Switching cuisines in the middle of the ground beef.

[susandennis]

Zoey has not been in her computer bed since last winter. She has plenty of places just for her around the house and she has no compunction about taking a place that's just for me. But when she tucks herself into that computer bed, it just makes me smile. (It should make me want to get in there and clean that cat hair off those pillows.)




Yesterday at the grocery they had hamburger meat on sale so I picked up a couple of pounds. There was a jar of spaghetti sauce in the fridge that was not getting any younger.

Today I browned the meat with some chopped up onions and then went to get out the spaghetti sauce only to find out I had waited too long. I probably could have scraped the fuzzy off the top - why chance it? But what to do with the meat and onions...

In the cupboard I found chili spices, beans and diced tomatoes. Ok, then, chili it is! I found some diced green chilies in the fridge with some chopped black olives - both of which needed to be used or tossed. So I tossed them into the chili pot.

I also have on hand, sour cream, grated cheese and I saved out about a quarter cup of chopped onions. Perfection!

While in the cupboard I spied some corn muffin mix. That is now baking in muffin cups. I have enough chili for about 4 dinners and 4 muffins! I'm so impressed with myself that it's not funny. The three other chili bowls and the muffins will all freeze beautifully.



I also got a lot of other tidbits of stuff done.

I have about 25 songs on my iPod Shuffle for swimming that never get played. Have I mentioned how much I dislike iTunes? I put them all in a playlist and finally convinced the Shuffle to play that playlist. (The Shuffle has had probably one too many swims. The center button is on its last leg. I may never get back to All Music again.)

I made a light weight jacket/shirt last Spring. It's only now cool enough to wear so I've only now discovered that pockets would have been a great idea. Oh wait! In my never ending fabric hoarderness, I saved some of the scraps! Two pockets worth!!! I got them all cut out and trimmed out and pinned on and ready to sew. But I have to change the needle and also the thread so I'll do that tomorrow.

I cleaned out the oven. My new, very expensive, Advantium microwave/oven has a shiny stainless steel interior. The old one, got grimed up quickly and then spent years being gross to look at. It worked great but it was just gross. I am determined to keep this one shiny. And so is my house cleaner. She can make it sparkle. I can get the grime off but it does not sparkle. I watched her carefully last time. I tried to duplicate today and failed. Oh well. As she said 'That's why you have Professional... ME!' So true.

I washed all the dishes from today's shinigans and they are now drying in the drainer.

I'm feeling very productive and accomplished. Retirement Me doesn't get that feeling often so I'm wallowing in it.

Here are the dolls of the day...

Comments

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

That computer bed is ADORABLE!! What a cute idea.

[susandennis]

Isn't it?! It was an Etsy find several years ago and I love it. It's actually nothing fancy at all - just the monitor w/out guts and a couple of pillows. So clever.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

any time I have ever bought a bed for the cats, they have ignored it other than a cursory glance. They do have their favorite spots, though, which change throughout the day. I red somewhere that cats change where they sleep about every two weeks, in order to throw off potential predators.

Your chili sounds great--much better than spaghetti sauce. I'm gonna try that one of these days.

[susandennis]

I've never heard that about changing every two weeks but, you know what? That's exactly what Zoey does!!! To her credit, she does use every single cat bed I've ever bought her. Not consistently but they all need to be washed every few months. That is wild. Turns out she's a by the book cat!

The chili was fabulous. I was shocked. I'm so delighted that I have more.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

Well done for salvaging the meals. Zoey looks very cute in that bed