Book Review: The Accidental Highwayman

image: Amazon

Ben Tripp - The Accidental Highwayman: Being the Tale of Kit Bristol, His Horse Midnight, a Mysterious Princess, and Sundry Magical Persons Besides.

Kit Bristol is a jack of all trades who grew up in the circus.  For the past two years, he has been a manservant to his master.  Kit is completely devoted to his master.

One evening, Kit finds his master at the kitchen table, bleeding from mortal wounds.  He discovers that he has been the unknowing servant of the notorious highwayman, Whistling Jack.

In an attempt to save his master's life, and draw pursuers away from the manse, Kit puts on his master's costume, and leads the soldiers and townspeople on a merry chase through the countryside.

Little does Kit realize that by putting on the cloak, he has also taken on the magical contract that his master made with a witch.  If he does not honor the unknown contract, Kit will be dead within a month.  His last instructions from his master is to find the witch deep in the woods, and follow the directions she gives him.

The task from the mysterious witch?  To stop a carriage and rescue the person who rides within.

And so, the hapless, hopeless young servant turned highwayman begins his quest to find the princess and finds himself tangled up in a magical web that involves the beautiful faerie princess Morgana, pixies, goblins, an angry redcoat army, and one very upset father.

Can Kit manage to get the princess to safety?  Can he save himself?  Will he ever meet all of the magical bargain that his master made with the witch?

Come and journey through the long-ago English countryside with Kit Bristol and find the answer to all of these questions... and more.

This book was great - I enjoyed every single page of this book!  A fun, easy going light fantasy read with unexpected plot twists and turns.  Worth your time!

Note: This post contains affiliate links.  Your purchases through this link will go to support this blog.  All proceeds from this link will go to our "Remodel the Hallway Bathroom" fund.  Thank you!

Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

You know, 25 pounds of tomatoes doesn't actually seem like all that much until you begin processing it all... trying desperately hard to preserve them before they fall victim to spoilage.

There's been Caprese Salad.. sliced tomatoes, mozarella, and basil all covered with a drizzle of olive oil.

We've made BLT Pasta, all of the ingredients of a Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwich, but mixed into a bed of gluten free pasta.

And then, the tomato madness continued with Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce.  One of the easiest recipes I've ever worked with.  You can find the recipe on here on Mother Earth Living's  website.

The actual process was laughingly easy.  Slice tomatoes into chunks.  Put them in a big 9 x 13 inch casserole dish coated with olive oil.  Slice onions into strips and place over top.

Chunky tomatoes!

 Once again, I put my mini food processor to work, and added the olive oil, peeled garlic, and herbs to the bowl and chopped them up finer than I would ever be able to manage by hand. 

 I put them over top of the tomatoes and onions (I stirred them  up here.) 

Bake them at 350* for an hour, and look at this amazing goodness that comes out of the oven.  Stir it with a spoon, and the tomatoes break apart into chunks.  This tastes amazing as it is, served over pasta or straight up on a slice of toasted French or Italian bread.

After eating a couple of pieces of bread slathered in chunky tomato sauce, I ran the rest through the blender to make this into sauce.  I froze the rest of the sauce into quart size freezer bags.  I saved out this one jar so that we could have it for lunch tomorrow after church, and serve it with a wonderful summer salad, full of goodness from the farmer's market.

Odds and Ends

This has been an exhausting week.  Everyone keeps telling me "it'll be okay, I know you miss the kids."  It's not emotional exhaustion that's hitting me.  It's physical exhaustion.  I really, really need a week to do nothing but sleep and catch up on chores around the house!  We moved middle child in on Monday.  I don't know how he's settling in, because I haven't been back since Monday, but I have a textbook to deliver tomorrow, so I should get a fantastic opportunity to see how things are going for him then.  His classes started on Weds.

The geese at work have gotten very aggressive over this past week.  Do you see the sidewalk, just to the left of them?  That is the door I take to get into the building.  When I started to walk around them, they came after me with wings and beaks open, and they were hissing at me.  I decided that I needed to go the other way - as in around the parking lot and into the OTHER side of the building to get in.  

The entire flock of them had a stand off with the trash truck this week.  This is the back end of the lot here in the picture, and the dumpster is off to the right, by about 500 feet.  The geese were all sitting on the road in front of the dumpster, and refused to move when the trash truck came in.  He honked at them, and the most aggressive goose of them all got up and charged the trash truck, wings wide open and hissing.  At a trash truck.  The driver sat in the cab and laughed and shook his head.  Slowly, he inched his way forward, and kept honking the horn, and eventually the geese got up and moved out of the way of the truck, but not before several more geese decided to charge at the truck.  (It's a weird summer for wild animals, have you noticed?)

I've also spent much of the week processing 25 pounds of tomatoes.  I've been posting about it on and off this week.  I'm working on another batch of oven roasted tomatoes right now.  That post should be up later today!  I still have 5 more pounds of tomatoes to contend with.  I'm thinking I might try to make some ketchup from scratch.  I've never done that before.  How hard could it be? (I know, famous last words, right?)

