Home Repair Updates

I slept in this morning and hauled myself out of bed at 9:15. I washed the last of the dishes from last night's dinner and made myself a cup of coffee, then surfed Ravelry for a few minutes. I've just finished wiping down the stove. I am not a fan of cleaning, but it's satisfying to have a pristine stove or sink.

Mark and JB finished putting in the new front door last night, and JB also finished installing a new porch light. From the inside, it feels like an entirely new house; we bought a fiberglass door (tax credit) with an oval leaded glass insert. It allows so much light into the house that the foyer looks about a foot wider than it is.

Remaining to do today is more mudding in the master bathroom, installing the casing outside and inside the new front door, and packing up to go to San Antonio.

That's right, we went to Austin, came home for one day, installed a new front door, and are leaving again forthwith. Assuming the car is fixed.

That's the other thing. The car's battery light came on again. I called the mechanic, and he told me to bring it on out, but I told him no. I told him I was going to get a couple of second opinions, and I'd call him back and let him know what they said. He didn't answer when I called back. I'm sad because I've used this guy for over 10 years and really like him, but he really blew it on this repair. I told him it was more than just a loose belt, but he didn't listen. His loss.

The two mechanics I've talked with said it's either a bad/loose bolt on the alternator itself that shakes loose with the vibration of the car or it's a bad harmonic balancer. The mechanic we left it with said he'd look at it this morning and let us know the final answer. He couldn't guarantee that it would be fixed today, so we might have to rent a car for the trip to San Antonio. Not ideal, but do-able.

With the bit of day I have left to me before the packing and preparations begin, I'm going to take a shower. In my newly installed bathroom shower.

Home Again

We are home from Austin, thank heavens. I'm sure Austin was wonderful, awesome, and life-changing for everyone, but I spent half the visit in the motel bed moaning in agony. Absolute misery.

Sometime Sunday night, my poor tummy started to ache, and it all went downhill from there. I'll spare you the gory details.

Julia, Burgundy, Mark, and JB went to the Texas State Capitol Building, and then they went to the Texas Chili Parlor for lunch. I swear, I don't understand how those girls can stand to be vegetarians living in this state. I laid in bed at the motel with a fever of 101.9.

After lunch, they came back to the motel, and Mark took me to IHOP for Saltines and Sprite. I also wolfed down two pancakes without syrup or butter (but with the tiniest smearing of honey). Then I went back to the motel and went back to sleep. Mark, Julia, JB, and Burgundy went out again. I have no idea where.

Sometime around 7 I woke again. Fever was down to 100.0. I felt competent to resume knitting; it had been nearly 24 hours. I know, right? Too long.

I finished one of Julia's socks (I was on the toe already) and began working on the other sock.

The family returned to the motel. They had eaten at a Korean vegetarian restaurant with crappy service. My fever was down to 98.2. Mark took me to an Irish pub; I was feeling much, much better. I ate shepherd's pie.

Tuesday we woke, checked out of the motel, and the boys dropped Burgundy, Julia and I at South Congress. They went to art museums. I hung out at Hill Country Weavers, and the girls shopped their way down So. Congress.

After lunch, JB and Mark picked us up, and we all went to Alamo Drafthouse to see Sherlock Holmes. Dear, Sweet, Cuddly Baby Jesus, but I have a thing for Robert Downey Jr. I would LOVE to bite him. He needs to be bitten. Seriously.

Good Morning, Internet!

It's 9AM, and our brand new, beautiful German cuckoo clock just went off. It's the real deal, straight from Germany with beautiful pinecone weights for the winders and a tiny little bluebird for the cuckoo. And it goes off every hour on the hour. And every half-hour. We've had a little trouble getting the weight just right on the pendulum, but it chimed 9 times at 9:00 AM (and 10 at 10:00 AM), so I'm thrilled.

Of course, I am alone to revel in its beauty. Every other soul in this house is sound asleep. Scratch that; I think Mark just got up.

We had a marvelous Christmas. My mom gave Burgundy and I matching monkey slippers, and she gave Burgundy jeans and a dress and Julia some cute, pink scrapbooking supplies.

Julia had gifts sent over from Germany; they were so awesome and sweet! She gave me a fountain pen and refills (I raved over Burgundy's at the beginning of the school year), a beautiful necklace, and a jar of pear jam. I seriously considered hand-writing this entry before posting just so I could use the pen, but I realized my hand would be so sore I wouldn't want to type it later. Alas, the pen sits unused. For now.

