as long as you are trying to feed a large army...and need to run the jeeps off methane.
I think I mentioned this one before but I don't think I had the recipe on me.
This black bean soup recipe is on the label from some canned tomatoes I bought in Plummer, local store brand.
It claims to serve 8 (eight). Those must be some BIG people. Here are the "ingredients" (almost all canned)
3 cups chopped onion
2 T olive oil
8 cloves of garlic (that's 1 clove per person)
2 cups chopped bell pepper
1 can (28oz.) diced tomatoes with liquid
3 t cumin
2 cans (14.5oz) chicken broth
8 cans (15oz) black beans, drained and rinsed (that is ONE CAN per person!)
1/2 c red wine vinegar
Sour cream
Heat oil in a large, deep, sauce pan. Saute onion, bell pepper and garlic until tender.
Add remaining ingredients and simmer 10minutes.
Serve garnished with sour cream.
Well, it's fast. And easy. And, given the sodium content of the ingredients, salty.
And there are approximately 30 cups of soup produced. At 4 cups per quart...that is 7.5 quarts which is 1.75 GALLONS of soup. Wow.
Serves 8. Almost 4 cups per serving! I'm guessing there won't be many takers for dessert.
It's not that I don't make a couple of gallons of soup at a crack, but I start with a recipe for less than one gallon and it grows. If I started with a 2 gallon recipe I'd be making soup in my canner...both canners.
Speaking of bean soup. I bought a couple pounds of soup beans a while back. If I double that recipe...I won't have to cook again until spring.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
200+ Posts
Well, it seems that either this or one of the recent posts is number 200. If it were a sitcom someone would celebrate it and there would be a catered lunch.
But, it's a blog and I'm posting on dial-up so there won't be much.
I haven't done movies lately so I thought I'd give a couple of the good one's I've seen lately:
The Window 2007. Obscure Argentinian film (as opposed to the mainstream US box office hits coming out of Argentina I guess). An old fart at a ranch has had a health crisis and is in bed, looking out a window and talking to the remaining staff. It's better than it sounds. It's really quite good.
Pushing Daisies which is a TV series, not a movie. Also quite good. I must give credit, Angela recommended this in her Christmas card last year and I didn't get around to it until now.
Clatterford Series 2. Another series, this one is British. If you haven't seen series 1, then watch that first. It's about the ladies group in a small town. Hilarious! Both of the chicks from AbFab are in it, though not the leads.
The Cooler. I'd tell you the year but it's in the player right now. William H. Macy plays a "cooler"...someone who brings bad luck to gamblers in Las Vegas. Hijinks don't exactly ensue. Alec Baldwin plays a violent creep. I don't think it's much of a stretch for him so he does pretty well. Not something for the kids though.
Most of the other films I've been watching are alarmingly depressing (as I like them), so I won't recommend them to others.
But, it's a blog and I'm posting on dial-up so there won't be much.
I haven't done movies lately so I thought I'd give a couple of the good one's I've seen lately:
The Window 2007. Obscure Argentinian film (as opposed to the mainstream US box office hits coming out of Argentina I guess). An old fart at a ranch has had a health crisis and is in bed, looking out a window and talking to the remaining staff. It's better than it sounds. It's really quite good.
Pushing Daisies which is a TV series, not a movie. Also quite good. I must give credit, Angela recommended this in her Christmas card last year and I didn't get around to it until now.
Clatterford Series 2. Another series, this one is British. If you haven't seen series 1, then watch that first. It's about the ladies group in a small town. Hilarious! Both of the chicks from AbFab are in it, though not the leads.
The Cooler. I'd tell you the year but it's in the player right now. William H. Macy plays a "cooler"...someone who brings bad luck to gamblers in Las Vegas. Hijinks don't exactly ensue. Alec Baldwin plays a violent creep. I don't think it's much of a stretch for him so he does pretty well. Not something for the kids though.
Most of the other films I've been watching are alarmingly depressing (as I like them), so I won't recommend them to others.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Plum Sauce, Plum Jam, Plum Jelly, Plum Cocktail, Popcorn Plums, Plum Scampi, ...
OK, the title is a bit of a reach. Supposed to be a reference to Forrest Gump (when the other guy was listing all of the kinds of shrimp).
