Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

It is a grey, rainy, icky day around these parts – we need the rain, but I am also VERY glad that I got all my errand running done yesterday, because I do not want to leave the house today AT ALL. (I did get coffee. That is it.)

Yesterday after going all over the place, the only thing I got done around the house was emptying the sink and running the dishwasher AND I DIDN’T FEEL BAD ABOUT IT. I can either do a multi-hour errand day, or get a bunch of stuff done around the house – but I can’t do both in one day. Never have – but I just felt like a failure instead of acknowledging “Hey, I walked 4 miles getting all that shit done and I am tired and it’s time to rest.” Personal growth!

Today’s exciting plans are getting the various and sundry boxes that have taken over the breakfast nook upstairs to the office and getting all that sorted. Looking a bit like a UPS store over there. Also putting together the grocery list for Christmas brunch. Order for the ham has been placed and pickup time scheduled.

It’s only December 10th. I cannot remember the last time I was this much on top of everything for the holidays. I’m on PTO next week and it’s going to be actually RELAXING. I’ll only have to go out 3 times. Finish the stocking stuffer shopping. Get the groceries for Christmas Day. Pick up the ham. THAT’S IT!

Like, who is this person that is going to spend Christmas Eve just chilling out and drinking wine and eating cheese and Trader Joe’s snacks ALL DAY?! ME!

You have a great day and I hope your holiday prep is going as well as mine is.

BUT – with the exception of stocking stuffers, my Christmas shopping is DONE!

Lord help me, I went out and about – on a Saturday – in December. I wanted to check two local shops for a particular thing for my brother and decided I’d just add on everything else and get it all done.

Of course, the thing I was specifically looking for? No luck. (I did find it online.)

But everything else, success. And overheating myself. And losing my car in parking lots twice. And forgetting yet again that if I do not have a snack before leaving the house on a multi-hour errand day, I need to plan where I am going to stop and get a snack so I’m not standing in the middle of a parking lot going, “Fuck, I need food NOW.” (Luckily, there were chicken nuggets within walking distance.)

Huge props to Felix & Oscar for not only having great stuff for Lily, but the little drinks cooler that had ginger ale in it – I had hit the “overheated” point (I dressed for 45 degree weather, it was 58) and not quite realizing I needed food, but my brain saw it and went, “YES, WE NEED GINGER ALE!!” And it was so delicious.

I also still have the very nice skill of being to get in and out of Trader Joe’s in under 15 minutes, even on a Saturday afternoon.

But damn, 8 stores, 10K steps and over 4 miles walked today. But it’s done! YAY!

This weekend has been quite grey and fogtastic around here. Not super great for making one’s get up and go actually get up and go. This is how Lily is handling it:

As for myself, I have every damn light on in the house, the tree lights are on and the glitter lanterns are going. It’s not helping much, but it is pretty, and that’s something.

It has been holiday market weekend, tho! Fresh air and exercise! Boozy hot chocolate! Two very pretty ornaments! This year’s White House ornament is really nice. I guess the WH ornament is kind of a weird DC metro thing – I don’t know if anyone outside the area even cares, LOL.

And honestly, I got out and about today and I’m gonna just give into the grey and relax on the couch and watch TV and stare at my pretty tree.

You have a relaxing day.

Yes, it’s time for the 9th Annual Bull City Foodraiser!!

There is a ton of food insecurity out there, and this is a chance to help out some kids who would otherwise be facing some lean times during the holiday break, since they won’t be able to get breakfast and lunch at school.

Once again, there are multiple folks doing matches – I’m doing $2 per donor myself, and there are 5 others doing a $5 per donor match, plus someone out there is doing another dollar for dollar match up to $75,000!!

So, this is where even a little bit can help. You can only spare a dollar? Well, that’s gonna become $29. (Maybe even $56? I’m not totally sure if the dollar for dollar is before or after the $2 & $5 matches.)

$10 becomes $47. $25 becomes $77. You get it – every little bit helps.

SO, GO SPEND MY MONEY AND LET’S FEED SOME KIDS!!

Now, my ridiculous cheese plate notwithstanding, our Thanksgiving is very low key. But as I sat on the sofa yesterday being intensely grateful for the day off work, it hit me how much mental energy goes into the holiday. And if you’re still feeling a bit knackered even today – IT’S UNDERSTANDABLE, YOU DID A LOT OF BRAINING THIS WEEK.

Here’s all the stuff I had to think about for Turkey Day. This isn’t an “oh poor me” – just pointing out all the thinking time there is – and this is just a meal for two people, and we eat in the living room off cute Thanksgiving themed paper platters.

Menu planning. Now, usually there are zero changes, but I have to have a quick conversation every year with my brother as to any add/drops and he has to remind me that cranberry sauce has to be on the list. (I never eat it, and always forget about it.)

Planning the shopping itself for the sides and whatnot. Early to get it out of the way? Late to try and hope for a sale and that everything is in stock? Small bits at a time to not have one huge grocery bill?

