Working Wednesday, November 2, 2022

~ Jenny

How the hell did November get here so fast? I wasn’t through with September. Oh, well, today I am Kondoing my kitchen: I’m looking at the broken pink ice cream dish I never really liked and telling it that it can go. I am organizing all the utensils I keep flinging different places. I am establishing a place for all my small appliances and working through them one by one to see if they really are going to make a difference or if I should put them in a box for Krissie to play with. (My gut feeling is “put them in a box” but I’m going to try every one of them.) And then there’s the burned out stove I’ve been ignoring; I hated that before I caught it on fire. So today, I get savage in my kitchen.

What are you working on savagely (or gently) this week?

75 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, November 2, 2022”

  1. I have already gone Kondo on appliances. Everything left fits in a place with its name on it. Flatware… needs to meet with Marie. I should get rid of all of it and buy something new. No, I shouldn’t. But two and a half sets that don’t match are unnecessary for a guy who lives alone and doesn’t entertain. But first, there’s coffee.

  2. I’m feeling pretty good because I looked at a portion of my closet and realized the clothes were covered in dust. I took them out, washed them and realized these were the survivors of a purge a while back, so they’re the ones I kept for professional attire. Since I’m still working, I’ll keep them, but at least they’re not dusty any more. I’ll move on to another section and keep working through things in tiny bits. (I know I shouldn’t just put everything back, but I felt it was justified in this instance.)

    I spent this past weekend at my quilt retreat. I spent the majority of my time making llama blocks. Those are all done now, so the next bit will be putting them into a quilt. I also had a couple of blocks to make for a guild fundraiser – so two penquins and a star.
    https://www.instagram.com/p/CkdMPyuOhzf/

    At the retreat, we took stock of our UFO challenge. Two people were custom quilting king sized quilts – they’re not totally completed, but they look fabulous already, and are much farther along than they would have been without the challenge. Another person wanted to finish up a particularly difficult top – which she did the last day we were there. Two others were completing a quilt – and those were done and greatly admired.

    Then there is me, the over achiever. I took inventory of my UFO pile, and said I’d complete 5 to the top stage. I also had a bunch that just needed to be quilted. I’ll post the pictures in the next posts.

      1. Well, I’m not on Instagram, so I got caught on an endless loop asking me to sign in, after about the third click on your links. Maybe tomorrow?

        1. After months of asking me to log in, Instagram allowed me to see the llamas (and JaneB’s garden from Sunday) but now it’s back to the log in page. Argh.

    6. I love the llama’s, so cute!
      And the small stars in the six-sided borders are another favorite.

  3. My husband (bless his heart) just renovated our kitchen. Now I have one 36″ lower cabinet with a shelf over it for the microwave (I’m too short to have a microwave above the stove). The new cab has the appliances I use all the time (toaster, can opener, stand mixer) on top, and ALL the other appliances that aren’t used as often are stored inside the cab. The only exception is the coffee maker, because I left it on the opposite side of the galley next to the sink. He also added two pantry cabs. I have so much extra space now, I have a couple upper cabs that are completely empty. And I love it!

  4. I’ve been hanging around a hospital all week, as a friend of ours who has rheumatoid arthritis tripped in our living room at the cottage and broke her hip. Ambulanced on Sunday to the nearest hospital where they performed an emergency hip replacement. Since this is not where she lives, I’m the only person around to hang with her (pretended to be married to her so I could actually get in to visit her which was quite fun for us both) so I’ve been spending my days there. I have to say, if I were ever going to end up in a hospital I’d want to be in this one – Newmarket for my Ontario friends on this site – all the staff are inordinately friendly, helpful, efficient and very good-looking. I told my husband that if he ever disappeared, I’d go hang around this hospital as my number one dating tactic.

    1. What a good friend you are.

      Your story reminds me of when a friend of mine had a gall bladder attack. Her coworker who is also a close friend went with her to the doctor appointment. When she demurred about making a surgery appointment her friend sternly told her to listen to the doctor’s advice. At which point the scheduler turned to my friend and told her to listen to her partner. They loved that they had been mistaken for a couple and tell this story with great animation.

      1. Ha! That’s the best. I wish my friend were listening more to my advice here! She is determined to go home where she lives alone in a three storey-house with no bathroom on the first floor. Sigh.

      1. Ooooh now you’re giving me a thought – maybe I could parlay this into presents? Register for Barely Married site or something like that?

