JUNE 2015
Sunday 2015.06.28
New Bread Pan
In one of my blog entries several weeks ago I might have said something about a fan of the web site going to Italy for a month. We continued to communicate by email while she was there and she wrote me one day to tell me about a loaf pan she'd found. She offered to purchase one for me. It consists of two pieces that can be pushed or pulled to make the pan larger or smaller. It's also a large pan, much larger than the bread pans I normally use to make my loaves of bread. If you Google "adjustable loaf tin" and look at the images, you'll see some.
I did some arithmetic and calculated the volume of the new pan to be about double my smaller pans, when extended the full length. This week I experimented with the pan, preparing my usual White Bread recipe. I made one large 2-pound loaf.
When I sent a photo of the loaf to the fan, she described it as "formidable." It is. It's a huge loaf of bread. I think this would be a fun loaf to place on the table for dinner guests to slice. It's unusual because of its size. It strikes me as a conversation starter. I've been enjoying toasted slices.
I doubt I'd make such a large loaf every time I need to bake bread. I like the convenience of the smaller loaves. I can put one in the freezer while the other is in the refrigerator. It is impressive, however, and I look forward to making this bread for guests or as a gift for someone.
Computers Again
Now that I am just beginning to see the landscaping project coming to a conclusion some time during the next month, I've been turning my attention again to possibly building new computers. One of the requisites was seeing Windows 10 first. My laptop/tablet computer, which has Windows 8.1 on it, will get a free upgrade to Win10 some time after July 29th. That's Microsoft's projected rollout date for their latest operating system. My two desktop computers each have Windows 7; so they might get a free upgrade too, even though they are OEM installations rather than full retail versions. If they don't get a free upgrade, that's okay too because I will be replacing them. As OEM versions, Win7 cannot be installed on any other computer, even if removed from the other computer. So I will need to buy two full versions of Win10 when it is available.
Unlike last fall when I also considered building new computers, this time I am already starting to purchase components. I found a great little caddy bay this week. But first I need to explain:
My desktop computers are "dual boot." That means I can start up, or boot, each computer with either of two operating systems — XP or Win7. I have a caddy bay into which a hard disk drive can be inserted. Each computer has two C: drives, one with each operating system, and I select and insert the drive I need for whatever project I happen to be working on.
Many computer cases, or enclosures, have a small 3.5 inch bay for the old diskette drive almost no one uses anymore. Remember those things? The new caddy fits into one of those small bays and it has slots for two 2.5 inch solid state drives (SSDs). So my new computers will be dual boot as well, plus I'll have an open port for a second SSD to be used for backups.
Another New Toy
Besides the caddy bay, the Solid State Drive I purchased came with a free gift — a 1TB external hard disk, made by the same company, Samsung. I haven't decided how best to use the external hard disk yet, but I'm leaning toward dedicating it to my laptop/tablet as a backup drive.
Trying Something New
I've always wanted to taste Absinthe. A store near here stocks it; so it seemed a good time. If you haven't tasted it, it has a flavor of licorice. It isn't a liqueur. There is no sugar in it. It is a spirit or liquor.
There is a custom for serving it. Pour a couple ounces in a glass. Place a small slotted spoon on the glass and rest a sugar cube on the spoon. Slowly pour a few ounces of water over the sugar cube, dissolving it into the liquor. Give the liquid a stir and drink.
I must admit, licorice or fennel or anise are not among my favorite flavors; however, I do use anise extract in some Italian foods, such as Biscotti or my Mom's Christmas Cookies. Absinthe might make an interesting, if expensive, substitution. The bottle cost $75.
Wednesday 2015.06.24
Landscape Progress
The work is progressing in the backyard now. It's a small yard. I live in a mobile home park. There is enough space here for a picnic table and grill, should I want to host a small barbecue gathering. Actually, my concrete driveway probably has more room.
There is an ugly black pipe sticking up from the ground; it's a clean-out for the sewer line. It was the dumb idea of a former manager who was fired by the owners. The story goes like this: He told me to mow my lawn, which I did on a Tuesday. On Friday gardeners showed up and they mowed my lawn again. I was home. I didn't care. I know the law. They worked 1½ hours, the first half hour of which was trying to get their lawnmower started. The manager then tried to charge me 5½ hours labor. Naturally, I refused to pay. With my letter (put everything in writing) I submitted a photocopy of the California Mobile Home Law that says a manager must first provide an estimate of the cost to correct a problem before authorizing any work. He was screwed, and angry because I made him look bad. Retribution was the ugly black pipe sticking up in the middle of my lawn. The new manager is going to pay to have it lowered to ground level this afternoon. He likes me.
