E:/LETTERS/SepBan10.txt This message posted at http://davebeeson.home.comcast.net/LETTERS/SepBan10.txt 2 September 2010 I woke up to a noise that told me that the bike trip I'd planned for today was off. On the other hand, both rain barrels are overflowing. We were lying in bed thinking it was too early to get up when a loud explosion somewhere outside was accompanied by a shriek from our carbon-monoxide detector. A blown transformer takes a while to replace, so we got up and shut down our computers. I unplugged everything from my UPS too, because I wasn't sure which devices draw power when shut off, and we might have wanted to use my UPS for one of the other computers before the episode was over. Then we started thinking about breakfast -- luckily, Dave had just switched to a non-electric coffee maker. It wasn't long before we realized that there is a definite downside to keeping every crumb of bread and every speck of flour in the freezer! Thought about eating out for a while, but concluded that there is a dearth of places that serve breakfast in this town. I suggested splitting a can of chili, which was met with a snicker. (Just as well, the crackers are in the freezer.) Finally, Dave decided to open the fridge and freezer long enough to snatch two eggs and a loaf of bread. Just as he started heating up a skillet, a couple of NIPSCO trucks started fiddling around on the street. The first drove by slowly, stopping for a moment at each pole, and I thought "They don't know where the problem is! This is going to take ages!" The second snipped some twigs off a tree, the other re-appeared during this process, then both ambled toward the entrance and stopped at a pole not too far from the bridge. We went back inside, I resumed picking stitches out of my new poncho shirt -- I've decided that I want slits at the hem after all -- and Dave resumed frying egg. The monoxide detector shrieked again before he was done. It must have been just a breaker; perhaps wet twigs had shorted the wires. So when it was my turn at the skillet, I got out some swiss cheese and a couple of slices of tomato to have on my egg sandwich. Didn't get much done today, except finish marking the pink linen to cut into sixteen bands to trim four sheets. After supper, I tried my freshly-repaired bike by dashing out to Owen's for milk and lettuce, uneasily aware that this was the exact trip I'd made last Friday. Exact even to a stop at the Trailhouse, but later in the day -- they were closed and I couldn't shop for a saddle bag. Taking everything out of my panniers and putting it back again made me aware that I need a proper place to put my tool kit. There's only one saddle bag in the bike cupboard, and it's a wee tiny one. I think maybe I could make the essentials fit, but a larger bag would be much more convenient. Park Avenue is torn up for re-paving on both sides of the bridge, and at another spot further entranceward. I walked over them on the way out. On the way back, after stopping at the closed Trailhouse, thought I'd hang a right at the Cerulean and come back by the Greenway to avoid two of the three torn-up places. The intersection of that street and Canal Street is torn up even bigger (I later discovered that that torn-up patch includes the full length of Fort Wayne Street), so I turned around and came back the way I went. I did duck into the park parking lot to avoid half of what they'd done at the bridge. There are a lot of torn-up sidewalks in town too. I was puzzled by the pattern at first, since it's far from the worst walkways that have been torn out, but Dave told me that the town is holding a fifty-fifty: If you want a new sidewalk in front of your house, the town will pay half. So each walk has been torn up for a different reason. We had a very good banner-making session yesterday, and despite a setback or two ended by hanging them in the sanctuary. The design is quite clear from the back of the room, and perfectly illustrates the "let's get moving" theme. Well, not quite "we" hung them -- Pastor Henry came in just after Martha, with much struggling, got one on its nail, and he straightened that one and hung the other. Martha said she was doing it by Pastor Henry's method; I said that she couldn't unless we got her a box to stand on. (Pastor Henry is really, really tall.) I think all I did was iron white letters and little yellow guys onto the black banners. Cora ironed Wonderbond onto yellow fabric and cut out; Martha drew little guys and cut out. We had made the letters last week. 3 September 2010 It was almost cold out there today; in the strong wind, I was glad my summer jersey has long sleeves. Alas, it was so windy at suppertime that it wasn't safe to build a fire. Dave rubbed the ribs with a recipe he downloaded from the Web and swears that we'll cook them tomorrow if he has to set up the smoker in the garage. The ribs were canceled early enough that I had time to make spanish rice, with extra celery so it could run very short on tomato -- too much tomato upsets Dave's stomach. I used "instant" rice which the package said should cook ten minutes, and which needed to