This and that

Today we get to talk about some exciting updates in my life (you'll soon see how 'exciting' my life is).

Appliances, new ones!

First there is the fancy stove. It actually doesn't look too bad in the ancient kitchen, though I could use an entire remodel now! And it works like a charm. Well, actually the oven works great. And it's got this cool feature where you can actually fit two pans in the oven side by side! (My old oven was very narrow as much of it's 36" was taken up by a warming drawer I never used). Not to mention that I've actually got two ovens and convection so you could stack everything up and and down and it would still work perfectly. The stove top and I haven' t quite figured each other out, but we're talking. And there is this large oval burner in the middle that I really don't know what to make of. Perhaps one buys an oval pan?

Vacuum! After I saved a bunch of money on the stove (on sale + floor model) I told the sales person to sell me a vacuum. He wasted no time and I left with a shiny blue vacuum. Miele. It's growing on me. I think I had this expectation that if you spend money on a vacuum it should be magic. You should plug it and and ZIP all the dirt and pet hair in your house immediately is gone and everything is shiny clean. There seems to be a little more sweat involved than that, but it does a good job. And it's got this cool hose extension feature that is sucks in those spider webs that had been taking over the crevices of my ceiling.

Old stove. It seems the company I hired to fix the old one no longer has the $375 I gave them as a down payment. The owner got quite indignant when I got upset because she told me she needed to pay her electric bill and rent instead of giving me back my money. It seems my expectations were way too high! She ended the conversation by telling me I could take her to small claims court. Hmmm, she blamed her problems on the economy but I'm thinking a bad economy should actually be a good time for appliance repair??!!?? Perhaps her personality is the issue. (My credit card company has promised to get me back my money!)

What else? Family in town? That's a loaded topic that perhaps should not get public attention. It seems my 16 year old self can surface at any time!

New pet food? I've been buying Otto this fancy raw food and although he has been eating raw food ever since I got him he seems to only want to eat this if I hand feed while coaxing him or cook it. I'm about ready to pull out both his hair and mine! Ingrate. Fortunately, I've got the new vacuum if much of our hair ends up on the floor.

Veggies? It seems I'm supposed to plant fall crops now but I might need a vacation from gardening until next year. There is a lot of work and emotion that goes into this gardening business.

Okay, that's all I got, something fascinating next week, I promise!

Food and cooking.

Oh shit, Roberta is blogging about food and her garden again. Can't she find anything more interesting to talk about?

No, it seems that this is the only interesting topic I have in my life at the moment. Well, maybe I'll expand and rant on the other TOI (topic of interest) in my life.

Mmmmmmm

1. Food from my garden. I just wanted to mention that roasted broccoli and onion greens is the very best food item in the entire world and I eat it at least once a day. When the sun is gone and there are no more onion greens or fresh broccoli from either my garden or the farmer's market, life will be very very sad.

Bye bye.

2. I'm getting a new stove. According to a post on my Facebook profile I have not had a stove (oven actually) since June 8! Despite numerous internet warnings, I managed to hire the world's very worst appliance repair company. (Just say no to Jimmy-Z Appliance). After many moons and many many phone fights with the appliance company, I threw in the towel and bought a new one. (Actually, they are mainly fights with the appliance company voice mail, because they pretty much avoid my calls at the moment. And requests to speak to management are unheeded!)

Here is a partial transcript from my most recent call (after 6 weeks of nothing but promises that never came true.)

me: Can I speak to your manager?
appliance company employee (ace): she's speaking with the owner.
me: don't you think a customer is more important (I didn't actually say that, but wish I had),
ace: Can I leave a message?
me: Um yeah, HAVE HER CALL ME!!!!!!!!
ace: I'll try
me: what does that mean? she won't call me?
ace: oh, i'll give her the message

NO CALL and they haven't answered the phone or responded to emails since.

Anyhow, enough ranting. I'm a bit sad that I will no longer have the cool vintage stove that fits perfectly in my kitchen. In fact now that I'm sitting in my kitchen looking at a picture of the new stove, it is looking very out of place. I will have a crazy looking modern stove that is too narrow for the space and will probably make my entire kitchen appear to be in dire need of a remodel.

Sigh

But, I WILL have an oven - actually two of them (and convection no less). I will have 5 burners (god knows 4 was never enough). And maybe someday I'll get back the $400 Jimmy-Z owes me!

Things I will be eating in the next 24 hours.

BOOM!

As in the garden is booming.

Some onions and beets!

Check it, it looks like real live grocery store broccoli! *

Purslane, yes some purslane grew. It isn't super tasty and lemony like the stuff I buy at the farmer's market, but I'm sure it's healthy. (Off to the side is kale which you've already heard about.)

Basil finally decided to show up as well!

This squash I will not be eating in the next 24 hours, but I'll be eating it someday!

*For those who are interested, after a sad week, the aphids ditched the broccoli and went flying on over to the kale. For the most part the broccoli is but free. But some of the kale is kind of a disaster. Better the kale than the broccoli in my opinion!

Cricket Saturdays

Bad photo of cricket playing.

Every year it surprises me, but there is cricket in Seattle. There is a Samoan cricket league and every summer they play cricket up at the Beacon Hill Community Center. Every Saturday there is a series of games - men, women kids. And all week long they have practice every night. Even after walking by them multiple times per week for five years, I don't understand the game at all. Here's what I know. There is a lot of throwing to someone holding a battish thing. Lots of attempting to hit (it looks like it should be easy, but maybe not so much). An occasional hit. An even more occasional run (hitting doesn't seem to automatically equal run). And a very occasional catch. All genders wear skirts. They are not small people.

