St. Euphrosynos Taverna and Ouzeri 44 (6)

[Anhelyna]

By the heck - it was cold out there this morning

I'm glad to be back from Church and in a nice warm house

 

[~Anastasia~]

Well bother ... seems my upright freezer isn't working.

Fortunately there isn't much in it. (At least not much that won't survive without being frozen ... I keep some things in there just to keep it from being too empty and it does help those things stay fresher.)

I'm thankful it didn't interfere with my daughter coming over to visit a day earlier. Things just keep getting better between us. It's kind of nice having a grown-up daughter. I enjoyed her being little so much, I never knew this was something to look forward to.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Must tear myself away from the computer and go try to salvage some more flooded stuff from the garage.

Lowe's showed up a few minutes ago trying to give me a new refrigerator. Was that supposed to be temptation? LOL

If it had been a freezer, I might have thought it might not be a mistake.

Off to clean up slush. I think I only lost one ham and 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters and a few pre-cooked packages of meals I decided I didn't like anyway. It could have been worse.

 

[Anhelyna]

that still sounds like a fair amount of stuff that's no use now.

My elder daughter has asked me what I want as my Christmas pressie from her - and I'm getting it - a voucher for my favourite very high class butcher

YUMMY MEAT when I want it [ the voucher lasts for 16 months - so I can buy when they have special offers on ]

 

[~Anastasia~]

that still sounds like a fair amount of stuff that's no use now.

My elder daughter has asked me what I want as my Christmas pressie from her - and I'm getting it - a voucher for my favourite very high class butcher

YUMMY MEAT when I want it [ the voucher lasts for 16 months - so I can buy when they have special offers on ]

Nice gift!

Yes ... it's a lot of meat. I'm trying to be optimistic. I'm more disturbed by the fact that I had saved books from homeschooling my daughter, and I still have a lot of fancy fibers from when I had a business, and other odds and ends stored out there, mostly in cardboard boxes, and mostly on the floor. The water seeped unseen into some places and got things wet. Some is salvageable, some not. And it breaks my heart (and my back) to go out there and be going through it. It's worse because it's raining and I have no empty boxes and not really any place to put the things I'm trying to dry out and save.

I'm of half a mind to just toss things without looking but I've found good things that aren't damaged.

I just opened a big box of all the Bible story books though, that was at the bottom of the stack nearest the freezer. Two full series. I'm trying to comfort myself with the fact that they aren't Orthodox anyway, but Bible stories for children tend not to get into things we would object to.

 

[Anhelyna]

I'm glad it's not me having to try and salvage that stuff

It's back breaking work for sure . I'm so glad that though my garage is filled with stuff [ tools etc] that I'll never use it's all on shelves or racks no lower than waist height - and incredibly I've a pretty good idea of what I have and where it's to be found !!

 

[~Anastasia~]

I'm glad it's not me having to try and salvage that stuff

It's back breaking work for sure . I'm so glad that though my garage is filled with stuff [ tools etc] that I'll never use it's all on shelves or racks no lower than waist height - and incredibly I've a pretty good idea of what I have and where it's to be found !!

I used to know. Unfortunately, it has been sifted and moved. We had to live in a hotel for a few months while looking for a home, and all the stuff was in storage. Both the hotel and the storage were infested with insects. So everything was quarantined in the garage and sprayed, carefully cleaned, and this house is much smaller than the former one. So it's been a lot of work, moving things more than once, trying to get rid of things and find ways to profitably keep what we can. I love to bake, and my kitchen isn't big enough to store my baking stuff. And the other things I like to do take a certain amount of tools and supplies too. It's a bit frustrating, lol. The homeschool stuff I have no real reason to keep, I suppose, except that they are good materials and many not available anymore.

I would benefit from a kind of "simple living" thinking. My grandmother did a lot of my raising, and she grew up during the Great Depression in the US. She taught me to use and repurpose things, and I actually do so ... I hold onto too much stuff really. I'm just not the kind of person that throws everything away and buys new stuff whatever I want.

 

[~Anastasia~]

My husband painted the pantry door and the back door white yesterday (both in the kitchen/dining room). They used to be dark green and wood stain.

The whole room seems brighter, which is good. But also bigger. It's almost giving me a sense of unreality and causing vertigo walking through my kitchen because it seems to suddenly have stretched to be almost twice as long!

 

[Anhelyna]

Just wait till you find you don't have enough room to put the extra stuff you think will fit in now you think it's 'bigger'

 

[~Anastasia~]

Just wait till you find you don't have enough room to put the extra stuff you think will fit in now you think it's 'bigger'

LOL I already don't have enough space!




I love to bake but my baking things still haven't been unpacked. I moved from an old farmhouse that was HUGE compared to my little house now, especially the kitchen. And we lived so far out that we'd only go to the grocery store about 8-12 times a year, plus there was all the farm produce, so I had a HUGE pantry there, two freezers, and so on.