cook half an hour. But we weren't going anywhere after supper, so serving a bit late didn't matter. I needed to run to Aunt Millie's today, and decided to go the longer way so I could pick up a few things at Aldi. To my delight, the absence of canned salsa was temporary; it has re-appeared on the chip side of the chip aisle, together with salsa con queso and Clancy's cheese dip, and gave every indication of being a permanent fixture. I bought two jars. I fiddled around until nearly noon before leaving, went into several stores in SprawlMart, and had lunch at Taco Bell, so I was surprised to get back before two o'clock and take my nap on time. I learned -- *after* committing myself to a left turn -- that College Avenue is also torn up. It isn't torn up as rough as Park Avenue, so I could ride on it -- but I cut over to Chestnut on the first alley I came to. I shopped in pairs at Aunt Millie's -- two loaves of bread, two bags of mini-sub rolls, two bags of bagels. And I do believe that I haven't eaten a crumb of bread today. I ate several crackers, though, including two or three that are labeled "crispbread" on the box. I'm planning to buy new potatoes at the farmer's market tomorrow. If there aren't any, I'll go on to Marsh and get a bag of bakers to make the salad. I stopped at Trailhouse on the way out; saddle bags are $25 each these days. There was one that would do, but wasn't at all what I had in mind. There is no tremendous hurry. 5 September 2010 It was definitely cold today and yesterday, and I was keenly aware that my new jersey is made of thinner linen than the old one, but it's supposed to get hot again for tomorrow's picnic. I bought new potatoes for the salad at the Farmer's Market, went to Marsh and bought celery, then stopped again when I saw that the market was still going on, and bought a pepper for the salad, and a tomato because they are in season. (Didn't want to bounce a tomato all the way to Marsh and back.) But I forgot to put the pepper into the salad. I sliced it up for a garnish. Also devilled a dozen eggs. Very plain, just dry mustard, some vinegar brine off the garlic bulbils, sour cream, and a dash of olive oil. Quite good -- you can't beat putting in too much sour cream! I haven't even looked at my sewing. 7 September 2010 Potato salad for breakfast. The garlic seems to have developed, and I think I put in too much salt. [Must have been just right; Dave said it needed salt like crazy.] I'm quite pleased with the plan of cooking the potatoes in the microwave and cutting them up skins and all -- I saved time peeling, I saved washing a pot because the casserole I steamed the potatoes in did nicely to hold the salad, and I like the texture of steamed potatoes better than the texture of boiled potatoes. Though I now and again bite into a chunk that's just a tad undercooked. I didn't issue "there are two whole jalapen~os in there" warnings often enough, and Donny got both of them in one serving. Didn't seem to mind. It was a lovely day for a picnic, as long as you got a little breeze. It was a bit warm back in the corner of the garage. One load of wash today, down and in the basket (except for Dave's socks) before nap time on account of wind. This time I got lint on my black socks with malice aforethought. Should have turned them inside-out first. 9 September 2010 Noticed some small holes in my canvas shopping bags today. They're less than thirty years old, and I bleach them every time I wash them! They're about the same age as the SuperValu store; I suppose I could go through old Banners and get a reasonable estimate. Went to Big R for cat litter and dry cat food today; spent $87.47 at Aldi while I was out that way. Also bought two pairs of glasses at Dollar Tree: a 3.25 magnifier to keep in the drawer of the treadle sewing machine, and a 3.5 to leave on the Oxford English Dictionary. So that makes four: I keep my oldest pair in my purse -- I put it in my pocket before going into Big R, in case I wanted to read the fine print on a cat-food can, but everything was "minced" so I didn't bother -- and I keep the second pair in Dave's grandmother's sewing stand in the living room. Though of late it's been living on the shelf of Dave's telescope, which is convenient to the rocking chair where I sit when I want daylight on my work. I was drawing threads in dark-brown fabric this evening, but though nearly done, quit shortly after I turned on the lamp. The weather continues pleasant. They paved all the torn-up streets today, which made my return from Aldi's somewhat convoluted. My first plan was to go past College to Chestnut, but black tire tracks on Wooster road gave me early warning that College had a fresh surface, so I turned left. Then I continued the plan to follow MIA's route home -- our GPS always tries to direct us to follow Chestnut all the way to Boy's City Drive -- so as to avoid the bridge in case they were working around it. (And the bridge *was* blocked, it turned out.) I did remember that I wasn't on Chestnut while it was still easy to get over! Probably better to go past 9th Street when you don't intend to go on down to