NSV (Not Suitable For Vegetarians) I'm Sorry

How many of y'all remember Hints from Heloise? Anybody? It was one of those regular syndicated columns in the newspaper like Dear Abby or Ann Landers or the Daily Horoscope. It was always in the section of the paper where the women's news was. You know- recipes, articles on flower arranging, marriages, births, etc. 
Anyway, Heloise's column was filled with household hints. I read her every day as a child because I read everything I could get my hands on as I was reading-material starved. People would write in with their household hints which we would probably call "hacks" now. Ways to do things around the old homeplace that you might not think of. Heavy on the cleaning side of things. Ways to make the housewife's life easier. Mostly I remember a spell of time when everyone was writing in about things you could do with nylon net. All I remember about that was using it to make a scrubber for cleaning the dishes. 
But I'm sure that a lot of good ideas came through that little column and I sort of miss it. Don't we all need a Heloise in our life? 
So here's my Heloise hint for today. 
See that avocado on top of that salad up there? I can't even tell you how old that avocado was. Weeks? At least. Maybe a month. Maybe more. And it is beautiful, isn't it? Perfectly ripe, but not overly so. 
What I've discovered is that if you put an avocado in the refrigerator that's the tiniest short of being soft, it will last for a very long time. That's all- just put it in the refrigerator. 
I discovered this from buying avocados at Costco. You can get like five organic avocados there for six bucks or something but most of us probably don't use up that many avocados in the time that it would take some of them to get overripe. I mean, some people probably eat an avocado a day, at least, but I'm not one of them. So I was wasting a lot of avocados until I learned, mostly by accident, about refrigerating them. I was stunned! 
You will be too! 
I am using a lot of exclamation points on purpose to share my enthusiasm about this great avocado hack! 

It takes so little to excite me. 

I have my corned beef simmering away in a pot. I really do not have any emotional attachment to St. Patrick's Day. I think I am probably at least some percentage Irish but whatever. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not much of a nationalist. Yesterday when Glen and I were driving around looking for that house, we passed this...thing...that was built of wood that had at least a dozen smallish American flags flying from it. 
"Huh," I said. "Guess we're in America."
This thing wasn't even in someone's yard. It was on the shoulder of the road. A paved road. 
But here's what I do very much like about St. Patrick's Day- it gives me an excuse to cook a corned beef with cabbage. I love corned beef, even (and this is gross) the canned stuff. I NEVER eat that any more but I would if I thought I could get away with it. A good corned beef hash made with that meatlike substance is hard to beat. Throw a couple of eggs on it and you've got heaven in a skillet. 
But no, this is the real kind of corned beef, or at least the sort you buy in the package that has slimy blood all around it along with a tiny packet of spices. I've got mine simmering on the stove now and will be adding the potatoes and onions and carrots and turnips and cabbage in a little while. 

Those are some gnarly root vegetables, aren't they? My carrots are just disappointing this year. They usually do so well in my garden but this year they've either not grown much at all or else split before they got big. The turnips have done much better. Mr. Moon is not fond of cooked carrots, in fact, they rate right up there with canned peas in his estimation. And he doesn't jump with joy for turnips either. I make him sound so picky and really, he's not. He's like all of us. He likes what he likes and doesn't like what he doesn't like. It's not a character issue. It's just personal taste. 

I tell you what he DOES love, though, and which I also make for St. Patrick's Day and that's Irish soda bread. He loves it. Who doesn't? 

So it all evens out. 

Here's a picture for you. 

Can you see the tiny anole? What great camouflage. He or she was hiding in the pea  vines. It was so small I can't believe I saw it at all. I took the picture blind because the sun was shining was shining so brightly. I was picking peas AGAIN. That two rows of sugar snaps has given us a nice bounty this year. Vergil's father, who is a practitioner of biodynamic farming, suggested to Jessie and Vergil that instead of pulling up their pea plants, they should just snip them at the ground, leaving the roots behind. I had known that peas are nitrogen fixers for the soil, but I did not realize that leaving the roots encourages this process. So I am going to do that too this year. 

It's been a quiet day here, nothing out of the ordinary. Not too hot, but certainly not chilly. Supposed to rain tonight and start getting cooler tomorrow. I'm going to go see the urologist at 10:45 tomorrow morning and then I'll probably be going to the radiology place to get another look at that stone. It has not bothered me much today, although I may just be getting used to my back aching. Of course I'm second-guessing myself AGAIN about lithotripsy. 
I'm sorry. I'll shut up about it. 

Here's a picture of the very healthy-looking buckeye volunteer coming up in the bed beneath the giant live oak in the front yard. I am at the point in my life where something like this thrills me, as does a new shoot on a slow-growing houseplant. 
As I said, it takes very little to excite me. 

Perhaps I should buy some nylon net and see what I can do with it. 
If that happens, I'll be sure to share. 
Meanwhile, do you have a favorite household hint? I'd love to hear it. 

Love...Ms. Moon