It has been a very busy weekend

Here's what I accomplished:

1. Went to the pharmacy. Got to see my plants.
2. Got nitrogen put in my tyres and discussed my treads and whether it was worth getting an alignment or rotation now or just waiting till I get new tyres, which will have to be soon, although I'm not sure how I'm going to swing that.
3. Repotted the aloes.
4. Repotted the orchids.
5. Did my laundry on Saturday and my roommate's on Sunday. Managed to do that and the kitchen linens with the very last of the detergent.
6. Moved a couple shelves in front of the library windows so I could put the orchids on them and they could get some actual light (eastern exposure). I'd temporarily placed them on top of my bookcase headboard, but they were between the windows and couldn't get any light. A grow light might have worked, but there's a painting that could be damaged by the full spectrum light. So I decided to try this. They are behind the nightstands, so it's a little crowded, but it passed muster with my friend.
7. Went to the library and took some books back and picked up my roommate's hold.
8. Took the other two shelves and summer clothes to the storage unit.
9. Cleaned out the car.
10. Did a boatload of plastic dishes.
11. Went through the clothes I was given and pulled out the ones that needed mending.
12. Incorporated the new clothes into my existing clothes, and put away laundry at the same time.
13. Organised my closet and prepared some things to take back to storage and to donate.
14. Organised the cedar chest and the clothes in the footboard of the bed. The kitten has been pulling my bras and other things through the little divet that's used to open the drawers.
15. Put the coverlet back on the bed, which will hopefully deter him, as it will be out of sight, out of mind.
16. Watched several episodes of a cartoon series.
17. Generally straightened up my room.
18. Took a nice long shower today.
19. Swept and mopped the floors.
20. Did the regular dishes.
21. Took out the trash and recyclables.
22. Cleaned the bathroom.
23. Entertained the kitten, who was inconsolable that he'd been closed out of the bedroom while my roommate slept because he was gnawing on him.
24. Packed my lunch for tomorrow.
25. Laid out my clothes for tomorrow (I don't do that very often. I should.)
26. Actually blogged! Twice!

Things that got put off till tomorrow:

1. Go by the bank.
2. Go over the grocery list and see what we already have.
3. Shop at the grocery store for Thanksgiving (we already have the Quorn roasts).
4. Get some cat toys for the kitten and food for the older cat.
5. Complete replacement of the cat litter (once we get some from the store).
6. Clean out and organise my nightstands.
7. Take things out to the car that are to be donated or go to storage.
8. Double check the smoke alarm/CO monitor. I think the batteries are in wrong, and it'll take both of us to change the batteries, as I'm not tall enough, even with a stepstool. I got some new batteries.
9. Call in the morning and reschedule an appointment to finalise the draft of my revamped will--with my boss' announcement I didn't feel I could ask to leave early the next business day with so little warning and get a good reply.
10. Get the duvet cover on the duvet and get it on my roommate's bed (it takes two to do well) and take back my heavier blanket.

So we're getting ready for the funeral

I'm dressed and ready; YKWIA is shaving.  We have to be there in an hour.  It's cold outside, much cooler than yesterday (the high I think is supposed to be 39 degrees).  The crows have been taunting the dog; the starlings have been flying in a flock up and down in the yard.  It is very windy.

The kitten went into the bathroom during each of our showers.  He is careful not to get wet, but he likes to keep us company.  The cat is asleep on my bed, something he usually only gets to do on weekends after breakfast, as I keep my room closed so the kitten will not play with wires or orchid roots during the day.

Tomorrow I'll have to get up much earlier and go to work.  Today my backup is dealing with the stuff I normally do, and I'm grateful, as I need a break.

I just wish the break hadn't included Mrs Fore's passing.  She was such a lovely person.  I will miss her terribly.  I've only known her since April, but she was so good to us, and really rather adopted us both.

Okay, I have some final things to do before we go.  Hope you had a good Thanksgiving break (if you're in the US, anyway).  Otherwise, at least I hope you had a good weekend.

The last few days have been

very nice. I've read.  I've relaxed, taking a nap here and there.  I've listened to music, and I've done stuff around the house like raking leaves (again) to try to get ready for the vacuuming truck that comes by.  I got 2/3 of the yard done this afternoon, and I'll try to do the rest tomorrow.  I came inside to hydrate and got caught up in a 'Black Mirror' episode, and realised I was really tired and with the game called off tomorrow, it could wait till tomorrow, when the weather's supposed to be a little better anyway.  I have a two-foot pile of leaves in the road verge at the moment; it'll just grow a little bigger.  Most of the main leaves are already there.