        1. Fake marriage of convenience. Send us the link to your registry. Kevin threatened to put Lego kits on our if we made one.

          1. I would love a Lego kit. Please sign up for that. Although my hubby of course would like some kind of World of Warcraft gaming accessories. Healing powers and stuff like that.

    1. It’s amazing what you can do in a microwave. But I also have more small appliances than Best Buy, so that helps.

      1. Do you have an air fryer? I am not much for gadgets, but I love mine and use it practically every day. It’s magic.

          1. Do you have an electric skillet? Years ago a friend of mine cooked for several years with nothing else. He and his wife were living in the house they were building, and they had a refrigerator and an electric skillet. No microwave because in the beginning they didn’t have enough wattage on the extension cord running 200 feet from the barn. He even made cake in the electric skillet.

          2. I am really bad a cooking meat. It’s either salmonella or burnt. This took a lot of the guess work out of it. Also came with a recipe book with excellent marinades. Our favorite is a spicy middle eastern yogurt one for kebabs. And the eggplant Parm also came out really well.

    2. Years ago I bought a panini maker at Goodwill for $10. I never make paninis. But shortly thereafter our very expensive toaster once again died (My husband buys toasters in search of one that actually works for more than a year). I started making toast with the panini maker. One side has stripes but the other is a perfect even brown. I now use it for grilled cheese sandwiches and it works for frying stuff if I don’t want to get out a frying pan. It lives on the counter instead of in the small appliance cabinet. It has no temperature control. It doesn’t have fancy inserts to make waffles. It’s great.

      2. Our toaster died a hard death and my dear partner, who over researches everything to death, bought us a German one. Zwilling is the brand. It was expensive, but is still going strong and is so much nicer than any I have ever had. Just pushing it down is better. Also it doesn’t beep. The toast just pops up, old fashioned style. I hate beeping.

    3. I Kondoed my electric skillet – I used it at work until I retired. I Kondoed duplicate toasters, and the one that’s left isn’t giving me joy – I toast bread and bagels in the toaster oven. I have no stove. I have a single burner hotplate. I have one pot for boiling water for pasta or instant mashed potatoes and three skillets for frying (small, medium, large). I have a $6 Walmart wok. My crock pot is the two quart model. I have a 700 Watt microwave oven. I have a five-cup coffee pot. What else do I need?

  6. I work from home. My office is also my craft room and it is a huge disaster. This last week, I have been doing work that has wait times of several minutes and I have been using that time to do quick and easy cleanup jobs. It’s been exciting because I have made a great deal of progress and depressing because I’ve realized that I been working in squalor for months when I could have cleaned up in an afternoon. Oh, well.

  7. Last week I read an article on the 50 uses for vinegar. One caught my eye was cleaning the bathroom. I don’t go upstairs much anymore except to bring down seasonal clothes or decorations, so I always ask whoever goes there to check on the bathroom and tell me if it needs cleaning. They always come back with “it is fine Mom no worries”. Liars, all. I went up for decorations and glanced in and my, my, my what a surprise when I opened the shower door. Now I’m always up for the newest cleaning product and fall for the hype. This time I remembered the vinegar solution and added a good portion to a product with a spray nozzle and sprayed down the shower using a long handled cleaning mop. I put the shower on with hot water for a couple of minutes then sprayed the walls and cleaned away. Works much better than fancy shmanchy name brands. Makes me wonder what was used 100 years ago before multimillion dollar advertising. Next, I’m going to try it on my shear curtains adding some to the rinse water (supposed to take out the yellow). And here I thought it was only good for pickling.

      1. For example, in addition to using it to clean the bathroom, and to wash windows, we use it for killing weeds and to aid in disinfecting fruit from the supermarket. What else do you all use it for?

        1. Well. I buy white wine vinegar -not cider vinegar. I have two half gallon glass jars with plastic lids. One I fill with tarragon and some peppercorns and the other I fill with rosemary and some peppercorns. Then I let them sit in a dark corner for a month or two. Then I have my own tarragon vinegar and rosemary vinegar without paying $10 for an 8 oz bottle that it is sold for at the grocery store. And for friends who also like it, I give it at Christmas. One friend brings me her empty container for refills. The reason for the plastic lids is that vinegar encourages metal to rust.

