- I made cinnamon apple muffins yesterday, despite learning during the flour measuring portion of the baking that a) my flour was BREAD flour and b) I had already filled my Tupperware flour container with said flour, except that it hadn’t been empty, so the new bread flour is now mixed with an unknown amount of old all-purpose flour.
- Blogger continues to be super weird. Some Blogger blogs allow me to make comments as per usual. Other Blogger blogs only work if I open an “incognito” window and comment there. A small number of Blogger blogs don’t let me comment at ALL. Why. What the hell.
- A person I deal with regularly assured me more than a year ago that they didn’t have a specific type of equipment we needed to work together. Not only that, but they were unable, for various unsolvable reasons, to procure the equipment. We have – Tim Gunn voice – made it work, but our workaround, which always had limitations, is growing increasingly cumbersome. Last week, in a fit of irritation, I reached out to this person’s superior to ask for a resolution. Turns out, the equipment was available ALL ALONG. I am… so annoyed.
- Our choices of online retailers continue to drive me bonkers. I placed an order for Halloween stuff, chose the arrival date that supposedly means fewer boxes, and then watched as everything arrived separately. Wait – that’s not entirely true; the tube of black lipstick was stuck in with one of the items. But what’s annoying me more than that is that the delivery people seem to delight in leaving the boxes in the worst possible place. A few weeks ago, “the worst possible place” was on the edge of the stoop furthest away from the house, when it was actively raining and they would have had to move it six inches at most for it to be under the overhang. But yesterday, they left a box on our driveway, smack in the center of the closed garage door, in the perfect spot for my husband to run over it on his way to work. Thank goodness I checked my email and saw the notification that said “Delivered 1 Item: Pet Supplies” because it’s not like anyone ever rings the bell anymore. I was able to swoop out and scoop it up before my husband unknowingly destroyed it.
- We have a fruit fly infestation. In the past, an aging banana or a pot of cat grass that had been around too long might attract a handful of fruit flies. But it seems like there are dozens of them, flitting around my house. I have eliminated all fruit, garbage, and plants with the potential to harbor them. I have scrubbed. I have sprayed. I have vacuumed. They persist!
- Related: My husband stopped on the way home to buy a Zevo, which is apparently something he and my daughter know about and I do not. We set it up and were gratified to see that two fruit flies immolated themselves upon the sticky tape almost immediately. The remaining fruit flies must be smarter than they look because the rest of them avoided the Zevo. I now have a dish of apple cider vinegar and soap sitting out next to the Zevo. So far, the fruit flies seem happy to congregate around the rim of the dish without taking a dip.
- We are currently having work done on the exterior of our house (yay!) and it makes me feel trapped in the house (boo).
- The book I am currently listening to is REALLY GOOD and engrossing and creepy… but it’s also really upsetting because it’s about bullying and murder and being a teenage girl. But it’s SO GOOD I can’t stop listening.
- Carla asked me to take her to the dollar store yesterday after school to get nail glue and Pokemon cards and they are alllllllllll decked out for Christmas. It is still October. I CANNOT DEAL.
You know who else who has some serious grievances? Lenny.
He is, shall we say, not loving the bat costume (aka Pet Supplies) that Carla ordered for him.
What’s grumping you out this week?
Blogger will continue to be weird and difficult, I fear. I am positive it is NOT on the list of Things to Be Fixed over at Google, in fact, I think they have even forgot about the product completely. I need to find a different platform one of these days.
Delivery issues – oh my God. I am so over it, the hype, the promises, the LIES.
The fruit fly issue. We had that going on over here too. One, they can lay eggs in the soil of your plants. If you suspect they might be doing that, remove a good inch or so from the plants; toss it and add new soil. Other than that, all you can really do is the soap/vinegar/sugar/water bath on repeat. I discovered that if some of their comrades have already drowned, they seem to know that and won’t jump in. Toss and repeat until you’ve captured them all.
Noooooooooo I knew they were attracted to plants, but they could be laying eggs in the soil?!?! ARGH!!! Why, fruit flies, WHY????
Well, it COULD be a source; but unless those indoor plants have been outside it’s not likely. If you don’t notice them hanging around the plants, odds are good they aren’t the culprit.
Fingers crossed, Gigi!
