My Fair Lady - Final Layoff part 2
Jameson had to get up early (for him), so I got up too, to see if the vanilla bud had bloomed.
Not yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe I'll have an EASTER vanilla flower, wow!!
Thinking of Easter + nature makes me think of my mom <3
One of my favorite pictures of her. She died of pancreatic cancer in 2001. She was an amazing person and I sometimes feel that her love was so strong that it still directs and lights my life-path. She'd be thrilled to PIECES about this vanilla plant lol.
Anyway. Jameson was gone all morning and afternoon, so it was a quiet day of breakfast and caramel processing for me. I cut up and wrapped the first batch, and made the second. For the second batch I used vanilla paste, which has the vanilla seeds in it that are a nice texture and visual. I'm going to try and see if anyone has a preference for one or the other. If the difference is not that noticeable the extract is the cheaper option.
By the time I was done with caramels it was lunch time, so I ate leftover pork and veggies, then went for a neighborhood walk. It was "ok", not blazingly hot yet, but lots of pollen and cut grass blowing around.
When Jameson got back from rehearsal he had to choke down lunch and go right into a work meeting, so I used that time to cut up the second batch of caramels (they were JUST set enough for cutting.) It's over 250 pieces of caramel total, and unfortunately I'm going to have to ship at least one bag because that's too heavy for my luggage. To Spokane. Over Easter weekend. $$$.
It was a slow evening for us. Jameson watched baseball's opening day game, which turned into a riveting tie-breaker, and also gamed with his friends, one of whom was new to Hell Divers (their current game) so there was much hilarity as he stumbled around and was intentionally misguided by everyone else. While all of this was going on I looked ahead in my Foodie Finds and realized, I never completed these last four cities at all! I must have run out of steam and left it for Future Megan to do. Well...Future Megan is here, and DOES have more energy for it than Past Megan, if not much. So I completed the Spokane list and the Yakima list, then got stuck on Eugene Oregon because it's got decent options and we've only got 3 days there. At least I started it. Haven't gotten to Modesto yet but that's our last tour city so there's time.
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Friday (Good Friday if you do the Easter thing) I was up at 7am to ship caramels. I could have dropped them off last night, but then they would've been unrefrigerated all night. They don't "need" to be refrigerated but it extends their shelf life, and I wanted to keep them cold for as long as possible.
Shipping was less than I anticipated, so both bags were sent and they should arrive on Tuesday. The cashier asked if the declared value was over $100 and I almost said yes; if this were an Etsy operation those 250 caramels represent $100+ in income and at least six hours in the kitchen.
Anyway, that done I got home and checked on the vanilla. Still not blooming! Breakfast and some internet time before my first Papa Pal gig. I got an error message when I tried to call the client. Headed out anyway, logging my miles, and arriving 10 minutes late because I'd been unable to SEE the route ahead of time. In general this is a good concept, but the app is still very much in Beta and needs major fixes.
The job was just what I expected it to be. A woman greeted me at the door to her home, walked me through, and showed me what she'd like done. The description of the job was "light cleaning," and that's exactly what we did. She did laundry and worked on a playroom downstairs while I cleaned a small guest bathroom, then dusted a little, swept the floors, and mopped. I tried to be both efficient and thorough. Probably spent too much time on the bathroom and too little on dusting. Need more practice on my time management. Still, I completed everything she asked for, and we chatted politely as we worked.
The only thing that was a little odd was, she didn't have a vacuum. She wanted me to BRUSH her carpets out (groan.) That went beyond "light cleaning" IMO, but I can understand that if someone in the house doesn't like vacuums or if she grew up cleaning this way, it's just the way it is for her. And the carpets were small throw carpets anyway.
Since I had been 10 minutes late I also stayed 10 minutes late, because I don't rip people off. She said that I did a good job and she'd request me again. We'll see. This was a good way to dip my toe in the water with this Papa Pal app, and a good first client to experience. But Papa needs to fix their app, big time. They sent a bunch of surveys afterward, and I gave the most detailed and straightforward and blunt feedback that I could: basically that the app was useful for finding and booking the gig and almost nothing else. And if something goes wrong or there's an emergency, all that's there to help me is a crummy AI chat bot that just redirects to the company page no matter what you say. I'm not taking more work until that issue in particular is fixed; it's not safe for me or the client otherwise.
On the way back home I took a back road to avoid traffic, and around a curve was a little homestead with a sign "FARM FRESH EGGS" outside. I hit the brakes like so:
There was a big chicken run/coop in the back of the house, and I shyly pulled up and called to the person inside the coop. She came out and politely said, "No English!" but I said, "Egg?" and she nodded and held up "1" and "2" fingers which I took as "twelve", and we were off and running. Six bucks later I had a dozen lovely eggs. When I get back from tour I want to make us eggs Benedict, omelettes, and other nice things.
