Happy Halloween!

Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison’d entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights hast thirty one
Swelter’d venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,

(Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I)

Five years ago today: Trick Or Treat... Smell My Feet...

Starbucks Has No Coffee

Hubby Tony and were out running errands and decided we needed a mid-afternoon jolt of caffeine. We knew that a nearby Target store had a Starbucks cafe inside, and my Starbucks card Was loaded with plenty of money, so we popped in to get a cup to share. There were five people ahead of us in line, and I had to use the bathroom, so I gave my card to Tony and went to take care of business.

When I came back he was still waiting with two people ahead of him. (There was only one barista visible and she was doing it all.) We waited patiently until it was our turn, then asked for a Grande black coffee. The barista smiled, then with an apologetic tone to her voice she explained she couldn't help us; their coffee machine was out of order.

Five years ago today: WHAT?

Fajitas For Two

The other day Hubby Tony and I went to a new-to-us Mexican restaurant. After looking over the menu, we decided to order the Veggie Fajitas for Two.  It took less than ten minutes for the waiter to return with this:

In addition to the humongous platter of grilled vegetables, we each received a plate holding rice, beans, and a small salad of lettuce and  chopped tomatoes topped with guacamole, and a package of foil-wrapped tortillas. Tony and I are both big vegetable eaters, but even we couldn't finish everything.

Needless to say, we passed on dessert.

Five years ago today: Gathering Ginger

Froggy In A Flowerpot

Today was Bring in the Houseplants Day here at the house.

Every spring I take my plants outside and let them enjoy the summer. They're all indigenous to tropical areas, so they grow well in our hot, humid temperatures.  However, that means that before the first frost I have to get them back inside.  The pots are large, and it's a messy job to soak everything (15 minutes per pot) in a sinkful of mildly soapy water to remove any potential bugs, and even messier when I transfer the pots to a pan to drain.  Then I have to find spots for all of the plants, taking into account which ones the cats like to munch on. After everything is put away the countertop and floor are a sloppy combination of water puddles and plant debris.

Plants lined up after soaking and draining

When I repotted the spider plants last spring I divided the plants among three baskets.  I only have hooks for two of them, so I decided to offer the third as a raffle prize at an event I'm going to next weekend. As I picked that one up from its draining location I noticed the pot was cracked on the bottom. Fortunately, I had an extra pot so it was easy to fix.

Spider plants don't produce babies until the pots are root bound, so I knew what I was in for.  When I dumped the plant out I noticed the roots had completely encircled the piece of plastic that covered the bottom drain holes.  I started pulling away the plastic, and this guy fell out:

Does he get around or what?

The frog wasn't moving too fast. I'm not sure if it was from the shock of being discovered, the chilly weather, or from his 15-minute soak in the sink.  I felt bad for disturbing his hiding place, so after I finished repotting the plant I encouraged him to hop into a cup, put another cup on top, and moved him to a big planter box of pansies on the front porch.  When I checked ten minutes later he was gone.

Wonder if I'll see any more frogs this season?

Pumpkin Juice

This afternoon, I came inside from doing yard work and poured myself a big glass of pumpkin juice.  Not the Harry Potter kind,  but the actual juice of a pumpkin.  It was quite tasty.

The backstory: On Thursday I made a batch of pumpkin puree.  I like my puree thick, so when it was done I dumped it into a coffee-filter lined colander to drain for several hours. I poured the resulting six cups of liquid into three containers. Two containers went into the downstairs freezer to use for cooking. I got busy and put the last one in the refrigerator, telling myself I'd get around to taking it down later.

Now that I finished off the container I don't have to worry about it.

Finding An Easier Way

Sometimes I figure out ways to make things around the house easier. Two recent examples:

• In the spring and fall I open up a bedroom window in the front of the house and climb out onto the porch roof to clean out the gutters. When I'm done I climb back inside, then repeat the process using the master bathroom window to reach another gutter on the north side of the house. A couple of weeks ago I realized all I had to do is walk on the roof to the north end of the porch, walk over the gable, and then I'm on the back section.  (We've lived in our house for 25 years. I can't believe this hasn't occurred to me before now.)

