More Snow at The Lake but Sis tells me that it's supposed to warm up to 60 degrees next week.

Word of the Day

Petonic - One who is embarrassed to undress in front of a household pet.

There was no getting away from the mess that has accumulated in my desk drawers. I've tried to hide but...facts are facts. It had gotten so bad that I couldn't find a scrap of paper to write on or even a pencil to use to write on the illusive scrap of paper should I have found it. Scissors? Stapler? The only reason I could find the hole punch and the tape is that I don't keep those in my desk drawers. After an hour of tossing and reorganizing, I found stuff that I didn't even know that I owned. I found the stapler, LOTS of pads of paper for taking quick notes, LOTS of pencils and pens and highlighters, a ruler, chalk?, a calculator, push pins, erasers, LOTS of post it tabs, stickers, and magnets for to stick on photos and business cards. I knew all this was in the drawers but it was hard to find under all the crap that I had to throw away or file away. Oh well...it's done. I can now find a pencil and piece of paper should I need to write a quick note to myself or copy down a phone number.

Since I was in a cleaning mood (despite my stubbed toe experience and logic from yesterday's blog), I decided to tackle the top of my stove. I do this periodically but...not often enough. It's not my favorite chore. Cleaning isn't my favorite thing to do. I try to avoid it whenever possible but, facts are facts, and cleaning is a fact. It's something that has to be done. I love to cook, therefore, cooking surfaces get messed up and greasy. I clean my work surfaces daily but sometimes you have to do more than surface cleaning. Detail work. Wouldn't it be nice if you could take your stove and oven over to one of those car wash places where they detail cars? It would almost be worth the cost to have someone come in on a monthly basis to detail my appliances. Oh well...

While the burner plates, etc. were soaking in the sink with a powerful degreaser, I spent some time looking for the cookbook that contains my favorite cebiche recipe. I don't plan to make cebiche right now but I wanted to make cebiche when I was at The Lake last summer and, of course, I didn't have that cookbook with me. Cookbooks are invariably not where you need them when you need them. I don't keep a complete duplicate set of cookbooks at The Lake. What I have done is copy my favorite recipes from my favorite cookbooks onto my computer. Unfortunately, recipes don't get typed into the computers unless I think of it at any given time. I don't know why I thought about cebiche this morning. Maybe it's because my sister sent me the recipe for Spanish Rice because I either asked for it last summer or...whatever. I didn't have it. Or? Maybe it's because HTP was talking about plans to return to The Lake for the summer. Fluid plans. I think it was the later. Regardless, I know that I can't take every cookbook I own back and forth between Arizona and The Lake. I either need duplicates or I need to get these recipes copied onto the laptop. Today it was the cebiche recipe. Then...

Sadly, my favorite recipe books take quite a beating. Like some child's well-loved and well-worn stuffed animal, my favorite cookbooks are showing the ravages of love and use. The cookbook that contained my cebiche recipe is a case in point...on point? Anyway, the spine is shot, the pages are hopelessly stained with goop, and pages are falling out. My librarian Mom would have a fit but my favorite cooking books get used...a lot. As I typed the recipe for cebiche out of that poor cookbook, I was wondering if I could find this particular cookbook online somewhere. Sis had been finding "antique" cookbooks online. So, I searched and found that my poor cookbook had been published in 1973. Does that qualify as "antique"? I bought it before I got married but...I found one online. Bought it. I'll take the worn and torn cookbook up to The Lake...or maybe I'll keep it here and take the new one up there. I've got enough of my Mom's genes in me that there's no way that I would throw out the old and worn cookbook. Then...I found some other cookbooks from the same series...and I couldn't resist. *sigh* I love cookbooks. I know I can find a replacement for my original Betty Crocker cookbook but...I don't really NEED it. I've copied most of the recipes that I love onto the computer and I found a Betty Crocker cookbook at an antique store for up at The Lake. Some cookbooks you just have to have. There's no amount of hunting online that will help find your favorite and "antique" recipes. New favorites? Certainly. Old ones? Not so much.

So far today? Aside from my daily rutted routine? My stove and oven have been detailed. My desk drawers..well...a couple of them...have been cleaned. I ordered four cookbooks and two sudoku puzzle books online. And, I'm trying not to think about the fact that my refrigerator needs to be cleaned and detailed. I'm going to pull a Scarlet O'Hara on that one...adding it to all the other items on that list which I'm keeping stubbornly shoved to the back of my mind. I've reached my cleaning quota for one day.

HTP and I will have to go out to get the propane tank for our grill filled because the propane ran dry before I could cook up the pork chops last night. And...we've got to go pick up HTP's new glasses. Maybe I'll get my corned beef, cabbage, and new potatoes at the grocery store while we're out.

Murphyism of the Day

Finman's Law of Mathematics

Nobody wants to read anyone else's formulas.

Noteworthy Quote of the Day

There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.

- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)