On-peak and in the dark

I'm writing this post in the dark.

I'm trying to conserve electricity.

Kind of ironic as the last post I wrote revolved around the fact we got new lights installed.

We use them sparingly as we are trying to conserve electricity. I'm trying to fight the urge to turn off the new dining room light, but it wouldn't be fair to darling daughter or dear husband as they need light to colour.

This past weekend, there was a letter to the editor in the paper, about a woman who does all her laundry on the weekends. She was torn between visiting her family or doing the marathon of laundry so she can take advantage of Ontario's time-of-use electricity pricing as the rates are 5.1 cents a kilowatt-hour. I understand her plight. I visited family over the weekend and now I'm faced with laundry catch up. Darling daughter is down to her last pair of underwear. I can't find any socks and we are in desperate need of clean towels. If I was to turn on the washer right now, I'd be charged 9.9 cents a kilowatt-hour. The countdown to 9 p.m. is on as I can turn on the dryer, the washer and the dishwasher. All are primed for prime time off-usage. The dishwasher is filled and has a detergent tablet. The dryer is filled with wet clothes. (I broke down and washed clothes during the afternoon, where I will be charged the mid-peak rate of 8.8 cents a kilowatt-hour). And the washer is filled with clothes. Once the clock strikes 9, I'll be pressing buttons, trying to get as much done in a two-hour period before going to bed.

I'm not too sure how I feel about this. It is hard to break old habits. But I don't want to get in the habit of doing laundry at 3 a.m.

Let there be light

Sometimes the simple things can make your day.

In my case, it is the installation of new lights. This should have been done long ago, about four years ago, in fact. But it is one of the many things that we have put off.

Me: We really should get those lights installed.

Dear husband: Yep.

Me: We bought four lights a couple of years ago and there they sit in the closet, gathering dust.

Dear husband: Yep.

Me: We should really find a good electrician.

Dear husband: Yep.

And that is where the conversation would end: me wishing for lights, dear husband agreeing with me, and absolutely no action happening on either of our parts to get the job done. And the lights would sit, in the boxes they came in. (However, the boxes came in handy a couple of years ago as dear husband used them them to prop up baseboards when he was doing some painting).

Four years, a wedding and one child later, we finally got the lights installed today. In addition to the four we purchased four years ago, we got another three. And we even got the electrician to fix a couple of switches in the house. Now when I go to the bathroom, I don't have to use a dimmer switch. I just press the toggle switch and voila! Light! (Yes, I had a dimmer switch in my bathroom. Don't have a clue as to why as it was there when dear husband purchased the house).

Goodbye old chandelier. Goodbye dust collecting ceiling fans. Hello new lights. For the last half hour I've been admiring my new lights, turning them on and off. I can't wait for dear husband to come home so he can admire them, too.

A cute and furry visitor

Yesterday, a cat found its way into my backyard.

I had taken the last two days "off" from work, meaning I put darling daughter in daycare in order to do some stuff around the house -- namely declutter. As usual, the plan didn't go as planned as life always has a tendency to get in the way and not much got done.

While I was putting away laundry, I heard a distinct meow. When I looked out the window, I saw a black kitty, about six months old, crying for attention. When it comes to cats, I'm a sap as I'm a cat person. But no amount of pleading, asking and begging dear husband for a cat has gotten me anywhere over the years. So I was delighted when I saw this poor little kitty crying for my help.

I fed it. After it ate, it decided to take refuge behind the air conditioner. I knew this cat wasn't going anywhere as it found a food source. Bringing it inside was out of the question. Not only would dear husband freak, so would darling daughter. Although she loves animals, bringing one into the household at his point and time isn't feasible.

I made a temporary "cat house" out of an empty recycling box and a plastic dish wash bin. The bin became the bed and the recycling box became the house. I faced the box towards a stack of patio stones to reduce wind exposure. Apparently kitty loved her house because she stayed the night.

My backyard isn't a suitable home for kitty. So kitty and I took a ride down to the local shelter, where I discovered kitty was a six month old female. It was hard surrendering her to the shelter worker. I got a bit misty eyed. But kitty is safe. She is inside. She got vaccinated. She is with other kitties. She may be reunited with her owner if they decide to claim her. Or she may be adopted into a loving home. I wish kitty all the best.

Cleaning house

One thing that makes me sad is neglected blogs.

People blog. I like to think they blog for a reason. I also like to think they enjoy blogging. But whenever I come across a blog that hasn't had any recent postings, I wonder, what gives? What has happened to that person? Why aren't they blogging? Do they not care about their readers?

In my case life has gotten in the way. This is the first time in a week since I've found the time to log in and write. I've been busy, busy, busy, mainly dealing with decluttering and other house issues. It is time to clean house, so to speak. I've been packing stuff away, going through stuff, sorting stuff into piles, giving stuff away on freecycle and selling stuff on kijiji and usedottawa. Right now, I can deal with the organized chaos of my basement. What I can't deal with is the mounds of paper I need to shred. This is no word of a lie, but I have two big garbage bags filled with shredded documents. And I'm not done. I'll likely fill another bag before I'm completely finished.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a little break between shredding sessions to pop on and say hi. I'm sorry that I've neglected the blog. It has been very much on my mind, but I need to deal with the clutter first. It is time to clean house.

Crock Pot Mondays

I'm not a fan of Dijon mustard. In fact, it hasn't been granted any space in my refrigerator until now. A lot of the slow cooker recipes I've used lately have called for Dijon mustard. Yuck. I don't like the taste nor the smell. I like to ignore the Dijon mustard requirement and replace it with traditional North American yellow mustard. Yum! However, I have since learned that some people may not consider yellow mustard real mustard. And since most recipes I'm using call for the Dijon stuff, I broke down and bought some last week.

