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Working Wednesday, November 27, 2024

I had a moment when I looked in my freezer and realized I’d eaten all the freezer meals I’d made. And there had been a lot of meals in there, too. But we’re pounding away on the book now, and I haven’t been cooking. So this week, I cooked: spaghetti on Saturday, stroganoff on Sunday, tortellini on Monday, mustard chicken on Tuesday, chicken casserole later today, cheesy beans tomorrow. That should hold me for awhile, maybe even until we finish the book.

So what did you work on this week?

166 Responses

  1. What are cheesy beans?

    Today is pies and casseroles day.
    Tomorrow is turkey and all the rest, plus reheating the casseroles.
    Over the years I’ve learned to break the work into two days — it really helps.

      5. I saw pecorino and thought cheesy beans was right. (Since NYT won’t let me see the recipe I can’t be sure.)

  2. I’m working on adjusting to my new CPAP machine since I was diagnosed with sleep apnea (likely another long Covid issue, although it could just be age). Without notable success at the moment. It’s all very frustrating. So I’m also working on patience…

    Still working on a deep clean of my house. Managed to take everything off the display shelves in the living room (mostly crystals of various sizes and shapes and some cute dragons acquired over the years) as well as all the things on my altar that hangs on the wall. Dusted shelves and everything on them, rearranged them, and set up my Yule altar. So that’s one room…

    Working on not worrying about the weather prediction for tomorrow, which is 3-7 inches of snow (upstate NY, yay). 3 is no big deal. 7 could be a real problem. I’m not going far, but my friend’s apartment is up a really steep hill, and my snow tires aren’t on yet, so we’ll see.

    1. I think it takes time to get used to having that on your face. But once you do get used to it, you should feel much better, since you’d be getting better quality sleep.

      1. It’s partially having it on my face (I had to start out with a protocol for folks with claustrophobia, where you wear it for 45 minutes a day while watching TV or reading). but mostly the uncomfortable-ness of it. The strap at the back presses against my head, and the nose piece pushes up on my nose. Plus it makes my sinuses (already crabby AF all the time) really unhappy. A friend is going to try and make me a lighter weight substitute strap, but I’m not sure that will solve the rest of the issues enough for me to tolerate it. The fibro means I’m a bit “Princess and the Pea” hypersensitive to things, so this is going to be a tough one.

        1. I was “given ” an apnea diagnosis and told I had to get used to it before surgery in October. I tried the full face and couldn’t handle it. I am working on the nose only one better but still only last max 4 hours. It is a bear, specially with sinus issues and allergies. But I researched the heck out of it and found trusted sources that say it is beneficial to use. So I trudge on.
          I am still not sure I want to do the overnight sleep study because it creeps me out to think people are watching me sleep. Like Eddie watching Chandler on Friends!

          1. The sleep study can be creepy, but without it you are doing trial and error with the settings as well as the mask and straps. That will make it much harder to get used to the machine and take longer to get the benefit. In France they do the sleep studies at home. Why don’t you ask your doctor if that option is available in your area?

        2. There are many different styles of mask and finding the right one makes all the difference in how long it takes to get used to a CPAP. If you can go into the supplier’s office and try a bunch of them on it will make it much easier to find the right one, especially since the masks come in 3 different sizes. Despite what Medicare would have you believe, the initial fitting is much more effective if done in person where you can try on a lot of different options.
          The mask they wanted me to try was on back order so I started with a different one than the one my Respiratory Therapist recommended, but once the right one came in, I had very little trouble getting used to it.

          1. Medicare was perfectly happy to send an RT to my home to fit me. I was perfectly happy to let them, since the office is 40 miles away.

            I can’t stand it more than four hours. It feels fine when I go to sleep and four hours later I wake up and have to take it off. There is a feeling of pressure on my forehead (where there is no strap!) and the side strap digs in on the side I sleep on the most. I’m hoping, since the Vivaer procedure in October, to convince Dr. M to let me quit, since I now get days in a row with no events at all. But since the first two weeks in May when I started using it I’ve had no arthritis pain, which is what he predicted. (IT band pain, yes! But not arthritis.)

        1. Me too. Lots of things I love but the dusting not so much. Two or three times a year is plenty.

    3. A friend of mine got forced to get one this week and she’s also having a terrible time with it–vomiting, choking, breathing wrong(?), etc. Last report was, “I lasted 9 minutes.”

    4. Yeah. The trick is to find a mask you can tolerate. I tried 5 before finding one that was comfortable…relatively.

    5. When I got my cpap, they said that for the first 2 weeks or so, congratulate yourself and be proud if you can keep the mask on for an hour each night. If longer that’s splended, but you apparently really have to take it slow and sort of…build up wearing it slowly. Hopefully it’ll turn out great in the end, even though the way there is very frustrating. Sending lots of strength!