Oh, Lenny looks like an avenging angel ready to swoop down and deliver divine justice to evildoers. Such a glorious cat!
I did a sams club order and selected the later delivery date. And made sure i had bought enough to get free shipping. 6 items arrived in 4 packages over 3 days. Im trying to be efficient and they do whatever!
Sorry about the fruit flies- they’re such a nuisance.
Why do they offer the “fewer packages” option if they are just going to ignore it???
Fruit flies. SUCH A NUISANCE. When I do a dish of vinegar with a bit of soap, I always cover the top with saran wrap and poke little holes in it. It usually takes a day or two for them to be dealt with, but it does seem to work eventually?
We store all our compost in the freezer before we take it outside to the bin and I swear that reduces our issues with fruit flies 10-fold.
There are so many little “paper cut” type annoyances in life and sometimes it just starts adding up to feel so overwhelming. HUGS!
Lenny in that costume is—without a doubt—the most adorable thing I’ve seen on the internet so far today 🙂
That is how I learned to do the fruit fly trap, too, Elisabeth! I did that the other day and the fruit flies all landed on top of the saran wrap and hung out there. They are TOO SMART.
The last time we had a really persistent fruit-fly situation, it turned out they were LIVING IN THE SINK DRAINS. Regular hand-washing isn’t enough water/soap to bother them. If I remember correctly, we did bleach followed by boiling water.
Okay, this is horrifying and also maybe the same as my current situation? They seem to be especially concentrated near the kitchen sink. I will try the bleach and boiling water method immediately.
I was about to make a similar comments. We’ve had them in the sink drain, too.
Ha ha! Oh really, Lenny is not enjoying his costume! What a surprise! That’s a good picture of him though.
I know they’re not entirely interchangeable, but I’m curious to know how the bread flour affected your muffin recipe. I’m imagining they still came out well? Can you tell a difference?
Egads… that book sounds dark. I read the blurb and yikes. I can see how it would be compelling though!
Well, the muffins were quite sturdy. Not soft and squishy like I prefer. I mean, they weren’t STODGY, but they were denser than I like a muffin to be. Or a bread, for that matter.
IT WAS SUCH A GOOD BOOK JENNY. I could not put it down.
I have those plug-in blue light fruit fly traps, and they are AWESOME. I have like 3 around the kitchen and NO FRUIT FLIES. Also! I am indiscriminate in my flour use, and it really is all fine and bakes the same **shrug**
What am I doing wrong, Sarah?!?! They are not catching anything!
I’m never quite sure which blogs are Blogger but I have noticed more requests for me to log-in. If I’m not on my laptop (which remembers my logins), I’m sunk. I would be frustrated by ALL those things! Having one or two to deal with is stressful enough–but that many at the same time, BOO!
Why does Blogger actively make commenting more difficult?! I don’t get it.
Oh man. The fruit flies. Those infestations are the worst. I’m chuckling at how you seem to have a breed of smart fruit flies. Good luck.
Um, we checked Kay’s backpack on Sunday and found a LOT of stuff that she should not have. Clothes that belong to college age sisters – clothes that she is not allowed to wear to school. But she figured she could wear it and take it off before she came home. Mini’s lipgloss taken from her bathroom. We discovered she’s ridden her bike to Walmart and bought stuff there. All that to say, we have been down this path and it is exhausting that she is still at it.
Mini was not the best version of herself yesterday and she complained that she could not make a sandwich to take to work because we were out of cheese slices. Hey- guess who needs to start making a grocery run one time a week? Goodness.
Oh geez, the kid stuff is So Hard.
Lenny in a bat costume!!!
I can’t even think now! I have been charmed by his cuteness! What were we talking about? Oh yes, grumbles. I tell you, computers are going to be the end of me. Blogger comments are weird. Today my WordPress site had a fatal error, but thankfully a Happiness Engineer solved the issue. So it wasn’t fatal after all. Someone doing some work on the ranch needed directions and asked my husband to “drop him a pin.” We both had no idea how to do such a thing. Sigh. Luckily, someone younger than us knew what to do.
Oh NO! A fatal error?!?! I am so glad your happiness engineer was able to intervene!
I only just learned “how” to drop a pin, and I say “how” because I somehow managed to mangle it recently when I dropped a pin for my parents, sending them to somewhere near me but not at my location. How in the world…?