I let myself sleep in today, so I didn't get as much done as I likely would have if I'd awoken with the sun. However, my paint job is looking really good (if I do say so myself). And I did some excellent journaling / writing / brainstorming, which was a worthy endeavor. I also cleaned up the paint sprayer from yesterday's painting so that I can get ready for tomorrow's painting, and I started prepping for ceiling paint. I still have a lot left to do, but I'm getting much closer.
I ended the day with supper at my parents' house - my mom asked if I wanted to come out, and I'm not a dummy when it comes to free steak. So, I had steak and a baked potato and caesar salad instead of the fish and potatoes I would have made for myself, and it was pretty tasty. And I didn't encounter our skunk (whose name is, of course, Stinky) on the way to my car, so I'd say it was a win.
And now I need to consider going to bed - goodnight!
I had a long but productive day - the main task was getting my car serviced, which required driving to Des Moines for (not because there are no mechanics here, but because I have maintenance prepaid at Audi). The Audi dealership is much smaller than my Denver one, but it was a nice experience - and, v. luckily, they were able to give me a loaner car for the day. So, rather than ubering somewhere or sitting around for hours, I was able to run some errands.
This mostly meant looking at kitchen appliances at Best Buy - I'm trying to figure out a new stove and fridge, but I'm not entirely sure what I want. Or rather, the fridge and the stove that I want are from two different brands, so I'm debating between matching-but-wrong or right-but-may-look-weird. The perusal of Best Buy's floor models was quite helpful, though. Then I grabbed a salad before going to Lowes, where I examined a bunch of remodel materials and bought some more painting accoutrements.
I killed the rest of the afternoon at Starbucks, and then I picked up my car (after sitting for a bit in the waiting area with a Lowes bucket like a weirdo) and drove back south. When I got home, I immediately scrambled to do a bit of painting - yesterday's paint job looked great overall, but there were a couple of areas I wanted to touch up, and I wanted to do it while there was still light outside. I was successful in that endeavor, so if it looks good tomorrow, I can start prepping to paint the ceiling.
I spent the rest of the night researching appliances and procrastinating, and now I really need to sleep - goodnight!
I had intended to paint my bedroom today (or maybe even yesterday), but now it's going to happen tomorrow. Since my bedroom is absurdly large, and also has a couple of alcoves + a sliding door + multiple windows, it has taken forever to prep for painting - I've gone through three rolls of tape, a lot of paper and plastic, and quite a bit of effort to get everything set up. But painting will be worth it, both in terms of freshening up the space and because finishing this project means I can start properly unpacking my bedroom and office.
sssanyway, that's most of what I've been focused on the last couple of days. Yesterday I also went to the next town over to look at some kitchen stuff and get some groceries. Today, I did very little other than prepping for painting, although I went out to my parents' house to partake of some delicious smoked ribs and mac and cheese. And I saw approximately ten minutes of the best movie ever made (aka SAHARA), which happened to be on TV, so that was a true highlight.
And now I need to sleep - goodnight!
I had a relatively busy / productive day, which was what I needed. I got less sleep than I wanted, which is partially a function of the fact that I've taken all the blinds off my windows in anticipation of painting, so it was much lighter in my room much earlier than it usually is. I spent most of the morning prepping for painting - since my bedroom is somehow, for no good reason, over 500 square feet, it takes a lot of taping and dusting and general cleanup to get it ready to go.
In the afternoon, I ran to the courthouse to make another attempt at registering my car - the first attempt was a fiasco, but this attempt was smooth sailing. And, in a #smalltownlife moment, there was no one doing any business there when I walked in, and so I walked out with a new registration and plates in less than fifteen minutes. I still regret not having DoorDash or Uber Eats here, but there are some major conveniences.
I also spent an hour talking to some former coworkers whom I hadn't gotten a chance to catch up with before leaving (Aga and Andrea, who were on my team almost five years ago, which is crazy). And eventually, [censored] and I decided to go out for dinner - I could have eaten leftovers, but I'll take an excuse to go out.
And now, I should really go to bed before I squander the remaining hours of darkness - goodnight!
I have nothing to report today, other than that I did extensive research on paper wasps - the new nest I mentioned last night only appears to have 3-4 wasps (and paper wasps aren't particularly aggressive), but a new group of wasps showed up overnight on a different part of my balcony. Research indicates that they're having some sort of fun wasp orgy, but I'm not excited to be their host. However, the location of both wasp groups on a balcony where the only access point is my bedroom is making the plan of attack tricky. We'll see what happens tomorrow!
