Herbs in the House

 

The temperature is dropping and I am working to save some of the herbs and plants from the garden.  We brought the aloe-vera plan in this weekend.  I have a bunch of cacti I also hope to have time to rescue. 

Am I Grandma?

Am I grandma?  I have recently, on more than one occasion, heard the term "Grandma Cooking" to describe a recent food trend.  It's along the line of the "Slow Cooking" movement.  Supposedly, there is a return to the frugality of cooking from scratch and using every last bit of food so that none is wasted and money is saved.  Apparently, so few people really know how to sensibly cook that what should just be a normal common sense approach to eating is now a "trend."

Back in the Saddle Again

This isn't a post about horse riding!  No, it's about me and my footwear.  After almost two years, I am back to wearing normal shoes.  Two years ago, I broke a brittle piece of bone projection in my big toe and it lodged between the joint.  That led to toe surgery in February of 2015.  After that, in April of the same year, I had my ankle joint cleaned out and reconstructed.  While recuperating from that, my knee started to hurt horribly.  Turns out I had a fracture in it that went undetected.  In order to keep it from getting worse, I wore a knee brace.  Finally sick of the brace, I had a partial knee replacement this year.

Now almost two years later, I am back to wearing normal shoes.  It has been a journey!  It's also been some work getting my feet back into the type of shoes I like.  For two years I wore sneakers or well padded loafers.  The flexibility I regained once I could bend my toe again, was lost when I became lame in the knee.

It's That Time of Year Again....

For many US workers, November signals the beginning of "Open Enrollment" season, a time where we sign up for employer-sponsored benefit plans.  Choosing a plan is probably the most important financial decision you will make this year and I am posting today to encourage everyone who has this opportunity to take advantage of it.   Full disclosure:  I am not a licensed insurance broker, but I do set up and manage private health care exchanges.  I spend 40+ hours per week working around, thinking about, coordinating, and supporting people so that they have access to the plans they have chosen.  I work with employers and brokers, with an aim to make sure coverage for the "lives" I am responsible for works smoothly.

More on the All-Consuming Car

We drove Das Boot last night and were stopped at a light in Allentown -- a popular section of Buffalo that is very artsy, when we had another "car moment."  Three college kids gave us thumbs up and peace signs while we were stopped at a light.  So far, every day I have driven this car, someone has done that.  It's really cool.  The car looks great from the outside but I knew it was time to attack the interior, so that is what I did today!

She's Home!

My beautiful old car is finally home!  She spent three weeks in the service center waiting for reverse light lenses to arrive.  The first set was ordered from Florida, but the facility was destroyed in the hurricane.  The next resource was in California, and burnt to the ground in the wild fires!

I will drive her for a few days and take her in for detailing and an interior estimate.  Looking at her parked in front of our house, you can see how  big she is.  We will be able to store a lot of cargo and drive it in style. 

Tomorrow she'll take me to work where my co-workers have been excited to see what I have gotten myself into.  It will take a bit to get used to driving her but I think we'll suit just fine.

It's taken me 30+ years to get the Mercedes I've always wanted, and I don't mind that she's 30+ years old!

Closing Camp Again

Sadly, summer is over.  We just spent our last weekend at camp. It's hard to call it quits when you need to wear shorts and a tank top on your last weekend.  However, cold weather is on the way and the water is being shut off this week.  I cleaned out foodstuff and a few other things, and TBG will go back next week for a day to drain the water lines and pump anti-freeze through the system.

I Am the Food Processor

This is only a small portion of the share this week.  First thing, I took half of the peppers, apples, some squash and potatoes and brought a bag to the boys next door.  We had a stalk of brussell sprouts last week too.  The boys got half and we just finished the other half tonight.  Teddy chewed on the stalk outside at camp this weekend.  A bunch of Roma tomatoes went right into zippies, then into the freezer.

 

The next task was to cut the leaves off of all the cruciferous veggies, peel five apples, cut and core them.  There was also the end of a head of broccoli and a few choice ends left, which I cut up for soup and stock.  The stock was made with the carcass of a rotisserie bird, four corn cobs from last week and other odds and ends.  That will be the base for a corn and broccoli soup with cous-cous tomorrow night (it's in the mini-crockpot now). I used some for dinner tonight too.

The leaves, stalks, guts from a squash, apple cores and peels, made it into a jar and a half of veggie slop.  The pup was underfoot the entire time, eating bits that fell on the floor.  This is her portion for tonight -- also to include a few big hunks of broccoli stalk that I pulled out of the stock.