Merry Christmas! Okay, it's not Christmas, but we did a white elephant gift exchange over zoom with my dad's side of the family tonight, so it was almost like Christmas. And we ate the second half of the zucchini lasagna that I made the other night, and lasagna used to be our Christmas Eve tradition, so I'm still feeling the Christmas spirit.
That said, I worked most of the day (on writing stuff, not day job stuff) - I'm still making my way through content from the conference I went to earlier in the month, and I was also doing some side research + playing around with some ads stuff. I did take a break to make a run into town to buy some supplies, and while it wasn't super treacherous at 1pm, it certainly became treacherous later in the day. We had winter storm conditions all day, and this morning it looked almost pretty - nice snowflakes, not too much wind. But as I was at the grocery store, the snow turned to ice. The power flickered in the grocery store, which took down several checkout registers, but luckily I escaped and made it home before anything bad happened. Still, it was a v. bleak day, and it means I'm not quite sure when the best time is to drive back to Denver given that there is much snow and many miles between here and there....
But that is a problem for another day between Thursday and Saturday - for now, it's time for bed. Goodnight!
I have suddenly stayed up too late, again, so I need to crawl into bed before the night gets away from me. But today was okay - I watched a couple of hours of that romance conference from a few weeks ago (there is soooo much content, but the sessions I watched tonight were really good), and I loaded some stuff up in my car for the eventual drive back to Colorado, and I ate a lot of ham.
But with that v. brief update, it's time for me to go to bed - goodnight!
I have once again stayed up slightly too late (although I am doing better than usual on this trip), and so I need to go to bed immediately. However, I do want to immortalize that I won Ticket to Ride tonight, so that's worth an entire blog post. And I did some work (personal work), hung out with my family, and made zucchini lasagna for dinner, so all in all it was a decently productive day. Goodnight!
I'm suddenly too tired to blog, so hopefully this stays somewhere on this side of the coherency line. I had a pretty lazy but pretty nice day, all in all - I spent quite a bit of time thinking about writing business stuff (watching a couple of videos I hadn't gotten to from the virtual conference I went to earlier this month, making lists, exploring some bestseller lists to see how various books/genres are marketing right now). I've been pretty checked out from the business side of writing since I've been wandering in the wilderness trying to figure out what's blocking the artistic side of my writing, but I want to get back into it in a serious way in 2021, so I'm trying to seize momentum and figure out how to tackle the next phase of my writing career.
Of course, that's not all I did - I also hung out with my family this morning, talked to Katie, took a shower, and did a family zoom call with my sister's family (her three kids, two kids-in-law, and six grandkids of varying relationship complexity made them way too porous of a 'bubble' to consider seeing in person, but at least zoom works). I took a walk outside and listened to a podcast and didn't freeze or get shot by hunters, so that was a success. And I roasted some tomatoes for my favorite Barefoot Contessa caprese salad. And even though I vowed not to, I got sucked into an episode of Letterkenny with [censored], but I limited myself to one. All in all, it was a good day, and hopefully I can carry some productivity into tomorrow.
But now I need to sleep - goodnight!
Merry Christmas! I hope that you all had a wonderful day of celebration and feasting in whatever manner you chose to pursue given that we're living in 2020 and nothing is normal. I had a lovely day - we had our usual delightfully lazy morning opening packages, and I got a lot of gadgets and cookbooks to add some new techniques to my #quarantinechef game. That's a good thing, since #quarantinechef has no real end in sight yet...but now is not the time to think about that. And I like cooking, so I will choose to focus on the positive of how much more experimenting I'm going to get to do in the next few months.
After opening presents, I took a shower and switched into almost-pajamas (my winter leggings are basically pajamas and now I live in them) for my daytime activities. We had Christmas brunch (breakfast casserole, muffins, ambrosia), which was all perfect. Then I had a v. lazy afternoon - I had to suffer through [censored] winning at Ticket to Ride again, and then I relaxed and took a long nap. For supper, we had prime rib, which was an excellent way to get some protein/iron after too many days of my own cooking (I mostly make chicken, sorry guys). All in all, it was a really nice day, and hopefully things stay nice for the rest of my trip.
After all of that, I really just wanted to go to bed - but I rallied for a late family dinner (Christmas version) that came together somewhat last-minute with Adit and Priyanka, John and Jess, and Claudia and Sam. Ritu was too tired to join and Chandlord was mysteriously absent, but it was nice to talk to everyone else - and as much as this year is ridiculous, I do enjoy that it is forcing people who live in California to include me in their social plans because all social plans happen online now.
And now, I need to sleep - I have grand plans to do a bunch of writing-related stuff tomorrow and maybe start bingeing Bridgerton (a Netflix show based on one of my favorite historical romance series from back in the day) - we shall see, we shall see. Goodnight!
Today was decent, all in all - at least I got a lot of tings accomplished, which I'll take. I woke up relatively early and did some journaling with my coffee, which is always a good way to start the day. I also ate breakfast, showered, and wrapped some presents - 'tis the season for wrapping, obvi. I thought about taking a walk, since it was over fifty degrees when I woke up - but the wind was already brutal and the temperatures were dropping all day (it was down to 25 by four p.m.), so I decided that a walk wasn't in the cards.
Eventually, my mom and I vacated the house (via car, not via walking) and drove over to my sister's house to drop off Christmas presents. We aren't getting together with her extended family due to the 'rona and the fact that her kids have partners and/or kids, and those kids go to multiple households as well, which means seeing them is like seeing a hundred people. But we dropped some stuff off for them, and it was good to see my sister for a bit, so at least there was that bit of holiday spirit.
Then my mom and I went grocery shopping to prep for the next few days of feasting. Then we came home, put tings away, and then [censored] and I drove into town to pick up takeout Mexican food. This is really the only takeout option in town, which is v. unusual compared to my extravagant takeout life in Denver - but luckily, this takeout option is excellent and I'll happily eat fajitas once a week if I need to. While we were in town, [censored] and I paused to watch a Christmas light display put together by FFA (Future Farmers of America, if you weren't aware) at the high school - they timed the lights to a Christmas song you could listen to on a specific radio frequency, and it was a delight.
Then, after supper, I said goodnight to the parents and came downstairs to wrap more gifts with [censored]. We're ahead of schedule - usually this is a late Christmas Eve activity, but we're done with the exception of some stuff that I'm wrapping for my dad (he always succeeds in conning me into wrapping the stuff he's giving my mom).
I then spent the rest of the evening writing some more Christmas cards, messing around online, and reading a book. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!
The wind is picking up in rather dramatic fashion outside - it's always windier here than it is most places, but tonight is really bringing it. It was a very nice day for December in Iowa - over fifty degrees, and a bit windy but not so windy that I couldn't take a walk (which I did). But tomorrow the temperature is going to drop all day, and it might get down into the single digits tomorrow night, so that's something to not look forward to.
But I made good use of today, after I finally decided to get out of bed. I ate some breakfast, drank coffee, showered, etc., and eventually drove into town to drop off several boxes of stuff at the thrift store. It is weird, when juxtaposing my parallel lives, to be someplace where I usually know someone in every store I go to (in this case, the woman running the place is the mom of some girls I went to high school with + is in the same club as me and my mom)...when I'm in Denver, and also in San Francisco, that kind of connection is non-existent.
Anyway, I dropped stuff off, which was great because I've been meaning to do it for months (but was thwarted over the summer bc they were closed due to covid). I also washed my car and picked something up for my dad. Then I came home, took care of some more tings, ran back into town to pick up something else for my dad, came home, took a walk around the property, did thirty minutes of day job stuff, etc. Then we ate supper, which was mostly leftovers of the previous evenings' meals, which meant bartering (I gave up rights to all but a bite of the tater tot casserole but got the whole remaining leg/thigh from the chicken I made the other day).
Then I wrapped some presents - 5 down, many many more to go. Then I had a friendship renewal call with Jen, Jane, and Joann - we were all doing a fancy face mask (the skincare kind, not the covid kind) that Joann had recommended, and while it was fun to do it together, it was a bit ill-conceived as a video chat because the solution hardened on our faces so much that it was hard to talk. But my skin feels amazing and it was great to see them, so it was #worthit.
Then I hung out with [censored] while finishing the peach bourbon and coke zero cocktail he'd so generously provided the alcohol for (and watching Billy Joel videos, because that's what we do). And now I should consider sleeping - goodnight!
I was much more productive today than I was yesterday, but that's not saying much since yesterday was ridiculously sloth-filled. Still, I'll take today and aim to compound it tomorrow. I took care of some tings around the house, showered, etc., and then made a quick trip to town to mail something + pick up some groceries + pick up [censored] from where he had dropped his [censored]. Then I did some more stuff around the house and hung out with the parents. I also had a call with Alyssa to discuss health stuff, which was great.
Then, I ate some avocado to make up for the dinner I embarked upon making - I made tater tot casserole, and I have to say it was pretty great. I think I've perfected my gluten free recipe - since it can't take the canned soup that traditional tater tot casserole uses, I had to improvise. I tweaked a recipe that I found online, and with my tweaking I think I've stumbled upon an excellent solution. So, dinner was v. tasty, and I don't think I have to give up my Iowa card yet since I can still make tater tots.
