Category: Domestic Life

There is no cell service in southern Guyana so I’m going to have to rewrite any reference to cell phones in TB. Goldingit. I think I should prob’ly check some other stuff too.

Was invited to join Keith for church this morning. I may go, haven’t made up my mind. Paul’s unlikely to go because his s/o Janice is in town. Katie’s gone camping with Dax and the boys.

 

 

So I did my Lumosity and after weeks of very shitty results I got this today: – the trophy cups represent best score ever…. Familiar Faces is a wickedly difficult game and I’ve been stuck on a level for about 8 months now so that was a real relief! Of course it’s the math game I huffed. Sigh.  So there you have it, my brain is working better.

I’m wearing on of John’s tshirts because I miss him so much these days.

Paul has visited another facility and likes it better. We’ll learn soon which is going to get his business. Either way it’s close to where I am currently living.

The second biggest hunting spider I’ve ever seen was in the upstairs bathroom sink this morning. I didn’t turn the light on so I didn’t notice him (claspers) until I went to wash my hands and there’s a SHELOB shape so I had to press pause while I got him safely out on the deck.

Kudo on a story last night. Mebbe 65 words yesterday on TB and a whole bunch of musical practice. Still haven’t put my laundry away but I’m not too worried. I’m too busy being inspired from Tuesday night.

Katie and I and the kids are supposed to go to Victoria this weekend but I don’t have the stomach for four sailing waits and there are no reservations available, coming or going… so I advised against. We’ll know later today.

Suzanne will be coming later.

SPOT PRAWNS IN STEVESTON I REPEAT SPOT PRAWNS IN STEVESTON

Jeff bought us chicken and ribs and salad for dinner and it was NOM.

I have to put my laundry away or my weeks of having a clean floor will be for nothing.

Practiced Uke already this morning. I may even write a song in D. Now that I know what it is. LOLOLOL.

Completely edited section 2 of TB EXCEPT FOR WHERE I BACKED myself into a story corner. I will fix, I have a handle on how. Removed so many adverbs it was like an infestation I tellink you.

Kaossilator settings. 90bpm, High C, G02, 4ths, P91. Start in lower left corner and push your finger around for some bass and drum cool tuneage.

-Later

90 bpm P90 4ths G08 High C – I’m going to call this one the Robots’ Rap Battle and I am having LA FONNE with it

The aircon didn’t get turned on yesterday and it is still very hot upstairs. I’m about to throw the door open and get some air in here – it’s 17ºC outside.

Laid back day, nothing of particular interest to report.

The grind around Bakhmut continues. The Russians are demoralized, panicky, poorly-led and -provisioned and the Ukrainians have more and better armaments almost every day. And men are still dying in droves, mostly on the Russian side.

Apparently every day that’s nice men go down to Wreck Beach and take photos of the beachgoers. I’m not saying men are scum, but I wish the old timers’ ways of dealing with rubberneckers still obtained.

Spoke to Dave and Keith yesterday.

Dave’s bathroom ceiling caved in yesterday morning. It’s possible a poorly installed bidet in the upstairs apartment is the reason but let’s face it the building is not new and it could be other leaks as well. I asked him how close he came to getting killed and he said about ten minutes. A miss, as they say, is as good a mile.

Keith told me to hang in there, to keep working on not taking Paul stuff personally, to thank me for my efforts and to invite me to go look at the next care facility.

Did not dress or leave the house yesterday. Updated my care sheet to include that I’m due for a mammogram. I made flower rolls (white bread buns) and they came out just spectacular (the texture is pure pillowy softness) and I’m irritated now because I am not 100% sure exactly which recipe I followed or whether I jammed two together. ADD, ADD, polishes as it cleans, ting!

Jeff’s day has started and he is drinking tea.

Buster has hairballs and refuses to let me dose him with hairball remedy.

Other than that, it’s hot in the house and I’m going to ask Jeff to turn on the aircon.

