No tea for you

In preparation for having two small parties on consecutive weekends, I wanted to spend this weekend making the house somewhat presentable. The main issues as I see them are making sure the dog bedding and blankets are clean (for people with allergies), the bathrooms aren't disgusting, and the common areas are picked up. The kitchen is also a priority but always an ongoing project!

Mick generally takes care of the floor and the outside stuff.

I planned on using Sunday for cooking for the week, prep for next weekend, maybe some grocery shopping...

It took me all day Saturday to wash all the dog bedding and various blankets, change the sheets on my bed, and clean the bathrooms. I also had kitchen things to do such as clean out the dog food bin for a new bag of dog food, wash dishes, run the dishwasher, make meals and eat and clean up...never-ending.

Mick and his family made fried fish for lunch. I was involved although I couldn't eat it. Don't ask. I made myself a pizza as consolation. At least he figured out it was a lot more work than was feasible for a party. I think.

We also figured out that you can't freeze onions and then use them for onion rings. Frozen onions become very soggy. They can only be used as "diced" onions in cooked recipes.

I made some sun tea and was thinking about transferring the tea to another container later to make some sweet tea. But while I was making dinner, I managed to drop the whole glass jar of tea out of the fridge. My hands just stopped working. I hate when that happens but I'm usually more on guard for it and this one just totally caught me by surprise so I didn't have any back up plan. It just fell on the tile and busted.

Poor Mick was such a good honey. He told me to stop crying and to stay put while he picked up glass and brought me some shoes. He mopped it up and just had me take the rugs outside when he was done in those areas.

And YES, I cry when these things happen. I hate that I have control of things one moment and then no control over my body the next. And I was tired and hungry and ready to relax and then had this major detour because my hands don't work.

So I have no tea. And I have no jar in which to make my tea. FML.

I felt like I was pretty productive until that point. That was kind of the end.

Sunday, I woke up with a painful left shoulder again. I tried to take it easy and occasionally stretch it. Midday, it started to pop very painfully but it felt a little better after each time. By the end of the day, it was just sore. I had done very little all day, just some reading and minor picking up and watching the Lord of the Rings marathon on AMC like we don't have it on DVD.

While I was reading thekitchn, I ran across their tour of the Lodge cast iron factory which (again? I don't remember if I had heard this for certain or not) confirms that they use a soy-based seasoning. So I have to strip and reseason all my cast iron pans. Just another thing on the list, right?

When it started to get towards dark, I went out to pick weeds from the gardens. I made a big dent in the weed population a few days ago but it's a terrible battle that I'm losing and I have absolutely no backup in this fight. Unless you count that sometimes others throw out the stuff in my buckets for me. I thought from a comment Mick made on Friday that maybe there had been some help but then I saw that was not the case. Oh well. I keep working on it and they keep coming back in giant patches.

I also pulled a lot out of the raised garden to start prepping for the fall garden. It started raining so I put the kitchen rugs out for a rain bath. Mick thinks that doesn't make sense but these are old cheap rugs that I can't put through the wash so they are just filthy from the dogs. Rain is better than no washing in my opinion.

I made another halibut recipe and Mick didn't like it. To be fair, I fucked it up by spilling the salt when I was measuring it so it was kinda gross but he didn't like it anyway because it was green. He would prefer that I stick with the one I made that he liked and never try any other. Sigh. It's so awesome being married to someone who eats like he is still in elementary school. Yes, I blame his parents. Yes, they know it. Yes, they agree.

I still had a lot to do that I didn't but I just don't feel like I can motivate myself any further. Are all productive days followed by mostly non-productive ones or is that just me?

So that Sunday list up top, I did mostly none of it. That means I have to make my breakfast sausages on Monday night (so the pork doesn't go bad), the sorbet and cantaloupe puree on Tuesday, the seasonings on Wednesday, the infused tequila on Thursday, the infused vodka on Friday (I can't do that one any earlier since it has strawberries), and the rest on Saturday. I also have a round of grocery stores to hit this week since I can't get everything at any one. Wish me luck!