The last nine days.

I swear, I may not be employed, for other people, for money, but I do manage to stay busy.

Like yesterday. I made yogurt. (It's like, stunningly easy).

Heat milk to 185 degress F. Cool it to 120 degrees F. Add some yogurt (straight out of the store bought container). Let sit for four hours.
The hardest part is the Letting It Sit, as it needs to maintain a temp around 115F. When I start heating the milk, I turn my oven to pre-heat on it's lowest temp, which is 170. I let it warm up for a few minutes, then turn it off. By the time I've got the milk ready it's just warm enough to help the pot maintain it's temp in the closed oven. Other people do things like put it in a small cooler partly filled with warm water, etc.
It's more liquidy than you'd expect - but it solidifies a bit once it chills in the fridge.
I can't tell you how super-delicious it is, cause I don't eat yogurt... D had most of a jar for breakfast this morning, before he left, well before I woke up... so it can't be That bad. I'll let you know the verdict when he gets home!

P.S. I'm also making self-watering planters out of Rubbermaid bins, I've got over 2 dozen peppers sprouted with tomatoes and eggplant on the way, our backyard neighbors and I are going to be constructing raised beds, the compost pile is starting to really look good, I planted strawberries and rhubarb this last week, and I've got some asperagus that needs some dirt in the next few days... AND the two artichoke plants seem to be really happy... not to mention the watermelon... photos soon.

Quote of the Day.

M - Hey Kelly, do you like wine???

K - I like whinning...

Avocado, like whoa!

I can't decide what I like more, the potential avocado trees, or how they look all lined up before they start growing!

Zoom zoom...

Wait, wait...

If I'm bashing the financial services company involved, I also ought to bash D...

cause three weeks ago I went through and researched and found the company I wanted this money to go to, and then I researched some more to figure out exactly what two funds at said company I wanted this money to go to...

and I considered our other investments and analyzed risk and pondered asset allocation, blah, blah, blah...

and I told D - these are the two funds, at the one company, that I think we should put this money into, and he was all like - "That doesn't sound very good to me, e-mail me all the info and I'll let you know what I think we should invest in."

And besides the obvious that the boy should just listen to what I say, I figured, whatever, we wants to feel involved, he's actually interested in a monetary decision I should run with this! Except it wasn't until TODAY that he finally decided to read what I had sent over, check the links, and make his Pronouncement!

Which was that he thought we should do exactly what I said in the first place.


Note - between last week and this week (including the lovely jump today)... between the time we could have invested the money if he had read the info when I originally sent it and now... the S&P 500 has gone up over 9%.

Be this a lesson to all of you, whether you're one of my financial services companys' reps, or my husband -

DO WHAT I SAY. I AM RIGHT. ALWAYS.

Stupid.

So, I'm all for feminism, or internet-age privacy concerns, or whatever it is at work here... but I'm pretty sure, way back in the day, if a wife called up the phone company and wanted to talk specifics about her phone service, except the account was in her husband's name, nobody would have thought twice about helping her.

So, we needed to get D's Retirement Account from his last job, rolled over, or should I say, Rolled Out Of, where it was - so I called up a financial services company, talked on the phone with this nice woman, she connected through to my computer, in some cool and kinda weird way, and we went through the set-up process together, where I could enter info, but she could also enter info on the same screen... it was good times. When I called I was a little unsure if they'd work with me or not, since I made it quite clear that it was my husband's account, in my husband's name.

No problem. We got everything established.

So, I got my computer back the other day and tried to log onto his account, and since it was a new computer they wanted me to answer some of the security questions before they let me through... I really hate security questions. For most of our financial stuff, we have both our names on our accounts, but I'm the one who's usually logging onto them... but some of them are just in D's name, and I want him to be able to log onto them too, so I never know, when the security question is "What was the name of your first pet?" - if I answered the question with D's first pet or My first pet or the first pet that jumped into my head (and there's a good half dozen between the two of us)... we won't even get started on This particular financial services company, who's security question was "What was the name of your first boy/girlfriend?" Freakin' brilliant!

