What riches I have...

I got to buy milk today!!

Yesterday, I worked with someone on cleaning up a laptop, some brief Excel lessoning, and configuring personal preferences.  As a thank you, I am getting a firewood rack for the back porch, so that my ever so lovely restored floor will not get scratched up by the wood I keep there during the winter.  I will also be able to keep the firewood slightly away from the new lattice, once that project gets tended.

I finally found a new home for one of the four sage plants in my raised beds.  Clearly, I only need one or perhaps two at the very most.  If I can find a home for a second one, I will feel less wasteful.  For even if I harvest all the sage from this year, the plant is a perennial and thus will create the same problem of excess next year.

I have the potential of a new home for one of the basil bushes with someone who wants to try and winter it.  I have thought I might try to winter one, but I am not sure.  I will definitely try to winter the rosemary bushes.  I am tempted to try and leave one in the bed, trimmed down and mulched over and then put one in the solarium to see which way works best.

As soon as the sauna environment ceases outside, I am going to gird my loins and start drying herbs.  Maybe the abundant success of the raised bed will extend to the drying rack.  I am not sure why it is that I am so fearful of failing.  I mean, clearly I have enough herbs to practice with if getting the drying process down takes a bit of a learning curve.

I do want to make some herb butter, but I need to stock up on the butter supply for that.  I think I would like sage butter and rosemary butter best.  Maybe even a combination of sage, rosemary, and thyme.  For the latter two, I am tempted to go into the basement living space freezer and remove the leaves from the stem to reduce the volume of space the frozen herbs take.  However, I am not sure if that will bruise them or otherwise harm them in some fashion.

The other GREAT VICTORY of late is that I finally cleaned the antique fireplace screen.  It was dirty when I bought the house and has only accumulated more dust and dirt.  You could not see clearly into the fireplace, and when backlit by a fire, the dirt was taunting me.  My plan was to use the jet feature of my water hose sprayer.  Oh, my!  It is just lovely now!  And so easy!!  I think the whole process took me about five minutes to complete, using first the jet feature and then the fan feature on the sprayer.  I cannot figure out why I put it off for so long.  The screen sits on the decorative ends of two andirons, which I adore.  The set was clearly hand crafted and is rather old ... fitting for my home.

In December, I will have lived here four years.  That is hard to believe.  In December, Amos will turn four years old, that is even harder to believe.

How could this little fluff ball be turning FOUR??  SIGH.

For dinner last night, I tried grilling sausage again, using the other kind (non-chicken) that I bought.  I found the sausage to be incredibly tasty—especially since it wasn't charred—and am frustrated because I did not take a photo of the package.  I knew nothing about sausage and so basically choose it after staring at all the options for about 30 minutes.  I would like to keep some sausage in the freezer from now on since I am ever in need of extra protein with my innards malfunctions, but would really like for it to be the sausage I ate last night.  I stared at the selection in the store for a long while today, but, alas, nothing seemed familiar.  I very, very, very much dislike the state of my brain.

When I went to Target for my prescriptions before fetching groceries, even though I had called on Monday to ensure all was well with the fill-in pharmacist, there were three prescriptions with problems.  I started to melt down and then started to hate that I was melting down.  Mary, kind soul, was on the phone with me, so she heard the panic and onset of tears and request to just pay for the ones that were good and come back later.

I hate, hate, hate how upset I get, how shaky and tearful, anxious and fearful and out of control, when things do not go according to plan.  And it is frustrating when I work so hard to check and double check things that the plans still fail.  Two prescriptions were for 90 days, which do not fit my budget and one of them was the wrong dosage (doctor's office error).  The other one was my thyroid medication that was back to the non-generic.  Given that you just don't mess around with thyroid medication, I asked for that one to be refilled, but the prescription from the GP was restricted to brand name.  That confused me further because the surgeon prescribes and monitors the medication, so I was starting to become rather lost.  I pulled from the bags the four good medications and asked again to simply pay for them.

Afterwards, Mary assured me that I was not as bad as I feared, that I was not too unkind or anything. But I just hate that the breakdown of my brain (and body) is not something that I can keep from only affecting me.  After hanging up with Mary, I went to Walmart for groceries.  Whilst in the return line, I called the surgeon's office and was able to talk to her nurse, who promptly sent over a new prescription.  I called Target, apologized a dozen times, asked for forgiveness, tried to speak how much I appreciate all that they do for me, and arranged to come get the new thyroid medication and the 30-day supply of the asthma medication.  Since I still have some of the final problem prescription, I can wait for that to be straightened out and come when I next fill the Larin.

