I'm Actually Slightly Early Today - Not Rushed! It's a Miracle! - LOL

Today is a busy day - I have to work, of course, but I also have my MCD course in the middle of the day, and I start the day out with a good swim while listening to the latest book in my series (which I successfully downloaded yesterday afternoon). Apparently, when I purchased the audio book for this volume in the series, I inadvertently chose MP4 instead of MP3 as a download mode. My headphones require MP3, so I went back in and downloaded the correct format, moved it over to the headphones, and voila! Success! LOL I think it's the last book of the series too. Then I'll move on to a different author for the next year+ of listening. 

I have too much open space in my brain these days, 
and according to the doctors, that's a problem - LOL. 
I'm not super happy about it, but I don't think there's 
much that I can do about it except learn to deal with it 
as effectively as possible for as long as possible. 

I have my MCD (Mild Cognitive Disorder) gathering this afternoon. I'm looking forward to it. We're going to be discussing the foundational pillars of living with memory loss, and today's pillar is Nutrition. It's one thing in my life that I'm quite conscious of and that I have put a lot of work and research into. I'm pretty confident that I'm doing this aspect of living with MCD in a very thorough way. 

My "Ogre Juice" recipe always changes to mesh with whatever 
looks really good in the produce section of the grocery store. 
The only guarantee is that it will be green - LOL - like Shrek. 
Thus, my nickname for the beverage/food.  

Speaking of food, I harvested the last of my hot peppers yesterday afternoon, got them washed, cut and into the dehydrator, and I should probably try to find time to take them out of the dehydrator when I get home from the gym. But, I might let them sit there until tomorrow when I can pull them and put them through the grinder so that I can add them to my spice jars. We're expecting a weekend of below zero temperatures, so I had to rescue whatever I could. It was a good year for my peppers. 

My dehydrator was packed full of peppers when I got it 
started yesterday afternoon. I'll check on them when I get 
home from swimming. I had them on a ten-hour cycle, 
and I think they'll be fine to pull tonight and process 
(grind) tomorrow. 

So, even though I'm early (for a change), I'm going to wrap this up and start my day. I plan on being back here tomorrow for a "day off" and a "Make Ogre Juice" day. I also bought some fresh cranberries from my co-op yesterday and want to make my cranberry sauce. I love fresh cranberries - they're VERY tasty and quite easy to cook and pulverize. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Thunder in the Kitchen and This and That

I started my morning up by getting up at 3:00 am instead of the 4:00 am I usually use on Saturdays. I harvested a bunch of my herbs from the garden yesterday and the first batch was due to come out of the dehydrator early this morning, to be replaced by Batch #2 while I processed Batch #1. I wanted that extra hour to be able to get everything processed quickly. Well, I got everything processed, but Thyme is my usual bad child - it's SO time consuming. It's worth it for the freshly dehydrated herbs over the winter months, but it took 90 minutes instead of 60 and I gave up on the treadmill this morning. 

Rosemary is an herb that is a joy to process. It strips off 
the central branch with ease. It also pulverizes in my 
grinder very well. I love rosemary. 

To accompany my endless stripping of thyme, I listened to a lot of thunderstorm on the other side of my kitchen window. We were under a thunderstorm watch, and it was quite intense there for a while, even causing my lights to flicker on and off several times. The worst of it is now headed towards Wisconsin, and the thunder is a low growl in the East. But when it was overhead, it was gnarly. 

Thyme, on the other hand, is my bad child. It's a 
lot of curled and clustered stems with VERY small 
leaves. It takes FOREVER to get the leaves off 
from their stems and into the grinder. I think it 
took me almost an hour to get my thyme stripped, 
ground and put away. But it'w a lovely taste! 

I now have my second batch of herbs in the dehydrator. I'll pull those out tonight and get them processed either tonight or tomorrow. This batch is Lemon Thyme (which will be every bit as time consuming, I'm sure), and Oregano. It's the first time I've had Oregano in the garden and I'm looking forward to seeing the differences between freshly harvested and dried vs store bought. 

I've never had oregano in my garden before, and since we 
didn't have a pot for it, it never grew very large. But it did 
bush out, and I got a nice first crop. We'll see how well 
it releases from the stem tonight when I'm dealing with 
today's dehydrator load. 

I ordered a frame for a larger water color yesterday. It's a black frame which will suit the picture, and this time I'll be doing the assembly on my own with a couple of new pieces of joining hardware that I've never used before. In days past, I drilled holes and used nails that were then disguised with colored pastes. Rook will give me a quick tutorial when I pick the chopped frame up next week. The proper frame can make or break a piece of artwork, so I'm picky about my frame choices. Cost is one factor, but appearance is just as important. 

