I Learned it on NPR

The Boy laughs (at times) about my love for NPR's weekend shows. Car Talk, The Splendid Table, Wait Wait, This American Life, A Prairie Home Companion ... I could go on.

And what's the point of this  love letter to NPR? This is the point: You can learn stuff on NPR. Stuff that's useful.

Stuff like how to keep frozen fruit pies from becoming too liquidy when finally get around to baking them.

First, mix your fruit and sugar (and whatever extract/flavoring/etc that you need). Place the mixture in a strainer over a bowl and set aside for 30 minutes to an hour.

Heat the strained liquid over low heat in a saucepan to reduce to a syrup.

Load the fruit in your (in my case mini-) pie and pour the syrup over your fruit. Freeze.

Does it work? Yes - still juicy, but not watery and with a much more intense fruit flavor. YUM!!!

Sometimes You Can Do Everything Right...

We've trained. We've eaten right - gone to bed early, turned down party invitations.

We've done everything right. We're super-prepared for the marathon this coming Sunday. Except this is what our bathroom countertop looks like right now:

The Boy is sick. A throat tickle and headache last week have developed into an awful cough this week. Pray that he gets better - quickly.

{And on that note, I feel I should mention that Team Hope will be running our fundraising race in Fort Worth this February. Life has been far too busy to get our support letters pulled together in time for our run in San Antonio this week. Bummer.}

Anatomy of a Day: Or Why I Didn't Get Anything Done

4:30 am - up early because our upstairs a/c unit has broken and I can't stop thinking about it.

5:15 am - realize that I can't make coffee before leaving for work because The (poor) Niece is camping out in the library downstairs where it's cooler...right next to the kitchen.

5:45 am - make an ill-advised attempt to drive to Starbucks, sans coffee. Nearly take out the neighbor's trash can. Nearly.

6:15 am - drop The Boy at his office. Agree to call him when I uncover what time the repair crew will be heading to our house. Attempt to figure out who is going to serve as house sitter during the process. Give up and head to the office.

6:30 am - arrive at work. Stacks of papers and emails await after missing a day of work on Tuesday, waiting for the service technician to visit our house (and tell us that the a/c unit is broken beyond repair).

7:00 am - feel hopeful, having answered 5 emails and sorted through the stack of mail.

7:15 am - confirm with repair crew that they will call before heading to our house.

7:30 am - 9:30 am - crazy workload. Soon realize I have no idea what I have and have not accomplished.

10:00 am - meet to debrief results from conference earlier in the week. Type quick summary report to share with my team.

10:30 am - receive call from a/c repair crew. They're waiting at the house. Panic ensues as I simultaneously email my employers that I need to leave for a while, call The Boy to make a plan and head out the door.

10:45 am - meet The Boy at his office. He's won Hayley House babysitting duty.

11:00 am - arrive home, meet the work crew, sign more paperwork, head back to the office.

11:15 am - remember that I was supposed to bring treats for today's monthly staff meeting. Detour to the grocery store.

11:45 am-1:30 pm - emails, phone calls, weekly project lead research.

1:45 pm - start work on ROI (return on investment) analysis from conference. Can't find paperwork showing amount paid for registration, sponsorships, printing costs and the like. Realize it's in the stack of Things to File that haven't been filed since January.

2:00 pm - finally uncover the paperwork for the ROI, but now can't reach the keyboard because of all of the papers scattered. Decide to file.

2:00-2:30 pm - filing.

2:30 pm - discover last year's holiday gift list. Realize that it's already the end of August. Add "discuss 2010 holiday gifts and holiday card mail list" to agenda for next week's team call

2:45-3:15 pm - filing

3:15 pm - while retrieving filing supplies from the storeroom, notice that the company has changed printing vendors. Email new print vendor to say hi.

3:30 pm - while emailing, receive call asking for information about a current project. Research answer and return call.

4:00 pm - why did I need to file? Oh yeah...I was working on an ROI analysis. Back to the spreadsheet.

4:30 pm - The Boy calls. What time are you leaving? Me: I'm not sure. Maybe 15 minutes.

5:30 pm - power down computer, filing done but not the ROI.

6:00 pm - home to The Boy, The Niece, the furbabies and the a/c repair crew.

I Don't Know!

Things are hectic. Hectic, harried and stressful for both us at the Hayley house. So much so that The Boy and I got entangled in a ridiculous argument on the way home from work the other evening.

I'm not even sure how it started - a brief discussion about should we do this versus maybe we ought to do that disintegrated into a full-out bicker.

Finally, The Boy exploded: What are we fighting about?!?

My response? I.DON'T.KNOW!!!!

I think we'll have to blame it on the stress! Geesh.

Where Have You Been?

Ah, Floetrol....where have you been all my life? Mixing a tablespoon or two of you into latex paint makes brush strokes just disappear. Work is easy, painting is quick - sandpaper, a thing of the past.

Pick up a quart of the stuff for yourself at any big box hardware store. A quart sells for about $8.

You can buy a similarly wonderful paint conditioner for oil-based paint (Penetrol).

Note the tin of paint next to the Floetrol...isn't the color (dripping down the side) yummy? Nice, bright and fresh. Perfect to brighten up the inside of my display cabinet.

And if I change my mind, I'll just paint a fresh coat of a different color!

Going Downhill

Things are not going well for the Hayley Herb garden.

A reminder: here are our baby cilantro plants on May 10th:

Here are our cilantro plants nine days later:

What's going wrong? Too much sun? Too many thunderstorms? The curse of the red pot?

Thoughts, advice and good luck charms welcome in the comments.