Lest you think the life of a librarian is all the glamour of working with books, here is the ugly truth.  We don't actually get to read all of those books!  I work in an academic library, and our semester break ends Sunday.  Classes start up again on Monday morning.  We spent this week shelf reading.  (Yuck)  If you're never shelf read before, you don't know what you're missing. You start at the first shelf, and work your way down, reading every single call number to make certain that they are in order.  You start going cross-eyed as you get to the right of the decimal place.  Our library is a Library of Congress system, which is great because it contains letters of the alphabet at the beginning of the call number which in some ways makes it easier to read.  It's bad, because the decimal places can extend several digits, which can give you a headache.  We read every shelf this week. 

We also replaced signage.  You can see the flotsam above.  We wanted a fresh look, and several of the signs were backed with pages of colored copy paper that had been taped together.  They looked messy.  They are all lovely and cohesive now, with black foam core board backing on them all.

I even got to remake the bulletin board in the hallway outside of the library.   I replaced the paper backing and the letters.  The paper was a couple of years old, and was looking faded.   I keep saying "I", but every librarian contributed to the shelf reading, and while I was working on signage, someone else got the fun job of cleaning off all of the shelves behind the information desk, dusting everything, wiping down the shelves, and putting everything back.  She also pulled everything off of the information desk and wiped everything down.

Cicada on the side of the house.

Velvet fist.  I love the understated strength of a cats paw.

Tiger has had a very rough week!

Canning Salsa

With the arrival of 25 pounds of tomatoes, and then the very unexpected arrival of 10 pounds of green beans and potatoes, I've been overwhelmed with fresh produce this week!  Don't get me wrong, it's a very good thing!  Some of it, we've eaten.  The rest of it, we're putting up to enjoy this winter.

Canning is a wonderful process by which you can store your own home grown goodness to enjoy over the winter.  There are both pros and cons to canning.  No matter what, you do need to be very, very careful when canning anything.  Botulism thrives in the anaerobic environment that exists in home canned items.  The USDA has published guidelines, that are updated every year on how to safely can food.  Patrice Lewis, at Rural Revolution, has also produced some excellent guides to home canning.  If you're interested in finding out more, I highly recommend reading what she has written about safely canning items.  I rely heavily upon the Ball Blue Book of Canning for my recipes. 

I do not pressure can.  But I do water bath can.  Jams, jellies, pickles, and salsa are among my favorite things to can!

The recipe for the version of salsa that I made this past weekend came from the Ball Canning Website, and can be found here: http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/zesty-salsa.

Chilling in the cool water.

One of the best parts of the tomato preparation process is blanching them in order to slip their skins off.  You drop the tomatoes into a pot of boiling water for a minute or two, and then pull them out and put them into a bowl of cold water.  The shock causes the skins to slip right off of the tomatoes, and chopping them is a breeze.  Unless if you have some stubborn tomatoes, in which case you have to score the skin with a knife in order to get the skins to peel back.  I save the skins and use them to make tomato soup. (Because that's the kind of weirdo I am.  My Mom grew up during the depression, and she taught this girl how to use EVERYTHING to it's full potential. 

Just one of the green peppers.

While I was waiting for the water to boil, I began chopping the green peppers. Choppy, choppy.  this is the first rough cut.  After I took the picture, I used Knifey to go back over the peppers once more- once crosswise, from bottom to top, and once up and down from side to side.

I added the peppers to the pot, and then the tomatoes started coming out of their bath, and I roughly chopped them up and added them into the pot.  The tomatoes fall apart relatively easily in the cooking part of the salsa.

I must admit that I cheat here a bit.  I have a mini-food processor. It doesn't do a lot, but it does come in very handy for some things.  This is one of those things.  Into the mini food processor, I added the jalapenos, cut in half, with seeds removed, the vinegar, the peeled garlic, and the cilantro.  Spinny, spinny, whirly, twirly, and everything was nicely chopped with a minimum of frustration on my part!
(I don't add hot sauce, and this is the point when your kitchen will become very fragrant!)

Onions were chopped and added, and we began cooking down the salsa.  According to the recipe, they salsa is supposed to come to a boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes.  I don't like to bring salsa to a boil too fast.  Bad experiences there, resulting in a pot of salsa - salsa and pot - having to be thrown out.  So, I cook over med-high heat so that the salsa doesn't burn.

While the salsa was cooking, I got the deep water bath heating for the jars, removed the jars from the dishwasher, and sterilized the lids.

Once the salsa had bubbled away for 10 minutes, I added it to the jars, wiped the rims, added the lids & bands, and began processing the whole shebang in the water bath canner.

The entire process - beginning to the last, gorgeous jar of salsa took me no more than 3 hours.  Of course, I've had a lot of practice slicing and dicing - One of my college jobs was slicing and dicing vegetables for a restaurant.  From reading the comments, it looks as if some people spent 4 hours along with chopping.  Take some short cuts here, people!  If you have a full size food processor, I believe you can use it to chop up your peppers and onions FOR you!  Even better, get a friend or two to help you so that you can whip through the canning faster, and then all of you can split the spoils at the end of the day!
 

Chicken Rice Casserole

Back when I was in college, Cheri's Grandma used to send us 2 large casserole dishes of this fantastic concoction once a month.  I finally made her sit down and show me how to make it.  I was shocked at how easy it was to pull together!  Since then, it has been a part of meal rotations and a steady fall back recipe for me.

