0044 - Wastrel

Today was pretty much a waste. It's been drizzly all day and we didn't really go anywhere. In some respects it was nice to not leave the house for a change... first time we've done that since we hit the road... but... after a while, we both get a little stir crazy. And there seems to be a universal truth... when you're stuck at home all day... and you have a ton of channels... there is still nothing good on tv.

The highlights of my day were as follows...

I washed dishes.

I made sandwiches for lunch.

I washed dishes.

I applied for several jobs and joined a few survey sites.

We watched almost all of the Lonesome Dove mini-series - which is really a brutal story, yet somehow intriguing at the same time. So many recognizable faces... such a compelling story.

I made pasta for dinner and we watched a show about the Hudderites. They're an interesting people... almost Amish, but not. They said 'pissed off' and 'damn' a lot. Speaking of the Amish, I boiled some Amish-made pasta, sauteed some garlic and an onion in butter and olive oil, then I added chopped pancetta to that while I cut up some mushrooms. After all that cooked down I added the juice of a lemon, and about 2 Tbsp of butter to tie it all together and tossed the pasta in once it was finished cooking. It was a little like chicken picatta without the chicken or capers... dangit, I forgot the capers! And I didn't have any parmesan.

Then I washed dishes.

And after that we made a dash for the local convenience store for ice cream. It was 6:47... they close at 7:00. They looked disappointed to see us until we said we wanted ice cream. For a whole five minutes (roundtrip), we were out of the house. If it wasn't raining we would have walked and still made it in plenty of time, it's that close.

It's still raining. I can't tell if it's night time because it looks the same as it did two hours ago.

Oh, and in case you're wondering... Mike had a similar day.  :-)

Insert clever segue to random RV-related thoughts here -->

Cooking in an RV is slightly different than cooking in a regular kitchen. For one thing, there are three burners, which seems to be exactly the right number for my needs... usually I need two max, but on occasion I use all three. Only downside to the burners is that the grate openings are too large for some of my smaller pans and cause them to be slightly off-kilter or, in order to get them level, they end up slightly off-center of the flame. Also... if something falls out of the pan... like... a noodle... I have to make sure to get it out of the flame because I don't want to set the RV on fire.

I am getting used to cooking with gas and actually like it, at least on the stovetop; I've only used the oven once and the hiss was a bit disconcerting to me, plus I have to get Mike to light it for me (kitchen is so small that I can't see anything when he points and attempts to explain what I'm looking for... to open the oven door I have to move to the side).

Seems like things cook more quickly using gas, and I can control the temperature to a finer degree. Sometimes in my quest to cook on low heat, I accidentally extinguish the flame. It's nothing more than an annoyance *if* I notice that the flame went out, but a couple of times it didn't go out immediately, so I thought something was still cooking... and only later realized that it wasn't.

Mom used to tell me that gas set off my asthma attacks. So far I haven't had any issues. I can only think that I either grew out of that, or that things are much improved since the '70's. I can certainly smell it when the pilot is being lit, but it fades when the flame comes on... I'm still somewhat nervous about explosions. Yes, seriously - if you only knew some of the things that went on in my head...

I find it strange that we have self-leveling jacks, and the control panel claims that we are level... and yet, the butter in my saute pan pools to one side instead of spreading out of the center of the pan. Seems like every oven I've ever owned has had that issue.

Then there are the dishes. We have exactly four plates and four bowls. There are two of us. Technically I could get away with using two for lunch and the other two for dinner... but even if I wanted to let them sit, harden, and attract bugs, they do take up valuable counter space. We pile them in the sink, but in order to use the sink I still have to wash them, because the other side of the sink is where the dish drainer resides. That means, every time we eat, I end up doing dishes. I do dishes and laundry a lot more than I used to. I am the dishwasher. Mike helps sometimes... my point is that we don't have a dishwasher that does the work for us, so it's up to us, and our space is smaller so any little thing adds to the clutter and claustrophobia.

The refrigerator is also quite a bit smaller than the one we had before. I was used to shopping about once a month, mostly because I abhorred grocery shopping. As a result, yesterday's sojourn to Kroger was a little overdone. I managed to squeeze all the refrigerated items into the refrigerator, but a lot of pantry items are still on the counter, and all of our drinks are in coolers. It makes the space feel cluttered. We're going to have to adjust... to get into a once a week shopping mindset. The other thing that takes some getting used to is the temperature... it just doesn't get as cold as a normal refrigerator. We have read about putting fans inside to recirculate the air, some people say it helps, we may have to try it out and see. It takes a while to cool things down... about four hours will get a cool drink... six hours might make it cold.

Trash also seems to pile up at an alarming rate. We brought the trashcan we had at home with us, I guess it's 13-gallons. The one that came with the RV is about half that size and thank goodness we didn't use that. Seems like we fill up a bag every two days or so. Even if we didn't, sometimes odor necessitates that it be taken out anyway... onion scraps are especially stinky. Since we don't have a garbage disposal, we can't just toss things down the drain, so any uneaten food, any grease left in the pan, any scraps... it all goes into the trashcan.

And that's your RV lesson for the day. There are adjustments. And yes, there will be an exam on Monday.

Feel free to comment (yes, this is me begging)... I know you guys read my blog and it feels like we're keeping in touch... but if I don't get feedback, it's a one-sided conversation. It's a little lonely out here without most of our friends and family around. We have each other, and we've met some cool people, but comments and emails really brighten my day.

Gonna settle in and watch Flash Gordon. I remember seeing it in the theaters when I was about 7'ish. We were either living in Mississippi, or visiting, so we all piled into my aunt's brand new van and headed to the big city. The theater was one of those really fancy ones with red velvet curtains in front of the screen that opened when the movie started. I hated the part where Flash stuck his hand in that tree stump. And I got so, so sick. In my aunt's brand new van... she didn't appreciate it. And once we got back to grandma's things took a turn for the worse... I have never been so sick in all my life. Good times...