Wednesday Write It PWYC

[CathyS]

For those of you who are friends with me on FB, I posted a wonderful "Li$+". I now see it's good for most of us here. (It's a li$+ of things to ignore regarding Thanksgiving for Americans as drawn by Sandra Boynton.)


Dishwasher is going. Bread is cooling.

Dh and I discussed supper. I am going to go pick us up a couple of subs from Firehouse subs. I have no idea if this is an American chain or a Canadian one. Each one supports a local firehall with donations. Plus their subs are really good.

[Elizabeth]

Hi everyone! Dinner with friends went well, no surprise invitation to the x and the other woman to contend with. Is xBFF getting a clue? I was quizzed out on whether I had joined any of the meetup groups she had suggested. One actually sounds like a lot of fun, a hiking group. Unfortunately, my time constraints and their activities don't mesh well. The other - no way no how. The way the xBFF initially described it a few weeks ago sounded fun, similar to another group she was in whose purpose was to go out as a group and have do things. Like we did in grad school. But last night, she goofed and called it by its real name - a singles group. Nope nope nope. She is getting back into meetups, so the boyfriend must really be history. She wants to eventually get married, but statistically that is not likely. Dinner was pushed back to 630 which left me enough time to get cat supplies.

Tonight's essentials are: return overdue library book, pet sitter instructions, pack, slice turkey. It is not promising on leaving early, weather will not be coming in until after work. I discussed tomorrow's plans with my friend. I will get up at 9 am tomorrow and put our stuff in the camper and hook up. Then, drive to her house and put her stuff in. We will eat lunch at a place all 3 of us love and DD17 can eat with no issues. We will probably cook the turkey and do Thanksgiving Friday. I was also able to talk to her about the much deferred Slovenia trip. I don't have enough vacation time or money to do a trip DD wants + Slovenia. The latter will likely be put off another 3 years. (I can't do 2021 because that will be DD's graduation trip). One day, I would like to go to Costa Rica, but that won't be happening any time soon. I don't know how that would work with DD's GF diet.

There are Firehouse Subs in New Mexico. They, too, work with a fire station.

[lucylee]

LadyM, I think there are a lot of state rivalries being played this weekend, but I'm not sure -- just thinking, it's close to the end of the season. For example, the SEC championship will be played next weekend, so all SEC games have to be finished up by this weekend. Almost all SEC games this weekend will be major rivalries, but not all in-state -- South Carolina plays Clemson, Arkansas plays Missouri, LSU -- Texas A&M. But it's Georgia/Georgia Tech weekend, Florida/Florida State, etc. (I did NOT know all this off the top of my head -- we have a schedule on the refrigerator that shows all the SEC games all season. And that is not at dh's request -- dbil's girlfriend's workplace gives these out every year and dgs loves them. DGS is constantly playing a "pretend" game in the house and he looks at this schedule to see what each team's mascot is.)

Well, I'm dressed and ready to go. DH is in the shower. I certainly hope we get to H... D... before the man I talked to leaves, because the man who replaces him at 3:00 pm knows next to nothing -- based on last week's experience.

So guess what? I found a page in the P assionate P enny P incher site that offered FREE downloads of the "home planner pages."
Mmm-hmm. They gave me exactly THREE pages, none which are for this week or next. Two random weeks from Sept. and Nov., and one budget planning page. There is no way I will ever use their budget pages, because that's just not our style -- I basically leave financial stuff up to dh and so far it has worked pretty well. I don't mean I have no say in how we spend our money, just that I don't have to worry about it because dh is so OCD. I keep the checkbook, write the checks, and reconcile the statement. We have never had a real disagreement regarding any kind of money matters. Both of us are pretty thrifty, but because he spends so much on sports tickets, he understands if there is something I really want.
(This planner is not something I think I really want. I am the one holding myself back on it, because I just think in spite of how attractive it is, it would just be useless.)

It just occurred to me -- if I ever need someone/something to tell me some specific task to do TODAY, ASAP -- F lylady still allows access to her daily missions and things like that without buying a subscription. At least I'm pretty sure she does.
PLUS -- last night I figured out how to do a 5x8 page in Microsoft Word, so I can print pages of my own design that will fit in my preferred notebook!
Ta-da!

[Nancy]

I got the leaves off of the patio for another round of exercise.
H. Is home I am working on another sign.
Made a sug.fr. jello.

[Harmony]

Lucylee, good luck figuring out what you want to use. I'm going to look at my tried-and-true household notebook once the holidays are behind us and see what I can do. After all my work, I have 2 places not touched. One is half done.

Not a great morning in the kitchen. I need to tweak the recipe for the pumpkin pie. Using the almond milk was fine last time. This time, ah not so much. Could not get it to thicken up so baked it forever, and crust is rather well-done. Ak, everybody will just have to eat what they can. I made brownies so DGS with the milk allergies will have something... and I have an apple pie to put in. EEgads. We shouldn't be eating this junk anyway. Only pie that turned out lovely was the mince meat which only DH will eat. Yay for him. I like it too but it gives me acid something fierce...

Had to run get my prayer cards from church, and I stopped for a bag of ice. DH informs me we could have used 2 by the time it melts around all the warm beverages...well, bully for that. I bought one... that'll have to do.

And then, there's the problem with my hair. She left the sides a bit heavy and long - think basset hound ears.... so I took our hair scissors and hacked away at it. It's for sure not even, but better I guess. Currently I have some rollers in it.

