and now i feel like a blackout, new york city grid max out

I had a v. productive Sunday, which I did not do to upset [censored] (although since [censored] usually does more than I do, I guess any day that I am more productive is a bad day for [censored]). I got up this morning and wrote for awhile, and things are really starting to cook. Then, I did some literal cooking - I made the usual Sunday breakfast, which was as delicious as it usually is. [Censored] and I ate while watching coverage of last night's White House Correspondents' Dinner, which was a good replacement since SNL wasn't on last night. And we watched some John Mulaney clips while digesting, which was entertaining.

Then, I cleaned the kitchen (including dusting all the doors and cabinets). I also washed the pendants, which needed it - putting oversized clear glass pendants in was a great design choice, but they show grime quickly, and that's not good considering that I'm usually pretty lazy. But they're clean now, so I'm pretty pleased with myself.

I also did a brief peloton ride, wrote a tiny bit more since I'd had an idea while cleaning, and took a shower. Then, [censored] and I picked up Mexican takeout, which was great except for the fact that they forgot to give us our tortillas. I had corn tortillas in the fridge, so I was fine, but [censored] had to make do without, which was pretty tragic.

Then I did some stuff for the mural festival, which involved a mail merge (and [censored] v. graciously loaned me a laptop with Word on it so I wouldn't have to figure out a janky mail merge workaround in Google Docs). I got all the envelopes printed that I needed to print, so I'm hoping I can get this mailer out tomorrow.

And now, I definitely should go to bed - goodnight!

it's getting harder to breathe, so baby put me to sleep

I meant to be in bed two minutes from now, which will probably not happen - I am trying to ratchet my bedtime back to a more reasonable hour (like, eleven instead of two), but it's difficult because I always get a second wind around 10:15 and then I'm up all night. But beyond that foolhardy endeavor, tings are going well.

I got up this morning at a reasonable hour (nine! so civilized!) and made coffee, ate yogurt, etc. Then I wrote for awhile - nothing particularly amazing, but I did some research that gave me some good ideas. And then I spent several hours cleaning while listening to an audiobook by an archaeologist who is into magical belief systems. The audiobook was hard to stay focused on, although I gleaned a few things (and intend to keep going now that I'm past a lot of meandering intro). But the cleaning was more necessary, since my bedroom was messy and everything needed dusted / vacuumed, and my bedroom is approximately the size of Chandlord's studio (I'm not kidding), so I had a lot of surface area to clean.

However, I accomplished my cleaning in time to run out to my parents' house and visit them for awhile - they were in fine form, so we chatted for awhile before I came back to my house. Then, I talked to Caroline (my old coworker), who was also in fine form. And then I made a second attempt at pad thai - last weekend's pad thai tasted good but the noodles were terrible, so I wanted to try again. Tonight's was somehow off in a different way - the noodles were much better, but I think also much bulkier somehow despite being the same weight, and so the noodle to sauce ratio was off for my liking. Also, I made it with pork instead of chicken, since pork is what I had in the fridge - the pork was quite tasty, but again, I wish it had slightly more sauce. So, I'll have to try again, but at least the leftovers are edible compared to the last attempt.

After that, I cleaned the kitchen, finished tidying up my bedroom, and then did an hour and a half of book research. And now I must sleep - goodnight!

bounce back when i lost, scraped off all the rust

I was pretty productive today, despite sleeping in (but maybe I should stop saying that I'm sleeping in and start acknowledging my natural state). I got up at a reasonable-for-me hour, made some coffee, and drank it while reading some newsletters. I also talked to my mom, who caught me in the sweet spot between when I was awake enough to be coherent and when I lost coherency due to writing too much.

After I talked to her, I wrote for a couple of hours, and it felt great. Then I ate a late lunch, had a quick video chat, sent some emails and other tings, and took a walk to the post office and other areas since the weather was really nice today. This place would be a million times better if I didn't have a mud season and get grey for several months in the winter, but I think I'll survive.

Then I came home, cleaned my kitchen, did some laundry, ate leftover salmon, and finally took down my Christmas tree. Yes, it's March, but at least it's not April. I'd left it up for family Christmas in February, and then was too busy getting into the writing groove to take it down, but it felt like it might be time. So, that chore is duly accomplished, and now I can think about other ways to decorate the house now that the kitchen is done.

