I'd classify myself as more spiritual than religious, and as I'm about as deep as a dry creek bed, probably not very that either. And I'm much more inclined to believe that if anyone IS watching over us, it's because we're someone's ant farm more than for any other reason.
Having said that, however, I think that it's a good idea to reflect on what's good in your life and to try to find a positive spin for what's bad and to be grateful for what you have. Sending good thoughts in the direction of karma, or luck, kismet, fate, the divine - whatever floats your boat - can't be a bad idea. A friend on facebook puts her daily note of thanks to the universe up every morning and while I'm not willing to be quite as public about it as she is, her doing so has made me think more about it, which was probably the point of her making it public to begin with. (That sentence just gave me a headache. I'm going for the Bailey's, back in a jiff.)
Right. Now fortified! Yum. Warm Bailey's. Where was I? Right, thankful. I'm thankful for warm Baileys...
I'm not sure exactly when it occurred to me - undoubtedly several years after it should have - but being who, what, when and where I am makes me one very lucky lucky lucky person. I am blue-eyed, mostly blond, blessed with my health, the product of a rock solid marriage by two people who loved each other and their children. I have a world class college education, which I worked for - but not nearly as hard as it was necessary to for others. I live in a country that gives me recourse if I am treated unfairly because of my gender or my age or my sexuality or any number of other things, in a time where nearly all things are possible.
I got an email a while ago, and while I don't remember most of it, it was basically a check list of things that I usually take for granted that most of the world's population is without. And that got me thinking about how much I do have and being rather statistically inclined, I started thinking about THAT and realized that I am probably more fortunate than more than 90% of the world's total population. Think about that for a minute.
As I whine, and plod through my days, and mutter at gas prices and groceries, vet bills, MOVING (omg, the whining. you have no idea. yet.), drama with Petunia, my family and their complete lack of all rational thought processes, the new job, the search for a house, etc it's very easy to overlook what I have.
So I'm going to bundle up and go sit next to my thinking tree and say thanks, to the universe or anyone else who might be listening. Fate? Karma? Random good luck? Whatever it is, I've already won the best lottery of all. (There's another email that I get occasionally that blathers on about being grateful for all of this painful stuff - I'm grateful that my back hurts because it means I accomplished something blah blah blah - that mostly makes me want to punch the nut that came up with it, but I guess I do understand the thought behind it.)
Anyway, next time you have a moment, even if it's just at a red light, stop and say thanks. Who knows who is paying attention, and frankly the atmosphere can use the positive energy.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
The Saga Continues...
Where did we leave off? Ah, yes. Here.
Well, after I talked to the finance people, and learned that the dealership had until January 10 to send them the title and paperwork, I was pretty upset. This meant that I HAD to go through the dealership to get Petunia registered - I couldn't cut them out and go directly to the state myself. And then I got to thinking... I couldn't get them for myself unless I got the temp tags extended to past the date that the finance people had to have the paperwork. THEN (so my theory went) I could get the finance people to send the title to the state and I could just deal with it then. Ha HA!
So a new quest began - to hunt down the vehicle registration people in Maryland and see if there was any way to extend the original temporary tags. I talked to Tina there, who told me that the temp tag is a one time thing - there were no extensions. Then I unloaded the whole sordid story on the poor woman and she told me to call a number and tell the guy that answered my experience. I owe Tina flowers. And my profound gratitude. THANK YOU, TINA!! Because that guy - who's name I didn't quite catch in spite of his saying it several times - is the guy that handles the license that the dealership must have to operate in the state.
He asked me what dealership it was, and when I told him, he was surprised - he said that they were pretty good. So I informed him about the F rating with the BBB, and the 15 pending cases with the Attorney General's office (both of which were news to him) and then I related what I've been through. He basically said that I was SOL on the garmin, since I'd gotten nothing in writing, and then asked why in the world I'd bought the extended warranty. (My brother already raked me over the coals for that - it's a huge money maker for dealerships. Never buy the extended warranty on a new car - you can apparently buy one at any time before the factory warranty expires for much less money. Sigh. Live and learn.) He asked when I bought the vehicle. (The paperwork says 9/29/10 even though I picked it on on 10/2/10.) Then he told me that he'd call me back within half an hour and hung up.
In less than 10 minutes, the dealership called ME, for just about the first time ever, to explain that the paperwork was with the state and everything would be fine and and and... they crawled. It was awesome.
Ten minutes after THAT, he called back. I meant every word when I said he was a god and I loved him. He told me that the dealership has until 11/28/10 to get this situation resolved, or they answer to him... and he can yank their license to be a dealership. YAY!!!! I'm to call them every day, and let him know what happens either way.
Finally, after 8 weeks of fighting with them and countless hours spent on the phone either talking to people or waiting to talk to people and countless more hours researching online and many many MANY countless hours spent going completely mental over this situation, finally FINALLY, I have a glimmer of hope.
Well, after I talked to the finance people, and learned that the dealership had until January 10 to send them the title and paperwork, I was pretty upset. This meant that I HAD to go through the dealership to get Petunia registered - I couldn't cut them out and go directly to the state myself. And then I got to thinking... I couldn't get them for myself unless I got the temp tags extended to past the date that the finance people had to have the paperwork. THEN (so my theory went) I could get the finance people to send the title to the state and I could just deal with it then. Ha HA!
So a new quest began - to hunt down the vehicle registration people in Maryland and see if there was any way to extend the original temporary tags. I talked to Tina there, who told me that the temp tag is a one time thing - there were no extensions. Then I unloaded the whole sordid story on the poor woman and she told me to call a number and tell the guy that answered my experience. I owe Tina flowers. And my profound gratitude. THANK YOU, TINA!! Because that guy - who's name I didn't quite catch in spite of his saying it several times - is the guy that handles the license that the dealership must have to operate in the state.
He asked me what dealership it was, and when I told him, he was surprised - he said that they were pretty good. So I informed him about the F rating with the BBB, and the 15 pending cases with the Attorney General's office (both of which were news to him) and then I related what I've been through. He basically said that I was SOL on the garmin, since I'd gotten nothing in writing, and then asked why in the world I'd bought the extended warranty. (My brother already raked me over the coals for that - it's a huge money maker for dealerships. Never buy the extended warranty on a new car - you can apparently buy one at any time before the factory warranty expires for much less money. Sigh. Live and learn.) He asked when I bought the vehicle. (The paperwork says 9/29/10 even though I picked it on on 10/2/10.) Then he told me that he'd call me back within half an hour and hung up.
In less than 10 minutes, the dealership called ME, for just about the first time ever, to explain that the paperwork was with the state and everything would be fine and and and... they crawled. It was awesome.
Ten minutes after THAT, he called back. I meant every word when I said he was a god and I loved him. He told me that the dealership has until 11/28/10 to get this situation resolved, or they answer to him... and he can yank their license to be a dealership. YAY!!!! I'm to call them every day, and let him know what happens either way.
Finally, after 8 weeks of fighting with them and countless hours spent on the phone either talking to people or waiting to talk to people and countless more hours researching online and many many MANY countless hours spent going completely mental over this situation, finally FINALLY, I have a glimmer of hope.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Bel Air Nissan Is Evil, Even For A Car Dealership
Being me, I researched my vehicle purchase A LOT. I did scads of internet research, narrowed down the list of vehicles, went and test drove several of each and finally decided on the Nissan XTerra. Then I researched some more, drove more of them, looked at available options and decided that I wanted a 2009 or 2010 XTerra with the off road package, a 6 speed, and oh yes, a dark color - preferably the Night Armor. THEN I spent over a year looking online, in the papers, and so on for my new vehicle.
Finally, late in September, I found a black one in Georgia and a night armor one in Maryland. Both were 2010 models with the off road package and a 6 speed. The 2011 models were out, and my Jeep was definitely feeling its age so I needed to act. The black one was used, but with less than 4000 miles on it. They were offering $27500 for it. I contacted the dealership (Jones Junction, aka Bel Air Nissan) in Maryland and told them that if they could beat the price on the black one, I'd be in the next weekend. Dave Himer, the internet sales guy, asked me to make an offer so I came back with $26000. He went off to talk to his sales manager, came back and said okay.
I arranged for a loan thru my bank but agreed to let them run the numbers to check what they could get me. Dave came back with paperwork thru Nissan that was for a better interest rate, so I said that I'd go thru them. He fedex'd the paperwork, but spelled my name wrong then told me they'd just reprint it at the dealership. When I called and asked about the mileage and whether a Garmin was included with the vehicle, he put me on hold for 10 minutes to go check and came back and gave me the mileage and said that the Garmin was included.
The first weekend in October, I drove from NC to pick up the vehicle. I told them several times that it would be registered in Ohio. My drivers license is from Ohio. My permanent address is in Ohio. The insurance is based in Ohio. When I arrived for the appointment, I was told that i'd have to wait since others had arrived before me. There was no Garmin in the car and when I questioned them, they said that it wasn't listed on the sticker on the car and they didn't have any in stock. Then they said there was a problem with the financing and the interest rate was going to be higher than what my bank could give me. Then they made me wait longer to talk to some female who tried to talk me into a manicure and spending an additional $1000 on some clear coat protective paint thing. Then I waited longer to deal with the finance guy (Ron) who kept hitting on me. We had several discussions about where their numbers came from since they didn't agree with my numbers.
