Sunday, May 28, 2006
In Lieu of Cleaning the Shower…
... I thought I’d just rip the darn thing out:
05-27-06 9:00 am ..................... 05-27-06 8:00 pm
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Name that flower
Anyone know this flower? It used to grow wild on the hillside next to my WA home. The city arborist said something about it being threatened or endangered and being lucky to have it.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Whew!
Call if feng shui or whatever you wish. All I can say is that it’s a bright, new, happy day when you arrive at a new office on a sunny Spring morning.
Now—1200 square feet, three offices, storage room and a small kitchen.
Before—Barely 350 square feet in a single office shared with my secretary/files/accounting/microwave/coffee pot/etc.
Clients met in another small room, but still, having a real office up and running is 1000% better.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Success!
Astute observers will notice that I haven’t installed the faucet and trim, but this is plenty close for an series of before - during and after photos of the bathroom project.
Before
During
And, drumroll please, after
Monday, April 17, 2006
Like watching paint dry
Okay for those loyal readers who come here to find out if I’m done with that bathroom remodel yet, I’m happy to report that I’m one coat of paint away from “nearly done.” Pics soon.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Reprint - Love in a Jar
Since Bakerina’s sending people here suggesting something jam-related, I’m reprinting my guest-blog entry
Originally printed at Bakerina’s back in June 2004. My how time flies.
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Love in a Jar
AKA, Apricot Jam
Yep, that’s what I did Sunday. Four batches. The kind made from a box of apricots that’re just at the point of melting into mush in the bottom of the crate. The kind where you smell them and you say, “ahhhh” and you breathe way out and you put your head down in the box and you breathe way in and you think, “Clearly there is a goddess in charge of all this and she loves me,” and you breathe out and then breathe waaaaayyyyyy in and hold it until your head spins and then breathe out and bury your head in the box and do it again and again while believing for a minute that all is right in the world.
And then you turn on the stove and sterilize the jars and pit the apricots and add a splash of good lemon juice and pectin and sugar and nothing else and put two pots on the stove and make them both at the same time. Sweat dripping down the small of your back and off the tip of your nose while you stir with both hands. Hot jam. Hot kitchen. The smell of cooking apricots and sugar. Jars filled and inverted. Hundreds years of tradition embodied in the liquid sunshine preserved on the counter for the joy of giving. For the joy of opening a jar of summer in the middle of next winter. Riches beyond compare.
And then. And then there was just enough apricot puree left over for a blender full of fresh apricot daiquiris to wash away the sore back and summer-kitchen heat and the tiredness. I know there is a goddess in charge and she loves me. I have 20 jars of her love and a rum hangover to prove it.
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And now that you’ve got apricots on your mind, go here and buy Bakerina’s apricot-hazelnut version