 

We went to the Fraser Foreshore after going to the Crest and sending Ruth a bucket of documents from Paul for her to sort and analyze. We were supposed to go to the Fraser restaurant after for lunch but it was JAMMED I mean the entire parking lot from one end to the other was jammed and the outside tables were all jammed too. So we went to our fallback, Phó Edmonds, and had a lovely meal; then visited the bakery next door for treats for Paul and Keith (picked up flower bread for Jeff) and went back to Casa Caspell, where I googooed at both Oreo and Ryker and picked up ten bucks worth of beef stew, frozen, from Keith, which is now defrosting in the fridge.

The birds in the forest were in full spate – we saw the usual brace of songbirds and ducks and great blue herons, and walked at least 2 k, so we really made an effort after weeks of my being a lazy bum.

It’s turned out a simply lovely, warm sun/cool breeze sort of spring day full of dappled sunshine.

Tomorrow we’re doing a tour of one of the local homes for eldercare. I’ll be heading over to Paul’s for about 9:30 am and then we’ll run some errands afterward. Keith will be joining us.

Paul was quite sour when we first started walking, making many comments that nudged up against “EVERYBODY IS BLAMING ME FOR EVERYTHING” and I did my best to not take it personally until walking enough and eating put him into a better mood. He says that any time he talks to Keith, Keith ignores him, and I hate to be a contrarian, but it just ain’t so.

I promised if he went into care I’d see him Tuesdays and Thursdays and take him for walks and run errands. No weekends cause that would be for the kids and grandkids. Yes I’ve been terrible about this since the weekend of Jim’s memorial. I have not been 100%.

Just got a forward on twitter from Michael Balter about this. What a HORRIBLE TRASHFIRE ABYSS OF SUCK that woman is.

Anyway, my day is back under my control so I’m going to run a load of laundry and check my mail and I’m finally well slept enough I don’t need a nap.

This site was briefly down.

I have eaten all the shirazi salad, so I made more. I drank all the coffee, so I made more. I brought Jeff black tea this morning (I usually give him a choice of coffee, black tea or peppermint tea so that he can stay hydrated while he’s doing things like encouraging my site to come back up and beating his customers’ sites into submission).

I hope you all have a lovely day filled with hummingbirds and butterflies and clement weather. It will be seasonal and partly cloudy here today. I intend to have an entirely brainless day, since both wordle and lumosity tell me that I have no brains whatsoever this morning. So brainless I am! brainless I was when I awoke, and brainless all day I will be! I cheerfully predict it, and it’s okay. One kudo overnight, so I re-read the story thus adorned and found it a pleasant diversion. I mean, that’s what fanfic is for, right? I got in maybe two words on the new one and while I think non stop about Totally Boned I haven’t had any movement as far as pushing pixels is concerned.

Had a simply SPLENDID conversation with pOp yesterday about pOOping. (I never talk to pOp on the phone so it was a pleasant surprise.) I greeted him thusly, “Oh what a terrible thing it is that you have been forced to answer the phone. Has anything fallen off you lately?” (This in keeping with the family lore that pOp has quietly become a very well-behaved not-eating-mOm’s-brains zombie.)

I have been eating enough fibre and things are good amidships, with occasional Metformin induced explosions, but he reports much sadness with various tubes and wishes that they would behave in a more reasonable fashion. Blessings ON ALL YOUR TUBES AND WIRES pOp, I hope you can get them to do their thing without being so troublesome.

I carry no brief for John Cleese as I believe I’ve made clear in past posts, but him mocking the living shit out of Chuck & Cheesewit getting crowned was balm to my wounded soul.

 

He brought us Chicken Roti and … other things. We nommed.

We watched Beavis and Butthead (a new tradition) and Bohemian Rhapsody (which I hadn’t previously seen). It was pretty impressive given that the director was fired about three weeks before production wrapped and an actor wa threatening to quit because they clashed with Singer (the original director) so much.

Coffee’s made. Time to fold laundry and think limply about running an errand or two.

did some laundry, ate leftover tacos, watched the second Shazam movie.

Brain seems to be okay.

No writing.

Just staying calm.

