Another weekend rolls around

The full Hunter's Moon rising over our street Friday night.

October is really flying by this year. Before we know it, it's going to be the holidays and then the end of 2023. I wish it would slow down a bit.

Marla and Martina came over yesterday for one of our "girls' nights". Marla's birthday was Thursday, so I invited them early in the week, then almost canceled at the last minute. I've had some low-level depression going on, and then yesterday morning my dad had to go back to the hospital, so I wasn't sure if I felt up to company. In the end I decided to go ahead with it since I'd already purchased food and drinks, and I'm glad I did. Spending a few hours with my two best friends really boosted me up and made me feel better. As always, we laughed and laughed. It was just what I needed. 

I kept the food super simple. We had toasty ham and Swiss sliders on Hawaiian rolls covered with a buttery sauce and poppy seeds, homemade guacamole with assorted chips, one of those pre-made rings of cold shrimp with cocktail sauce, and store-bought cupcakes. In keeping with the season I had an assortment of chilled ciders to drink. 

I didn't get a picture of the ham and cheese sliders, but they were the best part. 

And Martina brought me a present! She was shopping for some new baking dishes and she saw one she thought I'd like. I was chuffed!

Isn't it pretty? And I really need new baking/casserole dishes. I told Martina that the next time they come over, I'll bake something in it to share. That was so sweet and thoughtful of her!

Today I'm on my own until early afternoon. Gregg has started going to the three nursing homes where he cleans aquariums early on Sunday mornings. There's not much traffic and things are quiet and he's able to work efficiently. Plus, he has to take my car, since all three jobs are out of town and his old truck just isn't trustworthy to drive that far. We really need to get him another car, but we'd have to scrape to afford it at the moment, so we've been putting it off. Getting a decent raise with this new job has unfortunately been somewhat eclipsed by inflation.

But anyway, I have several hours to myself this morning. It's a pretty day and I'll take the dogs for a walk whenever I finish this post. Fall color is almost at its peak and it's nice to be outside. This afternoon I'm going to make soup. Not to brag, but last week I made the most delicious batch of chicken soup ever! Gregg isn't normally much of a soup guy, but it was so good he eagerly ate it for supper three days in a row. We finished every drop! So when I was looking for a good, cheap recipe for making my customary large meal-with-leftovers Sunday supper, I asked him if he wanted soup again and he said, "Sure!" A cold front is on its way next week and temperatures will be going down almost to freezing, so soup will be just the thing.

I always serve chicken soup with grilled pimento cheese sandwiches. Yummy!

Staying in

Saturday night has rolled around again. I have no plans for the weekend other than staying in and resting.

I seem to be coming down with something. My school is filled with flu, Covid, and strep at the moment along with plenty of simple colds. I had a flu shot last month, and the latest Covid booster two weeks ago, so I'm hoping that this is just something simple like a cold. God forbid it turns out to be strep throat, which is the dominant illness there right now. I don't think so, though. So far, it's just sneezing, a mild cough, and some congestion in my chest along with some mild body aches. No fever (or not beyond a very mild one) so that's an encouraging sign. I'm feeling far from top form, though, that's for sure.

It's been a day of mostly sitting around watching tv and napping. I'm just beginning the final season of Lucifer (Netflix) which was recommended to me by a friend months ago and that I finally got around to starting recently. It's been the perfect show for me the last few weeks because it's funny and fun to watch and isn't very mentally taxing. Great distraction viewing during election season and a welcome break from the news. Also, Tom Ellis is a bit of eye candy, and that never hurts. :)

He looks great in a three-piece suit...or out of it.

Gregg and I finished the latest season of The Sinner, also on Netflix, last night. It was okay, although none of the subsequent three seasons have been quite as good as the first. I also decided to try Derry Girls and that's turned out to be good for a laugh here and there. At the moment, comedy and more lighthearted shows are my preference as an escape from stress. And who wants to watch dark, dramatic shows when they're sick? Not me.

