Don't leave us, summertime. But please do leave us, roaches, tiny ants, soaking humidity, and flaming hot seats in the car.
Have you been trying to cram as much summertime into August as possible? I definitely have. I've been paddle boarding, a few times (with a few attempts that got rained out too), gone to some outdoor socially distanced happy hours, and had one in our new outdoor space too.
House Updates
Speaking of, I got all of the furniture in and set up out there. It looks so good! I need to have someone come trim some of the overhanging oak branches back a bit so it'll stop dropping so many tiny acorns, leaves, and junk on the stonework, but that's another month's problem. Since it's hurricane season, I discussed how I created this as a storm-resistant outdoor space.
In other house-related news, I've been keeping busy. One day on a brief work break, I went nuts and bought two sets of curtains and a new curtain rod for our front living room. We've had the same curtains since we lived in our last house, 12 years ago! And the current curtain rod was janky from 11 years of me opening and closing the curtains every single day. I did a mini fashion show with the two curtains sets and sent the losing set back. These purple floral curtains are the winner, on the new rod:
It looks so much brighter and lively in there now! My next big desire for in there is a new couch from IKEA, but their stock is very hit or miss right now, so that unfortunately will have to wait. It'll give me time to save up, so it's not all bad.
We also bought a Tushy bidet attachment in the half bathroom that got semi-updated last month. I've wanted one, and with working from home, I'm going at home 24/7 which means a lot of toilet paper use. Hopefully this bidet will cut down on it, but it's only been installed for about a week. There's a bit of a learning curve — right after Patrick installed it, he promptly shot a stream of water at the wall!
I went with the classic version in a gold knob, because fancy. But I went with the classic over the spa version that offers temperature control for those who want warmer water squirting at their butts, because we have a tankless water heater. Anyone who has a tankless knows how the water can take a little time to come out warm, and I didn't want to encourage water waste, cause water ain't free. Ten years ago, our water bill in our city was only $15 EVERY TWO MONTHS. Now it's more like $70 every two months because they upped the sanitation costs, which is fine by me because the trash men deserve every cent. Their job is gross and I wouldn't want to have to go to the trash dump once a week.
Anyways... bidet. Yeah. I think I'll like it but Tushy has a 60 day guarantee just in case.
About two days after enjoying the one in "my" bathroom, Patrick ordered and installed another in "his" bathroom.
August Recipes
August is a really warm month for cooking and baking, but I did a little of both. Little being the operative word here. Here's what I made:
I also started a new series, Faux Meat Fridays, where I will be reviewing meat alternatives. This month we tried Moroccan Tofu Cubes and Raised & Rooted chicken-style nuggets.
So as you can see, I've been spending a LOT of time outside in our yard, improving it slowly, sweating buckets, then hosing off and jumping in the hot tub which is currently a cool tub, hanging out at a balmy 85 or so degrees.