The rest of the afternoon was chill. I washed our sheets and did some minor packing and uploaded the Spokane Foodie Finds sheet, but felt very tired...probably from scrubbing someone's carpets clean with a hand brush, lol. Had a glass of wine to compensate.
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Saturday, woke up feeling ANXIOUS. I had no reason to be, but fight-or-flight can be triggered by the weirdest things. I ignored it and went about my day, starting with checking the vanilla...it STILL has not bloomed. Either I'll have an Easter vanilla flower, or I'll miss the bloom because I'll be gone on Monday.
Breakfast and to Publix for ingredients for "Faux Easter." Jameson is going out with friends on Sunday, so we agreed to do Easter dinner a night early. Publix was already pretty crazy, loads of people were last-minute shopping.
Back home I started to boil our month-old, store-bought eggs, but they all floated--I mean FLOATED, not just stood on end--which means they probably shouldn't be eaten. Good thing I got those farm eggs...although fresh eggs are the worst for boiling, the membrane sticks and they're super difficult to peel. Whatever, I boiled them and peeled them and made a tasty horseradish dill filling. They're ugly but will taste good. Then whipped some leftover heavy cream from the caramels, to make ambrosia. Another misfortune: I had frozen the cream thinking I wouldn't be using it again until after tour. This caused the cream to separate a bit, and it didn't quite whip up the way it should. Hopefully it'll still be ok since it's ambrosia and there's all sorts of chunky and fluffy crap mixed in. I used the Baking Yesteryear recipe which includes sour cream, pecans, mandarins, pineapple, cherries, and coconut.
Partway through the day a big box showed up with SIX jars of salsa, stewed green chiles, and red chile sauce. Who could this be from but my friend Lauren, who'd promised to send "some salsa", which apparently in her world means an entire case! Going to have to work some huevos rancheros, enchiladas, and other stuff into our repertoire. Thanks Laur :)
Faux Easter dinner was so easy. The deviled eggs and ambrosia already made, all I had to do was bake some Pillsbury croissants, roast some asparagus on a sheet tray with a little salt, pepper, parm, and lemon juice, and heat the ham steaks in a skillet with some brown sugar and pineapple. Declined to take a picture of it...just not in the mood. The ambrosia was good too, though the texture did suffer a bit from the separated cream.
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Happy Easter, if you celebrate it!
And what do you know, my vanilla did bloom for Easter :)
This is how the flower looked when I got outside around 8:30am. I couldn't tell if it had already bloomed and was closing, or had just opened up, so decided to go ahead with pollination. This required a precariously-placed ladder, a toothpick, and both of my hands raised above my head to reach the flower, so unfortunately I couldn't document the event this time. I pretty much had to rip the flower on one side to access the reproductive organs (stamen, pistil, and pollen sac); then use the toothpick to hold back a flap covering the pollen sac and blocking the pistil; and then while holding the flap back, fold the stamen down to touch the pistil and press it there for a while. There is a specific bee that used to pollinate vanilla flowers, but it is unfortunately endangered/rare.
Video of pollination w/explanation (CLICK HERE to watch)
Diagram:
I followed the steps but have no idea if it was successful. Even with the ladder the flower was well above eye level, so it was hard to see. Whether it takes or not, I was grateful for the chance to see the bloom. Vanilla flowers only bloom for a few hours, and for one to do it while I happen to be home from tour, AND on Easter, is a beautiful thing that I'm very grateful for.
The flower did open up further a little later when the sun was stronger. You can see where I tore it, on the left. The bud on the right will likely bloom tomorrow or Tuesday, I won't be here for that one.
After that was breakfast and a quick drive to a bagel place for Travel Bagel (I got two, French toast and sun-dried tomato) and then while Jameson was at the gym I trimmed the banana trees and weeded and swept the pool patio. A last load of laundry, eating up leftovers for both lunch and dinner, checking in for my flight, booking a cab to come get me at 4:45am tomorrow (blarrrgh).
After Jameson left for his outing at 5, the house was so quiet. I lit a candle, made some tea, watched the sun set, and felt that strange blend of happiness, sadness, and longing that is nostalgia. I am glad for this adventure. And hopeful for whatever comes next.
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Tomorrow is one of the longest flying days, and days in general, that I'll have during this tour (the only thing to beat it is Disney's Candlelight rehearsal back in November, an all-nighter.) I'll be up at 4:45am, and will arrive in Spokane around 12:30 noon if everything's on time. Will I have already eaten dinner by then? Maybe!! Lol.