Eventually, [censored] showed up, so we talked for awhile, and then I came upstairs, folded laundry, and procrastinated instead of journaling like I had planned. So now I'm going to close my laptop and either journal or go to bed - goodnight!

searching for signs of life, but there's nobody home

Happy birthday to my mom! And also happy birthday to Chandlord! A momentous day indeed!

Beyond the birthdays, I have little to report - I got up this morning and made eggs and hashbrowns on my new stove, and I was quite happy with how it performed. Then, [censored] and I watched some SNL while eating, which is a nice Sunday tradition (even if this season is still real rough).

After that, we moved mattresses and box springs around between here and my parents' house - I'll spare you the details, but we were swapping newer / older models and putting older models in the rolloff dumpster that I now have at my house. It was only fourteen degrees when we did this, but that's about the warmest it will be this week, so we decided to do it anyway.

[censored] then spent the afternoon cleaning up the garage, and I should have helped...but my trash is [censored]'s treasure, so I stayed out of the way. Instead, I washed a bunch of dishes (in the bathroom, which is not efficient), cleaned out my fridge/freezer, did some Christmas shopping, and put the shelves in most of my upper cabinets. I'm really eager to get my kitchen organized, although I can't really do that until the countertops are in and the rest of the handles/pulls are installed. But so far it's coming together, and I can't wait for the end result.

Eventually, [censored] and I ate some leftover spaghetti before [censored] headed for [censored]. Then I watched another YouTube video about my StrengthsFinder writing strengths before adjourning to my room and taking care of some tings. And now I'm going to journal and go to bed - goodnight!

i would choke on the rind

Happy 4th of July! I was not at all independent from slogging today - but my slog was self-directed and aimed at painting my office in Iowa, so I can't really complain. I spent most of the morning finishing the preparatory masking efforts, and then I took a break in the early afternoon to go to the local museum with my dad to see a program about the history of trains in the area. It was put on by a guy who seems to be a little younger than me and is writing a book on the history of some of Iowa's ghost towns (I think), which ties into railroads because many ghost towns were either caused by the railroad showing up in places that sucked people away from early settlements, or were caused by the railroad leaving. My town in Iowa is obviously not a ghost town, but it definitely suffered massively from the railroad changing (there is still a railroad, but no passengers and no Y-connector to the other railroad that used to go through the area and is now plowed under).

sssanyway, the talk was interesting, although perhaps too high level for a) my dad, who knows a lot about railroads, and b) me, who knows a lot about history in general. After the talk was over, my dad dropped me at my house (and bought me a coke float for the six-minute ride), and then I finished the painting prep. [censored] was kind enough to do some massive assistance on this project - not much on the prep side, but [censored] sprayed the entire first coat in the room. Since my a/c isn't working super well (tanks Marvin) and it's 95 degrees here, the room we were painting felt like an oven after I'd sealed it all in plastic - but we persevered, and I think it will look great. I did a second coat in most areas after dinner, so we'll see how it looks in the morning.

Eventually, we paused to have dinner with the parents, which was delish. And now, I desperately need to sleep if I'm going to run errands + paint the ceiling in the office tomorrow - goodnight!

some things lookin' better, baby, just passin' through

I'm in the midst of a purge of all the tings that I have let pile up in my house, including many tings that I haven't used since before the pandemic (or perhaps even before that). I spent several hours today cleaning out my bathroom - that amount of time shouldn't be necessary for a bathroom, but I tend to hoard cosmetics, and I also tend to get a lot of free samples, and all in all things were out of control.

It was a little sad to toss lipsticks that I didn't wear the last two years, or eye shadows that went bad because I wasn't going to parties. I have clearly lost my appetite for trying new skincare regimens, and instead just stick with the stuff that works for sitting in my house on video calls. But while the purge was painful, I 1) don't want to continue looking at things that I no longer use, and 2) don't want to risk giving myself an eye infection by using makeup that I've had for half a decade. And now my bathroom drawers are much cleaner and better organized, which is a delight.

