Most of the time I think I function quite capably. It has often been noted by myself and others that I like to do things quickly. I often used to drive faster than legally allowed - until I got a speeding ticket that made my car insurance go up for three years. My mom and Skip used to remark that I moved quickly - often surprising or scaring them. Nowadays, I will often do things quickly while I’m multitasking and just trying to get things done. Occasionally, as a result of going quickly and not taking enough time to do a task properly I get myself into trouble.
Case in point #1
I borrowed 3 DVDs from the library a couple of weeks ago. I viewed them (binge-watched, really) and returned them a couple of days later. Yesterday I got a message from the library that they were overdue. Huh?? I looked over at the TV and much to my horror, there they were. What?? I just then realized I had returned 3 DVDs of family videos and photos that I’d had made at Costco several years back. They, too, had been sitting on the TV stand. Obviously I had grabbed them instead of the library’s DVDs and shoved them in the return slot at the library. At that time, I even thought it was interesting that the library used Costco cases for their DVDs. But then didn’t think anything further. If they had been anything else but family photos, I wouldn’t have sweated it but they were old pics of Scooter and his dad when Scooter was a little guy. And the thought of forever losing the pics and videos of Skip just made me sick.
I hopped in the car with the overdue DVDs and headed to the library. When I told the person on the desk what I had done, another employee emerged from the back room who remembered my drop-off the previous week. Thank goodness she had set the DVDs aside, and was able to pluck them from a shelf and return them to me.
When I got back to the car I burst into tears. I was so relieved not to have lost those precious photos and videos.
Case in point #2:
I got the second Trondheim mitten underway. Halfway up the cuff I decided to knit the ‘windows’ in with lengths of white yarn. Rather than trying to carry one strand of yarn around and around, this half-assed intarsia method worked quite well. Being halfway up the cuff, I duplicate stitched the lower windows I had missed to that point. There were lots of yarn ends to weave in afterwards but I’m happy with the result.
You will note, there are fewer windows on the left. This is the cuff where I duplicate stitched all the windows and on the smaller buildings, kinds guesstimated where they should go. There wasn’t very good stitch definition on the brown handspun. On the right, I only had to duplicate stitch the lower two sets of windows so they all appear as the pattern dictated.
I was well past the thumb gusset when I realized I WAS KNITTING ANOTHER RIGHT HAND MITTEN! Good grief. What a rookie mistake. I partly fault the pattern because there is only a right hand chart. The knitter needs to know how to move the thumb gusset to the other side of the palm chart. Once I had that figured out, I used a stitch marker (in this case, a paper clip) to designate the gusset stitches. I think I’ll be fine for the rest of the mitten.
I had all of the above typed out, photos inserted, and formatted when I deleted half of it and had to redo it. The ‘undo’ feature on this little after-market iPad keyboard only backtracks so far.
Enough of my faux pas.
Lately a well-cared-for neighbourhood kitty has been hanging around my yard. When I opened the patio door it tried to come into the house.
It definitely wasn’t a stray as it was well-groomed, chubby, had a nice collar on. I did not want it to think my yard was a friendly one as I feed birds and don’t want them to be a target for this beast. I had to scare it away. Hopefully, it will learn that it is not welcome here.
Domestic cats are one of the main reasons the songbird population has been decimated over last few decades. My personal belief is it irresponsible for a cat owner to let their cat roam freely - unless it is a cat whose primary job is to eliminate rodents in grain storage facilities. In urban and suburban areas, there are many perils for a cat that is permitted outside. They do not ‘need’ to go outdoors if they have enough stimulation inside. I love cats but I don’t want them preying on birds I lure to my yard to feed.
And on another tangent…
Yesterday I took delivery of a Chef’s Plate meal order. Last year I had ordered several kits from Hello Fresh and enjoyed making the nutritionally-balanced, flavourful meals. You might say it’s very expensive - about $11 per serving, but living alone, I am not always able to consume the quantities of things I purchase. These meal kits eliminate any food waste because everything comes with the exact proportions of ingredients. I also like the detailed recipe/instruction cards. I have remade several of the Hello Fresh meals. Did I mention the meals are very tasty?
When subscribing to a meal delivery service one must be mindful to select the desired meals every week or they’ll just send you something random, which would be tasty but probably not a preferred choice. There is the option to skip deliveries but every week one must log in to do this at least 4 days before the next delivery. Of course, the service can be cancelled at any time.
All that being said, these are the two meals from my introductory order:
Scooter is coming for a visit on the weekend so I thought he’d enjoy the Falafel and Moroccan-Spiced Couscous meal with toasted almonds and hummus dressing. Last night I prepared the Chipotle Beef Taquería-Inspired Bowl with homemade charred-corn salsa.
It was fun and easy to prepare, and very tasty.
The minimum order is 2 servings per meal, so I have enough leftovers for a full repeat meal tonight.
To me, there isn’t much difference between Chef’s Plate and Hello Fresh. I have already selected next week’s dishes. I may do this for a couple more weeks then will cancel the membership so I don’t have to keep remembering to log in and make my selections.
Now I’m going to post this and do something constructive. Garbage day is this week and I want to at least make an attempt to get rid of some the crap around here.
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