The Love, Blood, and Rhetoric School

We have a mortgage.

More accurately, I got us a mortgage approved.

I would not relive these past three days for anything. The whole process seems designed to keep the customer completely confused and depending on whatever the agent says. Then they try to keep you from talking to anyone else with these dire warnings about the effects of "mortgage shopping", which is complete crap. Credit checks for mortgages don't negatively impact your credit score as long as they are all within 30 days

It's also interesting how not returning calls can magically cause your interest rate to improve. Don't answer the phones for 18 hours and miss I-cant-possibly-go-below-4.5 suddenly offers 4.25.

We should be getting the papers today, and then we are set.

So glad to be done with that shit.

Yesterday after church the kids and I hit the kids' resale store. They both got dress shoes, Robs got some Christmas jammies, a fleece sweatsuit, snow boots, and a snowman onsie and red sweatpants. Katrina got a wool plaid jumper and a white blouse, a printed velour dress for school, and some leggings and fleece pants.

We didn't get home until three for poor Robs' nap. Then I cooked up a storm. I made Chinese lettuce wraps, taco casserole, a crustless quiche, started a pot of chicken soup, and put beef in to marinate for beef stroganoff.

Then after baby bedtime I cleaned up the kitchen and glued the spikes to Katrina's Astrid skirt. Her halloween costume is going to be epic. Robs is going to have to make do with a furry vest, Katrina's old boots, and some stuffed horns sewn to a fleece hat.

Today I declared a personal Anti-Procrastination Day and tackled a bunch of the little jobs that I've been putting off because I just don't want to do them. I cleaned out my pot and pan cupboard, stripped two loads of diapers (which took for fricking EVER), got the family room soft furnishings out of storage, wrote up Bruce's November schedule, made a menu plan for next week, started a huge pot of spaghetti sauce and hot sausage, took the vacuum apart and rinsed out the filters, and did some diaper repairs that have been sitting there taunting me.

Now all I have to do is finish replacing the elastic in one more diaper, and then I can be done for the day. Woo-hoo.

I did not get the glow of accomplishment I was hoping for, probably because I have a touch of some flu bug, but I am glad to not have these things hanging over my head, or laying around my house. So I am now seeking validation on the internet. Please, praise my industry in making an exceptional effort to do what I should be doing automatically every damn day.

Tomorrow should be the last day the contractor is here finishing the family room and the little front room we're going to use as a playroom. They painted all the trim today, so tomorrow should be mostly clean up. I'm hoping if Katrina and I are cute enough John will hang a few pictures for me; I can't hang things straight to save my life, and Bruce won't without a lot of nagging, and the angst isn't worth it. Then babycakes and I can have a fun, dorky evening putting up the Halloween village before Halloween is actually over.

I just canned a half-batch of pickled watermelon rind to see how I liked this particular recipe. I've had it before at the King's Arms in Williamsburg, and loved it. So excited to find a recipe that actually does get the spices right. (The secret is adding thin slices of lemon when you marinate.)

Need to be more picky about having all the pieces as close to the same size as possible...mine didn't all reach the translucent point at once when I was boiling. Also, it ended up very yellow instead of that pretty pale green color. Not that that's wrong or bad, but I like the green better.

The vinegar syrup is just perfect for pregnant tastebuds though!

I'm heading to Pittsburgh tomorrow, and will probably take one jar for Ma and one for Dad. She probably won't eat it, but at least I'll have made the effort.

Gods it's hot. Fricking southern Virginia.

I hit ten sales this morning between eight and twelve, including two church sales, which are gold. Then I got all the junk off the front porch (Bruce cleaned the car by moving crap from one place to another), put a coat of primer on the sewing room walls (goodbye hideous orange faux-wood panelling), and am now sorting through todays take.

The list is mostly so I can remember what I purchased for whom, though there is an element of gloating involved. I so kicked ass!


King's Grant:
20 wooden spools mercerized cotton
10 wooden spools silk thread (oh, the decadence!)
3 big scented candles
set sea shell wine charms - for Michelle bday

Thalia Presby Church:
Baby monitor (for $3! Yay!)
Large oval mirror, antique gold frame
2 small oval mirrors, antique gold frames
1 rectangular mirror, carved wood frame
pair pointsetta earrings - for Mom
Ngaio Marsh When in Rome pbk
Alison Weir Elizabeth I pbk - for Jenn
12 new quart-sized Mason jars with lids and rings

Lynn Shores (2 family)
baby photo album with pewter frame cover
baby photo album with blue and white cover
fireplace poker
fireplace shovel
pair brown mules for me
32" multi. floral embroidered tablecloth
2 matching napkins
5x7 picture frame
Five Little Pumpkins book

Baptist Church:
tea-sized cutwork tablecloth, pearl gray on ivory - Mrs. K Xmas
3 Irish linen tea towels (I plan on hemming the stripes off and using them for embroidery...the fabric is gorgeous)
long Indian print skirt in navy, beige and green - for me
mustard gold maternity sweater
2 casserole-sized tupperwares
tall tupperware
25 pant/skirt hangers

Witchduck Landing (I almost didn't go to this, because the neighborhood is a little iffy and it was out of the way, but I got all this for $10)
Christmas tree pin - Grandma
2 zipper comforter storage bags
4 zipper garment bags
2 1/3 yards cotton with a winter woodland print (deer, racoons, bunnies, snow, pine trees)
2 5x7 picture frames (about 2" wide dark walnut, cleaned up great)
James Patterson - Mary, Mary hc - for Audrey or me
James Patterson - London Bridges hc - ditto
new cat collar with bell (Hudson didn't like his present much)
3 doses cat flea/tick medicine
3 doses dog flea/tick medicine
bag pine-scented potpourri
4 spools colored giftwrap twine
2 heavy plastic drop cloths
12 packages wrapping paper
30 gift bags, christmas and birthday
Tupperware storage tote thingy with handle
Canvas Christmas "Peace on Earth" decoration

Oceanfront
Grosse Pointe Blank DVD - Jack/Dad
Identity DVD - Jack/Dad

Grand Total: $66

Now, I never thought I'd feel compelled to share thoughts on soy flour (I never thought I'd have thoughts on soy flour), but there are some interesting things.

For one, you can use one heaping tablespoon of soy flour plus one tablespoon of water to replace one egg in baking. I ran out of eggs while making a double batch of pumpkin muffins the other day and had to try this. I couldn't even tell the difference. For anyone who is watching cholesterol this could be extremely useful. You don't even lose any protein in the swap!

I decided to do the math, and realized that this is also significantly cheaper as well. The cheapest I can get eggs in southeastern Virginia is 14.9 cents an egg. I can buy a 1.5 lb box of soy flour (containing 88T) for $3.14. That works out to 3.6 cents per tablespoon. I do about three batches of muffins a month, six batches of sandwich buns, and a weekly batch of cookies or brownies. All together that's 24 eggs for regular everyday baking.  $3.58 for eggs v. 86 cents for soy flour. It's not a ton of money, but there's other places I can use that $32.65 a year.

Secondly, one cup of soy flour, boiled for twenty minutes in six cups of water and then strained, makes a little over a quart of soy milk. Again, through the magic of word problems, that's 57 cents for a quart of soy milk. Call it 65 cents if you want to add vanilla and a little sweetner. Bruce drinks about a gallon per week, for a monthly total of $20 from the market, or 10.40 homemade, flavored and sweetened.

This lesson was brought to you by the letter 'S' and the number 5.