Tag Archives: library

Thankful Thursday

Posted in cooking, library, Pantry by

First, The Sun is out!!! It was so nice yesterday to have sunshine. Sitting in the sunroom the temperature was 72 degrees!!! Today looks just as nice.

We got thru the storms and wind with no trees coming down. We still have too many very large Ponderosa pines and they are worrisome. My wind phobia is not what it used to be. I literally had to leave and go somewhere. But most of the problem trees are gone but we still have maybe 6 that need to be taken down. Right now we can’t afford to do that at all.

Yesterday, I pressured canned chicken soup. I’m thankful for the person who passed on their canner to me so I could learn this process. Here are the pintos from the other day.

I’m thankful the library in Roseville is such a great place. I have never ( and will never)gone back to Placer Co library after the whole thing with how they treated me but now I have the Roseville one and it’s right next to the gym!! Win-win.

Here’s Mr. Gus

He’s a funny cat.:)

Frugal Friday

Posted in books, budgets, California, cooking, home stuff, simplicity, Uncategorized by

We went to Costco an that was over $400. Granted, lots were items that will be used for all of July and beyond. The sale items are where the deals are and I got the giant Windex bottle, Cholula 2 pack, San Marzano tomatoes( the best for pizza sauce), and lots of other pantry staples. Some of those things will last a year( think the giant jug of Windex), and others will last 6 months (think Cholula). So, all in all, it was good. The store was busy as usual and I sort of thought with the issues with gas prices and inflation there would be fewer people but that didn’t seem to be the case. We also filled the Chevy truck up with gas at Costco as that’s the cheapest anywhere.

We’ve had all our meals at home and some tasty ones. Last night even with our heat wave, I used the Weber and cooked BBQ Chicken. It came out great. I don’t know what it is with that small gas Weber, but everything comes out excellent. Maybe it’s the control dial. Anyway, if you’re looking for a great tabletop BBQ this is the one and worth the price. One night we just had egg salad sandwiches, and another night was just some hot dogs with homemade potato salad. Simple meals when it’s this hot.

I stopped at the library yesterday to pick up a hold and picked up a few more books. It is such a nice library and the self-checkout is convenient.

Today’s another hot day and in a little while, I’ll close all the windows to keep the cool in. I’ve been turning on the coolers around noon. I usually start with just the one cooler in the entryway and then the front room one later.

Frugal Friday

Posted in bread, budgets, California, reading, simple foods, Uncategorized by

So far, it’s been a frugal week as we haven’t done much. I went into Whole Foods (spent $45.00)yesterday because I thought I could get some Nicoise olives for my Nicoise salad recipe from my Le Creuset cookbook. Alas, the young lady didn’t even know what I was talking about and said she hasn’t ever seen them there. Except I have bought them there before, granted it was probably 2 years ago. So I bought some tiny olives that look similar to Nicoise and they were actually delicious. The salad called for fingerling potatoes and they didn’t have those either so I was batting 0 out of 2. When I came home I boiled some eggs for hardboiled eggs for the salad too. I had bought a piece of Ahi tuna from Trader Joe’s last time I was there so I put that in a bowl of water to defrost. Then my daughter grilled that on the Webber. All in all, it came out quite well.

The reason I was going down to Roseville is my library hold came in. It’s the Maus graphic novel that schools in the south and basically all Republican states want to ban. So I picked that up and a few other books to read. I’m up to 65 books for the year and with the 6 I picked up I’ll be over 70. Not that numbers count as I just always have read a lot.

I also wanted to check out the gym that is next to the library that I can use with my swim membership. So, a year and 3 months later I decided to go in and see the layout. Now with Covid, I probably wouldn’t have gone anyway but now I feel fairly comfortable going in. It was really great and I like that it seemed simple and had the machines I like to use. I did a quick circuit and felt that I will add this in to my weekly workouts.

Other than WF, I don’t think we spent any money. Today I going to the farmstand, that just opened for the season, and get some things for the week. I have cash for that. The only extra expense we have this month is the truck DMV, which I mentioned before. I haven’t paid it yet and will do so towards the end of the month. Other than that everything is covered. There’s not much leftover but that’s ok.

Frugal Friday

Posted in Blood test, books, bread, budgets, California, camping, cooking, library, swimming, travel, Uncategorized by

It’s been an okay frugal week. Nothing great but just ok. Most of our big bills for the month are out and just a few more are scattered later in the month.

