Yesterday, Peter took out a wedge of brie he'd bought from Sprouts. When I arrived, it was "ripening" on the kitchen counter. We had some with our green salad for lunch. When I went to pick up Kat from school, Peter had some more, leaving a small piece for me to finish, which I did in the evening. I also took out the remaining cubic inch of feta that I'd had left from the pound or so that I'd purchased from North Park Produce last week (or something like that). I have, in the fridge, a wedge of brie that I'd brought from home yesterday (I'd bought it at Trader Joe's in a moment of weakness). It's still in the fridge, and it's likely that I'll probably cut into it either this evening or tomorrow.
Since it is Wednesday, it's a class day for Pastries and Desserts. I have no idea what we'll be doing, so I'll just bring some lightweight containers to bring home whatever it is we end up making. The class does not end until 3, so Kat will wait for me to pick her up after school. She will go to Homework Lab, which goes until I don't know how late, but she'll be waiting for me at 3:30 at the front of the school (on a side street; the school backs onto the main road). Driving there, I think I'll check the progress of the fumigation of our complex. Today, when we were on our way to the freeway from the school, I saw blue and red and yellow-striped tents on about half of the buildings on both the bottom and middle levels, so I assume the "gassing" didn't start until pretty late in the day on the first day (yesterday). The gas is turned on for 24-72 hours, depending on the level of infestation. I don't know how bad the infestation is, but from what I've seen, it looked bad enough, from my perspective, so that the tenting is a good thing to get rid of the termites. In reality, it looks like it might not be that bad, after all, since we're only exiled until tomorrow afternoon.
The preparations for the tenting were a good excuse for me to clean out the refrigerator. I (finally!) put into the trash the half- to mostly-empty containers of various goods that were still residing in the fridge. I used a Skoy cloth (a very thin, very light sheet of cellulose sponge) to wipe every shelf as I went, finally getting down to the vegetable drawers. There was one I could not take out because the door of the fridge blocks its path (the door doesn't open completely in the fridge's current location, and it'd be a really big hassle to move the fridge to the middle of the kitchen just to take the drawer out, so I wiped it out as best as I could with the Skoy). I removed the other drawer and washed it in the sink, leaving it to drain on the dishwasher rack, which was exposed to the air because I left the dishwasher open, specifically, for that purpose.
I opened all the cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms (mostly just slightly) to allow for free gas flow in and around them.
Now I'm thinking about cheese, of all things. Perhaps this is merely a recurring theme in my life:
When I was in college (half the marathon distance west of Boston, MA), I was known as "Cheese Woman" because I always had a pack or two of (sliced) cheese in the small fridge that I shared with my roommate. The cheese was purchased from the campus inconvenience store, and was often just swiss (provolone, if I got lucky). I often snacked on cheese while studying or reading.
Perhaps it's a minor miracle that I never suffered from "Freshman Fifteen" (the expression used for the common weight gain among college students when they leave home and are in charge of their own food choices for the first time since leaving home). Now that I'm raising my own child, I'm introducing her to my favorite more common cheeses (the different blues, brie, feta, camembert, romano, parmesan, gruyere). I'm also hoping to impart to Kat the importance of physical activity for one's overall health, though I admit, I allow her to spend hours on end with her iPad...
That's the main reason why I'm thinking about buying a bicycle for myself. Kat has a bike, which she uses to tool around Mira Mesa. I'd like to get a bike and a rack for my car so that we could take our bikes to parks (and the concrete paths along the shoreline) not located within easy riding distance, and bike for fun. Peter has a bike, so the three of us could go out, perhaps to Penasquitos Canyon or Pacific Beach, to take an occasional ride. I saw a really, really attractive Specialized bike in a bike shop in University City for about $500. It comes in different colors, too, and the color I like most is the deep purple. They have one, assembled, in the shop, waiting to be taken out.
First, I think I'll take Kat's bike out and ride it a bit to get myself accustomed to the feel of being on a bike again. It's been years and years since I've ridden very much (since architecture school), so I'm a bit anxious about spending so much money (and $500 is a lot of money to me) on a bike that might not see enough use to justify its cost. Worse comes to worst, though, I can always give the Specialized bike to Kat when she leaves for college. That'll be four years from now. These bikes will have to last, which I have no doubt they will, given the San Diego climate in which they currently reside...
I've been contemplating the purchase of the bike for a pretty long time now (over a year at this point). Other, more immediate things keep popping up, like my oral health problems and my dive computer dying (whose replacement I wrote about in a recent post), so the bike had gone to the back burner.
The other, more immediate purchase that I want to make (before August) is a dive vest that I could wear for the warm water diving in Kosrae. I think I'll still bring my (7mm) shorty for the just-in-case, though I doubt I will need it. I definitely will be limiting the space required in my luggage for clothing, as I plan to pack two or three sarongs, and wear shorts and a T-shirt for the flights to and from, as well as the Sunday we'll be there, as it looks like we'll spend that day hiking and exploring the island itself. When we were on Roatan, I wore my sarongs every day after the first, washing them during the warm evenings; they dried overnight and were ready to wear again in the morning.
I'll talk to Peter about the vests, as it looks like we'll need to buy them online, for the local dive shops don't seem to carry vests without hoods (which, given the water temperatures in San Diego, makes perfect sense).
I'd like to buy the bike before the summer really gets going, because I don't want it to get too hot to ride. But I do want to test out my riding skills first by taking Kat's bike out for a gentle ride around our neighborhood streets. I'll put that on my calendar after the fumigation.
No rant today, just some thoughts and quandaries. I suppose I could rant about being relatively unwell-off financially, but in reality, I have access to all the things that are necessary, and some things that are, in my mind, luxuries (including the consumption of generous quantities of cheese!).
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