Park anyway. Then I met a UPS truck just as I was about to turn onto Boy's City, both of us slightly startled to see another vehicle. Neither street was wide enough for both of us -- not in a sharp turn -- so she wasn't about to turn left with me in the way, and I wasn't about to turn right with her in the way. So I turned left and went around the block. Then I forgot to get the cat litter out of the trunk. Dave noticed a few hours later. (This is why I never put perishables in the trunk!) Darryl has been feeding us of late. Yesterday I made spaghetti sauce with one of his mildly-hot peppers, to day I zapped one of his potatoes and served the Alfredo sauce I'd just bought at Aldi on it. There was a small piece of potato left over. Not enough to fry for breakfast. Dave doesn't get any anyway, since he's having blood drawn in the morning. He may eat out after the samples are taken. [He didn't.] I should have bought a dozen of Darryl's eggs, too. Monday, party. Tuesday, washed clothes. Wednesday I thought I'd get some sewing done, so I cut the piece of pink linen in half, pinned two selvages together, went into the bedroom to open the sewing machine, stepped on a sharp piece of cat litter, ended up sweeping the whole room (except for under furniture one person can't move) with a broom, including many areas that were thick with dust because the vacuum can't reach them. Amid many side trips. When I went back for the dustpan, for example, I saw my coffee mug and stopped to make a cup of dried-cranberry tea with a sprig of apple mint in it -- I did fetch the apple mint without making any side trips. I should have picked ginger mint instead. I guess I'll have to have another cup of tea tomorrow. I did get the seam sewn eventually, and also sewed a facing to my new poncho shirt -- had to pick the facing stitches out twice, and the point still isn't quite symmetrical. Then I pinned bias tape round the neck with radial pins, and meant to take a picture of it for my blog before moving them to the sewing position, but the batteries in the camera died. The camera appeared to be working perfectly, the lens would crank in and out, you could review the pictures already in it, but it wouldn't record a new one. Very puzzling until Dave told me what was going on. So I ate lunch and took a nap. In the afternoon, I pressed the seam in the linen open -- which involved scouring the iron -- and then ironed two shirts, one of which I wore to banner-making that night. Weird. When I realized that the iron needed cleaning, I turned it off and pressed dampened linen to cool it off. Never did get the linen quite dry, but it took so long for the iron to stop boiling away the water I was trying to clean it with that I checked three times to be sure it that the plug was lying on the floor and hadn't somehow gotten into a socket! I think I'll give it another scrub before starting to iron next time -- just to be sure I don't have to try to clean a hot iron again. I think lint from the pink linen is somehow gluing itself to the iron. We didn't do much but plan at the banner meeting. Should an effective design, if Martha can make the chains on the left recognizable. The right-side banner is pretty much go, except that the word "unchained" needs to be bigger, and Martha isn't happy with the wrists on the hands releasing the butterfly. Laundry again tomorrow: I've put a load of dish towels, shopping bags, and a tablecloth to soak in Oxyclean. Intend to spin it out and wash them in bleach, soda, and hot water. 10 September 2010 Did. Also threw in the bra with the stubborn stain for the last fifteen minutes of the bleach wash, and it came out clean. I thought I had more than five shopping bags. There's also one in the truck, which I didn't wash because it's been doing nothing except lie around in a plastic bag. I did cut up the potato for breakfast. We are out of cajun style mirapoix -- I thought there was a grocery bag full of packages of frozen vegetables in the freezer, but can't find it -- so I chopped up a small onion and a slice of pepper to fry with it. Still looked puny, so I scrambled an egg into it. Quite tasty; I may do that on purpose some time. Dave had a scrambled-egg burrito. 12 September 2010 Rained yesterday, so I didn't take my Saturday ride. I have a lot of magazines piled up to take to the emergency room, and thought that I'd make up my exercise on Monday -- after dropping off the magazines, I could ride around Pike Lake clockwise and stop for lunch at Wong's. (It's supposed to be partly cloudy with a high of 79F tomorrow.) Today I got an automatic e-mail from the Warsaw Community Public Library reminding me that it would be a much better idea to have lunch downtown. (Drat! The new hotdog stand is closed on Monday.) After returning my books, perhaps I'll ride out to Lake Street and stock up on tostadas etc. at the Mexican supermarket. I hope they have guava jelly -- the flavor of the guava jelly I bought at Aldi was pretty pale. But Aldi's forest berry jam and strawberry jam are very good. Walked home with Kathy today, and begged some more little tomatoes. Half of them have been eaten already. 