i start to feel pixelated

I had a v lovely weekend, which bled straight into the work week (and unfortunately a massive headache today). On Saturday I spent some quality time writing on my balcony until it was too hot to write (which was unfortunately far too early). I also did various household tasks, cleaned various things, and actually washed the pendants over my kitchen island, which only happens on the rare occasions when I have houseguests.

The guest in question was Katie, the queen of my heart, who was in town for one night only before a work trip to Kansas City. She wasn't able to get up here until almost 8pm, and we met at Ludlows to have dinner with Hannah (another excellent friend whom I should probably see more often since she lives thirty miles away instead of eighteen hundred like most of my friends). It was great to hang out together, even if I was repeatedly reminded of how much fun they used to have in six grade when I wasn't invited to be their friend. Joke's on them since I'm pretty cool now!

sssanyway, we had a great dinner, and then we parted ways with Hannah and came back to my house, where Katie availed herself of my guest room (and a long conversation with [censored]). In the morning, I did some gardening while Katie went out and explored her childhood haunts on her own - while I dislike using pesticides, my anti-pesticide approach last year resulted in almost no crops, and I would like to avoid this year's gardens suffering the same fate. So I harvested the tomatillos that were already ripe, and then I sprinkled some pesticides on the nightshades that were all showing signs of insect damage. If I'm successful I'm going to have way too much produce, but I would rather suffer that fate than not have any at all.

When Katie got back, I made brunch, and my mom joined us for the meal - so we all caught up over scrambled eggs and hashbrowns and fruit, which was pretty tasty. Then Katie, [censored] and I chatted before driving down to the south part of the county to see one of the murals. We swung back through town to see the murals here, and then we parted ways with [censored] and went into (the other) town to see the murals there. We also grabbed soft serve at the hospital, which was a real treat. And Katie was just as affected by the Farm Aid mural as I expected her to be - it's really a stunning work of art, and I'm glad she got to see it.

When we got back to my house, Katie had just enough time to load up her car before needing to get on the road. We said our sad farewells, and hopefully I'll make it out to Colorado to see her sometime this fall. Then I spent the afternoon taking care of tings, and I also made a fresh tomatillo salsa verde by roasting the tomatillos with a jalapeno and then blending it with onion and lime juice. I didn't have any cilantro, which probably would have made it better - but for a first effort, I really liked it a lot. [censored] did not, but salsa verde is often wasted on him, so I wasn't surprised.

I did a bit more writing after that, and then I made supper - I was in the mood for chicken and mushroom alfredo, and it turned out perfectly. Then I should have gone to bed, but I dozed instead. When I woke up this morning, I was somewhat in it to win it - but by early afternoon I was feeling funky, which turned out to be the precursor to a pretty bad headache / possible migraine. So I called it quits on the job early and napped / relaxed / did nothing the rest of the day / evening.

And now I've been back on screens too long while closing out the night, and my headache is coming back, so I'm going to go to bed - goodnight!

man that's a different kind of greed

I have continued slogging this week, rather productively, although it's been too hot to do much of it from my balcony as I would prefer to. Yesterday I had to get up early enough to go into town for my annual mammogram, which luckily went very fast, and so I was home by the time I usually start work.

Then I slogged all day, but I stopped work around five to do a two-hour online class with the writer who taught my group at the writing retreat that I went to in New York last month. The class was about fiction vs memoir and gave me a lot to think about, so I really enjoyed it. And I ended the night with some leftovers + some more work, as usual. 

Today I miraculously only had two hours of meetings, but there were a lot of things that I wanted to do while I had time to focus. So I got up early and was out on my balcony working by 8am. Even at eight it was almost too hot, and I ended up calling it quits on the balcony around ten. But I kept going straight until my first meeting at three, and then wrapped up my day with an hour of work meetings and an hour talking to someone from my old team back in Boulder. 

Then I had thought I would go to Indianola to do some grocery shopping, but I really didn't have the energy and also didn't really have the need, since I'm not going to be cooking as much this week as I thought I might. So I relaxed a bit, and then picked up Mexican takeout, and then meant to write but instead dozed off. And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

choking on the air that you breathe

I'm v tired and intended to go to bed an hour ago, but I had to do a thing for work that took much longer than it should have. I have been alternating between slogging and various other obligations the last couple of days, which has slowed down my writing progress. Yesterday it was an early morning economic development board meeting and a long city council meeting in the evening. Today I was able to work at my leisure in the morning (although I didn't have time to write), but then I had to take a couple of hours off so that I could take Mom to an eye appointment. And then I slogged until almost 6:30, which was unwelcome.