      1. You know, when I first got mine, I would use it and just read with it on, before I tried to go to sleep. Just to get used to it. But I had weird popping, clicking noises, or high pitched air escape noises, and that stuff drove me bonkers. It took a while, but I got used to the CPAP. To such an extent years later, I can’t really sleep without it – which I don’t care for at all.

        Good luck to you!

  3. Congrats to Pam! Smart cooking management there. 🙂

    As for me? I quit my job yesterday. Will work out the month of December to wrap various things up, but after one full year of trying to balance two workloads, two or three supervisors, depending on how you parsed it, I decided that I don’t need to put up with that any more.

    In so many ways, I’m feeling lighter than air. 🙂

    4. That sounds like a very good decision for you, Jinx. You gave it a year, and that’s more than long enough.

      1. Well, I gave it more like 7 or 8 years. A few of them I enjoyed, but man oh man, this last pair of assignments, with two official bosses and loads of solitary work with detailed piddly tasks for which the do-er really needed way more info to do correctly? Nope.

        But thank y’all for your support! I am so looking forward for that thing I’ve heard about — “free” “time”?

        I expect to get a lot done.

  4. I made cake and burger fixings for two birthday dinners for K2 (family, then friends), felt like I did dishes all weekend, so now mentally at home I’m inclined to do nothing after work.
    Work itself is busy, and will be nicely busy for the next couple months.

  5. Why is it that dogs get sick at 4 A.M. and cleaning the stairs and landing is such a chore so others don’t have to deal with it? Asking for friend.

  6. I gave myself Saturday to just do my own thing. I ended up finding a pattern that looked cool, rummaging through my stash to find stuff and then making a quilt top. As per usual, I thought I’d knock it out in the morning and then work on my quilting in the afternoon – but I didn’t sweat it AT ALL when I didn’t complete the top until dinner time.

    I also put some work into the Islands CAL (Crochet A Long), and I ended up finishing the body of the blanket last night. The next step is to put the border on. I’m thinking of prepping that, and then waiting til next week to work on it, as I’ve scheduled an appointment for my car that might take a while.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/DC384HQxD2G/

    Today, I have work all day (and being the nice boss, I have the late shift today). But it is working from home, so I should be able to get some muffins in the oven today. Tomorrow is turkey and then schlepping everything to the SILs for the feast.

    Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

    1. You are a very nice boss indeed!

      The blanket is looking gorgeous and I love the quilt top! Would you Mind sharing the pattern name or who it is by?

    4. That is a quilt I could adore — most of my favourite colours and a modern design. Really gorgeous!

  7. I made moussaka, but I am not sure how I feel about it. Too meaty for me, I think. I also made pumpkin pie, banana bread, applesauce and another big jar of kimchi this weekend. The only thing left on my stock up list is meatballs and I am waiting until after the holiday to go get ground beef in bulk.

    I am also thinking about projects for next year. Deb, I had this thought of doing a banned book tarot deck for my daily February project. I’m not really sure if I am up for a project that big, or if I have the knowledge to do it correctly, so I would welcome any thoughts on that.

    Otherwise, I am buying things, or thinking about buying things. I am getting a dashcam for my car. I got socks and underthings. I bought a lot of the little sample packs from Penzies to give as gifts, especially to my trumper mother in law. The money part is making me twitch a little, but I am crossing things off my list which gives me the endorphin hits I crave.

    1. I love the Penzey’s gifts for the mother-in-law!!! Be sure to give her the link to the site, too!

    2. I bought some little jars from Penzies pre-election which will be given as gifts at Yule.

      Tarot is a pretty big project, Lupe. There are 78 cards in a traditional deck, which means 2.5 per day, if you work on it every day. Although I do love the idea of a banned books deck. Would you tie the banned books in to the meanings of the tarot? It might be more manageable to do an oracle deck. Those can be any size you want (my two oracle decks are both 40 cards, but it really varies) and you can give the cards any meaning you want. Say, “Stand your ground,” or “Bravery.” That being said, if you decide to do it, I’m happy to help with advice or whatever.

      1. Thanks Deb,

        An oracle deck sounds like the better fit. I was trying to wrap my head around assigning books to the different suits in a way that made sense and that seems very challenging. I would definitely want to tie the books to the meanings. I have dabbled with tarot after finding my mother’s Rider deck, but gave it to my sister when she got interested.

        I did google banned book tarot and found an already existing deck, but the illustrations aren’t to my taste. I think that I could manage 40 cards in small watercolor paintings, and would love to pick your brain for good pairings after I do some more research.

        1. I like Mural of Flavor, and Arizona Dreaming, which are salt-free, and really perk up soups and stews. I also love Fox Point, which is not salt-free. I sprinkle it on salad, add a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and it’s yummy.