I was so very relieved to be able to walk away and then come back before driving home.  I was also relieved to have both the tech and the pharmacist say that they understood that I do not like it when I start to get upset and were not offended.  The pharmacist told me that she spent some time making notes in my profile so that the fill-in pharmacist can get to know me a bit better.  She also keyed in a restriction to a quantity of 30 days.  Somehow I need to remember that setting automatically changes when you get a new prescription.  I think I need to make a small book of checklists, one of which being going to the pharmacist.

Another checklist I need:  how to get in and out of an elevator.  SIGH.

Given the dog days of summer heat just now, I was plumb exhausted after my trip to the post office, two trips to Target, and a trip to Walmart.  But I was not too tired to pull into a liquor store that is most conveniently on the way home, on the right side of the road.  That limoncello liquor is now in my freezer.

The fun part about that stop was the man who helped me.  He told me that he weighs 275, is a bouncer at a night club, and is a biker.  The latter I sort of got from his clothing and tattoos and beard combination.  When I told him what I was looking for, he started in about this motorcycle tour of Italy he took, where he first had limoncello!  From all appearances, you would think I would be terrified of the man, but he was kind and gentle and was rather funny.  Since I like liquors, he was telling me that I should try combining Bailey's and Butterscotch Schnapps.  What a concept!  I laughed my way out the door, especially since he told me what days he works for when I need another bottle of limoncello.  There was nothing flirty about the exchange ... just this ... kindness.  Actually, it felt kind of Southern.

Once home, I dragged my bags to the house, changed back into comfortable clothing for my ever-painful midsection, and fed Amos.  Then, I put away my groceries ... lovingly lingering a bit over my milk stash.  For dinner, I had two of the special hotdogs my neighbor had brought me.  They are the ones sold in stadiums. I forget how she gets them, but she remembered that once a year I like to have hotdogs.  She brought me four the other day, so I grilled up two of them, put two buns in the freezer,  and gave my neighbor's son the four extra buns from the package I had bought at the store.

Not only were the hotdogs not charred, they were bloody fantastic!  I really savored the meal.  LOTS of my beloved mustard, some ketchup, a bit of mayonnaise, the grilled hotdog, more beloved yellow mustard, and a slathering of sweet pickle relish.  Mmmmmmm!

I did not share with Amos.  He took his offense later by stealing a piece of toffee off the side table when I was tending to my own personal business.  I thought about posting his person for sale on Craigslist.  How dare he eat my candy!!!  But where would I be without the one who cares for me so faithfully and shares my pillow???

[I was reading.  Amos was snoring.]

Without my planned dessert, I decided to try what the liquor store clerk recommended.  If you are a fan of liquors, especially Bailey's, I would highly recommend that you try this.  Wow!  I personally do not care for the official name of the drink (which I am purposely omitting), but I very much care for the taste of it!  Sadly, my supply of Bailey's is low, so I already put that on next month's shopping list.

As for my austere goal ... I think I need some sort of intervention.  I spent $105, which is close, but did not include enough milk for the whole month.  So, I've revised my austere goal to $125.  Not that I need $20 more of milk, but there were no grapes either.  I'd like to have fresh fruit and vegetables mid-month. And, as long as I am taking that horrid tasting liquid erythromycin, I wish to have grapes on hand.

As for intervention, I say that because I thought about making the chipotle chicken chili later this month and realized that would leave my larder bare of the essential ingredients for chipotle chicken chili.  To me, that is not acceptable!  Just like it is not acceptable to not always have the ingredients for pulled pork tacos on hand.  Or, really, to not have a freezer at least mostly full (if not completely full) of meals and vegetables (and butter and buttermilk and stock and goat milk cheese and meats).  Because ... well ... in addition to the canned beans and diced tomatoes for the chili, I also put in the a bag of black beans and peppers for another batch of black bean soup.

Why do I want such a full freezer?  Why do I look at four jars of chipotle chicken chili and immediately feel the need to whip up another batch?  That's four week's worth, with the rotation I've been doing.  A whole month before I really and truly need to cook.  SIGH.

I just plain flummox myself these days.

Baby Bunny (now three years old) was sunning himself on the back steps when I got home.  When I started up the sidewalk, he leapt off and went to leave, so I immediately stopped, sat down where I was, and began whispering sweet nothings to him, telling him tales of how much I've enjoyed his company over the years.  He listened for a long while before taking himself on over to safety around the side of the garage.

Can you believe that grass was mowed on Sunday??  Last night, I sat on the steps awaiting my puppy dog and spent a while thanking God for providing this amazing home and then Firewood Man to bring me fires and turn the brown, barren yard into GREEN lusciousness.  For eight years ... or was it 10 ... I battled Virginia clay and lost, repeatedly trying and failing to get grass to grow at my old home.

What riches have I! Two friends who are willing to be in my ear when I am out and about doing something that might be anxiety-inducing, Firewood Man, a kind clerk, patient pharmacists, an awesome surgeon, a fluffy white puppy dog, a baby bunny, and GREEN grass!!