Category: Domestic Life

And soon, a schlepp

This graphic has no relevance to my life right now, things are akshully okay.

I made a lovely couple of turkey patties yesterday for supper – made fried mushrooms and chopped onions and lettuce and tomato to go with and toasted the buns first. It was restaurant quality, although way less salty; I used ground cumin, black pepper, a tiny bit of salt, some cayenne/paprika spice mix, a couple of drops of Worcestershire and a fuckton of garlic powder for the effect. Very pleased with the results. I shall cook some more up today as well for luncheon.

This morning I got up and put a load of laundry on just to prove that I’m not a total slug. Haven’t heard from Buster yet this morning. (That was an hour ago; he was calling in the hall at (just now) 6:15, probably wanting to complain to management about the state of the sky again.) He’s really gone off training, I don’t know whether it’s because he’s feeling punk from scrapping, or he’s otherwise distracted, or I’m failing him in some way, I’ve been a little off myself. The anxiety paced the AQI yesterday, which went from a comfy 44 to over 100 in a six hour period, and with each rise in the particulates the anxiety, which is physical because the air quality impacts your breathing, spikes.

I’m also working on what I hope will be viewed as a funny, newsy letter to One I Love. Around seven we’ll go shopping, now that we know we’re not going to Bowen Island for a portion of the weekend. I am peeved, but not enough to whine about it too much.

250 words so far this morning on Honey on the Moon Redux, which is my second attempt to write Honey on the Moon, and which is now separate from Best Roommate in the World. Quite a bit of it is changing Musqueam to MST and it amazes me how much the verbiage around things changes when you’re actually trying to be sensitive instead of assuming that you are. I mean, I still assume I am more than I am, but it’s interesting.

Buster trained after I brushed him.  Order of operations issues ??? hoo noze, iz cat.

got up at four

Made tomato lentil soup. Very tasty; zero fat and hardly any salt nonetheless.

Paul’s about to come over and take me to Fraser Foreshore before it gets too hot.

About sixty words of infill on previously existing projects. I have so much work ahead of me to massage the mss into shape it’s quite vexxing.

Put down more ant traps, the ants are back in sheeting hordes.

Cedar Isle Farm reports the harvest:

Barley – not good, sadly

Wheat – both hard and soft, excellent quality and yield

Oats – OH YEAH BABY

Rye – much better than anticipated

This has been your community supported agriculture report.

 

Paul ate lentil soup, iced tea and pecan-apricot chocolate mascarpone salad.

middle of the day

Katie took a break in the middle of the work day yesterday to take my phone call because I think it’s safe to say that I’m concerned for her mental welfare at the moment and we had a rudely long call (as far as her employers are concerned) but she was already in an office so there weren’t any big ears and we could just hang.

Some parts of the conversation were incredibly painful, the stuff that you just don’t put on social media because of how it plays out over time, because of who might be affected adversely, because of who might cruelly take advantage of it. But I have to say that overall, given her circumstances, Katie is doing the correct things in the correct order and Keith and Paul are being supportive and (relatively) non-judgemental. Things aren’t great but they aren’t critical, and the baby is fine as far as any of us know. And now I’m going to post this before I say something I shouldn’t.

I’m spending an awful lot of time thinking about Honey on the Moon/Best Roommate in the World without actually writing and now I’m thinking I want to rewrite it so it’s a much slower slow burn.

better and still okay

Things are calmer, but they will be sadder again yet, so waiting is. Katie’s doing better.

Talked to Jeff and we’ll be hiring housekeeping help on a trial basis.

Jeff got me a medium coffee and some donuts, thank you, and then we watched a “Tim Team” which is traditional.

It seems possible, perhaps likely, that the ant problem is going to taper off and stop.

Buster was excited as hell about the rain. He went in and out three times and yelled about the rain just as loud the third time as the first time. He trained this morning as well, although he was hard to settle, so excited about RAIN mom. Let us pause and bless the life giving rain, present for the first time in 46 days.

The floor is shaking in a very SF sort of way, must be Elite Dangerous.

hanging with Susana Ville and Jarmo and Sauna and Mike

In the morning on Sunday Alex and Katie took us out to IHOP. Then at four we were off for Hastings Sauna – I respected my blood pressure and only went in for about fifteen minutes. Mostly we talked. The manager fell on Mike’s neck like he was hoping he’d reinvigorate the business single handed. (In the meantime, we’re plotting our next trip to the JJ Korean spa in Coquitlam) and Jarmo offered me a peach Bubly which was nice.