In this area I'm also putting down wire mesh under about six inches of soil. There are gophers in this park and I read that they like to eat Dymondia roots. Wire mesh is recommended. I've had gophers holes appear several times in my backyard. I usually toss some gopher pellets down the holes, which solves the problem for a few months. But they come back. I've been on the lookout for a gopher snake. I like those things.
I don't know what the snakes are like in your part of the world. Here in Southern California king snakes and gopher snakes are common. Rattlesnakes live up in the mountains, not down here in the residential areas. King snakes are okay, but they can be a bit feisty. They'll bite, but they have no fangs. Gopher snakes are as tame as pets. I grab the tail and hold on, doing nothing for several minutes. The snake doesn't know what got hold of it, so it just tries to figure out how to get away. I usually hear it exhale, as if it thinks a lung full of air is adding width and that's what got it stuck. After a few minutes the snake is calm and I can lift it slowly. The following might freak you out, but one time I was on my way to the store, walking, and I found a gopher snake. What to do? I stuffed it down my shirt, shopped, and then went home. No one needed to know I was walking around inside the grocery store with a snake down my shirt.
Snakes are like creatures of inconvenience. When I'm looking for one, I can never find one. But when I'm on my way somewhere, especially on my bicycle, I sometimes find a gopher snake at the most inopportune time. I might want it, but how to carry it?
Sunday afternoon I went looking for a snake. If you've seen many of my videos, you've no doubt heard the horn of a train going by. There are tracks, along with a wide swath of no-man's-land, near the mobile home park. I walked out there, covering a lot of ground. It's an amazing area because there are odd signs of activity — an assembly of old office chairs, something that looks like it might have been a dirt bike course, the start of what might have been a shelter if finished, lots of tire tracks as if someone had been out there with heavy equipment mowing down brush in preparation for fire season. Lots of stuff. Plenty of signs of gophers too, but no gopher snakes.
I didn't come home empty-handed. I found a clean looking milk crate, the type often employed in college dorm rooms to hold books, clothes, hookahs, lava lamps, trophies, etc. There is always use for another milk crate. My landscaping tools (the small ones) are in one out in the shed. I use one when I do food photography; so that I can step up a little further away from the food for a slightly different perspective.
Barbecue Sauce
A friend hosted a family barbecue this past weekend. He asked me to prepare some of my barbecue sauce for him. When I gave it to him I warned him not to taste it; otherwise, it wouldn't last until the weekend. It's that good.
The gatherings are typically loud. Everyone talks, and some people (he says) never stop talking. He put the barbecued chicken on the table and suddenly everyone went quiet. It was so conspicuous, he and his girlfriend looked at each other, wondering. Then someone finally spoke. "Where did you get this barbecue sauce?" It was the feature of the dinner.
This is not the first time I've heard it tastes so good. So I decided to add it to this web site as a separate recipe in the Basics section. It has been a part of my Pork Spareribs recipe, and for the new recipe I added a few more ideas I tried. Try adding some honey.
Lemons
The weather has been so warm and sunny here lately, the lemons on my neighbor's tree are ripening rapidly. I squeezed a jar full of lemon juice last week. On Monday I picked 14 more lemons. I'll freeze what I cannot use this summer. (And I still have frozen juice in the freezer from last summer.) After I come in from a few hours outdoors in the heat, working on the landscaping, a glass of cold lemonade is a welcome and refreshing treat, especially because it is made from scratch with ripe lemons I picked myself.
Bicycles
Will you be watching? This evening at 7:00 here will be the first broadcast, of many, of the Tour de France Preview Show on the NBC Sports Network. The competition begins on July 4th. One of the joys of my retirement has been watching the Tour de France every July. I no longer need to wait until after I get home from work to see what little remains of the daily highlights. Live coverage will begin at 5:00 each morning — they usually broadcast the last three hours of the day's stage. I'll tune in when I wake up. The coverage is usually repeated at least once during the day and highlights are presented during the evening prime-time broadcast.
