As I rolled over to shut off the alarm this morning the muscles in my calf seized up. While one part of my brain desperately wanted to shut off the beeping alarm, which increases the urgency it beeps at as time goes on, the rest of my brain and body, were busy with “Owowowowow make it loosen up owowow!”, so the aforementioned first bit of brain settled for yelling at the alarm.
That, thankfully, seems to have been my excitement for the morning.
Bwah ha ha ha ha! Today isn’t really Monday, it’s Virtual Sunday!
Friday afternoon I came home to discover a kinda-strange van in the driveway – apparently Marmaduke has his driver’s license now.
Saturday was made of even more flail than usual. We hit Ace, Menard’s, and GFS (in 3 separate trips, for reasons that made sense) in the morning, as well as cleaning up the living room and kitchen, and putting hardware into the belt/hardware case bins that arrived as we were finishing the living room. After lunch Robin had election judge training, so during that we went to Lowe’s and Cabela’s. Not surprisingly, it felt like we’d spent all day driving around.
Yesterday I spent much of the day working on leather, with a break for the MuseCon meeting.
This morning Ron got up at the normal time and left for Saginaw, with a stop in Lansing to have lunch with his parents and meet their new puppy (picture below), who is very cute. This afternoon is the visitation for Xap’s mom and tomorrow is the funeral. Not sure if Ron’s coming home tomorrow night or Wednesday, I told him to stay the extra night that tiring himself out.
Marmaduke spent the night last night, and I have to admit that even though I was awake after Ron getting up and getting ready to go, I hid in the bedroom for a while – I wasn’t quite ready to encounter Robin and Marmaduke quite that early. Although they are more restrained this morning.
Plan for the day is to work on leather stuff.
And here is a picture of my in-laws’ dogs. Bard is a Briard, Galadriel is a Beauceron. Looking at those paws she’s going to be a big girl – Wikipedia says females are 26-28″ at the shoulder, 66-85 lbs. Unfortunately, Galie had her ears cropped (I like the natural ears better) – the whole litter was done prior to determining which puppies would be show quality and which would be pet quality.
I should have known better than than to go to VS Wednesday night. We weren’t out all that late, but on top of still being tired from Capricon it was late enough. I woke up still tired, and with a sinus headache and upset tummy. The sinus headache was mostly due to the yo-yo weather, not helped by being tired, and the upset tummy was due to the headache and being tired.
Although I got up, got dressed, and downstairs, I decided I wasn’t going to make it to work. Eventually I got back upstairs and changed into slobbing around the house clothes. I puttered around doing Otter-ish stuff for a while, did some dishes, read, played simple games on the iPad, and went to bed early. Truly, an exciting day.
Most of my reading time yesterday was spent on “The Various Haunts of Men” by Susan Hill. It’s a murder mystery set in an English town. I can’t say much without major spoilers, but I did enjoy it. I didn’t figure out who the murderer was until the author revealed it, although I might have had suspicions had I been more awake. I kinda expected DCI Barnaby to wander in/through, but that’s a different series by a different author. And the families weren’t nearly disfunctional enough or enough illicit affairs going on for it to be a Midsomer village.
I thought “The Various Haunts of Men” was supposed to be on the gothic side, but it wasn’t. I may be thinking the another of her books, “The Woman in Black”, which I downloaded yesterday. We’ll see.
The sinus headache wasn’t the worst I’ve ever had, but it did resist my everyday antihistimine, painkiller, and a decongestant. It would get better and worse with no apparent pattern. It’s still with me today, as it happens; but being more rested I’m putting up with it much better.
Still tired today, wouldn’t have minded sleeping in again. Elrond gave me permission to stay home, but he does that every day.
I meant to do a PeaPod order to be delivered this evening, but I forgot. We have food for tonight, and more in the freezer, so the question is doing PeaPod for tomorrow or waiting until Thursday. Tomorrow night we need to go to VS to reclaim some belongings that went home with other people from the party or sale table, but that’s not until 7:30. Decisions, decisions.
