From the ever-entertaining, and business-tripping-in-Florida Susan over at BtC

While the crowds of macho men in shorts swarming everywhere were entertaining at first, after a day or two it becomes apparent that they are the international ambassadors from jackassland.

Ha! Now that’s a great description to steal. “So pleased to meet you and you would be the ambassador from….?” Thanks Susan.

Getting back to what makes people happy…. I am trimming up the 320 blocks. Tedious? Maybe. Boring? Better not be too boring or there’s room to lop off fingers. Rewarding? Yes.

Meanwhile, I successfully installed my Airport Extreme Card. It’s WAY cool. I thought the instructions in the Powerbook’s manual were very helpful. And it works GREAT. I was sending emails from work just sitting in the breakroom. Not something I’ll use a lot but it’s nice to have.

I brought lentil soup to work a la crockpot. That made my co-workers happy and that makes me happy too. There’s just nothing like cheap food that’s excellent for you and easy to make.

Let’s review what I made this weekend, triggered in part by my new dutch oven: pot roast, beef bbq (oh yeah), lentil soup, chicken fricassee, chicken soup (oh yeah, baby!) and nicely done chicken to go in the chicken soup.

Don’t you hate it when the meat for the soup is all dried out and overcooked? Not in MY soup! I have made chicken this quick easy way for years: Bring huge pot of water to boil. Throw in whole chicken. Bring to boil and keep there for 1 minute. Turn it off and leave sit, covered for 1 hour. Take chicken off bones. Wonderful moist, perfectly cooked chicken.

As a side bonus you get the startings of wonderful chicken soup. Throw the bones of the chicken back in the same pot of hot water. Add your basics: whole onions, whole garlic cloves, whole carrots, whole stalks of celery. I use a big tea ball like thing and put my garlic and peppercorns in that. Bring to a boil and then simmer for awhile. Strain into a different pot and discard all the bones and veggies. Add diced carrots and celery, adjust seasonings and cook until vegetables are cooked.

When you’re going to serve, heat up the soup, throw in the meat to heat through and serve over freshly cooked rice or pasta. Don’t store the starchy stuff in the soup. Eat up, it’s good for you.

It’s interesting what makes you happy, eh? I got this yesterday only mine has a cool grip spiral sort of handle. Now I’m really ready to make such things as pot roast and chili. In a flurry of related housewifery feelings, I got out my two cast iron skillets and found that the new lid fits the old pans. It’s all good. And I think it should count as a work out, moving all that iron around.

All day long I enjoyed just knowing that all my little squares were home waiting for me. Tonight I came home and pressed the last 40 and then took a deep breath and tried trimming up a few. For those of you who aren’t quilters, this step of trimming, or trueing

TRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected form: tru�ing or true�ing: To position (something) so as to make it balanced, level, or square: trued up the long planks.

is an important one. First off, it makes it much easier to join up the blocks since they are made into squares, not something approaching a square, sort of. It also assures that all the blocks are the same size, give or take a small tolerence. Finally, it has the added bonus of knocking off all the little ears of seam allowance that stick out past the edges. This makes for an easier sewing and nicer pressing when it’s all said and done. Nitpicking? Perhaps. Worth it? In my mind, yes!

Finally, for those who know me, this cartoon from the Washington Post will make you laugh out loud. Oh what the heck – even if you don’t know I’m the shopping cart police, you’ll laugh like a hyena. Thanks Caity for the link!

That whooping and hollering around 12:30 AM? That would have been me, sewing the last seam on the 320th small pink and green block! YEAH!

And for those that think it’s not “art” if you plan ahead or if you count the number of blocks or pieces, well there’s no way I’d do more than a few extra above what I think I’ll need. Yes, I’ll make more if I need them. Like math? 320 squares X 9 pieces. That would be a lot of small pieces of fabric.