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Went to Grand Central Bakery first thing and got two loaves to share with the kids, who came to visit today! They showed up around 11 and hung out for a few hours. Lulu’s rainbow outfit fits her perfectly with some growing room!

I sewed up Lulu’s rainbow outfit. All finished and so adorable. Hope they’ll visit tomorrow so I can give them to her. Also finished the doll’s blue flowered puff-sleeve dress. Hmm what next, little overall?

Short chapter tonight — Ryland figured out that Rocky “sees” with sound waves. Excellent.

We watched all three episodes of the new Woodstock ‘99 documentary on Netflix. Good lord. Just… wow. A literal and figurative shit show, and it just keeps getting worse and worse (the festival, not the documentary)

I still weigh 100lbs even, but I have noticed that cooking seems interesting and more types of food seem edible to me. For months it was pretty much green apples and goat cheese — a nutritious combo if it’s all you’re going to eat, but variety is better of course. Today I (get this) made chunky pasta sauce with onion, mushrooms, and zucchini and ate a little on some spaghetti!

Right now I’m gnawing a small block of cheddar for my bedtime snack.

I finished cutting out the pieces for Lulu’s rainbow outfit (joggers and t-shirt) and spent hours working on the doll’s little floral dress with puffed sleeves. Sleeves are finished, facing is finished, skirt is gathered and attached. Ready to hem the skirt and add tucks and fasteners!

In Project Hail Mary tonight Ryland has finally seen Rocky through the divider and they exchanged some basic science info by way of their clocks! So clever.

Much cooler today and I had enough energy to do some meal prep for the upcoming weekend heat wave. I defrosted and baked the second half of the cottage pie I made a couple weeks ago, made a Big Salad to keep handy in the fridge, and made a stir-fry with a bunch of the veggies we got in our veg box on Tuesday. Dave raved about the stir-fry, and he’s very happy to have salad ready for light meals. It’s helpful for me to have good food ready in case I ever get hungry, which, to be fair, is happening a bit more frequently. Haven’t put on any weight yet though.

Now I’m working on a little dress with puffed sleeves for Lulu’s doll. SO TINY. I’m finishing every seam with blanket stitch so that Lulu can wash her clothes endlessly without them falling apart. I loved washing my doll’s clothes.

Henry just sent this photo of Freyja’s hair. THE LITTLE STRAWBERRY-BLONDE CURLS omg omg omg. I knew she’d have my hair!

The truck arrived, the truck arrived!!! A 53’ truck jammed full of Dave’s Stuff (from his industrial unit in California) — woodworking machines, laser cutters, 3-d printers, music studio stuff (mixing boards etc), ham radio equipment, antennae, wood, and… STUFF. Lots of stuff. A crew of hard-working guys unloaded it all straight into his huge workshop while he supervised. It only took four hours! And now at long last he can stop paying rent on the industrial unit (which was about the same as our mortgage payment lol)!

And now, finally, he has all his tools and can make things again (after he gets organized). He’s a Maker, like me, so I’m thrilled that he has all his equipment again.

We went to bed at 7pm so I’d have time to read the next chapter of Project Hail Mary before we both got too tired. He actually fell asleep partway through (I knew he was asleep when he didn’t poke fun at my American pronunciation of “solder”) but he woke up again after a few minutes and I was able to finish the chapter. The Blip-A has sent a xenonite model indicating a tunnel between ships — I hope this means we get to meet Rocky in the next chapter.

Dave goes through about a gallon of milk every week (for his tea) and he doesn’t like grocery store milk, so he’s been going all the way to Trader Joe’s every time he runs out. I decided there MUST be a milk delivery service in Portland, so I did a bit of googling and found several companies that deliver boxes of locally-grown organic fruit/veg, along with dairy and some other types of add-ons. I’ve been trying them all, and so far https://organicstoyou.org/ is the winner! We got our first delivery from them today, and it was a generous and well-assorted box of veggies and good organic local milk. Their website is easy to use, and you can give them a list of produce you don’t like — so we won’t end up with radishes anymore. They offer multiple sizes of veg boxes, fruit boxes, mixed boxes, and even “kits” like a salad kit (greens, tomatoes, cuke, peppers, carrots), stir fry kit, grill kit, etc. For our first order I got the one-person fruit/veg box (we don’t eat much), a salad kit, and Dave’s milk. We got SO MUCH produce! A cauliflower, three heads of lettuce, a bunch of purple carrots, a box of golden cherry tomatoes, several roma tomatoes, a small box of blueberries, half a pound of cherries, two zucchini, a bunch of bok choi, a couple apples, a couple oranges, and two big onions! Next week I’ll skip the salad kit. Maybe tomorrow I’ll make a lovely stir fry with the bok choi, onions, zucchini, and carrots!

