hope I'll be all drained out at bedtime. Spent the whole day playing with the computer. I did write a recipe for devilled eggs, but it's much too detailed for a vanity-press cookbook. I put it into my COOKBOOK Web site. Perhaps I could write a yellow-biscuit recipe. Just take a buttermilk-biscuit recipe and substitute tomato juice for the buttermilk. Haven't made one in years, though, so I don't know whether one dilutes the tomato juice. Probably should with modern sauce-tomato puree. Now I'm out of funnies and Usenet; I think I'll try to read the Weekend paper. I've got a mystery novel started, but I'm not sure I'm that smart. The new museum down the street opens tomorrow, but I don't think I should mingle in crowds -- not to mention going out in cold, slippery weather. 5 December 2010 Turned out to be moot: the grand opening was on Saturday, before I wrote. I was planning to say that it had snowed all day without hiding the grass, but the last time I looked out, I couldn't see grass. Could be the bad light, but I think the snowfall picked up a bit during my second nap. 6 December 2010 The snow hides the grass only where air swirls deposit a little extra. Not much grass is poking out, and flakes are still floating around. Fever was gone at bedtime, and when I woke up the floor wasn't carpeted with used tissues. Still coughing, but not as often, and I'm up to doing the wash. I won't be hanging it outside! Just heard Dave cough. He has one pill left of his prescription. This is the first load of wash on the new water heater, but I'm washing everything on warm today. But I habitually set the washer on "hot" until the cold water is out of the pipes before turning it to "warm", and I did notice that the water is hotter sooner. At Terry's suggestion, I ran a fill-and-spin with the washer set on "hot" after he installed the water heater, in case there was dirt in the pipes, but the water in the heater was quite cold then. 7 December 2010 Dusting my underarms with tooth powder was startling -- brushing my teeth with body powder was downright nasty. I'm going to keep those two containers a bit farther apart. 8 December 2010 Scrounging around for breakfast, I found some left-over canned ham, minced up a small slice, and put it into olive oil in my smallest skillet over low heat to shrivel up and get bacony while I plotted the rest of the dish. While looking for a slice of toast to have my egg on, I noticed the cornbread left over from last Monday. So I minced up a heel of onion and stirred it into the ham, minced a piece of orange sweet pepper from Aldi, stirred it into the ham and onions, diced a square of cornbread, cut a thin slice of swiss cheese and minced it, dropped an egg into the skillet, scraped in the bread and cheese, stirred until everything was coated with egg, shaped it into a patty, put on a tight lid for a minute or so -- the timer had gone off when I got back to the kitchen -- found that it had firmed up enough to flip, left it uncovered for five minutes, flipped again and found it lightly browned, turned off the heat and waited one more minute. It was *delicious*! I hope to do it again tomorrow, if we haven't eaten the two remaining squares of cornbread. 9 December 2010 We did eat the two remaining squares of cornbread, with some rather good canned pea soup, and Dave went to Walmart to buy socks and came back with bacon, butter, and Fast Shake pancake mix. (I'm now trying to dissolve some of the sugar in the maple syrup before putting it back into the freezer.) I don't recall where I bought the soup. It doesn't say "Aldi" on the can anywhere, so I greatly fear it was the Pak'n Pay in Bristol. Aaaand we are out of canned soup. Time to go shopping. I walked to Banner making yesterday, and walked back again, and hardly coughed at all. Cora and I cut out letters, and Martha worked on the background. These banners might come together next Wednesday. The day before yesterday, I drove the truck to Handwork Circle, wiped the fridges, refilled the ice-cube trays, and came home without even unlocking the ramp-room door. Did, out of habit, make sure it was locked before leaving. 10 December 2010 I can remember when driving yourself home after surgery was unheard of, let alone stopping on the way to buy cat food. Didn't think to buy bread, and all the sliced bread we have is deli rye, which Dave doesn't like for a steady diet. I thought I was buying a lot of loaves, but we didn't eat much of the buns and rolls and muffins this trip. I took off my glasses, and Dr. Gilbert said he didn't like the shape of the age spot under my left eye, so I'm wearing two band-aids. Be at least two weeks before they hear back from the lab. He got a phone call and had to step outside to take it just after asking me whether I had any new bumps. You'd be amazed at how many bumps and spots one can find on a face if left alone with a pocket mirror. Today would have been a good day to wear my new silk shirt if I'd taken five minutes to put the remaining two strands of quarter-inch elastic into the left wrist. There was time before time to go, but Wednesday morning I thought I'd hem the banners, then go shopping -- and I was still working on the banners when it was time to start cooking supper. Well, it didn't help that I didn't finish breakfast until after ten, then I checked my e-mail and wrote some letters, so that I'd just pinned one of the two hems when it was time for my nap. Then during the nap I realized that I'd been going at it all wrong, so when I got up, I took the pins out and started over. Took the band-aids off after my nap. The scab from the biopsy is under my spectacle frame and isn't visible at all. The surgical site now looks exactly as it did after the biopsy. 