So, I answered it, and it told me I was wrong, and gave me a new question, which was the date of our wedding. I answered that correctly (I'm pretty sure), and it kept telling me I was answering it wrong. So, then I figured I must have typo-ed when I set it up, so I made D give me back his computer, so I could log on with the computer I used to use. It let me log in, I re-answered the security questions to make sure I they were what I thought, and I went back to my computer, but it still wouldn't let me through. So I gave up for the day.

Today - three days later, I try again. Still won't let me through, when I KNOW I'm answering the questions correctly. So I called the company, to see if they'd unfreeze the account, and the snotty ass brat on the phone says he can tell me what the security measures are, and why I can't log in, but he can't fix the problem for me, since I'm not my husband.

So I can set up an account for my husband, but I can't access it once it's set up???


This happened a long time ago with our mobile phone company, and I just about yelled at the guy that since I was the one who paid the bill I damn well better be able to talk to a customer service rep about it, but I refrained (instead, I called them back three minutes later and said my name was D and I wanted to change my account :). This time I was really tempted to ask to speak with his supervisor... but whatever.

Anyway - I'm just missing the days when people didn't get divorced, and companies weren't afraid to give access to a person's spouse for fear that they were up to something malevolent...


details.

And dave makes fun of me for reading a scottish crofter's blog...

Quote of the Day -

D's looking for graham crackers in the cupboard.

M - Left. Left... left.

D - Which way is left???

Quote of the Day -

D - Just because your intellect has the subtlety of a monster truck derby...

(5 minutes later)
D- You're either going to have to delete it, deal with putting it there without context, or look in the mirror.

Plant Markers.

I wanted plant markers the other day... as I was officially starting Seed Set #2. Not that at this point I'm very likely to mistake my eight peat pots of Artichoke seeds, with my three peat pots of Habanero Pepper seeds, but eventually (starting next weekend) I'll be ramping up the seed starting, two or three varieties each week, 4-8 pots of each variety, it's gonna be gettin' confusing.

The process started with my trusty typewriter (as most good processss do). I typed out plant names, spaced about an inch apart, in two long columns down several sheets of card stock. Repeating each name for the number of total plants I hope to end with (four times for each pepper variety, six times for each tomato, and so on).

I then cut up the paper and spread them out on the plastic sheets to laminate them.

(We won't get into why, exactly, I own a laminator, except to say that, like my typewriter, every time I find a reason to use it, I have more fun than is probably, strictly speaking, appropriate).

I then cut them out, again, yes the cutting got a little tiring. Especially considering the cutting standards I hold myself to.

Most of them got rubberbanded and stored for future use, but I deployed three right away!

Yay Artichokes!!!

Quote of the Day -

"Oh bacon, why do you torment me so?"

-Kelly

Composting.

You start with a desire to Compost. And an old compost heap that "hasn't been doing much" according to our backyard neighbors. Note the plastic bucket, whole pumpkin and large openings. All, obviously, make for excellent composting.
Add some pallets, procured at no cost, via a woman on CraigsList! Nail three together.

Attach cardboard along sides to block openings.
P.S. The boxes that Curiak ships wheels in, are just the right measurements to be flattened along one side of a pallet.
P.P.S. They're also great for boxing up large framed pictures when moving...
Disregard that one pallet is crooked. This is not a sign of sub-par workmanship.
Add nitrogen-rich kitchen waste to the new heap, along with bits of the old heap which is all carbon-rich garden waste (with the exception of the two whole pumpkins...) in a ratio of 1:2 respectively. Eventually the new heap will be well filled and left for several months to finish the composting process, while new additions will then go in the "old" heap, with it's greatly diminished supply of garden waste, and a lower potential for stagnating from a lack of nitrogen.
Create the front door by attaching more cardboard to a fourth, ideally shorter, pallet. Be nice to the neighbors cat while you're at it.
And you'll have a happy compost heap.
"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Unemployment.

Spectacularly.

Grandmothers on YouTube!

A friend of ours has a cookbook full of "Depression" recipes.

Then again, you could just go directly to the Great-Grandmothers on YouTube. The woman is 93! And she talks about cops taking hatchets to barrels of whiskey after her neighbors rented out their garage to bootleggers.

Good times.