        2. I really like Sandwich Sprinkle mixed in olive oil for dipping bread into and it’s super tasty on cooked veggies.

          We also like BBQ 3000 portico Fruta for roasted veggies.

          I love Penzey’s Vietnamese cinnamon for baking.

        3. I like Justice which is salt-free and oniony. Also Back and Red which is just black pepper and cayenne. Tsardust Memories ha cinnamon, garlic and salt. It’s fun to get the sample packages, which are really generous, and experiment.

  8. Work is bearable at the moment, less so for the colleagues preparing another accreditation visit for next week.
    The annual planning is in progress and next year looks slightly better – just one huge report and site visit.

    But.
    Our head of department – a wonderful, very smart, kind, highly efficient and overall wonderful person working remotely for the past 4 years, just informed us that she handed in her resignation. A great job popped up very near to her, with far better pay, almost the same position as mine. Far better pay.
    My other colleague afterwards expressed understanding that she decided against working under pressure, with hardly any appreciation (they even forgot her 10-year-company-anniversary), and for a shitty payment.
    Which made me doubly sad and a bit angry because I wonder now why I am staying for a lousy salary? And be taken for a Willow (from Buffy, Willow identified herself as the “old reliable” one).
    Too tired and burnt out to update my CV? Hunt for openings, dreading starting fresh all over at age 50+?
    I’d love to just get off work and don’t come back anytime soon.

    1. My sympathies Dodo. I don’t have any useful advice as I am in a very similar situation and trying to decide what to do.

    2. I have been there a couple of times in my life and I just take baby steps. I set up alerts on Indeed for the types of work I wanted even if I thought it was over my skill set. We underrate ourselves as women so often. And look at them when I feel like it. Even now that I am retired I keep the non profit companies on my alerts in case I want to contribute in any way they need.

    3. Oh dear, this sounds incredibly demotivating and depressing. I have no good advice to give, but I can send a bunch of pocket-hugs at least, and some purrs and snuggles from Triple. <3

      1. Thanks to all of you!!

        And Shass, snuggles and purrs are always very welcome! Even if I’m usually more of a dog person – but who could resist a Triple purr ;-).

      1. Okay so I’d have to report mixed results: definitely doesn’t taste like bananas, nor does it taste like bacon but the texture is quite similar to bacon. Very salty so would probably recommend low sodium soy sauce. Easy to make, with stuff at least that I have around the house. A fun experiment.

      2. I am so here for it. Although now that Trump has declared 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods until we get our illegal immigrants (!) and drugs (!!) under control, I may need my own emotional support American.

      3. I would have thought the problem went the other way of Americans trying to sneak/immigrate into Canada. Bonus that I live in Michigan.

        1. Kelly I’m pretty sure us sneaking to Canada not vice versa.
          Ryan Reynolds once said Americans have to stop thinking of Canada as plan B.
          According to RR Canada barely tolerates it’s own citizens going back & forth across the border.

  10. I was busy quilting tops that have been sitting around for a while. These are smaller pieces, lap size or wall hanging. Some of them i didn’t make, I just quilted them having picked up the tops and a backing at an estate sale. https://www.instagram.com/share/BAMP6AWpV0

    At work, we had our ribbon-cutting ceremony with the president, provost, and donors to celebrate the opening of the new special collection space. It went well. Next week we will start moving the remaining 20% of the main collection into the space. It has been nice to have a break from shifting books.

    Today we will travel to Wisconsin so that we can spend Thanksgiving with my family. We will also celebrate Christmas because we won’t see them then so I bought and wrapped presents which we will bring.

      1. What I really meant to say is kudos to you for working on your backlog. I admire that so much, and am envious of your quilting talent!

  11. On Sunday, it was finally warm enough and dry enough to mow the yards, so I did, and turned a lot of leaves into mulch. There’s still a big pile of leaves, mostly Sycamore from my neighbor’s trees, in the corner of the front patio. Grrr. It’s too cold for gathering them up, right now.

    Monday, I went to Costco, and two grocery stores. Then, I removed the itchy Holter monitor and mailed it back to the company. They will read the results and contact my doctor.

    Tomorrow, I’ll make broccoli salad with fake bacon in it, and go to my son’s for Thanksgiving. There will be FOUR toddlers there, nieces and nephew of my DIL, 15 people in all. The dogs will be in separate rooms upstairs. Kali is staying at home. It will be “interesting.”

    Speaking of Kali, I have finally convinced her not to chase the bunnies, but she really goes after the seed-stealing squirrels! Win-win! Go, speedy little black dog!

    1. Oh, did you wear the one that glues on to your breastbone? I just had one of those a couple of weeks ago, and while it was easier to wear than the old “three leads, dangle around your neck” type, it really was itchy! And left huge welts for days after it came off. Still waiting for my results.

