Bush teleconference with soldiers staged.
I caught this on the news this evening and couldn’t believe my ears.
ham-a-licious
My mom and I split another half a hog this year. I learned an important lesson last year–always order the pig a few weeks before the Cambria County Fair. This ensures getting a “fair pig” (in more ways than one).
The ham and bacon came in last Friday. I baked our ham on Saturday. I found a nifty recipe for ham soup in Penzeys One magazine. It called for a ham bone and since I had one, I decided to try it out. As an aside, I’ve been ordering all of my spices from Penzeys for years now. Excellent quality.
The recipe turned out great, but it takes forever to cook. I also had to add extra water more than once (otherwise, I would’ve had ham and bean stew). Here’s the recipe:
Gram’s Bean Soup
Stock:
3 quarts water
1 onion, halved
1 stalk celery, halved
1 meaty ham bone or a large ham shank
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
Soup:
1 lb. bag dry beans (navy, pea, or northern) soaked in a large bowl of water overnight
1 lb. ham, diced (3-4 cups)
2 carrots, peeled, ends removed, diced
4 medium potatoes, diced (about 4 cups)
1/2 tsp. thyme leaves
1/2 tsp. savory leaves
1 tsp. salt (optional–some hams are salty)
1/2-1 tsp. black pepper
Place all the stock ingredients in a soup pot. Over fairly high heat, bring quickly to a simmer, then reduce heat and simmer at least 2 hours, skimming occasionally. Strain and return to the cleaned pot. Add beans, cook 1 hour, add ham, carrots, potatoes, thyme, savory, half the salt and pepper. Simmer another hour, until beans and potatoes are tender. Taste and add more salt and pepper as desired.
Yield: 3-4 quarts soup
Prep time: 10 minutes (yeah, right)
Cooking time: 4 hours
bathroom remodel: day 19
We did a little work this afternoon/evening. Brian installed our new ceiling light and removed the old exhaust fan and plugged the hole (since we are putting the new fan in a different location). I did some drywall patching. A few more coats of drywall compound and I should be done. I also caulked around the baseboard tiles–again–I just can’t get that to look how I’d like it to.
I think we’re both convinced that the toilet is working properly. However, the stupid flushing mechanism is broken so we can’t use it anyway. The chain that connects to the handle to the mechanism apparently detached itself and got flushed down the toilet. We don’t have a spare chain on hand and neither of us felt like running to the hardware store today so the toilet is out of commission for now. I might try rigging something up if I can find something that will work.
I think we’re mostly going to take the week off and catch up on other stuff around the house.
bathroom remodel: day 18
As it usually goes, we didn’t get to work as much as we would’ve liked today, but we still managed to wrap some things up. Jacob’s school had an event this morning/afternoon. When we returned from it, we started to work in the bathroom. Brian picked up a Fluidmaster wax-free bowl gasket for the toilet at Lowe’s this morning. We installed it and the toilet in short order. It seems to be working. Unlike last time, there’s no water running into the woodshop when we flush the toilet. However, Brian has banned us all from using the toilet until Monday night because that is the magical night when he’ll be convinced the toilet is actually working. In the meantime, we’re just going to flush it at random times and check for running water in the room below. I believe this is known as the Guzo Methodology of Toilet Testing. Or something like that.
After that, he installed the last of the drywall around the tub. Jacob and I then had to go to an anniversary party for one of my relatives. It didn’t take a lot of arm-twisting to get Brian to stay home and work on the vanity. As I understand, all of the pieces for the base are cut to fit and ready to assemble.
the power of the holy ghost***
It has been suggested by more than one person that perhaps our bathroom is possessed by malign spirits and that is the reason why we’re having so many problems with our remodeling project. So, I performed an exorcism of sorts this evening. Brian’s skeptical, but we’ll see how things go from now on. I’ll keep you posted.
Already, I see an improvement. I wouldn’t say we worked in the bathroom this evening, but we did disconnect the toilet to see what the problem was. The job was surprisingly easy (it doesn’t take long to disconnect a toilet) and we didn’t make a mess because we sucked all of the water out of the toilet with a shop vac before attempting anything. Yesterday’s problem turned out to be a simple misalignment of the wax ring. I think we might try one of the new non-wax gaskets for our next attempt. That way, if there are any issues, you can make adjustments rather than run to Lowe’s for yet another wax ring.
***Clutch, “Burning Beard”, Robot Hive/Exodus