I'll be using something similar to these to stabilize the 
corners of my frames. They chop the frame for me 
(which I could do, but it's worth the extra cost to have 
one less thing to do). They also make any cuts in the 
corners necessary for the type of hardware I've chosen. 
I've never used the fastening style Rook advised for 
me, but I'm willing to learn. He'll teach me how to use 
the pins properly. 

So, the storm has passed, the dehydrator is dehydrating, and I've showered and dressed for work. I guess I should grab some breakfast and see what the day has to offer today. I hope all of you have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday morning. Slava Ukraini. 

Pineapple and Traffic - Nothing In Common Except They Both Happened Wednesday

A short post today, because I'm tight on time at 3:45 am. Yeah ... short on time. But I had to get the dehydrator that I had working all night back up to the kitchen, downloaded, cleaned and put away before I could settle down to write this (and of course I had to do my daily meditation before doing anything else). It was a good thing I awakened at 2:00 am and simply wasn't in the mood for more sleep - LOL. 

Just look at these beauties! They were beautifully golden, 
which is ripe, but not quite over-ripe. They were absolutely 
perfect for my dehydrator and I'll be enjoying snacking 
on them for a couple of weeks. 

So, after a delightful meditation, I followed my nose to the basement area where I use my dehydrator on top of my clothes dryer (it's a flat surface, has a convenient outlet on the wall, and is easy to clean if needed). Gabbing the dehydrator, I carried it up to the kitchen where I unloaded it into two large containers of lovely, dried pineapple to nosh on for the next couple of weeks. So yummy! 

I cut off the rough skin, and the tops and bottoms. Then 
I slice into pieces, and each slice gets cut up into 
smaller pieces. Two pineapples can make a load that 
will happily last me for several weeks. Yum! 

I really didn't need any pineapple, but when I saw these two beautifully ripe fruit at the grocer yesterday, I simply couldn't resist. Dried pineapple is one of my absolutely favorite snacks, and they dry up beautifully in the larger dehydrator that I purchased 2-3 years ago. That's been a good investment. I've actually used it quite a bit (for one of those appliances that often gather dust in the corner of a kitchen cabinet). 

I wasn't cutting itsy-bitsy pieces, they were reasonable 
pieces for munching (and a couple of them didn't make 
it into the dehydrator at all - LOL). This is one pineapple 
cored, sliced and cut, and I had two pineapples, so it 
was a nice amount of lovely fruit to eat. 

Yesterday started out with a bang for me. I had a great swim, then went home quickly with about 30 minutes to eat breakfast and leave for the shop. I had to get the computers up for Chickie since both DH and I needed to meet with our financial attorney at 8:00 am. Traffic was a DISASTER - slow, lots of road construction, etc. So when Google Maps suggested I pull off onto Normandale Blvd. I obeyed, over the objections of DH. Google led me south and then west. It was a slower route than the freeway (lots more traffic lights), but the traffic was light, and we were able to be at the meeting on time. 

I think that EVERY freeway heading East to West in or 
around the Metro area is under road construction right 
now. It's a MESS. I refuse to drive to Minneapolis for any 
reason if I can skip it. Unfortunately, this was an important 
meeting so the traffic had to be tackled. 

We were joined by our stockbroker who is still recovering from foot surgery. He wrecked himself up on the ski slopes last winter and is still paying the price. He says he'll be back up on the skis this coming winter, but not on that particular slope. Probably a good idea - LOL. It was wonderful to see Tom, though. I've known him for decades now and he's a sharp guy - a good person to have in your financial corner. The meeting was good, and I even got DH back to the store shortly after opening, so it was a win. Then I treated myself with my weekly run to the grocery store where I found the pineapples - LOL. See? It all comes together in the end. 

I'm off to the swimming pool. Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Brains, Pineapple and My Treadmill - It Was a Day of This and That

I had a really good conversation with my memory doc, who agrees with me - it's auditory instructions and commands that I have difficulty remembering. Written items are usually no problem and my problem solving skills are sharp. I have what's called Mild Cognitive Impairment, and we'll keep an eye on it. I'll take the tests again in a year because there is a slight possibility that the results were also swayed by any drugs or therapy I was taking for my cancer. Score one for me (well, maybe score 1/2 since there is some mental decline - LOL). 

The Doc stressed that the MCI does NOT mean I'm 
one step away from dementia or Alzheimer's. In fact, 
he thinks some of it might have been tinged by my 
cancer and the treatments for my cancer. So we'll keep 
an eye on things and I'll go back and play games again 
in another year. I loved the exam, there were parts that were 
a bit of GRRRR, but in general, I thought it was great fun. 

It was a very productive day off, too. I made a HUGE batch of my baked fruit - that's part of my daily breakfast and I was down to a single container. The refrigerator is now packed! LOL I also did two loads of DH and household laundry that I hadn't had the time for on Wednesday, and I cut up and put two pineapples into my dehydrator. I started today out, even before my treadmill, by taking the dried pieces out, washing the shelving, and putting the dehydrator back into the cabinet where it belongs. I now have two lovely containers of dried pineapple to munch on. 

