Blast from the Past

Recently my high school class had a 10 year reunion. I hadn't been paying attention, didn't realize so much time had passed, and wouldn't have gone anyway. The funny thing is, just this week two people from high school have gotten in touch with me, one postcard, one phone call. One I had heard from and seen several years ago and the other...nothing since graduation. It is just sort of strange. Not bad, it just is so weird to hear from people again after so many years and to share with them about my life. So I will see what happens, talk and catch up and see where things go.

Checks and Balances

Today was a terrible day at work. Just miserable. Problems and issues everywhere I looked. Some got resolved, some are still on the list. Some were pretty terrible. Just issues created by people not paying attention, but sometimes a little inattention can create a HUGE problem. Augh. Now I am home and work is done. Anyway, over the weekend I was talking with my Mom about how off kilter I am feeling lately. Just slightly off "normal". We were talking about how much I miss the creative ease that happened when I was at my worst (read:crazy). It seems that I remember being able to create and write without any effort, like things just happened from somewhere else and I was only the conduit, but somehow still the creative force behind it. Lately I feel like I want to write, I want to create, but there are so many "stop gaps" now, so many reasons not to let go. I know I don't want to be crazy again and I think that being out of control even just a little bit scares the heck out of me. I guess I worry that if I let go too much, I will fall off the edge and not be able to get back. I know that it is all just finding a balance, sometimes the best stuff happens when you just let go and let your "self" take over without all the other brain crap. It is just getting to the point that I can find that balance. I know the key is to just do. And somehow, as always, the hardest part is just getting started.

Canned Heat

Whew, what a weekend. Mom and Da came up friday night to stay the weekend. We had a great dinner and did a late gift exchange for past birthdays. Mom and Da got me a wireless hub and donated a hand-me-down laptop, so I am now blogging from the couch! Da and I finally got it set up in the afternoon yesterday after a late night trip to wal-mart friday, donor computer surgery saturday am, and a trip to staples saturday afernoon. It certainly was an adventure, but well worth it! Going on steadily behind the wireless setup was the canning. With four varieties of apples and tons of ideas we settled on two cycles of all four varieties. So we did each one apple butter with spices, then cran-apple. Then we did one batch of pear cardamom and used the left overs of each cycle to do some mixed apple-cran-pear butter (or crapple butter...but that sounds a bit...yucky). It was quite a setup, with several batches cooking in different places (oven, crock pots), notes telling where each type was, the grinding set up and the canning area. Our kitchen was the hub of all the acivity! We ended up with a wonderful selection of preseves that should last quite a while. It is very neat to taste the differences between each variety. You really can tell that they are not all the same. We also made 2 cran apple pies! Then we topped of the day with a wonderful curry for supper and pie for dessert. Today we all got up and had a yummy breakfast of four grain flapjacks and then got ready for our day. Mom and Da headed off and Don and I headed out to a soccer game at Uof P. I am feeling pretty tired today and wasn't to keen on going, but I bucked up and got myself right and off we went. Our team won and the highlight was getting to meet our local Olympic gold medalist (Stephaine Lopez-Cox) and getting to see and touch her medal. It was pretty darn cool! The medal has a solid jade inlay on the back that is just increadible. Not everyday that you get to see somthing like that! After the game we headed to the costco for some shopping and now are home. I am glad to be home(it was a struggle to stay awake in the car), but I did have a great day. We are planning on laying low tonight and getting ready for the week ahead.

Apples!

This coming weekend my parents are going to be here to do some baking and canning with us, since the berries over the summer were such a big hit. I am responsible for the apples and was getting a little worried because the store selections are so slim and prices so high. On a trip home from HomeDepot on Sunday I spotted a sign for a U-pick orchard! So I called to find out how it all worked, hours, varieties, etc. This morning I got up early and headed out to pick. What an amazing place! They have 83 varieties of apples!! Of course not all 83 were still in season...I only had 72 to choose from! They are an heirloom orchard so they have tons of older, harder to find varieties as well as some of the old standards. After talking with the owner and getting advice on the best baking and canning apples to choose, I headed off with my cart and buckets. I ended up getting quite a bit more that I expected to, but the apples are DELICIOUS and I am sure we can handle any leftovers! I chose Northern Spy (my dads favorite), Spitzenberg, Winesap and Arkansas Black. All are very crisp and tart, but each one has a different flavor that makes it unique. They have so many apples like Red and Golden Delicious and Galas, even types I had never heard of, like Winter Banana!! They also grow cherries and peaches in the summer! I will be going back again for sure. As it turns out, they are almost closed for the season. They hire out a company to "top" all the trees and this will be their last weekend open! So after I talked with Mom earlier in the week, we decided we needed about 25 pounds or so....well....it is really hard to tell how much you are picking....and with all four types....I got about double that! But you can't beat the price, 80 cents per pound!!!!!!! You can check them out at sherwoodorchard.com.

