Happy Moanday, all! I’m sure you’re eager for a noisy neighbor update. What’s that? You’re not? Skip this paragraph then. The noise quieted a bit after some (not all) little kids left to meet their meth dealers. Not to worry, though, as a second shift of giddy adults showed up at midnight. A good time was had by all everyone who wasn’t noise-adjacent. I don’t know what time they stopped. I wouldn’t let myself check the time after 1:00 because I’d only get more irritated. I thought they’d be sleeping late today. I was wrong. I’m hearing the dulcet tones of Death Trap IV (or whatever game it is).
I have one laundry hamper. I solved the problem of dingy whites years ago when I figured out the trick was to stop buying them. My gym socks are black. I pull towels off the racks, and the sheets go from bed to washer/dryer to bed.
My favorite Little Debbie snacks were discontinued: German Chocolate Cookie Rings. Chocolate cookies, caramel, and coconut, dunked in chocolate, they were kind of like Girl Scout Samoans with more chocolate (Did the GS rename Samoans?)
Furry soup does not sound appetizing. I won’t tell you what demented images my sleep-deprived brain came up with. I hope the soup TASTED good, though.
Why would I put a snotty tissue on a coaster? It’s trash city, bay-beee!
I had a good, hard think and I couldn’t come up with anything in this house that qualifies - maybe the handmade lace doily and the tablecloth with hand-tatted trim. Nothing to be dry-cleaned either - well, except my leather coat.
Snow has stopped and according to weather radar, it might start up again in the early evening. I just took a ruler out and it looks like we got about 5", and possibly another 1-2" tonight. Then nothing till maybe Saturday.
I decided to do a quick roll-suck of the traffic areas - I think that took all of 10 minutes. I also loaded the dishwasher and had lunch. I have wings thawing for FCD’s supper and a hunk of tuna steak for me. Salad and steak fries will be the sides. With all that done, I think it’s time to recline again.
I bet they have much the same as me: lots of dire winter storm warnings for 3 days before the non-event and then at most just a dusting of snow but with starkly frigid temps and even colder wind gusts. The snow on sidewalks could be easily swept away (a shovel would have been overkill). Oddly, at my daughter’s less than 5 miles away (due east) they had twice as much snow, so a double dusting (an inch, still only needed a broom, certainly not a shovel or a snowblower). The temp today is all the way up to 16 degrees, with a wind chill of-whelp-15 degrees. Lovely blue sky though and sunshine! It’s been a week since there’s been blue skies rather than flat dreary gray and I haven’t seen the sun since I dont know when . Sun and blue skies are good for the soul. 16 degrees, so that I need gloves? Meh.
It’s just me and I have one hamper. Whites and lights are one load, darks are another, towels and third, and sheets a fourth. Towels are done weekly, sheets every 2 weeks. A corner in the hall outside the bathroom is delegated for hand wash items.
Went to the gym and boy howdy, am I out of shape. Managed 5 minutes on the elliptical, then 5 minutes walking. My goal was 4 songs so that was accomplished. Then floor work. Planks, bird dogs, glute bridges, side sit ups.
Started Typing: 12:41 PM ET
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I woke up to ~4" of snow here in Northern Virginia, and there’s probably 5" now. Neither typical nor apocalyptic, but everything is closed. No power issues though; yay! There’s currently a reprieve before more snow (another 1-3") falls tonight, and I’m listening to the little kids who live in the house facing mine squeal with delight as they play in the snow and take sleds down the hill in their front yard. It’s a nice sound, especially after several hours of silence. It’s always a little creepy how quiet it gets when there’s no traffic/construction noise!
I’m single, with one hamper: everything gets washed together in cold water, with a Shout Color Catcher, on permanent press. Only doggy laundry gets washed separately (like the dog bed cover, or the waterproof pads covering the LR rug at night), because I throw an OxyClean pod in there and change the water level and temp.
The ice mats I ordered to help Bailey with the back stairs have been delayed: they were supposed to be delivered yesterday, but at dinnertime Amazon notified me that they’re now expected tomorrow. Sigh. But I’ve shoveled the steps (and a path across the patio) twice, and so far the dog has made it down and up with no real problem. I’m holding off on applying the (paw-safe) ice melter for as long as I can, but I’m sure I’ll break it out soon enough.