Down the roof and over the gable

• The early part of this week was record-setting hot (upper 80s Fahrenheit).  However, a cold front came through and today there was a nice nip in the air.  To celebrate the change I decided to buy a pumpkin, cook it, and process it into puree.  While I was out running errands today I picked up one that weighed approximately 15 pounds.  Back at the house I cut the pumpkin into quarters, removed the seeds, placed the pieces into a large roasting pan, and put the pan into the oven.  While the pumpkin cooked I started a pot of broth from the vegetable peelings in the freezer, then busied myself with paperwork.  Both items were done cooking at the same time.  I took the pan of pumpkin out of the oven and set it on the stove to cool, then poured the cooked broth into a colander placed inside a large bowl to strain. 

At this point the kitchen was looking pretty messy.  I usually puree pumpkin with the food processor, but I did not want to add to the mess nor wash up the multiple processor pieces in addition to everything else.  So, thinking creatively, when I took the rind off the pumpkin I tossed the pieces of flesh in the stock pot, then used my immersion blender to get it smooth.  There was a lot of pumpkin to puree, so I probably didn't save much time, but the easier clean up was so worth it.

Five years ago today: Apple-On-A-Stick

Berry's Birthday

I get daily tidbits of St Louis history delivered to my Facebook wall from Vintage St. Louis.  Although I suspect many of them are interesting only to people from the area, others (like this one) have a wider audience:

"1926-Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry was born. His family lived on Goode Street, which is one reason his autobiographical song was called "Johnny B. Goode." Goode Street is now known as Annie Malone Drive. Berry learned to play guitar while attending Sumner High School. After serving time for armed robbery, he worked at the Fisher Body Plant and trained as a hairdresser at the Poro Beauty School before scoring his first hit with "Maybelline" in 1955. In 1986, Berry was among the first performers to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."

Of course Chuck Berry has recorded many iconic songs, but in honor of his 90 birthday, here's the only one to become a number-one single on the U.S. pop charts.

Yea! House Guests!

Sons Donald and Tony came into town last weekend for their cousin's wedding. Although Donald left the day after the wedding, one of Tony's friends was getting married yesterday and Tony decided to stay here for the week in between. His friend Ie, who had never been to St. Louis, accompanied him.

Source

Although both Tony and Ie had to log into the office and do some work during the week, we also had time to play tour guide.  As a family we hit a few of the top city attractions, like the Gateway Arch, the Zoo in Forest Park, and Laumeier Sculpture Park.  Tony also took her in the car to show her other areas.  As the week wore on, their spare time was taken up with Tony's friends and wedding activities, but we still managed watch a few movies and play games. 

Wikipedia

As you might expect, we've also done a lot of eating, including a lot of St Louis cuisine like toasted ravioli (breaded and deep fried), St. Louis style pizza (which has a very thin crust, Provel cheese, and is cut into squares), barbecued pork steaks (sliced from the butt) with Maull's sauce (an important ingredient in St. Louis style barbecue), and gooey butter cake (flat, dense, and dusted with powdered sugar).

All too soon the week was over. This morning Tony and Ie packed up their things and one of Tony's friends came to take them out to lunch and to the airport.  The house is quiet again, and I'm already looking forward to their next time we get to host someone.

Browsing The Browsers

Do you check your blog statistics?

I admit I probably don't do it as often as I should, but the other day I stopped by the Blogger Overview page before I a started a new post. There were some interesting traffic sources and I clicked over onto the detail page, which breaks out page views by country, operating systems, and browsers.

I wasn't surprised to see that the vast majority of my readers come from the United States, but a large handful of people in Spain also stopped by for a visit.  Russia, Canada, France China, Germany, Vietnam, and Australia also dropped in.

All the big operating systems were represented, but I saw that most of the readers here tend to use Windows (63%), followed by Macintosh (14%), Linux, Android, iPad, iPhone, and Unix each had six percent or less.

The biggest surprise was the variety of browsers, including a couple I had never heard of.  Remember when Internet Explorer was the only thing going?  Now, at 8% it matched Safari use, but was behind Chrome (41%) and Firefox (31%) in popularity.   Bringing up the rear with 2% or less each were Mobile, Maxthon, Opera, and Silk.

This Happened The Other Day....

Baby Jay (AKA the world's cutest grandbaby) arrived last weekend. Hubby Tony and I are, of course, thrilled (and have plane tickets to visit him in California soon)!

Five years ago today: Withdraw