I wanted to try Stephanie O'Dea's margarita chicken recipe, which calls for Dijon mustard. When I was putting the sauce together yesterday, I could detect the tangy smell from the Dijon. I wanted to kick my butt. I really, really don't like Dijon mustard and at the time I thought I should have gone with my gut and substituted yellow mustard.

But I'm glad I decided to experiment as this recipe is the most tasty dish I've made, to date, from the recipes on Stephanie's blog. There were absolutely no leftovers and I really wanted to make it again, as in today. It was super yummy and it was a huge hit. As I didn't have any margarita mix, I substituted three tablespoons of lime juice. I bet this sauce would taste wonderful with pork tenderloin.

I've decided that I will no longer ignore the Dijon mustard requirements of any recipes. Although I have granted some room for a bottle of Dijon in my refrigerator, none of this mustard will grace any sandwich I make.

Knitting overdrive, part two

A month ago, I wrote a post about how I was in full knitting overdrive. As such, I have made a dent in my queue, only to replace finished projects with new projects.

The sweater I was test knitting is basically done. At this point I have to sew on the buttons and block it. Darling daughter's playground sweater is also complete. I didn't bother blocking it (but I will) and she has already wore it once. The market bag is done. The socks, featured above, are on the homestretch. I have successfully turned the heel and now I'm heading towards the toes. Yipee.

When I get busy like this, I have no qualms in taking my knitting with me to my Friday morning playgroup. While darling daughter goes from station to station, I trail behind with my knitting, trying to complete a couple of rows as sometimes every row counts. The kids look at my strangely as I try to balance a ball or two of yarn while walking and knitting, but a knitter gotta do what a knitter has to do, and that is knit.

So my queue, to date, is:

* Finish a cupcake hat for a friend. It has to be done tomorrow.
* Make darling daughter a helmet hat. Yes, you heard correctly, a helmet hat. It is for her snowsuit.
* Make darling daughter a pair of socks for Christmas.
* Make a friend's daughter a hat.
* Make a friend a hat
* And likely try to make the French press felted slippers before December. I need to keep my toes toasty warm this winter during playgroups.
* Squeeze in some dishcloth knitting. You can't have enough dishcloths.

Obviously, it remains to be seen if this list gets completed. I'm hoping for the best, but expecting my queue to get longer.

Stick to the plan, ma'am

This week I decided to wing it in the meal planning department.

It was a disaster.

Mental meal planning doesn't work for me. It just doesn't. Compiling a list of meals ideas in my head isn't enough. I have to write it down on paper. Plus, I need to ensure I have the required ingredients to make said meals. After dropping darling daughter off at preschool, I had to make an emergency trip to the grocery store to pick up ingredients for meals for the next three days.

Quite simply, I was too lazy to meal plan. In some ways, I still am as I tend to make the same meals over and over again. Today I did manage to get my act together by opening up a cook book and surfing on the Internet in finding at least two new recipes. I've got a grocery list started and I'm ready to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I'd like to think I'll have fun, but I realize that grocery shopping has now become one of my regular and weekly chores. Sending out dear husband to do this task was so much easier, but I've discovered for me to meal plan successfully, I need to involve myself in the entire process, which includes going grocery shopping. Oh, the things I will do to meal plan.

De-junking the junk drawer

When I was growing up, we had a junk drawer. If you ever needed anything -- pen, pencil, thread, needle, piece of paper -- you looked in the junk drawer first. Twenty years later, not much has changed as I still believe in the existence of the junk drawer.

But the junk drawer has been feeling a bit neglected, I do believe. It is full to the gunnels, as dear husband would say. In fact, it is overflowing. Good luck trying to find anything without it overflowing its drawer banks. It has been at a no vacancy levels in terms of accepting new junk for about three months now. When you get to the point where you have to yank or shove the drawer to either open or close, you've got a definite junk drawer situation.

Today I decided it was time to de-junk the junk drawer. I found old pregnancy tests (yes, I know gross, but until today it was hard to let go of the first tests that notified me the little bean I was pregnant with became darling daughter). I found an old hospital bill of $113 for crutches, removable cast and an ambulance ride. I also found $15 Singapore dollars as well as some good old Canadian Tire money. Old pens that no longer worked, broken magnets, an old wallet all were dejunked, along with a bunch of other stuff.

The junk drawer still has its junky qualities to it. There are pens, elastics, a bunch of hardware odds and ends, several small containers of floss, scissors, Swiffer cloths and finger nail clippers still littering the bottom of the drawer. Granted it still looks messy, but again, what else do you expect from a junk drawer?

Crock Pot Mondays

Orange chicken anyone?

I've been waiting to try Stephanie O'Dea's orange chicken recipe for awhile now. I bought the ingredients a couple of weeks ago. It has only been out of sheer laziness on my part that I haven't made this recipe earlier. As I've said before, I like assembling meals. I hate cooking. The chicken requires a bit of cooking prep before everything goes into the slow cooker.

I'll preface my comments by saying I did like the recipe, but it was a tad too sweet for my taste buds. I think the next time I make this recipe, I'll forget dredging the chicken in flour and browning it because it didn't seem to work for me, plus I hate cooking. I'll reduce either the amount of brown sugar or orange juice concentrate and add a bit of five spice. Since discovering five spice, I like to add it to some dishes that need a bit of zing.

If you are like me and don't have juice in the house, I scooped out about half of the orange juice concentrate from the can, zapped it in the microwave for about 40 seconds to thaw it out and left the remainder of the concentrate in the can and placed it a freezer bag. Now, the next time I make this recipe I don't have to go out and buy orange juice. What can I say? I'm cheap that way.