Tomorrow I'll do my normal Sunday tasks: floors, bathroom, trash/recyclables, laundry, and cat litter boxes.  I did the dishes tonight so I think they're okay.  But the evening will visitation for the little lady who died, whom I cared a good deal about.  I'm going to take my friend over that afternoon to help with my other friend, who will be in a wheelchair so he can attend the family hour of visitation, and then I'll come at the regular time for the public.  I would take our friend, but my car is an old Ford Taurus that is so low to the ground that we have trouble getting in and out of it, much less someone with mobility issues.  I am not a big fan of visitation--I find it a bit morbid, to be honest.  But for her, I'll do it.  She was such a wonderful person, who lit up a whole room.  I was looking at Thanksgiving flowers the other day and found myself thinking about bringing some, and then remembered that she was gone.  That's the worst thing, I think, after someone dies--all the little things you want to share with them that evaporate in your mind as soon as you realise they have passed and you'll never share with them again.  It brings the pain up all over again.  That was certainly the case for me when my mom died.

So for now, though, I'm listening to Mumford & Sons, trying to decide whether I should 1) go to bed or 2) read some more.  The book (Kate Morton's The Distant Hours) is very well-written, the prose is lovely, and I'm about 50 pages in and I like how it's unfolding.  But I'm a little tired.  I'm in my pyjamas and I've brushed my teeth.  I'm ready for bed.

Today I got something I'd ordered as a lightning deal from Amazon, which I almost never do.  It's 128 GB SD card that is meant to go in a camera but can also go in laptops with the right reader, and I have one on mine.  I got it for $19.95, which was roughly half of the normal price, and it works, it's inserted into my computer, and I've backed up some files to it.  It's not great as a long-term storage option (they do break down over time, just like flash drives), but it was cheap and easy and while I have my documents backed up in other places (OneDrive, Dropbox), after what happened with the Windows update in October when I lost all my documents, I thought that it would make a good local option that wasn't at the mercy of cloud providers, and I can't afford a USB removable hard drive at the moment.  Also, if something happened to my laptop I could just switch out the card like I do with the microSD card in my phone (that has pictures and music on it).  So we'll see how it works out.   I took a few minutes earlier to back things up to the card and to the cloud.  I need to do that with the desktop, which YKWIA uses.  I also spent some time yesterday at the storage unit (looking for a couple of cutting boards, with no luck) and found my Civilization IV game, and so I pulled out the old DVD-ROM external drive I have here (it's from when computers didn't have them yet, and my computer is so 'advanced' it doesn't have one at all, so even though it's a little slow and clunky, it works--although not to play CDs lately, something in one of the Microsoft updates apparently broke that, too, so I guess the only CDs I'll buy in the near future are ones with AutoRip, where they do it for you, as otherwise, I can't get the CD music on my phone.  Anyway, it does work for CD-ROMs, and I was able to get the game onto this computer, so I'm happy, as it's one of the few games I ever play consistently.

Okay, I guess I'm just babbling about my life now.  It's going pretty well.  Work is still stressful but not as much as it had been.  I am very blessed right now.  I do feel a little guilty posting the pictures of Thanksgiving and the abundance of food for two people.  I live paycheque-to-paycheque, and I don't feel particularly affluent at all, but on the other hand, I have so much compared to some--a home to go to, food to eat, great companionship, and relatively good health, really.  I don't mean to flaunt it, but I think of the homeless, or the starving children in Yemen, or the refugees seeking asylum, etc., and I do feel guilty, although I really was just trying to express how grateful I am for life right now.  I don't have enough money to donate to any causes right now, it's been a struggle lately, and we had to pool our resources to make Thanksgiving happen, but maybe I could volunteer some time around Christmas.  Which reminds me, I guess I need to get some cards to send out.  We don't really celebrate Christmas, as I'm pagan (I celebrate the Winter Solstice, Yule) and YKWIA is Jewish.  But the holiday season is still a good time to think of others.  Chanukah, which of course is a minor holiday in the Jewish year, although most Christians, I think, just see it as Jewish Christmas, is coming up quickly--it starts December 2nd.  My plan is to get YKWIA some good house shoes, as his shoes have nearly died.  (I can say that here, as he doesn't read my blog, because as he puts it, he knows what goes on in my life).  But I'll have to wait till the next payday, which happens in the middle of Chanukah.