I had purchased two beautifully ripe pineapples 
earlier in the week with the intention of tossing 
them into the dehydrator. I love dried pineapple 
chunks and my dehydrator does a GREAT job 
with that fruit. 

I had put a bunch of $1.99 ebooks into my B&N shopping cart, and then DH called me upstairs to watch some of the hockey playoffs with him. By the time I got back to my cart, the 24-hour special pricing had expired. I pulled all of the books off my shopping cart and only got the few I had planned to buy anyway. Rather frustrating, but I'll probably be just fine without the additional books in my TBR list. 

This is my baby - my Matrix treadmill. I love it, I use 
it three or more times a week, and it's what's keeping 
me sane during all of this mental and cancer junk. I 
might not have all of my marbles any more, but I'm toned 
and fit physically - LOL. 

I also gathered together the information requested for my treadmill and sent that off to Customer Support. I texted Elizabeth while I was in this process, thinking that I might need a copy of the invoice. It turns out that I did need one, but that the very first Customer Service person I had texted had responded with the next steps as well as a copy of the invoice just in case. Great people! I got all of the information emailed out to the appropriate people, and hopefully I'll hear back from them soon. The treadmill works just fine, but there are a couple of things I'm noticing that I want checked out and/or fixed. 

I hope you have a great weekend - one with friends, 
family, pets and fun. I'll be back on Monday to start 
off the week with all of you. 

So, as you can tell, I was busy, busy, busy. I think that's a good thing - LOL. Have an excellent Saturday and weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

LJ Idol, Lighting, Dehydrating and the Treadmill - Lots Going On

I survived my latest LJ Idol challenge, and the next one has been issued. I'll be turning this one around in my head for a bit, but not for too long. The deadline is on Thursday. I enjoy contests like this - writing challenges in school were always my favorite thing. To pick something up from a minimal theme and write something worth reading was always a fun quest. Now to cogitate ... LOL. 

I'm starting to get excited about getting my new 
treadmill. It's one step closer ... but not quite here 
yet. I'll have to really educate DH about how I need 
this taken care of. He's a bit of a slob, and I'm not having 
my new machine mishandled. 

I bought peaches and a pineapple at the store yesterday, thinking to put them into the dehydrator for some lovely snacks. The peaches cut up into three trays worth of fruit, so I did those overnight. Then, after my morning meditation, I brought the dried peaches up, pulled them off the trays and into a baggie for storage, and then cleaned everything, cut up the pineapple, and put that fruit into the dehydrator to dry throughout the day. The cycle should be finished in the early evening, giving me plenty of time to empty and clean the dehydrator and then return it to the cupboard where I keep it. 

I love my new dehydrator, and I've been using it 
a lot. I bought extra mesh shelving and catch trays 
for it - just received those last week. That opened me 
up to being able to do the fruit that I've been doing 
yesterday and today. 

I'm having a kitchen ceiling light that's trying to die. *sigh* There's nothing that bothers me much more than a flickering light, so as soon as I drop my laptop off at the store, I'm heading over to Menard's hardware store for a quick purchase of replacement bulbs. My fixture takes two ring fluorescent bulbs - a 12" and an 8". The 12" is flickering a lot, but it doesn't make sense to me to only replace the single bulb. If one is going (and they were both purchased and replaced at the same time), the other one is surely going to be going soon. So, I'll look for two circular fluorescent bulbs and hopefully get those changed tonight. Flickering lights drive me CRAZY. 

My kitchen fixture is similar to this. It used to have 
a square shade around it, but the shade broke from 
old age and I haven't found a replacement that looks 
decent. So I keep the bulbs uncovered. At least it 
gives me very good lighting in my kitchen - an important 
room to have good lighting in while using sharp knives. 

I texted back and forth with the saleswoman for my treadmill yesterday. Apparently, on Wednesday, her phone decided that a dunk in a body of water was called for, and therefore, died. She spent Thursday getting a new phone and then hours of work getting it set up again and downloading the many things she had, including my sales proposal. She's back up and running now, and we discussed which of two screens I wanted, as well as the strictures on our delivery date because of Chickie's upcoming vacation. She'll check with her delivery people, send me a final copy of the invoice for payment, and I'll get the money transferred to her when everything is set up properly. I can hardly wait to get my new treadmill, even though it might not actually arrive until early next month (depending on their own delivery schedule meshing with Chickie's planned days off). 

I'm looking forward to my dehydrated pineapple. The peaches 
that I did overnight turned out wonderful, and I'm sure the 
pineapple also will. I love having dehydrated fruit for a 
quick pick-me-up snack. 