Finding the turkey. Before I started ordering the turkey from the butcher shop, I had to plan out the right day to go find it, and knowing I would likely have to hit multiple shops to find the right size – I’d also have to plot out the the best route from store to store so I wasn’t zig-zagging all over my zip code. (Dropping that has been fantastic – the last year before I started ordering it ahead of time, I went to SEVEN stores.)

Then there is the “week of” planning – what can be done Wednesdsay, what needs to be done Thursday morning, what do I need to do mid-day, what time do I have to get up?

Once I picked up the turkey on Wednesday and knew the weight, then it’s plotting out all the timing on Thursday. Now, because we accidentally ended up with a pre-seasoned turkey* I could at least cut out the “when to get up to get the ice and get the brine going” calculations. Then there is “if the turkey is 11 pounds and we want to eat around 7 and it needs to rest 20-30 minutes and carving takes about 5 minutes and a train leaves Chicago going 80 miles an hour at 9AM, the turkey needs to get started at 3PM” math. And don’t forget the oven pre-heat time. And then when the turkey is resting, gotta plot the order of operations of get the rolls in, get the water boiling on the stuffing and potatoes, get the gravy hot.

I had a fucking spreadsheet, people.

Then one everyone happily eats, don’t forget to keep track of the time to get the leftovers put away so they’re still safe to eat.

And thank goodness we don’t do anything special with the leftovers beyond just eating the turkey straight from the fridge (me) or making sandwiches (my brother.) I cannot fathom trying to figure out interesting things to do with the leftover turkey.

So yeah, if you’re sitting about this lovely Saturday still going, “Whew, what a week!” – it’s absolutely understandable – get that rest.

* Best mistake ever, it was fantastic, and I’m doing that again next year on purpose.

Alice’s Restaurant Massacree has been played at a very high volume with my terrible singing, so the day is off to a proper start. This is my favorite holiday – just food and family and I love it. This is as close as we can get to a holiday for everyone – and it sucks that indigenous folks may rightfully look at it and go, “Um, hard pass.” I would love to have a day that is legit for EVERYONE, but until I am in charge of the universe, this will have to do.

The butcher shop made a minor mistake and we ended up with a pre-seasoned turkey yesterday. Once I got over my initial internal screaming of “FUUUUUUUUUUUCK”* I realized this could be very good. No getting up early to get ice and start the brine! Straight from fridge to oven! You would not believe the amount of time it took my brain to get past that change in plan, though.

But I did sleep in this morning, and it was great! And I’ve finally** realized that the order of operations in the morning is 1) put in Starbucks order, 2) go into market first for the forgotten item (there is always something) then 3) pick up Starbucks. Because for whatever reason, Thanksgiving is bonkers at Starbucks, and today was no different. And thanks to that side trip to the market, my drinks were ready when I walked in!

And the forgotten item this year was Triscuits. We have an amazing variety of crackers for all the cheese, but when my brother heard that there were no Triscuits, well, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone so crestfallen, LOL. So, we have Triscuits. (And maybe a box of the Garlic Parmesan thins, for reasons.) I was going to be running in anyway, cause I decided I wanted some flowers, and they’re so pretty!

We have all our favorites on tap for today – cheese & charcuterie platter in the afternoon, then turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry stuff, and crescent rolls!! If you’re thinking, “but what about the vegetables?” – we don’t mess with those today. I’ll have a salad this weekend, I promise – but today is all protein and carbs. Oh, and tiny pies! It’s great when you realize you can just make up new rules and traditions.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

* I did not freak out at the butcher shop, I just said as brightly as I could, “Oh, that was a mistake, but this will make tomorrow easier!” while dying on the inside.
** Seriously, I am over 50 damn years old and only just this year clued into that.

I swear, it was just Halloween and now Thanksgiving is THIS FREAKIN’ WEEK. Yeah, it’s early this year, but still, it got here fast.

The news is still all awful and I find myself having SportsCenter on A LOT these days – anything critical news-wise still finds it’s way to me.

Work is doing it’s usual “Oh, you’re taking this Wednesday to Monday off? Let’s make sure everything goes pear shaped!” routine. Between losing most of last week to client issues, and Those Who Schedule Things completely forgetting to look at the calendar to see that there are two holidays and PTO for the US folks next week – Monday & Tuesday are gonna suuuuuuuck.

I have so much mental gymnastics going on right now between what needs to be done for Thanksgiving and what needs to be done at work – my brain is full, if not completely overloaded.

I have at least told my brother that if he would like some kind of fun heat & eat appetizer Thursday before the turkey goes in the oven, I am more than willing to do it – but he has to decide what it is and go pick it up from the store.

And I will be passing off things to the rest of the crew at work – they offered, and I am not working 12 hour days Monday and Tuesday.

Look at me setting boundaries and shit.

ETA: My dumb ass ended up logging on to work this afternoon for about an hour, but I swear, it will make Monday easier.