The first time Bailey went out this morning she had the snow zoomies, then proceeded to have the indoor zoomies: she jumped up on the bed (which happens quite rarely these days) and ran around in circles…and promptly fell off the side of the bed, because her coordination sucks. Heh. Normally when she gets like that I’ll go stand at the side of the bed, because I know she has a tendency to slip off, but I didn’t make it in time. After the tumble she needed help standing up – she didn’t have enough purchase on the hardwood floor to get her back legs under her – but was unharmed. Though she was probably annoyed by the next 5 minutes of me following her around going “Are you ok?” “You alright?” “Did you hurt yourself?” “Everything good, baby girl?”
A neighborhood teenager will be coming by later to shovel my sidewalks and front steps. I first hired him three years ago, when we got snow shortly after my bariatric surgery and I had to ask my neighborhood Facebook group for help. Now his mom reaches out whenever it snows. I usually say no thanks, but today I decided to take her up on the offer: I could shovel (and probably should shovel some of these cookie calories off), but I really don’t want to. I’ll pay via Zelle, so he won’t even need to knock on the door/interact with the old lady (to him) in frumpy mismatched sweats. More shoveling will likely be needed tomorrow, but if the schools aren’t closed again I won’t mind tackling a few inches.
Work is somewhat quiet today (so far ), which is good because I’m utterly unmotivated. I’m perfectly cozy here in the home office, but would rather be cozy in the living room! Ah well. The benefit to hanging out in the home office is that the dog bed is in here, so I get to be right next to Bailey most of the time. It’s been a couple of years since she’s been able to get on the couch: no ramp/steps have worked, and no matter where in the living room I put a dog bed she’s completely uninterested in using it, so now in the evenings I only see her if she wants to eat or pee. We’ve both adapted, but sometimes I miss the old days. She’s never been a lap dog, but would always be next to me on the couch…and every now and then her head or a paw would touch my leg.
I hope everyone has a good day/week!
OMG I love that!
I’m a pretty organized person and keep things tidy most of the time, but during the two weeks when I was sick I did very little…and the first day I felt better I did get the clean room zoomies. Heh.
I don’t remember ever seeing those, but wow that sounds good!!
I feel throughly cheated. There’s a bit on the hills, but here we have a few specks of grubby maybe-ice-maybe-snow still and that’s it. It’s pathetic. Can someone send some real stuff over please? It’s cold and miserable anyway, it may as well look pretty.
The car is still at work. I had to get the bus in and back- which involves about half an hour of walking plus over an hour on the bus each way, as it pootles round back roads alll the way through the suburbs. It’s kind of fun for a change, but not if you need to be somewhere. It normally takes me under 20 minutes door to door. I’ve been given the number of the local Good Car Guy, who is hopefully coming round tomorrow to give an opinion on if it’s worth trying to fix up for sale, otherwise it’s getting scrapped ASAP. I don’t have enough spare brainpower to deal with it much longer.
Luckily, half the people at irk aren’t back from break until next week, so I could easily spend a day doing very little. I need to get on with more serious stuff soon though, at which point I shall likely disappear as my brain gets all taken up.
Science; we do it not because it’s easy, but because we thought it was going to be easy.
If there is a uniform, its my black pants ( yoga in summer, warmer in winter) and black tops.
I would not wear white socks, my one bra is black.
I am so relieved my Housing is secure and I now am about to start a job. I found the new People and Us at the library and am off to get some Chex cereal.
It doesn’t take much to make me happy.
I’m pretty sure they are going to love it! A friend once told me that she has a twin sized electric blanket for her queen sized bed. That’s the side her cat sleeps on!
I hesitate to call the governor of WV a wimp, but…there wasn’t enough snow on the road to worry me and I drive a little, light econobox. Had anything been open, I would have been fairly productive (for me). The highway is clear and dry looking, the ice is on driveways and sidewalks.
I used to drive to through bumper to bumper rush hour before dawn traffic in worse conditions every winter. Barefoot! Uphill! Both directions!