14 September 2010 Ride went pretty much as planned. I'm tired of Subway, and the new hot-dog stand is closed on Mondays, so I had a hot dog at Kilaney's. With "spanish cole slaw", whatever that is. Not bad, nothing special. Tried to come back from the Mexican grocery by way of Market Street. Market was intolerably torn up, so I crossed to Smith Street the first chance I got. This caused me to pass the fairgrounds just as the opening bell for the Farmer's market rang, so I bought three asian pears and a basket of pimentos. No guava anything at the Mexican market. Got mayonesa, tostadas, tostada chips, a can of coconut milk, and a bag of gorditas dulce. No sticker on the gorditas this time, so I'm not sure of my Spanish. 14 September 2010 All wash out on the line before nap time. I kept back the black socks and underpants this time, but realized that if I soaked them in a bucket while the light colors were washing, I could go straight to the rinse cycles when it was their turn. Not enough wind to move the anemometer or windsock, but I could feel air moving: a perfect day to dry clothes. Dave and I split one of the pears. It was even better than the sample I had at the market. They are crunchy like apples, yet full of juice. Forgot to take the church key with me, so we had the crochet lesson on Kathy's front porch. We should do that on purpose! I went back later and cleaned the fridges. Didn't need anything but to fill the ice-cube trays. 15 September 2010 Dave suggested that I could free up a lot of space in the sewing room by getting rid of my non-functioning printer. Then I realized that now that the printer has died, I have no use for all those boxes of pinfeed paper. Do any of you guys have a pinfeed printer? I've got three-hole, four-part, plain, and yellow. Noticed, the last time I toured Staples, that now you can buy three-hole paper for sheet-feed printers. I bought a plant of Greek Oregano at the nursery on Lake Street after visiting the Mexican grocery. This morning I got around to planting it -- weeded the ginger mint while I was out there, and trimmed some of the grass around the herb bed. I also put rod pockets in the banners this morning -- never say I get things done ahead of time! Got to the church early, and ended up washing dishes for the Wednesday Night Supper. I also offered to bleach some grungy potholders, but forgot to take them with me. We made progress on the banners, and have everything but the butterfly ready to cut out. The arms releasing the butterfly have already been cut out. Awk, scrickle, I forgot all about the word "unchained". But we haven't decided which color to make it; Martha thinks we'll pick up the main color of the butterfly. When I looked around for fabrics to take along for the butterfly, I discovered that almost none of my scraps are bright colored. I do have a piece of red broadcloth I picked up somewhere. I think it was part of a mail-order assortment. But the butterfly is to be blues and purples. Dave bought a chicken and smoked half of it for supper. I steamed a potato and thawed some lima beans. We plan to bake the other half tomorrow. 16 September 2010 Today's sewing frenzy turned into a cleaning frenzy. While I was "checking my mail", which was about to turn into a session of Web page editing, my monitor went black. "It's dead, Jim." While Dave was trying the monitor with the other computers to verify the death, I said, hey with the monitor off the stand, I can clear off all this junk and dust the thing. Then with the top clean, hey this isn't tied to anything with cables! I can move it and sweep under it. Whereupon I found out what happened to all the emery boards and pencils that have vanished over the years, and also found a disappearing marker that I've long since replaced. And three pattern pieces that I hadn't missed -- my experiment in drafting from the instructions in a book. The sleeve has been superseded; I should mark it "archive" and put it on the nail behind the printer stand. Then, hey, with the monitor stand out of the way, I can get at the computer stand . . . It stopped at the printer stand; it's much too heavy to move. But sometime Real Soon Now, I've got to take all those boxes of paper and envelopes off it. Dave did haul off the printer itself, and I gathered up the spare ribbons and put them in a sandwich bag to keep with the printer. And I raked out some of the dust with the dustpan brush. A lot of Analogs fell out of the monitor stand when I moved it. I've been sort of shoving them in through the slot for years to get out of moving the keyboard stand. Real Soon now, I'm going to have to pull out all the rest and sort them and stack them neatly. Enough have fallen out that I can see that there are a couple of packages of paper in there that I might have been using, had I known they were there. [It turned out that one of the packages was a box of manuscripts.] I think the lower shelf is solid Analog. 