Well, a couple good things did happen yesterday (other than my clever fix of a knitting mess-up).

First of all, as I was heading home from school (I wasn't getting anything done, it was loud, and I had exams to grade) I decided to run by the local glass company. This is a long-term business, it's been here for like 50 years.

I planned on just asking the guy if he could do it, and maybe have him measure to cut the mirror (I guess I was assuming cutting mirror took a long time). Instead, he looked at the mirror, and said, "If you have about 30 minutes right now, I can do it now."

It didn't even take that. He cut a new piece of mirror, pulled out the broken pieces of the old one, glued it in, taped a couple of narrow blocks of styrofoam over the edges, and told me to leave the tape-and-styrofoam on for 24 hours.

It cost $15, which I'm guessing is about 10% of what I would have paid at the dealership.

So: broken car mirror, go to a glass company.

(The bad news is it looked like maybe they were going out of business, there was a For Sale sign up in front of the building. Or maybe they rent the building and the owner was just selling, or they were moving. I should have asked. But I get shy about stuff like that sometimes)

But, on the other side, I've partially fulfilled my 3-50 commitment for the month.

(Have you heard of this? It's kind of a grassroots thing. The idea is, each month, you spend a total of $50 (at a minimum) spread over three locally-owned businesses. As I have a quilt shop in town, and the place I like to buy cards and gifts for people is run by one of my AAUW colleagues, it's usually not too hard. The idea is, I guess, you're supporting local businesses and the $50 thing was based on a calculation that if a certain critical mass of people - not necessarily everyone in a town - did it, it would keep downtowns and locally-owned businesses alive. And I think restaurants count too.).

I also spent part of it at the locally-run grocery. I had not shopped there much, because when they first re-opened, it seemed like they didn't carry any of the brands I normally use. But maybe they've been taking patron requests, because I see they now have Daisy brand products (my favorite sour cream). And they went up GREATLY in my estimation when I found they had the Saco powdered buttermilk - nowhere else in town has it, and I don't think I've even seen it in shops in Sherman. The powdered buttermilk is a boon to have if you like to bake, and sometimes do things that require buttermilk, but don't want to have to run out and get it and then either struggle to use it up (I drink it sometimes but it's not my favorite beverage ever) or have it go bad.

(I had stopped in to buy whipped cream for the AAUW cake).

I also made a fruit sauce. I kinda-sorta followed a Mark Bittman recipe, with a couple modifications. Here are the pithy instructions:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
~4 T butter (you can use less, it's partly to make the sauce glossy)
1, 12-ounce bag frozen UNSUGARED strawberries
1, 12-ounce bag frozen UNSUGARED raspberries (These are the fruit where the whole fruit/slices are frozen "loose" and are in a bag - they are not in a syrup)

about 1 to 1 1/2 T cornstarch, mixed with water.

You mix the water and sugar and bring them to a boil over medium high heat, then melt the butter in it (turn the heat down to medium). When it has mixed and thickened a little, you dump in the fruit. Bring it back to a boil, cook and stir for maybe 5 minutes (turn the heat down after it boils). Then slowly add the cornstarch-water slurry and cook over medium to low heat until it gets thick and glossy.

It's simple and pretty good. You can keep cooking it down more to make it thicker, but remember it will set up a bit more after it cools.

(I also was reminded of my childhood, when I got in trouble for using up my mom's cornstarch. You can make a non-Newtonian fluid out of cornstarch and water, and it's tons of fun to play with. Actually, it's probably fairly cheap as toys go, I think her main annoyance was that I used it up and didn't tell her.

Also, one of my favorite Mythbusters "Taking it to the extreme" myths involved this - after the unsuccessful ninja walk-on-water, Jamie made a giant vat of the cornstarch-water mixture for Adam to run across. It was pretty impressive and looked like a lot of fun - as long as he would run across it, it would support him, but when he stopped and stood at the end, he sank into it like quicksand. ("Oh, this feels SO wrong" was his comment, as I remember).

And one last good thing - when I bent over to brush the (dry) cornstarch I had dropped on my pants leg, my nose was down near my knee, and looking at my leg from that perspective I thought, "wait, my thigh looks smaller than it used to." So I pulled out the measuring tape and, even though I was wearing slacks, measured over them. Yup, an inch and a half smaller than the last time I measured (like a year ago), and I'm definitely in that "magic category" of women who are allegedly protected from heart disease because they have larger-than-sticks but well-muscled thighs. (I will hasten to say that I'm happier about the allegedly-protected-from-heart-disease thing than the reduction; and anyway, my thighs are still bigger than what Madison Avenue or Hollywood would consider "acceptable." But hey, if I'm less likely to keel over of an exploded heart at a young age, I'll take it.)