Earl’s on Lougheed afterward for a celebratory meal. I would NOT have ordered the second most expensive entree on the menu if I’d had any idea Jarmo would pay for it, but that’s the kind of friends I have and I had been daydreaming about surf and turf for a very long time. It was fantastic. Seriously. Best restaurant meal I’ve had in ages, and despite being on the Lougheed highway side of the building it was cool and deliciously quiet.

Then hugs while the folks drive back to Chilliwack where they live now, and hanging out at Mike’s for the evening (congee and garlic shrimps for brekky), plus body work and the first three episodes of Loki (also got to listen to Mike work his way through Kane’s theme in Skyrim which is always a treat) and THEN he three Dee printed me some pick holders for my ukelele and my other guitar. Consider all that and wonder not why I follow that man around like an awkward pupdog.

Then we walked back here, split up and I came home and rehydrated because it was berloody hot out there and I thought I was going to have a heart attack for a while there, and Mike went to Oliver Twist and bought a Steamworks party pack and some munchies. We then watched two movies (Jolt and Boss Level) with Jeff and Mike walked home.

Birthday

Jeff’s Bday celebration yesterday. We had an untroubled day at home (after a small shop) and went walking with the king. Buster was SO HAPPY to spend a couple of hours on the deck with us.

Today me and Mike and Jarmo and Susana are going to go to Hastings Sauna and then I’m going to hang out over at Mike’s. This is like THE MOST SOCIAL INTERACTION Mike has had in many long months, I imagine he’ll be practically giddy. I know seeing the Dalai Jarmo is going to make me giddy, and I will definitely talk to Susana, which given that she runs an LTC in BC means that I’ll be getting a ground zero response story to COVID over the last 18 months. There’s also family stuff going on in the background which won’t make it to the blog but is distinctly and prayerfully on my mind.

Load of laundry is on.

I cut about six inches off my hair, but not evenly, so now I look like even more subsistence than usual.

My new crown aches almost all the time. I sure wish it didn’t, at least it’s not keeping me awake as much. It got bashed around quite a lot and I guess it’s still sore.

an ordinary day

called Peggy, found out that Tom is not having a great time, but he’s alive and kicking, so there’s that, and ran two loads of laundry including my new favourite cloth masks, and emptied and refilled the dishwasher, and found out there is another rat in the wall and the rat Buster caught didn’t help, and practiced and possibly wrote another instrumental on the ukelele, and watched some TV, and ate the Burger Den Mushroom burger Jeff got me, and now I’m wrassling with my bedding, since I washed my bedding like a sensible person.

I am still thinking about best roommate, there’s a scene I keep writing and rewriting in my brain but it’s really heavy in terms of the power relationship between our two knuckleheads and I want it to be incredibly light and airy and delicately emotional and I haven’t felt my way to it yet.

I even broshed my toofs

Damn I love timmy ho’s coffee

Jeff got some yesterday and we never do it two days running, but oh the mighty urge.

Yesterday I ran the dishes, practiced, cooked up the last of the chicken, kept my driving skills current in Paul’s car, paid the rest of the dentist bill (thank you mOm and pOp) and enjoyed a lovely walk in Fraser Foreshore. Other than that I didn’t do a damned thing, but I had a great day.

Right now the rumble and crash of the trash truck is making its way through the alley.

Relatives are re-reconsidering their holiday options, given that Alberta has gone spare and the case rate is rising AGAIN in BC, what the fuck, people. I was thinking about Victoria again. I know it seems weird given that Jeff and Keith have both visited but my fears are real and not subject to just being switched into a corner.

Of course my allergies are bad right now so I’m sneezling a lot, and that makes me think about what exactly in the way of fomites and aerosols of unusual pathology I’m spraying around….

 

happy family news

Paul got a job! he’s working part time for the thrift store around the corner from us both here in East Burnaby. I had the Sudden Strong Urge to phone Keith (I try to ask if he’s got 15 minutes and tell him I don’t have an agenda at the beginning of the call so he can pace himself, I think I remembered that last night) and among other news, I gleaned that. I am thrilled. We talked about sleep hygiene and how he’s adjusting his cooking style to suit his housemates, which is also happy making news.

I am well rested and in a good mood, maybe I’ll get my executive dysfunction whipped into something like a shape and get something done today.