      1. Yes, that one. And every time I bent over, it felt like it was going to fall off, as there’s no adhesive on the heavy middle part. You’re still waiting! Dang! Yes, I still have a read area on my chest.

    2. I’m sensitive to the glue in any of those things. I tried wearing a medication patch once and had to move it practically every day because I couldn’t stand it. I went back to the doctor and he said it looked as if I’d been attacked by an octopus!

  12. Wrapping up a big project assessing the websites and social media of my client’s competitors in a Very Manly Industry–think giant heavy-duty equipment in outdoor settings. Lots of drone shots and videos with gruff narrators. I wake up hearing pounding electric guitar.

    1. lol! I can only imagine! Was just listening to the modified pickup trucks and “cool cars” rumble and fart by outside and wondering why boys are so loud…

    2. Did you ever read Regina Barreca’s I Used To Be Snow White But I Drifted? Great book. She says excessively loud solos are a Dick Thing. I love that book.

  13. Work has been a bit busy as I am trying to finalise a draft report and get it ready for design. It had been due before Christmas, but I decided not to pressurize myself achieving that as no one in our organisation seems to care. People outside the organisation are much more engaged.

    My boss decided to actually attend our weekly team meeting yesterday, I hadn’t spoken to him in more than 2 months and usually he just doesn’t come to the meeting and doesn’t send apologies so we don’t know it if it is on (it’s online so its not a big deal, but annoying). As part of my policy of trying to take less stress from work I don’t chase him (he doesn’t answer emails either). It is not my job to manage my manager to do what he should do.

    I’ve just had to comment on an incomprehensible, waffly strategy document. I am no longer going to give insights and suggestions or advocate clarity (they ignore inputs anyway, the request for feedback is just so they can say we were consulted). I just made enough comments to look like I had engaged.

    My long term colleague left recently, to a better paid job and my other team colleague mostly works on stuff that is not under the remit of the team so our team is not really functional any more.

    On a more positive note, I met with some long term colleagues and former colleagues from other teams at the weekend and we had some good fun. We are all remote now so we don’t see each other much.

    1. “I am no longer going to give insights and suggestions or advocate clarity (they ignore inputs anyway, the request for feedback is just so they can say we were consulted). I just made enough comments to look like I had engaged.”

      Yes x infinity to this. Sigh! I wish you well with either sticking it out or making a change.

      1. Thanks! The Wired story mentions Starlog as Wells’s source of information for her first sf con. I had always thought that Starlog was a professional Star Trek news/fan magazine, but evidently it had branched out a bit from that start (per Wikipedia). Also, the biographies of many other sf writers suggest, contrary to the article, that in terms of attaining success it hasn’t mattered much where in the US you live, and that a college town is a pretty favorable location.

        1. Yeah, I thought that comment about location was a bit weird. Possibly a relic of lit-fic propaganda, where the image is that all authors live in NYC, and can afford a townhouse there, and have lunch regularly with their editor and publisher, and go on booksigning tours, and earn enough from one book to pay their living expenses for a decade. (Yeah, right.)

          Location is potentially an issue for AGENTS rather than authors. (It’s become largely irrelevant, but when I first started writing, an agent located in middle America or anywhere other than the vicitinity of New York or LA was a red flag suggesting, but not guaranteeing, that the agent was a scammer). Agents still sometimes network in person, but for the most part, authors can live anywhere. I mean, just off the top of my head, Stephen King is in Maine (gotta be a six or eight hour drive, minimum, from NYC), Nora Roberts is on the east coast (Maryland maybe?) but definitely not NYC, and John Scalzi is in small-town Ohio (as was Jenny, I believe, for most of her big-publisher career).

          1. Traditionally editors and agents traveled to major regional sf conventions as a means of meeting established writers and trolling for promising new ones, and of cutting deals with each other. I imagine much of that has moved online nowadays. I gather that the internet has been a major help to Australian writers, at least in sf/f, in overcoming the “tyranny of distance” both for selling to US and UK publishers and for marketing ebooks directly. There also has been action elsewhere in the Anglosphere but probably nothing one could call major so far. (The Republican Irish always could fairly easily market to the UK but have not yet produced a major native-born sf writer; several Canadians are major players in the US sf market, and have been since at least A.E. van Vogt in the Golden Age.)

      3. Thank you, Tammy and Nancy!! I was able to access the article on Wired and so enjoyed reading it. I never got into Wells’ earlier stuff but am now ready to try again, at least the Raksura books. A real fan of Muderbot.

        1. FWIW, if you bounce off the Raksura books, try the Ile Rien series. I think they have more in common with Murderbot than the Raksura series does. Not setting or genre, but something about the voice and the fast-paced action-adventure elements.

