With El-Jay being so awful lately, I've undeleted my journal here. Once LJ stops having heart attacks, I'll end up importing my posts here, just in case.

Most posts will be friends-only.

Comment to be added.

As I was browsing The Kitchn's site the other day, I came across this recipe, and the pictures were so appealing that I decided to try these this weekend. So, tonight I baked Cheddar and Leek Muffins.

I liked the idea of savory muffins versus sweet. So many baked goods are sweet, so having a savory option was nice. These will be nice for meal accompaniment or lunches, or if you don't want a sweet start to your morning.

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/vegetarian/recipe-cheddar-and-leek-muffins-132109

Also, for breakfast this morning I made Blarney scones, from one of those Katie Reilly packages. I made it per the directions, but next time will portion the wet stuff, rather than tipping it all in at once, as it was so ridiculously wet and sticky that I ended up adding in probably about a cup of all purpose flour to be able to get it off my hands and to anything resembling kneading consistency, as required. I'm also used to Devonshire scones, which I make from scratch, and which aren't sweet, as these are.

So, the former, highly recommended. The latter, not so much.

I'm on the Freecycle mailing list for this county. This list provides some hilarity to me at times, watching what people will ask for. Some people seem to forget that this is a list where items are offered for free, this also would generally mean that you shouldn't be too picky about what comes your way, because, you know, it's FREE and not costing you anything.

Earlier in the week, someone posted a Wanted for a horse. Yes, one of those 4 legged furry breathing ones that you can ride on. And it had to be tame/friendly too. Let me just get that for you, one sec, I have a spare in the closet... *eyeroll*.

Another that got me was someone asking for Le Creuset ware. Le Creuset is enameled cast iron cookware, it lasts a long time... my mother has a dutch oven and a saucepan of theirs, and has had them for at least 25 years now. You easily pay $100+ for the pans. So this someone was asking for them, and on top of that, was stipulating that the enamel had to be chip free. It doesn't bother me that they're asking for expensive stuff, hell, what do you have to lose if someone is actually looking to get rid of some... but to be that picky about the state it's in is just rather obnoxious when it's a freebie. Especially considering this county (being the most expensive to live in the country) isn't lacking in well-to-do people.

For now, I'll keep giggling at people asking for high-end items that are unlikely to really appear on a Freecycle list though...

- DO actually show up on time when you make an appointment with your tenant. Showing up on Wednesday instead of Tuesday is unacceptable. Especially when you couldn't even call to say you couldn't make it on Tuesday. It's a good thing I don't have to take time off work for that kind of nonsense, but it's rude, thoughtless and inconsiderate, and people do have shit to do instead of just wait around for someone to show up, who eventually doesn't.

Showing up at 2pm instead of 11am on a separate visit days later, also not acceptable.

- DO NOT show up when there really isn't anything you have to contribute. Showing up a second time to look at the broken washer (which broke a week ago today!) to then tell me that the repair guy hasn't gotten back to you yet, and you'll call him on Monday, isn't helpful. In fact, it only makes me laugh on the inside when you hurt your hand badly with the washer snapping something onto it as you pointlessly look inside it for a second time.

- DO NOT talk to me about how tough things are in this economy. I know how much you charge for this tiny no-storage-space place, and I know you put in the cheapest fixtures and things. We also know you rent the place out behind ours too. And, we know you work as a bank manager, not exactly a minimum wage job. If things are so fucking tough for you, sell one of your rental properties, or maybe that gas-guzzling Chevy Suburban. Or put your wife on a smaller budget, she could do with feeding your fat ass less.

Expect no sympathy from your tenants in regards of the cost of things. At least you own your house. Fucker.

- DO NOT take forever to finally get around to repairing things and doing maintenance. I mean, I laugh because it will cost you more in the long run, but seriously, we shouldn't need to wait 6+ months to get a tap and light socket fixed. Or for you to come power wash the exterior. Or paint the flaking and rotting fences. You may see the light of day when you have to replace those fences though and it really costs you...

- DO NOT give me all kinds of excuses as to why you couldn't get around to [insert whatever needs doing, and was supposed to have gotten done months ago]. I don't care that your mother wanted you to fix her stuff, or weed her yard. We pay you rent, we do so on time, you should do things for your paying tenants in a timely manner.

- DO NOT use the fact that you renovated the kitchen with cheap-ass stuff 8(!) years ago as some kind of selling feature. After 8 years, it's not exactly newly-renovated. It's really just kinda old now. You might be able to mention it if it was a particularly stellar job involving nice materials. It wasn't. Get over it. Move on.

