multipurposegoddess

What was happening with me yesterday? Oh, right:

• 08:03 Sourdough report: bread from John Muir Day Camp recipe is yum.
• 11:50 Bagel guillotine is here, hooray!

So, the thinking on this is: I make a dozen to 18 bagels once a month, we eat a couple and freeze the rest. Cutting them when they are frozen doesn't work, so I have to slice a whole mess of bagels, and while I am fine doing a few I figure that as x=bagels I slice with a bread knife increases, the probability that I will slice myself but good with said bread knife approaches 1. So, I used a birthday gift certificate from my Mother-in-law to get myself a guillotine (I *think* I got the Cook's Illustrated recommended model...). Next bagel making day is Tuesday, so we'll see how it performs then.

• 11:51 Also hooray: Kurosawa movies on TCM Tuesdays this month. DVR will be getting a workout!
• 11:54 Also got a copy of Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking. Even before I open the cover I am in love with this book.
• 12:13 I'm a little disturbed at how much I want to bake more stuff using Ratio. Must resist. Freezer already full.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

What was happening with me yesterday? Oh, right:

• 18:42 The fancy emory board I thought I bought turns out to be a nail buffer. The words "nail buffer" on the packaging should have given me a clue
• 18:43 Now my nails are all irregularly shaped and raggedy, but shiny.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Yesterday was apparently Cry for No Reason Day. The manicure business didn't set me off, but I went by George's Feed & Seed after signing the paperwork to get the Toyota fixed (not totalled! So happy!) and found that it mostly doesn't meet my needs but I thought I would pick up some dog food since I was there, got up to where you pay and asked if they take debit cards. "No," he says "there was a sign". "Oh, I didn't see it," I say as I check through my purse looking for my checkbook, which I don't have. "Right by the door as ayou came in. Big sign," he repeats. I apologize and leave and burst into tears on the drive home.

Yeah, I don't understand it.

Then I went to see Hats! with my folks (we have season tickets to the theater putting it on) and on the drive over for some reason I got to thinking about Spike Lee movies and why I haven't watched When the Levees Broke (I have complicated feelings about it) and once again with the crying, so I had to sit and pull myself together for a couple of minutes in the car when I got to the theater. Making me weepy again typing it up. Weird.

But dinner was great and the show was okay - very earnest and a little uneven (in the writing, the performances were quite good) with a couple of really cute numbers. The thin thread of plot that held the whole thing together was not really up my alley, but not terrible.

What was happening with me yesterday? Oh, right:

• 09:16 ♫ My baby takes the morning train... ♫ #fb


Henry tried commuting by train yesterday since the Toyota has a big honkin' hole through the engine (went and saw it today b/c the garage owners wanted us to see why we need a new starter motor as well as the new engine we'd already arranged. Kind of neat to look all the way through an engine like that, but still, one car between us 'til this weekend, probably). It was doable, but required one of his co-workers to pick him up at the station on that end and he didn't get home until after 8, so not really a frequent option.

Anyway, earworms me every time.


• 09:57 Relieved to find that pretty clothes on sale right now are not available in my size. Deciding not to buy to save $ would have been hard.


And then today there were these shoes and I had to get them. Could not resist. Sorry, budget.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

What was happening with me yesterday? Oh, right:

• 08:33 Multiple things to do out in the world, today, including several bridge-crossings. Would prefer to remain cloistered.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Did not get ANY of them done. Been full of depressed lethargy all week, it's tiresome but also kind of, I don't know, correct. So, still have a station wagon full of cardboard to go to be recycled, still need to pick up my new PIN so I can use ATMs again, need to get groceries (including dog food, poor guy is being very patient with me).

Did get myself over to the Willows to see On Golden Pond, which was really rather sweet. So that's something.

Off to therapy in a little bit. Certainly feeling my issues today, let's see if I can bring myself to talk about them at all. That'll be fun.

What was happening with me yesterday? Oh, right:

• 13:22 Denied
• 13:35 Completely lacking in ticket buying strategies. This'll be fun.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Spent all day yesterday kind of moping around and not getting much done, and thus feeling bad about not getting anything done and wondering why I was on top of things on Monday and yesterday not so much, WTF was up with that? And my eyes were all kind of swollen and bloodshot and felt basically as if I had been crying a whole lot so my brain was all "Um, body, are we sad? Do I need to figure out what we are sad about? Let me try" all day, which is never good, because even when the answer is "No, no, everything is fine, it's just allergies or something" good old brain will find something to worry about.

Anyway, eventually DH came home and offered to help me close windows and I told him I was opening windows because I was hot, wasn't he hot? and he felt my forehead and declared me Actually Sick, which made me feel much better, really.

So, taking it easy today.

What was happening with me yesterday? Oh, right:

• 12:28 Gah. Postponed re-upping the Nasalcrom one day too long. Anti-allergy cocktail applied, waiting for the relief to start.
• 15:00 Yay, Henry's home (from, ftr, having to go into the office YESTERDAY). Have put him to bed.
• 17:30 Very amused by House jumping the shark

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

I kind of feel like I lost yesterday. Between my sinus headache (now being staved off by Chloraseptic Allergen Block - using it seems weird but it also seems to work) and Henry's bizarro work schedule it was partially an extension of Monday and partially nonexistent. I did get scallops cooked for dinner, though. and they were good. I just love bay scallops, they are probably the treyf I would miss the most (well, and abalone, but I haven't had abalone in a very long time because it's not like I can buy it at Raley's (and also cheeseburgers, but that's a whole different kettle of fish in my head)) when and if I decide to keep kosher.

