Too Hot to Cook

It's been hot.  105, 107, who cares, it's just hot.  Every once in a while I think, "I should bake something or cook something" and then I remember how hot it is especially with just an evaporative cooler and no air conditioning.  I'm stubborn though.  I won't spend thousands of dollars to get air conditioning.  I just complain about it being hot while loving my low electric bills.

Anyway, I had an abundance of cherry tomatoes from my plants that are as tall as the roof and I decided to make sauce out of them.  I now know why people don't typically make sauce out of cherry tomatoes.  There isn't much to them.  I cut them in half and simmered them until they looked soft.  Then I took my stick blender and chopped them up.  I tasted it.  Too bitter with all the seeds.  So, I strained out the seeds but that also strained out most of the skins and pulp.  I was left with tomato juice.  I added a small can of tomato paste along with spices and I had sauce again.  I'm not sure how much of it was actually from my tomatoes.

Well, at least I used up a lot of cherry tomatoes.  The hornworms attacked the plant and trimmed it down for me.  I only get a dozen tomatoes a week now.  I'm sure it will bounce back when the weather gets cooler and I will be drowning in cherry tomatoes again

My other cooking experiment entailed a bright idea I got while watching a video on Panko chicken.  I bought Panko breadcrumbs a few weeks back but hadn't been brave enough to try them.  I didn't have any thawed chicken so I thought I could Panko some summer squash and zucchini.  It seemed like a good idea until the pan started smoking.

I attempted to eat them anyway but it was like eating tasteless squash with burnt toast.  Luckily, I didn't Panko all of the vegetables.  I tossed the rest with olive oil and JoJo seasoning and it was delicious.  No Panko needed.

I think I will stop trying to be creative in the kitchen until it is under 80 degrees outside.  That might not be until November.  My nephew is returning the day after tomorrow and I will have to plan dinners again.  Idealy he will help me.  I rarely eat dinner and prefer to eat lunch as my main meal.  It should be easier to make meals this school year since we are at the house, not the mobile home with just a 2 burner stove top which couldn't be on at the same time as the microwave.  He has been visiting his grandfather in Minnesota and his aunt in California.  Maybe he will have some new meal ideas.  That's probably expecting too much.  I have asked him what he eats at other people's houses and he can't remember.  I made lasagna from scratch once and served it with Stouffer's lasagna.  He ate them both and couldn't remember which he liked better.  I don't think this is something I can win.  I'll just try to teach him to make a few things so he doesn't end up living on cereal and bologna sandwiches.  One more year and then he can go live on cafeteria food at college.

Cool Breeze

Three weeks to go!  Even less if you consider that the last day of school is on a Thursday.  My nephew made a comment that we will have to go back to the mobile home for the first week of school because he won't have his license yet.  Whaaaat???  Did I miscalculate?  I asked him to look at his driving permit to see if it had a date.  It did, January 20th.  School starts July 22nd.  Since he has to wait 6 months after getting his permit, that gives him 2 days to pass his test.  If he doesn't pass the first time then I will probably just drive him to school for a week until he can try again.  I think he would be able to ride the bus but it would be a bit late to notify the school district that we need bus service.  Oh well, we will deal with that if needed.  I am optimistic that he will pass. 

Last Friday, I took the day off.  Sassy went to the vet for her Valley Fever test.  Her results came back today and, unfortunately, her numbers are even higher than last time even though she is not limping at all.  The vet recommended changing pharmacies for her pills since the vet has noticed a decline in potency of the medicine they supply.  So, I ordered through a different pharmacy and changed to capsules instead of tablets.  Hopefully, the medicine will work this time.  After that, I headed over to my nephew's school to help judge the senior career projects.  They were all very interesting and I learned a lot of great tips for my nephew's senior project next year.  The best presenter brought in her clarinet and played for us.  Another girl brought in glass pendants from her time learning about glass blowing.    The other students had photos in a powerpoint presentation but bringing items for the judges to see made it so much more interesting.

On Saturday, I thought I was going to tackle some yard clean up but first priority was getting the evaporative cooler started and it wasn't as easy as I had hoped.  My nephew and I went on the roof and took the metal panels off. 