Somewhere in there, I also stepped outside a couple of times to see the so-called Christmas star - the conjuction of Jupiter and Saturn was pretty cool. It helped that we have relatively little light pollution (although the security light over our driveway doesn't help), so I was able to see it pretty clearly. I love geeky astronomy stuff, so this was right up my alley.
After dinner, I participated in a quick zoom call for Jess's birthday (happy birthday, Jess!), then chatted with my parents for a couple of hours. Then, [censored] and I watched a bunch of SNL clips. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!
Apologies for not blogging last night - I meant to, but instead I stayed up way too late researching 2021 planners + texting with Riturani. So, today I was v. lazy - I didn't get out of bed until after ten, and didn't eat lunch until two, and it was really almost too lazy given that I want to get tings done on this break.
But I did write a bunch of Christmas cards (finally...they probably will not reach people by Christmas, but I didn't have a lot of time because Minted delivered my order almost ten days later than planned). And I had a v. tasty supper with my family - my mom cooked tonight, and she made a perfect roast beef with potatoes and carrots. We're alternating cooking duties; I made chicken with a bacon/parmesan/mushroom/cream sauce last night, and I think I'm cooking tomorrow night, so we'll see what I come up with. Also, I took a walk around the yard, so at least I got outside for a bit of fresh air.
Now, though, I'm tired and am going to haul myself to bed before I get too distracted by the internet - goodnight!
IT'S VACATION, BITCHES. Today was a slog, but not a bad one, and I was done by 5:30. I perhaps didn't finish everything on my list, but I finished enough to not feel guilty about shutting my laptop. And now I'm off for 2+ weeks and I'm v excited about that.
When I was done, I hung out with my parents - my mom made steak and baked potatoes and salad, and I had some open wine, so it was quite delicious. Then we hung out and chatted in the kitchen; eventually my dad and I moved to the living room, where we discussed travel while watching a PBS show about sacred sites. My mom joined us after she finished painting her fingernails, and it was all v. cozy.
And now, I need to sleep - goodnight!
One more day...and with each day I have slightly fewer meetings, since everyone is ready to be done and so things are slowly dropping off calendar. I do have several things I need to do tomorrow before I can start my break, and if I don't do them tomorrow I will need to do them in the next few days, so I have some incentive to slog hard and fast tomorrow. But we'll see whether I'm successfully able to get in the zone - right now, my energy levels are resisting the idea of ramping up to anything approaching massive productivity.
Or maybe I just don't want to be massively productive at work - I did spend the last few hours taking care of personal tings, and that felt good. And today was overall pretty decent - I slogged, but it wasn't super onerous. And my mom made tenderloins and tater tots (and green beans, in a nod toward health), and it was all excellent. So, if I can carry a tiny bit of my personal momentum into tomorrow, I may be able to end the work week/month/year strong despite the fact that 2020 has been anything but strong.
But now I need to sleep if I'm going to accomplish feats of productivity tomorrow - goodnight!
I'm too tired to effectively blog - I had a lot of meetings today, some of which were important, and the last of which was from 10-11pm (with a team in Asia, I hope they were happy I showed up). But all in all, it was a good day, and I had some time off in the evening to make home fries / bacon / eggs for my parents and hang out in the kitchen.
But now I need to sleep so I can do some of this again tomorrow - only two more days until break. Goodnight!
I'm too tired to think of a title, or of any substantive updates - I slogged most of the day, and then for another hour or two tonight, although tonight's session wasn't very productive and I should have just thrown in the towel early. But I did take an evening break to eat supper (taco salad, mmm) with my parents and hang out with my mom while discussing possible things to cook next week.
Or maybe I'm not tired...maybe I'm depressed because the Olive Garden in San Francisco is closing, and I will never go on another fantastic Tuscan voyage with the usual suspects. Or I'm sad because the Cliff House is also closing, which is a beloved meeting spot for my San Francisco writing friends. 2020 keeps striking. But I have three more work days to go before vacation and I think I can survive...goodnight!
I had a lovely day in ye olde Iowa - not sure how I'm going to motivate myself to work for the next four days, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. I didn't sleep in nearly as late as I normally do when I'm here, since I need to prep myself to still get up at a reasonable hour for at least the next week. And I was motivated to get out of bed by the knowledge that I have a new coffeemaker here - it's the same coffeemaker I have at home, and it means that I can make a pot of coffee in the morning without either making my mom move her coffee into a thermos or messing around with a french press. Yes, I'm basically buying stuff for here like it's my vacation home, but since I usually spend 6+ weeks here over the course of a year, maybe that's not so far off.
I spent most of the day hanging out with my parents and settling in, which involved unpacking, organizing my room, putting together my new desk chair, etc., etc. I also ventured into town to visit the grocery store, which was wildly uneventful. And my mom made one of my favorites for supper (cheeseburgers and fried potatoes, with a side of roasted broccoli), so I'm a happy camper.
But now, I need to go to bed so that I can slog tomorrow - goodnight!
No blog tonight - it's only eleven p.m., but I meant to be in bed thirty minutes ago. That hasn't happened at any point in the last three+ weeks, so it's not exactly a surprise that I'm not in bed. But I'm headed to Iowa tomorrow, barring bad weather, and so I need to get a good night's sleep so I can get up and throw some stuff in my car and head out. Note that that process will prob take me at least two hours of putzing and loading and eating and reconsidering my packing strategy, which is why I need to go to bed asap. Goodnight!
Five more working days until vacation through the end of the year. Today was a bit of a doozy, though - I had meetings, I had stressful emails, I had more meetings and stressful emails, and it was all a bit more than I wanted to deal with (as evidenced by the fact that I took one of those meetings while sitting in my armchair with my comfy faux fur blanket). But it wasn't bad, all in all. And I took a walk even though it was only forty degrees, so I feel impossibly smug about that epic feat.
But I didn't wrap up work until after six, at which point I was a bit fried. I talked to my parents while eating leftover shepherd's pie, and then I spent the evening taking care of tings around the house, tings on my computer, tings involving laundry, etc., etc. None of it is exciting but all of it is necessary, which is pretty much the definition of most parts of adulthood.
And now I'm going to stop staring at my screen and do some more tings to unwind before bed - goodnight!
I'm exhausted and should have gone to bed an hour ago - I slept fitfully last night and woke up too early with the knowledge that I needed to get some day job work done. Usually I'm pretty good about boundaries in the morning and focus on journaling, meditation, etc, but today I spent an hour in my pajamas with my coffee, answering email and taking care of tings. That set me up for a much better day overall, but it was still not my preferred way to spend my morning.
Then I slogged all day, with a break for leftover Indian food and a twenty-minute walk. Sometime after five, I closed my work laptop and went to get a covid test in preparation for my trip to Iowa; happily it was negative. But I had to wait in the parking lot for thirty minutes or so, so I spent that time talking to [censored]. After the test, I drove by Bookbar to pick up a book, came home, cooked some shepherd's pie that I had previously made and frozen, did a bunch of laundry, tidied things up, did some Christmas shopping, did a bit of day job work, and overall it was just a lot.
And so now hopefully I'm tired enough to sleep as I need to - goodnight!
I was not in it to win it today - I have a headache, and my skin is so dry that my thumb spontaneously cracked, and I didn't feel like doing anything at work. However, I forced out some productivity anyway - I didn't write this morning because I had to spend that time reviewing and signing a bunch of papers for my house refinance, and I also had an earlier start than usual to record a podcast for work (not exciting, just a minor internal thing). I took a break from the day job at eleven to greet a notary - we sat in my back yard so that I could sign all the mortgage papers that needed a wet signature, and while it's strange to sign that kind of paperwork in your backyard, covid times call for covid measures. And now my refinance is confirmed, and I shaved 1.25% off my mortgage rate, so that's pretty sweet.
To celebrate, I ordered a poke bowl for lunch and ate it outside - it was sixty degrees today and I feel like I need to soak in sun while I can get it. Then I slogged. Then I snuck out slightly early (easy to do when you're sneaking out of your house and not an office, but my office was easy to sneak out of too) and ran a couple of errands and picked up a few grocery items - I don't really need much for my fridge between now and Iowa, but I picked up some eggs and some meat to throw in the freezer so that I'm ready for whatever awaits when I return.
Then I ordered Indian food because I didn't feel like cooking, and then I was v. lazy and very nearly wasted the night staring at my phone - but I rallied and read part of a book (LOVE LETTERING, which has been recommended by several people). And now I'm going to try to go to bed early enough to get a decent amount of sleep tonight and hope that resets my crankiness - goodnight!
Do you ever stop and think about how strange life is right now? Like seriously. I am wearing a red velvet sweatsuit, which is not a thing I ever would have purchased in the beforetimes. I had a zoom call with my writer friends in California tonight, which I would not have done in the past; I would have missed them, but no one would have been zooming (I didn't even know what zoom was tbh). I spent the whole day working in the my dining room, which is now my office, except for getting excited when I got a new kind of mask delivered (spoiler: it wasn't as great as I expected) and when I took a walk around the neighborhood (to make up for the fact that my natural routine yields approx five steps per day). And I just reread my blog from March and it's cute and quaint how I had been alone for five days and wasn't sure how I was going to make it through the "month" of not going into the office that had been announced then....
sssanyway, it is what it is, and I'm weirdly happier than I've been in at least a year, possibly more, so I guess this velvet sweatsuit is good for something. Today was fine - I got up in time to write before work, then slogged all day. I had to work until six, so I didn't bother to make anything fresh for dinner - I just ate leftover pasta and brussels sprouts, then took care of some tings. And then I talked to Barbara, Anne, Grace, and Veronica for a couple of hours - Anne finally convinced me to download tiktok, which means I spent thirty minutes after the call giggling at tiktok videos and I have #noregrets.