I did the same purge to my laundry room, which is a catch-all for junk, and I also took care of a bunch of trash in my basement. The incentive for so much trash removal was because tomorrow is an extra trash pickup day - but even with everything I tossed, I recycled what I could recycle and composted what I could compost, so I didn't fill my normal trash bin. I still have a lot to purge (especially clothing, which has truly spiraled out of control as my wardrobe has 90% shifted from work/going-out clothes to yoga tights and strange jumpsuits), but I felt good about today's dent.

I also got sufficient sleep, took a nap, and ate a poke bowl to make up for not enjoying the poke bowl I ordered on Monday (my fault for trying fried garlic on it, which was overpowering). And, more exciting, I caught up with Jess for awhile - we hadn't talked since I was in SF in March, so it was nice to hear how she's doing with her new coaching business (which sounds great!).

And now, I'm going to wrap this up and wind down before bed - goodnight!

i know i can be frustrating, but you still like me when i'm dancing

I had a really nice day, all in all, although the weather is starting to get me down - it's been cold and rainy for days on end. The day didn't start off all that well because I didn't sleep well last night - but my heart rate has reached a new low, so I would say that my break is serving me well. I also had to set an alarm and get up so that I would be ready for my new couch to get delivered. As I said yesterday, the delivery truck was parked outside my house overnight - but the delivery guys seemed none the worse for wear, and they were delighted that the place next to me is a convenience store (and not the tire store that Google Maps thinks it is), since that meant they could get coffee this morning.

So, they delivered my new sectional, and I love it - it will take some breaking in, but it's so much better than what was previously here. Even better, the delivery guys offered to make my old sectional disappear - they apparently have someplace at their warehouse that they can dispose of such things, so they hauled it off for me. This is excellent news, since that sectional was awful and I wasn't sure how I was going to pawn it off on someone. All in all, it was just as smooth as any delivery I've gotten from Room and Board, but even more impressive given that they delivered it from Minneapolis, which is five hours away (these guys apparently cover a wide area, since they were in Nebraska yesterday and were headed back north today).

After that was over, [censored] and I talked for a bit, and then he had to go to a work event. I took that opportunity to take a quick nap, and then I did some house stuff / showered / etc. Eventually, I went into town and saw [censored]'s work event - there was a small business development thing happening on the town square, and so I chatted up some of the Extension people there and got a free voucher that I used at the coffee shop. I hadn't been in the coffee shop before, but the people there knew who I was (my last name is distinctive around here), and my mocha was pretty tasty - so maybe I'll have to go back.

Before I left the square, I had a nice conversation with Mark (of battery factory fame, whose wife makes jewelry); we talked about economic development and volunteering and also Ukraine, which was a delight. Then I ran to the grocery store, ran out to my parents' house, and came back to my house and did some more sanding / vacuuming of my pantry. I eventually slacked off so that I could talk to a couple of former coworkers - we hadn't caught up in a long time, so it was good to get some gossip.

Eventually, [censored] and I went to the parents' house for dinner (bratwurst and mac and cheese, yum). And then we came back and enjoyed the new sectional while watching woodworking videos on youtube. And now I need to sleep before I get too exhausted to go to bed - goodnight!

i ain't even trippin, i'm not slippin, i just come on back for more

I had a v. nice day, all in all. I got almost nine hours of sleep, which was v. restorative. Then, I made some coffee and wrote for an hour - the ideas that I'm coming up with feel pretty good right now, and I'm guessing they've been percolating beneath the surface even though it feels like I haven't been doing anything writing-related recently.

Eventually, I ate an early lunch and got dressed. Then, I caught up with Terry - we hadn't talked since her wedding, so we chatted for awhile and talked about life and career and all that stuff. I also talked to [censored] for one of our usual quick (aka thirty minute) convos. Then, I ran a couple of errands, including picking up paint chips for the next phase of decorating schemes at my Iowa house + getting a few groceries.