For Mark, they sent a bottle of cherry liqueur (it's 80 proof, y'all!) for use in making a real Black Forest Cherry cake; if we weren't totally sugared out from the holidays, I would make one today! She gave him a magnetic desk toy and a really nice set of markers like the ones she brought over for herself. He'd been eyeing her marker set enviously because, like me, he's an office supply hound. Oh, and she gave him a triangular protractor. These presents (with the possible exceptions of the markers and the liqueur) would bore me to death, but My Favorite Nerd loved them. They were perfect for him, as mine were for me.

They also sent a gift to the family: the German cuckoo clock I mentioned earlier. It's so beautiful, and I've wanted one for so long.  I'm just thrilled.

We had two gifts that kept us in screams of laughter all morning. The first was Burgundy's gift to me: The first one opened. She gave me a miniature hazard sign with a motion-activated fart detection and warning system. Every time someone took a picture, the flash set it off; sirens wailed, the orange light flashed, and a loud voice would yell, "WARNING! DANGEROUS GASES DETECTED! FOLLOW-THROUGH IS IMMINENT! WARNING" There were seven or eight other messages, all of them equally hilarious, but that's the one I remember.

The second hilarious gift came from Julia to Burgundy. Early on, Julia asked what Burgundy would want for Christmas. I explained that Burgundy collects nutcrackers, and a genuine, German-made nutcracker would be enormously precious to her. Julia was really excited about this, and immediately called her parents and set them to work. Christmas morning, Burgundy unwrapped her first gift from Julia: a long slender package containing a really sleek, very sophisticated, and undeniably usable nutcracker.

And Burgundy compares last year's UT nutcracker to this year's Genuine German nutcracker.

Mark scored major points this year with jewelry. A stunning ruby and diamond necklace, earring, and ring set. Mark is really not a jewelry guy. Aside from my wedding ring, the only jewelry he's ever given me is a set of white gold hoop earrings. I think it really tears at his inner utilitarian to give people he loves things they can't really use. That makes me extra happy and honored to receive these from him. It means he not only saw what I wanted, but overcame his own urge to pragmatism to buy them for me. AND he bought them on Black Friday, which was when we were in the midst of huge Marital Distress. It was bad enough that we were talking divorce while crying with each other because we didn't want to. That he went out and bought me something so beautiful, romantic, and impractical in the midst of that hell and upheaval really speaks to my heart. I love that man; I really do. The chains around our necks were a gift of bling from Burgundy to Mark.

There were tons of other gifts, but I'll hit some highlights. The t-shirts I ordered for Mark and JB had not yet come in, so I printed the cartoons for each of them and put them in their stockings with a note that said, "You shoulda had this on a t-shirt." I bought Mark the Useless cartoon, and JB the woodpecker (the t-shirt only has the last panel).

Burgundy got a photo printer and scanner. Both girls got Doc Marten vinyl knock-off boots; Burgundy received bright green, and Julia received hot pink. I bought them both tights, and Burgundy also received  two more charms for her charm bracelet: a monkey (because I call her Rat-Monkey) and a music note. I tried to knit them both socks; Julia received two socks both knit to about the 3/4 mark, and Burgundy received one fully knit sock. They both received a pair of felted slippers, and I knit Julia a Giant Stocking of Doom to match Burgundy's.

Surrounded by their puddles of goodies, I said, "Okay, it's time to open your big gifts now." I waved Julia's smallest package in the air.

Julia said, "What? There's a big one after all this?"

Realizing I'd just potentially given something away, I said, "Yeah, we bought you a ticket home!" Julia huffed (she sounds just like Meryl Streep doing Julia Child when she huffs), and we all laughed; I told Burgundy to open her present, and she discovered the printer.

I handed Julia her gift. She said, "I can't believe there's more after all of this!" The terrible irony is that we paid nowhere near full price for any of the gifts. Burgundy's biggest gift was about 70% off. For Julia's we paid just over half price. She tore the wrapping paper off and removed the protective film and then just sat there with her mouth hanging open and said, "You're crazy! You're all just crazy!" We gave her an iPod touch.

We'd planned on spending about $170 on each girl. We originally bought Julia an iPod Nano for about $140, and then I picked up everything else she received in her stocking and in regular gifts for right at $30. I found leggings on clearance, tank tops on clearance, etc. About a week later, our friend Anthony came to us and asked if we still needed an iPod for Julia for Christmas. He'd received an iPod Touch - what Julia really wanted and had planned to buy for herself until I dissuaded her) - from the company he was leaving, and he planned to sell it. The Touch came with a package of protective sleeves and a $15 gift card. All together, the package was worth about $225. Anthony offered to sell us the package for $150. Off to Fry's Mark ran to return the Nano, which after tax had been $149. So we managed to do this HUGE Christmas for her while staying more or less on budget.