But I will have regrets tomorrow if I don't go to bed right now - goodnight!
I'm trying to kick the coming week off better than this last week - not that this last week was bad, but the week before I was on vacation and going to bed at one and waking up at nine like my body would prefer, and so it was brutal to get back into day job timing. So, it's 10:10pm and I'm hoping to be in bed in twenty minutes (although I may read for a bit in bed, but that's dangerous....).
Today was good, though. I got up around 7:30 and actually left my house quite early - my usual order of Philz is weirdly delayed (and by 'weirdly' I mean 'entirely to be expected because everyone is ordering tons of shit online), and so I was out of coffee. So I stopped by the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, put gas in my car for the first time in many weeks, and picked up a latte and a bag of beans from Huckleberry. When I got home, I made myself an omelette and reheated some fries (from a takeout order) and green beans (from a different leftover supper), and it made for a pretty tasty breakfast.
Then I ventured out again to pick up a writing book at Bookbar - and it felt like I was a Victorian orphan looking through the window at a wonderland of forbidden treats, because I couldn't go in to browse (browsing is by appointment only) and so I just stared in the window drooling and dreaming of reading books and drinking a glass of wine (Bookbar is a bookstore / wine bar / coffee bar) until the staff found the book I had ordered. Someday, my bookstore friends, we will be reunited...
Then I came home, talked to Veronica, contemplated the story, ate some leftover Thai food, and did a bunch of outdoor work (mostly watering things that needed to be watered). I also talked to my parents, who seemed to be doing well. Then I made supper (spaghetti carbonara and some brussels sprouts, yum), talked to [censored], wrapped up some stuff from the conference I attended this weekend, made some plotting notes for my book, etc.
And now, after a productive weekend and a lot of thoughts about what I should be doing next with my writing, it's time for bed - goodnight!
I had a surprisingly productive day, which I suppose is what happens when you get up at 6:30 on a Saturday - and probably also explains why I felt like going to bed at 5pm but have managed to stay up until ten (and am now considering going to sleep immediately). I spent most of the day watching videos from a virtual writing conference - while I am still deeply sad that I'm not in a fancy hotel drinking a fancy cocktail with my fancy friends, I am guessing that I saw way more actual content today because I watched a bunch of sessions rather than slacking off to hang out with people. Some of it was a hit, some of it was a miss - but overall I'm feeling more energized about the business side of writing than I have in ages, and I'm making plans to translate that into actual progress at some point in the near future.
But I couldn't bear to stare at screens all day, so I also took care of a bunch of stuff around the house. I finally put garland and lights along the banister leading upstairs, so my hallways looks delightful. I decorated my mantel and put a bunch of stuff away, so my living rooms feels perfectly cozy. I set up a couple of temperature sensors that I've been meaning to set up (one for the garage and one for my fridge, in addition to the one in the basement) so that I can remotely keep an eye on how tings are doing in the house when I'm gone (which is never these days, but someday will happen). I got a chip in my windshield fixed. I washed my sheets and swapped out my duvet cover, and I'm counting remaking my bed as an aerobic workout due the challenges of switching duvet covers.
I also treated myself to delivery from Ash'kara, which was delicious and I wish I could sit at the bar and drink a cocktail with Katie. I gave myself a gel manicure (red, to match the season). And I'm wearing a new velvet sweatsuit, which feels utterly ridiculous and wonderful.
And now, after recounting a list of tings I did and absolutely nothing about what I learned in my conference, I'm going to leave you on a cliffhanger (someone at the conference said to do that) and go to bed. Goodnight!
I'm sleepy and I think I need to go to bed right now - I'm technically in a virtual writing conference this morning, and it's on central time because it was supposed to be in Houston (which means I should be at the Houston Four Seasons right now, but I am not because it's the end of the world). The first session starts tomorrow at 7am and it's unclear if I will make it to that because it's recorded and so it's tempting to sleep in....but if I sleep in, there's also a chance I won't get around to watching it. So sleep and getting up seems like a better idea, but we shall see.
Today was fine - I mostly worked, although I wasn't all that productive. But at least I slept a ton last night, so my energy was better. And I ran a quick end of day errand to return things and pick up things at Nordstrom and Crate and Barrel, which is pretty much my usual shopping pattern now. Then I ordered Thai delivery for dinner, watched the evening session of the conference, talked to my parents, and generally slacked off until now.
And so now it's time for bed - goodnight!
It's ridiculously cold today, and it's a reminder that winter isn't just coming...it's here. But in my house, it's cozy - I have bought every faux fur blanket and fleecy loungewear it's possible to buy, and I have a space heater for my office and a fireplace for my living room and flannel sheets for my bed. Yes, I have gone so hard on #treatyoself quarantine goodies that I have basically fashioned a nest for myself out of material objects to replace tings like friends and family and restaurants and travel and the ability to walk into any store without worrying about catching a communicable disease (okay, I used to worry about communicable diseases in some places, but they were mostly places that I shouldn't have been and mostly diseases related to food poisoning).
ssssanyway. Today was pretty good - I had a long but productive day at work, and I had a break around 4:30 to start a chickpea stew, which was a good thing because it took two and a half hours to simmer. This was because I started with dried chickpeas rather than canned; I had soaked them overnight, but they still took awhile to soften. But I made a chickpea and chorizo stew, the recipe for which I got from a winery in Sonoma a million years ago, when I went on a Thanksgiving weekend trip with Ritu and the guy she was dating at the time (who is not Bill). She should have known it wasn't gonna work out when she invited me to share her two-bed hotel room with her and the guy - but I got a lot of fun memories and a recipe for chickpea and chorizo stew, so it was definitely worth it for me. Editor's note on the memories, though: I completely forgot that after we went to five wineries, we had dinner at Panda Express (according to the blog), which definitely tells you that it happened in 2004 when I was still relatively poor and also eating gluten. Ah, to be that young and innocent and able to soak up wine with orange chicken.
sssanyway again. The stew was delicious, and my kitchen is now clean, and I'm pretty sure I won't cook a damn thing tomorrow. I spent the last bit of time designing my Christmas card, and I'm hopeful that it will turn out beautifully, but we shall see. And now I really need to sleep - goodnight!
I had a v. nice day, all in all - it certainly could have been terrible, because it was grey and gloomy all day, and my house was slightly too cold and I felt like I should be hunkering down for the cold front that is moving in. But I was determined to not let that overly affect me. Granted, I had to take a nap at three, which I haven't had to do for awhile...and I'm going to doom myself to that again tomorrow if I don't go to bed immediately.
But I woke up in time to meditate and journal a bit, and also read and make coffee, and also wash my hair, so that was all a lot of accomplishment. My coffee is from my beloved Philz in San Francisco, and I had ordered a bag of a darker blend that I used to love - I wasn't loving it so much this week, but then I remembered that I used to get it 'sweet and creamy'. So I added sugar and some heavy cream that I happened to have in the fridge, and suddenly I was transported back to Palo Alto, circa 2009, when I would stop at the Philz there to write at 6pm with an ill-advised nighttime coffee to wait out traffic before heading back to the city of sin. Ah, memories.
However, the sugar probably started a sugar spike/crash cycle that continued all day, since I was craving M&Ms after my nap (I really don't crave sweets). But I had leftover chicken and potatoes at lunch, and for dinner I roasted some excellent green beans to go with the last of my (unfrozen) leftover ham balls and potatoes gratin from last week. Thus properly restored, I did a bunch of stuff this evening, including making a batch of sweet potato hash for breakfast the rest of the week, which will hopefully keep me from sugar crashing the rest of the week. I also finished a writing book that Veronica had recommended (courtesy of Anne) that I thought was excellent, so I'm looking forward to playing with some of those techniques tomorrow.
But if I'm going to do that, I need to go to bed right now - goodnight!
I've been staring at screens for hours and hours and I need to get off my laptop immediately. Today wasn't bad for a first day back in the office (aka my dining room) - I didn't get quite enough sleep last night, but I did meditate, journal, etc. this morning before starting work. Then I slogged all day, but I rewarded myself with a poke bowl for lunch.
I did take a break around dinner - I took a quick walk, then made dinner. I tried a new recipe for chicken with a really delicious mushroom/cream/garlic/bacon/parmesan sauce, and it was excellent. I also roasted some fingerling potatoes with fennel and onion, and they were excellent too - so that was quite satisfying.
What was slightly less satisfying was that I then worked for two hours - but I'm all caught up from break (fastest catch-up ever) and feeling better about the week ahead. And now I'm going to get off my laptop and decompress before bed - goodnight!
