Tuesday, 3 June 2008

Had a lovely ride Saturday. Didn't find anything at the
Farmer's Market, so I came back by way of the Chinworth
Bridge. The City-County Athletic Complex was completely
covered with children organized into teams -- soccer,
perhaps -- but when I asked one of the adults, he said that
there was no water fountain. It turned out that I had
enough water without topping off, but I must carry extra
water in my pannier the next time I go out. Didn't try the
ladies' room, partly because there was a crowd, partly
because they might have removed the fountain because the
water is contaminated.

But it's more likely that they thought no fountain better
than one fountain and several hundred children -- the coach
is more likely to remember to bring a jug when he knows that
there is no water on site.

Found a garage sale on the way back, and bought a belt,
thinking it would do to tie up my bedroll if I ever go to
another bring-your-own-bedding event. Then came home to
hang it up with two other D-ring belts!

I also found that it's a *lot* harder to find your way into
Southtown than out of it. After the second time I went down
a street that brought me back to where I came in, I resorted
to reading my map.

I don't remember Sunday, except that I finally remembered to
give Jonah his copy of Street Smarts. (Any suggestions for
what to do with the spare copy the vendor gave me as an
apology for delivering late?)

Monday was taken up entirely with washing three loads of
wash (and frittering away the intervals when the clothes
didn't need attention), but I had a lovely day for it. I
dried everything outside except for a few things I dry on
hangers. And went out well after dark to bring in the hot
whites. Remembered them just in time, as the storms arrived
soon after.

And it looks as though I'll spend today sitting right here.
But I did do a little work on one of my Web sites.

---
Grump. All that work to install Draw Plus, and I discover
that it's completely and totally useless for making graphics
for Web sites. It won't edit jpg files -- or any other file
except those in its proprietary format, and it won't save in
any format but its own, so there's nothing I could do with
files created in it except print them out.

What a disappointment. And I downloaded it on such *hearty*
recommendations -- I wonder what the people who love it
*use* it for? Alas, I dithered so long about unzipping it
-- I'm really, really nervous about new software,
particularly free software -- that I no longer remember who
loves it.

And now what do I do with those scans I made yesterday?
They are useless if I can't crop them.

It's way past time for my nap.

------------------
Got the message for tomorrows Deal of the Day before
bedtime. I was amused to see that it's Burda Patterns for
$3.18/yd.

I see that typo fairly often when fabric.com advertises
something that isn't sold by the yard. I presume that they
use a "helpful" program to maintain their Web site.

Sigh. I just pasted the letter I sent to the Times-Union
today into my blog, and in the process noticed that I'd
omitted a comma from a sentence that changes meaning without
it.

Later I noticed that I'd also posted it to the wrong blog,
but *that* I can fix. Tomorrow.


9 June 2008

We had a busy weekend with Dave's nephew Daniel.

Friday we went to his high-school graduation, Saturday we
went to his open-house-in-the-back-yard -- after eating a
combination platter at Dela's, alas, and it turned out that
Martha was serving a pancake-and-waffle supper. We didn't
touch the refreshments, except that I got thirsty and drank
a can of syrup -- after which I noticed that they offered
plastic glasses and access to the kitchen.

And Sunday his aunt, uncle, and cousin dropped in on their
way home from the bike trails. I got rid of a beginner's
booklet I'd been meaning to give to Nate, who is teaching
his new wife how to ride, and a bag of fabric I'd been
meaning to give Jeanie, who is wardrobe mistress for the
drama department. Dave (Jeanie's Dave) walked to the
parking lot in the park and brought the truck back to pick
them up.


11 June 2008

I wanted to finish my new jeans today, but we slept until
ten, so I decided to put off my nap until bedtime in the
hope of getting back on schedule, and as a result was too
stupid to sew in the afternoon. Did get the beach
Culta-Ezed, and moved some of the stuff that washed up. And
baked some bread in the kettle. A tad burnt on the bottom,
but pretty good. Half white wheat and half red wheat.

