So, we've been here in Hawaii for just over a week, and have 1.5 days left in our vacation. Now, as you would rightly assume, we've had a pretty good time here - nice weather, gorgeous scenery, too much food. Rough life. Yes, a few wrinkles here and there, but overall - not too shabby. ;-)
Except for one thing.
tl;dr - I have spent WAY too much time on hold on the phone during this trip.
So, yes, there have been beaches and a luau and gorgeous scenery and, yes, some grumpy travel issues here and there. But also this huge thing that has dominated almost our entire trip. Not fun. At all.
So, first off, Shana Tova (or, as heidi8 pointed out might be a better phrasing: Shana svira) to all my Jewish friends, as well as my entire maternal family (not that they're reading this, lol). Definitely DEFINITELY hoping for a happier year for EVERYONE. (Except Trump and his sycophants.)
I had planned an update last night, but in the wake of the soul-crushing news about RBG, it didn't seem right. But I'm in a particularly craptastic mood right now and don't give a shit about tact, so ... update it is! :P
(Side note: I wouldn't have found out as quickly as I did about RBG because I was doing some school-related stuff, except that MiniPlu had a zillion updates from her college peers and checked her phone at work while they were closing up for the night, and then texted me, simply, "We screwed without RBG." And that's when I knew. I raced to CNN.com for confirmation, and literally gasped aloud in horror to see it in giant, undeniable headlines. Just ... no words.)
Rob continues to recover, got his 46 staples removed on Fri, but is still mostly spending his time stretched back on the recliner in the family room, as sitting fully upright pulls on his incision. But he's out of sick time, so he's back to work, at least as much as he can, on Monday. Thankfully, his job has always been from home, pre-Covid, so he's fully set up for that.
I handed in my first tech assignment, a multi-step but fairly straightforward trio of simple, table-based webpages, and got a 92%, which pisses me off, given that a) the median was 97% and b) there's really no reason NOT to get 100% on this one (whereas future assignments are going to get more complex). I'm pissed because he took off some points for what I feel were unfair reasons - nowhere do I remember seeing these little bits specified - but there WAS a minor thing I did actually overlook, so then I'm just mad at myself for that. We ARE allowed to fix and resubmit, so hopefully I'll get full credit in the end, but I'm still mad. Grrr.
I substituted twice at the middle school this past week, once on Mon and once on Fri. ( Collapse )
Speaking of books, I finished reading Swordheart, which was a birthday gift from hamsterwoman. In short: I loved it. Adventure, romance and a generous dose of humor, thrown in rather like Douglas Adams or PTerry would do it. I will definitely be interested in reading about the next Sword's story, whenever that comes out. hamsterwoman, did you read the Clockwork Boys books, too? How were they?
My only complaint about Swordheart was that it was printed on high-quality heavy paper, making it hard to hold with just one hand while I was reading/walking the dog, lol.
The veggie garden is mostly done at this point. There's still some straggling tomatoes, and the bell peppers/capsicum took forever to really ripen, so they're still doing ok. I have carrots and potatoes to pull. But otherwise, most things have reached the end of their lifespan, it seems. Well, less work for me to keep up. :P
I'm debating volunteering to work the polls on election day. I've never done it before. But it feels so SO important this year. It involves working from 5:45a to 8:30p (although they imply that partial-day shifts MIGHT be available), and I'm not sure if I can spare that much time. Also, because I live on the edge of my county, there's no guarantee I'd be assigned to work anywhere NEAR where I normally am, which would kind of suck. But I'm still thinking about it.
And, finally, here's a meme, which I stole from spiffikins:
I posted this last night to DW, but apparently cross-posting has died again?
To all my friends who are mothers, or are mother-like figures (ie to their students): Happy Mother's Day! To those who wish(ed) to be mothers but aren't, or who have troubled relationships with their moms, or who have lost their moms, just know I'm sending you big big hugs. <3
I had a good day today, a nice reprieve from the frustrations of Virus!Life. My kids did nice things for me, and I received exceptionally nice gifties. ( Collapse ) Oh, and yes, I was nice to my own mom, too: I sent her flowers, cute socks and a card, and we Zoom-chatted with her today as well.
I usually get Karen a "Mother's Day from the cat" sort of card, but the grocery store's selection was limited to one "meh" card, so I decided to paint her one, venturing on my own for the first time. I was inspired by this painting:
Which I thought was cute and not too complicated. I did my best painting the background as I saw it on a ~5x7" (~12.5x17.5cm) piece of paper, and then painting in four cats, rather than three, in the color markings of our four remaining cats. The snail isn't too obvious, and Nick (the one with the half-gray face) looks rather mouse-like, but I'm otherwise pleased, especially given I was doing this all on my own.
