dunkelpig suggested turkey wraps for lunch. So I got out the turkey cold cuts and the lime-habanero tortillas and avocado and mustard and relish and iced tea, and we sat down to lunch. Not alone, as Ista wanted in on the turkey and kept leaping up to put her front paws on D's leg. Even when dissuaded from that, she stared and meowed piteously until D., who ( Read more... )

A couple of weeks ago I came downstairs and found a biggish hole in a paper bag that I'd left on the kitchen table, and a corresponding hole in the croissant inside. I thought, "Mice? Ista [see pic], where were you?"

( You can see where this is going, can't you? )

October 5, 2010 Lights out: 124,000 CFLs recalled

Eastern American Trio Products is recalling 124,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs because they can overheat and catch fire. The company has four reports of incidents, including two fires.

The bulbs were sold in discount stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut from ( Read more... )

Yesterday I picked up our CSA farm share at the Farmers' Market. In the afternoon I cleaned out the fridge-with-top-mounted-freezer. I don't mean I ate a lot, I don't mean I threw away old or bad stuff (though I did). But our "self-defrosting" freezer has been building up worse and worse layers of frost, while things in the fridge section aren't ( Read more... )

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the top of the stairs in general. It's a pretty good outpost for keeping an ear and an eye on the whole house. The Boy, the Girl, and the Man and Woman all have their sleeping rooms up here. I can see out the downstairs window to keep an eye on the sidewalk and anyone coming up to the house. Except ( Read more... )

... a few days ago, to our daughter, on the sequel to an earlier, minor incident of the same kind:

Upside: The top right shelf is now rather cleaner than it was before.

No unsealed coffee in the fridge.

Love, Dad

She took it well enough.

[See "Music" tag. I never knew the words except for the title-refrain. Having it in my head just now, I searched for ( Read more... )

I keep telling my family that when they put glasses in the dishwasher they have to put them so just one upright "finger" of the rack is inside the glass, between two "fingers" on the outside, to keep the glass vertical and stable instead of leaning or falling over. But do they listen? No-o-o-o...

Just went out for samosas to accompany the chicken that bensanaz is roasting and the curry sauce that dunkelpig made yesterday. (crankyinfrance , wanted reassurance that wouldn't drive while plugged into the iPod; "Never," I assured her.)

But this time, going out and in, I remembered to replace the porch floodlight, which burned out a few days ago. There is light. And it is ( Read more... )

dunkelpig looked at the weather forecast last night and said "Better rake the leaves early, before the rain and snow. And if you can, trim the hedge at the end of the alley so I can see the cars coming." We live in a row house, one door down from the corner. The owner of the corner house rents it out, and neither he nor the renters do much about the bushes ( Read more... )

... Of me and my gal.

dunkelpig is baking an apple pie, which will delight all our eyes, noses, mouths, and tummies later today as talvinamarich, diannaamarich, and The Munchkin grace our table. She sat at the kitchen table and chopped and mixed and filled, as I brought her spices and rinsed apples and measured out flour in between unloading the dishwasher ( Read more... )