one day all our secrets will be spoken

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'm wondering why do all the monsters come out at night

It's not quite ten, but I didn't sleep all that well last night and I have to get up for work tomorrow, so I'm contemplating crawling into bed with a book and hopefully sleeping early. Today was pretty decent, though - I got some stuff done around the house, had a writing chat with Veronica (always a delight!), and then did some more stuff around the house. I then ran some errands, which mostly consisted of picking up some stuff at Crate and Barrel / CB2 - the downside of being home all the time is that I see many things I want to decorate / do / improve, so the bulk of my #treatyoself spending the last six months has been home decor + sweatpants.

I did, however, also spend money on groceries, which were probably more important for my immediate well-being - I didn't need much, but produce seemed like a good thing to get. Then I came home, ate some cheeeeeese, and talked to my parents. Then I called [censored], who was driving home, and we talked for almost three hours. That wasn't how I had planned to spend my evening, but it was better than going down the deep rabbit hole of the Sunday Scaries, so I'll take it.

And now I think it's time for bed - goodnight!

push the trigger and i pull the thread

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!

thunderheads were forming

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!

and now my problems got problems of their own 'cause they're growing up

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!

your face is all that i see, i'll give you everything

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!

ain't it hard keeping it so hardcore

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!

you grow up, grow old, or you hit the road 'round here

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!

stacking up my house of cards

Today was better than yesterday, which was a relief. I got plenty of sleep, got up, did some journaling, took a shower, and reheated some oatmeal in time for a writing date with Veronica. We didn't actually end up writing - instead we talked for ninety minutes, which was delightful and very much needed. Then I made lunch, ate lunch, and talked to [censored] for an hour or so.

After that, Katie showed up - she and her family were out for a drive and they drove past my house, so they sat on the curb and said hi. This was v. abbreviated since they didn't get out of the car and I didn't have shoes on (and the sidewalk was chilly even though it was a nice day for November), but it was nice to wave at each other. Then I messed around a bit, started some laundry, threw some potatoes in the oven to bake, and took a walk while I talked to my parents.

The potatoes were for a batch of twice-baked potatoes, which I deeply love - I've discovered the joy of having them in the freezer so that I can have one when I feel like it, but I was out of frozen ones. So I made a batch tonight, and paired it with a perfect reverse-sear ribeye - I have been eating v. well in quarantine, so at least I have that going for me.

Then I folded laundry and cleaned up my kitchen. And then I painted my toenails and gave myself a gel manicure while watching a couple of episodes of Padma Lakshmi's Taste the Nation (still great!). And now I should sleep - I have grand plans this week, and I want to get cracking. That also includes staying of twitter the whole week - I made that somewhat impromptu declaration to V today, although I was thinking it last night after binging twitter yesterday, and I'm going to stick to it, if only because that time would be better spent writing or reading or doing literally anything else. Goodnight!

with that chip on my shoulder, and this past year i got so much older

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!

saturday, wait

Today was my last day of work until after Thanksgiving, which of course meant I had a lot to do - I was up and at 'em by nine, and I worked until seven. However, two hours of that was a happy hour with Vicky, whom I haven't caught up with in a long time, so it almost doesn't count. And then I slammed my work laptop shut, put it away, and promptly reheated and ate some of last night's chickpea stew (yummy). And I finished the night by finishing THE CITY WE BECAME by NK Jemisin - it was a total delight, and I wish I could write like that.

But now it's time for bed, and dreaming, and kicking my staycation off on the right note. Goodnight!

thursday doesn't even start

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!

tuesday, wednesday break my heart

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!

simmer down and pucker up

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!

she's a silver lining

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!

been wondering if your heart's still open, and if so, i wanna know what time it shuts

 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 guess what i'm tryna say is i need the deep end, keep imagining meeting, wished away entire lifetimes

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!

my head is giving me life or death but i can't choose

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!

somebody's calling you out for somеthing you never said

I meant to go to bed an hour ago, but if I close my laptop as soon as I'm done typing, I can salvage my bedtime. Today was good, all in all - I got up in time to write before work, and I snacked my way through the day (the last of my leftover hash and eggs; a bologna sandwich for lunch; an apple and some peanut butter; a charcuterie plate with soppressata, cheese, and almonds). Some of my meetings were vaguely annoying, but I survived them. And then I wrote again after work, since I had a writing date set up with Veronica and Anne - we're all doing nanowrimo, so it's been great to reconnect (albeit completely virtually).

But by 6:45 I was done with working/writing. So I made my charcuterie plate, finished my glass of wine, and read the rest of NINTH HOUSE. It was excellent - it had started out slow, but it was really good and twisty since it was basically a magical murder mystery (and with Yale secret societies, which is my jam). Only bummer is that I thought it was a standalone and it is instead the beginning of a series, and the next book likely won't be out until 2022. But, it already got optioned by Amazon Studios for a tv show, so hopefully that means the next book will actually come out at some point because I have feelings about that ending.

And now I need to sleep - goodnight!

better nix my summer plans

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!

scroll and key

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!

nobody’s coming to save me

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!

somebody's ripping you off, trying to sell you good news

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 want your body, need your body

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!

sometimes all I think about is you

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!

now I’m falling asleep and she’s calling dekalb

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!

blue danube

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!

now, for ten years we've been on our own, and moss grows fat on a rolling stone

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!

but i left it way too late, are you stuck in your own ways

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!

when the rain washes you clean you'll know

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!