Sunday Update - Week 46

Hello again.  It wasn't the busiest of weeks because Thanksgiving dropped right there in the middle of it, but let's see what else went on this week...

I only did editing on 4 days, but I managed to get through 6 pages of notes.  I'm through page 191 of the 342pg manuscript.  And last night the edits pushed the word count over 100K.  :shrug:  It's a big book.  It's an intricate book.  It may be the death of me.  

As for reading, that was just one book.  And it wasn't anything to really talk about.  Bummer.

In baking news, I did a pumpkin cheesecake on Wednesday.  Then threw some rolls in the oven on Thursday night so we could have tiny turkey sammies.  Yesterday, I made no-bake cookies.  Yum.

On the activity front, I really only did two days of burning the calories and both of those were raking.  We're still not done, but the yard looks way nicer than it did.  One other day, Hubs and I wandered the yard.  And another day, we started working on the south property boundary, which really only consisted of standing there, holding a string.  But hey, it got me out of the house.  I weighed myself Thursday morning and it was 180.4.  I haven't weighed myself since but I feel like a cow after all I've eaten.  

I spent a fair amount of time this past week working on a project for the pay-job.  They're looking for a new outside sales person.  And the boss is reconfiguring the sales territories, so he asked if we could pull together numbers for the new territory.  Which is basically my old territory minus the Thumb.  For my part, I needed to go through every spreadsheet I've done (I don't do spreadsheets for everything) for a year and pull sales numbers for all the zip codes included the replotted area.  Minus a list of specific accounts.  And one account that will be split between the two salespeople.  I got it done yesterday.  Go me.  I'll take today off of that and then tomorrow see if I can help the office with their portion.  By the way, if you know anybody who is interested in an outside sales job in Michigan and has some background in electronics or electrical or engineering, let me know.  I don't expect anyone to respond to me.  But they do have an Indeed listing, so maybe they'll find someone good.  :fingers crossed:

The raking is totally freaking the deer out again this year.  They come into the yard and things looks different, so they spook easily.  They'll get over it.  One of the bucks is limping on a front foot.  Another is limping on the back.  The rut isn't kind.  It's brutal.  But it's nature.  Still haven't seen an eagle yet.  I'll let you know when I do.  Shouldn't be long now.

Oh, we finally got a new coffee maker.  Our old one wasn't dead, but it was iffy.  This is a cheap one from Dollar General.  But it works.  As long as I have coffee the world is safe for another day.  

This week ahead, I'll try and finish the edit notes.  Then I'll do another re-read and start a whole new batch of notes.  Woohoo.  I've also got to start thinking about Christmas cards and getting the tree up.  I'm so not ready to think about Christmas, though.  Blerg.  There will also be more raking and we'll get back to working on firewood again.  

And that's about it for me.  How did your week go?  Did you have a nice Thanksgiving?  We didn't do anything but eat, but it was nice.  What's ahead for you?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 11/27/21

Hey All.  Sorry I'm late posting this today, but I didn't wake up until 6.  Ten hours sleep.  Woohoo.  I actually feel like a human being this morning.  Yay!

Anyway, it wasn't an exciting week in reading.  The holiday and all that.  

I didn't pick up any new books.

Books Read:

59) All Wands on Deck by Mara Webb (11/25/21) - Paranormal Mystery* - 3 stars.  New to me but not underappreciated.  Free off the ENT newsletter.
No review.
Note: I don't review books under 3 stars.  Why harsh the writer's day with my opinion?  I don't usually even finish books if I think they're going to be under 4 stars.  Unfortunately, I didn't think it was going to be under until I got close enough that I thought I might as well just finish the book.  Bummer.  Anyway, most everyone else seemed to like this book, so it's probably just me.

No DNFs.

Currently reading... NEVADA by Zane Grey.  It's an old copy and I'm trying to keep it from falling apart as I read it, but it's pretty damn good so far.

What did your week in reading look like?

The Friday After TGD

First off, let's start by reminding people that 'Black Friday' has nothing to do with race.  It has to do with putting retailers 'in the black' for the year.  Which means showing a profit as opposed to 'in the red' or not making enough money to pay for expenses.  If someone's told you anything different, they're jerking your leash.  Color words can be used for things other than race, doncha know.