        2. I’ve recently read that a spoonful of apple vinegar added to a large glas of water and drunk half an hour before a meal helps keep the blood sugar from spiking.
          Haven’t tried it out yet, but at least dd got me a fresh supply of apple vinegar recently.
          Also: about the same amount apple vinegar to water is a nice rinse after washing your hair. No rinsing afterwards. A rec my mother had told me decades ago but I re-found it when researching soap options for shampoo.

          1. I did try the apple cider vinegar and water once and once was enough. I’ll stick to the pickled onions I made a couple of weeks ago.

            There was a recipe for vinegar, washing soda and a few drops of lemon essential oil to clean a toilet bowl.

          2. I think cider vinegar is also meant to be good for arthritis but the idea of drinking it is too much for me so instead I have it in vinaigrette: olive oil, cider vinegar and proper French mustard. That works for me 🙂

          3. I love how it makes my hair feel, but not a fan of how my head smells like ACV when it rains or I exercise and ny head sweats!

      2. If you drink a tablespoon of vinegars, it will stop your leg from cramping/charlie horsing. True fact.

      3. Unless you’re allergic to it, like me. It’s very frustrating, but I don’t want three-day headaches. (Of course most commercial cleaning products are bad for me, too. I mostly use soap and water and bleach. UnScented bleach.)

    2. As a knitter, when I wash a finished project where there is more than one colour, I add white vinegar to the rinse to keep colours from bleeding.

    3. Vinegar is great. We use 50/50 white vinegar at water plus essential oil for scent for most household cleaning.

      1. I also use it for disinfecting the humidifier on my CPAP. And for catching fruit flies.
        It’s classic for cleaning windows.
        However don’t use it to clean marble it ruins the finish.

  8. I’m writing program notes for a community choir Christmas concert. It’s actually a Holiday concert, but I couldn’t resist all those hard “c” sounds. It’s kind of a pain, but I volunteered. I’m feeling self-conscious since I’ve taken this over from a professional writer in the chorus, who used to keep everything waiting while she work on them. But I’ve done it before for my own programs, and I’m pretty good at it.

    Trying to put the yard to bed, and also working on my editing project. My church is in a crisis, so I have a lot of meetings. Got the COVID booster and a flu shot yesterday, so feeling impatient and cranky.

  9. I’m still trying to wrap up the old job. Right now I’m writing things but after that I need to consolidate about 10 boxes of papers into five, set a la optop to factory settings, and return them all. This also is helping me get rid of stacks of personal papers. DH is leaving tomorrow on a work trip and he won’t recognize the study when we get back (I am joining him in a week.)
    I’m also writing a very long comment for the Census Bureau on how to make the 2030 census better at counting kids. Anyone on here want to add ideas ?

    I will be in charge of setting up the lesser A’tuin (our newly acquired turtle), the fish and the plants to survive the 10 days I am gone. Theoretically DH is leaving instructions….

    I also need to keep doing knee therapy and increase my daily walk so I can do stuff when we get to London. That’s coming along. I just hope my knee copes with the flight—it was the last overnight flight to London that started the trouble. I think coming back was ok because I was awake and got up and walked a lot. I do have aisle seats and a plan to get up a lot this time even if it means no sleep.

    As if that wasn’t enough, I really should plant some bulbs and cut down the rest of the dead zinnias this weekend. And maybe start sorting clothes. And organize thanksgiving which will be at our house but which is caught up in middle school drama. For years we did it with two other families. The one we are closer to, family a, when asked said tbey want to just do it with us. The way they told the other family, b, made b think that a isn’t doing it with anyone else so b asked us to do it with them. Sadly family b tends to get prickly and feel neglected so we have to navigate this…

    Oh also commitment ceremony planning for DD and my moms finances need attention.

    1. If you can, and don’t feel they would be an eyesore, leave the Zinnias for insects to hibernate in, and so birds can eat the seed heads. There have been several articles lately on my news feed about this, and about leaving some leaves as mulch, and for bees and other insects to live in over the winter. I piled all the leaves on the rain garden and raised bed, and around my bushes and trees last year, and I think it helped the plants, too. This year, I’m raking up the huge sycamore leaves, however. they are like leather, and don’t degrade, even after a year!