I came up with a great plan to go out for breakfast today and get Bab's delicious corn beef hash since I completely failed to make a boiled dinner for St. Pat's Day but I am being foiled by DH's desire to not have to get dressed and go out. I can't really demand it, poor guy is still catching up on his sleep debt, bt I don't know what I have on hand to eat...not much, if memory serves and it would be best if I hold off on grocery shopping 'til the paycheck shows up in the bank account...

What was happening with me yesterday? Oh, right:

• 09:18 Should go to Costco.
• 15:28 Went to Wild Birds instead of Costco. And now to the gym. Poor neglected Costco must suffer without me a while longer.
• 22:34 Thoroughly enjoyed Watchmen. I think not re-reading before I saw it was the right choice.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

So I actually went swimming yesterday, which was pretty much my purpose in joining the gym, to have a pool. 6 minutes. 2 laps. HR Zone 3. It's gonna take a long time to get me up to a reasonable amount of swimming as exercise. I think the most practical thing for me to do will be to make a dedicated trip in the middle of the afternoon wearing my suit and a cover-up so I can just dash in and do my tiny bit of swimming and coming home to shower and change, stick to the treadmill when I go with DH because the timing is easier to manage that way. Fortunately, the gym is 5-10 minutes away by car, so I should be able to get over my instinctive but-I-need-to-do-at-least-two-things-while-I-am-out-and-about. I don't even know where that comes from, to be honest. And I"m certainly not up to every day, yet...

What was happening with me yesterday? Oh, right:

• 09:52 Loving the LivePhish free mp3s this morning. Zippy download speeds, even.
• 09:59 Someone else will set my clocks, but I still have to change the batteries in the smoke alarms.
• 10:40 iTunes Visualizer likes Split Open & Melt
• 12:31 Randomly baking a pie
• 18:15 Pie turned out pretty tasty, if not incredibly pie-like. Which is good, as I will be eating it for days.

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Still need to change my smoke alarm batteries.

Not liking this still being dark when I get up in the morning.

So I came across a recipe for a cranberry-pecan pie yesterday and thought to myself, "Pecans, yum. And I always have cranberries. I can make this" Of course, through some bizarre twist I did not actually have cranberries, just some frozen cranberry sauce, but the first step with the cranberries was essentially to make cranberry sauce so I thought that might work. I only had maybe half of what I would have needed for that plan, though, so I filled out the volume with some frozen tropical fruit because that seemed to be all I had. Then DH reminded me we had blueberries, so I threw in some of those. It all ended up pretty tasty, but didn't gel as much as it was supposed to, so the pie is morepudding like when served. It's been chilling in the fridge overnght, however, so it may be more cohesive today.

What was happening with me yesterday? Oh, right:

• 10:57 Stupid money, keeping me from doing important things like rearranging my spices
• 11:03 Leonard Cohen, May 14! Yes!
• 11:17 April 14 </rolling eyes at self>
• 16:25 Spice rack #2 has disappointed me for the last time

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

I don't know that any of that cries out for explication. I've gotten most of the kitchen inventoried, just have chocolate, the tea cupboard, the fridge and the freezer left. DJ is disturbed by the Tupperware (not actual Tupperware brand but I can't think of a good generic term right now) sitting out on the counter rather than tucked away behind a cupboard door, but I haven't decided where I want it, yet. A lot of things have to move, after all.

But, progress.

What was happening with me yesterday? Oh, right:

• 09:06 Must buy critter food before a Looney Toon alliance of bird, cat & dog engineers my downfall.
• 10:44 PetClub bound. Finally.
• 13:16 Well, that was a lot harder than it needed to be
• 13:32 DMV Time!
• 19:29 Migrating more data, woohoo!

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Took the dog to Pet Club, because I can. I think I was actually a more efficient shopper with him in tow, since he will stop at random to sniff things that I know we don't need rather than etting frozen with indecision in an aisle full of bags of dry food trying to remember (a) what kind I got last time (b) whether anyone liked it and (c)how much fits in the container. So that was fine and I got to checkout in what seemed like short order. And at that point I completely failed at using my debit card. My bank sent me a new one recently and a new PIN, which I don't have memorized and the little trick I use to record it where it was not obviously a PIN maybe I didn't do right, I don't know, it didn't work and I didn't have my checkbook and obviously if I don't know my PIN I can't run to an ATM and get cash, and they don't take credit at Pet Club. I was pretty sure the thing the bank mailed me with the PIN on it was sitting on my desk at home, so I asked the ice cashier to set my purchases aside while I ran home and got it. It wasn't there. It wasn't anywhere. I did find my checkbook, though, so I went back without the dog and finished the transaction.

By then it was pretty much to go to lunch and the DMV. Grilled cheese and chili at Bab's, hooray! Grillled cheese comes with fries, which I always forget, and that was too much food. The DMV was pretty painless - we had an appointment and only had to wait a little while, we actually had all the documentation necessary (though DH had forgotten his DL somehow, but they just looked him up and confirmed that that was him), DH knows his PIN so that payment went smoothly and the seller had done the smogging very recently so we don't have to do that, either. Easy is so nice.

Got home and my Parallels and Windows XP discs had arrived, so I spent the rest of the day installing and migrating. Today will be more set up and actual use of my Windows only software (thus far, Quickbooks for work and MasterCook on fatoudust 's recommendation which I've liked but having it only available as a sort of timeshare o my husband's desktop has really limited me. I'm so looking forward to inventorying the pantry!)

Now that I've got 4 accounts and 3 virtual machines on the laptop, I expect some fat-trimming and consolidation is going to be necessary for efficiency. It'll be interesting to see of this makes me more visible, since I will be on the computer after all, or less, since I will probably be doing not very interesting things.