A bonus for me today was that I heard from a HS friend I haven't heard from in years - she texted me out of the blue to wish me a Happy Mother's Day and we had a nice text exchange, doing a quick catch-up.
I spent a little time this weekend starting to get my ducks in a row for applying to library school - I found the links I'll need to request transcripts, I started writing my personal statement (oy, still needs work). I'm going to need to write a resume, which I haven't had to do since, uh ... 1999? O_o
I'm still not 100% sure I SHOULD go to library school, but I guess I could apply and ... see?
Tomorrow: taking my car for an oil change. How do I make sure the steering wheel and gearshift are clean afterwards?
Oh: one last thing. I recently made this very simple tomato soup and it was pretty darn tasty, actually. Recommended if you want a quick homemade soup and have a stick blender/food processor.
There's never that much to report, really. Kids go to school, I hound Two about doing his PT correctly and his math accurately (he understands the concepts for both those things. It's the quality that needs work), I go to the store once a week and smaller errands occasionally, and I started sewing on the quilt remake I'm doing for my SIL's bday (in July - it's a time-consuming project). I exercise - running and weights - but I'm not doing great with TKD on my own. I've mainlined way too much Alex/Henry fic from Red, White & Royal Blue. We're all just ... surviving.
Oh, but I did also write my own Alex/Henry fic, squeezing it in just under the wire for story_works' April "new fandom" challenge: It All Begins When...
Have another Quarantine Meme, courtesy of spiffikins:
When was the last time you left your home? Yesterday – I did a run to the bagel place to pick up some ordered-by-phone breakfast sandwiches for the fam.
Sigh. As of two minutes ago, schools in NJ have been officially declared closed for the rest of the year. It's not a surprise, but it's still disappointing. :( :(
Oh, and speaking of school: Two decided not to attend the culinary votech program next year, sigh. ( Collapse )
Just. Ugh. I look at my unemployed BIL/SIL down in NC, constantly out of money, and I see that he's going to be just like them, despite his grand schemes and dreams. And I feel like nothing we say or do makes any difference.
So, my teenagers have a handful of chores they do throughout the week. One of them is to feed the cats each evening, as well as weekend mornings. (Two used to do weekday mornings and MiniPlu did the evenings, but now they both leave for school too early for feeding, so Karen does weekday mornings.) Schedule is: MiniPlu: Mon, Tues, Wed evening, Sun morning and alternate Sat mornings. Two: Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun evening, and alternate Sat mornings
The reason for this is a) MiniPlu sorts laundry on Thurs and Sun nights (my usual laundry days) and is often out with friends on Fri/Sat evenings, so that's why Two has those particular evenings, and MiniPlu gets the rest. As you can see, it's equally split.
However, occasionally, I do laundry on a different day because of travel or shifts in my schedule. For instance: tomorrow I'm going with Will to PA as they're having a dinner to honor those employees who are celebrating certain milestone years - and he's been there 15 years. So, I did laundry today, since I won't be here tomorrow.
Which meant MiniPlu tried to wheedle Two into swapping cat feeding with her, since she was sorting laundry today instead of Thurs. And Two wanted none of it, so we had kids making the following ludicrous arguments:
MiniPlu argued that it was unfair she had to do both tasks in one day, even though feeding cats literally takes three minutes - it involves opening two packets of Friskies, one for upstairs and one for downstairs, and putting the food on plates. That's it. MiniPlu asked what she would "get" if she did both today. I pointed out the obvious: "You'd get tomorrow off." :-P (I also pointed out that this isn't the first time this situation has come up - and she's just done the both on one evening and none the next, and somehow didn't die, but apparently she doesn't remember that.)
Meanwhile, Two argued that he couldn't possibly feed cats because his TV show was coming on in 8 minutes and he didn't want to miss it. (See above: feeding takes 3 minutes.) He also argued that he fed them more than MiniPlu anyway - which is also untrue.
Of course, they each thought the other one was being ridiculous - and they were both right. *eyeroll* (Eventually Two stomped off to feed them "Just to shut up her whining" - which, truthfully, has been the exact same response MiniPlu has had to HIS whining over stupid shit. And, no, he didn't miss even one second of his TV show.)
Remember that glorious Mother's Day? Yeah, that moment's over. Waaaaay over.