        2. I like the Raksura series quite a bit but it is nothing like the Murderbot series in subject matter, voice tone or style. It is a true fantasy series.

      4. Thank you for the thoughtfulness in supplying a workable link, Nancy. Appreciated the direction from Tammy S.

    3. For anyone that doesn’t do Reddit, there is a picture of a crossstitch, “THIS IS FINE” and one of the comments quotes, “It was a security consultant’s job to be skeptical of their clients’ assurances that everything was fine. (SecUnit clients, at least, only assured each other that everything was fine while you stared at the wall and waited for everything to go horribly wrong.)”

      –Rogue Protocol

      1. Gary – The kicker is the second picture, which is a close up of the stitching. Everything is made up of the neatly stitched words “fuck fuck fuck”

  16. No writing work I think for me this week. My dad had a series of mild heart attacks Monday and Tuesday, and now has a stent in. Two long, very stressful days at the hospital. It looks like Thanksgiving is on, though? So I have 3-4 dishes to prepare today and tomorrow. He’s hopefully being discharged today. I know he’s desperate to go home, and my mom is desperate for him to be there! I decided last night that I needed a fun project, so I think I’m going to crochet some little critters for stocking stuffers. Probably listen to audiobooks while I work on those. I need to buy yarn, though. I imagine my stash is too dusty for me to work with. Hopefully Michael’s won’t be too mobbed… 🤞

    3. I personally know one guy who had a stent put in in his 60s and is now in his 80s and still more active than average.

      1. He’s 86 and the hospital doctor was surprised he didn’t already have a stent! He really takes care of himself, though. Walked himself home in the middle of the first heart attack.

    4. Sendig best wishes and healing-vibes to your dad and strength to the rest of the family. Such stressful times right before a holiday. Hopefully you’ll all get to relax and enjoy being together the coming days.

  17. I’m not doing much work at work this week, as most people are either out or the people remaining are busy and thus having a hard time getting free time to talk to me. So I am stretching what little I do have to work on and otherwise knitting in public.

    I lost one of my yarn projects, I cannot find it in my house, ST. ANTHONY PLEASE HELP because it’s for someone else.

    I had a pickup rehearsal (rehearsal added in randomly after the show has kicked off, not planned ahead for at all) for Robin Hood last night after being off for one day. I do not get the point of doing these once people know what they are doing, plus enough people are already busy by the time the director springs, “Can we add another rehearsal?” to the schedule. She wanted to go over the tournament scene and how long it takes for the archers to shoot, but since 2 of 5 of them were out, uh…. I ended up loading the script on my phone and passing it around to various castmates who had to fill in for Marian and Little John. Seriously, we didn’t need it.

    The weekend is going to be the rest of Robin Hood, and craft fairs. I have Friday during the day off from people and I’m not sure what I’ll do with it. Go to Wicked?

    1. Funny, I just googled what a pickup rehearsal is yesterday as Kid 1 got selected for a videography practicum and the schedule mentioned there would likely be some…

    2. I’ve never tried an appeal to St. Anthony, but it is seeming like a good idea for me too. I’m missing a CD for a library audiobook, but think I know approximately where it must be and that some searching will turn it up. Another item is certainly in the house unless, God forbid, it accidentally ended up getting thrown out, but the range of possible search areas is fairly wide and I’ve had enough other things on my mind and enough things to do with limited energy that I haven’t completed a thorough search yet.

  18. I got my holiday-themed M/M short story View From The Bridge published on AMZ and D2D, even blogged the launch.

    Finished text prep for AMZ relaunch and D2D first launch of my Edwardian novel Sextette, that’s on the THX Weekend To Do List.

    Sorted out the insurance company payment processor that keeps losing track of premium payments for DH’s term life policy.

    Got my IRS.gov account set up, fingers crossed as I wait for the updates done while I was on the phone with an agent to process (he said they process over the weekend and it might be two weekends for the new zero balance due to show on my account. Gack).

    Reorganized the growing stack of books I plan to donate to the Los Angeles LGBT Center residence if they can take them, to the BH Public Library Friends store if not.

    Cleaned up the music files on the computer. Confirmed that the calculator I brought home from my desk at work when we got remoted still works, put it in the Goodwill bag.

    Day job. 🙂

    1. Chachal: congrats on all the work done! I plan to look up View from the Bridge (and find out what AMZ and D2D are in the process). Tx

    2. chacha1 – I really appreciated your first Project 2025 post. How often will you be doing them?

      Also I did a post on my blog about the charges being dropped for DJT titled ‘You Are Not Donald Trump’ if you’re interested.