Then I came home, ate some popcorn, and talked to my parents for quite awhile. I was supposed to go home next weekend, but the day job is cramping my style, so I'm pushing it off for a week (but will then be in Iowa for two weeks, which I'm hoping I can use to paint my office and possibly my bedroom if I get super ambitious). So, we caught up for awhile, and while I was talking to my dad I put some sweet potatoes in the oven to roast. After we hung up, I roasted some salmon - it's pretty much the easiest thing I make, and it's delicious every time. I also made some special butter with maple syrup / chipotles / orange zest (easy - just mix it all in the stand mixer for a couple of minutes, along with salt and pepper) - it really tastes great with sweet potatoes. So, supper was easy and also delicious, and my kitchen was cleaned up in a snap.

Eventually, I did a bit of day job work because I had to, and then spent the rest of the evening organizing myself. And now I should go to bed so I can get up at an early hour and still feel reasonably rested - wish me luck with that. Goodnight!

why do all the monsters come out at night

I meant to go to bed an hour ago, so I really need to shut down so that I can get up in the morning. Today was excellent (or at least excellently productive) - Aunt Kathy came down from the city purely to help me with house projects, which was incredibly nice of her. So, I was up and at 'em before nine, since I assumed she would arrive relatively early. We spent the morning prepping and painting the closet in [censored]'s bedroom, and then in the afternoon Aunt Kathy painted the living room / front entrance closet while I finished prepping [censored]'s room to get painted tomorrow. All of this was a huge help since I would not have gotten it done by myself - and now I'm ready to paint a room tomorrow, which is exciting.

So, we spent the whole day doing house stuff, which [censored] joined in on a little after lunch. My parents stopped by somewhere in there to inspect progress, which was fun - we all continue to marvel at how terrible the bathrooms are in this house, but right now the stove and the kitchen in general are my nemeses and will need to be replaced before the bathrooms.

Eventually, we were done, and so Aunt Kathy went to my parents' house and [censored] and I picked up Mexican takeout to supply for dinner. We hung out at my parents' house for a couple of hours, which was nice - Dad told a story about a dead cat [not recently; it died in the 1970s, which I guess you had to be there for. And then [censored] and I came back to my house, where we tested out some tings, watched some Olympics, discussed kitchen options, etc.

And now, I'm desperate for some sleep since I'm 100% committed to painting a bedroom tomorrow - goodnight!

i pretend i scraped them climbing in the trees

I think today was the first day since getting sick that I didn't take a nap. That's not to say that I didn't need one, but I didn't need one as badly as I've needed them on previous days. I also left the house for the second day in a row, which was exciting - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I spent the morning drinking coffee and lounging in my living room. I also, v. surprisingly, fixed my gas fireplace without electrocuting myself or blowing up my house, so that was really exciting. The fireplace hadn't ignited since last winter, even though the pilot light was clearly going steadily the whole time, but I hadn't had time / inclination to find someone to check it. However, I did some research and discovered that the likeliest culprit was that the connectors in the wall switch were dirty or corroded - the fireplace switch takes such little electricity that any dirt or corrosion can potentially stop it from completing the circuit. So, I pulled the switch out of the wall, cleaned the connectors, replaced the switch - and happily, it worked perfectly. So now I have a fireplace to lounge next to, and that makes everything better.

Eventually, I scrambled to shower / eat so that I could run some errands. I took some stuff back to Nordstrom, but I didn't shop at all, so I was in and out of the mall in record time. Then I went to Room and Board and browsed the whole store - I'm daydreaming about couches, and while nearly any couch would be better than the one Marvin left for me in my house in Iowa, I would like to do better than that very low bar. So I sat on every couch in the store and got a lovely associate to give me some fabric swatches. No decisions yet, and of course everything is backordered, but hopefully I'll get a couch sometime this year.

Then, I drove so far into Aurora that it felt like I was basically in Kansas, found a house in a random residential neighborhood, and bought a lehenga for Terry's wedding. I'd found an Indian dress shop on Google and made an appointment for today - the seller runs it out of her basement, but she has some really lovely stuff. I bought the first thing I tried on because it was perfect (and extremely sparkly - I think the skirt has every sparkle that I didn't get to wear during the pandemic), and she's going to tailor it and get it back to me next weekend.