Okay, the cat wants to cuddle, the music has stopped.  Time to go to bed.  Good night.

I had a great Thanksgiving

It was a lot of work. I think we had about ten dishes overall: the Quorn 'turkey' (made from mycoprotien/fungous/mushrooms), rolls, gougers (this time with Bleu cheese), butternut squash with Gruyère cheese, curried pumpkin soup (also made with butternut squash, so much easier to peel than the kabocha was a few years ago), mashed potatoes (of course), green beans with shallots, Brussels sprouts with chestnuts, homemade cranberry and sauce with red wine, and pumpkin/caramel pie (the latter two were cooked/baked on Wednesday night). The pied took a while to come out and cool, so we were up late then, and got a late start on Thanksgiving, starting the preparation and cooking about 12:30 in the afternoon. We ate around 5:30 pm. I think it was the best Thanksgiving we've ever done. Afterwards, I cleaned up (that was a task), and he put everything into containers and into the fridge because he's good at spatial relations and can damn near bend space, if not time. Here are some photos:











We were both asleep by 8 pm, although I did wake up and woke him up at 11 so we both could take our medicine. We weren't up very long, though.

I slept well, and was able to sleep in till about 9 am or so as I'm off today. I'm actually off till Tuesday, as I have a funeral to go to, for the mother of a friend, the latter of whom had adopted me like a granddaughter. She'd just had her 94th birthday, and was a lovely woman with a huge personality that just lit up the room. I'll miss her a lot. The visitation is Sunday night so we won't be playing the game. I'm going to take my roommate early so he can help our friend (who has cancer) during the family visitation.

But today is a relaxation day. We'll take our friend some food. I'll stop by the storage unit and finally put my summer clothes in it [they were in my room for a good long while, and then the car]. I need to go by the library and take back The Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington, which I have out from interlibrary loan, now that I finished it this morning. I'm also going to take back some CDs, and Imagine Dragons one and one by OneRepublic. I plan on starting The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, which YKWIA had checked out and said was excellent, so I wanted to give it a try.

I guess that's all for now.  I plan on getting some rest before going back to work.  Days off are rare.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We scaled Thanksgiving back this year since it was just the two of us, but it was absolutely tasty and wonderful. I did prep work, he cooked, I cleaned up. Now he's napping and I am soon to follow. We had Quorn roasts (vegetarian turkey made from mycoprotein); pumpkin soup; Gruyere gougères; green beans with lemon, roasted hazelnuts, and shallots; mashed potatoes; roasted butternut squash with Asiago and Gruyere cheese; apple clafoutis; and pumpkin pie. Yum! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and special thanks to Brenda for helping him get the groceries since my car is down (again) so that we could have one. Tomorrow's goal is to get the car fixed. Wish me luck!

I've been recuperating from Thanksgiving

We put so much effort into the meal, and it turned out great, but I think we all (or at least the two people making the meal) had to relax a little over the next couple of days to fully recharge. I simply do not understand how people make Thanksgiving happen and then go out for Black Friday (or even on Thursday) and shop like mad. I don't do that. One, I do not have the stamina (if it's shop till you drop, I'd drop easily enough, at least after three days of Thanksgiving preparations), and two, I hate crowds. Absolutely. Especially crowds behaving badly. So my Friday morning was a matter of sleeping in, and then I went about 1 pm and picked a friend up and took him somewhere, and then returned home and relaxed. About 5:30 pm, I was having trouble with my phone, a two-and-a-half-year-old Samsung Galaxy S5 (the battery was finally starting to give out--it wasn't charging well, might even have been overcharging, and when trying to get into it at full charge, or sometimes at other times, the screen was flashing green, and then nothing; it was also turning itself off at 17%). I was considering going out to Batteries Plus and checking out the new batteries, but I stopped by T-Mobile instead, thinking they could at least verify what I thought was happening. They're in the same area anyway, maybe a few yards from one another.

