taz_39 | It's Good to Crumble (Reply)

Hopefully you had a livable 4th of July!

Ideally with lots of friends and family around and BBQ food and good weather and some sort of body of water or sprinkler to splash in. And at night, fireflies and s'mores.

I haven't had a 4th of July like that since I was very little. Ah well.

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Was up at 6am on the holiday because there is no rest for the wicked. Did data entry and ate breakfast. Jameson got up at 10, he doesn't have to work today. There's a heat advisory, it could get up to a 110°F (43.33°C) heat index today, how very ENJOYABLE. (-_-)

After lunch and tromboning I saw that Jameson was in the pool with a High Noon seltzer and thought, f*ck this, I need that too. Promptly joined him. We talked--it always amazes me that we live together AND both work from home, and still we somehow find things to talk about!--and enjoyed the water and admiring all of my fruit plants. The neighbors were barbecuing and playing music, big summer vibes all around.

After just a half hour I went back inside to hit my 6 hours of data entry, then got to rest for a few minutes before starting dinner. Chicago dogs and sides. No photos because it wasn't impressive and you've seen such before.

The berry dump was easy to make. Poured the berry/sugar/bourbon/vanilla combo into a loaf pan and threw in cubed cold butter.

Mixed flour, oats, pecans, brown sugar, salt, and melted butter to form a crumble.

Layered it onto the berries, and the extra onto a sheet pan. It's always good to have extra crumble, guarantees a crunchy topping no matter how much juice the berries put out.

The sheet pan needs to be pulled about 20 minutes into a 45-minute bake. When it cools a bit you can break it up with your hands or a spoon.

Finished crumble, berry juices leaking up to the top.

I waited for it to cool a bit, then topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. So good! Because the berries marinated in the booze overnight you can really taste the bourbon (though I felt it was also a bit bitter; make sure you use GOOD bourbon.)

We were REALLY full after that, but that's what holidays are all about.

The neighborhood sounded more and more like a war zone the later it got. I expect the weekend to be noisy too.

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Friday doesn't feel like Friday.

The heat index today is 110°F with humidity at 85%, so I expect my Disney day on Saturday will be even worse than that (the high temp that day is two degrees warmer and no rain in the forecast.) We do 8 miles (12.8 km) of walking per day in general in the park, but I get to add an extra mile (14 km total) since the women's bathroom is far from the band's dressing room and if I visit it between each show, it adds up to the extra mile.

Well anyway, TODAY I did data entry and a short run-through of Disney music and applied to more jobs. In the evening Jameson went to Epcot with plans to at least partially "drink around the world," and I had to nearly bite my tongue in half to not nag/mommy him about staying hydrated. Gotta remember that he is 40 years old and is relatively responsible/mindful compared to many other men.

While Jameson was gone I went to Walmart because they're the only ones who carry Slate milk locally, and got other little things that we can use (black pens, dish soap, etc.) The rest of my night was chill and boring which is fine by me.

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Saturday I was up early for a Disney day. It's been a few weeks since I last performed at the park. The warm-up room is now decorated with glittery stars and fireworks stickies for 4th of July, and there have been some new storage shelves installed that are pretty nice (no pictures so I don't get in trouble for sharing backstage stuffs.)

I did very well musically today. Since memorizing all of the pieces last week, I've been able to just relax and practice them at my leisure, and that's been helpful for getting comfortable. I was nervous as usual today but was able to relax like 50%. I also appreciated having two members of the band approaching me separately to give complements on how I sounded today :) Makes me feel accepted, and like I'm doing a good job.

Evidence that I was there, taken from a YouTube snippet:

It was super hot but the heat index "only" reached 103 so it was "tolerable." I'll be in the park again a week from today.

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Sunday, I had kind of a frustrating morning, just didn't feel like data entry so kept allowing myself to be distracted by little side-projects like washing our second set of bedsheets and fertilizing my bananas.

They are looking pretty good! I don't want to get my hopes up but at least they aren't shriveling.

After lunch, more data entry instead of practice because I wanted to have a free evening. Around 3pm Jameson went out with his friend Lea to spend time at Universal and see the new night parade, which is based on classic movies I think? Will have to check it out myself.

As for me, I enjoyed a mango High Moon and an Eat Fresco dinner, watching anime, and worrying about my job prospects for the future. And while that was happening our neighbor Tom rang the doorbell. He gave us his largest pineapple, that he grew himself!!! I was stunned by his generosity but he waved me off, saying there was another close behind it (there is) and that they've gotten more pineapples than they know what to do with already. It's very beautiful and probably ready to be eaten, like, now.

Debating what to make with it. A fried rice? Upside-down mini-cakes? A jam, so I can give some back to Tom?
Feel free to throw ideas at me. Right now I'm thinking eat half of it fresh, and the other half as a sort of cashew chicken stir fry.

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Tomorrow will be my "weekend" day.
No plans other than to not set an alarm, to hit Whole Paycheck for some sort of ingredients, practice trombone, and go for a neighborhood walk. Oh, and apply for jobs. Cheers!