Of Feet, Floors, Flora & Furniture

Not to moan again but I can hardly put weight on my left foot today so I am heading back to bed shortly and taking a pill for the pain as the last one I took this am is wearing off.  First to feed and put out the doggies though.

I got the garden eggplants breaded and cooked this morning, so I just have to throw them together with some mozzarella and sauce later and bake it off and we will have achieved eggplant parmesan.
Rah.

Yesterday our beagle, Cherry, had surgery.  She has had a large fatty tumor on her side by her hind leg and it started impeding her movement last week so we had it taken off.  The vet also removed a much smaller fatty growth on the opposite hip/side and a new growth on her tale at it's base.  The tale tumor concerned the vet(might be cancerous)so we had him send that one off for biopsy.
But Cherry is home and being her old silly self again.......

And there goes another $589 we weren't expecting to shell out this month.  Sigh.

Yesterday was beastly hot here so I was/am glad that the new a/c system is working again....yah!!

I spent a good part of yesterday out on the back deck painting 8 long strips of crown molding.  I was trying to get that finished before Gary the handyman showed up to install it.  I got 2 coats on it all and Gary never showed up....figures. lol

But the floor guys were back yesterday(Tuesday) and they finished laying the new bamboo floor in the dining/living rooms.....

And the finished product.....

Now we have to get new baseboard moldings, paint them and wait for the floor guys to come back to install that(as well as the crown moldings laying on the floor).
I also have to touch up spots on the new paint job where the flooring guys marked up the wall(about 18" from the floor)while laying the floor. ugh.

I also picked a nice mess o' beans yesterday from the garden.....

I added this to the mess o' maters, more beans, broccoli and eggplants I picked last weekend.....

The broccoli has already been made into soup and most of the maters have been peeled and cooked down so I will can them tonight after dinner.  I also need to blanch and freezer a lot of the green beans as well.
The tomato crop this year has been phenomenal!  The plants haven't grown leggy and tall but have been heavy with fruit.  No blight this year and the rainfall has been even enough through the season that we don't have many of those split tomatoes you get when the rainfall is uneven throughout the Summer.  Our neighbor has commented on how much we have grown on the plants and is angling for some freebies since he never does well with his maters.  He's a great guy so we'll have Hubs walk some over to him tonight while I finish up canning/freezing what I need to do.

I spent a chunk of time yesterday while resting from painting the molding and sitting in the a/c house looking at area rugs online.   I have one for the living room but I need to pick up one for the dining room but after viewing about 5,600 rugs my eyes started glazing over.  I didn't see anything that I loved that was a reasonable price but then again, I am not really sure what I want in that space yet.
So the search for the perfect dining room rug continues.....

Speaking of dining rooms......Salvation Army showed up with their truck this morning at 8:20am to take away my oak dining room table/chairs and buffet.  It was time to let it go and move on.  I admit I was sad to see it go(though I did want it gone)as I bought that set in 1988.  The top of that table still didn't have a single scratch on it after 25 years, 3 kids, and a heluva lot of Holiday meals.
The style fit into our first home well but it was never really "my style" and I am anxious to find something that is a better reflection of my tastes.  I hope someone finds many more years of enjoyment with it.

Off to feed pooches now and rest my foot.

Sluggy

This Week on The Dining Table

This is the "Gotta Use Up Stuff From the Garden" Week.

 

Here's what was planned last week--

 

Sunday--BBQ Chicken, broccoli & cheese casserole, tossed salad, corn on the cob
Monday--raw  veggies, crackers, cheese and sausage(Sonya Ann had packed us some snacks and that was dinner)
Tuesday--Chinese food again!
Wednesday--Eating out
Thursday--Eating Out
Friday--something from my freezer TBA
Saturday--something from my freezer TBA

 

Everything above was eaten as was written.  The days where a specific food was not mentioned went like this....
Wednesday--Local Restaurant in AltaVista, VA
Thursday--Truck Stop Diner outside of Harrisburg, PA
Friday--Burgers, Steamed Broccoli(from garden)
Saturday--Leftover Meat Sauce over Rigatoni, Tossed Salad(w/garden cukes and toms)
  

As for food spending last week.....We didn't do ANY grocery shopping while on the trip(some alcohol procurement did happen but that's from the entertainment budget).  We left #2 Son $40 cash(plus $35 from a rebate check we finally cashed, so $40 out of my August food budget) and $10 in McDonald's bucks(the cost of which was accounted for last year).

Then we hit the grocery store on Friday after we got back from the trip and spent $34.48 on $48.11 of regular retail foods.
So my food budget spending from 8/11 to 8/23 was $74.48.
This means I am at $266.81 spent so far in August.  I have $133.19 left in the budget for the next 6 days.

 

Food waste last week.....bad.....real bad!  #2 Son didn't eat ANYTHING that was here that needed to be eaten.  Luckily I did remember to remind him to put some of it into the freezer(the garden tomatoes and the smoked pork I made).  I had to throw out melon, spareribs, a small amount of coleslaw and rice when I got home.  We tried to eat down what was in the fridge before we left but I thought #2 Son would at least eat the ribs.  *sigh*

  

Leftovers going into this week?  Some rigatoni, and lots and lots of BROCCOLI from the garden!
We also have green beans, cukes, eggplant and more tomatoes coming in, so the order of the meals below will depend on what is harvested and when.

