Happy 53rd birthday to me!! I had a wonderful day. To begin with, Dave and I both woke up alive. Always a good start, and something we don’t take for granted.
All my friends and family texted me their good wishes — no phone calls! I have them well-trained :D
We tidied up the house a bit so we would seem civilized when Henry and the family came over. Dave’s wonderful mum taught him to do housework when he was a lad. He made the kitchen counters sparkle and did five loads of his laundry (I did one load of mine. He has A LOT of clothes)
Then I zipped down to the good Mexican place and got lunch for everyone. The family showed up and Lulu gave me a lovely collage that she’d made, with letters and numbers all around the edge. I asked her to read it to me, and apparently it says, “Happy Birthday Kaykay, I love you so much and I hope you have a wonderful day”. Sweet sweet child. And Freyja toddled around grinning and shoving things into her mouth, both edible and inedible. Lol.
After they left I had a good session of Garden Story on my Switch, then we watched an Only Connect and an episode of Survivor, and now it’s time for a chapter of The Martian and sleep. A most excellent birthday indeed! I ate an entire veggie burrito and a small dish of ice cream. I still weigh 99lbs.
Drove Dave to his optometrist this morning because we thought they were going to dilate his pupils, but they didn’t so we just had a nice little drive together and stopped at the sporting goods store for new stainless steel water bottles. My ten year old plastic Britta sport bottle has become impossible to clean so it was time for a new one, and I already bought spiffy little GoPure pod filters to go in them, one for each of us. They work GREAT. The water tastes so clean and good.
Pretty tired today so I didn’t do much except a few chores and a lot of drawing. I ate: one Ensure, one bowl of strawberries and cream, and a big dish of steamed green beans and potatoes. And I’ll have a few spoonfuls of peanut butter before I go to sleep.
Lulu FaceTimed me a few times today so I could keep her company while she played. Lovely little soul.
We finished watching Thirteen Lives tonight. Oh man it was good. Beautifully shot, great acting even from the extras, amazing set design, good writing, great storytelling. We were not surprised to find that it was directed by Ron Howard! Talent, talent, talent. The actors communicated so much simply with facial expressions and body language. Remarkable.
Humans can be so horrible to each other, but also so wonderful and kind and selfless.
I had to google what to do with the tomatillos we got in our produce box. Most recipes are for salsa, but I did find one person who makes them into quick pockles, same as I do with beets and cucumbers. Not ACTUALLY pickled (fermented) but merely brined and fridge-stable for a month or so. We love pickled things so that’s what I did. The brine is just 1:1 water and white vinegar with a spoonfull of salt. They’re brining now, and we’ll try them in salad tomorrow.
Trying to remember what I ate today… oh right I had a cardiology appointment this morning (a quick check-in). Just remembered that. Well yeah I guess I ate a little handful of homegrown strawberries this morning but then I didn’t eat again till dinnertime, when I had a Big Salad with lots of cheese. Dammit. That’s like 400 calories total all day, MAYBE. Sigh. I’ll try to do better tomorrow.
Just read the first chapter of The Martian to Dave for our bedtime story! Poor Mark Watney is, indeed, fucked. :D
Ooo we started watching 13 Lives tonight, the story of the cave rescue in Thailand. (Amazon Prime, sorry) We watched about a third so far (it’s long) and it’s really good. Excellent cinematography. You really feel the peril of those narrow underwater caves, ugh. We’re both a bit claustrophobic and it was mighty uncomfortable. Dave doesn’t remember the event, which is odd. He does remember the rescue of the Chilean miners.
We sat around for hours this afternoon just talking. Dave’s a big talker, but everything he says is interesting so it’s ok, hahahaha. Also I know he’s feeling better when he’s talkative so I love it when he is! Anyway he mentioned a British prog band called Caravan, which reminded me of the jazz standard so I went to YouTube to play it for him. The first one I found was Duke Ellington’s band, which was dry and boring, but then I searched for Benny Goodman and MAN it’s so good!
We got our veggie box and milk delivery today, from https://organicstoyou.org/. If you live in the Portland area, I recommend them highly! Last week they accidentally sent something on our “dislike” list, so this week they gave us some extra stuff to make up for it. Really generous. What does one do with tomatillos? Gotta do some recipe googling! I do enjoy a bit of randomness. We also got a huge head of romaine lettuce, three big bell peppers, a big ginger root, several big beautiful tomatoes, a lime, a couple lemons, a basket of blackberries, a bunch of beets, a bunch of chard, the aforementioned tomatillos, a few plums, and a few nectarines. And this is the smallest box they offer, the “Box For One”!
We just finished Project Hail Mary — had to read the final three chapters in one go. Dave is so sweet. He burst into tears when I read the final sentence, and who can blame him? *heart eyes*
Therapy session today. Suzanne is (rightly) concerned by how thin I am and is hooking me up with a colleague who is a therapist AND nutritionist. Maybe she can help me gain some weight back.
