Unfinished Objects
8:23 a.m. - 2013-05-21


There are now four unfinished sweaters waiting for my attention. The grey/gold round-yoke cardigan just needs to have the ends darned in and the buttons sewed on. It is waiting on Madam Merp and makes me feel guilty every time I go into that room. Then there is a navy cardigan jacket, an emerald green cardigan jacket, and now a lemon yellow plain cardigan. I just feel like knitting at the moment, and apparently don't feel much like finish work.

In between churning out unfinished objects, I have been putting in the garden. Can't do much at a time until the knee is better, but I try to plant out something every day or so. So far the cucumbers are going gangbusters, and the winter squash is planted out along the back fence. Yesterday I put out some chilis and eggplants. I originally wanted two or three eggplant plants, but somehow ended up with lots of them. I can't seem to ruthlessly kill off my baby plants, so looks like it will be an eggplant summer. I have been looking up recipes. There is an Asian sweet/hot eggplant dish I love so I will have to give it a try. I am waiting on the basil to let it get a little bigger before planting out, and the spouse just bought me more potting soil so I can start more flowers and herbs.

This week was kind of a vacation for me since the spouse went to Reno to wind down after tax time. He stayed with his high school friend, and went to a coin show, met up with the girls who were in town the same weekend, took them to the Basque restaurant, and visited a big Walmart. M and A told me they visited 6 Walmarts in the Reno area. The spouse picked up some Sure Jell for me since it is about half the price there. While they were off having fun in Nevada, I decided to tackle some long avoided tasks. The biggest one was making the jam for this year. I hated to think of all the time I spent standing at the sink processing the plums only to have them go to waste in the freezer, so I got up the energy and made the jam. It is extra tart and good this time since I think I added a bit too much lemon juice to it, but it is really delicious.

WSP came back from his jaunt on Monday and we went out to dinner at a newly relocated local Italian restaurant downtown near the park. After that, we went to the Home Depot to get some garden stuff, and I was shocked at how much plants cost this year. 6-packs of plants seem to be phased out for the higher-profit single plants, but I don't know how on earth you could afford to stock a garden with $4.00 single plants. I'm glad I got into seed starting years ago. I like to figure out how much money I saved starting my own plants. I look at my stand of cucumber plants worth $160, my squash worth another $140, and the same again for the basil and onions. Plus, I like taking care of my plant babies.

I've got some early morning drives to the airport coming up in the weeks ahead, providing rides to some relatives as they travel across country. I do like an early drive to The City when the sun is coming up across the Bay.