Sunday Smorgasbord Vol. 3
Last Updated on August 15, 2020 by Annie
How is it 7 PM and I still haven’t published the Shmoargashborg?? I have to say we have been rather busy with a number of things this week but would love to take a minute between painting, bleaching, and baking to let you know what all we’ve been up to. And if you’re here to learn about Phoebe, the sourdough starter formerly known as Karen, you will be pleased to know she’s alive. But first….
Frannie
I come from a family of people who name their cars. In fact I wasn’t allowed to drive my first car until I had properly named it. A few cars in the Bynum household included but were not limited to:
Ariel- a red Pontiac Sunfire
Trip- a Chevy Traverse
The Green Machine- a green Plymouth Grand Voyager
Bob the Burban- tan suburban
Orbit- a sliver Saturn Ion
Homer- a Honda civic
etc.
When Jason got his car in 2009 I named it Howard, Howie for short. For our move to CT we drove Howie, a 2009 Hyundai Elantra, from Houston to New Haven over 3 days. Since we sold my car before the move, one of our first things to do after buying the house was buy a second car. Francis nicknamed Frannie a Subaru Forester.
I’d like to start by saying Frannie is a fabulous Forester, best-in-class turning radius, a moonroof like you wouldn’t believe, not to mention seat warmers. But for some reason, EVERY TIME I take Frannie for a routine _______ they want to add an additional $1000 in services. Am I giving off ‘pushover’ vibes or do I just drive Frannie to the brink before going in? So when I do finally get around to taking her in it’s a boat load more?
As we prepare for our next 1,000 mile move, the car, as well as the pets, need to prepare for the drive. So, I took my car in for a recall I got an email about. After a rather shocking tire incident in the fall, where they charged $600 more than my original quote plus my first born, I knew I needed to hold my own at the service station.
They began by telling me it would be free but then this one part would also need to be replaced because of the new coil spring… and that’ll be $350. Oh, it also looks like your due for the 60,000 check up for $450. And your alignment will need to be done; that’ll be another $150. Y’ALL. I wish I could have seen my face. Heck, I wish she could have seen my face but it was covered by a mask. Dumbfounded, I told her I would get back to her about these.
Knowing one of those things could be done by the tire guys, I called them to ensure they would do the alignment for “free” (I think I might have pre-paid for re-alignment for life…) so I set the appointment up for the very next day. I knew my mechanic would charge FAR less for the 60K service and set a third appointment the day after that.
The second half of my week consisted of taking the car to a shop to get something done and having to say no to extra, overpriced, unnecessary things (except at my trusted mechanic shop Tech Auto…if you live in the New Haven area check these guys out, they’re amazing!). I did wonder once or twice if it just would have been easier to let them do the $1000 of service at the first place or was my time better spent lugging Frannie to different car docs all week?
Wow. Sorry y’all I didn’t know how much I had let Frannie weigh on me this week, but she’s up and running and ready to take on the world. Or at least the 15 hour drive to Macon in July.
Phoebe
Ah, the sourdough starter. I don’t know why but every time it was time to feed her this week, I just didn’t want to. I put it off a few different times and even skipped a feeding once (this might also be why I struggle to keep plants alive) After a MASSIVE feeding yesterday (thank you for the advice Blaire) she seems happy and ready to get on the bread making horse again- unless of course I starve her… I didn’t bake anything with the discard and I think that might have impacted my drive to feed her. Oh well, she’s alive and I will try to be a better starter mom next week.
Around the House
As you now know, we will be moving at the end of June. We opted to keep our house and set it up as a rental property but this means that instead of leaving the house for a new owner to do with as they please, we need to finish the projects we want done for the house so the sweet family coming in next won’t need us to drive up from Georgia to fix anything.
We created a MASSIVE list of last minute things we need to do like paint the shed, repaint the basement doors, put quarter round in some rooms, do a bit of touch up paint on the trims, etc. All the things we say we are going to do and then never get around to it until it’s time to move out… Again, please remind me to do ALL THE THINGS when we move into the next house.
In an attempt to mark something off the list, we accidentally created an entirely new project. Instead of wiping the wall down before painting over a row of spots, we simply painted the spots. They dried darker and did not blend with the original paint. After a good @gocleanco cleaning of the walls, I taped them up and we began repainting the sections where the dark spots were. Unfortunately we used brushes instead of a roller and it looks a touch splotchy. We will now be putting a third coat on… with the roller… and hopefully it won’t be so bad…
We began packing a few bags and selling a few things on Facebook Marketplace. While getting some of these things done is wonderful it means the house is in this weird limbo. There are boxes in the basement, the living room is taped up and the furniture is all over the place. Is it just me or do you ever get itchy with all the things being out of the ordinary. I look at the living room and I just want to put it back in order but I need to paint the wall but I’m exhausted from painting it twice and cleaning the ceiling in the kitchen, which I’ll be painting this week. I know it’s just temporary, but I really want it to be clean and in some kind of order. This also feels like the right time in the rant to mention we broke the vacuum this week, which of course is 5 weeks too soon to break.
Books
Something I can celebrate about this week is that I finished not only The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but also the 4 Hour Work Week. I was able to start the May book Jason and I selected which is The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. For my morning reading I have started The One Thing by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan which will hopefully help me focus on the one thing I need to be doing.
Recipes
I shared a Protein Pancake recipe this week as an effort to use all of the protein powder we have in the house. Since I didn’t try any sourdough discard recipes I had a little time to play with some other ideas. I made sushi twice this week. It was very fun learning how to make the rice and keep the rolls from being overstuffed. We also made Garlic Butter Ramen Noodle Stir Fry from The College Housewife. To make it DF I used vegan butter and I subbed spinach for kale since it’s what we had on hand.
There was also a failed lemon tart (too little curd for the amount of pastry), but I will be sharing the lemon curd soon and keep chugging along on the tart. Remember those s’mores bars from Shmorgasborg 1? I tested them out again this week and think we are just about there. Fingers crossed I can snag a box of graham crackers at the store this week!
I applaud you for making it through my long-winded ramble of everything. I should probably get back to the paining so I can get my house put back together before the working week begins!
With love and dairy free, socially distanced hugs,
Annie