The rest of my day was uneventful - I did some journaling, made some oatmeal, did some prep work to paint my bedroom this weekend, and also roasted salmon and sweet potatoes for dinner. At some point, [censored] arrived, so we talked for a bit as well. And now I really need to sleep - goodnight!
It's Monday, which means I had to overcome the Sunday Scaries and get some tings done. I was mostly successful in that initiative - I crossed a whole bunch of stuff off my to do list, which felt good. I did not, however, cross off any of the emails I need to send to any of the friends / former coworkers / etc who've contacted me in the last 4-6 weeks, which is becoming rather tragic. I realized today that in the beforetimes, when I came to Iowa, I usually half or fully disconnected from my 'real life' while I was here - but that's a problem if I live here and am therefore disconnected from everywhere else. So maybe I'll make an effort this week - or maybe I'll just keep hermiting.
sssanyway. I had a v. tasty tuna sandwich for lunch, which is one of the most reliable things I can make from my pantry. I also took a walk sometime in the afternoon, and I had a session with Alyssa, which was great. Somewhere in there, I said farewell to [censored], who went back to his other abode for a couple of days. And I made a second attempt at the instant pot burrito bowl disaster that I made last week - this week's attempt was an amalgamation of a different recipe + the things I liked about last week's recipe, and it turned out perfectly. I would have been satisfied just to cook it without getting a burn notice, but it wasn't just not-burned - it was legitimately tasty, and the rice/beans didn't turn to sludge. So, I'm taking it as a win, and will continue to perfect the recipe from here.
And now, I am going to go to bed with the goal of making it there in the next ten minutes - goodnight!
I had to get up early this morning for the express purpose of putting a whole pork butt in the oven. This is not my usual summertime cooking endeavor, since I usually don't roast things for ten+ hours in August, but I had the pork in my freezer and wanted to use it, and I could also use the leftovers to avoid having to cook later this week. So, I got up at 7:15 (okay, maybe that's not early, but it's early for me) and pulled it from the fridge / turned the oven on, and then slept another twenty minutes until it was time to put it in.
So, while the oven was going, I was pretty much stuck to the house. I did take an illicit trip with [censored] to the parents' house to get something out of a shed for them, but it felt fairly low risk since the oven was at 250 and the pork was still under eighty degrees internally. I also took a break from my painting prep today, and instead reorganized my pantry - it was starting to drive me a little nuts because I had just tossed stuff in there while unpacking and had turned it into a disordered mess. Also, I have duplicates of a lot of spices and oils and flavorings, so I had to sort through all of that so that I can take my surplus hoard to the basement. This was a worthwhile endeavor since now my kitchen is better suited for cooking, but I probably could have used my time for other tings.
Eventually, I pulled the pork from the oven, let it rest, and then shredded it. Because it took over ten hours (and then still wasn't quite at the temp I wanted, but was safe to eat and couldn't delay dinner further), I didn't have time to shred the whole thing - I just shredded what we needed for supper and took it to the parents' house. My mom had made scalloped potatoes and baked beans to go with the pork, and it was all quite tasty. And the pork was clearly the easiest of the three, although shredding seven pounds of pork is no small task.
After I got back to my place, I did some kitchen cleaning and then messed around online until now. And now I must sleep - goodnight!
I continue to be delighted by how easy some tings are to get done here. For example, [censored] ran into someone at the lumber yard and tentatively secured him to renovate the main floor bathroom later this year. Granted, the 'someone' is already on tap to renovate my kitchen, so this is just adding to the project - but it is certainly easier than lining things up in bigger cities.
However, other tings are harder, such as feeding myself; and also, many projects seem better done on one's own than trying to find someone with the time / resources / willingness to do them. So, I spent today cooking and doing projects. In the morning, I mostly avoided those things by doing some paperwork related to figuring out post-employment insurance. But I buckled down a bit in the afternoon and started prepping my bedroom to paint it. I'd already started this process last week, but today I emptied out everything that needed removed from the bedroom, cleaned all the baseboards, and started taping. I still have a lot of taping left to do, and I need to take down my curtains and repair the curtain rod holes, but I'm making progress.
[censored] also helped with the prep, but [censored]'s contribution was more related to suspicious damage to the drywall (which, upon further investigation, appears to be okay). Unfortunately, I had to stop prepping so that I could cook - I made gluten free tater tot casserole, which was delish (and v. #smalltownlife, except for the fact that it's gluten free). I prepped it at my house up to the point where the tater tots go on top, and then I took it out to my parents' house, where I stole tater tots from my mom and baked it up. The end result was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.