I finally escaped from the dealership after 5 hours, dizzy and half starved, without a Garmin to find my way home, with a higher interest rate AND - I found out later while reviewing the papers - that they charged me nearly 4 times what they quoted for the extended warranty. But, I left with Petunia and I love her.
It is now 7 weeks later, and they are telling me that they didn't charge me enough tax to register the vehicle in Ohio and they expect me to pay an additional $800+ to them. I have been on the phone with Roxanne or Tracey or Steve or Chad damn near every day. Chad is useless - he never once returned a phone call. Ever. Roxanne is nice when you talk to her, but doesn't call back either. Actually, Steve is the only one who DID call when he said he would, and even then it wasn't every time.
They claimed to have the tags from Ohio. This week, I talked to people at the title place and the registration place - they have gotten NO paperwork from the dealership, even though Roxanne claimed to have sent it 2 weeks ago. When I called her on that, she said that there was one more form that she had to fed-ex out and they should have gotten it yesterday. One other thing that makes me believe that she hasn't done anything she said that she would - the sales tax in my county is 6.75%, not the 6% that they've been mentioning.
Today, I talked to the finance people because Ohio won't let you register the vehicle until they have the title. The finance lady (Doreen) told me that they didn't actually have the title yet and the dealership HAD to be the one to handle everything... and they have TWO months from the date of the first payment to get everything under control. This means that they don't have to get things organized until January 10.
Steve Zell is the one who I'm primarily dealing with now. I don't actually know his title, but I think it's "enforcer." I read a review on Edmunds.com that talked about how he made some woman cry from getting after her so badly. Last week, I told him that if they provided the garmin and the cradle that were supposed to be on the vehicle, I would pay the tax that they screwed up and didn't charge. He had to talk to the owner to get approval. Then he came back and said that the the deal had been approved but the garmin and cradle had been discontinued but he'd look on Amazon and take the price of the garmin out of the tax. I said no. He was supposed to call yesterday and SHOCK did not. I talked to him this morning, and he said he didn't call because their service manager said that he was going to call me.
I'm at my wit's end. I talked to someone from the Attorney General's Office in Maryland last week and they told me that I was probably going to need a lawyer, which will cost more than just paying the confounded tax. They said this because there are more than 15 pending cases currently open with their office against this dealership. I filed a report with the BBB, but they already have an F rating there. I talked to Nissan Corporate Customer Affairs, and Ryan told me that there was nothing he could do - the dealership is independently owned. He also said that he'd called the dealership and they told him that the issue had been resolved. So, they lie to corporate too.
I am moving from North Carolina NEXT WEEK. I NEED to have this handled NOW. And I have no idea what to do. So if you have any ideas, please share them... and DO NOT ever ever ever ever buy a car from this dealership!
Finally, late in September, I found a black one in Georgia and a night armor one in Maryland. Both were 2010 models with the off road package and a 6 speed. The 2011 models were out, and my Jeep was definitely feeling its age so I needed to act. The black one was used, but with less than 4000 miles on it. They were offering $27500 for it. I contacted the dealership (Jones Junction, aka Bel Air Nissan) in Maryland and told them that if they could beat the price on the black one, I'd be in the next weekend. Dave Himer, the internet sales guy, asked me to make an offer so I came back with $26000. He went off to talk to his sales manager, came back and said okay.
I arranged for a loan thru my bank but agreed to let them run the numbers to check what they could get me. Dave came back with paperwork thru Nissan that was for a better interest rate, so I said that I'd go thru them. He fedex'd the paperwork, but spelled my name wrong then told me they'd just reprint it at the dealership. When I called and asked about the mileage and whether a Garmin was included with the vehicle, he put me on hold for 10 minutes to go check and came back and gave me the mileage and said that the Garmin was included.
The first weekend in October, I drove from NC to pick up the vehicle. I told them several times that it would be registered in Ohio. My drivers license is from Ohio. My permanent address is in Ohio. The insurance is based in Ohio. When I arrived for the appointment, I was told that i'd have to wait since others had arrived before me. There was no Garmin in the car and when I questioned them, they said that it wasn't listed on the sticker on the car and they didn't have any in stock. Then they said there was a problem with the financing and the interest rate was going to be higher than what my bank could give me. Then they made me wait longer to talk to some female who tried to talk me into a manicure and spending an additional $1000 on some clear coat protective paint thing. Then I waited longer to deal with the finance guy (Ron) who kept hitting on me. We had several discussions about where their numbers came from since they didn't agree with my numbers.
I finally escaped from the dealership after 5 hours, dizzy and half starved, without a Garmin to find my way home, with a higher interest rate AND - I found out later while reviewing the papers - that they charged me nearly 4 times what they quoted for the extended warranty. But, I left with Petunia and I love her.
It is now 7 weeks later, and they are telling me that they didn't charge me enough tax to register the vehicle in Ohio and they expect me to pay an additional $800+ to them. I have been on the phone with Roxanne or Tracey or Steve or Chad damn near every day. Chad is useless - he never once returned a phone call. Ever. Roxanne is nice when you talk to her, but doesn't call back either. Actually, Steve is the only one who DID call when he said he would, and even then it wasn't every time.
They claimed to have the tags from Ohio. This week, I talked to people at the title place and the registration place - they have gotten NO paperwork from the dealership, even though Roxanne claimed to have sent it 2 weeks ago. When I called her on that, she said that there was one more form that she had to fed-ex out and they should have gotten it yesterday. One other thing that makes me believe that she hasn't done anything she said that she would - the sales tax in my county is 6.75%, not the 6% that they've been mentioning.
Today, I talked to the finance people because Ohio won't let you register the vehicle until they have the title. The finance lady (Doreen) told me that they didn't actually have the title yet and the dealership HAD to be the one to handle everything... and they have TWO months from the date of the first payment to get everything under control. This means that they don't have to get things organized until January 10.
Steve Zell is the one who I'm primarily dealing with now. I don't actually know his title, but I think it's "enforcer." I read a review on Edmunds.com that talked about how he made some woman cry from getting after her so badly. Last week, I told him that if they provided the garmin and the cradle that were supposed to be on the vehicle, I would pay the tax that they screwed up and didn't charge. He had to talk to the owner to get approval. Then he came back and said that the the deal had been approved but the garmin and cradle had been discontinued but he'd look on Amazon and take the price of the garmin out of the tax. I said no. He was supposed to call yesterday and SHOCK did not. I talked to him this morning, and he said he didn't call because their service manager said that he was going to call me.
I'm at my wit's end. I talked to someone from the Attorney General's Office in Maryland last week and they told me that I was probably going to need a lawyer, which will cost more than just paying the confounded tax. They said this because there are more than 15 pending cases currently open with their office against this dealership. I filed a report with the BBB, but they already have an F rating there. I talked to Nissan Corporate Customer Affairs, and Ryan told me that there was nothing he could do - the dealership is independently owned. He also said that he'd called the dealership and they told him that the issue had been resolved. So, they lie to corporate too.
I am moving from North Carolina NEXT WEEK. I NEED to have this handled NOW. And I have no idea what to do. So if you have any ideas, please share them... and DO NOT ever ever ever ever buy a car from this dealership!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
November 24 - TSA Opt Out Day
I've read several articles lately that said that the American public is perfectly okay with the new body scanners at airports because that is necessary to make them safe. Every time I read it, my head explodes.
When you allow a government to control your actions, words and deeds, it is not a democracy. Safety is an illusion. You are not safe. The government can't protect you. It SHOULDN'T protect you because that is not its job. The government is not your parent. You are not a child. A government controlling its citizens is tyranny. And I am sick to the eyes of people claiming they are safer if the government controls how much liquid you can bring on a plane, or makes you strip off your coat, shoes, belt, sweater, jacket, hat, hoodie, etc or makes you deposit your laptop, keys, cell phone, pda, etc in the little basket. Personally, I'd feel much more secure if everyone on board was armed to the teeth. I find it interesting that our government is subjecting us to searches that US soldiers are not allowed to administer on hostile ground.
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
This is attributed to Ben Franklin. Smart guy, that Ben.
Why do so many people have such a problem understanding that the bumper stickers are absolutely right? Freedom isn't free. The cost, however, is not just sacrificing our soldiers on some foreign soil. The cost of being free includes knowing that it is possible for 9/11 to happen. And happen again.
The cost of being free is knowing that freedom to act, to speak freely can allow the extreme few to act in some horrific fashion.
It is way past time that the citizens of this country remember that. And remember that the government works for us, not the other way around. (I'll rant about the job of politician being one that no one who wants it should be allowed to have another day.)
So, on November 24, if you are flying anywhere in the 'States, opt out of the screening. And if you're male, wear a kilt. Commando style. We have to start somewhere in taking back our freedoms, and why not start with making the TSA as miserable as we are?