So, that errand was accomplished quickly, and I was delighted. Then I drove home, with a stop at BookBar to pick up an order that had been waiting for me since the covid beforetimes. And then I spent the rest of the evening talking to my parents, messing around, eating fish chowder, talking to [censored], etc. And now, I want to actually try going to bed at a better hour than the after-midnight times I usually go to bed. Goodnight!

all night long writing poems to california, melodies of failure and the people i have thrown away

I had a surprisingly productive day and didn't let the Sunday Scaries get me, so I'll take it. I spent the morning journaling, planning, and drinking coffee, along with some reading of the course material from the N.K. Jemisin Masterclass that I watched part of yesterday. Then I did a ton of housework - I realized that I basically didn't do any housework post-August, since my dad was in the hospital, I had my surgery, and as soon as I recovered from my surgery I went to Tahoe/SF and then spent the rest of the year in Iowa.

So I cleaned out my pantry and tossed some expired things, and I mopped the floor since it was getting grimy. I also washed my sheets, took out a bunch of trash and recycling, cleaned up dining room office (aka the day job office), and did some tidying in my upstairs office (aka the writing office). I feel a lot better when things are organized, so those tasks made me happy; I still need to get a grip on my bathroom and cosmetics situation since I know I have a lot of expired stuff (if I haven't worn it since I last went into the office regularly, it's probably done). But this was all a worthwhile endeavor.

Then, I talked to [censored] as he wrapped up his drive home. I also talked to my parents, although we didn't have a lot to discuss since none of us are getting out and doing things. Then I ate the last of my leftover salmon before having an extended friendship renewal call with Joann, Jane, and Jen - they were all supposed to come out here next weekend for a girls' weekend to make up for the trip to Glenwood Springs that we canceled two years ago, but with omicron on the rise, we decided to cancel again. A virtual call isn't nearly the same, but at least we got to catch up.

And now, I'm going to unwind and go to bed - goodnight!

get out quick 'cause seeing is believing

I intended to go to bed an hour ago, but if I can write this in the next five minutes I still might make it to bed before midnight. Today was a nice bridge between holidays and housework, though - I did basically nothing this morning, other than drink coffee and talk to [censored] about things that we should be doing (but had no interest in doing).

I spent the afternoon mostly focused on organizing my office - it's still quite barren-looking since it's like 400 sq ft and I only have a desk and a chair and (thanks to today's efforts) a small cart with office supplies. I guess I also have a yoga mat and a foam roller, but that's not exactly high decor. But I put the cart together and arranged the office supplies I picked up at Staples last week, and that made my nerdy office-supply-loving heart happy. I also unpacked the lamp I'd ordered - it's perhaps laughably large, but I have a large desk and it provides a lot of light (important, since Marvin didn't understand the importance of light fixtures when he built this house). So now my desk is set up less than a week before I'll be leaving - but better late than never, and I'm looking forward to writing from this desk in the future.

I also took a long break to talk to Katie, from whom I've been separated for far too long. Then I went out to my parents' house to scrounge for leftovers for dinner - my ham balls were still delicious today, if I do say so myself. And I ended the night by watching two episodes of Letterkenny before messing around upstairs and journaling a bit, so all in all, it was a good day.

Oh, and for posterity, yesterday was good too - I made delish scrambled eggs for my houseguests (happy birthday, Aunt Kathy!) before Kathy, Drewbaby, and Drewbaby's girlfriend left to go to Kansas City for a Chiefs game. Then I went to my parents' house, where it was a mad scramble to get ready for another Christmas - my sister and her kids and their kids came over, so I had to wrap some more gifts and then help my mom with the meal (it was served around 2:30, so I guess I'll call it dinner). We did a taco bar, which was perfect for the quantity and quality of people we had (fine china and a full Christmas dinner would have been wasted on the five kids under the age of ten). It all turned out well and there were only a handful of tears from a handful of children and adults, and only one child was forever traumatized by the stories they heard from my dad, so I think it was mostly a success.

And now I need to sleep so I can get some more stuff done tomorrow - goodnight!

check your passport, it's no trick, take the chapstick, put it on your lips

It's almost one a.m., but if I go to bed now it will still be earlier than I managed to go to bed last night. Today panned out pretty much how I wanted it to, though - I got up too late to get quite as much done as I intended, but I enjoyed what I did do.