      1. Thanks Judy! I’m going to try to get one up every 1-2 days till I get through the stupid thing. Heading over to do the next installment in a few minutes, actually. 🙂

  19. Since I turned in my book last week, I spent the time catching up on non-writing tasks. I put away the fall decorations and put up Christmas. I have an inside tree and one on the front porch, both are pre-lit. I put them up on both of them only half the lights worked. I went and bought more lights and threw them on the trees.

    Cleaned off my back deck and harvested my purple sweet potatoes. Out of 16 plants I have 1 decent potato and a couple of pitifully small ones I can use those to make slips for next spring. Of course I will need to figure out what went wrong. My consolation is that my neighbor didn’t get any either so I offered him on of the pitiful potatoes to make his own slips. So much for the grand experiment.

    I also cleaned and rearranged the upright freezer in the garage. Threw out a few things I didn’t recognize anymore. I vowed to eat what’s left in there before buying anything more. So when hubby asks what’s for supper, I say whatever is in the freezer.

    I also cleaned out the coat closet. Donated a bunch of jackets and took a few to a local consignment shop. I stopped and tried to give one to a homeless person but she said she was all set for coats. Whatever. And I found two I forgot I had so am now wearing. Note to self: do not buy any more coats, jackets, or hoodies.

    1. Those are my weakness. This year, I finally cleared out any that were unnecessary. It hurt, but I gave them to Goodwill.

  20. Main things this week were cleaning & sorting out the garden passage, which led to enquiring about selling my nearly new, unused bicycle and then trying to donate it to a local cycling charity, which hopefully will take it. Also a trip to the tip, which they’ve just made much more stressful by requiring you to book a 15-minute slot (which they won’t tell you in advance when within an hour it’ll fall) over 2 hours in advance, and take ID. So I did that. Plus my tax return, which HMRC have made nightmarish by refusing to send out printed forms and instead making you answer baffling irrelevant questions. I gave them feedback, some of it in capital letters.

    And then there’s the doorbell saga. The electrician I’d booked sent two young guys who spent most of the day failing to install a new transformer & two bells, leaving me freezing cold (they’d had both front doors open the whole time) and with no doorbell. I had to wrestle with their boss via text messages – eventually saying I’d have to find another electrician – before he finally turned up the next day, rewired the system, discovered one of the new bells was faulty, but left me with one working bell. I’ve now got to get the faulty one replaced, and hope ‘the lads’ can finish the job this time. They seem to have blown the new bell-push too, so that’s another trip to the industrial estate.

    In happier news: I had an idea for this year’s Christmas present which I’m excited about, so must get down to designing & making multiple versions of it.

  21. Yesterday the good exterminator came and closed up another hole that has been letting the mouse into my apartment. I was especially happy when he came around noon and I was able to go out during the afternoon in search of ground nuts for my sister’s birthday cake. The first store I went to had none at all but I hope the other one will have some so I will not have to grind my own. It always leaves sludge in the coffee grinder.

    I called the guys who make the sheepskin earmuffs I like and tried to place an order, but nobody answered. I am hoping that they will call me back on Monday, because now that it is going to be cold enough to need them on a daily basis, I am sure to lose a pair sooner or later. I very rarely make it through a whole winter on only one pair. I have last year’s spare pair, but I am too discombobulated to leave the house without a back up.

    I spent 40 minutes on the phone with an insurance company, trying to find out why they were raising my premium from $9.50 to $42.60 each month. Even if you subtract 10 minutes for my ranting, it shouldn’t take them 30 minutes to see if the price they quoted included any help from Medicare Extra Help. This sounds a lot like the runaround I got from my first Part D carrier and I think I will have to shop around again.

    The only Thanksgiving prep I have to do is to bake some cookies for the kids at the table (and me.) These don’t require any nuts so I should have everything I need for tonight’s baking.

    I finally switched my sweaters and Tee shirts between my drawers and the high shelf of my hall closet. I was very proud of myself until I found a pile of clean laundry that didn’t
    go up on the shelf along with the bulk of the summer stuff. Sigh.

    When I got home from my grocery run the other day, I discovered that they had charged me $1.49 a pound for sweet potatoes instead of the sale price of 59cents a pound. So now I have to take them back to the store that doesn’t have the nuts I need just because there are several different prices for sweet potatoes and the cashiers have to remember which ones are which. Bah, humbug! I miss the days when mistakes were easy to fix.

  22. Breakfast was brunch today.  (Plain egg omlette with canned biscuits and strawberry preserves.)  I had slept in, making up for sleep deficit, and then had not felt like immediately moving beyond coffee.  I removed some of the biscuits when they were barely brown so I can try finishing them up in the oven tomorrow or later as an alternative to reheating fully baked ones.

