Fun on computer

Last evening I spent some time enjoying articles on the computer. First it was the initial story on Wpg Free Press of City Beautiful. It was long but very enjoyable with video of the Golden Boy and city Then I watched The Quilt Show and got caught up on shows. Today I spent cleaning. Was glad to see your entry Pati, knowing I wasn't the only one toilet cleaning haha ! Harry went to garage sales. One thing he bought was DVD movies. Often they are not interesting to me, but today one was a movie I have been looking for: Don Juan deMarco with Marlon Brando, Faye Dunaway and Johnny Depp. I had seen it years ago and had wished I could find it again. So I just watched it before logging on tonight and was not disappointed. Tonight was the last time I had to log onto Nielsen to record all our food and drink every day for the last week. It was time consuming to fill in the survey for both Harry and I - about an hour each night. We are supposed to get a Visa card for $25.00 for our efforts but still have not received anything for the last one I did. I wonder about the postal service - I mailed in the benefits papers for Harry's glasses the first of August and by the end of August nothing had come back. So i phoned, and Great west had no record of having received the paperwork. so I had to resubmit using only the copies I had kept. (always keep copies as you never know when you need them)  Time for bed... ..and dream of winning the lottery tonight.... yeah!!  Take care

A day I've been dreading

Yes, it's time to scrub out the bathroom again.  The only joy I can see here will be in getting the job finished.  Applying the principle that work expands to fill the time allotted to it, I expect this will take all day.  I knew it would have to be done before the work starts on the bathroom floor, ( next week) but we suddenly realized that my stitchery group will be here on Tuesday.

The jam worked well.  Thank you again Cathy.  Now we have to eat the stuff.  What a chore! LOL

and here I am...

.....wish I had some wonderful exciting news the likes of which I am reading from you both, but alas....more tomatoes, cucumbers  and now apples haha  Apparently we are to pick every apple off the trees and make juice!  And it has been a really good year for apples. Thank goodness we have a good juicer machine.  And thank goodness when I emptied the huge shelf downstairs I actually threw a lot of old preserves into the compost - I now have lots more empty, clean jars to use.  Today the big cat knocked my clock radio off the table in the bedroom, and this was also my CD player that I listen to often at night. The top broke off and parts were all over. The clock part still works but the CD player will not. I do have another radio that also has a CD player but I have never figured out how it works. I guess that will be my amusement tonight before bed ! Hope I can get it going. My music is special to me. Take care

Found a bit of joy

Yesterday, my friend Gail and I, drove out to Pinawa for another artist's "play day".  We had a wonderful time, each of us doing our own thing, but the bonus was in  the active discussion we had about art and artists.  This sort of interactive discussion is why I hang out with artists.  Additionally, one of the two pieces I was working on, worked well.  I was so excited, that I actually bounced a bit in my chair--not pretty in a woman of my size and age!  I have been working on this piece for weeks, slowly moving along, as I wasn't really sure what I was doing, and the techniques I was using weren't reversible.  Now, at least, I have a sense of direction.

When I got home we decided that 7 out of 23 jars of jam hadn't sealed, and will need to be re-done.  Sounds like one whole batch to me.  Thank you for the suggestion, Cathy.

Jam

If your jars don't seal, just empty them into a pot and reheat the contents and try again.

Wow!

Both of you sound like it has been quite a week.  Beth, regardless of the exact details of your time at the fair, you spent a good chunk of time in social contact with your "neighbours".  I believe this sort of thing is critical to the well-being of retired people.  There is such a tendency to slowly withdraw from society.  Now, Cathy, from your blog, I'm betting you can't conceive of the idea of of having too little social contact!  It sounds like you would "kill" for the chance to withdraw a bit and have some time to yourself.  Somehow, we need to find a "happy medium", and it doesn't appear to happen as long as we are working.  And then we retire and are so happy to have a bit of time to ourselves that we lose a lot of our contacts--sometimes for good.   ( Sometimes this is a good thing, but not always) 

 I guess I am thinking about this sort of thing as it looks like my Ravenesque group is going to fold.  This group has been a lifeline for me over the past few years, but there is a natural life span to such groups, and I can see the end of this one.

Cathy, your "power cooking" puts me all to shame.  And I was so proud of what I did!!  I did the math and  converted the figures into meals--I was still stunned at how much you had accomplished.  And Beth, putting down all of the produce--Oh My!!  What do you do with it all?

My accomplishment this weekend was 23 jars of Rhubarb/Pineapple jam, a batch of blueberry muffins, a Rhubarb Cobbler, and gaining 3 pounds.  By this morning several of the lids on the jam have not "popped".  Does this mean I have to throw it out?  This has never happened to me before.

It has been ages since I made muffins from scratch, and as soon as I bit into one of them I appreciated the difference between muffins made from scratch as a "quick bread" and the cake-like crap we buy at the store.  The other difference was shelf life.  I could manage to eat the muffins the second day, but not the third.  It was great to be able to use some of the blueberries I froze last fall.  But it was a bit of a shock to realize that the rhubarb that came out of the freezer was not last year's but 2012!  For the jam and cobbler, it worked just fine.

Today I am planning to "gird my loins" and head into Hakim Optical to complain about my new glasses.  I can read with them but with difficulty.  I get the best results if I put on my dollar store readers over top of my new bi-focals.  Not a good thing.  The sunglasses appear to be fine, but then I only wear them outside and rarely read with them.  I'll let you know how it goes.

My Week......

was not the best of weeks, but it is over.  My gout came back, this time in 2 toes.  Does this mean that once a year I have a gout attack and each year it doubles in size?!? Not something to look forward to.  So, I limped through the week.  I was supposed to work meat draw with Kellie (Jim's goddaughter) on Friday, but she never showed up until 6:30.  Jim worked it with me.  She said Tyler needed her for something.  I told Jim not to be mad at her,but to let her know how disappointed he was in her.  I think that hurt her more than any yelling would have.  This weekend was our power cooking weekend.  I didn't get the chicken casseroles done, but I have 4 lasagnes, 24 hamburger patties, 2 meat loafs, 4 large stews, 4 quiches, 81 meatballs, spagetti sauce and 11 garlic logs in the freezer. Jim made the patties and the meat loafs and helped me with the stew.  I want to do a couple of chicken & brocolli casseroles, too, but I am kind of worn out.   Tomorrow, after work, Rrain and I are going to Dennis's to make salsa for him.  Lynne is still in Barbados.  (Since June)  I don't think either of them planned on her being gone this long.  I am going to take my junk recipe too.  It is great for using up tomatoes, peppers, onions etc.  And you can use it in so many dishes.  The trouble with power cooking is that you just don't feel like eating anything and by the end of the day, you haven't had any food.  What sort of things do you make when you power cook, Pati?? I know in the past you have mentioned ribs, and meat in gravy. At work, the powers- that- be have agreed to have our student continue as a casual until Patty returns from Mat leave.  She will be working Tuesdays and Thursdays.  He course is Monday, Wednesday & Friday until November.  She wants to do manicures & pedicures and fancy nail polish designs. She is a really good worker and always jumps in to help where she can.  She has trouble with numbers (Not a good thing when everything we do has a registration or title number) but she knows it, and checks the numbers before she starts and ALWAYS asks if she is unsure.  I am going to take some down time today and maybe sit and read for a while.  My foot is feeling much better, but not 100%  It is still swollen and purple, but I can touch it now.  I know I should have rested more, earlier, but when you have only so much time to get things done, you have to do them.  Oh well.   Today I rest.  Hope your long weekend was (sort of )  relaxing and the week ahead is great