Now that it is getting close to going home time, I'm learning that it is pretty universal that the snow bird wives are going to be making "to do" lists as they travel back north. (So get over it, Mike. It's not a peculiarity of mine alone.)
Two years ago I went home and completely reorganized my laundry room and painted the kitchen. Last year, I organized myself a sewing space, put a fence around the front garden, and expanded a garden in the back yard. Mike was recruited to help with the 2009 projects.
Now for this year, I'm thinking about some interior painting to the upstairs of our raised ranch house...but really...only in the thinking stage. It might take a year or two to accomplish.
The thing is, I can get all these fairly recent home magazines at the Venice library in the Friends of the Library used book store and I do like to watch HGTV (although I think it is no where near as good as it used to be a few years ago, and that's another blog for some day). I get ideas. The recent seeds of ideas, though, are all about technology.
Someday, we will have to replace the faucet in out kitchen sink. I do like those faucets where you can pull out a hose and spray the corners of the sink instead of those fairly useless separate sink sprayers. But I am so behind the times. Now you can get a faucet that will turn on with just a glance from a pinky finger, or better yet, your elbow--so if you have been handling, say, raw chicken you won't contaminate the faucet handle with your germ infested hands. (Do you ever wonder how the human race has survived as long as it has?) Don't get me wrong, I am a frequent hand washer, but I do not yet own a "no touch" hand soap dispenser with built in motion detector technology. I thought the soap pumps were kind of neat, but now I realize the pumps are germ magnets.
I believe I have mentioned digital recipe readers before. When they are no longer $300, I would consider having one of those. I don't have room in my small kitchen for a computer and my cook books do take up so much valuable space on my counters. I print out recipes--apologies to the trees for being so wasteful.
I also do like the idea of the digital scale and measuring cup. How precise for baking needs! It even converts weight to volume in case you inherited a bunch of really old or European cookbooks--ones not available on the internet or your handy digital recipe reader. Not prohibitively expensive either, although they are not yet available at the dollar store where I purchase most of my kitchen utensils.
AND this is really cool--a grocery list app for the iphone. You point the phone's camera at the bar code of the item you're running short on and it adds to a list, organized by your favorite supermarkets and even the aisles therein. Obviously, I am not the only person in the world sans iphone because there is available for purchase a single function gizmo that will organize your grocery list. It uses voice recognition technology and will organize by category and print out a list to take to the grocery store. Those magnet enhanced note pads on your refrigerator, pencils--so yesterday.
So decision time is drawing near. Should I go with the cosmetic application of new paint or the life altering upgrades in technology?
I do know that whatever ideas I am jotting down as we head home--They'll be making Mike nervous.
Two years ago I went home and completely reorganized my laundry room and painted the kitchen. Last year, I organized myself a sewing space, put a fence around the front garden, and expanded a garden in the back yard. Mike was recruited to help with the 2009 projects.
Now for this year, I'm thinking about some interior painting to the upstairs of our raised ranch house...but really...only in the thinking stage. It might take a year or two to accomplish.
The thing is, I can get all these fairly recent home magazines at the Venice library in the Friends of the Library used book store and I do like to watch HGTV (although I think it is no where near as good as it used to be a few years ago, and that's another blog for some day). I get ideas. The recent seeds of ideas, though, are all about technology.
Someday, we will have to replace the faucet in out kitchen sink. I do like those faucets where you can pull out a hose and spray the corners of the sink instead of those fairly useless separate sink sprayers. But I am so behind the times. Now you can get a faucet that will turn on with just a glance from a pinky finger, or better yet, your elbow--so if you have been handling, say, raw chicken you won't contaminate the faucet handle with your germ infested hands. (Do you ever wonder how the human race has survived as long as it has?) Don't get me wrong, I am a frequent hand washer, but I do not yet own a "no touch" hand soap dispenser with built in motion detector technology. I thought the soap pumps were kind of neat, but now I realize the pumps are germ magnets.
I believe I have mentioned digital recipe readers before. When they are no longer $300, I would consider having one of those. I don't have room in my small kitchen for a computer and my cook books do take up so much valuable space on my counters. I print out recipes--apologies to the trees for being so wasteful.
I also do like the idea of the digital scale and measuring cup. How precise for baking needs! It even converts weight to volume in case you inherited a bunch of really old or European cookbooks--ones not available on the internet or your handy digital recipe reader. Not prohibitively expensive either, although they are not yet available at the dollar store where I purchase most of my kitchen utensils.
AND this is really cool--a grocery list app for the iphone. You point the phone's camera at the bar code of the item you're running short on and it adds to a list, organized by your favorite supermarkets and even the aisles therein. Obviously, I am not the only person in the world sans iphone because there is available for purchase a single function gizmo that will organize your grocery list. It uses voice recognition technology and will organize by category and print out a list to take to the grocery store. Those magnet enhanced note pads on your refrigerator, pencils--so yesterday.
So decision time is drawing near. Should I go with the cosmetic application of new paint or the life altering upgrades in technology?
I do know that whatever ideas I am jotting down as we head home--They'll be making Mike nervous.
I purchased one of the small (very small) notebook laptops for my kitchen. It's about the size of a paper back book and as thick as a spiral notebook. It's wireless so I can move it around the kitchen and use it to look up recipes. Really handy for $300.00. I also use it at work for meetings so I get double duty out of it. It fits in my purse when I'm ready to go home.
ReplyDeleteI also find my my little notebook computer to be one of the handiest gadgets in my house. I can print from any room in the house if I need something on paper. I don't use mine for recipes because I don't cook.
ReplyDeleteKitchen gadgets don't inspire me. I don't get excited about kitchens.
I'd probably go for new paint.