I’m stuck with what management provides, being a renter.
Me too now for the same reason. Sob.
You may be starting to get the winter storm that is nearing end here in Nebraska for me and hippy and his lovely bride, although I’ve heard we in Lincoln got it all and sixty miles away Omaha was barely touched.
On Sunday daughter and Son-in-law asked me to pack an overnight bag because they expected school to be called off because of the storm (first day back after 2 week 
) and they needed grandma pajama day child care Monday because they both still needed to work. Snowed and sleeted and snowed some more and white outed and blustered and gusted and ended up closing the interstate and canceling Tuesday school and preschool. Fine by 
. Next time I’ll bring another change of clothes and more pills though. Fortunately I brought both inhalers. Life back with the grandkidlets is good. Snow angels have been made, snow ice cream has been eaten and the gods are still in charge~it indeed took longer to put on their snow pants, boots, coats, hats and mittens than they stayed outside.
Wind gusts are starting here and the temperature dropped almost 30 degrees in a few hours while we were sleeping, as the storm dropped the last 5” of snow.
Look out, shoe, this storm system is no doubt heading for you and it hangs around for close to two days and nights when it does. It will make hanging out the takeout window no fun at all.
Weird weather we’re having here. It’s calm and d cloudy, and I think maybe I’ll walk to the store, and then bam! it’s raining and the wind is howling. For a while last night it rained so hard, I thought my windows would break. Mother Nature is either playing Gotcha or she’s having dramatic mood swings.
flyboy and
Instacart delivered my order to the wrong address, so I have a credit there, plus they threw in $5 to make up for it. I’d like to get out and walk to the store, but the weather is weird.
Last night I dreamed Trump was still president, and I had to read to him as a sort of white noise. I chose A Tale of Two Cities because I knew he wouldn’t understand it, so he wouldn’t get caught up in it. I didn’t even get through the first paragraph because he got irritated and claimed it didn’t make any sense. I think this dream somehow had something to do with his saying recently that if you dump water on magnets, they won’t work. I hope tonight I dream about Barak Obama.
wheelz, that’s crazy. I hope your poor colleague gets out os San Antonio soon.
sari, so good to hear Cerby’s so happy and improved. You made the right decision about Adam. I bet the GR’s were adorable in the snow!
This is the way I do it. It makes putting away the utensils faster. I’ve never had an issue with them not getting clean.
Huh. Mine don’t nest together. I don’t think they get along.
My mother used to say cucumber “repeated” on her. I understand English cucumbers don’t do this. I guess they’re more genteel.
Third load in the washer, second in the dryer, first put away. I even did a pretty thorough rollsuck with new filters installed in the Shark.
Rain is still falling. It’s time to read.
Afternoon all. Been waiting for the rain to clear and meanwhile moving some large files around to new USB sticks, which takes some time. Will probably go to the gym this afternoon for pedaling time, might divide it up into an afternoon and evening session, we’ll see how it goes. Otherwise slothage has been my main per-occupation.
Spicy, enjoy your reading, I always have a paperback with me at the gym to read while pedaling to nowhere for 20-30 minutes.
talkie, feel better soon and as the old saying goes about work, “Don’t let the B******s wear you down.”
I lived my first 27 years in Northern Ohio not far from Lake Erie, and the three words I learned early on to pay attention to was “Wind Chill Factor”. Stay warm and dry.
Pilot, enjoy your last day of S. American fun. At least the storms should be through with the East Coast by tomorrow.
BBBoo, glad you had a bonus grandkid day.
OK, files are all downloaded, so onto exercising…I think. Take care all.
Hardly any snow yet this winter in MSP, but we’re supposed to get sub-zero temps by next weekend.
I’ll have a full reply later, but for now I would like some brainstorming help.
I am going to try to cold smoke cream cheese this week. The biggest challenge will be keeping it from melting. It should be noted that I make European cream cheese which has a much higher fat content than American cream cheese.
So, my plan is to press the cheese into a 1 lb mold and then bring the temp down to 35F which should be warm enough to stop ice crystals from forming.
I know from experience that I can get smoke all the way to the center of blocks of hard cheeses like cheddar but that takes time and I’m worried that I won’t have enough time to get the smoke into the center of the cream cheese block, but think that if I cut the block like sticks of butter, that will just make them melt faster.
So…any suggestions or ideas or just practical tips about cold smoking food would be seriously appreciated.
With snow covering the ground my bird feeder has had a lot of business today, seven or eight species. And I learned how to tell the difference between a male and female downy woodpecker. It’s the red patch for the males, while the females have no red.
And Jane, I don’t know anything about smoking cheese, but I’ll gladly help you eat it.
That’s the thing I really like about our dishwasher. The thing I really don’t like about it is the lack of a heated dry cycle for when things don’t get completely dry – and they don’t, even with the “extended” dry selected.
Took the car in because the wiper blades were stuttering and streaking. Les Schwab replaced them for free. All tires were low even though we filled them last week. Les Schwab’s explanation: “It’s the crazy weather.” The forecast is shifting every couple of hours, but our destination for a short trip seems to be stabilizing at “no snow, no ice.” This is good.
I’m doing the Julia Cameron Artist’s Way program with a group, which I may have mentioned. Having the time to do the morning assignment is getting me up early, which is good. New furnace is in (and I’m glad, because I didn’t like having a gas furnace in the attic, accessible in an emergency only by running to the garage, trundling a ladder upstairs, and climbing up and hoisting oneself into a burning attic). Exterior unit is at a higher decibel than promised; they’re coming back tomorrow to see what’s up.
My lovely wife has found an exercise class she likes, so I may go treadmill while she’s doing that.