 I poked around and finally figured out how to turn it on, plug in the hose, turn the water on, etc.  The only problem was that the water was not getting to the cooler pads and it wouldn't send out cool air.  After many frustrating trips up and down the roof and watching how-to videos, I was still stumped.  I decided to write a desperate email to my old HVAC repairman.  He replied by the next morning which surprised me because he isn't even working in the HVAC business anymore because of bad knees.  He told me that I need to make sure the two pumps are plugged in to the correct outlets.  I never would have figured that out.  I didn't see any markings anywhere.  Anyway, so after we spend a nice afternoon with my mother for Mother's Day, I went back up on the roof and switched the plugs. 

I marked them for next time.

 Voila!  Cool air!  I was so happy!  Now I really should go back up there and do a better job of cleaning out the hard water deposits but it is supposed to get to 100F this week and, now that it is working, the priority has gone down.  I'll be sure to clean it up well when I shut it down in the fall.  I saved $75 by doing it myself which makes up for the expensive Mother's Day lunch we had by mistake (note to self, look at prices BEFORE going in to a fancy restaurant.) 

This week is normal.  On Saturday, I get my 40 pounds of chicken and then next week is super-busy.  I'll just try to take it one day at a time as usual.   

Week One

One week down.  I thought each quarter of high school was 8 weeks but then I looked at the calendar and it is more like 10 weeks plus 2 weeks for spring break so that means I have at least 20 more times of traveling back and forth with the boy, the luggage, and the dogs.  Yes, I am getting tired of going back and forth between the house and the mobile home.  Operation 'Get Your License' has commenced for the nephew.  I got off work early, loaded up the luggage and dogs, picked my nephew up from school, drove to the house, nephew unloaded luggage while I unloaded dogs, drove nephew to the motor vehicles department (MVD), sat and waited for an hour and a half, found out that we were too late to take the driving permit test.  D'oh.  Good news is that we will have priority when we go back.  Bad news is that I have get out of work early again.  He needs his driver's license before his senior year starts in July so that he can get a parking permit for school.  The seniors get first priority and then the juniors get the leftover permits.  Once he can drive we can live at the house and not have to be near the school bus stop.  I love living out at the mobile home but there are challenges, lack of water, maintenance issues, needs electrical upgrades, dirt road, etc... It will be easier to live out there alone when I don't have the added financial responsibilities of a teenager and I have money available for home improvements.

I finally set up my cat-cam for the storage room.  I had hoped to catch a glimpse of my Siamese mouse-catchers but when the camera alerted me to movement in the room I saw this:

Who are you?

That's not my cat.  I am glad that it is a cat though.  A raccoon or rat eating the cat food would have been disturbing.  I have missed other motion notifications from my camera at 3am so I hope that my cats are still coming around.  Maybe they prefer to come out at night.  If my cats did flee, I hope this cat will stick around long enough to chase off any mice or rats while it is here.

I brought back the borrowed cat cage and table to the cat rescue.  They have a small boutique store that benefits the cats and there are cats to adopt that roam around the store.  My nephew loves cats so I brought him along and he was in cat heaven.  He was even considering volunteering there although he really just wanted to play with the cats.

Tonight's dinner, beef stew and biscuits made almost from scratch.  I bought one of those beef stew flavoring packets so I did cut corners a bit.  It turned out well with enough leftovers for another meal.  Tomorrow I need to plan ahead and pre-cook some meals.  More homemade lasagna, maybe I will try to make mac and cheese.  Cook more chicken because chicken is always useful.  I need 4 meals.  Monday-Thursday.  Beef stew, burritos, spaghetti, hmm...chicken and rice maybe.   I better have a plan.  If I don't have a plan, fast food will call to me like a siren.

Holiday Time is Over

What a nice, relaxing week that was.  I had time to sleep, get chores done, cook, watch TV, and even work on projects like making this stuffed whale for my nephew.  He asked for the Golden Whale from the Castle Crashers video game but it isn't popular enough to be a manufactured toy.  You can see what it is supposed to look like here.  I found a blogger who had sewn one so I followed her example and made it myself.  I think it turned out quite well.

I'm a Golden Whale!

