U. F. FLO.

1. The rain has definitely arrived. I was able to get out and take a walk this morning during a break in the rain (and it didn't seem to have been very heavy before then anyway), but once I got home, it started raining and I wasn't able to go out in the garage to do my morning exercise (and puzzle time). It rained pretty steadily on my way to work, but wasn't pouring when I arrived, so I was able to get in the building without getting too wet. According to Carla, it rained off and on throughout the day, though she was able to get out for a little walk this afternoon. When I left work, it wasn't raining, and I thought maybe if it still was dry when I got home, we could take our evening walk before any further rain, but alas, it started raining almost as soon as I got out of the parking lot and only got heavier and heavier as I got closer to home. It's been raining pretty hard all evening, though I was able to get out to the garage for a bit when there was a short break, so I was able to use the exercise machine today. Still hoping there might be another break long enough to take another walk later, but we may have to skip it tonight. It's supposed to rain for the whole next week, with a couple maybe less rain days in the middle, so we'll see how this goes. (A bit bummed that it's going to be too rainy to make Disneyland pleasant tomorrow, because it's the start of the holiday season and we want to try to new foods, but we're hoping to go Sunday as that should have some less rainy periods.)

2. So glad it's the weekend. I'm making progress on stuff at work, but feeling stressed and blah about the project as a whole and just ready for a break.

3. It's payday today and when I went to pay bills I found that the air miles credit card suddenly charged me a membership fee. It had no membership fee when we signed up, but apparently that was just for the first year. Since discovering that the miles don't work well for a trip to Japan, the only thing they're useful for is Carla's occasional domestic trips to visit family, but it's not worth keeping the card if there's a fee. I checked the statement and it said you can get a refund for the fee if you cancel your card within 30 days of the fee being charged, so thankfully today was only ten days and I was able to cancel. Hopefully I will indeed see the charge reversed soon.

4. Gemma!

1. I had late afternoon meetings today, but both were by web, so rather than take them at work and then get home later, I came home early and took them at home, which worked out nicely.

2. Carla made egg salad and we had sandwiches for dinner and they were very tasty. Had some zesty yuzu potato chips with them, which I brought home from work the other day, and those were also very tasty.

3. I always see people doing Throwback Thursday photos after I've already uploaded my cat photo for the day, but today I remembered before uploading! Look how cuddly Molly and Chloe were when they were babies!

1. We finished up another puzzle.



This is the cat side of the two-sided Disney dogs and cats puzzle we got recently. I was anticipating the double-sidedness being a higher difficulty setting but since the "back" side of the puzzle has a matte finish and the "front" is glossy, it was actually very easy to tell which was which. What did add to the difficulty was the fact that the outer edges are just one color. What I ended up doing with some of them was actually checking the back side to see if there was any color on there other than the background green, and fitting those pieces in first, then finally working on the ones that were just single color on both sides and going by shape alone. The actual illustration itself was pretty easy to work on and went quickly (especially since both of us were working on it). I'm looking forward to doing the dog side at some point, but not going directly into that one next.

2. I used up the last of the croquettes we had in the freezer when I made the curry on Sunday, and Carla was wishing we had some more to have with the leftovers, but rather than buy another package (which would have resulted in leftover croquettes), we hit on the idea of using the last few frozen aloo tiki, and they worked very nicely! Now that's yet another thing gone from the freezer (and both they and the croquettes were suuuuuuuper icy, so they really needed to get used up).

3. Jasper!

1. We walked up to Layla's for bagels this morning. We tried to go last week, but made the mistake of going at lunchtime and the line was out the door and down the block, so we got lunch elsewhere lol. But today we got there before eight and it was busy, but no long line.

2. I was about to make hummus this afternoon when I found that the last of the tahini had mold on it, so I walked over to the tiny Indian store a block or so away, but they didn't have any! However, I had once gotten tahini at another market within close walking distance, so I went over there and they still had it. I didn't love that brand that they had, but I also didn't want to get in the car and go somewhere else, so I'll settle this time. (Then I got home and realized I wasn't totally sure I had any cans of chick peas left, but there was one! So I was able to make my hummus.)

3. I guess this post is going to be all about food, because I made some really delicious curry for dinner. And I used the last of the croquettes that had been in the freezer for ages. We've been doing a decent job of eating stuff up out of the freezer and not buying a whole bunch more stuff to fill it up. I really want to fully clean it out and stock it with stuff we're actually going to use regularly, but that's a long-haul project.

4. Oh, one non-food related point. I got out in the shed today and did some organizing. Got the box of ornaments out and put in the garage with the tree, and also found several things we decided we no longer need and could put out on the curb, including a giant suitcase which was taking up a huge amount of space. We really only use smaller suitcases or bags, so this one hadn't been used in years and years. It also had a bunch of other unused purses and backpacks that we decided could go.

