Air Con is On!

   I couldn`t get on to my new post page yesterday so I will catch up today.

    I left home at 8:45 yesterday and wasn`t home until 3:15 - fitness class started yesterday, a run to the garden centre, then three hours in the kitchen. At least it was busier so I wasn`t bored. I had an interesting dinner. I cooked some chicken drumsticks in salsa (without the skin), chopped up the meat and had it in a pita (with more salsa) with veggies and lots of cheese. It was a bit messy to eat but quite yummy.

   Today I was out early to the tennis courts but I didn`t play as my wrist is still sore. It was heating up quite a bit but was overcast so not unbearable. I came up with a new system to make sure people weren`t sitting around too long. It helped that there wasn`t a big crowd! We will try it again next week.

   I spent the whole afternoon watching Andy Murray and Fabio Fognini battling it out on Centre Court at Wimbledon. Murray won although he wasn`t at his best and Fognini was on fire! Andy was lucky to pull out the win.

   More chicken tonight with Brussel sprouts but first an hour in the garden. I am gradually making a dent in the weeds. The air conditioner has just come on so it must still be hot out.

A Close Call

   I hate it when I do something stupid but it almost happened again today. Here`s the story:

   Last Thursday I took my Prius into the dealership for an oil change. This is not a big job but they managed to find enough things wrong with the car (OK, I hadn`t taken it in for a service since last fall and it is 10 years old) for me to end up with a humungous bill - about 10 times what I had expected.

   I reasonably expected that it would now be in tip top shape. However, on Saturday, an excessively hot day, I turned on the air conditioner only to be blasted with hot air. How had they not noticed the AC was on the blink!

   I tried it again on Monday and it was still not working so yesterday I made an appointment to have it fixed. On the way over there this morning I decided to give it one last try and only then realized that the thermostat had been turned up to over 30C which was why it was heating the car instead of cooling it! Lo and behold when I turned it down to a more appropriate number, cool air flowed out.

    My only assumption is that the guys who worked on it on Thursday turned it up to test it and forgot to turn it down. So it wasn`t really my fault but I would have felt very foolish if I had made a huge fuss at the dealership only to have them fix it in seconds. So I dodged a bullet there.

Still Scratching

   Sunny and warm today so I had a swim before lunch - very refreshing! Tried to play tennis this morning but my wrist is toast! I could barely get my serve over the net. Luckily I am "on the board" on Friday so won't have to play. Watched Wimbledon this morning - one Canadian through but the others are gone.

    My ant bites are itching like crazy (only a couple of them) so I am not a happy camper. On the plus side, I managed another batch of strawberry jam today and prepped the rest of the berries for the freezer. I kept out a few for desserts today and tomorrow. Unfortunately, a few were too ripe when picked and had gone so mushy they had to go in the composter. 15 jars of jam - that should last me all year. I still have one jar left from last year even though I gave some away as gifts. I will make some rhubarb and ginger jam later in the summer.

   I bought a sweet pepper plant at half price on the way home from tennis today. It looks very healthy despite being so late in the season for plants. I may get another later. Still space in the vegetable patch for some other veggies if I can find them.

Strawberry Fields Forever

   Out of the house early to pick strawberries. I forgot it was a holiday and the strawberry farm was crawling with people carrying baskets and buckets - also lots of kids. But I was there early enough to get my bucket filled and out of there in half-an-hour. The strawberries were plentiful and humongous!

   Luckily the grocery stores were open despite it being a holiday so, after several attempts, I did find one that had some of my favourite brand of pectin left. I also needed sugar and a couple of lemons so that went on my grocery list too.

    After bridge I got all the ingredients for jam ready and scalded some jars. The strawberries were so big it didn't take long to prepare the fruit. Once I got the mixture boiling away a problem that I'd never experienced before developed, the mixture was about to boil over! I was using the same pan as usual and the same quantities so I have no idea why it occurred. However, I managed to control it by removing the pan intermittently from the heat. Once it had cooled down a bit I got the jars filled and sealed - first batch done!

   Still can't load photos here but I have put one on Facebook.