      1. Oh all our dead plants and leaves go in the compost or in the ground cover of the tree area in our back yard. I have to get the zinnias out so I can plant bulbs…

  10. I’m feeling better for tackling some admin: I did my accounts for September (I’m trying to keep current, since I know that’d really be easier than a marathon twice a year); did some clearing on the allotment, but realized I’d run out of space to add to the current compost heap. So I dug out the old one, turned the newer one into it, made a new divider to go between them, and mixed up the half-done stuff, in the hope it’ll be ready in spring. I’m also editing all the recipes I’ve collected over the past few years, with the idea of finding two or three new vegetarian favourites to add to my regulars. I enjoy personal editing projects: it’s satisfying to use my skills on my own stuff.

    More editing, photo editing and gardening planned; and I must chase Penguin for more proof-reading (alas).

  11. I changed out the cartridge on my printer. OMG! I had to clean the drum three times, doing a test print, then removing it, then cleaning it with alcohol, then doing another test print…… It is finally working without a lot of splotches. All this had to be googled for directions, because the refill directions had no words, just pictures, and the booklet that came with the printer also had NO WORDS! This is IKEA for printers! Geesh. Thank goodness for people who make videos and post them about this stuff.

    Also I talked to a nice policeman on Halloween because I kept yet another ball that landed in my yard. The neighbors had printed the kid’s name on it. That was a clue that it was a setup. Anyway, he said this was “a civil matter” and he just wanted me to give him the ball so he could take it to them and discuss it. That was ball number 32. Then the next day, I found ball number 33 squatting right in the middle of a big clump of ornamental grass. I am an “Evil woman and a bitch”, and it is all my fault that those balls keep landing in my yard. I mentioned the park 2 1/2 blocks away to the officer, and he nodded. From now on, I photograph all this, because he said my broken flower pot, rain gauge, and plants can be classed as “malicious destruction”. And that is something the police can get involved in. These people are something else. The kid has never apologized for bothering me repeatedly to get his ball, never said “Please”, and rarely said thank you. From now on, his mother is going to have to come over and nicely ask me for the ball. Let her realize how much this kid has bothered me, and what a nuisance this is. Maybe then she will tell him to play on the other side of their yard.

    1. Jan, That’s appalling. I’m glad you’re going to photograph all the invasion and destruction in the future. “Malicious destruction” certainly describes what you’re putting up with.

  12. I planted 165 crocus and siberian squill bulbs in the traffic island/small park in front of our house. Which sounds like a lot but really will just look like a scattering. And I am weeding and preparing a spot for my bulbs. We have gone from 80 degree days and no rain to 60 degree days and torrential downpours in just a week and the area I was working in is now a giant mud pit. Hopefully I will get a few dry days so it will be dry enough to finish this up.

    I have started planning for our vacation next year. A friend who lives in France for six months of the year (she has a minuscule place, so while we will visit her, we will not stay with her), is helping plan the agenda. Which makes it so much easier. I really owe her.

  13. I am getting ready for a little show that I will be hanging at a local restaurant tomorrow. It’s all loose, bright landscapes on square canvases and I even like some of them.

    I am hoping for a few sales. It has been a rough year and that would be a boost to my ego. As my husband says, we could both use a win.

    And we have decided to work together to clean the house and research recipes for more interesting, healthier meals. We are trying to elevate our life quality before winter sets in, rather than waiting for the new year.

    1. That is a very proactive pre-new year’s resolution kind of thing to do. I hope all your landscapes sell.

      1. Thanks! It feels like we keep slipping to a baseline. And we need to raise that. I think that we will be more content for it. Baby steps.

  14. I won the Halloween costume contest! Alas, I cannot post pics because my blog host has been broken for days from the upgrade from hell and pics don’t work right now. Oh well.

    Other than that, we are at pre-tech week for the show, so running acts in full this week and then full nuttery next week. Our stage manager/props master hurt her knee so she’s out of the show, and a castmate and I are trying to volunteer to finish painting sets. I’m not sure if it will happen or not or get finished if we do, we’ll see.

    I have also gotten the yarn and cast on for NEXT YEAR’S Halloween costume, hah hah. I usually don’t do it this early, but I’m thinking it out in my brain and how to adjust it from what I did this year.

  15. I am catching up on laundry. The fairly new washing machine is not working so I am washing in my mobile home park laundry room. Then I have to dig out the guarantee for the machine and call Best Buy. I hate those calls.

    I started nanowrimo. So far so good.

    I have a place on my leg so I had to consult the doctor. I use Dr Says online. I sent the dr pics and then we had a phone appointment. He called in a script for steroids. The place is already better. During this process I realize – my legs are hurting less, swollen less and I am moving better. Guess I am going to have to research an anti-inflammatory regimen.

