Friday Randomness

First of all, let me tell you all that I have been sucking at commenting for NaBloPoMo. I have tried, but November is a busy time in my industry, and in the evening I’m a bit worn out. I’m sorry that I haven’t been by your blogs more often. We’re all doing our best, and sometimes I just read and don’t comment, and sometimes I don’t even manage to read. Le sigh.

OK, who’s ready for this week’s drivel? I’m going to keep it to 5 things, because I suspect we’re all struggling with reading these days.

My decluttering ‘one thing a day’ project has slowed, as I run out of things that I want to get rid of. This is a GOOD THING, actually. I still have my photo albums, and I want to go through my parents’ letters to each other from when they reconnected, put them in order, and read them, but those are both big projects that will not be taken on if I can’t even make it over to your blogs as much as I would like. But I’m finding things nonetheless. For example, I recently was issued a new laptop by my company, and need to ship the old one back. Into the box went a charger cable and 2 old phones that were cluttering up under my desk. Also, look at these little drawstring bags. Aren’t they cute? I’m sure they came to me with gifts or whatever, and I couldn’t manage to throw them away. But I don’t use them to give gifts to anyone else. So they sit there. Well, I thought of a use for them! Completely unnecessary, but it will make me happy. Beezus (our new car, for new readers) has charge ports in the back seat. I bought charging cables, just in case someone wants to use one, which I put in the pockets on the back of the front seats. Won’t it be MUCH BETTER to have them in these little pouches? Why yes, J, the answer is YES.

Can I tell you how much it heartens me that our Congressional Representative, Mark DeSaulnier, is at our weekly protests whenever he is in town? I feel for those of you in opposition to your local leaders. I find it comforting when a local Mayor or Supervisor stands up and says we are all in this together. California is a pain in the ass place to live sometimes, but at least we have this.

A couple of years ago, I shared some pictures of our downstairs bathroom. Here I share the sad news that I knocked over that vase full of (fake) pussy willows the other day, and broke it into too many pieces to fix. Crap. I liked that vase, and it was so perfect for that space. The colors fit in with the curtains and the pictures on the opposite wall (not shown in this picture). It was a wedding gift from one of my MIL’s friends. I’m not going to find a replica. So now I’m on the hunt for something similar enough, I guess. I looked online, but online, one does’t have a real idea of size and color. So maybe I’ll find something in person. Another idea would be to skip it, and put a picture there or something, but I liked the pussy willows.

My cat photography skills are clearly lacking, but this is Skillet, one of two kittens at the PetCo where I volunteer twice a week. She and her sister, Pan, look almost exactly alike. I hope they are adopted soon, and that they are adopted together.

Look at this lemon tree, wonderful Meyer lemons. The people are weird, they trim the tree back in their yard but let this branch hang down on the other side, which of course is to my benefit because I can stop by and grab as many as I want any day. This particular day I grabbed a couple and used one to make Ina Garten’s perfect roast chicken.

Bonus Content: Audiobook listeners often say how wonderful Julia Whelan is at narrating. It’s true! She was interviewed on our local radio station yesterday, and if you’re interested, you can listen here. If you’ve not enjoyed audiobooks but are curious as to how they are different than reading a physical book, she reads an excerpt from The Giver of Stars that shows you what a wonderful medium it can be. It’s a call in show, and people call in and tell her what a difference audiobooks have made in their lives. She discusses her company, which pays royalties to narrators. I found it really interesting. It’s almost an hour, and well worth your time.

That’s it for today. How are your local politics? What would you do if you had access to these lemons? Lemon curd?