My nephew comes back from visiting his relatives tomorrow and I need to have everything (clothes, his school stuff, food, dogs) out at the mobile home because his plane doesn't get in until the evening and I don't want to have to go back to the house and then unload the car in the dark.  It is my goal to get out there before noon and then have time to get things organized and relax before I pick him up.

The next 18 weeks are going to be busy but I am trying not to stress about it too much.  I will just focus on the tasks of each week and we will make it to May, the end of the school year.  After that, my plans depend on my nephew's driving ability.

Anyway, enough talk about the future.  The weather has been very nice this weekend and I did a lot of pruning and weeding in the back and front yards.  I didn't get to cleaning up the alley yet.  Maybe next weekend. My nephew is supposed to help me with that project.

I've been working on my cooking skills.  It started when I was watching Worst Cooks in America.  Ok, it started before that since I have always wanted to cook good tasting food, but during this particular break from work, I started watching that show and then I actually went out and bought ingredients to try things myself.  I cooked a whole chicken for the first time in my life and it turned out quite tasty.  I bought spices and I've been using them.  I also bought garlic and an onion but I only used the garlic so far.  I wish I had more time at the house with the oven because I bought ingredients for beef stew, lasagna, meatloaf, and macaroni and cheese.  I'm trying to make the meals from scratch that I usually buy as frozen bricks.  I'm not going to make every meal from scratch but maybe I can cook one or two meals on the weekend and freeze them for later in the week.  That would be a huge improvement from my usual routine of opening a can or putting a box in the microwave.

Well, break time is over.  I better keep up or life will pass me by.  Time to get this year started!

Busy Holidays

Four day weekends make me forget what day it is.  I've been thinking it's Saturday for 3 days now.  At least, today it really is Saturday but that makes me sad because tomorrow is Sunday and the week begins again.

Last time I told you about the pull test and the electrical system.  I forgot to mention that I put trim around the door.  It is a big improvement.  It would look even better if I painted the panel next to it.  On Friday I put trim around the window.  It needs more work though and some touch up paint.  I didn't take a picture.  I continued to put up trim around the living room until I ran out of time.  Someday I will get all of the trim off of the hallway floor...someday.

My nephew made Tirumisu for his history homework.  It was totally his idea but I amended the recipe so that it didn't include raw egg or rum.  People actually ate it.

On Wednesday I got out early from work and decided that it was time to let the cats out.  A few nights ago, I heard what sounded like mice or pack rats under the mobile home.  The cats have been nibbling on a curled edge of the vinyl flooring so I thought they might like some adventure.  I blocked off other exit-ways and build them a cat ramp to get in and out of the back room.  I sure hope they come back!

When I checked on them 2 days later there was evidence that they are still using my litter boxes and eating my cat food so maybe this home-base idea has worked.

My next project was to fix the leak in the water tank pipe.  I cut the pipe and tightened it by hand as much as possible.  There was still a slow leak.  I really didn't want to go to the hardware store on Black Friday but I did it and surprisingly, there weren't many people.  Even more surprising, the $30 wrench that I bought only cost me $16!  I am thrilled to finally have the right tool for the job.

My nephew and I had Thanksgiving at home.  We decided to have a movie marathon starting with Stand and Deliver (my choice) and ending with Avengers: Age of Ultron.  We made it through 5 movies but moved Avengers to Friday because it was 3 hours long and we were a bit burned out on movies.  My turkey was still frozen even though it had been in the fridge for 5 days.  I tried ordering pizza but they were closed so I settled for filet minion and chicken cordon bleu from Walmart.  I'm sure glad they were open on Thanksgiving.  We finally had our turkey with all the fixings tonight.  That was my first turkey and it turned out great but next year I'll probably cook something different.  I only got the turkey because it was free with my groceries.  I'm tired of cooking, standing in the kitchen, and cleaning up leftovers. I need a day off!

Constant Improvements

Is my weekend over already?  I miss it.  Luckily, another one will be here in 4 days.  Today was a very busy day at work with people calling and emailing me constantly. I hope tomorrow is quieter so I can catch up on all the work.

I didn't do anything fun over the weekend, just the usual errands and chores around the house.  I took my nephew to a youth group party on Saturday night.  It was one of those murder-mystery parties where everyone dresses up like their character.  Before the party he was trying to figure out if he wanted to be the murderer or not.  Turns out he wasn't.  Everyone really got in to it and I don't know where the girls all got such fancy saloon dresses but they looked so authentic.

