there ain't enough smoke in my eyes to hide the kinda games you're trying to play

I had a reasonably good weekend, despite the fact that it rained for most of it, which usually doesn't put me in the best mood. Yesterday I slept in until after 9:00, which is very necessary, and then I put it around the house and drank coffee and did various tings. Unfortunately, some of those tings were work tings, but for the most part I was able to focus on my own stuff. Later in the afternoon, Mom and I went to Centerville to stock up on groceries and various goods from walmart, which was a nice use of a rainy afternoon. I didn't need all that much stuff since I'm usually pretty stocked up, but given that I constantly need to cook, there's always something that I can get for my basement hoard.

After we got home, I dropped Mom off along with all her stuff, and then I came home and put my things away. Then [censored] and I ordered Mexican and picked it up to take out to Mom's for dinner. My food was pretty good, and we generally had a nice evening, so I'm glad that we did that. Then we came back to my house, and I spent far too much time awake given how little I actually got done, but no regrets.

Today I slept in again for just a little bit, but then I managed to get up and start getting things done. I spent some time writing this morning and then did various household things. I also kept reorganizing my office, which was a bit of a mess since I tore it apart on Thursday to get a shelf delivered. And [censored] and I had an adventure at the shop where we installed some extra Wi-Fi capability, which went about as smoothly as these things can go given that it's not always obvious where there might be an empty outlet or an available flat and clean surface on which to put something.

After that, [censored] left for the evening and I came home. I did various household activities and made myself a very delicious dinner of roasted chicken thighs and potatoes. This is not something that I can make for my family since neither Mom nor [censored] understand the delights of chicken thighs, so I get to keep the leftovers all to myself. After I ate, I cleaned up the kitchen, watered plants, and then spent the rest of the evening writing and engaging in various other activities. And now it's time for bed - goodnight!

and so there's a change in your emotions

I unfortunately had a good day at work that turned into a bad day at work, which was not how I intended to go into the weekend. It wasn't anything catastrophic, but after spending the day only having a couple of (mostly enjoyable) meetings and getting allergy shots, I was surprised for everything to take a left turn after I thought I was done for the day. 

But I rallied and made chicken and rice, which [censored] and I ate while watching two episodes of Scrubs and the latest SNL (Jack Black and Jack White were an inspired host + musical guest). And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

give a little bit

I have nothing exciting to report tonight. I spent most of the day slogging as is usual, although I did have a relatively relaxed morning despite all of that. For lunch I was able to eat the last of the leftovers that Mom had sent home after Easter dinner. Then I spent the afternoon in more meetings before running into town to attend my library board meeting. We accomplished everything in due form and adjourned relatively early, so I ran to the grocery store and grabbed some tings to cook before coming home.

The meal I made ended up being slightly weird and mostly driven by the fact that [censored] isn't home tonight, so I was able to cook whatever strange things I felt like cooking. That meant baking some pork chops, which is not something I typically cook, but I happen to love them even if [censored] hates them. I usually pan-fry them, but tonight I tossed them on a cookie sheet with some garlic powder, paprika, oregano and olive oil and just baked them for 12-15 minutes. They were absolutely delicious and v easy, so this will have to be a thing in my midweek rotation.

I ended up pairing them with some gluten-free spaghetti, which I mixed into a random jarred sauce that I bought at Fareway. The sauce was pretty good, although I had wanted to cook a from-scratch sauce with cream and tomato paste and preserved lemon and could not because my preserved lemon jar was unexpectedly v expired and full of mold. But the jarred sauce was fine, and now I have leftovers for lunch. 

I spent the rest of the evening doing a variety of things that were probably not the things that I should have been doing... but there's plenty of time tomorrow to get back into the slog. Goodnight!

dreaming about the things that we could be

I had nothing to report yesterday, and I don't really have anything to report today, but I don't really want to let more than a couple of days go without blogging. I should have been more productive than I was yesterday, but I had quite a headache in the afternoon. After [censored] left I mostly sat around, did a bit of writing, and tried to go to bed early with mixed results.

However today was much better, even though it snowed a bit overnight and I would like it to stop being winter. I woke up, made coffee, and got to work almost immediately, which felt pretty good since I had a lot to accomplish. I slogged straight through until a little before six, when I ate a snack and then went to my city council meeting. Tonight took two hours, which was about an hour longer than I wanted to spend on it, but the meeting itself was productive.