Turns out T-Mobile was having a trade-in special to upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy S7 or iphone 7 for Black Friday. With the credit from my phone, which was in very good shape otherwise (just missing that stupid charging door, which had fallen off a mere two weeks or so ago), I just had to pay $8 down and will have to add $5 to my phone bill for awhile. Not bad, really. The majority was given as a credit on my next bill, the rest as a credit for the equipment charge, hence the $5 per month rather than the usual $15 or $20. I went ahead and had them put a screen protector on and got a couple of cases while I was there. They added that to the the equipment charge, bringing up to just over $5, and I paid another $6 or so out-of-pocket. Not bad for a $684 phone plus about $60 worth of accessories, really. So even though I don't 'do' Black Friday, I saved quite a bit.

They transferred some things (pictures, contacts, etc.) from one phone to the other, transferred my microSD card (which the S6 did not support, which is why I didn't upgrade before--there's a little tool that you use to open the drawer, actually, which was a little odd), and then they wiped the old phone while I looked on. The whole process took a little under an hour. They didn't go ahead and transfer applications, because I had over 400, but I went into the 'my app' area of Google Play and got the ones I wanted back, then got a couple I have through Samsung, and some from Amazon that had been on the old one. So a lot of last night was geeking about and setting up my new phone.

Today I went over early to YKWIA's because he had a vet appointment, so we loaded up the dogs and went up the road to the clinic. They got a great check up, he picked up some heartworm/flea medicine, and we brought them back. We hung out, watched a little 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' ('The Magnificent Ferengi', a great episode), and some other videos, took a nap at one point, and then I got a call from the hospital in the town where my mom lives that she'd been brought in by the EMS and they needed permission to treat. I gave it, then tried to find my step-father, as they said no one was there with her and they couldn't reach him. I even had the police there do a wellness check on him, as his health isn't great, and I thought maybe someone else had called the rescue squad and he didn't know what was going on. But they told me he had been the one to call, so we figured he was probably there and the hospital hadn't realised it.

I went to the store to pick up some things for both YKWIA and myself and to get more containers for the soup and salad I forgot the other day for myself and A. We loaded up the containers and I went on home. John, my step-dad, called me, and he'd been at the hospital the whole time and didn't know why they'd called me. We talked and he let me know how things had been going. He'd come on home, so she was doing pretty well for now. She has some chronic health issues that require regular treatments, and the University of Kentucky didn't do them over Thanksgiving, so she missed one, and it caused a flare-up. They just have to get her levels back down and she should be okay (for now). But she'd been in the hospital just two weeks ago, for the same thing, so that's troubling. Last year she spent most of the holiday season in the hospital, so it seems to get worse this time of year. I'm going to play it by ear and once the car is fixed this week, I may be able to go down and see her.

Later, the hospital called back, and was asking questions about her medicine, and I pointed out that her husband would know more about that than I; I live in a different city entirely, after all. I mean, I was nice about it, but it's like they're ignoring him or something. Then she said (this was about 9:30 pm), oh, do you think he'd still be up at this time--I hate calling people this late. And I'm thinking, well, you called me. I guess I'm still in the category of young enough that I wouldn't be in bed by 9:30, which is funny, because I was. :) Anyway, I'm glad they did call me. John's good about letting me know when she's having issues, but still. And it would just have delayed her treatment for them to hunt him down, even though according to him, he was sitting in the room with her.

I just got back from giving A a ride home (he gets off work at 1 am on Saturday). He's ecstatic over the University of Kentucky's win over the University of Louisville in football tonight. I don't really get the whole sports thing, really. I gave him his food, saw him to his home, and came on back. Now I think I'll head on to bed. Good night.

I think that counts as crashing

I came home, put the food away, did my little blog and Facebook entries, and proceeded to go into the other room, get into my p.j.s, and went straight to bed. I woke up feeling a little uncomfortable (my back, neck, shoulders, and arm are feeling much better, but my feet are really stiff--and I didn't stand as much as the others). I got up to take my medicine, brush my teeth, etc., and had a couple of things from out of the refrigerator. All in all, the hard work we've put in over the last few days, from slicing squash in two with hacksaws to whipping cream and sugar into stiff peaks, was so worth it. Things have been very difficult for all three of us this year, and so it was nice to come together for a good meal. We didn't do the salad or the gougers; we decided we could do those another day. For reasons I can't go into, difficult reasons, YKWIA decided to go all-out this year after all, when originally it was supposed to be scaled back. It was uncertain we were going to be able to pull it off, actually, and while I contributed a lot of work to the endeavour, I really didn't help with the finances, because I couldn't. Every spare dime I can drum up right now is going to the car repairs next week, and they're going to help me with it because I give them rides everywhere--otherwise it would have had to be put off, something that would not have been good considering the car needs a brake job and a new ball joint.

