We had a busy weekend, but a productive one. We're in the midst of switching two rooms upstairs so I will have a bit more space in my studio and more light. It seems like it should be a simple process, but it involves reconfiguring two closets, sorting and purging two rooms full of "stuff," and moving a lot of furniture. I was hoping we'd be done by now, but when I went to purchase the new desk and lateral files, they had to be ordered. They should arrive by Friday. In the meantime, we're trying to get done what we can, little by little. Matt commented tonight that every day he comes home from work there's a bigger mess than the day before. Sigh. There's some truth to that since we needed to box up everything in the bookcases in both rooms. The piles grow higher every day. Compared to Amy, we have very little disruption so I'm definitely not complaining here.
Meanwhile at the garden, the tomatoes are prolific. We have to go to the garden every other day now to pick the ripe tomatoes so they don't fall to the ground and rot. Here is what we picked on Wednesday. We picked as much or more on Friday and Sunday.
We have lots of beans as well. They are a bit harder to deal with than the tomatoes since
I'm not a fan of canned beans, and we really don't have much available
freezer space. I found a great sweet mustard dressing for the beans for
dinner tonight. Tracy says it's the best he's ever had.
We've been making tomato sauce, salsa, and oven dried tomatoes in olive
oil (for fabulous appetizers). There's a small jar of pesto as well. We
haven't canned in many
years, and I'd forgotten how many tomatoes it takes to make a quart of
sauce. (And how long!) For the first time ever, I ran into a bit of a
problem chopping up the jalapenos for the salsa. I've never used gloves in the past,
but I'll never do it again without them. I ended up with burning fingers
that were painful off and on for over a day! Ruined a contact lens as
well. When I googled for remedies, I found quite the list, none of which
seemed to take care of it. Time, as in many things, is what was needed.
I did read one woman's story. Her fingers blistered, and she had to go
to the emergency room!
Since I was away on our 37th anniversary we celebrated it this weekend by going on a flea market/antique shopping jaunt (thanks, Tracy!) ending up in Canandaigua at Rio Tomatlan. I read a review of this Mexican restaurant that rated it the "best in the country." Better, the reviewer said, than Rick Bayless's restaurant, Frontera, in Chicago. I was curious to make my own comparison since we ate at Frontera a year ago. I have to agree, Rio Tomatlan is the best Mexican food I've ever had. It was, in fact, one of the best meals I've had anywhere in a very long time.
I found some great new items for my studio at the antique shops. Most were less than ten dollars, and some less than five. I picked up two colored Mason jars for storage, and I loved this little wire basket which is perfect for holding my Papertrey felt.
I also picked up two old cameras. One for the book shelves in the living room, and one for my studio. I'd like to have a collection of old cameras some day. These were both very inexpensive. The little one is on the shelf with all my photography books in the new studio.
I like the black and white conversion for this photo as well.
My last find was a red wooden box. I was immediately attracted to it since red is my favorite color, but when I read the tag "patented card box" I knew it was mine. I'm not sure exactly what I'll use it for, but I know I'll find a good use for it.
Finally, I broke down and bought an iPhone, and I'm very glad I did.
I've just scratched the surface of what I can do with it, but since I've
had an iPod Touch for a couple of years, it's a pretty simple switch.
Back tomorrow with some new cards.