For Burgundy, we found her biggest Christmas present, the printer, for $30 on Black Friday. I picked up it and the biggest family gift, Beatles Rock Band, on three hours' sleep that morning. The Rock Band game was much cheaper, too, going for $150 instead of $200, if I remember correctly.

I know Mark got a deal on my jewelry, though of course, I won't ask him. The really exciting things are that once again, we've had a wonderful, fun, relatively stress-free Christmas with Burgundy's dad, and we did our Christmas on budget.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I Bought the Mixer

I know, not frugal at all. Not a bit. Maybe I should reassess this blog's purported mission: One woman's online drive to justify buying whatever she wants.

Still, I now own the mixer to nix all mixers. Even now, it's in the other room whirring around beautifully, kneading a double batch of dough. I should get 16 mini-loaves out of this batch, but I'll limit myself to 12 mini-loaves and one regular loaf.

~~~~~~Time Passes~~~~~~

Well, I managed 14 mini-loaves and a regular loaf. The texture and density of the dough out of this mixer is phenomenal. I am completely, utterly sold. In addition, it took about 90% less effort than the Kitchen Aid did. Was this a need? No. Was this a Family Want? Yes. Was it worth giving up my sock club money? ABSOLUTELY.

We agreed that once our e-fund has recovered from the bathroom renovations, I can be paid back all my saved sock club money. I might join the sock club after that, but then again, I might just have a big shopping spree on exactly the yarn that I want.

Or maybe . . . juuuuuuuuust maybe you will beat me I will save it for a rainy day. Meanwhile, I will have the best bread ever.

Early Morning Web Surfing

This morning, as I do every morning, I dragged myself into the kitchen and set up my stovetop Bialetti to brew my cup of coffee. I love the Bialetti because it gives me more control over the final product than those fancy one-cup machines, but I can still brew just one cup. The result is a wonderful, high-flavor cup; I usually still see oils on the top, and it sometimes even has crema if I catch it before it gets too hot.

Anyway, while I wait for the coffee, I toast a slice of my homemade bread, flip open my MacBook, and begin perusing Ravelry. If you don't knit or crochet, don't bother clicking the link; you won't get it. If you do and you haven't been to Ravelry, I command you: Get thee hence and sign up. It's a spectacular way to waste time.

Ravelry has a robust and lively bunch of bulletin boards, and this morning I signed on to find I'd been magic linked (Rav term - they sent me a PM to head over to this thread) to a conversation about cooking from scratch and general DIY cooking and kitchen planning. The ladies on this thread run the gamut from, "I love my frozen ravioli! BACK OFF!" to "Oh my heavenly STARS, the other day I harvested milk from the goatling whose birth I attended for the nanny I bought last spring, and then I used specialized bacteria harvested from the back of a cave in Malaysia to make goat yogurt, and YOU ARE A SINNER DOOMED TO EVERLASTING PERIL IF YOU EAT PROCESSED FOOD!

I read the five pages of comments because I am turning into a zombie. I wanted to respond every third post, but I realized that I had the makings of a fine post kvetching about my current bread-making situation, so I decided to save it all for you. Am I not good and generous with you?

Yesterday morning, the house still was a shambles. JB had discovered Sunday night that the pipes in the attic leading to the master bath were around halfway clogged and had to be replaced. Not being a plumber, he needed Mark and I both there to help him with the replacements, which we were delighted to do. This involved a lot of standing around and waiting, so I decided to throw together a batch of bread for the Christmas packages I planned to mail out.

I have a very expensive Kitchen Aid Professional HD stand mixer. Two years ago, someone gave my husband two tickets to the Boeing Christmas party in Galveston. The tickets were valued at $20 a piece, so we leapt. When we arrived, they handed us two sheets of tickets - 20 tickets each - with which to enter drawings for prize packages at the front of the room. The mixer beckoned, and without having to discuss it at all, we entered and won. We made out with the mixer, a set of knives, and a nice, polished chrome buffet set with electric burners.

I use it the mixer to mix and knead my bread because the bread machine just does not understand when to leave well enough alone. Every attempt at breadmaking without a mix resulted in a dense, dry, inedible brick of yeasty wheat. After taking a class with Gail at Bethlehem Harvest, I decided to use the Kitchen Aid for kneading. She explained how it would work, what I should expect, and how to test the dough to see if it is adequately kneaded.