We managed to pull his costume together with only a $3 vest and $4 hat from the Goodwill.  I finally found a use for his mother's black leather jacket!  This is only reinforcing my pack rat tendencies, I'm afraid, since I have carried that jacket around since her death in 2002.  Gee, if the tuxedo shop would send me his back-ordered vest for his choir uniform I wouldn't have had to spend $3 on another one.  Which reminds me, he has a choir event this Wednesday and he is going to have to ask his teacher to borrow a used vest again.  I hope he won't get points deducted.

So far, I have no plans for next Saturday.  I might even go out to the mobile home to work on projects.  So many projects.  My nephew was asking me what the patches on the ceiling are covering and why none of the doors in the house fit the doorways.  I was hoping he wouldn't notice.  Ok, so maybe I should continue to make the house look a little more 'put together'.  It does help my attitude when projects get finished and I would love for the kitchen to be functional.  I hate to admit I fed him another Boston Market microwave meal tonight.  I've been eyeing a pork tenderloin at the grocery store.  I've never made one but it can't be that hard, right?  It has direction right on it.  As the weather gets cooler, I have plans to make cooking my hobby again.

Great Aunt Day

This week ended better than it started.  First of all, Fridays are always good.  Then my sister sent me a text that her son and his wife had a baby boy this morning.  That makes her a grandmother and me a great aunt.  That's going to take some getting used to.  The grandmother part, not the great aunt.  I've always been a "great" aunt.  hahaha.  My mother and father are now a great-grandmother and a great-grandfather.  Wow.  It was also my Minnesota nephew's 18th birthday.  This is the nephew that is the older brother of the nephew who is my ward.  Is that confusing, or what?  The 18 year old has been looking forward to this day for many years.  I wish him well as he ventures in to adulthood.  I hope it is everything he hopes it will be.

Work was pretty steady today and then my boss called and asked if I could pick up a coworker from the airport and drop him off at the shuttle bus that goes to the Mexican border.  I said sure and he said that I could go home after I was done which was awesome because I was done at 3:30.  I was able to go grocery shopping and get home by 5.  I went a little over-board with stocking up on sale items.  I spent the evening trying to fit everything in to my freezer.  I would love to have a separate freezer someday so I can really take advantage of sales.  I bought a pie last week, cut it up and brought individual slices to work.  My coworker laughed at me.  I don't know why.  Are single people only allowed to buy individual slices of pie?  It worked out so well that I bought 2 SaraLee cheesecakes on sale today, cut them up and froze them.  Now I can grab a small piece of cheesecake for my lunch whenever I want and because I get sick of things really fast, I don't have to worry about the rest of it going bad because it will last for many weeks in the freezer.

Now for an exciting weekend of house cleaning and taxes! 

What's Growing Now?

The high today was only 90 with occasional rain.  It was a wonderful day to putter around, pull weeds and inspect my little plant minions.  I am looking forward to cooler days...in about 4 weeks or so.

Here's my red bird of paradise, the desert type, not the tropical type.  I love this plant because it loves full sun and not much water and provides shade.  I have tomatoes in the pots.  I was supposed to transplant them somewhere but I have enough tomato plants and I don't know where I would plant them.  The bougainvillea, to the left, can take lots of abuse including having its leaves chewed off twice by some unknown assailant.

These are (were) the geraniums I bought myself for my birthday because I thought they would be easy to grow.  I should have bought Mexican petunias instead.  Maybe it is just being in pots that they hate.  It is awfully hot to be in a hanging pot.

My little watermelon plant is climbing the fence.  I didn't realize they climbed.  I should have planted this months ago.  No baby watermelons yet.  I don't think there is enough time for a watermelon to ripen even if one appeared.  I must remember to plant them sooner next year.

My moringa tree is finally planted in the ground.  Planting the seeds in the ground did not work since my dogs dug them up.  Planting them in pots first and transplanting has been successful so far.  It is sensitive to frost so I will have to protect it or let it die back this winter.  The gourds were planted late.  They still have 3 more months to make gourds.  We shall see if anything appears.