Update: I like her take on things. I applaud the decision of California DA Steve Wagstaffe to prosecute TSA employees who are guilty of sexual assault. I feel for Erin and what she went through at the Dayton airport.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
The Final Countdown
I have many posts in edit that maybe some day I'll actually finish and post but that's probably not going to happen any time soon. I will be leaving North Carolina the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to head to my parents' house for the holiday. And then on Saturday, I'll be heading to the Chicago area to start my new job on Monday. (Yes, I know... moving TO Chicago in DECEMBER. My brilliance knows no bounds.)
My contract job ended last Friday. They extended the original contract for 2 weeks, and the global director of quality was pushing for them to extend it again, but I kind of needed this week to get stuff done (especially in the studio) and I'm pretty much done with that company. (That's actually one of the posts in edit.)
Done:
I've talked to the movers and have a quote.
I've arranged temporary housing.
I have a plan for leaving and what I'm taking now and not.
Some laundry.
Some (very little) cleaning.
Not Done:
Talk to landlord.
Cancel phone, cable.
Talk to utilities.
Talk to post office.
Deep clean house as much as possible (walls, blinds, ceiling fans, etc)
Organize and get rid of approx. 4 tons of stuff
More laundry.
More cleaning.
401 other things that are buzzing around in my brain like angry hornets right now.
Not Done but Can't Do Until I'm There:
Find a place to live.
Have I mentioned that I hate moving? Oh wait. Yes I have. As a matter of fact, I whined incessantly for months. Brace yourselves, folks, it's about to start again!
My contract job ended last Friday. They extended the original contract for 2 weeks, and the global director of quality was pushing for them to extend it again, but I kind of needed this week to get stuff done (especially in the studio) and I'm pretty much done with that company. (That's actually one of the posts in edit.)
Done:
I've talked to the movers and have a quote.
I've arranged temporary housing.
I have a plan for leaving and what I'm taking now and not.
Some laundry.
Some (very little) cleaning.
Not Done:
Talk to landlord.
Cancel phone, cable.
Talk to utilities.
Talk to post office.
Deep clean house as much as possible (walls, blinds, ceiling fans, etc)
Organize and get rid of approx. 4 tons of stuff
More laundry.
More cleaning.
401 other things that are buzzing around in my brain like angry hornets right now.
Not Done but Can't Do Until I'm There:
Find a place to live.
Have I mentioned that I hate moving? Oh wait. Yes I have. As a matter of fact, I whined incessantly for months. Brace yourselves, folks, it's about to start again!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Petunia
Since I am a contractor and have NO idea where (or really even if) I will be employed in a month or so, of course I ran out and bought a new vehicle.
More on the employment drama later, right now I'm obsessing over this:
Her name is Petunia. I've never actually named a vehicle before, and I feel a bit nuts doing it this time but the thought hopped into my head and I can't get it out. Maybe I've not named the others because I did not buy them new? I'm not really a fan of renaming animals after you acquire them either, if it can be helped. Yes, I know the truck isn't actually cognizant, thank you.
I love my Jeep, but it's aging. (And thank you, Jeep, for discontinuing the best, most practical, perfect vehicle ever. I hate you. And I want another damn Cherokee. What is WRONG with you people anyway???) Twenty thousand miles ago, my brother told me that I had between thirty and fifty thousand miles before things started going really wrong. I'm coming very close to 150000 miles, and the little things have gone wrong a-plenty.
No heat. No air conditioning. (I think. It's not like I ever turn it on.) Strange electrical issues. Rust starting. Weird paint issues after the Great Flood. When it gets Ohio cold (but not North Carolina cold), the locks have started to stick. I had to climb in thru the back a couple of times while home for the holidays last winter. The back door has also decided that cold isn't going to work for it anymore, and below some certain undefined temperature, the back door is liable to come crashing down without warning. The hood sticks. Then releases. The clothe on the ceiling is falling down, and my attempts with spray adhesive have only made things worse. The seals are starting to go, so when it rains (i.e. the Great Flood), the Jeep stays damp and musty for days - very pleasant. The Alpine stereo is beginning to get very warm after twenty minutes or so, and will no longer eject CDs when instructed to do so. And so on and so forth.
Anyway, I started the vehicle search about a year and a half ago. Since I can't have what I really want (Bastards!), I went a-hunting for the next best thing. It needs to handle snow. Rain. Hail. Velociraptors. (Ok, well not so far but if it happens to anyone, it will be me.) Mountains. Swamps. On road, off road, highway, streambed, cornfield. I have to be able to load it full. Of people. Or cargo. Or both. I want a manual transmission, dammit. (And that alone thinned the ranks considerably. I know many people who prefer a stick shift. Stupid car companies.) I finally narrowed it down to either an XTerra or a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. Then I went test driving - many of them, ALL over the place. The Jeeps didn't have enough power to get out of their own way. Seriously, the Cherokee does better HAULING A BOAT than any of the used AND new ones that I test drove. But the XTerra... oh, I fell in love!
So after several months, I knew what I wanted: 2008 - 2010 Nissan XTerra with 4WD, preferably the off-road package, a manual transmission, in a dark color. Picky? Um no, not me. If it was an off-road, I wanted 2009 or newer 'cause of the cool (gawds I'm a dork!) off road lamps. I love autotrader.com. Seriously. LOVE them. I searched and searched and searched. "They" say that everyone wants an automatic transmission, but a car lot gets a manual in and that thing is GONE in minutes.
Finally, a few weeks ago, there was a used 2010 for sale in Georgia. It had everything I wanted except it was black instead of the dark grey. AND there was a new 2010 in Maryland that had EVERYTHING I wanted, including the color. I emailed the place in Maryland and told them that if they beat the price of the one in Georgia, I'd come get it.
(Note: if you are car shopping, be aware that the internet sales manager is usually paid differently than the run of the mill sales guy. He is usually paid a salary, with a small commission per vehicle sold. The normal sales guy usually gets a percent commission on every car sold. Therefore, it is NOT in his best interest for you to get a good price. The internet guy doesn't care how much each car sells for - his money comes from the volume of total cars sold. This is important.)
My timing was not accidental - the 2011 models have been out for about a month so they have incentive to get the 2010's off the lot. After some dickering (I'll pay this. This? No. This? No. THIS? No. I think we're done here. Fine. You'll pay that? Yes.), I caught a ride up to Maryland to pick her up. More dickering - three hours of it - at the car lot made me very glad that I decided against trying to trade the Jeep in at the same place. FINALLY after all papers were signed, the finance guy asked me what I did and I told him that I was an SQE. When he asked what that meant, I told him that meant that I spend all day forcing people to do what they said that they were going to do. His response? "Oh. Well, that explains today." Yup. Then I had the keys and I just had to remember how to drive a stick shift. Through Baltimore. At 5:00 on a Saturday. Yay! But we made it, and I haven't actually stalled it yet.
So, my shoe budget has been severely curtailed for a while, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE my shiny new XTerra!
More on the employment drama later, right now I'm obsessing over this:
Her name is Petunia. I've never actually named a vehicle before, and I feel a bit nuts doing it this time but the thought hopped into my head and I can't get it out. Maybe I've not named the others because I did not buy them new? I'm not really a fan of renaming animals after you acquire them either, if it can be helped. Yes, I know the truck isn't actually cognizant, thank you.
I love my Jeep, but it's aging. (And thank you, Jeep, for discontinuing the best, most practical, perfect vehicle ever. I hate you. And I want another damn Cherokee. What is WRONG with you people anyway???) Twenty thousand miles ago, my brother told me that I had between thirty and fifty thousand miles before things started going really wrong. I'm coming very close to 150000 miles, and the little things have gone wrong a-plenty.
No heat. No air conditioning. (I think. It's not like I ever turn it on.) Strange electrical issues. Rust starting. Weird paint issues after the Great Flood. When it gets Ohio cold (but not North Carolina cold), the locks have started to stick. I had to climb in thru the back a couple of times while home for the holidays last winter. The back door has also decided that cold isn't going to work for it anymore, and below some certain undefined temperature, the back door is liable to come crashing down without warning. The hood sticks. Then releases. The clothe on the ceiling is falling down, and my attempts with spray adhesive have only made things worse. The seals are starting to go, so when it rains (i.e. the Great Flood), the Jeep stays damp and musty for days - very pleasant. The Alpine stereo is beginning to get very warm after twenty minutes or so, and will no longer eject CDs when instructed to do so. And so on and so forth.
Anyway, I started the vehicle search about a year and a half ago. Since I can't have what I really want (Bastards!), I went a-hunting for the next best thing. It needs to handle snow. Rain. Hail. Velociraptors. (Ok, well not so far but if it happens to anyone, it will be me.) Mountains. Swamps. On road, off road, highway, streambed, cornfield. I have to be able to load it full. Of people. Or cargo. Or both. I want a manual transmission, dammit. (And that alone thinned the ranks considerably. I know many people who prefer a stick shift. Stupid car companies.) I finally narrowed it down to either an XTerra or a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. Then I went test driving - many of them, ALL over the place. The Jeeps didn't have enough power to get out of their own way. Seriously, the Cherokee does better HAULING A BOAT than any of the used AND new ones that I test drove. But the XTerra... oh, I fell in love!