Felt good this morning but kinda moldy now. Headache, nausea, general ick. Early bedtime for me.

Better weather thank heavens! Only 89-ish, so hot but not like an oven. I can handle this. The highest temp didn’t arrive till late afternoon— morning and midday were only 80-ish.

Up bright and early for 9am doc appt. Nothing new. She’s pleased that my TSH and T4 are getting closer to normal, and is having me double my dose of supplemental T3 (liothyronine). Labs in six weeks, appt in 3 months, as per.

When I got home I lay down and slept for two hours! Wild!

Ate an entire burrito over the course of the day. Read Chapter 7 to Dave.

Oh lord so hot. I had insomnia last night and woke up before 7am so felt tired enough to have a little nap in the mid-morning. Nauseated on and off all day. I blame the heat.

I just read chapter seven of Project Hail Mary to Dave. Our hero Ryland has spotted an alien ship! So pretty soon Dave will get to know Rocky *heart eyes*

Gonna try to get to sleep now, because I need to get up early for endocrinology appt.

I sewed a little A-line dress today:

So cute!

Dave wandered past while I was watching the third episode of Gentleman Jack and got hooked. We watched the entire first season. :D

Hot, hot, hot. So hot. Can’t even think.

I helped Dave rebandage his foot woumds and read the entire 5th chapter of Project Hail Mary to him before bed.

Hot. This can’t last much longer. The weekend will be bad but next week should be lovely. Just gotta survive and not melt till Monday.

Woke up feeling good, so I ran a bunch of errands before the midday heat hit. UPS place to ship back my bad medication pumps, Ace for bird food, Rigoberto’s to grab burritos for lunch, Goodwill to see if I could find some saucers to go under some house plants, post office for stamps, then home. Almost all of those places are on the main street a few blocks from our house so it wasn’t much driving.

I struck gold at the Goodwill! I got a stack of five cute china saucers, four spoons (we never have enough spoons), and a big stock pot, stainless steel with a glass lid, a steamer basket, and a pasta insert. Twenty bucks! SCORE!

In the afternoon I sat down in the cool basement and read my new book (The Other Guest by Helen Cooper), and then I finished sewing the tiny sundress. So cute.

It’s so hot tonight. Gotta go take a cold bath and then continue reading Project Hail Mary to Dave!

So freaking hot. Feet in ice water all day and several ice-cold baths (shallow, only an inch or so, not wasting water).

Appointment with Dr Robinson my excellent pulmonologist this afternoon, just a check-in, and I got labs done for my endocrinologist. The results are in — my thyroid hormone levels are edging closer to normal! I still don’t feel hungry and I’m still hovering around 100lbs, but the night sweats are gone thank goodness. Hoping to feel hungry again someday…

I decided that Lulu’s little birthday doll needs some modern clothes, since Lu is not yet obsessed with Laura Ingalls or Betsy Ray, so I made a sloper (which is like a very basic form-fitting pattern from which you can draft any kind of garments) by wrapping the doll’s torso with paper towels and tape, then slitting that mold, flattening it, and tracing it off onto cardstock. And then I drafted a sweet little sleeveless sundress and have been sewing it by hand while watching Gentleman Jack. I also drafted an A-line dress to make next. Who knew my teenage obsession with pattern drafting would pay off? (I don’t have the patience to make custom-drafted patterns for actual humans lol)

Hot, hot, hot. I kept a dishpan of ice water handy all day to soak my feet in.

I’ve figured out a formula for delicious single-serving lemonade! First, make simple syrup, which is one part sugar and one part water, heated until the sugar disolves. So make a batch of simple syrup and keep it in a clean jar or something. When you want lemonade, take your biggest tumbler and fill it halfway with ice. Juice a lemon. Measure the lemon juice as you add it to the ice — I use a tablespoon. Now, nearly fill the glass with cold water and then add simple syrup. The proportions are up to you, so taste as you go. I find that a 1:1.5 proportion is usually good, e.g. four tablespoons of lemon juice to six tablespoons of syrup but I always taste before I add the final spoon of syrup. Some lemons are sourer than others. Stir it up and enjoy!