So, as I have my pineapple drying in the dehydrator, my new theme for the next story assigned, and my basic schedule for the day established, I hope you have a wonderful Saturday. We've cooled off considerably from our very HOT State Fair, and even though it's comfortable, I'm back in long sleeved shirts and jeans. It might be comfortable, but I'm usually cold, no matter what. Why I live in the Frozen Northlands is a mystery to me sometimes - LOL. Have an excellent weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini! 

Harvesting, the Olympics and ... Well, There's Not Much Else, Right?

Yesterday was a "day off" for me, and I spent the day with the garden, the dehydrator and the Olympics. In other words, it was a delightful day. I barely touched the computer at all, so I have a lot of catch-up to do with my friends' posts and reading'/voting for stories on LJ Idol. BTW, I hope you've had a chance to read my own story, and if you feel it has merit, I'd appreciate your vote. If you need the URL, just message me or comment and I'll pass it along, otherwise, check yesterday's post. 

I still have a good amount of thyme left in the pot, but 
I harvested quite a bit also. The new dehydrator works 
really well with my herbs. I'm very pleased. It even has 
two mesh trays and catch-basins for the small things 
like these little leaves when they dry. 

I harvested lots of thyme and almost the last of my rosemary yesterday, and put them into the dehydrator overnight. I just spent 1/2 hour in the kitchen stripping the branches and putting them into containers. I'll check the appearance tonight, and if necessary I'll put them through the grinder to get a uniform cut for cooking use. 

My fresh rosemary is almost all harvested. That's a shame, 
because it's such a lovely herb. I use rosemary whenever 
I bake salmon, so it actually gets quite a lot 
of use during Lent since I bake salmon every Friday for 
my dinner. 

I also harvested a bunch of cherry tomatoes, but I usually have quite a few with my evening salads, so I'm not worried about having them go bad before I eat them. I have them in a container on top of the microwave, looking bright and cheery in their brilliant red and yellow colored skins. So good! I ended up with seven jars of dried and ground peppers. I'd really like to get those jars out of the cupboard and onto shelving so that I can use them in my cooking. I'm thinking maybe some very small shelving on the sides of my spice cabinet. I'll have to talk to DH about that, though. If I install something like that without consulting him, he'll have a total hissy fit. 

My cherry tomatoes (I have several plants of them) are 
doing beautifully. I'm harvesting some every day. I picked 
quite a lot of them yesterday. If I get overwhelmed, it'll be 
more things for the dehydrator. Options abound! LOL

The Olympics was marvelous, as always. So many things to see. Here at home, I'm stuck - I watch the channel that DH had on, and I have no idea what the other channels are that are holding the games. So I'm watching network, and that's often not the sports I'm most interested in. At the shop, I have all three channels written down, so no problem switching from this to that. By the time I get the home channels figured out, they'll be over - LOL. Now we're starting track and field, so different athletes, and almost no swimming or gymnastics (there's still some, but not a lot left). That's good. I think it's time to move on from those two dominant categories and onward to running, throwing and jumping. 

Apparently each medal awarded has an actual small piece 
of the Eiffel Tower inside them. I think that's actually a 
pretty cool thing. 

Well, I've got to get an order scanned in and sent to one of my suppliers, so I'll end it here. I hope you have a truly lovely Saturday and weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Hug your loved ones, do something you really enjoy, and share it with me in comments on Monday's post. Slava Ukraini. 

The New Dehydrator - Plus and Minus AND a False Alarm at the Shop

I took a deep breath yesterday (after grocery shopping and dropping a few things off at the electronics recycling location). It was time to open the box and test out the new dehydrator. I had ordered it on that Monday night when I was basically sleepwalking after an argument that DH and I had. I knew I needed something with more power, because my little one simply wasn't getting things dried out sufficiently and I had to toss things that were developing storage issues. So, I indulged and ordered a new one - not checking all three dimensions. 18" depth, fine. 12" width, fine. The height ... well, that turned out to be not so good - by about 1-1/2 inches. Oy! 

I finally could unbox and try out the new 
dehydrator yesterday. I really like it. It 
does a great job and it's really quiet. 

But I really wanted this new dehydrator. I didn't want to actually check it out if I didn't have a place in which to put it, though, so I started rearranging cupboards. It finally found a home in a different bottom cupboard, next to my stock pots and stew pots. It fills that cupboard completely now, but it has a home, so I brought it downstairs, harvested new thyme and rosemary (the last batch I had tried to dry had molded, so I tossed that out quickly). The idea with herbs is that they get crispy. I placed the herbs on the ultra-fine mesh that was included for that exact purpose and turned the machine on. Oh! It's really quiet. It will take me a bit to get accustomed to the controls, but that's a minimal thing. When I returned to pull the herbs out, they were wonderfully done. Crispy and absolutely perfect. I'm quite pleased. 

I adore Jalapeno peppers, and use them in a lot of my 
cooking over the colder months. There's nothing like 
a few pinches of peppers in a soup to make it zing! 