So that's my weekend in a nutshell. TV, soup, ginger ale, and rest. One good thing so far about this cold (or whatever it is) is that since my asthma is now being treated, I haven't started wheezing or getting short of breath. The past few years I've dreaded even the mildest colds because I'd have so many breathing problems as a result. Fingers crossed that it stays this way!

Saturday odds and ends

Another long week at work finally came to an end. This has seemed like the longest school year ever. It's as though the two years of Covid have just bled into one another and combined to form one long, crappy year. 

Things are not going well at our school. There's a huge exodus happening in which more than a dozen teachers and other staff are either transferring to better schools in the district or else are fed up and retiring (those who have enough years in to retire). Little P.'s mom has been so mistreated and bullied by some of the same people that used to cause me problems that I'm afraid she's going to be the next to go. No one likes to work hard, try hard, and then be at the mercy of petty, backstabbing, lazy people with no scruples. I feel so bad for her. Then just a couple of days ago yet another of my favorite teachers told me she's leaving. She said the stress is starting to negatively impact her health and she's had enough. It's the best teachers and staff who are leaving, naturally.

It all makes me sad. Morale is so low that a feeling of gloom pervades the halls. We keep hearing that the principal will be leaving at the end of the year, either by quitting or else being sent somewhere else (I've even heard a rumor that a specific woman who's currently at another school will be replacing him) and honestly.....it would probably be for the best. I hate to say that. I like him a lot as a person but as a principal, well....the buck stops with him, so to speak. I'm just laying low, doing my job, and hoping for better things. What I want is to feel pride in my school again, not to mention a promotion to a better paying position. I'm finishing up my 5th year and I think I've earned it.

At home, though, things are really good. My garden is coming along nicely. Today I harvested the first radishes and soon there will be lettuce and carrots to go along with them. My tomato and pepper seedlings are ready to be potted up and by the end of the month I'll be planting them in the raised bed. The bluebird box we put up last month has a pair of Carolina chickadees nesting inside! They're such cute, sweet little birds that I'm not sorry to have them instead of bluebirds. 

Last night I went to a community theater play with Martina, her husband Will, and one of the veterinarians that she works for. We had so much fun! Gregg isn't a fan of community theater, nor musicals, which is what this was, so he didn't care to go. He was amused to find out that our family doctor was part of the ensemble cast, though, and I took a photo of her after the performance to show him. At one point she was tap-dancing in an egg costume, which made him laugh when I told him about it. He said he would have liked to have seen that!

Florence Little Theatre

This is no joke!!! It’s OPENING NIGHT of Something Rotten!! Join us for a night of laughter, big-hit musical numbers, and of course, those tap dancing eggs!!!

Tickets are still available for tonight’s performance and can be purchased at the door starting at 6:30pm!

Doctor Shelton after the show! The guy with dark curly hair behind her was another local physician who played William Shakespeare. It was lots of fun.

One other thing of note this weekend is that this morning I met a sweet little puppy that my neighbor (the dog rescue person) is fostering until a good home can be found for her. Gregg is going to meet her either tonight or tomorrow, and we might consider trying to introduce her to George. She's right next door so it should be easy to take her on a trial basis if we decide to. I put her on a leash this morning and walked her around our property (George was in the house). She acted right at home and didn't seem to want to go back to Heather's house. We're not going to rush into anything, though. And George may not allow it anyway. 

We'll see.

Just another Sunday

The view from my front door this morning.

Weekends sure fly by now that I don't work on them. I can't complain, though. There's never a dull moment at my job, so the weekdays go by pretty quickly, too. I'm looking forward to the five days off we get at Thanksgiving (Wednesday through Sunday) which still feels far away but in actuality it's only about five weeks. Gregg's taking those days off with me, and we're planning to take the dogs and go camping.

