Hello March

 [continuing on from Webs of Thread] {and still no Toaster Oven Tuesday item}

If you came over from WoT, you'll know I left off with having headed to the mall with Panda.  I don't get out much, so going to the mall was a big deal for me, not in a YIPPEE!! way, but it was interesting to see what stores were there and what was in them.  It had been at least two years since I'd been there.  We did quite a bit of walking around...oh my poor back and feet...I DO need to get out more!

To set the back story: last Monday while at Panda's we spent some time in the early evening watching a cooking show, Kid's Challenge or something, and I marveled at how much those 10-13 year old kids knew about working in the kitchen.  One of the items they made were French Macarons which I have never had (not to be confused with macaroons made with coconut). I know Judy @ Patchwork Times has blogged about them in the past but I don't recall if she gave what the ingredients were, so I watched these kids with rapt attention, and Panda was surprised I'd never had macarons and explained there was a kiosk that sells them at the mall.  We made plans to go to the mall at our next meeting, which was yesterday.

A few days after the show, I'd been to a local Trader Joe's and found some in the freezer department, a dozen for $4.99.  Not cheap, but overall less than the $2 apiece that Panda said they were at the mall.  There were six flavors in the frozen ones of which I preferred the coconut, the fig, and the apricot; the other three flavors didn't really stand out.  Now, the ones at the mall, she bought six of (actually $1.79 apiece or $11.xx for a box of 6). Hmmm, the '6' price is more than 6 x individual price...anyway, she got them and we found a table to sit at in the food court after also finding a Vietnamese food kiosk where she bought a Boba beverage - mango - also something I'd never had (remember, I don't get out much) which is juice that has tapioca and 'juice balls' in it.  Bizarre right?  But oh my, was it tasty, and of the macarons she bought, we split a coconut one - better than the frozen brand, and a strawberry cream cheese, which was very tasty.  

Then we wandered parts of the mall so she could go to a specific store for some facial products, we checked out the Disney store, a clothing store and Williams-Sonoma.  There were no crowds, and I wondered how these stores stay in business.  Shops in the mall can't be cheap to operate!  Maybe that accounts for their sky-high prices.  A LeCreuset oval pot at W-S was $345.00!  For ONE stinking pot with a lid!  Add sales tax to that and you're paying $380.00...for ONE pot! and a name brand! at an expensive 'name brand' store.  Growing up poor in the country in the 1950's I guess I just learned to be more frugal and I don't think I've ever bought anything because of the 'name' brand.  Stuff like that just isn't important to me.  Think of how much more fabric I could buy for $380!  Right?

Other activities of the past couple of weeks that have kept me busy have been getting back to a weekly meeting with my Padawan quilting student, and catching up with each other.  At home, I'm adjusting to Marty being a 'remote' employee (and the first paycheck hit the bank yesterday - always worth a smile).  We rearranged his desk into the master bedroom, but I have yet (with his help) to clean up and sort through the stuff that piled up on the floor downstairs where his desk had been.  Neither one of us have been diligent to get rid of things over the nearly two decades we've been married, and, add one teenager and all his accumulation too, and we seem to be overflowing.  I am INTENT (haven't forgotten about that word) to get a lot of this stuff out of here, but there are also things that could go back where they should be...if I had the cabinets.  

When we remodeled the two bathrooms, we had a cabinet above the toilet that has yet to be replaced, for my hair, make-up products, etc. .  Also, in my Creation Station, I still would like cabinetry along the one wall which will hold the stuff that now still sits out, as well as my genealogy files. 

An old friend, Shelby, spent the night back the end of January & will be spending tomorrow night here again.  With that in mind, I've been attempting to work through some of the overflow in the guest room.  And speaking of that, I need to get back at it.  When she was here before, I'd passed along a bunch of stuff that she could either use, sell or pass on to a women's shelter.  I have old clothes that are way too small for me now so will pass those on, and if I ever should lose weight, well, the mall is always there!

