House of Swank

A Plea For Help

If you've known me for any length of time, you've likely heard this from me before, but I think it's worth hearing about again.

I've got myself a crazy older brother.

Literally.

Diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic about fifteen years ago, now living a life on SSD with a room he rents and a relatively stable, if heavily tattooed and pierced, group of friends.  Wasn't always that way.  Before the diagnosis, and at a few other times since, he's been homeless, spending his nights in Forest Park.  I've been witness to him panhandling downtown on several occasions (he is, in fact, the reason I won't give money to panhandlers).  And crazy as he is, he is also a resourceful guy and knows how to keep his needs met it times of challenge.

One agency that was a godsend in keeping his needs met back in those early days was Sisters of the Road.  They were always a guaranteed hot meal for him; either with him working it off, or my Mom running an account for him.  The thing that has always impressed me most about Sisters is the dignity and respect they give to everyone who comes in contact with them.  Regardless of our backgrounds, financial or housing situations, we are all members of the same community and all should be treated equally.

I've been a long-time donor to Sisters.  Both in the standard write-a-check variety and purchasing their meal coupons when I was living in Portland and wanted a way to help the panhandlers in a productive manner.

Now I'd like to ask you to become a donor to Sisters as well.  Because if you have never given to Sisters before and give to Sisters between now and the end of the year your money will be matched $1.50 per $1 given.  So, if you give $10 out of your pocket, Sisters of the Road will receive $25.  If you've given before, your money will be matched .50 per $1 given.  Still not too shabby.

If you are a giving person how could you pass up a deal like this?

The Lazy Environmentalist

Mondays are trash pick-up days for the House of Swank.

The general weekly routine is to take the trash and recycling out to the curb Sunday after dinner.  Yesterday was a crazy day in the SwankPoet household, and by the time the end of the day rolled around it totally escaped me that the trash needed to be taken out.

No worries, the garbage collectors don't usually come until early afternoon, and the recycling pick-up even later than that.  I'd just do it in the morning.

So, of course, this morning, right as I was getting ready to get to it all, the garbage collectors came early.

The good news is that, even with the smallest size trash bin available from our service, we produce a small enough amount of waste each week that we can let it roll a week without worries of filling the bin.   Recycling is a bit more of a challenge - the collection receptacles we use inside (Trader Joe's cheapo reusable shopping bags) are a bit on the full side, but we can easily empty them into the recycling bins and still have plenty of room left over for next week.

If I forget again next week we may run into problems, though, so perhaps I should put something on the calendar.

This State Powered By WalMart

I probably jinxed myself from the get-go.

I knew we were traveling to Wal-Mart country, yet foolishly thought I could escape 5 days traveling through Northwest Arkansas and Soutwest Missouri without stepping foot inside a Wal-Mart.

Then American Airlines had to go and lose my suitcase.  And were complete morons about it.  Unable to tell me where my bag was, when my bag would be found, or what steps might be taken to find my bag.  There take seems to be "it'll turn up soon, we'll get it to you then."  I was not a happy camper when we landed in Little Rock last night.

While working through what could be done to help take care of me while waiting for my bag to magically appear (it ended up my bag took a trip to Jacksonville, FL, we picked it up from the Springfield, MO, airport this morning) American Airlines agreed to cover my "basic necessities" for the next 24 hours.

I had to push them to ask what "basic necessities" covered and they responded with "toiletries and a change of clothes" which could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, so I pushed some more and got the final verdict:  $50.

Now, I'm not a woman with rich tastes, but to fully clothe me for one day from scratch could probably be done, but barely, at Old Navy.  But that doesn't include any toiletries.  And we were staying at my parents' time share in Branson last night, so we couldn't even use the shampoo and soap usually provided at a hotel.

Add to this the fact that it was 8:00 on a Monday night, we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us, and had to fill the cooler as well, and there really was only one option available.

WalMart Super Center.  While I clothed myself, Sweetie could get the food, and we could be on our way.  Man, that store scares me. 

By the time we hit the store we knew I'd be reunited with my bags this morning, so could plan accordingly.  Basic toiletries only - toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo.  Travel sizes of everything I could get away with.  My pants could survive another day's worth of wear, so could my bra.  Worst case I could change the next day at the airport.

So underwear, a couple of t-shirts (going for layers, the weather's been all over the place lately), some new socks. 

I made it out of the door for just under $40. 