So after several months, I knew what I wanted: 2008 - 2010 Nissan XTerra with 4WD, preferably the off-road package, a manual transmission, in a dark color. Picky? Um no, not me. If it was an off-road, I wanted 2009 or newer 'cause of the cool (gawds I'm a dork!) off road lamps. I love autotrader.com. Seriously. LOVE them. I searched and searched and searched. "They" say that everyone wants an automatic transmission, but a car lot gets a manual in and that thing is GONE in minutes.
Finally, a few weeks ago, there was a used 2010 for sale in Georgia. It had everything I wanted except it was black instead of the dark grey. AND there was a new 2010 in Maryland that had EVERYTHING I wanted, including the color. I emailed the place in Maryland and told them that if they beat the price of the one in Georgia, I'd come get it.
(Note: if you are car shopping, be aware that the internet sales manager is usually paid differently than the run of the mill sales guy. He is usually paid a salary, with a small commission per vehicle sold. The normal sales guy usually gets a percent commission on every car sold. Therefore, it is NOT in his best interest for you to get a good price. The internet guy doesn't care how much each car sells for - his money comes from the volume of total cars sold. This is important.)
My timing was not accidental - the 2011 models have been out for about a month so they have incentive to get the 2010's off the lot. After some dickering (I'll pay this. This? No. This? No. THIS? No. I think we're done here. Fine. You'll pay that? Yes.), I caught a ride up to Maryland to pick her up. More dickering - three hours of it - at the car lot made me very glad that I decided against trying to trade the Jeep in at the same place. FINALLY after all papers were signed, the finance guy asked me what I did and I told him that I was an SQE. When he asked what that meant, I told him that meant that I spend all day forcing people to do what they said that they were going to do. His response? "Oh. Well, that explains today." Yup. Then I had the keys and I just had to remember how to drive a stick shift. Through Baltimore. At 5:00 on a Saturday. Yay! But we made it, and I haven't actually stalled it yet.
So, my shoe budget has been severely curtailed for a while, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE my shiny new XTerra!
Friday, October 01, 2010
So What Is A Cubit, Anyway?
We've had A LOT of rain here... like 15 inches in 5 days. Everything is flooding. The drive to work (approx 33 miles each way) has taken two hours each way every day this week. Right now, it's pick your favorite weather advisory - all of these are currently active: thunderstorm watch, tornado warning, flood warning, severe weather watch, tornado watch, coastal flooding watch, wind advisory... and I might have missed one or two.
Yesterday, I left work at 5:00 based on a friend's recommendation that if I didn't leave then, I would be staying in town for the night. The road was mostly standing water and at one particular intersection, it was over a foot deep and rising fast.
What is currently amazing me is how nonchalant everyone is about the situation. Everyone who's been here a while has told me that it hasn't been this bad since [Hurricane] Floyd came through and then they go on to regale me with tales of their cars being under water and standing on their cars and still being chest high. These are the same people who freak the f*ck completely out over even a mention, a mere HINT, of snow. This is baffling to me.
I live in one of the town's historic districts, and while I chose it because I love the houses, it occurred to me that the house has stood for over a hundred years - odds seemed good that it'd survive whatever comes next. This theory proved correct yet again. One problem with this theory: I didn't really take into account getting TO and FROM my nice dry house. That has posed more of a challenge since it is situated on the only high ground - which means that it is surrounded by low ground.
As a matter of fact, last night was quite a challenge. I ran over something while sloshing through a bit over a foot of water and it shredded one tire and scuffed up another. I have no jack in my Jeep. I spent three hours sitting in my jeep in the pouring rain, waiting for the tow truck. That was awesome. So today I spent some quality time at the tire place, replacing two tires. (And having to do that TODAY with what I'm doing this weekend makes me all kinds of happy!)
In the photo below, you can kind of see the water thru the raindrops - the field is completely flooded, so is the drainage ditch and there was about four inches of standing water on the road - for several miles.
This is normally a fairly small little river. It's swollen to more than 3 times its normal width.
At this point, even the ducks are soggy and irritated. My plan is to cuddle in with some hot cocoa and work out the plans for the ark that I'm going to build in my (not flooded yet) backyard. So what is a cubit, anyway?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
My Idiot Cat
... got stuck in the sleeve of my jacket today. It's been raining for four days here and so I've been wearing a nylon windbreaker back and forth to try to keep from looking like a total drowned rat. Because the coat was wet when I got home this evening, I draped it over a stool in the entry to dry before I hung it up in the closet.
Twenty minutes later, there arose quite a clatter - a prolonged, suspicious rustling noise coming from the entry. Upon investigation, I found this:
At first, I thought she was just playing with a zipper or something. Yeah. No. So I scooped her up and hauled her (and the dripping wet jacket) off to the couch to investigate. She got herself jammed but good into that sleeve. While she squawked and bit at me (because clearly this was my fault), I tried to jam her furry little body back into the sleeve. No dice. I finally managed to pull enough of the end of the sleeve loose enough to get to the snap that holds the end shut around my wrist (or the Peanut's middle). Once I had the end loosened, I held up the sleeve and shook it gently and the Peanut slithered free.
It's been a while since she pulled something this boneheaded, but this is the cat that, as a kitten, spent some quality time at the vet's because she ate my couch. And rocks. Several ink pens. Assorted leaves, twigs, bugs and other outside detris. Any flower she could get her teeth into. Several toilet paper rolls of toilet paper. Paper towels. A paper clip.
She falls down the stairs on a fairly regular basis 'cause she gets to the landing, turns the corner, catches sight of her tail, freaks out over that thing following her down the stairs and attacks it, then rolls down the rest of the staircase.
And so on. She's very affectionate, but she's never going to be one of the great thinkers of the cat world.
Twenty minutes later, there arose quite a clatter - a prolonged, suspicious rustling noise coming from the entry. Upon investigation, I found this:
At first, I thought she was just playing with a zipper or something. Yeah. No. So I scooped her up and hauled her (and the dripping wet jacket) off to the couch to investigate. She got herself jammed but good into that sleeve. While she squawked and bit at me (because clearly this was my fault), I tried to jam her furry little body back into the sleeve. No dice. I finally managed to pull enough of the end of the sleeve loose enough to get to the snap that holds the end shut around my wrist (or the Peanut's middle). Once I had the end loosened, I held up the sleeve and shook it gently and the Peanut slithered free.
It's been a while since she pulled something this boneheaded, but this is the cat that, as a kitten, spent some quality time at the vet's because she ate my couch. And rocks. Several ink pens. Assorted leaves, twigs, bugs and other outside detris. Any flower she could get her teeth into. Several toilet paper rolls of toilet paper. Paper towels. A paper clip.
She falls down the stairs on a fairly regular basis 'cause she gets to the landing, turns the corner, catches sight of her tail, freaks out over that thing following her down the stairs and attacks it, then rolls down the rest of the staircase.
And so on. She's very affectionate, but she's never going to be one of the great thinkers of the cat world.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
My Little World...
is still a bit up in the air.
Things kind of crashed in July. I wasn't all the way home from my former workplace that day and the production manager at my [former] just in time supplier called me and offered me a job. And I said no, 'cause I want to go home. Later, the quality manager at the same company called and offered me a job and I said no, I want to go home.
A couple of days later, the quality manager called back and asked if I'd come work for them as a contractor until I was ready to move. Um. Okay. So, I started there at the end of August as a quality engineer, helping them put together FPAs (first part approvals) for their new biggest customer.
My first day there was the most surreal day of my young life. I'd been the customer for nearly four years. It was strange, but everyone was super friendly and really honestly happy to have me there. They're really good for my ego - they offer me a job nearly every day.
I interviewed for a place a couple hours out of Chicago, that I really wanted... and didn't get it. But, it was a FANTASTIC weekend with friends so that was cool.
Now I'm torn. I have an offer here for supplier quality engineer, which is what I've done for the past 7.5 years. They'll give me receiving inspection, so I'll have minions. I'll also be backup for the Quality Manager, and I really think I can make a difference. But, it's still in this area, and it's about 32 miles each way. They've got about a month to get shit done or their shiny new customer may drop them like a hot rock.
I'm still in the running for a job with another former supplier back where I want to be near Chicago. It's a customer quality job, in the headquarters, getting responses in order to make sure the customer is happy. Not my ideal job, but I LOVE the location and the company has another division in renewable energy that I'm very interested in.
I'm still applying to things in Ohio, but the job market there is not booming so I'm not very optimistic there.
So I'm back to working 60+ hours a week, and not really being sure where I'll be next month. But, all's okay here.
Things kind of crashed in July. I wasn't all the way home from my former workplace that day and the production manager at my [former] just in time supplier called me and offered me a job. And I said no, 'cause I want to go home. Later, the quality manager at the same company called and offered me a job and I said no, I want to go home.
A couple of days later, the quality manager called back and asked if I'd come work for them as a contractor until I was ready to move. Um. Okay. So, I started there at the end of August as a quality engineer, helping them put together FPAs (first part approvals) for their new biggest customer.
My first day there was the most surreal day of my young life. I'd been the customer for nearly four years. It was strange, but everyone was super friendly and really honestly happy to have me there. They're really good for my ego - they offer me a job nearly every day.