It's finally a little cooler outside. Up until this weekend, besides two or three days when hurricanes were churning out at sea, it's been unseasonably hot and humid for October. The pumpkin you see on my front step has started to rot in the back and will have to be thrown out and replaced. It's just been too hot for pumpkins to sit in the sun!

Today has been a lazy day. I did a load of laundry, took a nap, and read the first quarter of a book for next week's book club meeting (the bigger of my two books clubs). This month our selection is Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight. So far it's....okay. It's one of those Gone Girl type thriller/mystery novels that quite honestly isn't my favorite genre. I'm hoping that In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware will be better; that's the October pick for my smaller club. I'm glad my love of books is no longer contaminated by working at a job I hate in a bookstore!

Speaking of work, for those of you who asked, I did not take on a second GAL child. It was a 16 year old boy with severe mental health problems who has been committed to a psychiatric ward for treatment. His 17 year old brother would have been part of the package but he's in prison for rape (!) and will be serving time beyond when he ages out next year. I was frankly kind of appalled that the GAL program director would even suggest such a case for me. When I said no she quickly said she understood and that they would try to find an experienced male guardian for the younger boy. I wonder why they didn't just do that to begin with! So for the time being, Kay remains my only GAL assignment.

It's about time for Gregg to get home from work, so I'd better wrap up this blog post. We have leftovers for supper tonight, but I'm going to attempt to make little baked apple hand pies for dessert. I have some apples I cooked down into chunky applesauce the other day that need using up. Gregg loves fried apple pies, but they're too messy and time consuming to make very often. We'll see how the baked version turns out instead! Wish me luck.

Have a good evening, everyone.

Finishing up May

My weekend off was wonderful.  I didn't do much but relax and enjoy myself. I did do some cooking, and I ate big beautiful salads like this both days:

I also took a trip to the newly opened butcher shop on Saturday afternoon and grilled quite possibly the best barbecued pork chops I've ever made that night. They were seriously delicious.

While I was out shopping on Saturday I bought myself flowers. Aren't they pretty on the table? The tomatoes in the bowl came from the farmer's market.

I was off again today (I get three days off this week because Monday was a paid holiday) and I got some errands taken care of. First of all, I took Ginger to the vet to get her yearly steroid shot. Every summer about this time she has an allergy flair that makes her miserable until she has one. My normally stand-offish girl actually made friends with an old lady and her puppy while we waited to be seen. She liked them so much she sat beside them instead of me while we waited! She has good taste, I must say. The woman was kind and kept gently petting Ginger's face, and the puppy was absolutely adorable. I think Ginger was telling him that the vet is nothing to fear. :)

Things took a scary turn for a moment after Ginger had her shot. Our doctor (an excellent vet who doesn't miss much) noticed two tiny drops of dark colored urine when they were about to lift her back off the table. He said, "Hey, what the hell's this?!" and grabbed a syringe to collect the tiny sample. My poor girl had a UTI and we had no idea! Just to be sure it wasn't caused by kidney or bladder stones, he did an xray too. Thank goodness she didn't have any stones, and so we have to give her antibiotics for 2 weeks and then take her back for a checkup. I was so scared while they had her in the back doing scans. It's hard for me to describe how much we love this dog.

After the vet drama, I went to the bank to make a deposit and then did a chore I'd been putting off for way, way too long.

CARWASH!!

Is that 70's song about Workin' at the Carwash, Hey! playing in your head right now? Good.

The end result:

My Scion is shiny and clean again! I vacuumed out the inside (which it desperately needed) and wiped down the interior with special car wipes. It's funny how a car seems to run better when it's freshly cleaned!

Other things I did today: finished my application for the SC Guardian Ad Litem program, mailed out the rent check, had lunch at a new Mediterranean restaurant in town, and rescued my husband when he ran out of gas on his way home from work. The old truck he drives to service aquariums has a broken gas gauge and about once every other year he'll misjudge and need to be bailed out. Fortunately I was at home and only about 2 miles away when it happened this time.

Not too bad for finishing up the month. Steady on to June!