Headachey last night and this morning. I think its sinus, Eowyn was looking uncomfortable too (gave her a dose of Benadryl).
So, this post could be stated more succinctly as: it’s virtual Monday. Bleah.
Thursday Robin and I went to school/work, and in the evening baked chocolate-chip brownies and oatmeal-craisin bar cookies, and I worked on pouches.
We decided to let Robin miss school Friday, so he and I got to the hotel about 10-ish. I spent most of the day in the Cafe, Robin was here and there and everywhere, as he was Tech second
Robin spent Saturday and Sunday night at the hotel, so I came home alone Friday night – with a bag of plain chicken sandwiches and burgers for me and the dogs. They’ll forgive a late supper for people food (which they also did Saturday).
Saturday I worked in the Cafe, at the MuseCon sale table, and helped with setup for the MuseCon party. Nachos didn’t go well, I think partly people missed them. We’ll give them another try at WisCon, and the plan is to have a nice LED-lighted sign to help publicize them. Much interest in MuseCon
Sunday I um, bought another corset, this time one that goes over the bust. So did Ron – for back support. I think I left the hotel 4:30, decided I wanted Real Food, stopped at EuroFresh for stuff to make a curry stew, and came home and started work on that while Roon followed Dave and Robin to the locker to help unload A/V equipment. I think it was about 8 by the time they got hom
Robin worked his kilt off, both for Dave and in the Cafe, so we gave him today off, too.
The Borg brought the iPad up from Champaign, Thanks Muchly Borg! Doing this entry on it, which is entertaining because I can’t actually see the (expletive) cursor. Which is also why this entry is so brief. Perhaps blogspot will behave better….
I think my cold has almost, but not quite, run its course. Still a smidge tired and a tiny bit more snuffly than usual due to chronic low-level not-officially-diagnosed allergies.
Baking binge commences tonight for the MuseCon party at Capricon. Besides nachos, I’ll be bringing chocolate-chip brownies and oatmeal-craisin bar cookies.
Not sure what my schedule for Capricon will be, besides commuting so that the dogs, particularly the old girl, can stay at home.
This morning Ron suggested that Eowyn may be getting underfoot so much in order to keep track of us – she’s been mostly-deaf for a couple/few years now, and one eye is pretty cloudy, presumably cataracts. That’s actually a preferable reason to getting senile, so I’ll go with it. (Also, senility doesn’t explain her skill at anticipating where I’m going and standing in the way. FYI, deaf dogs don’t give a damn when you yell and pound your head against the wall when they get in the way for the umpteenth time that day).
Ob: Stupor-Bowl content: my cow-irkers are discussing the commercials/game. Errands yesterday were run in the morning so I didn’t notice a decrease in shopping traffic.
Feeling better yesterday, better yet today. Still tired, though. Yesterday I was better enough that I cooked: clean-out-the-’fridge red sauce:
Let cook in crock pot on high all afternoon, or low if you can let it cook all day.
The food processor was my friend for all the chopping. I don’t usually add sweet peppers, and don’t much like them cooked, but I figured they’d just disappear into the sauce and not be discernible as an independent note. I was correct. I cooked the onions and the peppers with the sausage to (a) cook out their liquid so the sauce wouldn’t be too runny, and (b) get their temperature up, since I didn’t start the sauce until mid-day.
Filled the 4-quart crock pot full, but not enough to boil over. I probably have about 3 quarts left, need to put some or all of it in the freezer tonight.
The peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes were all bought for lunch salads last week, but when I started coming down with this cold I didn’t want, and didn’t want to mess with making, salads for lunch. So things were past their prime for eating raw, but fine for cooking with.
Yesterday Robin, with Ron’s help, started building the shelves we bought lumber for a couple/few weeks ago. We need to replace one router bit, after a fall to the concrete floor with the weight of the router motor behind it, while Ron was trying to remove it from the router to put things away. The router motor/housing/etc. is fine. I’m not complaining.
Bleargh. Ugh. Head cold.
Robin and I both stayed home yesterday. Mid-morning we went to the grocery store, and then each made another trip back in for things we forgot. Then had Ron pick up one more thing on his way home.
