Friday Randomness
Today’s randomness post is mostly my contribution to Elisabeth’s FIG Collective, finding joy and gratitude wherever I can. The world is a lot right now, and I’m finding this exercise really helpful.
Saturday – We had a nice day on Saturday, Maya went and had brunch with a friend, and Ted and I went to see his parents, and then we had dinner with some dear friends. They were in a horrible car accident several months ago, one that could have easily been fatal (but thankfully was not) – The wife is still healing, but is getting better all of the time. That’s a relief.
Sunday – We blew off almost the first half of the Super Bowl, but decided to tune in a bit before halftime, and caught 2 commercials that I was glad to see. One was Ontario, Canada, making their case for maintaining our long relationship. I chose to think of it as trolling Trump, which made me happy. The other was from the NFL, which was promoting flag football as a varsity sport for girls. Which made me wonder, with everything we know about head injuries from tackle football, why the hell don’t we replace that with flag football for boys and men? I mean, I know it’s a cruel gladiator sport, and at least a generation of people would have issues with letting their blood lust go, but it seems like a much better sport. I don’t think male skulls are different from female skulls, so it should be the same sport, and I’d hate to see women getting brain damage that way. Oh, where’s the FIG? Ted made yummy snacks! (chip and dip with refried beans, guacamole, salsa, and cheese.) He also made a delicious dinner, which was Salmon with Puff Pastry and Pesto.
Monday – Monday’s walk was a cold one, it was 35F (1.6C) when I left the house. I was thankful for my hat and gloves, and for the latte I treated myself to at the corner Starbucks on my way home. I had some down time during my work day (my work is pretty much dependent upon other people, meaning I am busy when they send me documents to format, and not busy when they don’t. Lots of feast or famine.) so I wrote some postcards to voters in Wisconsin for their Supreme Court election in April. Interested? Join me! Mondays are Maya’s turn to cook, which is always nice. This week she made baked feta pasta that is super easy and also delicious. She served it with salad. Ted can’t eat that much in the way of carbs, so she made him a pork chop to go with his salad.
Tuesday – I started off my day today by talking to my BFF, Rosemary, on the phone for a while. I love time spent talking with her, it is a balm to my soul. I wish she didn’t live so darned far away (she lives in Pennsylvania, near the Delaware border). Regarding my FB memory above, I sometimes think about those workers. They were awesome. Our complex pool is due to be resurfaced again, maybe next year. I hope the next crew is as fun as this one was. Dinner was roast chicken with this yummy salad, since I had some avocado and pepitas lying around.
Wednesday – No cute kitty picture today, they haven’t brought in any new cats yet to the rescue where I volunteer. Since I wasn’t sure whether I would be going to the rescue until this morning, I planned for dinner to be leftover Red Lentil Soup with Warm Spices, since I wouldn’t have time to go to the grocery store if I were caring for cats. Now I didn’t have to go anywhere on my lunch, so I wrote some more post cards to Wisconsin voters, and made my calls to my Senators and Rep, asking them to fight the Constitutional Crisis that Trump and Musk are plunging us into. Is the call volume down? I was able to get through and leave a message for my Sr. Senator for the first time today. Or perhaps it’s just because I called earlier in the day. (I hope it’s that.) The status before today was – Sr. Senator – Mailbox is full. Junior Senator – Can leave a message. Representative – Actual person answers the phone and listens to me. Today it was two messages and one actual person.
Thursday – I took Thursday off from work. I am getting close to my PTO cap at work, which means I will stop accruing if I don’t take some PTO, so I will have an extra long weekend – Thursday PTO, Fabulous Friday, Presidents’ Day Monday. I had a lazy day – yoga, walk, grocery store, dumb movie on Netflix with popcorn for lunch. It was a nice day. The movie was Kinda Pregnant, with Amy Schumer. I laughed a couple of times, but mostly it was dumb and cringy. Popcorn was excellent however, as was a lazy rainy day at home.
Friday – Valentine’s Day! I hope you enjoy my Puritan V-Day card at the top of this post. Generally Ted and I go out to dinner on Fridays, but there is no way in hell we are going out for Valentine’s Day. V-Day is like NYE and Mother’s Day, a horrible day in the restaurant industry, too crowded, too expensive, too loud, everyone out all at once. Not my bag, baby. (Not harshing your buzz if it’s your bag, you do you.) Since we’re not going out, we will have a celebratory meal at home. Ted suggested lamb, which got me thinking about this recipe. The picture above is from Ted’s birthday a couple of years ago. Our outdoor grill is mostly dead, and we haven’t bought a new one yet, so I may have to make it on a grill pan.
Other randomness. Ted and I were scrolling through YouTube the other night, and I was intrigued by this video for the best tuna sandwich. We watched it and the best part was when his son comes in to taste it. If I were posting a recipe online, I think I would want a 10/10 review from my kid, right? Nope. The guy barely toasts the bread (rye, not my thing), and then he makes it into a tuna melt, but the son doesn’t taste it until it’s completely cold. What’s the point of a cold tuna melt? It made us laugh that the kid gave him an 8/10. Harsh.