Ingredients:
3 cups cooked rice
1 16 ounce package mixed vegetables
2-3 cups of cooked, diced chicken
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
2 cups of corn flakes, crushed

Pre-Heat oven to 350*.

Spray a 13"x9" casserole dish with cooking spray.
Combine the rice, mixed veggies, chicken, and soups in the pan.  Stir well, and then spread evenly in the pan.
Evenly spread the corn flakes across the top of the casserole.

Bake, uncovered until heated through - 15-20 minutes.

In Memory

Allison Parker and Adam Ward, remember them full of life.

source: Facebook

Instead of watching the video of them being shot and killed, 

THIS is how they should be remembered.

We are heartbroken for your families.  You will be greatly missed.

Grocery Expenses - Week of 8/19 - 8/25

I'm still looking for a better title than Grocery Expenses.  Any thoughts?  Anything at all?  Steals and Deals?  Food 4 Us?  If anyone has any nice, alliterative title that you'd like to share, I really would like to hear it!

I didn't actually hit up the store that much this week.  We've been hitting up the Farmer's Markets and Farm Stands pretty hard, and I had a huge grocery run last week that should tide us through on the BIG stuff for a few more days.

I've been canning spaghetti sauce, salsa, and made some pretty fantastic oven roasted tomatoes to use in chili this fall and winter.  I added jalapenos to the tomatoes, along with onion and garlic....  Is that what Emeril calls the Holy Trinity - except I used tomatoes instead of celery, and jalapenos instead of bell peppers, so maybe not quite Emerils version of the Holy Trinity, but definitely MY version!

I also picked up a bushel of apples.  The apples are beginning to come in around here, and we are in apple heaven right now!  We ate a lot of that bushel straight up, but I did manage to get one tasty apple crisp made!  The apple tree in our back yard is coming in right now, and I am hoping to get enough apples off of that tree to make apple butter next week.

Here's our expenses for the week:

Local Homestead Products:  $65.93
bushel of apples, 25 pounds of tomatoes, peach ice cream
sweet Italian sausage, gingersnaps, corn on the cob

South Mountain Creamery:  $19.78
yogurt, milk, cheese, and eggs

Farmer's Market:   $14
jalapenos, bell peppers, & garlic for the salsa
sweet potatoes, black berries


Total for the week: $99.71

Move In Day #2

The van, loaded for delivery #2.

We began our morning at 7 am.  We had loaded the car with everything except electronics the night before.  I woke the kids up at 6, and we were on the road at 7 am.  We got there well before check in time began.  The University had blocked off the entrance to the dorms & on campus apartments, so we sat in the line of parents who were waiting for the official opening.  We were #3 in line.  Promptly at 9 am, the blockade was lifted, and the police motioned us through. 

View to the bedrooms from the living room.

Middle Child and his friends are living in an on campus apartment this year.  The boys are on the first floor - which made move in a breeze for us!  We unloaded all of his stuff in front of the apartments while he checked in, and daughter stood guard while I moved the car to the "designated family parking lot".  By the time I got back (1 mile walk....) son had checked in and begun moving stuff into his room one armload at a time.  I took over being the guard human while he and daughter hauled the rest of the stuff into his apartment. 

Middle Child's room

Each boy has their own bedroom.  It's a tiny little space - not that much bigger than the bed and the desk.  The dresser is inside of the closet.  How much space does one boy need if it's all his?  If you look out his window, you can see the line of cars outside.  That white van didn't move at all in the hour we were unpacking the stuff and putting it away.  When we left, we saw a tow truck backing up to one of the three cars that were parked, blocking the roadway.  I'm so very, very glad that we were there early and unloaded that car before the hordes arrived!

The kitchen/dining room combo.  THAT's a teeny-tiny kitchen!

The view from the back wall by the refrigerator out to the front door.

You know, for on campus living, this space is decent.  The boys are happy to have the kitchen, but they are planning on eating in the dining hall.  The kitchen is a little too small to do a lot of cooking, but they are planning on cooking breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

While daughter is not going to this school, she has a lot of friends who are starting their freshman year at this school.  They moved in on Saturday.  She met up with them at the student center and they sat and chatted for a while after she finished helping with her brother.  

Once the other boys began to arrive and move their stuff in, I joined daughter and her friends at the student center and asked how their "Freshman Experience" went for them.

Daughter and I were back home in the Burg by 1, and she spent the afternoon with her boyfriend.  (He's moving into college on Thursday.) 

You know, I'm not sure how I'm dealing with all of our little chicks leaving the nest thing.  I keep saying it's going well, but it's a lot of change.

This and That

Formatting Issues...

Thanks so much for your patience with the blog format this week.  Blogger stopped supporting the template design that I was using, and I've been playing with the customized settings, attempting to get something that I like and that works for me.  For now, this is the format I'm sticking with.  I like to have a break in between my posts, and the template that Blogger handed me wasn't putting enough of a break between posts to make me happy. Unfortunately, all the posts from the same day are included in the same text box, but it's not a "run on" look like the last template was.   I like some white space in between posts - I'm a visual person, after all - and their template looked too cluttered to me.  I am still debating the color scheme... that might change again.  So, if the blog looks different every time you come back for a while, this is why.  Thanks for sticking with me!