11 December 2010 Drove to Aldi by way of Aunt Millie's Outlet this afternoon, so now we have lots of bread and soup. And chocolate. 12 December 2010 It was considerably colder coming home from church than going -- perhaps because the wind was in my face. I'd like to ride my bike to the health-food store tomorrow; we've been out of sunflower seeds for some time, and I need dried fruit -- particularly figs, for I've set my heart on making a "figgy pudding" this year. But it looks as though the roads are going to be messy. Haven't even started writing the Christmas letter yet. I'd better call it a New Year letter. 14 December 2010 When we moved back to Winona Lake, Dave renewed his acquaintance with a schoolmate who had also come back to retire. Yesterday the coroner called Dave to ask whether he knew who John Boyce's next of kin was. He didn't, but researched, after hanging up, and discovered that John's uncle had a son. But the coroner found John's half-brother by other means, and the half-brother called Dave. I lost track of the phone calls. Between calls, Dave looked up a biography in the reunion book and such-like to help with the obituary. So it seems rather petty to complain about the day I had today, but I'm going to do it anyway. I washed three loads of clothes yesterday, then put a sheet and some pillowcases in, soaked them in detergent, added Oxyclean, soaked them some more, spun them out, refilled the washer with a dash of ammonia, set the timer for fifteen minutes -- and forgot all about them. So first thing this morning, I spun them out, set the washer to rinse them twice, and went on about breakfast. After breakfast -- which was grilled bacon, and an egg sandwich on grill-toasted whole wheat, and very good -- I noticed that the washer was taking a long time to start the first spin cycle. Eventually we figured out that the switch that keeps it from spinning with the lid open had failed safe. At this point it became Dave's bad day, as he tried to pump the water out of the washer into the sink, ended up throwing out both of his little pumps, and took out the agitator so that he could bail the dirty water into a bucket with a coffee can. I wasn't particularly happy about rinsing four pillowcases and a king-size sheet in a bucket in the bathtub, either. First I had to engage in a prolonged cleaning of the bathtub, because both of us prefer the shower and we tend to forget the bathtub exists. I used to scrub my feet sitting on the edge of the tub, but find it easier to put a foot in the shower-room sink. At least it was a linen sheet, so it would go into the bucket. The muslin sheets take up nearly twice as much room. And linen dries so fast that I've already put it back into the linen closet. Hand-wringing doesn't get out near as much water as spinning in a washer. I really regretted getting rid of the hand-cranked wringer we used to have, but the rubber would have disintegrated by now anyway. Later I re-wrote Alice's recipe for egg riffles, intending to give it to Pastor Bonnie for a roof-raising cookbook, and thought I should try it out before passing it on. So before napping I went to the cupboard to set the beef broth and the canned beef out on the counter so I wouldn't forget what to do. Broth we've got, but no beef. At this point I remembered that I had to pick up a prescription at Owen's -- I could go right after my nap, and pick up a can of beef. After napping, I suited up, spent about fifteen minutes cleaning snow and ice off the Buick, and drove to Owen's. Got there and realized that I'd forgotten my shopping list, but the only Owen's thing on it that I didn't get was whole- wheat saltines. Dave had been dropping rather broad hints about the griddle still being on the counter, so in addition to two cans of beef and a can each of pork and chicken, I bought a pound of hamburger and a rather pallid tomato. When I got back, Dave said that Smith Appliances had just called and a repairman would be right over. We started trying to clean the laundry room before he got there; I'd just barely carried all the fabrics and tablecloths into the bedroom when he arrived. He agreed that it was the switch, and took it out and put in a second-hand one, saying that it would be a waste to put a new part into a washer with a motor that sounded like that. So we got off buying yet another new appliance, but not for terribly long. Dave's mother bought this washer, so it's been at work for a while. When I put the fabric back, I put all the tablecloths together, all the