2009 June 19 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Going in Circles

June 19, 2009 · by JudyL

That’s what I did today . . just spent the day going in circles . . here, there, yonder and accomplishing absolutely nothing! The good news is I got something really neat but I can’t show you yet because I can’t help get it out of the truck and Chad doesn’t get home from work til about 10:30 tonight. He’ll help Vince get it out and then I’ll show pictures. Stay tuned.

Early in the day I said to myself that I was going to find that darned iPod or bust. I busted! In the process of looking for the iPod, I said to myself . . Where is the remote to my iPod docking station? Beats me! Couldn’t find it anywhere. I always keep it in one of those trays on the longarm. Not there. When it isn’t in one of those trays (guess it isn’t always there afterall!), it sometimes finds its way into my pocket or at my computer or at my sewing machine. I then said to myself . . If I find that darned remote before I find the iPod, I’m just giving up and buying a new iPod!

This remote is 2″ x 3″ and flat as a pancake. Tell me how anyone could think *I* could keep up with that and yet I’ve had it for maybe 5 years! I kept thinking and thinking and trying to remember where I’d last seen it, all the while looking for the iPod. Finally found the remote. That was enough . . I went and bought another iPod. And can someone tell me why they cost more at Wal-Mart than they do at the Apple store or why they cost more in the Wal-Mart store than at Wal-Mart online? But I wanted it now! I can lose and find it a dozen times between now and the time one could arrive by mail. Too much fun!

I got the 120 GB Classic . . which means if I put every song on it that I have in my possession, I’ll still have about 116 GB if storage left!

But then I came home and had a talk with myself and assured myself that I will never, ever lose this iPod. My poor lost iPod is 5 or 6 years old and it’s probably been lost for three of those years. So, I will never, ever lose the new one. A couple of hours later, Vince comes home and I’m going to show it to him and guess what . . I cannot find the darned thing! I haven’t even used it yet. I did look at it and made sure the little adapter thing worked with the docking station I already had but darn it . . where’s the iPod? Ever think maybe I just wasn’t meant to be an iPod owner? I did eventually find it.

So, let’s just get my itunes off my computer and on to my new, shiny, not lost iPod! Where’s my iTunes? Oh .. yes . . I have changed computers since I last messed around with iTunes. The old computer is still set up in the kitchen downstairs so I turned it on and guess what . . no iTunes on there either. Apparently it was on the old laptop that went back to Office Depot. I remember now thinking that the iPod was old and I probably wouldn’t be adding to iTunes so I didn’t bother to back it up. Smart thinking, huh? Vince cleared the hard drive before we sent it back so my old iTunes is lost forever.

The rest of the day has been spent importing all my CD’s to iTunes . . on a separate hard drive that I won’t discard with an old computer but . . I will probably lose it!

Did I read somewhere in the last year or so that someone thought I was organized? Want to change your opinion of me now?

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 7 Comments

The Best Reason

June 19, 2009 · by JudyL

We love steel cut oatmeal. If you even halfway like oatmeal or even if you don’t, and you’ve never tried steel cut oats, you owe it to yourself to try the steel cut oats. They’re so different from regular, mushy, gooey oatmeal. Our preference is McCann’s Irish Oats but there are other brands. A brand we can get locally is Bob’s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats.

Steel cut oats take 35 – 40 minutes to cook which means . . well, if you’re going to have them for breakfast, you’re having to get up earlier than you’d like to have oatmeal on the table for breakfast.

But, with the new rice cooker, I put the oatmeal and water in the rice cooker the night before. 1 part oatmeal/3 parts water.

I set the timer so the oatmeal will be done at 6:30 a.m. I use the porridge setting.

I go to bed. I sleep like a rock. I wake up . . which would be a whole lot nicer if I were waking up at 9:00 a.m. instead of 6:00 a.m., right? The oatmeal is done when I’m ready for it to be done . . no waiting for the water to boil, no stirring, no falling asleep at the stove.

Last night I had taken strawberries out of the freezer, wishing I’d bought 10 flats of strawberries instead of one, so this morning we had oatmeal with strawberries. No work, no fuss . . perfect oatmeal!

This rice cooker moves right up to the top of my favorite appliance list, mainly because of how it cooks this oatmeal.

· Filed Under: Cooking · 10 Comments

14 Packs Used

June 19, 2009 · by JudyL

During the 9 nights we had ground beef, plus the pizza on Saturday, and 2 batches of Speck food, I used 14 packs of ground meat. That’s 21 pounds!

And, this was enough that I could clean off a shelf in the freezer so I can get a 50 pound bag of wheat in the freezer. I’ll leave it in there for 3 or 4 days, take it out, let it come to room temp, dump about 3/4 of it into a huge mylar bag, stick several oxygen absorbers in there and seal, the bag, put it all in a bucket with a gamma seal lid . . to be safely stored til I need it. I could use just a regular plastic lid but once I open that lid, I can’t re-seal it so I’ll just use the gamma seal lid and be done!

I’m happy to have some room in my freezer again and I’m happy that I don’t have to eat ground meat again . . til Sunday (which is exactly when I would have eaten it again if I was still doing the ground meat marathon . . if I’d kept my mouth shut!)