I had a good swim on Tuesday and the pool was very unbusy which is very unusual. I came straight home afterward. Then Thursday B and I decided to do Winco for a few camping things and at the last minute added in Costco for some camping food as well. I needed Raos to bring and Costco has the best price for the 2 pack. I also got some WW bread for sandwiches. I spent about $175 between the two stores. We also filled up the truck with Costco gas which is the cheapest around. We’re definitely looking at traveling with gas prices. Next week, going to Capitola shouldn’t be more than 2 tanks of gas and the same with Nevada Beach in June. But we’re definitely reconsidering Refugio because that is much farther away. For now, we’ll keep the reservation but still think about it. Then I went to library and got a nice selection of books. Oh, and then we had a lunch date at Celestino’s pizza, which is the best New York pizza around in my opinion.

I went to the nursery with my daughter and bought all our tomato and pepper plants and a few ornamentals for her back garden area. That was her birthday present. We were trying to get a birdbath for her but they didn’t have any affordable ones. The cheapest they had was $110. The last time we were there they had a nice one for $80. I guess we should have bought it then.

I had my labs this morning so I should get results next week. Fingers crossed. I’ve been having some pain in my right leg but I think I over-stretched it doing some yoga. It was better this morning but then the ache comes back ( kind of in the hip and upper thigh area) by afternoon. It’s always something.

After we’re back our next big expense will be having the septic pumped. We’ll call once we’re back. As far as expenses for Capitola, it’ll be a few stops at Gayles bakery and probably one grocery store shop. We generally do not eat out but I thought maybe we’d find some place for a lunch near the Santa Cruz boardwalk. We’ll see. I know we’ll go walk the beach trail so that might be a good day to do that.

Oh, the tree guys came and ground out the stump so now there’s no issue with going out or coming in with Rubi. Yay! He didn’t charge us which was really nice.

Friday Stuff

Posted in Blood test, Uncategorized by

We had SNOW!!

IMG_1243.jpg

Amazing at this elevation but it does happen from time to time. It’s like a winter wonderland!! And Cold!!! While I really dislike cold this makes it pretty. Of course, it won’t last but our cold temperatures are supposed to stick around for the next 10 days. Where’s our California weather??

Well, anyway, other stuff. I’m resigning my position as VP of the library friends. The board is elected in March, and I’m just not feeling it. I think that the Friends have been incredibly supportive of Applegate, still, really, more than it deserves still, it is a library. There is still no news whether it will close this year so who knows. Anyway, I think I’ll just back away. I’m still going to our Koffee Klatches, but that’s just Friends meeting for lunch.

The other news is my SPEP test came back, normal electrophoresis pattern!! YaY!! But I haven’t seen my light chains, so I e -messaged my doctor because they should have been in at least by yesterday.  So hoping they are still in the normal range too.

Today,  with the snow is still out there, I may not go into town. B is going to the gym so I can have him get cat food at Target.

Dinner is a pizza. I have a coupon for a free pizza so we’ll use that.

Starting a website is not as easy…

Posted in Uncategorized by

it seems.  I’ve been a Friend of the Library for a number of years now. This year I’m VP but I told them I can only do this as long as my health stays good.  So our county library system is in trouble and is running a huge deficit each year. The Budget just isn’t supporting all the branch libraries and they are considering closing 2 more branches, Applegate included.

So I’ve taken it upon myself to start an FB page for the Friends of the Library and now a website so we can post some of the news about what we are doing to bring public awareness to this problem. Ultimately, it’s the BOS that decides but if we can voice our opinions about to increase funding to the library, it helps our cause.

So to that end, it’s been quite the fiasco. First, I decide after googling the web hosting to go with the number one which is Blue host. So I’m thinking “how hard can this be”….. I sign up and the price seems good until you add the privacy, security and whatever.  Then I still need to find a theme and have to buy that and pay for installing. Hmmm, sounding a little more that I want. So finally, after charging 177 and another $100 for the theme, I am ready to go.  But, I spend 6 hours yesterday trying to get the theme to work for the FOL. No way, it looks like a blog. I don’t want it to be a blog.  So quite frustrated even after calling the company who was servicing the theme, i waited for my daughter to get home from work and look at it. “No, Mom, that won’t work, you picked the wrong theme” argh….plus a few other choice words.  So she says, we could just do word press and pay for a premium web site.  Thus this morning I’m on the phone and ultimately canceled Blue host but the MOJO service had already as they said been bought and installed.  So I’m out $98.  It’s okay really because I was not sure what the heck I was doing and should have waited to ask her or my son.