twill together, and all the linen together. Also found three pieces of cotton that will fit into the sewing-room closet (the stuff in the laundry room is too long for a closet rod that's just high enough to hang dresses). But I don't think removing those is enough to account for the stuff taking up half as much space as before. I did find a lot of lost hangers that had gotten in between pieces of fabric; since some of them were suit hangers, that accounts for a few inches of rod space. Also found two T-shirts I'd planned to give to a kindergarten for painting smocks, but they got all they needed before I got around to it and they've been working toward the back of the rod for years. Meanwhile, I'd run out of shabby T-shirts to wear for pajama tops, so I put them back into the closet. I didn't pat the hamburgers out thin enough, but there's half a pound left and I can try again tomorrow or the next day. The tomato wasn't any better than I expected. Cleaned the fridges and reduced Handwork Circle to checking that the ramp-room door is locked again. Didn't even take my work bag this time. The footing was surprisingly non-slippery. I walked in the street whenever no cars were coming as the sidewalks are covered in snow. I was feeling all beaten down when I left, but was fairly frisky when I got back. 16 December 2010 Much nicer day -- I was reluctant to go out into the cold, but I had to remove my windshell and a layer of glove, and still sweated. Sheer silk longjohns, thin sweat pants, regular sweatpants, two silk shirts, one long-sleeved wool jersey, one short-sleeved wool jersey. And wool mittens. Had to re-learn how to line my silk scarf with the small wool one; works entirely different when pinned than it did when tied. Went to the hospital to drop off magazines; didn't even look at the bike path. Overshot the health-food store and had to come back on Center Street. (I *still* try to call it Central Avenue!) Piled up a pannier with fruit and nuts, then off to Lowery's. Fun looking around, but there were no prices on the safety pins, so I didn't buy any. Stopped at Sherman & Lin's on the way back and got two bars of a new-to-me brand of chocolate. Then for supper, egg riffles. For lunch, I'd polished off the pork-and-sweet-potato soup on two slices of toast, but I left the carrot and the piece of jalapen~o in the pan. Put the pan on the stove after my nap and put in the whole box of beef broth and a chopped celery stalk. The broth tasted a little pale, so I put in a scant teaspoon of garlic vinegar (saturated with salt), a heaping teaspoon of salsa, a teaspoon of Tamari soy sauce, and an envelope of gelatin. Also a teeny dab of minced onion just before the riffles. Put the riffles in about fifteen minutes before serving and that seemed about right. Put the canned meat in just soon enough to get hot, but this Grabil's beef isn't fibery as canned beef often is; some bits were downright gelatinous. And it had a fine flavor straight from the can. Good soup, but my riffles looked nothing like Grandmother's. I think the "forming onto small clusters" has to be watched being done. Thought at first that I hadn't put in enough, but it seems that most of them sank. I think I'll take "small" out of the "small bowl" in the instructions. I wanted to get both hands into the bowl. I think my mistake was using a mixing bowl, rather than a soup bowl. I thought it wouldn't hold a whole cup of flour, but I regularly make cornbread in a soup bowl. At banner-making, we got all the houses traced onto Wonderbond, ironed, and cut out. I also ironed Wonderbond onto the planet. I *think* Martha did the same for the continents. Should be straight assembly next time -- we're meeting Thursday afternoon instead of Wednesday evening. But the blue fabric representing the oceans wiggles around like water. 16 December 2010 More precipitation was predicted for today, but so far it's looked pretty nice out there -- from in here. The last time I went to Aldi, I bought a bag of garlic- and-salt pita chips and wanted to taste them while bagging. I reached into my pocket for my knife, and it wasn't there. Thought for a while I'd left it in some other pocket, but I've concluded that I must have put it down my pants leg by mistake for the pocket some time; now that I'm wearing sweat pants under my jeans, it's conceivable that I wouldn't notice, if I was on a carpet at the time. So when I stopped at the pawn shop after leaving Sherman & Lin's yesterday, I looked carefully at all the knives in the case. That old one for six or seven dollars looked nice, but a trifle thick; lowering my gaze I saw that it had at least two blades, probably three. The one-dollar keychain knives had only one blade each, but looked rather gimcracky. Probably of poor quality, I thought, and the blades look like stainless, which is impossible to sharpen. Then off to the other store -- the available shopfronts were smaller than the one that was closed by fire, so they took two, and I'm still defeated to guess how they decide which merchandise to put in which shop. This glass case had more of the keychain knives, and one was black -- didn't look at all bad. Still presumed to be cheaply made, but it's only a dollar and I do need something to hold me until I find a good one. I've been looking for "a good one" since long before I bought the pretty but impractical knife that I lost, so holding out with no knife at all isn't a good idea. The blade *is* stainless, but it's reasonably sharp as purchased, and it's a locking blade. Perhaps I should go back and buy one to stash away for when this one gets dull; seems to have been *meant* to be disposable. Blade is an inch and a half long, and half of it is sawtooth serrated. Dave says that there's a name for that style of serration, but he can't remember what it is. 17 December 2010 I wonder how long the scab has been off the spot where my cancer was scraped off? Doesn't matter, because I've been covering it whenever I go out anyway. (Sunlight on pink skin can make the pink permanent.) Still a scab on the biopsy site. Not healing as fast, presumably because it's a lot harder to protect it. Figgy pudding yesterday, fruitcake today. For the pudding, I substituted sliced figs for the raisins and corn oil for the stick of butter, but did everything else as written in mama's book -- the hand- written one on brown paper, but I'm pretty sure that's my handwriting. I didn't even add nuts. Baked it in muffin tins -- over two dozen. It was one short of five half dozen, but not quite as many as that made it to the freezer. That may be the first time I've made Mrs. Stanley's Spice Cupcakes as cupcakes. Today I baked five fruitcakes -- red-wheat flour, brown sugar spices, every fruit in sight except apricot, prune, and fig. And a couple of cups of walnuts, sliced almonds to keep them from sticking to the pan, and three halves of cherries and six halves of pecans per cake. I saved a little batter to make one cupcake in a jello mold, just by way of quality control. I think I'll make apricot cakes next: no spices, yellow raisins, white sugar, white-wheat flour, candied pineapple, sulfured dried apples, etc. 18 December 2010 I meant to note the morning we woke up to a frozen lake -- Dave says he doesn't remember it freezing this early -- but now I've forgotten. I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday. We walked our point seven in the afternoon yesterday. I'm still coughing a lot, but the box of cough drops has migrated to the back of the fridge. 19 December 2010 I think it was yesterday that we saw some children playing on the ice. They stayed close to shore. Made the apricot cakes. Couldn't resist cutting one. 20 December 2010 Went to the dry cleaner, Warsaw Health Food, and Marsh Supermarket today -- after cleaning snow off the Buick. Just as I was writing a note to post on the door, intending to lie down fully dressed, the fellow who wanted the television we had been planning to give to John turned up -- very good timing. He stopped on his way to third shift -- I'm glad I don't have his commute. Then I changed into jammies and slept until suppertime; woke up to find that Dave had brought home a box of Buffalo Wild Wings. He says that they have about twice the number of TV sets that I guessed when he said that they have a lot, but I've forgotten the details. A package of sausage that I bought at Marsh vanished. I did see the boy putting it into a bag; perhaps I should look under all the seats again. Yesterday morning when I put on my red silk blouse for the Christmas service, I noticed that it had never been washed. At the rate I wear it -- only in December -- might be a few more years yet. Reflected that I could wear it to Linda's party, and might get another chance on Valentine's day. As I was listening to the sermon, something bounced off my head -- a candle chimney. My first thought was "Gaack! Broken glass! On carpet!" But I leaned over, picked it up, and it was in perfect condition except for having been splashed with candle wax. I put it under the pew to deal with after the service, sat back -- and realized that there must be a candle around someplace. I was nearly sitting on it! But it had splashed itself out as it fell, and the jar was sitting upright. I had no sooner picked it up in bemusement than a concerned bystander appeared and took it from me; I handed him the chimney too and have no idea what became of them. I was more concerned with not making a scene than keeping track of the details. I gradually realized that I'd been so splashed with molten wax as to make many people think I'd been burned -- and if I hadn't been wearing a thick cotton underdress, maybe I would have. I did feel warmth on my back just after the impact. But the wax on the underdress is in front. Also had some in my hair. I felt some on my face, but it had flaked off before I got to a mirror. The wax in my hair also came out easily, but not as easily as I expected -- because my hair had been pinned up, pulling a lump of wax down a hair and off the end wasn't a straight stroke. So I was somewhat distracted wondering how to get candlewax out of silk, but a couple of people in the narthex assumed I'd be taking it to a dry cleaner -- of course, if stoddard