fossilfreak | Entries tagged with instant pot

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 599

31.4 miles

partly cloudy

305 recordings of 21 types, 65 old CPD. 31% clear.

Tuesday (the 19th) as I was driving home, I decided to stop at Wendy's for a burger. I think this may be the first time I've been at a Wendy's since David died and Rich walked me down to the local one to help me calm down.

Alicia had left the baby gate open so the dog got into the kitty litter. She left the shower leaking. She didn't eat the strawberries and grapes I had out for her, and she had the heater up to 72%. (darn. I was really hoping this month's usage would be down.) However, she was able to come at the last minute and the dog didn't have to stay out in bad weather.

Vince called and they planned A.J.'s birthday party for Saturday. Vince wanted to put together some kits so they could make their own trains.

Wednesday Fishdom came up with an Easter game. While I had most of the things from last year (and put the delighted hedgehog into the Wonderland aquarium) I did want the two fish again (Humpty and Dumpty) so I played.

Bernadette had work this day, so she brought Padreic over in the morning on the way. I decided it was too rainy to go to Wee Wednesday, so we just stayed in the house and I gave him macaroni and cheese for lunch.

He was playing with the Cookie Monster toy and had discovered it would travel across the kitchen floor, so of course the batteries ran down. It was C batteries, and I found a pack of two unused Cs. Then I see they were both corroded. Who knew that not using batteries in many years wasted them? So I need to get new Cs.

I drove directly to the school and went out in the rain with Padreic to go to the office and donate Charlotte's Web. We hung out then for about 10 minutes until we could go wait for the kids on the school grounds. I saw Joanna and told her to go to the crosswalk and then go to my car, which was unlocked, and get into it, and then waited for Gareth. The three of us walked toward the crosswalk, at Padreic's speed, and there was Joanna with the principal holding an umbrella over her. Apparently, she only remembered the first part of the instructions, and I believe this is the second time that's happened, so from now on I'll have her repeat the whole thing.

Back at the house, I read to them and watched their homework, though Gareth needs constant prompts. Joanna played with Padreic. When Rob got home he helped set Gareth up to edit his paper (which gets electronically sent to the teacher: wonderful technology) and then went to relax. I stayed around to keep the kids sane (not that it was hard) until R. came out to start dinner and I told him B. was going to bring something. Then I asked if he was prepared to rejoin the world, he was, so I left about 5:45. It was late enough that going up Watt actually was OK and I got home myself about 6:30.

Thursday, rain rain rain. I stayed in. John called. As I suspected, he's found a widow he knew from the past and is beginning to date.

I made the backspout *whoosh* out, very satisfactory. However, I got a hand cramp. The first one I ever had was in Zubiri, Spain, but I'm getting them more often now. Foot cramps I've been having for years.

I uploaded all the pictures from my camera. It's been a couple of months.

There was a shooting over the weekend... it was initially presented as a poor unarmed young dad, but there was a bit more to the story. It's our own Michael Brown incident, though so far the Black Lives Matter people have only blocked off the Kings games. No rioting to date, which is promising.

Friday I did some digging in the garden. I called Brenda to find out how Renee is doing, and she's been removed to a convalescent home. I also called Darlene. She was on her way to St. Augustine.

Then I drove down to the Feickert school Carnival. Bernadette had bought my raffle tickets and a ticket for a cheese pizza slice. (Friday in Lent, no hot dog for me!) I danced the Macarena and Y-M-C-A, but mostly I hung out. Bernadette actually can do the hula hoop! I put my tickets mostly in the bag for the gift cards, and a few in the Kindle Fire bag. And I won nothing. However, Bernadette (and Padreic, who had carefully put the ticket in that bag when she told him to) did win a basket with a really cute bunny. And Joanna was totally thrilled with the bag.

&bsp

I sadly told them goodbye, since this is Joan's turn to have them for Easter.

