Busy times

Well, I'm livng alone now in my big house, and I've been busy, busy, busy.

First, there's the cleaning. It's not a big deal really, just time consuming. I spent the weekend sweeping, vaccuuming, mopping, wiping, and dusting, and I'm still not done. In my previous incarnation as a single man I discovered that 30 minutes of intense cleaning activity every day was sufficient to keep the house clean. I lived in a much smaller townhouse then, however, and I'm not really sure it'll be enough to keep this house clean. A good base cleaning can't help but make things easier.

I wish Icould tell you about all the clever, homemade cleaning solutions I've come up with, but there hasn't been any of that. Unlike many divorces, this one didn't start out with me in an empty house, and my ex left pretty much everything that was already open, so I'm using up what she left before I start experimenting with homemade cleaners.

Food

When I haven't been cleaning, I've mostly been cooking. I did a marathon grocery shopping trip to stock my pantry, and have been putting those gorceries to good use. I roasted a chicken that was absolutely delicious. I made a great meal of Polish Kielbasa, cabbage, onions, and potatoes, a noodle and chicken stir fry with left overs from the roast chicken (and still have enough left for a couple more meals), a Corned beef brisket, and a yummy spinach and mushroom curry, all cooked from scratch. I'll be posting recipes soon.

"Free Time"

I've been busy enough that there hasn't been a whole lot, but when I've had some, I started knitting a scarf. Knitting isn't the most manly of past times, but it is productive and fulfilling. Sometimes it's downright frustrating, such as when my work popped off the needle and I essentially had to start over. Maybe an expert knitter could have salvage things, but I am by no means an expert knitter.

I also started incorporating regular guitar practice into my daily routine. Only 20 minutes a day right now, as I need to get my fingers back into shape. No beautiful music yet, just 20 minutes of scales and chord change drills to build up some stamina. Anyone who hasn't attempted to learn guitar has no idea the amount of conditioning needed in one's fingertips, and finger muscles.

Making the quest for finger conditioning that much more difficult, I gouged the tip of my right thumb adjusting the fence on my table saw. I have a half-built bookshelf that I could really use right now, and only ten minutes into working on it, I started shedding blood.

Coming soon

These post will be more organized and actually contain some useful information. There should also be more of them. I plan to start posting my recipes, photos of my projects, tutorials or links to tutorials on what I'm up to, and to turn this blog into a source of useful information.

Until then, may God bless you with fair winds and following seas....