Next book is over 100 pages, though some are just plunked-in notes. 100-120 is about what I anticipated, and I need to get it written, read through and revised, converted with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, proofread online, then order my Catalogue-in-Publishing info block to stick in the front. Finish the cover, then I hope there will still be time to ship author’s copies to a conference I’ve got a vendor table for in March.
Thank you! It was delightful this morning to wake up and be needed another ‘snow day off from school and preschool. Watching lots of Disney movies, Paw Patrol and drinking lots of hot chocolate. Boo bliss looks just like this.
And you don’t need compression stockings to enjoy it, even better! If fact, pajamas were worn non stop for the first 36 hours. Life is good.
I’d like to volunteer for this too.
All so very true~added wisdom from one who has been there.
One final bit of compression stocking wisdom: never wash them in the silverware rack or basket of your dishwasher. [tongue-in-cheek in case that wasn’t obvious]
Well, shitballs. We need to replace our furnace. Like, now. Of course we learn this just before a snowstorm. Even worse, they think we have a “small” carbon monoxide leak and our monitor has apparently not been working for quite some time. So…not sure if we’re going to a hotel (which would make the most sense but be crazy expensive), ventilate the house REALLY well only in a snowstorm or what. But we’ll have the new furnace by next week, apparently.
Of course, this coincides with a plumbing inspection, which is happening right now. Heaven only knows what they’ll find.
See, this is why I finally sold my house. At my age I didn’t want to deal with the maintenance issues anymore. It wasn’t the money actually, just the hassle of choosing who to deal with, scheduling and so on.
My wife made the same decision a few years before we connected. A drip feed of expense and a never-ending flow of hassle.
I switched from house to condo in a big building a decade ago for the same reasons.
And now ~18 months in a rented apartment and zero regrets on the hassle front. Money’s pretty much a wash if you do a true full accounting.
Read all, retained little. It’s already a hell of a week.
Woke up yesterday to find we were overdrawn by $5. Managed to get some of Hubby’s tutoring money transferred over so we thought we were good. Nope. Another bill or two we’d forgotten about came out. Now we were overdrawn by $25. I have my savings at a different bank than my checking so it takes a couple of days to transfer. Luckily, Hubby is tutoring tonight so we can put that money directly into the account to cover our current shortfall. This month is going to require some jiggery-pokery to make sure all the bills get paid and we’ll be pinching the pennies until they scream, but we always find a way to make things work out. I have faith that we will this time too.
Today was the appointment with the spine doctor. The good: they got me in fairly quickly. The bad: the doctor is 90% certain that I have a compressed spinal cord. If that’s the case, it means surgery. He ordered an x-ray and an MRI of my neck (not sure if this will help my lower back as well, allowing me to move without pain). I got the x-ray done today. Next week they’ll be calling to set up the appointment for the MRI. I’ll keep y’all posted as I learn more.
Yesterday was the kids’ first day back from winter break. Miraculously, BtY got in the tub with only having to be yelled at twice! But he was clean for school. CtE took their shower in the morning since they had a little more time. They had an appointment with the weight loss doctor. They’d done some genetic testing and found that they do have the genetic predisposition for obesity. They’re upping one of their meds to try to combat it.
Apparently the first day went well for both kids. I even got BtY to do some of his homework. This is the semester CtE takes American Government and I suspect they’ll either rage constantly about politics or they’ll live the class. They missed it yesterday because of the appointment. BtY is starting a new unit on sex and sexuality for his Lifetime Wellness class.
And this… this just has me shaking my head. Tennessee requires the sex education portion of the class to be opt in rather than opt out. (Which means the kids that need it most are probably the ones whose folks say their kids won’t be learning about sex. But I digress.) At the same time, they are requiring all schools to cover the topic of sexual abuse in an age appropriate way and it is opt out. It’s like they’re saying, “Look for these signs as abuse but we won’t tell you anything about them to have you fully informed.” I seriously don’t get this state!
And now the kids’ bus is pulling up. It’s a cold, rainy, gray day here so I came out to wait for them rather than make them waiting for me. Sometimes I pull off being a good mom. 
It’s midway between snowing and rain here, and windy as hell. The weather guessers are saying 50 mph gusts. Came home to find the candles on in the windows, which they are not supposed to be for another hour, and the stove clock blinking, so obviously the power went out at some point.
I usually get my son off the bus at 4:03pm. They drop him right off at my house. I was so worn out today, I had an hour before drop-off and decided to go lay down on the bed and stare at the ceiling. My watch alarm is set to 3:55pm, so I have a fail safe - necessary for my ADHD brain, this is the “put your shoes on NOW and go outside” alarm.
Whelp. I fell asleep. It took about ten minutes of the alarm going off for me to wake up: 4:05pm holy shit! I tore out of bed, booked it outside, no shoes on, literally just sloshing my stocking feet in near freezing water, saw the bus wasn’t there, pulled on my shoes, and less than 30 seconds later the bus arrived. The bus driver is all apologizing for being late, and I’m like, “Hey, no worries!” Inside I’m still in a state of panic.
I haven’t really calmed down yet. No more naps before 4pm. Yikes.
Aww, jeez, sorry for the news. I hope the surgery fixes all the things for you. Sorry about the financial woes, too. That’s rough.
Of course, because Murphy is a real turd! So sorry you’re dealing with this - ain’t it always the way??
Like when our a/c crashed and died during a heatwave, not that we’d know if it died during the winter, but still.
Here, too! Our power has kinda sorta flickered a couple of times, but so far so good. Still, it’s blowing like mad!
Aunt B called - MIL has fallen 5 times since being there. What do you suppose our chances of getting her to move in with us are? yeah…
Supper was crab legs, because they were still on sale and I got a bag of clusters. Very yum!! FCD is rinsing the dishes and shortly, I’ll load the dishwasher. Then we’ll chill, provided we don’t take a tree thru the roof. Let’s keep a happy thought!