August 25th, 2010
I apologize for the lack of posts this past week. Life is hectic and stressful these days.
1) The crickets have again taken up home in my basement. I don’t know how they are getting in or what it is about late August – perhaps the fear of the cold of autumn, but this year, it seems no amount of Home Defense Bug Killer can take out the mutant crickets because my husband and I had to chase this humongous (and super fast) cricket through the living room the other day. In the battle for territory, I WON!
Mutant Crickets attempt to take residence in my house
2) My garden has pretty much bit the big one this year. It has been so hot that my corn completely dried up after only giving us 3 crappy pieces of corn, my tomatoes have had a terrible case of stem rot all season from the heat and rain extremes and my cucumbers just never seemed to thrive after the first few heat spells in June. The only things that seems to be holding on well are the paprika and banana bell peppers and the leek. With the last batch of half-way tomatoes I picked, I’m going to make bruschetta in a jar (for Xmas gifts – recipe and details to come soon). But hey – at least the kids are enjoying the peppers! The Destroyer ate 2 raw banana bells peppers and a cherry tomato last night. He’s our champion (and healthy) eater!
Yummy Peppers from the Garden
3) My husband is still unemployed, but is learning the ways of frugality (I’m so proud!). These are his basement shoes – the ones he uses to work around the house or in which he’ll run out to take out the garbage. Men truly can fix anything with duct tape!
Men can fix ANYTHING with DUCT TAPE!
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Life Update has been posted in Disasterous Mamamamahoney and Tagged: crickets in the basement, crickets invade my home, dead corn, duct tape, fixing stuff with duct tape, garden, life update, peppers, stem rot, summer cricket invasion, tomatoes.
August 13th, 2010
I apologize for my lack of posts lately. I’m sick…..and I don’t seem to be getting better. Everyone else takes medicine and gets better. Me? I take medicine, feel slightly better and then seem to develop a whole new set of symptoms. Thankfully due to better living through chemistry, my wicked sore throat is gone, but now I seem to have a major head cold including some painful sneezes – the kind that feel like someone punched you in the chest right as you ah-choo. But, we are planning a little party for this weekend. I’ll give you a hint. So stay tuned for details.
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I have the Cooties….Still! has been posted in Disasterous Mamamamahoney and Tagged: dora party, mommy's sick, sick.
July 27th, 2010
This past weekend, we went peach picking with the full intention of making jam (and other holiday food gifts). I started out with this Vanilla Peach Jam recipe. I swear I have the “You must cook your jam twice” curse. Because yet again, I followed a 5 star internet recipe to the T and my jam did not gel on the first try. I then went and read ALL of the reviews (not just the first 5) and found that I needed to add more pectin – 2 more packets to be exact. That is a BIG difference in the consistency. If you make this recipe as it is written, you will have a very nice thick syrup for ice cream – also not a bad holiday gift! I got 8 1/2 pint jelly jars out of this, but will probably lose another tonight when I have to AGAIN recook the jam that still hasn’t quite fully jelled. I actually at this stage have only used 2 1/2 packets of pectin. 2 of the jars jelled quite nicely – obviously those were the last to be filled and contained the most pectin. The other 6 are much thicker, but still not at a jam stage with which I am happy.
Cooking the Jam - Sterilizing the Jars (the first time!)
I then moved onto this recipe for Honey-Spiced Peaches. I would think that Ball would know to tell people in a recipe that you need firm peaches. Now, maybe a seasoned cook/baker/canner like me should know that, but apparently not. Not to mention, my peaches are getting insanely ripe, insanely fast! Anyway, I peeled, pitted, and sliced the peaches and made the honey sugar syrup. These smell heavenly and the mix of white and yellow peaches in the jars makes them look even more tasty! I opted to use pint jars instead of quarts. I got 6 pint jars and 1 1/2 pint jar out of this recipe. My husband already asked if the 1/2 pint jar could be the tester jar. I think it is going to have to be because I, too, want to try these before I gift them!
Honey Spiced Peaches
As I was reading the group of blogs I frequent this morning, I was even further convinced that someone up above wanted to stick it to me because I found these jumping out at me on the first 2 blogs I checked!
How to Peel a Peach - where was this last night when I had peach peel squishing all over my hands! Actually, I knew how to do this already, but was afraid the already very ripe peaches would not stand up to the boiling process very well.
Peach Pitting Tool - this just about killed me this morning. I SO wish I had had this tool last night. Oh and did I mention that I have an apple corer and a mango corer that look just like this sitting in my kitchen tool drawer? Why didn’t I think of busting out that mango corer?! It probably would have saved me hours! Live & Learn!
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Peaches! has been posted in Crafty Mamamamahoney, Disasterous Mamamamahoney and Tagged: canning peaches, honey spiced peaches, peach jam recipe, peach jelly recipe, peaches, spiced peaches, summer fruit canning, vanilla peach jam, vanilla peach jelly.
July 2nd, 2010
I previously had an aversion to Apple. I only got an Ipod because I was having so much difficulty using Itunes with an mp3 player, it was driving me nuts. Well, now, someone hacked my Itunes account. And guess what? Apple SUCKS. You know why? Here you’ve got a merchant accepting credit cards, but you can online get customer service online. WTF? What happens when someone fraudulently uses your account? You can’t talk to someone? Apparently not. After I was told this on the regular Apple customer service hotline, I called Apple directly in California – as in their main phone number. I was a complete super bitch on the phone (the poor receptionist), but at least she got me to someone who could help…..or so I thought. I spoke with someone there. They told me what to do to change my password and deauthorize my computer from Itunes. Done. Then they told me to call a number for Apple Fraud. A very nice lady helped me on the phone there, too, however, she basically just filed an online complaint for me. She told me I would get help within 24 hours. Well, 24 hours have come and gone. No emails, no phone calls from Apple. NOTHING. As of this morning, my Itunes account is still authorized to 2 other computers that are NOT mine. Hello – you run an F-ING computer empire – is there no one that can shut down my Itunes account??? Thank God Bank of America is on top of things. They shut down the credit card, removed the fraudulent charges AND they did it FAST! Take a less0n from Bank of America, Apple because YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS! And if it wasn’t for your damn monopoly on single song purchases, I’d remove your damn software from my computer ASAP! Oh and did I mention that this all coincidentally happened right after a new version of Itunes was installed. Literally – RIGHT AFTER! So, now I can’t do anything on Itunes and I’m afraid to even plug in my Ipod. Thankfully, I have a car charger and can at least charge it. Apple better get their crap together or next week there are going to get another explosive call out in California from me!!!
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Apple – YOU SUCK! has been posted in Disasterous Mamamamahoney and Tagged: apple sucks, fraudulent itunes activity, itunes account hacked, itunes customer service sucks.
July 1st, 2010
My husband lost his job yesterday, I had to explain what that meant to my kids, our credit card number was stolen and used to purchase several thousands of dollars worth of phone minutes on the Itunes store, and my Itunes account is now all messed up. This sure is turning out to be one hell of a week!
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One Hell of a Week has been posted in Disasterous Mamamamahoney and Tagged: credit card fraud, itunes fraud, job loss, losing a job.
