*blows dust off mic*
Been a while, huh? For me anyhow, who used to post daily or more.
My dad came to visit the weekend before last (arrived evening of Friday the 16th, left Monday morning). So short, but good. We hung out a bit, went out for several meals (Japanese steakhouse Friday night, a good local pizza place Saturday, our favorite local burger joint for Sunday lunch), went to the local AAA baseball game Saturday night (home team lost, 9-4 score), and visited the natural history museum down in Other University town on Sunday. Whew. Busy! All fun though.
Two weeks ago we got: 7 tomatoes, some beets, potatoes, 2 cukes, a head of garlic, 6 little apples, and some mint. Last Friday we got: 6 tomatoes, 1 lb. okra, 1 lb. grapes, potatoes, 4 banana peppers, 4 pickling cukes, 1 head garlic, and rosemary.
So last week SO made a chicken dish called "Poulet Normandy" which used up some of the apples (he had to cook b/c with my dad here, I hadn't had a chance to cook much over the weekend) - don't have that one typed up or online, I'm afraid, but it has leeks and apple brandy and cream in it, too. We'd had chicken kebabs with my dad Sunday night, so had leftovers of that. SO cooked up the beets for with the chicken he made. I'm absolutely spacing on what else we had; I know there was something!
This week I made blueberry pancakes for SO for brunch yesterday. We had barbecued chicken drumsticks, along with roasted potatoes tossed with garlic and basil and olive oil. I grilled some zucchini and mushrooms (brushed with olive oil/garlic/oregano), and used some of the cukes for quick Asian pickles. Also have prepped gumbo for tonight (using the okra) - just need to make rice for that. Made grilled onion and tomato salad, using some of the tomatoes (I've been putting those into sandwiches too). Also salmon-white bean salad for tomorrow. So lots of cooking yesterday. Still plan to make some kind of couscous/cucumber salad for later in the week, using mint and parsley and maybe basil too.
My aunt's (mom's sister's) husband of 30 years died last week. I'd never known him all that well, really, and he's been suffering from Alzheimer's for some years now, to the point where recently he basically did not recognize anyone, even her. So his death was not unexpected, and in many ways probably a good thing, but still a sad event. On a lesser scale, my aunts and uncles and dad put my paternal grandparents' house up for sale last week. There's a pretty amazing realtor's slideshow of it online, which made me sadly nostalgic to look at.
I've definitively fired one student assistant, which was a rather painful experience even though I did it by email (paper trail, plus the reason for the firing was failure to show up for scheduled shifts, so I couldn't do it in person). On the other hand, I've hired six students for fall, and have interviews set up with several more possibilities, including one in just a few minutes from now. So things are starting to kick into gear a little bit for the new school year.
I am in a struggle against my tomato plants; well, sort of. They are huge and sprawling and I had to do some serious staking-up yesterday, involving 12 4-ft. stakes, 4 6-ft. stakes, much wire and also velcro-type plant ties. For all of the investment of time and materiel, so far there are 4 smallish green tomatoes and 2 tiny tomato-lets. *sighs* I would say that the tomato plants are ahead on points.
The washing machine has now been out of commission for over 2 weeks. We keep having to go to the laundromat. Blech. Although the dryer is functional so we can save money (well, at least not need cash/quarters) by bringing the wet laundry home to dry. Repair guy came today and SO reported that the thing they thought was the problem (for which a part had been ordered, hence the delay) was not; they are coming back Wednesday with a different part (luckily cheaper, and they won't charge for the one that didn't fix things). So here's hoping we have a washing machine again soon.
I would especially like that because I bought NINE new bras on Saturday, to replace all of my old ones which were getting on for five years old. Can you tell I hate bra-shopping? Thankfully the styles that I'd had were still being made, and indeed the same size fit. I only had to find one new one, something with a little less coverage so that I can wear a couple of blouses that my usual bras don't work with.
I regret to say that my muse continues AWOL. I think I will manage to get the August Daily Deviant fic finished, by dint of great effort, but everything else is stalled, darn it. I had no online time when my dad was here, and maybe 20 minutes this past weekend, sneaked in while doing bank stuff online (nearly went overdrawn, oops, and had to transfer money from savings).
So if anyone sees my muse roaming around, tell her I'll feed her chocolate if she comes back, okay?