This is a bit hard to see but I planted some Hopi Red Dye Amaranth.  The leaves and seeds are edible.  I hope to plant more next year so that I have more seeds.  I have read they can be popped like popcorn or ground in to flour.

This is my baby plant nursery.  I have 3 desert willow trees and 3 red bird of paradise.  Maybe I can trade them at the next plant exchange.

The pomegranates are looking good but I had to take some off because the poor tree was leaning.  They still need 6 or 8 weeks to ripen.

Another moringa tree in my big pot.  I planted purslane around it.

And this is the wild patch of purslane in my yard.  I learned from the gardening group that it is edible and nutritious but I still haven't done anything with it other than nibble on the leaves.  I really should align my eating habits with the food that is cheap and available like purslane.  I'll put that on my to-do list: Find recipes for weeds in yard.

This is my newest patch of garden.  The pole beans are climbing the fence and the squash is blooming.  The squash planted in the spring didn't produce at all.  I know people joke about planting too much zucchini but I don't have that problem.  I would be thrilled with any zucchini at this point.

My favorite sunflower in a pot of horse purslane.  I learned the difference between purslane and horse purslane this summer.  Horse purslane has round leaves, the other has oval leaves.  Turns out I have both in my yard.  The quail like the horse purslane so it is good for something.  Plus, I like the look of it.  Anything that is green without thorns or thorny seeds is welcome in the yard even if it is a weed to many people.

The sweet potatoes are taking over.  I ate sweet potato leaves 3 times and now I am sick of them.  I desperately need new recipes for them.  What's the point of growing vegetables if I won't eat them?

Only 2 tepary beans remain.  I had dreams of boiling my tepary harvest but now I will be lucky if I get enough beans to plant next year.

The tomato jungle is still going strong.  Pruning tomatoes is optional in the desert.  Many people don't prune to give the plant some built in shade.  I am reluctant to prune because I know the tomato worms will find me soon and will do the pruning for me.  That's the lazy way.  Why prune and pluck worms when I can do nothing and those 2 chores will cancel each other out?  

And lastly, another popular weed that I have learned about from the garden group.  This is a green variety of amaranth.  Once I found out what it looked like I just wandered around the yard until I found it.  More free greens to eat.  I really need to attend a 'how to cook with local weeds, I mean, plants' class.  All this free food going to waste.

Local Surprises

Here's a first for me.  Before today I had never been out to eat at a truck stop in my own town.  I heard good things about Omar's Hi Way Chef Restaurant, so when my sister came through town tonight, I suggested we try it out.  She likes to visit unique places and this place didn't disappoint.

I stole my sister's photo.

They serve breakfast, Mexican, Italian, American, and plenty of desserts including their famous DDHAP (deep dish hot apple pie) as seen on the Food Network.  I went in thinking that I would just get the apple pie but the smells wafting out the door made me want real food.  I ordered the chicken alfredo and my sister got some sort of Mexican breakfast plate.  The portions were huge and I brought home enough for lunch for the next two days.  I couldn't even think about dessert, unfortunately.  We will have to go back another time and maybe we can attack a DDHAP between the two of us.  If I don't eat all day I might be up for the challenge.  I should warn anyone who visits me.  We will be going out to eat at a truck stop!   

More Tomatoes and Eggs

Lunch today was, you guessed it, quail eggs and cherry tomatoes!  The picture would have been more colorful but I only had iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing.  White lettuce, white dressing, white boiled quail eggs.  If it wasn't for the tomatoes, it would be a very boring picture indeed.  It was quite delicious though.  I don't really like hard boiled eggs because I don't like the egg white but these little eggs were just the right size and, strangely, added a little sweetness to the salad.

Yesterday I blew out 10 eggs which really hurt my ear drums.  Maybe that is why I have a headache today.  If I ever need to do this for a craft or something, I will buy an air compressor to be my lungs.  I put them in a sundae cup and they are on display on my kitchen window shelf.  I don't really like them there.  They would look better on a table.  I'll find a better way to display them.  I just have to think about it some more.

