To my coworker:
"Why is your Bella doll making out with your sunblock?"
The response:
"Who knows why Bella does these things?"
So accurate, really...
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Bread 2, Shawn 0
Shawn attempted to make bread again yesterday.
It wasn't quite as bad as the first time in some regards (there was no yeast being thrown all about the kitchen), but it was worse in others.
Shawn has a case of ADD. This is the reason, he believes, that he does so well with drumming--it keeps him focused, and it's something that he can do mindlessly with his hands while his brain is elsewhere. Back in high school and college I remember that he NEVER stopped drumming. EVER. He'd be doing homework and his left hand and legs would be tapping out some rhythm, he'd be reading a text book and there'd be some tribal beat, and if his hands and feet couldn't move, then his tongue was always clicking away - seriously, he'd be good at speaking Swahili, I swear.
So it comes as no surprise that he needs a recipe to look at when he's making food. He just can't add things because he usually forgets that he added them in the first place. A recipe provides a nice little list that he just has to go off of. So now the problem is that the recipe that he keeps using for the bread is a recipe that makes 2 loaves. we only have 1 loaf pan. So he just halves the recipe. His brain can't do this because it's like "okay, the recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of sugar in 1 cup of water, so I need to put in 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and Oh Look! Shiny!"
so he managed to make the recipe correctly, but used a full cup of water instead of half a cup. Which means that he added more flour to get it to the right consistency, but once again, by the time he got to adding the flour he forgot he was halving the recipe so he didn't think of it until he was cleaning up the kitchen while the dough was rising.
He was so mad at himself and could not be made to feel better (though I'm sure the fact that every time he started cussing himself out I would laugh and tell him that it wasn't that big of a deal and I'm sure the bread would be edible didn't help much. But I was helpful in so much that I went and re-wrote the recipe for one loaf of bread instead of 2, maybe it will help). The dough rose, and it fell. Half was put in the loaf pan and the other was left to its own devices on a cookie sheet (looked roughly like a loaf of french bread). The loaves were allowed to rise a second time (as the recipe calls for).
and then the oven was turned on.
I have crappy cookie sheets and so the smaller 2 always make a large clanging noise and torque themselves into a funny, non flat shape when the oven gets above 250. And of course the oven was above 250, so it caused the French bread loaf to fall. And all of Shawn's hopes and dreams with it. (okay not really, but you get the gist)
In the end, I think it turned out better than the first time--some of it was probably because the bread wasn't as overcooked (I made him check the internal temperature about 10 minutes before the timer went off because I said it smelled like it was done to me). The French Loaf is all flat and looks a lot more like a biscotti loaf than a French loaf. The regular loaf looks like a brick.
He keeps insisting that it's him. I keep insisting that he try a different recipe. I figure he's got one more time in him before he calls off making bread of any kind for good.
It wasn't quite as bad as the first time in some regards (there was no yeast being thrown all about the kitchen), but it was worse in others.
Shawn has a case of ADD. This is the reason, he believes, that he does so well with drumming--it keeps him focused, and it's something that he can do mindlessly with his hands while his brain is elsewhere. Back in high school and college I remember that he NEVER stopped drumming. EVER. He'd be doing homework and his left hand and legs would be tapping out some rhythm, he'd be reading a text book and there'd be some tribal beat, and if his hands and feet couldn't move, then his tongue was always clicking away - seriously, he'd be good at speaking Swahili, I swear.
So it comes as no surprise that he needs a recipe to look at when he's making food. He just can't add things because he usually forgets that he added them in the first place. A recipe provides a nice little list that he just has to go off of. So now the problem is that the recipe that he keeps using for the bread is a recipe that makes 2 loaves. we only have 1 loaf pan. So he just halves the recipe. His brain can't do this because it's like "okay, the recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of sugar in 1 cup of water, so I need to put in 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and Oh Look! Shiny!"
so he managed to make the recipe correctly, but used a full cup of water instead of half a cup. Which means that he added more flour to get it to the right consistency, but once again, by the time he got to adding the flour he forgot he was halving the recipe so he didn't think of it until he was cleaning up the kitchen while the dough was rising.
He was so mad at himself and could not be made to feel better (though I'm sure the fact that every time he started cussing himself out I would laugh and tell him that it wasn't that big of a deal and I'm sure the bread would be edible didn't help much. But I was helpful in so much that I went and re-wrote the recipe for one loaf of bread instead of 2, maybe it will help). The dough rose, and it fell. Half was put in the loaf pan and the other was left to its own devices on a cookie sheet (looked roughly like a loaf of french bread). The loaves were allowed to rise a second time (as the recipe calls for).
and then the oven was turned on.
I have crappy cookie sheets and so the smaller 2 always make a large clanging noise and torque themselves into a funny, non flat shape when the oven gets above 250. And of course the oven was above 250, so it caused the French bread loaf to fall. And all of Shawn's hopes and dreams with it. (okay not really, but you get the gist)
In the end, I think it turned out better than the first time--some of it was probably because the bread wasn't as overcooked (I made him check the internal temperature about 10 minutes before the timer went off because I said it smelled like it was done to me). The French Loaf is all flat and looks a lot more like a biscotti loaf than a French loaf. The regular loaf looks like a brick.
He keeps insisting that it's him. I keep insisting that he try a different recipe. I figure he's got one more time in him before he calls off making bread of any kind for good.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Speeders
I found this spider out by our compost bin. Because I'm nice to insects outside, I refuse to break its web in order to spin the composter so the the compost is just sitting in there getting all nasty. The web is set up so we can still add stuff to the compost, we just can't turn it.
To give you an idea of how big this thing is, it's body from head to butt is about the size of a quarter. It is a Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia), and supposedly it is not prone to biting, and when it does, the bite is no worse than a bee sting.
Still. I think I'll keep my distance.
[I'll add a nostalgia section here about spiders, but I won't do it tonight, so check back later]
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Blogging Mojo
I'll start blogging again...as soon as I finish re-reading the Twilight Saga... Again.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Bread
In Cow News, our beef is bing picked up as we speak. The prices ended up being very good. I think it's closer to $6.18/lb
But I digress.
A few weekends ago, Shawn attempted to make bread. If you know Shawn, then you know that he is a rule follower. A recipe is needed for things and you must follow the recipe. If there is no recipe then it is the end of the world, or at the very least it means that I must be the one cooking because I view recipes more as guidelines. Especially when it comes to bread items.
