This is obviously what my blog is named after. But after watching this, I think Hal looks like/ reminds me of Steve Earl. No?

Lost and found in a border town

I have moved. What's funny is when I started this blog I lived in the city, but there was always that notion that I would move back to a small town. I grew up in a small town, moved away to a small town, went to college in a small town then moved to the city. I felt stuck there for 14 years. Then one day I got the notion that I was moving. And I found a job in a tiny town that everyone seems to love.
I live in an 116-year-old house. ( built in 1900. I feel like if I stay here for a while I should celebrate it's birthday every new year.)

I laugh at the quirks of small town livings. For example, Today I went to the post office. There are two mail slots for outgoing mail. Local and out- of- town. I vaguely recall this in my childhood home. But, in the big city it's just outgoing mail. Besides, everything goes to Phoenix to be sorted now anyways. Can't they sort their own mail? I mean come on, what do they get  15 letters a day?

There is a Harvest moon tonight, also some sort of fire celebration at the high school. I see fire particles going up into the sky from my house and jubilant chatter and a marching band. It seems too early for homecoming, but I assume that is what's going on.

How to Find Yourself.

Crocking

I refer to the act of using the crock pot as crocking. People will ask me what I'm doing and if I have something in the crockpot, I'll reply that I'm crocking.

For my birthday I bought myself a new crockpot: 

Never before had I had one with a dial! I now don't have to set my alarm for 3am to turn something off. I've used it three times now and everything has come out lovely.

I wanted the one that stired- 

and the one one with the meat thermometer.


But decided on the Hamilton Beach programmable because it was half the price. Who knows, maybe some day I'll have three crockpots for various crocking needs.

When I got my last crock about three years ago, I  tried to make various recipes from Pinterist such as this potato soup. The problem is it calls for 5lbs of potatoes and 64 oz of chicken broth. That is a lot. And I followed their insturctions to a T. Never again...

After that I only made beans and pot roasts in the crock. I don't have the weither to make anything that requires a lot of chopping.

In buying the crock I bought two packages of lentles. My mom always made lentle soup and I used to by the dry Kosher mixes and un kosher them with pork products. ( I was kosher for a while then said eh. I don't really eat pork because I think it upsets my stomach. That is until now.) I went to Sprouts and bought a small pork roast because I heard somewhere on pinterst it's good to put a roast in with your lentles or pintos. Then I cooked it on low for six hours. Then I fell alseep so it stayed in the crock all night. But the results were wonderful. I think I only put season salt ( My one true love) and maybe garlic salt. I bought Cumin, because I thought I needed it, but ended up not using it.

Last weekend I went a little wild and crocked both days.

The first day I mad this all purpose chicken. You pretty much just line the bottom of the crock with chicken breasts, dump in half a cup of chicken stock ( I don't measure) and add whatever seasoning you like. ( I'm pretty much a staple of season salt and table Mrs Dash.) and then you let it cook on low for six hours. The key is not to open it. And then you have shred with a fork chicken that you can use for anything.

The next day I made a roast and I decided to try the pinterst belief that Soda tenderizes beef. So I bought one of those one litter bottles of Coke for .99 and ended up marinating the beef in it over night then throwing the whole thing in the crock for a 10 hr slow and low. It was tinder, but there is also a weird sweet to it. The last roast I made I used what I had/ had bought. New potatoes and carrots on bottom, the roast. The last bit of the soda I had in the fridge and a little bit of the beef stock I had. Whatever herbs I had on hand and no salt. I find that lately my food ends up too salty when I'm crocking. I later added some of this Irish butter I had bought at sprouts that was garlic herb. I had expected to use it on bread, but then I said why not. That Mississpi roast that people pin has a whole stick of butter, a packet of ranch dressing mix and a packet of a jus. So I closed the lid and 10 hours on low. When it got into the last two hours I checked on it. tinder and no weird taste associated with the over use of soda. So good.

Lush

I went to Lush last week because I was out of Dark Angels. I thought I wanted to try Herbalism. I remember being turned off by the smell initially, but Dark Angels is sorta rough. Plus they said that Herbalism helps acne. So I bought both. Oh boy now I wish I had just bought Dark Angels. I never feel that my skin is clean with Herbalism and it has this sour smell ( I assume from the rice vinegar.) Which might make me throw up one morning. So now I pretty much use dark angels after I use it, and I'm only using it because I wasted 15.00 on it. :(

I know if I have an Etsy shop I will never do this,unless the review is also negative.

Getting a why don’t you like me note with in hours of giving a shop on Etsy a 3 star review, is sorta like those girls I’ve always known who ask me over and over why I don’t like them. It’s annoying and it doesn’t make me like you anymore. For a shop that has over 2,000 reviews, I’m sorta shocked that she took the time to whine to me about giving her 3 stars. Three stars is ” It’s okay” and her product is okay. Yes, her shop was mentioned on XOJane and probably got a ton of business from that. And I did order one of the you’re gonna like this or hate this scents, but it’s still just okay. I’ll wear it from time to time, because I’m a scent collector, but I don’t smell it and say “God this is wonderful!”.The real reason I gave her the three stars is because it’s nothing special, but an usual scent that I wanted in my collection. . And she took too long to get it to me. Other shops have exceeded their expected shipping time frame, while she took a week and a half to ship it. 


This was my review: 
Out of the roller _________  is intense, but it drys down to a nice scent. As a scent hoarder, I'm happy to have it in my collection. Packaging was nice and came quickly once shipped.


And this was her letter: Hi Sarah,

I wanted to reach out as I just read your recent feedback for the ______ perfume oil and it sounds like it has been overall positive for you (I know that this one is a very strong scent), but I see that you left a 3-star rating. I strive for a 5-star experience for all of my customers so if there is anything that I can do to improve your rating please let me know. Feedback is meant to reflect not just an individual expectation of scent (which is very personal and differs so much from nose to nose), but also the entire transaction including communication, packaging, quality of the product, and excellent customer service and I would hope that overall your shopping experience in my shop was a positive one that perhaps would total more than 3-stars.

So please let me know if you are unsatisfied in any way - I will work with you to make it right as your satisfaction is my number one priority.

I thank you very much for your time and hope you have a wonderful rest of the week.

All my best,

____________

Three stars for you!