ANYWAY: 33 more jars of plum products today AND I still have a big colander full of lovely pink plums that I haven't used yet. There were 4 or 5 colors of plums (purple, gold, pink, red...there might be more but I'm tired) and I wanted to use each one and see how it goes.
My pitter is dead so I've been cooking them down a bit, squishing through a colander, and using a paring knife to pull out the pits from the mush. Combine the juice and the mush and voila! Jam base.
I got tired of picking pits on the 2nd load of gold plums and gave up. I poured the lot into a bit of cheese cloth and made jelly. If I were a good and frugal person, I would have taken the pits out of the plum mush and made it into plum butter. Too tired. I'll put it in the compost and plant some of the pits.
The red...ah, the 5th color, plums were reduced to plum butter. Partly because I'm running out of jars! I put in some raw, organic hawaiian honey that a friend gave me for babysitting her dog (Romney...he's been in the blog before). It isn't very sweet still, but the color is amazing. More of that fuscia. Same color I got mixing red and pink plums for a previous batch of jam. I wanted to spice the plum butter, but I forgot spices at the co-op, and here in town they only have the over priced little bottles. I just could NOT spend 12$ for two little bottles. Plain butter it is. There are 7 8oz jars and one pint...like I said, running out of jars. Next year I may just put the jam in quarts.
I'll let you know how the jelly turns out. It's my first attempt at jelly and it was born of laziness...how typical of me.
Now that I know you can make jelly and butter out of one effort (thanks to a book on wild fruit gathering I got from Jeanne...HI Jeanne!) I'm going to try it with crab apples next weekend or the weekend after. Some should be ready then.
There are also recipes for rosehips conserve and other lovely things.
This year, I'm not buying any fruit...must all be gathered by hand. As a result, there is less variety. No marmalade....since there are no wild (or even feral) citrus trees around here.
All that jamming/jellying/buttering (just canning the butter, it had been reducing in the crockpot for a day and a half...lid askew...worked like a charm as it did not scorch) started at about 6pm today. 33 jars in 5.5hours (add 2 hours for processing the plums for the butter so I guess that is 7.5 hours). If you figure 5$ per jar for good organic jam/jelly/butter (which is LOW...especially when one jar is a full pint) and I'm getting 33 jars. That's 165$ minus the jars, lids, pectin and sugar (the honey was free) and a bit for the electricity to heat the water for washing everything, and for running the stove top to cook the jam and run the canner (I only boiled the plum better, everything else was done by flipping the jars over...works fine). So, sugar for tonight was about 4$. The jars this evening were high as I was almost totally out of reusable jars (damn those coworkers who don't return jars) and were 15$. Pectin is 2.15$/pack and used 2 packs so that is $4.30. I've used 4 new lids this evening which is about 50cents or so. Say the electric will cost me like 1$ (it's hydroelectric and cheap in dollars even if pretty expensive for the environmental effects on the river). I get 24.80$ as my cash outlay for the evening (god...what would that have been for the 15 pounds of plums I got free?).
ANYWAY: that leaves: 165 - 24.80 = 141.20(savings over buying jam) / 7.5(hours) = $18.83/hour for my efforts. And of course that is tax free.
IF I had a working pitter...especially one of those that you crank or just hit repeatedly while cherries (or plums...these are about the size of cherries) I could process them MUCH MUCH quicker and up my hourly thrifty activities savings rate.
I used my little handheld plastic pitter the first time I jammed plums this year and it, along with my hand, died. My hand is getting better but the pitter is not.
SOMEONE (Hi Sher and Pam) could get me a very cool pitter for christmas....that would be awesome.
Anyway, after tomorrow, these plums will be gone. Hopefully the crabapples and other apples will be ready next week. I hope I don't have to drive somewhere to get jars. I hate that. I have some pints. But that seems like a whole lot of apple butter especially when I haven't made it before and it might be crap.
There are more plums...and some service berries. But I need to let them go. The berries are a bit past their prime and well, 73 jars of plum stuff plus however many I get out of the last batch should be enough.
I also have several quart jars of dried sweet cherries and some sweet cherry leather so I'll have some variety this winter. And a bit of huckleberry jam but that will probably be mostly for christmas presents to the aunts (sorry to ruin the surprise!) Next year I need to be more aware of what's in season and less occupied with other things.