Happy Mother's Day to my fellow moms, and moms-to-be. I hope you're able to take some time for yourself, and that your children do something nice for you. I'm also thinking of those of you who have lost mothers, who didn't have good relationships with their mothers, or who wanted to be mothers but were not able to, for one reason or another. <3
Side note: in a house of 7 people, I am the only one able to celebrate with my birth mother. The other four adults all have deceased mothers (Dad's mom died in the 70s, K's mom died in ... 1984? and the twin's mom/my MIL died in 1999), and the kids, of course, have no idea who their birth moms are. :(
Life has continued to be crazy-busy, and, honestly, I don't even know WHY. But I feel like I'm falling behind on everything - we haven't kept up with the complicated, multi-step allergy program the doctor laid out, so I need to move her follow-up appointment to a later date, and get more clarification as to what we're supposed to be doing. I've been given exercises at home to do for my R knee (which has been paining me on steps since early April) and I need to call PT to get in a few weeks with them. I need to hem MiniPlu's prom dress, and order her a corsage. I'm super-behind on email (something I hope to remedy today) and need to catch up on finances, as well. There are gifts I need to order for people. I feel like there's always something that I'm going, "Oh, yeah, I need to do ...." at the wrong time of day, when things are closed or I'm too busy running around at that moment. Sigh. Time management: ur doing it wrong.
I did manage to buy almost all the plants I wanted for the garden yesterday. Alas, it's going to rain the next three days, so I can't put them in just yet. At least they're getting watered? :P
MiniPlu took the SAT on 4 May and the AP Psych test on 9 May. She'll get her SAT results on the 17th, but the AP Psych results don't come out until July, and she's really upset and worried that she didn't do well on that, so it's going to be a loooong wait, poor kid.
Coming up this week: Three consecutive days in PA (Thurs, Fri and Sat) AND next Mon as well, gah. Thurs is Will's work dinner celebrating 15 years (nearly 16 at this point, actually) with the college, so I'll go out for the day and then to the dinner with him. Fri is black belt class. Sat is a friend's daughter's birthday, and the girl (turning 13) has specifically requested that MiniPlu attend. And next Mon I have a medical appointment. Lot of driving, ugh.
Two had his semi-annual CHOP check-in last Mon. They've decided to bump up his T dose, from 25ml to 40ml each week. We'll see if there's any significant changes. Btw, did I mention that Two started shaving his lip fuzz? He only has to do it about once a month at this point, but, hey, it's still a big milestone. :D
In reading, I recently finished my re-read of Clockwork Princess - and, for the first time, I didn't bawl my eyes out at the end. And then I read Aunt Dimity and the King's Ransom, the latest in a cozy mystery series I enjoy, which I got from the public library. It's fluff, but fun, and I enjoyed it.
Movies: I finally watched Avatar beginning to end; previously I had just walked in on Will watching it occasionally, so I'd seen bits and pieces but not the entire thing. It really is a beautiful movie.
AND, of course, last weekend we finally all got to see Avengers: Endgame! Overall: really liked it, and want to see it again to get missed details and such. I did have some quibbles of course (doesn't everyone?) but overall impression was positive.
The "everything must start with your middle initial" meme. ( Collapse )
And speaking of forgotten items - I forgot to report on another book I finished last week: The House With a Clock In its Walls by John Bellairs. I spotted it at the elementary Scholastic book fair last fall, and since the movie previews had looked somewhat interesting, I thought I'd give the book a go. Before I go into details, let me point out that this book made such a lack of impression on me, I completely forgot I had read it. :P ( Collapse )
In other words, Two tried hard to get food poisoning today. Did he take responsibility for his role in this problem? ( Collapse )
Ugh. I'm at an emotionally fraught scene right now, writing-wise, and for all my efforts, I think I only managed about 100 words today. Meh. On the other hand, I've managed to write something EVERY day this week, which I haven't done for ages. It's slooooow progress, but at least it's moving forward. One day I might even finish! :P
And thank goodness for that. I was put on the same clear-liquid diet and 10oz bottle of magnesium citricate (twice a day, morning and evening) for two full days this time, since last week's colonoscopy prep of the standard one-day protocol did not work. This worked. I was terrified going in that it still wouldn't work and I would have suffered all weekend for nothing (although I did lose 8-9lbs/3.6-4kg in two days :P). But, thank goodness, it was a successful procedure and I can EAT again. I was fully prepared to refuse to try a fourth time anytime soon. Even though the magnesium wasn't as bad as the gallon-of-gritty-crap they normally have you drink, it was still gross, and I literally nearly cried when I was staring down my fourth and final bottle last night.
