Weekend recap

March began with a beautiful, sunny day on Saturday, and quite warm. We spent a good bit of time on the back porch with the dogs and Marco, soaking up some fresh air and sunshine. Yesterday was much colder and slightly overcast. 

Gregg's been sick. Last week he had some sort of cold/flu/virus that put him in bed for a couple of days with fever, body aches, a cough, and nausea. For a while Saturday morning he was feeling a good bit better, but by suppertime his fever was back, and his cough was getting worse. He's still got a lot of chest congestion but as of last night seems to be turning a corner.

Besides bringing him ginger ale and offering to heat up soup, things like that, I've been keeping my distance. I do NOT want to get sick again this year. It's been a horrible flu season in this area and plenty of other nastiness has been going around, too: strep, Covid, stomach bugs. I have enough exposure at the school. In fact, we think that Gregg picked up this virus at the little preschool he still visits twice a month to clean the aquarium. 

So not the most auspicious way to begin March, at least for him. I'll leave you with a few pictures I took over the weekend. Have a good week, everyone.

Poppy facing down her sworn enemy: the FedEx truck! (Our neighbor gets deliveries almost daily and Poppy can't stand it).

Marco preening in the sunshine Saturday morning. 

Daffodils are blooming around the neighborhood. 

Winter break checklist

I'm thrilled to say that this morning I girded my loins and did our taxes. It's always such a relief to get that over with, and more so this time because Gregg started collecting Social Security last year. We were both a little nervous that since he hasn't quite reached his full retirement age, his earnings from self-employment added to the SS payments might put him over a threshold to owe higher taxes than usual. To my relief, though, we pretty much broke even and the amount we owe the federal government was less than the refund the state owes us. In fact, we come out ahead by $350, so I'm counting that as a win!

I had a six-month checkup with my family doctor yesterday which I was also dreading. I'd hoped to have lost more weight by now, but that didn't happen. (On the positive side, I haven't gained any back either). The doctor didn't comment on it one way or the other. I'm hoping to get back on track and take off some more weight between now and August when I see her again. 

I also had a dental appointment early in the week. I just needed a cleaning and checkup, but I've come to dread my visits because the big, busy dental practice I use are ALWAYS trying to have me get expensive work done. This last time I protested that I wanted to hold off as long as possible on any extra work, because of the expense, and they STILL printed off a big estimate (over $7000!) and handed it to me with a warning that the prices go up every year. I hate the pressure to spend lots of money when I don't think it's really very urgent at all. I was super relieved when that bi-annual ordeal was over, too.

Another thing I accomplished this week was helping Gregg construct a new cage of bird netting around the crabapple tree. It grew so much last year that its branches were rubbing against the old net, so we had to make everything wider. If we don't take these steps, the neighborhood deer will eat every tender new leaf that opens this spring.

It's hard to tell from this photo, but the tree is over 7 feet tall now! I can't wait for it to bloom in a few weeks.

And speaking of growing things....my two seed orders arrived this week!

I'd already started tomato and pepper plants from seeds leftover from last year. As you can see, the tomato seedlings are starting to get big!

It feels like I've gotten a lot accomplished on this break, and I still have the weekend in front of me to do whatever I want. Then back to it on Monday!

Handsome

For Meike, who asked about Little P. and the dance. His mom sent me a picture, as promised. 

I'm going to have to stop calling him "Little" P.! He looks so grown up for not-quite 12.

A homely* kind of day

I'm off work this week thanks to Winter Break. Besides appointments with the dentist and doctor (both simple routine checkups) I didn't make any plans, other than just enjoying myself doing whatever I wanted. So far, it's been really nice. 

On Saturday morning I met up with two friends from book club for breakfast. The place we went has the most wonderful Eggs Benedict, a favorite of mine, so of course that's what I ordered. The next day, I made a big batch of homemade vegetable soup, which has been simmering on low in the crockpot more or less ever since (it's had one overnight in the refrigerator). Today the weather's turned frigid again with the possibility of freezing rain and snow flurries tonight, so we're looking forward to that soup. And as I type this, two loaves of homemade bread are just about done baking. Between the bread in the oven and the soup simmering in the crockpot, my house smells wonderful right now.

Added a little while later while finishing this post:

I added an egg wash and sesame seeds to the bread this time. I hope it tastes good!

