ksmith | The weekend so far

I used to pride myself that I seldom needed to toss spoiled or uneaten-for-a-few-days-too-long food. That was until Thursday evening, when the search for frozen meatballs led to my excavating the kitchen and downstairs freezers. I tossed lasagna from last summer, indefinable bbq-shaded stuff that may have been pulled pork that dated before that, and stuff I could not ID due to it being covered with frost. Liberated a dozen or more containers. I never need to buy another freezer container.

I should try to avoid doing this anymore, though. I got some freezer tape so I can better label containers with things like The Date. I also need to figure out a way to pack leftovers in a way that reduces headspace, since that's where the condensate builds and then freezes. Lots of folks store liquidy stuff like casseroles in freezer bags, and I may give that a try. Or I could place a layer of plastic wrap right on top of anything I pack away to act as a moisture barrier.

These were failed recipes, for the most part. Stuff that turned out Eh but that I couldn't make myself throw out. Anything decent disappeared quickly--frex, I never did find any meatballs, which I had stuffed with mozzarella and which had turned out pretty good. The problem with experimenting is that sometimes things don't work out, and I can't feed the failures to the dogs, so.

Yesterday was a vacation day, which lately has meant not vacation but doing all the stuff that I usually do on Saturday so that I can spend Saturday doing other stuff. Grocery shopping. Feed store. Hardware store. I was hoping that the landscape guys would come, but it had rained the night before and was too wet. ~~Rain possible off and on for the rest of the week, so the lawn may approach city ordinance status by the time they are able to mow it.~~ Nope, they did the yard today. Three guys, mucho machinery, forty-five minutes to mow and edge. It rained off and on all during the time they worked, too. The weather today was nuts. Sunshine one minute, deluge the next.

We're under frost advisory tonight, so tonight I will need to bring in the potted herbs and cover the basil planter as best I can. I wish it would stay warm. These temp swings usually happen in May, but not every damned week. Then there's the wind, which had battered away most of the crabapple blossoms and pretty much makes it impossible to do much of anything. It looks kind of still now, which means it may rain. It's either sunny&whoosh or rainy&woosh or rainy&still. No sunny&still.

This morning, chores of the Sunday sort. Third load of laundry in the wash while the second load dries. Gave the Real Simple 5-minute bathroom spruce-up a shot. 45 minutes later, I finished. I tried using those disinfecting wipes to wash and scrub like they suggested. The problem is that I live in a dusty area, or my house is just plain dusty, or whatever, because all those wipes do is smear the dust. So it's back to the sponge and towel-dry and does anyone else have a cluttered counter? Then the brand-new bottle of Lysol 4 in 1 cleaner developed an issue with the spray dispenser which led to it leaking all over my hand. Not being in the frame of mind to deal with balky sprayers--no coffee yet and 5 minutes my ass--I dumped the whole mess down the drain, tossed the container, and tried another cleaner. That worked, lucky for it.

Anyway, bathroom is clean. Made a meatloaf yesterday, which will likely bake today. Work to be done.

Hawks won last night. They're starting to look as though they are peaking, and at the right time, too. OTOH, they are young and a Chicago sports team that is not the 90s-era Bulls, so they could still blow it. Ain't over until Michael leaves the building.