aside
January 05, 2015,

aside
Anyone who knows me knows I don't like holidays, and I have a lot of reasons for that. My effed-up childhood, my years in retail, my atheism, my rejection of commercial hype, my seasonal depression.

But I have stopped hating them, and I never felt the need to actively protest them. I just find them pointless and stupid, and I want the freedom to ignore them.

Yeah, apparently that's not going to happen.

I try to I take what I enjoy (Usually that's cookies and candy, unfortunately) and leave the rest. I try to make it about other people, to concentrate on helping those who enjoy holidays have a positive experience. I take to my diary to bitch and moan about it all--because I don't want to do it out loud and piss on anyone's good time.

And a lot of that is because I've found that if I try to ignore it altogether, I get a lot of pushback from people. Whereas, if I do a minimum of participation, and try to appear disappointed that I couldn't do more--I get a pass from the "holiday police". So, since the object is to get left alone and not have my nose rubbed in it, I have a few strategies. At work, I stick up a bit of tinsel on my cube wall, bake some cookies, and bring in some candy canes, give some cheap token gifts, and try not to mention my (lack of) plans for Christmas. I bake fruitcakes and mail them off to the Southwest. My love of sending cards comes in very handy for this--I get to do something I enjoy, the Christmassy sorts get tangible evidence that I'm "celebrating". (If the cards are always very restrained in their sentiments, well--hey! That's just my style!)

Oh, there's always that pushy few who reject any practice that doesn't meet their exact specifications (WHAT?! You don't have a TREE?!). But I've stopped taking people like that personally. I don't have any of the judgy type close to me anymore, and the ones who aren't close mean nothing to me.
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This will be short--we did very little this weekend. On Friday when I got home, I had a sandwich and a short lie-down, then Spouse and I went to get new tires put on the back of the Ford. The little tire place we go to was mobbed, but they did their usual lightning-fast job and I have four good tires now. Makes a huge difference in the ride; those back ones were more worn than I had realized. Once that was done, we filled the car up and did some shopping, then went home and had Steak sandwiches on garlic bread, with fries and a salad (We had some frozen spoon steaks and some French bread we needed to use up.) Early bed, because we were both kind of beat.

On Saturday, the weather turned to shite and there was nowhere we had to go, so we had cereal and toast for breakfast, then I worked in the basement all morning, while he de-iced the cars and the sidewalks. I went through all the huge pile of Christmas stuff, and sorted out what I wanted to keep from what I wanted to get rid of. Once that was done, I took all of the "keep" stuff and put it into plastic storage tubs to keep it clean and dry, bagged up the stuff that was getting pitched, and made a neat pile of stuff to donate. The weekend weather being wet-icy-snowy-frigid, the actual carting away can wait until better weather. I also found the Pfaltzgraff plates I'd misplaced, so they can go off to the Goodwill as well.

Once I'd worked through the Christmas stuff, I turned my attention to the cardboard. We have a tendency to let empty boxes pile up in a big heap until I get sick of it and break everything down for recycling. It has been stacking up for more time than usual, and with Christmas boxes added, I reached my breaking point. I took the biggest box and used it to hold all the other broken down cardboard, and went through the whole pile, using my electric cutter on the bigger stuff. It went pretty quickly, and a room full of rubbish was reduced to two trash bags and a large carton full of corrugated.

All in all, I spent less than three hours at it and to the eye, the difference is massive. I also told Spouse that I want him to take the Sawzall to the old, broken-down dining room table in the basement, and we can get that out of there, too. Maybe I'll have him do the old footboard to my bed, as well.

It was a good morning's work, but I have a long way to go down there. It isn't really fair that he never helps me clean up the basement--he is just as responsible for the mess--but all I can do is keep chipping away at it. Starting this week, I am resolved to spend at least a couple of hours a week on it. I'm limited in the progress I can make, until I can haul away the trash and the donations, but there is still a LOT of work I can get done.

He made his bruschetta topping and a slow-cooker beef stew, then the Spouse and the dog went and took a nap, while I enjoyed an old fashioned delight: D.L. Sayers, a cup of ginger tea, and a couple Walker's shortbread biscuits. Before eventually giving in and napping myself.

