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New Plan
Gretchen wanted to do a lot of work in the kitchen today. I wanted to do a lot of yard work. Neither of these things happened according to plan.
Gretchen *did* manage to get a massive load of dishes into the dishwasher, which was a good thing. I managed to get the first of two loads of laundry into the washer. Then, with machines merrily humming along, we set out for the longish trip to Pancho's Burritos, because it was a beautiful day. Lunch went well, plans were made, and we headed home, where I was about to drop Gretchen off and go grocery shopping when her cellphone rang.
It was her hairstylist, calling to see if she could come immediately instead of at 4 PM. Well, I hadn't quite pulled into the driveway yet, so I turned around and drove to the shop, while Gretchen was contacted by children who wanted their lunch. Negotiations ensued. I dropped Gretchen off, turned around, and went to Wendy's to acquire suitable child rations. Then I dropped those off at home and went to Sam's Club, where I bought a whole bunch of things that we needed, turned around, and dropped them off with the kids at home.
Then I went to Mariano's, where I bought a whole bunch of things that we needed, turned around, and dropped them off with the kids at home. By this point, it was past time when I had been told to expect Gretchen to be ready, so I turned around, went back to the stylist's shop, where Gretchen was within five minutes of being done when I arrived, which was pretty close, all things considered.
We had originally planned for me to run by Home Depot and buy some flowers for the back porch, but by now, I was ready to go home. And so we did, by way of McDonald's, where we picked up drinks. (To be honest, there was no point in buying the flowers today when Gretchen wasn't going to have time to get around to potting them.)
But shortly thereafter, Gretchen set out with Julie in the car to go to Michaels and pick up a few things. (Did I mention that being down to one car for an indefinite period is being entertaining? No? Consider it mentioned.)
While Gretchen was gone, I thought it would be good to complete at least *one* household project that has been on my to-do list for way too long, so I conscripted K to help me disassemble the master bathroom shower doors, as I needed to replace the rollers on one of the doors, as they were not behaving properly after 25+ years of wear and no amount of adjustment had helped. We disassembled the thing, I lay the doors on our bed, made the necessary fixes, and then we put the shower doors back together. Twice, because at some point during the first assembly one of the doors managed to escape the track, which required pulling everything back apart again.
But the shower door seems to be behaving for the moment. We'll see how it's going in a week or so.
We decided to pan fry some hamburgers for dinner. I once again tried using the bacon press to make my burgers thinner, with a bit more luck than previously. Meanwhile, Gretchen fried up some frozen hash browns that have been sitting in the freezer way too long, with a lot of success. We also tried rehydrating some minced onions to replicate what McDonald's apparently does for their smaller burgers and that seems to be exactly the trick that's required.
Gretchen had asked me to *please* get around to putting the new strings on her mother's ukulele, since we had given the strings to Julie as part of her birthday present a bit more than a month ago. Of course, they weren't in the case. Gretchen searched in one direction while I searched in the other and quickly found them in the safe place that I had put them next to my recliner chair.
The problem is that this ukulele has a tie-down bridge. I have never replaced a string that had to be tied down in my life. A few web searches later, I have replaced all four strings, which seem to be holding up reasonably well under testing. Being too lazy to get up and find a tuner, I pulled up an aged tuner app that I had on my phone, which was good enough to keep the strings in tune as they stretched out, and then started trying to figure out what I could play on a ukulele.
Interestingly, it turns out that I can play "Oz". I suppose it is easier to fit a ukulele in the basket of a balloon than a guitar...
So progress was made on some tasks (including unloading the dishwasher and firing off a second load of laundry at some point during this complicated day).
Tomorrow, K starts driving lessons.
Gretchen *did* manage to get a massive load of dishes into the dishwasher, which was a good thing. I managed to get the first of two loads of laundry into the washer. Then, with machines merrily humming along, we set out for the longish trip to Pancho's Burritos, because it was a beautiful day. Lunch went well, plans were made, and we headed home, where I was about to drop Gretchen off and go grocery shopping when her cellphone rang.
It was her hairstylist, calling to see if she could come immediately instead of at 4 PM. Well, I hadn't quite pulled into the driveway yet, so I turned around and drove to the shop, while Gretchen was contacted by children who wanted their lunch. Negotiations ensued. I dropped Gretchen off, turned around, and went to Wendy's to acquire suitable child rations. Then I dropped those off at home and went to Sam's Club, where I bought a whole bunch of things that we needed, turned around, and dropped them off with the kids at home.
Then I went to Mariano's, where I bought a whole bunch of things that we needed, turned around, and dropped them off with the kids at home. By this point, it was past time when I had been told to expect Gretchen to be ready, so I turned around, went back to the stylist's shop, where Gretchen was within five minutes of being done when I arrived, which was pretty close, all things considered.
We had originally planned for me to run by Home Depot and buy some flowers for the back porch, but by now, I was ready to go home. And so we did, by way of McDonald's, where we picked up drinks. (To be honest, there was no point in buying the flowers today when Gretchen wasn't going to have time to get around to potting them.)
But shortly thereafter, Gretchen set out with Julie in the car to go to Michaels and pick up a few things. (Did I mention that being down to one car for an indefinite period is being entertaining? No? Consider it mentioned.)
While Gretchen was gone, I thought it would be good to complete at least *one* household project that has been on my to-do list for way too long, so I conscripted K to help me disassemble the master bathroom shower doors, as I needed to replace the rollers on one of the doors, as they were not behaving properly after 25+ years of wear and no amount of adjustment had helped. We disassembled the thing, I lay the doors on our bed, made the necessary fixes, and then we put the shower doors back together. Twice, because at some point during the first assembly one of the doors managed to escape the track, which required pulling everything back apart again.
But the shower door seems to be behaving for the moment. We'll see how it's going in a week or so.
We decided to pan fry some hamburgers for dinner. I once again tried using the bacon press to make my burgers thinner, with a bit more luck than previously. Meanwhile, Gretchen fried up some frozen hash browns that have been sitting in the freezer way too long, with a lot of success. We also tried rehydrating some minced onions to replicate what McDonald's apparently does for their smaller burgers and that seems to be exactly the trick that's required.
Gretchen had asked me to *please* get around to putting the new strings on her mother's ukulele, since we had given the strings to Julie as part of her birthday present a bit more than a month ago. Of course, they weren't in the case. Gretchen searched in one direction while I searched in the other and quickly found them in the safe place that I had put them next to my recliner chair.
The problem is that this ukulele has a tie-down bridge. I have never replaced a string that had to be tied down in my life. A few web searches later, I have replaced all four strings, which seem to be holding up reasonably well under testing. Being too lazy to get up and find a tuner, I pulled up an aged tuner app that I had on my phone, which was good enough to keep the strings in tune as they stretched out, and then started trying to figure out what I could play on a ukulele.
Interestingly, it turns out that I can play "Oz". I suppose it is easier to fit a ukulele in the basket of a balloon than a guitar...
So progress was made on some tasks (including unloading the dishwasher and firing off a second load of laundry at some point during this complicated day).
Tomorrow, K starts driving lessons.