I view bread recipes as guidelines mostly because of my great-grandma's roll recipe. It's a recipe that she would use to make dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls. The problem with this recipe, however, is that it makes a very soft dough. A dough that does not lend itself to being rolled out very well. Which means that more flour is added just to get it to not stick to the rolling pin. This can be up to 2 cups of flour. But of course no one ever wrote out the actual amount to be added when making cinnamon rolls, just a note that the cinnamon rolls would use more flour. Shawn, however, cannot do this whole "well, I'll just add more until it doesn't stick" thing. If the recipe says let rise one hour or until double in size, that means one hour; no more, no less. The recipe says knead for 5 minutes or until elastic and tacky. That means knead for 5 minutes, not 6, not 4, but 5. He is also very precise in his measurements whereas I am not. I will use the same measuring cup for everything, and the same measuring spoon (hey man, some of my greatest foods came from mistakes--the chocolate chip cookies I made all the time in high school had 3 times the amount of vanilla in them than they were supposed to).
3 weekends ago when he attempted to make a whole wheat loaf of bread, the recipe from our KitchenAid Stand Mixer book o recipes, it didn't go so well (not that it was an epic fail either). He only broke with the recipe in one spot. the spot where it said to bake for 40 minutes. He broke with the recipe because the top was getting EXTREMELY done (read just shy of burnt).
When we tried the bread, it was okay, not the greatest, but not too bad either. the crust was very brown and thick, the bread itself was dense and I thought a little on the dry side. But Shawn dutifully used it for his sandwich bread for the week until the last two slices went moldy. It is apparently quite common for all whole wheat loaves to be very dense, and is the reason why most whole wheat bread recipes are actually half All Purpose flour.
This last weekend, I decided to make dinner rolls. Originally I was going to make the dill rolls from The Spiteful Chef (which, by the way, there's a very similar recipe in the Colorful Colorado cookbook), but the Black Swallowtail Caterpillars changed my plans so instead I opted to do Great Grandma's Rolls.
First I substituted Whole Wheat Flour for half of the All Purpose Flour, second I put the dough in a bowl to rise and then went and did stuff out of the house for an hour or two and then came back and kneaded the dough (the original recipe calls for rising overnight), broke it into largish balls, and let them sit on the cookie sheets until Shawn was ready to start grilling the chicken (about 20 minutes). I also had to cook them about 2 minutes longer than was written in the recipe (probably because of the largeness of the rolls). I made roughly 16 rolls instead of the 24-30 the recipe is supposed to make. I did this intentionally as I figured that they'd make good rolls to turn into sandwich rolls. Shawn, however, was a little disappointed I didn't make them slightly larger since then they would have been hamburger bun sized. But now I know--tennis ball = hamburger bun.
They were probably some of the best rolls I've ever had. Shawn made me promptly freeze 8 of them lest they go bad. I have a feeling that it's good that I made the rolls and that they turned out so well, otherwise I think Shawn might have given up on homemade bread (I have told him time and time again that bread is one of those things that you just have to keep trying to make it because it will take a dozen attempts before you get good at it).
Another month or two of bread making and we might just have the hang of it...then we can move on to making homemade pasta.
But I digress.
A few weekends ago, Shawn attempted to make bread. If you know Shawn, then you know that he is a rule follower. A recipe is needed for things and you must follow the recipe. If there is no recipe then it is the end of the world, or at the very least it means that I must be the one cooking because I view recipes more as guidelines. Especially when it comes to bread items.
I view bread recipes as guidelines mostly because of my great-grandma's roll recipe. It's a recipe that she would use to make dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls. The problem with this recipe, however, is that it makes a very soft dough. A dough that does not lend itself to being rolled out very well. Which means that more flour is added just to get it to not stick to the rolling pin. This can be up to 2 cups of flour. But of course no one ever wrote out the actual amount to be added when making cinnamon rolls, just a note that the cinnamon rolls would use more flour. Shawn, however, cannot do this whole "well, I'll just add more until it doesn't stick" thing. If the recipe says let rise one hour or until double in size, that means one hour; no more, no less. The recipe says knead for 5 minutes or until elastic and tacky. That means knead for 5 minutes, not 6, not 4, but 5. He is also very precise in his measurements whereas I am not. I will use the same measuring cup for everything, and the same measuring spoon (hey man, some of my greatest foods came from mistakes--the chocolate chip cookies I made all the time in high school had 3 times the amount of vanilla in them than they were supposed to).
3 weekends ago when he attempted to make a whole wheat loaf of bread, the recipe from our KitchenAid Stand Mixer book o recipes, it didn't go so well (not that it was an epic fail either). He only broke with the recipe in one spot. the spot where it said to bake for 40 minutes. He broke with the recipe because the top was getting EXTREMELY done (read just shy of burnt).
When we tried the bread, it was okay, not the greatest, but not too bad either. the crust was very brown and thick, the bread itself was dense and I thought a little on the dry side. But Shawn dutifully used it for his sandwich bread for the week until the last two slices went moldy. It is apparently quite common for all whole wheat loaves to be very dense, and is the reason why most whole wheat bread recipes are actually half All Purpose flour.
This last weekend, I decided to make dinner rolls. Originally I was going to make the dill rolls from The Spiteful Chef (which, by the way, there's a very similar recipe in the Colorful Colorado cookbook), but the Black Swallowtail Caterpillars changed my plans so instead I opted to do Great Grandma's Rolls.
First I substituted Whole Wheat Flour for half of the All Purpose Flour, second I put the dough in a bowl to rise and then went and did stuff out of the house for an hour or two and then came back and kneaded the dough (the original recipe calls for rising overnight), broke it into largish balls, and let them sit on the cookie sheets until Shawn was ready to start grilling the chicken (about 20 minutes). I also had to cook them about 2 minutes longer than was written in the recipe (probably because of the largeness of the rolls). I made roughly 16 rolls instead of the 24-30 the recipe is supposed to make. I did this intentionally as I figured that they'd make good rolls to turn into sandwich rolls. Shawn, however, was a little disappointed I didn't make them slightly larger since then they would have been hamburger bun sized. But now I know--tennis ball = hamburger bun.
They were probably some of the best rolls I've ever had. Shawn made me promptly freeze 8 of them lest they go bad. I have a feeling that it's good that I made the rolls and that they turned out so well, otherwise I think Shawn might have given up on homemade bread (I have told him time and time again that bread is one of those things that you just have to keep trying to make it because it will take a dozen attempts before you get good at it).
Another month or two of bread making and we might just have the hang of it...then we can move on to making homemade pasta.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Yard Mateys! Part: the third
Today we will pick up where we left off:
Are the aforementioned Skil Shrub Trimmer and the Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower so easy to use, that even a baby could do it?
Today I will review the Fiskars, the Skil review can be found here
And as I edited in last time, I'm doing this of my own volition and was not paid or compensated in any way by Skil or Fiskars. We paid our own hard earned cash for these products, so they damn well better work.
Shawn had finished mowing the yard and I had finished using the shrub trimmer, when I looked out into the side yard and noticed some random blades of grass that hadn't been cut by the mower. I guess this is a common complaint when people first start mowing their yard with a reel mower after using a gas powered mower for years. It appears that grass needs to be 'trained' to be cut by a reel mower-mow one direction one week, a different direction the next until the grass learns to grow straight up (i get the feeling that the gas mower either blows the blades multiple ways so they'll get cut down by the blades, or it creates a mild suction which accomplishes the same thing). I figured that this was as good a time as any to start pushing the mower through the grass to see how it handles. Though I guess I should really wait until the grass is taller so I get the full experience rather than the grass is already cut and I'm basically just pushing a mower through it for no reason. But we'll deal with that later.
