Homemade Vinegar

How To Make Vinegar. 

Great for wine left on the counter too long. I can't tell you how many times I've pulled out a stopper from my wine and asked Matt 'did this turn to vinegar?', or took a sip only to pour out bottle because I just gave my body a mini-vinegar cleanse.

I knew it was easy, but it's nice to find a resource to tell me that yes, when your wine turns to vinegar, there are no other steps than to just wait.

I've had wine on the counter turn to vinegar a lot quicker than two weeks but that's probably a good time to wait, just to make sure and get the best flavor.

Directions: Pour the wine into a jar. Keep it partially covered with a lid or stopper, or cover it with cheesecloth and a rubber band to keep it in place. Leave the jar out in a warm place and let it sit there undisturbed for a couple of months. Check back now and then to see how it's going -- you'll be able to smell it when it's done. And, if you leave a little bit in the jar and top it off with more wine, you'll have vinegar again in about one week.

...or just leave it on your counter forever

Source

The Laziest Playing Ever

Can you tell it was nap time?

Grandma & Grandpa Divine

Grandma

Playing at the house and the park

The crab tree bloomed right before they all came down.  It was so pretty.

Dad and Lauren

We headed down to the park.  The school where we played is right on a little pond and has some walking trails

Charlie crashed and was just done.  I couldn't get him home fast enough to go to sleep.  Usually it's a total battle to leave the park, but that day, he happily went





Country Club Plaza

I've always wanted to take Lucy down to Hall's department store so when dad & Lucy got in, we dropped off Charlie at Lauren's for a nap and headed down there. We got lucky, the rain held off just long enough for us to get back to the van. We walked around the plaza.  We drove up and down Ward and stopped into Pryde's on the way home.  Not all the fountains were on yet, but we found a few

Lauren was pooped out

The fam comes down for a visit



Melinda and her girls came down Thursday night.  Dad & Lucy came Friday afternoon.



Playing the Wii



Elise reading good night moon to Charlie



The wii was a big hit

Charlie helps change the oil in the Saab

Right before I dragged his butt from under the elevated car...

I'm lucky Matt knows a lot about cars.  Saves us a bundle on maintenance.  You can tell by our driveway we work on the cars a lot.   I would cost close to $100 to get the oil in my Saab changed.  Saab has a special oil that goes in it.  I love my car, but everything that goes into a Saab is 'special'.  Good thing is that the 'special' oil doesn't have to be changed as often.  I also needed to rotate my tires.  I told Matt he needs to have me help so I can learn about it.  What did I learn?  That I HATE getting car oil/dirt on me and that I was NEVER meant to be a mechanic.  I do feel rather super-womanish for rotating my own tires though...

Charlie pretty much just stole the tools we were looking for.   When a was sitting cross legged on the ground getting my lug nuts out of my tires, he actually just came and sat in my lap, made it a little hard.  He just likes being part of the action.  Oh, Charlie

The Jewelry Box

This is, behind my wedding ring, my most prized possession. This is my jewelry box from my mother. It used to sit on her large dresser, the kind with a mirror on it that I could reach.

My dad was in the Navy from '61-'65 and he bought this in a market in Japan. He brought it back for his his sister Mary Alice who thought it was hideous. My mother ended up taking it.

I was obsessed with it when I was little. I would just sit and listen to the ting ting of the music box and watch the elegant lady on the rickshaw go up and down. My mother got a beautiful jewelry box not long before she passed away that was to be mine, but I let my sister have it if I could have this one. She had noooo problem with that.

For a long time, this was put away while I was in high school etc, and the music box had stop working. My dad took it, put a drop of oil in the wind and it immediately worked. I lost it, I couldn't believe he had fixed it. My dad, the hero. I cried when I heard that ting-a-ling song, it had been so long since I had heard it, and the lights even still worked. Speaking of the lights, I have no idea what I'm going to do when they burn out- they are light bulbs from Vietnam 50 some odd years ago. I will be sad if I can't replace them.

Charlie has already gotten the spark. I open the box for him and he just sits there mesmerized, just like I was when I was little. It is chipping horribly, the veneer on the little feet are completely gone. I have to handle it very gingerly. Any time it is moved, it is moved in my lap. So, for when it does finally stop working, I've documented the ting tong little song for all time here for my enjoyment. I'm sure no one else cares to watch a music box. But for when Charlie is older and looks back at that jewelry box, he'll know what it used to sound like and what the lights looked like and how much it meant to me. (And even if I'm dead, he'll know he better not toss it!)

I'm going to give this to my future daughter-in-law some day and she's going be like, 'greeeeat...thanks. Where can I hide this ugly thing?'





You can see where it's chiping on the top and the bare feet

I love the pink fabric inside and the little tassle pulls on the middle box

The back is mirrors, hence you can see the camera. You can see the yellowy pink silk flowers and the lady with her umbrella. It's so kitschy it's fabulous

Homemade Greenhouse

This great picture taken through the screen in Charlie's window.  He's so hard to catch in action because he's not a fan of being in tons of pictures

sides

Work Space- what a mess!

At first we had it on the patio, but it took up a lot of room and was a bit of an eye sore

Dad's helper (and by helper, I mean not a very big help)

We have this weird enclosure right off the back of our house.  I think the former - former owners used it for pets, but it enclosed with a wood fence and full of pea gravel.  It's handy for canoe storage etc, but pretty much just is wasted space.  So Matt UN-assembled it and moved it into the 'area'.  I have to think of a name.  Waste of space? 

Here is a better picture of the 'waste of space'

He used thick plastic sheeting that machines at my work are shipped in and mostly wood scraps.  He also used a couple of plexiglass panels that his dad had.  He put them on hinges like skylights so he can open them and cool the greenhouse down if needed.  He also used a sheet of the plexi for the door and bought a good handle.  That was probably his biggest out-of-pocket expenditure, it was about $10, but it is very important that the door shut well.  He works at a roofing supply shop so, he put it on top of sheeting that I think goes under shingles.  Inside the green house he put down pea gravel and laid down slate shingle samples for the flooring.  He put two big 5 gallon buckets of water in the corners for humidity.  That thing along the top is more roofing supplies to keep water out of the seam right there.  It's a great greenhouse, plus storage for all of his gardening supplies.