Unexpectedly sweet

Friday, 9:34 pm

By Kate

Jan

04

2008

So, my friend called me late this afternoon and said she thought it was time to go out and have margaritas to celebrate the end of a very long week. She had the week from hell at work, her 21 year old son moved back in with her today, and she is facing surgery on Monday. Time to just forget all the woes of the world. The lad was also invited, she said.

I mentioned it to the lad. He was somewhat ambivalent about going out with two middle aged ladies intent on sucking down margaritas. And, besides, Becca was coming over.

Then he decided that maybe he and Becca would come along with us. But that didn’t work out. Becca had to go babysit for her cousin this evening. She said she’d be back over later tonight. So, the lad decided he’d go with us. Better than staying home and foraging.

We went to Applebee’s, mainly for their Perfect Margaritas. The food was incidental, but we rose to the occasion. Steak all around.

The lad was amused by our conversation. Even more amused when we struck up conversation with the two women seated across the aisle from us. They’d just come off of a shopping trip and had all their loot on the floor surrounding their booth. We oohed and ahhed over the sweetest little lambie sets...lambswool pillows, lamb-faced sleep masks, booties, and lotion. The lad thought he’d die of amusement.

He was joined in his thinking that he would die of amusement by a middle-aged fellow and small son sitting in a booth behind the two ladies. He and the lad made frequent eye contact and rolled their eyes and even laughed out loud. We rolled our eyes and laughed out loud, saying...how typically male. Not in a serious way, mind you. But they amused us as much as we amused them.

Then the lad discovered that two of the waiters were old high school chums. One was the cross country coach’s son. The young man didn’t recognize the lad—he has changed that much. The lad asked our waitress if the young man was so-and-so. She said, “Yes, he is. Can I tell him your name?” The lad told her his nickname and she went off to deliver the message.

A couple of seconds later he came over and hugged the lad, saying, “Oh my God, I didn’t recognize you. You’ve changed so much! You look just like your dad now!!!” Well, what a way to make a fella feel thrilled to death. ‘Cuz, by anyone’s estimation, the Dad is a really good looking guy. Then another girl came over and we learned that she was also a former classmate who had changed dramatically. Simply beautiful. Stunning, even. More hugs and exclamations all around. The people around us thought this was just all quite marvelous.

We had a happenin’ corner going on this evening. Applebee’s hasn’t had that much fun in a while, I’ll bet.

So, now the lad knows what two middle aged ladies talk about when they go out on the town. He decided that we’re rather a lot of fun. He said he though it would be a blast if we’d take him out on his 21st birthday. And we decided that was a really nice idea. Only 8 months to go.

Anyway. We’re back home and Becca has returned. She felt as if she had missed out on something special. I wish she could have gone along. Oh well.

Sometimes, the simplest things turn out to be so much fun. We had such a delightful evening.

90 Percent Project - Weeks 29, 30, and 31

Friday, 3:46 pm

By Kate

Jan

04

2008

Now that the dust has settled from the holidays, it is time to catch up my weekly values for Weeks 29, 30, and 31 of the 90 Percent Project. Week 29 ran from December 14-20, Week 30—December 21-27, and Week 31—December 28-January 3. Meter readings taken in the mornings at roughly the same time each day.

Electricity used
Week 29: 16 kWh
Week 30: 46 kWh
Week 31: 13 kWh

Week 30 reflects a lot of carelessness. In one day, I used more than half the weekly total by forgetting to turn off the outside Christmas lights and the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve day through Christmas night. It added up incredibly fast. This past week (week 31) reflected normal daily life without holiday lights burning at all. The lad was home for 3 days out of the week and we still managed to hold the line. I think this coming week may be a bit more of a challenge (lots of laundry, dishwasher used once so far, and marathon Guitar Hero tournaments on the large television and Playstation2), but I’m very pleased with how Week 31 turned out.

The lad and I talked about it a bit last night. I don’t object to his friends coming over to play Guitar Hero. And I don’t mind that they want to watch movies. But, perhaps he could help offset some of that use by entertaining himself with his laptop more often. It uses next to no electricity and is perfectly good for watching DVDs when he is home alone. He agreed, so we’ll see how it plays out this week.

_________________

Gasoline purchased
Week 29: 0 gallons
Week 30: 4.934 gallons (for 2 people)
Week 31: 4.113 gallons (for 2 people)

_________________

Water
Week 29: 97.253 gallons (for 1 person)
Week 30: 261.835 gallons (for 2 people)
Week 31: 142.139 gallons (for 2 people)

_________________

Natural Gas
Week 29: ?
Week 30: ?
Week 31: ?

The meter is still covered with ice and snow. I’m not that inclined to want to chop my way to it since I know that it’s still going to say 3 CCF. Slightly more with the lad home, though he’s been a really good sport about short and cooler showers than he’d like. Soon enough the monthly bill will tell the tale. I have racked my brain trying to figure out a way to get usage lower, but, without shutting the hot water heater off altogether, it’s not gonna happen. I’ve shut off as many pilot lights as I can. When spring arrives and the town water warms up, I presume that it’ll take much less energy to heat the water. Until then, I’m stuck.

__________________

Trash
Week 29: 5.6 lbs (for 1 person)
Week 30: 8.2 lbs (for 2 people)
Week 31: 5.3 lbs (for 2 people)

Our Christmas clean-up trash was minimal this year. That’s reflected in Week 30. Most of what we gave each other came without packaging...or very little. And we mostly used re-useable gift bags, though we also used some newspaper with colored string. The newspaper was recycled back into the pile for starting fires in the wood stove. The string is always useful for something else over the course of the year. Not bad at all.

_________________

Consumer Goods
Week 29: $60.00 - Oreck Manual Floor sweeper (the best $60 I’ve ever spent!)
Week 30: ?
Week 31: $0

In all of the hustle and bustle, I simply forgot to keep track of spending during Week 30. I’m going to guess that it was in the neighborhood of $200. That’s what I can piece together going through my checking account’s transactions. Much of it was for gifts and I’m just not sure what the rest was for. Actually some might have been for food, but I have no idea what the break-down was. I most definitely was not paying attention.

_________________

Food
We are still eating a surprisingly large percentage of locally grown produce (root cellared, I presume) and locally manufactured food. At this time of year, of course, salad greens are from far away. I’ve compromised a little bit, at least, by incorporating organic baby spinach that is packaged just a few miles from here and a percentage of the proceeds go toward some really fine local charitable concerns. The spinach itself is grown in California, but at least the company that packages it does try to mitigate some of that damage through good works that help a lot of local kids. Their packaging is also minimal and recyclable. We haven’t had any other salad greens lately. Otherwise, still drinking local pasteurized 1% milk (the taste is rich and wonderful compared to regular grocery store milk) and local eggs and local meat (chicken and pork) and local cheeses and freshly made cottage industry breads, on occasion. I haven’t bought a commercially produced loaf of bread in weeks. I’ve also included local honey into the mix for winter. It’s a real treat that I’ve ignored for far too long. Our food is not as varied as in the summer, but we certainly aren’t suffering from lack of variety. The edges are rounded out by bulk items such as pasta—and grains that are at least regional, if not local. I am very pleased to say that I haven’t purchased a box of cereal in months. That’s a milestone in this household. The lad is a cereal addict, but finds oatmeal mixed with interesting things and bulk granola offered through the natural foods grocery to be more than adequate substitutes.