IN CLOSING. If you can't be a proper landlord who gets stuff done on time, without doing the "woe is me, it's so expensive" whining, either stop being a landlord, or get a management company to do your shit for you.

Mmm... new layout, and rather light for me. Heh.

On Tuesday I'll be leaving for South Africa with Matilda, to go stay with my dad and stepmum for a month (I'll be back on Thursday the 11th of June).

The boys are staying here, one has work, and the other has school and of course all the therapies he receives there. I didn't want him to miss any of that. A month is a long time in therapy terms really, especially as he's already had really patchy Physical Therapy this school year, between the late start of the first PT Alexis, and then the 2+ months where she wouldn't treat Dashiell until we got the medical all-clear from a neurologist to prove he didn't have epilepsy or seizures, and then Alexis left to work somewhere else and it took a while for the school to attract a new PT.

My youngest brother will be staying with my dad and stepmum too, he just graduated with his degree (Earth and Planetary Observation Science), and it will be really cool to get to spend some time with him, and for him to get to know Matilda, as he hasn't seen her yet. He was always really awesome with Dashiell, so I think he's going to really dig spending time with his niece too this time around.

Part of me considered taking my St. Petersburg cross-stitch piece with me, but I think that might be a little involved, so I figure I might get some reading done. Of course, most of the books I want to read seem to be hardback or trade paperback size, which sucks, as I don't really want to stuff too many of those into my suitcase, and risk the ire of airline staff and their luggage weight limits *sigh*. Time to go find other books to take with me instead I guess...

Oh, and while away, I'll only have very sporadic internet access, once or twice a week is usually the frequency with which the 'rents go to the internet cafe (they have no internet at the house at the moment), so odds are I won't be in touch much. My gmail would probably be the easier email address to contact me at (malediction @ ...) rather than my goth.net one, as it receives less mailing list and spam stuff, so easier to separate the wheat from the chaff and all that.

Matilda seems to like helping, or trying to at least. She's in that whole stage of bringing things to you to give. As I type, she just wandered in to hand me a spoon.

Of course, not all of her help is quite as helpful as I'd like. The other night when I was folding laundry, if I took socks out of the basket to pair up, she kept throwing the loose ones back into the basket. The basket that contained folded clothes, she decided needed to be emptied one item at a time. It was funny, but it does get kind of aggravating to put the same laundry in the basket about 5 times.

Earlier I gave her her toothbrush, because she likes to brush her teeth herself for a while, and after we were done brushing her teeth and she was just wandering around the bedroom with it, she came over to me as I was sitting on the floor watching her, and poked the brush at my mouth. When I obliged and opened up, she actually tried brushing my teeth. It was rather cute.

I swear part 5 on this chart is probably bigger than parts 3 and 4 put together, if not larger. I've already stitched so much, and there's still a lot left... more regular stitches, and then a crapload of back-stitching too, and a load of Rhodes stitches. The 2 parts after this don't seem to be as big, so I'm considering this the hump in this particular project so far.

I'm also completely sick of stitching these yellow houses, urgh. Pretty much the same thing x 8 gets a bit tedious.

And time to take a break anyway. Between yesterday's stitching and some I did earlier today, my neck is killing me, and given that we pole-vaulted from cold weather into summer and it's well over 80-something F in the house, sitting around with 3 square feet of linen covering my lap over clothes is a bit more toasty than I want to be at present.

I'd like to think that I'll be done with this part soon, and can subsequently take pictures, but I'm guessing that even stitching solidly it'll easily take the rest of the week, especially given all the back-stitching on the windows and doors. But, the end result is worth it. And the next part of the chart is way more interesting too, and I'd like to move on to that soon.

I think the "Close Door" buttons on elevators are there just to taunt us. I don't think I've ever had the doors respond after pushing one of those buttons, not immediately in the sense that the closing was a result of the button being mashed.

I think the elevator manufacturers can save themselves the trouble, really, of producing the buttons if they don't let them work anyway. Unless of course they watch us on a hidden camera, as we engage in acts of random futility, trying to make the doors close faster...

Okay, I'm kind of indecisive at the moment about new shoes. A news breaking subject it is not, but hey ;)

All three are by the same company, and same basic design. But, the devil's in the details. One's more casual, the other more formal and one in between. Mostly I'm just looking for cute flats that aren't sneakers, I'm fed up with wearing sneakers... it's way more casual than I want to be. Plus, my sneakers should at some point go back into my gym bag, and I should be wearing them there again, not out and about :P

So, help a girl out... cast your vote:

[Poll #1384778]