5:30, rain beginning

Why does it not rain during the day here..? Almost always a night rain, some kind of stealth

Another Monday

Supposed to rain tonight. Sounds like another stealth rain. Very dry winter so far this year.

Went through a bunch of photos and stuck them into some albums I bought.

So they look neater.

Threw out a bunch of photos. Duplicates and out-of-focus shots and anything Diane shot. Can we say "composition"?

What else? Bored and dissatisfied. Picked Diane up again yesterday. That pretty much ruins Sunday.

Next Saturday there's a Girl Scout meeting in the afternoon and we have tickets for The Flying Karamazof Brothers Saturday night. And there's a "Brownie Spectacular" on Sunday. So next weekend is pretty much wrecked...

Have to stick to a budget. Spending too much money. Unhappy about that. 

Will I ever see any of the money I gave Diane? I somehow doubt it. So that's $22 thousand dollars lost. Not pleased about that.

I ought to start some bread dough. When in doubt, bake.

Bought and drank a bottle of wine last night. Enjoyed that.

Tuesday morning

Rained last night. It rains at night a lot here. Stealth rain.

Well..? What now? Go find Flynn's big jacket in the garage for his camping trip. Or trip to school camp. That's coming up in three weeks.

After his trip it's Easter vacation. Looking forward to that. 

Friday. 0843a.

Kind of cloudy out. Doing laundry. 

I ought to pick up Cassidy's room. And vacuum.

And sort through her toys. 

Made grilled pizza last night. I thought it was very good. Made four rounds, first one stuck to the grill, total loss. 

Need to clean the house.

Need to change the fish water.

Need to water outside. Heard that it may rain. It may not rain.

Brownie Girl Scouts tomorrow at noon. Not too thrilled with that. Cub Scouts was more fun.

Time to do more laundry. And dishes. 

Bought two lamps at Home Depot yesterday for Flynn's room and Cassidy's room. 

I ought to do Cassidy's ironing today and get that out of the way. 

I want to install the throttle body spacer I bought for the truck. That's supposed to take half an hour. I need to find out which tools are required.

Made spaghetti sauce night before last. I thought it was delicious. The kids were suspicious of it.

Monday. Slightly cloudy.

Got the security system installed this morning. Glad that's over, glad to be back home again.

Planted another half-dozen impatiens near the fence after amending another portion of the soil.

Sent Flynn off with his paperwork and a check for sixth-grade camp.

Nine disposable cameras arrived on Saturday. Maybe Friday. For his trip. Four underwater cameras, four flash cameras, one black and white camera. I hope that he enjoys the trip. 

Rain on Saturday, very nice, what there was of it. Sunday was sunny. Diane needed a ride over here and back. Sunday was not satisfying. Saturday was so-so, even with the rain. 

Couple periods of hard rain and some hail. Had a fire going most of the day on Saturday.

A rainy day ought to be rain all day long. Lots of it.

Made some chicken picatta last night and some really chocolate-ly ice cream.

Bored. Go get Cassidy soon.

Spices

Vanilla double-strength 16 ounces
Rosemary powdered 1/4 cup jar
Savory leaf 1/4 cup jar
Chicken taco seasoning 4 oz bag
Empty glass jars for bagged spices
Zatar 1/4 cup jar
Ground cumin 8 oz bag
Pacific sea salt fine grind 1 lb
French fleur de sel sea salt 1/2 cup
Fines herbes 1 oz bag
Parisien herbes 1 oz bag
Large cut parsley 1 oz bag
Pasta sprinkle 1 oz bag
Pumpkin pie spices 4 oz bag

Happy to have new spices. Makes a big difference in cooking. The fines herbes and Parisien herbes and the pasta sprinkle are all very nice from what I've tasted so far.

New spices.

Another Week Begins

Quarter past five Monday morning. Another weekend zoomed by. Go to Flynn's 6th Grade Camp orientation meeting this morning. Pick up taxes and pay and mail those.
Plant the flowers I bought. Need to amend the section of lawn by the fence that I separated with that rubber border material. Water the lawn, keep the new grass seed moist and happy.

What else? I was going to rewire the stereo to make it neater. That seems somewhat daunting. If I start now I might have it done in time for football season...

Sunday

Gardened the past two days. Today I'm taking it easy.

Put down bricks in place of the ugly stepping stones outside of the wooden gate. This morning I was surprised to see how much of the sand had washed out due to War and Cor's excessive watering. Have to address that issue.

Transplanted five rose bushes. Two rose bushes came from one plant that I had to split to extract from its spot. It had grown around a big root.

What else? Nothing much else. Warm today. 

I have a few other garden projects but I would like a day off.

Was going to make BLTs for lunch but discovered that we used the pound of bacon I thought I had on hand. Oh well. Maybe chicken sandwiches.

Friday, another sunny day. The kids had this week off.

Richard Darr delivered $200 worth of firewood, Flynn and I stacked that. Got that all cleaned up. Bribed the kids with lunch at McDonald's if they'd go to the good local nursery in Poway so I could buy some amendment.

I want to overseed the lawn, I've had the seed for a long time, but wanted to put down Kellogg's Topper with it. And water it like crazy. 

There are a couple of patches in the lawn that could be softer and more level, too.

The other day I planted the new lemon tree after transplanting the old dwarf lemon tree.

It's been warm, as warm as spring, so why not work in the garden?

Left a message for Laddie Blazek about properly wiring the fountain. Is the fountain level? I may end up re-leveling it.

Time to go back outside. Work until I'm thoroughly exhausted. I ought to clean the barbecue, too, I was going to grill some hot dogs for dinner tonight.

Good day to be alive.

Hot day in February

Monday afternoon.

Received an enormous check on Friday, deposited it today. Money is no longer screamingly tight.

Looking at a Nissan Titan again. A huge pyramid to hide in. The Prius is not too manly.

Cassidy was playing at a friend's house after school. I picked Flynn up at 3:15 on my own.

Awfully hot today. And yesterday. No rain in sight. This is winter?

Not happy about the heat.

Why would I want to swap my Prius for a giant truck? Does that make any sense? Does it have to make sense? I never go anywhere, anyway. Perhaps I should have just held on to the VW. Or the Santa Fe.

A giant truck? I couldn't park it in the garage, it's too big to fit in the garage.

Friday at last

Somehow four-day weeks drag by.

Went to the market this morning. Bought three whole chickens, only $0.57 a pound... freezing two of those. Hot dogs, pizza... fruit salad. Bought some circle noodles for the kids.

Need to liquidate more of the IRA funds. Money is very tight. Very, very tight.

Looking forward to the football championship games this Sunday.

Would like to buy some amendments to use this weekend. If the weather is going to be spring-like, I might as well do some gardening. The kids will probably just want to stay at home. Maybe I'll drag them out somewhere or other. Or not.

Just sitting here right now. Listening to the Howard Stern show. Which I can't get on my iPod for some reason. Maybe I need to convert the file to MP3 somehow... try another converter...

Friday

Go pick Flynn up in a half an hour. Three-day weekend.

Went to the market this morning. Planning on making salisbury steak, potato cheese soup and sweet and sour meatballs... none of which I've made before. Also two soup recipes I want to try. Or one other soup. Corn chowder. Also make a pizza. And make salsa. And possibly make huevos ranchero. I've only made that two or three times, and it's one of my favorite dishes, certainly my favorite breakfast. One time I made it when Mom was visiting and her car needed repair, some rainy day. Great day. Love rainy days.