Saturday I spent a lot of time playing games, then went back to sleep and ended up with 8 hours of sleep. This hardly ever happens.

I went to the store, then later went to evening Mass to avoid the Palm Sunday processions. Ever since Alan left, our Palm Sundays just aren't that exciting any more. I talked to Peter Mithin for a bit.

I adjusted a slow cooker orange chicken recipe for the Instant Pot. It wasn't bad (it's from a diabetes cookbook) though I forgot the grated orange peel which is ridiculous with all the oranges Monica gave me!

Sunday morning the dog wasn't in his bed. I went looking for him and there he was in the kitchen with a RAT! A big one! Eeek!! It scurried off to the hole next to the dishwasher. Sunday morning at 4 AM, I couldn't call the rat people till Monday. That night I tried blocking the hole with a lead weight, but it pushed it over and got into the kitchen again, though this time I didn't see it. Then I put bricks there and that seems to be working to keep it out of the kitchen.

I dug up the garden for peanuts which I planted on Monday. I'm also trying to sprout kumquats. And I have a different kind of avocado pit I hope to grow.

I had a long talk with sister-in-law Carol. Frank will be 75 on April 11th!

Fiona (from Ngoko safari) has posted her trip report. They (she and Benson) will be coming to the US in October, maybe to Seattle!

I printed up the Canadian Geotour passport, and put Doug and Nancy on the GPS.

Monday I had a nosebleed. I spent a lot of time playing games. I am spending too much money on Albion, but it's very addictive.

The cleaners were early so I had to do a quick final pass. Then while I was in the bedroom I kept hearing this "tap tap tap" and wondered what they were doing. Finally, when they tapped on my window I learned they had locked themselves out!!

My tulips are so pretty!

I'd been wondering if Roni would ask me for Easter. She finally emailed the family, what fun it would be if everyone came for Easter dinner. (This was a surprise, lately they've been taking Grandma to dinner in a restaurant. Apparently Kathy has become totally anti-social, doesn't want to go out, doesn't want people to visit.) Monica is going to New Orleans, Bernadette is in Oregon, and I said no because I'm on retreat till Easter morning and am going to want to go home with my dog. Poor Roni!

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 595

7.6 miles

cold and cloudy

348 recordings of 41 types, 1 old SVU, 74 CPD, and 46 LMS. 24% clear.

This was the weekend of the Schumer shutdown. That didn't work out so well for him. On the 20th I once again (like every day) rejoiced that Hillary isn't the President. There are a lot of things I don't like about Trump, but I do like many of his accomplishments, and I am SO SO SO glad Hillary lost.

I went to the WPAC luncheon at the Old Spaghetti Factory (which used to be a steak house where we went at least once a year wth Rich's former landlady, and which later was sued and I was in the jury, could hardly wait until the trial was over so I could check it out. More recently it was Farrell's Ice Cream. I never made it to that reincarnation.) Anyway, there were 91 people there. I had asked my friend Gary (not the Gary I used to have lunches with in 2015, RIP, or the Gary who fixed my doorknob, who was so distraught over his wife's death but got re-married in under a year, but the Gary who was with Darlene) to join me there so I would know someone. In the event, I was sitting with Stan and Faye, so I'd have been OK, but it was really nice to have a long talk with Gary and find out how Darlene is doing. She's moved to Tallahassee with her son, and has a nice section of the apartment all her own. I need to call her one of these days. (I miss her.) Gary was there for Christmas.

I had the chicken marsala and also ice cream for dessert. I know, I know, carbs, but just this once? SO good!

Sunday while I was at Mass, the dog snatched the last three mince tarts Roni gave me off the table. Bad bad dog. (And yesterday I caught him sniffing at the last of the dried fruit.)

Marty stopped by to give me $20 for Joanna's Girl Scout cookies.