I then started a batch of three different hot peppers that I had harvested, but had been afraid to dry in the old dehydrator. I had Jalapeno, Serrano and Ristra peppers ready to be dried, so I cut them down. I decided to not cut too much, I wanted to really see how well the dehydrator removed the moisture. Peppers don't need to be crispy, they turn leathery when dried properly. I then put them through the blender/chopper and store them, adding them in recipes for the year. 

I'm not getting enough peppers from my Ristra peppers 
to bother making a ristra, so I'm drying them instead. 
They have a lovely flavor - not as hot as a Jalapeno, 
and a bit sweeter. It's why they have been tied into 
ristras forever and used in cooking throughout the 
year. As a New Mexican native, I'm quite familiar 
with ristras. 

My third type of pepper for the dehydrator 
yesterday was this one - Serrano. Serrano is 
mild, with lots of seeds. I cut all of my 
peppers apart and pull out the seeds. That's 
where the heat is, and I'm really after the 
flavor of the rind instead of the heat of the 
seeds. 

I checked the peppers this morning at 3:30 am and they were perfect. I pulled them, put all of the shelving, etc back into the dehydrator, and put it away into the cabinet. I'm quite happy. Of course, I'm also a bit off kilter at the same time because my security alarm company called me last night around 9:00 pm for a "front door breach and glass break" alarm. That's not what I ever like to hear, so I drove out immediately to check. Fortunately, this one was a false alarm. I called the company back and reported in that I had cleared and reset the alarm and that everything looked just fine. It's the regional Street Rod Championships Friday through Sunday, and there is increased traffic and probably some vibrations that are more unusual outside the store. It's possible that one of the cars set off my alarm with a loud muffler or booming bass from the radio. At least it was a false alarm, although I sacrificed almost an hour of sleep due to it. So, I'm out of here. I have a busy day at the shop ahead of me, but it's Saturday. It's a slightly shorter day and I get a Sunday off to relax. Have an excellent weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

Sleep? Not Me (Not Good, Either) - and a New Dehydrator Ordered

Sunday was a lovely day - not too hot, not too cold, and just a hint of breeze. We actually took some time and sat outside for a while. But DH was tired and feeling a bit under the weather, so he went in. That allowed me to pull out my dehydrator, clip some of my rosemary and thyme, and put the sprigs into the dehydrator to dry properly. (I could hang them, like in a still room of old, but I really don't have the patience for that). After having them in at 95F for more than six hours, however, I admitted defeat and have decided that my dehydrator just isn't quite good enough for what I want. I've ordered a different one on sale at Amazon, and hopefully it will be able to do a better job on my peppers and herbs. 

This dehydrator is larger than my little one, with a much 
better door and more shelving. Amazon had it on 
sale for a good price, and I'm using a dehydrator more than 
I thought I would, so consider the upgrade to be a 
worthwhile thing. 

I'm sleepless, though. DH might have gotten an afternoon nap, but I just can't get to sleep. So I posted the link for this week's voting in LJ Idol and the link to my story, and I hope that I will get some of you to vote for me because I'd dearly love to continue writing to prompts. Our moderator always comes up with some really interesting themes and prompts that always get my thinking out of my box. 

https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=31569

So, here it is, 12:18 am, and my alarm is set to go off at 4:00 am. I might change it to 5:00 am, just because, but I can't get away with much more than that. I don't swim on Mondays, so that's a bit of a blessing. When I'm in the pool, I have to be out the door at 4:15 am for my 5:00 am pool time. I might be sleepwalking a bit during the work day today, but I won't be drowning - LOL. 

I'm totally going to be sleepwalking later today 
(since it's after midnight already). I'd better try 
again to get some sleep. 

Still, I'm going to be good, and call this quits here, go back to bed and try really hard to get some sleep. It's one of those time when my body is exhausted, but my brain just won't stop twirling around. I really HATE times like that - they're quite inconvenient. Have an excellent Monday and Slava Ukraini (which, I'm quite sure won't happen if Trump is elected *sigh*). 

Peppers and Belt Sanders - An Adventure in Texts

I've got my first load of the season in my little dehydrator. Two days ago I harvested the first peppers from the multitude of pepper varieties DH purchased for the garden this year. I currently have a Hot Banana, a Ristra Cayenne, a Jalapeno (fat and sassy), a Sweet Pepper and four Hot Peppers in my dehydrator. I dry them, put them through my mini food processor, and then into jars in my cupboard to use in my cooking for the coming year. It's like bringing a bit of July sunshine into my winter recipes, and I love it. 

A pepper similar to this - a Hot Banana Pepper 
is one of the five varieties currently in my 
little dehydrator getting dried for my soups 
and salads. Yummy! 

I've got to decide on a summer soup to make later today. I used up the last of last week's soup for yesterday's dinner, and need something for the upcoming week. Soup is always a winner, and I downloaded five different recipes to try a week ago. The first one was a grand success, I can't wait to try some of the other four I decided were worth the try. 

