Happy Thanksgiving!
Well, everything turned out just swimmingly. The food was wonderful and not at all difficult to put together. The menu included roast turkey breast, bread stuffing (on the side), mashed potatoes with gravy, candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, five cup salad (a fruit salad) and pumpkin pie. The turkey came out really moist and juicy. The pie had just the right balance of spices in it (ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon). The bread stuffing was moist and flavorful without being mushy or over seasoned. It only took three hours of actual work in the kitchen, not that any of it was particularly difficult.
In between eating turkey and all the fixings, we went to Jason's Deli for samiches, salad and soup. The muffaletta was a big hit. The vegetable soup is pretty good too.
Fixing up the House:
The list of things to fix in the house that I needed help with got completely taken care of. I now have a new storm door on the front of the house. There is a door sweep on the front door so the wind won't whistle in underneath it. Half the living room got painted. (I may finish the other half this weekend.) The back door and the garage door both latch and lock now. The gates in the fence now open and latch. The opening around the dryer vent hose is now closed in. The hole in the bathroom ceiling is patched. The bookcases in the living room got moved into other rooms. My car now fits in the garage with room to spare. The new bookcases that Mom made are already filled with books. (Apparently the book multiplied while being carried from one bookcase to the other.) We even got the old oil filter off the mower and the new one installed.
I've got a few things to return to Lowe's which we either didn't need or weren't going to work. The weather stripping for the front door won't actually stay stuck to the door. I'll have to find another solution for that problem. It may be possible to just bend the tab on the latch plate to get the door to position itself closer to the gasket. I'll have to give that a try later.
Things left on the house fixing list:
The list has gotten significantly shorter now. I'm going to have to work on finding new things to do now that the house tasks are diminishing in scope and urgency. What I have left includes:
finish painting the living room and re-arranging the furniture, put the garage shelves in properly, put the doors on the laundry room (already bought the hardware), finish screwing down the boards on the deck (the deck was built using finish nails, so the boards are pulling loose around them), paint the baseboards, install a deadbolt in the front door. There is also a gap between two pieces of siding that I need to caulk and one shingle tab which has pulled up and also needs caulking. Good news is that I finally found my caulking gun yesterday. w00t!
The outdoor work is mostly limited to landscaping now. I'll hopefully finish digging up the flower bed in the front yard yet this year. The tiller needs a tune up and then I'll get the garden plot dug up so I can work on it earlier in the spring. Then there is the re-channeling of the ditch run-off so that it doesn't run up to the garden shed. That will take some serious digging and careful placement of earth to re-direct the water flow.
Other updates:
Still working on the Kiri shawl. I spent an hour fixing an error three rows down. I didn't make much progress beyond that, but at least I didn't have to rip out the three rows to fix the problem. I haven't touched either of the pair of socks I have on the needles. I need to work on that. I could use a couple new pairs of socks.
Haven't gotten in much bicycling this week or any other exercise, just the activity from house fixing. That needs to change. My pants are getting snugger about the waist and hips. I'd much rather have that trend reverse itself. I definitely want to have the cardio capacity to do some actual running in the spring (once it's still light after work). On a related note, the St. Jude's Hospital Marathon is next weekend. I still think I'll choose Chicago next October instead.
Tomorrow I'm going to see Happy Feet "with" Mitch and I need to set up my menu plan for the week so that I can buy any necessary groceries. There's a good chance I won't need to buy anything besides some fruit and yogurt for lunch.
In between eating turkey and all the fixings, we went to Jason's Deli for samiches, salad and soup. The muffaletta was a big hit. The vegetable soup is pretty good too.
Fixing up the House:
The list of things to fix in the house that I needed help with got completely taken care of. I now have a new storm door on the front of the house. There is a door sweep on the front door so the wind won't whistle in underneath it. Half the living room got painted. (I may finish the other half this weekend.) The back door and the garage door both latch and lock now. The gates in the fence now open and latch. The opening around the dryer vent hose is now closed in. The hole in the bathroom ceiling is patched. The bookcases in the living room got moved into other rooms. My car now fits in the garage with room to spare. The new bookcases that Mom made are already filled with books. (Apparently the book multiplied while being carried from one bookcase to the other.) We even got the old oil filter off the mower and the new one installed.
I've got a few things to return to Lowe's which we either didn't need or weren't going to work. The weather stripping for the front door won't actually stay stuck to the door. I'll have to find another solution for that problem. It may be possible to just bend the tab on the latch plate to get the door to position itself closer to the gasket. I'll have to give that a try later.
Things left on the house fixing list:
The list has gotten significantly shorter now. I'm going to have to work on finding new things to do now that the house tasks are diminishing in scope and urgency. What I have left includes:
finish painting the living room and re-arranging the furniture, put the garage shelves in properly, put the doors on the laundry room (already bought the hardware), finish screwing down the boards on the deck (the deck was built using finish nails, so the boards are pulling loose around them), paint the baseboards, install a deadbolt in the front door. There is also a gap between two pieces of siding that I need to caulk and one shingle tab which has pulled up and also needs caulking. Good news is that I finally found my caulking gun yesterday. w00t!
The outdoor work is mostly limited to landscaping now. I'll hopefully finish digging up the flower bed in the front yard yet this year. The tiller needs a tune up and then I'll get the garden plot dug up so I can work on it earlier in the spring. Then there is the re-channeling of the ditch run-off so that it doesn't run up to the garden shed. That will take some serious digging and careful placement of earth to re-direct the water flow.
Other updates:
Still working on the Kiri shawl. I spent an hour fixing an error three rows down. I didn't make much progress beyond that, but at least I didn't have to rip out the three rows to fix the problem. I haven't touched either of the pair of socks I have on the needles. I need to work on that. I could use a couple new pairs of socks.
Haven't gotten in much bicycling this week or any other exercise, just the activity from house fixing. That needs to change. My pants are getting snugger about the waist and hips. I'd much rather have that trend reverse itself. I definitely want to have the cardio capacity to do some actual running in the spring (once it's still light after work). On a related note, the St. Jude's Hospital Marathon is next weekend. I still think I'll choose Chicago next October instead.
Tomorrow I'm going to see Happy Feet "with" Mitch and I need to set up my menu plan for the week so that I can buy any necessary groceries. There's a good chance I won't need to buy anything besides some fruit and yogurt for lunch.
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