Woke up feeling fine byt then a huge wave of tiredness hit me about 11am so I just lay in bed and drew and listened to audiobooks allllll day. It’s still quite hot, which is probably contributing to my exhaustion. Summer has been swell but I’m ready for autumn now, thank you very much.
Funny thing I noticed: when I read a paper book (as opposed to Kindle) I often catch myself trying to turn the page by tapping it, or long-pressing an unfamiliar word to get a definition. And when I draw in my iPad app, I catch myself blowing on the “paper” to get rid of nonexistent eraser crumbs! :D
Oh lordy I forgot to do the NYT crossword today! I’ll do it after I finish writing this post.
I made a lovely stirfry with some of the organic veggies that came last week. Really tasty. And then I drew and drew and drew! I finished the knot that I started yesterday. My drawing app (Sketchclub) says I worked on it for 9.2 hours all together. I’m so pleased with it! http://app.sketchclub.com/sketch/5711702358360064
We are 90% finished with Project Hail Mary. They’ve bred enough nitrogen-resistant Taumoeba to save both of their planets and have said goodbye and gone their separate ways… for now…
Definitely had more appetite today. Ate approximately four choux buns, a dish of leftover mashed potatoes, and half a serving of Trader Joe’s lasagna. Still weigh only 99lbs. *eyeroll*
Did nothing but draw all day — working on a big Celtic knot. So tired. Time for Hail Mary and sleep!
Hey look you juat learned to say “Friday” in German.
I finished the little purple shirt and made choux buns today. I filled half with whipped cream and lemon curd, and half with whipped cream and chopped fresh strawberries. Dave is such an appreciative recipient of my baking and cooking, which is so nice because I’d rather bake than eat, lol!
I cleared out some unwanted frozen food (why did Dave buy so much Costco ravioli when neither of us likes it? Lol) and drove it over to Henry’s house. So nice to see them! Weird weather today — warm, gray, and humid. Hope it rains soon.
Stopped at Burgerville on the way home for a seasonal Marianberry milkshake, yum.
Pretty tired so just drew, listened to my audiobook (The Devil in the White City), and sewed a long-sleeve t-shirt for the doll. Just need to hem the sleeves tomorrow and then I’ll post a pic.
We’ve been watching old seasons of Survivor at night for the past couple of months, and just finished up Tocantines a few days ago — great season! Taj, Steven, and JT, but also… Coach. Lol. DELUSIONAL. Anyway last night we started the next season, Samoa, but after a couple episodes I decided I simply cannot deal with Russell Hantz. Just.. Can. Not. Cope. So we switched to an old season of Bake Off (Briony! Rahul! Kim Joy!) and oh it was such a relief to see lovely English people being kind to each other.
We’ll start a different season of Survivor soon. I just need to find one that doesn’t have anyone truly unbearable in it.
Bad sleep last night, too hot. But this morning I got right up and went to the bakery and Trader Joe’s. Got home, put everything away, and then rested and read and drew for the rest of the day.
Dave had back-to-back meetings almost all day, then a dinner break, and another meeting NOW (10pm) with some folks in India, so we read a chapter and a half of Project Hail Mary between dinner and this late meeting. Good good good. I’m already thinking about what to read to him next… The Martian, obviously, but what after that? I can’t remember Artemis very well, but I have a feeling it wasn’t quite up to par. Hmm.
I just read chapter 19 to Dave — Rocky and Ryland used their ten-kilometer chain to collect an air sample from the planet (I had to explain the Adrian joke to Dave) but now they’re in big trouble… tomorrow night can’t get here soon enough! Such an excellent story!
I lazed in bed for ages this morning. So good to have another long lie-in. Hmm what else. In the morning Imade a stir fry with the beautiful snow peas, cabbage, onion, and garlic that came in last week’s veg box, and a little pot of rice to eat it on. Dave loves it that I like to cook and am a GOOD cook! After lunch I went to the grocery store for sugar and a variety of spices to round out our collection, and bought a jar of Garbage Peanut Butter (Jif) for a treat.
An HVAC company came to diagnose our non-functional AC and discovered that, like the gas lines, it all needs to be replaced — furnace, too. So that’ll happen in September, most likely, and then next summer we’ll be more comfy on the 100° days.
I’m working on a little rainbow t-shirt for the doll. A closely-worked blanket stitch makes a good hand-sewn stretchy seam.
I refined my pattern so it’s perfect. I taped the front to the back at the side, which eliminates the two side seams, and cut a waist-length facing that goes all the way around. After attaching the facing to the bodice, I hem the bottom and sew it down, creating a casing along the back and enclosing the elastic as I go. Super slick and beautifully finished.
