Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

The business of sealing my jars with our very own FoodSaver™ Vacuum Sealer that is; the one we’ve had for a few years now.

It is the Model FM5480, and is still at the top of the FoodSaver™ line of sealers.

Ivan asked me if I knew where the manual for the VS was, but I have no idea. He went online, bless him, and found the manual for it, read it through, and discovered that the handheld portion of the sealer comes apart to be used with the older sealers, for jars, and a marinated container that came with the VS when we bought it.

I’ve never used that portion of the VS because I didn’t know how. Now I do, and can’t wait to get started.

Here’s what I’m talking about.

So, I guess, in the coming weeks, I will be cleaning out the cupboards, and going through with the whole keep, or compost program, just as I said I would.

Until next time, stay safe.

Finally.

The EverJar finally made it to the apartment. It seems like it has taken a month but probably not.

It’s taken 12 weeks. I found, on my original order, that it was dated July 14th.

As you can see, I got a confirmation of my order, saying that it was “en route” 2 days later.

Hoho, not so.

Probably for the best. I wasn’t in any shape, mentally, to do what needs to be done now that it’s here. Now, however, I’m in that proper mental framework, and am ready to

Take everything out of the kitchen cabinets, clean the shelves, and check to see what’s still usable, and what’s compost, then seal the jars for better preservation.

I’ll take you with me as I go, no worries.

Until next time, stay safe.

Post script: I don’t need to worry about cleaning everything in the cupboard for now; IT DOESNT WORK!!! I have sent a message to the company and am waiting for instructions how to return it.

I don’t know if you remember my amazingly comfortable, efficient, ergonomically fitted, fairly expensive electric water kettle that I killed after only about 8 months use?

I had accidentally gotten water on the underside of the kettle, i think it’s called the thermostat, and hadn’t gotten it dry enough but set it on the warming plate just the same. It died an ignominious death.

It’s working again. I had it in the living room, in a basket, ready to throw out, or give away. Then, while trolling an article on the internet about resetting your washing machine by blah blah blahing, I went out to the LR, got the kettle, with it’s warming plate, plugged it in, filled it with water, and pushed the “start” button.

On it came, with a momentary notice that it was empty, which it wasn’t, but then, very slowly, started heating the water. I decided, very quickly, that if it was going to work, I might as well clean the inside whist it decided if it was going to work, or not.

I cleaned, and rinsed out the kettle with soap and water, filled it with clean water, and vinegar, and put it back on the heating element. Tada! It worked, even gave off the small 3 beeps indicating it was up to temperature! Now our gas bill won’t be too high. Gas is pretty expensive in our department as I use so much when doing the dishes. Win, win. The 2 birds with 1 stone theory.

After a few minutes, it’s up to 163º F, on its way to 212º. What an amazing fete. I’m not going to say too much until I’ve heated water a few times. I’ll let you know.

Until next time, stay safe. Please.

Does it bother you that a billionaire villain named George Soros, who is banned from almost every country in the world except the US, just bought over 200 radio stations in the US?

This is GS, and this is just the latest of what he’s done to the US.

He’s donated over $60M dollars to the Democrat campaign. he owns the Democrat party, and has for quite some time.

If you still don’t know who this person is, please, don’t let me influence you about his horrible taking over of the US government, do the research yourself. Do a deep dive into who he is, and what he’s doing to the Constitutional Republic of the wonderful United States of America.

But please, I beg you, watch the more reliable, ethical, honest channels on YouTube; you know the ones. See what is really known about him. He is destroying the country.

Until next time, stay safe. Educate yourselves. Please.

We are going to be voting with absentee ballots for this upcoming election.

We missed the opportunity to do so 4 years ago because it wasn’t advertised so much as it has been lately. We have a couple of websites where we can go to register to vote, a ballot will be sent to our email addresses when the time gets a bit closer, I’m told, and we’ll be able to either print it out, and return it to the Embassy, or fill it out, and return it online. Votersabroad.org is the website I used to get us started.

We are finding it hard to wait. Now that we’re registered as living outside the US, we only have to reregister if anything in our status changes.

How exciting. We don’t plan to have anything to do with voting for anything except Presidential elections, as the State, and Local elections don’t pertain to us living here. It would be silly to interfere with what goes on at that level as we no longer know those people running for election.

I’ll let you know when we finally get our ballots, and how we returned them.