solvent doesn't get it out, nothing will! Hence my stop at Peerless. The clerk emphasized that there was no guarantee; I emphasized that she must note "silk" and "candlewax" on the label to be read by the people who actually do the work. And there's a chance that I'll get it back in time for Thursday's party. I examined the candle stand thoroughly after the service, and decided that if I bumped the bottom of the bracket just right, the stand would tip and the candle would fall off. Most of the ways I pushed on it tipped it in a way that would make the candle fall out into the aisle, though. But a sharp blow with a shoulder might have a different effect than a slow push with a hand. 21 December 2010 Full load of blacks, for a change. I had my linen bike knickers (belatedly being put away for the winter) and my slopping around pants in addition to the usual before I dirtied an ankle-length underdress and a floor-length pleated skirt. Also half a load of whites and light colors. Went to Peerless again this morning, to sign a release -- something about "wet cleaning", which the clerk was eager to avoid explaining, probably because she didn't know what it was. Then to Big R for cat food and litter, and Aldi for fish oil and baking soda. (And a few other things.) The scab came off my biopsy yesterday. 22 December 2010 One batch of wash, two batches of cake. I was much annoyed, at Aldi, to find that they were out of walnut halves. So I bought chopped walnuts -- not as good as freshly-chopped nuts, but a lot easier! One batch was assorted fruit, one was predominately dates. 23 December 2010 Spotted my first ice fisherman this morning. In the afternoon, I finally put the elastic in the other sleeve of my black raw-silk shirt. I think it was about a year ago that I laid the fabric out thinking that I'd have the shirt to wear on the following Wednesday. May wear it to the party tonight. 25 December 2010 Did. And to the party today also. It's nice and warm. No word from the dry cleaner yet about my red crepe blouse. For the first time, I didn't have the nagging feeling that I'd forgotten something when we left. Until we were about halfway down "P'curtain" Road and I thought of the devilled eggs. Dave suggested taking them to the New Year's party, but I don't think there will be any; there were only a dozen to start with. Weather was clear as far as SR 26 on the way down, and all the way on the way back. Two vehicles had to be pushed a little when the party broke up. Donny waited until Dave and I left, but we had no trouble. I didn't worry about Donny because I could see wide, flat tracks under his high- clearance truck. I think I've got an IQ of about ten, along about now. 26 December 2010 Yesterday's entry makes more sense after a bit of editing, but not a lot of sense. I'm groggy again; perhaps I won't write anything tonight. 27 December 2010 Picked up my shirt today. The got the wax out, but they couldn't get out the grease stains the wax left. Quick run to Owen's (Kroger) after picking up the shirt; we were running low on milk, and I wanted to get the eggs for New Year early, since they peel easier if not too fresh. On impulse I bought a ready-to-zap potato and a ribeye steak. Yum! Tried a speck of smoked salt on one bite, and liked it, but the meat was too good to season. Dave suggested getting a chicken to put smoked salt on. Retired Tigers called today. It seems that John left everything to him, so tomorrow we are going to clean out his room. We have to take his computer, so as to Web the book John was trying to publish, and see whether there are any undelivered arrangements. Our Father's House will probably dispose of the furniture. 31 December 2010 The coroner took the computer. Dave found it eventually, but the book isn't on it. He did save the music John was working on. We are both feeling regretful because neither of us had asked for a copy of the book. Wednesday, we finished and hung the January banners in an afternoon meeting. Thursday, yesterday, I did the wash. Rubbed soap on the wax stains, figuring that the dry cleaner hadn't tried that for fear of damaging the silk. Hadn't been working on it too long before I realized that another good reason to suspect that it hadn't been tried was that I hadn't paid them that much money! It worked! All the stains but one came out, and I think that one will respond to a second treatment. Only damage was that the color is a little less clear and bright on the creases of the pleats in the cap of the sleeve. Wonderful! The lingering stain must have been a lingering damp spot -- I can't find it now. Dye looks a little worn if one looks closely in natural light. One rather amazing thing I learned from this episode is that dry cleaners have a standard rate for bathrobes. My blouse-slip was filed under "choir robe". The snow is all gone, but Dave thinks that the ice was thick enough to still be safe. Nobody out playing on it, though -- if you fell down, you'd get wet. I'm up to April in writing the Year letter. I waited to write an a account of 2010 until I had all the data. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.