I'm not sure how many Samoans live in Seattle, but I'm guessing a good percentage of them come out every weekend it's pretty cool. Though really hard to capture in picture.

In other news, for you sizzling hot midwest and east cost suckers, it's amazingly awesomely perfect here today - high 70s and slightly breezy. However, so you don't get too jealous, it was 55 all week. I woke up every morning listened to news of the heat wave on the radio then my confused brain remembered to don my fleece pants, long sleeve wool shirt and fleece jacket to ride into work. I am pretty sure the weather has become the number 1 and possibly ONLY topic of conversation in this city!

That's all I've got today. Well, except for some cuteness, Otto and Daisy enjoying the day!

Choices

I do the majority of my shopping for food and the basic daily necessities of life at a local co-op. It works out well. I feel like I'm doing good, supporting a local business and, best of all, I know exactly what I buy and where it's located. The thinking involved is minimal and could probably be mapped out in a very simple flow chart (we auditors like flow charts) - do I need more broccoli? yes/no. Chicken or fish? If chicken.... Should I buy this bar of chocolate? etc

Unfortunately, life is not always so straightforward. Sometimes I venture into real stores - grocery or drug - and my poor head explodes. The other day I needed to get a tube of toothpaste for work. So I headed off to Bartells (yes, this is a locally owned business as well, but on a slightly larger scale and shopping there has a slightly lower level of smug self righteousness built in). One would think that buying toothpaste would be an easy adventure. Typically it's just Tom's. Most of us 'mid 40s liberal do the right thing' people buy Toms (even though they sold out years ago). But somehow when I buy work toothpaste it's like being on vacation, I don't have to do the right thing, I can buy something sexy.

But W-H-O-A. Somehow when I wasn't looking the array of toothpastes became dizzying. There are toothpastes for whitening, freshness, tarter control, with various types of mouth wash built in (scope or listerine), root cavity protection, regular cavity protection, enamel strength, extra whitening (better than whitening) and for those with sensitive teeth. Yes, whoa. In addition, there is every possible combination of the above. And in case that wasn't enough, there are some which make even bigger claims: power smile, pro health (yes, your tooth paste can improve your health), extreme clean, dry mouth (why drink water just brush your teeth) and (my very personal favorite) AGE DEFYING. (That's in capitals in case you had stopped reading, I didn't want you to miss age defying tooth paste). Let me add a little disclaimer here, I did not make any of these up, I was in such awe, that I stood there with my phone and typed the descriptions in.

The choices were over whelming. I actually gave up on the project. Instead I went elsewhere in the store and bought a mini trial size. Why trial size you ask? Because there were only 10 or so trial size options, instead of 50 or so regular size options. Why, you ask, didn't I just buy Toms? I have no answer for that.

I will tell you what I bought, Arm and Hammer Advanced White (I don't think there was a non advanced white, but whatever) with Baking Soda and Peroxide. Here's what it does:

3 Shades Whiter, Fluoride Anti-Cavity Toothpaste Tartar Control Gently Cleans Away Surface Stains Penetrates Tiny Crevices to Clean Away Deep Stains Safely Lightens Tooth Enamel For Whiter & Brighter Teeth. Contains Fluoride For Cavity Protection

Yep, penetrates tiny crevices better than any other toothpaste and makes them 3 SHADES WHITER (maybe non advanced is only 1 shade whiter)!

And, for you marketers out there, why I chose this out of the 50-60 options I had, different size and shaped bottles, different descriptions, different colors? Well, duh, the box was extra cute with gold and silver sparks. Nice job Arm and Hammer!

Pretty!

Cute Kids!

I am quite possibly the cutest child ever, and even cuter in a cape!

Uhm, no I'm the cutest child.

Many of my friends who have blogs are able to depend on the cuteness of their children when fascinating blog topics run dry. In fact, in many cases capturing every moment of cuteness is the sole purpose for the blogs existence, as loved ones who live afar need to track all stages of growth. As you well know, sometimes I try to fall back on Otto when I'm desperate, but quite frankly, I'm really the only one who is very enthralled by blogs that are solely Otto (so sad). But, last weekend, I got to hang out with the insanely cute and sweet Erbeck kids, so I am going to take full advantage of this opportunity and make this the cute kid blog. (It's either that or whine about the aphids who are devouring my broccoli and moving onto my kale!)

It seems that life gets much more fun when you put a cape on, who knew?

It also seems that when wearing a cape, it's important to reach out your arm and point, imparting a spell on the one being pointed at, I'm sure!

Hey, what about me???

Yes, Otto was forgotten. Hiding in the closet in an effort to escape sure death from fireworks, Otto was out of site and out of mind, poor guy. No cape wearing or fighting for cuteness points.

Ack, Aphids!

Mmm, tasty.

Dear Aphid Colony,

I don't know where you came from or who informed you that you were welcome to snack on my broccoli, but I don't like you. That's right, we're not friends. It's MY broccoli. And I am the only one who can authorize snacking on my plants. And quite frankly, the broccoli (and the kale too) are for me, and me alone! I would like to ask all of you and any other slimy family members who are on their way to pack up your bags and head on to some other poor sap's garden. You are not welcome here!

Love,

Roberta, (and Otto and Daisy - though I'm not sharing broccoli with them either)