Perhaps next year I'll grow cucumbers and can try pickles too. They can't suck more than the spiced crabapples. Those stank it up. Apologies to anyone who got them as a gift and tried to eat them. Maybe you could shove them down gopher holes or something.
ANYWAY: 33 more jars of plum products today AND I still have a big colander full of lovely pink plums that I haven't used yet. There were 4 or 5 colors of plums (purple, gold, pink, red...there might be more but I'm tired) and I wanted to use each one and see how it goes.
My pitter is dead so I've been cooking them down a bit, squishing through a colander, and using a paring knife to pull out the pits from the mush. Combine the juice and the mush and voila! Jam base.
I got tired of picking pits on the 2nd load of gold plums and gave up. I poured the lot into a bit of cheese cloth and made jelly. If I were a good and frugal person, I would have taken the pits out of the plum mush and made it into plum butter. Too tired. I'll put it in the compost and plant some of the pits.
The red...ah, the 5th color, plums were reduced to plum butter. Partly because I'm running out of jars! I put in some raw, organic hawaiian honey that a friend gave me for babysitting her dog (Romney...he's been in the blog before). It isn't very sweet still, but the color is amazing. More of that fuscia. Same color I got mixing red and pink plums for a previous batch of jam. I wanted to spice the plum butter, but I forgot spices at the co-op, and here in town they only have the over priced little bottles. I just could NOT spend 12$ for two little bottles. Plain butter it is. There are 7 8oz jars and one pint...like I said, running out of jars. Next year I may just put the jam in quarts.
I'll let you know how the jelly turns out. It's my first attempt at jelly and it was born of laziness...how typical of me.
Now that I know you can make jelly and butter out of one effort (thanks to a book on wild fruit gathering I got from Jeanne...HI Jeanne!) I'm going to try it with crab apples next weekend or the weekend after. Some should be ready then.
There are also recipes for rosehips conserve and other lovely things.
This year, I'm not buying any fruit...must all be gathered by hand. As a result, there is less variety. No marmalade....since there are no wild (or even feral) citrus trees around here.
All that jamming/jellying/buttering (just canning the butter, it had been reducing in the crockpot for a day and a half...lid askew...worked like a charm as it did not scorch) started at about 6pm today. 33 jars in 5.5hours (add 2 hours for processing the plums for the butter so I guess that is 7.5 hours). If you figure 5$ per jar for good organic jam/jelly/butter (which is LOW...especially when one jar is a full pint) and I'm getting 33 jars. That's 165$ minus the jars, lids, pectin and sugar (the honey was free) and a bit for the electricity to heat the water for washing everything, and for running the stove top to cook the jam and run the canner (I only boiled the plum better, everything else was done by flipping the jars over...works fine). So, sugar for tonight was about 4$. The jars this evening were high as I was almost totally out of reusable jars (damn those coworkers who don't return jars) and were 15$. Pectin is 2.15$/pack and used 2 packs so that is $4.30. I've used 4 new lids this evening which is about 50cents or so. Say the electric will cost me like 1$ (it's hydroelectric and cheap in dollars even if pretty expensive for the environmental effects on the river). I get 24.80$ as my cash outlay for the evening (god...what would that have been for the 15 pounds of plums I got free?).
ANYWAY: that leaves: 165 - 24.80 = 141.20(savings over buying jam) / 7.5(hours) = $18.83/hour for my efforts. And of course that is tax free.
IF I had a working pitter...especially one of those that you crank or just hit repeatedly while cherries (or plums...these are about the size of cherries) I could process them MUCH MUCH quicker and up my hourly thrifty activities savings rate.
I used my little handheld plastic pitter the first time I jammed plums this year and it, along with my hand, died. My hand is getting better but the pitter is not.
SOMEONE (Hi Sher and Pam) could get me a very cool pitter for christmas....that would be awesome.
Anyway, after tomorrow, these plums will be gone. Hopefully the crabapples and other apples will be ready next week. I hope I don't have to drive somewhere to get jars. I hate that. I have some pints. But that seems like a whole lot of apple butter especially when I haven't made it before and it might be crap.
There are more plums...and some service berries. But I need to let them go. The berries are a bit past their prime and well, 73 jars of plum stuff plus however many I get out of the last batch should be enough.