5. Sleepy Gemma!

We had originally been planning to go tomorrow, but changed it to today as tomorrow is supposed to be a lot hotter (boo). Today was still pretty sunny, but not actually that hot.

( Read more... )

Recently Finished
The Roanoke Girls
I grabbed this on an Audible two for one sale because it sounded like it could be interesting but alas, it was not for me. As a teen, the MC went to live with her grandparents and cousin after her mother's suicide, having never had any contact with them before. She stays with them for a summer and then leaves suddenly. Then ten years later she gets a call from her grandfather saying her cousin is missing and she should come home. The story is told in alternating timelines, slowly revealing the events of that summer as she tries to solve her cousin's disappearance in the present. I thought it would be a mystery/thriller, but honestly it was more like a VC Andrews/Jackie Collins shlockfest. I would have loved this when I twelve, like I loved Flowers in the Attic, but it's not really my thing now.

( Various complaints with lots of spoilers )

Thornfruit
Fantasy novel with an f/f romance and a lot of palace intrigue type stuff. The first half was pretty slow and I was kind of feeling like I might not bother with further books, but it got a lot better in the second half and I think I will read the next one.

The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America
In the end I felt like this just wasn't critical enough for me. I also would have liked more focus on homeschooling as well as vouchers and charter schools, since that's another way the right is trying to kill public schools, but it was barely touched on (just one mention of a supposed charter school that was actually homeschoolers). The structure of the book is also sort of focused around various court cases, and has no wrap up at the end, just the most recent court case as of the time of writing and then that's it. I was expecting some discussion about what could be done to try to repair things, but it was sort of like, welp, they've won, the end.

The Kill Clause
Short story about a woman who works as an assassin but realizes her employer has decided she's outlived her usefulness. This was free with Amazon's First Reads program, which is where I've been picking up some random short stories lately. It was all right. I wouldn't have bothered with it if I'd had to pay, though.

My Home Hero vol. 7-9

1. Prop 50 passed! Apparently it was so overwhelming they basically announced it as soon as the polls closed lol. I kept seeing other various wins in other states throughout the day, too. It's been so nice to have a day that's just good political news rather than crushing despair, you know?

2. I have now been tasked with helping our transition to a new warehouse management software as well as our inventory management software, though I am just an advisor for the former, rather than project manager, so I won't have a whole lot of work to do with it, but they've just started initial meetings, so my involvement now is high. Today was an all-day meeting at the warehouse itself, so that was fun. Tomorrow is all day, too, but I'm joining from home, so at least I won't need to leave the house by 8am like I did today. I'm getting up a lot earlier these days (I think I woke up at 6:15 today), so it's still plenty of time to do my morning routine (chores, breakfast, take a walk, use the exercise machine), but definitely feels a bit more rushed than I'd prefer.

3. They posted the holiday foodie guides for Disneyland & DCA and Festival of Holidays. I'm kind of disappointed with the Festival of Holidays offerings this year as it's mostly repeats, though there's definitely stuff we're looking forward to. Lots of good stuff in the main menus, though.

4. My Jasper guy!

We had originally planned to go to Disneyland for dinner (with Carla coming down to work with me and doing shopping etc. while I had meetings for a few hours), but as I was thinking about it, I realized we could go to Disneyland first for lunch and then go to work for my meetings and just come home and relax in the evening, so that's what we did!

( Read more... )

1. I worked from home in the morning but did go in to work in the afternoon for a meeting. I'm feeling mostly all better but do have a bit of a lingering cough still.

2. Instagram seems to have finally fixed the issue where it was saving copies of photos I post on my phone, even if I had the settings checked so it was not supposed to do that. It was fine for years and then a few months ago just started randomly saving the photos, meaning I have to remember to delete them off my phone every time or end up with dupes of everything I post there. Googling only got me instructions to turn off the setting related to that, which was already off. I tried turning it on and off again, logging out of my account, etc. to no avail, so I just decided to live with it and the annoyance of deleting the photos, for the convenience of Instagram crossposting to facebook, though it was very tempting to just abandon my Instagram account altogether. Anyway, a few days ago it just as randomly stopped saving photos. Fingers crossed it doesn't break again, or this time I really might just give up on it, since I don't really use it much other than for posting my daily cats.

3. And with that, a daily cat:

1. Still not covid. I'll test one more time tomorrow, but I think if it's not showing anything after four days I can safely say it's a cold. Still feeling pretty good overall.

2. The farmers market had spicy watermelon fruit leather! Just one package and it was smaller than usual, but they had it. I thought it was totally gone for the season but I guess they had a little bit of watermelon left.

3. It's feeling properly like fall today. Very overcast and chilly all day. This can continue!

4. I love how pensive Molly looks. Contemplating life while enjoying the sun.