The stew was so-so...he re-purposed a pot roast we had in the freezer and used frozen stew vegetables, so he wasn't entirely happy with the results: tough meat and mushy vegetables. The gravy part was delicious, though. I told him could definitely make it again, but we will use fresh veg and a different meat. I don't think that piece would have made a good roast, either--sometimes you just get a dud hunk of beef. I never have luck doing beef in the slow cooker myself; personally I think it might have been better if he braised it on the stove.

I never actually got around to trying the bruschetta.

After dinner, he was complaining about his scalp again (he's having a horrible flare-up of dandruff and itchy scalp); the Head&Shoulders was working at first, but then it got worse again. I started googling to try and find some solutions, and told him he might want to get a good old shampoo brush to help clear up his scalp, and maybe some Scalpicin or something to use between shampoos. After he got good and frustrated trying to figure out the drugstore websites, I suggested we look at the Sally Beauty site, and lo & behold--they had the brush, and some good old "Sulphur 8", which a friend of mine used to swear by in our WallyWorld days.

So he called, found out they were open till 9, and we took a drive over there. Not bad--they not only HAD the stuff the drugstore didn't, they were a lot cheaper than a drugstore would have been--the brush and the jar of Sulpher 8 were only seven bucks. (Of course, I have a Sally card, so that saved up a couple of dollars.) Stopped at the Piggly Wiggly on the way home, to pick up some lemons and soda, and that was my big outing for Staturday.

When we came home, we had some dessert and he went to bed, but I was up later, just futzing around on the computer and watching British TV on YouTube. I was going to watch BFQOTY 2014, but I saw so much negative feedback about it that I held off.

Slept in a bit on Sunday, then got up and we collaborated on breakfast. I did bacon in the oven and scrambled the eggs, he did hash browns in the toaster oven, then made the toast. With choice of juice (tomato, cranberry, or orange) and coffee, it was quite cozy and nice. And we collaborated on the cleanup and some other housework, as well. Then I sat on my butt and watched Good Eats re-runs while he went out to scrape and shovel and de-ice everything. eventually I jumped in the shower and got comfy in some clean sweats and my slippers, and he came back from a run to get de-icer and Heet, and after we buttoned thing sup around the house--storm windows, draft snakes, etc.--we proceeded to hang out and watch the thermometer drop. (Which it did at rather a crazy rate--it eventually got down to 8 below at 5:00 this morning)

A cozy nap helped us keep warm, and when Spouse got up he made dinner. He baked the remaining pan of stuffing from Thanksgiving, made baked chicken breasts breaded in toasted panko crumbs, and steamed some mixed vegetables to go with. It was all outstanding.

Can you see a pattern here? We are in "eat 'em up" mode, on a drive to use the stuff we've been stockpiling in the fridge & freezer. This week's dinner plans include finishing Saturday's stew, the leftover turkey-rice soup, the remaining pan of Spouse's NYE baked Ziti, and those two Salisbury Steaks with gravy we've been hoarding in the back of the freezer. It is great timing. When the temps are sub-zero, and we are too tired to plan, we get to enjoy all those hearty, hot and homemade goodies. What luxury!

The best part of this deep freeze is OUR deep-freeze!

I did up the dishes, and got my Monday prep done, set my bed to "pre-heat", then sat down to watch the 10th Anniversary episode of BFQOTY. Not bad--I was thrilled to see the return of the Goth Detectives, and I can't help it--I think Jack Whitehall is effing adorable. Claudia and Wossy are okay, I guess, and Warkwick Davis was a good player but not particularly hilarious. I wish they hadn't wasted David Mitchell on the 2014 quiz. I played a few word games while that was running, then set the alarm clock and went to bed.

Like I said--a quiet weekend. I didn't even have any laundry to speak of--I did it all on Thursday!
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“Oswald Bastable and Others” (1905), by Edith Nesbit
"Judy Bolton: The Haunted Fountain" (1957), by Margaret Sutton. Terrible writing. Bad plotting, bad prose, stereotypical characters, but somehow I'm enjoying it anyway.
I read Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys (hey--two older brothers, and I read EVERYthing in the house!), The Timber Trail Riders, even the Annette series from Disney, and personally bonded with Trixie Belden, but somehow I missed the Judy Bolton series when I was growing up. They must not have had that one at the library.

Milky Chance, Smashing Pumpkins, Foster the People,The Shins