As I brushed my teeth this morning, I started to realize why I generally spend more than .96 on a toothbrush.  And the $5 black t-shirt I bought is so flimsy I can see my hand (make out the wedding ring and all) through it if I hold it out.

There's plenty of reasons I don't shop at Wal-Mart, and last night just reinforced those reasons.  Cheap prices, but you get what you pay for and I like the people who work at stores I frequent to earn a living wage.

It's Not So Crazy After All

There are people who will tease a girl about her obsession with shoes, and the sheer number of shoes she desires to have in her closet.  And to those people I say PSHAW!  Because my shoe obsession turned into a very, very good thing yesterday.

It seems Sweetie is suffering from tendinitis of the posterior tibialis tendon which means he's in a boot for the next 4-6 weeks.

The thing about the boots is that the sole of the boot is a bit thicker than the sole of your standard shoe.  So while you're treating the issues with your ankles you can also be causing hip problems as you walk off balance.  The doctor mentioned he should get some shoes with a higher sole to help compensate.  That's where I came in.

So, we needed shoes with a thick sole.  They either had to be so cheap that we could justify him wearing one of them for 4-6 weeks and then kicking them to the curb, or attractive enough that he might wear them once he had use of both feet.

The doctor suggested Danskos- he was on the phone with her at the time, and I was standing right in front of him - he repeated the suggestion out loud so that I could interpret, and I just pointed down to my feet.  They would solve the problem at hand, but I knew they wouldn't pass the cheap test, and doubted we could find a pair to pass the attractive test.  Especially with limited time available.

My first thought had been Dr. Martens air cushion soles, but I was open to suggestions from the experts.  So we started our escapades at Nordstrom, and confirmed my suspicions.  Sweetie also tried on a pair of eccos and a pair of Clarks, but it was quickly determined that the Docs were the best sole for the job at hand.  Now it was simply a matter of finding a pair that met Sweeties fashion standards. 

I started out hopeful.  I figured the bright yellow stitching attaching the upper to the sole was the issue, and knew we could find something with a more subdued look.  Worst case we'd go to the Dr. Martens store the next day.  However, the issue was not the stitching, it was the color of the "snot-yellow color" of the sole. 

Now we were in a quandary.  I could easily find him Docs without the standard sole.  Heck, Portland has a Dr. Martens retail store, so I knew we could find ourselves in Doc mecca if we had to.  But the air ware sole was the reason he wanted the Docs in the first place.

Compound that with the fact that Sweetie has a large foot and the Sweetie has made it to the Dr. Martens party about 15 years too late and that further limited our options.  Luckily, we found a pair that meet all the necessary requirements.

The thing that made me chuckle throughout the whole process is that prior to last night Sweetie was unaware there existed a brand of shoes known as "Dr. Martens."  We'll turn him into a cool kid yet.  Even if it is a cool kid from 15 years ago.

Other Bloggers On The Block

Blog the first:  A blog about reffing my Sweetie reads is giving a dollar to Special Olympics for every person who leaves a nice comment about refs on his blog today.  You should go there and leave a comment, too.  If you can't think of anything to say for yourself, you can also comment on Ed Hochuli's guns.

Blog the second:  My mom and dad have started a blog.  Well, mainly my mom, but it's about the both of them.  They leave in a week to do their annual six week road trip to California, Arizona and Nevada.  This is a blogging test-run for this spring, when they plan to sell their house, buy an RV, and live the mobile life for a while.  You can check it out here.  You should leave words of encouragement if you check it out.  And pay no mind if there are two posts that look really, really similar.... I bet your 70 year old mom couldn't do any better.

Socially Responsible Entertainment

Last night Sweetie and I went to see Talladega Nights, which is a freakin' hilarious movie.  When deciding what movie to go to I had suggested The Last King of Scotland, but Sweetie wasn't up for Idi Amin after the week he'd had at work.  Can't fault him there, sometimes what you need is a good belly laugh.

But then I started thinking back to all the other movies we had wanted to see, but never got around to because one of us wasn't in the mood.  Hotel Rwanda, Syriana, Munich. 

Apparently, finding  a night when both of us are willing and able to go to the movies, while simultaneously in a headspace to allow us to watch one of these movies, is challenging.  I was beginning to foresee a future in which our life was reduced to Will Ferrel and Adam Sandler movies as we fell to the lowest common denominator.

So we have now instituted Socially Responsible Entertainment night.  One night a month we will see a movie (or probably a play, although that hasn't specifically been addressed) that actually has some meat and merit to it.  If it's gotten to the end of the month and we haven't managed it, we'll just suck it up and do it.