Oh I should mention that we've got St. Augustine grass. And, if you want to get a reel mower, you should really do some research beforehand to make sure that the mower you get is good for the grass you have. I believe the Fiskars and the Scotts are good for St. Augustine but the Brill isn't good for it. (thankfully the Fiskars and the Scotts are much cheaper than the Brill.) from the research Shawn's done, it sounds as if the thicker the grass (St. Augustine, Zoysia, and Bermuda...so basically the grasses used in Austin), the tougher it is for the lighter mowers to cut. All this means is that for our grass, you want something that is a bit heavier so it doesn't just rest on top of the grass not cutting anything.
So I start 'mowing the lawn' and let me just say that while it's nowhere near as easy as a self-propelled lawn mower, it is a hell of a lot easier than our current gas mower. I can barely push that thing up the small hill we have--I have to get a running start. No such need with the Fiskars. The Fiskars is apparently easier to push than other reel mowers because it's a 'touchless' system. All that means is that the reel and the stationary blades are insanely close together, but they don't actually touch. So there's no blade friction, and you can go YEARS without having to sharpen the blades.
The mower is obviously very quiet. Much quieter than the gas powered mower, and much quieter than the neighbors and their damn jackhammer. I don't know why they were jackhammering, but it was loud and it was annoying. Thankfully it was also 10 in the morning on July 4th when they started doing it.
The Fiskars throws the grass clippings in front of the mower so there's no green grass stains on socks...or grass clippings in shoes. Though to be fair I think ever since we've gotten this thing, Shawn's mowed in bare feet.
The only downside I really noticed was that it doesn't handle corners and edges very well. It's tough to get it to follow a curve (but then I'm not sure I would have done better with the gas-mower). And we've got the area by the drive way where the grass is currently growing sideways and the other mower pulls the grass up enough that it can get trimmed--with this one, we have to go out with the weed whacker if we want the grass along the edges of the driveway to get trimmed.
Overall I'd give it 4.5 stars out of 5. It gets major points for ease of blade height change (you can change it with one hand and without tools--there's a little knob that changes the height of the front wheels which changes the height of the blades), ease of pushing it (I'd never mow the lawn with the other mower), and quietness. Plus the touch-less system is pretty freaking cool, as is the spitting the grass blades out the front - makes it a lot easier to tell when an area is done. It loses points for the cement edge mowing, and lack of being able to cut up the long 'strings' of St. Augustine grass.
Are the aforementioned Skil Shrub Trimmer and the Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower so easy to use, that even a baby could do it?
Today I will review the Fiskars, the Skil review can be found here
And as I edited in last time, I'm doing this of my own volition and was not paid or compensated in any way by Skil or Fiskars. We paid our own hard earned cash for these products, so they damn well better work.
Shawn had finished mowing the yard and I had finished using the shrub trimmer, when I looked out into the side yard and noticed some random blades of grass that hadn't been cut by the mower. I guess this is a common complaint when people first start mowing their yard with a reel mower after using a gas powered mower for years. It appears that grass needs to be 'trained' to be cut by a reel mower-mow one direction one week, a different direction the next until the grass learns to grow straight up (i get the feeling that the gas mower either blows the blades multiple ways so they'll get cut down by the blades, or it creates a mild suction which accomplishes the same thing). I figured that this was as good a time as any to start pushing the mower through the grass to see how it handles. Though I guess I should really wait until the grass is taller so I get the full experience rather than the grass is already cut and I'm basically just pushing a mower through it for no reason. But we'll deal with that later.
Oh I should mention that we've got St. Augustine grass. And, if you want to get a reel mower, you should really do some research beforehand to make sure that the mower you get is good for the grass you have. I believe the Fiskars and the Scotts are good for St. Augustine but the Brill isn't good for it. (thankfully the Fiskars and the Scotts are much cheaper than the Brill.) from the research Shawn's done, it sounds as if the thicker the grass (St. Augustine, Zoysia, and Bermuda...so basically the grasses used in Austin), the tougher it is for the lighter mowers to cut. All this means is that for our grass, you want something that is a bit heavier so it doesn't just rest on top of the grass not cutting anything.
So I start 'mowing the lawn' and let me just say that while it's nowhere near as easy as a self-propelled lawn mower, it is a hell of a lot easier than our current gas mower. I can barely push that thing up the small hill we have--I have to get a running start. No such need with the Fiskars. The Fiskars is apparently easier to push than other reel mowers because it's a 'touchless' system. All that means is that the reel and the stationary blades are insanely close together, but they don't actually touch. So there's no blade friction, and you can go YEARS without having to sharpen the blades.
The mower is obviously very quiet. Much quieter than the gas powered mower, and much quieter than the neighbors and their damn jackhammer. I don't know why they were jackhammering, but it was loud and it was annoying. Thankfully it was also 10 in the morning on July 4th when they started doing it.
The Fiskars throws the grass clippings in front of the mower so there's no green grass stains on socks...or grass clippings in shoes. Though to be fair I think ever since we've gotten this thing, Shawn's mowed in bare feet.
The only downside I really noticed was that it doesn't handle corners and edges very well. It's tough to get it to follow a curve (but then I'm not sure I would have done better with the gas-mower). And we've got the area by the drive way where the grass is currently growing sideways and the other mower pulls the grass up enough that it can get trimmed--with this one, we have to go out with the weed whacker if we want the grass along the edges of the driveway to get trimmed.
Overall I'd give it 4.5 stars out of 5. It gets major points for ease of blade height change (you can change it with one hand and without tools--there's a little knob that changes the height of the front wheels which changes the height of the blades), ease of pushing it (I'd never mow the lawn with the other mower), and quietness. Plus the touch-less system is pretty freaking cool, as is the spitting the grass blades out the front - makes it a lot easier to tell when an area is done. It loses points for the cement edge mowing, and lack of being able to cut up the long 'strings' of St. Augustine grass.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Yard Mateys! Part: the second
As I figured that i couldn't really do a true review on the new yard tools ifin I haven't used them, I decided that I should try them out to give you an idea on how well they REALLY work. Because, as we all know, sometimes Shawn thinks things are all unicorns and rainbows when really they aren't. Take linux for example. While I like linux and I willingly use it at home, the vast majority of the world does not use linux and thinks people who do are computer nerds (which, yes. that's true), and are a tad masochistic (that may also be true).
So, are the aforementioned Skil Shrub Trimmer and the Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower so easy to use, that even a baby could do it?
Today I will review the Skil, and I'll have the Fiskars post tomorrow or something.
