Still Sick

.... and moderately entertained by American Jennie: The Remarkable Life of Lady Randolph Churchill.

If you're a big Downtown Abbey fan or history buff you might particularly enjoy the book.

The head cold, on the other hand, no one would want.  So I'm not going out and about much.

Headshot

My agent sent me an email about being an extra in a commercial.  Since my last headshot showed me with short, red hair, Belovedest and I went out to the park and shot a bunch of photos.

It was not fun, which is sad, as I used to rather enjoy having my picture taken.

This is the one I sent.

I'm trying not to look 40....

The agent, incidentally, is NOT for modeling or acting!  Just for voice-over stuff.  But he sends out audition stuff to everyone.  This "acting" gig is more like being a prop, which is why I was open to the idea.

Be Calm

Found this on a random internet search:

Fruit Fly Trap

We recently had an issue with a bazillion fruit flies in our kitchen.  Ok... not a bazillion exactly but definitely a lot.  They were hanging out in the plastic milk jug we use for our kitchen scraps for the compost pile.  They were loving the banana peels.

The problem is that they would fly around in clouds and settle on the cabinetry.  Not something I like.  So I turned to some internet research to find the best way to get rid of them.  I found success in the following formula:

1 drinking glass
1 to 1.5 tablespoons vinegar (any kind, we used wine vinegar)
1 to 1.5 tablespoons sugar
1-2 drops of dish soap
water

Add vinegar, sugar, and water to glass.  Mix with spoon.  Add dish soap and gently mix again.

Then set the glass in the general area where the fruit flies are amassing.  What happens is that they are attracted to the sweet concoction and then they drop in and can't get out, thanks to the soap.  When I watched closely, it looked like they fell off the lip into the glass as if they were momentarily knock out by the smell or something.  Whatever... it WORKS!

The next morning all of the fruit flies were gone and a mass of dead bugs were at the bottle of the glass.  We've since tried this a second time when new fruit flies appeared.  And success again!

Here are some pics of our first fruit fly trap:

I Do Still Sew!

 It’s been a while, but this is just a few days old.

The tutorial is not coming soon because I figured out a much better way to do it than the way I did it.  So I might make another one and do a tutorial, but I need to finish this one.  (It’s a blouse from an old sheet.)  And the next time I won’t sew the strap to the outside instead of the inside!

Book Bag

My reading habits are a bit eclectic.

I just finished reading Evelina by Frances Burney, originally published in 1778.  It's light, fun, brain candy, and unless you struggle to understand why on earth the hero found the heroine interesting, it's not at all taxing to the grey cells.   (Of course, there's also the paradox of how the heroine's innocence is both her best chance of securing marriage AND her biggest vulnerability, among other issues.)

Now I've dived into Eat, Pray, Love which is wildly different (Julia Roberts could never play Burney's heroine Evelina).  I'm enjoying it, though.  Modern angst meets Eastern spirituality, but mercifully she has a sense of humor about it.

I also checked out some non-fiction on the art of conversation.  Oh, how I love libraries!

Sometimes Thrifty, Sometimes Not So Much

My beloved husband bought a bag of potatoes....

.... right when we are ready to harvest potatoes!

How is gardening going to save money on groceries if he does that?

But he did get these special demitasse coffee cups at the thrift store.  He's pretty jazzed.