You Had To Be There
So0o, SWMBO gets home from our nation's capital and about an hour after she arrives, a light goes on and she says, "Oh, you painted the closet door, cool." I take a moment to reflect on my six days since she went away:
Day One - Pulled bathroom door. Partially emptied the closet at the front door and pulled the door. Emptied hall closet and pulled the door. Cleared a spot on the patio, set up sawhorses and gathered tools for refurbishment. Removed hinges and passage sets from all three doors. This included the extraction of 60-year-old stripped flathead screws. George (the previous owner) had varnished and / or painted over them a few times, which really helped! Thanks George.
Day Two - Homeless Depot as they opened to source pine for door repairs and other supplies. Once I got back home, we glued and clamped repair locations on two doors. Removed the strike plates, cut construction paper to fit the three locations and installed painter's tape around baseboards, trim, hinge and strike plate mortices. Hand-sanded adjoining baseboards and door trim inside and out.
Day Three - Painted three interior trim locations with high bond primer. Outside, we removed the clamps, rough sanded and primed the doors.
Day Four - Painted interior trim locations with high gloss Chantilly Lace (KS) paint. Brought the doors into the kitchen and set them up on sawhorses. Of the forty or so existing drilled holes in the doors and the frames, about half needed repairs to hold a new screw. I used the white glue / toothpick method.
Day Five - We sheared off the mortise repairs, re-drilled and fitted new hardware. Rehung and painted the three doors with semi-gloss (Pale Oak).
Day Six - Touched up trim and door paint. Removed the painter's tape and construction paper from the three locations. Packed up every tool I own (it felt like) and put it all away.
"Yup, I painted that closet door." I don't really mind. She goes through the same thing when she wears one of her project sweaters on the streets. Someone notices, and she explains she knitted it. "Cool" is the reaction. It is not "cool." It is a huge undertaking! I know for a fact the wool cost $350. She spent a significant portion of three months, needles in hand. Perhaps 500 hours of hard knitting. She restarted it twice. Once because she thought it was trending too tight, which is not a thing with any sweater on SWMBO in my humble opinion. The second time, she found a mistake. About twenty rows back, a cable pattern goes left, right, right instead of left, right, left. "I need to fix it" she announces. Need being the operative word. Queue the screeching, stabbing violin sound from Psycho. Eekk Eekk Eekk Eekk. She pulls it apart stitch by stitch by stitch. Round and round she deconstructs until she gets back to the scene of the crime and knits that one stitch instead of purling it? WTFTM's? I have seen firsthand her announcing on a Tuesday that she is back where she was last Thursday! I would have taken it out on the patio, poured gas on it and set it on fire. Like I said at the outset ... sometimes, you just have to be there.
Drum Beats
BTW - Doors are another of the black arts, the installation of which is practiced by shamans, sorcerers and witch doctors. Of the three doors I had just "completed", one closes but does not latch. One closes (and latches) if you put a shoulder into it. You need to brace your foot on wall beside it ... to get it to open. The last one (bathroom) just smashes into the doorjamb. It doesn't even try? That door came out of that exact hole in the wall five days earlier. I have company coming tomorrow. "Easier if you just squat behind the shed ladies"
Clown Show
Bryann Aguilar
I'm giving you the latest link from the evolving freak show that is the province's missteps on beer and wine sales. My track record of predicting hits and misses here is pretty good. So, as the province closes Beer Stores ... nearby grocery stores that used to be within five miles of that location, will now have to take back empties. I predicted they would balk. They just did. "We don't have staff for that. We don't have the space. It could cross-contaminate our fresh produce." They suggest they will stop beer sales at those locations. So if you live in a medium-sized town or a big-city neighborhood that has lost a Beer Store location, prepare for a longer drive. Not to drop off empties, but to actually buy beer. Do convenience stores and those beer-delivering Uber types get a pass? Will they have to play nice with hornet-infested, stinking, clanking, dripping aluminum cans? My prediction is that this will be the next chapter in this self-induced disaster. The Beer Store franchise locations collected 434 million empty beer cans on our behalf. Where does that process end up? No one knows. Certainly not the premier. There is a homeless guy who cruises our neighborhood on garbage day. He has a stolen shopping cart and is harvesting beer cans. I wonder if I could reward his industry and make my life easier at the same time? Hmm.
My Optimum Week
SWMBO is in potato heaven. The Food Basics' peach basket ad was misleading, but the $3.49 white potatoes were great. I have officially redeemed myself following the Yukon Gold Event. If you have ever wanted to make your own tomato sauce, this might be your week. Buy a case of wide-mouthed 500 ml mason jars. Buy a half a bushel of Roma tomatoes. What could go wrong? A lot, but your cooking game will be lifted one complete notch, across the board. I promise you. There wasn't much that blew my socks off from the flyer, but there are 41K in continuity points, so I would see what lines up with your fridge list. Here is what I might add:
Sparkling Potatoes
I saw the 2-litre bottles of PC Spritz Lemon Up Soda on sale and remembered this recipe. I have been following Cowboy Kent Rollins for nearly twenty years. Yes, he really does talk like that. He really does own and cook from a chuck wagon. His stove has a name. (I think it's Martha). You can spend hours learning from this guy, and he has literally millions of views for this particular recipe. The ingredients were on your list.
What I'm Reading
I fell way down the rabbit hole a few weeks ago when I researched North American reading habits. There was a reference to a 1947 symposium of science fiction authors, speaking about how to write a science fiction novel. It spawned an anthology at the time called Of Worlds Beyond. Imagine? The greatest science fiction authors of the time (including Robert Heinlein) coaching you on story outline, plot development and overall structure. Last published in 1964, I had to find a copy. It wasn't easy. It wasn't cheap. $53 CDN from a used bookstore in London. Not the one down Windsor way. Their salient advice? If you want to write a book, write one. Send your writing out, so editors have a chance to stomp on it. Just keep at it. Who am I to argue with a bunch of guys who all died forty years ago?
We Are Watching
No Offense on Britbox. We found a new series (to us) on Britbox, and love it! Set on the wrong side of the tracks in Manchester, this is a fresh take on the standard police drama with three female leads. Fresh and funny, the series has three seasons available. Five stars.
War Of The Worlds on Netflix. When they remade this with Tom Cruise, I thought, "Why bother?" Then, I had to admit it was pretty good. This version, not so much. Aliens invade. Ya, we get that. Throughout the movie, a surveillance guru, who reports directly to the President, works to save his pregnant daughter from danger. Millions of Americans die horribly while he focuses only on her. But it all works out. He ends up on a tropical beach with his new granddaughter. Kill me now. One star.
Untamed on Netflix - Eric Bana and Sam Neill are both old pros best known from small movies like Jurrassic Park and Troy. This police drama takes place in Yosemite National Park, and it is just OK. Bana broods; Sam covers for him. The supporting cast makes it worth your time. Three stars.
... and finally
We love Mr. Submarine. It is a worthy Canadian brand. It's SWMBOs birthday, and I still have pine offcuts and paintbrushes languishing on the patio. She is getting takeout. Whatever she wants. From Mr. Submarine, she wants a steak and cheese, extra cheese, on white. No lettuce. No tomato. No onions. In fact, no vegetables whatsoever? To compound my psychic pain, no sub sauce. No BBQ sauce. Dry as a popcorn fart. The guy making it kept looking at me with growing incredulity as we were building the gob robber. Then, it came time to pay. It cost nineteen dollars! I understand that purchasing a steak sub for eight dollars might be a thing of the past? I get it. But please? I skipped the chocolate milk for $4.12. Happy Birthday Zippyburger!
Mitch & Maddie