The main task for the late morning was starting a bolognese sauce that takes approximately five hours to cook. It's not a complicated recipe, but each step has to cook down, and then it has to simmer for at least three hours after that. The end result was excellent and well worth the effort, but it did require some chopping / stirring / monitoring for quite awhile.

Once it got to the simmer stage, I spent the rest of the afternoon doing house stuff - I put together a console table for my living room (which took awhile, since it involved 32 bolts), washed and changed my duvet cover, and vacuumed most of the carpeted areas of the house. Eventually, I had to stop doing house stuff and shower, and then I took my sauce and some other items and went out to my parents' house.

As it turns out, the sauce was well received - when I got there, I boiled some water, made gluten free spaghetti, and also made garlic bread (technically texas toast with garlic) while heating the sauce back up. My dad seemed to enjoy it, which was kind of a surprise because 1) his appetite isn't always great and 2) he sometimes turns his nose up at my non-midwestern recipes. And my mom seemed to enjoy it too, both because of the taste and because she didn't have to cook it. So, everyone was a winner!

After that, I spent some time figuring out Christmas gifts for my sister's family, which took awhile. Then I came back to my house, tidied up the kitchen, and ordered some more stuff for my house. And now, I need to sleep before I completely ruin the morning - goodnight!

all my favorite colors

No blog tonight - I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night, and I exerted myself all day. I didn't get a chance to play with my new paint sprayer, but I did get as much as possible prepped for tomorrow. Forward progress on other activities was halted due to [censored]'s more pressing need to install a new hot water heater, but I now have hot water and [censored] is still speaking to me, so I take that all as a good sign.

So, [censored] successfully got the water heater installed and it looks much better than how the previous one was hooked up, so I'm grateful for that. [Censored] also put in the new shower head in my bathroom, so I may truly enjoy the hot water tomorrow. My dad also spent some time outside with a skid loader and a dump trailer - the previous owner had left a raised flower bed made of old railroad ties, which was good in some ways because I could see it looking good when it was full of flowers (and it also kept you from backing straight into the tree stump that was part of the flower bed). But it was also bad because it made getting in and out of my driveway more challenging than it needed to be.

I also ran some errands - primarily to buy paint, which is in such short supply nationally that the lumber yard can't get a lot of stuff and I may not be able to get enough paint there to finish every room in my house in the next month. But, they mixed me six gallons and sent me on my merry way without having to sign or pay for anything (see: yesterday's post about the beauties of charge accounts in small towns). So we'll see what that means...but that's a problem for Future Sara.

And now, I'm falling asleep typing this and have a million things I want to get done tomorrow. Goodnight!

all eyes on me, i feel like i'm a superstar

Today was a great first official day of vacation. I mostly spent it preparing to do house stuff - kitchen stuff, organization stuff, etc. At some point, [censored] and I went to the lumber yard to buy paint - I got a couple of samples, but they told me I can only get three more because they only have three more quarts of the base, so I need to choose wisely. Paint is apparently in short supply and Kent can only order four gallons of ceiling paint a week - so I bought four, and we'll see where that gets me.

I also looked at flooring - it's not the most important thing to do here, but it's a) good to do before there's a ton of furniture, b) probably a good idea since most of the carpet is 30 years old, and c) imperative to know whether I'm doing because it will dictate how careful I am with painting. I definitely didn't make any decisions, but it was helpful to get a sense of what it's going to cost so that I can make some plans.

Then, I ran past the grocery store (and ran into two different high school teachers), dropped things off at my house, and went to my parents' house, where I made tater tot casserole. It turned out deliciously, if I do say so myself. And now, I am going to attempt to go to bed and get a lot of sleep so that I can tackle some other projects tomorrow - goodnight!

killing your idols is a chore

I'm for some reason quite tired, so I suppose I should go to bed rather than engaging in bedtime procrastination like I normally do. Today was good, though - I was in a much better mood than I was yesterday, and so I got a lot more done. I spent the morning making some chicken tortilla soup for a coworker whose daughter came down with covid yesterday; her son and husband tested positive today, so they are not having a good weekend. I also talked to [censored] for much longer than the few minutes I was asked to donate, but it was great to solidfy plans for Thanksgiving and what we will / will not do at my Iowa house.

