Monday, June 08, 2009

Follow Up

Friday night I had some lofty goals of things I wanted to get done over the weekend.
Shockingly, I did NOT accomplish all of them.

1. GARDENING
A few days ago I purchased some tomato, squash, and zucchini plants with the intentions of putting together a container garden. Over the weekend I did get out the half barrel planters we've had for numerous years now.
The unfortunate part is that these barrels went unused for the past two years and sat empty. This caused the wood to shrink to the extent that they are pretty much ruined. So, gardening did not get done, I am now faced with the dilema of either buying new planters or preparing a section of the yard for planting.

2. PATIO
Didn't do a single thing with it.

3. GOAT CHEESE
I tried. Heaven knows I tried.
I followed the recipe exactly, and I have no clue why, but the milk would NOT curdle. No matter how much lemon juice or vinegar or how long I let it sit. I eventually ended up pouring a half gallon of goats milk, the juice from 4 or 5 lemons, and approximately half a cup of apple cider vinegar down the drain.

4. PHOTOSHOP
I DID get all of my photoshop work done. Both the wedding AND the senior portraits. Yay me!

5. THIN OUT MY BOOKSHELVES
Nope.

6. FLIRT WITH THE BUTCHER
Unfortunately I got SO wrapped up in the photoshop work Sunday that I lost track of time and didn't get to the butchers before they closed yesterday.

A couple of things I did get done this weekend that WEREN'T on my To Do List?

1. Visit my baby brother in jail - thats an entire entry of its own for another time.

2. Vietnamese Coffee Popsicles
Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE my coffee. Drink it daily, all throughout the day. A few years ago my uncle introduced me to Vietnamese coffee - a strongly brewed coffee, similar to espresso, blended with sweetened condensed milk. I would LOVE to get a set of Vietnamese coffee filters, but I fear how much sweetened condensed milk I would consume if I did.
A couple weeks ago I saw this recipe for Vietnamese coffee popsicles and knew that I HAD to make them. This weekend, I did. They were AMAZING. Even Grandma liked them.

3. DETERGENT
A couple weeks ago I told you about what I will call "The Great Detergent Debacle of 2009", also known as "Vanessa Doesn't Like To Follow Directions".
I had attempted to make a concentrated version of my own liquid laundry detergent only to have it turn into a semi-solid consistency. As a result, by the time I had thinned it out to a gel detergent consistency, I had FIFTEEN gallons of the stuff. Since then, its been sitting in buckets.
This weekend I had finally gathered enough empty laundry detergent bottles, 2 liter soda bottles, milk jugs, etc to bottle the stuff. I've given some away to my mom and to neighbors... I STILL have TEN bottles that I don't know what to do with.
The drawback is that even though I thinned it out to a gel detergent consistency, it tends to separate? I've used the stuff and it works just fine as long as you shake it before using it. I just don't have a scientific enough mind to understand why its separating. I guess that it has something to do with all of the various ingredients mixing and bonding together during the initial preparation and the additional water being added after the fact?
I'm thinking I'm going to take some down to the pub and see if I can unload any there. For some reason, some people are hesitant to accept homemade detergent? I made it for sensitive skin since Grandma requires it.

4. LAUNDRY
Got mine done, as well as the towels. Now, I just need to work on Grandmas.

5. DRANK COFFEE
Really, I'm just adding this to make myself feel better for not doing more that was on my actual To Do list.

6. CUDDLED WITH SAM & COOPER
See #5.

1 comment:

Tanya Kristine said...

i wish i loved coffee but alas, i do not. i AM able to choke down Iced coffee with agave & cream but not hot. and o fcourse i love iced mochas...i just DO NO LIKE COFFEE i must be a communist.

i planted ALL my vegies this year in 5 gallon buckets. i was too lazy to prepare the garden this year...i'ave already had one cuke!