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productive--but fun? not so much
May 15, 2017
Not too long after I wrote last week's post, I got the very sad news that Susan Wirth
had died. Wow. Still processing that, to be honest. And then I found out that Dan
Smith--The Nibsmisth--had forty grand worth of pens stolen while he was in town
for the pen show, and suddenly, instead of Chicago Pen Show 2017 being a great
memory, it all seems fucked up and weird--twisted and tainted, somehow.
Yeah, okay. So more like normal.
This week was kind of ugly in general. A huge problem at work, which was my fault,
for not catching it in the testing process. Which meant a ton of emergency
scrambling to stop things, fix things, re-test things, and re-implement things. My
head is still spinning.
Stupid health screening at work, which I hate but I have to do in order to get money
off of my ridiculous insurance premiums. Which are still A) ridiculous, and B)
useless--because the insurance doesn't cover anything short of catastrophic illness.
Checked with my cousin to see if Auntie's Mother's Day flowers arrived, only to find
out Auntie isn't home to enjoy them, because she had to go be with her sister who is
having a hip replacement, and cousin was dealing with issues of her own, being
completely knocked flat by having to have her very beloved labrador put down. All
of this happening on the 5th anniversary of Uncle's death. So things weren't going
any better for the Arizona branch of the family.
And, of course, the continuation of the recent sleep and intestinal issues both Spouse
and I have been having. Spouse actually had to come home sick, one day--having
had an unfortunate accident involving timing and the distance to the restroom.
So anyway, that was a pretty awful week. On to the weekend:
A Brief Summary of My Friday "half-day":
Did my upper-body strength training, showered, dressed, drove to work, took an
early morning power-walk, put in 4.5 hours at the office, shopped for postal carriers
food drive, got a hair cut & brow wax, filled my car up, got it washed, & checked the
tires, made some phone calls, updated my computer, tablet, and phone, picked up
after the dog, took a very short nap, cleaned & scraped out the lawn mower, mowed,
trimmed, and blew the front and side yards, did some laundry, and washed dishes.
Went to dinner with Spouse--nothing fancy, we just grabbed a bite at Tommy's.
Saturday:
Got up, had coffee, did some housework, did more laundry, we got cleaned up and
drove out to Lake Geneva to meet the travel agent about the trip, I had more coffee
and a piece of fantastic blackberry-raspberry pie (we met her at the Lake Geneva Pie
Co.), then we headed back towards Kenosha. We stopped on the way to buy meat at
Lake Geneva Country Meats and groceries at Woodmans. We don't usually shop at
Woodman's, but since we were out that far and since Spouse wanted a couple of
things you can't get anywhere else, we stopped. It wasn't too awful--there seemed to
be fewer obliviots clogging up the aisles than there usually is if we decide to stop
there.
Once we were done there, we came home, put on comfy old clothes, and while he
went out to tackle the backyard, I made Spouse some Jello, washed up the dishes
that were in the sink, and then stripped the beds and got on with the never-ending
cavalcade of housework. Between the basic laundry, and washing mattress pads,
sheets & pillowcases, and blankets, I did about six loads on Saturday, I think. Kind of
hit a wall, since I didn't sleep well on Friday night, and Spouse decided to take a
shower at 5:30 on Saturday morning. Ugh. So I kicked back a little in the afternoon.
Read, gave myself a maintenance manicure. Skipped the polish, though, till after
dinner when I had a (little) more time.
For dinner, we had BBQ pork chops over charcoal, and I made oven-roasted
potatoes and fresh corn-on-the-cob to go with. Pretty stellar; the chops were from
LGCM and outrageously good. The corn was nice and fresh, as well.
Then more dishes, and I watched some panel show clips and painted my nails--I
bought a new color of OPI at Meijer when I stopped there on Friday, but I ended
up hating it. Not the color, but the fact that it just didn't cover worth a damn. Is OPI
going downhill? So I took it back off, and went for an old standbye--Mauving to
Manitoba. I was too tired, though, really, to be doing it. I think I spent twice as long
cleaning my nails up as I did actually painting them.
And despite my thinking I had time enough, I got interrupted multiple times by the
dog and the husband before it dried, and ended up marring two nails and having to
"patch".
Once they were good and dry, I gave it all up and went to bed. I was kind of bushed.
Sunday:
We had planned to get up and make Sunday breakfast, but neither of us felt like that
much food. So we had cornflakes and bananas, toast, and coffee for breakfast
instead. After we ate, we did up the dishes and I set to work on--you guessed it--
more laundry. I got that going, then scrubbed the bathroom, swept the kitchen,
vacuumed the carpets, cleaned B's crate, and then showered and dressed in sweats
and a ratty old shirt--because we were taking the B to give him a bath. We lost our
old dogwash recently, when the gas station & carwash it was at went out of business.
So we decided to use the one at Petco. I think we like it! They furnish towels and a
blow-dryer, plus shampoo & conditioner if you need it, and they don't have a time
limit like the coin-op one did. $10.00, and you can use one of the three set-up they
have. B liked it, because it was out in the open enough that he could see things going
on around him--people, other dogs, lots of STUFF. I like it becasue there was time
to do the job right, without worrying about running out of quarters. Spouse like it
because the tub was a convenient height, and easy for B to get in and out of. He got
a thorough scrubbing, an even more thorough rinsing, and after we toweled him off,
we went over him with the high-power blower, which didn't so much dry the fur, as
it did blast the water off of it.
Once that was done, we took a walk around the store so Mr. Social could meet and
mingle, then I bought some dog food and found out they didn't carry Dentastix. So
our next stop was Meijer, where I got him the Dentastix, and some more food and
picked up a gallon of ammonia for the house.
Back at home, I stripped the cover off of B's couch and put on a clean one--I have a huge pile of old bedspreads expressly for this purpose--then threw the dirty one into the wash. Oh, why the hell not? What's one more load, right?
Spouse decided he had been busy enough for one weekend so he was going to chill out and have nap. As for me, I didn't really nap (dozed off for a whole ten minutes) but I finished a book, medded about on my phone, and touched up my nails where I'd beaten them up washing the dog and doing the housework.
For dinner, I made a pan of stuffing, and Spouse roasted a turkey breast. We just had that with some peas & carrots and gravy for dinner. Very good, but not too fussy. And plenty of leftovers for Monday, which is the usual plan. I'd purchased a "mini pie" at the LG Pie Co. (Peach-Blackberry Cobbler Pie) so I had a piece of that for dessert, and Spouse had his beloved Jello.
I was feeling kind of tired and lazy and lacking focus, but I got my morning prep done and played some word games till bedtime. Usual Sunday night shitty sleep. Woke up every hour after midnight, and once 3:45 rolled around I was awake for permanent.
Reading: Finished reading "The Man From Ashaluna", then did re-reads of "Mary-'Gusta" and "Keziah Coffin", and I'm pretty sure another reading of "Cy Whittaker’s Place" (1908) is next, because I feel like I'm not done with Joseph Crosby Lincoln yet.
Listening:
Inked Up: Still the same, except I wrote the Bexley dry and refilled it with R&K Blue Mare.
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