Past day: full of ingenuity and food
Dec. 30th, 2007 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
likethebeerIn the continual need to brush snow off the roof, I found one of the pieces for a telescoping chimney sweep we have stored in the garage, put the rake into one of the open-ended pieces on it, and clamped them together w/a C-clamp. This gave me a rake w/a pole about 10' long. I would throw the rake up onto the roof (holding the end), and drag it back down to try to bring some snow off. I think I did ok. My efforts did manage to bring down a mound of snow on the S. side of the roof. And I certainly felt good about my efforts, since there was no way I was going to climb onto the roof.
When I explained this to mda, he was impressed by my ingenuity. Good. I was really impressed, and wanted him suitably impressed, also.
Then I drove to our winter solstice ceremony in Mad-town. I had e-mailed Jeff, the woman who organizes it (and, yes, she's really called Jeff although her name is Jennifer), asking if I could spend the night at her place. I'm tired of the drive back. This summer we got into a rainstorm that was so intense, I couldn't see the road enough to even feel comfortable pulling onto the shoulder. In September, we got into some crazy, late night construction that was just confusing, particularly at 12:30 a.m.
Good thing I planned to spend the night, b/c a neighbor's dad died (she also comes to the ceremonies), and Jeff asked me to stay at the neighbor's house to provide companionship for the woman's cat.
Visions of The Onion's "Vacationing Woman Thinks Her Cats Miss Her" went through my head, but it was no problem to stay at the woman's house. And I did pet that cat, who was v. nice.
Anyway, so it was the Winter solstice gathering (1 week late). We call the corners, light candles (set in a real Yule log), meditate, light more candles, read stories, then, once the ceremony is complete, we eat eat eat. Last night, everyone was instructed to bring appetizers. Might as well just sprinkle some salt on a lb. of lard and stuff it in our faces. But yummy, lemme tell you. And with no drive home, I could drink w/out worrying about the drive.
Today I got up, pet that cat a little, then took off to Trader Joe's. My middle sister had given me a $50 gift card (her ability to get really cool gifts for people intimidates the hell out of me).
So, w/$50 worth of stuff free (and having never gone into Trader Joe's before), I wandered, well, not so weak and weary, but I was overwhelmed when I first got there. But finally I began grabbing things. At first I wondered how I could spend $50, but not to worry. Here's most of what we got:
I wrote the household cook about the haul. He wrote back saying that he's been aching to cook good stuff, since he & his mom have been going to the store to prepare for New Year's Eve.
And, speaking of mda, I realized that this might be the longest time we've spent apart while we've been together. Weird. Although I do like remembering how to cook things. Oh, but our milk is just in baaaad shape.
Ok. The sun is close to setting (the sun I didn't see all day long w/the blanket of clouds). We've gained less than a minute in light since the solstice, but the sun is setting 4 minutes later (I don't understand it myself, although mda has explained it to me once).
When I explained this to mda, he was impressed by my ingenuity. Good. I was really impressed, and wanted him suitably impressed, also.
Then I drove to our winter solstice ceremony in Mad-town. I had e-mailed Jeff, the woman who organizes it (and, yes, she's really called Jeff although her name is Jennifer), asking if I could spend the night at her place. I'm tired of the drive back. This summer we got into a rainstorm that was so intense, I couldn't see the road enough to even feel comfortable pulling onto the shoulder. In September, we got into some crazy, late night construction that was just confusing, particularly at 12:30 a.m.
Good thing I planned to spend the night, b/c a neighbor's dad died (she also comes to the ceremonies), and Jeff asked me to stay at the neighbor's house to provide companionship for the woman's cat.
Visions of The Onion's "Vacationing Woman Thinks Her Cats Miss Her" went through my head, but it was no problem to stay at the woman's house. And I did pet that cat, who was v. nice.
Anyway, so it was the Winter solstice gathering (1 week late). We call the corners, light candles (set in a real Yule log), meditate, light more candles, read stories, then, once the ceremony is complete, we eat eat eat. Last night, everyone was instructed to bring appetizers. Might as well just sprinkle some salt on a lb. of lard and stuff it in our faces. But yummy, lemme tell you. And with no drive home, I could drink w/out worrying about the drive.
Today I got up, pet that cat a little, then took off to Trader Joe's. My middle sister had given me a $50 gift card (her ability to get really cool gifts for people intimidates the hell out of me).
So, w/$50 worth of stuff free (and having never gone into Trader Joe's before), I wandered, well, not so weak and weary, but I was overwhelmed when I first got there. But finally I began grabbing things. At first I wondered how I could spend $50, but not to worry. Here's most of what we got:
Olive oil, of course (only $6.50 for a liter). And other oil-things: chili oil, and garlic oil.This doesn't count the pre-made things I got. And a pomegranate, which I haven't had in years.
Powders/dry stuff: chunky sea salt, ground ginger, and ground nutmeg (unfortunately, they didn't have dried curry, but Jeff gave us some of her homemade, Thai, dried curry).
Sauces (I have no idea what most of these do, but there are suggestions on the bottles): Bombay simmer sauce, masala simmer sauce, Thai red curry cooking sauce, green curry simmer sauce, "Indian Korma simmer sauce", Teriyaki sauce, and red mole sauce.
Red & Yellow roasted peppers
Red roasted peppers
Red pepper spread w/eggplant & garlic
crushed ginger
capers
I wrote the household cook about the haul. He wrote back saying that he's been aching to cook good stuff, since he & his mom have been going to the store to prepare for New Year's Eve.
And, speaking of mda, I realized that this might be the longest time we've spent apart while we've been together. Weird. Although I do like remembering how to cook things. Oh, but our milk is just in baaaad shape.
Ok. The sun is close to setting (the sun I didn't see all day long w/the blanket of clouds). We've gained less than a minute in light since the solstice, but the sun is setting 4 minutes later (I don't understand it myself, although mda has explained it to me once).
