April Is Busting Out All Over

Spring! It feels like a gift every year. Every winter I get used to winter. I put my pajamas on at 7 pm; I remember to wear a hat. I cook hot, filling meals. And I get to like it. Then the days lengthen, certain birds start singing again. A day comes when you can open the windows. And honestly it feels brand new every year. I forget how good it feels until I’m feeling it. And now I’m so excited for summer – to eat outside, to barbeque, to eat blueberries!

In the garden: lots of rain and lots of sprouts! Carrots and potatoes are up and, happily, it looks like all four of the hostas I planted last summer are coming back. I don’t know anything about hostas so I wasn’t sure what their deal was. I am seeing new cilantro sprouts and finding oregano in more places. I think I see some arugula sprouts, or they might be basil. Also, the onions, lettuce and potato plant have gotten some outside time. I did some weeding yesterday but mostly need to wait on Tom to build my fence … Looking at the forecast, we’ve got two nights this week that may dip below freezing but after that, looks like we are in the clear and it will be a go to really start hardening plants off.

What we ate this week:

Sunday: Hot roast beef sandwiches and cold turkey sandwiches, on rolls

Monday: Frozen pizza

Tuesday: Rigatoni Bolognese

Wednesday: Scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast

Thursday: Homemade cheesesteaks and fries

Friday: Scrounge (mozzarella and basil sandwich for me)

Saturday: Scrounge (tuna for me)

Lunches: bought twice ($10 and $5), brought PB&J for the third.

Notably, no takeout. I baked bread on Sunday. I continue to not get a lot of rise so I think I need to buy the gluten additive the recipe calls for. Still tasty though.

One notable fail: had to throw out half a pound of ground beef that got overlooked.

In the news: my oldest committed to a college! Very exciting. Glad to have the uncertainty over with and now I can plan, plan, plan.

Last Sunday was nice out, 65°. Tom and F. played volleyball with the new net he bought. Then they climbed up in the playhouse and the pup tried to follow them, which was hilarious. I was watching while planting the Scarlet Nantes carrots I got at the seed swap. Later, I baked the bread and then did a quick run to Sprouts. During the week, Tom went to Aldi twice. He has a new fascination with their low prices, but I think their quality is hit or miss. He also bought too much processed crap there. I need to keep a list of what I have found is worth buying there: so far, eggs, milk, OJ and bakery stuff have been good.

That just reminded me about an article I read about the demise of middle-class sit-down restaurants. Specifically, this part:

S. Margot Finn, a lecturer at the University of Michigan, sees another side of the cultural obsession over “good” food, widely portrayed in the media as a mass enlightenment about farm-to-table produce and regional American barbecue styles. In her 2017 book, “Discriminating Taste,” she argues that this taste shift was spurred by status anxiety. In the 1980s and ’90s, she writes, as even the upper middle class ceased making economic gains compared with the 1 percent, they turned to food as a mark of distinction and discernment.

Yes, there’s something about being a food snob that makes one forget you are kinda not so well off.

Yesterday, F. and I did some downtown shopping. She wanted to go to Occasionette, a gift shop with very cute, unique wares. I had a 25% off coupon that she used to buy a pencil case. Afterwards we bought some pastries at Dolce. Later on, we returned, walking this time because Tom had the truck, and visited Soo Posh, a brand-new thrift store. She bought a T shirt and I scored a Liz Claiborne cardigan in a pretty teal color for $7. I wear cardigans to work like 80% of the time and needed a new one. We also checked out OddFolk, another new thrift + unique items store.

I needed new foundation and the kids needed things like pimple patches, so I did an online order at Walgreens and found a promo code for 25% off, then picked it up early Saturday. My foundation was $13, which is a great price for it! (Edit: it was actually $10.20!)

Saturday night, Tom and I had a few drinks at our local dive bar. So it was a bit of a spendy day, but fun. Today, I need to buy a few groceries, but not much, and get some cleaning done. The house is definitely looking better after the decluttering I did last weekend.

We finished Adolescence and, at the urging of my younger son, I think we’re going to try to watch the first season, at least, of Six Feet Under. We are two episodes in and it really is good. I never saw it the first time around, on HBO. That will allow us to keep just Netflix and not Hulu, for the moment anyway…

How ’bout them tariffs? Whee! I love being subjected to the whims of a chaos agent. Thankful that my retirement is so far off that I don’t need to look at my 401(k). Prediction (borrowed from somebody more knowledgeable than me): he will do some negotiating, declare victory, rescind the tariffs, and things will go back to more or less how they were. A big show for probably no net gain. Hey, I would love to see more things manufactured in America. But this doesn’t seem to be the way to achieve that. I thought this article on the history of globalization was really interesting.

Curious to see what the stock market does tomorrow…