Sunday 2015.06.21
Happy Father's Day and Happy Summer Solstice
Seeing Light at the End of the Tunnel
Now I am feeling a little anticipation as I begin to see myself getting closer to finishing the landscaping project. I still have a long way to go and progress has been hampered a little by the weather — good weather. I don't like working in the hot sun, and there is really no strict deadline. So I've been waiting until the area where I am currently working is in the shade. I'm still in the back yard, and I expect it to take a couple weeks to finish that area. It's the largest area in my yard. Then comes the side of the shed (easy) and any drainage the property owner wants me to install.
This is the time of year when the energy from the sun is at its greatest — the summer solstice. We have the longest period of daylight today, if only by seconds, and then the days begin to get shorter. However, the hottest time of year is yet to come — August and September. And with the drought crisis here in California, many are worried about wildfires. A very large one is currently burning up north in the Big Bear Lake region. I really want to finish this landscaping before it starts getting really hot here.
Cooking
I also want to start doing cooking videos again. I've been taking time off. A fan of the web site recently requested that I do an English Muffins recipe. I have one. It has been in my recipe box since my college days. And I have thought about doing it on video. Now might be a good time. They're easy to make. They bake on a griddle rather than in the oven. So there is no need to heat up my home with a hot oven.
Disappointment
I'm not a pessimist by nature, but I do think it's important to remind myself occasionally that every silver lining has a dark cloud. Several weeks ago I might have blogged about a fan of the web site going to Italy and asking if I would like her to look for anything to bring back for me. The only idea I had was an olive oil bottle. I thought it might be nice to have one, from Italy, to use in my videos. She found one and also bought me some additional items — an expandable loaf pan and some Italian candy. I was excited.
The package was mailed two weeks ago, but it never arrived. It was either lost, stolen, or delivered to the wrong person (who chose to open the package and keep what they found inside rather than return it to the postman). Oh well. Many years ago I ordered an expensive ($150) MP3 CD player and I waited and waited. In didn't arrive. After waiting the requisite amount of time, I filed a claim. A new one was shipped. Exactly one year later when I unfolded a chair on my back porch, to wash the chair for a picnic, I found the original package folded up in the chair. It had been outdoors, in all kinds of weather all year, and when I removed the CD player from inside it still worked fine. So, life has a way of balancing things out sometimes.
Looking Forward
Although today is the first day of summer, I'm already looking forward to the fall. I like summer. It's my favorite time of year. It always has been. I grew up in New England and I rarely enjoyed winter weather when I was young. Snow is great when you're a kid with a sled. The ponds froze over and we often skated on them during winter. But as I got older there were the responsibilities of a job, which meant driving to work, which meant shoveling snow out of the driveway so that I could get my car out. No thank you. I much prefer summer.
However, this year I'm getting more of it than usual because I am spending so many hours outdoors working on the landscaping. I'm beginning to feel like fall and winter will provide a convenient respite from this summer's hard work. And I'm looking forward to something else. If the El Niño predictions hold true, we'll have plenty of rain this winter. Not only will I enjoy being in my home (rather than at work), watching it rain outside, but there will also be no lawn growing because of the rains. No lawn to mow. That's something to look forward to.
Wednesday 2015.06.17
More Work Arrives
I'm very happy, and much relieved. I went to the stone yard on Monday and they were able to get more peach colored sandstone in "patio grade" pieces. The pallet is slightly larger than the first one I purchased, about 100 pounds more.
I think this will be enough to cover about half the back yard, maybe more than half. The people at the stone yard are very encouraging. They have been looking at this web site (I've been handing out my business cards), including my pictures. I usually get the same question. "You're doing this yourself?" I tell them a friend is helping me with the heavier work, but I know what they really mean. They're surprised that I am doing the work rather than hiring a professional landscaping company to do the project for me. The work looks like it is being done by professionals. Thank you.
It takes me a lot longer than it would for a licensed contractor. I'm more fastidious. I want to sift the soil to get rid of roots of the grass. I wasn't as fussy in the front and now I'm having to occasionally lift up a stone and dig down until I find the source root of new grass that is sprouting. Little weeds from seeds blown into my yard by the wind are to be expected. But I don't want to fight grass from deep roots I could have removed.
I started the back yard late last week and worked on it during the weekend. No rest for the weary. Other than the two days I stopped because of rain, I've been working several hours everyday. There is a park rule that states major landscaping projects should be completed in 60 days. I started in the middle of May. Here it is the middle of June and I am more than halfway done. I'll finish before the deadline (although the manager would gladly extend it for me — he is delighted with the quality appearance of the work).