But I took a break to make dinner - I grilled some chicken thighs for me and some hot dogs for [censored], which we ate with gluten free mac and cheese + regular mac and cheese respectively. And we ate it while watching the last forty-five minutes of The Two Towers, which is still a banger and holds up over twenty years later.

Then I cleaned up the kitchen, came upstairs, and slogged until now. And now I need to sleep immediately - goodnight!

basic being basic

I have continued to be quite busy the past couple of days, although I suppose I didn't get as much done yesterday as I had intended to. It doesn't help that it's super hot here, which makes spending time outside much less appealing. But yesterday I got up and spent a couple of hours writing, which felt great. Then I did various things around the house, took care of my plants, relaxed a bit in the afternoon, did some more writing, and eventually made dinner. Dinner was an experiment from one of the cookbooks that I got for Christmas, and it was a variation of a Spanish tortilla. Spanish tortilla is an egg dish with potato in it, and this one was made even easier because it involved frozen hash browns instead of boiling and cutting fresh potatoes. This was a good use of the farm eggs that I bought at the farmer's market last weekend, and I thought it was quite tasty. I don't think [censored] liked it quite as much, but now I have leftovers for the next couple of days, which makes me happy.

So we ate the tortilla last night with a slice of ham that I cooked on the stove, and all of that was pretty good. Then I took a long overdue shower, read a book for a while, and went to bed early.

Since I went to bed earlier, I was able to wake up this morning before 7:00 and write for a couple of hours before work. Then I slid straight into work mode and slogged aggressively until 6:00 p.m. At that point, I took a little break and journaled a bit on the balcony (although it was too hot for that, even in the shade), and then grilled hamburgers and made sweet corn for dinner. After I had sufficiently relaxed and cleaned up the kitchen, I came upstairs and spent the last hour taking care of a task for my boss. Now I need to go to bed so that I can repeat some of these feats tomorrow, although since I have an early community meeting and also a late community meeting, we'll see how much I get done. Goodnight!

one for the now and eleven for the later

I have continued to be too busy to blog, but none of the things that I've been doing are all that interesting, so you really haven't missed much. On Thursday, I got up early so I could read before work, which was extremely unusual, but I was determined to finish the book club book before our book club meeting that evening. The book was called TRUST by Hernan Diaz, and it won a Pulitzer a few years ago. I started it Wednesday night and wasn't totally sure how I felt about it, but I'm really glad that I kept going because it became one of my favorite things that I read in a while.

Anyway, at some point I had to stop reading so that I could get ready, take a couple of work meetings, and then drive to Centerville to see the dentist. Luckily, my teeth continue to be as good as they always are, so I won't have to see him again until my next cleaning in six months. And then I came home, slogged the rest of the afternoon, and felt like it really wasn't that much of a slog because most of my meetings were with some of my favorite people. I capped it off with book club, and while only five of us had finished, that was still better than some months, so we felt quite pleased by the turnout. We read a real hodgepodge of stuff -- t's odd to be in a book club that reads both "Trust" (a pulitzer prize winner) and "Secret of Secrets" by Dan Brown (will never win an award, nor should it ever be discussed again), but it's a good way to bond with some of the people at the company who I otherwise don't talk to as often.

I don't remember what I did the rest of Thursday evening, other than I probably ate leftovers because I was too wiped out to do anything else. Friday, I also wasn't entirely in it to win it, although I did get up and do some writing and then do some work tasks that I needed to accomplish. I ended up working until six, And then I ran into town to get a couple of groceries, came home, and tried a new-to-me recipe out of a cookbook that I got for Christmas last year. It was an enchilada bake that's basically a casserole, and it was as easy as the cookbook promised that it would be (since the cookbook is called 'What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking', I was really hoping that it would be easy and take exactly as much time as promised to finish). It's very similar in profile to the burrito bowls that I make in the Instant Pot, although this uses ground beef and bell peppers, whereas my Instant Pot version uses chicken breast and chorizo. This one may be just slightly easier, and it's certainly tasty, so it will probably end up in the regular rotation.

I ended up screwing up my sleep last night because I came upstairs with the intention of writing and instead dozed off on my chaise around 9 pm. I didn't get in my real bed until almost midnight, but then I spent an hour scrolling to catch up on the scrolling that I could have done before bedtime, which was a pretty stupid move. But I managed to get up this morning, make some cold brew, and do a bit of journaling before my day began in earnest.