18 September 2010 I think tomatoes are done at the farmer's market. I bought four second-grade pears and two sweet peppers. Stopped at Sherman & Lynne's on the way back and bought a glass bottle of malt vinegar and two chocolate bars. Then went to the annex and bought a box of swivel snaps, intending to replace the defective snap on my watch chain. Dave laughed and showed me a box of snaps that had been in the tackle box that washed up on our beach. No progress on cleaning out the monitor stand so far today. I think that instead of a saddle bag, I want a bag that hangs on the side of my wire pannier. I'll probably have to make that myself. I wonder whether Lowery's carries Cordura? 19 September 2010 The lilies are at that awkward age when they are mature enough to be ugly, but not mature enough to pull out. Though every day I find a few stalks that are loose. Sherry is in town. Friday, I finally went to Maple Leaf Farms, and bought three boxes of stuffed chicken breasts and one box of duck fritters. Also picked up some stuff at Owens. Which reminds me that my prescription for Tricor was ready yesterday. Will still be there tomorrow -- if I remember to go. 20 September 2010 When I was last at Sherman & Lin's, I bought two chocolate bars, one Lindt, one Nestle'; one truffle bar, one dark chocolate. I opened the truffle bar at once out of curiosity, and both of us liked it very much; it evaporated. So when I went to Owen's for my prescription, I looked for "Lindt" in the candy aisle. No truffle bars, but there were Lindt truffles, so I bought a bag. Opened the bag in the parking lot, popped a truffle -- and it was *horrid*. It was a huge sphere the size of a gobstopper and very uncomfortable to hold in my mouth. I figured it would soften and deform quickly -- but it turns out that the center is entirely liquid. The moment the shell started to deform, all the center rushed out. This collapsed the shell to a comfortable shape, but left me with a mouth filled with syrup. I do like syrup but I don't take it in huge swigs. Dave, on the other hand, says they are wonderful. I think I would like them if I could cut them in half. I'd better cut it in a dish and have a coffee spoon ready! Looked at the wrapper in the wastebasket: the truffle bar was Nestle', the dark chocolate is Lindt. Oops! Dave had a TV dinner for supper last night. For my supper, I cut up all of the remaining chicken -- both baked and grilled -- for chicken salad, then gnawed the bones. This morning I put mayonesa and minced pepper (part of the sweet pepper Darryl gave us) and minced celery into the chicken. I put in too much mayonesa and forgot the onion. Dave had a chicken-salad sandwich for lunch and said it was very good. Starting with good chicken counts for a lot in making chicken salad. I expect that the excess of mayo and lack of onion also appealed to him. 21 September 2010 Supper yesterday was spanish rice featuring a hamburger- size patty of sausage, Aldi instant brown rice, and the rest of the pepper I cut into for the chicken salad. Also a freshly-picked jalapen~o and half of a frozen jalapen~o. I went to the freezer for a quarter of a haban~ero, but discovered that there is some jalapen~o left. Later in the evening, I discovered that one can cut the truffles in half neatly -- the shell is soft, and the filling is nearly solid at room temperature. In human-mouth size portions, they are quite nice. Today washday. I hope I get some sewing done between loads. I've broken a hook on one pair of everyday pants and all the eyes on the other, and the safety pins are getting to be a nuisance. This is the second time I've broken all the eyes; I'm not sure it's the same pair of pants, but I think maybe I'll cut the hook off and sew on a new one. ------------------------------------------------------- Well, I excavated the sewing room a little. Frozen entrees for supper. I did make a salad. Kathy couldn't crochet tonight, so I trapped myself in the church with a needle, nylon thread, and a pair of pants in dire need of repair. Only three eyes torn out, it turned out; didn't take long to replace them even though the thread isn't as coarse as I would like. I don't mind much opening my slacks on the "wrong" side -- but I keep trying to put them on backward. And this pair is getting grimy, so I want to wear the pair I just repaired tomorrow, and that pair can't be closed with a safety pin because the waistband is made of canvas. Well, so is the waistband of this pair, but it's been through the washing machine a few more times than the newer pair. There was a mutual-aid fire at Lakeview Shopping Center last night -- must have kept us awake, because we didn't wake up until ten this morning. The stores are all joined together and there was a mighty big column of smoke, so I feared the worst, but Dave went out to look today, and only three of the stores were destroyed: firewalls. 