shouting hallelujah

(Tips, steps and recipes collected from friends.)

1. Dishes that can be eaten hot or cold

• Zucchini bread
• Zucchini potato frittata
• J’s mom’s pasta salad recipe

2. Water tips

• My neighbor says to fill ziploc bags with water, then freeze them, so you have ice to keep your freezer cooler longer, or can drink them if needed (note: don’t fill all the way or they’ll explode)
• Fill the bathtub for flushing toilets.

3. Yard precautions

• Put away lawn furniture.
• [Question: What are you all doing with your backyard chickens? We might just lock ours in their coop to ride out the worst of it.]

4. Technology

• Make sure computers and TVs are on surge protectors, but keep them fully charged until the first thunder.
• Get the flashlights or lanterns out now, before the storm hits, and make sure they work and you’ll be able to grab them in the dark.

What else are y’all doing? More good, food-centric advice can be found here. And does anyone have any especially good green tomato recipes? We have so many that will be destroyed by the heavy rain, but I’m struggling to find a recipe that doesn’t require another trip out to the chaotic grocery store.

At Evergreen training today, I discovered that I was not the first librarian to use Harry J. Potter as a test patron. I feel I have chosen my career wisely.

It’s finally happened. After seven months and one move, we’ve eaten or given away all 24 of those Scharffen Berger dark chocolate bars. Some of the highlight bars:

• eating the better part of one for breakfast with my little sister when she visited this spring
• the one our friend’s Australian shepherd, Koda, ate, foil and all, resulting in a highly memorable afternoon with me, J, Koda, and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide
• one given away as a prize at Colleen’s shower
• several shared with my awesome former boss — especially nice because she’s GF and normally couldn’t eat the things I brought
• one shared with the little girls at the tennis club, who commented, “It tastes like wine. It tastes like cherries.” Then, thoughtfully, from the Muslim 9-year-old, “It tastes like alcohol.” Um, how would you know?!

[pictured: J, in blue, in his awesome free soft shell while hiking the Presidentials last weekend.]

When I looked at this website, I was not thrilled. LogoSportswear’s not one of the hippest websites, or the easiest to navigate, and I was expecting to put my $150 toward matching bridesmaid shirts or rock climbing team jackets for J and his friends.

On closer exploration, however, I discovered a surprising amount of variety, though it’s biased very much toward tops over bottoms, items that are more often customized, I guess. In the end, we were able to get four pieces of clothing for hiking for under $4 with the $150 gift certificate. I was able to get some lovely basic Columbia pieces for hiking and camping. They’re things I hate spending money on ordinarily, so it was terrific to get them for free, and now I won’t have to borrow embarrassingly belly-baring pieces from my much-shorter friend.