And it's a good thing I decided to write a while before
going to bed -- it reminded me that I'd left the lid of the
kettle on the fireplace to cool, so I fetched it in before
the dew could rust it.

I've really got to get around to buying fireplace tongs.
Perhaps they have them at Lowe's. And I've vowed to have a
shake at Steak 'n Shake the next time I go to the shopping
area on North Detroit!

There's enough left on today's to-do list to use it again
tomorrow. Particularly "clean cat box"!

For some reason there's a recipe for a vegetarian stew
called "lentil-rice casserole" posted on the fridge. I
decided to try it for supper. Really good with left-over
ham broth substituted for the vegetable broth, and some
turkey ham chopped up in it. I didn't have any basil, so I
put in thyme and oregano and chopped red bell pepper, and
there wasn't quite a cup of lentils, so I pieced them out
with quinona. Put in bulbils for garlic and onion. And I
put in one carrot instead of six! Perhaps the writer was
thinking of the tiny little pre-peeled carrots.


13 Friday 2008

Got my new jeans down to the handwork yesterday. Haven't
touched them yet today!

Yesterday I also found a hole in the pajamas I meant to pack
for Girls Day Out. I suppose that isn't as annoying as
having them breath their last in Connersville, but now I
wonder what to wear.

On the other hand, they are made of a lint-free cotton-linen
shirting that's superb for making spectacle-cleaning rags.
It's even better than my old linen handkerchiefs.


15 June 2008

Getting ready for the girls' day out. I still have to run a
load of wash -- I usually wash on Monday, and I'm low on
underwear.

Finished making my hemp jeans yesterday. *And* I've got an
un-frayed T-shirt to wear with them!


Wednesday, 18 June 2008

Just caught up on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Times
Union. It would appear that people who want to come to my
fourth-of-July party would do well not to go anywhere near
Wooster Road, CR 250E, or Winona Avenue's intersections with
Buffalo Street and Detroit Street.

And I'd forgotten about all that when I decided to come back
by way of Route 13!

SR29-SR25 is a nice route -- but it leaves you coming into
town by way of Winona Avenue, so I'd have hit both the
intersections that are under construction. But I could have
kept going until I crossed the railroad, come through Warsaw
by way of Market Street, then there's an easy way back under
the railroad on Argonne Street, right at the entrance to
Winona Lake.

As for SR 15 -- it's 15 the intersections are being
reconstructed *for*, and I'm not sure just where to turn in
order to go south of Lake Winona instead of going around it
on the north side.

So I was smarter than I knew to come by SR 13-Meridian
Road/Packerton Road.

On 6/18/08 5:53 PM, alicel@ccwave.net wrote:

> Hope you guys are home safely by now.

We made it to the Beeson place. The navigator remembered
the Russiaville directions, and we got there with fewer
turns than expected. But we ran into construction on SR 26
before we got to US 31; luckily, the only way out of that
went north, and we bumbled around on county roads until we
hit 213, looked like a good road and went north, but we
didn't know what it was until we hit 35. From then on out
we were back on the map, and I remembered all the jiggly jogs.

There were orange signs all over the place, but all the rest
of them were bluffing. Good luck that I chose 13; I had
forgotten that the orange signs where SR 15 gets on and off
Winona Avenue *aren't* bluffing, and SR 25 brings you in
that way too.

Sent Nancy off around four.


Thursday 19 June 2008

Erk. After drinking 2% milk at restaurants, 1% tastes
mighty thin.


20 June 2008

On 6/19/08 6:17 PM, James Rundell wrote:

> I cleaned half a bathroom, washed towels and took a nap

I made the bed, washed a sheet and a handful of other white
things, washed half a load of colored stuff, and changed the
sheet wrapped around Grandmother's quilts.

Didn't plant the cucumber. I plan to put it in the
strawberry bed where one of Dave's peppers died.

[In the event, I planted it in the other raised flower bed.]


Wednesday 25 June 2008

Grump. Amazon just bought fabric.com, and plans to "expand
the inventory" -- i.e., sell everything except fabric.

They will keep the current staff for a while, so it won't
change suddenly.