Underrated

So, its been a sort of bummy time for me lately. Nothing I can really put my finger on, just a general feeling of things being off. Work so far this week has been kooky. Super busy on Mon and dead yester- and today. This past Sunday I had a lazy day, which tends to set my partner off. He is a do-er. It is hard (or rather impossible) for him to understand why a person might just want to hang out and read, watch football, or take a nap rather than clean the garage or do yard work. Granted those sort of tasks must be done, even though they are not fun. If there is something do to, he will find it. So at the end of the day we were laying together on the bed watching PBR (Pro. bull riding) and saw an ad for a contest where one of the prizes is to be part owner of one of the bulls. I commented that, that would be cool, but only if you could pick the name for the bull ( in the contest the bulls name is SuperDuty...dumb). Then I opined that if Don was the owner of a bull, it would have to be solid black, really short smooth hair, and very clean....and it would be named "Jet Black". I then asked what he thought the name for my bull would be. "Book." he said. "Bookworm." "Yeah." I said "and everyone would discount him as an easy bull (because of his name) and he would buck off all the cowboys!" -So there!-

Warm-up to cool down, and Print

What a weekend so far. I worked this am and came home to news that our new fridge was in. Don had purchased one on super clearance and Lowes earlier in the week, and in stead of waiting around for it to be delivered (since we live maybe 1 mile away from the store) we opted to pick it up. So off to the store we go to load it up, no big deal there. Lots of help to get it in and it fit in the back of the pick-up. Then we got home and the adventure began. We got it out of the truck ok with the help of our neighbors, superdave and Juan. Then we got it to the garage to get the box off of it. First issue, no wire cutters. I couldn't find my pair and there was wire around the top to hold the box top on. Eventually I got smart and just used a pair of pliers to unwrap it. Then all the utility knives were MIA. Great. So I used a scissor for a while before Don freaked out that I was going to scratch the fridge...(which I did...on the side....way up high and very small...still...) so we all just ripped the box off. The we had to figure out how to get it out of the base of the box. I was starting to think we should have just gotten it delivered at this point. Eventually we discovered that the wood supports on the bottom were actually bolted on, and once I got those off we could get it out of the rest of the box. The we tried to move it in the house. Lo-and-behold...It was too wide to fit through the door. So off came the doors, and after a while of trying to figure it out, off came the drawer front. Finally we were able to get it in and thank our neighbors for their help. Only then to realize we were missing the water hose to hook up the ice maker. Super. Don was pissed since he thought that would be coming with the fridge, at least it was cheap. So now it is all set up and happy now. Good thing too, I was about ready to send the stupid thing back. Also today a new printer. Finally. Don got it yesterday at Costco for $40. With black and color ink cartridges. It can also scan and copy and fax if we want. A great deal. It is an HP too. I was not planning on hooking it up tonight, but got roped into it since Don needs to print out some paperwork. Anyway, it did go pretty smoothly, which is good as my reserves are low tonight.
In other news, the hunt for wedding dress fabric is on and it would be much easier if I was not so picky I am sure! I know I have time, but it sure seems like not a lot of time. The cake is pretty well set and the photographer and DJ too, so we really are doing well. Still to be decided, menu, invites, fabric and flowers. As well as times and exact ceremony content. *deep breath* I knew there was a reason we gave ourselves so much time to plan!

Thatched!

Oh, the joys of home-ownership! Over this summer our yard developed several small, strange, dry patches. These quickly turned to large brown dry patches and then to flat out bald patches. This past saturday it was decided by my partner that is was yard work time. Wheeee. So while he got a load of bark mulch, I started tearing out some grass to plant bulbs there instead ( I had just gotten home from an hour long walk). I got the grass up ok, and then started planting. Or rather, tried to start planting. The dirt was hard. I don't mean like difficult hard, like concrete hard. I was already having a bit of a meltdown day, and after hacking at the dirt for a while with a hand trowel, I called Da for some advice (also talking to him has the magical effect of helping me to calm down, something about his calm voice and spock-like logical thinking...). Clearly this was a time for "the right tool for the job", which happened to be a pickax. Yep. In the mean time, Don had returned with the bark, unloaded it, and left again to rent a thatcher. So, pickax in hand, I quickly made short work of my frustration and the dirt and started planting bulbs. Part way through the 47 bulbs, Don starts with the thatcher. Oh-my-goodness. We had no idea what it was going to do. Heaps and heaps of grass start billowing out from behind it as he walks it over the yard. I start raking, and raking, and raking. He goes over it again, by this time there are huge patches with no grass all-over-the-yard! Auuugh. Apparently that is really what it is supposed to do. So finally he is finished running it, and we get to work picking up the grass, or rather I do while he returns it, gets grass seed and bug killer. The trouble was, I couldn't hold the garbage bag open and put grass in it, so clever me...I put the bad in a garbage can and put in the grass. Only then the stupid bag is too heavy and suctioned in and I can barely get it out. Nice, so much for all that pickax work, I am getting meltdown-y again. Finally I get it all picked up and finish the bulbs. By then I am getting done. It is hot, I stink, and I am getting sore. I smooth out the dirt, spread mulch over that area, sweep up the remaining grass and dirt and generally try to make it cleanish. Thinking that when Don gets back he will see what I have accomplished and be pleased that I got so much done before packing it in. Anyway, he gets home just after I step into the shower and spends about two more hours moving the rest of the mulch, seeding, bug killing and re-raking. Finally he comes in and the day is done. What a day. Now we wait and see if the grass will come back. As near as we can tell it was all caused by crane-fly larvae. I hope our TLC works, because I have no desire to rip out the whole yard and re-sod the damn thing. None at all.