I had a pretty nice day, all in all, but the Sunday Scaries and the return to work are starting to creep up. I spent the morning journaling / drinking coffee / making a lot of to-do lists, and I was curled up under my blanket and didn't want to leave - but I successfully rallied and went over to Katie's for an outdoor lunch. It was only in the low fifties and this is not something we ever would have done in the beforetimes, but in the year of the rona it's imperative to find ways to get together despite the weather.
So, Katie ordered brunch (pork belly hash for me, + margaritas for both of us) delivered to her back yard, and we hung out for a few hours. There was still snow everywhere, but the sun was shining enough that it was almost pleasant, and I survived with a thick sweatshirt, a vest, my winterweight leggings, and my uggs. We hung out outside for a couple of hours, and also walked around the block to grab coffees from a pop-up stand; it was the first coffee someone has made for me in a couple of months, and while walking there and back + getting it while wearing a mask wasn't the way I used to spend my Saturdays, this one felt pretty good.
Needless to say, it was a v. delightful afternoon...but as soon as the sun slipped behind the trees around four, it suddenly felt chilly and the fun came to an abrupt end. So I came home and immediately jumped on a friendship renewal call with Joann, Jen, and Jane, which was also entertaining. And then I messed around, ate some leftover ham balls, messed around some more, refreshed my memory about inbreeding and the infamous Hapsburg jaw, and am now considering going to bed. It's only 11:26, but I need to start shifting my sleep a little earlier and going to bed at 1am tomorrow night won't cut it, so tomorrow would be a good time to practice getting up. Goodnight!
I had another delightful day, all in all. My fitbit says I've been getting ~45min more sleep per night than usual, which I would say is probably about right - not sure how I'm going to adjust to going back to work, but it's only three weeks until I'm off for Christmas, so hopefully I'll make it.
So I got up, made coffee, wrote in my journals, took care of some tings, showered, and ate some leftover chicken and mashed potatoes for a late breakfast / early lunch. Then I had a v. long video chat with Heather (aka dear respected madam) - we hadn't caught up properly in months, and so we talked for almost three hours. It was a delight to chat with her, as usual, although it made me sad that I have not seen her (or anyone else from California, with the weird exception of one night with Adit in Iowa) in months and months.
Then I did a bunch of house stuff - I decided to finally tackle cleaning up my guest room, and while I'm not done, I did manage to haul multiple boxes / tubs of stuff from the second floor to the basement. Having a basement is dangerous, since it means I can horde stuff in 900 sq ft of space that doesn't have any other clear purpose. I'm pretty tidy in my hoarding down there - in fact, I spent some quality time rearranging my canned goods this afternoon - but still, it is v. dangerous for me to have a place to keep things that I would otherwise consider jettisoning.
sssanyway, I did as much tidying as I felt like doing, and then I took a break to make dinner. Tonight's project was my gram's ham balls - I grew up eating them all the time, but I probably haven't had them in a decade because they take gluten and are also not something I could readily get the ingredients for. But I had recently found a gluten free bread crumb (actually, panko) that was good enough to be the base in a different dish that requires bread crumbs. I also have a meat grinder attachment for the Kitchenaid mixer that my aunt gave me, which means I can grind my own ham - ham balls require ground ham and ground pork, and while ground pork is usually available, ground ham would require a weird conversation with a butcher.
So, I mixed up the ham balls, put them in the oven, sent a picture to my dad, was informed that I had used the wrong pan (I remembered Gram using a roasting pan, but that was probably for a double or triple batch, which would make sense since she made them for bigger gatherings), and so pulled them out before they got too hot and transferred them into a different dish. They turned out really well - maybe I'm biased and now overselling them because I was so happy to have them again after a decade, but I thought they were great and definitely worth making again.
It's also kind of funny - I've been cooking so much that I'm starting to recognize the components that make something great, and I realized that this is basically a second or third cousin to sweet and sour pork. The sauce is vinegar, brown sugar, and dry mustard, which definitely creates a sweet/sour tang - and the ham adds a bit of umami (although possibly not as much as using fish sauce or some other umami bomb). Granted, a ham ball with the sweet glaze-y sauce is pretty different from a texture standpoint - but the flavor combos really work.
So, I was delighted to have ham balls, and they went really well with yesterday's leftover potato gratin and brussels sprouts. Then I did a bit more house stuff, attempted to make a Christmas shopping list, etc. And now it's midnight and I need to sleep - goodnight!
I had a really delightful Thanksgiving, which might not have been expected given that I didn't go anywhere or see anyone. But I definitely made the most of it. I slept in a bit (but not too much), then spent the morning messing around the house, eating, showering, etc. I then spent the afternoon mostly putting up a Christmas tree - I've never put up a Christmas tree of my own volition before, although I was coerced into several by Terry. Given that 2020 is truly a weird year and it's important to find all the joy you can, I bought a tree - a relatively small (i.e. not very girthy, since I have no room for a large tree) prelit fake one, which looks pretty good despite being small and fake. I spent most of the afternoon 'trimming' it, as ye olde Victorians would say - since I'd never had a tree before, I also had to buy ornaments, but I'm pretty happy with the assortment that I acquired over the last few weeks. I also hung up some Waterford crystal ornaments that I bought in Ireland like fourteen years ago and never had a place to hang, and they look great. And I bought an ornament that is a merman, which is totally ridiculous and yet I love it.
In between trimming sessions, I took a walk while it was still daylight out and called my parents to wish them a happy thanksgiving. I also took a break to make dinner - I made a potato fennel gratin from Barefoot Contessa that turned out super good (although weirdly undersalted - I usually trust her recipes, but I should have trusted my instincts on this one and quadrupled the salt), along with pork chops and brussels sprouts. Not exactly a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but a very tasty one nonetheless. And I tested out a blended margarita with cranberry juice (and cute cranberries and mint on top as a garnish), which was a total winner.
After all that, and after finishing the tree, it was 8:45pm and I could have just curled up with a book and gone to bed. Instead, I kept the festivities going for the last few hours - we had a family dinner Thanksgiving, in which "family" = "my college friends". It happened by accident, since Jess meant to set up a zoom for her actual family and accidentally invited us instead, but when she caught the mistake we turned it into a real zoom for us anyway.
Of course, the conversation was utterly ridiculous. There were some shocking revelations, including Jess getting bitten by rat mites for the past few years (apparently rat mites are translucent and the size of a period, and apparently they had rats in their attic, and apparently an exterminator ran into the house with a handgun of the bb variety and shot a bunch of the rats). We also learned about raccoon latrines, which I did not know were a thing. We learned about a book called 'All Joy and No Fun', which Jess is reading about parenting. We learned about Adit's ongoing credit/debit card fiasco in a choose your own adventure where nothing actually happened. We learned that Adit's children want to sleep with Priyanka every night, but see sleeping with him as a punishment. We learned that Ritu was at work, but Bill still dialed in from bed, where he mostly judged who had the best joke (Vidya was in the lead for a poop joke, but Jess had a surprise zinger that I have now forgotten but that encouraged her to leave the call on top). We learned that Claudia's cat excels at killing mice, and Claudia's baby excels at crying. We learned that if you dial into Zoom from your phone, everyone on the call can tell when you switch away from the Zoom to look at something else online because your camera turns off. We learned that Priyanka has been engaging in retail therapy, which I sympathize with since that's my only therapy too. And anyway, since I am wearing a nap dress that I bought solely because I loved hers and succumbed to the instagram marketing, I can never judge anyone for their covid spending habits.
There were other shocking revelations, and other not-shocking revelations, and it was all quite entertaining. But now, Thanskgiving is over (although my gratitude is not!) and I need to sleep - goodnight!
I had a pretty nice vacation day, all in all. I slept in, made coffee, wrote (yay), talked to Katie (also yay, I guess), showered, and had leftover Indian food for lunch. I did about thirty minutes of day job work, but it was related to planning fun activities and I was stressed about it when I woke up (there is a deadline for fun, related to closing out our financial reporting for the year, so it's a bit of a high pressure situation). So, I was relieved that I got that done and can enjoy the rest of the week.
Then I took a walk - it was still chilly, but most of the sidewalks had melted off, so I walked down to my beloved cheese shop to buy myself some treats for this weekend. Then I came home, put things away, and had a class with Alyssa, which lasted about two hours. At that point, it was time to make dinner, so I tried a new recipe for chicken and mushrooms, which I had with mashed potatoes, and it was really tasty. While I was cooking, I talked to Terry (again, yay) and drank a glass of chardonnay (with the excuse that I needed wine for deglazing the pan - but the other excuse is that it's the apocalypse).
Then I was going to write, or perhaps read, but instead I went down a three-hour wikipedia rabbit hole on nuclear disasters, followed by space shuttle explosions; believe it or not, this is a good sign, since I often go down these weird rabbit holes when I'm getting deep into a book. But while it may be a good sign in theory, right now I should really sleep - goodnight!
