I had a relatively productive day – breakfast with friends then got some paperwork done, then yardwork, mostly pruning. I got someone to take my big pile of plant pots off my hands. And did some cleaning indoors. And baked quiches.
On the job hunting front – finally things are starting to pick back up after the storm. With luck that will mean new interviews and maybe eventually an offer somewhere?
In the garden: the city picked up the last of my enormous pile of brush. Between the shade from the brush pile and the gouging from the thing they used to scoop up the pile, my front lawn is pretty trashed. I also think my little magnolia tree is dying. So…. resod with St Augustine, or is there a cool native grass that would do well on a sunny lawn space? Or non-native – wonder how Zoysia would do?
Also thinking of planting some dwarf fruit trees to replace the magnolia in front and the big tree in the back. My neighbor grows oranges, grapefruit, and lemons; I have had good luck with my meyer lemon tree. I am wondering what else would grow in our climate and what varieties are recommended. I suppose I should look up the county extension office and see if they have any lists.
Inside I have managed to back up all the computers onto the big backup drive, and am working on burning all our CDs onto it. Next goal is to get the wireless printer server working. Then research about sound system – can it all be run through the computer into a network of speakers throughout the house? Since I can listen to music on an iPod, does it really matter?
Also digging through clutter – anyone want an 8-year old HP multimachine printer/scanner? How about an even older epson laser printer? How about a pile of used video tapes – feel free to tape over the assorted episodes of Smallville and Buffy… How about a large chipper/shredder that didn’t sell when I put it up on Craig’s list? This last I’d like some cash for; the others are for the taking. While I pull out all the clutter and reorganize, the house looks like the hurricane passed through indoors!
And pie crust – have started making quiche regularly (K really likes it) but was using store-bought pie crusts. Then at the store last week K bought crusts that were all broken into pieces – too many pieces to jigsaw them back together. So I just wet them down a bit, rolled them into a ball, then rolled out the ball into new pie crusts. Didn’t seem so hard and I thought "Isn’t a pie crust just flour, water, oil, salt? Maybe I should be making my own." So need to solicit peoples’ recipes for easy-to-make crust.
On my to-do list are: getting the roof checked out for storm damage, getting the sprinkler system repaired, getting estimates for replacement windows, landscaping purchases as hinted at above, and finish the massive indoor cleanup. The idea is to get it all in order before someone hands me a new job…. hopefully not too much longer!
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