22 September 2010 Woke up, looked at the bright light coming in around the curtains, said "Looks as though that thunderstorm is over", got up, opened the curtains, saw that my last load of clothes was still on the line -- most of it. Storm must have been over for quite a while, because the stuff still on the line wasn't any wetter than when I hung it out. I brought in the three pillowcases that had blown down, ran them through a rinse cycle, and hung them back up. Doesn't look like a good day for drying. [The clothes were pretty close to dry when I brought them in and put them on the racks.] Evening: This morning I excavated down to the ironing board, set up the iron, prepared to press under the edge of the band I intend to sew onto my linen sheet, discovered that I'd already done that, unplugged the iron and set it aside, started to pin the band to the sheet, remembered, as I set the third pin, that I'd meant to sew the hem of the band before sewing it on -- means I'll have to pick out an inch or two and re-stitch it, but that beats hemming a band that has a king-sized sheet attached -- made a hem gauge, pinned half the hem, ran out of pins, ate lunch, and took a nap. Had just enough time to get dressed and prepare supper when I woke up. At banner-making, Cora and I cut out, Martha made butterfly. We're pretty close to being ready to start ironing the pieces on -- though none of us know how we'll get the bits that make up the chained man into the right positions. We could use a *big* heat-resistant light table. With the dark background we are using, I'm not sure a light table would help. I washed dishes while waiting for banner-making to start again. If I don't watch it, I'll be on the Wednesday Supper team. 23 September 2010 Sewed one pink band to the linen sheet and cut the other band off the piece. My calculation that there would be a lot of little square scraps was pretty close. There was a shade under four and a half inches of the band left over, and it's five and a half inches wide. Discovered why my iron has been behaving oddly. One of those times I dropped it -- or maybe all of them in concert -- broke loose the knob of the heat-control. A decade or three back, I bought another dry iron at a garage sale for just such an emergency. The weather today wasn't as hot as predicted, but it was still rather warm for walking, except where we got the breeze off the lake. 24 September 2010 Slept late again, but got the band hemmed and pinned to the sheet in the morning, and sewed it after supper. Still have to zig-zag the raw edge down and hem the corners. Only three inches left this time. I hope that doesn't mean I stretched the first band. Been out only once today, for the point seven. Dave took another lap later, but I was halfway through a three- yard seam when he left, so I didn't go with him. We've had stuffed chicken breast two nights in a row. Yesterday, "pepperoni pizza" baked with half a carrot, onions, celery, and the last of the new potatoes I bought for the salad. Today, chicken kiev with one of Darryl's potatoes, carrot, onion, celery, and minced pepper. Today was blessedly free of news. I haven't yet gone to see how Lakeview Shopping Center is doing. I hope I wake up tomorrow before the Farmers' Market folds up and goes home at noon! 28 September 2010 The new cat food is a resounding success -- Al is eating more, and wasting less. Trouble is, it's supposed to be a weight-loss cat food. I hope consumption will taper off when he's gotten bored with it. Lickety, on the other hand, needs weight-gain cat food. He acts perfectly healthy, as far as a visitor can see, but he's down to six pounds. Martha thinks that it's because he's worn out his teeth, and gives him soft food. We were at Steve and Martha's Sunday afternoon for her half-century party. Met quite a few people that I don't see very often. Saw Lakeview going and coming from the Farmers' Market on Saturday. It was burned clean from firewall to firewall -- there were only two firewalls involved -- and the pawnshop had rented an empty storefront where someone sat at a table answering questions. The pawnshop itself was on the other side of the firewall, but the music store was in the space it used to use for storage, and I suspect that all of the things in pawn were on that side of the wall. The paper said that there were no injuries in the fire, but it's certain that a lot of people were hurt. Has to have been at least one item pawned because that was a safe place to keep it. Slept until ten again this morning. Hadn't gotten to sleep until six. I washed two loads of wash yesterday, but didn't get anything else done. Dividing my attention seems to make me fritter. I did read Agatha Christie's _Murder After Hours_, originally _The Hollow_, after Usenet last night. Went to bed at 3:00 A.M., which is the time I usually fall asleep, but I guess it's three hours in bed, not the time of night. Unusual for a country-house cozy in that the victim was presented as a very nice guy who had just gotten a handle on life. SPOILERS AHEAD!! I suspect that you guys can't do ROT 13, so I'll put a row of asterisks where it's safe to resume reading. In the set-up -- about half the book as I recall it -- we get the backstory that Mr. Body was engaged to an actress in his youth, and he loved her madly, but when she expressed contempt for his medical career and insisted that she come to Hollywood with her, he broke it off and married her direct opposite on the rebound. His wife worships him, but fifteen