I interviewed for a place a couple hours out of Chicago, that I really wanted... and didn't get it. But, it was a FANTASTIC weekend with friends so that was cool.
Now I'm torn. I have an offer here for supplier quality engineer, which is what I've done for the past 7.5 years. They'll give me receiving inspection, so I'll have minions. I'll also be backup for the Quality Manager, and I really think I can make a difference. But, it's still in this area, and it's about 32 miles each way. They've got about a month to get shit done or their shiny new customer may drop them like a hot rock.
I'm still in the running for a job with another former supplier back where I want to be near Chicago. It's a customer quality job, in the headquarters, getting responses in order to make sure the customer is happy. Not my ideal job, but I LOVE the location and the company has another division in renewable energy that I'm very interested in.
I'm still applying to things in Ohio, but the job market there is not booming so I'm not very optimistic there.
So I'm back to working 60+ hours a week, and not really being sure where I'll be next month. But, all's okay here.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Huh. Cool.
It takes so very little to fascinate me.
Witness:
I am completely captivated by toilet paper rolls.
And post it notes. I love post it notes.
Paper tape is totally art.
I like crayons too.
I think this guy is nuts and he'll probably be dying soon, but he does some of those things that I've considered trying to talk my brother into trying:
http://www.popsci.com/mercuryfish
http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2010-08/cool-hand-theo
And finally (since morning comes way too soon and I need to toddle off to dreamland) another take on Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance:"
G'night, folks,
Witness:
I am completely captivated by toilet paper rolls.
And post it notes. I love post it notes.
Paper tape is totally art.
I like crayons too.
I think this guy is nuts and he'll probably be dying soon, but he does some of those things that I've considered trying to talk my brother into trying:
http://www.popsci.com/mercuryfish
http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2010-08/cool-hand-theo
And finally (since morning comes way too soon and I need to toddle off to dreamland) another take on Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance:"
G'night, folks,
Monday, August 23, 2010
I Hate People, Reason 42948570 - updated!
Have you seen this? If you know this woman who this woman is, turn her in. The cat was rescued, 15 hours later, by her owners - more information available here.
UPDATE: They found her. Her name is Mary Bale and now the poor thing is under police protection to keep all the crazy cat people from killing her. Her mother says that she "loves cats."
(Have you ever noticed how many people who like cats are completely barking mad over them? One woman told me, with complete seriousness, that her little angel would NEVER kill a bird because they had a conversation, and she explained... to her cat... that birds were good, so her cat only killed spiders. Okey dokey.)
UPDATE: They found her. Her name is Mary Bale and now the poor thing is under police protection to keep all the crazy cat people from killing her. Her mother says that she "loves cats."
(Have you ever noticed how many people who like cats are completely barking mad over them? One woman told me, with complete seriousness, that her little angel would NEVER kill a bird because they had a conversation, and she explained... to her cat... that birds were good, so her cat only killed spiders. Okey dokey.)
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Latest Progress with Pottery
It's been a while since I showed what I've been up to in the studio. What with work, traveling for work, vacation, playing elsewhere and whatnot, I haven't gotten to spend as much time as I'd like playing in the studio. But I do have some more finished stuff. (I have about a metric ton of bisque waiting to be glazed too. Here SOON I need to spend some time getting that finished, especially if I end up moving at the end of this month.)
I finally managed to finish a couple things that I've been sitting on for MONTHS. The poppies, the little owl plate and the goldfish are all actually from last fall and I just wasn't in the mood to finish them. The poppies in particular just needed me to fire them and then clear glaze them. I just forgot about them until I cleaned off my shelf and discovered them lurking in the back. That's one bad thing about having the top shelf - I can't see up there and I lose things.
I've been working on mugs and handles lately. When I first started throwing, my first couple of handles went really well and I listened to everyone whine about handles and thought, "What is their problem? These things are easy." Yeah. Shows what I know. Handles suck. So I've been practicing. A lot. I still have a long ways to go.
This one is getting better. Of course, I put a handle on there and it ended up being HUGE so I carved half of it away with a knife. It's still big, but better than it was. I don't really like the painting, so I may reglaze it. We'll see.
The handle kind of sucks on this one, but I'm thrilled with the way the glaze came out. It was totally worth all four days!
Another lesson learned: when dealing with more than one clay color, stay AWAY from ruffled rims. I am very fond of ruffled rims, and not just because they do a very nice job disguising uneven edges. They're pretty and I like them. But, in order for these marbled clay pots to look their best, you have to either 1) use a rib while it's still on the wheel and scrap off the top layer or 2) sand the living snot out of it - for HOURS - to remove the layer of slip and show off the marbling. If you ruffle the rim, you sand. By hand. For hours. And hours. Blech. But, it did turn out pretty cute.
One of the potters in this area does some REALLY cool stuff. She's actually the one who taught the Raku workshop that I recently attended. One of her trademarks is to put a pretty little flourish on her pots and I really like the way it looks. So, I had a couple of little bowls go wonky on me the other day and I tried her flourish. They turned out kinda cool, I think.
I'm still playing with texture. This isn't quite where I wanted to go, but I'm getting closer.
Based on something that another lady in the studio did, I started experimenting with painting with underglazes on top of glaze. The flowers turned out pretty much exactly as I hoped they would. I'll be experimenting further with this method, especially over other colors of glaze. The magnolia bowl won best in show at this year's annual pottery show at the studio, netting me a nice gift certificate to the store.
We got some new glazes to play with, so of course color experiments must follow. Some were brand new colors and I'd never seen them on my preferred clay (Highwater clay's little loafers). This is Pam's Blue glaze. Not bad, but not really what I had in mind either. Further experimentation is needed.
I love, love, love the creamy matte. It's a dip glaze for us and it's just really great. My favorite combination with it so far is with gunmetal green and tournaline, like this. But I'm also interested in how it combines with other colors as well. These were okay. I like the Pams Green (third one) the best, I think. The bowl that I tried the orchid and eggplant on was really thin, so the eggplant kind of gobbed up a bit. It's not bad, but I'm not thrilled with it. My fault - I applied the glaze too thickly.
And lest you think that all pottery works out well, I fussed with this ginger jar and lid for AGES - trimming and sanding and cooing over it. And then, I screwed up and glazed it with the wrong damn color and now it's ugly. Also, the lid doesn't fit worth a crap - it warped in the kiln. *sigh* Lids are worse than handles. Confounded things.
Lately I've been playing with collaring - taking a tall, straight cylinder and making the top smaller. It's tough, but I'm getting there. One major thing with collaring is that your rim usually ends up wonky. If you don't have enough to just cut off, you start getting creative. So, I'm doing a lot of pitchers right now... which also helps with that whole handle thing. The first one reminds me of a chicken for some reason, although no one else seems to see it. I love the second one, and will be desolate if it dies in the kiln.
I'm also finally working my way into larger balls of clay. I'm very comfortable centering and throwing up to about three pounds of clay. Over that, and it all goes to hell. Lately though, I've managed a couple of things that were nearly five pounds. Yay! Big bowls! Yay! One problem with that is that the glazing starts getting EXPENSIVE, so there's probably not a lot of huge things in my future - I can't afford it. I've got a bunch of stuff in the bisque fire now, that should be ready for my next visit. Once of them is my first attempt at a chip and dip bowl, so more pictures will be along shortly!
I finally managed to finish a couple things that I've been sitting on for MONTHS. The poppies, the little owl plate and the goldfish are all actually from last fall and I just wasn't in the mood to finish them. The poppies in particular just needed me to fire them and then clear glaze them. I just forgot about them until I cleaned off my shelf and discovered them lurking in the back. That's one bad thing about having the top shelf - I can't see up there and I lose things.
I've been working on mugs and handles lately. When I first started throwing, my first couple of handles went really well and I listened to everyone whine about handles and thought, "What is their problem? These things are easy." Yeah. Shows what I know. Handles suck. So I've been practicing. A lot. I still have a long ways to go.
This one is getting better. Of course, I put a handle on there and it ended up being HUGE so I carved half of it away with a knife. It's still big, but better than it was. I don't really like the painting, so I may reglaze it. We'll see.
The handle kind of sucks on this one, but I'm thrilled with the way the glaze came out. It was totally worth all four days!
Another lesson learned: when dealing with more than one clay color, stay AWAY from ruffled rims. I am very fond of ruffled rims, and not just because they do a very nice job disguising uneven edges. They're pretty and I like them. But, in order for these marbled clay pots to look their best, you have to either 1) use a rib while it's still on the wheel and scrap off the top layer or 2) sand the living snot out of it - for HOURS - to remove the layer of slip and show off the marbling. If you ruffle the rim, you sand. By hand. For hours. And hours. Blech. But, it did turn out pretty cute.
One of the potters in this area does some REALLY cool stuff. She's actually the one who taught the Raku workshop that I recently attended. One of her trademarks is to put a pretty little flourish on her pots and I really like the way it looks. So, I had a couple of little bowls go wonky on me the other day and I tried her flourish. They turned out kinda cool, I think.
I'm still playing with texture. This isn't quite where I wanted to go, but I'm getting closer.
