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Hot. I sewed Mikey’s little shorties! It’s funny — the most time-consuming part of sewing is pattern prep and fabric cutting. The actual sewing is fast, at least on garments I’ve made a million times and don’t need to think about.

And then I was exhausted and just lay around till dinner time, when I made us a beautiful green salad to share. So crunchy and juicy and delicious.

I cut out all the pieces for Mikey‘s rainbow outfit! Still fatigued from yesterday so that’s about all I did.

We got our weekly delivery from MilkRun — such beautiful fruits and veggies. A huge head of lettuce, a giant bunch of spring onions, potatoes, radishes (straight into the compost bin yuck) beets (I’ve already boiled and pickled them), three big green peppers, blueberries, apples, oranges, lemons, peaches. Also milk for the Englishman’s tea :D

Met the young ones in a park and hung out for a while, and then we got ice cream cones at the Neighborhood Creamery. Got home exhausted from sun and family but had to assist Dave with a plumbing emergency so I’m wiped out tonight. Hope i can sew tomorrow.

Had a bit of a rough night last night but felt ok today anyway. That’s… six days in a row of not feeling horrible! Also I think it has been at least six days without night-sweats, so maybe my new thyroid regime is starting to work. Fingers crossed.

The rainbow striped fabric arrived! Since I had to pre-wash it in hot, I decided to strip the beds and wash the sheets at the same time, which means I also made the beds with the other set of nice clean sheets, which meant I took a shower and washed my hair so I could really enjoy those nice clean sheets tonight. Chain reaction of cleanliness. :D

I also washed a load of Dave’s clothes and made two more pairs of boyshorts undies for Lulu – two sizes bigger than the test pair!

This morning Henry texted that Freyja had woken him up by patting his back and saying her first real word: uh’nana! So he got up and gave her what she’d requested, a banana. Darling little person!

Oh my god the weather has been absolutely PERFECT all week. High 70s to low 80s, blue skies, warm gentle breezes, a pleasant level of humidity. I’ve been spending hours just sitting on the deck in the shade near my garden and enjoying the warm air on my skin and listening to the birds and bugs. I saw a couple of bumblebees busily visiting the blossoms on my tomatoes and cucumbers. Good job bees!

I’ve been feeling pretty good all week too. In the morning I did the washing-up, dosed my garden with bone meal and composted manure, and then spent a few hours tracing off patterns so I can sew for the littles when my fabric arrives. And now I’m sitting outside again, listening to Mom playing Bach over FaceTime.

My garden is doing so well that I’m itching to start more veggies for an autumn harvest. Maybe I’ll go to a nursery this weekend and buy some more seeds and soil for my containers.

Finally got to the end of a really terrible audiobook… I don’t want to name the author and title in case she goes ego-surfing and finds me — if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything (in public). Oh my god it was tedious. I had to finish in case it magically improved toward the end; it did not. It got dumber and sillier and more boring! Author’s initials are L. U. and title is L. G. G. This was the second thriller of hers that I’ve read (both terrible) so I give up on her.

Went to Safeway this morning for a few dinner ingredients. Dave had bought some ground lamb and wanted to make lamb burgers with onions and mushrooms with a tossed salad so I bought mushrooms and salad ingredients and we had a great dinner! Two bites of meat for me and half the salad. :D

I still weigh 98lbs. No improvement in my appetite yet.

Feeling good again! Dave took Sal to the airport this morning because I had a conflicting doctor appointment — just a pcp check-in, no big deal. on the way home I went to a fabric store to try to find cute animal print cotton jersey for kid clothes but it was all awful murky colors. Then I tried to find some online and ran into the same problem — either awful or $20/yard. So I chose some cute rainbow stripes instead, on sale at knitfabric.com. Got five yards for a wee discount — plenty of fabric to make lots of little things.

And i also stopped at the garden center for bone meal and composted manure to keep my garden healthy.

Then home to rest.

Mom and I drove over to Henry’s in the morning to pick up her iPad that she’d left behind, and stopped at New Seasons for ratatouille ingredients on the way home.

I actually felt well enough today to chop and cook all those lovely veggies! Ratatouille is a Commitment. So much chopping, and then I partly cook each type of veggie separately before mixing them all together to simmer in a big pot. That way the onion is soft and caramelized, the eggplant is thoroughly cooked, and the peppers and zucchini still have texture. Big job.

Now I’m just sitting on the sofa under the ceiling fan and staying cool. My garden loves this summer weather! My tomatoes are starting to blossom, my pole beans are COVERED with tiny baby beans, the strawberries are starting to blossom, the sunflowers are getting tall and budding, the zucchini grows bigger every day, and I even have a couple of cucumber blossoms! My garden isn’t a FailBoat! (Knock on wood…)

The whole crew came over around noon, to drop Sal off for her last few days and to hang out. Henry worked, Jayla made important calls, and we all wrangled the children. Exhausting. Heheh. Freyja can boldly take a few steps! And Lulu is wonderful. She tried on the undies I made for her — I thought they’d be too big but they are nearly too small! I’ll go up a size or two and make a batch when the weather is cooler and the guest room is my sewing room again.