I needed to work between my shed and my home and I had to be fussier than usual because this is an important drainage area. A major point of concern is that I make sure the runoff from rain is properly channeled away. The rules say it much drain into the street and not my neighbor's rental space. So the stones were leveled several times, and I don't feel like I'm done with them yet.
Meanwhile, some of the Dymondia is doing very well. It's blooking little yellow flowers. Blooming is a good sign. This is the worst time of year to plant this stuff here. The sun is at its hottest. Dymondia likes some shade. In the sunniest areas the plants are not doing as well. It needs a lot of water and I've replaced several dead plants already. During the fall and winter, especially if we get the rains that are expected this year, it should flourish.
At last report NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) is predicting an 85% probability of a major El Niño event this winter. We could receive abundant rains. Some previous El Niños were significant enough to fill our reservoir in one season. I'm hoping.
And A Little More Good News
As part of that Prevent program (see Sunday's blog entry) I took a simple online test to evaluate my risk of type 2 diabetes. At my current weight and activity levels, the test determined that I am at no risk.
Sunday 2015.06.14
Better Health (and Better Appearance)
Those of you who have seen my latest videos might have noticed a change in my appearance. Yes, I'm a lot thinner. I've been losing weight. It has been by choice, not the result of any recent sickness or injury. I'm healthy.
Three months ago I mentioned having joined a program named Prevent. The name comes from living a lifestyle that prevents type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other health problems related to poor diet, obesity, and lack of exercise. It's a sixteen-week program of dieting and exercise. I've completed 13 weeks so far.
For me, joining was free because my membership was paid by my health insurance program. It wasn't prescribed; it was simply a free offer to join a program that promotes better health. For the insurance company, better health means fewer payments to doctors and hospitals. It's a win-win arrangement.
I was attracted to the program for a couple reasons. I liked the idea of the scale. They ship members a free weight scale that reports our weight to the program via the cell network. Being answerable to someone other than myself would keep me, I expected, more disciplined. The other reason I joined is because I put myself on my own program last year and I lost a considerable amount of weight. I wanted to keep going.
You might be curious about the numbers. Last year my peak weight was 233 pounds. I currently weigh about 178. I shed 55 pounds so far. As an incentive, every once in a while when I am in Costco I go to the aisle with the bags of flour and sugar. I lift the 50-pound bag of flour and heft it for a few seconds, maybe even take a few steps while holding it, and remind myself, "This is how much extra weight I used to carry around on my body everyday." It's a good reminder.
According to my BMI (Body Mass Index) chart I am still in the "overweight" category, but not by much. After I lose another four pounds my weight will be in the "normal" column. Of course, that's high-normal. I'd like to be more in the center of normal, which means I'll need to keep going.
If you're curious about methodology — I can't lose weight without being very organized about it. That's how I work. So I programmed a FileMaker database. Each morning when I enter my weight the program tells me how many calories I'm allowed for the day. There is an internal formula that calculates my Basal Metabolic Rate and that is used to determine my allowed calories. Another table is used for my daily eating diary. I try to record everything I eat, along with the calories, and keep within my daily allowance.
I'm not perfect. I sometimes exceed my allowance, sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot. I allow myself an occasional break, usually lunch at the Chinese buffet with a friend. I limit those breaks to once a week and when I eat from the buffet I try to eat mostly proteins, as those are more difficult to convert into body fat. I stay away from the fried foods and the carbohydrates.
What I do works. 55 pounds lost is proof of that.
A Little Good News
In the past I've blogged more than once about the neighbor's barking dog interfering with my ability to shoot cooking videos. The occasional bark isn't a problem. The dog, however, had a history of sometimes barking nearly non-stop all day. They tied it up outside and left it there from 8:00 in the morning until after dark, nearly every day. It was annoying.
I wasn't the only person to complain. Many residents in the trailer park complained to the manager and he finally did something about it. The dog is gone. Those former dog owners won't speak to me now. It's easy to blame me; I'm the nearest neighbor. But there were numerous complaints. I don't care if they dislike me. We've never been friends anyway.
So now with the annoyance gone, I'm thinking of stepping up the rate of videos again. There is still the landscaping to finish. That has been proceeding well enough. I am now concentrating on the last area — the back yard. That is the largest area, and therefore it will take the most time, but I am beginning to feel like I am nearing the completion of the project. This week I'll purchase another pallet of sandstone.
