manoah

Again. It's 31F out, but His Lordship has shoveled. Thank goodness. I just don't have it in me today. We had company last night and I'm still pretty wiped out. Sat for too long in one position and my hip is giving me fits. I'll work it out, but wasn't going to risk it shoveling today.

Don't have any idea if the kids are coming, they can stay home and safe if they choose. Up to them. It's not coming down hard right now and may not. One of my friends said it's like we're in a snow globe here and some keeps shaking it. Boo.

The school district called a "digital day" i.e. a snow day on Friday and then all heck broke loose as the State Dept. of Education says they are illegal and the kids (and teachers) may have to make the day up at the end of the year. I bet the DOE caves and they don't. Tomorrow is a holiday (President's Day) so no worries until Thursday when it's supposed to dump on us again.

And FYI - digital days? For the elementary school (where I have friends with kids still there) the things they were supposed to do? Play a game. Build a snowman. Read for 10 minutes. Uh huh. Just gonna leave that there.

Stay warm and dry ya'll!

Day 30 - What talent or skill do you have that you are grateful for?

Easy. I'm a good cook. I can feed my family. I'm not a chef nor do I aspire to be one, but I can cook like nobodies business. And bake too I can.

This has been a good meme for me, keeping me busy, keeping me posting. I hope to continue with posting every day.

This meme has taught me (showed me?) to be grateful for the little things as well as the big ones. One thing I've taken away from all this is that, despite all the drama and tumult, mom taught me a great deal. She did the best she could and I appreciate it all. So, thanks mom.

It was bitterly cold yesterday and His Lordship only got about 2/3 of the way finished putting the rope lights up. I'm okay with that. He was properly impressed when it got dark and he saw how they were going to look. I could have said, "Told you.", but opted to smile enigmatically. Heh. I finished my limited card list too.

We watched a really good Netflix movie last night, Dumplin'. I recommend it!

Today is finish up the lights, get the wrapping paper down, put the decorating boxes up. I'm making Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup for dinner. Hopefully the kids show up. I never know!

I'm off and I wish you all a wonderful Sunday!

Day 16 - What about your body are you grateful for?

My feet. They hurt, most days but I have them. And I take care of them.


Yesterday was Small Business Saturday and His Lordship and I braved the elements (okay, it was in the mid fifties) and drove to midtown. Found some cool new stores off the beaten path (the main drag in under destruc...er construction, so we parked off the main drag), got some good stuff and had a fine time out.

Came home to a big plate of leftovers for lunch then spent the afternoon watching stupid tv. I love days like that.

I'm not sure if the boys are coming over tonight as they were just here on Thursday. Either way I'm making Turkey and dumplings and that will be it for the leftovers. My goal is to always have enough food to send off with guests and to keep me from cooking again until Sunday. Done and done!

Hi Kids,

I thought I'd post something fun and positive - for a change! Ha!

Saturday I watched "The Great British Baking Show" (on PBS in 'murica it's called 'baking show' and not 'bake off' due to copyrighting from Pillsbury - don't get me started). I've seen it all before, but still enjoy watching. I still can't deal with Candace and her pouty lipsticked lips. Ugh.

Shower and then it was MINI adventure time! We drove down (up?) to Mindenville which is just south of Carson City and hit the giant antique store. I'd been once before and just knew His Lordship would be in hog heaven. Kids, we were in that store for over 3 hours - it's that big. I bought a jaspar egg and now my collection is complete at 5 eggs. His Lordship made some purchases that he plans to turn into crafty things.

We wanted to eat at the Full Belly Deli, but they weren't open. Instead we went to a pupusa place in a strip mall. What a great find! The pupusa's were large and delicious. We were smart and ordered one plate (3 pupusa's; one bean and cheese, one chorizo and one shrimp) we also ordered two tamales de elote! They were the closest to the green corns I grew up with I've ever found. Yum! I love going to off the wall places and making great finds!

