Eleanor's Closet Opened

eleanors_closet @ 2009-12-19T19:11:00

2009-12-20T00:11:53Z

7:30 - 8:00 this morning

Later this afternoon (3:00 ish?)

Around 6:00 this evening - about 16 inches.

How the Boogie spent most of his day.

And Pearl was of a similar mind We are at about 16 inches and it is still snowing.

Snow

2009-12-18T21:55:00Z

We might get snow deeper than a beagle is tall. That will not make the pups happy.

I however, will be doing Christmas baking and gift wrapping. :)

Jim will most likely sit in front of the boob tube watching westerns. :(

It will be a really nice day :)

The Holidays ....

2009-12-12T12:25:11Z

Are just around the corner! This weekend I’m hoping to do some baking, and finish my Christmas shopping. I thank Al Gore for creating the internet :) because Amazon.com has saved me some serious time this year. Most of what I purchased was going to have to be shipped anyway, so I shipped it to the recipients. Which gets me out of wrapping, too!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays. I’m much like my mom in that Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love giving gifts, especially when I have the time to either make the gift or put some thought into the purchase. I love decorating the house. I love baking and sharing the goodies. It’s all great fun for me. I get to play Suzie homemaker for a short period of time.

I’m still stuck on what to get Jim. I’ve gotten him a couple of things, but what I really want to get him, we can’t afford right now (computer). That’s a bummer, but I’ll find him something cool.

This year is the stay-at-home year. We usually rotate visiting family. One year at KY, the next year at PA, and then a year for us at home. After all the travel I've done this year it will be good to stay home.

Home, Christmas, Fruity Rum Drinks. What more could you ask for?

Travel

2009-12-05T20:24:47Z

I'm sincerely hoping that I haven't been signed up to travel somewhere for the next couple of months. I won't know for sure until Monday and I read the e-mail from the last week and a half.

Don't get me wrong - Barbados was fantastic. But you have to travel to get to it. I have travelled (for either work or personal) at least one week out of every month this year. I'm done. Because this doesn't show any signs of easy up any time soon, I'm casting about for other jobs that may be coming open. We'll see. There are people in my office who travel more than I, so I'm cautious in my complaining.

So, I'm hoping I get to stay home this month and prepare for Christmas. That would be nice.

The Knight Bus

2009-11-29T02:19:54Z

If you are a Harry Potter fan, you know what I'm talking about when I mention the Knight Bus. It's the bus that rescues witches and wizards who need help. It's a British double-decker bus outfitted with beds and screams along the roads of London driven by Crazy Ernie and a Rastafarian head.

I have been on the Knight Bus and lived to tell about it.

Here in Barbados there are two bus companys. One, the blue bus, is the state run bus system. Air conditioned and driven by sober - literally - drivers.

The other bus company is the yellow bus with blaring Rasta music, people jammed in, and driven by drivers not always sober. Driven fast and crazy. Our first night here we had to get on the bus to get to dinner. It was dark so there were lights whizzing by, music blaring, and the 9 of us were the only white people on the bus. You had to laugh.

So far everyone we have met has been very polite. We went to Bridgetown today and went to St Mary's Church, established in the 1700s. We had elevensies at a smoothie place that was pretty cool.

Tomorrow a rum distillery. More laying on the beach, maybe.

eleanors_closet @ 2009-11-14T17:54:00

2009-11-14T22:54:22Z

On Veteran's day my brother and I made the trek to Arlington to visit dad. He served for 34 years and for some reason, this year I wanted to visit. It took an extra hour due to an accident around the Georgia Ave exit, but it was worth it.

I then continued my way on up to my mom's. We're hoping she has a bid on my grandparents house and she needed some help. The house is about 99% empty so now it's time to clean up and make it look nice. It's a good house, terrific layout and lots of space. Hopefully the bid is reasonable. Mom may be househunting down here before the end of the year.

With that in mind we started sorting the stuff in mom's basement. Sometimes you just need a bit of organization so I adopted the "Clean Sweep" approach. We have piles of "sell" "keep" and "toss". The "toss" pile is already in the trash bin. We made some real progress and I hope mom feels more organized. She still has quite a bit to go through.

Next week, Fort Knox. The week after - Barbados! I'm so looking forward to that trip.

eleanors_closet @ 2009-11-03T20:20:00

2009-11-04T01:25:25Z

Is it really only Tuesday?

23 days until Barbados!

eleanors_closet @ 2009-11-01T16:03:00

2009-11-01T21:07:43Z

The weekend has been entirely too short. I've barely touched what I wanted to get accomplished, much less actually get something done. Laundry is mostly done. Garage not touched. Basement about 40% done. But we still need to do grocery shopping for the week. Oh well. I guess most of my weekends are like that.