Today was terrific, if you ignore the pandemic, which I mostly did. I slept way later than I had planned, since my body has apparently decided that vacation means catching up on vast quantities of sleep. I awoke to find the world blanketed in a few inches of snow, which was v. beautiful but also meant that I didn't go anywhere today - not that that's different from most days, but I would have taken a walk if it had been nicer. Then I made some fried eggs to go with some leftover black beans for a quick breakfast, lazed about with coffee and my journal, and generally contemplated life (and stayed off Twitter for the third full day in a row, which means this is the longest I've been completely off Twitter since my silent retreat in Bali almost four years ago). I had some leftover steak and a twice baked potato for lunch, lovingly cleaned and oiled my cast iron wok from last night's pad thai misadventure, took an extended shower, and could very well have done a whole lot of nothing after that...
...but instead I wrote for three or four hours over the afternoon/early evening, which was wondrous. And I ordered delivery Indian food so that I wouldn't break up my mojo by cooking. And when I was done writing, I finished the book I had started in bed last night - I read MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig, and I think I liked it. The main character goes on extended tour of lives she might have lived, and it was cute and fun and very bittersweet, and while it's not at all in the vein of what I've been reading, it was great for yesterday/today.
And now I'm going to go to bed, unless I get lured into starting another book - goodnight!
I'm on vacation, and I made pretty good use of it today. I slept in, which was good for me, but I still had time to make coffee, journal, shower, eat breakfast, etc. before heading to Colorado Springs to see my friend Barbara. Due to this pandemic situation, we had a socially distanced hangout - in any other year, I would not have driven an hour to hang out in someone's backyard when it was only ~50 degrees, but this is not any other year. So we sat outside for three hours, appropriately spaced, and it was a delight to see her. We commiserated on how deeply we both want to travel, discussed writing and life, daydreamed about Venice, etc., and I could have stayed forever...
...but it was, as I mentioned, fifty degrees, so even after I put on my coat it was eventually time to call it quits. I drove back to Denver and hit a bit of rush hour, but I was listening to Brene Brown's podcast with Dolly Parton, who is a total badass, so that got me through. When I got home, I dealt with the latest pile of #treatyoself boxes that had shown up on my front porch, put away some laundry, took out trash, etc. Then I tried a new recipe for pad thai, but I wasn't very happy with how it turned out - I do not have a good sense for stirfries or rice noodle dishes because they're not something I usually make, and so while this was promising, I ended up overcooking the noodles (after thinking I was undercooking them), and the overall dish was a little too dry. Since there was gluten in some of the sauce, which I usually pretend not to know because it's just a little bit, this was probably not worth it since the overall dish wasn't amazing. I might try again with a slightly different technique - the flavor was pretty good, it just didn't finish quite right.
sssanyway, that was a bit disappointing. Then I cleaned up, sat around and did nothing [I've been off twitter for almost 48hrs and I'm jonesing for a fix, but there is no methadone for twitter withdrawal, so I just stared off into space instead], and then journaled for an hour. And now I think I'm going to pick up a book and crawl into bed to read until I fall asleep - goodnight!
I had a local minima kind of day - nothing wrong, precisely, but nothing very right either. I did get 8+ hours of sleep, which should have been restorative but perhaps just gave me more energy for my existential dread.
Either way, I finally dragged myself out of bed and made brunch - I tried to recreate Tony's huevos rancheros, and I would say I did a bang-up job. He serves his on top of a quesadilla instead of plain tortillas, so I made a quesadilla w/perfect cheddar and two corn tortillas (and a little olive oil to make the tortilla crispy instead of soft). I also doctored up a can of black beans with onion, garlic, cumin, coriander, cayenne, salt, and lime juice, which made them tasty. And my fried eggs were perfect - crispy on the bottom, soft yolky goodness in the middle.
So they turned out so well that I hummed a little when I took my first couple of bites, which is unusual. But after that, tings went downhill - maybe I was tired from such an awesome meal, or tired from my week in general, but I had a lot of trouble rallying. I did eventually go to pick up /return a couple of things at Nordstrom and Crate and Barrel, and I also made a stop at Locavore to get a few grocery tings that I was missing.
Then I came home, tidied up, reheated some chickpea stew, ate the chickpea stew, procrastinated a bit more, and finally wrote for awhile. I let myself be distracted by Aditya, though - we ended up watching the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion together over zoom, and you can tell how bored I was because I agreed to watch it despite not growing up watching the show. We ended up hanging out for quite some time - Priyanka joined us as the reunion was wrapping up, and the three of us went v. deep on politics, covid, the economy, and mouse infestations until approx ten minutes ago (12:30am MST, for those of you keeping track at home).
And now, even though I have much to say, I want to go to sleep - goodnight!
Today was another long-ish day in the pixel mines. Luckily, tomorrow is 'no meeting Friday', which means I only have 4.5hrs of meetings, which practically feels like a luxury.
So today, I woke up, made some coffee, and used my new Instant Pot steel cut oatmeal technique to make oatmeal while I showered. This was brilliant, since it's pretty easy to dump oatmeal, water, and a pinch of salt into an instant pot and turn it on and leave it alone. So I showered, drank some coffee, scooped out some oatmeal, and got to my laptop in time for an 8:30 meeting....
...and then had meetings straight until one, when I had a half hour break. I broke down and ordered a poke bowl since I was basically chained to my desk, and I timed it well enough that it arrived close to a break between meetings so that I could grab it and a pair of chopsticks and then eat it during a meeting. But I took a long break starting around 4:30 - I walked to the post office, dropped off a couple of returns, and bought some Christmas stamps. Then I came home and called my dad - it's his birthday today (happy birthday!) and so we had a long chat about tractors and corn prices and mice and Kansas and chickpeas, among other things.
Then I finished making my chickpea stew (the Alison Roman recipe that was ubiquitous earlier in the year - I still like it), ate my chickpea stew while browsing twitter, and was tempted to go to bed at eight. But I rallied and worked for a couple of hours, which means I'm fully caught up on email - I would like to take all next week off, and this makes me feel more confident that I will be able to.
And now I need to go to bed so I can finish the week strong - goodnight!
I'm feeling too tired to blog - I worked too late last night, went to bed too late, and got up too early to start the whole process over again. My meetings and other activities were fine - in one of my meetings, someone actually hired a goat ('goat to meeting') to dial in for ten minutes, which meant we all just got to watch a goat roaming around on camera. It was bizarre and stupid and wonderful, and I'm v. impressed with the goat farm's business model.
So I slogged all day, but it wasn't too onerous. When I was done, I ate a snack and then made a Whole Foods run - I may want a little more fresh produce for next week, but for now I'm pretty well stocked up for the staycation / writing retreat that I'm planning to indulge in. I have plenty of food, decorative items to put up for Christmas, grand plans to turn my guest room into a space for kettlebells/yoga, a new velvet sweatsuit, and a book to write...and I just have to make it to Friday afternoon unscathed, which I think I can do.
So I bought some groceries, came home, put everything away, and ate some more boeuf bourguignon. There were still three servings left, so I froze two of them, which means I can make something else tomorrow. Then I messed around and did basically nothing until now, with the exception of some journaling / stuff for the class I'm taking with Alyssa.
And now I need to sleep and hope it restores me - goodnight!
I'm suddenly too tired to keep sitting here in front of a screen - it's 11:38pm, and I just did day job work for the last two hours. That was on top of a grind straight from 9 to 6:30 (although I did take a break somewhere in there to take a twenty minute walk, since it was seventy degrees out and that kind of gift in mid-November can't be wasted). Tings are busy at work, and I figured that I would sleep better if I wasn't stressed about being behind, but I'm not sure that was entirely the right move.
However, I did relax a bit this evening - I talked to my parents for almost an hour while I reheated and ate some boeuf bourguignon (still so fucking delicious, I can't even). And I messed around a bit online. But now I really need to get seven solid hours of sleep so that I can make it through whatever tomorrow holds - goodnight!
I didn't sleep well last night, mostly because I probably should have worked last night and didn't, and so woke up in the middle of the night with my head racing with all the things I needed to do. But I was able to fall back asleep, and I enjoyed my coffee with some journaling before work, and so I was able to recover my equilibrium. I slogged pretty hard all day (although perhaps not hard enough), then stopped around six so that I could get on with my evening.
My evening was not particularly productive, as it turns out. But I did make eggplant tricolore to use up the eggplant in my fridge before it went bad; I didn't eat it tonight, but it's better after spending some time in the fridge anyway, so I'll have a v. tasty lunch tomorrow. While that was cooking, I heated up last night's bouef bourguignon, and it was even better tonight - exactly the kind of decadent winter cooking I adore, especially with mashed potatoes.
Then I messed around online, texted with [censored] and Drewbaby, ordered some more Christmas stuff (we've entered the decor hoarding stage of the pandemic, but I'm pretty excited to put solar-powered LED lights on the miniature pine tree in my front yard), and generally chilled. And now I think I'll try to go to bed early so that I can get up early and tackle stuff I should have done tonight....
...but one last thing! In my mindless internet browsing I discovered that gluten free Oreos are coming in 2021! And that means I could make Oreo blizzards at home...cookies and cream anything is one of the things I miss most about the gf life, so this is v. exciting news. 2021 is already looking promising, even though we're going to slog through tens of thousands of covid deaths to get there.
And on that note, stay safe and goodnight!