Meanwhile, I'm hoping the stone yard can get more stone in the peach color I've been using. In an earlier blog I mentioned their problem of finding more. They were having difficulty finding a source. As an alternative, if no inventory can be found, there is always the possibility of creating a patio area in a different color, or even a different stone, such as gray slate. If the color change looks intentional, it should be okay.
Wednesday 2015.06.10
R, R & R
Rain, Rest, and Recuperation (AKA Recreation or Relaxation).
Yesterday it rained here in Southern California. That might not be something worth blogging about in most parts of the world, but here where we are enduring an historical drought, a little rain is a big deal. The forecast was for 30% chance of light showers. Most of the day it rained — sometimes light, sometimes moderate. It won't help our reservoir, which is currently at about 25% capacity. It was enough, however, to rinse the roads and sidewalks, and maybe help my Dymondia put down deeper roots.
With the inclement weather came a day of rest away from the landscaping. I accomplished a lot during the weekend.
The rain gave me the opportunity I needed to check for ponding, especially in my driveway. There were no puddles. I planned the drainage correctly. I will need to adjust a couple stones in the newly-covered area — more for looks than for drainage. That will be relatively easy to do. And during the weekend I planted more Dymondia. The back yard is the next big project.
There is another benefit, sort of, from the rain. It would make the grass grow and I would need to mow it. With about ¾ of my yard replaced with stone, that's a lot less grass that will need to be mowed.
Someone asked me about that tree trunk to the left. It is a juniper tree and probably very old. One of my neighbors across the street is a certified arborist (tree specialist) and junipers are among his favorite trees. He estimates the tree was here long before the trailer park. There are juniper trees along the front of the park too, but those are relatively young. The trunks are much thinner.
Although I didn't need bread, I couldn't resist the temptation to bake bread while it rained yesterday. Weather like that just seems to call out for a day of baking. I also enjoyed one of my favorite wintertime pastimes, in June — open all the drapes and watch it rain outside while I am warm and dry inside, sipping a mug of hot coffee or eating a warm lunch.
Maybe worth mentioning: I was out of flour; therefore, a quick trip to Costco (just down the street) was in order. I don't know how you buy your flour, but I buy the 25-pound bag at Costco. I bake a lot of bread and at $5.79 for 25 pounds of flour, I can't bring myself to pay the grocery store price. With my current recipe I can get 20 loaves of bread out of a sack of flour. That's less than 30¢ per loaf.
When it comes to bread, it is sometimes difficult to figure out the flour. I measured accurately, as usual, weighing my flour rather than measuring it by volume. At first the dough was too dry. I like to see a little sticking in the bottom of the bowl. I could also hear my Kitchenaid mixer straining as it kneaded the dough. I added water, then more water, then more, finally adding too much. So I added more flour. I finally got the consistency I wanted, but I couldn't predict how high the bread loaves would rise.
The loaves turned out beautiful. It's the same formula, my basic White Bread recipe. I let the dough loaves rise longer before baking them. The texture inside is more delicate and lighter. Last week's loaves taste fine, but they are a little too dense.
And today, being a day to let everything outside dry out, I can't do much landscaping. There are other projects to keep me busy.
And, Finally, Sally…
I let the salamander go while it was raining, where there was high grass. I figured the rain would give it some moisture while it looked for a new place to live.
Sunday 2015.06.07
More Landscaping
Believe it or not, some people actually follow the events of this blog. Thanks. It makes all the writing worthwhile.
I finished the ground work around my deck stairs yesterday morning. It took several days, and there is an important reason for that.
Along the front, where I wasn't as conscientious about getting all the roots out, I am beginning to see little sprouts of grass. I can easily dig up some, but others require removing the sandstone and digging down deep until I get to the root stock. It might take a long time to rid that area of roots. Meanwhile, there will be the problem of seeds blown into my yard from the neighbor's crab grass. For twenty years I've been telling him about it — he waits until it grows tall and goes to seed before he cuts it down. And then he mows it with a string trimmer, which scatters the seeds to the four winds.
However, there is a glimmer of hope. He wants to finish his yard the same as mine. He asked me to help him. Never mind that he hasn't put any time at all into helping me with my project. I'd help him anyway, just to see his crab grass permanently removed.