And as I edited in last time, I'm doing this of my own volition and was not paid or compensated in any way by Skil or Fiskars. We paid our own hard earned cash for these products, so they damn well better work.
It's kinda hard to see in the pictures on Amazon, but the Skil, as with any other motorized, sharp bladed/pointy tool that could require a visit to the emergency room if you decide to use it while on valium, ambien, or some delicious adult beverages, has a safety switch. Now then, this safety switch doesn't require that you hold it down the entire time the tool is in use (like a gas powered lawn mower), but you do have to hold it down and pull the trigger to get the tool to start up, then you can let go of the safety switch and the shrub trimmer can trim the shrubs as desired. Every time you let off of the trigger, you will have to hold the safety switch down again in order to re-start the blades. Doing this action isn't too difficult, and I could easily do this all one handed, but I do have the habit of just holding down the safety switch (essentially treating it like a gas powered lawn mower)...which requires some hand strength. Hand strength which I do not posses. I guess it could also be larger hands which would making holding down the safety switch easier as well since I had to stretch my finger to do it. OR maybe I could avoid being a dork and only press down the safety switch when it's actually needed.
Anyhow.
I tackled the Scourge Released Upon Central Texas by an Idiot aka Asian Jasmine. I actually did quite a bit in the amount of time it took Shawn to mow the lawn, and was quite proud of myself. With the regular pruners we used to use, I would MAYBE finish going around the berm in the amount of time Shawn mowed the yard. With this little Shrub Trimmer though I got both Hell Strips, the Berm, and partway through the Rosebush area all in the amount of time it took Shawn to do half of the front yard and the entire back yard. [Insert picture of front yard here - see? I get so used to linux that I can't find any of my photos if I'm not using it. So I have to put notes to myself to do anything other than check my email on this silly windows machine]. I wanted to continue working and do the two crepe myrtle bush areas too, but Shawn told me to wait until next time.
Now then, as you can imagine, since I insisted on holding down the safety button, my hand started getting tired. so I switched hands. Only I'm not as dexterous with my left hand so I had to use both hands to hold the shrub trimmer. This worked out quite well, though as I was STILL stretching one of my hands to hold the safety switch, pull the trigger and still be able to hold onto the tool, I did end up with sore hands. Specifically a sore left hand. My right hand is perfectly fine.
After using the shrub trimmer for about an hour, I was finding it tougher and tougher to hold down the trigger. But this, I'm sure, is due to my wimpyness and not the Skil itself. Shawn's suggestion is that we should get a rubber band and put it around the trigger to hold it down. Yes, THAT sounds safe. Next weekend when I'm in the ER, you'll know why.
Overall: I'd give the thing 4 of out 5 stars. The battery lasted the whole hour, it's a much better design, and more powerful than the little edge trimmer thing I used to use as a kid. The thing is just top heavy enough that I find it helpful to use both hands to hold it.
I'll be interested to see how the battery holds up.
So, are the aforementioned Skil Shrub Trimmer and the Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower so easy to use, that even a baby could do it?
Today I will review the Skil, and I'll have the Fiskars post tomorrow or something.
And as I edited in last time, I'm doing this of my own volition and was not paid or compensated in any way by Skil or Fiskars. We paid our own hard earned cash for these products, so they damn well better work.
It's kinda hard to see in the pictures on Amazon, but the Skil, as with any other motorized, sharp bladed/pointy tool that could require a visit to the emergency room if you decide to use it while on valium, ambien, or some delicious adult beverages, has a safety switch. Now then, this safety switch doesn't require that you hold it down the entire time the tool is in use (like a gas powered lawn mower), but you do have to hold it down and pull the trigger to get the tool to start up, then you can let go of the safety switch and the shrub trimmer can trim the shrubs as desired. Every time you let off of the trigger, you will have to hold the safety switch down again in order to re-start the blades. Doing this action isn't too difficult, and I could easily do this all one handed, but I do have the habit of just holding down the safety switch (essentially treating it like a gas powered lawn mower)...which requires some hand strength. Hand strength which I do not posses. I guess it could also be larger hands which would making holding down the safety switch easier as well since I had to stretch my finger to do it. OR maybe I could avoid being a dork and only press down the safety switch when it's actually needed.
Anyhow.
I tackled the Scourge Released Upon Central Texas by an Idiot aka Asian Jasmine. I actually did quite a bit in the amount of time it took Shawn to mow the lawn, and was quite proud of myself. With the regular pruners we used to use, I would MAYBE finish going around the berm in the amount of time Shawn mowed the yard. With this little Shrub Trimmer though I got both Hell Strips, the Berm, and partway through the Rosebush area all in the amount of time it took Shawn to do half of the front yard and the entire back yard. [Insert picture of front yard here - see? I get so used to linux that I can't find any of my photos if I'm not using it. So I have to put notes to myself to do anything other than check my email on this silly windows machine]. I wanted to continue working and do the two crepe myrtle bush areas too, but Shawn told me to wait until next time.
Now then, as you can imagine, since I insisted on holding down the safety button, my hand started getting tired. so I switched hands. Only I'm not as dexterous with my left hand so I had to use both hands to hold the shrub trimmer. This worked out quite well, though as I was STILL stretching one of my hands to hold the safety switch, pull the trigger and still be able to hold onto the tool, I did end up with sore hands. Specifically a sore left hand. My right hand is perfectly fine.
After using the shrub trimmer for about an hour, I was finding it tougher and tougher to hold down the trigger. But this, I'm sure, is due to my wimpyness and not the Skil itself. Shawn's suggestion is that we should get a rubber band and put it around the trigger to hold it down. Yes, THAT sounds safe. Next weekend when I'm in the ER, you'll know why.
Overall: I'd give the thing 4 of out 5 stars. The battery lasted the whole hour, it's a much better design, and more powerful than the little edge trimmer thing I used to use as a kid. The thing is just top heavy enough that I find it helpful to use both hands to hold it.
I'll be interested to see how the battery holds up.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Yard Mateys!
Recently Shawn's purchased himself 2 new yard tools. These tools would be as follows:
Skil Shrub Trimmer and Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower
The Skil was purchased via Woot! about a month ago. And it was purchased specifically for the stupid devil weed (aka Asian jasmine) that is in the front yard. Shawn's used it about 10 times now and every time he uses it he cannot stop talking about how great that thing is and how he's so glad he got it. Admittedly, it does make quick work out of trimming the edges of that damn plant.