But it all worked out. It was a good day. It was almost like old times. I'm going to have to take some ibuprofen tonight (for reasons I won't go into, I may need to drive tonight, so I can't take the relaxants). I'm sore. Poor YKWIA laid down while we did the clean up. It really takes a lot out of him. I do a lot of the prep work, but he's the main cook, keeps all the recipes straight, orders them in terms of staging, etc. Plus he'd had a few 'sippy, sippy' moments as we cooked, and a small glass of wine at the table (A and I do not drink--I was driving, anyway, and I can't drink half a glass of wine without going under the table, plus I never really developed a taste for alcohol of any sort, and about the only thing I enjoy drinking is mead, which is very sweet, as it's made from honey).

Okay, I'm going to take my meds, brush my teeth, and try to go back to bed. I'm off tomorrow (yay). Good night.

Success!

It was three to four days in the making, but here is what our Thanksgiving feast looked like (completely vegetarian--the round roast slices on the plates are Quorn, which tastes like turkey but is made from mushroom protein). We also had rolls, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts with chestnuts and pearl onions, green beans with shallots, stuffed butterkin squash, pumpkin soup, cranberry port sauce, pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream, and for drinks we had homemade lemonade and ice tea, with our host having a bit of wine as well. I'm thankful that we were able to spend good company together and for the leftovers that I'll eat for the next few days. :) Hope those of you who celebrate were surrounded by love ones and good food. Have a very happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Home again after 1 am

We cooked from 5 pm to 12:15 am with one break during which we watched 'Ugly Betty'.  I am pooped.  I am going to bed,  as I have to get A and ice and get them over to YKWIA's by 9 am. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate it.  Good night.

Tonight

We went to Good Foods Co-op and three Kroger stores,  hunting for ingredients for Thanksgiving.  Then we made pumpkin soup,  a vegetable dip (not for dipping veggies,  but rather made from veggies to put on crackers). YKWIA also made fish cakes for us to eat tonight.  I just got home.  At least it's a little earlier than last time.

Tomorrow is a run to Costco and Fresh Market,  and then we'll toast hazelnuts,  make cranberry sauce with port,  a pie, and put together an apple salad.  That leaves nine of the fourteen dishes to make on Thanksgiving.

Okay,  I'm going to go to bed.  Good night.

I have been up a half an hour

and in that time I've gotten my laundry together, including stripping the bed, packed my book bag with all the stuff I'm taking with me, checked my phone notifications, opened the blinds, got the last of the bread with some honey, got some caffeine, and in a minute I'm going to take my medicine and after that hop in the shower. All in all, I'm doing much better than yesterday, especially as I went to bed at 3:38 am, or at least that's the last I saw the time. Oh, I also removed an application I'd tried on my phone. I thought it was supposed to gently wake you up with light, and maybe it does that, but when the actual alarm happens, it sends light in a pulsating pattern through the flash, and it's practically seizure-inducing. It's called Glimmer; it's a nice concept but it's definitely not for me. I don't have epilepsy, but I get headaches around pulsing light, like copiers (which is why I always close the cover) and strobes. It is one of the reasons I've never been into clubbing. (That and I don't drink, and have social anxiety. Okay, there's lots of reasons for me to stay out of clubs.) :)

It looks like it'll be a bright, happy, if cold day (46 for the high). I'll be inside most of the time, though, except to take the trash and litter out and dump the mop bucket. If I can get all my work done, and we can watch the movie, then maybe I'll be home before or a little after dark, and can work on more books. That reminds me, I should take books over to YKWIA's, but I need another box, or it'll be too heavy to put them all in there. Hmmm...maybe I can temporarily put them into the grey totes I have. That's a thought. Ideally, I should just bring him to my place, I know, but I don't think that's going to happen. I know he'd rather me bring them to him. I wish we could do Thanksgiving over here in a way (his oven needs adjusting, which is putting the cooking time and temperature off), but I think my place is just too small to cook ten dishes for three people. Even using my table in the dining area (which is also where the microwave is) would not really work, I don't think, but I'd give it a try in a pinch. I have a kitchen island in the kitchen with a drop leaf, but it's hard for more than one person to work in there at a time with that leaf up, and the leaf goes towards the oven. Also, he hates cooking on electric. But we'll see. And I might get more pierogis for Thanksgiving, as A hasn't had any yet. The four cheese ones are still over there, but the feta/spinach ones are excellent.