Then I came home, did various gardening-type things around the house, ate some leftovers, and relaxed a bit before deciding that going to bed early again tonight was probably the best move that I could make. So now it's time for bed - goodnight!

you know it's not the same as it was

I am back in ye olde Iowa after a great week in Chicago. I woke up early this morning and was able to hit breakfast before the rush...and before they switched from serving breakfast to serving their insanely priced Easter buffet. Then I went back to my room and wrote for a couple of hours, which felt great. Even with that unusual productivity I was able to get out the door around 11 so that I could start heading west. All in all the hotel was nice and I would stay there again, and I will certainly have to go back to Chicago (hopefully when the weather is warmer and I can do more walking around).

After I got out of the city proper, I spent a couple of hours talking to Katie, which certainly made the drive go a lot faster. We parted ways when I got to the world's largest truck stop, mostly because I desperately needed to go to the bathroom. I then availed myself of the Taco Bell inside the truck stop so that I could eat something that was relatively gluten free (albeit a far cry from the meals I gorged myself on in Chicago). And then I finished the drive with a couple more stops for bathrooms and gas, and made it home a little before six.

When I got home I unloaded my car and then [censored] and I went out to Mom's house for Easter dinner. I had donated some hamballs to the cause before I left, and Mom outdid herself in terms of accompaning them. She made scalloped potatoes, baked beans, layered lettuce, and deviled eggs, so it was a real feast. And the weather was nice today for both a drive and a lovely dinner, although it promises to get rainy later this week.

After dinner, I relaxed a bit, did a bit of unpacking, and generally procrastinated from the very idea of getting back to the day job tomorrow. But that's a problem for Future Sara (in ten hours) - right now I'm going to bed. Goodnight!

ultrafiche of you

I had a much lazier day than I originally planned, but I'll take it. When I woke up, I walked around for a bit and then walked down the street to grab Philz. Thus fortified, I wrote from my room for a couple of hours. I also ordered room service in an attempt to avoid the restaurant, which got significantly busier over the weekend than it was during the week.

At some point I spent an hour or two outside checking out various stores and also visiting the used book sale + gift shop at a library that I may have to come back to on a future visit. However, I wasn't really feeling shopping, and I also didn't feel like wandering around a museum - all I really wanted to do was work. So I went to the hotel bar and had a diet Coke and a glass of wine and wrote for awhile.

At some point I got hungry and didn't want sushi, so I went to a nearby Italian place, where I had an adequate (but not amazing) gluten free pasta. And then I spent the remainder of the evening napping, packing, journaling, and procrastinating, with mixed results. 

And now I need to go to sleep so I can do many things before leaving tomorrow - goodnight!

run from the sunlight dracula

I had an excellent day off in Chicago - so excellent that it's hard to remember why I have a job, although the job does help me pay for things. I did spend too much time in bed this morning, but I snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and forced myself to the restaurant for breakfast. It was significantly busier than it has been this week, but still tasty, and I left fueled for my adventures. 

My main adventure was a pilgrimage to Atlas Stationers. They are my main online purveyor of fountain pens, and they've successfully replaced the Goulets in my affections (the Goulets do send suckers with their orders, but Atlas arrives faster and has a much bigger collection of stickers and paper, which is what won me over). It's clear that Atlas is a pilgrimage for many people - they were quite busy, and the girl who checked me out said that she took the job expecting it to be chill and immediately learned that stationery people are not at all chill. Lol.

Anyway, I bought a bunch of stuff there, and then I walked back to my hotel with a stop at Nordstrom (where I realized I would rather be writing than shopping) and the largest Starbucks Reserve in the world (where I was going to buy a mug, but the crowd on all four floors was overwhelming).

So I spent the afternoon at the hotel bar, where I made some excellent progress on a project I'm theoretically, secretly working on. Then I changed and walked to Topolobampo, which is a Rick Bayless establishment that has a Michelin star and does a Mexican tasting menu that changes every few weeks to reflect a different area's cuisine. The current menu is the Yucatan, and it was excellent -surprisingly the first dessert (a cheese ice cream) may have been my favorite thing, or perhaps the soup appetizer (surprising only because it was actually a soup and usually the soups I make cannot be sipped like this one was). But it was all excellent, and for a decadent meal in Chicago it hit the mark. 

And now I must sleep - goodnight!