End of July
7:18 a.m. - 2008-08-04


The windows are all in, just the stucco work has to be finished. In order to avoid the construction mayhem, I spent two days at Abby's apartment sleeping on the couch. She was at work all day, so I had lovely quiet days sitting and knitting. One day I walked to the downtown and shopped around, but bought nothing. I finished the Shibui socks and gave them to Abby, then started up some new Sockotta socks for Melissa. I have even finished the first sock and started the second.

The spouse requested that I come home on Saturday morning, so I arrived back at about 10:00. He had plans to go to the Peddlar's Fair in Martinez, so off we went. I had a very lucky day at the Fair, finding lots of vintage patterns and embroidery designs for very low prices. My favorite is an old apron pattern in just the style I was hoping for.

I have never had much luck growing green beans before, but this year I seem to have hit the jackpot. I have a little patch in the center bed, but the plants are producing more beans than I have ever seen. The night before last the spouse and I picked five pounds of beans. Now I see that there are more out there to pick. I am going to have to look up how to freeze them. I hope the spouse remembers what he put in the soil this year because it has really perked up the garden. I also picked a ton of zucchini including several 'baseball bats'. One of the big ones was grated up and used in a cake for spouse's office. I was going to give the rest of the pattypans to Jason, but Melissa says she is so tired of squash that she is even asking for broccoli (her previous 'I'm tired of it' vegetable).

During the wedding weekend, we had breakfast with C & S one day, and they asked after my dad. I told them that what I really wished was for him to hire the maid/cleaning woman he has been talking about finding for two years now. S told me about the woman she uses, and she later called me after we got home and gave me the woman's number. I gave it to J without much hope for anything to happen, but Melissa tells me that he did indeed hire her!!! This is terrific, and maybe my days of cleaning his house for him every week are over!! Hallelujah. S has employed this woman for years and says she is so honest and reliable that they pay her a tremendous lot as an inducement to drive out to West County to clean their new house now that they have moved.

Sunday dinner menu: Top sirloin steaks (not bad), green beans, lettuce wedges with homemade ranch dressing, and chocolate pudding (new recipe).