The obvious.

"Right now, having a $500 dinner for two feels like the post-crash version of owning a Hummer. Except not if your family is being supported by the guy serving the entrees."

-Gail Collins (vs. David Brooks in Let Them Eat a Little Bit of Cake)


I get annoyed when people do things like Bash banks for spending lots of money sponsoring events and otherwise vacationing clients and employees.

Does nobody understand that these events are planned upwards of a year in advance, were majorily paid for long before things started crashing down, and supply jobs for the people at the locations. This is what we need people with money to do. As I see the problem, too many people who didn't have money spent it, and banks let them do it... but that doesn't mean that people who do have money, shouldn't spend it, that just makes things worse.

Law makers seem to be doing a lot of un-thoughtful bitching and pandering... I'm not worried about the state of the banks, or the falling stock market, or the underlining housing crisis, or unemployment numbers (cause I'm one of them), I'm worried about all the stupid people in this country acting particularly stupid in the next couple years.

Sorry.

I kid you not.

Muggle Lane.

Kiki Court.

Snaffle Bit Way.

Real streets in my town... developers should be required to pass an IQ test... a city and urban planning version of the bar exam... for everybody with any authority over sub-divisions, not just the professionals who actually lay out the streets.


P.S. Oral Zumwalt Way

I make things good.

Friday: Cake.
Yummy.

I haven't made cake (straight out of the box, thank you) in a long time.
Cake is yummy.
Compost Bin.
Saturday: Mojitos.
Mint plucked from my kitchen-window spearmint plant and immediately muddled.
I prefer Dark Rum.

More on the compost bin, later.

Yesterday.

Yesterday was a noteworthy day. Indeed.
It started snowing - for the first time in weeks. It eventually accumulated enough that we still have snow on the ground today. That hasn't happened in longer than two weeks.

To mark the first snow in a long time (and/or because they arrived, finally), I started my artichoke seeds.
They're in the glass there. I have special artichoke seeds, seeds that make plants that make actual artichokes their first year. However they still require 90 days to reach maturity after transplanting. While our great valley has slightly less severe weather than the surrounding plains, we still only have about 110 frost free days, I'm playing it safe with the artichokes and starting them early. I'll see how the first 8 seeds do, and go from there.
They're sitting in a glass of water for a day to help them along. Later, I'll plant each happy little seed in a peat pot, and if all goes well, in a month or so, they're get planted up into small planters, till they can go outside.

Despite my best efforts I could not get a hold of any "Northern Star" seeds, which are the only known cultivar capable of weathering cold winters, so my lovely artichoke plants-to-be are going to be annuals, which is sad, cause normal artichoke plants can live 5-10 years in zones 7 and warmer...

In situ -

Bedroom -Usually, they're pulled to the right, and fall along the side of the bookcase.

Living Room. Royal Blue 100% Organic Hemp Canvas.
I made them with extra deep seams allowances, when summer comes we can assess how much sun blocking we'd like, and I can attach appropriately thick, or thin, linings.
There are two large trees between the sidewalk and street, which might provide sufficient shade. Then again - we might want the equivalent of black-out shades... we have options.
The entry way.
The couch, with grey fabric, in which it will be recovered.
The look through.
My typewriter station. And household paperwork processing center.
We do have a small problem with this large blank of wall. Something will be there.
Fin.

Gosh.

It's always satisfying to finish our tax returns.

I don't know what it is, but I like doing them myself. I like getting just a slight pressure in the front of my head, and smiling at how easy it is to find the numbers I need, due to my fastidious filing the rest of the year... and tax code! Gosh I love looking up tax code explanations on the IRS website!

Oh - and I'd like to thank D for going to a school that costs over $10,000 a semester, we can pay off 20% of that debt with the reduction in taxes the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit provides.


I think I'm going to find the names of the congresspeople who sponsored the bill that created that tax credit and send them all a Thank You note!

(My last year of school, when we were first married, we didn't make enough money to have to pay taxes, once everything else was considered, so I never really appreciated the full fun of that one before :)


P.S. IRS, please don't audit me! I have an unnatural fear of auditing, it's up at the top of my list, just after BEARS!!!