Beach needs raking, and there's a patch of weeds that needs
to be plowed up with the Culta-Eze, but I ain't going out in
the rain to do it.

The rain stopped. Still got wet -- it's hot out there.

The girls' day out seems to be hard on pajamas -- I just
threw out the shirt I'd worn to sleep in on the trip.
Pockets started to leak, I contemplated re-stitching them
for a few seconds, reflected that I never had liked that
shirt, took it out to the garage so I wouldn't think it had
fallen into the wastebasket by mistake. Then Dave thought
it had fallen in by mistake, but I remembered throwing it in
and it went to the landfill.

I meant to wear the matching wizard robe to Handcraft Circle
so I'd blend in with all the star-spangled black plastic
hung up for Vacation Bible School -- the theme is "Cosmic
City". It's just as well that I forgot!

Not to mention that I was rather warm sitting in the sun to
see my needlework without a long-sleeved heavy robe on.

I unpicked the neckband of my newest T-shirt and basted it
back much narrower. Had to baste twice, as the first effort
was still too wide. I think I'll bind the neck of the next
one, if I can remember that long. There's a bunch of stuff
I need more than I need another T-shirt.

I made a cheese ball today. Dave bought one that tasted
good, but I thought it too homogenized. So I bought some
cream cheese and some shredded extra-sharp cheddar and mixed
them together. Got the texture right -- but I forgot that
you don't get aged cheddar in pre-grated form. The ball
tastes remarkably like pure cream cheese.

Fawchunately, we both like cream cheese.

I bought a bunch of chips yesterday. The apple-flavored
"whole grain" chips aren't going to make it to the party. I
thought them rather silly in the store, but I was grabbing
one of each, then had to open the bag to see what they were
like.

Sugary chips wouldn't go with garlic-chive dip anyway.
(Thats garlic chives, not garlic and chive. Hope I have
enough; didn't divide the bed until this spring, and the
bronze fennel is already suffocating the biggest clump.)

Ah, well, I can always chop up multiplier tops and pretend
they are chives. Though as big as the bulbs already are,
they may not hold out another week. Perhaps the chives will
have recovered from blooming by then; I cut off all the seed
heads a few days ago.

[I not only had enough garlic chives for the dip, there were
plenty left over for the potato salad.]


6 July 2008

While making salad for supper today, I realized that we
could have stopped by the farmer's market on our way out of
town Saturday morning. But I had about as much fun as I
could stand yesterday, so it's probably just as well that I
didn't think of it.

When we got to Bonneyville Mill Park, I was sorry that I
hadn't packed a picnic lunch, but that was lucky too -- we
found the *nicest* little family restaurant in Middlebury,
just where you turn off to go to the Cheese Factory. It's
one that caters to the locals. And afterward we went into
the "Quilt Shop" next door, and found it was really a
department store, and a sewing shop that sells fasteners by
the dozen. I never saw such big snap fasteners in my life!

I didn't notice any fabrics that weren't meant for quilts,
but I was careful not to look too close because my stash
overfloweth. I did buy a package of real hairpins -- silver
gray -- and a seam ripper. Alice bought some novelty buttons.

Alice and I got the idea of going to Bonneyville Mill during
the picnic at Joe and Lois's place, and my first thought was
"Let's invite Lois!" -- but she'll be lucky to find time to
*breathe* this weekend, so I didn't. Perhaps it will work
out better in September.

We came back from the cheese shop by way of robin hood's
barn, and ended on Pierceton Road/King's Highway. When we
came out on Chestnut Street, Alice said "*Now* I know where
I am!"

Monday was wash day. I had more to say about it at the time.

Tuesday was distinguished by *two* bike rides to the Kroger
store. Went in the morning to pick up a few things, and got
a package of hamburger because I had some cherries that were
too sour to eat fresh, and I'd heard that cherries were good
in meatloaf. The meatloaf turned out extremely dry -- I'm
planning to break it up and make spanish hamburger -- and I
forgot to put in the cherries! So I rode back after
Handwork Circle, and got more hamburger -- for some reason
they were out of everything but the stuff that comes in
plastic-wrapped sausage-like rolls -- and three cartons of
diet soda.

