|
navigation
current
archives
links page
profile
|
|
dragging
December 27, 2017, 9:50 P.M.
Dragging myself and the Spouse through the Christmas break, that is. Good grief,
what a bore. What a long, crappy, cold, lonesome bore. Partly my own fault--if I'd
pushed it, I probably could have left the house at some point between Saturday and
Wednesday. But I didn't. (For one thing, once it stopped snowing, it got to goddam
cold!)
So. He was off Friday, but I worked my usual Friday morning shift. We were both
quite miserable, in the depths of our respective colds, and once I got home, we
decided we would run some quick errands and come right home. I had wanted to go
to Shopko and pick up his gift, but he really wasn't up to it, and the traffic in town
was just absymal. So we ran to the gas station and filled up the Impala, then swung by
GFS for some BBQ sauce and Meijer for cold meds, dog food, and a few groceries.
Took it easy in the afternoon (read: he slept, I was bored) and got the UPS truck
twice in 15 minutes around 4:00 pm. It was the Arizona packages; Auntie & Cuzz
sent several things, including a selection of grilling sauces, a little carved wooden
squirrel that you use as a pusher/puller for oven racks, an "angry mama" microwave
steam cleaner, and a set of "mug mats"; spice-filled mats to set hot mugs on to
protect the furniture. The spices make them smell nice, I guess. And a box of
assorted Cerreta's candies.
The other box was just from Auntie to me, and contained a very pretty throw pillow
with a large monogram, which will look nice on my bed.
Friday dinner was what I had originally planned for Thursday, but Spouse had
decided he wanted Culvers on Thursday, instead. (He brought me home some of
their chili--it was fantastic! I think I have a new default chili!) So Friday ended up
being a baked ham steak (I cooked it in a mix of brown sugar, clove, ginger ale and
orange juice), mashed potatoes, and peas & carrots. Boring, but edible.
We ate early, because I wanted to drop off the presents at W&T's. Went over there,
but W was a quiet one. She's been working long hours and 6-day weeks, so she was
pretty exhausted. They appreciated the Irish Cream and T had cookies for me, so we
exchanged cookies, I guess you would say. I didn't stay too long, I was pretty tired.
That stupid cold was wearing me out.
Got home and Spouse told me he had been chatting on the phone with cousin and
Auntie G, and had promised I'd call Auntie E in the morning. He was already in bed
when I got home, so I made myself a generous drink (sea breeze) and fiddled around
a little, then headed to bed.
Saturday, we got up and Spouse made a tube of cinnamon rolls (ick, but he made the
effort). Then I called my Aunt and we talked for quite a while. Once we wrapped it
up, we got cleaned up and went to do some shopping. Farm and Fleet was having a
sale, so we got new winter wiper blades for the Impala, and I picked up a couple
swearshirts and a new pair of jeans. Spouse was looking for sneakers, but they had
nothing in his size. (I will never understand why a guy who wears a 14-quadruple E
thinks he can just pop in anywhere for shoes!)
After we got done there, we stopped at Festival for some soup veggies, because I had
a plan to make soup on Tuesday. Then we went over to Shopko, finally, and got his
gift. Thanks to his foot-dragging, it was $11 more than it was when I originally wanted
to go buy it, but it was still a good deal. It was the second choice one, because I
couldn't find the "Better Bookcase" model, only the "Carson Forge". They were about 99% the same, from dimensions to price to color, so not a huge deal. We picked the color that was closest to his dresser.
We didn't really do any other shopping--we don't have anyone to buy for anymore,
so things are pretty easy. So we came home and he--big surprise--went back to bed.
I did laundry and puttered around, watched a Christmas movie I'd DVRed, did some
more drinking. (I've been doing that a lot lately--probably ought to watch it.) It started snowing at some point, but we didn't get a very large accumulation.
He got up in the late afternoon, and made "dinner"--well, he cooked some chicken wings and some pre-made meatballs in BBQ sauce, and made some baked beans. Served with store-bought macaroni salad. He likes that sometimes. It isn't one of my favorites, but when he makes dinner, I try to just shut up and eat it if it is something I don't care for.
He went back to bed after dinner & dishes, and I went back to putzing around on the computer, watching old Christmas movies, and being bored & lazy, till it was time for bed.
Sunday was another colossally boring day. I did a load or two more laundry, and Spouse decided that we would have our "big holiday meal" on Sunday, so there was that to prepare, but that was mostly him--all I did was peel potatoes, roll up crescent rolls, and stir gravy.
And eat it, of course. It tasted nice. The roast was tender and flavorful, the mashed potatoes fluffy and buttery, and (once it was probperly salted) the gravy was delicious.
