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Replaced most of the weather stripping on the front door yesterday. I may go back to Lowes today to finish the job with local weather stripping to replace the Amazon-purchased weather stripping that will not fit in the slot designed for kerf weather stripping.
I half washed the mildew off the front door. I'd found a mildew cleaner and retardant in the cleaning isle at the hardwood store (while looking for butcher block wax). The mildew was in my face as i had struggled with the Amazon-purchased weather stripping: it seems the caulk the previous painters used had become a home for mildew and it's been unsightly since we moved in.
Cleaning the door wasn't high on my to do list and it was taking spoons, but the modified adage "if something's worth doing, it's worth doing half-assed" was in my mind. For procrastinators and perfectionists, that's a helpful adage. The half cleaned door will either inspire me (look, the crap isn't coming back immediately!) or it will confirm my belief that whomever painted the doors did so with inappropriate paint and the real solution is a through repainting with some sort of "killz" type paint and an appropriate top coat.
Also, there were holes drilled through the frame at one point. I wonder if it's some sort of security sensor that was removed. Seems too far spaced for bars. The previous owners were paranoid about break-ins. Admittedly, the fact we both work at home makes break-ins unlikely (the house doesn't scream, "come get expensive stuff," and there's no long reliable period when it's empty to hunt around).
--== ∞ ==--
I became curious about silicone and how "environmentally friendly" a choice it is. It's a polymer with silicon instead of carbon, so it's derived from sand. That's a positive. It does involve a chlorine compound in making it, which is a negative, but my skimming over various material data sheets and reports determines that it is also a naturally occurring compound (swamps, decomposition) and -- on the scale of things -- doesn't seem as concerning as plastics residues.
It's certainly got some of issues around disposal. I don't think it's going to be much better than plastics in the ocean, so i don't want to use it unthinkingly. Silicone (when made without many "fillers") is apparently very rugged though. So quality silicone collapsing cups and bowls are probably good deals. I recently bought a bunch of silicone food containers that i will be happy to toss in my purse as "doggie bags." I'd been using glass containers for leftovers, but we don't have many of the glass containers, and i wanted to start freezing some leftovers to take over for meals with Mom & Dad. The silicone containers are oven safe, which is a bonus.
--== ∞ ==--
Mom had a headache so yesterday's art museum plan was ditched. I had lunch out with my sister and ran errands. I hope the spices i picked up at the co-op are OK. I have had a few ... unhappy ... discoveries in the bulk section that lead me to think the stock turn over is low. Buying bulk spices appeals to my minimal plastic goals, but if the spices are ... worse than stale... it's not helping anything. (It's been a great way to get bay leaves, though.) A bit of poking on the internet and i find https://www.thespicehouse.com/collections/flatpack The envelopes surely have a plastic lining, but the price seems comparable to the grocery store spices.
Cooking-wise i roasted butternut squash to make puree for pies. Peeling the squash is a pain, but the roasting did evaporate so much water. Maybe an alternative would be to roast thin slices, maximizing the cut surface, but leaving long enough strips of peel to make removal after cooking easy. I also made rice flour sugar cookies that turned out quite well.
Today i'm making ginger snap crust based on an amaretto crust recipe (which presumably is like graham cracker crust).
The trauma for the day was when Christine thought she had deleted her data partition from her computer. She had been formatting an external drive so i could mount it on my mother's old Toshiba laptop and rescue the photos, etc. Apparently, she some how dropped the drive letter. I am impressed by how many "recover deleted data" applications are on the market. We bought EaseUS and recovered all the files, and then found the disk drive application allowed her to simply reassign the drive letter. Unnecessary insurance, but it assured us that she had recovered data before possibly making another disk management change. I think i've thrown out all the damaged drives i had once imagined recovering.
I've done a little work today -- given how much work needs to be done to prepare for presentations next month, it's not enough. The holiday is helping me with my sense of being burnt out i think, although the various dramas and traumas are not helping.
--== ∞ ==--
It's after 6 pm, and i'm feeling proud that i've planted the amaryllis bulbs and cat grass from Monday's errands. So often these impulse projects just sit and sit and sit. Like the gluten i bought to make vegan pepperoni. I don't know how long that's been in the pantry. I'm soaking the beans for it now, and i'll make it for Christine tomorrow morning. I hope the seasonings work out.
