Cleaning and Cooking

 

Approximately once a month, my husband gets together with friends for an evening of beer and food.  They call themselves The Beer Boys.  Each guy takes a turn at hosting, planning the menu, etc. They also text each other whenever they are enjoying a beer -- so I hear multiple texts come in every night.  The next meeting of TBBs is on Friday, so I decided to gather the wives for a Wine Women night.  I'm going to host. I'll provide the main dish and a starch. One guest will bring appetizers, another a salad, and another dessert.  I'm taking on the side because one of the wives works for Joanne and is having to work so many hours as they go through the liquidation process.

While my house is always neat and mostly clean, only one of my guests has seen our new kitchen.  When we did the kitchen, we also put down new flooring on the entire first floor and painted all the rooms.  Last year we put in new flooring upstairs and painted everything.  The ladies will be checking it all out, which means it's got to really be clean.  Today, I wiped down all of the cabinetry along the sink wall.  I also did the stove area.  Our oven was in a sad state of neglect.  That meant after scrubbing the microwave and venting, I had to turn my attention to the stove.  My first job was scrubbing the exterior, then I started work on the inside.  My goal was to clean as much by hand as possible so the self-clean cycle could run over night.  The top oven will be completely done by morning, and I will work on the bottom one tomorrow.  Then I'll finish wiping down the rest of the cabinetry.  One thing with black lowers, is that paint gets scuffed off the baseboard trim. So that will get a touch up too.  The inside of the fridge will need a little work as well.

I purchased this shirt and slack set for Tommy thinking it was a linen blend. Turns out it is all synthetic -- so he won't wear it.  The slacks are probably also a little small.  I washed it today with plans to give it to a friend for her son. He is growing like a beanstalk.  A few months back, I found a pair of Vibram boots, new for seven bucks that I thought would fity Tommy.  They were not wide enough. But the same size my friend's son wears. It was so nice to be able to pass them along.  He wears them all of the time.

It is a good thing I washed this set first and tumbled it in the dryer. Not only is all of the musty smell gone, but condoms in a pocket also fell out. I would not wanted to have had these go along with the outfit!  Have you ever found something embarassing or interesting like this in a thrifted find?

Frankie and I enjoyed the mild day.  We could walk without fear of slipping or falling. There was no brutal cold or harsh wind.  It also meant I had to go back and work on leash manners with her.  It's so hard to do that on bad footing, so I loop the leash around her hips to keep her from pulling.  That is not a substitute for learning how to politely heel.  Once back home, I opened the screen door up front and in back and pulled down the storm glass to let fresh air into the house. It was so nice!

Dinner used food from the freezer: Frozen (formerly fresh) green beans and 5 cheese tortellini from Flashsfood.  Chicken thighs that had been on sale at Save-a-Lot a month ago ($1.29 per pound), tossed with the very last of the marinara I made over the weekend.  We have tortellini and beans left over, and I saved the two thigh bones for stock.

Did you have a mild day today?  I know more snow is coming, and tomorrow lots of rain is in the forecast. That's OK, I will be getting my house ready for the wives.