The quality of my bread improved immediately, and I began making two batches a week to keep up with the demands. Everyone eats it for breakfast, and the girls also make their lunches with it. We all munch on it constantly, so much so that I was running through about 15 pounds of flour each month.
So we looked at our budget and agreed: We bought the grain mill.

So yesterday during one of the lulls where JB didn't need me, I ran into the kitchen and threw five cups of berries into the mill and made flour. If you're interested, I use Prairie Gold White Wheat berries. I layered all the components into the mixer and let it go.

In order to get the proper consistency on my dough, I have to let it knead for about 10 minutes. Yesterday, at 9 minutes, 45 seconds, I smelled something hot and funky (not your mom), and the mixer stopped. Yes, it just stopped. I called Kitchen Aid, but it's out of warranty. It will be $32 just to have it shipped there and back to have them look at it, and the tech said I should expect the repair to cost half the value of the blender. I was so sad. We had figured we'd need to buy a more industrial mixer to keep up with the demands (and by need, I mean that I am a spoiled brat), and we'd decided we would save up next year and buy the Bosch Universal Plus Mixer. We did not plan to buy that this month. Especially not after spending so much on the home repairs.

Notice how this photo is centered and larger than the others. Can you hear the chorus of angels?

Then I looked at the math. Gail's running a special this month (because Bosch is) where I can buy the mill and the mixer together for $599. This is about a $30 discount, and Gail offered to honor it since I just bought my mill a week and a half ago. That would mean I need to come up with $360. I have some cash saved that I was planning to use to buy into the 2010 Rockin' Sock Club; it's all saved from my personal spending money, so I wouldn't be depleting the family account for my habits. I mean hobbies. I had a couple of relatively minor complaints about the 2009 club and had been thinking about joining the Woolgirl club instead, but balked at the $375 price tag. I decided I was willing to put that toward the mixer.

We also received a check for $50 from my grandmother for a family Christmas. That brings us to within $75 of the sale price for the mixer. It might be worth doing.

Mark and I took the Kitchen Aid apart last night and could find nothing wrong with it. No stripped gears and nothing appeared burnt or melted. It is really well made, though. Enlightening to open her up. I made a half-batch of bread last night with no problem, and I figure I'll make a full batch tonight and see how it goes. We think what happened is that it has an auto-shutoff feature that doesn't allow it to overheat.

Problem is, now I'm kinda jonesing for the new, fancy schmancy one. What do you think? Should I splurge? Could I sell the Kitchen Aid to make back some of the money? Would that be unethical? Obviously, I would explain what happened to any buyers. Should I butch up and be frugal? Oh! But I have moneys, and it's burning a hole in my pocketses!

Is anyone still reading? Are you asleep now?

Comments

So a couple of people have twittered or left messages on my old livejournal blog that they are having trouble leaving comments here. I changed a couple of settings; please let me know if it works now.

Sometimes I've noticed that I have to click "preview" before "post", but it seems inconsistent. Anyway, if you still can't comment, you can e-mail me at misslilly@gmail.com

My House is a Shambles

But it's all for a good cause. First, the good news: JB finished hanging the cabinet and light fixture in the guest bathroom. And he painted it, and it looks good! We still need to do a little more trim work, but that's NOTHING compared to what he's accomplished.

In addition, he finished all the baseboards in the living room, foyer, and hallway in time for Burgundy's party. It looked SO good, and I feel so much better about my house having this theoretically little thing taken care of. Now I want to go paint the walls and the remaining trim in the hall and foyer so I have a completed, semi-polished look.

Meanwhile, yesterday he began demolishing our master bathroom. The tub is almost completely out now, and we're leaving in a few minutes to grab lunch and borrow Mom and Dad's big, scary truck. We're going to swing through Lowe's (or Home Depot; I haven't decided yet), pick up the bathtub, faucet and fixtures, and a new plumbing tree, and we'll be ready to go. I'm very excited about this. JB has warned us that it will probably take several trips to the store, and there will be some oopsies. I am AOK with this. I'm just excited that it's far enough underway that it has to be finished, no matter what.

Chocolate and Birthdays