[aside] Shawn managed to get his parents to step into the 21st century and purchase something via woot. They purchased on of the vacuum cleaners that was featured around Father's Day. [\aside]
The Reel mower was purchased at Lowe's this last weekend. Shawn's mowed the front yard and the backyard with it and is STILL talking about how much he loves that mower. He can't wait to mow the yard again, and if we didn't need the rain to water our grass so badly, he probably would be pissed that it's been wet out. The main reason for purchasing the mower was really because with a reel mower he can start mowing the lawn at 7 am instead of waiting until 9 am. A secondary reason is that every time he mows with the gas mower it throws up dust and grass and what have you and then he's sneezing the rest of the day. And of course there's always the carbon footprint thing (though one does have to take into account the carbon footprint of creating the new reel mower vs the using of the older mower which was owned by the neighbors Shawn grew up next to). One of Shawn's coworkers pointed out yesterday that there's really no need to wait for the weekend to mow when you have a reel mower. And now Shawn's all excited about getting up extra early one day a week during the workweek to mow the yard so he has the ENTIRE weekend to do nothing.
I think I need to find some new chores for him, don't you?
Also, I feel the need to add this edit since there's some rule about the FTC getting all bent out of whack if you do not clearly state such things: I was not paid or compensated for this review of products and we did purchase them for ourselves. AND I'll have to try out the products so I can do my own review as opposed to just re-typing everything that Shawn's said.
Skil Shrub Trimmer and Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower
The Skil was purchased via Woot! about a month ago. And it was purchased specifically for the stupid devil weed (aka Asian jasmine) that is in the front yard. Shawn's used it about 10 times now and every time he uses it he cannot stop talking about how great that thing is and how he's so glad he got it. Admittedly, it does make quick work out of trimming the edges of that damn plant.
[aside] Shawn managed to get his parents to step into the 21st century and purchase something via woot. They purchased on of the vacuum cleaners that was featured around Father's Day. [\aside]
The Reel mower was purchased at Lowe's this last weekend. Shawn's mowed the front yard and the backyard with it and is STILL talking about how much he loves that mower. He can't wait to mow the yard again, and if we didn't need the rain to water our grass so badly, he probably would be pissed that it's been wet out. The main reason for purchasing the mower was really because with a reel mower he can start mowing the lawn at 7 am instead of waiting until 9 am. A secondary reason is that every time he mows with the gas mower it throws up dust and grass and what have you and then he's sneezing the rest of the day. And of course there's always the carbon footprint thing (though one does have to take into account the carbon footprint of creating the new reel mower vs the using of the older mower which was owned by the neighbors Shawn grew up next to). One of Shawn's coworkers pointed out yesterday that there's really no need to wait for the weekend to mow when you have a reel mower. And now Shawn's all excited about getting up extra early one day a week during the workweek to mow the yard so he has the ENTIRE weekend to do nothing.
I think I need to find some new chores for him, don't you?
Also, I feel the need to add this edit since there's some rule about the FTC getting all bent out of whack if you do not clearly state such things: I was not paid or compensated for this review of products and we did purchase them for ourselves. AND I'll have to try out the products so I can do my own review as opposed to just re-typing everything that Shawn's said.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Katina, P.E.
I found out 2 weeks or so ago that I had indeed passed the professional engineering exam. I knew this because a) I had checked scores on the Texas P.E. board website, and b) they had emailed me saying that I needed to get my rubber stamp. In that email, they stated that they would be mailing out snail mail letters and everyone needed to be on the lookout for them.
This is the order in which I received the snail mail letters (and indeed the postmarks show that they were mailed in this order):
Odd, that.
This is the order in which I received the snail mail letters (and indeed the postmarks show that they were mailed in this order):
- 8x10 license (this is the thing you're supposed to frame and hang in your office. like a doctor, only not.)
- wallet sized pocket card
- Dear Examinee, we are pleased to inform you that you made a passing score on the April P.E. exam...
Odd, that.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Baby Jesus Wear
I had a coworker once who mentioned that she thought it was idiocy to give people anything other than plain onesies for their babies because onesies are something that all babies can wear all the time. Shawn took this one step further and said he didn't see a reason for onesies even. He would have the kids wearing "Baby Jesus Wear" (TM circle, C circle, whatever).
Baby Jesus Wear is created thusly:
Baby Jesus Wear is created thusly:
- go out and buy (or find, or steal, basically somehow acquire) a hand towel
- Fold towel in half (hamburger wise)
- cut a hole in the fold. Make sure it's big enough for baby's head to fit through. You may find cutting an X easier than estimating your kid's giant noggin.
- Slip towel over baby's head.
- Secure below arms (the actual plan is to use rope of some sort, but if that scares you, you can use velcro, or safety pins, or duct tape).
- Voila! Baby Jesus Wear. Now you have an outfit that the baby can make a complete mess out of and you won't really care because it's just some old towel you had laying around. That and you always have something handy to wipe spit up/drool.
- ADDED BONUS: Depending on how messed up the towel gets, you could have the kid wearing the same towel for years--it would go from being dress like to being more like a shirt. Then all you have to do is fashion pants of some sort. Don't worry, I'm sure this would be fashioned out of a towel or something similar as well. Possibly a pillow case.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Story Arcs
I realize that I've had some story arcs that I haven't really ever given a conclusion to.
One of these was the Cable story arc, which I wrapped up here.
Another of these story arcs was Gray Kitteh! Gray Kitteh continued to come around, but became less and less intrigued with Quazi and Ivy. And, unfortunately, Grey Kitteh! went the route of disliking all other cats. Eventually Gray Kitteh! stopped hanging out in our yard. One day, when I was out front watering the plants, Gray Kitteh! showed up and he had been neutered and had an abscess on the side of his body removed. A week or so later, the neighbor (who is also from Colorado) came by to ask if we had seen their 8-year-old chihuahua who had gotten out the night before. I said we hadn't seen him, but we'd keep an eye out for him. I did also warn her that our fence in the backyard had a hole in it that the cats had been using. and that's when she told me that our cats are friends. I must have given her a funny look because she clarified that the gray tabby kitten, Remmy, was theirs, and that Quazi would come and visit them every once in a while.
Bike to Work month (or whatever the hell it is): We both signed up for it, Shawn did like 6 rides, and I did 8 (I got 2 extra trips because I rode my bike to the doctor's office). We live too far away from work to commute by bike every day (now, if we lived in the neighborhood I think we should move to, we could bike to work). Some of the problem is that we've really condensed our errands into one big errand trip so it's not like we're going to the grocery store and only the grocery store, it was more like we were going to go to the Sprouts grocery, and then to the garden center, then to the library, the bank and finally the regular grocery store. Or we'll go to the grocery store on the way home from work. Plus Texas is hot and trying to ride anywhere after 9 in the morning is idiocy.
Cow/Bread updates: The cow did, in fact, meet his demise on Friday June 18. And, because we went shopping at Sprouts last week when they had a sale on their in-house breads, we bought two loaves. This means that the bread making experiment is going to be put on hold until after we finish them. Shawn has decided that he'd like to try the whole wheat bread recipe that came in our Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer recipe book. I would like to try Kristie's Dill Rolls. We did learn that King Arthur flour at Randall's is $2 more than at H.E.B. Also, potato flour is freaking expensive.
One of these was the Cable story arc, which I wrapped up here.