One other thing I did over the weekend, I hung this fabric shower curtain over the sliding door in my bedroom.  I have had this curtain in storage for years from when my rental house was furnished.  It is short but that's ok because the dogs won't rub against it.  I only need it for the Summer to help block the setting sun and to make it darker on the weekends when I get to sleep in.  If it is dark the dogs won't wake me up at 5:30am on Saturday morning.

I put up more shade in the garden too.  My jasmine shrub always gets sunburned and I am determined to avoid that this year.  Right now I have half of a  bed sheet shading the shrub but that is not good when it is windy like it is every other day here.  I'll keep thinking and maybe I can come up with a solution from the things I have around here.  Maybe I could weave a shade out of plastic shopping bags or sew together those net bags that oranges come in (except I only have one of those).  I should have planted sunflowers like I did last year.  They were great for shade.  I thought they would re-seed themselves but no luck.

Tomatoes and Eggs

A few weeks ago, I reported that my cherry tomatoes were all green and my quails were on strike.  That has turned around and I am now drowning in cherry tomatoes and I have 20 quail eggs in 10 days.

I forgot to have eggs for breakfast but tomorrow will be eggs and bacon for sure.  I should try boiling them.  They will look awfully cute in a salad.

I read that tomatoes can be frozen so I filled a small bag and put them in the freezer.  I don't really know what to do with them after that.  The suggestions are to add them to soups or stews.  I have never made either one with tomatoes but there is a first time for everything.  A bucket of cherry tomatoes went to work with me to share but there weren't many people working and only a few disappeared.  I have been eating them on salads as much as I can stand.  I found a recipe for tomato sauce so I boiled around 15 of them, peeled them and squeezed the seeds out while burning my fingers.  I don't have one of those nifty immersion blenders so I just smashed them with a fork.

I can't say it tasted that great but it was edible so that's pretty good for my first time ever making tomato sauce from scratch.  The best part was that I used up half of my tomato supply.  There are plenty more turning red every day so I better think of more ideas.

Making A List

It was a very quiet day at work today. I went to the grocery store at lunch and tried to buy enough to last me for the next 6 weeks without over-buying. I think I should make an effort to eat the food in my pantry since if I get the house I will just have to move it. I bet there are some things in my pantry that should be thrown out too. I have a tendency to hang on to things too long. The last example that I remember was a jar of mayonnaise that had last year's date. Some things last longer than their shelf date but mayo is not one of those that I want to take a chance on.

My loan officer is checking to see if the house I am buying qualifies for a closing cost grant. I guess certain zip codes get closing cost assistance. I hope so but I'm not counting on it.

I looked closely at the pictures that I took back in September. I've only been in the house one time so I don't remember it that well. There are a few things that I would need to live there. The big one would be a fridge. Then a table and chairs would be nice. A dresser and computer desk would be handy. There are already light curtains on the windows and a stove and microwave in the kitchen. I don't think I will need very much to start. The funny thing is that I sold my table and chairs last year at this time. Who new I would need them again so soon. That's ok though. I'm sure I will find a good deal on craig's list again. That is where I got the table and chairs last time.

A Piece Of Cake

I survived the baby shower. It was a bit awkward since I didn't know many of the guests but the time went fairly quickly and the expectant mother seemed to enjoy herself. I was the only one who bought diapers. I thought they were a very practical gift.

The cake actually tasted quite good. It was covered in printed frosting sheets instead of fondant (which often tastes nasty). There were chocolate cupcakes around it too. It makes me want to decorate a cake again...although seeing it cut up and eaten after all that work is kind of disheartening.

I returned the dog that I was trying out in my house to see if I could watch him next week. Sadly, no. One of my dogs did not like him and they fought a couple of times. The last fight was pretty vicious so I had to say I couldn't watch him. I told her I could be a back-up but I would have to rotate that dog and my mean dog from crate to dog run so that they were never together. I still have to work most of next week so I will be gone for 10 hours a day which makes it harder. I don't want one dog to be stuck in a crate for 10 hours. I don't think there is much chance that she will need a back-up though.

I'm cooking chicken now for all of my lunches this week. I need to go grocery shopping but I know I can make it with what I have for this week. I think it will be nachos and spaghetti on the lunch menu.