I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that a grocery store is about 7 minutes away and I can go there whenever I need. So I'm trying desperately to learn to downsize my food reserves (even though I'm used to stocking up big time when things are on sale so I usually pay half price for everything).

I'm just not making the transition from farm to suburb well. And I've been here for several years lol.

My goal is to eventually have enough space for all my cooking things (and buy a new flour sifter since my old one rusted because it was stored in the garage these few years!) ... and maybe have only a week's worth of food on hand.

It's a very hard habit to break though. And it's been good in that we don't starve even if there's some minor disaster that keeps us from buying more food for months. Honestly I miss the farm sometimes. But I don't think my body is up to that kind of work anymore.

 

[prodromos]

My husband painted the pantry door and the back door white yesterday (both in the kitchen/dining room). They used to be dark green and wood stain.

The whole room seems brighter, which is good. But also bigger. It's almost giving me a sense of unreality and causing vertigo walking through my kitchen because it seems to suddenly have stretched to be almost twice as long!

Our laundry is off the kitchen, and my wife made the inspired decision to paint the laundry door black with blackboard paint, so now we write up shopping lists or sometimes just inspirational messages with chalk.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Our laundry is off the kitchen, and my wife made the inspired decision to paint the laundry door black with blackboard paint, so now we write up shopping lists or sometimes just inspirational messages with chalk.

I like that.

Though I'm not fond of chalk dust, lol, but I do like the idea.

 

[prodromos]

I like that.

Though I'm not fond of chalk dust, lol, but I do like the idea.

You can buy dustless chalk.

 

[~Anastasia~]

You can buy dustless chalk.

Really? I've not heard of that. I might have to look into it.

I actually use chalks (rarely but sometimes) because they give a softer effect than inks, paints, etc. But dustless? I might use it more in that case. Thanks!

 

[prodromos]

I just had a quick search for dustless chalk. Apparently it is made with one of the ingredients being casein, a milk protein, which can cause problems for people with milk allergies.
Seems you can't win.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I just had a quick search for dustless chalk. Apparently it is made with one of the ingredients being casein, a milk protein, which can cause problems for people with milk allergies.
Seems you can't win.

I read about it too. It seems it can also aggravate asthma? But at any rate, it's a cool idea.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Lord have mercy.

There's a skating rink here that normally has an all-night skate for kids on New Year's. Supposed to be a safe way for kids to have fun.

At least one kid brought a loaded gun. Thank God they found it and nothing happened. The owner was upset, decided to shut the party down, send the kids home. Parents were upset. Some kids fighting with police over it all.

I hate to say it, and we are just a small city. But this is the reason why there are 5 or so schools I'm pretty much afraid to work in anymore. I've only worked in them a few times and gotten involved with students being violent. It's absolutely crazy out there sometimes. I still remember my first day in one of them though and actually making a connection with a young man headed in a wrong direction - but I didn't get a chance to help him beyond just a little talking and listening.


And it's so cold here. They ran another story of police trying to help people get off the streets with the cold, passing out blankets to the ones that didn't want to go. Which is better than those cities where police are supposed to make the homeless move along, or feeding them is illegal. But one man died from the cold so far though.

So much is heartbreaking in the world. But we don't need to go to other counties to find it. It's even in our backyards.

 

[Anhelyna]

That's crazy ! A kid bringing a gun ?? OK yes a kid is any young person really - but how do they get hold of guns ? Don't you have to keep guns securely locked up ?

This actually brought to mind something I spotted on CF yesterday

<<I used to keep some things in the trunk of my car. One was a hand held gun. Also, btw, I had a door safety prop there and other things. I almost never look in my trunk. Since the gun was secluded in wrapping, when I did look I wouldn't notice that it was not there. About a month ago I went to get something there and searched through the trunk. The gun was missing and so was the door prop (in case I stayed at a hotel)...........[ an accusation was actually made here ] ....It has occured to me that if that gun would ever be used in an illicit way, then it could be tracked to me. I have no criminal record whatsoever btw. >>

how many other folk don't keep their guns secure ?

As to your point about the homeless people - we can provide shelters , help etc etc BUT till we can identify why they are homeless and help them to get help for what caused their homelessness we are on a hiding to nothing

 

[E.C.]

As to your point about the homeless people - we can provide shelters , help etc etc BUT till we can identify why they are homeless and help them to get help for what caused their homelessness we are on a hiding to nothing

The other caveat is that not all homeless want to be helped.

 

[ArmyMatt]

The other caveat is that not all homeless want to be helped.

yeah, sad thing really. I remember seeing this when I was a kid doing volunteer work at a rescue mission. while most (like 90%) were down on their luck or in bad times and needed help, there were a few who were mooching the system because they could.