Today was a delight. I stayed in bed until nine, which went a long way toward restoring me. Then I decided to make good use of the fact that it was nice for the first time in a week - instead of writing, I made some coffee, took a luxurious shower (luxury = shaving AND washing my hair on the same day), made an omelette, and generally practiced self-care for awhile. Then Katie came over - it was just nice enough to sit outside and stay six feet apart, especially since the sun was shining and I had a tank top / long sleeved shirt / sweatshirt + winter-weight leggings + uggs. We didn't eat anything, but I drank a lot of coffee and Katie drank whatever sparkling water beverages she'd brought with her, and we talked about a variety of subjects, and it was perfectly lovely.
Katie left around one, and I had some leftover thai food for lunch, took care of some tings around the house, and then ran an errand in Cherry Creek. I'd ordered some more Crate and Barrel stuff (they are getting most of my money during the pandemic -- but they're probably behind Athleta, since I keep buying leggings / joggers in an effort to cozy my way out of any malaise), and so I went and picked it up at their curbside delivery station. Then I came straight home, since the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon is not where I want to be even during non-pandemic times - I could use a few things, but none of it was pressing, so I'll sneak out some weekday afternoon or break down and get it delivered.
When I got home, I immediately started making an unnecessarily elaborate dinner - I was in the mood to make the Barefoot Contessa's boeuf bourguignon, which I used to make occasionally for dinner parties but haven't made in at least 5-7 years since I a) no longer have dinner parties and b) have too many friends who don't eat beef. It takes close to three hours, but it's worth it - very luscious beef cubes, a lot of bacon, a lot of onion, some carrots, and a whole lot of mushrooms. It also calls for an entire bottle of wine, and you also add 1/2 c of cognac and burn it off (which adds some flavor / char to the veg). All in all, it's delicious, and it's even better on top of mashed potatoes (which I seem to have perfected in my new stand mixer).
So, by the time it was done, I was pretty much in heaven - and I am v. much looking forward to leftovers. While it was cooking, I talked to my parents, who were kind enough to interrupt their viewing of a John Wayne movie for the fifteenth time this year to talk to me (thanks guys!). And after I was done eating, I cleaned up my kitchen, instagrammed my cooking adventure, and generally procrastinated until now.
And now it's time for bed - goodnight!
I was much more hermity than intended today, but it's because I spent over three hours making a breakfast that I normally would have spent fifteen minutes on. We're doing some Olympics-type activity at work, with a variety of competitions, and one of those competitions is a cooking challenge. But since no one can taste or verify whether any output is good, the challenge is instead to make a single meal with as many appliances as possible.
I think I successfully used every single appliance I own, with the exception of my grill (it's been violently windy off and on all day, and I didn't think lighting a grill was a good idea). This included doing truly inefficient things like using my food processor to shred some cheese for an omelette (I have bags of shredded cheese, or I would normally just use a grater). But I made another batch of those pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting that I liked so well a couple of weeks ago, and the omelette that I made was one of the best ever - using an immersion blender to beat two eggs was overkill, but the omelette was certainly fluffy.
I also made steel cut oatmeal in my instant pot in the first time, and I was v. impressed - it doesn't save time from cooking it on the stove, but it seemed creamier and didn't require monitoring/stirring, so I'm a fan. And I grilled slices of apple to put on top of it using my panini press, which is another trick I never would have tried but was actually quite nice. So while I don't intend to make this particular combination of things with this particular level of appliance overload again, at least I learned some new techniques.
But that meant I didn't have breakfast until after noon (I had a couple of snacks and a lot of coffee to get me going), and by the time I cleaned up my kitchen it felt like the day was shot. I spent some time catching up on correspondence, and then I took a bath, and then I took a nap. I had planned to cook tonight, but I was definitely not in the mood - so I ordered thai food (which was exactly what I was craving) and read half of THE CITY WE BECAME by N.K. Jemisin. So far it's great, but I managed to pull myself away at the midpoint so that I can go to bed at a reasonable hour.
And now that reasonable hour is upon me - it's definitely time for bed. Happy Diwali to all my Diwali-celebrating friends - goodnight!
I'm super tired and need to go to bed soon - I have grand hermit plans for the weekend, so I don't want to stay up all night. But today was decent enough - I didn't write this morning, but I did journal before slogging all day. I took a break while it was still daylight so that I could take a walk, and then I had an extended happy hour with a coworker (Sara, who is one of my favorites). We talked for two hours or so, until our takeout orders arrived, and it was a delight to catch up with her.
Then I ate my takeout (I was in the mood for guac, so I made it happen), talked to [censored], messed around, took a nap, and watched last week's SNL. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!
Today was pretty good, although I was tired by the end of it - I didn't get enough sleep, and I intend to rectify that posthaste. But I dragged myself out of bed in time to write, so that was a delight. And then I showered, slogged all day, took a break to eat a poke bowl, and took another break to have class with Alyssa. When that was over, I made dinner while talking to [censored] - he was good, but my porkchop, polenta, and brussels sprouts were even better.
Then I was tired, so I doomscrolled and cleaned my kitchen. And then I had an 8:30pm meeting with someone in India and did another hour of work right after. But now I've gotten through what I need to get through, and I'm going to read a bit and go to bed - goodnight!
I have no updates of note, but that rarely stops me. I woke up in time to meditate and write before work; I am still behind on nanowrimo, but I got a thousand words this morning and I’ll take it. Then I showered and slogged; the slogging wasn’t the most effective, but it was better than nothing.
I stopped slightly early and took a walk, but it was colder than I thought and I wasn’t prepared for it, so I came home before I froze. Then I had a virtual happy hour with Caroline; we had dreamed of meeting outside in person, but it’s too cold for outside and cases are spiking too much to be inside, so we went virtual instead. I ate some fancy cheese and drank a glass of wine while talking to her, and it was great.
Then, I should have done many tings, but instead I did a bit of kitchen work, made a bologna sandwich, and read NINTH HOUSE for a couple of hours. I really just want to finish it, but I can’t stay up any later if I want to write tomorrow...so it’s time for bed!
It snowed today, and the view from my desk was bleak, but I still had a decent day. I wrote quite a bit before work, then slogged until six-ish. Then I ate leftover fish tacos, caught up on some tings, and started reading a new book (NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo, which is v different from her Grishaverse books because it’s set in Yale’s secret societies). And now I am going to go to bed - goodnight!
I'm super super tired, probably because I got up at 7:30 by accident (after going to bed at one, after getting not nearly enough sleep any night last week). So I'm blogging early and am going to crawl into bed and finish the book I started last night and absolutely not start any of the other books that are waiting to tempt me.
Today was good overall, though - I messed around, made some delicious hash (potatoes, onions, green pepper, bacon) and ate it with a couple of fried eggs, and then had a writing date with Veronica. The writing went well, although it took an unexpected turn; I wrote a little bit more tonight to see where it's headed, and so far I like it. We shall see, we shall see.
When I was done talking to V, I did some house stuff. I also raked my back patio, which took some effort; my big tree is lovely in summer, but it dumped all its leaves at once and my patio was a disaster. I got it mostly cleaned up, with some leaves left behind as mulch for my shrubbery, so that felt pretty good.
Then I talked to [censored] while eating a snack. And then I walked down to my favorite cheese shop to buy some chorizo; there's a chickpea and chorizo cassoulet that I last made approx fifteen years ago, and I'm thinking it might be time to resurrect it. When I got home, I did some chopping of vegetables, then called my parents. And then I finished prepping dinner - I made fish tacos, which were delicious, and now I have enough leftovers for tomorrow that I could potentially not cook if I don't want to, but we shall see.
Then I cleaned up my kitchen, came upstairs, wrote for a little bit, and now you're all caught up. It's time for me to read and go to bed - goodnight!
I'm exhausted and I just stayed up approximately two hours later than I planned, but that's the danger of starting a book (which is why I don't read enough). I had to get up at six this morning to prep for my fridge delivery, which was scheduled between seven and one - unfortunately they showed up at noon, which meant the early morning wakeup was pretty unnecessary. But I did get my food safely packed up out of my fridge, and I pulled out the old fridge and tested the water supply / flushed the line that hadn't been used in years (if ever), and I also mopped where the fridge had been, so that felt v. productive.
I also spent some quality time this morning washing my sheets, doing more laundry, and finally setting up the extra monitor and computer that work sent me to help me be more productive (what are they trying to tell me?). And when the fridge came, I had quite a bit of work to do to get it ready - I had to remove all sorts of plastic and clingwrap, and clean the interior, and flush a couple of gallons through the water dispenser. I think I'm going to love it - it's already so much quieter than my previous fridge, and it has an *icemaker*, which brings me firmly into this new decade. And it fits perfectly - so perfectly that it made me nervous going in, but it looks great.
After all that + putting away my food, I was pretty wrecked, but I forced myself to keep going with household chores and tidying things up. Then I took a shower a little before six because I hadn't showered all day and wanted to be clean for my clean sheets. And then I picked up a pizza from Blue Pan, popped a bottle of (finally chilled) champagne, and did a bit of celebrating. Tonight felt pretty historic, and I'm hoping better days are ahead for all of us, but we shall see.
That turned into taking a break from screens to read a book - I finally started A DEADLY EDUCATION by Naomi Novik, which has been out a few months and which I've been saving for the right moment. It's totally different from her last couple of fantasies, but I'm really enjoying it. I'm probably 60-70% in and if I weren't so ridiculously tired I would just power through - but I want to enjoy the ending, and I can feel myself fading, so I really need to sleep. Goodnight!