    I made tikka masala from store-bought sauce, roast chicken breast,  and canned spinach a few days back.  It was good but seemed too capsaicin-rich even though I had used a pound of chicken and a full can of spinach.  I seem to be getting very sensitive.  The next night I had a somewhat smaller serving and added low-fat sour cream both for flavor and to tone things down.  That worked.  The first night I had served the tikka on elbow macaroni since I had some made, but the macaroni was not good at absorbing the sauce (thinned by the spinach).  I used rice the second try, which worked better.  I wasn’t sure about today’s menu, but now think I’ll freeze the remainder of the tikka. Nor is there time before supper to do bean soup in the crock pot, so that’s put off until Friday or so.  There are still alternatives available for tonight, maybe macaroni and lentils with pasta sauce.  Or something from a box and/or can.

    Boneless turkey breast is thawing in fridge and other necessities are on hand for Turkey Day.  At my current energy level, I’m not trying for fancy.

    Well see what I get written up today for GBTh.  I’ve got a bit of holdover material.  This week I have indeed read, but in so scattershot a fashion that I haven’t finished much if anything.

  23. My brain has been a blob of junk lately, which is frustrating. My short-term memory is utter crap and I feel worn-out very quickly. I’ve given up on the medical people and am just trying to take care of myself as best I can. It’s… work.
    But, I did finish another baby-blanket, then started on, almost finished and then frogged another one because the tension was off. So, have to redo that. I also finished a teddy-bear, which I haven’t put up on Instagram yet since it’s a gift and I don’t wanna risk that the recipient’s mother sees it (even though she doesn’t follow me there, but still). So, instead I created a Google Drive-folder with pictures and a video if anyone is curious:
    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BCsDpwcF5z220FQ8u340zhMedai2fVEm?usp=sharing
    I’ll take it down again once the bear goes on Instagram.
    I got the idea to put a music box inside the bear with the cord running through a hole in its bottom. It plays Für Elise, so I named the bear Elise. Definitely gonna knit more of these music-box cuties. Next one will probably be a bunny for my February 2025 niece. I learn new techniques and it makes me happy.
    Saturday I used what energy I had and made chili con carne for the freezer, so we also have some emergency food for low-energy days. Recently we also signed up for a fresh meals-service, so we’re having microwave-/oven-ready meals delivered for a couple of days per week. It helps, and the meals are both healthy and taste really good.
    I hope everyone here is doing well. Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating!

    1. Hang in there, Shass! I was too dizzy to do anything all day until after my latest cuppa, but now I think I am up to picking up some packages at my friend’s store. I think they will appreciate the room. And I will appreciate the change of scenery.

    5. That’s what you’re surviving on?
      I’m surviving on almond M&Ms and Diet Coke, but you do you.

  25. My Wednesday is much consumed with preparations to cook. Things like putting away groceries in order to have sufficient horizontal surface to chop onions, mix stuffing, and so forth.

    Also, I was making another light fixture (like this one: https://www.somethingsmustbeendured.com/post/home-moanership-xvii ) and I ran into lots of little barriers. For one, the light fixture is too thick for the mounting bolts. Also, I wanted some electrical hardware and had to wait for Amazon. No matter – I’m waiting again, until Friday at least.

    I haven’t decided whether to roast a bird tonight, or just get everything set for tomorrow. I think tonight, then leftovers tomorrow and Friday and maybe Saturday.

    In the meantime, I’ve managed to trip the basement circuit breaker by running my room heater and the toaster oven again.

    1. Gary, that looks very complicated. I hope you get it to work. Or, you could just hang a large flashlight from the ceiling and turn it on, when needed. That’s the extent of my expertise.

      1. The one in my blog post works perfectly. The second picture in that post shows it installed.

        The new one I am working on has a different ceramic bulb base with a pull-chain and a 3-prong outlet.

        To make it work, I bought a set of small files (the bolt-holes were too small for the bolts), a box of Insulated Electrical Wire Terminals (I’m using ring connectors), and an adapter plate (just to steal the bolts from it), and spare boxes and spare bulb bases.

        Everything is wired up. I just need longer bolts of the proper thread pitch for assembly. It’s been plugged in and tested satisfactorily.

  26. Since we’re talking food, I made a big pot of lentil soup for dinner tonight. It will provide many lunches also. I love my lentil soup, a staple of my entire adult life (though the current iteration is the best version, of course).

    Tomorrow, my partner plans to make quiche (green chile+asiago+roasted corn). I’ll make the salad and pour the wine. The dogs have offered to bring the wags.

    Friday, I am thinking extra-hot gochujang Brussels sprouts and some fried rice (with tofu & broccoli).

    After that, we shall see.

  27. I made progress on several projects.
    1 the door project; A handyman/contractor was here. We decided on a course of action. I will have a cost estimate soon.

    2 the oven project; I got advice & the supplies to follow that advice. Haven’t done it yet but soon.

