Category: Domestic Life

nuts!

My Nut Hut order arrived; pecans for snacks, chocolate wafers for snacks, almonds for biscotti and 5 pounds sunflower seeds for the tweety birds.

It’s snowing, immense flakes, banging on down.

Asked Buster this morning. Brush? Treats? Door? Door it was.

Schlep this morning. Biggest ticket item was triple A batteries. Jeff stays back because there’s no reason to both go in. Wore my KN95 masks, as I do all the time now. As much as I love the SUPER COMFY triple layer kitty cat mask Jan Maxwell made for me (her xmas card turned up today as well) the epidemiology is pretty clear, the 95’s are better at keeping other people’s pathogens off you. Checked everything I picked up for sodium and man did I put a lot of shit back.

Black holes can make the suns orbiting them go 31 MILLION KPH. nnnnneeeeeeoOOWWWWW

Made mac and two cheeses with fried onions and capers yesterday… Paul came through and had a big bowl of it; he was dropping off his computer, which is illing, and we hung out and watched/listened to Tripping by Nils Frahm which is  something mOm and pOp’d like it.

Alexander’s computer has been paid for and shipping confirmation received. So exciting! I’ll be rounding up the usual suspects looking for a contribution but I won’t be pressing anyone until my credit card bill comes in.

The Saveon hasn’t had pot barley in stock since August and literally does not know when more will come in. I am aghast. I finally found a soup everybody loves and got no ingredients!

I spent two days in bed after getting the booster shot (same day as the flu shot so yes both arms hurt like hell, nothing today except a tiny ache on the Pfizer side) and finally feel like a human being again this morning. My digestion was SO BAD – I actually sent an email to mOm to complain about it, and apologized …and I was hardly eating. Honestly, I felt worse than I’ve done when I was running a temperature, all my long bone joints ached like I’d been beaten. On the plus side, my BP was 133 over 87 this morning and that’s literally the best it’s been in more than a year.

Jeff has completed his repairs of the downstairs terlet. Rejoice, rejoice!

I am getting super sweet comments on my last fic posted, which is giving me life. Apparently I manifested something that one of the fans has been wishing for for a decade, so that’s some serious fan service. mOm said she enjoyed it. I’ve stopped writing the really porny stuff and now it’s just angsty domestic schmoop.

The three stories I’m working on right now (settings: Denver Airport during a blizzard, BC Highway 3 just after the middle of November, a tourist town in Maine) ARE NOT BEHAVING, so I’m having to retrace my steps a lot.

still haven’t put my laundry away

the siding is squeaking like a horror movie soundtrack in the 80 kph gusts and I briefly heard the white plastic chair dancing around on the deck

I’ve seen lovely pictures of possibly new species of peacock jumping spiders from Australia — OMG did you know they spin pup tents in inclement weather, — defended the virtue of someone I follow on the internet (then changed tactics and deleted it) but in general all the news is fucking grim and Julian Assange being shipped to the US is kinda the rancid maraschino on a news cycle that includes Mike Nesmith dying.

I suppose if we’re going to have an ‘orgy of death’ culture, which seems to be happening right before our eyes without so much as a by your leave or a shut uppa you face, I should mention that if you google Henry Kissinger tontine you will experience exactly what is advertised, and all I could think when I saw it was how much John Caspell would have loved that, and likely thrown in a few shekels.

Whenever my pOp querulously remarks to mOm ‘what on earth is she on about now’ I have to remember that I too hope to get older and I should maybe slow down. So, I will. From now on, I’ll write eight grade sentences and punk chew ate properly.

aw who am I kiddiddning

It’s my business to maintain a playful relationship with the language.

The floor

In my room….is visible.

I still need to rehang all my clothes, wash the seventeen billion socks that were liberated from being silverfish food and clear off the desk and chairs but it’s absolutely delightful knowing that I’m not going to trip over my IKEA bag full of laundry on the way to the john at night.