Another of these story arcs was Gray Kitteh! Gray Kitteh continued to come around, but became less and less intrigued with Quazi and Ivy. And, unfortunately, Grey Kitteh! went the route of disliking all other cats. Eventually Gray Kitteh! stopped hanging out in our yard. One day, when I was out front watering the plants, Gray Kitteh! showed up and he had been neutered and had an abscess on the side of his body removed. A week or so later, the neighbor (who is also from Colorado) came by to ask if we had seen their 8-year-old chihuahua who had gotten out the night before. I said we hadn't seen him, but we'd keep an eye out for him. I did also warn her that our fence in the backyard had a hole in it that the cats had been using. and that's when she told me that our cats are friends. I must have given her a funny look because she clarified that the gray tabby kitten, Remmy, was theirs, and that Quazi would come and visit them every once in a while.
Bike to Work month (or whatever the hell it is): We both signed up for it, Shawn did like 6 rides, and I did 8 (I got 2 extra trips because I rode my bike to the doctor's office). We live too far away from work to commute by bike every day (now, if we lived in the neighborhood I think we should move to, we could bike to work). Some of the problem is that we've really condensed our errands into one big errand trip so it's not like we're going to the grocery store and only the grocery store, it was more like we were going to go to the Sprouts grocery, and then to the garden center, then to the library, the bank and finally the regular grocery store. Or we'll go to the grocery store on the way home from work. Plus Texas is hot and trying to ride anywhere after 9 in the morning is idiocy.
Cow/Bread updates: The cow did, in fact, meet his demise on Friday June 18. And, because we went shopping at Sprouts last week when they had a sale on their in-house breads, we bought two loaves. This means that the bread making experiment is going to be put on hold until after we finish them. Shawn has decided that he'd like to try the whole wheat bread recipe that came in our Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer recipe book. I would like to try Kristie's Dill Rolls. We did learn that King Arthur flour at Randall's is $2 more than at H.E.B. Also, potato flour is freaking expensive.
EE-diot.
Sometimes I can be a total idiot. Usually these times are somehow related to numbers. Scary I know.
The other day, getting ready for the boat trip, one of my coworkers asked if I had change for a $20. He wanted to give me $10 (for food), and give Kevin $10 (cost for bringing a guest on the trip). I needed to give $10 for a guest. I had a $10 bill and a $20, David had a $20.
Are you keeping track?
So I made David give me personally his $20. I put $10 in the food envelope. And then I walked over to Kevin and handed him my $20.
And yes, this transaction took me like 10 minutes to figure out the logistics. And after I explained it all to David, he was like "why don't I just walk over to Kevin, hand him my $20, and you put the $10 bill in the food fund?"
And I kid you not, I said "no, that won't work. Give me your $20."
He handed it to me, and as I'm standing there with 2 $20 in my hands, I must have had that look of dawning understanding because David just sat there laughing at me. David. The man who's brilliance has given us comments such as "I thought the Canadians spoke Spanish because they said 'eh' a lot," and "Mother Goose totally wrote Green Eggs and Ham," and most notoriously, "why the hell would I want salad dressing on my chicken fried steak?"
I guess it's a good thing they don't ask questions like this on the P.E. test.
Now, I'm off to work out that "if you have a 5-gallon bucket and a 3-gallon bucket, and you need exactly 4 gallons, how do you do it?" problem. It'll take me like half the day, I'm sure.
The other day, getting ready for the boat trip, one of my coworkers asked if I had change for a $20. He wanted to give me $10 (for food), and give Kevin $10 (cost for bringing a guest on the trip). I needed to give $10 for a guest. I had a $10 bill and a $20, David had a $20.
Are you keeping track?
So I made David give me personally his $20. I put $10 in the food envelope. And then I walked over to Kevin and handed him my $20.
And yes, this transaction took me like 10 minutes to figure out the logistics. And after I explained it all to David, he was like "why don't I just walk over to Kevin, hand him my $20, and you put the $10 bill in the food fund?"
And I kid you not, I said "no, that won't work. Give me your $20."
He handed it to me, and as I'm standing there with 2 $20 in my hands, I must have had that look of dawning understanding because David just sat there laughing at me. David. The man who's brilliance has given us comments such as "I thought the Canadians spoke Spanish because they said 'eh' a lot," and "Mother Goose totally wrote Green Eggs and Ham," and most notoriously, "why the hell would I want salad dressing on my chicken fried steak?"
I guess it's a good thing they don't ask questions like this on the P.E. test.
Now, I'm off to work out that "if you have a 5-gallon bucket and a 3-gallon bucket, and you need exactly 4 gallons, how do you do it?" problem. It'll take me like half the day, I'm sure.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Moving
Picture of Bob and Elsie in front of their old house. Taken minutes before pulling out for the long trip down to Texas.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Mooo
As some (okay most) of you already know: We're ordering one quarter of a grass fed local cow and splitting it among 8 people. This cow will meet its demise in one week. We will be able to pick up our meat on July 9th. You'll notice that I keep calling it "the cow." This is because I can't bear to give this cow, which I will never even see, a name for fear that I'll refuse to eat it when we actually get the meat. Because I am weird like that. Maybe we could call the cow "Dinner" or "Porkchop" or something. No, I think I will stick with "The Cow."
The reason for getting this cow is because I read In Defense of Food, we both watched Food, Inc., and Shawn read Food Rules.
Shawn still thinks it's all a crock though--the buying of a grass fed cow by the quarter. Since I went in with friends on getting the cow behind his back, he didn't find out about it until this last Saturday at a party. Good news: If your spouse finds out that you're ordering a quarter cow while at a party, he's less likely to kill you.
The one thing that has come out of Shawn reading Food Rules is that he wants to try his hand at making homemade bread. I think that will be something that happens this weekend. Maybe I'll even throw in making homemade pasta.
The thing that has NOT come from reading these books is the desire to eat more veggies (I, for one, think we need to eat more veggies. Shawn, while agreeing that we need to eat more veggies, does not agree that it should be in the form of fresh veggies).
Case in point: Farm to Work produce.
Now then, for $25 one usually gets an amount of vegetables and fruit that a family of 4 would eat in a week (give or take). When I do Farm to Work, I'll usually split the basket with a coworker so that there isn't a massive amount of veggies we have to go through. This is mostly because it's damn near impossible for us to go through a full basket of veggies. Especially when the basket it made up of kale, mustard greens and Swiss chard.
Anyhow, as mentioned before, I ordered the basket last week. And we managed to use all quick-perishable items (in fact, this will be the first time ever that we didn't have to throw something away because it went bad...we did, however, give away some of the veggies to his parents, also mentioned earlier). The only thing left from the order this week is the potatoes, which will last a while. The thing I didn't mention earlier is that this basket of veggies caused "The great produce crisis of 2010."