Harry wanted to be sure that our power was back on because he couldn’t see light glowing from our kitchen window. Some of the cookies went with him to our next door on the left neighbor. He’s blind and meals-on-wheels usually cooks for him, but they probably won’t be delivering today. Mrs. Harry put together a couple of meals he can put in the microwave and Harry thought he would like something sweet to go with his coffee.
We think the mine is closed due to their workers living out in the hollers where they probably are snowed in. Not a lot of plowed roads back there plus the schools are closed so the workers have to deal with that as well.
The 4am train woke me up by not going by on time.
Our drying rack lives in the laundry room by the door I use to get to my car (four exits in this place). That way I can hang up my bathing suit and towel as soon as I walk in. I’d like to string a bit of clothesline under the carport for that but hubs thinks that would look too redneck. That is the same man who used my long-handled garden loppers to spatchcock a turkey.
I do worry about you in bad weather, but then I think of you constantly despite the weather. I’m glad I can help you see the beauty, we need to grab all of the joy in life that we can!
Maybe offer it to the office staff where you live?
Well dang! Put yourself around a nice cup of tea and then off to bed with you. Sleep it out!!!
Which probably tastes just as good but is easier to eat!
I sure do hope you can find something suitable in time. The Geneva convention considers sleep deprivation to be torture when it happens to POWs, it sucks that there is nothing you can do to stop it.
You sound like me!
That was very kind of you, while shoveling snow probably isn’t his favorite thing to do, every teenager alive never has enough money.
The snow is still falling and the mail hasn’t arrived. It is almost three and he is usually here before noon, so I suspect it won’t happen. I have seen the UPS truck go by though.
There is a white plate filled with peanuts, walnuts and steel cut oats on the front porch which the birds have found. Both of the fuzzbutts have found that channel on their kitty TV and are very excited.
Matzo ball soup sounds friggin’ delicious. I haven’t had had a good one since the 80s when my grandmother was still around. Today would be a perfect day for it. I’m in St. Louis, MO and it snowed about 8 inches where I am. There’s maybe a half inch of ice underneath that. An employee of mine who is a scant 10 miles away got almost a foot and had trouble opening her door this morning.
The kids and husband have been outside to shovel; one of the many benefits of having had my twin removed is I can’t lift more than 10 pounds for a couple of weeks, so no shoveling for me to avoid any stitch and surgical glue popping. I’ll be glad when I can, though - I feel like a blob. Unfortunately, I’m able to work. I really don’t want to. I’m also heartily tired of being on meetings and constantly interrupted by questions. “What’s for lunch?” “Are you on a meeting?” “What are you doing?” “Where’s the marinara?” “Do we have bread?”
Last night the snow was so bright I woke up at 3 a.m. thinking it was 7 a.m. and I was late to shower for work, so my eyeballs hurt now because I couldn’t fall asleep again. I think I’m going to make some coffee. I’ve been voluntold I’m traveling at the end of the month, so now I have to figure out where I’m going. Evidently I’m going to stand about at an expo and look important.
Kitten mitten, there are plain potato and kapusta perogies. They are boiled tonight, no oil or butter. Fruit, nuts, twigs, and bark. That is tonight and other strict food nights. The only thing I eat is the kutya. There are 12 courses.
Liirogue, Russian. I also have the calendar of food in the kitchen. Orthodox is rather fluid in the u. s… You have the ultra orthodox parishes to the more modern ones. The church is divided along ethnic lines here with the Orthodox Church in America (all the continent not just the u.s.) trying to bridge all ethnicities and converts.
Lunch break over (pb&j), and on to the kitchen area.
Mine hasn’t shown up in days. (I’ve been checking, @FairyChatMom !)
Food, housing, entertainment, a job. A touch of security in life.
Sounds like … well, most folks, really.
Best wishes for the new gig. We’re rootin’ for ya.
She’s exercised on behalf of many of us!
Alright, time to find non-work clothes (comfortable AND cute? WHAAAAT? I don’t wear those much anymore, opting heavily in favor of “comfy”) and get all festive. And shit.
Guac & sour cream - plus salsa, just in case - is still sitting in my car from this morning. Hey, it’s in the 20s out there, my passenger seat is now simply a handy refrigerator.