And now I'm off the hook for 5 years. It's not the standard 10 since I have Crohn's, but I realized that 5 years is a full year after Two has graduated high school, and that sounds sufficiently far enough away to live with.
The only bad thing is that I seem to have come out of the process with a cold - my nose got all sneezy and sniffly almost the moment I got home. Grump. Hopefully it won't be a big deal because the next two days are going to be crazy-busy.
Ok, it's late and I need to get to bed since I have to be up again in, like, 6.5 hours (ugh), but, real quick, a book review:
The Hills Have Spies by Mercedes Lackey. This is a sequel to the Herald Spy series, featuring Mags, The Greatest Mindspeaker Ever. Set about 15 years in the future, it features Mags' and Amily's kids, and how Mags and his eldest get caught up in a Sinister Plot. ( Collapse )
In other news: I get to have a colonoscopy on Monday, whee! Some of you may remember that I had one last Sept (after a blissful 10.5-year hiatus, due to being in *knock on wood* remission), but the clean-out stuff didn't do a thorough enough job and the doctor couldn't see as far as he wanted. He made it clear right away that I'd have to do it again this year, so when I went in for my annual check-in this morning, I knew that was coming. I did NOT expect them to have an opening in the schedule less than a week away, so that was a little unnerving. I suppose it's just as well I get it over with, rather than have it looming, but still - ugh. They're trying a different clean-out method this time, we'll see how much fun THAT one is on Sunday.
Thanks to those of you who offered sympathy on last week's "Meh" post. By Thursday I decided to declare Friday a day off for everybody: no summer schoolwork or chores for the kids, and I was allowed to go do something for myself, too. Took myself out shopping for three hours in the afternoon to a shoe store, Kohls, and the bookstore. Didn't buy a lot, but it was absolute BLISS to take whatever time I wanted to look at things, without interruption. Of course, Two was in an absolutely bitchy mood when I got back, complaining about how long I'd been gone, and a host of other stupid shit. (He'd also had the nerve, earlier that day, to demand I make him mac & cheese when he is perfectly capable of it; I finally grudgingly agreed to do the actual mixing of the sauce if he boiled the water, poured in the pasta, etc. And then, when I finished making it, he complained that I'd added too much milk. I told him he was welcome to make it any damn way he wanted next time. Oy.
So, yeah, I was pretty pissed off at Two on Friday. On the other hand, I got an unexpected chance to shop on my own at the mall the very next day, for an hour, after dropping off MiniPlu and being asked by Two to pick him up something; as long as I was in the mall, I decided to browse a little for myself. So, that was a nice bonus.
I've had to do a LOT of driving the past three days, doing stuff for (and with) different family members, running errands, my gastro appointment, the trip to the vet, etc, all in different directions, to the tune of nearly 300 miles/500km total over the three days.
And in happy news: MiniPlu and I are going to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway next week! ( Collapse )
My running has been improving again after a period of real struggle lately (I think my iron levels were down). And by improving, I mean "distance" not "speed". I keep wanting to believe I have ONE more half-marathon left in me, and am wondering if I'm a lunatic for thinking that. Debating signing up for the Philly Nov race or Disney January race (Philly having much fewer travel costs, but Disney would be more fun!) just to give me a goal, but then I worry I won't be able to pull it off.
And on that note: I'm late for bed and I still haven't done the litter boxes, sigh. Sleep? What's that?
I always seem to fall behind on LJ over the weekend - I don't know why it's so much harder for me to find time to go online then, when summer means that the weekend and the weekdays are not that different but ... whatever. I'll try to catch up soon.
Although I've been trying to run outdoors recently, just getting up early to beat the heat, Sunday was hot and humid enough that this was a no-go, and I was relegated back to the treadmill. To pass the time I picked out Gnomeo and Juliet from my BIL/SIL's DVD collection and watched that. It's silly, but also very cute, and has a much happier ending than the original Shakespeare story. (Although there's a funny moment when a talking Shakespeare statue tries to insist to Gnomeo that his romance will end with everyone dying - although "dying" in this case means smashed to bits, as all the gnomes are ceramic - and Gnomeo is having none of it.) Anyway, like I said - it was silly, but cute.