Owies, Shuffling and Cleaning

Nick went off to a friend's birthday celebration.  He won't be home until 9:00-ish.  Yesterday, he met another friend at a park he had to drive to.  He took his bike with him as the friend was riding his own and they planned on doing a little mountain biking.  He took a jump, landed it but then hit a rut/hole and went end over end.  We didn't know about that until he drove home and hobbled up the stairs to my Creation Station and said he needed to be bandaged up.  Dust was all over his clothes, the heels of the palms of both hands had ragged bare spots, a knee had a small scrape but his right arm had a good sized oozing scrape.  He told me he cleaned them all up the best he could in the park restroom with soap and water to remove the sand, dirt and grit.  He didn't hit his head but said the wind had been knocked out of him and when he finally caught his breath and attempted to stand felt like he was going to faint.  At home he was also complaining about finding it hard to take in very deep breaths though there were no marks on his back or abdomen, only some road rash on his right side above his hip.  A couple hours later we decided it couldn't hurt to go ahead and get an xray to make sure nothing was broken or punctured.  All was good, nothing broken.  He's just very sore and tender right now.

right palm

right arm - it looks worse in person and takes a 2" x 4" bandage to cover it

above hip

knee

None of these really look that bad, and they'll all heal up pretty quickly.  We're keeping bandages on the one on the arm as it's still oozy, and it stings when it isn't covered.  When he's typing or writing, that area hits the desktop too, so another good reason to keep it covered for awhile.

As I mentioned at WoT, Marty now works from home.  I had planned to discuss how to rearrange so that neither of us are bothering the other during his work-day and he brought it up himself earlier today.  He and I work and think totally opposite - often a problem.  His way of thinking was to just charge in like a bull in a china shop and start shuffling things around without a real plan.  In his mind of course, he had a little bit of a plan.  

My way of thinking would be to recognize what needed to be moved and how best to rearrange existing items in the room for everything to fit and function well. I would have drawn out a to-scale plan for that fit and layout.  This while recognizing that neither area, nor furnishings in them had been cleaned in eons, along with whole lot of clutter that hadn't been dealt with for a very long time.  I would have dealt with those issues first. Consideration had to be made for how the background and lighting for those times he'd be on video-conference calls too. 

While he was beginning to put his plan in action, and I was still trying to warm up to the whole idea of doing any of this today, and was dragging my feet wanting to do nothing but hang at the computer while I contemplated it.  Well, I finally felt I had to get off my duff and supervise (we have very different ways of cleaning too, and left to him - cleaning would be minimal).  Supervising meant grabbing the vacuum before too much dust started flying.  The brush attachment tackled the layer of dust sitting atop the furnishings and the vacuum tackled the floor with the help of the crevice tool.  Oh my there was a lot of dust and cat hair when some things were moved!!  A few cobwebs too!  The room as a whole is far from finished, but at least that little corner is clean and now houses his desk and computer.  It'll be a progression as he adds the small stuff. 

Marty's work area.

He will be getting an additional monitor and keyboard from his employer.  He needs to use the task light.  We both forgot that the overhead lights stopped working a long time ago.  Previous owners had installed two can lights in the ceiling directly above the head of where the bed would go.  We moved the bed and its orientation as well.  I would have liked to have this room painted before all this - hasn't been done since prior to 1992 - but Marty wasn't about to do that any time soon or wait for it to happen by me.  He'd wait a long time. 

This is the other corner to the right. That's my Sears Kenmore cabinet machine doing double solo duty as a nightstand.  Marty uses a C-Pap so that's the clunky machine there. 

Nothing else will get photographed in that room at this point.  So much to sort through and get rid of.  I have boxes of clothes that I've thought "I can wear those again when I lose...", well, we know how that goes, so it's probably time to get rid of them.  By this time, someone's bound to call them "retro" hehe. Marty & I both have boxes of stuff to sort through.

We haven't decided if we're doing anything tonight for Valentine's day.  My stomach has been giving me issues since Thursday night, so I'm trying to be careful about foods.  I don't want to go to the doctor, but the first couple days nearly did.  I'm thinking possible ulcer, but don't want to deal with the testing...not until I have the insurance cards in hand!  Marty asking what I might be able to eat, so I guess I'd better start thinking about that. 

Is it Winter or Summer?

Yesterday it began warming up out here.  We reached a high of 81 on our outdoor thermometer.  It's supposed to be in the low to mid-80s for the next eight days.  This is February, the middle of winter, and I want winter back, thank you very much.

I have one in bloom in each of two separate pots.

 The bulbs came from my mom's in the year or two prior to her death, but I haven't paid much attention to them so I'm only getting a few.  I'm surprised there are still any left that the squirrels haven't devoured.

Fruitless pear blossom

 With the neighbor's ivy, which I detest, as a backdrop, the blossoms on the fruitless pear are emerging.  I mentioned in last Sunday's post that they'd be along shortly.