Also, I've added a couple of new tabs on the side.  One for recipes and one for pictures.  I'm going back through old posts that contain recipes, and I'm adding the links in one at a time.  You might not use them, but I'm finding that I post a lot of recipes that I like here, and it's very easy for me to come back here than it is for me to browse through my cookbooks to find the one recipe that I want.  In the meantime, I'm still playing with the format, attempting to add pictures and work on the links.  It's going to take a little while, and I'm going to have to dust off my HTML skills to get it to look the way I want.

Tomato Season
I bought a 25 pound box of tomatoes yesterday.  I'm making lots of sauce today!  Since there's only going to be 2 of us this fall, we're freezing this into smaller serving sizes that will cover us for 1 meal without a lot of leftovers.  There's nothing like fresh tomato sauce in the middle of winter!  In addition to the tomato sauce that is currently simmering on the stove, I canned 8 pints of salsa early this morning, and now I'm getting ready to roast some more tomatoes.  Last night, we had a Margherita style pizza - we made pizza dough, cut up a tomato, and spread that all over the pizza crust instead of sauce.  We then added oregano, basil, and garlic along with our favorite toppings and mozarella cheese.  Awesome dinner!

These tomatoes are DELICIOUS!

Moving Days
Knock on wood, I think we've finally found everything we need for daughter's dorm room.  Something has occurred to me over the last month.  The boys were not nearly as particular about their rooms as she is.  Granted, she's paid for everything herself, but there's so much MORE stuff than the boys had when they went off.  (She's also going further away from home, so there's no swinging by for a quick weekend trip with stuff during the semester.)  String lights?  check.  Pictures in frames? check.  Removable wall art?  check.  Decorative twine and clothespins to hold stuff up?  check.  Extra plastic drawers with scrapbook paper taped inside to look pretty?  check.  Book shelves to go next to her bed?  check.  Computer?  what?  computer?  Yeah, we're going to pick that up next weekend.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute on that...Just days before she goes to school.  I sure hope nothing goes wrong with it!

We're moving middle child into his dorm room on Monday.  He doesn't have nearly as big a pile as his brother did, but then again, he only goes to school an hour away from home an can come back to pick stuff up as needed throughout the year.  He's enjoyed his summer at home, but he's ready to go back to school and start learning again!

Baltimore's Batman
And on a last note, the national news highlighted the work of Route 29 Batman this week, who was killed in an accident on Highway 70.   Leonard Robinson, age 51 was killed when his Batmobile was struck by another car after he stopped to check a problem with the engine.  Robinson made children all over the Baltimore Region smile.  He'd show up at hospitals, dressed in costume and visit the sickest young people, smiling, joking, and sharing his love of life with them.  Spending his own money to make others happy, Robinson is nothing short of a legend here in Baltimore.   I heard that at his funeral, mourners were wearing Yarmulkes with the Batman logo emblazoned on the back. 

To be remembered for bringing joy to others and the difference you made in the world... his legacy will live on for a long time.

RIP Leonard Robinson.  My condolences and prayers to your family.  You truly were an exceptional human being.  I wish there were more people in the world like you.

source: Washington Post

Book Review: The MILF Diet

Have you ever wondered what a MILF is?  According to Wikipedia, "MILF" denotes a sexually attractive older female, generally between 30 and 50 in age and not necessarily an actual mother.  The term was popularized in the film American Pie (1999), though the origin of the term predates this (as it was) already used for years on the internet.

My daughter told me that she was "disturbed beyond words that her mother had checked out a book entitled the MILF diet".

Once you get past the "ickiness" of the premise, the book contains solid dietary advice for anyone who is looking to eat right and stay healthy.  Becoming a sex goddess is just a side benefit of eating right.

The MILF diet stresses whole grains, vegetables, proteins (primarily plant based), sea vegetables, natural sweets, and fermented foods. Thoughtful eating strategies are stressed, as well as eating in season fruits and vegetables.  Eating as low as possible on the food chain is encouraged.  There are so many wonderful gems and tidbits in this book, it is worth taking the time to read just for the nutritional tidbits.

The recipes include Millet Croquettes, Sun-Dried Tomato Ketchup, Fried Rice, Spelt Salad, Polenta with Braised Wild Mushrooms, Brad Pitt Vegetables, Tempeh-Collard Wraps with Peanut Sauce, Arame with Onion, Carrot, and Corn,  and Vegetarian Chili.

I can't wait to try these recipes and so many more... everything looks easy to make and very tasty!

Seriously, if you're looking to eat more mindfully and maybe even lose a few pounds, the book is well worth reading.

Are there Weddings in your future?

Disclaimer Notice: This post contains affiliate links.  By clicking through the links, you will be supporting this blog.  All proceeds from any purchases through any affiliate links will be added to the "Remodel the Hallway Bathroom" fund.

25 years ago, when hubby and I got married, we had a professional photographer who covered our wedding for us. Over the course of the following year, I put together a scrapbook that covered our wedding and honeymoon.  With our anniversary last month, we pulled out our scrapbook and reminisced over the ceremony and all of the funny, silly, and fun times we had together.  It brought back a lot of memories!