It’s Friday, or, in other words, Tuesday #4. I had a pretty good day; I wasn’t super productive at work, but I got done what I had to get done. Then I called [censored] while I took a walk, and ordered some winter running tights since winter is coming and I’m going to want some outdoor time even when it’s cold.
Then I messed around my house and took care of things while baking a potato, which I paired with the last of my fancy chicken (the one stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped with prosciutto) and broccoli. At that point, I was tired but it was only seven. So I ran a quick errand to pick up a couple of coolers from Katie - I had ordered a new fridge a couple of months ago and it was back ordered, then intended to get delivered around thanksgiving. But it unexpectedly came in early, so it’s now getting delivered tomorrow. This is v exciting, but it means I have to empty my fridge and freezer and hope I don’t spoil anything by accident.
So I borrowed Katie’s coolers to augment my own, and stopped on the way home to buy some ice. And now I need to sleep- my delivery window is seven to one, which is wildly imprecise, but also means I have to be ready and have my fridge cleaned out early just in case. Goodnight!
Another day. I woke up in time to write for a bit, and then I slogged all day. I wrapped things up around five, and then I had a quality catch-up with Terry, which was delightful. And then I made a new recipe (garbanzos with spinach and chorizo) which I thought was amazing. And then I spent the rest of the night reading the news, ordering Christmas stuff, and generally not being v productive.
And now it’s time for bed - good night!
I'm super tired, since I only got five hours of sleep last night...and so even though it's only ten, I'm going to try to force myself into bed in the next 30mins. Today was pretty decent, though - I did some work, read all of Twitter, took a walk while talking to Katie, ate some v. delicious leftover chicken for dinner, etc.
And now I'm going to go to bed and hope that I wake up to excellent news in the morning - goodnight!
I need to go to bed because I have to work tomorrow (although it will hopefully not be too onerous). But I got a lot of work done, then took a walk, then talked to Barbara, and then made a v. elaborate dinner (chicken stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in prosciutto + a baked potato and roasted broccoli). Then I drank a bottle of v. nice Grgich Hills cab while watching election coverage...which turned into a four-hour zoom call with Adit, Priyanka, Ritu, Bill, John, Jess, and Chandlord. And now I desperately need to sleep, since this isn't over - goodnight!
Way too tired to blog - I wrote before work, then slogged all day (with a walk somewhere in there), then ran some errands. I also talked to [censored] and Katie, and ate a couple of pumpkin cupcakes. And I accidentally worked from ten to midnight, but c'est la vie and now I don't have to do it tomorrow.
But I really need to sleep now - goodnight!
I had a good day, but I'm really tired and probably should have honored my body's post-time-change desires and gone to bed thirty minutes ago. I spent the day taking care of a variety of tings - I tidied my utensil drawers in my kitchen, rearranged some stuff in my laundry room, did three loads of laundry, started clearing some unnecessary things out of my guest room, etc. I also had a writing date with Veronica - I'm doing NaNoWriMo this month (which is how I started my first book oh so many years ago) and I wanted to kick off well. So far so good and I had some good ideas this morning, so hopefully I can maintain/increase momentum.
I then took care of some outdoor stuff, including installing a camera in my garage - I'm not particularly worried about break-ins, but I am paranoid about whether I remembered to shut my garage door, so this seemed like a good idea. I then marinated some chicken, and while that was marinating, I called my parents. That took longer than usual, and I was starving by the end, so I almost ordered takeout....but I had already preheated the grill, so I persevered and made my chicken fajitas instead. They turned out great - the marinade for the chicken makes it possible to grill boneless skinless chicken breast without losing all the moisture, and grilling peppers/onions in a grill basket is stupidly easy. I paired it with some spanish rice (also a winner) and some canned refried beans (not fancy, but secretly my fave), and it was all good.
Then I doomscrolled a bit, folded a bunch of laundry, put the grill away, and painted my toenails. And now I really need to sleep - goodnight!
Last night was a trainwreck - I should have gone to bed hours before I did, but instead I curled up on my chaise and doomscrolled and read every bit of the internet. The result was that I didn't go to bed until almost three, which is completely absurd. And so even though I slept until a little after nine, it really wasn't quite enough.
However, I successfully rescued the day - when I got up, I made coffee, did some laundry, and ran to the grocery store to stock up on produce. This was key towards ensuring that I don't need to leave the house next week if I don't feel like it (I mean, I want to take some walks...but I'm not sure I want to be forced to interact with humans). When I got home, I put my groceries away, quickly cleaned myself up, and then came downstairs just in time to welcome Katie to my lovely backyard oasis.
Since the weather is getting colder and covid is spiking enough to keep us from seeing each other inside, our evening activities are pretty curtailed. But it was sixty today, which was still perfect for sitting in my backyard. We started off sitting on the ground in a patch of sun, but we eventually relocated to the couches as the sunshine moved, and it was a pretty perfect couple of hours. I also inducted Katie into the poke club (the place I order poke from is actually called PokéClub) - we ordered poke bowls for lunch, and they were just as delicious as always.
Katie eventually left, and then I tried a new recipe for pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (see my other blog). I subbed gluten free flour for regular flour without changing anything else, and they turned out perfectly - really tasty cupcakes, totally delicious frosting, and easy to make. They came out of the oven right before I had a friendship renewal call with Joann and Jen, so I ate my first one while I said hi to Joann, and then frosted the rest of them later in the call.
Unfortunately, 2020 is the gift that keeps on giving, and none of us had any particularly good news to share (although Joann got promoted, which is great, but I already knew that). But it was good to catch up, as per usual, and hopefully Joann and I (and Jen, if she feels so inclined, despite being married) get to spinster honeymoon again together somewhere in the world someday. They were all supposed to come to Colorado in May, but that airbnb got canceled long ago and it feels impossible to imagine how the year might have gone if coronavirus hadn't happened. But someday we shall see each other again! And until then, we can just snack in each other's faces on videoconferences.
sssanyway. After we hung up, Katie showed up again - this time with her children so that they would have somewhere to trick or treat. She had actually brought me candy earlier to give them tonight since I hadn't planned on trick or treaters, so this took literally zero effort on my part (other than opening the door). The girls were dressed as ninjas, which was a good way to incorporate masks, and it was fun to see them for a few minutes. I also gave them cupcakes, which I think went over well.
Then I messed around on my other blog for a couple of hours, documenting the eggplant parmigiana that I made the other night + putting up the cupcakes. Then I ate chili, doomscrolled a bit, and basically got nothing else accomplished. And now I'm determined to be in bed before midnight, so it's time to sign off - goodnight!
Today was pretty good, all in all. I still didn't sleep super well last night, but my first meeting wasn't until 10:30, so I had plenty of time to tidy things up in the kitchen, take out some trash and recycling, shower, etc. and still get some work done before my first meeting. Then I slogged until almost six, although I took a short break to walk down the street and pick up some cheese and meat from my favorite cheese shop.
I spent my evening doing a virtual wine tasting organized through work - I had gotten three bottles from Ram's Gate delivered a couple of weeks ago and the tasting was tonight. The wine was really good; I wasn't totally in the mood to do the tasting part, since it involved listening to someone talk about wine when I really just wanted to hang out; and I'm glad I have a Coravin, because it meant I could pour half a glass of each and not open the bottles.
So I tasted and sipped while also eating a bunch of cheese. After, I jumped into a side video with a guy I work with and his wife, who were also on the tasting, and that was much more hilarious and my speed. And then I ate some leftover eggplant parmigiana, did some stuff around the house, etc. And now it's time for bed - goodnight!
Thursday in the apocalypse...but it was pretty good overall. I didn't sleep well last night and woke up feeling like I might be on the verge of having a terrible, no-good, very bad day. But I drank coffee, journaled, and managed to pull myself out of the worst of my funk. So that meant I slogged all day, had some good meetings, ate some chili for lunch, took a walk while listening to a podcast, and then slogged some more.
But I stopped at five to make a somewhat elaborate dinner - I tried a new recipe for eggplant parmigiana, and it was fucking delicious. Like, perfect. And the eggplant wasn't breaded, so it was naturally gluten free. Of course, it took longer than I would usually spend on a weeknight meal, but it was worth it - I made a pretty simple tomato sauce (just canned whole tomatoes, oil, garlic, and basil), fried slices of eggplant, cut up some fresh and smoked mozzarella, and then layered tomato sauce, eggplant, mozzarella(s), parmesan, and basil in a baking dish. I cut the recipe in half and made an 8x8 instead of a 9x13 since I would have trouble eating a 9x13 myself - and it was so, so, so good. So, that was #worthit and a v. nice way to end the day.
Then I talked to [censored] for a couple of hours - he was driving and we hadn't talked in a couple of weeks, so neither of us had anywhere better to be and leaned into a v. long conversation. And then I did a tiny bit of day job work to prep for tomorrow...and now it's time for bed. Goodnight!