Then I came back to my house, cleaned up my kitchen, and put some rub on a pork shoulder that I'm going to roast tomorrow. And now, I should go to bed, which was my plan half an hour ago - goodnight!
I had a long but productive day today - I got up this morning and took care of some stuff around the house, and then I made a quick trip to Des Moines to take care of some business. I had to FedEx some stuff back to my old employer, but the pickup I requested from FedEx never came to my house, and I didn't want to leave the stuff at a drop off location where it wouldn't be scanned immediately and could easily be stolen. So, finally I gave up and drove to a FedEx place in Des Moines (only a leisurely 160-mi round trip to get to a FedEx).
Since I had to go up there anyway, I crammed in a stock-up run, with lightning trips to Costco, Target, and Whole Foods. Then I drove home, where I unloaded the car and decompressed for a bit. [Censored] and I ended up going to eat at the local Mexican place - it's v. unusual for us to eat inside instead of doing takeout, but since I don't have a dining table here, we decided that sitting at a table was worth the effort.
And now, I really need to sleep - goodnight!
I need to go to bed immediately so that I don't accidentally stay up for another two hours, which is a typical risk for me as midnight approaches. I didn't get as much done today as I intended to because I went to bed v. late last night. But I got up, got dressed, made myself some eggs, and messed around until my mom came over to bring me some gluten free bread that she had picked up for me yesterday. We hung out for while, which was nice, and she inspected my yard (verdict: I should probably do some tings).
Then, I spent the afternoon taking care of a variety of tasks - I made a cobb salad for lunch, did a couple of loads of laundry, contemplated my book, etc. I also continued to unpack (slowly) and rearranged some tings in the garage. And I emptied out my freezer and took stock of what I have - it's full and yet also doesn't have much, which is a real unfortunate combo.
Eventually, I ate some leftover burrito bowl, then sat on my balcony brainstorming some writing stuff until the sun set and the mosquitos started to get me. I relocated inside just in time for [censored] to arrive, so we talked for awhile. And now, as I said, I need to sleep - goodnight!
I meant to go to bed an hour ago, but otherwise my day was pretty good. I spent the morning doing some journaling, and I also cleaned up my kitchen from last night's instant pot debacle. I did eat some leftovers of that debacle for lunch and the flavor was actually pretty good, although the rice was somehow both mushy and dry - but good enough to eat instead of making a sandwich, and also good enough to have me considering how I might tweak the recipe to avoid a similar debacle in the future if I try again.
After lunch, I took a walk - I'm going to have to be more intentional about getting outside and getting some exercise, since there is basically nothing that I would naturally walk to here (although I did walk to the post office as part of it, but that's an infrequent errand). When I came back, I wrote for an hour or so, ate some popcorn, procrastinated, took a shower, and ate leftover pasta for dinner.
Then, I sat on my balcony (and, after it got dark, my living room) and read the first half-ish of CITY OF BRONZE by S.A. Chakraborty. And now, it's really time to sleep - goodnight!
It was a dreary day in ye olde Iowa today, which was much needed because we've been desperate for rain. I spent the morning planning out my week, but this planning was interrupted by a knock on the door - Lorena stopped by to say hi, and she stayed for over an hour. Lorena is a fixture in our area and I've known her since forever - she's my neighbor in town (separated only by the convenience store + a road), and is also my parents' neighbor out in the country, since her farm is across the road from theirs. [Censored] was working from home today, so also got to hang out with her, and it was a really nice visit. Unexpected visitors are not common in my former city life, but this one was quite enjoyable!
After Lorena left, I did a bit of stuff and ate a late lunch. At some point, [censored] left, and I talked to Alyssa, who was in fine form. Then, I tried a new recipe for my instant pot, which was a bit of a disaster - it was a chicken burrito bowl recipe with chicken, rice, black beans, taco seasoning, salsa, and green chiles. It all smelled great, but even though the recipe had 4.7 stars on 400+ reviews, I later discovered that many of the reviews gave five stars even though the instant pot failed to come to pressure and kept giving them burn warnings. This happened to me repeatedly, which meant that it tried to come up to pressure for over an hour, and I added another two cups of chicken stock to try to stop the burn notice. Eventually, I just ate it as is because it was clear that it had cooked enough in the attempts to pressurize. The flavor was still pretty good, although the rice was quite mushy - and I want to try it again, but I'm not convinced the recipe is salvageable.
