Willy-Nilly Wednesday

1.  At water aerobics this early morning (7 am), I was greeted by the other regulars and I was asked how my Labor Day weekend was.  It struck me that this was something I've missed about my job --- the collegial check ins with each other when we return from weekends, or even the daily morning updates about families, spouses, etc.  I've been attending this class now for almost a month, and today was the first time that I felt that I'd become a "regular" instead of a newbie.


2.  We did have a great Labor Day weekend.  Elder Son came home Sat. morning to pick up some items he'd had shipped here (to save sales tax!) and to help me solve a pesky computer problem.  (I was secretly happy that he had the same issues I'd been having --- it wasn't an easy fix.)  We also upgraded my computer to Windows 10.  Then the 3 of us went to a local art show and out to lunch.  On Sunday, my husband and I headed a couple hours west to Bennington,VT to attend the VT Garlic Festival.  Who knew VT had a garlic festival?  We'd been to the Gilroy Garlic Festival in CA a couple of years ago, and decided to see what New England had to offer.  It was much bigger than we'd expected, and we spend several hours tasting all sorts of garlicky treats.

We also stopped at this place:

The Bennington Battle Monument 

We've driven past the monument many many times, but had never driven up the hill to actually look at it.    I figured it was time!

3.  It's been wicked hot and humid this past week --- temps in the 90's.  We've had almost 20 days of 90+ degree weather this summer.  Normal is about 10.    I'm very grateful for the luxury of air conditioning.

4.  I've been freezing basil from our CSA and from the pot on my deck.  I think I've got plenty put away.  I was going to make pesto, but had no pine nuts or even walnuts.   I also have frozen a number of Thai chili peppers and a few jalapeños.  My cherry tomatoes are very slow.  I think it's because of the torrential rain/drought/torrential rain/drought cycles we've endured this summer.  

5.  I've been reading quite a bit, and finally figured out how to get my book reviews back on the blog in a much less cumbersome method.  

6.  I am SICK of surveys and junk phone calls. Despite the fact that we've registered our phone number(s) with the donotcall.gov, we still get them.  And one disadvantage to living in the "First in the nation" primary state are the uncountable political surveys!!  I got 3 calls yesterday afternoon in the space of an hour.

7.  I've also spent time on the phone the past few weeks --- dealing with customer service people regarding my internet service, an erroneous credit card charge, travel questions, and changing dr's appointments.  How did I ever manage to get these things done when I was working?