new logo! This one was created (again!) by the lovely and talented Aly. Perfect for July, dontchathink?
(Thanks, Aly!)
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I’m in the market for a vegetable slicer thingy. Got one you love? Tell me about it in the comments!
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Yesterday afternoon, as I was blanching a batch of pattypan squash in preparation for freezing, Fred wandered into the kitchen.
“Want to go to a movie?” he asked.
These are words I do not EVER hear out of the man’s mouth, but since he’d gotten caught up on the stuff he needed to do, he was bored, and wanted to see a movie.
I think we last went to the movies two years ago, but I can’t guarantee it.
I told him I did, but that I needed to finish the blanching, cooling, drying, and bagging of the squash I was working on. He said I had ten or fifteen minutes before we had to leave, and I got to blanching, cooling, drying, and bagging like my life depended on it.
I had just finished bagging the squash and was wiping down the counters when he wandered into the kitchen and said impatiently, “We need to bust a move!”
I gave him The Eyes and said “Oh NO you did NOT!” and he grinned and said “Oh yes I did!” and I said “Well, I’m sorry I spent all morning sitting on my ass in front of the computer so that I wouldn’t be ready to go when on a whim Your Majesty decided he wanted to go to the movies! Oh, wait! I did NOT spend all morning sitting on my ass in front of the computer, I spent all morning cleaning and cutting and canning and boiling and bagging and slicing and freezing the produce you insist upon bringing into the house every morning, fuckface!”, and he grinned and said “Did I mention we need to bust a move?”
So I changed into my public clothes (I never wear shorts in public because I wish to not unleash the horridness that is my legs upon unsuspecting innocents – plus, it’s always cold in the theater, so to wear shorts would be idiocy) and we left a note for the spud and went to the movies.
We were one hour into a two-hour movie (Live Free or Die Hard. What? HE chose the movie. If I’d been choosing, we’d have gone to see Knocked Up. But I wasn’t, so we didn’t) when the movie went very very dim, and then shut off. The power had been knocked out by the thunderstorm I wasn’t even aware we were having. We cooled our heels for about half an hour before the theater manager came in to let us know that the power was off all over the city and they’d give us tickets to see a movie at a later date (I suppose, technically speaking, the idea is for us to go back and see the same movie, but as much as I enjoyed the movie, I don’t want to sit through the whole first hour again, just to see what happens. My prediction: he Lives Free.).
So I suppose in another two years when Fred wants to see a movie again, we should check the weather before we leave the house.
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I spent all weekend – seriously, all day Saturday, half the day Sunday – freezing and canning and pickling and cooking. In the end I got something like 10 pounds of summer squash blanched and frozen, five pints of green beans canned, three and a half pints of zucchini bread & butter pickles canned, one pint of pickled jalapenos canned, five cups of corn (off ten ears of corn) blanched, cut, and frozen.
I’m still fairly slow when it comes to getting food ready for canning, and then canned. But I figure I’ll speed up with practice, and we’re starting to get a lot of stuff stored away for the winter. I look forward to canning (and pickling) the okra when it really starts to come in. Also, I’ve ordered a food dehydrator, because the Sungold cherry tomatoes are starting to come in faster than we can eat them, and I bet in dehydrated form they’ll be as sweet as candy.
I’m really looking forward to when the ripe tomatoes start coming in, because I’m going to make the hell out of some marinara sauce and can or freeze it. I’m trying to convince Fred that we need to hit the garage sales and auctions to find something to use as a canning cupboard – right now I’m putting all the canned stuff on the mantel in the dining room, and rapidly running out of space.
I listened to my iPod all day Saturday while I worked, and thus managed to get caught up on Keith and the Girl, which is just a bonus.
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Finally, we’ve got an open sunflower.
And one about ready to open.
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Happiest! Cat! Ever!
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Previously
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: Had I, in fact, ONCE KILLED SOMEONE and the memory was trying to break free into my conscious mind?
2003: “Yeah, I see you, you portly little cat. You don’t scare me!”
2002: Some Eminem lookalike just drove by and put a flyer on my mailbox.
2001: I have the sinking suspicion that we’re going to be homeless by August 1st.
2000: No entry.]]>