13 Comments
Maya
I snortled when I saw that postcard at the top of your post and smiled all the way through…
Your avocado tree is ready for Halloween, no :)?
I love your pool workers and National Park postcards and the plating on Ted’s birthday dinner and all the things.
J
Maya, I also cover my new citrus tree against the cold, and it’s so small it is covered by a pillowcase. It makes me think of Charlie Brown going trick or treating. “I got a rock.”
AC
“Not harshing your buzz” is a great expression that is new to me.
We go out near the “day of” be it Mothers Day or whater. We decideid this many years ago afte a MDay experience that we didn’t love. We did our VDay outing on Tuesday this week.
J
AC, exactly…avoid the crowds! Also, if you’re going to go to a restaurant, I’m sure they are happy to have your business on days that are not the big holidays. It’s a win-win.
nance
Oh, Julie. Rye bread is the Best Bread! Have you ever had Dave’s Killer Righteous Rye Bread? So good, especially for toast, and yes! even with peanut butter.
Your pool workers make me think of the roofing crew that we had years ago. They were so fun to listen to up there, joking around and occasionally singing. I think I even wrote a post about it at the time.
Thanks so much for all you’re doing as a Political Activist. I can’t believe we’re back to where we started with all this, but we are. And now Ohio has a former football coach as lieutenant governor–yep! That’s his outstanding resume. Sigh.
J
I’ll trust you on the rye, it’s just not a flavor profile that I like. I know it’s popular though!
Ugh on your lieutenant governor. I mean, we can’t brag too much, since we had Schwarzenegger.
Ally Bean
Ditto what Nance says about rye bread. I’m smiling about your pool workers and their music. A few years ago when we had the exterior of the house painted we hired two old hippy dudes who chain-smoked and listened exclusively to 60s music. It was delightful and they were by far the best exterior painters we ever used.
J
I’m not so sure about chain smoking around paint, but the rest of your painters sounds like fun!
Margaret
Good for you for your activism. I’ve contacted my AG to complain about Musk’s intrusion into our private business like SS numbers. I just read that Brown is one of the 14 AGs going after that situation. I’m going to think that my letter prodded him into it. LOL I LOVE that feta bake; we’ve also made it with half feta and half mozzarella. Although I love feta, it’s strong for some people. No V-Day celebrations for me since I’m still nursing this cold, not that we would go out anyway. Too crazy, as you said!
J
CLEARLY it is all your call that prompted your AG! I like to take credit for changes that come after I’ve spoken up, too.
The feta bake with 1/2 mozzarella sounds really good! We tried it was a creamier goat cheese once, and it was good but not as good as the feta.
I hope you feel better soon!
Birchie
Note to self: I need to make baked feta pasta. I’ve been hearing about it for long enough.
We had a nice romantic Valentine’s dinner chez nous. There was no way that we were going out, and our first choice would have been steak but it’s so cold that Hubs wasn’t sure if the grill would work. Pasta and flourless chocolate cake FTW!
Lisa’s Yarns
I worked as a waitress all through college So I also would never go out to eat on Valentine’s Day. It was so strange to work that day because I would see so many couples get in an argument because there was a wait at a restaurant which no duh it’s Valentine’s Day! But hey, instead of enjoying each other’s company, their energy was like Margo and Todd from Christmas vacation sort of energy.
We had a very quiet Valentine’s Day ourselves. Everyone had leftovers and then Phil brought home Dairy Queen treats after Paul’s basketball game to cap off the day.
Nicole MacPherson
Those workers sound like my kind of people! I love to sing (badly, I have a terrible singing voice) along to everything and I always feel so bonded to people who also do that!
So many great things in this post, so much yummy food!
Hahaha asshole squirrels. They are assholes! They were so destructive in Calgary. Quick story: a certain type of squirrel that Calgary is overrun with (I can’t remember the type at the moment) is NOT native to Calgary. (grey squirrel, maybe? I seriously can’t remember). Anyhoo, back in the late 70s there was a squirrel display (I KNOW, WHAT EVEN) at the Calgary Zoo and some escaped. The rest is history. There are SO many squirrels and they took over from all the other squirrels. Also, fun fact, I was a small child in the late 70s and when I heard this I became incredibly anxious, because I thought if one animal could escape, they could all escape. I imagined being eaten by marauding lions or something. This, along with a fire safety presentation that happened when I was in grade one in which the firefighter said that everyone will be involved in a house fire at some point in their lives, was the cause of my nightmares and non sleeping for years. Years! My mom was a super heavy smoker so I’d go to bed and think that if the animals didn’t eat me, then surely the house would just go up in flames while I slept. Also, we were a church-going Lutheran family and every night I said my prayers. “If I die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take.” I currently feel very sorry for little me.