Okay, I've eaten and had some caffeine. Time for meds and shower. Have a great day!!!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday

I've been crazyily busy of late.  Thanksgiving exhausted me,  YKWIA had some issues and needed extra help, and we have seven appointments (mostly in the evening, thankfully) between us this week to go to.  My family member is back in the hospital,  this time at her local one,  although they are talking about sending her up here to Lexington at the University of Kentucky.

Things I'd like to get done this week between ail that include putting the Yule tree up,  watering all the plants in the apartment,  doing my laundry (I got it into the cart Sunday,  but left it at home accidentally).  I'd also like to go use the gym some more at the apartment complex. Oh,  and I need to put the stiff I pulled out of the closets back in. Just little things,  really,  but things I've been too tired to accomplish of late.  Oh,  and I need to schedule a CT scan because of something that cropped up on an x-ray.  I was going to go to a Web conference at UK tomorrow,  but something more urgent came up.  My head is just about spinning.  But hey,  I'll figure it all out,  and get what needs to be done finished.

In the meantime,  I applied for a job for which I am well-qualified.  Keep your fingers crossed for me. It's even another hospital librarian position,  similar to what I do now but at a larger institution,  administered by a university,  so it's a faculty position renewable yearly.  I would really love to get it. We'll see.  Wish me luck.

Also,  they posted the position of the woman I'm filling in for in scheduling.  I don't want to give up my librarian job,  which pays more than most of the clerical jobs in the hospital, (although the data entry job pays much less,  so it rounds down, and the result could be about the same as her position) just to have a position that would go to the new building. But I don't love scheduling.  I love being a librarian.  I'm not saying I wouldn't take a position outside of librarianship to make ends meet if we get down to the wire in terms of the elimination of my position,  but I'm not ready to give up on my library career yet.  :)

Okay,  I'm blogging on my phone,  and this is a long post for that.  Let me see how much damage autocorrect has done and wrap this up.  Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!

Pooped

Each Sunday, we play a dice-and-paper role-playing game, Call of Cthulhu, which is based off of HP H P Lovecraft's horror fiction of the 1920s and 1930s. We have been playing most weekends since 1991. Really. Same story line. Our characters have kids now. "_Each Sunday, we play a dice-and-paper role-playing game, Call of Cthulhu, which is based off of HP H P Lovecraft's horror fiction of the 1920s and 1930s. We have been playing most weekends since 1991. Really. Same story line. Our characters have kids now. :) But I'm glad we cancelled today because frankly I needed to rest after doing Thanksgiving yesterday. Thank goodness for four-day weekends. How on earth do you people do Black Friday after cooking and eating on Thanksgiving? I don't get it. smile emoticon I had no energy, ached all over, and was just blah all day as I recuperated. But the food and companionship was worth it. But I'm glad we cancelled today because frankly I needed to rest after doing Thanksgiving yesterday. Thank goodness for four-day weekends. How on earth do you people do Black Friday after cooking and eating on Thanksgiving? I don't get it. :) I had no energy, ached all over, and was just blah all day as I recuperated. But the food and companionship was worth it.

This year's Thanksgiving menu:
• Bleu Cheese Gougères
• Pumpkin Soup
• Quorn Turk'y Roast (fake vegetarian turkey made from fungous)
• Braised Brussels Sprouts, Chestnuts, and Pearl Onions (this is what I accidentally put white wine into, but was very good nonetheless)
• Butternut Squash Tian with Herbed Breadcrumbs
• Mashed Potatoes
• Green Beans with Shallots and Garlic
• Rolls
• Chickpea and Cucumber Salad with Cumin
• Pumpkin Pie

It was scaled back from previous years, but it still kicked my butt. I cooked under direction, but did all the prep work, stirring, etc. The real cook, who was directing everything, wasn't up to much more than overseeing and putting a spice or two in to taste. Even A was put to work, and he peeled two pounds of pearl onions, just about. I peeled 10 lbs of potatoes, and peeled and slice two butternut squash--easier than kabocha, but still, it's amazing my arms work today, especially with the stirring. But it was fun, it was great, and my mistake was okay and I think it came out really well. But I'm going to go to bed early and hopefully tomorrow will be less painful and more productive. Good night!