Made some polenta tonight to eat with the chunky veggie pasta sauce I made a few days ago. God it’s good, way better than actual pasta.
Time to read another chapter to Dave! *heart eyes*
Omg so tired. I did not get the 12 hours of sleep that I needed. Poor Dave was in pain from his angioplasty and woke me up at 4am moaning and in need of Tylenol and water. Then I switched to the guest bedroom so he could moan as much as he needed but I never really slept soundly after that. Ugh.
We’ve been slumped on the couch together all day. He watched many episodes of some custom car show on Netflix while I listened to my audiobook through earbuds and sewed, and then we switched to the Bake Off.
I drafted a pattern for little overalls and got them all sewn up:
Up EARLY to drop Dave at Kaiser for an angioplasty. Home by 7:15 and went back to sleep for three hours thank goodness! Did house stuff, hung out with Lulu on FaceTime, sewed little undies for the doll, then picked Dave back up in the afternoon. Procedure went fine, and he’s just tired and a little sore.
Woke up at 3:30am and never went back to sleep so I felt dazed all day.
Baked a delicious apple cake.
Dave got his hair cut and beard trimmed at the barber around the corner and he looks SO CUTE!
Bedtime is ridiculously early tonight because of mega-fatigue and also we need to get up at 6:30am tomorrow so I can take Dave to Kaiser for an angio-whatsit.
When we moved in, our main bathroom had a stupid pedestal sink with no counter space and no storage, and one night the basin just spontaneously cracked straight across. We chose a nice new sink and vanity at Lowe’s (for a literal tenth of the price of one we liked at the Kohler showroom) and, after much sweat and struggle, Dave got it all installed yesterday! I absolutely love it. It has two big functional soft-close drawers, with cut-outs where the plumbing goes, and look at that handy shelf for towels! And a big smooth genuine marble countertop.
I guess it sounds funny to get so excited about a new sink, but I’ve been a renter all my adult life so the idea that we can actually change something that large to suit ourselves is still novel and exciting! Dave installed a new shower-head, too, and it’s the best shower-head in the world. The hose is really flexible and the head attaches to the bracket with a big strong magnet, so it’s easy for me to grab it and put it back while seated on my shower seat. He disabled the water-saver so the water pressure is great, and it has a pause switch on the side so I can let it dangle while I shampoo without squirting water everywhere and wasting it.
It’s 8:30pm and I’m in bed all comfy, waiting for Dave to finish a meeting so I can reread the chapter that he slept through last night :D
Let’s see, what did I do today… laundry! I did laundry. I decided it was never going to rain again so it would be a good idea to wash quilts and dry them on a rack outside. But then it rained (only for a few minutes, but more is forecast tonight) so I only washed one and hung it inside. Plus a load of sheets and towels and a load of my stuff. I know it’s time to do laundry when I need to start wearing third-tier undies.
Dave wanted some ground lamb so he can make his own gyros, so we went to an actual butcher near here, but he doesn’t sell ground lamb anymore (too expensive, not enough market) so Dave bought some kind of big lump of lamb meat instead. Lol. Baa. Gross.
Oh! It was pleasant weather, only mid-80s, and Henry brought my big bags of compost in from my car on the weekend so I did some gardening! I filled up one of my huge grow bags and started a tomato cutting, and started thyme and cilantro in a smaller bag. I’ve been having trouble with my zucchini because the male fowers and female flowers haven’t bloomed at the same time so the fruits never form properly. Dave suggested harvesting the male flowers and putting them in the fridge to artificially pollinate the females when they bloom, and I think it might have worked. I have two little zukes that seem to have passed the stage where, if unpollinated, they turn yellow and drop off. Fingers crossed. Next year I need to plant two or three at once.
I also collected worm castings from my Worm Bucket and started a batch of Worm Tea to fertilize my plants tomorrow. The Worm Bucket is working GREAT! No smell, no flies. I only put in a few food scraps at a time and cover them well with shredded paper.
The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago today! I hope they find sooo much illegal stuff. From what I understand, they don’t do raids on a whim but only if they’re fairly certain to find what they’re looking for, so fingers crossed!
Today I “pickled” a bunch of homegrown cucumbers the same way I make pickled beets, which is to slice them and steep in a sugar and vinegar mixture. Not true pickling because they don’t ferment and aren’t shelf-stable, but still delicious in salads. We’ve been eating a lot of salad lately. Very nice in hot weather. It’s perfect summer weather now: mid-80s, so summery but not brutal.
I also made a huge casserole dish of cauliflower-cheese and put fresh sheets on our bed. And played a little WoW.
Dave had to get up at the crack of dawn to get to a 7am doc appointment so he fell asleep midway through our Project Hail Mary chapter tonight, sweet man. *heart eyes*. My god I’m lucky. We’re still just as ridiculously happy together as ever.
