Days without MacGyver 4-6

It's probably a good thing that MacGyver is returning in 3 days because Clyde 2.0 seems to have taught all 3 chickens to lay in the easy to access box.  I'm not sure how I'm going to eat all of these.  Now we just need to keep it topped up with shavings so no eggs crack.  She seems to have not sustained any more head injuries, but she very quickly gets out of Blinky's way.

Went to an MBA mixer with a guest speaker from Pimco commenting on his own investment strategies.  He is bullish about homeownership (and gaming countries in Asia) so things are looking good for me on my most recent financial choices.

In general, I've decided I'm pretty wrecked on weekdays and not up for much because I put in long hours-- most of it on my feet at a standing desk (self-imposed suffering!)  It's generally asking a lot just to get home, check on the chickens, pump Kai full of anti-inflammatories, pump my eyes full of anti-inflammatories, and maybe make dinner or have a beer or watch a movie.  Even my eating habits deteriorate over the work week from full planned packed lunches to purchased comfort food.

Day without MacGyver 3

One thing we have in common is that we start projects with much more alacrity than we finish them.  So I've filled the kitchen table up with yet more "inputs."  It was very windy today, so I bailed on most of the fun yard adventures I planned.

Filled the chicken coop with $11 of pine shavings which turned the tables for beleaguered 2.0.  She had lost some head feathers and looked a little raw, but seemed to be in pretty good spirits.  She has figured out how to use sympathetic Inky as a feathered shield between her and Blinky when things get dodgy.  With shavings spread, there was nowhere our dirt loving birds thought was safe to stand, but 2.0 had made herself at home in the deepest bedded corner.

On the same errand I also discovered Zuke's dog treats make a Chondroitin and Glucosamine supplement treat which I've started feeding to Kai in hopes her luxating patella won't er... luxate so much.  Two treats in, they come stampeding to the kitchen from anywhere on the property any time I move the treat bag to accommodate other inputs .

I was really craving shahi paneer which tops my list of comfort foods.  The problem with Indian Buffet paneer is that either they're chintzy with the cheese or someone fishes it all out before you get there.  So I might have tripled the amount of paneer called for to ensure an awesome lunch and 2 more for work (thank goodness for wide-mouthed canning jars).

I also rendered giant beet into something called Odessa Salad which I found in the Moosewood Cookbook (the only other option was Borcht of which I was only familiar with due to childhood viewing of Rugrats).  You basically bake the beet in foil for 45 mins at 400 degrees.  Let it cool.  Shred it.  Mix it in with chopped prunes, pineapple, walnuts, garlic, and a couple tablespoons of lemon juice.  The bit I grazed tasted pretty decent.

While waiting, I made some lip balm because I seem to have misplaced or dryer-melted every tube of chapstick in the house.  This was a recipe from a book BroEpic gave me for festivus.  5 tb castor oil (was using more for softer consistency), 1 tb beeswax, 2 tb honey melted in mom's mini-crockpot and finished with about 20 drops of peppermint essential oil.  I deliberated dumping some of my favorite/only lipstick (blood red Nars Fire Down Below) in for tinting, but figured if this became a communal pot, that particular shade wouldn't look so swell on MacG.  Incidentally, just applying castor oil is good for temporary ultra glossy lips.  One concern:  the oil is lighter than honey and didn't seem to fully blend.  Guess we'll find out how things turned out when it's chilled out.

I had also been allowing 5 liter "Schmidt" to ferment some seriously shredded cabbage for an indeterminately long time.  So long that I forgot that I had seasoned the kraut with hot pepper flakes for some extra kick.  Instead, I became convinced Schmidt was harboring some weird red acidophilic  bacteria and that the mortician would have to retrieve me from the house in a hazmat suit.  Schmidt and I avoided eye contact for several additional weeks after I began harboring this suspicion.  In actuality, the kraut I grazed while cramming the remainder into a not-wide-mouthed mason jar (grr)  tasted pretty decent.  I suppose we'll draw our own conclusions about whether the hazmat suits are necessary if this becomes my final blog post.  In the future, I probably won't let the food processor shred kraut cabbage.  It was a pain to fish all those tiny pieces out.  As a very tangential aside, I am saddened that the Munich Marathon no longer overlaps with the commencement of Oktoberfest because I was really looking forward to that dubious combination at some point in my life.

I also finished my book club read, Terry Pratchett's The Color of Magic, which I only just now realized I could have watched as a mini-series on Amazon Prime for $4 and had all but 3 hours of my life back.  Although in fairness, it was a pretty amusing read.  A bit too far into the "absurd events coming full circle" Douglas Adams style of plot line for me to relish embarking on a whole series in this vein.  I guess I'm more of a non-fiction gal.  