Until then, stay safe.

Post script: please, get out, and vote as if your life depends on it because it does.

Fight, fight, fight.

Again.

I’ve decided to come back for a bit. Hope you don’t mind.

I took a month off because my “self” needed to regroup, regenerate, pause, take a breath, recharge.

I’ve done that. I’m feeling quite a bit more the thing again, though I don’t know if I’ll ever be how I was before my CoVid episode. That was a bit of a game changer for me.

I’m not going to wait for the new year for a resolution; I’m going to start Soon. Well, hopefully sooner than later anyway.

I’m going to get back outside, to the wonderful park across the street, and start walking again.

I have been thinking quite a lot about this recently, and then we got a notice from the Association that they’re having a meeting on the 6th of October to discuss the increase of crime in our community, how it affects us, and what we can do to prevent any harm to ourselves.

Great. Just great.

I guess walking in the park will be on hold for a bit.

I’ll start exercising again, and try to regain a bit of muscle lost since “the episode”.

I’m going back to my posting schedule of at least Mondays, and Fridays, though I may take up Wednesdays as well. I’ll leave you guessing for now.

Until next time, stay safe.

I’m going to take some time off, a couple/few weeks, for a bit of r&r.

I’ll start posting again in September some time. Until then…

Stay happy, healthy, and safe. WASH, WASH, WASH, cover, and protect yourselves.

For breakfast.

Actually, to be more precise, it was curried shrimp.

Ivan was making us “breakfast” Saturday, grabbed the bag of frozen shrimp from the freezer, put it in a saucepan, added butter, and curry powder, put a lid on the pan for about 5 minutes, and we had breakfast. I made a cocktail sauce with ketchup, and prepared horseradish sauce, a touch of gochujang for a little bit more heat, and boom. Breakfast was served.

I didn’t care for the gochujang, would have preferred more horseradish, but, as I didn’t have to “cook”, it was great.

Until next we meet, stay happy, healthy, and safe. WASH, WASH, WASH, cover, and protect yourselves.

But they’re gone.

Most of them anyway.

What am I talking about? Our annual attack by a hundred fruit flies.

It takes them about 48 hours to set up their camp, they hunker down, and commence procreating. I have no idea, nor do I care to know, how fast this takes place, all I know is that it makes us both crazy for another 48 – 72 hours.

Last year, I discovered Off™, the spray we used as kids to keep bugs away. Down here it’s our only option, that I can find, to kill the buggers.

I had enough left from last year’s can to start the destruction of their troops, but had to order 2 more containers; one to finish the job, and the 2nd for back up.

All this made me reevaluate how we process our organic waste in the kitchen. I made a significant change.

When we first moved into the apartment I bought 2 containers that hang on the cupboard doors, and were lined with compostable bags. We put the bags into a 5 gallon bucket, and took the bucket downstairs to be emptied into the large garbage bin every week, sometimes twice a week.

It only takes 1, or probably 2, to find that Nirvana, and start the whole troop formation anew.

Yesterday, I emptied a coffee can of decaf grounds into a large zip closing bag, and put a small decomposable bag inside it, and closed the lid.

Duh!

Not sure why it took me 4 years to come up with that one. But I did, and that should take care of the fly problem. We’ll see.

As an aside, we are both back to ourselves, getting stronger every day. Thanks for your prayers, and concern.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. WASH, WASH, WASH, cover, and protect yourselves.

We really enjoy having a fresh cup of coffee in the morning.

Do you?

We’ve been drinking instant coffee for months as I’m lazy, or sick, and didn’t feel like grinding beans every night, filling the water reservoir, cleaning the dirty pot; you probably know the drill.

Now, we’re both tired of instant coffee morning after morning. So, the other day, whilst battling the beetle situation, I resurrected the Braun coffee maker that I bought a few years ago, and started making fresh brew again.

While I was at it, I rearranged the countertop, and shuffled things around to accommodate the coffee maker, and get a bit more organized. (yes, I’m feeling much better).

Let me show you. (Of course I have photos of it. Duh!)

It always amazes me how much work I can get done in such a small space. I’ve given serious consideration to buying, or making a small, shorter island, but there’s so little space to move around in I don;t really think it would work. And when we’re both in there, forget about it.

Anyway, not much else to impart today. So, until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. WASH, WASH, WASH, and protect yourselves.