Sistah Pat

I feel like one of those cute little scrubbing bubbles.  Running around scrubbing everything in sight.  Spent all day yesterday working on my kitchen again.  Cleaned the stove till it positively shines and then moved on to the dishwasher, microwave, and kitchen island.  I emptied the deep fryer, took it all apart and spent more than an hour on it.  Ughh!  I’d love to toss it but DH and the boys consider a deep fryer to be right in there with running water and a stove.  One of those indispensible kitchen items.  I took down the curtains, washed and ironed them and cleaned the window.  Removed all my cookbooks from the shelf over the stove and scrubbed the shelf.  Of course, DH thinks I’m crazy to take an old toothbrush to the sides of the dishwasher door and I think he’s crazy that he never sees that kind of dirt and grime.   Since we all chose a room to be responsible for a couple of weeks ago, I haven’t seen him working on his and I’m going to make sure he starts today.  He actually got off pretty easy since he waited to choose.  The only thing left was a combination of the laundry room, the freezer room, (both tiny rooms with nothing to really clean) the stairs and the hall.  Of course, I just cleaned the hall right before we picked rooms so it’s been scrubbed from top to bottom.  He thinks there’s nothing to be done in his rooms so I’ll have to teach him today.  The hall happens to contain two linen closets - your job, DH.  The laundry room has a washer, dryer, and a lot of shelving - your job, DH and yes, washers and dryers have to be cleaned.  The freezer room is a tiny little space consumed by a huge chest freezer with a bunch of cabinets and shelving that’s crammed full of all kinds of junk (paint, tools, tons of kitchen appliances like a wok, an espresso machine, several crock pots, a food processor, an ice cream maker, a roaster, a huge fondue set, a bread making machine, etc. etc.).  Finally, we come to the stairs, nothing but carpeted stairs (that need to be vacuumed and shampooed), high ceilings and walls that need to be scrubbed and pictures.  All yours, DH.   I spoke to him about all this yesterday and he promised to get moving on it today.  We’ll see… I’m having to really lean on everyone to keep them on their toes.  They’re trying to get by with straightening as opposed to cleaning.  In the past, I would have probably let it slide but I’m determined to get some help around this place so I’m prepared to be a witch if I have to.  Andrew did a nice job on the downstairs bathroom yesterday but he forgot to clean the floor and he didn’t polish all the chrome on the sink, tub, and shower so I made him go back.  He thought I was nit picking and I was but that’s the whole point.  I want it perfect.  Andrew’s such a good natured sweetie that he took note of what I said and did it but the others are another matter.

Sistah Pam had her gall bladder removed early in December.  She said she feels better than she has in a long time and is back on track with diet and exercise.  I was going to cancel my gym membership since I don’t use it but she suggested we meet to do the treadmill this morning so I’m going to go.  I’d like to keep my membership if I can use it but it just doesn’t make any sense for me to get dressed and drive to the gym when I have my own treadmill right here if no one’s going to work out with me.  It’s nice, however, to meet Pam and have a chance to chat with her.  I really need to take advantage of the gym if I’m going to use it and figure out how to use some of the other goodies they have.

3:00 - DH loves me.  Jesus loves me and DH loves me.  They’re both very forgiving.

I went to the gym and did the treadmill for an hour with Sistah Pam.  Meijier’s has pork loin on sale for $1.79 a pound so I went by and picked up two whole porkloins.  Came home and trimmed all the fat and sliced one into roasts and the other into slices for stir fries or grilling.  I decided to make one of the roasts for dinner.  I rummaged around in the fridge and started throwing things together to make a glaze.  Diced a couple of jalapenos, crushed a couple cloves of garlic, added the last half of a jar of “just fruit” apricot preserves, a little vinegar, and a tablespoon of olive oil.  Poured it all in the jar from the preserves and set it on the counter so the flavors could mingle while I got out the pan, the foil, and waited for the oven to preheat.  I was chatting with DH during all this and noticed that the jar full of glaze had settled so I grabbed it up and started giving it a vigorous shaking.  The lid flew off and the entire jar sloshed into DH’s face.  OMG!  I was shocked.  It couldn’t have hit him better if I’d been aiming.  I just stood there gaping.  I guess I didn’t tighten the lid when I put it on the jar and then got distracted with other things.  Poor DH is just sitting there at the kitchen table with glaze dripping off his face and hair.  Then I see a big smile cracking behind all the goo and he just starts cracking up.  Then I started laughing and he grabbed me and pulled me over for a big, gooey kiss.  Yumm!  I think this glaze is going to be good!