In other news: I am a domestic goddess!! HAHA. :) No, but seriously, in between making the bread, I finished a knitting project! I've been wanting to start knitting again, but it had been a loooong time, and I wanted something quick and easy to start with. Gregg has been pestering me for a while now to make him a new hat, so that's what I did! Nothing's any quicker and simpler than a hat and I didn't even need a pattern. I'm happy with how it turned out, and he really likes it. It's thick and warm. Just in time for our winter weather over the next few days!

I only talked him into letting me take his picture by telling him I'd take a side photo. I don't know why he hates having his picture taken, but he does.

To finish off a good day, I have book club tonight. That's always a fun time and I'm looking forward to it. I'm only about halfway through the book, but I'm not that invested in it, so I'm not worried about finishing. Seeing my friends is the main thing, although the drive home might be a little bit icy. Depending on the weather I may need to leave a little early, but I hope not.

Have a good night, friends!

*Homely in the British sense.

Shot down

I haven't shared a Little P. story in a while, so I wanted to tell you about talking to his mom yesterday. Since we both work in the same school district, I can reach her office by dialing her extension even though we're in different schools. Anyway, I was thinking about her and P. yesterday morning and how we hadn't talked in a while, so during a slow time I rang her up to say hello. *

Anyway, we chatted for a couple of minutes, caught up, etc. When I asked her how P. was doing, she told me about something that happened to him recently. His middle school (!) is having a Valentine's Day dance this Friday evening. There was a girl he liked, so he summoned his courage and asked her to go with him. So cute! Right? 

Except...you want to know how that little sh*t of a girl responded? 

Turned him down, which is perfectly fine, but then she told her circle of little catty mean-girl friends that he had asked her, and they all laughed at him.

Laughed at our little P.!

I was so mad.

Judon handled it like a pro, as usual. She didn't get too excited about it all, merely telling him, "Forget that girl. Go by yourself or with two or three of your best guy friends." She encouraged him to look on Amazon to find something he might want to wear, and he picked out a red suit jacket (!) so she ordered it for him. Then they shopped together for a shirt and pants to wear with it. I'm so glad he's going to go and I hope he has a blast! I told Judon to send me pictures of him all dressed up.

And I hope that girl gets a lesson from karma one day. 

Growing up is tough. I'm glad I don't have to do it again. I wouldn't go back to my middle school years for anything!

*I knew that she'd see who was calling, and if she was busy at the moment she wouldn't pick up. That's why I wasn't worried about disturbing her at work.

A new skill

For the first time ever, I made bread by hand today. It was a revelation. 

Not only was it far easier to do than I expected, it turned out great. Nice crust, nice light crumb, truly almost perfect. It's also delicious! After it cooled enough to slice we had it spread with softened butter and raspberry jam. It was the best thing I've eaten in ages.

A poem for Friday

 

Rant

Three months ago, on Election Day, I swore I wasn't going to let the second Trump term cause me the daily anxiety and stress that the first did. 

Yeah. That's not working out. At all. 

I've never been so frightened in my life over politics and the direction of our country. Every day it's just more and more horror. The rule of law, precedents, norms, civilized behavior..............none of it means jack shit anymore. 

I find myself resenting Trump voters even more than I used to, and that's saying a lot. I'll have zero, ZERO, sympathy when the lowlife losers and racists who voted us into this mess lose their Social Security, disability payments, workplace protections, FEMA disaster relief, Medicaid, and on and on and on. Fuck every single one of them. We tried and tried to tell people what a disaster this was going to be, and "owning the libs" meant more to them than anything good and worthwhile that America has stood for for the past 250 years. They can all go to hell and rot. 

The only thing I regret is that the decent people in this country are going to suffer right along with them. Over the weekend I actually found myself googling "safest blue states for women and minorities" and making a plan for selling the house and moving before things get too bad and we're trapped here. States that border Canada are my first choice.

I can't even believe I just wrote such a thing here on the blog. Never in a million years did I think things would come to this.  I love my house, my state, my life, but I won't sit around while our version of the Taliban comes into power and live under the control of such people. We have literal (neo) NAZIS running the show. NAZIS. And a way-too-large portion of our population are ALL FOR IT. It's sickening. Scary. Almost unbearable.

How are you coping? Do you think I'm crazy? Alarmist? If not, are you making plans? I'm afraid this is all going to get much, much worse before it gets better. If you have any words of comfort that might make me think otherwise or feel better, please share them. 

And thanks for letting me get this off my chest. As you can probably tell, it's been a bad day.