Ramps and peppers together, oh my

It seemed high time to put some of the ramps I purchased on Sunday to good use, so I made a double batch of pesto. Most of it I'll freeze for use in the post-ramp season, but tonight I plopped a dollop of this green goodness atop some fresh mozzarella atop a freshly burned and peeled red pepper. Such a nice combo of creamy, sweet, fiery and fresh. Oh, and served alongside the toasted remainder of best-ever challah? Well, that's a great meal!

Though I do not wish to, I feel I should check on the water heater. Blimey. And if you were wondering if T left town today, why, yes he did! Seriously, people, map his travel with household weirdness and our children's illness, and I swear you'll get a statistically über-significant correlation.

Sucky surprise

Y'all, do you know what I have done for the past hour? I have a babysitter for a few and decided to finish putting our guest room back together now that all painting is (beautifully!) done. Eager to do a thorough job yet certain it wouldn't take long to reorganize things (never assume such silly nonsense), I basically unpacked every drawer and shelf so that I could quickly go back through things, tossing the old, keeping the wanted. Our guest room directly abuts our HVAC room, and I went in to clear those shelves and pare back dramatically (how many empty boxes does one really need to save?). At some point, I noticed that my feet felt wet. Was it just cold linoleum which always feels rather like clammy skin? It became clear that clamminess was the best-case scenario and dreadfully wrong. Long story short, the hot water heater is leaking, and by the looks and feel of things, for some time. Shit.

Now literally everything is stacked in precarious piles in our was-clean guest room; it looks like a shed from Hoarders blew up in here. Not good. Just not good.

Also, I just found that the crotch of my shorts appears have to have a fairly sizable hole and am now feeling thankful that I've had to wear a raincoat all day!

Despite the chilly rain, a peony

Although we've been saddled with some seriously craptastic weather, this peony (the one I'll get from this bush) emerged triumphant. Because it's supposed to keep on raining and I didn't want this beauty to be ruined, I cut it early and hope it will still bloom winningly on my sill. Gorgeous, gorgeous! A sure sign of some bit of spring.