Fruitless pear leaves.

 The leaves are getting larger, and display nicely against the deep blue sky. 

weeds

Weeds are beginning to proliferate.  Not much else will grow well in this sandy soil.  It needs a lot of amendments, but there's no room to add good soil without removing a lot of the old soil. 

I see tomorrow is Tuesday - I don't have any "back-up" items to use for the toaster oven post, so may have to make something and post late in the day...or next week.  

Nick came home at noon on Thursday complaining of feeling ill.  He had a fever, and over the next couple days it stayed below 102.  He didn't want to be disruptive to his classes as he was still coughing and sneezing today so stayed home again, but will be going back to school tomorrow.   

Marty has also been sick.  I didn't realize he'd recently had a mild cold, which always goes into his chest and for the last several days he's been feeling pretty crummy and coughing a lot, and is tired still today.  He starts his new job tomorrow, so I hope he can pull it off.  

I've hibernated in my Creation Station this week, emerging only to fix meals, and meet with friends a couple times.  Today I went downstairs and spent the better part of the day doing chores.

I managed three loads of laundry, and half of one that had been sitting in the dryer for a week.  Everything is now either hanging on the racks in the garage (laundry area) or folded and sitting on the table waiting to be put away.  I paid some bills, cleaned the cat box, finished loading the dishwasher and ran it, tried to take a late nap but was interrupted by a call from my sister and then it was time to fix dinner (shell pasta, shrimp, Alfredo sauce and spinach - yum, I mixed mine altogether in a bowl). 

Yesterday and some today, I've worked on identifying photos that I brought back from Oregon.  One brother wants to know: "Where are the old black and whites that were in the shoe box sorted per sibling?"  I'd have to share too much drama for you to understand why that irks me.  I'm so tempted to ignore his post, and probably will for a few days.  My plan with these photos (I'm the one who sorted them) was/is to scan them - some were scanned at my dad's in Oregon when I was there - and put them on disk(s) to send to all the siblings along with "their" respective originals.   I just hadn't bothered with it to this point.  

I have too many of those things I just haven't bothered with.  Maybe I'll start getting to some of them this week.  Maybe not.

Slow-Mo Saturday

In reality, I think just about every day is 'Slow-Mo"  for me.  

I haven't written up any Toaster Oven Tuesday posts for this year yet.  I intended to do one on Mac & Cheese this week, but didn't take a single picture so didn't bother.  Notice I wasn't really very intent!

A friend was going to come on Tuesday and have dinner and spend the night, but her plans changed and she arrived a few hours earlier and only stayed for a couple hours.  We rarely have guests, so I had to make the house look at least a little presentable.  That kept me busy all morning, and I had to do some shopping, which I tend to put off all the more with Marty's unemployment.  It's not like we can't afford to still eat, but I go into survival mode, I was very poor for more years than I care to remember.  This friend and I have been friends-of-various-degree since 1974.  She's had her own difficulties in finding good employment in recent years, and barely scrapes by. 

We had a good visit even though shorter than planned, and after she left, I went ahead and prepared the dinner I'd planned and Nick, Marty & I enjoyed it and the leftovers all through yesterday.

Marty's been busy with telephone and in-person interviews.  In between, he needed to have an out-patient procedure done to remove a bladder stone.  He's so much more 'relieved' now.  We voiced thoughts about what would have happened if we were living 100 or more years ago...I think, as minor a problem as we see this today, it might have become a slow, agonizing death for him back then.  Dreadful thought.  He had to go through a pre-op visit for this procedure, and a chest x-ray caused some concern so he has to go in this next week for a CT scan.  Please pray this is nothing more than a faulty x-ray.  Marty's quite concerned (i.e. worried) and I'm trying not to be until we have all the facts.

Yesterday, he received the call from one of the interviewing companies, to offer him a position.  They just have to work out his salary, hopefully acceptable to them to keep us on or above, the same plane we've been on.   He'd taken cuts with the last two positions after his August 2013 lay off, so it would be nice to come back up a little.  It took nine months for him to regain employment last time, so if this position holds, it's a big improvement being only three weeks since he was let go.

Two friends this past week or so have respectively lost a parent.  One's dad was in his 90s, the others mom was 86.  One in CA but taking the remains to TX, the other in MN with final resting place in TN.  The one for TN is tomorrow so I pray that with the horrible weather conditions back there, that all goes as planned.  There seems to be so much loss at this age.  I don't suppose that'll change.