I’m going to have to do one of those catch up posts before I forget everything. This is brought on by trying to remember when we went to see The Fault in Our Stars – it was after Toni left July 10 but before August 1 – I think – tho it could’ve been after Bootcamp, so after August 9 – see just can’t remember. And, trying to look up past movie listings on the Internetz just doesn’t work that well.
So this week – we drove back from Door County on Monday – in the rain. We stopped at Seaquist and got a 10 pound bucket of cherries and assorted jams & pie fillings. Stopped at the Cookery for breakfast because the line at White Gull was too long. We got back to Madison at about 3:00-ish, and Mark got ready to head for the train to Chicago for his work week. I knew I was going to have to do some last minute updates to my courses, before they opened the Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM. The weather was still iffy. Megan decided to walk to Trader Schmoes for her groceries, and got soaked. I puttered around, repacking the half thawed cherries in quart buckets, sorting and recycling mail, unpacking … I think I worked on my courses first, waiting to take advantage of a dry spell to bike to Sentry and Whole Foods for groceries.
I settled down at about 8:00 with my laptop in front of TV, and sort of dinked away at stuff, ate the last of the Babcock Hall peach melba ice cream, and the almost the last hunk of blueberry ice cream sandwich, and watched The Trip on Netflix.
Tuesday was the first day of school. I had a phone meeting at 11:00, but nothing else on a time frame, just working on getting class presentations and websites ready. And then a REAP meeting about the Food for Thought fest, 5 or 6 friends coming by at 5:00 to talk about the Chef Showdown event. I put out vacation leftovers for snackage – ground up the salsa I’d made on Washington Island with half a not very spicy jalapeño that was in the fridge and mixed in some tomato paste, the last fresh tomato that had been to Door County & back, and the jarred salsa we bought in Fish Creek, and put it out with corn chips that I had, and sweet potato chips that I bought at Whole Foods Monday. I also had a dab of zucchini butter, to go with a newly purchased baguette. It was hot, and I got out a bunch of fizzy waters and had lemon & lime wedges and Knudsen Pineapple Coconut juice, and lots of ice. Liz brought a box of assorted Bloom Bakeshop cupcakes, that were really good at first, got melty during the meeting, and were pretty awful the next day after being refrigerated. The butter cream frosting kind of congealed into a layer of solid butter, and the cake lost all its tenderness.
Box of assorted Bloom cupcakes
On Wednesday, seems like I had a lot of meetings during the work day. After, I biked to an art opening at a coffee place – textile art & handkerchiefs. I called my friend Susan, who’s retired from being a school nurse and working on a PhD in art history, and she met me there. Everyone else was either someone I’d known for forever, or someone who was a familiar face, since I’ve lived in Madison over 30 years. Megan and ate the leftover pasta pesto and pizza bread for dinner. I went up and re-watched the last episode of the Wire, on Apple TV at Mark’s apartment to keep fluff cat company.
Thursday started with sopping up water from the basement floor. Replacing my towel dams and using the wet vac, while poor waked-up Megan sat in bed and watched. The thunderstorms had started at 4:30 AM, and I went downstairs and closed all the windows except one of the ones over the kitchen sink – the one that I have to basically stand in the sink to close. When I got the kitchen remodeled in 2001, the windows over the sink were supposed to be casement, so I could just crank them open like a door, but that got left off in the final plans due to price … another thing to spend money on when I sell the supper club house.
I went back to bed until the National Weather Service said run for your life – I figured I better go check the basement at that point.
Oh boy 45 mins. sopping up wet basement after NWS said run for your life. Before coffee pic.twitter.com/920PgbUpGU
— Debra Shapiro (@DebsLunch) September 4, 2014
In addition to the thunderstorms, my street is a mudhole right now – the city is replacing the sewers, gutters, sidewalks and streets – paying Parisi Construction $1.8 million. The water was supposed to be shut off all day Thursday; the irony of too much water on the basement floor, and none in the taps. So, after I got rid of the water on the basement floor, I made a pot of coffee and filled up the Britta, and reminded Megan that there was a whole gallon of water up in Mark’s fridge. I spun dry my basement rag towel-dam towels in shifts, and dried them in the dryer without washing, figuring I’d need to use them again soon enough – and they came out remarkably soft and fluffy – I guess that’s rainwater the fresh that all the detergent companies try to imitate.
By the time I got home, even though it had rained more, the basement was dry, and the water was back. I dropped off my computer and went to get my CSA box. Megan went to watch the Packers with friends. I had class at 7:00 so I had an early pre-class dinner of cheese quesadillas and the last of salsa. Class went OK, and fluff cat only had to be alone for about 20 minutes between the time class ended and Mark got back.
Friday I had to be at work by 8:00; student advising appointment at 10:00, and was also trying to help John get ready for his first presentation of his 2nd year of grad school. I got an heirloom tomato in my CSA box, and I had a delicious, drippy, tomato sandwich on whole wheat toast for lunch. Then I had the intro online class meeting for my other class at 1:00, and then I intended to come straight home, but with this and that I wasn’t back until 3:30 or so, and of course I still had work stuff to do. Took Megan to the bus to Chicago at 5:00, then I came back home and made Spanish rice with ground beef for supper, instead of the taco pie I was planning, since it used up more stuff that needed to be used – veggie broth & hamburger meat, primarily. I got corn and poblanos in my most recent CSA, so I’ll make the taco pie Monday. And I hope I can turn my eggplant (one regular, one Asian, and the regular one went all the way to Washington Island & back) into a casserole or caponata or something before it goes bad.
After eating the Spanish rice, we went to see Trampled by Turtles at Overture – it was fun to see people drinking beer in the big concert hall, although I’m sure Pleasant wouldn’t like it – Pleasant Rowland, the founder of Pleasant Company/American Girl’s husband, Jerry Frautschi, was the major donor to build the Overture Center in Madison, and Pleasant & Jerry were responsible for the lovely light blond stone and woodwork. The concessions did not sell red wine for years after the place opened for fear of stains. Even now, you can get your (light-colored) beer in a bottle or can, or pay $3 extra for a sippy cup.
At the break, they cranked up the smoke machine and played heavy metal. The heavy metal stayed unexplained, but when Trampled by Turtles started it was obvious that their light show required a certain amount of smoke in the air. I had fun talking to a young arborist who works for the city, sitting next to me – we started talking because his wife went to say hi to a librarian we know, who was sitting a few rows in front of us. Turns out they know her husband who works for DNR. Ah, Madison.
