Averygoodun's Personal File

So I was utterly useless yesterday because I had the absolute temerity to shovel out half the driveway the day before. It seems moving six inches of powder is too much for my delicate system, but it was too shy to say anything at the time.

*blows raspberry at shoulder and back*

On top of that, I actually missed church this morning because my back was hurting so much. As I was going through my early-morning ritual, I realized I was taking extreme care of how I positioned myself just so I wouldn't be setting off the huge pain sensors.

Fortunately, Geoff spared a few of his precious (not being facetious) pre-church minutes to give me a back rub. That and the short nap afterward seemed to help enough that I'm not clenching my jaw to the point of pain. Still sore and needing to be very, very careful about lifting things, but I can at least get comfortable in various postures.

But, oh, I do hate being utterly useless. Especially when everyone else around me is being active and helpful. Ah well. I will pacify my guilt with the knowledge that I have been doing lots and lots up until now. And there's lots I can do that won't injure me further.

And I have been helpful lately! ( tl;dr: A longer than expected winter vacation equals seriously hyped up kids )

( My hair is no longer wonderful to me )

( Today's activities )

( Geoff starts his high travel season tomorrow )

Aaaaaaannnnnndddddd, that's about it. Given the time it is and the lack of people home from church, I'm guessing Geoff got Page a playdate, and is spending that time at work preparing for tomorrow's trip. He's such a good husband, giving me so much alone time. Although, really, what I'd like is a bit more time alone with him, but, well, it's human nature to never be happy with what blessings have been bestowed, right?

Hope you all are safe, warm and doing what makes you happy.

Despite the copious amounts of honeyed tea, coconut-milk ice cream, and other borderline (or outright) naughty foods, I am detoxing like mad here. I think it's the (copious amounts of) milk thistle I've been having. And the vegetable extravaganza. Oh, and the truly clean sea air. (That would be a check mark for applying to Harvard next year - Cambridge is damned close to the shoreline, though not nearly as clean a shoreline.)

One of these days I'm going to start working on the (everlasting) mural, though I have to do some studies on the lady's mantle beforehand. Hopefully it'll be sunny on Friday. We'll be car-less and nephew-less that day, so it's possible I'll be able to find the time and energy.

(Page must be enjoying not being the nagged one. His cousin is an order of magnitude louder and more active, which directs all the attention (deliberately, I think) to him. My god, I do not envy my brother. Granted, both my brother and SIL have an order of magnitude more energy than Geoff and I do, so it all evens out, doesn't it?

Fortunately, as long as the boys are rested and fed, they play extraordinarily well together, considering they're both wannabe alphas. Their mutual obsession with all things explody helps, of course.)

Right. Should go wash my feet. Then I can lie around and read some more. Or solve another crossword.

I love vacations.

Annoying first so as to get it out of the way:

( Read more... )

So, it's not too bad around here. Honest. I'm just wordier when I bitch and moan. ;-)

and not exceedingly happy about it. I need to figure out a way to finish my associate's faster so we can move closer to family sooner.

Ah well. 'Tis simply the regrets of a lovely vacation.

One thing I noticed with having spent a whole two hours on the internet over the past two and a half weeks is that I had a lot more time, energy and patience for everything else that makes up life. So I think that I shall be trying harder to stay away from the internets this year. Including lj. And *expletive* fb. This will be a challenge, seeing as so much of the stuff that makes up life now requires the internet, but, well, we'll see.

Anyway, in regards to that, I am going to admit that I am not even going to try to catch up with your posts. Please let me know what's up with you, tho. I don't not care. ;-)

Happy new year.

I think I'm in a rather stroppy mood again, seeing as I'm taking offense at silly things said online. This time, I think I will step away from the computer before I get fully enraged. I don't have the time or energy to spare for such silliness. Especially knowing it's of my own making, seeing as it's all a matter of interpretation.

( Health woes ) I guess rest and drinking lots and lots and lots of water is the ticket.

But there's so much to doooooooooo...

On the other hand, that couch does look inviting. And the new mattress pad makes the bed quite comfy... And I got another book out of the library.......