Mousehole - or eat until you bust

2009-10-25T23:56:48Z

Mousehole was on Saturday down at BnL's farm. Despite the remnants of Tropical Storm Rick blowing through, it was a rather nice event. Jen and Alan brought down their tent and Vair and Ermine's common tent for us to use as a tavern hall and it really saved the event. Folks could be outside in 'period' and project or watch the fighting.

I had a dayshade set up over the fire pit so that dinner could still happen. While Bob n' Laura's kitchen is very nice and very cool, it's too small to prepare a dinner for 25. The guys looked at me oddly when I told them to put the dayshade OVER the fire pit. But they were happy with the duck. And the pork roast. And the cheese pie.

We planned on about 30 and we had 26. We had 4 folks cancel because of illness. I was extremely please at the turn-out despite the weather. Hardy souls that lot of Gardner's Company!

Waiting

2009-10-23T16:09:46Z

By strange and unforseen reasons, we are sitting here in the living room instead of driving down to Mousehole right now. We will be, eventually, driving down to Mousehole, just not at the rate we were hoping for.

It's a Friday and by the time we hit DC it will most likely be raining. No one around DC can drive in bad weather, so it will be very slow going.
But we'll get there, our friends will be there and we're going to have a great time.

Vet Visit

2009-10-20T09:39:39Z

We took both pups to the vet last night, mostly to get Pearl's ear looked at. The vet was concerned (as we are) about why the two of them fought each other in the first place. Since we didn't see what triggered the fight, we're guessing based on past issues. The vet wants us to focus on re-training and de-escalation. The re-training is completely do-able since Boogie is eager to please - especially for a treat. Pearl is more difficult because she just wants the treat but she'll get the idea. We had actually started the re-training as a way to level the playing field. The vet also recommended taking away all toys for awhile so they can't fight over something one or the other may find valuable.

The de-escalation part will be more difficult. We're going to bring in a dog behaviour specialist to help us do it right. If we don't get this right we may to give up one of them - most likely Pearl. We don't want that.

This is very frustrating. We thought it was a good thing that Pearl getting a bit more playful and a bit more defensive in keeping her toys when Boogie tries to take them away. Apparently it was escalating some tension and ended up crossing an unseen line.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Dog Fight

2009-10-18T13:06:17Z

Yesterday was not as relaxing as I was hoping it would be. Boogalu and Pearl got into a knock-down drag out dog fight complete with injuries. It probably lasted all of 1 minute maybe a minute and a half. But it was a frightening minute. After the dust settled and we got them separated, Pearl had a bloody ear and Boogie had a bite on his front leg. At first we decided to just wash the wounds and put on some anitbiotic ointment and see how it goes. But then Boogie started limping so we took him to the emergency vet.

It's nothing serious, probably bad bruising, but he now has an antibiotic and a pain pill. The pain pill is fun.

He's a litte loopy, but mostly just really, really relaxed.

We'll probably take Pearl in to our regular vet and make sure all is okay with her. Hopefully today will be more relaxing .....

Paper for Heat

2009-10-16T23:35:01Z

We’ve had no heat in the building where I work all week. The policy is that they don’t turn on the boilers until the daily high temperature is below 65 for 3 work days in a row. That means the boilers would have been fired up today. But it takes time to build up enough heat to send down the steam lines to be effective.

Because the forecast for next week is much warmer weather (yea) there was some question as to whether the boilers were actually going to be started. Apparently the energy policy had to be re-written in order to allow for the heat to start flowing.

A piece of paper versus employee efficiency?

And what about all those space heaters we’ve plugged in? How efficient or safe is that? My building was built in the 1920’s. The wiring is ancient – even the ‘newer’ wiring.

I realize that using boilers/steam heat is not a fast heating system. Turning on steam heat has to be planned for. But really, forecasting for the most part is more accurate than even a decade ago. Can we not look at the forecast? Where I work even has a meteorology section. It’s their job to forecast the weather.

I’m glad we bought a new pellet stove back in March. It’s very comforting on days like today.

Weather Decided

2009-10-15T22:38:43Z

The event at Colonial Plantation has been postponed. It is now scheduled for the 14-15 November. I don't know if the Galloglas group can do that date as they are committed to doing the Irish Festival at Timonium that weekend. The guys are doing 1961 so I'm definitely not interested in the Irish Fest this year. Maybe we'll go to Colonial Plantation as visitors and just get a lay of the land.