More kudos this morning. Completely ignorable babbling about fanfic follows: I’m almost at 6k words for the BC weather event fanfic; 21K for “Snow under Starlight” in which I try a pandemic fic that is turning into an adult version of the kids’ story ‘and then the doorbell rang’, and I’ve got a 3K fic about being stuck in an airport during a three day blizzard,

Continue reading The floor

Cleaning specialist day

Today, my room. This is big and emotional and horrific as an ADD sufferer but you know what, Suzanne doesn’t judge. I also have a Christmas Prezzy for her. And the toilet is out of the downstairs bathroom so she doesn’t have to do that room today.

Jeff says if it improves my mental health he’s all in favour of paying Suzanne to help me with it, once again confirming that he is a Very Good Person.

I’m not a hundred percent sure if the grisly business amidships is Metformin induced or I have a gut bug, but I am not leaving the house today.

Quick break while I empty dishwasher and swap laundry over…

Brekky was an almost salt free affair: steamed asparagus smothered in scrambled eggs, with a side of golden kiwi fruit and a reduced-salt fresh baked home made whole wheat bun. The asparagus was kinda off-flavoured but still edible and I *nailed* the scrambled eggs, perfect really.

850 words on the BC flooding fanfic – it’s really coming together nicely, and I walked back a scene that wasn’t working, so go me. THEY’RE ALONE IN A CAMPER VAN and the trope continues AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED. Didn’t think this through, did ya fellas.

I put in all the family names as prompts for the AI art thing and look what it made…. I mean it should be an UPSUN cover or something it’s so magnifisumpin.

Bargey McBargeface IS STILL RULING THE WAVES

Yes, they couldn’t refloat it. Don’t worry, climate change will fix it so it refloats soon enough, they’ll try again at the next ‘over 5 metres’ tide.

I think I’m going to make asparagus scrambled eggs this morning. Whether I have the urge to make whole wheat buns to go with brekky remains to be seen.

Absolutely lovely letter from Tish. We’re outlining our atrocious, funny and ordinary health problems to each other; how boring our letters will seem to other people if they’re ever amassed. At least we’re not discussing the state of our spouse’s bowels like a several generations back Uncle Jack used to do. God, how my mother did NOT enjoy transcribing his self-important screeds. And now I get to send Tish baby pictures.

Ryker farts like a grown man. I mean seriously pOp I have a mental image of your eyebrows climbing like a homesick angel if you ever heard him. He is a good feeder, if a little sleepy, and thanks to Katie’s research and buying an extremely expensive bottle for him, he doesn’t have nipple confusion even though he’s having overnights at his dad’s place already. (A three week old breastfed baby excuse me while my mind goes poooooof kabang.)

Paul came for lunch and to help me run errands (CBD gummies, misdirected mail to a neighbour, pickup my new prescription, more KN95 masks, buy 30 bucks of veg) and do a mall walk yesterday and the two of us had a lovely old screechy confab about the hell we went through (during our own childrearing with nipple confusion) when daycare started, and now the science has caught up, apparently.

Also, Katie’s supply is a testament to her Friesian ancestors (what do you mean her ancestors weren’t Friesian cows) ; I am encouraging her to donate since ample doesn’t even cover it. She’s considering it. I just love her so much right now & it was amazingly awesome to see her the other day.

BP markedly better. It’s still not great, but I’m in no danger of dropping dead.

 

 

BP still too high

BUT RIKER IS COMING TODAY yay! I get to hold the little guy for a while and get some of my grimness knocked off.

absolutely no salt in dinner yesterday

this para deleted and put on private

I have a job interview on Thursday. I know, I know, but I was really excited about the opportunity, and it isn’t far away in terms of the commute. I thought it was up by BCIT but it’s down on the flats where sensible settlers shouldn’t build. 10 minutes by car almost an hour on the bus. Time to get better masks again.

We got almost two inches of snow yesterday and while most of it was gone, the fog that accompanied it made the whole city look … weird.

Floods in Hawaii. A foot of rain in 48 hours? And South Sudan is under so much water that current estimates are that the waters will not have receded by the time the next rainy season starts in 5 months, which is insane.

Almost 1000 words yesterday.