Hooboy. And the news has been a firehose again. Israel/Hamas continues to be a fucking nightmare. We have a right wing Christofascist as Speaker of the House (that may have been week before last, it’s all running together.) Covid is still out there, despite all attempts to pretend it’s left. (Just ask my dental assistant.) Oh and Tommy Fucking Tuberville saying that being a Marine general was just like being a football coach.

Work is stressing me out a bit. Workload is fine, but we have a new SVP who is REALLY excited about AI and automation. (Easy when you’re making upwards of a half mil a year and no one is suggesting *your* job should be AI’d out of existence.) He’s said he wants more QC stuff to be automated to “free us up for other things” – what other things? Finding a job that isn’t in conflict with my non-compete agreement? We’re having a meeting about it next week, so hopefully that will clarify things a bit. I’m trying to be optimistic that it is more “automate what we can to make things easier” vs. “automate everything, even when it doesn’t make sense.” We already do regular automated testing in my team – and the stuff I deal with, 99% of the time it wasn’t caught by automation. Again, though, TRYING TO BE OPTIMISTIC.

But, despite all this, my head is at least kinda-sorta on straight and I’m trying to focus on the good stuff.

Halloween was great, we had at least 100 kids come around. I did the grab bags again and one little Spiderman was VERY confused. “But, where is the candy?” I explained it was in the little bags and he could pick any bag he wanted. He took one, ran down the driveway to the adult with the pumpkin tote, and next thing I know, he’s racing back to give me the empty bag, LOL. The last little ones of the night, I asked if there were any allergies, and the little girl said no, and then SO solemnly, “That’s good that you asked that. Everyone should do that.” Warmed my heart.

All told, we had maybe 6 kids with nut allergies, two with pollen allergies, and one that was allergic to “medicine”. Kiddo, you’re in luck, cause no one is giving free drugs to kids. But it was good to be able to give them a big bag o’ sugar that wouldn’t require an epi-pen.

Briefly considered skipping the farmers market this morning, cause it was 34 degrees, we already had dinner sorted, and we are definitely out of tomato season. But it is a very sunny day here, so the smart part of my brain said “You need to get your ass out of the house and into the sun, go buy some bread and cookies, dammit.” And now I have STUFFING BREAD. It is GOOD.

The cold weather has Lily doing her best impression of a Dickensian waif, and she is spending a LOT of time either next to the heat registers (of course, she has kitty mats in front of them) or between my feet in front of the little space heater. And she has been super snuggly at night.

And it’s cold enough for CHILI!!! And that is dinner for tonight…and tomorrow. And possibly Monday.

So, while it’s not all good, it’s not all bad either.

Hang in there.

And what a firehose of a week it’s been yet again. If you’re overwhelmed by all the news, you are definitely not alone. I’ve been saying it to the point of sounding like a broken record, but our brains are just NOT wired for the 24/7 news cycle, especially when there are so many terrible things going on.

And while you’re trying hard to keep up and care about all of it, the world still spins on its axis, the bins still have to go out, work doesn’t care about the news, the bills still have to be paid – it can make you feel bad for living your life while all this is going on. Help in the ways you can, but take care of yourself – can’t pour from an empty glass and all that.

So, drink your water, eat your veggies, take your meds, get out for a walk if you can, spend some time on that hobby you’ve been neglecting, and turn off the news for a while. It’s OK to do that. Anything critical news-wise will find its way to you.

Outside of the world basically falling apart at the seams, pretty decent week around these parts. Work was pretty calm outside a client emergency at 10:30 yesterday morning – and I jumped all over it cause I didn’t want it to be a 3:45 on a Friday problem – then didn’t get the data back until after 2 freakin’ PM. All while pinging the VP going, “I know you have a meeting with client at 4, I am on the case! I will try to have answers by 4!” And bless him, he was “You’re good – I saw the email thread. I know you asked for info at 10:30 and no one moved on it until 1:30.” I think someone is gonna get a talking to over that.

And by some miracle, by 3:55 PM, I had diagnosed the problem, figured out why it hadn’t been reported before, had a fix for the client, and a solid explanation for my VP for his meeting, AND GOT OFF WORK ON TIME.

And today I got my weekly dopamine hit at the farmers market, yay! It’s starting to thin out a bit as the season starts to wind down, but I got some good stuff. One of the bakers makes what she calls “kitchen sink cookies” – chocolate chips, toffee chips, pretzels, and potato chips – and OMG, they are AMAZING. Got some empanadas for snacks, and a platter of jerk pork and we’re gonna make tacos from that!

And today I get to go “downtown” where the party store is, cause I realized I don’t have any glow stick bracelets for the kiddos Halloween bags – and there just happens to be a Potbelly shop there, and yeah, there are gonna be some sandwiches coming home with me. Perfect Ham & Swiss FTW.

Good lord, a lot of my life revolves around food, LOL. And then I wonder why I can’t seem to drop these extra 10 pounds. WEIRD HOW THAT WORKS.

You have a good day and take care of yourself.