Some food-related (mostly) things we enjoyed this past week:

Last Friday night we attended an event at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.  No matter your politics, it’s an interesting place to visit, with lots of artifacts, exhibits and collections to memorialize both the momentous and mundane aspects and events of President Bush’s time in office.  One of the more affecting exhibits is a mangled steel beam from one of the Twin Towers destroyed on 9/11.  Experts believe that the beam is “impact steel,” meaning that it was struck directly by one of the hijacked jets.  It is incredible to see and touch (they encourage visitors to touch it) while remembering the terrible events of that day.  Other interesting exhibits at the Library include a replica of the Oval Office (you can sit at the desk and pretend to push the red button!) and the “Decision Points Theater,” designed to show visitors the decision-making process and policies developed during Bush’s administration.  There is a lot more to see and experience there, and we will definitely go back.

After nearly 8 years of living in our current house, the rooms with carpeting were definitely beginning to show their age, as was our old canister-style vacuum.  We recently upgraded to a Dyson upright vacuum, and boy can we tell a difference.  A disgusting, disgusting difference.  The Dyson sucks up so much stuff that it’s almost as if our carpets and rugs had never previously been vacuumed (but they were, at least every other week, I swear!)  And the vacuum receptacle is conveniently clear, so you can actually see all the gross lint, cat fur, dust, dirt, etc. that you’ve been walking on and living with for who knows how long.  The above photo was taken after I had already vacuumed our bedroom carpet with the old vacuum, again with the new one, and one more time with the new one — and the receptacle still filled up with gunk.  My allergies are wondering why we didn’t upgrade a lot sooner.

Garden Update (yes, it’s been a slow week around here, favorites-wise):  our eggplant plants are still producing, although something seems to be trying to eat the eggplants before we do.  The nibbling appears to just be on the skin and surface of the eggplant though, so hopefully they are okay inside.  We’re also still getting cucumbers, but they are weirdly shaped and turning yellow before they are big enough to pick.  We plan to make a batch of pickles this weekend and will see if they are still good.  Our tomato plants have stopped producing fruit, but are still thriving and just started flowering again, so we should have a nice batch for late summer/early fall.