It will be a busy week, but not as busy as New Mexico was. I'm excited to see a new city :)
Not yet. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe I'll have an EASTER vanilla flower, wow!!
Thinking of Easter + nature makes me think of my mom <3
One of my favorite pictures of her. She died of pancreatic cancer in 2001. She was an amazing person and I sometimes feel that her love was so strong that it still directs and lights my life-path. She'd be thrilled to PIECES about this vanilla plant lol.
Anyway. Jameson was gone all morning and afternoon, so it was a quiet day of breakfast and caramel processing for me. I cut up and wrapped the first batch, and made the second. For the second batch I used vanilla paste, which has the vanilla seeds in it that are a nice texture and visual. I'm going to try and see if anyone has a preference for one or the other. If the difference is not that noticeable the extract is the cheaper option.
By the time I was done with caramels it was lunch time, so I ate leftover pork and veggies, then went for a neighborhood walk. It was "ok", not blazingly hot yet, but lots of pollen and cut grass blowing around.
When Jameson got back from rehearsal he had to choke down lunch and go right into a work meeting, so I used that time to cut up the second batch of caramels (they were JUST set enough for cutting.) It's over 250 pieces of caramel total, and unfortunately I'm going to have to ship at least one bag because that's too heavy for my luggage. To Spokane. Over Easter weekend. $$$.
It was a slow evening for us. Jameson watched baseball's opening day game, which turned into a riveting tie-breaker, and also gamed with his friends, one of whom was new to Hell Divers (their current game) so there was much hilarity as he stumbled around and was intentionally misguided by everyone else. While all of this was going on I looked ahead in my Foodie Finds and realized, I never completed these last four cities at all! I must have run out of steam and left it for Future Megan to do. Well...Future Megan is here, and DOES have more energy for it than Past Megan, if not much. So I completed the Spokane list and the Yakima list, then got stuck on Eugene Oregon because it's got decent options and we've only got 3 days there. At least I started it. Haven't gotten to Modesto yet but that's our last tour city so there's time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday (Good Friday if you do the Easter thing) I was up at 7am to ship caramels. I could have dropped them off last night, but then they would've been unrefrigerated all night. They don't "need" to be refrigerated but it extends their shelf life, and I wanted to keep them cold for as long as possible.
Shipping was less than I anticipated, so both bags were sent and they should arrive on Tuesday. The cashier asked if the declared value was over $100 and I almost said yes; if this were an Etsy operation those 250 caramels represent $100+ in income and at least six hours in the kitchen.
Anyway, that done I got home and checked on the vanilla. Still not blooming! Breakfast and some internet time before my first Papa Pal gig. I got an error message when I tried to call the client. Headed out anyway, logging my miles, and arriving 10 minutes late because I'd been unable to SEE the route ahead of time. In general this is a good concept, but the app is still very much in Beta and needs major fixes.
The job was just what I expected it to be. A woman greeted me at the door to her home, walked me through, and showed me what she'd like done. The description of the job was "light cleaning," and that's exactly what we did. She did laundry and worked on a playroom downstairs while I cleaned a small guest bathroom, then dusted a little, swept the floors, and mopped. I tried to be both efficient and thorough. Probably spent too much time on the bathroom and too little on dusting. Need more practice on my time management. Still, I completed everything she asked for, and we chatted politely as we worked.
The only thing that was a little odd was, she didn't have a vacuum. She wanted me to BRUSH her carpets out (groan.) That went beyond "light cleaning" IMO, but I can understand that if someone in the house doesn't like vacuums or if she grew up cleaning this way, it's just the way it is for her. And the carpets were small throw carpets anyway.
Since I had been 10 minutes late I also stayed 10 minutes late, because I don't rip people off. She said that I did a good job and she'd request me again. We'll see. This was a good way to dip my toe in the water with this Papa Pal app, and a good first client to experience. But Papa needs to fix their app, big time. They sent a bunch of surveys afterward, and I gave the most detailed and straightforward and blunt feedback that I could: basically that the app was useful for finding and booking the gig and almost nothing else. And if something goes wrong or there's an emergency, all that's there to help me is a crummy AI chat bot that just redirects to the company page no matter what you say. I'm not taking more work until that issue in particular is fixed; it's not safe for me or the client otherwise.
On the way back home I took a back road to avoid traffic, and around a curve was a little homestead with a sign "FARM FRESH EGGS" outside. I hit the brakes like so:
There was a big chicken run/coop in the back of the house, and I shyly pulled up and called to the person inside the coop. She came out and politely said, "No English!" but I said, "Egg?" and she nodded and held up "1" and "2" fingers which I took as "twelve", and we were off and running. Six bucks later I had a dozen lovely eggs. When I get back from tour I want to make us eggs Benedict, omelettes, and other nice things.