Well, when the meatloaf was about half steamed, it seemed to
need more liquid and I thought that tomato juice would be
incompatible, and I didn't think of boullion, so I dumped in
the rest of the cherries.

That was awuh-hay too much cherry.

So I'm going to make meatloaf again -- perhaps I'll go to
Kroger tomorrow.

Tuesday I got to fretting that the sole of one sandal was
cracked clear through, so that only the innersole is holding
it together, but I was much too busy with the celebration to
go shopping this week. Then I realized that nothing was
scheduled for Wednesday, so I adventured off on my bike the
following morning: first I found my way through the housing
development to the new boardwalk and dumped some old
magazines in the emergency room, then I crossed US 30 to
Husky Trail. I don't see as the construction improved that
intersection any, but I hear that they are going to put a
stop light at the other exit from the hospital complex onto
30, in the hope of bleeding off some of the traffic.

Husky Trail isn't my idea of a quiet county road any more --
but it *does* beat SR 15 -- which I crossed on CR 250 N.
Went to Lowe's, but didn't see anything of interest except
the rest room. Thence to Walmart, where I found a pair of
sandals that not only stayed on my feet, but they are my
size! And on clearance at fifteen dollars. Also got some
bright-colored typing paper I'd been wanting for a while.
It was amusing that when I asked a clerk in the
office-supply department where the typing paper was, she
said that they didn't have any, but led me to the "computer
paper" -- which was all typing paper, since computers don't
use special paper any more. None in bright colors, but I
found some in the stationary department. Why that is
different -- and a long distance -- from office supplies,
I've no idea. Never did find the school supplies, but I
quit looking when I found satisfactory paper. Also bought
the cheap crochet cotton I've been looking for; it was #3
and I wanted #1, but that looks as though it's going to be
the best I can do. Come to think of it, it's still in the
pocket of my windbreaker. I looked at the watches and
phones, but forgot that I need county maps.

Then lunch at Steak 'n Shake. I knew it was a mistake to
have a banana-split flavor milkshake and an order of cheddar
fries, but I figured that I'd just ride slow and not exert
myself. Forgot how rough the trail along the railroad under
US 30 is! Didn't have the wit to get off and walk until my
path was blocked by a work truck. Three guys, two in hazmat
suits, were doing something to the walls of the underpass.
I was too busy being where they weren't to notice exactly
what. (The suits, by the way, were for mats that aren't
very haz. Prolly plain dust.)

The cheddar fries, by the way, would have been much better
without the cheese sauce.

All the previous times I've used Park Avenue, it was to go
out; by coming back through the underpass, I discovered that
the trail along the railroad tracks goes all the way to
whatever road it is that connects to Park Avenue.

Huh. The proposed merger of Warsaw and Winona Lake *can't*
go through: we have too many street names in common!

Thursday, make dip and potato salad. Friday, party, party,
party. Saturday Alice and I went touring by car, as noted
at the beginning of this entry. Sunday I finally got a nap
-- by the time I wound down enough yesterday, there wasn't
enough time before supper, then after zombie-ing around all
evening, I perked up at bedtime and didn't get to sleep
until two or three. I went to bed after church, slept like
a very heavy rock until time to start supper, and woke up
feeling much better.

But I think that I'll leave reading this over and mailing it
until tomorrow. It is, after all, nearly bedtime.

Learned something last night. I was hungry for a bedtime
snack, and ate a ridiculous amount of calories, still
hungry. Finally I poured a glass of V8 and microwaved it on
"beverage". A cup of piping-hot tomato soup did the trick!

Just learned that the Barbee Hotel has been refurbished and is open as a real hotel. (I used to be a restaurant.) "We have six standard rooms with queen size beds, two adjoining rooms with queen bed and fold out love seat/twin bed. In addition we have 3 suites." http://barbeehotel.com/

--
Joy Beeson
http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/
http://www.timeswrsw.com/craig/cam/ (local weather)
west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.