I don't know that it will play out so formally, but at least it will be on our radars that we need to take the time to see such things.

Tonight we're going to pick up one of the movies that we'd wanted to see and missed, get October taken care of early.

Smug

While the news reports are filled with stories of e coli tainted spinach it's very nice to sit back and eat my bok choy that I know wasn't grown in sewage because I picked it up straight from the farm.

I don't even know if I realized Bok Choy was a vegetable three weeks ago.  I think I thought it was something akin to a water chestnut.  It's not.  But it's tasty sauteed in garlic.

Behold the Bounty

Sweetie and I officially belong to a CSA now, and have reaped our first spoils from the farm.  This is something I've contemplated doing for a while now, but a CSA share isn't practical for a single girl.  Or an engaged girl in the midst of planning a wedding, so it had to wait until I was a married girl to go after seriously.  Joe's post about his experience helped kick me in the butt to find one.

But finding one was a bit more difficult that in seemed.  My requirements were:

• Convenient location.  As in, I don't want to waste a 1/2 a tank of gas to get the goods each week, as then the environmental benefits seem to disappear pretty darn quickly.  Ours is on a way I will sometimes take home from work anyhow, so fits that requirement.
• Appropriate produce.  As in, they must be able to work around Sweetie's food allergies.  No eggs, honey or sage.  Willing to work with us on the whole tomato thing and other issues that  may arise.  Ours does not offer any of the forbidden products, and when it comes to others they have said that I can ask if we can make a substitution on an as-needed basis.  Depending on the harvest that week and what the item is they'll try to work with us.
• An actual CSA.  A lot of local places use "CSA" as a marketing term to try to get folks to buy their produce.  Some are wholesale or retail farms looking for a new, consistent income stream for their goods.  Others take their goods and supplement them with items from other farms.  Which I MIGHT be OK with if it was a local co-op type thing, but frequently these supplements are from out of state.  Ours is a real-live CSA, and as of when I left the farm this afternoon there were 9 shares left for the season.

I stumbled across our farm on the way home one day, and we made the decision to join the end of June.  Right as we were getting ready to be out of the house for the better part of a month.  So we held off joining until now.

I'm already excited about this weeks bounty.  We've got:

• One head of magenta lettuce
• One head of butter lettuce
• One bunch of carrots
• Three beets, with greens
• One LARGE bag of yellow wax beans
• Two onions
• One small zucchini
• Two small yellow squash.
• One small bag of tomatoes

My goal is to go through all of the produce every week, either through actually eating it, or making something with it that can go into the freezer and be used during the winter.  I think I'm going to cook the tomatoes down into a marinara, and if Sweetie can't tolerate it I'll use it to make lunches for work.  I've never had wax beans before, and haven't cooked much with squash, so am excited about what I might do with those.

As much as I want to use the onions, I also just want to leave them out on the counter as a reminder of why I'm doing all this.  Even at the local organic stores the onions are all pretty and round looking.  Maybe not as perfectly spherical as at the regular supermarket, but definitely "round."  The ones from the farm are oblong.  Not picked for their pretty shape that will look good on the shelf, but I'm sure they'll be mighty tasty.

In addition to the items you get in your share each week members also have access to u-pick flowers, herbs and greens.  In the green front there's rainbow chard available now, and it sounds like the fall greens will be plentiful and spectacular.  The herb garden includes chives, dill, cilantro, parsley, and other standards.  But they are known for their basil.  And when you walk back to where the basil plants are you can smell it.  In addition to your run-of-the-mill basil they have small plots of lemon basil, Thai basil and cinnamon basil.   Normally pesto doesn't do much for me, but I'm thinking cinnamon pesto or lemon pesto could be really yummy indeed.  Those beds will be put to rest soon, so I think I'm going to have to go picking there next week.

Our normal day for pick-up will be Wednesday.  Since we're already halfway through the week, and Sweetie is out of town until Monday I figured I shouldn't bring home any more than our regular share this week.  As it is, it may be a challenge to go through it all this week.  A challenge I think I'm up to.

Wear Purple Tomorrow

Tomorrow, June 15, is the first annual Elder Abuse Awareness day, sponsored by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse. You are encouraged to show the world you care about ending elder abuse and neglect by wearing something purple tomorrow.

So do I wear the purple Hush Puppy mules or the purple Doc Marten boots?  Your vote counts!