flat surfaces

Teeny, weenie and bubba

I keep things pretty neat at home. It has taken a while, but the dining room table is always ready for dinner, recycling doesn't pile up and we always have clean clothes. Once in a while, the one thing that gets to me are the aggegrations of flat surface attractants. We have a few designated places for these to evolve and grow (zoned for the specific purpose). These "petri dishes" tend to accumulate the wierdest things -- on the stairs alone I encountered three sets of eyeshades the airlines hand out. One I can understand, but three? Small shampoos from hotels, boarding passes, old receipts, extra shoelaces and safety pins were also spotted. Yesterday morning they finally drove me to accumulate one big pile which I put on the bed and vowed to sort as soon as I got home.
Well, it was soon time to go to sleep and I wastempted to move that pile over and get some zs. But I did go through it for five minutes, do the Dave Allen thing and then got to rest on a flat surface that was clean.

I repeated the same process with my study. However, instead of dealing with the toppling pile on my chair, I decided to take the Thor, the laptop into the living room to finish up my day. The pile can sit on the chair another 24 hours before I deal with those papers. There are bills in there, so that pile will get dealt with tomorrow.

Getting organized is hard, staying organized is harder. I use three methods that work well together.

Dave Allen - Getting things done - great for those procrastination people - me included.
The Flylady - okay, this is a bit hokey, a bit over the top, but it works.
Julie Morgenstern - If I could have her over for lunch, it would be a dream. I would love for her to see my office and give me a few pointers.

More randomness- Last night I made jam, why? I was sick of looking at these peaches purchased with the intention of eating, but they were not the best eating peaches. I used Christine Ferber's Mes Confitures recipe for peach jam and was not too pleased with the results.

Initially things looked good, but the second boiling did not yield the lovely syrup I had hoped. I canned it anyways and we'll have it with waffles.

I'm hoping that there will be quinces at the market this week. I could use some quince preserves. Quince compote with ginger poundcake.... Yum.

The last of the pears should be picked tomorrow. I can't believe how lovely they look.

Dinner tonight? I'm thinking out. Really.