I found a tabletop soccer/hockey type game that seemed fun, which - after a grumpy mini-meltdown & do-over cuz I SUCK at wrapping - is presentably esconsed in the very last of my rainbow wrapping paper (@Baker ) so it’s off to party with my peeps.
It wouldn’t a come yesterday anyhow. That was one advantage to working a 9 to 5 job, I always knew what day it was. Now it is anyone’s guess until I check a calendar.
Unless they’ve frozen. Or have become slushy, so be sure to give everything a good stir when you get it there.
Have fun!
So the meals-for-wheels folks did come through for neighbor. I’m glad Harry checked on him because neighbor tends to lose his phone and I didn’t really want to have to walk over and check on him. Not because we don’t get along but because I’m all lazy and stuff.
The snow is still falling. I have done almost nothing all day but stare hypnotized out into the snow bowl. It is amazing.
My needlework class has been delayed again. The instructor had a flood in her basement and couldn’t get the kits together without her work table cause she had to cut and measure fabric and such for 50 kits. Now we are waiting because some inconsiderate people haven’t told her that their kit has arrived. That’s probably just as well, these are going to be zoom classes and I wouldn’t be able to focus until the snow stops anyhow.
We have snow, although nowhere near the 12-18 inches that was predicted, probably 3-4. It’s 27 feels like 18 degrees.
My son has shoveled a path from the house to the garage and he said it is now icy.
I wouldn’t care but he has to irk tonight so we have to go out. He’s been getting out of irk around 1 or 2am, and I told him to take cab fare or he may have to wait until daylight for me to go get him.
I’m in Western Maryland, where it gets very skinny, so like 10 minues from PA and 10 minutes from WV.
Any time I’m on the road, I’d say it’s about 50% MD tags, to 25% PA and 25% WV.
I finally broke down and bought a new laptop. I couldn’t take it anymore. I finally got it set up and I’m trying to get used to it. |I think my keyboard is European. It has pound and euro symbols, and sometimes what is printed on the key is not what shows up on the screen.
I have all the ingredients for lemon cheesecake. I also very much need to wash my hair. Both these things are time-intensive. Washing, rinsing, conditioning, detangling, blow-drying, and in this case, trying not to get too cold, for the hair, and bake time, cooling time and fridge time (after adding the lemon curd) for the cheesecake. I should probably do my hair tonight; if I start the cheesecake now, it won’t be ready to eat until very late.
Spent about half an hour brushing off Mr. Rilch’s truck and my car, not because we’re going anywhere, but to make it less daunting when the snow stops/we do have to go somewhere. I was pretty well bundled up, though, so it was invigorating. Also I got to use my glittens.
Chocolate Fudge Cakes or Unicorn Cakes for me. Right now, also Strawberry Valentine Cakes. But that’s just Little Debbie; my favorite favorite is a tie between Entenmann’s Crumb Coffee Cake vs. Tastykake fruit pies. But only if they’re the baked kind, in the rectangular tin. Not the ones like turnovers, Hostess-style. Oh, and 7/11 fruit pies are good, because they have less of the sugar crust that I dislike about the “turnover” pies.
nelliebly yes, Samoas are sometimes called Caramel DeLites. I hope that doesn’t indicate some change to the cookies themselves.
Oh yeah, about that UPS Surepost debacle. I’ve gotten refunds for four items that were returned to sender. Now I have to wait and see what happens to the fifth item. As soon as I have either the product or the money for everything I ordered, I will start re-ordering. But not all the same things.
(Now I’m really aggravated with the t-shirt seller. If she’d sent my product within the promised three days, I might have gotten that package juuuuust under the wire, before the Surepost contract expired. Or if she really couldn’t, she should have let me know right away, so I could have canceled and ordered from someone else. Grrr.)
I haven’t seen the sun since I dont know when 
I’m holding off on applying the (paw-safe) ice melter for as long as I can, but I’m sure I’ll break it out soon enough.
I’ll pay via Zelle, so he won’t even need to knock on the door/interact with the old lady (to him) in frumpy mismatched sweats. More shoveling will likely be needed tomorrow, but if the schools aren’t closed again I won’t mind tackling a few inches.
) so it’s off to party with my peeps.