I also have several quart jars of dried sweet cherries and some sweet cherry leather so I'll have some variety this winter. And a bit of huckleberry jam but that will probably be mostly for christmas presents to the aunts (sorry to ruin the surprise!) Next year I need to be more aware of what's in season and less occupied with other things.
Perhaps next year I'll grow cucumbers and can try pickles too. They can't suck more than the spiced crabapples. Those stank it up. Apologies to anyone who got them as a gift and tried to eat them. Maybe you could shove them down gopher holes or something.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Smuggling Plums
Well, not so much smuggling as mixing with sugar and putting in jars.
I got purple and yellow wild (at least feral) plums and have been jamming for a day and a half. They are yummy. (Warning to Gary Hawbaker: SOUR is in the title for a reason.) I had some of each color left over and did a mixed batch. It is gorgeous! Fuschia or heliotrope. And sweeter as I used the full sugar recipe. I usually use the half sugar recipe. I'll try to put in photos but I'm on dial up so it will have to be in another entry.
There are tons more plums so I might try some plum butter. The jam is good thinned on angel food cake, as the jam between two layers of spice cake, in muffins, etc. I like it on toast too. Those of you (GARY) who like sweet sweet industrial jam will not like it so don't eat it. Stick with your smuckers.
I pickled some a few years ago but frankly didn't like the texture. Gritty. Same with the crab apples I tried to pickle. Yuck. If anyone knows how to make these things not gritty, please let me know.
I also made cookies today. I have too much stuff in the cupboard am and trying to use it up rather than buy more food. Cookies are good. Oatmeal cookies. Mostly I was trying to figure out what to bring to a bbq tomorrow and I didn't want to buy something crap to take so I made oatmeal cookies.
I've sorted through most of the crap from the move out of the apartment and back into one single residence (so so nice to walk to work again rather than drive and hour and 15 minutes). Hopefully I can maintain the sorting habit and keep chucking stuff I don't need or use.
OK, time to finish watching a video and hit the fart sack.
I got purple and yellow wild (at least feral) plums and have been jamming for a day and a half. They are yummy. (Warning to Gary Hawbaker: SOUR is in the title for a reason.) I had some of each color left over and did a mixed batch. It is gorgeous! Fuschia or heliotrope. And sweeter as I used the full sugar recipe. I usually use the half sugar recipe. I'll try to put in photos but I'm on dial up so it will have to be in another entry.
There are tons more plums so I might try some plum butter. The jam is good thinned on angel food cake, as the jam between two layers of spice cake, in muffins, etc. I like it on toast too. Those of you (GARY) who like sweet sweet industrial jam will not like it so don't eat it. Stick with your smuckers.
I pickled some a few years ago but frankly didn't like the texture. Gritty. Same with the crab apples I tried to pickle. Yuck. If anyone knows how to make these things not gritty, please let me know.
I also made cookies today. I have too much stuff in the cupboard am and trying to use it up rather than buy more food. Cookies are good. Oatmeal cookies. Mostly I was trying to figure out what to bring to a bbq tomorrow and I didn't want to buy something crap to take so I made oatmeal cookies.
I've sorted through most of the crap from the move out of the apartment and back into one single residence (so so nice to walk to work again rather than drive and hour and 15 minutes). Hopefully I can maintain the sorting habit and keep chucking stuff I don't need or use.
OK, time to finish watching a video and hit the fart sack.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Newly Undeadity
The title is a stretch and not relevant, but it's a rambling post so nothing would be relevant.
El Kid is on his exchange program having arrived safely overseas. He'll be back in a year.
I'm moving out of the Spokane apartment which hasn't been too bad. Hot but not bad. Much of the furniture that doesn't fold is going to the next tenant. Very handy way to do things. If I thought it wouldn't creep her out, I would have offered to leave the 2lbs of cheese that weren't eaten. It's too much grease for the worms and too much dairy for me. I had to chuck it because a strange woman going door to door offering hunks of cheese is just not acceptable in our culture. I'm sure there is somewhere on the planet where that behavior would get me worshiped like the goddess I am. Perhaps Switzerland....they will tell tales of the cheese lady who comes in the day and gives you cheese.
Enough of that.