    I am so anxious for elections to be over. I want women and people of color to vote in droves. We need voices heard!!!

    I am putting off starting to read Phoebe and the Traitor because I want to be able to read it in one sitting and I can’t yet. Soon!!!

    I am enjoying all the Nita Dodd & new collaboration with Bob talk. Any thoughts of a new collab with Krissie?

  16. Found out more work needs to be done on the chimney, outside so I don’t have to be home and still within my budget. I just feel like two steps forward and halt. I’d love to get something completed in one go.

    Election next week! This county is nuts and will probably go red. I hope the counties north of us stay sane. I’ll be savagely overseeing and counting votes for the next couple of weeks after E-Day. And we go back to standard time the Sunday before so I’ll be over-caffeinated for the duration.

    League of Women Voters meeting tonight. At least they are all rational and not prone to needlessly panic like one of my fellow Board of Elections members.

    I will bake some biscotti tomorrow to enhance the caffeine and get me through the next few weeks.

    Yay! They just called to schedule the chimney work for next week!

  17. I’m training at work again, which I mostly enjoy but which involves a lot of paperwork. Yesterday also involved the roster forum which was a whole hour of “No” for which I didn’t even get paid. Today I have to type up all the notes and send them out to everyone and then deal with the resultant bitching. I completely agree with the bitching, it’s justified, but there’s nothing I can do if Sydney just says no. At least they agreed that they need to upskill someone else as a trainer in one of my areas so I don’t have to do it all myself. Apparently I have been identified as a “critical man risk”. Three more weeks of this and I can finally take a week off. And then come straight back into more training. It should calm down after Christmas. I hope.

  18. House & yard work dominated over the past week. The city has evidently staffed up to the point where they are roaming the neighborhoods looking for code violations and we got a notice about weeds. At which I thought: you shoulda seen it LAST year. Anyway, my landlord called the person who left the notice and that person is out all week so I guess we won’t know till next week what *specifically* needs to be corrected in order to avoid getting fined. But in the meantime, there was one area that was obvious, so I took care of that on Saturday.

    I’m continuing the digitizing project. Am down to four journals and a stack of loose scrapbooky papers. The storage bench is empty.

    A big project outdoors is mostly stalled at the waiting-for-husband stage, but I did some more of the stuff *I* could do today. While signed in for work. But in between lots of actual work, I swear. Anyway that was in the cleaning & decluttering for rearranging category.

    In writer business, I did my ad requests, got my holiday novella ready for pre-order, and wrote another chapter of the book-in-progress. A productive week!

    1. Usually, the city does nothing unless somebody complains that you’re in violation then they come out and look and issue a notice of violation and it tells you how long you have to correct it. Or they will and charge you for the work plus a fine. Usually, it is something like trees or branches blocking sidewalks or something about your yard is a fire hazard.

  19. So, about 3 months ago I had a specialist eye appointment for Friday that I had to cancel because Paul had made plans to go moose hunting with his buddy Tim. Tim is a nice guy but he’s also a flake who makes poor life choices. I rescheduled my appointment (for May!!!) and told Paul that if Tim canceled I was gonna be really pissed.

    Tim canceled.

    I’m pissed.

    The house is company clean though.

    Today I made green tomato chutney and pumpkin purée for muffins and dog cookies. I also went for my mammogram today, in and out of the mobile testing trailer in 14 minutes.

    Yesterday I had to go in unexpectedly to the part time job because the manager’s kid was sick so she had to go home and it was crazy busy. There are only ever 2 people working, it’s a small store.

    Tomorrow is back to the day job with a bit of office cleaning. And canning the chutney and making the muffins and dog treats.

    Friday I have to finish the second guest room since our other company will be here in the middle of the month, then it’s on to the storage room. I’m going to do a purge and it’s going to be ugly.

  20. I got inspired by you all and decided to tidy my apartment instead of making sad eyes at the mess. It took less than an hour. I even cleaned the bathroom, except for the shower. I’ll do that tomorrow.

  21. Saw Tom Paxton at a local venue last night. The last time I saw him was in 1978 when I was in grad school in Chicago, and Steve Goodman was in the audience. Paxton remains the same wonderful musician and activist.

    I’m filling up my calendar with activities and meet-ups while cleaning the house and bringing herbs in for the winter. And doing Duolingo like a fiend.

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