One more Oxo goodie

Read the measurements from the top? Brilliant.

Can a can opener change your life?

As part of March of Tools, I had to start with my Oxo can opener. This replaced an electric can opener I had for years and I will buy no other kind -- forever. It works better than any I have ever used and it goes right in the dishwasher.

This photo shows the beginning of winter time salsa preparation. It all starts with the can.

This is a unitasker, but it is so superb that we will overlook that normally fatal flaw. Same goes for the ice cream maker.

March of the Tools

Heather Bailey is letting the world know about some of her favorite tools. I decided to join in because I am a bit persnickety about my gadgets and also because I am battling a sinus infection that has complete loss of creative thought as one of its side effects. I am forced to steal ideas from others until I done with the beautiful evil that is prednisone.

In the words of Alton Brown, who has inspired many of my kitchen gadget purchases: Death to unitaskers.

My only sunshine

Today, the only sun to be had comes in the form of Snapple Le-mmm-on tea. Yet somehow the pollen count is still freakishly high and we are in a drought. Go figure.

Eat my dust, Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Why do I love my husband? I won't even begin to count the ways here -- the Internet wouldn't hold them all. But really now, the man swings on flagpoles. How could I not love him? (He also writes about computer programming stuff that is far beyond the grasp of this liberal arts major's mind and he makes it interesting.)

Bigger than a tree

I really liked the show "Joan of Arcadia," despite its somewhat watered down theology. I liked that Joan, the girl who saw visions of God, could really banter with Him and ask the hard questions. I get that. One of my favorites scenes was of Joan walking and talking with God and pleading with Him to show her a miracle -- just to let her see one with her own eyes. They stopped walking in front of a towering, glorious tree.

Joan (as I remember the conversation): "Seriously? A tree?"

God: "Let's see you make one."

Take a look at a real live miracle of Biblical proportions over at Cohen McGowan's site.

Exciting, yet somehow very wrong

Well, whatever you're thinking after that title, I'm confident you are not on the right track.

Despite everything that I know to be good and right when it comes to doing laundry, I took my first foray into wool felting this weekend. The first step -- washing a 100 percent wool sweater in the washing machine in scalding hot water -- seemed like something I should not admit in public, but I was tempted by the thrifted sweater and its intoxicating colors. And I had too much work to do to actually find time for crafting. This way, I was creating something in the machine while I worked. Yes, that must be it.

 

Maybe I will eventually end up with a wool throw like the ones from Sweet Felt Goods (love that name). I can see myself now, blanket stitching a pile of wool poolside this summer. Two wrongs don't make a right, I know.