I'm Late For Very Important Date

Yesterday was our company Christmas dinner. I am notoriously late for it every year and last night was no exception. After spending the day at a dog adoption event and taking my dog to get his rabies vaccine, I tried to get home early so I could get ready. I didn't make it early though because people were late picking up their dogs and I stayed to help make sure everything was packed up and clean.

I thought I had enough time but by the time I got home and unloaded the dogs and the truck it was getting late. Then I had planned to color my hair and take a shower. Coloring quickly went out the window and I plugged in the water heater for a shower but that too had to be postponed. I decided for a quick spritzing of the hair and a pony tail.

Then it was time to get dressed. I remembered from the year before that black pants were out of the question because of all the dog hair in my truck. I tried on a dress but only had Summer sandals that matched. Luckily, I found a pair of grey pants that looked ok with the velvet jacket I had bought specifically for the holidays this year. By the time I was ready to go I only had 20 minutes before it started. I had estimated 45 minutes for the drive because the boss' wife likes to choose a restaurant on her side of town. Of course, that is where most of the good restaurants are anyway, not that I ever go to them.

Over an hour later I finally arrived after winding through traffic and hitting every red light possible. I was 45 minutes late and everyone had ordered their dinner already. I already knew I wanted filet minon so I ordered right away. I had a nice time talking with the people on my end of the table about dogs and Tucson and things to do because the people had just recently moved to town. Dinner was very good although everyone's steak was over cooked. That was ok with me because I said I wanted it medium rare but actually I meant medium. The portions were not huge so no doggy bag (sorry doggies). We were finished with our meal by 10 and then I had an hour drive back home so I got to bed at 11pm. I'm glad we only do that once a year.

Oh and another reason for being late to dinner, I posted on Facebook that I wanted a sliding glass door dog door insert and one of my friends just happened to know someone who was selling one for only $35. She even brought it to the adoption event for me. I was thrilled and had to try it out as soon as I got home. Most of my dogs don't like it. It is magnetic and it makes scary clacking noises when the flap moves. Two of my dogs have gotten the hang of it so hopefully they will show the others that it is not a scary thing. This will definitely help lower my electric bill since before I was just leaving the door open with a thick blanket over it. I don't even want to think about all that air conditioning that went out the door last Summer.

Saturday Dog Day

Blah...another day with NO adoptions. This is getting depressing. I was looking forward to less puppies. Yesterday I bought a brand new dog bed for the puppies since the one that they were using had been peed on and was not salvageable. They spent the morning chewing a hole in it and setting the stuffing free. I put that bed away. I got some donated linens today including a twin size mattress pad so I folded it and they are sleeping on it now. I hope they use it for its intended purpose only.

I zip-tied my new furniture cart to my dog crate and rolled my puppies around today. It was very helpful since some of the puppies are not used to walking on a leash. We went to the vet for their last puppy shot and they amused themselves by jumping in and out of the crate. Unfortunately, the plastic tray was old and they broke it and big pieces fell off. I was able to get a cardboard box from the vet which when flattened, covered the hole so that their little feet wouldn't fall through. It worked well.

One of the volunteers at the adoption event bought us all lunch from Culver's, a new hamburger place from the Eastern part of the country. It was good but there was no ketchup for the fries. I still haven't tried their frozen custard which is one of the things they are famous for. Hamburger places seem to be the "thing" right now. We have In And Out, 5 Guys, Monkey Burger, Culver's, and another place is opening next month, I can't remember the name. I think that is plenty of hamburger choices. Too bad none of them are near my house or my work.

My Tiny Kitchen

What a nice relaxing day. I didn't do my laundry or go to the grocery store but I did cook up some chicken alfredo. Cooking is something that I really haven't been doing lately.

This is my tiny kitchen area in the mobile home. To the right is my bed and to the left is my little bathroom and underneath the counter is a dog bed. Not much counter space that's for sure. Ever since I stopped buying propane for the RV I haven't cooked in the RV kitchen because the stove is propane and the freezer was propane but I'm not using that freezer any more. It is quite challenging to cook in this small space but I managed to make dinner and some extra for my lunch.

The weekend is over and I have to think about 5 more days of work. When I read the news I feel very fortunate to have a job since so many people are out of work. My tenants are still paying rent, at least I received last month's rent finally but I wonder if I will get this month's rent. I am very glad I am not depending on that money to live on or to pay the mortgage.

