After the cold wet spring (and late cold winter) we had some just beautiful weather for awhile there, I guess it was back in June, dry and cool, into the 50s at night so nice for sleeping, and not too humid. But I had to turn on the AC last week – Tuesday I slept on the couch because it was just too hot upstairs – and now it’s just not cooling downstairs. There’s no cold air coming out of the vent in the dining room where the thermostat is, and the AC’s blasting constantly and can’t cool the place lower than about 78°. And looky cold spring/hot summer is the theme of my latest CSA newsletter.
Yea, first world problems, but I’m calling the heating/cooling company tomorrow to come take a look. I hope I don’t need new AC – that’ll be difficult to finance along with the incredibly expensive garage that we’ve been planning for a long time, although I have yet to hear what our start date is going to be. Fingers crossed the garage’ll be done by mid-October, and I won’t need new AC.
In recent cooking adventures, the pantry meal on Tuesday was:
- all those muffins I made – rhubarb, banana, corn, zucchini chocolate chip, and just a few date/walnut (made with leftover charoset back right after Passover and frozen);
- pepper & egg sandwiches – hunks of good crusty bread donated by Batch, oven baked eggs with mozzarella, sauteed peppers & onion;
- pulled pork that came frozen in bags;
- tossed green salad;
- cantaloupe and grapes.
I had a pile of the peppers & onions on buttered French bread, and the pork looked awfully tasty, too. But Monday night Mark and I had eaten pulled pork sandwiches at the Union Terrace and mine was good, but sat very heavy in my stomach, so I couldn’t quite handle pork for breakfast the very next morning. I also burned my lower leg by getting too close the oven door; the oven in a 6 burner stove so close to the ground. I used to do it when I worked at the co-op women’s dorm, too. It looks sorta like the kind of burns people get from motorcycle tail pipes but it’s on the wrong side. It looks like hell, actually. It’s why you’re supposed to wear long pants and closed shoes in the kitchen, not a play skirt like I had on.
I made it to work in time for my 11:00 AM meeting (changed clothes and brushed my hair after), and got through the rest of the day OK, tho I was late for my 5:45 haircut. It was a 15 minute bang trim, and I didn’t get there until something like five after 5:00, so I missed the whole appointment. They kindly rescheduled me for 5:30, and I sat and waited, didn’t dare try to drive to the library and pick up a book, I would’ve missed the new time as well.
I came home and made quesadillas with the leftover calabacitas, a light dinner, and then rewarded myself with too much chocolate, that kept me awake, but not as bad as the heat that forced me to sleeping on the couch.
Wednesday was kind of a more normal work day, fewer meetings, met a friend for coffee in the morning, went on a walking tour – The UW-Madison First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour. I ate a better dinner – naan with melted cheese and coleslaw – and this time my treat was ice cream with strawberry sauce and a couple episodes of Handmaid’s Tale. Which I enjoyed, although I read a pretty scathing review of episode 7, one of the episodes I watched.
Wednesday ice cream with strawberries
I’m starting to do site visits for my practicum students so that means a boatload of phone calls, and a few in-person visits.
Friday I had three of them, then went to Fete de Marquette to pour beer. I had an Underground Butcher hotdog from their food truck for dinner, then went to a candlelight vigil to stop the concentration camps, stopping to take a picture (like everybody else) of the sunset.
Saturday morning we biked to the West Side Farmers Market and it was already hot. We bought a few things, came home for breakfast, and then I reported to the Art Fair to do my brat grilling shift. Which was kind of fun, but pretty brutal in the heat. Mark came to meet me when I finished up at 3:00, and wanted to walk around the last two sides of the Square and look at the art. I made it the side from King St. to Pinckney St., but when we started walking from there over to State St. we were facing right into the sun, and I couldn’t take it – had to switch over to the sidewalk where there was a little shade. I biked home and had to sit and cool off a bit before I could even shower.
Saturday breakfast when it was already 85°
Rach arrived and we had a big salad for dinner, and that’s when we noticed no cold air in the dining room.
Sunday we had a few friends over for brunch, Carl & Susan, and Heike without Steve, and Belinda without Stephen.
I made a gratin with fennel and squash from my CSA, and crumbs from a few hunks of that good donated-by-Batch bread, that I brought home from the pantry, and Parmesan cheese and olive oil. With scrambled eggs and a spicy no-cook tomato sauce from Bon Appetit. And Maida’s blueberry crumb cake, and a big platter of fruit.
And I finally found that gif of Megan Rapino kicking Trump away.