The rest of the afternoon was chill. I washed our sheets and did some minor packing and uploaded the Spokane Foodie Finds sheet, but felt very tired...probably from scrubbing someone's carpets clean with a hand brush, lol. Had a glass of wine to compensate.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, woke up feeling ANXIOUS. I had no reason to be, but fight-or-flight can be triggered by the weirdest things. I ignored it and went about my day, starting with checking the vanilla...it STILL has not bloomed. Either I'll have an Easter vanilla flower, or I'll miss the bloom because I'll be gone on Monday.
Breakfast and to Publix for ingredients for "Faux Easter." Jameson is going out with friends on Sunday, so we agreed to do Easter dinner a night early. Publix was already pretty crazy, loads of people were last-minute shopping.
Back home I started to boil our month-old, store-bought eggs, but they all floated--I mean FLOATED, not just stood on end--which means they probably shouldn't be eaten. Good thing I got those farm eggs...although fresh eggs are the worst for boiling, the membrane sticks and they're super difficult to peel. Whatever, I boiled them and peeled them and made a tasty horseradish dill filling. They're ugly but will taste good. Then whipped some leftover heavy cream from the caramels, to make ambrosia. Another misfortune: I had frozen the cream thinking I wouldn't be using it again until after tour. This caused the cream to separate a bit, and it didn't quite whip up the way it should. Hopefully it'll still be ok since it's ambrosia and there's all sorts of chunky and fluffy crap mixed in. I used the Baking Yesteryear recipe which includes sour cream, pecans, mandarins, pineapple, cherries, and coconut.
Partway through the day a big box showed up with SIX jars of salsa, stewed green chiles, and red chile sauce. Who could this be from but my friend Lauren, who'd promised to send "some salsa", which apparently in her world means an entire case! Going to have to work some huevos rancheros, enchiladas, and other stuff into our repertoire. Thanks Laur :)
Faux Easter dinner was so easy. The deviled eggs and ambrosia already made, all I had to do was bake some Pillsbury croissants, roast some asparagus on a sheet tray with a little salt, pepper, parm, and lemon juice, and heat the ham steaks in a skillet with some brown sugar and pineapple. Declined to take a picture of it...just not in the mood. The ambrosia was good too, though the texture did suffer a bit from the separated cream.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Happy Easter, if you celebrate it!
And what do you know, my vanilla did bloom for Easter :)
This is how the flower looked when I got outside around 8:30am. I couldn't tell if it had already bloomed and was closing, or had just opened up, so decided to go ahead with pollination. This required a precariously-placed ladder, a toothpick, and both of my hands raised above my head to reach the flower, so unfortunately I couldn't document the event this time. I pretty much had to rip the flower on one side to access the reproductive organs (stamen, pistil, and pollen sac); then use the toothpick to hold back a flap covering the pollen sac and blocking the pistil; and then while holding the flap back, fold the stamen down to touch the pistil and press it there for a while. There is a specific bee that used to pollinate vanilla flowers, but it is unfortunately endangered/rare.
Video of pollination w/explanation (CLICK HERE to watch)
Diagram:
I followed the steps but have no idea if it was successful. Even with the ladder the flower was well above eye level, so it was hard to see. Whether it takes or not, I was grateful for the chance to see the bloom. Vanilla flowers only bloom for a few hours, and for one to do it while I happen to be home from tour, AND on Easter, is a beautiful thing that I'm very grateful for.
The flower did open up further a little later when the sun was stronger. You can see where I tore it, on the left. The bud on the right will likely bloom tomorrow or Tuesday, I won't be here for that one.
After that was breakfast and a quick drive to a bagel place for Travel Bagel (I got two, French toast and sun-dried tomato) and then while Jameson was at the gym I trimmed the banana trees and weeded and swept the pool patio. A last load of laundry, eating up leftovers for both lunch and dinner, checking in for my flight, booking a cab to come get me at 4:45am tomorrow (blarrrgh).
After Jameson left for his outing at 5, the house was so quiet. I lit a candle, made some tea, watched the sun set, and felt that strange blend of happiness, sadness, and longing that is nostalgia. I am glad for this adventure. And hopeful for whatever comes next.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow is one of the longest flying days, and days in general, that I'll have during this tour (the only thing to beat it is Disney's Candlelight rehearsal back in November, an all-nighter.) I'll be up at 4:45am, and will arrive in Spokane around 12:30 noon if everything's on time. Will I have already eaten dinner by then? Maybe!! Lol.
It will be a busy week, but not as busy as New Mexico was. I'm excited to see a new city :)