For Annie B., who asked a week ago about a side dish in a photo, those are vegetables are just a combination of orange and white sweet potatoes. I'd never heard of white sweet potatoes until a friend who started a Whole 30 told me about them. They're a little more expensive than the orange variety, but they look like regular potatoes. Although they don't taste like them at all. For my friend, they were a little more husband-friendly. Heh.
At any rate, I baked one of each ahead of time. I diced them while the bacon was frying and then dumped them in the skillet, sprinkled them with freshly ground pepper and sea salt and let 'em cook. That dinner was a two-skillet affair. Good thing I save bacon grease. I could have added chopped onions to the potatoes, but I was too lazy to chop an onion that evening. It's a much better side dish with the onions, though.
For Jen, well it has been inconvenient – at times – to have the laundry room in the garage. The upside is that laundry always gets removed from the dryer AND folded. I'm not sure why it doesn't sit in the dryer all day as it has when I've had an in-house laundry room, but there you go. It just doesn't. I am always aware that clean clothes are waiting to be tended to, and I tend to them. I was briefly grateful for the garage setting when the water pipe froze and burst, but quickly realized that probably wouldn't have happened had the washer been in the house. HOWEVER, it turned out to be a good thing, because the plumber cleaned these little screens that trap sediment in the lines going into the washer and the machine works better than ever. (The reason the laundry is in the garage is because we couldn't find a replacement unit that fit in the space where one used to be in the house. They just don't make stacking units that small. Or they didn't when we needed them.)
For Beth: Thank you so much for noticing and commenting on that photo. You always make me think when I read your posts. And you made me think with your comment, as well. And my head doesn't even hurt from all that thinking! Seriously, though, I think both of my readers would do well to pop over and visit your blog.
For my ginger-haired blog buddy, thanks for affirming my decision to release the elliptical. Yesterday was the tipping point. It was soooo cold, and I wanted to get a workout in, and I just bundled up and headed out. It took a couple miles before I was warm enough to unzip my jacket, but I did, eventually, get just that warm. Which was pretty amazing, considering the wind and the temperature. I still (probably) won't walk when it's in the teens or when it's really icy, but yesterday proved to me that I really can handle a fairly cold outdoor walk.
I've been trying to walk an additional mile or two (above my 4.1-mile-per-day-goal-for-2014) to make up for the missed days last month. So far in February I've "banked" six miles.
And for Denise. I'm so very happy you're back to commenting regularly again. I thought about your perception of the multilingual America the Beautiful Coke commercial and certainly can see where the singalong factor might make it less appealing. Still, though, it must have struck a chord for those who don't speak English as their first language. Also, thanks for the heat-tape idea for those water pipes. The drywall had to be removed to make the repairs, and won't be replaced for a couple weeks. I'll be looking for heat tape in the meantime. Hopefully we won't ever have this problem again. Or at least for another 10 years.
OKAY. I think I've covered what needs to be covered. Let me know if I missed anything and:
KEEP THOSE COMMENTS COMING!
That is all.