But somehow, there was not much enjoyment in it. It seems kind of pointless to have a big celebratory feast, when you really aren't celebrating anything more significant than getting a long weekend off work.
So we cooked, we ate, we cleaned up. And then, something about our big Christmas Eve dinner set off gut issues for both of us. I don't think it was anything to do with the food, except that we couldn't handle it. A bit much, and a bit rich, maybe, but that was all. And fortunately, the timing worked out and we basically spent a couple of hours politely taking turns in the bathroom. And once things had settled down, be were both worn out and washed out from it all. He went to bed. I stayed up and watched another movie, before following suit. Never left the house all day.
Merry Christmas.
Christmas day was clear and very cold, signalling the drop into the deep-freeze. Spouse gave me the gift that had arrived priority mail from Goulet pens last week. It was a Monteverde 36-pen case. I knew what it was--I'd shown him the web page a couple weeks ago, and I knew he was either going to get me the case, or a new pen. And the box was to big for a pen. But hey, it's nice, I wanted one, and I was happy to get it.
We made breakfast together; french toast and sausage. New french toast recipe, and we really liked it. After the previous evening's struggles, we were quite ravenous, too. After breakfast was finished and cleaned up, we sat down to look at flights for my trip to Phoenix in February. Spouse logged in to the employee portal and found a very good deal; non-stop each way, for the dates I wanted, and a very good price. So that was the rest of my Christmas present. He already had his gifts, so there was nothing to open unless he wanted to put the bookcase together (which I thought we might do, but he didn't feel like it. Damn--at least it would have been something to combat the boredom!).
He had to go back to work on Tuesday, so on Monday, he was even more committed to conserving his energy than he had been on the previous days. It was just a very, very, long, boring, day. I was so bored I seriously considered going into the kitchen and experimenting with some recipes, but in the end I found his presence to be so stifling and inhibiting, I didn't bother. I just did pen maintenance instead.
Leftover roast for dinner--hot roast beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes, gravy, and canned corn. No tummy issues, this time, thank goodness. I watched "White Christmas", which I'd been saving for Christmas proper, and (broken record time) he went to bed early.
The only day that seemed to move at a reasonably decent pace was the last one,
when I was home alone and left to my own devices.
Which were: taking another shot at baking bread--but I didn't do no-knead this time.
After looking online for a recipe suited to the flour and yeast I had in the house, I
did 2 loaves of single-rise that were kneaded by the KitchenAid. Fast, easy, and it
came out quite nice! Spouse seemed to be quite enamored of my results. He couldn't
stop talking about how much he enjoyed it.
I also made a big pot of homemade vegetable soup, and added the bone from the
Christmas Eve roast for extra flavor and richness. (I planned that from the start; as soon as SSpouse carged the meat off on Sunday, I chucked the bone into a plastic bag and threw it in the freezer.) I considered using the pressure cooker, but it does limit how much you can make. So I did it in my stock pot, low and slow on the
cooktop for the entire afternoon. It came out very well, too. And homemade bread with a big bowl of hot soup seemed to hit just the right note on a day where the temperature was below zero.
I watched "Now, Voyager", since I was full up on Xmas flicks. I read my book. Did yet another load of wash. Of course, I did all the (considerable) dishes that resulted from my kitchen adventures. I talked to my dad on the phone for a while. I even took a short nap, which I haven't done in quite a while. And the day just flew by!
Spouse was home before I knew it, and very obviously enjoying my culinary triumphs. When I asked him what he wanted tonight, he told me tuna. On homemade bread--with more hot soup!
After supper, I cleaned up the kitchen, got prepped for the return to work today, and curled up under my electric throw to watch the QI Christmas episode with Ramesh Ranganathan, Holly Walsh, and Jason Manford. Then I played my casino game for a while before shutting everything down and heading to my electric blanket for as much sleep as my anxious subconsious would let me have before jolting me awake. (5.5 hours, as it turned out.)
Thus endeth my fifty-fourth annual Pain in the Ass known as Christmas.
Reading: "The Bishop's Wife" (1928), by Robert Nathan--I was watching
the old Cary Grant movie and decided I'd like to read the novel--Amazon had it for
the Kindle at 99 cents. Let's just say--it was a VERY different story before Hollywood got their hands on it.
Listening: R.E.M, Alice Merton, The Who, George Ezra.
Inked Up: Bexley 10th Anniversary with custom italic nib is inked with
the Diamine Shimmertastic ink "Blue Lightening", which is a bright, vivid blue with
silver sparkles. The Conklin Duragraph fine nib has been filled up the usual Pelikan
4001 Brilliant Brown, and the Sheaffer Intensity medium has been cleaned and put
away, in favor of the Sheaffer Javelin medium nib, full of Iroshizuku Momiji (Autumn
Leaves).
|
|