One of the most overwhelming memories of  planning our ceremony was ordering the invitations.  We had to sit down at a table in a print shop and look through book after book of invitations.  Boring invitations, every last one of them.  They were all shades of white, with variations on print and no choice whatsoever on wording.  We had to use the "boilerplate" announcement wording, and not my own witty (and somewhat annoying) prose. And the price.  Good God, we paid over $300 for 100 invitations that were just plain white paper with no fancy "stuff".  Granted, the print shop owner tossed in 200 Thank you cards for "free", and the cost also included the response cards and envelopes, but still - $300 was a lot of money out of the pocket of a brand new teacher back in 1990.  There were no coupons, and there were no "deals" to be had.

Thank God for the digital age, and the wonders of on demand printing.  Have you seen Wedding Paper Divas?  They're a division of Shutterfly, and they've got everything it takes to make your invitations you own!  (I used Shutterfly for our Graduation Announcements this year and was THRILLED with the quality of the finished product!)

From now until Sept. 30,  Wedding Paper Divas,  is offering 10% off your entire order!
From Save the Dates to Thank You cards and Invitations, Wedding Paper Divas has designs that you choose - from the paper, to the font, to uploading your own pictures and words - it's all your choice, your design, and reflects your personality.

It only takes a few minutes to create your personalized wedding items. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Choose from thousands of Wedding Paper Divas products.
2. Add your photos and tweak the text to your liking.
3. Use the promo code 2015WED10 to save 10% on your entire order. You can also add the promo code FREESHIP15 to get free shipping.

It's not too late to save on all your wedding day staples so head on over to Wedding Paper Divas now.

I can't believe I'm doing this! (A true tale)

25 years ago, when husband and I were first married, we lived in an apartment in the DC suburbs.  The building had regrettably thin floors, walls, and ceilings, and we lived in the apartment beneath a man who was the worlds greatest player.  He also had the world's noisiest bed springs.

Every Friday and Saturday night, around 2:30 in the morning, we would be awoken by the musical creaking and unmusical grunting of the man upstairs and his latest conquest.  Most Sunday mornings, we would come home from church to find some woman doing the walk of shame down the steps from the building.

One particularly memorable night, we were awoken by the sound of hysterical laughter intermingled with the squeaking of the bed springs.  The conversation we overheard follows:

*squeak, squeak, squeak, laugh, laugh, laugh*

I can't believe I'm doing this!

You have to relax, calm down!

*squeak, squeak, squeak, laugh, laugh, laugh*

Where am I again, L---?

Yes...

*squeak, squeak, squeak, laugh, laugh, laugh*

L-----?  hahahaha I can't believe I'm doing this.  I can't believe I'm doing this with you.

*squeak, squeak, squeak, laugh, laugh, snort*

I mean, you're so ugly...

THUD.... and then silence, as we heard the heavy foot steps walk across the room.


That was seriously cruel, but then again, when you're picking up drunk chicks at the bar every weekend just before closing time, I don't think you're going to find any kind of positive affirmation.
 (There is a lesson to be learned here.  Let all who hear it, learn it.)

College Text Books

Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links to my Amazon Account.  Your purchases through this link will support this blog - and will be added to the "Remodel the Hallway Bathroom" fund.  Thank YOU!!

Last month, I signed up for Amazon Prime.  There are some wonderful benefits to a Prime membership, including streaming of shows and music, but there's one plus that has just blown me away... free two day shipping.

Middle child and youngest child are getting their book lists now.  Son and I stopped by the book store with middle child the other day on our way home and checked out the prices on his textbooks.  It was a  phenomenally expensive list that came up to over $1,000 even with textbook rentals.  One book alone cost $450.  We then came home and checked out the list on Amazon.  Not only were the books cheaper, he got free 2 day shipping.  The books are heavy, so free shipping is a big deal!  We ordered the books on Tuesday, and they were delivered to the house during the day on Weds. and Thurs.  Very, very nice.

This isn't a "save tons of money" hint, but it is a way to cut down on expenses.  If we weren't members of Amazon Prime, we could have chosen "Free Super Saver Shipping", which delivers items to your door within a week.  Either way, by searching Amazon for textbooks, we saved $600 on the price of textbooks.  I don't know about you, but I consider $600 to be BIG savings!

Interview Madness

Have you ever gone for an interview where everything went wrong?  That happened to me earlier this week.

1) The interview was originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon.  Monday afternoon, I get a call asking me to change the interview to Tuesday.  They wanted me to come in during the morning - but I can't get off of work in the morning.  Long story short, we switched the interview to the afternoon.

2) I carefully dress at home, and leave for work.  It's wicked hot and humid, and I turn on the a/c in the van, only to find out that the air that we had fixed 2 weeks ago IS NOT WORKING.

3) Leaving work at noon, I realize I have a spot on my shirt.  My husband tells me now that it's not noticeable - but at the time, I panicked!!!  Add in a quick stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a clean white shirt.

4) Go to the nearest public library to change my shirt.  The bathroom by the front doors is broken.  Like some creeper, I had to go use the potties in the children's section.. Couldn't change and get out of there fast enough. 

5) Pull out the deep purple shirt I'm planning on wearing over the white shirt and realize it is deeply wrinkled and smells kind of funny.  Back to Wal-Mart to pick up some wrinkle release /deodorizing spray.

