Yesterday was awesome. I went out for week 3 of the jogging slowly
group. One of the many running groups in DC is doing a beginner's series
culminating in a 5K in September. It's going a lot better than when I'd
tried on my own, but then again, I'm still only on week 3 of 10. It's
been great to meet new people though, and it's good to have a reason to
get up and get going Saturday mornings.
Then I went out to the
farm with some friends. We picked blackberries (and ate a lot) and
peaches. The peaches weren't as good to eat fresh off the tree, but
will ripen quickly.
After two outdoor in the sunshine
activities, I discovered that I'd only missed a small rectangle on my
arm with the sunscreen, which was a third good thing for Saturday.
The
fourth was going out to mexican tapas with a different couple. The
restaurant used to be located near work and near where I used to live,
but it relocated into DC to be fancier (and a pricier) but at least not
less tasty, and in some cases tastier. So we won't go there as often
now, but it's good to know it's still out there.
Then the fifth
good part of the day was staying up late reading a book that I borrowed
from a co-worker. Not Harry Potter, but the 6th book in a series that
I'd been looking forward to borrowing from her for a while, so I'm
having a little bit of sympathy Harry-Potter-ism.
Today was more
frustrating, but ended ok in the end. I really wanted to make apricot
preserves, but had a terribly hard time finding a store that carried
pectin and then an even more awful time finding jars to put the
preserves in. It was even hard to find a spray bottle to use to deter
the cat from being curious about my boiled and sanitized (hopefully, if
it worked) jars and lids. I think there is a chance that the stuff
worked ok. At least all the lids popped down, so that's one important
thing. I guess the next test will be whether they solidify at all, and
finally we'll have to see how it tastes. There were only a couple small
problems. Like I boiled the empty jars for a while, and then set them on
a cookie sheet in a warm oven to dry them out and keep them warm until
the fruit mixture was ready. But then once I'd filled the jars and put
the lids on, I put them back in the same water which (duh, archimedes
had figured out what would happen) I over flowed the pan and spilled
boiling water onto my stove top. Thankfully I had a whole bunch of
towels at hand just in case I did something that needed a lot of
cleaning up. Then I got quite a bit of fruit goo burned onto my stovetop
while stirring frantically for the minute of pectin-ing. I think I'll
make the fruit in a larger sauce pan next time.
Over all good
though. All 8 jars' lids popped down so it might be ok, and the fruit
tasted great naturally, so hopefully it will taste good.