In the side yard I've been digging down deep and sifting all the soil to remove any roots I find. This area should be clean. I don't expect to see any grass sprouting once the watering begins. Of course, life is full of surprises, but some surprises I'd prefer to live without. In fact, last night I had a disturbing little dream — kind of a mini-nightmare — in which new grass kept sprouting faster than I could dig it out. Seeds are my biggest concern. Time will tell.
Starting tomorrow, maybe later today, I hope to start covering the newly cleared ground with sandstone. There is that second, huge, heavy pallet of large pieces still sitting in my driveway. It needs to be used.
And, meanwhile, I'm still learning how to work with the Dymondia ground cover I'm planting between the stones. A close inspection yesterday showed that some of it is dead and some looked like it would die soon. Too much watering? Too little? Not the right soil? I dug up one of the dead pieces. The soil beneath it seemed dry. So rather than spraying it with a garden hose, I hooked up a sprinkler and I gently watered it, about half an hour, to let the water soak down between the stones. Eventually the roots will take hold and it will need to be watered less. For now, I think I'm going to try watering it every other day.
I did some research on Dymondia and found a lot of negative comments. People were saying it is difficult the grow, fussy about sunlight and watering, not tolerant of hot summers, etc. There is some kind of sand material that packs down over time, becoming hard, almost like concrete. Where I used to park my bike when I had a job the lot was that material. I'd like to think about using that between the sandstone. If any of you know what that material is, please comment me (Contact button in the left panel). I've been trying to find the name for it, but I still don't know what it is called.
Summer Eating
The Summer Solstice is two weeks away. This is the time of year I enjoy eating salads. I mix my own Salad Dressing, which helps to make salads even better. I like raspberry vinegar in my dressing.
Yesterday I saw that the grocery store had large shrimp on sale, $8.99 per pound. I thought, "Why not?" I bought a pound and sautéed four of them to put on top of a large salad of romaine, spinach, carrot, tomato, and pear. Normally I would buy shrimp for my Seafood Fettuccine recipe. Putting the shrimp on a salad was a healthier choice. That's one of the things I like about summer. It makes me think of eating healthy. Of course, I can enjoy a hotdog on a bun too, but I only do that once a year.
Wednesday 2015.06.03
And The Work Goes On
The progress continues. I'm feeling rather proud of myself. I work outside every day, even on the weekend. I don't put in full days. I work until the sun comes out or while I can work in the shade of the tree or a building, such as my home or my shed.
On Sunday I tackled the two most difficult areas — under the porch steps and in the corner along the side of the stairs. Those were not easy because there wasn't a lot of room to maneuver. They turned out well. The ground around the tree is done too.
I also learned another new technique for cutting stone. Use a hammer and chisel. It takes a little longer, but I can get a very accurate cut. Draw a line, position the point of the chisel along the line, and strike with a hammer. Move the chisel along the line and strike again. Repeat again and again until the stone fractures. It almost always breaks exactly along the line.
A friend arrived to help out. He is a lot younger and stronger; so he is useful for the really heavy slabs of stone. To move them, I bought a "furniture dolly" at Home Depot for about $20. It works better than "walking" the slabs, which is slow and not very safe. If I lose control I run the risk of the slab falling against my legs or onto my feet. I do not have steel-toe boots. On average, the slabs weigh more than 140 pounds (63.5kg) each.
Monday morning I planted more Dymondia. I also cleared away more lawn and graded the dirt. I enjoy working quietly alone in the early morning. I start at about 7:30 most days. Later in the moringing and in the early afternoon I can work with the hammer and chisel.
Yesterday I nearly finished the area in front of my shed.
I liked the walkway I put in last year, but weeds grow in the river rocks along the margins. When the spaces between the sandstone fill in with Dymondia this should look better than it does now. There are some areas to fill and many of the stones need to be leveled.
I'm thinking today should be a day off. It will be first one in two weeks. I worked five hours yesterday morning and four more in the afternoon. I think I deserve a day of rest. And I have only two slices of bread in the refrigerator. So today is a day for baking bread.
What do you do with a salamander? Drop it off at the Humane Society? The Museum of Natural History? The city zoo? I found it beneath a tray of the Dymondia ground cover I bought. I don't want to keep it. I don't know where to let it go. Nature takes care of its own; so I suppose anywhere would be okay. Meanwhile, I'll call it Sally.