Miscellaneous.

The weather's been beautiful lately, but we still haven't been out to get the garden going. We took advantage of Em's last few weeks off before the fall racing season starts and drove to Louisiana for some gaming. Caught colds while there and have been nursing them for over a week. Just when it seems like they're gone, we start sneezing and start the cycle all over again.

The solar oven experiments have continued, however. I had a huge mess one evening from some country ribs I'd left to bake while we went to a movie. Every other rib turned out to be almost total fat and while I'd thought to raise the ribs above fat that would bake off, the pan I chose wasn't so deep as to not overflow. No more pig fat in the solar oven! That was so disgusting that I'd say something like, "No more pig fat AT ALL", except we like pork on occasion and I'd just be lying.

The oven cleaned up easily enough and the next day I baked wheat/oatmeal bread, moving on to try a new meatloaf recipe the following day.




No way the solar oven would get to 400 degrees, so (as usual), I just increased the time. Seems like most everything gets done in 2 hours in the solar oven. It's not for meals needed ASAP, but it's great for retired people, as the food won't burn if you forget about it. The worst that can happen is that it'll dry out.

My favorite thrift store sent an Email about another 50% off clothing sale, so Em and I drove over there yesterday. Now that school's back in session, with the demands placed on her by her internship program, No. 1 is too busy to shop. We wear the same size now, though, so have started clothes sharing. I tried on some jeans she would have absolutely loved, but they were a little too small. We're at that size now where the 8s are too small, but the 10s are too big. I did find a neat pair of jeans in size 9, but, overall, the thrift store tends to carry the even sizes over the odd.

Got a few long-sleeved shirts for winter, the above-mentioned jeans, a pair of slacks, a few pair of bigger shorts, a few short-sleeved shirts, and a replacement casino purse. I don't usually carry a purse, but appreciate a small over-the-shoulder number when we go gaming. No. 1 had leant me one of hers a few years back, but it broke up recently. The thrift-store was crazy busy; we couldn't even find a parking space in the lot.

After the thrift store, we stopped at Fiesta Mart. Fiesta has better prices on produce than our local stores, better prices on their own brands of some items, and carries some things (like andouille) that our local stores don't. Stocked up on some staples and bought lots of fresh fruit. Seems like the old $1.00 is now $1.29.

Like many others, we've been closely following this year's presidential election and even participating on occasion. Time's come to step up that participation, making more phone calls and knocking on doors. While the selection of Palin brought some much-needed life to the McCain campaign, the women energized seem to be from the Republican base. No. 1 works with some of these women in her internship program. "They think it's wonderful that the Vice Presidential candidate doesn't believe in birth control (I'm not so sure she doesn't) and think that a Downs Syndrome baby is SO MUCH MORE SPECIAL than a normal baby." No. 1 can Imagine the strain on the social system if this ideology trickles down to the poor and homeless.