Monday, September 3, 2012

Clothes don't dry real well on the line in 88% relative humidity and other things I learned this weekend.

I tried to dry laundry on the line today.  I did happen-- eventually.  I found that the humidity of a terrarium tends not to dry laundry so well.  My cousin used to live in Gonzales, Louisiana and she used to say it was like living in a terrarium.  Isaac was kind enough to bring that air to us and when I was hanging laundry at 9:30 AM and sweat was rolling down my back in all of 83 F (generally a very nice temperature), I felt just a taste of the humidity pain she lived for a while.  Wow. 

The Black Bean Nacho Burgers were so good the other day that since I had the general supplies on hand (except for needing another can of black beans), I decided to make another batch and freeze those for later dinners.  Yum.  Lookie here!  I added some red pepper and carrots this time. 

Yum! Getting ready to cook these up to freeze for two different meals for K- and me. Recipe in the previous post.
We've been tagging Monarchs and were successful in getting 10 tagged and on their way today.  It was a family effort, but we're chipping away at the 100 tags that we purchased. 

On Saturday, we went to Amish Country.  We stopped in at our favorite vegetable stand and I purchased yellow squash, 3 pounds of green beans, 5 pound of fresh dug potatoes, a few sweet candy onions, 3 red peppers, a few heads of butter lettuce and a mum.  The squash was shredded, bagged in snack bags then double bagged into freezer bags.  Green beans were blanched and got the same treatment.  Onions were sliced on my Pampered Chef slicer (the one that straddles a bowl) and those were bagged, as well as the red peppers.  While at our favorite bulk food store, I did purchase a number of things for my Christmas baking, since it doesn't look like we'll make it back down until after the holidays.  I also purchased a lovely salad spinner.  We washed and rinsed the butter lettuce, then gave it a good ole spin.  Damp salad is a pet peeve of mine, so I was thrilled with how wonderfully it worked!

We stopped in at an antique mall on the way home and darned if I didn't find 2 more Holly Hobbie glasses that I didn't have.  Drat.  I just found a few more.  I just marked them for Hubs :wink, wink: for Christmas. 

I may not have mentioned that I burned the top of my hand on my birthday when I was trying to help my sister get lunch for 6 kids.  I've been using the Avalon Organics Lavender Hand and Body Lotion on the burn a few times a day.  They don't advertise it as burn cream at all, but it has done a wonderful job at keeping the area well hydrated and though there is an area that is still quite tender (where the blister formed and subsequently was injured further when I accidentally smacked my hand against my nightstand- ouch!), I'm happy to say that it seems to be healing nicely.  Yes, it will leave a permanent mark. 

I scored some lightly worn Ann Taylor Curvy jeans at the thrift today for a whole 50 cents.  I found a pair of Docker jeans for the same.  I scored a pair of uniform skorts for K for a dollar and we found a white graduation gown for $2.00 for her to wear when she is Princess Leia for Halloween.  (We have to go with something big enough to fit over a winter coat.)  We've collected the whole set at this point, so Hubs will go as Darth Vader, I'll go as Queen Amidala (Amidolly, in our house) and K- as PL.  She's thrilled and apparently, we have the correct order of mom, dad and child.  Who knew? 

I've gotten to the bottom of my laundry bucket.  HOORAY!  It won't last long. 

We went to University Circle yesterday and visited the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Cleveland Museum of Art. It's been wonderful to stop in at the art museum and see how far they have gotten with their 10 year remodeling/addition plan.  This time, there was a huge courtyard open for people to walk through and the flow of the museum is now a bit more friendly.  CMNH was busy and we stopped in at the cafe for a snack, but they only had two people on staff and they were so very much in the weeds.  We bailed, knowing that we'd never get out in the next hour with anything and when we walked by a half hour later, they had a sign up that they had closed early.  That's okay, because we went ahead and went here. Why yes, we took a hungry child to the largest candy store in the states.  Don't worry.  She was good and we didn't go out with a bill the size of the national debt.  We found things for my FIL's 70th birthday tomorrow (Charles Chips chip tin and a refill bag, candy of "his time" and some Velamints, which he used to love.) 

We've done lots this weekend and frankly, I'm tired. 

Have a great day!