I walked to Raley's and got birthday cards for Carol and for Rob, and I found three delightful Valentines for the kids. Then I had to completely clean out my purse including Marty's money, because I thought I had more with me than I actually had. I didn't have to use the credit card, anyway.

My yogurt cups came. Gonna try that next with the Instant Pot.

I've been reading a book a day. Joanna's Boxcar Children set came and I read one of those, plus an Aunt Dimity I ran into, and I'm really chugging through the Nero Wolfes. I'm still reading Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Pepys' Diary; Embarrassments by PJ Nel; Shattered, Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes; Little Women, Louisa May Alcott; and Trio for Blunt Instruments, Rex Stout.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 595

5.1 miles

sunny (but cold)

351 recordings of 40 types. 1 old SVU, 74 CPD, 51 LMS. 24% clear.

Tuesday the 16th I went to breakfast with the widows and we had a great time discussing funerals and laughing and laughing.

Then in the afternoon John came over and I showed him pictures and told him about the Camino for two and a half hours. I had a great time.... that was a lot of fun!

Vince called and apart from a time when his microphone went out, this week it all worked.

And then I got to looking at the geocaches in Canada, and before I knew it, it was nearly midnight.

On Wednesday I went to pick up Padreic for Wee Wednesday. Rob was home, celebrating his birthday with two weeks off. Padreic was OK with leaving today and he was happy to check out the play room and the tot room. He had a little difficulty sharing. I was spelling his name out with the blocks, and of course the C was missing... then he lined all the blocks up in no particular order, and then went to play with something else, but when another kid came to play with the blocks he was possessive... "MINE!" No, you have to share. Tears, real tears, and loud crying. If you keep that up, we're going home. Immediate quiet. Then when a little girl came over, she wanted to have him play with her... "you can help me put some blocks on." He didn't understand that, so while she built a tower (and kept offering to let him help) he built a triangle wall. The girl was ahead socially, but he was an engineer.

The story was about "happy" and "sad" and then we went up to look at pictures. Then the idea was to show how we could make happy and sad faces. Hey, Padreic was real good down in the tot room with sad when he had to share. But he really didn't have a clue. Then they were given an oval and lots of shapes to glue on to make a face. Again, he just liked gluing shapes on. He was very very proud of his collage. I saw the black square needed more glue and took it to do that and he clouded up, but he listened when I explained and I gave his creation right back after it was mended. He carefully took it home to give to Mommy to display. (They have a dresser in front of most of the refrigerator display space, but Bernadette found room.) Then I gave him a Cars sticker book.

After awhile they were having Alexa play songs. Padreic was dancing and spinning and got really over-excited so had a major breakdown just before I left to pick up the kids at school. Needed some cuddle time with Mommy. "Raining Tacos" is a really silly song.

Joanna had a good behavior slip this time, with only one "oops" and again, it was about writing. It's kind of scary that her birthday present, a Boxcar Children themed camp, is going to have writing, but I hope that the different setting will help her, and hey, if she doesn't want to do it, it really won't matter.

I read more of Betsy and Tacy go over the Big Hill, just one day left of this, which will also include the real story.

My name tag wasn't in the raincoat after all, so I wasn't hallucinating putting it somewhere last Friday. But I thought it was in the car and I have turned that inside out, so I have no idea where it is.

I had thought I would go to Yuba City for the geocaching event, but I was really too tired.

My Instant Pot came, and I've got a bit (a lot?) of buyer's remorse. It's too big (if I'd bought one off the shelf, I'd have gotten a smaller one), I managed to scald myself during the "this is how to use it" program, and the kicker is the rice cooker feature, one I really wanted it for, was a disaster. I was hoping to replace my Mom's 40+ year old rice cooker. But I followed the "multigrain" instructions, and about half of the rice stuck to the pan and needed to be scrubbed off. I do have a big, shallow, pan that I've used for rice before on the big burner on my stove, and it works well, so I still have a plan for rice. Certainly not this Instant Pot. I've also looked at the recipes, and there's a lot of prep for each meal. When they say "10 minutes" they don't count the time to soak beans or cut up meat, for instance.