Then I ran a couple of errands, took the soup to my coworker's house (which was a bit of a trek, since she lives 45mins away), and got my first peppermint mocha of the season. Then I went to Lowes, where I hit the painting supply section hard - painting in the main task for my break back in ye olde Iowa, so I wanted to make sure I had some baseline supplies. And then I came home, talked to my parents, ate takeout Thai food, wrote for a little bit, and then ordered some stuff for Iowa. My parents' front hall is turning into a warehouse (not the first warehouse in the family, probably not the last) since I'm shipping stuff to them rather than to my own house, and it's probably going to get worse this week since I just ordered some lamps, pillows, and a comforter (thanks Mom!).

And now, I should make good on my earlier statement and go to bed - goodnight!

dawn breaks like a bull through the hall

I didn't get nearly enough sleep last night and I was dragging all day, and so even though it's only 9:30pm I think I'm going to go to be early and hope that I can get up early enough to do the work I should have done this weekend. Today was great, though - I spent the morning lazing around and talking to [censored] about measurements for some tings at my Iowa house. Then I spent an afternoon browsing in person at Crate and Barrel and also Room and Board - I don't want to go too overboard buying furniture for Iowa, especially when there are many tings that need to be done before we get into the cosmetics and aesthetics of the furniture. But I also want it to feel comfortable when I'm there, which probably means I need more than just the sectional the previous owner left behind.

After I was done browsing (and got some great ideas), I drove home and talked to [censored] some more. Then I talked to my parents. And then I made dinner - I tried making soft tofu soup, which is one of my favorite comfort foods from San Francisco that I never get here. It turned out surprisingly well - perhaps 10% less good than the restaurant version, but still 90% better than I expected on my first try. So, yesterday's wandering around H Mart was #worthit, and this was so easy that it may become a comfort food here too.

And now, I should sleep - goodnight!

integrity, faith and crocodile tears

I took today off, but it didn't feel like a vacation because I attempted to get a million things done. This perhaps was wishful thinking, but I do feel like I accomplished a lot. I spent some time this morning starting to put together my new desk while drinking coffee - I'm not done, but I think I can finish tomorrow. Then I quickly showered (in my absurdly tiny master bath - seriously, the previous owner must have thought that bathrooms should never take more than the size of a portapotty, because the bathrooms are all nearly unusable) and came out to my parents' house to rendezvous with my dad. We drove over to the next town to finalize the deal on my dishwasher - I could never get them to call me back, but when I walked in the guy recognized me immediately, rattled off the number of what I was ordering, and confirmed delivery for next Wednesday. Of course, I won't be here, which unfortunately means my parents are taking the saintly step of dealing with it, but I'm excited that the dishwasher will get installed before Thanksgiving.

After that errand, my dad and I went to the grocery store (Mom suggested that we buy her some ham salad, but that wasn't a "suggestion" so much as it was a requirement of reentering her house). Then we stopped at KFC/Taco Bell and ate lunch in my car. We had a nice drive, all in all, and I think my dad understands the appeal of my Audi even if it's now three years old (hard to believe - but the last year and a half barely counts since I don't commute anywhere except from Denver to Iowa).

I dropped Dad off at home, picked some stuff up to take to town, said hi to Mom, etc. Then I went into town (the town where the grocery store is, not where my house is) and hit up a garage sale. This is not something I usually do, but I heard this one would be particularly good (for unfortunate reasons) - someone's sister died somewhat unexpectedly out in the DC area and had no family there, so they hauled most of her worldly goods back here and have been having an epic garage sale. This worked out great for me - for $30 I scored a bunch of glasses, some square white appetizer plates, a pyrex baking dish, a utensil holder, a couple of Christmas candle votives, and (most excitingly) some Crate and Barrel dishes that match my current pattern. For some unknown reason Crate and Barrel discontinued the blush pink shade of my dishes early on (even though I can still get all the other colors) - but this woman had seven plates and six mugs, and I got them for $5 total. If I could find garage sales this good every day, I could furnish the place in no time. But sadly she had no lamps and no newly-finished bathrooms, so I'm probably going to have to keep looking elsewhere for some necessities.

sssanyway. Then I spent a few hours cleaning up my yard for winter, putting things away, installing some things, uninstalling other things (like the funky toaster that had been mounted under a cabinet), etc. I eventually came home, where [censored] showed up just in time for supper - my parents made bratwurst and french fries and baked beans, and it was delish.