I know everyone' talked about how expensive Thanksgiving was going to be.  The meal itself didn't seem any more expensive than it had been.  In fact, by shopping early, I paid less for a turkey this year than last.  I paid more for the pumpkin puree because Wallyworld was out of offbrand and I had to buy name brand.  I paid more for the stuffing for the same reason.  I think the cheaper bird offset the more expensive fixin's.  The gas to get to the store to buy the groceries?  Way more expensive.

A curious thing happened yesterday.  The turkey was done way earlier than it should have been done.  14.5 pounds... 20 minutes per pound at 325F... 4.83 hours.  It was cooked in 3 hours.  Either our oven is running way hot, which is possible but unlikely since the other things I've cooked in the oven haven't cooked any faster than usual.  Or the turkey was smaller than they said it was, which seems unlikely based on the amount of leftovers now nestled in my fridge/freezer  Or there was some kind of timewarp vortex in the oven between the hours of 8 and 11am.  

Anyway, the turkey was tender and moist and cooked through, so that's all that matters.  Of course, we ended up eating dinner shortly after 11am.  Cheesecake was at 2.  Tiny turkey sandwiches occurred at 5.  

We were in bed by 8 last night.  Before that, though, we sat down to watch a movie called Wild America.  We'd seen it before, but that was years ago.  It's about the wildlife film producer, Marty Stouffer, and his brothers when they were younger.  It's a nice movie.  Kind of outlandish in places, but all in all, pretty true to the story of those boys.  If you haven't seen it, give it a whirl.

Yeah, because of impromptu movie night and then early bed, I didn't get any editing done.  Oops.  Maybe today will be a better day for that.

How was your yesterday?

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, wherever you are.  (Yes, even if you aren't in the US or celebrating it.  Just be happy and be thankful already.  Geez.)

It's Wednesday

For those of you who are like me, today is Wednesday.  (And yeah, Wednesday is usually an Outside the Box day to post, but I have nothing writerly to say, so here I am.)  Knowing the day of the week this week is especially difficult because tomorrow is a holiday in the U.S., so it feels like a Friday.  

So close on the heels of the time change, this week is a total clusterfuck for figuring out the day and the time.  Make sure to cut yourself some slack this week.  It's not your fault.  You're stuck in this weird timewarp thing.  

Personally, I had to remember to send my timesheet to the office last night because I usually send it out Wednesday night, but payroll is today instead of Thursday because of the holiday.  Which was something the office had to deal with, shifting the payroll day and all.  

Poor Hubs was on the phone yesterday making plans for things that have to get done and he started talking about getting together with the person on Thursday when it struck him that's Thanksgiving.  Oops and apologies to the other party.  It'll have to wait until next week.  

We have some stuff we have to get done today, because otherwise, it will either have to wait until next week or we'll have to venture out into the shopping orgy on Friday to complete our errands.  And nobody wants that.  Plus, one of the places we have to go will be closed on Friday, because it's not just a one day holiday for businesses that don't sell things people might put under the tree.  Which is why my office is closed until Monday.

I'll still be working.  I have a project the big boss handed over yesterday and I'd like to make some headway on it before the office reopens on Monday.  My part has to be done before they can do their part and all that.  

Not working a normal job certainly doesn't help with the whole 'what the hell day is it?' thing.  Writing and spreadsheeting can be done anywhere between when I wake up to when I call it a day.  And it frequently is done outside of office hours.  So holidays don't really make that big a difference in the flow.  They still screw up what day it is, though.  Blerg.

So, consider this post a kind of public service thing.  It is WEDNESDAY.  What you do with that information is up to you and whether you hold it in your head?  Well, by lunch I may be back to thinking it's Friday again.  :shrug:

Thanksgiving Then and Now

I had an awesome idea for today's post.  But I didn't write the post or write the idea down and, of course, I forgot it.

So, let's talk about Thanksgiving.

I don't remember a lot of my childhood.  And not for the same reason a lot of people can't remember the '70s LOL.  I think Thanksgiving was always sort of a big deal, though.  What I can remember was a house full of family and loads of awesome food.  