Based on something that another lady in the studio did, I started experimenting with painting with underglazes on top of glaze. The flowers turned out pretty much exactly as I hoped they would. I'll be experimenting further with this method, especially over other colors of glaze. The magnolia bowl won best in show at this year's annual pottery show at the studio, netting me a nice gift certificate to the store.
We got some new glazes to play with, so of course color experiments must follow. Some were brand new colors and I'd never seen them on my preferred clay (Highwater clay's little loafers). This is Pam's Blue glaze. Not bad, but not really what I had in mind either. Further experimentation is needed.
I love, love, love the creamy matte. It's a dip glaze for us and it's just really great. My favorite combination with it so far is with gunmetal green and tournaline, like this. But I'm also interested in how it combines with other colors as well. These were okay. I like the Pams Green (third one) the best, I think. The bowl that I tried the orchid and eggplant on was really thin, so the eggplant kind of gobbed up a bit. It's not bad, but I'm not thrilled with it. My fault - I applied the glaze too thickly.
And lest you think that all pottery works out well, I fussed with this ginger jar and lid for AGES - trimming and sanding and cooing over it. And then, I screwed up and glazed it with the wrong damn color and now it's ugly. Also, the lid doesn't fit worth a crap - it warped in the kiln. *sigh* Lids are worse than handles. Confounded things.
Lately I've been playing with collaring - taking a tall, straight cylinder and making the top smaller. It's tough, but I'm getting there. One major thing with collaring is that your rim usually ends up wonky. If you don't have enough to just cut off, you start getting creative. So, I'm doing a lot of pitchers right now... which also helps with that whole handle thing. The first one reminds me of a chicken for some reason, although no one else seems to see it. I love the second one, and will be desolate if it dies in the kiln.
I'm also finally working my way into larger balls of clay. I'm very comfortable centering and throwing up to about three pounds of clay. Over that, and it all goes to hell. Lately though, I've managed a couple of things that were nearly five pounds. Yay! Big bowls! Yay! One problem with that is that the glazing starts getting EXPENSIVE, so there's probably not a lot of huge things in my future - I can't afford it. I've got a bunch of stuff in the bisque fire now, that should be ready for my next visit. Once of them is my first attempt at a chip and dip bowl, so more pictures will be along shortly!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
The Last of the Peaches, FINALLY
The final peach canning adventure o'the year: peach honey
When I was peeling and cutting up all of those peaches, I saved the skins. I also saved the bits that I cut out from the center that had pit bits on them. These have been sitting in the fridge waiting for me to reclaim my kitchen from the last peach project.
Today, I put that whole bowl full of peach stuff in my largest stock pot on the stove, covered it in water and let it gently boil until I had peach juice. Then I used cheese cloth to stain out all of the big chunks.
Waiting...
Yuck!
Peach Juice!
I'm actually not sure how much sugar I added to the juice. While at the peach shed, I also bought a jar of peach syrup. OMG it was sweet. Holy crap. I couldn't taste the peach at all, it hit the taste buds and the only things running through my mind were - SWEET! NEED WATER! GAH! Pretty much just like that. So I used a cup of it in the spiced peaches, and the rest of it (probably about a cup) in the honey.
The theory is that this will thicken as it cooks down, and maybe if I'd have just added sugar it would have. This did not. I went from the stock pot being 3/4 full to less than a 1/4 full and it was still really runny. So I added a package of pectin. Still runny. *sigh* Fine. Be runny. I packed it in the jars and put them in the water bath (wiping down the rims before adding the lids, of course) and it's still not thick. The package insert in the pectin said that sometimes it takes up to two weeks for jam to thicken, so I guess it's not impossible that it'll thicken in the jar...?
At any rate, this concludes this year's adventures in peach preserving. We'll see if I ever do this to myself again. This will partly depend on whether anything I've put up is actually edible... Right now, looking in my cupboard at the jam, the spiced peaches, and the honey, I'm feeling very capable and proud of myself!
When I was peeling and cutting up all of those peaches, I saved the skins. I also saved the bits that I cut out from the center that had pit bits on them. These have been sitting in the fridge waiting for me to reclaim my kitchen from the last peach project.
Today, I put that whole bowl full of peach stuff in my largest stock pot on the stove, covered it in water and let it gently boil until I had peach juice. Then I used cheese cloth to stain out all of the big chunks.
I'm actually not sure how much sugar I added to the juice. While at the peach shed, I also bought a jar of peach syrup. OMG it was sweet. Holy crap. I couldn't taste the peach at all, it hit the taste buds and the only things running through my mind were - SWEET! NEED WATER! GAH! Pretty much just like that. So I used a cup of it in the spiced peaches, and the rest of it (probably about a cup) in the honey.
The theory is that this will thicken as it cooks down, and maybe if I'd have just added sugar it would have. This did not. I went from the stock pot being 3/4 full to less than a 1/4 full and it was still really runny. So I added a package of pectin. Still runny. *sigh* Fine. Be runny. I packed it in the jars and put them in the water bath (wiping down the rims before adding the lids, of course) and it's still not thick. The package insert in the pectin said that sometimes it takes up to two weeks for jam to thicken, so I guess it's not impossible that it'll thicken in the jar...?
At any rate, this concludes this year's adventures in peach preserving. We'll see if I ever do this to myself again. This will partly depend on whether anything I've put up is actually edible... Right now, looking in my cupboard at the jam, the spiced peaches, and the honey, I'm feeling very capable and proud of myself!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Again With The Peaches
Today's canning adventure: spiced peaches
When I was growing up, Del Monte sold glass jars of spiced peaches. They were hard to find and only available around Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mom LOVED them. We, her beloved children, were lucky to get one to split between the two of us. Last summer, when friends brought South Carolina peaches back, I started thinking about making my own.
This summer, I have three big baskets of peaches to consume.
I went surfing through the internets, and found a few recipes that were helpful but none that seemed exactly right. So, I ended up making my own road.
My recipe:
~50 peaches
~3/4 cup lemon juice
2 cups apple cider vinegar
~3 cups sugar
12 cups water
1 cup peach syrup
1/4 cup mulling spices
The very first step is preparing your jars. Wash in hot soapy water, rinse and then put jars in water bath and boil them for 20 minutes or so. Wash and rinse lids, put in a small pot, boil for 5 minutes. (I set up a TV tray next to the stove, and covered it with towels. Then I left the jars in the water bath until I was almost ready for them, then pulled them out (empty water back into bath to avoid having to refill bath) and set them right on the tray.)
The first steps - boiling and peeling - are the same as before. I wanted 6 quarts of peaches, so I peeled about 50 peaches. From what I've read, whole peaches are the Southern tradition, but I'm a displaced Yankee so I pitted and sliced mine. Put the lemon juice in a LARGE bowl. As you slice the peaches, drop them into the bowl. Stir occasionally to ensure all peaches are covered in the lemon juice. (If you prefer, you can probably also use that fresh fruit stuff to keep them from discoloring. I just happened to already have lemon juice.)
Add vinegar, sugar, water and syrup to your LARGEST stock pot. Wrap mulling spices in cheesecloth and add to pot. Bring to a boil. Boil approx 5 minutes covered, uncover, boil another 5 or so minutes, add peaches and then simmer until peaches are soft (~20 minutes). Note - I had to remove liquid when I added the peaches to avoid overflow so be careful.
When peaches are about ready, pull jars from the water bath, line them up on your work surface and add 1/4 teaspoon of mulling spices and 1 teaspoon sugar to each jar. Fill jars with peaches, using jar funnel and slotted spoon, then top off with syrup, leaving about an inch of headroom. Wipe off lips and threads of jars, add lids and rims and the process in hot water bath for about 30 minutes.
Yield: 6 quarts.
Getting there...
When I was growing up, Del Monte sold glass jars of spiced peaches. They were hard to find and only available around Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mom LOVED them. We, her beloved children, were lucky to get one to split between the two of us. Last summer, when friends brought South Carolina peaches back, I started thinking about making my own.
This summer, I have three big baskets of peaches to consume.
I went surfing through the internets, and found a few recipes that were helpful but none that seemed exactly right. So, I ended up making my own road.
My recipe:
~50 peaches
~3/4 cup lemon juice
2 cups apple cider vinegar
~3 cups sugar
12 cups water
1 cup peach syrup
1/4 cup mulling spices
The very first step is preparing your jars. Wash in hot soapy water, rinse and then put jars in water bath and boil them for 20 minutes or so. Wash and rinse lids, put in a small pot, boil for 5 minutes. (I set up a TV tray next to the stove, and covered it with towels. Then I left the jars in the water bath until I was almost ready for them, then pulled them out (empty water back into bath to avoid having to refill bath) and set them right on the tray.)
The first steps - boiling and peeling - are the same as before. I wanted 6 quarts of peaches, so I peeled about 50 peaches. From what I've read, whole peaches are the Southern tradition, but I'm a displaced Yankee so I pitted and sliced mine. Put the lemon juice in a LARGE bowl. As you slice the peaches, drop them into the bowl. Stir occasionally to ensure all peaches are covered in the lemon juice. (If you prefer, you can probably also use that fresh fruit stuff to keep them from discoloring. I just happened to already have lemon juice.)