years on he finds himself exhausted and homesick, and traces his malaise to doubt over whether it was courage or cowardice that made him reject the actress. At this point the actress barges back into his life and blithely assumes that he'll divorce his wife and marry her if she promises to divorce her husband. He realizes that he's well rid of her and rejects her again, causing her to shout things that confuse the police terribly. She makes another attempt the following day, which causes him to realize that he loves his wife and ought to stop bullying her. At this point, his wife shoots him dead because she saw him light up like a christmas tree when the actress barged in, and here he is coming away from another interview with the hussy. His mistress loves him more than anything and knows that he loves his wife more than anything, and complies with his dying wish that she cover up for the murderer. His family see what she is doing and pitch in. Hercule Poirot is terribly confused until he realizes that all those clues are pointing away from something. He follows the mistress to the wife, and doesn't interfere when the wife drinks poisoned tea she had intended to serve to the mistress. Then all the threads are neatly tied off, except for the poor constable, who never does find out what happened. ************************************************************ While lying awake after reading the book, I realized that somewhere in there, a conversation mentioned an incident in which one of the characters admired a sweater that another character was wearing, and asked for the knitting pattern. A 1916 British character would *never* call a jumper a "sweater". Was the version I read bowdlerized for the stupid Americans? All the back of the title page says is "reprinted" and "first printing [of the reprint] 1973". DELL/MYS on spine. Cover has been removed. A few days ago I tried to make apple butter in my rice cooker and got candied apple chunks instead. Someday I'm going to do that on purpose, and throw in a bunch of hazel nuts. This morning I cleaned the syrup out of the rice cooker by cooking steel-cut oats with raisins and cinnamon, and cooled it to eating temperature with frozen blueberries. Yum! We had low-carb spanish rice for supper last night -- we had only half as much pre-cooked rice as I meant to put in. Tonight will be bacon-wrapped filets and potatoes. 29 September 2010 And they were good. I'm planning to buy more frozen filets today, if Aldi still has them. Dave unwrapped his filet and fried the bacon crisp in the still-hot skillet. 30 September 2010 Aldi didn't have frozen filets yesterday, or at least I couldn't find them, and I also couldn't find the "instant" brown rice. Come to think of it, I didn't see any of the regular brown rice either, but I wasn't looking for that. Spent $100.50 Banner-making in the evening. We finished the butterfly banner and hung it up to get it out of the way, then Martha set to work assembling all the bits of the chained man. I couldn't see the bits as chains or as arms, but the face showed up pretty well -- even in the paper peeled off the back, which lay on the floor for a while. After we hung the banner, the picture popped up beautifully and got better as we backed away from it. When Cora and I exclaimed over how well it had turned out, Martha said that she could see us doubting as we made it. At one point in the assembly, I remarked that we needed a mirror on the ceiling so that we could look at the banner from the proper angle. That's almost possible! Once Martha got the pieces just so, I ironed them down while Martha and Cora cleaned up. I was very, very careful because I knew that if one of the bits fell off we'd have a terrible time figuring out where to put it. Still had a loose spot along one of the arms and had to go back to the pressing board. I am *so* glad I thought of buying us a piece of plywood to work on. It was very cheap, and has been invaluable. Makes any table big enough, and we could never have shoved a pressing surface under the banner without dislodging all those tiny bits. Guess what I found when I looked for a place to put the left-over swivel snaps away? A lobster-claw clasp that would have done at least as well for repairing my watch chain. The lilies are still ugly, but somewhat sparser than they were. I hope I remember to thin them at the proper time. I complained a lot when Kroger discontinued chewable Calcium with D pills, but I recently discovered that if you take chalk pills with a palmful of sunflower seeds, they become chewable. And you're supposed to take them with food. Saw an ad for calcium pills that didn't need to be taken with food, and it made out having wait until mealtime to take your pill as a terrible burden. I wonder how effective that ad is? Perhaps it might have some slight appeal to people who have never taken medicine that has to be taken on an *empty* stomach! I suspect that I don't really need calcium supplement -- Dave and I used to joke about having our milk piped in -- but I think the D has made a difference in my health. For one thing, I've got fingernails.