Month: June 2021

From the Garden to the Counter

The spider wort has taken over the porch border garden. Once I have a decent weather weekend I will go forth and do battle.

I’ve cut back a lot this year on growing edibles. In the past I’ve gotten carried away with all sorts of herbs and we almost never used some of them. There are others, like lemon balm, that we almost never use but since it’s thriving and happy it got to stay. 🙂 I have one cherry tomato plant and one red pepper (sweet) plant. I don’t think I have any other vegetable attempts.

parsely, dill, arugula, romaine, leaf lettuce

I was making some salads for us to enjoy in the intermittent hot weather. Aside: it’s been as crazy here as in other places in the world. For example: Wednesday it was 91 degrees in the afternoon. Saturday morning it was 41. Memorial day we did finally edge up into the 70s, but only late in the afternoon before it then started cooling down again. Here we are on Friday – HUMID and in the 70s and we’re due for thunderstorms (heads up, Honour). They are promising 80s on Saturday and – oh hallelujah! – 90s on Sunday. I’ve been sooooo COLD. Back to the salads! There are 3 types of lettuce: arugula, red leaf, and romaine. They were for my tossed salad. The dill and parsley were for the chickpea salad. Yummy!

Ready to cook. Fire pit at the ready, also 2 propane heaters if needed.

The Memorial Day weekend was, as I said, VERY cold and VERY rainy on Saturday and Sunday. Monday things finally started to dry and warm up. We had TEN PEOPLE on the deck for BBQ dinner. It was GLORIOUS! We’d not been together since Feb 2, 2020. So much hugging and smiling and laughing!! It was wonderful to be back together again. I got to show off my latest acquisition for the deck – my new ice cooler. 🙂 My sister and I had gone to an Antiques & Collectibles show back in April. This Italian ice cart caught my eye, caught my sense of humor, and I thought it would be perfect on the deck. When my husband texted back to say he AGREED, the deal was done. 🙂 He keeps saying “we’ll get a lot of use out of it” and I keep laughing and saying “oh my it is so kitsch that it is art and I LOVE it”. Seriously – it gives me such joy. I smile every time I see it. And yes – it is useful. It holds A LOT of ice. Deceptively so. We had 3 bags of ice in it for the BBQ and it looked paltry. But our drinks were cold!

No need for shade. We did light the firepit at dusk and it put out a good amount of heat and a LOT of beauty.

Why Consumers Feel Abused

Subtitled: Would you prefer to save over $1000?

Maybe I’m becoming a grumpy old lady, maybe everyone I know is grumpy. It seems to me that for the last several years we’ve all been feeling that the consumer experience has deteriorated. Automated computerized customer support. More restrictions on every type of purchase, fewer kindnesses and rewards. Not only is all our personal data being mined for corporate benefit, but the user interfaces often leave us feeling like dirt underfoot (okay – that last might be a little harsh, but I think you understand what I’m saying).

My son and I book flights a few times a year between NJ and AZ. We often will check out dates if we think there’s a chance we might be traveling back and forth. I remember many many years ago my friend Chestnut pointed out very strongly that she had better results using a private browsing window instead of her default setup. Probably there are many folks who have told me this over the years but for some reason I associate the information with Chestnut. 🙂 I want to go visit my son at the end of June. I checked flights for non-stop first class for the dates I thought would work for me. The cost was over $2000. Even considering the fact that I do indulge myself, that was simply way too expensive for me to justify. Out of curiosity I tried opening a private browser window to see if the price changed. Oh. Em. Gee. $1000 cheaper. Same flights. Today I went to book the tickets. I logged in to the airline directly, gave all my identifying info, picked my flights. $2297.80. No sort of frequent customer discount, no sort of reward or special recognition. I opened up the private browser window. Same flights: $1254.80. That’s a difference of $1043. WHY???? I know why. Because they “know” that I’m going to fly to PHX anyway. But hey – that stranger? – maybe we can hook THEM! Except of course at $2298 I am NOT going to fly. Maddening. Absolutely maddening.