 

quick notes

I don’t know much but I know I think the F1 track at Jeddah is a total zoo, disaster, disgrace. There’s a goddamned star wars joke in there someplace. Anyway, Hamilton won again.

Two mornings straight of the thickest hoar frost I’ve ever seen on the roofs of the local houses. It’s snows an inch, inch and a half; I put out triple the normal amount of sunflower seeds.

I’m now eligible for the booster dose. I will get my flu vax at the same time. I need to pick up more meds today and go into the clinic to see the nurse. BP still worryingly high.

Didn’t call Mike and didn’t hear from him. Or the kids for that matter. I feel completely sunk down before the omicron variant and not wanting to leave the house again but here I am forced to run errands and whatnot. The science news about it is very disturbing, even though for people previously vaccinated it’s very unlikely to be deadly. But COVID is going to continue to chew away at human fitness it in its own way….

I am experimenting with yet another adhd assistant software… I am at least fed, dressed, toothbrushed, blogged and I wrote 818 words this morning on the airport fanfic.

800 words on ‘landslide’

Walked at Lougheed Mall with Paul yesterday; he got some bread and veg and I got Purdy’s Dark Chocolate Sweet Georgia Browns because I have no chill. After I drove him back here for Lentil Soup and Shirazi salad which he devoured with thanks.

He and I had a guilty laugh about the downstairs toilet; the downstairs toilet is the way it is because MORE THAN 20 YEARS AGO my Unca Dave told Paul that the only way to put in a downstairs toilet for John’s apartment when he moved in with us back in 1997 was a hell of a kludge which would come back to bite somebody later AND THAT SOMEBODY TURNS OUT TO BE JEFF. I mean seriously who the hell could have seen that bit of family history ABOUT A TOILET happening, it’s like a monty python sketch.

Jeff in turn asked me yesterday if I was okay with him continuing to ponder the reseating of the downstairs toilet (because we’re down to one toilet as a fam) and I said ARE YOU KIDDING it’s work I don’t have to do and I am not inconvenienced in the slightest just in case you wanted further evidence about what an amazing roommate he is, also the landlady should buss his cheeks and praise his name the next time she sees him (pLEASE nO says Jeff)

Worked on a couple of fanfics; overnight there were three ‘kudos’ in my inbox. People are still reading my fanfic and enjoying it, so that’s nice.

At some point I hope to make some biscotti happen for Peggy. I toasted the almonds but they’re kind of suboptimal; I’m having to go through them and give the wrinkled dry yucky ones to the crows.

Juncos and chipping sparrows are coming for the sunflower seeds now. They come at a different time of day than the crows. There were five crows yesterday, making a tremendous racket; they hardly moved when I opened the door.

My BP is still too high. I have to completely stop eating salt and I sure don’t want to.

waited and waited

Waited an hour and 45 minutes for the doctor appointment, hung up after that. I have another appointment today, I have to wonder if she’ll make that one. I am supposed to physically go in to the clinic on Monday, presumably to get yelled at about my blood sugar; I don’t actually know what she wants with me, since I’m seeing the nurse instead of the doc.

After three atmospheric rivers in two weeks, it’s a possibility that snow will be happening this weekend. I should move the walkway salt back into the house.

Running the dishwasher right now; lentil soup and tea for breakfast.

As soon as SaveOn’s open Jeff and I are heading out for a shopping expotition, and I’m also planning to drop off the books I took out from NWPL.

I tried reading them, I really did, but I simply don’t have the brain right now. (I read single chapters out of all of them but have no concentration.) I still feel residually sad and angry about Tom; so much about it was unfair and horrible for all concerned, but there’s no point talking about it in this kind of venue.

Paul took me for a short walk in the schoolyard yesterday. I was ready to go for a longer walk but the traffic was insane so we stayed in the neighbourhood.

lazy rainy day

Fed the crows! they are big birds, up so close.

Did another load of laundry, ran the dishwasher, emptied the dishwasher, tidied the kitchen.

Now I’m curled up in bed working on fanfic while Jeff tries to figure out what to do about the busted flange on the downstairs toilet, up to and including calling the landlord if it’s outside his paygrade.