Quiet time

Today was rather quiet.  After dropping my daughter off at school, I finished staightening the kitchen and the breakfast nook.  The kitchen just needed the pile of stuff boxed up, and the nook just needed a few things put away. I loaded the car and took the first load to goodwill today.  A box of extra kitchen utensils, a bag of bags, and some miscellaneous toys. I reordered where things were at in a number of the drawers, putting things closer to where I need them.  Stirring spoons next to the stove, hot pads near the oven, and batteries in the desk.  I'll still move some things around, but things are mostly where I want them.  I didn't get to the pantry, since that is something that will involve removing just about everything and putting it back in a coherent fashion.

I did a couple small hacks on some of our appliances today.  The clothes washer is a front loader, and sometimes if you leave the door closed it gets that musty smell.  Leaving the door open cures that, but it also sticks out in the entryway.  I rigged up a hook to hold it mostly closed, allowing it to dry out before getting musty, but not swing itself open.  

The dishwasher was another annoyance.  If you've ever looked at how a dishwasher is hooked to the cabinets, it usually is a couple of little metal clips that are haphazardly connected to the dishwasher and then screwed into the woodwork.  These clips bend every time you open the dishwasher, so that after a while the clip breaks and the entire thing falls out of the hole, annoying all until you either reaffix it into its hole, or give up and just deal with it.  Well, it hit the annoying part today for me.  After loading the dishwasher, and having it tip out repeatedly, I looked at how it was situated in there.  I found that the cabinet had a quarter inch lip on the sides.  The dishwasher itself had a metal flange that was almost an inch back from this lip.  I conjectured whether dropping something in there, such as a 1x2, would keep the dishwasher from tipping forward.  The flange on the washer would push against the board, and the board against the cabinet lip, and nothing would move.  After a quick test with a couple of pencils, I made a trip to Home Depot and got the requisite piece of wood.  A few moments with a tape measure and a hand saw got me a board that, when carefully maneuvered into the space twixt the lip and the flange, prevented things from tipping forward.

My wife is off to a conference, so just the two of us this weekend.  She'll be back Saturday, about the same time as I get done down at the faire site. Saturday is orientation day for the Scarborough performing company.  I'll be interviewing musicians, collaborating with the dance director, and trying to keep my daughter from being too disruptive.  She gets by with a lot of stuff - she's cute.

Tonight's simple dinner is baked potatoes and brisket.  The brisket and barbeque beans were already prepare in the freezer, so heat and eat.  The potatoes were covered in olive oil and sprinkled liberally with kosher salt, and tossed in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour.  I used a toaster oven since the large oven is overkill.  I used to microwave them, but they were never quite as tasty as oven roasting.  You can toss in a couple of extra potatoes at the same time.  There's a lot of stuff you can do with a cold baked potato.