6) With all of the windows open, traveling 65 miles an hour down the highway, it is a balmy 85 hot and humid degrees in the car.  I look a mess.  My carefully coiffed hair looks like something even Medusa wouldn't claim.

7) Get lost twice on the way to the building.  It's so new it doesn't show up on my GPS.

8) Good news - the wrinkle release spray worked on my shirt.  Bad news - it's like 100* in the parking garage.  I find a library, and go inside and do my best with my hair.  I pull it up into barrettes.  I hate the look, but it's better than sweaty Medusa hair.  Due to the wonderful nature of the air conditioning in my car, my face is bright, bright red.  I sit at a table in the back corner of the library and fan myself with a periodical until 20 minutes before my interview begins.

9) Realize at the end of the interview that I forgot to bring my list of references with me.  Way to look professional, girl friend.  (You know, in case if the Medusa hair, bright pink face, and sweat stained shirt under a deep purple overshirt and the faint smell of sweat don't convey that professional look enough already.)

10) Finally leave the interview - it's close to 3:30 now, and I still haven't had lunch.  Find the Starbucks down the street library and have their most amazing Omega 3 Bistro Box - smoked salmon cream cheese, wheat free crackers, nut mix, endamame hummus and cucumber slices and have a veritable feast while enjoying their artificially cooled air.

I'm pretty sure that this interview was probably the WORST interview I've ever had.
You know, my current job isn't really all that bad....

Rockville Memorial Library

AKA, Another Day, Another Library....

Recently, I have found myself near beautiful new library branches.  I can't help but go in and visit them after I finish whatever other business I might have near them.  This week's find was in the Montgomery County Public Library System.  The Rockville Memorial Library.  It's a beautiful, big, bright and airy library plopped down smack into the heart of an urban area.  Absolutely gorgeous architecture, this library serves the needs of a fantastically diverse community that is situated on the outskirts of Washington, DC.

Come take a tour through these gorgeous stacks with me.....

Rockville Memorial Library

The view as you enter through the front doors.

Downstairs, near the children's area.  I love the low shelves!

The study area upstairs.  In a lot of libraries, this is known as the Learning Commons.

Actual Reference books on the shelves - granted, these are all U.S. Government Books with U.S. Laws, but how cool is it that they go back 100 years?

Periodicals

Beautiful information desk!

I love public libraries... so much information, so many resources, and everything is FREE!!  

Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

image: Amazon

Disclosure Notice: This post contains links to my Amazon Affiliates account.  Your purchases through this link will go to the "Remodel the Hallway Bathroom" fund.  Thank you for your support! 

I have read this book before, and it changed my perception of food and the way that I eat forever.  If you wonder why I bother going to Local Homestead Products, South Mountain Creamery, and Farm Stands on a regular basis, this book will answer your question.  We live in a world where we are far, far, far removed from the production of our food.  The distance our food travels to get to our plate is phenomenal.  The oil and water that is required to feed these crops and get them onto your plate is unbelievable.  Have you ever stopped to think about the process that is involved in getting your food to the table?

Most other countries don't rely as heavily upon the grocery store as we do.  People visit markets daily, where they pick up fresh meat, fruit, cheese, and vegetables on a daily basis - and they work with what is in season.  Have we ever wondered why there is such an obesity epidemic in our country?  It could very easily be related to the fact that we are so far removed from our food, we consider it almost an afterthought.  We pick up food that has been prepared for us by someone else, and shipped long distances long before we ever eat it.   (Chicken grown in Virgina, processed in China, and sold in Maine?  Don't laugh, it's done on a daily basis now.  It's called the "Global Economy".)

In this fascinating book, the Kingsolver family makes a pledge to eat nothing but local food for a year.  They define local to be within 100 miles of their home.  

The journey to find local food, and the repercussions of Big Business into farming are discussed in a way that makes sense, and also brings the very real politics (and money) of farming to a level which I can understand. 

Recipes and meal plans that follow the seasons are discussed as we join the Kingsolvers month by month through their challenge.  Not only did the family find food, they ate very well, and they thrived!

If you've followed my "Grocery Expenses" posts for any length of time, you know that I do tend to hit up some of the farm stands around us on a regular basis.  My dairy products are delivered by a local, family owned creamery.  Some of my meat comes from them, and some comes from Local Homestead Products - a little group of farmers that got together to see if they could cut out the middle man and sell quality, home grown meat to local consumers.  They recently expanded and are now also selling some vegetables, and started putting out bushel baskets of canning veggies last week.  I'll be back this weekend, with plans to put more stuff up.  Baugher's is another local, family owned orchard.  I hit them up in season and pick up my 50 pound bags of potatoes and onions, as well as bushels of peaches, apples, and pears.  

All of these local businesses employ local families, and some are in co-ops with other farmers in their area to provide more goods and services.  It's a win for the farmers.  The money I would pay my grocery store is going DIRECTLY to them.  They receive the full portion of what I pay, instead of some minuscule portion of that same amount.  

Think about it.  Then read the book and think about it some more.  It's worth more than one or two thoughts... there are some very deep issues here we, as people, will need to address soon.

Grocery Expenses week of 8/4-8/17

I really need to find a snappier title for this post.  "Grocery Expenses" just isn't cutting it for me anymore.  I'm open to suggestions, if anyone can think of anything witty... my brain is pretty much fried on the whole creative title thing right now.

