Friday Randomness

I’m all over the place lately, right? No post last Friday, then my FIGS on Monday, and here I am again with more blathering today. You know what? My lists are getting redundant. Is that OK? I’m grateful for yoga, grateful for not having to cook every day, grateful for pretty flowering trees. Maybe next week I will do better, time will tell. For now, my list of FIGS, then more context.

Monday – Presidents Day plus a Movie Date with Ted
Tuesday – I was NOT struck by lightning, and Gong Hei Fat Tuesday
Wednesday – Julia Gulia
Thursday – Yoga + Lentils and Eggs
Friday – Frugal Things

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

We had the day off from work on Monday for Presidents Day. Maya went to brunch with a friend, but my only plans were to laze around and catch up on my Age of Innocence reading. Ted was reading a movie review for a movie that looked fun, so we went to see Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie at 9:45 in the morning. It has absolutely nothing to do with the band Nirvana. Instead, it’s about two friends who have been trying to get to perform at a club in Toronto for the last 17 years. One guy comes up with wacky ideas (like parasailing into a sports arena during a baseball game), and the other guy kind of goes along with him. Sure it was a ridiculous farce and the film made almost no sense sometimes, but it was fun and a sweet examination of friendship. It is based on both a web and tv series (Nirvanna the Band the Show) that I had never heard of before. It was a lot of fun and I recommend it, though I thought the shaky hand held camera work was going to make me sick. Thankfully that feeling went away after about 10 minutes as I adjusted. Consider yourself warned if this kind of camera work bothers you. Ted really loved it, and wrote a more detailed review on his blog.

A Blustery Day & Lunar New Year

Tuesday I went for my morning walk, and while I was about 15 minutes from home I started hearing thunder rumbling. Like long, grumbling rumbling. As I got to the front of our townhome complex, the lighting was RIGHT over my head, immediate thunder, it was SO LOUD, I could swear the ground shook. Then it started hailing, then pouring down rain. There was another overhead BOOM when I was about 100 feet from my front door. I’ll tell you, I felt much safer once I was inside! I mean, does lightening hit a person with an umbrella when there are light poles and buildings around? I don’t know, and I didn’t want to find out. I was glad when I texted Ted to see how his commute to work was in the pouring rain, and he said it was slow going, but otherwise fine. I love a rainy blustery day, but really only when we’re all safe inside.

Tuesday was the first day of Lunar New Year celebrations, so we had Chinese American food for dinner. I made this Broccoli Chicken recipe, though I subbed in Swerve fake brown sugar for the real thing, and the rest I either got from a restaurant or got frozen from the grocery store. Tuesday was also Fat Tuesday / Carnival / Shrove Tuesday, which we did not celebrate. I thought it might have been fun to have scallion pancakes for a celebratory combo, but I wasn’t up to cooking a new recipe and the restaurant didn’t have them. Boo.

Julia Gulia

Perhaps you remember sweet Julia Gulia, the rescue cat at Petco where I volunteer two days a week. She is back, and I’m not sure what her story is. She had some tummy issues, and had to go back to HQ and the vet, and then she was at another local Petco for a while, and now she is back at my location. She’s such a sweet, calm cat. I hate to think of her being in a kennel month after month like this. Is this a FIG? I guess it is, because while I am not happy about the situation, she seems to be handling it well, and I am glad that there are organizations like this one to help cats like her.

Yoga + Tasty Breakfast

Wednesday’s dinner was this delicious sweet potato and curried lentil dish, which meant leftover curried lentils for breakfast, with some leftover mixed greens and a runny egg to make it extra creamy and luscious. So good.

I was off a day on my Yoga Calendar (I’m not terribly strict about it, other than doing the Saturday yoga on Saturday so you can join me!) and found myself doing this video, Yoga for Psoas. I had never heard of psoas muscles before, but it was great for my tight tight hips, and wow, I didn’t know the right side of my right foot (what Adriene calls the ‘knife edge’ of your foot) needed a good stretch, but apparently it did.

Frugal Things

Totally cheating by calling this a Friday FIG, because I’m writing this on Thursday, and it will post while I’m still asleep Friday morning. Do you use Capital One Shopping? I generally forget about it, and didn’t really understand it at first. You do not have to have or use a Capital One credit card, though I had one when I signed up for it, thinking I would get points on my card, but I never did. Anyway, look at this deal. I received an email that said if I spent $50 or more at Ulta, I would get $50 Shopping Rewards. So I bought $56 worth of items, and I have $50 pending rewards now. I can use the rewards to buy online gift cards. I’ve only cashed out once before, when I realized how it worked, and I bought an Ulta gift card (there’s an Ulta just down the street from us). I don’t remember what the other gift card options were. Once I can use this credit, I will find out and let you know. I’m not sure why it’s still ‘pending’, since I made the purchase 10 days ago. Perhaps they wait until after the return period has passed, so people don’t buy something, get and spend the rewards, then return the item.

Bonus Randomness

If you play Wordle, do you use the same word every day? I do. I chose PRICE for some reason, and I have stuck with it for a few years now. After it was the solution in 2024, I tried changing my starter word to STEAK, in honor of Mulder, but it didn’t stick, and I went back to PRICE. I know it won’t come up as the solution, but it works for me. If you use the same word every day, what is it? Has it ever come up as the solution? Did you find it mildly anticlimactic, like I did?