I'm taking the opportunity to purge quite a few belongings. I've taken two fullish subaru loads to charities. I don't need two households worth of sheets, towels, dishes, glasses, cups, mugs etc etc etc. So much is getting donated. It's about time for a magazine purge as well. The region's laundromats will soon be sporting out of date copies of very nice organic living magazines. I've read them, gotten the recipes and addresses I need so no need to archive the mags like some sort of weird library. And the worms don't like magazine paper. Newsprint yes, shiny paper not so much. They'll eat it, but I don't think it's good for them.
I've been trying to clean the apartment with mostly environmentally friendly products. The oven crud just wiped off with some citrasolve (a strong mix). I'll hit the floors with left over laundry soap and a vinegar rinse. It's organic non-phosphate laundry soap. And the tub will get the usual borax and vinegar scrub.
As of Sunday I will officially have only ONE home again. One rent payment. One set of utilities. One land line phone bill. Ahhh....so nice to have one set of payments again.
It does seem that I've got quite a bit of food to eat. I need to start making my own bread just to use up the flour! Seriously. I can't stand an empty pantry so when I moved that here, things got a bit full. I'm sure I'll get through it but the 15 boxes of tea...that could take a while.
How about a garden update: WE HAVE 'MATERS!!! I've been sampling the cherry tomatoes and they are delicious. My god. None have made it to the kitchen yet. I just eat them right off the vine. There are many other tomatoes but they haven't started to ripen yet. If they all come in at once the dehydrator will be smoking! Or I'll try that ketchup recipe I found.
Steady applications of stink-juice (the "juice" is the result of steeping rotting onion and garlic along with cayenne in a jar...pour into sprayer and add some water...it reeks) have allowed the carrots to at least grow respectable tops. No sign of actual carrotage though. The beans are coming along. I may get a cup of each type once dried. Not a great yield. Must try something new with the beans next year. The tomatillo continues to bloom and has some little lanterns which look like there should be a tomatillo inside but there's not. Empty. Bupkus. Oh well. onions doing great! The tops have started to dry and fall over. I need to read up on when to pull them. They look huge. I think more onions and some garlic for next year. Build on my success. What else is in there?
I have one respectable red lettuce going. ONE hungarian hot pepper. It's getting quite large but I think there should be more than one per plant. It got a whole square foot in the garden so one pepper is not appropriate. The jalapeno pepper in a pot is doing quite well. there are several tiny jalapenos on it. Even that plant looks stunted though. The marigold continues to struggle with big damage. Not a single bloom yet. Perhaps before I have to yank it one will show up. I can hope! And finally the basil plant in a pot...it's just two straight stems. Weird. I'm getting some basil off of it and will try to bring it inside for winter. I put a different shelf in front of the west window in the kitchen in the hopes of growing some herbs there through the winter. Which herbs like drafts and the occasional burning direct sunlight? I'll let you know.
I'll have some bits of wood and another shelf coming back from the apartment so I might try a bit of a cold frame. We'll see if I have the energy or ambition. The landlord had offered to rototill some areas of the yard for a garden but he's opening a shop now and may not have the time.
And now, I'm going to go home and try to eat (food poisoning last week has made eating something of a scary event...probiotics are helping).
El Kid is on his exchange program having arrived safely overseas. He'll be back in a year.
I'm moving out of the Spokane apartment which hasn't been too bad. Hot but not bad. Much of the furniture that doesn't fold is going to the next tenant. Very handy way to do things. If I thought it wouldn't creep her out, I would have offered to leave the 2lbs of cheese that weren't eaten. It's too much grease for the worms and too much dairy for me. I had to chuck it because a strange woman going door to door offering hunks of cheese is just not acceptable in our culture. I'm sure there is somewhere on the planet where that behavior would get me worshiped like the goddess I am. Perhaps Switzerland....they will tell tales of the cheese lady who comes in the day and gives you cheese.
Enough of that.
I'm taking the opportunity to purge quite a few belongings. I've taken two fullish subaru loads to charities. I don't need two households worth of sheets, towels, dishes, glasses, cups, mugs etc etc etc. So much is getting donated. It's about time for a magazine purge as well. The region's laundromats will soon be sporting out of date copies of very nice organic living magazines. I've read them, gotten the recipes and addresses I need so no need to archive the mags like some sort of weird library. And the worms don't like magazine paper. Newsprint yes, shiny paper not so much. They'll eat it, but I don't think it's good for them.