103° today. I’ve been VERY careful not to get overheated. I soak my feet in cold water the minute they feel unpleasantly hot, and I have a wet cloth draped around my neck while I lie like a Victorian maiden on the couch in the breeze of the ceiling fan. All the shades are drawn, so although it’s hot in the house it’s still 15° cooler than outside.

This morning I went to my Pulmonary Rehab appointment with a lovely woman named Michelle. Turns out my insurance will cover an evaluation, but they won’t cover treatment (lulz). Michelle said that’s fine, there’s no reason for me to go to appointments for something I can easily do on my own. She showed me a few simple quick little exercises that I can do while seated, to warm up my heart, lungs, and muscles before I take a 2-minute easy walk. The thought of walking for twenty minutes is intimidating, but two minutes I can do (when it’s cooler)! I’m pleased that I can do something beneficial without straining myself. Very very pleased.

Ate a whole burrito over the course of the day, and a little dish of the nectarine crumble that I made yesterday. It is out of this world, omg. I’ll be making it again asap! And I don’t usually eat the things I bake. Not really into sweets except ice cream sometimes. But oh man. Nectarine crumble. Dude. It has very little added sugar so you mostly just taste nectarine, with a little oaty texture from the crumble. (Crimble-crumble, for you Friday Night Dinner fans :D)

Hoo buddy it was a scorcher, and tomorrow will be worse. I took a long cold bath in the middle of the day, which really helped me cope. Every night before bed I soak my feet in ice cold water. Can’t sleep with hot feet.

I baked a nectarine crumble with a pile of nectarines that were getting old. Haven’t tried it yet but Dave said it was good, though a little underdone. I forgot that our oven runs cool. I’ll pop it back in and bake it a while longer tomorrow (cause it’s a great idea to bake in 103° heat lol)

I still have almost no appetite and am about 25lbs underweight, but I just realized that I’ve recently been interested in cooking again. I’ve gone probably six months without being able to even think about food, so this is a nice change. I made mashed potatoes for dinner last night, and with the leftovers today I made a couple of cottage pies, one for the freezer and one for today. And I ate a small helping, too! I also decided to make a big batch of Kayray’s World-Famous pasta salad so I have lots of ready-made cold food for the upcoming heatwave, and I ate a small helping of that, too. (Recipe is here somewhere, just search for “pasta salad”)

And then Dave had a bowl of pears and cream for pudding (dessert) and I had a little bit too. That’s three things I ate today! Yay me! Maybe the tweaked thyroid meds are finally starting to work?

Housework this morning! I cleaned the roomba’s brushes (so much long red hair) and set him to work on the floors. Did all the washing-up and wiped down the counters. Dumped the compost. Watered the garden and planted bean seeds. Repotted the two houseplants I bought at Birds and Bees. (Ficus benjamina and a “satin” pothos)

Much cooler today. Woke up feeling pretty good so I went to the pharmacy to buy antiseptic for Dave’s toe. He managed to scrape a huge piece of skin off and it bled and bled. (This is the big toe on his “good” foot, poor guy!) He showed it to his podiatrist yesterday and she was quite concerned. He’s back on antibiotics and now must wear a protective boot on each foot. Ugh!

And then I went to a different nursery, a sweet little mom-and-pop one, and bought some seeds, compost, and a couple of houseplants.

I harvested a big handful of green beans and steamed them for lunch! And then I was exhausted an$ did nothing for the rest of the day. I would have played a little WoW but can’t find my bluetooth mouse.

I made cauliflower-cheese today, yay! And I even ate a bit. I was going to make a salad, too, but I ran out of steam.

Can’t find my kara-size boyshorts pattern (isn’t that always how it is?) so i traced off another copy. There are rainbow undies in my future.

Damn this fatigue. There is so much I want to do, but when the fatigue hits I can only lie around all day.

Every morning and evening I check on my garden. I’m amazed at how well it’s doing, what with my black thumb! There are lots of baby zukes and cukes, and tiny tomatoes like little green pearls. There will be enough green beans to harvest in a few days. The potato and strawberries seem inches bigger every day, and the sunflowers are way taller than me and beginning to bloom!