This post is a little dated, mainly because of my keyboard issues. However, I just realized I can use copy and paste to plug in the missing h’s and g’s. Ha! I win this round, computer.

“Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?”

So the Joker asks in the Tim Burton Batman movie. What I want to know is, have you ever picked green tomatoes in the pale moonlight?

That’s what I found myself doing the other night. A freeze warning was up, and I kept telling myself all day to go pick all the tomatoes, but I didn’t remember. Nine pm rolled around before I remembered again. So there I was, gathering armload after armload in the chilly damp dark, feeling for them blindly and plucking them off the vine. Take a load in, dump them on the counter and back out again.

I have them all in paper bags with bananas; some are ripening but there’s a lot that won’t, I think. I also encountered some slugs on some of them. Yuck!

So the first frost has happened (that was 11/9, I think), and this weekend is the last farmers’ market. I need to go and buy a ton of stuff. It’s getting dark early but I’ve been lighting a lot of candles, which cheers me up. After dinner is a nice cozy time with the candles lit and everybody doing their homework ’round the kitchen table. (Or arguing with me about how they don’t need to do it and they honestly don’t care if they fail their quiz on Friday.)

We’ve been eating at home last week and this week, with two exceptions: we tried out a new wing place one night (but stuck mainly to happy hour specials and the beer special) and one night we ordered Pizza Hut because all pizzas were 50% off when you ordered online. It’s so gross, I KNOW, but sometimes it’s the best.

We’ve had chicken nuggets, broccoli and baked potatoes with fixins’; sweet potato pancakes and maple sausage; fish sticks and canned corn; chicken cutlets with stuffing and green bean casserole (using green beans frozen from the summer); hot dogs and leftovers; scrambled eggs and everything bagels; and another round of homemade chicken soup. And of course, spaghetti.

One gloomy day last week, I baked some chocolate chip cookies that substituted applesauce for oil and (I realized too late) egg. I was wary, but they turned out pretty good, and Gemma and Sebastian really liked them. (recipe here) I used whole wheat pastry flour too.

Last Saturday, we all enjoyed some delicious food at a party for my brother and sister-in-law. Mmm, potato-crusted salmon with horseradish sauce. Getting all of us presentable for the party took some time, and it was kind of lucky that it was fall break and the kids were off for two days. I took Aidan to get a haircut (my last pass at it was pretty bad) at Hair Cuttery. $18 plus tip! I think it’s more now because he’s 10. He and I also went out and got him new sneakers, which he desperately needed. Sneakers were allowed at the venue and thank God, because I hate buying dress shoes that get worn only once. Sebastian refused a haircut and I let him slide. Gemma had dress shoes that I bought last year off of Facebook and which now finally fit her. All the kids had clothes in their closets that worked. The only snag was Aidan’s khakis, which had a big grass stain on them. But after about 36 hours soaking in hot water and Biz detergent, it was 90% reduced and he was good to go.

After the party, I ran into a new clothes need: Aidan needed warm underclothes to wear to his soccer game. By league rules they had to be black. He started talking about Nike stuff but I took him right to Target on Sunday morning and we found something that worked. I should have been looking in the thrift shops or on Facebook for that stuff, knowing that eventually it would get cold.

Hubs and I were also able to use what was already in our closets for the party. It seems like WAS ages ago that I used to run out and buy something new practically every time I had a party or an event or a date.

I’ve sold more lots of baby/toddler clothes on eBay as well as some Christmas dresses. My bedroom and Gemma’s closet are full of more items to be listed. I finally ordered some appropriate poly envelopes to use, which will make shipping cheaper. Everything is copy, said Nora Ephron’s mother. And also, everything is inventory, or just about. (Or, in-VENT-tory, as my kids call it when playing Minecraft.)

Today I returned some things to Target: some of those under clothes that didn’t fit, and a bin of cheese balls that Aidan talked me into buying. They tasted straight up like wood. I didn’t think Target would take back opened food, but they did!

A couple other good things:

• My eBates check is coming in the mail: $22.
• The dishwasher works.
• The kids’ winter coats from last year all seem to fit.
• I gave away half a bag of coffee through the Buy Nothing group.
• Hubs finished patching and sanding the problem areas in the dining room so now I can paint them and be done.

Not so good:

• The fridge is not working again, necessitating the removal of most fridge food to the garage fridge, or risk spoilage.
• Sebastian keeps waking up at 4 am, and staying up.
• This computer still has keyboard issues.
• The tub faucet is leaking.
• The tub is leaking into the kitchen ceiling.

I’ve been feeling bad about not buying organic and fair trade, but too broke. Still getting the farmers’ market meats and produce, but have switched back to regular milk, ice cream, candy (got some 50% off Halloween candy at CVS), snacks, etc.

I want all my purchases to be deliberate and thought-out but lord, there’s so much that has to be purchased. Not just food but batteries, paper, shampoo, etc.