Of course, after my run, I still had to deadhead the zillions of rosebushes we have in front and back of the house, and then I coaxed Rob to fertilize them with me, too (it's a 2-man job), which meant I continued to sweat buckets for another hour or so after my run, at which point I practically knocked people over, sprinting to get to the shower and hose off. :P
Speaking of yardwork - the lawnmower hated me last week. We have a riding mower, and about a month or two ago, I clipped the mower too close to the white pipe that sticks out of our well, and it pulled a rear tire right off the rim. Had to take it to a tire repair place to re-inflate it. Anyway, last week I did the same thing to the OTHER rear tire after passing too close to the woodpile. *bangs head* (This is what I get for trying to be too clever, and mowing too closely.) That was on Tues. On Thurs morning I took it in and got it reinflated, came home, diligently put it back on the mower, got it all tightened up and off the jack, hopped in the seat, turned the key and ... it wouldn't start. Will was at my FIL's cataract surgery (which went well, btw - thanks to those of you who sent well-wishes), so I was bombarding him with text messages about where the long extension cords were, where the battery was located on the mower, and making sure I had our portable battery charger correctly set up. Thankfully, it only took about 20 mins once I had everything attached before I was able to start the mower, but - argh! Clearly, the mower had it in for me!
L, the bonus child we had visiting us last week, went home on Thurs evening, to MiniPlu's great relief. ( Collapse )
I've been continuing to try a variety of recipes that MiniPlu recently found on Pinterest:
Chicken Parm Casserole - very easy, although for a family our size, I really need to double the recipe next time. I served it with leftover spaghetti on the side.
Baked Teriyaki Chicken which was quite tasty but really needs more cornstarch to thicken the sauce, especially if this is being served as a rice bowl.
Ground Turkey Stuffed Peppers - I'd never actually had stuffed peppers before, but thought this was delicious. Will said he preferred his peppers to be raw, so I'll just fill his with the cooked stuffing and hand it over. Both kids felt there was more "pepper" than they usually prefer to eat but they ate it (mostly) and definitely loved the filling, so, just, in general - pretty much a winner.
5-ingredient Slow Cooker Steak Fajitas - hands down, the most popular item of the new recipes. Everyone loved it. I did make 1.5x the recipe to accommodate our family of 7. I'm sure the peppers weren't as crisp as they might be in a traditional fajita, but we didn't care. Note, however: these are very messy to eat when put into a tortilla - the sauce drips everywhere, lol.
Chinese Chow Mein (or Lo Mein - depending on which term your local Chinese takeaway place uses). I had to admit - this actually did taste pretty close to the "real" thing (inasmuch as American Chinese food is "real"). I used pre-cooked/vacuum-packed soba noodles from the Asian aisle in our store, and forgot the sesame seeds, but otherwise did everything as stated. Oh, but, again, I added a couple Tbsp of flour (eyeballed) to thicken the sauce, and that was a good decision. I also threw in a pound or two of thinly sliced chicken, which I sauted first, ahead of the veggies.
In books: I don't think I mentioned that I read Dead Poet's Society aloud to Two last month, after he came back from camp. He'd seen the movie at school toward the end of the term, and wanted to read the book, too. It's pretty much identical, of course, but was still interesting to see it in print form. The paperback copy we'd gotten from the library was SO old, however, that it literally fell apart as I was reading it, so we bought another copy - same edition, thankfully - at the bookstore, and donated it to the library when we returned the official (tattered) one.
Nor do I think I ever mentioned reading the most recent Rick Riordan book, Apollo #3: The Burning Maze. This was also a read-aloud with Two (but a book I would have read for myself anyway, so it was a twofer. I like how Apollo is evolving into someone less self-centered, although that's to be expected, as part of his journey back to (presumed) godhood, eventually. ( Collapse ) Other than that, it was the typical Riordan mix of adventure and humor, and I look forward to more. I really miss Alex Fierro from the Magnus series, though! S/He was awesome.
Then, yesterday I finished The Battlemage, third in the Summoner trilogy by Taran Matharu. As with Book #2, there is a LOT going on, with the characters in very very different places (emotionally and physically) from where they began at the beginning of the story. ( Collapse ) Aside from these little issues, I did enjoy it. This was the lone paper book I received for my birthday (the others all being in Kindle format), so, back to the Kindle for awhile, to keep reading through my gifts. :)
Ugh - I've been trying harder to get to bed at a decent hour, but that's part of the reason why I then fall behind on LJ. But given that I still need to load the dishwasher (so that my SIL - who is still at work, incidentally - doesn't have to when she gets home), I guess I should sign off.
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