foomart foomart

I guess this calls for a Weekly Wrapup. Sorry about the lack of posting lately; I get home and the last thing I want to do is look at the computer and use my brain.

I've been working a lot, which is good, other than when it sucks. At some point there will be paychecks, and that will be nice. Sadly, they are long spent on things like bills, taxes, and the future washing machine fiasco. In a nutshell, we went to Sears. If we buy their closest replacement, we will have to dismantle the existing stacked arrangement, which we're not real clear on how to do, and also detach the gas line, which isn't all that bad, I guess, but really who wants to do that. Then we have to get the dryer out of the closet and I THINK they will take out the old washer and install the new one. Though they may not even do that, due to some utterly bullshit reason about not being willing to risk damaging the other piece. They'll be happy to install the set of two, but the big smile fades when you're only buying one piece.

Option B is to replace the washer with the much nicer revised model, but they have moved the screw holes or something so it will no longer stack with our dryer. Again, if we just buy the new dryer as well they will love us, but if we don't, we can fuck ourselves.

Option C is to get the nice revised model, or to get a conventional top-loader, and to move the dryer down to floor level, making a nice clear space to fold clothing on instead of using the pinball machines like we do now. This scenario would make the most sense financially, and we've always wanted to set up the laundry room that way, but it unfortunately opens a #10 worm can, since the hot water tank is right where the washer has to go. The long-term plan is to replace our boiler with a more efficient model, especially since it's the last one left in the condo now that all of the other identical ones have died on their owners, usually in the middle of a cold winter night. When we replace the boiler we also want to get a larger and more efficient water tank to replace this one which is on its last legs, and move it out to the garage so that the laundry stuff can be side by side.

But we're not exactly fiscally prepared to do that right this minute. We've been quoted 7 grand just to replace the boiler, not even including the major tank moving project, and that was by the electric/gas company, not anybody fancy or anything.

So it looks like we'll be dragging our shit to the laundromat until some drug-smuggling plane drops a bale of money on our house or something, or until the boiler shits the bed and we're forced to replace it. That will probably not happen at a good time. And it leaves us in the same limbo in terms of the water tank project, of course, but with more time pressure and stress, which will suck most mightily, but I don't see this all happening any other way.

And then there's the underfloor heating stuff for the kitchen, still sitting in boxes in the garage, and then there's the question of taking out the central air conditioning stuff that we don't use, and then...ugh.

So I'm working. If I keep doing that, there will be some money, and I won't have time to spend it.

I did spend enough to get the free turkey, though. It's in the freezer now, where the ice usually goes. I'm really out of control with the slow cooker these days...I have meals lined up for the next week or so already, and more in the freezer. I guess it's a good thing, and I know my nutrition is solid, but it's just so Susie Homemaker. And it's only a matter of time (and figuring out which model is the best one) before I get a FoodSaver. When I can suck the air out of my frozen stuff, pack my freezer more efficiently, use phrases like Boil In Bag, the world just better watch out.

My mom likes to say, "Make a vegetable your friend." I'm already on very good terms with broccoli and spinach, and since Atkins have developed an abiding affection for cauliflower. This week I have added a new friend: cabbage. We were introduced by a 7-cents-a-pound special at ShopRite, and after an early awkward phase we found some common ground and became buddies. The cheap post-St. Patrick's Day corned beef called to me and I went ahead and made it with the cabbage, even though I really didn't expect to like it. But I did! Glory be! Then today I tried my hand at coleslaw. It's delicious, unbelievably easy, and, naturally, sugar free and good for me. I'm thrilled with my new vegetable friend. One of these years maybe I'll get to know some veggies outside of the brassica family, I suppose—but they're so damn healthy I'm not in a hurry.

Let's see, what else. Still feeling my abs from Monday's testing and major workout. I couldn't do pushups on Wednesday, and still had some pain to ignore yesterday. I'm getting to really like kickboxing, though I have got to learn a lot more about how to defend myself. I tend to just weather the blows and get mine in when I see openings, and that usually works out pretty well, but there's a big spot on my left thigh that disagrees. The girl who put it there, via a series of kicks over the course of the class, got hers, though. Just before the last time she landed one, her shin guard slipped around to the back of her leg so she wailed her unprotected shin right into me. The area of impact swelled up and turned a series of blue and purple colors. By Sunday, it should have some greens and yellows in there too...a delightful Easter Egg just in time for her holiday weekend.

2:22 PM