On Tuesday, for some unknown reason, Shawn got it in his head that there was no way we were going to eat all the veggies before they went bad. Because of this, he went and decided to freeze what amounts to one serving's worth of green beans. I don't know why. I would have made the green beans the next day when I cooked the corn, but whatever. So now we have one single serving of frozen green beans. Green beans that were not prepped other than being washed and having tops cut off. One serving of green beans, apparently, is the difference between "We're never going to finish it in time!" and "okay, we can eat all these, no problem."
That Mr. Shawn, sometimes he's a weird one.
The reason for getting this cow is because I read In Defense of Food, we both watched Food, Inc., and Shawn read Food Rules.
Shawn still thinks it's all a crock though--the buying of a grass fed cow by the quarter. Since I went in with friends on getting the cow behind his back, he didn't find out about it until this last Saturday at a party. Good news: If your spouse finds out that you're ordering a quarter cow while at a party, he's less likely to kill you.
The one thing that has come out of Shawn reading Food Rules is that he wants to try his hand at making homemade bread. I think that will be something that happens this weekend. Maybe I'll even throw in making homemade pasta.
The thing that has NOT come from reading these books is the desire to eat more veggies (I, for one, think we need to eat more veggies. Shawn, while agreeing that we need to eat more veggies, does not agree that it should be in the form of fresh veggies).
Case in point: Farm to Work produce.
Now then, for $25 one usually gets an amount of vegetables and fruit that a family of 4 would eat in a week (give or take). When I do Farm to Work, I'll usually split the basket with a coworker so that there isn't a massive amount of veggies we have to go through. This is mostly because it's damn near impossible for us to go through a full basket of veggies. Especially when the basket it made up of kale, mustard greens and Swiss chard.
Anyhow, as mentioned before, I ordered the basket last week. And we managed to use all quick-perishable items (in fact, this will be the first time ever that we didn't have to throw something away because it went bad...we did, however, give away some of the veggies to his parents, also mentioned earlier). The only thing left from the order this week is the potatoes, which will last a while. The thing I didn't mention earlier is that this basket of veggies caused "The great produce crisis of 2010."
On Tuesday, for some unknown reason, Shawn got it in his head that there was no way we were going to eat all the veggies before they went bad. Because of this, he went and decided to freeze what amounts to one serving's worth of green beans. I don't know why. I would have made the green beans the next day when I cooked the corn, but whatever. So now we have one single serving of frozen green beans. Green beans that were not prepped other than being washed and having tops cut off. One serving of green beans, apparently, is the difference between "We're never going to finish it in time!" and "okay, we can eat all these, no problem."
That Mr. Shawn, sometimes he's a weird one.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Oh Yeah. THAT!
Time spent studying for the P.E. exam: 120 hours
Time spent taking the P.E. exam: 8 hours plus lunch and instructions
Dreams about the P.E. exam: 4
Time waiting for the results: 7 weeks 4 days
Passing the P.E. Exam: Totally and absolutely AWESOME.
In other news:
-CU has left the Big XII and gone and joined the PAC-10. The water cooler talk at work basically has said that the reason for this is because Nebraska was complaining about Texas and they said they were going to join the Big-10, Texas junior senators started worrying that if Nebraska left the Big XII and others followed suit, then Baylor would be left in the Big XII but CU, OU, OSU, UT, A&M and Tech would all go to the PAC-10. This is, apparently, some problem or something so he started lobbying to keep Baylor with the other Texas schools, which would have meant that CU wouldn't have been allowed to join the PAC-10. Thus CU is the first to jump ship and preemptively join the PAC to make sure they didn't get left in the cold.
-I have joined the FIFA World Cup Bragging Rights Only betting group. Basically it's a bunch of guessing which teams will do well in the World Cup and which won't. I don't know anything about soccer. Good thing it's for bragging rights only.
-And finally, the Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup. First time since 1961.
Time spent taking the P.E. exam: 8 hours plus lunch and instructions
Dreams about the P.E. exam: 4
Time waiting for the results: 7 weeks 4 days
Passing the P.E. Exam: Totally and absolutely AWESOME.
In other news:
-CU has left the Big XII and gone and joined the PAC-10. The water cooler talk at work basically has said that the reason for this is because Nebraska was complaining about Texas and they said they were going to join the Big-10, Texas junior senators started worrying that if Nebraska left the Big XII and others followed suit, then Baylor would be left in the Big XII but CU, OU, OSU, UT, A&M and Tech would all go to the PAC-10. This is, apparently, some problem or something so he started lobbying to keep Baylor with the other Texas schools, which would have meant that CU wouldn't have been allowed to join the PAC-10. Thus CU is the first to jump ship and preemptively join the PAC to make sure they didn't get left in the cold.
-I have joined the FIFA World Cup Bragging Rights Only betting group. Basically it's a bunch of guessing which teams will do well in the World Cup and which won't. I don't know anything about soccer. Good thing it's for bragging rights only.
-And finally, the Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup. First time since 1961.
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Rock your socks off
Recently I've been wondering where my socks have been disappearing off to. I do laundry maybe once a week and usually the socks can go a week or two (depending on sandal wearing) longer because I have a lot of socks. But all of the sudden it was like my sock drawer started eating my socks and I was running out of all my newer socks... the ones that aren't threadbare and full of holes.
This has probably been going on for a month or two.
Now then, I am lazy, and when I'm tired I tend to say "screw it, I'll separate socks tomorrow" and I'll throw all the clean socks in a pile on the floor and I'll fold them later. I, however, have been better about this...probably for a month or two.
I'm sure you can see where this is going.
Tonight is one of those nights where I decided to just throw my socks on the floor rather than fold them. And I found all my other socks. Sitting on top of a box by my nightstand, underneath one of my workout shirts.
Who said being lazy didn't accomplish anything?
This has probably been going on for a month or two.
Now then, I am lazy, and when I'm tired I tend to say "screw it, I'll separate socks tomorrow" and I'll throw all the clean socks in a pile on the floor and I'll fold them later. I, however, have been better about this...probably for a month or two.
I'm sure you can see where this is going.
Tonight is one of those nights where I decided to just throw my socks on the floor rather than fold them. And I found all my other socks. Sitting on top of a box by my nightstand, underneath one of my workout shirts.
Who said being lazy didn't accomplish anything?
"Spring" time Farm to Work
This last week, after guaranteeing that the Farm to Work basket would be food we would eat versus food we wouldn't (so squash vs. mustard greens), I went ahead and ordered a basket. Just for the two of us.
[aside] My family would be surprised to find out that squash is on our 'to eat' list. Mostly because growing up I never ate it. Ever. I remember the neighbor had an out of control zucchini plant and so they gave us zucchini and we gave them tomatoes. Those zucchinis sat on top of the fridge for about 2 weeks before my mom just threw them away. I tried spaghetti squash once in high school because the neighbor across the street loved them and told me I should try them. I think I took one bite and then threw away the rest of my dinner. So yes, it's quite the surprise that I'll eat squash now. [/aside]
The basket of food this week consisted of regular tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, blackberries, kale, green beans, red potatoes, corn, cucumber and green onions. So far we've used a zucchini, half a yellow squash, half the blackberries, the green onions, a handful of green beans, a handful of cherry tomatoes and one regular tomato.
