Ferino’s Pizzeria - When we’re too tired to cook we get a large pepperoni and garlic pizza from Ferino’s.   It’s by far the best pizza place that I’ve ever eaten at.

Pane d’Amore Artisan Bakery -  I still make 99.9% of our bread.  But once in awhile it’s nice to try something new.  Last night’s multi-grain rolls were chewy and delightful.  I keep thinking about the lovely cakes and cookies that they were selling that I somehow managed to not buy.

Don’s Pharmacy – When I first moved to the Port Townsend area I went to another pharmacy.  After they tried to give me the wrong medicine the second time, and I had to talk to three different people to convince them that the pills they were dishing out were not what my doctor had prescribed, I decided a change was in order.   I made the switch to Don’s Pharmacy.  There’s no wait.  I get the right pills.  There’s a soda fountain.  What more could a gal want?

Swain’s – Port Townsend does not have a Target, Rite Aide or a Fred Meyer.  There would be protests should one of those businesses try to establish itself here.  (I am not kidding.)  What we do have is Swain’s.  When my hair dryer died a few months ago I prayed that Swains had a new one that I could buy.  If they didn’t I faced a long drive to Silverdale or Port Angeles.  Swain’s came through.

I hope you have a wonderful Fourth of  July.  The above photo is from a trip to Port Hadlock, Washington that we took yesterday.

Lost aired its series finale on Sunday.   We got to see it on Monday and we loved it.  The ending was controversial, but even people that didn’t like the way the show ended loved this moment:

Last night we learned what most of you knew on Tuesday. We learned who won the latest season of Dancing With The Stars.

Chocolate Bread – I’ve been busy over at Bread Machine Diva.  One of my most recent experiments is in chocolate bread.  I’ve made two different kinds, but this is my favorite.

Sourdough Starter Tips – I’ve been dreaming about sourdough.  Sourdough bread.  Sourdough pancakes.    Evidently sourdough isn’t as difficult to care for as I imagined.

Taste Test Your Wine – As you may know, the Man of the House is also the Washington Winemaker.  We periodically try different wines to help is figure out what we like, what we don’t like and what sort of wine we should try to make next.  Taste tests are a great way to help us figure this out.  Don’t you need a group of people to do blind taste tests?  Nope.  As the Man of the House explains, taste tests can be done with as few as two people.

You are what you do all day -  This article about life’s compound interest will make you think about how your goals relate to your daily to-do list.  Running short on dinner conversation?  Ask your friends and family about this idea and see what they think.

Here’s a clip from the movie:

After watching the movie I vowed . . .

• to have a clean house
• if raccoons ever live in my attic I will remove them and not bring them loaves of bread to eat
• to value litter boxes and change them frequently
• to socialize more to make sure that I don’t go all Little Edie
• to live in the present
• to have a clean house

And despite it all, I think that if I ever would have met Little Edie that we would have been friends. She had a bizarre fashion sense, but the woman had style.  She was lost in the past, but seemed to see the general human condition with clarity.  Yes, we would have been friends. I just wouldn’t have spent much time inside her house.

Then we moved to the forest.

Because of the many, many trees surrounding our rental home we can no longer get a satellite signal.   We now have a three part system for watching TV.

1. Antenna – The rental house came with a working television antenna.  My family gave us converter boxes and we were set.  Because of the many, many trees we only get one channel reliably.  However it was enough to get the Man of the House through most of football season.
2. Hulu.com – Our Internet service is marginal, but it’s just fast enough for us to watch TV on the Internet.  Hulu is where we watch most of our online TV.  We registered and told Hulu our favorite shows.  When there’s a new episode it lets us know and provides a handy interface for watching the show.

   The Man of the House is very handy and was able to link my laptop to the television set.  So even though we’re watching TV via the Internet, we still view it on our television set.

   

3. Netflix – For $15.99 a month Netflix will send us two DVDs at a time.  When we lived in town,  we didn’t go to many movies and we didn’t have any premium channels.  So we’re going a little wild with Netflix.  We’ve watched Deadwood, Julie & Julia, True Blood, Quantum of Solace and loads of other shows.They also have shows that you can watch instantly on the Internet.  So we link up my laptop and the TV and watch the Netflix shows on the big screen.   For instance, they have Lost available to watch instantly.  As the series winds up its final year it’s been a pleasure to see season one again.

This works so well that when we find a house to buy we may not get satellite TV again.  As long as we’ve got a fast Internet connection and at least one live channel with football, we’re good.