And now, I should really sleep - I have another million things to do tomorrow, and I need to start heading back to Colorado at some point. Goodnight!

please break my heart

I've had a pretty good weekend, all in all - acquiring a new house requires approximately one million chores, and I'd say I've done at least seven of them. Yesterday, my mom and I went to the next town over (aka Centerville) to look at dishwashers and microwaves. My dishwasher appears to be poorly functioning / broken, and the microwave is original to the house (1988) and so probably cost many hundreds of dollars but has no turntable and can only hold a small quantity of food. I think I found a dishwasher, which I'm finishing the deal on tomorrow; the microwave I wanted was only available in a floor model, which was broken, and the soonest they could get another was December 21 - so I'm unfortunately giving my microwave business to Best Buy instead of the small local appliance store :(

After we looked at appliances, we met my sister in a parking lot to exchange goods (nothing illicit, unless the electric roasters that she borrowed for my niece's wedding are somehow illicit). Then my mom and I bought groceries and came home. I then spent the rest of the afternoon doing house stuff - but I also made a critical trip to Dollar General, where I acquired a flyswatter (an absurdly ugly pink camouflage, but I've now killed multiple flies) and a starter kit for a Swiffer (somehow the Swiffer supply chain appears broken, since I couldn't find Swiffers at Target or Lowes or anywhere else I looked the last few weeks).

Today was more of the same - I slept in a bit, then took care of some tings for my dad, and then spent the rest of the afternoon doing house stuff. I took down the fake ivy that the previous owner had hung in the kitchen, which immediately made it brighter since the ivy was blocking the light over the sink. I also put tings away, cleaned a lot, and generally examined what needs to happen next. So far I'm pretty pleased with the house, although there are many projects to do - but that's a problem for Future Sara. Right now, I think it's time for bed - goodnight!

ain't shady baby, i'm hot

I feel like I perhaps slightly overdid it today - I'm definitely super tired, and I should have gone to bed an hour ago but I needed to unwind a bit more. But I got a lot of tings done today that I needed to get done, and also took some time to enjoy what felt like the last weekend of the summer - it was in the upper eighties today, but I'll be gone most of the next few weekends and it will probably snow by the time I have another Sunday here.

sssanyway, I took care of tings around the house in the morning. Then I ran a quick errand to the mall, picked up some stuff at Crate and Barrel to take back to Iowa with me, and then got a mani/pedi. It was earlier to get them than I normally would before a wedding (which I'm going to next weekend), but I have a million things do to this week and couldn't figure out how to fit it into the weekdays. Then I came home and talked to my parents for quite awhile.

After that, I decided to indulge my desire for a last summer weekend - and so I walked down to El Camino, where I sat at the bar and had a margarita and their extremely excellent nachos. I also wrote in my journal while enjoying my time at the bar - I deeply miss doing that kind of thing, both because of covid and because I feel like I really didn't find 'my places' in Denver before the pandemic began anyway. So tonight was restorative, even if I felt overly full and realized that I still can't eat a lot with the remaining bits of pressure in my abdomen (although overall I'm feeling much better!).

Then I came home, intended to do a variety of tasks, and instead talked to [censored] for three hours. [Censored] spent quite a bit of time in my new house in Iowa this weekend (more than I've spent in the house, at this point!) and gave me a rundown of a bunch of things that I might choose to fix / change / update / ignore. This Iowa house is going to be great and I'm excited to have a project - but given property values there, I'm going to have to be careful not going too all-in on decor and aesthetic when I probably won't get my money back out of upgrades in the future.

But that's a problem for Future Sara (and I can imagine that she will end up deciding to buy some stupid shit as she grapples with the problem I've left for her). Right now I really need to sleep so that I can get tings done tomorrow - goodnight!