My Ristra Cayenne pepper is green, 
just like this photo. All the Ristra 
peppers I've known in the past have been 
red, though, so I'm a bit confused. I'll 
have to look this up and figure it out. 
Meanwhile, I've got one of these in the 
dehydrator too. 

So I'll actually have foodstuffs to get at the store today. Originally DH had been talking about having me work today while he did the fence, but the fact that it rained overnight and misted yesterday morning stopped that thought. We need that fence as dry as possible. The respirator arrived at the shop yesterday and I brought it home with me, so he's set on that. Oh! ... 

I think the belt sander looks similar to this, but 
it wasn't visible as I pulled into the garage. This 
is smaller than I envisioned, but it's probably more 
correct than the much larger version I had in 
my head. 

The latest DH "adventure" was the assembly of a belt sander that I had purchased for him more than a decade ago. I think he wants to use it to make the vegetable recycling bin, and yes, the belt sander would make it a lot faster than using the orbital sander. I'm grateful that I wasn't home. Here's the conversation on my phone: 

DH- Glad u not home, cursing up a storm trying to get my belt sander assembled after all these years. 

ME- So VERY glad I'm not home for that one. 

DH- Should never have gotten out of bed. Directions suck, I've lost parts, my headlamp is shot, and I don't dare use your flashlight the way today is going (I've threatened him with great bodily harm if he EVER uses my flashlight again - he's broken two of them and a good flashlight is hard to find.) 

ME- Probably wise to step back and have a soothing cup of tea. 

DH- I've been working in this for 4 freaking hours. Do you have a head lamp anywhere?

ME- No, my headlamp is tied into those eyeglasses I wear when I bead. Sorry. 

DH- I quit, you're gonna have to park in driveway for the next week. 

ME- Week!?!?! What the hell?!? I can if I have to, but really ... WTH???!!!

DH- I gonna have to wait til u get here and hopefully I can get this next part done. 

ME- OK. You need a second set of hands?

DH- I finally got light into it, but I can't get allen wrench to seat correctly, and when I do, it's up against the guard so I can't turn it. 

ME- That's a PITA. Is there a different type of wrench that might work? Maybe something used on cars?

DH- I think I finally got . Whoever engineered this outta be put out to pasture. What a stupic set up. 

ME- Only thing that matters is that it works. If I need to park outside for a couple of days, I'll manage. I swim tomorrow (Wednesday) and Friday and I'm off from work for three days in a row (jumping up and down for joy). I have lots of things to do, but not at the shop. 

DH- Now my lamp just fell on the floor and broke. 

ME- Shit! Really getting all the bad mojo! If it's the lamp, it's probably toast. If it's just the bulb, it's merely inconvenient. 

......

DH- Got it together finally. Gonna watch Vera and maybe eat whole container of ice cream. 

So ... quite the saga. Apparently he ended up putting it together, and disassembling it again at least five times because of dropped screws or other issues that cropped up. I think his headlamp is toast - but that's an easy thing to get at any hardware store. He says he knows where he wants to put it, it will take a bit of spring cleaning in the garage to clear that area, but it's actually a good place for it. 

So ... that was the long distance saga from yesterday. Me? I'm heading to the pool for a lovely outdoor swim on a perfect summer morning. Yesterday was a VERY cold in and out of the water, but the water itself was absolutely glorious, with a fabulous sunrise. These are the days that make my swim very worthwhile and enjoyable. Have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Tulips, Phones, Pineapple and Prayers - I'm All Over the Place Today

So here we are at the end of another week, and the end of March. When I next post, it will be April and Spring will (should) finally be here. We still have the last of the snow on the ground, but that's quite normal. The fact that we have snow at all on the ground, after this "Winter that the Snow Gods Forgot" is quite amazing. The ground and trees and other plants desperately needed the moisture, though, so I'm happy we at least had a bit of Winter come around to play in our area. This year may have been Nature's apology for last year's record-setting snowfalls, but our lack of moisture might be very harmful to our trees, etc this year. 

DH is all worried about the tulips we have that 
are already sprouting leaves above ground. But 
everything I'm reading says no worries unless there 
are already blossoms, which we don't have. So, I'm 
sure his flowers will be just fine, despite our late 
snowfall. 

I wanted to give all of you an update on the "horrible phone screen takeover" from earlier in the month. If you recall, somehow I ended up saying "Yes" to a "do you want to switch to "Easy Home Screen" around the middle of the month. Big ARGH! I absolutely HATED it. My apps were suddenly in alphabetic order, instead of clustered into the groups that I access the most. I actually had to write a list of the apps I use first thing every morning so that I could go down the list in order and not miss anything. It totally sucked. 