More Saturday Chores

I'm glad I have a day off tomorrow. This weekend was like all the other weekends. I did some shopping, I cleaned, I did laundry. All of those things have to be repeated at least every other week. I don't make any progress. Tomorrow I hope to do some things around here that will make my life easier. I did do one thing today though. I finally dusted off the heater in my bedroom and put it in my storage room. While I was in there I saw a 4'x8' sheet of styrofoam. You might remember that my ceiling has a hole in it from where the old swamp cooler was leaking. It was covered with plastic bags because I haven't found any inexpensive and light covering for the hole. I tried balancing a sheet of paneling over my head once but I couldn't hold it and nail it at the same time. Anyway, the styrofoam was light enough that I could hold it and nail it up at the same time. Hopefully that will keep some of the cool air in.

I bought some heavy floor runner material to try as dog door flaps. The plastic material that I used is too light and blows in the wind letting hot air in. With 3 dog doors, that's a lot of hot air. Tomorrow that will be my top chore.

I didn't get over to check on my friend's house until 4 today. I took 3 bags of laundry and 6 jugs for water. She asked me to clean out the perishables in the fridge so I made myself a nice salad and wasted some time clicking through many, many boring shows on cable TV while my clothes washed.


I'm not sure what I will do with the lemons. Make lemonade maybe?


I went home as soon as the last load was washed. I can dry them at home. By the time I put the clothes away it was getting dark. I was thinking about buying a movie to watch from Amazon but it is 9:30pm already. I think I'll just watch something free on Hulu instead.

The Watermelon Is Cheap

Some days I think I earn my pay more than others. Today was a steady stream of urgent issues. Luckily I think I handled most of them with only one spilling over until tomorrow. Of course tomorrow there will be new urgent issues to handle.

I went to the grocery store on Monday and loaded up on fruit. I bought a watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, cherries, apples, oranges and bananas. The watermelon was ok but not great. It was on sale for under $2 each because of the holiday weekend. The cherries were tasteless. Even the bananas were disappointing. I haven't tried the others yet. I miss good tasting fruit. Last Summer I went out to the Saturday farmer's market and all they had a some small apples. I could drive out to the farm an hour away and buy some real fruit when it is in season. I think peach season might be worth the drive.

Tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is almost here. Even though the days have gone by unnaturally slow, the weekend still got here fast thanks to the holiday. Only a few more days until payday!

Busy Weekend

Today my puppy-nanny came over again and helped me with some home improvement projects. We glued and nailed the edges of the vinyl floor in the hallway. The edges curl up the wall a little bit to contain any liquid spills. I works well so far.

Here is my foster dog helping us add a flap to the dog door. He is so helpful.


After all the work we went to Quiznos for dinner and she ordered a sandwich and then requested no ranch but it was too late. The lady had to start the sandwich over. I wanted to try that kind of sandwich so I told her I wanted the sandwich that she was about to throw away. Because she was going to throw it away, she gave it to me for free and I thought that was very nice. Turns out I didn't like it so I am glad that I didn't have to pay for it and I am glad I ordered my regular meal so I had something else to eat. The dogs enjoyed it though.

Weekend In Sight

Ahh...Thursday night. That's when I know I can make it one more day and then the weekend will be here. The weather for this weekend...upper 90's. That's better than 100 I suppose. I heard the weatherman promise 80's next weekend. It's always NEXT weekend.

Here is my latest foster-dog. It isn't a very good picture. He is a Dachshund mix of some sort. Short little legs but his ears are shorter than a full Dachshund. He is very cute and soft. I hope he gets adopted this weekend. He is too nice and fragile to be in with my rough and tumble pack of doggies. He has been going to work with me the last 2 days because the office is practically empty.

You know all those fruit and vegetables I bought on Monday? I have had to force myself to eat them. I have been having salads for lunch and after that I am not in the mood for more fruit. The good thing is that I am reaching for a banana or peach instead of candy. On weekends I don't snack at all. At work I snack constantly out of boredom or stress. Maybe one of the side effects of quitting my job will be losing 10 pounds effortlessly. That would be nice.