Weather Indecision

2009-10-14T23:59:32Z

This coming weekend we're supposed to do an event at Colonial Plantation in PA. This weekend its supposed to be cold and wet. My enthusiasm for this event is waning. My tolerance for cold and wet events has faded with my accumulation of wisdom and experience. We'll be doing some cool cooking, but I don't know how successful it's really going to be if a) we can't get a fire started or b) it won't stay lit because of rain. We'll see. There's rumour afoot the event may be cancelled. But I looked at their web site and I don't think they cancel very frequently, realizing of course that they are an outdoor site and weather happens.

I wish I had another brazier. What we're planning on doing can be easily done on a brazier. Less bending down over a fire and more likely to stay lit. I haz charcoal. So we'll see.

Yet Another Boogie Picture

2009-10-07T22:10:31Z

So we were eating dinner in the living room. Boogie decided to stare down Jim's plate.

Random Pictures

2009-10-05T18:23:15Z

Boogie was cute yesterday watching the front yard. He can sit there for hours, or until someone walks into view.

This is what I think is called an apothecary jar. It probably holds about 1 1/2 cups of stuff. We usually use it for mustard sauce for the hard boiled eggs. I would love butter dishes in about the same shape, but smaller holding like 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick). Doesn't necessarily have to be similarly decorated.

Freezer Space

2009-10-05T10:29:45Z

Freezer space is at a premium. We were very productive over the weekend preparing some foods ahead of time for Mousehole. Approximately 60+ ham pasties, 60+ beef/pork pasties, and about 49 spinach pasties, some macaroons and cookies were made on Saturday. Since it's only early October these things need to be kept in a freezer until the event. I've shoved a few things (phyllo shells, cheese, and a container of pasties) in my freezer and Carla took the rest and got them in her freezer. But we have more to do and some of it will need to be frozen. I think Jim and I will be eating out of the freezer this week to create some space.

Carla and I have identified future pottery needs - butter dishes! We will see how it goes over Mousehole and see what we need.

I can haz truk!

2009-10-01T22:32:49Z

The saga of the truck.

Last Thursday I took my beloved Tacoma to the shop. Little did I know it was never to return home. Otherwise I would have taken all of my crap out of it. The mechanics at Economy Service finally called on Friday afternoon and said the truck was unsafe to drive. The attachment points for the leaf springs to the frame had rusted. Pretty much rusted away - as in through the frame. So it was towed to a Toyota body shop where the magic word – Recall- was uttered. They (the nice folks at the body shop) drove it to the dealership, all of 200 yards away. The service manager explained there was a Customer Support Program for rusty frames. If it can be repaired, they repair it for free. If not, they buy your truck back. Yea!

Now I was hoping just to get Kelley Blue Book value on this truck. The rust was severe and the service manager knew it would be purchased back. While he’s processing the paperwork he mentions that Toyota is very generous with the repurchase. Very. Generous. Toyota puts me in a rental and I’m on my way. Tuesday I got a phone call from Toyota with the offer for my vehicle. Lots. Of. Money. More than twice Kelley Blue Book. We’re still stunned.

So last night we went vehicle looking. However, what do we want? What’s my replacement vehicle? I loved my truck, but as a truck, it did have drawbacks such as passenger space - exactly one. We’ve been taking Jim’s VUE to a lot of things if Carla comes along, which has put a lot of miles on the VUE. The VUE is cramped if you have 4 people and their stuff going to Jamestown or 3 people going to Mousehole.

We need something with passenger space, but can still be crammed full of stuff. Pennsic looms in the back of our minds “How are we going to get all of our Stuff to Pennsic?” Either tow it, or stow it. So options with passenger space and stowage are either a large pick-up with crew cab or a minivan. Again pros and cons with both. A Toyota Tundra crew cab with a 6 foot bed would be awesome. But the gas mileage is pretty awful. And with a 25 gallon tank – ouch. The Sienna is better on the gas mileage, but really, it’s a minivan. But you can cram it full of stuff and still take passengers.

We looked at vans and trucks. We sat in vans and trucks. We analyzed space in vans and trucks. I drove a Tundra. We talked 2WD vs AWD vs 4WD. Then we analyzed MPH for both the van and the truck. Really, there wasn’t much difference. 15/18 vs 17/21. Then we did it.

We bought the Tundra Crew Cab with 6 foot bed. It’s a 2006 4WD. It’s nice. We dickered to below Kelley Blue Book (retail) for it, and I still have a feeling we’re paying a bit too much, but it’s ours now.

We signed a promissory note for the down payment (the check that is coming) and financed the rest. They know where the check is coming from, so they were cool with that. The truck is parked outside right now.

While I don’t want a car payment right now (or ever), it’s not as heinous as we originally feared thanks to the buy back.