But while that fail was going on, I also poached some chicken and baked some bacon for cobb salads, so I have food for tomorrow (and the burrito bowl was edible, so I'll probably have more of that as well). And after it was finally done, I did some dishes, procrastinated a bit, and then read about the Scythians.
And now I need to sleep - goodnight!
I had a delightful day with other Iowans in ye olde Iowa. This required more driving time than actual time spent hanging out, but that's also par for the course in a state where tings worth doing are hours away from each other. I got up this morning and left the house fairly soon after waking up so that I could drive 3+ hours to Cedar Falls, where I saw....
<drumroll>
Ritu Rani, the original Master of Disaster. We are both Iowans (Iowegians), although we didn't know each other here, and she was in the state because her niece started med school at University of Iowa this weekend. So, Ritu and I took Ritu's small children (who are full-blooded Iowans since their dad is also Iowan, although they were born on the coasts) out for lunch in Cedar Falls. We stopped by a cute little paper store, and then we had a leisurely lunch on the patio of a place where I ate entirely too many varieties and quantities of fried potatoes (tots under my steak and eggs, and also truffle fries with cheesy sauce). I'm also pretty sure that Ritu's younger daughter is a raccoon since she washed her pizza in Ritu's water glass, but I could be wrong about that one.
Lunch was a total delight, and we followed it up with a trip to the candy store (where Anika, the older daughter) managed to negotiate her way into far more candy than anyone intended), and then to the Dairy Queen where Ritu used to go as a kid. Ritu also drove me by the house where she grew up, which was fun for me (and prob v. bittersweet for her). I've never been to Cedar Falls or Waterloo, as far as I can remember, because there is no reason for me to go there, but if I were going to spend five hours in Cedar Falls, this was the way to do it.
Eventually, we met up with Ritu's mom at a coffee shop, and then I abandoned them to their evening plans and drove home. And now, I need to sleep so that I can get some stuff done tomorrow - goodnight!
I had a fairly momentous day when it comes to big life changes, and it ended with an excellent experience hosting my first official guest in my newly completed guest room (not first guests overall, since Kathy/Drewbaby/Sammie stayed here at Christmas - but they didn't have the benefit of the full guest room setup and Aunt Kathy slept on my previous terrible sectional, so I want a do-over).
I spent the morning continuing to unpack, and at some point an HVAC guy showed up to fix my AC unit. The fix he implemented certainly improved the issue we were having with the AC causing major power dips whenever it cycled, so that's good news. Fixing the fact that my bedroom is consistently eight degrees hotter or colder than the rest of the house will require a bigger solution (minisplit, gas fireplace, new ductwork, or a new house), but this is a good enough solution for now.
Then, I got ready, went into town (the other town), and got my Iowa driver's license. This was a fairly painless process, and of course I knew (or at least knew of) the woman who handled my application, so we made small talk about why I moved back, the town celebration this weekend, etc. While I was in town, I also got my library card - I thought they would need to see a proof of address and I already had it for my license, but when I asked that, they just asked 'do you live here' and I said 'yes' and they said 'that's all we need'. So that was easy enough. The library has been v. remodeled since my heyday, but my beloved old Nancy Drew books are still there, so so far so good.
Then I got groceries, came home, and spent some more time tidying my house. At some point in there, my house in Colorado officially sold - I did the closing remotely, but the new buyers closed this afternoon. So, it's officially a done deal, and I'm v. excited that it finished without any issues. I'll miss many tings about Denver, but I'm glad to be done with this chapter and ready to do something else.
Eventually, I made some chocolate chip chewies just in time for Katie to arrive for the night. She was escaping some family stuff in Des Moines and came down for the night, so I made spaghetti all'amatriciana for her and [censored] while we gave her a tour of my ridiculous house. My parents also stopped by to see her, so we all ate chewies and discussed various people we know (and I had aperol spritzes to celebrate my house closing, which felt like the right move).
After my parents left, Katie, [censored] and I ill-advisedly stayed up until after midnight, but it was #worthit. And now I must sleep - goodnight!
I had a fairly relaxing day, but I also took care of some stuff that needed taken care of - various move-related things, making an appointment to get my new driver's license, etc. I also got a step closer toward having my kitchen fully unpacked - the entirety of the bar area is cleared off, which means I can eat at it, which is real progress.