Probably won’t go to church today, I’ll wait for Keith to call (or not…)

LOL slept through the beginning of the Coronasplodation so I will not be doing that. Fucking Camilla in Queen Mary’s crown is making me bark and bark.

Leftover tacos and shirazi salad and lashings of coffee with cream (just this once…bought a small container) for brekky.

Keith came by yesterday for a brief lunch and a chat about his housing situation and that of his housemates. Jeff was very clear on two points (about which I agree) – that Keith could bunk with us if no other options came available, but that it would be a very tough accommodation FOR ALL OF US (mostly because these days Keith is all about the sleep hygiene (10 pm to 7 am quiet times) and Jeff and I are more or less being active between 4 am and 8 or maybe 9 pm). That said it was a good meal and a civilized discussion so all is good.

I send my love and solidarity to all the English Republicans who’ll do jail time for peacefully protesting the Media Colonization.

Glory peace and victory to Ukraine.

Fuck Putin, whose apparent response to the head of Wagner complaining about no ammo is to advise him that for the money he’s being paid he can buy it on the open market.

My brain appears to be working okay this morning. Tiny bit of writing yesterday.

Someone on nextdoor asked for where to buy a first communion dress for a little girl (the catholic supply place on Main most probably)

Time to run the dishwasher and line up my errands for the day. Peggy got her little bag of biscotti and said that it’s amazing how the flavour survives being tossed around in the back of the car for two days LOLOLOL.

I have schlepped, gotten money for the cleaning specialist, delivered biscotti to Peggy (just emailed her to advise) and tried out my new N95 mask at the Save-On. Thanks to Jeff for moving things along so ably and dealing with my mutterings / ‘turn left right here’ as I attempted to ‘alligate’ him through the Burnaby New West borderlands.

Now I’m gonna make shirazi salad. Fuckers at Cazba restaurant at Lougheed didn’t pack the two shirazi salads I ordered – they sent the much cheaper green salads instead – and I paid for the expensive ones…. I left a very hot review on Doordash. I’ve had SUCH A CRAVING FOR SHIRAZI SALAD IT’S INSANE. I am going to make some right now cause I bought ingredaments.

I am in a good mood, moving well and faster than usual and of course it’s May the Fourth Be With You Day. And it’s sunny and warm and the world has intense amounts of suck but I am not getting sucked in. Dave called me yesterday and how good to hear his voice. My brain seems to be working well and I can still see the floor in my room. Today I have no idea what I’m going to do, though. I may just grab the Paleolithic book and sit out on the deck after whining at Jeff to set up the gazebo. LOL. Emptying the dishwasher, washing the rugs and my sheets might just be on the agenda. Back door is open and a fresh breeze is stirring in the house….

So yesterday was a perfectly fine recovery day. I slept in, got my booster, came back home and we watched TV and ignored the world. I had premade lentil soup for lunch and toasted the chickie sandwich Jeff got me for supper the night before last and it was NOM, so no cooking. I still have some sweetened condensed milk so I didn’t have to do any shopping before I could enjoy coffee. Jeff has been most kind.

Today I’m going to see what I feel up to and then hopefully I can stop meeping.

Spoke with Paul on the phone yesterday. He’s back to telling me I took his drivers’ licence away. I guess I still want to run away from home some days. He said he’s not going to his volunteer job today (I offered to give him a lift.)

I am so freaked out about this voyage I’ve gone completely limp and I haven’t finished the biscotti.

3:18 biscotti have commenced. I’ve got two logs worth of dough left to cook. House smells amazing.

5:36 last batch is in for the second bake. As soon as they’re out: shower, lay out my pills, finish packing and wait for the pickup.

I may or may not post again over the next 48 but I’ll keep notes and do a big round up sometime shortly after I get home on Sunday. Picked out the ‘burntest’ ones for Jeff, who does NOT mind, but there’s no way I’m subjecting him to 4 hours of biscotti baking without leaving him any.

 

We shopped, now for some Endeavour on the telly, and biscotti making for tomorrow’s feast/celebration of life.