"mending the hamper bag" (or "at the end of this post, there's a frozen-chocolate-peanut-butter-banana recipe. yum")

I've spent some time lately being annoyed by the hamper bag. In a happy turn of events for you, I realized early on that my hamper troubles are probably less stimulating to others than they are even to me. I've been doing lackadaisical battle with the hamper bag for something like two or three years now, and now that we're once again in the throes of Tucson's Rodeo Days (meaning two days off for me and a vague underlying feeling of guilt that I've never, not once in ten years, actually gone to the rodeo or experienced a desire to), I decided that "Mending the Hamper Bag" was going on my list of Things to Accomplish During Rodeo Days.

So I pulled out the needle and some brown thread, detached the hamper bag from the hamper, and proceeded to stitch it up at the corner where it's been split at the seam. The whole process took me four minutes. I wasn't even motivated to be careful. There's just not that much at stake when you're dealing with a hamper bag.

I do believe that my quality of life has been totally improved now that the seam of the hamper bag has been re-stitched so that the hamper bag will no longer slide irritatingly down to the bottom of the basket every time you open the hamper which is like twenty-five times a day. And I'd like to demand some answers: WHY?  WHY do I put off for three years things that will take me four minutes to accomplish and radically change my outlook on life?! It's not like Rodeo Days hasn't happened before. Ugh.

Anyway, also on my 2012 List of Things to Accomplish During Rodeo Days:
Plant things.
Clean house.
Clean vacuum filter.
Vacuum dog. (I wish.)
Write letter to grandmother.
Buy birthday card and small bird-related gift for grandmother.
Generally be better granddaughter.
Eat salad. Lots. Of salad.
Deal with pictures from sister's December/January visit. (March is almost here? What?! God. Everyone looks different now. What's the point?)
Buy shoes for Laura's wedding that won't embarrass either one of us.
Write. (A given. Not a given that I'll accomplish it. A given that it will be on the list. It's on every list I've ever created. Not always authoritatively checked off, however.)
Build patio out by garden in the back. (Yeah, we all know this isn't going to happen. Not if I have to write. Or buy shoes for a wedding. Either of those things alone could take me years to accomplish.)
Beer. Drink it, buy it, whatever. It's Rodeo Days. Beer needs to be somehow involved. (I saw cowboys out last night eating pizza, by the way. Just thought you'd be interested. You might have thought I was making up this Rodeo thing, but it should be clear now that I'm so not.)
Make English muffins.

Tomorrow we'll find out how many of these things I've accomplished.

Meanwhile, do this:

Take a couple bananas. Slice them into thick slices - like 1/2 inch or so. Put them on a piece of foil or waxed paper on a baking sheet.

Clear out your freezer so that the baking sheet will fit in there.

Melt some good chocolate in a small bowl (so the melted chocolate has some depth). I used a bar of of 60% chocolate I had lying around from Christmas cookie baking.

Get out the peanut butter and put some peanut butter on each banana slice. Like, a dollop. Whatever that means to you.

Put a peanut-buttered banana slice on a fork and dip into chocolate until the whole thing is coated with glossy, chocolaty deliciousness. Let chocolate drip off. Place chocolate-coated banana slice on baking sheet. Repeat with all banana slices.

Put in freezer until the chocolate is hardened and the bananas are nice and solid. Eat. Store in a container in the freezer.

If you want, once the chocolate is hard, melt some white chocolate and cut the corner off a plastic bag and fill it with melted white chocolate and pipe little designs onto the bananas. I did hearts. The Guatemalan had had a rough day at Architecture School.

I don't like bananas much, but I like these puppies.