I'm combining the last two weeks, because that's just how crazy it's been, trying to move the oldest kid out of the house and into his first apartment.  Insane. How much stuff can a young adult forget?  An awful lot, it seems.  We'll be heading back up in October, but in the meantime he's going to have to make do.

That first week, we ate out of the freezer and hit up the roasts that I had picked up from South Mountain Creamery.  Slow Cooker Fajitas and Slow Cooker black beans and rice served dinner for several night.  I took the leftover black beans and rice, and rolled them into corn tortillas, slathered them over with enchilada sauce, and called them enchiladas on a second night.  We also did a lot of on the run eating due to funerals, viewings, and church meetings.  I'm still not certain what we ate those nights.  (That's a sad statement, isn't it?)

And then came moving oldest child into his apartment.  He still has one paycheck coming from his previous employer, but it will be a month before he gets his first paycheck from the new job.  And, they've got utilities to hook up and rent to pay in the meantime.

As his "congratulations" gift, his Dad and I set him up on groceries.  These were just the basics to get him through the first month or so of school. There's a big difference between setting up a house for ONE and buying groceries for FIVE.  Holy cow, ONE month for him is less than the cost of ONE WEEK for all five of us!  Somehow, over the last 22 years of raising kids, I'd forgotten about that!

So anyway, here we go:

Groceries for Oldest Child: $   95.26
Giant Eagle (for us):            $ 152.74
South Mountain Creamery: $    19.78
Local Homestead Products: $    58.15

Grand Total:                         $ 325.93


Whoa... even spread over 2 weeks that's still $162 per week.

Just one week left until the next one moves out!  The piles continue to grow!  I can no longer access over half of my living room, and the cats are playing an awesome game of "King of the Mountain"!

Why You Should Put Things Away at the Store

So, I was at one of those big box retailers over this past week - I don't want to mention it by name, but they sell everything.  Clothes, food, etc.

You know how people roam around these stores, decide they don't want something, and then just leave it wherever they happen to be?  Their train of thought is along the lines of "They pay people to put that back.  Why should I inconvenience myself by putting this back where it belongs?  It's a long walk, and I am lazy." 

There was a family browsing through the clothing with their daughter and son.  The family was looking at clothes for the daughter, and the son had roamed out of sight. 

I heard the mother say "I feel bad.  It seems like we're always buying clothes for her, but never for him."

"I'll go with him and pick out a couple of shirts" the Dad said.  "Where did he go?"  I saw him roam around the display table and I heard him shout "What the h%ll are you doing?"

Everyone in the store came to a dead standstill and looked over...  the mother scurried over to her husband and started screaming "Oh my God, Oh my God". 

One of the sales associates ran over, and I hear the Dad yelling "Do I look happy?"

The kid had roamed over to the other side of the table, found a container of car wax, opened it, and proceeded to smear it all over himself.   No lie, the kid was blue.

Dad ran off to the bathroom with the son, while Mom tried to pull herself together.  The helpful sales associate helped the Mom, and radioed to a manager who went into the bathroom to help the Dad.

I've got to give a lot of credit to the retail store.  They rose to the occasion and helped that family.  They didn't charge the family for the car wax, and the managers pulled in paper towels and liquid dish soap to try and get the wax off of the kid.  Of course, if someone hadn't just left the damn wax wherever the heck they felt like...  (I'll stop.)

You know, there was a part of me that was thinking that the Dad should have taken the kid out to the car and just rubbed him all over the outside of the car....

Odds and Ends

Oldest child's pile of stuff.

This has been a week of mixed emotions!  Oldest child has moved into his new home, and is getting ready for the next chapter in his life.  Middle child is packing up his belongings, getting ready to move out, and youngest child is getting nervous butterflies in her stomach over her upcoming move.

And me?  I'm not sure what to think about anything...  I'm trying to make certain everybody has everything that they need, and that everyone makes it to the dentist and the optometrist before they leave.  Once everything is settled, I think I'm going to sit down with a pitcher of margaritas and think about the implications of everything.

I'm working on bringing my Etsy shop back up and running again.  I shut it down when my Mom was so ill last fall.  My goal is to have this back up and running by the end of the month!

Good to know the Zombie Task Force is on the job....

Our washing machine is finally fixed.  Only 3 months, and 3 separate parts were needed before husband finally got it all working again.  All told, we spent $60 on laundry at the laundromat, and $40 on parts.  So, $100 to fix the washing machine.  We saved at least $300 on the cost of a new washing machine.  I love my old washing machine.  No computerized parts to fix - which is a blessing.  While finding the correct part might be a challenge, getting inside and fixing the machine is relatively easy. 

Last night, daughter and I headed out to buy a few things and take advantage of tax free week.  We got in line behind a woman who had five carts of clothing.  She had been at the check out for 2 hours by the time we got there, as the cashier very patiently rang her out.  I have no idea how long she was there - the store had back up cashiers behind her who took the overflow traffic from her line.  At the risk of sounding judgmental, I think that might have been a little bit excessive.

I hope that you are enjoying your weekend! 