Here's this week's meal plan---
 

Sunday--Broccoli/Chicken Quiche
Monday--Broccoli Cheddar Soup, Fresh Baked Bread
Tuesday--BLT Sandwiches(garden tomatoes)
Wednesday--Eggplant prepared some way?, Tossed Salad
Thursday--Broccoli Casserole, Caprese Salad(garden toms)
Friday--Green Bean Stirfry, Roasted Potatoes, Leftover Quiche
Saturday--Leftovers

On the shopping list......hubs picked up half & half and swiss cheese on Sunday morning already, but I still need a small hunk of Velveeta, sandwich bread(at the bakery outlet), fresh mozzarella, potatoes and more salad greens.
There is a sale on bacon this week as well which I'll end up taking advantage of. ;-)
I'm figuring about $50 food spending this week.

That's what's appearing on the kitchen table this week here at Chez Sluggy. 
  

 What's getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Sluggy

Rambles about Gardening, Shopping, Company & Fabric

Last weekend we spent some time at Lowe's......yeah, I am just getting around to talking about that......

We picked up some stones to remake the fire pit in the backyard......we have all those tree limbs now to burn so why not have some fun and sit around a fire at night, right?

I also picked up 2 Hostas to replace the ones Hubs dug up and threw out, thinking they were weeds....grrrrrr.

Because we had a gift card we only spent $8 on everything above.  NC Chic loves gift card shopping too. ;-)

Then I bought that HUGE 12 pack of Coleus plants you see.
If you are Sluggy, you don't go to the garden center in the Spring and pay $2 a pop for a tiny little plant.
You wait until halfway through the growing season, when the garden centers put everything on clearance before all the plants die, and you buy them fully grown at a price of $5 for a 12 pack.
At least that's the Sluggy way.....

Then you put them in your flower beds just in time for company to come visit.......

so they can marvel at what a GREEN THUMB you have! ;-)

Looking around the garden last week we saw.......

 2 Heads of Broccoli coming along......

Our first and biggest cuke......all 4 inches of it........

And this is the second eggplant we had to pick.......

And when I turn it around you can see why we had to pick it......

Some critter got ahold of it and ate a big hunk out of it near the stem.
Figures......
Hubs decides we need to put a fence around the eggplant plants to keep the plethora of rabbits living around our yard away from them and the next 2 days the largest and second largest eggplants are attacked.
They weren't messed with before fence.......sigh

But with a goodly amount of rain last week and then sunny skies the broccolis were approaching picking size.  One of them looked like it was going to head to "flowering" so Hubs picked it on Sunday.....

Last time we attempted broccoli in the garden, we ended up with "special" broccoli....you know, misformed  and tiny heads that bolted to flowers before we could pick some of them.
This year's did much better and will be part of a chicken and broccoli in garlic sauce for Monday's dinner.
Yumo!

I hope Tanner likes broccoli because the other head will be ready for eatin' soon too.

Sunday was spent cleaning.
Yes, one of my most favorite things to do in the world!!! ha

But it was time to do it and of course, we couldn't have Tanner arriving and thinking Sluggy is an awful host and housekeeper(well, one out of two ain't bad....).
We will continue on with the making the house presentable for company on Monday.  I may have to break out the bio-hazard suit when I get to the main bathroom since #2 Son is the sole user of said bathroom.
This won't be pretty and I'll spare y'all the Before pictures of it....lolz

In other news, sort of, I have filled 4 shelves with piece goods from my fabric stash.
It has been photographed, catalogued, measured and folded neatly, all in prep for selling it all on Etsy.
Here's the spare room as I was in process and about halfway to filling the white shelves in the back of the room.....

And here is the room at the moment.....

Shelves filled with 4 more tubs of fabric to sell in front of it, still to be gone through.
And there is more fabric in tubs in the garage.....Eeek!

The bed has been striped and aired out and awaits fresh linens.  A little dusting, run the vacuum over the carpet again and run the air filter/cleaner thingy for a couple of days and this room will be ready for company.....or as ready as it's gonna git.....

I also went through my walk-in closet in the bedroom today.  It's August and I still hadn't unpacked my Summer clothes.
Where does the time go? 8-)

I found a brand new swimsuit in there I had forgotten I had bought on clearance at the end of last Summer's season.  It's a good thing I didn't buy it again last month, because I almost did....the same exact suit.
I wonder about me sometimes.......

I spent 2 solid hours going through clothes and trying things on since my weight has changed and has "moved" so some things fit differently.  When I finished I had a small pile to send to Salvation Army(including a dress I bought at Fashion Bug years ago that is HIDEOUS!  What was I thinking? lol), plus a small pile for the rag bag.

Speaking of clothes, since my summer wardrobe was getting rather thin, I bought 3 dresses and a nightshirt online at Woman Within.  I found 2 coupon codes I could use together to get a great deal.
The regular retail on the 4 items was $204 and change.
With sale prices it all came to $124 and change(with $12 shipping), then my coupon codes took another $44 off, so I ended up paying $80 and change for all.
Not bad.

Between the swimsuit I forgot about and these dresses added to my wardrobe, I am all set for clothes for the road trip.
Packing commences later this week.

What exciting things have been going on at your house lately?

Sluggy