Mom had another headache this morning and she feels "vibrations" again -- if the CAA side effects are flaring up, could this be the harbinger of another stroke? Worry worry.
I half washed the mildew off the front door. I'd found a mildew cleaner and retardant in the cleaning isle at the hardwood store (while looking for butcher block wax). The mildew was in my face as i had struggled with the Amazon-purchased weather stripping: it seems the caulk the previous painters used had become a home for mildew and it's been unsightly since we moved in.
Cleaning the door wasn't high on my to do list and it was taking spoons, but the modified adage "if something's worth doing, it's worth doing half-assed" was in my mind. For procrastinators and perfectionists, that's a helpful adage. The half cleaned door will either inspire me (look, the crap isn't coming back immediately!) or it will confirm my belief that whomever painted the doors did so with inappropriate paint and the real solution is a through repainting with some sort of "killz" type paint and an appropriate top coat.
Also, there were holes drilled through the frame at one point. I wonder if it's some sort of security sensor that was removed. Seems too far spaced for bars. The previous owners were paranoid about break-ins. Admittedly, the fact we both work at home makes break-ins unlikely (the house doesn't scream, "come get expensive stuff," and there's no long reliable period when it's empty to hunt around).
--== ∞ ==--
I became curious about silicone and how "environmentally friendly" a choice it is. It's a polymer with silicon instead of carbon, so it's derived from sand. That's a positive. It does involve a chlorine compound in making it, which is a negative, but my skimming over various material data sheets and reports determines that it is also a naturally occurring compound (swamps, decomposition) and -- on the scale of things -- doesn't seem as concerning as plastics residues.
It's certainly got some of issues around disposal. I don't think it's going to be much better than plastics in the ocean, so i don't want to use it unthinkingly. Silicone (when made without many "fillers") is apparently very rugged though. So quality silicone collapsing cups and bowls are probably good deals. I recently bought a bunch of silicone food containers that i will be happy to toss in my purse as "doggie bags." I'd been using glass containers for leftovers, but we don't have many of the glass containers, and i wanted to start freezing some leftovers to take over for meals with Mom & Dad. The silicone containers are oven safe, which is a bonus.
--== ∞ ==--
Mom had a headache so yesterday's art museum plan was ditched. I had lunch out with my sister and ran errands. I hope the spices i picked up at the co-op are OK. I have had a few ... unhappy ... discoveries in the bulk section that lead me to think the stock turn over is low. Buying bulk spices appeals to my minimal plastic goals, but if the spices are ... worse than stale... it's not helping anything. (It's been a great way to get bay leaves, though.) A bit of poking on the internet and i find https://www.thespicehouse.com/collections/flatpack The envelopes surely have a plastic lining, but the price seems comparable to the grocery store spices.
Cooking-wise i roasted butternut squash to make puree for pies. Peeling the squash is a pain, but the roasting did evaporate so much water. Maybe an alternative would be to roast thin slices, maximizing the cut surface, but leaving long enough strips of peel to make removal after cooking easy. I also made rice flour sugar cookies that turned out quite well.
Today i'm making ginger snap crust based on an amaretto crust recipe (which presumably is like graham cracker crust).
The trauma for the day was when Christine thought she had deleted her data partition from her computer. She had been formatting an external drive so i could mount it on my mother's old Toshiba laptop and rescue the photos, etc. Apparently, she some how dropped the drive letter. I am impressed by how many "recover deleted data" applications are on the market. We bought EaseUS and recovered all the files, and then found the disk drive application allowed her to simply reassign the drive letter. Unnecessary insurance, but it assured us that she had recovered data before possibly making another disk management change. I think i've thrown out all the damaged drives i had once imagined recovering.
I've done a little work today -- given how much work needs to be done to prepare for presentations next month, it's not enough. The holiday is helping me with my sense of being burnt out i think, although the various dramas and traumas are not helping.
--== ∞ ==--
It's after 6 pm, and i'm feeling proud that i've planted the amaryllis bulbs and cat grass from Monday's errands. So often these impulse projects just sit and sit and sit. Like the gluten i bought to make vegan pepperoni. I don't know how long that's been in the pantry. I'm soaking the beans for it now, and i'll make it for Christine tomorrow morning. I hope the seasonings work out.
Mom had another headache this morning and she feels "vibrations" again -- if the CAA side effects are flaring up, could this be the harbinger of another stroke? Worry worry.
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