Otherwise, I have v. little to report - I did some organizing of my bedroom so that I can start the process of prepping it for painting, but that's prob not quite as much progress as I should have made on that project. And [censored] and I grabbed Mexican takeout for dinner, which was more enjoyable than me having to cook, but it's a trigger that can only be pulled sparingly because it's one of the only takeout games anywhere nearby and I can't eat it every day of the week.
And now, it's time for bed - goodnight!
I had a very self-care Tuesday. My mind is still working itself around the idea that I'm now funemployed; I dreamed of work last night, but in a nostalgic sort of way, not in the stress-filled drama of the last few months. So when I got up, I took a shower, poured myself some iced coffee, ate some yogurt, and spent some quality time journaling on my balcony. Right now my balcony only has a lawn chair, a metal side chair, and several stone angels left by the previous owner that I have not yet disposed of. But despite the fact that it's definitely not my aesthetic vibe, it's an excellent place to hang out when it's not a million degrees (or negative million degrees, which is coming sooner than I want).
I also took care of some business-type activities, ate a sandwich, and spent the afternoon organizing my kitchen. I'm still not fully there, but I got things cleared enough that I was able to cook tonight - I made my go-to baked lemon/garlic chicken, along with some garlicky fingerling potatoes that were pretty much perfect. I also made a greek salad, which would have been better if I had bought kalamata olives instead of assuming that I had some in my pantry. And I even cleared off enough space on my bar to be able to eat at it, so that was all v. exciting.
After supper, I read a bit on my balcony (THE SCYTHIANS, which is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a history of the ancient Scythians), messed around online, etc. And now I'm going to read some more and go to bed - goodnight!
I had a somewhat lazy day, which is what I expected to happen today, so this is not a shock. After many days of v. little sleep, I let myself sleep in today, and then I messed around the house, drank some cold brew, etc. Eventually, I showered, ate some leftover pizza, and ran out to my parents' house to collect some packages that were there. And then I ran the main errand of the day - I am planning to paint my bedroom, which requires a ton of prepping and also some paint. Since I didn't feel like prepping today, getting the paint felt like an easy-but-still-productive task.
So, I drove to Indianola (which is an hour away) to the nearest store that sells Benjamin Moore so that I could pick up a few gallons of paint. There are a lot of convenient tings about living in a small town, but having to drive an hour each way to pick up various supplies is not one of them. However, the paint errand went well, and I also picked up some groceries while I was near a bigger grocery story - I'm going to have to get my kitchen unpacked asap so that I can feed myself, and having groceries is also critical for that cause.
After I got back from my errands, I took a quick power nap, and then [censored] and I went to our parents' house for supper. We had the usual summer feast - my mom made potato salad, layered lettuce, and baked beans, and my dad grilled brats. It was all quite tasty, as per usual, and it was even better because I didn't have to make it. Then I came home and promptly came upstairs, where I've been alternating between productive endeavors and procrastination all evening.
But now I need to sleep so that I can get something done tomorrow - goodnight!
I have successfully arrived in ye olde Iowa, after a long drive on several days of too-little sleep. Today was the same boring haze that Nebraska always is - I stopped for gas and Starbucks in Kearney, and for a snack in Lincoln, and for McDonald's in Clarinda, and it was all extremely boring. I regret that I know this route so well, but it makes it easy to go on autopilot. The only exciting thing was getting stuck behind a trailer with a blade of a giant windmill somewhere in Iowa, which I evaded by cutting across a road I'd never gone down and then cutting back to the main highway. This was really not exciting, but I had to share something with you to keep you coming back for this riveting content.
sssanyway, I got home around five, unloaded all my heat-sensitive stuff, took a twenty minute nap, and went to my parents' house for dinner (which I didn't eat all of, but I saved my cheeseburger for breakfast tomorrow). Then I ran to the grocery store, came home, and talked to the guy who drove my moving truck here - he is parked outside my house and is sleeping in his truck tonight so that they can deliver in the morning. It really is a bit bizarre that this is a viable option, but he seemed much happier than he was yesterday (probably because he got here with no issues, parking is easy alongside my house, and he could get beer and food from the convenience store next door). So, I'm relieved to know that all my stuff is less than 50 feet from me, and I'm looking forward to seeing (most of) it tomorrow.
I spent the rest of the evening putting away the tings I brought in my car, and also figuring out where I'm putting various pieces of furniture tomorrow. And now I must go to bed so that I can get some quality sleep before the unloading begins tomorrow - goodnight!