Also planning to make a comfy summer outfit for Jayla’s little brother Mikey, who’s about to turn three. She says he likes animals so I’ll try to find a fun animal print cotton jersey at JoAnn’s. That’s the one thing — cotton jersey — that the Good fabric store doesn’t have much of, oddly.

Hot hot hot today. But the nights and mornings are GLORIOUS even when it’s 95° in the daytime.

Gorgeous summer day. Feeling like myself again! I did three things today. I sewed a pair of undies for Lulu (and will make more after she tries them on), and I baked a yeasted lemon cake, and I played some WoW!

So nice to feek ok again. Hope it lasts a few days.

We’ve been watching the Chernobyl miniseries — first time for Dave, fourth time for me. So damn good.

Had enough energy this morning to go with Dave to Lowe’s and choose a new bathroom sink, which was fun. We always have such a good time together. Now we need to wait till Henry comes to visit so we can ask his help in getting the box out of the van.

I crashed at about 1pm and spent the rest of the day lying down. Maybe tomorrow I can do something creative!

Today was better. Drove mom over to Henry’s for the weekend and hung out for a while. When I got home I just rested for the remainder of the day.

Just beyond exhausted. Missing one dose of mirtazapine really killed me. Bleak gray mood too. Did nothing all day.

Mom is here, yay! We had a lovely time this evening sitting around and discussing all of our ailments. We’re so old!

So freaking tired today. Pharmacy let me run out of Mirtazapine so I missed a dose last night which means I didn’t sleep and am having withdrawals. Thank goodness it arrived today so tomorrow should be better.

So freaking tired today. Tidied up a bit in the morning cause Mom is coming for a visit tomorrow, and read my new book for a while. “Footnotes” by Peter Fiennes. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44591254

Played a little WoW, then just lay down with my eyes closed and listened to the Taskmaster podcast for the rest of the day.

This morning i did some housework and tended my garden. All my veggies are still alive and bigger every day! And then I reinstalled WoW and my favorite add-ons and had a nice session of adventuring in Azeroth. And then I started reading the book that Henry surprised me with yesterday! Of course I’m in bed now and can’t remember the title or author (I’ll post that info tomorrow), but it’s excellent and just my kind of thing. Henry heard Rick Steves praising it on the radio and bought me a copy! Dear, sweet, thoughtful Henry. *heart eyes*

Dave checked the stove when he got home last night and it lit with only a little effort. D’oh. He says it probably needed to be primed. But that doesn’t explain why the igniter didn’t click for me! Oh well, I was able to cook spaghetti today, just with basic jarred marinara but it was nice to have pasta again.

Everyone came over so Henry coukd help Dave build stuff and unload stuff and set stuff up in the mighty workshop. I read to Lulu for ages, and the baby enjoyed the spaghetti!

All day — ALL DAY — I was lookimg firward to pasta for dinner, just nice basic spaghetti with sauce out of a jar. (we haven’t had gas to cook with in 17 days). So tonight I fill up my pot, get out my ingredients, and … the stove won’t light.

Great gnashing of teeth!

It doesn’t even click, so I think when the Gas Man shoved it back into place he unplugged it. And certainly no gas is coming through. Our stove doesn’t ignite properly so we need to use a match every time, and if there were any gas around the burner my match would have ignited it.

Dave’s out, at some far-away hardware and/or woodworking store, so it’s microwaved food for dinner again. Cross your fingers that I can have pasta soon.

I don’t remember if I mentioned my medication changes. Endocrinologist is adding T3 to my meds, and cardiologist is letting me cut the amiodarone by half. And he’s switching me to a different diuretic that might not mess with my stomach so badly. Typing these words feels very familiar so I expect this isn’t new information here on kayray.org. Anyway, I’m hoping these changes will alleviate some of my horrible symptoms and I’ll be able to put on some weight. (I’m 98 lbs again)

The Gas Man finished fixing everything, the Gas Company inspected and turned our mains back on, and we have hot water again! After 16 days! Yay!!!

While the gas has been turned off (two weeks and counting) I discovered it’s possible to cook rice in the microwave. My stomach has been so iffy lately that plain rice has sounded nice, but I want some veggies too, so I bought a sack of TJ’s frozen mixed veggies. So to make my current favorite bland dinner, you put 1/3 c jasmine rice and 2/3 c water in a LARGE bowl. Cover with a plate, nuke for 7 minute. Stir, dump in some frozen veggies, cover, nuke for 3 more minutes. Perfect.

Tonight I seasoned it with a shake of TJ’s Chili Lime Seasoning. Yummy! And still fairly bland :D