Spring Cleaning Chores

The indoor spring cleaning chores seems like a joy compared to what is coming this week.  It’s true.  This week’s spring cleaning chores take me out of the house and into the garage and onto the patio.

Grab your ibuprofen and join me, won’t you?

Fire Pit Chair Cushions

We have toyed with replacing our fire pit with a smaller and more fashionable set.  The cushion covers look awful, but they are huge and are considers a custom size.  The cushions themselves seem ok.

Like everything else, the thought of finding a way to get rid of what we have, choose something new, pay an arm and leg and then wait forever seems daunting.  More daunting than just cleaning the dang cushions.

It’s back breaking work, so I’m going to try to make it painless as possible.  Hub found some mildew spray, so he sprayed them with that and hosed them down (which I was going to do, but he loves the hose). 😉

I want to get them completed and dried while we have the hot, dry weather, because guess what?  Rain (again!) on Wednesday.  Ugh.  After they are nice and dry and I’ll bring them under the patio cover until the rain is over.

Garage Reorganization

I continue to weed out and pare down, but man!  That garage is like the you-know-what (black hole of Calcutta).

The main problem is that Big Red takes up so much space, when she’s parked, I can’t access any of the cupboards along that wall.

The cupboards are old and ugly and not in the greatest shape, but John is not ready to rip them out and start over quite yet.

We are going to try to get rid of more stuff and swap where things are so that more accessed items are on the empty side of the garage and less accessed are on the truck side.

This will be a day-long job, so wish me luck.

New Blower

“Move over little dog, big dog’s movin’ in.”  It’s no secret to anyone in our neighborhood that I love my blower.  I’m out blowing as early as guilt will allow.  If I hear one dog barking on the block, game’s on. 

But here’s the thing.  My blower’s battery has lost its oomph.  It won’t hold a charge long enough to do the entire back patio, much less the front and back. 

Costco to the rescue.  Hub found a larger bad boy with 80V and a rapid charger.  I’m already falling in love.

What I’m Eating

From Crème de la Crumb, we tried Best Baked Pork Tenderloin.

Just for a change, we had bought some pork tenderloin.  I rarely eat pork, but needed a change.  Hub gets large cuts of meat from Costco, separates into our meal-sized portions, seals them in his nifty sealer and freezes.

So the cuts of meat we use are typically much smaller than what any given recipe calls for.  This recipe was easy to modify since it is basically meat, spices for a rub and a little lemon juice. 

It went right into our countertop oven for about ½ hour and came out perfect!

This really is the best baked pork tenderloin recipe!

What I’m Reading

I haven’t read a Louise Erdrich in a very long time.  So when I saw her new The Sentence, I picked it up at the library.

It’s billed as a woman who is released from her prison sentence early, is a voracious reader and recovering screw up who is haunted in the book store where she works.  Right up my alley, right?

Well, I’m not sure about all those reviewers who gave this five stars because I’m classifying it as a “DNF” Did Not Finish.

It’s really about things I don’t want to read about and I’m not going into here.  Just suffice it to say it’s not a recommendation from me.

But then.  Aha!  After only a short wait from the library, the latest Orphan X arrived.  The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz took up part of my weekend and now it’s over.  I’m all happy and sad at the same time.

Since this is the next in the series, I kind of thought I had the trajectory figured out, but it most certainly took a different road and the twists are quite exciting.

If you want a recommendation, the series is a big YES, but in my opinion, you might be disappointed if you don’t read them in order.

On audio I listened to two different  Jonathan Maberry books, Rage and Patient Zero.  They were both good, long, violent.  The narrator is the esteemed Ray Porter who I could listen to all day.

Patient Zero was published in 2009 and Rage in 2019.  They both feature the character Joe Ledger, but are different series.  Here is the thing though.  I did like them, but they have a very distinct formula and now I’m hesitant to read the rest.  I’ll be thinking on that.

Wrap Up

Sending blessings to you and yours this week and thank you for coming along with me!