Who knew

That eight hours of cooking for Thanksgiving could leave you in this much pain?  Everything hurts.  The food was wonderful,  mind you,  even the dish I accidentally put wine into,  but I am so very tired.  Hopefully the ibuprofen will kick in and I can sleep. My feet feel like they are on fire.

We started working on our belated Thanksgiving dinner tonight

Making an excellent pumpkin soup and a chickpea/cucumber salad with cumin. Earlier today, YKWIA and I watched Inside Out, which was quite excellent. I definitely would be Sadness--she was so like me, and YKWIA kept pointing it out. He is most like Disgust. The story was wonderful. There is a part of the movie where a character makes a great sacrifice, and I bawled like a little kid. So I definitely got into it.

I went looking for my back brace today and in the midst of emptying closets and pulling stuff out, found the holiday ornaments. I seriously thought I might put the tree up tonight, but I got home at 11 pm, so I'm not going to do it now--maybe sometime during the weekend, but not right now.

Tomorrow I'm going to go over to my friends' around 10 am and work on the Quorn fake turkey goodness, the vegetable dishes, and dessert. We plan on eating about 3 pm. :)

Okay, I think I'll go on to bed. Good night.

Update

Thanksgiving dinner has been postponed till Saturday, tomorrow I'm going to go get a friend's meds and we're going to watch Inside Out, Sunday there will be no game. Today I've spent time with my friends, reading to the one who's been in bed most of the day trying to keep ahead of the pain left from his procedure. Also, my other friend and I went for a nice walk with one of the dogs, who was very excited when she saw ducks in the pond, but fairly indifferent when she encountered geese. The only problem with walk was that the entire asphalt circuit was covered in piles of what I surmise to be goose poop, so we really had to watch where we were going. Anyway, it was a restful and pleasant day. I have some things to do here at home, but I'm going to take a short nap first, since I didn't sleep well last night.

Anyway, if you celebrated Thanksgiving on, well, Thanksgiving, then I hope you had a safe and happy one with loved ones.

I did not sleep well

despite coming in about 7:30 last night and going to sleep by about 8 pm. But then I was up from midnight to 1 am, no matter how tired I was. After that I tossed all night. I may have had too much caffeine by the time I went back to bed. Yesterday and Monday I'd taken care of a friend who was having some issues. Yesterday he had a painful procedure that should have lasted maybe 30-45 minutes but wound up taking 3 hours. I had to cancel my appointment for physical therapy at the last minute because it ran so long, plus he was in pain and I didn't feel like I could leave him. This is someone with a very high pain threshold, but this really hurt him. After someone else came home, I went and did some grocery shopping, and got some things for him.

This morning my lower back is feeling much worse, and I could probably have used PT yesterday. I'm thinking of going over to the complex gym to walk to see if it would help some. In the meantime, I've got the Macy's Parade on. I like the Rose Parade better, to be honest. And NBC is mostly just talking to various NBC stars with the parade in the background, without showing much, so frankly I think I'll turn it off. You may ask, why are we not cooking today? We've put off Thanksgiving till tomorrow to give my friend, who is the cook, some time to recuperate. In the meantime I'm going to go over there later and spend some time with them. But first, I think I'm going to see if I can stretch out my back.

I just called A and my friend is doing better, and his doctor called to check on him this morning. We decided we'd go for a walk later because the weather is so pleasant (it supposed to be sunny and 64 degrees today), so I'll forego the treadmill for now.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!

