Sunday

When I woke up on Sunday, I had a wicked stiff, sore neck. Since I didn't do anything that strenuous on Saturday, I could only conclude I'd somehow slept wrong.

I looked outside to check on the bird feeder. I saw I had a new customer, a beautiful yellow wild canary. I snuck over and dug out the binoculars to check him out.

Speaking of the bird feeder, it’s amazing the amount of seed they went through so far (one day and its about half full). Now my little old one used to last a couple of days but it only held, like, one-quarter of the seed this one does. I am picturing signs up in trees everywhere, written in bird language, saying “Free food at John’s house!”

I turned the mattress end for end (forgot to do it yesterday) and then redid the top sheet and bedspread. I used to flip over the old one, (which gave me four different places to wear out) but this one has a “pillow top” and it can’t be done.

I ate a peach and plum for brunch. The peach was good (it was very good) but the plum was fantastic. It was big as a hardball, full of flavor and with enough juice that I had to eat it over a paper towel on my lap.

I planned on going grocery shopping but it was too hot. Still, I needed kitty litter and cat food, so I just went to PetSmart.

It was 90 degrees F. and sticky here by 1:00 PM.

I started working on the sink again. Damn, I am tired of this shit!

I took Jake’s advice and drained the hot water tank. Last time, I shut off the water and gas and just drained it. At the time, B___ said that wasn’t good enough, I needed the pressure to blow out the sediment. So this time I just hooked up the hose, turned on the drain and let ‘er rip. I let it run until the hose was cold (about an hour). Naturally, when I closed the shut off it was leaking. Damn! So, in order to get back to the sink, I just set a container under it to catch the water.

Once I disconnected the drains and the water lines, the next step was to get the sink out. This proved to be the most difficult part as I had to wiggle my painter’s knife under the lip of the sink and slowly (slowly) cut through the silicone caulk I’d just put down a couple of weeks ago. It took a while, but I finally got it free. I put it upside down on the sawhorses. Then I went to attend to several other chores.

I watered all the container gardens and then hooked up the sprinkler and watered the raised bed vegetable garden for an hour (well, I didn’t spend an hour doing it, I simply set it up, turned on the water and set the timer to remind me to shut the water off). I can’t begin to think about what this day will be doing to my water bill.

I worked on the dripping water heater shutoff. Gently, slowly (lessons learned from my first house on Harrelson) I turned it more. Finally, I had turned it as far as I could with my hand. I had lessened the drip considerably, but it was still dripping. So, I switched to my channel-locks. Again, only turning it a tad bit at a time. Finally, it looked like it had stopped. I left the container under it (just in case) and checked on it from time to time.

So, I replaced the old faucet with the new. I re-caulked the edge of the tile and set the sink back in. I redid the water lines and the drains and checked for leaks (none that I could see). I put two full paint cans in the sink (one on each side) to weigh it down and set the caulk (takes a minimum of three hours). I was done about 6:30 PM.

I started dinner. I used too small of a pan to blanch the four green peppers I’d topped and cleaned out. So, I boiled them for five minutes, two at a time.

Meanwhile, I browned a pound of hamburger and half a cup of diced onions. When the hamburger was ready, I added a 14.5 ounce can of whole tomatoes that I diced (why not just used diced tomatoes? I dunno... I also added 1/2 cup of uncooked rice, 1/2 cup of water, a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and one cup of cheddar cheese. I covered the pan and put a lid on it.

It was the cheese that threw me. I don’t recall my Mother ever cooking with cheese. I remember grilled cheese sandwiches, cottage cheese (loved it then, love it now) and the occasional wedge of Pinconning cheese eaten with crackers. But I never remember her adding cheese to anything she was cooking (I could be wrong).

I stuffed the peppers with the beef mixture, topped it with a can of thinned tomato soup, covered the oven-proof glass baking dish with tin foil and put it in a preheated 350 degrees F. oven for the next 30 minutes.

While that was baking, I peeled three parsnips, sliced them and added them to the pot I cooked the green peppers in.

I ate dinner watching my usual Sunday night shows. Later than I’d like but fortunately they were taped. The green pepper was excellent, but I was right the cheese was wrong. The parsnips were undercooked a tad but still tasted great.

I fell asleep about 10:30.