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collecting my thoughts
September 06, 2016
I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks because my job is a horrible, hellish quagmire that sucks all the life out of me and makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry.
So, news:
Dr. Cousin is coming next month to visit for a few days. I wish I had the ability to look forward to such things with excitement instead of dread. I love her and I will enjoy the hell out of having her to visit, but all my brain can focus on is how much of a struggle it will be to get ready for it.
Here is a bombshell: My dad moving back to Midwest. He's selling his place in Phoenix and moving in with his girlfriend in central Illinois. I called to wish him a happy birthday (he's 80) on Labor Day, and he dropped that lil nugget on me.
You know what? There isn't any point in saying how I feel about it, because it doesn't matter how I feel about it. I have taken the position that the only thing that matters is his happiness, and he has not been happy in AZ. He gave it a year, and it just didn't fit. He misses the midwest, he misses his friends, his family, his girlfriend, and he hates the heat and the big city. Why should he sit out there and be miserable? That's not what I want for him. Do I wish he was amenable to what I do want for him? Of course. But he is himself, and has to do what's right for him.
I'm over summer, I guess. I've let the flowers die, because it's September and I'm sick of taking care of them. I have been continuing to be fairly diligent about vacuuming out the pool, and it's looking pretty good. It was chilly swimming this weekend, but not enough to keep me out of it.
And I can tell, too, because I really feel like baking. I did a little when I got home from my haircut Friday afternoon, just because the spirit struck me. I tried using dried fruit in pie; I had some dried apples and some cherry-berry blend from Door County that were sitting around, so I threw the fruit in a pan of hot water for a while, and left it to soak. Then I drained it, mixed it up with sugar and sweet spice blend and cornstarch, and dumped it in a pie crust. The filling came out quite tasty, but I had the wrong brand of ready-made crust and it wasn't as good as I'm used to. Still, it was one of those pantry challenges I like to do when I'm in the mood to get my bake on.
And since hubby doesn't like pie, I baked on Saturday, as well. I made a batch of peanut butter cookies on Saturday afternoon when we got home from shopping.
As an aside--I managed to spill oily natural peanut butter all over myself in the process. I love natural peanut butter, but stirring it up so you can use it is a nightmare. Ruined a perfectly good polo shirt, dammit. I managed to get most of it out, but the double-whammy of grease and protein from peanut butter will never come out completely.
But the cookies came out well, and Spouse was satisfied. I gave him an extra treat and made some of them blossoms, since I had a partial bag of Brachs chocolate stars on hand.
In the morning, we'd gone to Costco and had new tires put on the Chevy. We knew we needed to before winter, and Spouse had a flat last week which drove the point home, so to speak. And we did a little shopping.
If my husband is going to keep inviting houseguests, and since my cousin does not have a tub (only showers), and we do have one, she will probably be making good use of it. So I thought it advisable to retire some of our shabbier linens. So I picked up a package of 6 new bath towels at Costco, and a dozen washcloths at Meijer. Great prices for excellent quality. The hotel-style white towels from Costco are generous, heavy, and less than three bucks apiece! And the multi-pack of washcloths came out to less than 50 cents each for good-quality West Point cotton cloths.
Another way I can tell it's not really summer anymore--I am in the mood for something different when it comes to coffee. I treated myself to a pack of Green Mountain Sumatran Reserve dark roast, and when I was at Menards, I found a pumpkin spice flavoring extract on the Watkins rack, so I got that to use for flavoring my coffee. It's imitation, and I can kind of tell that because I don't really taste what I'd hoped to taste in it. I don't do well with imitations. There are a lot of notes my tongue just doesn't pick up.
We went to the movies on Sunday; I can't remember when we did that last. It was our first movie in years, I know. Probably 2011--I remember seeing "The Rum Diary" and "The Adventures of Tintin" that year.
Anyway. We saw "Sausage Party". Yeah, well--Spouse wanted to see it, and I thought it might be funny. I didn't know it was a Judd Apatow movie, or I might have reconsidered. I don't find his projects funny, as a rule. This one had its moments, but it was kind of weird. I really didn't expect to find it a movie about the existential angst of groceries.
Oh, well. It was a matinee, so it was cheap (although a bucket of popcorn and two sodas is now running to nearly 19 bucks!), and the theater was nearly deserted. Not just the auditorium where our movie was--the entire complex. Counting me and Spouse, I counted seven customers in the whole place. So we weren't bothered by crowds.
We didn't really do much fancy cooking this weekend. Spouse made sausage and french toast for Sunday breakfast, and hawaiian-marinated pork loin for Sunday dinner. But Friday night was leftover KFC for him, and a salad for me, Saturday was burgers and cold salads, Monday was hot dogs and the rest of the cold salads. Honestly--we were not straying too far from home, and on Monday, I don't think we even put shoes on. All we really did all weekend was yard work and housework and car work and boring shit like that.
One last thing--Can I just say that I hate Windows 10 and its stupid app-based bullshit?
I want my laptop to be a fully operational personal computer, not a tablet or a phone. And I want desktop shortcuts, not twitchy little "live tiles" on the start menu.
I did get my Flipwords back--I had to another pay $2.99 for it, and download it directly from Gamefools, but I got it, and it works. And it isn't from that stupid, patetic Microsoft app store.
Reading: "Three Sides of Paradise Green" (1918), by Augusta Huiell Seaman. I'm kind of stalled at the moment, but it isn't the book--it's me.
Listening: Fleet Foxes, Jann Arden, Leonard Cohen, Cheap Trick
Inked Up: Monteverde Artista with J. Herbin Lierre Sauvage (Wild Ivy Green) It's quite a yummy green; wet and juicy, a bit of shading, and an intense, true green that I find rather cheery. I only bought it to get free shipping on an Amazon order, but I'm quite delighted with it.
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