Ugh, too too hot
Jul. 4th, 2012 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
monkey5sLast night it never cooled down outside, I was unable to sleep more than a couple of hours. When the cats got me up to feed them, I could tell I wouldn't make it today. So, I tried for another couple of hours of sleep before I got up.
Going to see the parade was out of the question. Oh, I wanted to, but walking a block, then standing with a crowd in the blazing sun in 90-some degree heat for an hour and a half, followed by walking painfully back? No.
I had been too miserably hot last night to do any baking, or chop cabbage to make coleslaw (I promised coleslaw and dessert for the s-i-l's cookout today), so I did force myself to bake the brownies. I was adapting an older recipe to be higher-fiber, and I wanted to bake it thinner, and what I got was... well, let's just say it's not a keeper, as recipes go. The batter was stiff, and very sticky. I had greased the pan heavily, but they still stuck to the point that I was using a metal spatula and a lot of force to try to pry them off. It's going to take heavy-duty soaking to get the pan cleaned. Also, they didn't taste as chocolaty as I would have expected from the ingredients. But as it turned out, they did OK as a base for a sundae of vanilla bean ice cream with chopped strawberries and chocolate sauce.
The coleslaw happened after I lay down for an hour to let another dose of ibuprofen work. I lack the patience, or space, to shred cabbage, so I was slicing it. And the onion. I use an oil and vinegar and sugar dressing for my coleslaw, but I didn't measure, and although I put in celery seed, I think I needed a lot more. The s-i-l switched to a soup spoon to eat it because she got tired of the too-big pieces of cabbage falling off her fork. She decided it was good enough to keep the rest that I brought. So that was a win. And the rest that I have in the fridge I will doctor with more celery seed.
I also found out I was glad that I did not go up to see them last weekend, which would have been my usual time to go. Their air conditioning broke down. And, being they were accustomed to having it, they really didn't have fans to the extent they would need to cope well. Thankfully, it was working today.
I was there from around 3 to 9, finally decided I needed to go home to get the cats fed before the fireworks in town, which were scheduled for 10. I walked into the house at 9:20 to the sound of smaller fireworks being set off around my neighborhood. Two of the cats were not yet willing to come in, but I set food down and turned to go back to the door to see if the other two would come in now that their food was ready, and heard a house-shaking boom! that sounded like the big-time fireworks. The cats that were eating flinched and scuttled off, but the other two came right in. The fireworks continued- a full half-hour early. I went to my bedroom and took more ibuprofen and lay down, and wished the fans helped more (moving hot air at speed isn't as much help as having cooler air to move). The fireworks barrage continued- with the finale coming about at 10, when they were supposed to start.
I quickly realized why they started them a half-hour early- and rushed them to finish in a half-hour instead of 45 minutes- when the lightning made itself known and the wind picked up. We got a little rain, but there was quite the light show, with thunder rivaling the fireworks booms. And then it faded off, and started up again less than 20 minutes later.
Unfortunately it didn't cool things off much. And now I'm sitting here trying to get the energy to get the trash out, while my various aches and pains laugh at my ibuprofen usage.
Going to see the parade was out of the question. Oh, I wanted to, but walking a block, then standing with a crowd in the blazing sun in 90-some degree heat for an hour and a half, followed by walking painfully back? No.
I had been too miserably hot last night to do any baking, or chop cabbage to make coleslaw (I promised coleslaw and dessert for the s-i-l's cookout today), so I did force myself to bake the brownies. I was adapting an older recipe to be higher-fiber, and I wanted to bake it thinner, and what I got was... well, let's just say it's not a keeper, as recipes go. The batter was stiff, and very sticky. I had greased the pan heavily, but they still stuck to the point that I was using a metal spatula and a lot of force to try to pry them off. It's going to take heavy-duty soaking to get the pan cleaned. Also, they didn't taste as chocolaty as I would have expected from the ingredients. But as it turned out, they did OK as a base for a sundae of vanilla bean ice cream with chopped strawberries and chocolate sauce.
The coleslaw happened after I lay down for an hour to let another dose of ibuprofen work. I lack the patience, or space, to shred cabbage, so I was slicing it. And the onion. I use an oil and vinegar and sugar dressing for my coleslaw, but I didn't measure, and although I put in celery seed, I think I needed a lot more. The s-i-l switched to a soup spoon to eat it because she got tired of the too-big pieces of cabbage falling off her fork. She decided it was good enough to keep the rest that I brought. So that was a win. And the rest that I have in the fridge I will doctor with more celery seed.
I also found out I was glad that I did not go up to see them last weekend, which would have been my usual time to go. Their air conditioning broke down. And, being they were accustomed to having it, they really didn't have fans to the extent they would need to cope well. Thankfully, it was working today.
I was there from around 3 to 9, finally decided I needed to go home to get the cats fed before the fireworks in town, which were scheduled for 10. I walked into the house at 9:20 to the sound of smaller fireworks being set off around my neighborhood. Two of the cats were not yet willing to come in, but I set food down and turned to go back to the door to see if the other two would come in now that their food was ready, and heard a house-shaking boom! that sounded like the big-time fireworks. The cats that were eating flinched and scuttled off, but the other two came right in. The fireworks continued- a full half-hour early. I went to my bedroom and took more ibuprofen and lay down, and wished the fans helped more (moving hot air at speed isn't as much help as having cooler air to move). The fireworks barrage continued- with the finale coming about at 10, when they were supposed to start.
I quickly realized why they started them a half-hour early- and rushed them to finish in a half-hour instead of 45 minutes- when the lightning made itself known and the wind picked up. We got a little rain, but there was quite the light show, with thunder rivaling the fireworks booms. And then it faded off, and started up again less than 20 minutes later.
Unfortunately it didn't cool things off much. And now I'm sitting here trying to get the energy to get the trash out, while my various aches and pains laugh at my ibuprofen usage.
