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#&*! squirrels
March 7, 2016
After work on Friday, I showed the Buick a little love--filled her, washed her, and
had the emissions checked for registration renewal. Came home, and made tuna
salad for lunch, followed by a nap. Got up about four, and dragged around taking
care of the dog and getting mysel put back together to go out. It was "Supper Club
Friday"--cocktails and steak at The Village in Pleasant Prairie. Sometimes, you just
have to go old-school, and have a bourbon and Coke, followed by salad, ribeye,
and baked potato.
We came home, relaxed, paid some bills, and puttered around a little...despite my
nap, I was ready for bed pretty early.
We were up and out by eight on Saturday; stopped at Panera for coffee and a bite
to eat, made a quick stop to pick up some new insoles for Spouse, then got the
grocery shopping done. We didn't need much; just some fill-ins for the week's meal
planning. But since we wanted certain specific items, we ended up going to both
Meijer and Festival.
Meijer for the basics, but Festival especially for the items we needed to make
homemade pizza for dinner. Their bakery has fantastic dough ready to go, and
they have a salad bar which makes it super-easy for me to get stuff I like for
toppings all ready to go--cut up, and I can score just the right amount to top a
pizza with no waste. Plus they sell our preferred, regional brand of provolone and
mozzarella, and have extremely good Italian sausage, which makes Spouse happy. (I
did manage to forget the pepperoni for my pie, though, so I had to filch a small
amount of Spouse's sausage when it came time to make dinner).
When we got home, I put away groceries while he went out to fill the bird feeder,
only to have him come storming back, furious because the damned squirrels had
chewed his brand new feeder to pieces getting at the birdseed.
Squirrels are the most pernicious pests we have--since we've lived there, they have
chewed their way into the attic to nest, they've dug up countless flowerbeds to
feast on the roots, they've destroyed numerous bird feeders, they've chewed
trough telephone lines, and they've tormented my dogs to distraction. I HATE the
damned puffy-tailed vermin!
After I finished putting the stuff away and started a load of laundry, we sat down to
do some online shopping. Spouse wanted shorts, and found what he was looking
for--at Amazon, of course! So once he selected two pair, he had me pad the order
to make up the new free shipping minimum. And while I can find a lot of stuff via
Amazon that I want, it seems like less and less of it is eligible for the free shipping.
It took me nearly two hours to select some eligible items that I could use. I ended
up ordering some sugar scrub, and a couple of bottles of the Neutrogena body
lotion I like. And an adult coloring book, just to push the total over $49.00 because
I still wasn't there, and I wanted my lunch, goddam it.
Once that was all taken care of, I made a sandwich of the last of the tuna salad,
advanced the laundry, took the pizza dough out of the fridge and put it into the
oven with the light on to rise--and went to lie down for a while.
Read, played some games, napped, and got back up about four to revisit the
laundry detail. Around 5:00, we started putting together our pizzas-- patting out
the crusts, and doing the assembly. He went for his usual--nothing but sausage and
cheese. I--as I mentioned--had my usual array of green peppers, black olives, and
mushrooms, but Italian sausage instead of pepperoni. Both pizzas came out pretty
fab. I remembered, for once, not to overdo it on the toppings. I have a tendency
to put a lot of different things on, but I put each one on like it is the only thing I'm
using. This one had everything in pleasing proportion.
Along with pizza, we watched an old Jimmy Cagney movie and had a drink, which
was a fun sort of throwback. We don't do that much anymore. Very enjoyable.
Then after he turned in, I pottered around online and played some of my games
till I was dozy, then went to bed.
Sunday, I got up and took care of B, made myself a cup of coffee, and sat down to
have a little early morning peaceful solitude. Unfortunately, Spouse didn't get the
memo, and as soon as I settled down to read, he got up and started banging
around in the kitchen. I shouldn't complain; he made fantastic cinnamon French
toast with apple sausage for breakfast. I just wish he'd given me about 45 minutes
of morning quiet before he started.
But coffee, French toast, sausage, and OJ make one kindly disposed to one's
tormentor, I guess. Anyway, I did enjoy the hell out of breakfast.
Dishes, weekly kitchen-cleaning, the last of the laundry, and then the showers, so
we could run out for a while. Reason one: We forgot one of the ingredients for
Sunday Dinner. Reason two: because Spouse was a man with a mission--thwart the
squirrels. To quote the man: "It's fucking personal".
So after we spent way too much time trying to figure out where the hell Meijer
keeps the apple cider, we went over to the home improvement store and bought a
"Super Stop-a-Squirrel Bird Feeder". The man is determined to get the better of
the local rodent population! He came home and put it right up; we'll see if it does
any better than the last one.
We had a quiet afternoon, again. Warmed up the leftover pizza for lunch, read and
watched tv and were generally lazy. Spouse started his dinner about 3:00, because
he was making cider-braised corned beef & vegetables, and they took about 3
hours. The recipe he used took four bottles of Angry Orchard and another pint of
non-alcoholic apple cider, and had to braise on the stove for a couple of hours
before finishing in the oven. The strong smell of the cider simmering had me
concerned, but needlessly, as it turns out. The potatoes, carrots, and brisket came
out absolutely perfect and delicious. It was probably the best corned beef I've ever
had outside of the Stage Deli. And plenty of leftovers for Monday, too!
Spouse was reading a library e-book after dinner, so I just watched the latest
available episode of Cats Does Countdown, and bummed around the internet to
kill time before bed.
Writing this entry, I started to feel like I don't even care about keeping a diary
anymore. Been getting that feeling a lot, lately. My entries are formulaic, detailing a
life that's profoundly boring. I hardly ever hang out with friends anymore, because
I get daily reminders on Facebook of just how very little we actually have in
common. Spouse and I are in a routine that's comfortable, but dull. I don't know if
my life is worth recording or not. But I'll probably keep it up unless I find
something better to do.
Reading: "The Second Generation" (1906), by David Graham Phillips. I
tried this one once before, but couldn't finish. Giving it another go, I can see all
the things that annoyed me about it the first time. The frightful reverse-snobbism
of the narrative is annoying as hell, and the young male protagonist is the broadly
drawn poster-child for it. I like his sister, though. Trying to, anyway. So I'm still
plugging away at it. But so far, the most sympathetic character I've encountered is a
monkey!
Listening: Buffalo Springfield, Jason Isbell, Widespread Panic, J. Geils
Band
Inked Up: Levenger Splendor Encore in Gun Metal Grey (fine nib),
loaded with Rohrer & Klingner Blu Mare. Honeymooning with a new pen, I guess,
but I am enjoying this one so much I'm reluctant to use another.
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