Random stuff
Perhaps because they'd taken the previous week off, last week's CSA bag was HUGE: 9 small-to-medium regular tomatoes, 2 large heirloom tomatoes, 3 small Japanese eggplant, 2 large pickling cucumbers, 2 English cucumbers, 2 small green bell peppers, 2 small red bell peppers, 3 summer squash, 1 very large zucchini, 2 heads garlic, 1 small cabbage, 7 small onions, and 1 oz. dried tomatoes. Phew.
I realized that I still had 2 containers of gumbo base in the freezer, and it's nearly time to make more, so that's one of the things we're eating this week, over rice of course, and with salad. We had a TON of leftover sausages and buns from the potluck - I need to remember this next year - so I froze some of those and we're also eating some this week. To go with those we grilled all the eggplant, 3 of the peppers, all the summer squash and zucchini, and an older supermarket onion (all brushed w/ olive oil and garlic, salt, & pepper); chopped them up, added some diced tomatoes and minced basil and balsamic vinegar. Good either cold or reheated, and there is a LOT of it. I'm also making quick Asian pickles a couple of times to use some of the cukes.
That leaves old radishes, the cabbage, the onions, the garlic, the dried tomatoes, a couple of cukes, and one pepper. Hopefully this week's haul will be a bit smaller? If we get some of the same stuff, I might think about gazpacho... or it's community dinner this week, so grilled veggies might go to that.
Our potluck barbecue went well; as I mentioned above we had many leftover sausages, and even more buns, so the freezer is now filled with those. Some potato salad left too, but not as much. Everyone seemed to have a good time. SO sprayed the yard with garlic insect repellent and that definitely helped. I think I got only 6 mosquito bites, compared with over 40 the first year we did this and didn't think about spraying. Lots of other good food was brought, including a shrimp ceviche, grilled shrimp, a corn salad, a corn casserole, a noodle salad, many-layered bean dip... yum. I made 3 pitchers of lemonade and a gallon of iced tea, all of which was drunk. We started at 6 and the last folks left about 9, when it was getting fairly dark. So yeah, successful.
More social life, yesterday I met one of my former history colleagues for lunch; she was in the city for a doctor's appointment. This is someone who is perpetually late, and yes, she was late meeting me - had trouble finding the restaurant, which I admit does not have a very visible sign. Luckily it's not a big deal if I'm gone more than an hour for lunch, as long as I don't have any appointments/desk time/reference obligations; I just stay a little later, or something. I generally eat in my office with my door open anyhow, so I'm around most of the time. Anyhow my colleague sounds like she's doing well, and I got a little bit of news/gossip about the old campus and department, which was fun.
Juno cut one of the pads on her left front paw on Saturday morning. We strongly suspect it was on a roofing nail in our neighbor's yard, since they just had their roof replaced a couple of weeks ago, and one of our other neighbors' dogs also cut itself similarly. It didn't seem bad enough to warrant stitches, so we just bandaged her up for a couple of days, and then SO took her to the vet Monday to be looked at. He agreed stitches weren't needed and said that by then even a bandage wasn't necessary, only to keep her from running in the grass and dirt much for a few more days. So poor Juno didn't get to go out for the barbecue, which we had intended to let her do, and has been kept mostly inside with limited walks for piddling etc. She was very good with the bandage though and did not try to lick or pull it off, really, which meant no cone of shame. We bought some doggie booties to cover the bandage for walking. I'm here to tell you that those things are a PITA and tend to slide down so that she was walking on the sock part instead of the rubber sole part, half the time. Oh well.
I'm going to finally use the other half of the gift certificate my mother-in-law gave me last year, and get a 90-minute massage; plus I'm going to get a pedicure, just for kicks. This coming Saturday morning, that will be.
Doctor's appointment this morning. Just a checkup. I have to get some fasting lab work done, too, but the soonest they can get me in for that is in six weeks. Good grief. Not that I think my need is all that urgent, but it still seems remarkably long.
The weather forecast does not call for storms - we had scattered ones on Monday, which sadly mostly missed us, bringing maybe 1/4 of an inch max - but I have had a pounding headache all day. Bah.
Am reading a lot of kids' books recently, including classics like Louise Fitzhugh's and Madeleine L'Engle's books. It's kind of soothing to reread really old favorites.
Can anyone explain to me how libertarianism is NOT a horribly selfish and antisocial political philosophy? Because I don't see how it can be otherwise. I have been trying hard to refrain from online discussion in certain contexts because I'm not sure I could remain polite. The idea that free enterprise and less regulation can solve all our problems is such a ridiculous myth, shown to be so by actual facts, and yet the true believers will not acknowledge that. Sorry, getting ranty here, I will shut up.