And it’s pretty.

eleanors_closet @ 2009-09-27T08:31:00

2009-09-27T12:45:08Z

We went to Lochmere's Baronial Birthday event in Crownsville. It's a nice site albiet known for rainy events here lately. The rain held off yesterday until about mid-afternoon. So the fighters got to fight for awhile and the rapier fighters got to practice melee tactics.

I got to play with my brazier. According to the forecast it was supposed to be mid-60s and damp/wet. So I thought hot tea, biscuits, and stew would be nice. Mistress Branwen and I enjoyed the tea and stew, but not too many other people. The main purpose of doing some brazier cooking was to keep me occupied, which was accomplished. The by-product was food to share.

I'm going to have to dedicate some tent pegs to the brazier or find a trivit to make the supported area smaller for smaller pots/dishes. Otherwise, the brazier worked amazingly well. It did, in fact, scorch the table cloth, so I need to put it on a square of leather next time. No biggie. This is the first time I've used it for any extended period. Lesson learned. The table cloth wasn't nice fabric or anything so I'm not distraught over the cloth.

Next weekend, Mousehole food prep.

Mousehole Menu Planning

2009-09-25T11:07:41Z

We got the menu set for Mousehole last weekend. It's a little more ambitious this year thanks to some additional help from Freddy. We're going to have duck! And other things, don't worry. We've got the meat eaters and vegetarians fairly well covered I think. I've discovered that it's definitely more difficult to avoid milk and milk products. It was just such a standard medium to cook in/with. Let alone the butter and cheese that's prevalent. I think we've done okay, but we'll see.

But with such an ambitious menu we have to do some pre-cooking/food prep. We're having pies, pasties, and we're spit roasting the ducks. We may need two fire pits to get it all done. It should be fun!

eleanors_closet @ 2009-09-13T16:29:00

2009-09-13T20:30:17Z

Earl Blackwell
March 1915 - September 2009

Miss you Gumpy

eleanors_closet @ 2009-09-07T11:39:00

2009-09-07T15:42:01Z

What a nice weekend this is. A long weekend with Monday off. Saturday Carla and I ran up to visit Greg and Diane at Schifferstadt and got a tour of the house. Built in 1756/8 by German immigrants the house is in surprising good shape. Hopefully the owners will be smart enough to allow it to become a real museum. It really needs some conservation work, but the foundation lacks the funds to execute a conservation plan.

It would be a great site for Yule!

Then Sunday was Carla’s birthday and we had a few friends over (and Carla, of course) and Jim did his southern woman imitation by grilling entirely too much food. The beagles and Ladybug had fun running up and down the fence with the pit bulls. Exhausted hounds all around. It was a really nice evening of chatting about embroidery, clothing, and upcoming events. Happiness is having a large dining table surrounded by friends (and wine).

This is also happiness. I’ve been waffling about buying a new laundry set for several months now. The price on new front load machines are extraordinary IMO but the silence from the washer doing a load of sheets as I sit here is making it all worth while. The clincher was the financing by Lowes (12 months same as cash) so I can make it happen now instead of in 12 months. Yea.

You’ll note there are no pedestals. At $200 a piece I think that’s ridiculous. But, I have a plan. I plan to rip out the ‘closet’ they are in now, stack the units, and put in pantry cabinets in the reclaimed space. So I didn’t want to purchase pedestals I would eventually not need.

Soon Jim will be off to the range and I will get some down time to plan some sewing. Maybe even sew something.

The Heat Was On

2009-08-30T19:00:31Z

At Coronation yesterday. It turned out to be a lovely day for Vlad and Klissa's coronation and Stierbach's BB. Jim and I were wondering if we should bring a dayshade to keep the rain out, but really, we needed to keep the sun off. Fortunately for us Marcellus (sp?) was very kind and let us crash under his dayshade for the day.

It's been an age since I've been to an SCA event other than Pennsic. I was a little uncertain what to do to occupy myself since I don't fight. I brought handsewing and some embroidery and some cook books. I thought I would wonder over to the kitchen and see if they needed help but everytime I was in the Feast Hall, no one seemed to be around in the kitchen area. So I hung around and chatted with folks under Marcellus' day shade. Met a few new people that way, which is never a bad thing.

I did get to chat with Eadric for a few moments. I was able to clarify my baking stone issues from Pennsic. I definitely need to get the stone hotter and see how that goes. I think it would be very cool and sit and chat with Eadric about cooking/baking etc.

So many things to do, so little time.

Check

2009-08-16T00:59:37Z

Lawn mowed
Gardens weeded
Grass clippings piled to start new beds for spring
Pennsic-related things mostly put away
Laundry caught up
Suitcase packed