We'd start the day watching the Macy's parade and then whatever was on - usually some movie or other on one of the four channels we got - to stay out of Mom's way in the kitchen.

Mom would make a huge turkey - which I loved.  Candied yams - which I hated.  Pumpkin pie, easy on the spices.  And cranberry sauce right out of the can.  There may have been other staples, but I don't remember those exactly.  Corn?  Green beans?  Mashed potatoes?  :shrug:  

We'd eat and then Dad would watch the Lions play whoever on TV.

As we got older, and hooked up with special someones, more people would be there.  Then the babies started arriving.  It was something of a madhouse sometimes in my parent's home.  I do remember hiding in my room to escape the chaos.  Then dinner would be served and we'd all sit down - the adults at the big table and the kids at the card table.  

We'd eat and then Dad and the other men would watch the Lions play whoever while the women cleaned up and then had coffee while they chatted around the big table.  At some point pie would be served.  Then everyone would depart for their own homes.  Taking leftovers with them.  

In 2001, I moved away from Michigan.  No more family holidays for me.  It was during these years that I discovered I suck at making turkey.  I never have the patience to leave it in the oven long enough so the center isn't still bloody.  (And I never trusted the pop-up thingy.)  Thank goodness I never gave anyone food poisoning.  Thank goodness I married Hubs because he makes an awesome turkey.  

These days, it's just Hubs and I.  He does the turkey, I do the dessert.  We have stuffing that he makes and crams into the bird.  And canned, jellied cranberry sauce because that's how we roll.  (I take care of that, too.  I'm such a chef.  LOL)  And that's pretty much it.  No corn.  No mashed potatoes.  Definitely no sweet potatoes.  Bleh.  Sometimes we have rolls that I've bought at the store, but usually the rolls are left for tiny leftover turkey sandwiches.  (Hubs puts cranberry sauce on his, I just use butter.  Butter and turkey sandwiches... mmmmm.)  After we digest some of the dinner, we have dessert.  This year, I'm making pumpkin cheesecake.  Last year, we just had pumpkin bread.  It's not like we really need dessert.  Lord knows, we're already pretty stuffed after dinner.  Which we usually eat around 1:00.  

And that's about it.  This year, I bought a 14.5 lb turkey, so we'll be eating leftovers for a good long time.  Woohoo.  

What about you?  Any good memories of Turkey Day?  What's your holiday like now as opposed to when you were a kid?

Busy Little Beavers

 

Yeah, we've been busy little beavers.  In a figuratively literal way.  Hey, it's wood and we're chopping it.

We started on October 7th with the tippy cedar tree and one pallet.  (Now the center pallet.)  Then we got the bug and started dragging things up out of the forest to chop up.  Hubs added a second pallet for 'other wood'.  Once those two started to fill up, he added a third pallet.  We have one more pallet available and just enough room to put it.  We'll see.

Those pics were taken yesterday afternoon.  We've got it all underneath the sun porch, where it can stay nice and dry.  If you look at the top pic, you can really see the difference between the cedar and the 'other wood'.

Here's where the magic happens:

That's the stump from the tippy cedar tree we pulled down and chopped up.  We use it and the cinder block as saw horses.  The wood laying around is what we dragged up to saw.  When we get the urge, we'll cut it into lengths and throw it under the house.  Just two old folks and a limb saw.

Some of the wood we now have waiting to be chopped came from our oldest pile, where we've been throwing deadfall for 8 years now.  The pile was pretty tall and wide.  7 foot high by 10 ft wide by 15 ft deep.  It's now about half that and moved from between two trees to a more open spot.  We have three more deadfall piles as you go down the hill from the house.  We'll get to those eventually.  I don't look forward to dragging wood up from the bottom of the hill, lemme tell ya, but we'll do it.  

For the record, we are not taking down anything alive, except for tippy tree but he had to go.  And we're only working on land we own.  (Although I am starting to covet the deadfall on the neighbor's property.  When we finish with our wood, I'll ask him if he wants us to take care of his dead stuff, too.)

Anyway, like I've said, it's good exercise.  And it's an excellent way to leave the world behind for a while.

Are you finding ways to leave the world behind?  These days it's kinda necessary.