Need to clear off the kitchen table so we can use it tonight. There is always much more to do. I spent way too much time fussing with the camera and I got a picture in our creative place here. That was a huge challenge!

Cathy, Bobby Goldsborough: and Honey(?) I miss you... and I'm feeling blue. ♫ Now I have that in my head and yes that's a real sad song.

[lucylee]

Harmony... ((((HUGS))))... I couldn't help but LOL...

...well, bully for that. I bought one... that'll have to do.
...
And then, there's the problem with my hair. She left the sides a bit heavy and long - think basset hound ears.... so I took our hair scissors and hacked away at it.

I know it's not all so funny from where you're sitting but it sounds like the makings of a good sit-com as I'm reading it!

As far as our little drama goes, we do have window shades ordered now. And I was right -- the blackout shades are NOT available in the "in stock" brands. Had to order custom shades for the bedroom & master bath. These cost a small fortune. So we just got those three blackout, so maybe the sun won't be so bright in the mornings waking us up now... and then did the cheap "room darkening" for the rest of the windows. Nine windows total. Ridiculous expense... but dh said we needed to do it, none of our shades work right anymore, and it was either do it now or forget about it. Dmom helped put it in perspective for me when she said I should divide the cost by the 34 years the others have lasted, and then I would feel better.
Sigh.

We ate at Chili's -- but dh wished he had not eaten the chili, LOL. Said now he can't taste anything else. He had a turkey sandwich and salad, and I had bacon ranch quesadillas. Didn't notice that was ALL they had -- no other meat -- so I was a bit aggravated with myself -- but I had chili and a salad too, and my order came with chips and salsa -- so we are both STUFFED now.

On the way home, stopped at dmom's to get hand-mixer for ddil, cans for elderly friend who recycles, and part of dmom's bday gift for dgd. (an antique doll-size rocker, which I am to wrap tonight, along with the doll I got her w/dmom's money yesterday.)
Dropped off the cans at friend's house... met ddil here with the mixer... now... on to prepare the chicken and dressing. I dread this.

[Harmony]

Aw, Lucylee, your chicken and dressing will be just fine. It can't be as bad as my pumpkin pie. I made some iced tea and put that in the cooler on top of the dwindling ice.

I made my stuffing. I didn't make extra gobs of it, there's only 6 of us, we have way too much food here planned. I am scaling back. At least the volume of it.

Dinner was a bust. DD's schedule got in the way...and I should not be surprised...but it would have been nice to have had another evening together. Much thought why this bothered me so much... I'm pretty stoic about things and mostly we just put one foot in front of the other and continue on with our life as it is. The answer I got in my head has to do with being lonely for family. Those of you who live in the same location as your kin are mighty lucky.

Moving on. I guess I'll put my corn bread in the oven. This better turn out. I guess I should bake the apple pie too. That'll be good, I didn't make that one.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

(((Harmony))) I know I'm lucky and understand why you are a bit disappointed.

[Harmony]

Well, they are coming now and nobody has eaten I have bbq ready to pop into the micro and fries to go into the oven. I washed the strawberries and grapes. I can't believe it's this late and I'm doing this.

Pie came out nicely. Corn bread looks good too, it puffed way up. Those are for tomorrow.

We had a scavenger hunt all over the house for the bed mattress air thing. The 2 mattresses were in the bin without the little machine. After a while, DH found it on a shelf. So that's done now and the pull out bed in the living room is set up and made. Having company for a nice holiday dinner is totally different from the ones that come to stay.

Getting so late, probably nobody will get up for breakfast except for DH.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Home. Will head to bed shortly. I was waiting up so I could take my next dose of ibuprofen. By alternating all day with acetaminophen, I've kept the back pain at a 3 or lower and was able to drop down to 200 mg of ibuprofen dosages instead of 400 mg at a time through the day. I needed the 400 mg in the morning after nothing through the night.

Singing went well. Being ready for the meeting about services went well.

Because the tire was worked on, on Monday, dh tightened the bolts when we got to our destination, which was just over the 60 miles recommended. It wasn't raining by the time we arrived so he did it then which was good since it was pouring when we came out.

The drive to ds's was faster than expected which messed ds up (he needed the extra 20 minutes to clean) but it was a relief it wasn't too bad. Dd was well behind us because 1) they got stuck behind a tractor for a long time on back roads, and 2) she realized they would be driving right by our old house in the village so insisted on taking a detour to show it to dgs.

We had a lovely dinner of pulled pork on buns with coleslaw, pickles, and chips. Ds did very well. He used a recipe from one of the nurses, going out last night at 8 p.m. (after he woke up) to get the meat, then staying up until 3 to put it on in the slow cooker. He wasn't quite sure of the instructions so called the hospital and tracked down the nurse for instructions! When he woke up today, it was ready to be pulled and he then just kept it warm.

Dgs loved ds's house because of the trains. Four went by, not including the Holiday Train. The holiday train sat just outside the town and blew its whistle lots of times to draw people to the train station. Then it came closer and we could just see it but a freight train and a passenger train had to come through first. Then it came in.

Dgs stayed right until the end, although we had to move away from the concert because it was too loud for him. He also had a chance to sit up in a fire truck but thought he'd rather stay down on the ground! And he decided to not visit Santa but spent a long time watching him visit with other children.

Our drive home was miserable because it was rainy, foggy, and still deer season, with a large portion of the drive through a nature preserve.

I've tidied the apartment a bit and will head to bed after attending to the banking that I couldn't finish up this morning because the transfer of funds didn't arrive in a timely manner.