    3 toilet project; I got the new innards. Liz installed them. No more running.

    4 toaster project; I broke it. Ordered a new red one which matches the microwave & electric tea kettle. 3 splashes of red in the kitchen = cheap thrill.

    5 MCR project; got a card. Fielded calls. Waiting for a bill for the first 3 months.

    I ordered a laptop from a sale. Filled the car. Made many trips to the store because we kept forgetting something.

    I spent a day wallowing in bed depressed when DJT charges were dropped. Then I wrote a blogpost titled ‘You are not Donald Trump.’

    I haven’t gotten very far on the Firestacks project & new moon is 12/1.

    There is mushroom stroganoff, salad and Key Lime Pie to look forward to.

    Nothing but good times ahead!

    1. I dig your cheap thrill. 🙂 As we approach the homestretch of building out the basement apartment DH & I will be moving into, we’re being quite practical about stove & refrigerator – but the laundry machines, tucked away in their own room, will be candy-apple red.

  28. I hired my contractor’s go-fer, who also happens to be his son, to help me finish wood for our sunroom/master bath/master bedroom remodel. I got a reasonable start myself and realized that it was totally getting away from me. Now with the wonder-boy (well, he’s 22) things are really moving along. He uses our technique, so all the finishing will be done the same. He is consciences and does really good work. It will add several thousand dollars to the project but I just couldn’t do it anymore. And it is just one more task off the dozens of new things I have to handle that I never did before. And in all honesty, sometimes I am so shell-shocked that I will sit and do nothing other than feel bad for him. He, of course, says “well, I’ve already lived 5 years past the average male lifespan” and seems blasé – until he can’t pick up something he could pick up a month ago, or he fumbles something that he has done dozens of times before.

    His ALS has progressed to the point where he can only do small projects and has to really pay attention. I had a minor break-down when I read the “Communication Strategies for Partners” that his speech therapist gave him when I realized this is very real and in his near future. So I am getting a lot done every week, just nothing I want to do.

    1. I realized that I said “him” when I should have said “my husband”. I don’t feel bad for the wonder-boy, he is in great health. And is sweet and kind. Where did this generation of really nice kids come from? I remember that most of my friends and myself (baby boomers!) at that age were snarky and cynical.

      2. Thank you. It has been very strange. While I panic a lot and find myself obsessing that every milestone – Thanksgiving , Christmas- may be our last together, i also realize that at our age that is true anyway. And while he rests more, he basically functions almost normally and we could be looking at two or three more years together, which is normal for someone in who has reached the eighties.

        The really strange thing has been friends who as soon as they hear his diagnosis, offer a brief expression of sympathy then disappear from our lives. ALS is not contagious. We still can go out to dinner and the symphony. He is starting to look crippled, but At this point, he is no worse than someone dealing with cancer. The prognosis is awful but that hopefully is further down the line and only the two of us are really aware of the small things that are happening.

        1. I am so sorry, Jessie. Since I don’t think we live in the same city, I can’t join you for dinner or a concert, but I could possibly send you postcards or cookies. Would either of those help?

          1. Thank you so much. It is not too bad. Most of my husband’s friends and family are front and center. It has only been a few of my friends who I thought would be there for me and it caught me by surprise. I have heard recent widows talk about the same phenomena. It is probably social awkwardness. Maybe that is why in the good old days you went into mourning for a year. By time the year was over everyone could be reasonably expecting you to get on with your life.

  29. My big outing for today was to stop by my municipality’s tree lightning. I saw four people I knew, got some hot chocolate and came home.

    Tomorrow I plan to spend a quiet day alone. The meal will be garlic ginger crab cakes and boc choy.

    I’m doing my best to just relax and de-stress after the election.

    Have a happy everyone.

  31. Still on the hunt for a new stove. Love to have a gas stove but…that means changing the two cabinets each side of the fan centered over the stove. Plumbing the gas line in. Etc etc. do I want the renovation mess and expense. Not really. So…I discovered GE cafe line. Weighing the time we have left in this house vs whatever will be will be. Cousins we are travelling with said just buy the damn thing. If you die your kids will thank you…. Child of a parent who lived through the Great Depression. When we get home will see if we can find a designer with discounts.

    Going to see the statue of David this morning. Uffizi museum tomorrow. So much to see. So little time. Need a month here.

    1. I changed from gas to electric because I cook a lot. It takes forever to boil water for pasta but frying things is faster. Also do not believe the old “when you turn off the gas, the heat turns off – unlike electricity.” When you turn the gas off, if you have heavy weight cookware, it takes a while to cool down and food still continues to cook for a few minutes. My friend just switched from gas to induction (?) because of environmental concerns and she loves it. She says the temperature is very steady.

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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