I've been trying to clean the apartment with mostly environmentally friendly products. The oven crud just wiped off with some citrasolve (a strong mix). I'll hit the floors with left over laundry soap and a vinegar rinse. It's organic non-phosphate laundry soap. And the tub will get the usual borax and vinegar scrub.
As of Sunday I will officially have only ONE home again. One rent payment. One set of utilities. One land line phone bill. Ahhh....so nice to have one set of payments again.
It does seem that I've got quite a bit of food to eat. I need to start making my own bread just to use up the flour! Seriously. I can't stand an empty pantry so when I moved that here, things got a bit full. I'm sure I'll get through it but the 15 boxes of tea...that could take a while.
How about a garden update: WE HAVE 'MATERS!!! I've been sampling the cherry tomatoes and they are delicious. My god. None have made it to the kitchen yet. I just eat them right off the vine. There are many other tomatoes but they haven't started to ripen yet. If they all come in at once the dehydrator will be smoking! Or I'll try that ketchup recipe I found.
Steady applications of stink-juice (the "juice" is the result of steeping rotting onion and garlic along with cayenne in a jar...pour into sprayer and add some water...it reeks) have allowed the carrots to at least grow respectable tops. No sign of actual carrotage though. The beans are coming along. I may get a cup of each type once dried. Not a great yield. Must try something new with the beans next year. The tomatillo continues to bloom and has some little lanterns which look like there should be a tomatillo inside but there's not. Empty. Bupkus. Oh well. onions doing great! The tops have started to dry and fall over. I need to read up on when to pull them. They look huge. I think more onions and some garlic for next year. Build on my success. What else is in there?
I have one respectable red lettuce going. ONE hungarian hot pepper. It's getting quite large but I think there should be more than one per plant. It got a whole square foot in the garden so one pepper is not appropriate. The jalapeno pepper in a pot is doing quite well. there are several tiny jalapenos on it. Even that plant looks stunted though. The marigold continues to struggle with big damage. Not a single bloom yet. Perhaps before I have to yank it one will show up. I can hope! And finally the basil plant in a pot...it's just two straight stems. Weird. I'm getting some basil off of it and will try to bring it inside for winter. I put a different shelf in front of the west window in the kitchen in the hopes of growing some herbs there through the winter. Which herbs like drafts and the occasional burning direct sunlight? I'll let you know.
I'll have some bits of wood and another shelf coming back from the apartment so I might try a bit of a cold frame. We'll see if I have the energy or ambition. The landlord had offered to rototill some areas of the yard for a garden but he's opening a shop now and may not have the time.
And now, I'm going to go home and try to eat (food poisoning last week has made eating something of a scary event...probiotics are helping).
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Back From the Dead*
It's been quite a while. Things have been hectic and access to the interwebs has been limited.
So, I have the day off work to wait for a passport to arrive. Not my own. Anyway, it's not here and the fedex tracking number I was promised is not here. My head may explode.
To take my mind off the wait, I thought I'd mention the fabulous meta-thrift purchase I made last weekend.Value Village (that's "Savers" to some of you) had 2 books for sale that I've been wanting. Now if only the third would pop up somewhere. It is the "Tightwad Gazette" and the "Tightwad Gazette II". I'm pretty sure there is a TG III. I want it. These are hard bound editions. Interesting. Not a mark on them. Who ever bought them wasted their money so I was able to feel superior just by buying them. I got them for 3bucks each. They go for ______ on amazon.com.
I've already reworked my budget based on re-reading some advice (I've checked these books out of the library before...multiple times). I should be able to save 2000$/month once I'm back to a single rent. AND that is with 2400$/year for travel! Awesome. The only things I'm cutting back on are having a kid and paying a second rent. I've been splurging a bit lately on coffee and donuts (which is super obvious to those who see me live and in person since I'm fat and jittery). By saving that much, I basically earn one day of retirement for each day I work. Living on something less than half my takehome pay. Cool. There is cash in the budget for new tires, but not a new car or a new front end. If those things happen, they need to come out of the travel budget. DAMN.
I'm trying to figure out if I can live without a landline. The cell phone is more flexible so would keep that and kill the landline if anything. Have any of you tried life without a landline? More specifically, have any of you who can run your mouth as much as me tried life without a landline? I'm thinking of getting internet access at the trailer if I give up the landline. Would skype substitute for a landline? How does one skype?