I'll try to catch up on replying to comments soon... Sorry to be so not-around of late!
My dad came to visit the weekend before last (arrived evening of Friday the 16th, left Monday morning). So short, but good. We hung out a bit, went out for several meals (Japanese steakhouse Friday night, a good local pizza place Saturday, our favorite local burger joint for Sunday lunch), went to the local AAA baseball game Saturday night (home team lost, 9-4 score), and visited the natural history museum down in Other University town on Sunday. Whew. Busy! All fun though.
Two weeks ago we got: 7 tomatoes, some beets, potatoes, 2 cukes, a head of garlic, 6 little apples, and some mint. Last Friday we got: 6 tomatoes, 1 lb. okra, 1 lb. grapes, potatoes, 4 banana peppers, 4 pickling cukes, 1 head garlic, and rosemary.
So last week SO made a chicken dish called "Poulet Normandy" which used up some of the apples (he had to cook b/c with my dad here, I hadn't had a chance to cook much over the weekend) - don't have that one typed up or online, I'm afraid, but it has leeks and apple brandy and cream in it, too. We'd had chicken kebabs with my dad Sunday night, so had leftovers of that. SO cooked up the beets for with the chicken he made. I'm absolutely spacing on what else we had; I know there was something!
This week I made blueberry pancakes for SO for brunch yesterday. We had barbecued chicken drumsticks, along with roasted potatoes tossed with garlic and basil and olive oil. I grilled some zucchini and mushrooms (brushed with olive oil/garlic/oregano), and used some of the cukes for quick Asian pickles. Also have prepped gumbo for tonight (using the okra) - just need to make rice for that. Made grilled onion and tomato salad, using some of the tomatoes (I've been putting those into sandwiches too). Also salmon-white bean salad for tomorrow. So lots of cooking yesterday. Still plan to make some kind of couscous/cucumber salad for later in the week, using mint and parsley and maybe basil too.
My aunt's (mom's sister's) husband of 30 years died last week. I'd never known him all that well, really, and he's been suffering from Alzheimer's for some years now, to the point where recently he basically did not recognize anyone, even her. So his death was not unexpected, and in many ways probably a good thing, but still a sad event. On a lesser scale, my aunts and uncles and dad put my paternal grandparents' house up for sale last week. There's a pretty amazing realtor's slideshow of it online, which made me sadly nostalgic to look at.
I've definitively fired one student assistant, which was a rather painful experience even though I did it by email (paper trail, plus the reason for the firing was failure to show up for scheduled shifts, so I couldn't do it in person). On the other hand, I've hired six students for fall, and have interviews set up with several more possibilities, including one in just a few minutes from now. So things are starting to kick into gear a little bit for the new school year.
I am in a struggle against my tomato plants; well, sort of. They are huge and sprawling and I had to do some serious staking-up yesterday, involving 12 4-ft. stakes, 4 6-ft. stakes, much wire and also velcro-type plant ties. For all of the investment of time and materiel, so far there are 4 smallish green tomatoes and 2 tiny tomato-lets. *sighs* I would say that the tomato plants are ahead on points.
The washing machine has now been out of commission for over 2 weeks. We keep having to go to the laundromat. Blech. Although the dryer is functional so we can save money (well, at least not need cash/quarters) by bringing the wet laundry home to dry. Repair guy came today and SO reported that the thing they thought was the problem (for which a part had been ordered, hence the delay) was not; they are coming back Wednesday with a different part (luckily cheaper, and they won't charge for the one that didn't fix things). So here's hoping we have a washing machine again soon.
I would especially like that because I bought NINE new bras on Saturday, to replace all of my old ones which were getting on for five years old. Can you tell I hate bra-shopping? Thankfully the styles that I'd had were still being made, and indeed the same size fit. I only had to find one new one, something with a little less coverage so that I can wear a couple of blouses that my usual bras don't work with.
I regret to say that my muse continues AWOL. I think I will manage to get the August Daily Deviant fic finished, by dint of great effort, but everything else is stalled, darn it. I had no online time when my dad was here, and maybe 20 minutes this past weekend, sneaked in while doing bank stuff online (nearly went overdrawn, oops, and had to transfer money from savings).
So if anyone sees my muse roaming around, tell her I'll feed her chocolate if she comes back, okay?
I'll try to catch up on replying to comments soon... Sorry to be so not-around of late!