Our monthly circulation food meeting is tomorrow - I am providing pizza. Yay. I think one pepperoni, and one vegetarian. There's a Pizza Hut only about 3 blocks away, and they have a $10 carryout deal, so I think that is where I will get it even though admittedly it's mediocre quality.
My muse is still absent. Sigh. If anyone sees her, want to point her my way?
I realized that I still had 2 containers of gumbo base in the freezer, and it's nearly time to make more, so that's one of the things we're eating this week, over rice of course, and with salad. We had a TON of leftover sausages and buns from the potluck - I need to remember this next year - so I froze some of those and we're also eating some this week. To go with those we grilled all the eggplant, 3 of the peppers, all the summer squash and zucchini, and an older supermarket onion (all brushed w/ olive oil and garlic, salt, & pepper); chopped them up, added some diced tomatoes and minced basil and balsamic vinegar. Good either cold or reheated, and there is a LOT of it. I'm also making quick Asian pickles a couple of times to use some of the cukes.
That leaves old radishes, the cabbage, the onions, the garlic, the dried tomatoes, a couple of cukes, and one pepper. Hopefully this week's haul will be a bit smaller? If we get some of the same stuff, I might think about gazpacho... or it's community dinner this week, so grilled veggies might go to that.
Our potluck barbecue went well; as I mentioned above we had many leftover sausages, and even more buns, so the freezer is now filled with those. Some potato salad left too, but not as much. Everyone seemed to have a good time. SO sprayed the yard with garlic insect repellent and that definitely helped. I think I got only 6 mosquito bites, compared with over 40 the first year we did this and didn't think about spraying. Lots of other good food was brought, including a shrimp ceviche, grilled shrimp, a corn salad, a corn casserole, a noodle salad, many-layered bean dip... yum. I made 3 pitchers of lemonade and a gallon of iced tea, all of which was drunk. We started at 6 and the last folks left about 9, when it was getting fairly dark. So yeah, successful.
More social life, yesterday I met one of my former history colleagues for lunch; she was in the city for a doctor's appointment. This is someone who is perpetually late, and yes, she was late meeting me - had trouble finding the restaurant, which I admit does not have a very visible sign. Luckily it's not a big deal if I'm gone more than an hour for lunch, as long as I don't have any appointments/desk time/reference obligations; I just stay a little later, or something. I generally eat in my office with my door open anyhow, so I'm around most of the time. Anyhow my colleague sounds like she's doing well, and I got a little bit of news/gossip about the old campus and department, which was fun.
Juno cut one of the pads on her left front paw on Saturday morning. We strongly suspect it was on a roofing nail in our neighbor's yard, since they just had their roof replaced a couple of weeks ago, and one of our other neighbors' dogs also cut itself similarly. It didn't seem bad enough to warrant stitches, so we just bandaged her up for a couple of days, and then SO took her to the vet Monday to be looked at. He agreed stitches weren't needed and said that by then even a bandage wasn't necessary, only to keep her from running in the grass and dirt much for a few more days. So poor Juno didn't get to go out for the barbecue, which we had intended to let her do, and has been kept mostly inside with limited walks for piddling etc. She was very good with the bandage though and did not try to lick or pull it off, really, which meant no cone of shame. We bought some doggie booties to cover the bandage for walking. I'm here to tell you that those things are a PITA and tend to slide down so that she was walking on the sock part instead of the rubber sole part, half the time. Oh well.
I'm going to finally use the other half of the gift certificate my mother-in-law gave me last year, and get a 90-minute massage; plus I'm going to get a pedicure, just for kicks. This coming Saturday morning, that will be.
Doctor's appointment this morning. Just a checkup. I have to get some fasting lab work done, too, but the soonest they can get me in for that is in six weeks. Good grief. Not that I think my need is all that urgent, but it still seems remarkably long.
The weather forecast does not call for storms - we had scattered ones on Monday, which sadly mostly missed us, bringing maybe 1/4 of an inch max - but I have had a pounding headache all day. Bah.
Am reading a lot of kids' books recently, including classics like Louise Fitzhugh's and Madeleine L'Engle's books. It's kind of soothing to reread really old favorites.
Can anyone explain to me how libertarianism is NOT a horribly selfish and antisocial political philosophy? Because I don't see how it can be otherwise. I have been trying hard to refrain from online discussion in certain contexts because I'm not sure I could remain polite. The idea that free enterprise and less regulation can solve all our problems is such a ridiculous myth, shown to be so by actual facts, and yet the true believers will not acknowledge that. Sorry, getting ranty here, I will shut up.
Our monthly circulation food meeting is tomorrow - I am providing pizza. Yay. I think one pepperoni, and one vegetarian. There's a Pizza Hut only about 3 blocks away, and they have a $10 carryout deal, so I think that is where I will get it even though admittedly it's mediocre quality.
My muse is still absent. Sigh. If anyone sees her, want to point her my way?