I gave my inlaws the cabbage, 3 cucumbers (Shawn won't eat them and I can't eat them all myself), a zuchinni and a yellow squash, and half the green beans. I also gave them a handful of green onions, lemon balm, and parsley from my garden. My mother in law seemed most saddened by the fact that my tomatoes aren't setting fruit. She recommended that I get some of the fruit set spray, which I told her probably wouldn't help much at this point in time since we are very quickly arriving at the point in time where the tomatoes won't set fruit no matter what (74 degrees and above night time temperatures mean that tomatoes won't set fruit. Fruit set sprays do seem to help with too cool of temperatures).
Since we've managed to already add squash, tomatoes, onions, green beans, and blackberries to our meal last night; it means we may actually manage to get through an entire basket of stuff before anything goes bad.
[aside] My family would be surprised to find out that squash is on our 'to eat' list. Mostly because growing up I never ate it. Ever. I remember the neighbor had an out of control zucchini plant and so they gave us zucchini and we gave them tomatoes. Those zucchinis sat on top of the fridge for about 2 weeks before my mom just threw them away. I tried spaghetti squash once in high school because the neighbor across the street loved them and told me I should try them. I think I took one bite and then threw away the rest of my dinner. So yes, it's quite the surprise that I'll eat squash now. [/aside]
The basket of food this week consisted of regular tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, blackberries, kale, green beans, red potatoes, corn, cucumber and green onions. So far we've used a zucchini, half a yellow squash, half the blackberries, the green onions, a handful of green beans, a handful of cherry tomatoes and one regular tomato.
I gave my inlaws the cabbage, 3 cucumbers (Shawn won't eat them and I can't eat them all myself), a zuchinni and a yellow squash, and half the green beans. I also gave them a handful of green onions, lemon balm, and parsley from my garden. My mother in law seemed most saddened by the fact that my tomatoes aren't setting fruit. She recommended that I get some of the fruit set spray, which I told her probably wouldn't help much at this point in time since we are very quickly arriving at the point in time where the tomatoes won't set fruit no matter what (74 degrees and above night time temperatures mean that tomatoes won't set fruit. Fruit set sprays do seem to help with too cool of temperatures).
Since we've managed to already add squash, tomatoes, onions, green beans, and blackberries to our meal last night; it means we may actually manage to get through an entire basket of stuff before anything goes bad.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Canadians
Overheard at work:
"I thought the Canadians spoke Spanish because they said 'eh' a lot."
Also heard at work:
"My grandma's crazy. She uses rain barrels, is into organic gardening, and bakes her own bread but then she goes out every night with her rifle and shoots the armadillos in her yard."
"I thought the Canadians spoke Spanish because they said 'eh' a lot."
Also heard at work:
"My grandma's crazy. She uses rain barrels, is into organic gardening, and bakes her own bread but then she goes out every night with her rifle and shoots the armadillos in her yard."
Monday, May 31, 2010
haulin'
We unloaded the inlaws' moving truck yesterday. Just the 4 of us--two senior citizens, a scrawny chicken-armed Tina and the workhorse, Shawn. It was probably in the low 90's, so thank god for small favors.
Twenty-six feet long, seven feet tall, and about eight feet wide, and absolutely packed to the gills (no, seriously, there wasn't ANY space left). And it only took about 8 hours to unload.
In other news, my sister inlaw had her baby on Saturday evening. a bouncing baby boy, weighing almost 8 lbs. This is good because a few nights ago I had a dream that the baby was a girl and I was not looking forward to returning all the clothes I bought. I can't wait to see some pictures. ;)
Shawn and I also went to our friends' wedding on Saturday. Can I just take a moment to tell everyone how glad I am that it's a three day weekend?
Twenty-six feet long, seven feet tall, and about eight feet wide, and absolutely packed to the gills (no, seriously, there wasn't ANY space left). And it only took about 8 hours to unload.
In other news, my sister inlaw had her baby on Saturday evening. a bouncing baby boy, weighing almost 8 lbs. This is good because a few nights ago I had a dream that the baby was a girl and I was not looking forward to returning all the clothes I bought. I can't wait to see some pictures. ;)
Shawn and I also went to our friends' wedding on Saturday. Can I just take a moment to tell everyone how glad I am that it's a three day weekend?
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thoughts for the Week
When the BP exec said something about Obama being un-American my first thought was "Wait, doesn't the B in BP stand for BRITISH? So how is someone complaining about a company, based in a foreign country, un-American? Unless that guy has a VERY different idea than everyone else what is and isn't American."
and
Why haven't football and basketball had big doping scandals like baseball and biking?
The moving of Shawn's parents down here to Texas went well. The only real hitch was the problem with the towing hitch. (haha). Basically the hitch used to tow the car down was attached incorrectly and the Beetle came partially off of the hitch just north of Trinidad, Colorado. So Shawn spent about an hour and a half under the Bug on the side of I-25 banging some U-shaped piece back into shape in order for us to continue on.
The only other hitch would have been when we got to Brownwood, Texas to eat lunch on Wednesday. Unfortunately Underwood's Cafeteria is not open on Wednesdays so we walked some half mile circuitous route to the Schlotzsky's. Mostly because it's impossible to drive a 26-foot truck anywhere unless it's semi/large truck accessible (thus the walking). Also, Brownwood is not pedestrian friendly (thus the circuitous route). We walked down to one traffic light to go to the KFC but because of lack of cross walks, we ended up crossing the street closer to the Schlotzsky's, ergo we ate there instead.
Now, to unload a truck on Sunday. Wish us luck!
and
Why haven't football and basketball had big doping scandals like baseball and biking?
The moving of Shawn's parents down here to Texas went well. The only real hitch was the problem with the towing hitch. (haha). Basically the hitch used to tow the car down was attached incorrectly and the Beetle came partially off of the hitch just north of Trinidad, Colorado. So Shawn spent about an hour and a half under the Bug on the side of I-25 banging some U-shaped piece back into shape in order for us to continue on.
The only other hitch would have been when we got to Brownwood, Texas to eat lunch on Wednesday. Unfortunately Underwood's Cafeteria is not open on Wednesdays so we walked some half mile circuitous route to the Schlotzsky's. Mostly because it's impossible to drive a 26-foot truck anywhere unless it's semi/large truck accessible (thus the walking). Also, Brownwood is not pedestrian friendly (thus the circuitous route). We walked down to one traffic light to go to the KFC but because of lack of cross walks, we ended up crossing the street closer to the Schlotzsky's, ergo we ate there instead.
Now, to unload a truck on Sunday. Wish us luck!
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