The next day I tried to modify a slow cooker meal for the pressure cooker. Turns out, I don't have corn starch, so I couldn't thicken the gravy, but oh my goodness, the beef cubes were delicious! So my Buyer's Remorse is still to be decided. I ordered some yogurt cups, and will try making yogurt in it.

Thursday I made a commissary run. As I was putting the food away I noted a case of diced tomato cans, and they're from 2008! (I don't remember getting anything like this while Rich was alive, since I avoided the commissary like the plague.) They seem OK. I keep buying diced tomatoes because I use them a lot, so I'll probably be able to get rid of these fairly soon.

I called for Joanna's camp and paid for it all right now. I looked at the map, and it does look like fun. I'll print the page up for her because the information probably won't come until May.

Friday I didn't do much, just stayed home all day, got a call from Food for the Poor so they now have my new credit card number. I worked on the jigsaw, pretty much finishing the blue sky. I also scratched off the countries in South America for my map, and the flags on that side of the map. (Which I hate, though I've discovered that my thumbnails work better than the idiot guitar pick they gave me.)

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 585

4.3 miles

rain

343 recordings of 42 types. 1 old SVU, 71 CPD, 49 LMS. 25% clear.

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday, I found treasure! I had left too early for the Crocker and arrived with about 25 minutes to wait until it opened, so I took Padreic over to look at the utility box that looks like a little house. Then we walked back through the park, and I spied two halves of a disco ball which had been thrown out. Bernadette was equally pleased and plans to put them together. Treasure!

Since I had no luck at Bed Bath and Beyond, I ordered an Instant Pot from Amazon. Then, when I was at the senior care center to help with Communion, I learned the nearby WalMart was closing. So afterwards I stopped by just to see. The lines just to get IN at Sam's Club were amazing, but it wasn't that bad at WalMart. They had one Instant Pot there for a lot less than I'd paid from Amazon... I considered having someone get the box, and then the lines to check out, and the fact I'm reluctant to use the credit card at WalMart, and the fun of either cancelling or returning the pot at Amazon, and I chose the lazy way.

I stood in front of the TVs for quite a while. It's really tempting just to buy one that actually has everything I want instead of this constant fight with the white elephant Bernadette and Rob gave me. But then I had the bright idea to have Pagan help me the next time he's here.

Reading my Nero Wolfe, I suddenly got to a page where all the capital Os were blacked in. It was just like my Mom was saying "hi."

On the way to church I had a bit of dizziness. I wondered if I was going to be like the man last week. Fortunately, no. Gerrie wasn't there, so I couldn't trade books with her.

I don't like the toothbrush, guess I will buy an Oralcare one. Too bad I can't find that 20% coupon from Bed Bath and Beyond. I suppose I'll get it from the dentist.

I got my tickets to Pittsburgh and reserved a car. I also filled out a reservation form for the Crater Lake boat, but it's 2017 and I had to put all the credit card info out there... sort of worrying. I had to call the Bard's Inn because they're no longer with Best Western and their online reservation system is being revamped. That's a relief, I was afraid they were sold out. I got a room on the first floor of the building I like. It's going to be pricy, but worth it. So I pretty well have August and April set. (Still need motel reservations for the Ottawa trip.) I tried to get Joanna's camp set up online but will have to call it in.

Yesterday, Monday, I got a call from John (a friend of Jackey's) who is planning to go on the Camino. I talked to him and since it was the third Monday, I invited him to the Newcomer's dinner. We met and he'll be coming over today to see my pictures (well, about 5% of them.)

I had wondered if the cleaners were coming yesterday, as it was a holiday. They sure did, at 8:30, and I really wasn't ready. Oh, well.

I got a lot of the sky done on the jigsaw puzzle. It's coming along nicely.

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