Success though. This morning she set up a nice website on WordPress and I am using with no problem and I’ll have it live in a few days. I still need our logo and a few other things.  I’ve been pretty stressed with it but now feel okay and accept I had a learning curve to go thru.

I’ll link to it once it’s done.

Friday Stuff

Posted in Uncategorized by

It’s been a long week. We started the  re- fi all over again and emailed the required stuff. what a PITA….. Now, we will have to pay some closing costs which in the previous one it was all included. Who knows what they’re doing. But we got a slightly better rate with this Harp re – fi.   I had checked with our CU, but after an hour she determined our original loan was Freddie Mac and not Fannie May and since they only worked with Frannie May it was a wash. What a waste of time. Well, we shall see how it goes. Our goal is to have an affordable payment as B heads into his last stretch before retiring.   I hate having to do this but , it’s that or sell. So, onward we go.  Who know maybe we still will have to sell, but that’s not part o of the plan yet.

I took off the seat covers on my Heywood-wakefield chairs and now am ready to recover.  I have some barkcloth I could use or I think I’m going with a canvas( painters drop cloth). It’s off white and sturdy.  The last time I did these was around 8 years ago. So I got some good years out of those covers. So I’m going to pop into Home depot to get that drop cloth. I have one I did buy and used for another chair but it was fairly thick  so, this time ,I’m going to get one a little thinner.

I went to Costco yesterday and did  a pretty good shop. Kept it under $200 and got some dinners that are easy. Turkey burgers, black bean burgers and  some frozen pizza.  I’m not too sure about the pizzas but I thought I’d try and at least that might keep us from getting Round Table which is usually a $30  take out.  Sometimes  even cooking a homemade pizza is too much and a frozen just might do it. We’ll see.

Then I popped over to the Koffee Klatch. I told them I already had plans for the meeting week, and for the book sale week.My sister is out that week, so I’m out. I will do a couple of gift baskets and donate those.  Now that Applegate’s hours are cut to 16, it’s really only a matter of time before they close the branch. Especially since circs will drop even more with very lousy hours. It might take a year or two, but I’m guessing there is a plan.  Well, I’m done with it and it’s really a shame how poorly this library system is run, in my opinion. Of course, I don’t know but compared to the system my daughter works in it seems so.  And the people where my daughter works seem quite genuine, not like Placer where you thought you had a friend but not really. Oh well, I enjoy the lunches with these ladies and will continue to go.

Well, off to do the Flylady chores.

Dinner is Friday night pizza. ( I think)!!

 

 

Summertime…

Posted in Uncategorized by

I haven’t done a whole lot sinc we got back from camping. It was pretty hot and I sorta just wilt. I’m making a nice summer minestrone with garden vegies for dinner. Maybe add some bread , I’d have to buy a baguette and I’m not sure I’m going into a store.

I have to get printer ink and post it things at staples. Then I wanted to maybe do a few errands around town.

We went and looked at a few xtra light trailers. Found one we both love, but, we decided we really need to do a roof this year, so I think trailer dreams are on hold.

Dropped some squash off at the library for someone and a person( I knoiw), from the main branch was working. Hummm. They have no extra help, but they let me go. ????

stuff was moved around in there again as per the BR M mania for moving things. I didn’t think it looked good. I didn’t check anything out and just left.

Well, off to flylady a little and then town.

Zucchini fritters!

Posted in Uncategorized by

imageIf you grow a garden like we do, you’re probably getting a ton of zuchinni right now. As you also probably know you can’t really freeze zuchinni as it has too much water content. But uou can freeze zucchini fritters.

So this is what I do:

Use a box grater , and grate 2-4 zuchinni and summer squash. Add some salt so as sweat the zucchini (maybe 30 minutes), in the mean while you can chop up green onion, grate carrot. Then squeeze

e as much water out of the grated zucchini as you can. You’ll be surprised. Then add the onion, carrot, 1/4 cup flour or panko, salt pepper, even a little chili pepper, a beaten egg. I like too add a little feta cheese too.

Heat up a pan with olive oil, and make patties. Brown on each side , cool , and then I put the, in wax paper and then a freezer bag.

I’m making another batch today and looking for a zucchini bread recipe too. I think that should freeze well too.

I’m going to town today to get a few things.  I also have a huge load to bring to the food bank.

Tuesdays are hard for me now since that was my day to open the library. I sure miss my schedule, but I’m trying to find other things to do on that do to keep me busy. I miss my job, and the library, but it’s about going forward and finding the best of this situation.