In other news, I got my haircut yesterday, and it's fabulous having short hair again. I took lots of pictures, but I can't share any of them as my computer isn't recognizing my camera anymore. Stupid computer.

And in further random news, I have started my travel anxiety dreams already. Last night's involved driving down to DC (where we have, in RL, a six-hour layover) in the pouring rain with streets flooding here, there and everywhere. The rain stopped just after we got into town, but we didn't have enough time to stop and really enjoy the delights of the city (which most definitely was NOT the real DC, as it was way too quirky and cool and hilly; it was much more like a huge Provincetown than DC), so as I was trying to find our way to the airport (following the directions of a curbside sombrero maker), I was telling Page what I would do if we did have the time to explore. Namely, I'd choose one major museum, finally see the Mall, and maybe go explore the shops in Georgetown.

It was kinda cool, as far as anxiety dreams go.

But now I need to actually decide what I'm going to do - work on the stuff that needs to get done or rest. I think I'll put the decision off for the moment and go bathe. Which, hopefully, will help with the decision-making. *nods*

ETA: Shower had, hair washed, and no decision made, so I'm going with resting. And I am pleased to say that the chicken stock I made the other day is really frikkin good. I think the key is the addition of a few cloves of garlic and bay leaves to the pot. I doubt that adds any nutritional value, but it sure makes it tasty!

TGIF!

Home. Tiiiiiiiiired. Last leg was troublesome, including the ride home (scheduled van wasn't there. Had to call Geoff to have him call them to ask where the hell they were.)

Pictures to come later. After my computer's net card is replaced.

Need to go replace the home phone now. It's borked along with everything else.

It's good to be home.

(But it really is. Or will be after I catch up on sleep.)

Why is it that when I take pain pills when going to bed, I wake up with a sore neck? I didn't even take the darn pills for my neck.

Also, aren't B vitamins supposed to energize a person? All I'm feeling is zombiefied. And itchy. I guess I'll blame it on the reappearance of the rain. (And the hour of exercise yesterday that my body is so not used to. I am pathetically out of shape. *sigh*)


Okay, enough whining. There are only five days left in the semester. Today is my day off that includes Page at after-school. I could skip studying for tomorrow's test and still come out with an A in the course (not that I'm going to skip studying, of course.) And I'd have to get a D on the accounting final to bring my grade down to a B. :-)

Page has been on green the past few days, and the day's behavior charts are now coming home. By the end of the month, we should have a better idea of what's going on with him. (All the mornings this week have been rough, though. Geez Louise.) Yesterday, he managed to conquer his anxiety about his new bike, though! He had the choice of walking or riding to school, and he chose riding. He came home exclaiming about how much he loves his new bike (and then went out and rode it around the circle for another ten or twenty minutes!). Yay!

I got my Siberian irises planted (though I need to replant the first batch I put in; they're in too deep and crooked. But that will have to wait until after the rain stops). I think I will be glad to have to dig everything up next summer in preparation for the fence going in, as things are not necessarily placed all that well, but I'm enjoying having something other than a compost pile to look at in the meantime. And there are buds on both the astilbe and one clutch of daylilies. So there might be flowers this year! Yay!

Also, at least one of my potted plants (daylilies and peonies, don't know which is which) survived! I see a hint of green emerging from the soil. I hope the others survived as well, but I know it's a wait and see thing. Meanwhile, I need to call the gas company (dig-safe), the dirt company (6 yds of compost/loam mix should do) and start seriously looking for the tree that will go out front. I want my front yard to be ready to go by Memorial Day, when I can transplant all my seedlings.

Oh, and yesterday I got a pretty darn good price on tickets to Colorado in December. Parents-in-law will be celebrating their 50th anniversary just after Christmas, so we're going for the entire holiday. We hope to be able to spend a full week up in the north end of the state this trip, though details are still very, very sketchy at this point. But it will be good to see family, friends and the purple mountain majesties again.

So, overall, life is pretty good. Despite my whines.