Add vinegar, sugar, water and syrup to your LARGEST stock pot. Wrap mulling spices in cheesecloth and add to pot. Bring to a boil. Boil approx 5 minutes covered, uncover, boil another 5 or so minutes, add peaches and then simmer until peaches are soft (~20 minutes). Note - I had to remove liquid when I added the peaches to avoid overflow so be careful.
When peaches are about ready, pull jars from the water bath, line them up on your work surface and add 1/4 teaspoon of mulling spices and 1 teaspoon sugar to each jar. Fill jars with peaches, using jar funnel and slotted spoon, then top off with syrup, leaving about an inch of headroom. Wipe off lips and threads of jars, add lids and rims and the process in hot water bath for about 30 minutes.
Yield: 6 quarts.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Hidden Posts
I'm horrible about edits. I start a post and then wander away and leave it to languish, then start another post but don't want to publish it until I get the one before under control and really it's just a viscious cycle.
So now that I have some time on my hands, I'm going back and completing some of those posts.
Since I'm sure John Q. Public is just out there waiting for my next gasp of wisdom, here's what I've managed to finish lately:
August 2, 2010: Peaches, Peaches, Peaches (Canning and dehydrating, oh my!)
July 18, 2010: A Delicious Weekend (A wonderful weekend with friends!)
July 13, 2010: Recovered? (A rant about my "vacation.")
July 3, 2010: Vacation! (And I'm off!)
June 28, 2010: Raku! (I finally got to do the raku firing that was postponed from February.)
June 21, 2010: I Did Not Die. (My latest adventure in Mexico.)
June 6, 2010: Glitters + Glazing + Blueberries = YUMMY Weekend (Fairly self explanatory, I'd think.)
May 31, 2010: Fossil Festival (The annual Fossil Festival in Aurora, NC.)
So now that I have some time on my hands, I'm going back and completing some of those posts.
Since I'm sure John Q. Public is just out there waiting for my next gasp of wisdom, here's what I've managed to finish lately:
August 2, 2010: Peaches, Peaches, Peaches (Canning and dehydrating, oh my!)
July 18, 2010: A Delicious Weekend (A wonderful weekend with friends!)
July 13, 2010: Recovered? (A rant about my "vacation.")
July 3, 2010: Vacation! (And I'm off!)
June 28, 2010: Raku! (I finally got to do the raku firing that was postponed from February.)
June 21, 2010: I Did Not Die. (My latest adventure in Mexico.)
June 6, 2010: Glitters + Glazing + Blueberries = YUMMY Weekend (Fairly self explanatory, I'd think.)
May 31, 2010: Fossil Festival (The annual Fossil Festival in Aurora, NC.)
Peaches, Peaches, Peaches
You remember this part of "Forest Gump?"
Right now, that's me, except with peaches. OMG.
I've made pie. Cobbler. Milkshakes. Smoothies. Daquiris - oh my!
I've boiled. And blended. And purayed. Chopped and infused various adult beverages. And I'm not quite half way through the darn things. I'm happy to note that the *ahem* digestive side effects from eating too many blueberries do not apply to peaches. (Good, 'cause THAT was... disconcerting.)
Not one to suffer alone, here's a closer view of making my own peach leather AND my first ever attempt at canning.
First step: sorting the peaches by my feeble ability to tell ripeness.
Some were perfect just to snack on, or for immediate use in milkshakes and smoothies.
The steps begin the same way for most of the processing. Step one of these recipes is always "peel and slice peaches" like it's really THAT easy. Three hours later, I've got peach goo in my eyelashes and my kitchen may never recover. You'd think there'd be some way to phrase that to warn a person what was coming! Sadly, they are correct in that the easiest way to peel a peach is to boil it for a while, shock it in cold water and then scrape the VERY slimy skin off the peach. These peaches were not as ripe as they could have been. The good part was that I had a couple of weeks to dawdle around and get them processed. The bad part was that they weren't as sweet as last year's peaches, and the skins did not just slide off most of them. It was a battle. So far, I think I'm winning but the war is yet over.
So, boiling:
Blanching (or shocking):
Skinning:
At this point, we have options, depending on what we're doing. I tackled peach leather first so that is where we go next.
Cut up in blender: (I love my blender. That thing could chew up a car if I asked it to, and - best part - it's got low, high, off instead of 40 buttons whose function completely escape me. LOVE my blender.)
My bananas were REALLY dead, so the first batch was only peaches and honey in the blender.
Make very sure that you have oiled the trays to the dehydrator 'cause this stuff is STICKY. I used a light coating of Pam and then smeared it around for a while with my finger to make sure every spot was covered.
About 10 peaches mostly filled my blender. For the second go-round, I also added one ripe banana per blender-full. (Best is about one day past when you want to eat it, for me anyway. And it makes a huge difference - with banana tastes much better to me than without.) I have six trays for my dehydrator, but one of them doesn't have the fruit leather plastic tray. For the first batch, I used a piece of parchment paper (also oiled) and it worked fine. It took approximately 3.5 - 4 full ladles of puray to fill each tray, and each blender full filled 3 trays. When I got overenthusiastic on one tray, I used a turkey baster to suck it up and move it.
I set the temperature at 135 degrees and let it go. This dehydrator is several years old so that may have something to do with it. Also, I'm in the South in the summer so the humidity is hovering around 85% but these took all of 18 hours to dry all the way. (When it feels dry to your touch and there are no shiny spots, it's done.) Once the peach leather was done, I ripped it into pieces (each approximately 3" x 4"), piled them up about an inch high on waxed paper, wrapped them, put them in a ziplock freezer bag and put them into the freezer. They'll keep pretty much indefinitely in there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I also filled ice cube trays with puray and froze them. They're living in my freezer in a bucket waiting for a daquiri party. There are about as many peach daquiri recipes as there are people who drink them out there. If you would like help getting started, here's a good one:
(Note: I use 2 cups of peach puray cubes instead of the 1 cup of peaches and 1 cup of ice, and I'm out of brandy so I skip that part. Don't buy superfine sugar, just put the sugar in the blender first and pulse it a few times. Presto! Superfine sugar!)
1 cup frozen peaches
1/4 cup lime juice
1 1/2 ounces light rum
1 ounce peach schnapps
1/2 ounce apricot brandy
Dash of pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon superfine sugar
1 cup crushed ice
Combine the peaches, lime juice, rum, schnapps, brandy, vanilla, and sugar in the blender until smooth. Slowly add the ice with the blender running and process until smooth. Serve in a chilled glass.
Makes 1 serving.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And for my next adventure: canning.
First up: Peach jam with brown sugar and rum. I found the recipe online here, and (being me) altered it slightly.
The boiling, shocking and peeling remain the same. Then I cut up the peaches and put them in a large bowl. I wanted 12 half pint jars, so I used approximately 36 peaches. (Figure 4 medium sized peaches in a pound, and some of mine were a bit scrawny so I went a bit over. I might have snacked a little as I worked too.) I worked in batches, boiling about 7 peaches at a time. I cut them up in a size similar to that for an apple pie. My reasoning was that there were a few peaches that I cut bad spots out of and then peeled without the boiling - I cut them up more finely in the theory that they'd all get done about the same time. I didn't have light brown sugar, so I used dark. And my lemon juice came from a bottle in the fridge.
It was getting late, and I was getting tired, so my measurements got a bit fuzzy at this point. (Also, I subscribe to the Swedish Chef cooking methodology. Bork! Bork! Bork! So all measurements are approximate!) AND, calculations were involved as I ended up with 11 cups of peaches. *sigh* So, 3.67 cups of brown sugar, 11 tablespoons of lemon juice, and somewhere around 0.75 cups of rum (Captain Morgan's spiced rum) went into the bowl with the peaches. I stirred it, covered it and left it on the counter while I went to bed.
The most important part of canning is preparing the jars. No sense in wasting all that effort and potentially poisoning yourself if you can avoid it. I'm still working out how my new dishwasher works, so I washed the jars, lids and rims by hand in hot soapy (yay, Dawn!) water. Then I put the jars into the water canning pot, and the lids into another small pot of water on the stove. I boiled the jars for about 20 minutes, and the lids for about the same. I left both in the hot water until my jam was about ready to pack and then I pulled the jars out and set them on a towel covered TV tray right next to the stove.
(The water bath pot is HUGE and ate two burners of my stove. This is the first time - possibly ever - that I've had all four burners on at once.)
The next day, I put the peaches on the stove and brought them to a boil while my jars and lids cooked away on the other burners.
The recipe says to cook until the peaches become translucent. I have no idea what they're talking about - that never happened. I cooked them until even the biggest chunks were soft and cooked. Then I added 3.67 cups of granulated sugar and boiled it rapidly. BE CAREFUL! This stuff is like napalm and it spits! (Only two of the burns from the flying jam bombs blistered...) I tried two or three times to get that "wrinkle, not run" thing that they talked about and it didn't really happen. I used a digital candy thermometer and went up to 225 degrees for a while, got sick of being spattered with burning pain and called it done. I decided that it looked too chunky to be proper jam, and REALLY wished for an immersion blender. Then I pulled out my potato stomper and squished the peaches 'till it looked more like jam to me. I let it cool on the back burner for a couple of minutes and then stirred in about 0.75 cups of rum and let it boil for two minutes.
