Sinking feeling

Things I had to do today to fix the kitchen sink (for the second time in less than a month).

1. Shut off the cold water with a pipe wrench, incidentally breaking off the knob and stem.
2. Call EWEB to find out how to shut off the new cut-out valve at the water meter. (WD-40 and a vise-grips on the handle for extra leverage.)
3. Bike to BiMart for a new cold-water shut-off valve, then drive to Jerry's for new valve springs and seats because the type BiMart carries are the wrong size. (Which is why I'm replacing them for the third time.)

Hopefully, this time, the little washers won't tear out again, the replacement handle (a gift from Denise's cousin-with-the-hardware-store, after I jammed the set-screw and stripped the hex nut on the previous one) will stay on, and the damn thing won't start dripping again less than a day after I took it apart to fix it.

I am so tired of plumbing.

Stalking

Spent some time Monday cleaning up the garden for Denise, so she can plant snap peas and beans and, eventually, tomato starts. The raspberries are blooming and even setting fruit, with the enthusiastic assistance of the honeybees. And when I pulled out the grass from around the rhubarb, I found out it's way past ready to pick--12-15 inches high, and as thick as my big toe. We brought in a nice sized basket of stems, and I gave Denise her choice: pie, crisp, or upside-down cake.

She chose crisp, which is fine with me. I honestly like pie a little better, but after wrestling with the sink all day, crisp is so much easier. This is an adaptation of Grandma Gosar's Apple Crisp* recipe, here adapted for the ruby stems. (I bought rhubarb in a grocery store, once, before I had my own plants. Is this celery? asked the checker. No, rhubarb, I replied; You use it to make pies. Oh, so it's sweet? Uh, no.)

Rhubarb Crisp

5 cups of sliced rhubarb 
1/3 cup sugar

1 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 T water
1/3 cup butter, melted

Grease a 9x13" cake pan (although I use an 11x11" shallow squared baker I made just for crisps), spread rhubarb evenly in pan and sprinkle 1/3 cup sugar over the top.

Whisk or sift together dry ingredients. Add unbeaten egg and water and mix with a fork until crumbly. Distribute over the top of the fruit, then drizzle with melted butter.

Bake at 350° F. for 40 minutes.

*(For apple crisp, substitute 5-6 cored, sliced apples for the rhubarb. Don't put any sugar over the apple slices, and dust cinnamon over the topping after drizzling the butter.)