Easy Homescreen was anything BUT easy for 
me. Suddenly my apps were alphabetic and scattered 
all over the screen. I have my apps grouped so that 
I'm finding them in order of use. Alphabetic was 
NO help at all. And I couldn't find the app to uninstall 
it. The fact that I stumbled over it randomly and was 
able to remove it and return to my old set-up was 
a total blessing! 

According to the app, I just had to find it to be able to eliminate it, but that wasn't easy either. Some time last week, when I was fiddling with my screen, the app's home page came up on my screen with an option to "Return Settings to Prior View" and I grabbed it - said YES (rather emphatically), crossed my fingers and hit the confirmation. Voila! My screen returned to the settings I had been using. My apps are grouped together once again. My phone is once again mine - not the property of an Evil Empire. I couldn't be much happier. Easy Home Screen might be perfect for some of you, but for me it was the ultimate failure. I hope I don't fall down that rabbit hole again. 

You want your pineapple to look as golden as possible, and 
the one I bought yesterday was absolutely the poster child 
for the perfect pineapple. I'm really looking forward to eating 
that one - it dehydrated beautifully. 

Yesterday pineapples were 2 for $7 at the store, and there was one beautifully ripe one calling my name. The store, even though I only bought one, has to give me the discounted price - a lawsuit from a few years ago required stores to honor sale prices, even if the purchase isn't the full quantity. So, I went home with groceries and another beautiful pineapple which I immediately cut up and put into the dehydrator. I set it for 15 hours, shifted the trays every hour until I went to sleep, and rescued my dried pineapple this morning. washed the shelves of the dehydrator and put everything away properly. I've got a yummy munchie to add to my container of mango and pineapple from Wednesday. Nom, nom! 

I'm thinking lots of positive thoughts for my oldest 
nephew, but more positive thoughts from you, my 
readers, would be appreciated. He's got a long hard 
road ahead of him, if he's going to beat this cancer. 

So that's about all I know right now. My oldest nephew, the one with abdominal cancer, just finished his fifth course of chemotherapy since January. Now they'll reassess whether they can do anything surgically or not. I'm hoping for the best, of course, as is the rest of the family. Any positive thoughts you can spare in his direction would be appreciated, of course. It never hurts to get some good things moving through the ethos. On that note, I'm out of here. Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate that holiday, have an excellent day and weekend and I'll be back on Monday morning to welcome April alongside all of you. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Cooking - Not Really (LOL), and Memories of Dad and Mom

Taking a careful look at my refrigerator stock yesterday, I decided against cooking meals. I actually had a Wednesday without any cooking ... well, almost none. My stock of food for the week is excellent, as of this morning I have four stuffed peppers, three portions of butternut squash, and I'm cooking a pork roast on Sunday which will stretch to two-three meals each. I'm not worried ... we're not going to starve anytime soon - LOL. But, that means that next week will be a very busy cooking week. Whoot! 

We've had a marinated pork loin roast in the 
refrigerator defrosting for a couple of days. 
I'll get that roasted up on Sunday, and it will 
serve well for at least two meals each. With 
what else I already have cooked, I'm set until 
next week (probably). I can re-assess on 
Friday, and do a quick cook if necessary. 

Now, I did say "almost" no cooking in the above. That's because I bought a pineapple and a mango, which I cut up and put into my little dehydrator. It's been merrily doing it's thing since yesterday afternoon, and it's almost finished. I think I had set it for 13-14 hours, and while I was awake, I was moving the trays every 90 minutes to ensure good air circulation. I've dehydrated several pineapples before now, but have never added a mango to the mix before. T think it will be a lovely munch. 

I purchased a pineapple and a mango at the store 
yesterday, cut them up and put them into the 
dehydrator. They should be ready to pull from 
there and put into a container for munching when 
I get back from the pool later this morning. 

I received a royalty payment for Mom yesterday - not much, less than $15, but it brought my parents to the front of my mind again. When Dad finally managed to get his college degrees and start teaching, he also started writing books on learning the German language. They were quite popular for quite a while, bringing in some nice royalty payments to both of them while Dad was still living, and then just to Mom once he passed. His final book was in process when he died, and a good friend and professional colleague at Colorado University Boulder finished the book for him and got it published posthumously. The royalty checks were a real benefit to Mom for many years, but these days, I'm certainly NOT getting rich any more - LOL. I'll endorse this as her representative and get it deposited. It was lovely to think about those times again - well worth the doing. 

Dad had at least four different books published 
on the German language. Considering he was 
actually Czech, I always wondered about that. 
But he moved to Vienna when he was quite 
young to live with his older sister, so German, 
if not his first language, was a strong second. 

Today will be my final day in the pool for the week. My workouts haven't been spectacular this week, but they've been pretty good - fairly good intensity and steady laps. I'm no speed queen, but I get the job done. I'll be entering price tags for the shipment that just arrived yesterday. That will take up most/all of my day at the shop. So it will be a computer day. I'm still working on getting things together for the Swarovski sale. It's such a huge category, getting things together is turning into a mini nightmare. It needs to be easy for us to use so that we can get inventory pulled quickly and accurately, and also needs to be easily used by our customers. That's a challenge to my organizational abilities. 