What's still on the table-- a pie tin because our Hallows pumpkin has been hanging around for quite some time and I learned the hard way that I can't just blithely compost him.  Faux nutella to eventually go with the San Francisco sourdough starter I picked up (but am dubious I can cultivate at stably warm temperatures at present...  maybe in a carefully rigged crockpot...).

Day without MacGyver 2

When beets attack!  Found this grapefruit-sized beaut when clearing out 2 of the raised beds to top off with compost.  Definitely strafing towards a permacultureish-"spread and forget" approach to gardening these days.  Also found a half dozen almost grapefruit sized bug pupae of some sort in my 4 back breaking barrow loads of compost (I'm not exercising strenuously, Dr. Pham, I swear!).  I think they are what Mac and MaGyver call potato bugs aka "Jerusalem cricket" or stenopelmatus.  We threw into the compost whenever we dug them up last year.  Either that or radioactive cicadas.  

Turbo'ed my taxes.  MacG is letting me claim the entire mortgage interest, so I got a decent refund which I preemptively dumped into paying off more mortgage principle.  My stretch goal would be to get this mortgage into the 5 figures before I turn 30.

Last weekend, Sun Joe chipper shredder made pretty short work of a trumpet vine standing between us and an established lemon tree, so I dragged the tarp of his contributions into the chicken coop to deepen the bed a little bit.  

MaGyver and Ri were kind enough to swing by around noon which is when things really started getting interesting.  We loaded 2 dog crates into the Prius and headed up to Norco to shop for some heritage hens.  Ma got a very spunky Blue Andalusian, a Black Sex Link (sounds kinky), and a French Black Copper Maran (with hairy legs, of course).  She even subsidized a second BCM to be our Clyde 2.0.

2 has already proven herself a capable escape artist.  After breaking out of her a-frame holding pen, I had to follow her into the crawl space under the house and hustle her out through the basement past the house arrested Klee Kai's (all the while totally not exposing myself to dusty/pokey environments without my safety goggles, Dr. Pham!  >.<).  Blinky, true to her attack mechanic, immediately commenced pulling 2's feathers out.  Inky, I think out of BCM solidarity, would shield her a bit, but she was still getting whooped every couple of minutes.  So I shut the dog door (but not before Rho knocked a triumphant broccoli-grazing Blinky down a couple pegs), left the coop door open, and let them sort it out.  I came back at sunset to find the usual suspects roosting on their perches.  I'm not convinced 2 knows how to flail-flap yet, and eventually found her hunkered down in a sort of sheltered area by the foundation.  I was able to gradually herd her back into the coop.  She's still doing the adolescent bird thing of wandering around nervous-clucking, which attracted the liberated dogs' attention.  I caught Rho at dusk more than half way tunneled under the coop entrance and put him in another time out.  Hopefully tomorrow things will go more smoothly.  

Kai dislocated some tendons playing with Rho yesterday and spent the remainder of the day hopping on 3 feet and yodeling her plight to sympathetic vets.  I managed to sneak her anti-inflammatory meds into some peanut butter (surprising considering we gave her a PB and hydrogen peroxide cocktail not so long ago after she'd helped herself to a PB and rat poison cocktail).

Day without MacGyver 1

What's wrong with this picture?

If you said some version of, "OMG, I can actually see most of your kitchen table!"  "Wow, what an immaculate griddle you have on that 1910's Chicago stove,"  "Where are all of the tools?" "Flowers?!... how uncharacteristically romantic," or "dude, that looks like a lot of medications..."  Give yourself a cookie.

Sigh.  MacGyver has been sent to China for 13 days to fabricate software using scraps of aluminum foil, a shoe lace and a paperclip.

Fortunately, his Christmas [sic] present to me arrived before his departure.  It is that nifty copper thing in the foreground, also known as Dr. Alexander's Botanical Vasculum  p.s. its solar charger (which looks suspiciously like a spray painted decapitated lawn path light) allows its preserved moss terrarium to glow in the dark.  tres romantic vasculum-lit dinners of home brew, chips, and guac.

He was also able to suspend my parent's Christmas present, a skillet and matching deeper skillet whose powers combine make Dutch Oven (yes, I know, I too was more familiar with the *other* definition of Dutch Oven before reading Ferriss' 4 Hour Chef).  It is pictured in the background.  Also clutch for perfectly circular hangover crepes after aforementioned romantic dinners.  