I availed myself of the opportunity to go to the farmers market this morning, which I usually forget to do. There were a couple more people than had turned out for the 4th of July market, which was nice. It was light on actual farmers (no produce, although I did unexpected buy some iris rhizomes). But I had some lovely conversations with people about the things that they make, and I also spent fifteen or twenty minutes chatting with an old high school classmates who is trying to create a community art center. So it was all a very nice way to kick off the morning before it got both too hot to be outside and there was too much demand on my productivity to allow me to relax. 

When I got back to my house, I ate some leftover enchilada casserole for lunch, and then [censored] and I spent a couple of hours pressure washing my balcony. This was extremely necessary because the robins engaged in a war on my balcony all spring, leaving behind a seriously astonishing amount of bird shit, which I was getting tired of looking at. More importantly, it was eating up all the paint on the balcony railing and floor, which I wanted to remediate. However, using a pressure washer meant that we mostly stripped the paint rather than getting the bird shit off of it, which I actually expected because the paint had already been chipping fairly badly before. Now that the balcony is clean, the next task on my list is to find somebody who can paint the balcony and possibly my deck, and then maybe screen in my balcony so that I avoid future issues with birds or bugs.

Anyway, after that, I took a long break, took a shower to make up for the fact that I had become somewhat disgusting during the pressure washing project, and then tidied up, did some housework, and spent 20 minutes writing on my balcony before it was time to make dinner. Dinner was thin-cut rib eye steaks, hamburgers, and sweet corn. I had the meat in the freezer already, and [censored] had picked up corn from the first stand that he'd seen of the season, and it was all very tasty. Mom came in to join us, so we had a nice hour chatting about various local updates. I also enjoyed showing her the potential upcoming plant overload that we're going to succumb to if the tomato plants all do what they look like they're going to do now.

And now I really need to go to bed so that I can accomplish something tomorrow - goodnight!. 

all this feels strange and untrue

I apparently have not blogged since Sunday - I blame the day job, which has been v. busy this week. I have made time for writing in the mornings, and also for watering my various plants, and also for showering - but all other things have gone by the wayside.

That is not to say that it's been a bad week. I've had many many meetings; I had an eye doctor's appointment on Monday (which resulted in him wanting me to test multifocal contacts, which are supposed to help with my reading distance while keeping my far distance the same - so far so good); I had a library board meeting today; and I have a dentist appointment tomorrow. So, the rest of my life is moving along even though work has been chaotic.

However, because all I have done is work, I have nothing else of interest to report - and I'm already overdue to go to bed. Goodnight!

model citizen zero discipline

I had a pretty nice 4th of July weekend, all things considered - and I think I got quite a bit done, but I'm having trouble remembering it all now. Yesterday I did quite a bit of journaling/writing in the morning, and I also inspected the house that I bought next door - my empire is expanding, but as with all empire-expansions, there will be quite a bit of work to do to rebuild to my standards. I felt pretty good about it all, especially since we verified that the air conditioning is in good working order - until [censored] pointed out a dead bat next to the water heater, which was not a welcome discovery since I hate bats. But the house has a lot of potential despite that, so we shall persevere.

I must have done more things yesterday afternoon of varying types, quantities, and qualities, but they escape me now. And then I sliced up some peaches, took them out to Mom's, and grilled bratwurst and hot dogs to go with her potato salad and baked beans. It was all quite tasty, and we also admired her continued progress in her gardens (although progress was stalled last week due to the insane heat). And then [censored] and I came home and I ended up going to bed quite early.

Today was more of the same - I got up fairly early, took care of some personal business tasks with reasonable efficiency, and did some writing. Then I showered, and then I took [censored] to the shop, where I poked around for a bit to see what I could see. When I got home, I watered plants, tidied up my office, ate lunch, scrolled for awhile, and then spent the afternoon writing / reading on my balcony until it got too hot.

It was too hot to sit, but it wasn't too hot to walk, so I walked downtown to check out the recycling bins (the cardboard bin was full, much to my chagrin). Then I came home and made dinner - this chicken orzo pasta casserole with mushrooms, onions, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and parmesan that [censored] and I find to be quite delicious. While it was cooking, I helped [censored] move a countertop for the garage, and then I tidied up the kitchen so that I wouldn't have to clean after dinner.

Dinner turned out super tasty, and [censored] and I enjoyed it while solving a mystery together - I had run into someone earlier in the week who knew me very well but whom I couldn't remember, and it had been bugging me for days. With the vague description I was able to provide + a single clue (one great-grandchild's name), we were finally able to solve it, with a lot of digging around obituaries, facebook profiles, and one person's wedding photo album that they had helpfully shared publicly. Feeling very accomplished after solving this extremely difficult puzzle, I came upstairs and messed around until now. But I think I should go to bed early so that I can hit the ground running tomorrow - goodnight!