I love my little dehydrator. I wasn't sure how much 
use I'd get out of it initially, but I'm quite pleased 
with it, and I'm using it for fruits over the winter. 
It's just about the perfect size, and can hold a 
surprising amount of stuff for such a small package. 

So, as I head over to the pool and write myself a note to empty the dehydrator when I get back from swimming, I'll have plenty of things on my mind. I hope all of you have a wonderful Thursday and I look forward to catching up with you on Friday. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

 

Yesterday Was a Catch-up Day - People Near and Far

Yesterday was a day of catching up with people, dashing here and there. Add in some cooking and it was a delightful day. The sun was shining, the roads were perfectly clear, (there's no snow to be found except small remnants on the outskirts of larger parking lots where the plow scree is slowly melting down). I needed some tea, and the brand that I prefer isn't available (except for four flavors) from my local grocer. So, I started out by driving North to the next suburb and a different grocery store for tea. Which I found and purchased from a woman who looked familiar. 

I love the herbal teas from Republic of Tea. Since I 
don't do caffeine, I check my teas quite carefully, and 
they have several that are favorites, so it was time 
to go to a different grocery store with a larger selection. 

Apparently she also thought I was familiar. It took a moment or two, but we recognized each other at the same time. "Gwen!" I said, smiling broadly. "Hey, S, it's really good to see you again," she said at almost the same time. She used to cashier at my local grocery store, and was my standard fall-back cashier if Polly wasn't on her station. She left because my store wanted to cut her hours and she needed them, so she left to find a different employer. It was really good to see her, and I carried her "Miss You!" wishes back to my local grocery store a bit later in the morning. 

IBS can be caused by many things, but in the case of Ruthie's 
son (and my own older cousin), it's genetic. It results in some 
serious pain, lots of food restrictions, many surgeries, a plethora 
of different medications, and often ostomy surgeries. But it kills. 
It's what killed my cousin, and Ruthie's son has spent most 
of this year in the hospital so far. It's NOT good. 

After getting my tea, I dropped by the office supply company which shares a shopping center with my grocery store. I had ordered a cartridge for the store printer, but had forgotten to pick it up the previous night on my way home. My favorite cashier, Ruth, was on duty here too (she's an old customer who adores our stuff - mostly our jewelry. A real sweetheart, whose son has been extremely ill). I quickly gave her a hug and asked about how her son was doing - which isn't good, unfortunately. Any kind thoughts you could spare for Ruthie's son would be appreciated. He has a chronic health condition, and just spent more than two weeks in the hospital. Unfortunately, although he recovered enough to go home (for a while), he lost his job while hospitalized, so he's quite depressed on top of feeling like crap. He has IBS, which is what killed my cousin several years ago, and his prognosis isn't good. 

I originally was going to get my usual pears and apples 
for baking, but I'm actually in good shape for baked 
fruit right now, and a pineapple and two star fruits 
were calling my name. Living on the "wild side", I 
bought those instead. I'll be having some star fruit 
with my toast for breakfast today. The photo is one of 
the two new heavy-duty baking pans that I just got in 
from Amazon. No more warping sheet pans in my 
oven! Huzzah! LOL

Finally getting to my grocery store, I quickly got what I needed for my "Ogre Juice", but was tempted by a few fruits. The pineapples looked lovely, so I indulged in one, and I also bought two Star Fruits. I've never eaten star fruit before, but looking it up on my phone quite quickly, it seems easy enough. Wash well, cut the top and bottom off and throw away, then slice thinly to eat.  I'll have some with my toast this morning and see how they taste. They've always interested me. I cut the pineapple into small pieces and put them into my dehydrator. After 13 hours, the smaller pieces are perfectly dried, but I need a bit longer on the larger pieces, so I've reset the dehydrator for another six hours. That'll be done before I get home from the shop today and I can add the bigger pieces into the container where I've put the smaller ones. 

In the All Star Game later that night, Connor McDavid of the 
Edmonton Oilers absolutely destroyed everyone else in the 
skills competition, ending up winning the check for One 
Million Dollars! Huzzah! It was a beautiful thing to watch, and 
hotly contested. 

Although the weather is fabulous, it's still cool, and being bald, I wear a hat. I was wearing my "Canada" hat yesterday (it's time for the All Star break for hockey and we were going to watch the skate and shoot later that night). When my favorite produce guy saw me he immediately started singing the Canadian national anthem, and I, of course, joined in with him. What hockey fan doesn't know both the US and the Canadian anthems, after all - LOL? A bright note to my morning, to be sure. So it was an excellent day, all things considered, and I'm ready to dive in to the new one. Have a wonderful Saturday and weekend, and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.