Packed the folks off, am absolutely exhausted. Ate lots of good food, saw lots of beautful things (Terrain at Styer's is both, although ridiculously expensive). My dad had a blast and we even did a spontaneous trip to Valley Forge before heading back to my place.
He drove us nuts the entire trip with his need for physical maps (he doesn't trust the Garmin and has an innate need to be able to see the big picture about where we're going in relation to where we've been, I get that, and it's a lost art for me). That plus his unexpected surprise at how fun visiting places is (he hasn't had a proper vacation since we stopped going to the lake cottage when I was in junior high), his Christmas present will be AAA mapped trips that can be launched from his or my place and be taken in a three or four day weekend.
I discovered that Longwood rents scooters and spent the rest of the day zooming around and dodging small children.
I don't even know how to make those not-S-es show up.
Copy and paste!
How do you even make apple butter? I like it! Is it just apple sauce cooked forever?
Was everyone aware of the prescription drug regulations for the United Arab Emirates?
I had no idea! That's wild.
I have nothing to contribute to the apples discussion. I eat them raw and that's about it.
That is hard core, damn!! I mean, doctors note and notary would be plenty but ALSO sec state and stuff? Geez.
Copy and paste!
That's how I fake it and don't even worry about making it!
Man, this last pastry rolled out PERFECTLY. As in, if it's not perfect, it's because it rolled out too thinly, but not broken, which would be a first time for that particular pie error.
I did have one crust melt into the pie in the oven, so I don't count my chickens until they're baked, but I am pretty sure that mishap was before I understood the premise of cutting butter in, so hopefully I'm clear.
I think this time I got the right combination of tacky-after-adding-liquid and right-amount-of-flour-used-to-handle.
Cool down, filling! Heat up, oven! I want to get this puppy assembled and into the metaphorical frying pan.
My will to accomplish anything today is largely absent. I'll blame going out with friends last night (apparently, dinner+drinks+ live music = pumpkin by 11) and a cool house and cuddly cats. The tulip bulbs are not getting planted this weekend.
Handy!
I bought a scarf for the office and a restaurant gift certificate at the church fair, which had zero strangers attend, so, you know, kind of worthless.
I used to know how to make that symbol.
Oh, man, I tell a lie. I used to have a typewriter with a key for that symbol. I am Jack's obsolescent technology.
I'm making pretty decent progress on cleaning up the kitchen and talked myself into not really needing to do much laundry (because a lot of what needs washing is summer-weight clothes that I'm not going to be wearing any time soon, so they can wait until that mythical day when I have more time and energy). And convinced myself that not going grocery shopping is maybe even the more responsible option. Now I just need to talk myself into cutting the grass and I'll be pretty satisfied with my productivity.