Posts like the one I have planned for today make me wish I had one of those magical cameras that can take a photo and upload it to the magical fairy unicorn land of the internet with a simple sneeze. Or that I had a camera built into my forehead like a third, all-seeing eye so that I never forgot to take pictures that I might need for a post, and then when I did take them, they'd all be right there at my fingertips when I'm ready for them.

Alas, even my most mundane wishes are unlikely to be fulfilled, so I'll just get on with it.

Happy Birthday Burgundy!

Fourteen years ago today, my beloved daughter was born. God has blessed her with beauty, brains, and good sense, and I am blessed and overjoyed to have the privilege of parenting her.

Yesterday after work I raced home to make cupcakes for her to take to school today. I had the (in my humble opinion) brilliant idea to fill the cakes with chocolate ganache, and on researching how to make it, I discovered that after it cools, you can whip the ganache into a frosting or icing consistency.

I used a basic chocolate cake recipe from Allrecipes to make the batter, but I substituted my fresh-ground whole wheat flour for the all-purpose flour called for in the recipe. I used real butter, real milk, and real cocoa. The cupcakes are not especially pretty, but oh heavens, they are delicious.

The ganache was so painfully easy that I hesitate to post it. Not for long though. I chopped up nine ounces of bittersweet baking chocolate and heated one cup of heavy cream on the stove. Just as it started to boil, I poured the cream over the chocolate and whipped it for about 30 seconds. Voila, ganache.

I let the ganache cool in the mixing bowl, then whipped it until it was fluffy. I used a needle-like piping tip to fill each cake, then switched to a basic star tip to "ice" them. The are cute and incredibly tasty.

Julia made a delicious looking German cake with vanilla pudding in it. She wrote "Alles Gutezum ????" on the cake. I can't remember anything past alles gutezusomethingsomething, but I know it's all's goodsomethingsomething translating into "all the best on your birthday." Julia's such a sweetie.

This evening, I'll make the chocolate buttermilk cake referenced and linked in my Friday's Food post, but I have no idea what I'll make for dinner. None.

If I have to guess, I'd say she'll want roast asparagus. That's about as far as I can get.

Photo Credit goes to the talented Anthony Vasser of Ninjen Photography.

Friday's Food

Really quick - I don't want to spend a lot of my attention or yours on these posts:

Breakfast: Slice of homemade bread (no butter; I was in a big hurry), teaspoon of homemade chocolate ganache (I licked the spoon [a couple of times], so this is an estimate), cup of coffee (I always have this with brown sugar. I haven't been saying so previously, so it should be understood).

Lunch: The new team is planning to go to Cullen's Restaurant for the division Christmas luncheon. I'm really excited about this, because earlier this year, in the April - May timeframe, I tried really hard to arrange for some of the pre-meetings for the Orion PDR to be held there. It sounds really wasteful, but Cullen's had the space, and noone else really had it. Even more surprising, of those groups that did have the space, Cullen's was far and away the cheapest option. By like $40K. Regardless, we didn't have the event there, and their food looks SOOOO good. I'm really looking forward to it. For the record, since people really worry about stuff like this, the meetings eventually were held at the contractor's facility in Denver, CO.

Snack: I didn't bring one to work today. I plan to bail after the Christmas luncheon, and I still have my lunch here from a couple of days ago (when we went out to Perry's), so I'll probably just munch on that. For the record, it's a vegetarian bean filling for tortillas (somewhere north of "taco" and south of "enchilada").

Dinner: It's Burgundy's birthday. I forgot to ask her what she wanted me to cook. I'm planning to make this Buttermilk Chocolate Cake for her and our family.

Thursday's Food

Breakfast: slice of buttered toast using bread from the batch I baked last night. Mmmm! Oh, and I use real butter. It's SOOOOOO good.

Morning snack: three slices of tomato-basil bread from the mini-loaf still here at work.

Lunch: Wendy's crispy chicken sandwich, mayo only (and there's almost no mayo on here; ::pout::) with medium fries and Dr. Pepper.

Snack: Munched on batter and chocolate as I made cupcakes for Burgundy's 14th birthday.

Dinner: Um . . . potato chips with ranch dip. Two beers (St. Arnold's Christmas Ale again). Small glass of wine. A couple of cookies. Some caramel popcorn.

I'm embarrassed. It's starting to look like I really AM one of those stereotypical fatties who lives on potato chips and soda. I even ate dinner in front of the TV. Granted it was a friend's TV, but still.

The great irony is that I ate all that horrible food (which was, I grant you, quite tasty) while watching Julie and Julia. This kinda cracks me up. Woo crack!