The Root Of...

Last spring, I made this fabulous casserole involving wild rice. I'm fairly certain that it also involved pecans. What I cannot remember is whether or not it contained dairy. The pecans may have been a substitute for mushrooms, or they may have been a compensation for dairy. I'm thinking that I put the pecans in there to fill space not filled by mushrooms...I'd swear it had gruyere cheese in it. Damn, I hate when I don't write things down!

More nesting occurred this weekend. I was all pissed off on Friday[1], and as I was also equipped with a charge card, I decided that today would be the day that some rugs would be had[2]. As I am aware that the Pottery Barn outlet in Leesburg allows one steep discounts on nice rugs, I went there. We now have a lovely 8'x10' wool rug in the living room and a 6'x9' kilim in the bedroom, and still it's not enough rugs. The guestroom floors are still cold and barren of rugs, unfortunately, but I think I spent enough money for one week.

We also unpacked all of our books. Well, that's not true. We unpacked all the books we might conceivably want in the next couple of years, leaving the total dreck and duplicates in boxes (we have three copies of Vineland, three copies of 1984, 4 copies of The Grapes of Wrath, and the list goes on). The amazing thing is that the shelves are not packed[3]. Yay.

I also cleaned the kitchen and did many loads of laundry, including towels and the like from Reston. Which reminds me of a story.

On Friday night, I put in the first load of laundry and went to bed. I went downstairs in the morning, and I could see that the washer still had water in it (it's a front-loader extractor type). I decided to run the cycle again (it will only put so much water in there -- it won't overflow) figuring it somehow tripped up on it's cycle and didn't drain. No cigar.

I called in reinforcements (ie Tino). The manual did not explain the problem. Out came the tools. He determined that the pump wasn't pumping (but not for lack of power) and that he needed to take it apart. This involved removing all that water from the washer, and no bucket will fit in the small area where the pump lives so he'd let out enough to fill a mixing bowl and I'd dump it in a bucket. And then another bucket. And then an improvised storage container which was not a bucket. There was a good deal more in there than I expected.

The pump was taken apart, and it was indeed blocked. How anything got in there, we don't know--apparently there is no filter. Proving that money is the root of all evil, it had been blocked by a $10 bill.

I'm still very bitter indeed over the arrogance the U.S. Supreme Court displayed by their decision to override the election process and choose our next president for us. And I'm offended by the media referring to that man as the "president-elect." My ass. He's the "presidential appointee."