Moving Day

We moved oldest child into his apartment over the last couple of days.  This is a totally new experience for me.  I went straight from my Undergraduate Degree into the work world, and I moved back home after I graduated until I got married 2 years later.  I completed my graduate degree as an adult, with a family and a job to juggle.  His experience will be different.  His school is giving him a stipend to study.  Must be nice - to be paid to go to school!  THAT was never MY experience!

Anyway, he and a friend are both going to the same graduate school.  They found an apartment townhouse, and found a third person to share expenses.  I met the third person, and really like him.  He worked in the real world for 3 years in order to save enough money up to go back and get his PhD.  Nice young men, all of them.

Anyway, this is the progression of events over the last few days:
Cleaning out his room.  Remember I said I had to sit down with him in order to get him to clean out under the loft bed?  If you look closely, you can see that under the bed is clean!  As of Tuesday afternoon, this is what the rest of his room looked like.  His brother's stuff is all shoved firmly under his loft bed.

This is the pile of stuff in the living room that he had sorted out to go.  To be fair, not everything is his.  Daughter's pile is next to his pile.  She's adding stuff to one of her boxes here.

The van, with seats removed, packed and ready to go.  We went up in two cars.  Husband and oldest son went up together in the van.  The rest of us went in the Civic.  It was a beautiful 4 hour drive, straight up into the mountains.  I would have had one of the kids take pictures while we were driving up, but somehow, a camera phone just can't quite capture the majesty of the mountains.

The day after we moved him in, we went exploring around campus.  Of course, his mother is a librarian, and he's going to be working on a graduate degree.  What do you think was the first place that I insisted we go and visit?

The library.  Isn't this gorgeous?  I just love this atrium!  What an awesome place to curl up and study in between classes!  It's nicer than my library where I went to school!

The Leisure Reading Room of the library.  I could live in here!  I wonder if they're hiring librarians?  Wouldn't that be a hoot?  To go to graduate school at the same university where your Mom works? Livin' the dream, that's what that would be!

Says it all, doesn't it?

I have many, many more pictures, but you would get sick and tired of looking at them all and never come back and visit my blog again!

He lives in a sweet spot. He's far enough away from campus that he should be able to get some peace and quiet.  His neighborhood is mostly graduate students and young professionals.  They are within walking distance of a grocery store, and on the bus line, with a bus stop at the end of their street to get them back and forth to campus.  For now, he is going without a car.  He doesn't think he's going to need one to get back and forth to campus, and the walk from any parking lot would be much, much longer than the walk from his door to the end of his street.  

Before we left, we took him grocery shopping.  We bought his "start up" groceries for him.  Before we left, we made a chili and left it in the slow cooker for his dinner.  Unfortunately for him, he left his graduation cookbook home.  I am under strict instructions to send it to him ASAP.  

Moving him in was an experience.  I'm looking forward to going back when he's been there for a while and he can walk us around and give us a campus tour!  

I really do hope that he enjoys himself!

Book Review: Bossy Pants

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Come romp with Tina Fey through her life story to date.  A lighthearted look at her very serious journey through life, you will be touched by the story she has to tell about how she has come to be where she is today.

This book was great!  I laughed - a lot - while reading this book.  So many of her stories were similar to mine.  We are about the same age, and the forces that defined those of us who grew up and came of age during that time are familiar to me.  While I did not travel the path that she has chosen, I relate strongly to her..  I especially enjoy her look at the bright side of life.  I am positive that not everything in her life has been sunshine and roses, but she chooses to dwell upon the funnier parts of life and to find the best in whatever situation she finds herself.

By the way, my sister was at UVA at the same time as Tina.  Tina, I think I know the identity of handsome Robert Wuhl.  (HRW).  I'm pretty sure he's the cad who took my sister out to dinner, and at almost the end of the meal, a girl comes into the restaurant, walks up to the table and says "Hey, I know you said to wait in the car, but it's been almost an hour, and I'm getting bored.  Are you done yet?"     (I don't think he was planning on breaking up with my sister at that meal, but that was the end result.)

A fun filled read, I highly recommend this book as an end of summer pleasure!

Don't Cut the Bone!

Many years ago, when our middle son was born, we were talking to the doctor about  having him circumcised before we went home.

The doctor was going through the procedure with us, and explaining what we could expect and what the recovery would be like.
He asked if we had any questions, and we shook our heads at the doctor, and basically let him know that we played in this rodeo before, and we were ready for the procedure.

He seemed very relieved, and then he laughed.  He told us that two parents that he had spoken with earlier in the day had told him in all seriousness:

Don't cut back to the bone.

*True Story!*

Job Rejection

You know, many times after you interview for a job, they never again call you back and let you know whether or not you've gotten the job.  I've been on a few job interviews recently.  I do have to say that all of the potential employers I have interviewed with have been very good about letting me know the results of the interview.  They've addressed me by name, and the e-mails have been personal enough to make me happy.

My most recent rejection letter tickled me.  For the first time ever, I received an actual rejection letter from this particular employer.  It was addressed as "Dear Applicant" -

  This correspondence is meant to inform you that the position of        at    School   has been filled. 


Notice, they couldn't even be bothered to state which position, and at which school.  Classy move, HR, very classy.  (I purposefully cut out the name of the school system, not wanting to call them out on the internet.  That seems a little... rude.