I'm exhausted and need to stop looking at screens and go to bed. I woke up too early this morning, did some virtual event stuff (it ended this morning and seemed to go really well!), then had to immediately transition into a full day of slogging. So, I slogged, got a poke bowl delivered as my #treatyoself moment of the day, took a break for my class with Alyssa, and then slogged some more.
But by 5:30 I was finally done. So I walked to my nearby polling place to drop off my ballot - Colorado has really cracked the code on how to do voting, since the ballot shows up, there are plenty of places to drop it off, and they automatically track it at every step so you know if it got counted. I was only there a minute, but there were multiple cars in line waiting to drop off to the manned drive-through dropoff, and I got to the pedestrian 24hr box just at the same time as another woman. For six p.m., six days before the election, my v. anecdotal survey says that turnout is high.
Then I came home, ate some leftover pork chile verde, talked to Katie, and did absolutely nothing of worth or substance the last three hours. And now I'm going to sleep - goodnight!
Today was a v. v. long day, but it was #worthit. I got up early this morning because I had some work that absolutely had to get done before the actual workday started, so I did it while sitting on my chaise and drinking coffee (which sounds decadent, but it was still work). Then I had meetings pretty straight from 9:30am to 9:30pm - I had a couple of hours during the day to get some work done, but I also had a four-hour 'offsite' (definitely onsite, still sitting in the same place I always do) from two to six.
Then I went straight into a virtual event - the big, fun, amazing in-person event(s) that my team plans every year (like last year, when I got to go to Sydney and Berlin) were replaced this year with a virtual event. It started yesterday with an Americas-friendly time, but tonight is the Asia/Pacific time - so I watched it off and on from six to ten (with some other work interspersed). It's been a really good virtual event - and probably way healthier for me personally, since I just watched a few sessions in my kitchen while making chili (instead of flying halfway around the world to work sixteen hours a day and drink moscow mules in random bars). Still, the flying halfway around the world and drinking moscow mules in random bars are things I really miss, so perhaps someday that will happen again.
But it won't happen today - Denver went into stricter lockdown because our cases are spiking. Great.
sssanyway, now that I had done my duty for the event tonight, I need to sleep - the Asia/Pacific session runs straight into the Europe session, so I have to wake up early for the closing ceremony (luckily I already taped my session, but I may want to answer chats, unclear). Goodnight!
Today was pretty good, I guess. I didn't get enough sleep, which I'm hoping to rectify soon. But I got up in time to meditate before work, and I washed and dried my hair, and I wore jeans, which are all real accomplishments. Then I worked all day - I had yet another meeting with my VP, but this time it was just the two of us, and the third time is a charm and she didn't yell at me and instead we had a great conversation, so I'm taking the win.
The rest of my meetings were fine, and I took a break around five to do some homework for Alyssa's class + make my first attempt at gluten free bread. I had put the dough in the fridge to rest yesterday, so today I had to preheat the oven and a baking stone (luckily I have one from my grandma), shape a loaf, and bake it. Then I had to let it cool completely, which was hard because it smelled great. I would give it a 6.5 or 7/10 - I would definitely eat more of it, and the crust was great, but the middle seemed slightly too dense or undercooked. Not sure if that's the altitude, the mixing, or something else - but I still have half the batch of dough left, so I'll try again in a few days.
While that was baking/cooling, I ate some leftover pork chile verde and overindulged on twitter. But I pulled myself out and did an hour or so of day job work, which was v. necessary - and now I may crawl into bed with my notebook and do a bit of brainstorming for an offsite that I have tomorrow (maybe not the most relaxing way to end the evening, but better than waking up in the morning panicked because I haven't finished it). Goodnight!
Sometimes I do a quick search on my blog to see if I've used a lyrics as a title before; sometimes it turns up that lyric, but often it turns up a bunch of posts that use some of the words, and that results in an impromptu trip down memory lane. Tonight's search revealed:
- the wine trip Terry, Subz and I took to Calistoga; it was a weekend or two before the 2016 election, and before several Calistoga wineries burned this year, so it felt like a throwback to a more innocent time
- a time when Claude told me, Chandlord, and Renee (who I used to hang out with) the story of Rumpelstiltskin in a California Pizza Kitchen
- the glorious afternoon Riturani and I spent getting our nails done and drinking a whole bottle of champagne and congratulating each other on how great we are (to be more specific, this time was right before her engagement photos; this is a typical day for us overall, although I prefer when it involves oysters)
- the time I was eating lunch outside in Palo Alto and watched a woman carry her child on her shoulders...and then the child vomited into her hair
- the day I scraped my RAV4 in Chandlord's parking garage
- when I was in Jasmine and Michael's wedding (funny how you can be in someone's wedding and then not see them for over a decade)
- shopping on Grafton St when I lived in Dublin
- Fleet Week and feeling like I came close to getting kidnapped by a cab driver
- a work day that sounds a lot like the day I had on Friday, but it was in 2007
So, that was fun. While it's entirely insane and ridiculous that I've been doing this with astonishing regularity for sixteen (!) years, it's really fun and bizarre to dip into the minutiae of whatever I found interesting years ago.
sssanyway. Today was boring and I was not in it to win it. I did get almost nine hours of sleep, which was amazing - but it snowed all day and never made it over sixteen degrees, so I stayed inside and tried to battle my lethargy. I did pretty well considering my mood - I made a frittata for breakfast (and for breakfasts the next few days), then wrote (via an online writing date with Veronica). I then messed around online, ate some leftover spaghetti carbonara, and took the first pass at some experimentation with a new gluten free baking book that I got - I mixed up their preferred flour blend and also mixed up a batch of dough, which looks promising so far. The dough is better after being refrigerated and can be refrigerated up to ten days, so I'm sure I'll test out a loaf later this week.
Then I talked to Katie, threw together the ingredients for instant pot pork chile verde, and talked to my parents while the chile verde cooked. The chile verde was completely delish, so at least it was worth the effort.
Then I cleaned up my kitchen, adjourned to my office, and wrote some more. And now I need to fold some laundry / decompress / go to bed - goodnight!
I was running on fumes this morning, but I somehow rallied and got a million things done. I did laze about for awhile with coffee and my journal and my phone (mostly my phone, which is never a good way to start the day). But I forced myself to eat some yogurt, take a shower, and then run to Crate and Barrel in Cherry Creek to return a couple of decorative pillows that I ordered on impulse and then promptly regretted. Crate and Barrel was mostly empty, so I browsed and picked up an oven thermometer and some other baking supplies for some baking experiments that I want to make in the coming weeks. I also daydreamed of decorating my entire house in fun and whimsical new ways, and then remembered that that's absolutely not what I want to spend my money on (okay, I want to spend my money on it, but I also want to do other things more), so I successfully left without an egregious amount of stuff.
Then I came home, made a sandwich, cleaned up some tings, and took a nap. And then I rallied and actually cleaned out my garage, which has been on my list for a year - it was nice enough today to be outside, but tomorrow it's going to be twenty degrees and snow multiple inches, so I forced myself to do garage stuff on what felt like the last nice day of the year (it will not be the last nice day of the year, but you never know in 2020). I put together some shelves I had ordered, organized everything that's in the garage, brought in some stuff that shouldn't have been out there, etc. And I broke down some boxes that need to be recycled (slowly, over the next few weeks, since my recycling is only every other week). I also swept, then used my leaf blower to push all the dirt outside, and it was tremendously satisfying. Yes, I am old. But I also like things to be tidy, and I'm v. happy that my garage is now clean enough that two cars could theoretically fit (or my one car has a ton of room).
Then, since my garage was clean, I took my car to the carwash, where I washed and vacuumed it and generally got it ready to spend the next couple of weeks going nowhere due to the weather. I also put gas in it, for similar reasons. Then I came home, made some spaghetti carbonara for dinner, messed around on instagram, and then took a bubble bath while reading Padma Lakshmi's memoir.
And now that I've done about as much treating myself as I can do in one evening, I think it's time for bed. I have grand plans to write in the morning, and I also have grand plans to cook a million things so that I don't have to cook so much during the week - wish me luck with that. Goodnight!
I'm tired and should have gone to bed two hours ago, but instead I've been trying to decompress by lounging under a faux fur blanket and occasionally sipping a glass of wine that I poured ages ago. Today was hectic - it started by dropping my car off at the dealer for routine maintenance, which meant driving halfway to Boulder on a road that I barely ever take anymore. Everything felt vaguely apocalyptic this morning - someone at the dealer looked outside and said it was snowing, and then someone else asked if it was actually ash (I think it was ash). It was cold enough to be snow, but we also somehow suddenly have the second largest fire in state history rushing through Rocky Mountain National Park to connect with another fire that's been burning for a couple of months, so shit feels particularly real right now.
Then I came home and slogged all day, and some of my meetings were really fun but some were super annoying. Then I rushed back to pick up my car. At that point I would have happily drank wine and sat on my couch and stared at nothing, but I forced myself to eat something and then go to Whole Foods - my food hoarding is kicking back in as I watch coronavirus cases tick up, and it doesn't help that the US response is so much worse than the rest of the developed world. So I stocked up on a bunch of stuff and am happy that I won't have to brave the crowds tomorrow since I'm sure they'll be packed in advance of the snow we're going to get on Sunday.
And now I've done enough dozing off downstairs - I should really go to bed. Goodnight!