Then I used a ladle and the funnel and filled the jars. I had exactly enough for 12 half pint jars. It's better to be lucky than good, I think.
From there, I wiped down all of the jar lips and then used the handy dandy lid grabber magnet that came in the canning set (with the funnel, jar grabber, and air pocket destroyer thing) to snatch the lids out of the hot water and drop them on each jar. Then the rims went on - using towels to keep from burning myself even more. Then all the jars went into the water bath.
The recipe says to process for 15 minutes, but all of the others that I looked at online (and there were MANY) all said 30 - 35 minutes, so that's what I went by. I started the timer when I noticed the water was boiling, so they did process for a bit longer. Then I checked them when the timer went off and the damn water wasn't boiling. I had other things to do, so I got ready to go, turned the stove off on my way out the door and let them sit in the water bath overnight. The next morning, I pulled them out and put them back on the towel covered table and let them cool completely. All 12 jars sealed, so that made me happy.
Walmart sells the pretty quilted half pint jars and the normal ones for the same price and the pretty ones come with a nifty little label. So, if I do this again, I'm going for the pretty ones.
All of this effort is SLOWLY paying off.
Adventures in canning spiced peaches to follow.
Right now, that's me, except with peaches. OMG.
I've made pie. Cobbler. Milkshakes. Smoothies. Daquiris - oh my!
I've boiled. And blended. And purayed. Chopped and infused various adult beverages. And I'm not quite half way through the darn things. I'm happy to note that the *ahem* digestive side effects from eating too many blueberries do not apply to peaches. (Good, 'cause THAT was... disconcerting.)
Not one to suffer alone, here's a closer view of making my own peach leather AND my first ever attempt at canning.
First step: sorting the peaches by my feeble ability to tell ripeness.
Some were perfect just to snack on, or for immediate use in milkshakes and smoothies.
The steps begin the same way for most of the processing. Step one of these recipes is always "peel and slice peaches" like it's really THAT easy. Three hours later, I've got peach goo in my eyelashes and my kitchen may never recover. You'd think there'd be some way to phrase that to warn a person what was coming! Sadly, they are correct in that the easiest way to peel a peach is to boil it for a while, shock it in cold water and then scrape the VERY slimy skin off the peach. These peaches were not as ripe as they could have been. The good part was that I had a couple of weeks to dawdle around and get them processed. The bad part was that they weren't as sweet as last year's peaches, and the skins did not just slide off most of them. It was a battle. So far, I think I'm winning but the war is yet over.
At this point, we have options, depending on what we're doing. I tackled peach leather first so that is where we go next.
Cut up in blender: (I love my blender. That thing could chew up a car if I asked it to, and - best part - it's got low, high, off instead of 40 buttons whose function completely escape me. LOVE my blender.)
My bananas were REALLY dead, so the first batch was only peaches and honey in the blender.
Make very sure that you have oiled the trays to the dehydrator 'cause this stuff is STICKY. I used a light coating of Pam and then smeared it around for a while with my finger to make sure every spot was covered.
About 10 peaches mostly filled my blender. For the second go-round, I also added one ripe banana per blender-full. (Best is about one day past when you want to eat it, for me anyway. And it makes a huge difference - with banana tastes much better to me than without.) I have six trays for my dehydrator, but one of them doesn't have the fruit leather plastic tray. For the first batch, I used a piece of parchment paper (also oiled) and it worked fine. It took approximately 3.5 - 4 full ladles of puray to fill each tray, and each blender full filled 3 trays. When I got overenthusiastic on one tray, I used a turkey baster to suck it up and move it.
I set the temperature at 135 degrees and let it go. This dehydrator is several years old so that may have something to do with it. Also, I'm in the South in the summer so the humidity is hovering around 85% but these took all of 18 hours to dry all the way. (When it feels dry to your touch and there are no shiny spots, it's done.) Once the peach leather was done, I ripped it into pieces (each approximately 3" x 4"), piled them up about an inch high on waxed paper, wrapped them, put them in a ziplock freezer bag and put them into the freezer. They'll keep pretty much indefinitely in there.
I also filled ice cube trays with puray and froze them. They're living in my freezer in a bucket waiting for a daquiri party. There are about as many peach daquiri recipes as there are people who drink them out there. If you would like help getting started, here's a good one:
(Note: I use 2 cups of peach puray cubes instead of the 1 cup of peaches and 1 cup of ice, and I'm out of brandy so I skip that part. Don't buy superfine sugar, just put the sugar in the blender first and pulse it a few times. Presto! Superfine sugar!)
1 cup frozen peaches
1/4 cup lime juice
1 1/2 ounces light rum
1 ounce peach schnapps
1/2 ounce apricot brandy
Dash of pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon superfine sugar
1 cup crushed ice
Combine the peaches, lime juice, rum, schnapps, brandy, vanilla, and sugar in the blender until smooth. Slowly add the ice with the blender running and process until smooth. Serve in a chilled glass.
Makes 1 serving.
And for my next adventure: canning.
First up: Peach jam with brown sugar and rum. I found the recipe online here, and (being me) altered it slightly.
The boiling, shocking and peeling remain the same. Then I cut up the peaches and put them in a large bowl. I wanted 12 half pint jars, so I used approximately 36 peaches. (Figure 4 medium sized peaches in a pound, and some of mine were a bit scrawny so I went a bit over. I might have snacked a little as I worked too.) I worked in batches, boiling about 7 peaches at a time. I cut them up in a size similar to that for an apple pie. My reasoning was that there were a few peaches that I cut bad spots out of and then peeled without the boiling - I cut them up more finely in the theory that they'd all get done about the same time. I didn't have light brown sugar, so I used dark. And my lemon juice came from a bottle in the fridge.
It was getting late, and I was getting tired, so my measurements got a bit fuzzy at this point. (Also, I subscribe to the Swedish Chef cooking methodology. Bork! Bork! Bork! So all measurements are approximate!) AND, calculations were involved as I ended up with 11 cups of peaches. *sigh* So, 3.67 cups of brown sugar, 11 tablespoons of lemon juice, and somewhere around 0.75 cups of rum (Captain Morgan's spiced rum) went into the bowl with the peaches. I stirred it, covered it and left it on the counter while I went to bed.
The most important part of canning is preparing the jars. No sense in wasting all that effort and potentially poisoning yourself if you can avoid it. I'm still working out how my new dishwasher works, so I washed the jars, lids and rims by hand in hot soapy (yay, Dawn!) water. Then I put the jars into the water canning pot, and the lids into another small pot of water on the stove. I boiled the jars for about 20 minutes, and the lids for about the same. I left both in the hot water until my jam was about ready to pack and then I pulled the jars out and set them on a towel covered TV tray right next to the stove.
(The water bath pot is HUGE and ate two burners of my stove. This is the first time - possibly ever - that I've had all four burners on at once.)
The next day, I put the peaches on the stove and brought them to a boil while my jars and lids cooked away on the other burners.
The recipe says to cook until the peaches become translucent. I have no idea what they're talking about - that never happened. I cooked them until even the biggest chunks were soft and cooked. Then I added 3.67 cups of granulated sugar and boiled it rapidly. BE CAREFUL! This stuff is like napalm and it spits! (Only two of the burns from the flying jam bombs blistered...) I tried two or three times to get that "wrinkle, not run" thing that they talked about and it didn't really happen. I used a digital candy thermometer and went up to 225 degrees for a while, got sick of being spattered with burning pain and called it done. I decided that it looked too chunky to be proper jam, and REALLY wished for an immersion blender. Then I pulled out my potato stomper and squished the peaches 'till it looked more like jam to me. I let it cool on the back burner for a couple of minutes and then stirred in about 0.75 cups of rum and let it boil for two minutes.
Then I used a ladle and the funnel and filled the jars. I had exactly enough for 12 half pint jars. It's better to be lucky than good, I think.
From there, I wiped down all of the jar lips and then used the handy dandy lid grabber magnet that came in the canning set (with the funnel, jar grabber, and air pocket destroyer thing) to snatch the lids out of the hot water and drop them on each jar. Then the rims went on - using towels to keep from burning myself even more. Then all the jars went into the water bath.
The recipe says to process for 15 minutes, but all of the others that I looked at online (and there were MANY) all said 30 - 35 minutes, so that's what I went by. I started the timer when I noticed the water was boiling, so they did process for a bit longer. Then I checked them when the timer went off and the damn water wasn't boiling. I had other things to do, so I got ready to go, turned the stove off on my way out the door and let them sit in the water bath overnight. The next morning, I pulled them out and put them back on the towel covered table and let them cool completely. All 12 jars sealed, so that made me happy.
Walmart sells the pretty quilted half pint jars and the normal ones for the same price and the pretty ones come with a nifty little label. So, if I do this again, I'm going for the pretty ones.
All of this effort is SLOWLY paying off.
Adventures in canning spiced peaches to follow.
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