Having a quiet evening at home

Mainly because I don't have the gas to go anywhere; I've already travelled 10 miles on my gas light and won't get paid till tomorrow. I have yesterday's debit for a quarter of a tank of gas (which I went through in going to four doctors' appointments plus the pharmacy with a friend), so I didn't want to take the chance of overdraughting the account, and since it's down to 59 cents, that would pretty much be what would happen. So I've been home for about an hour and forty-five minutes and I've been mostly enjoying the quiet and thinking about what I need to do over the next few days, and how best to accomplish it. So here are some of my upcoming plans:

Tonight:
1. Put away the laundry, including the hand washables I'd hung up on Sunday to dry.
2. Straighten up just a bit and put away the things for the trip and various things I scattered while packing.
3. Load the dishwasher and do a few plastic cups by hand.
4. Get the reimbursement request from the trip together.

Tomorrow:
1. Work out in the complex gym.
2. Get gas.
3. Get creamer for a friend and take it to him before work.
4. Go in early to work.
5. Work a half day, and get things in shape for over Thanksgiving.
6. Take a friend to the dentist.
7. Get my allergy shots.
8. Go to physical therapy.
9. Make any last preparations for Thanksgiving with my friend.
10. Pay bills.

Thanksgiving:
1. Prepare and cook under a friend's supervision.
2. Eat Quorn goodness and a variety of vegetarian dishes.
3. Spend time with friends.
4. Call my mom and check up on her.

Friday (off from work):
1. Work out.
2. Work on a cover letter for a job that's due November 30th.
3. Work on the game notes.
4. Spend time with friends.

Saturday:
1. Do the grocery run.
2. Work out.

Sunday:
1. Prepare the house for gaming.
2. Game.

UPDATE: Thanksgiving is postponed to Friday; details above. I managed to get a few things done, but given the trip's lingering effects, trying to get things caught up at work, taking care of a friend, visiting my relative who was in the hospital, and running all over town, I've mostly been coming home and crashing before 9 am and getting up very early.

Today I:

1. Slept in.
2. Did housework.
3. Went to my friends' house.
4. Did laundry.
5. Watched an episode of 'Space Academy' from years ago.
6. Watched an episode of 'The Greatest American Hero' that was an unaired pilot inserted as the last episode of the show in syndication in which Ralph passes the suit on to a young woman.
7. Watched the movie The Giver, which was quite well done and I now want to re-read the book and read the other three in the quartet, which I have on my bookshelf.
8. Came home and have been relaxing.

All in all it's been a good day, a good weekend, and a good holiday.

Home from the holidays

On Thanksgiving, I had a wonderful dinner that I'd helped YKWIA prepare, and we had quite a nice day, ending with re-watching Julie and Julia. We had mostly French-style Thanksgiving food, including chestnut soup, gruyere gougères, Quorn fake turkey roast, port cranberry sauce, potatoes with garlic and parsley, green beans with chives, celery salad, rolls, apples and lavender in puff pastry, and French pumpkin pie. Everything except the rolls were made from scratch. It was all really yummy. I don't understand how Quorn can turn mushorooms into something that tastes like poultry, but they do. And the apples in lavender butter were absolutely sublime. But it was all excellent. I'd never had chestnuts before and while they were a pain to peel, the soup was great.

Yesterday it was off to Danville to visit my mom. I had a decent time. We talked quite a bit and watched a good deal of television, including the movies Leap Year (which I loved, and yet another Amy Adams film, so I saw her two days in a row after Julie and Julia), Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, and part of Total Recall (I left in the middle of that one; I've seen it before.) Last night we watched a lot of 'Blue Bloods' with Tom Selleck, which I hadn't watched before but was pretty good. We also watched 'Rookie Blue' and 'Hawaii Five-O', so lots of cops shows. I did not get a chance to watch 'Grimm', but should have it on the DVR here. Today we were watching TNT, and 'The Librarians' are coming, a series based on the Noah Wyle movies, with a team of adventurers. I liked the movies quite a bit, so I must say, I'm intrigued. It premiers Sunday, December 7th, at 8 pm. Must remember that, as I'm usually playing the Cthulhu game till about then.

There is no Cthulhu game tomorrow, as Brenda has a potluck with the local Society for Creative Anachronism shire. But maybe YWKIA and I can finish the fourth season of 'Haven' (one episode left) on Netflix and all three of us can do some thing fun.

Today I'm going to try to work on the house some, as I let it deteriorate while I was sick. It's not awful, but it need some attention. But first I should check in with the guys and make sure A doesn't need to go to the grocery today.

Anyway, that's my holiday weekend so far. Hope yours is doing well.