Mostly I messed about on the computer in InDesign, making posters and flyers for the Capricon Cafe and new banner designs for Otter Necessities.Pictures to be posted soon-ish on the Otter blog.
Been drinking stoopid amounts of cranberry juice and ginger ale (roughly 50/50). Fell asleep in the tub yesterday afternoon, then was awake for a couple hours early early this morning.
Robin started feeling better yesterday afternoon, so hopefully I’m not too far behind. Did feel some better this morning, but pooped now.
Yesterday I found cranberries in the produce section of the store, and I stupidly forgot the lesson of not buying not-Ocean-Spray cranberries. Anyhow, it the afternoon he made pumpkin pies and I helped with cranberry-apple sauce. Pumpkin pie with cranberry sauce on top is growing on all of us. I think for Faux Thanksgiving this year I’ll see about adding extra pectin to the sauce, and top the pies with the sauce while it’s still warm. Hopefully it will set up and will serve neatly. Although topping pies with sauce isn’t exactly a hardship. u
Just threw together meatloaf. “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” is at 7 pm tonight, set an alarm so we don’t forget to run Robin over.
Much running about done today, as usual for Saturdays. Got a bunch of stuff at GFS for the Cap Cafe (which Ron and Xap are running, and I’m staff for), as well as the MuseCon party – both nacho stuff and baking supplies. Which reminds me, much post to the Muse list that we have plenty of napkins now.
Test-drove the soup/nacho cheese warmer yesterday on soup for dinner. It gets 2-1/3 cups of water to a boil quickly.
Living room still not vacuumed. Kitchen still not mopped. And I’m not particularly concerned. Nor am I about the coherency of this post, as it seems.
The food warmer arrived yesterday. 7 quart capacity is large. I’ve reminded myself a couple times it was $50 less than the 4-quart model. Will be test-driving it on soup Real Soon Now. Which means I really should remember to get the soup out of the freezer.
Earlier in the week I declared that there will be cleaning happening this weekend, so Ron has started work on the living room. At this point I think I’ll be content with it as long as the vacuum gets run. The kitchen floor is fairly well coated in mud, what with the weather and the dog door and the bare ground left from building the porch, so it’s getting mopped by the end of the weekend.
Robin has the snuffles and yesterday my head joined in the party. Hopefully it won’t get much worse and will also clear up by Capricon. In any case, I’m just icky enough that cleaning sounds like even less fun than usual, so I think I’ll be happy with the living room picked up and vacuumed and the kitchen mopped.
The PHS production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” opened last night. Robin wants to go. I was waffling, but now I think me and my germs will stay home.
Also need to make room reservations and request a party suite for a MuseCon party at WisCon.
I ordered a food warmer, inset pans, and lid this morning. I ran into a slight issue: the higher-power 4-quart model I was considering ships in 10-14 days, and I plan to use it in 11 days (Saturday of Capricon, at the MuseCon party). So, looking at the “ships today” models, I could get a 550-watt 7-quart model for a C-note, or a 4-quart model, only 350 watts, for $50 more. (For comparison, my 6-quart crock pot is 270 watts, and my 4-quart is 195 watts) At that point the power-draw/size/price curve definitely favored the 7-quart model.
Its a round food warmer, no lighted panel. It adds a significant chunk of change to wrap a food warmer in a rectangular base with a lighted panel. I’m thinking we can come up with a lighted sign for much cheaper than that price difference, even without consulting our Blinkie Overlords.
I got two inset pans and one lid – the lids are large enough to cover both the inset pan and the water-bath area, and have a notch for a ladle, so they’re only useful when the pan is in use in the warmer. When pans are out of the warmer, plastic wrap is the way to go.
Why two inset pans? It seemed like a second would be useful, and they’re relatively cheap (<$15). One could have a second batch of cheese sauce ready to go if there was a thought the party was going to go through that many nachos. Or perhaps something else . . . like chocolate sauce.
Chocolate nachos. Made with cinnamon bagel chips. Just sayin’.