Flowers?  OK, so by and large, I miss MacG.  This is why I was crazy enough to buy a house with him and continue to pretend to our friendly elderly neighbors that we are married and thus not living in sin (just dust and dog hair).  However, being a bit introverted and substantially codependent, I hazard that it would be healthy to revisit my roots once in a while and find my buzz even if it isn't a pre-existing mutual one.  On my commute to and from school, I used to trudge past this awesome flower shop in Beacon Hill.  One day, possibly influenced by a girly self-empowerment book or the ambiance of living with 3 estrogen-fueled single roommates, I bought myself a dozen roses.  They were orange which I've always gravitated to, possibly because I was presented with one in a prom corsage.  I started doing this semi-frequently on Tough Days.  My awesome landlord, Gerry even showed up on my birthday with a dozen for me when an aforementioned estrogen-filled roommate insisted I call him to get him to drive in and fix a light bulb.  Did I mention Gerry is awesome?  But I digress.  These were $7 at TJ's and worth every penny.  I've also been fantasizing about swapping out some of the heirloom (aka uber prickly and prudish) roses behind the chicken coop with an Osiria (pictured).  These are hard to find rootstock for, so this might be a multi-month project.  I got intrigued with the concept of "black" roses when a college dorm-mate received a dozen of them one fine Valentine's day (she was goth, not to be confused with the Susie in a fraught relationship with Mick Jagger).  

Pristine Griddle.  Yeah.  MacGyver reminds me to eat and does most of the cooking.  He's not much for multi-tasking, so there's usually a huge mess in his wake.  I learned how to clean as I cook because otherwise I would miss passing time in Home Ec (back when schools could afford such things).  I also learned that plastic cookie sheets should not go in the oven, but in a pinch, are more effective than bomb threats for evacuating the school.  I am down 5 lbs from normal and he's been gone less than 12 hours.  This could be because I took a Valium instead of dinner yesterday.  Or it could be because I ran Rho a casual 3.5 miles today (so as not to violate doctor's mandate not to exercise "strenuously.")  Or because I ate plantains and spinach for breakfast, a chai latte for "lunch," and 2 frozen taquitos and a glass of milk for dinner.  The world may never know.  By the way, yes, the stove works.  It is our only stove.  We cook on it every day.  It isn't for sale; every contractor we've hired has tried to buy it.  It is a pain in the butt to clean.

Meds.  There are three things going on here.
1.  I got sort of infatuated with Traditional Chinese Medicine/homeopathic remedies.  So I started taking Free and Easy Wanderer tea pills for anxiety.  Royal Jelly for an energy boost.  Korean Ginseng tea to replace coffee which I quit a couple weeks ago.  Couldn't tell you whether the supplements amped my octane, or the coffee detox, or the admission I was in a rut and needed to stretch my comfort zone.
2.  I got Lasik yesterday afternoon.  I was nervous.  It went awesome.  I could drive into my post-op the next day and now I cruise around in iconic Ray-Ban aviators and feel like a celeb.  MaGyver hypnotized me the night before, which isn't like "when I clap my hands, you'll cluck like a chicken."  It's more like the sort of positive affirmations sports psychologists and law of attraction devotees use.  This new lifestyle does seem to take a lot of eye drops to maintain, at least in the short-term.
3.  Kai (the 2.5 yr old "pet" Klee Kai) has a bad knee and Rho (the 1 yr old "stud" Klee Kai) likes to rough-house.  I came back from my 20x20 post-op victorious, only to find Kai hopping around on 3 paws again.  She's on anti-inflammatories for the next week which I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to solo administer.  Guess we'll take it a day at a time...

Bathroom update (last update until 100%)?

So when we left off:

Whats left until we have the coolest bathroom on the planet:

• Sink faucet arrives and is installed. -- Completed.

• Ceiling green board installed. --Completed
• Toilet mounted on floor with "WC" mounted on wall. -- Completed.
• Tiling on west wall finished --Completed.
• Grout finished.-- Completed.

• Electrical connected and lighting installed. --Completed

• False rafters installed with mushroom plugs pre-drilled (will be a post about this) -- Todo
•  Window fixed and re-installed. --Completed
• Slate slab cut and door jam installed (this will keep water from flowing into the bedroom should it splash by the door. --Todo

Some updates. Flapper valves do not work with WC style toilets! The siphon power in the down tube will pull the valve closed despite a good amount of force holding the chain open. To fix this I went back to the upside down U pipe model and glued a modified flapper valve to the bottom of it. The seal is still not perfect and after flushing the toilet can run, so I am going to add some guide rails to make sure it lands perfectly centered. I switched materials from gross rusty iron to pvc, so it has lost some weight, adding weights may also make for a better seal.

We added a heater duct. This was a complete pain in the ass. This comes down to planning and scope creep. If we had planned for a heater duct it would have been substantially easier as I ended up having to cut the back wall out from a closet. Add heating ducts prior to closing up the walls!!!

Re-installed a six degree of freedom mirror that was previously in the bathroom. Belle fixed it up quite well, I am really happy with the way the bathroom looks. Tons more pics in our public album.