So many questions. Anyway. Nice to see that if El Kid makes it to Japan (see above passport wait reference), I will be able to save some more money again. Land prices are pretty stable here and there are some pretty interesting pieces for sale. I figured if I can buy land without a loan and go live on it with no rent or utility bills, I can live on about 1/3 or even 1/4 my take home pay. I could quit working someday. That would be lovely. I did warn El Kid that upon his return in a year, if he lives with me it may be in a mud hut and pooping in a hole in the ground.
Maybe if I go lean on the front door with my forehead pressed to the window the passport will come faster.... Of course, there is a chance it hasn't been shipped yet. We have until 5am Thursday. Why panic at 1pm Tuesday?
*title is a Spinal Tap reference. I was not actually dead.
So, I have the day off work to wait for a passport to arrive. Not my own. Anyway, it's not here and the fedex tracking number I was promised is not here. My head may explode.
To take my mind off the wait, I thought I'd mention the fabulous meta-thrift purchase I made last weekend.Value Village (that's "Savers" to some of you) had 2 books for sale that I've been wanting. Now if only the third would pop up somewhere. It is the "Tightwad Gazette" and the "Tightwad Gazette II". I'm pretty sure there is a TG III. I want it. These are hard bound editions. Interesting. Not a mark on them. Who ever bought them wasted their money so I was able to feel superior just by buying them. I got them for 3bucks each. They go for ______ on amazon.com.
I've already reworked my budget based on re-reading some advice (I've checked these books out of the library before...multiple times). I should be able to save 2000$/month once I'm back to a single rent. AND that is with 2400$/year for travel! Awesome. The only things I'm cutting back on are having a kid and paying a second rent. I've been splurging a bit lately on coffee and donuts (which is super obvious to those who see me live and in person since I'm fat and jittery). By saving that much, I basically earn one day of retirement for each day I work. Living on something less than half my takehome pay. Cool. There is cash in the budget for new tires, but not a new car or a new front end. If those things happen, they need to come out of the travel budget. DAMN.
I'm trying to figure out if I can live without a landline. The cell phone is more flexible so would keep that and kill the landline if anything. Have any of you tried life without a landline? More specifically, have any of you who can run your mouth as much as me tried life without a landline? I'm thinking of getting internet access at the trailer if I give up the landline. Would skype substitute for a landline? How does one skype?
So many questions. Anyway. Nice to see that if El Kid makes it to Japan (see above passport wait reference), I will be able to save some more money again. Land prices are pretty stable here and there are some pretty interesting pieces for sale. I figured if I can buy land without a loan and go live on it with no rent or utility bills, I can live on about 1/3 or even 1/4 my take home pay. I could quit working someday. That would be lovely. I did warn El Kid that upon his return in a year, if he lives with me it may be in a mud hut and pooping in a hole in the ground.
Maybe if I go lean on the front door with my forehead pressed to the window the passport will come faster.... Of course, there is a chance it hasn't been shipped yet. We have until 5am Thursday. Why panic at 1pm Tuesday?
*title is a Spinal Tap reference. I was not actually dead.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
HOT HOT HOT
Guess what it is here...
HOT.
Like 100 degrees hot. Insufferably hot. HOT HOT HOT.
I hate hot. I hope tomatoes like it.
I'm watching a Russian film about a frozen island with monks on it but it isn't making me cooler. Still hot.
I tried lemonade and cookies but that just made me hot and sugared up and edgy. So here I sit in front of a fan. It's only like 85 or 90 in the trailer. I can barely go out and hang up laundry on the line. And I'm afraid the intense heat will shrink my clothes. HOT HOT HOT.
I hate hot weather. We've had this for like 2 weeks now and are looking at another week. Cripes.
That is my whine for the day.
HOT.
Like 100 degrees hot. Insufferably hot. HOT HOT HOT.
I hate hot. I hope tomatoes like it.
I'm watching a Russian film about a frozen island with monks on it but it isn't making me cooler. Still hot.
I tried lemonade and cookies but that just made me hot and sugared up and edgy. So here I sit in front of a fan. It's only like 85 or 90 in the trailer. I can barely go out and hang up laundry on the line. And I'm afraid the intense heat will shrink my clothes. HOT HOT HOT.
I hate hot weather. We've had this for like 2 weeks now and are looking at another week. Cripes.
That is my whine for the day.
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