We drove home via the new southeast connector road instead of the freeway and it was a nice drive as well. Almost as fast as the freeway without all the hassle. Plus snowy egrets! There are wetlands on the east side!

We were so stuffed from the late lunch, we just picked around 8pm. We watched some mindless tv, I can't even remember what.

Sunday we did some chores. Sadly the game I wanted to watch wasn't televised. It ended in a tie, I'm guessing it was a real nailbiter. I don't watch much football, but I do enjoy my Vikings and the Superbowl. I have a friend in Tucson and we text during the game.

I made an ice cream cake for dessert - blackberry of course. We have so many blackberries! His Lordship made some refrigerator jam which was delicious! I made a big pot of Italian sausage and pepper pasta for dinner and, of course, only The Princelings showed up! It's always that way. ;)

It was nice to see them and they are well. They left shortly after 10 and we closed up shop for the night.

'Twas a good weekend!

If I hadn't seen the other posters...the year just flew by didn't it!?

To preface, His Lordship has been working every day (with an occasional day off every two weeks to keep him sane) since early October. He only had to go in for 4 hours; from 11:30-3:30 on Sunday. He got up at his usual buttcrack of dawn and went for a drive in the MINI, as he is wont to do. I continued the sleep of the sleepy.

I think I got up sometime before 9am, honestly I can't remember. His Lordship was back from his drive and had the computer occupied. I took my coffee to the living room and noticed that Sunday morning tv is crap. Once he vacated the computer, noting that I don't normally have to share (ha!), I did my morning thing and looked at the internet until my coffee and banana bread was finished.

After I got dressed (I like to breakfast in my jammies, just sayin'), I got out all the stuff needed to make the royal icing for the cookies (chai spice gingerbread!) that I'd made the previous day.

His Lordship left around 10:45 for work and I got busy with that royal icing. It can be tricky and I think I've got it down now. I even wrote down exactly what I did as I want to remember and age....yeah. In between I texted The Princelings to see if they were available for dinner. Since they both work in food/bar service, their work schedules are changeable. And they now live together. Heh. Karma.

I got the cookies finished and was astonished to note how long it took! I remember telling myself to just go slow and don't rush, I had all the time in the world (which I did). But still! Who knew it would take almost 4 hours to make icing and decorate 3 dozen cookies! I had three shapes and kept the color palette simple and the decoration the same to each shape. I have a much greater appreciation of the time it takes to do all that intricate work.

After I got the kitchen cleaned, I jumped in the shower. Clean and sparkly, I noticed my neighbors were home (they are in the process of moving - sadness) and I took some cookies across the street. I'll miss those kids. I got texts from the boyz saying they would be coming and I was waiting, waiting, waiting and no His Lordship. He finally texted around 4:30 saying he was helping fix something and he'd be home soon. Well, the kitchen was clean, dinner was going to be fairly easy to make, so I watched some old Iron Chef stuff on Food TV. Not the original Iron Chef from Japan, which I might just add is the BOMB. But I still enjoy Alton Brown. During commercials I started prepping dinner and finally at 6:30 His Lordship texted he was on his way and I got a text saying the boyz were as well.

Like I said, dinner was fairly easy. I made Korean Beef with rice and a salad. Everyone was home and eating by 7ish. The Heir brought laundry as he'd been puppy sitting for his gf and said puppy had peed on his bedding. Lots of bedding and towels. S'all good. Even better, The Heir got a new job! He's now a bartender at a new place in town. He's wanted to do this for awhile and he seems happy. The place is only new but has gotten great reviews. The best thing is the owner is not "in" with all the bar owners in town. It's a real "good ol' boys" club. We'll see how it goes.

After dinner we watched "Spiderman Homecoming". I was, frankly, appalled at Micheal Keaton's appearance. Dude looked rode hard and put up wet. It was an okay movie. Not my favorite of the Marvel Universe, but acceptable.

Laundry got done and kids left around 10pm. We went to bed. All is right with the world.