*chirps*

( Page update and whatnot )

ION, ( Travel plans! )

Otherwise, life is as it always is. In the garden, the bulbs I planted in the back are coming up (the crocuses are blooming! I'll post a photo one of these days) and there's signs of life from other parts of the garden as well. The winter was so mild that many of the ferns never died all the way back! And it looks like at least some of the yellowstrife survived... And the wild rose got chopped back because it was trying too hard.

In the kitchen, I finally got around to making the yogurt (6 hours to come up to temp? Seriously? Sheesh. Need to remember to wrap a towel around the yogurt maker for that stage till the weather warms up!), and I also made some kimchi! Hopefully it will mellow a leeetle bit, as I think I may have added a little too much red pepper (it looked so anemic!).

I've also been actually using up the veggies I buy. Very odd. And, while I generally love food, I must admit I really do not care for red leaf lettuce. I'm finding I have to have it with fish to counter the bitterness. Blech. (On the plus side, that does get me my omega 3s...)

Aaaand, while I have been very productive (for me) this week, I have also successfully managed to avoid doing any school work whatsoever. Probably not a good thing, that, but I know I can catch up over the weekend or on Monday. Nothing like knowing one's abilities to strengthen the procrastination bug!

And... that's it. Need to go get the kid from after-school pretty quick, so I should hide the bon-bons clean up my mess a bit more so as to set a good example. ;-)

And my garden rather overfloweth. Especially with kale and salad greens. However, the chard I picked for dinner tonight was truly outstanding, so much yayness there. And the 2 pound zucchini I picked ain't bad, either. Doesn't compare with the five pound zucchini I picked up at the CSA today, but then, I wasn't around to nurture it, was I?

It was kinda nice making dinner only from things that were super fresh. Even the beef was freshly ground.

It's also neat to notice the difference regions have on produce. Like my chard, for instance. I had fresh, fresh chard in BC while I was there - one night it was picked right before cooking. But it wasn't as good as my chard. Their strawberries, however, beat ours hands down. Their butternut squash is almost to die for, while ours is meh, but our acorn squash is da bomb.

Granted, this year it's unfair to compare produce because they haven't had summer yet. God, that was wonderful... (Did I gloat about mention I missed that horrible heat wave? Yeah. It was 60 degrees and raining where I was. Fabulous!)

But it's good to be home. ( Although I did have an interesting revelation due to the trip... )

Anyway, I am glad to be home. I don't know how long we will be here in New England, though it's likely to be for the next couple of years at least, but it is nice to finally feel free to make this my home, fully and completely.

So, we just got back from a weekend on the Cape. One of our friends invited us to stay at his funky old house again. Once again, it was just the four of us, though more were invited, and that was fine by all of us.

Geoff and I did nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. It was marvelous.

(And by nothing, I mean that Saturday morning (at a reasonable hour, as we got to sleep in!) I cracked open a 1000 piece puzzle and worked on that till it got aggravating and then did something else, like eat. With Geoff's help, we got the puzzle finished before we went to bed, somehow managing to complete the *&$%ing horrible Grecian blue sky by trial and error, because there were almost no clues otherwise.)

Anyway, I feel a bit less prone to panic now, and Geoff feels almost human. Page suffered for it a bit, as the house is very old (came into D's family's possession in 1892) and on the water, so a bit dusty and mildewy at the best of times, so his cough is still present, but he loved it as much as we did. Well, almost as much. He was far more freaked out about the house this time than he was last time, refusing to go anywhere alone. This time, he said it was the motion detectors that spooked him.

*shrugs*

The only downside to the weekend was coming home to find that running the dishwasher and leaving it unopened without having activated the heated dry function resulted in mold. Ew. Washer is going again with the sanitizing function on. (ew.)

I got no writing done. I feel only one small iota of guilt over that. Maybe only a quarter of an iota. Much less than a smidge, anyway.


Tomorrow will be busy as it will be the third to last day of school for Page, though I will be happy to not have to worry about setting the alarm clock for a few months. That said, I am very glad it will only be three weeks till we leave for my parents', where Page will have all his cousins from my side of the family to play with. My brother's son (who is closest to Page in age) might even be staying for the entire trip.