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hello grapefruit my old friend
January 16, 2017
Snippets about last week:
My team is trying to be more fit and move more, so all week long we tried to do "chair squats" on the quarter-hour. We did pretty good; allowing for lunches and meetings and such, I managed about 6 sessions a day, and steadily increased the number I could do.
I was on a bit of a citrus kick last week. Can't seem to get enough! Here's a
tip: a couple of fresh-squeezed mandarins and half a lime is the start of a fantastic glass of tangerine-limeade.
Saturday
The usual: housework, shopping, a nap in the afternoon, and such. But I've
been awfully lazy these past few weekends, so I decided to set a few goals for
the weekend. On Saturday, the goals were: shave my legs, scrub and de-lime the dish drainer, scrub half the counters, and do some re-arranging so we could un-box and put away Spouse's new food processor (I was tired of looking at the box just sitting there in the corner of the living room) , so I made sure to get all that done before we went out to do the errands. I knew I wouldn't be in the mood for any of it when we got home.
When we went out to do the shopping on Saturday, I remembered something
that made me very happy--I can have grapefruit again! I had given it up because
the Zoloft was one of the umpteen drugs that grapefruit doesn't play nicely
with. But since I gave up the Zoloft--yay, delicious, juicy, yummy grapefruit! AND they were on sale for $2.48 a bag at Festival. That is going to put the kick in my "citrus kick" for this week!
We did Kwik Trip for bread, OJ, butter, and eggs, Meijer for health and beauty items, dog food, and certain groceries, and the festival for the rest of the groceries, since we needed some items for dinner we could only get there. Once we got home and got everything put away, I baked off a couple of dozen sugar cookies from the dough in the freezer, and everybody had a nice afternoon lie-down.
It was pizza-making night on Saturday (hence the trip to Festival, for their pizza crust dough and Steve's Cheese). I kept my toppings fairly simple, and
limited to what I had on hand: pepperoni, black olives, and caponata (eggplant
salad), with a mix of mozzarella and provolone. Spouse had his usual mild
Italian sausage and the two cheeses. I didn't care for the sauce he picked out,
but then, we like very different things in a pizza sauce. I think it might have
been okay if I'd used a lot less of it. I have a tendency to put too much on,
because I don't want to waste it. It was not too bad, though, and we always have a lot of fun making it, as well as eating it.
Sunday
After discovering that the freezer jam I made last fall was too sour to be edible, I decided to deal with it one jar at a time, as I thaw it out. Yesterday, we
had a pick-up breakfast kind of morning, and I wanted toaster
waffles with jam. So I emptied a jar into the saucepan, added about two
tablespoons more sugar, and brought it up to a solid boil, then poured it back
into the jar. Ladled some of it onto my waffles, and now it's pretty much
perfect--and it should set right back up in the fridge. I'll just do that every time
I open a jar, instead of unfreezing and re-doing the whole batch.
After breakfast, I re-booted the laundry, washed the dishes, and continued
working towards meeting my set housekeeping goals. I scrubbed the rest of the
kitchen counters, scoured the sink, wiped down the cabinets and fridge, and
swept and mopped the floor, then I did a thorough vacuuming of the carpets,
emptied wastebaskets, and took out the trash. Had all that done by 9:30, and
had just enough time to quickly shower and dress, so I could go out with
Spouse.
He had a 10:00 haircut appointment, and I felt like getting out, so I
tagged along. While he got his hair cut, I sat in the car and took the
opportunity to call my dad. He's doing okay--they came back so he could go to
my aunt's funeral, and decided they were going to to stay for now. He said the
funeral was very nice, and the church put on a very good luncheon afterwards.
I told him I had sent Uncle a card and note, and had made a donation to the
hospice in Aunt's name; so he knows I didn't blow it off. He ran into my very
good, lifelong friend when he was in my hometown, and they had a nice visit.
The one friend I'm still keeping contact with, because she isn't an insane t-
rump-supporting moron like most of them. For one thing, she's too smart, and
for another, she's too well-informed--she's been a federal employee for 30
years!
There was some dad call outfall; he gave me heck and told me I had to re-
friend certain relatives on FB. (oh, well--that's what 'unfollow' and the
restricted list are for, right?) But even HE knew there were some I wasn't
willing to negotiate over. SSIL and her daughter are right off the table.
So basically, I did GSIL, the three nephews, and their SOs. But that's as far as
I'm willing to go.
So once Spouse got done, and I got done talking to Dad, we ran over to the Kwik Trip to fill up my car and give it a quick wash, then headed back home. We were only gone for an hour, but I was glad to get out--I'm trying not to fall into the habit of being a lazy, house-bound bum every weekend.
After we got home, I worked on wrapping up the laundry and read for a while. B and I ended up napping a bit. Spouse made a lovely Sunday dinner of roast beef, mashed potatoes & gravy, and roasted carrots--simple, elegant, delicious, and not very much work, because he used a pre-marinated burgundy-pepper spoon roast from Festival, pre-made mashed potatoes (we found them at Costco, and they are actually pretty good!), and all the carrots required was a little washing and some olive oil, thyme, and honey.
After dinner, I washed up the dishes, and we watched an old episode of Black Sheep Squadron (we've had a love of that show in common since before we met each other) before he headed off to bed and book, and I settled in to watch the latest episodes of QI and Cats Does Countdown on my computer. I didn't think much of Jerry Springer on QI, but I loved Noel Fielding filling in for Jon Richardson on CDC.
I had a troubled night. Trouble falling asleep, trouble with stress dreams, trouble staying asleep, trouble falling back asleep...just a hideous night overall.
Monday: Not great, Bob!
After the bad night, I got to drive to work in a nasty ice storm. Once I got to work, I had to deal with my IBS flaring up from stress. And I didn't do very well today with my chair squats; I was just too tired and washed out. I'm glad I wasn't committed to cooking or anything this evening, because I feel like a big ball of blechh. Sour gut, achy, shaky, chilled, and generally crap.
Reading: I gave up on "The Orchid" (1905), by Judge Robert Grant. I didn't like the characters, and just didn't want to read about them. Started "The Branding Iron" (1919), by Katharine Newlin Burt. I started this one as a serial in Everybody's Magazine, but found the book version available as a free ebook through Google. Much easier to read.
Listening: Actually, still "New Faces of 1952", OCR. I'm trying to memorize Bal, Petit Bal in the French. Not easy, Eartha Kitt's breathy accent is hard to follow.
Inked Up: No changes: Jin Hao X750 (M nib) with R&K Blu Mare, Pilot Penmanship (EF nib ) with Pilot Namiki purple, and the ever-ready Conklin Duragraph (F nib) with Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown.
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