You're Doing It Wrong

The other night I was sitting in front of the TV and heard frantic beeping from our microwave. Since no one was using it, I was concerned.

I got up and the display was flashing letters and symbols, the light inside was blinking on and off, and there was a crackly sound.

I’ve consumed A LOT of horror/scifi/fantasy in my time so I knew what this meant:

Creatures from another dimension or maybe aliens were trying to use it cause havoc in our world.

I unplugged it and Bob took it outside and we saved the day.

Bob got that microwave when he moved into his own apartment, about 40 years ago. It should probably go into a museum.

Good Bye microwave!

I looked around in the shop to see if I saw the peanut shells or I could find more signs of mouse. I found this paper towel behind a box. Mouse took some of the pumpkin seeds I was saving! Don’t worry, I have saved seeds all over the place. But this is a sign that mousey is more comfortable out there than he should be.

Measures forthcoming.

28862 / 30000 words. 96% done!

This is it for Project of Forever, part 1 of 3. I’m not exactly sure how things are going to end so in the end it’s very skimpy.

Project of Forever, part 2 of 3 will be underway shortly.

So spouse got what I through was a miserable cold but he wanted to get tested and paid for the Cadillac offering which was a buffet of antigen, PCR, and influenza tests.

A couple hours later he got a negative test. A couple hours after that he got an identical test sheet back only the result was positive.

So, one of those.

I think this little mouse is so cute! Look at those little ears. Spouse is not amused. He suggest we put out a trap in front of the camera. We’re not doing that. He’s out in the shop where the garden stuff is.

It took three days to get someone from the testing entity to call him back and that person suggested that he go with the positive test. He also didn’t know when we’d get the results of the PCR test. Maybe Monday (a full week since the test).

I went down with the crud on Friday and initially I was going to try to get tested, too, except everything was full except this place Bob went and there was no way I was doing that.

I am assuming I am positive, too. Unless the PCR test is negative and then I don’t know what we are. We have our own private virus.

Meanwhile, we’re holed up here with our tissues, Fisherman’s Friend, and hot tea. Not how I wanted to spend my long weekend but I am catching up on all my Marvel movies. Shang-Chi today!

27763 / 30000 words. 93% done!

This is part 1 of 3 for the project of forever. I have one more segment to write for this and it gets set aside and I will start work on part 2 of 3 for the project of forever. I have a few unrelated projects I’m working on, too.

A little itchy

For New Year’s Eve we made clam chowder. I bought a box of oyster crackers to go with. Oyster crackers is one of those things we try not to have around the house because we mindlessly eat them until the box is finished. I don’t even understand what’s so yummy about them. What are they? Flour, salt and probably a bunch of food-ish additives so they hold shape.

After our meal I put them back in the cupboard but not in an obvious place. Because if anyone is going to mindlessly eat the crackers, I want it to be me.

A couple nights later we were reheating the leftovers and Bob said, “Where are the oyster crackers?”

I went to get to get them and he gives me this look of betrayal and says, “Did you hide them?”

It’s long gone by now and even this isn’t the full picture. I kept forgetting to take and post pictures of the snow.

We didn’t get that much but enough to cover the lawn and look pretty.

I would crack the top off the raccoon ice bucket and throw it aside. I did it three times.

Bob and I went to see Licorice Pizza on Christmas Day.

I LOVED this movie. I said, “That was awesome!” the minute the credits started rolling and I never do that.

When I was a sweet young thing, I lived in the Valley and I shopped at Licorice Pizza (the record store has nothing to do with the movie) and I still have my record crate that I bought there.

It lives out in the shed and we use it to hold all our gross dust and spider webs.

In the movies and on TV people are always dry swallowing pills. No one ever says, “Wait, I need to get a glass of water.”

One night after seeing this yet again I turned to Bob and said, “Why do they always dry swallow pills on shows. Who does that?”

Bob said, “I do.”

I didn’t know people really did this.

I am a grown ass woman and I have to take my pills, vitamins, whatever, 1 at a time with a big gulp of water and even then I still miss sometimes.

Look at this poor guy. Looks so sad and cold.

I was going to do a year end wrap up but I never got around to it and it seemed like a lot of energy to review what shows I watched or what events I liked best.

I made progress on the Project of Forever. One of my characters works for the Forest Service so I did some Forest Service research and then ads for Forest Service jobs popped up in my social media. What a world.

The project is rolling along but this looks a bit more promising than it is. I’m still fumbling along but I am forcing myself to push forward. There’s a range between writing garbage to get it done and grinding your wheels writing nothing until you think of the perfect thing. Some of the stuff I’ve got isn’t pretty but that’s what revision is for.

17218 / 30000 words. 57% done!

Klamath River in October

I have a favorite cookie recipe of my mother-in-law’s. We always referred to them as Priscilla Cookies.

I made it a couple of years ago right after we saw Elf and renamed them.

There is no reason these cookies should work. The recipe is every kind of sugar with some peanut butter added in and then cereal as the delivery medium to hold it all together.

And even as you are eating them you are thinking, wow, this is sweet, but also: how soon can I be eating another one?

This makes a lot so good for company but they freeze well, too. Or you can joyfully eat them all up. I haven’t tried other cereals but I am told Special K is the best.

Buddy the Elf Cookies

1 c sugar
1 c corn syrup
1 1/2 c peanut butter
6 c Special K Cereal
12 oz (2 c) chocolate chips
12 oz (2 c) butterscotch chips

Mix sugar and corn syrup over low heat. When dissolved, add peanut butter. Stir well.

Put cereal in a large bowl and add peanut butter mixture. Mix that all together.

Butter a 9×13 pan and add the Special K mix using whatever tricks you have to spread it into the corners and flatten it in. Let it cool.

Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together and pour the mixture over your Special K – spreading around as needed.

When cool, cut into your favorite serving size.

If you look carefully at the beginning of the clip, a raccoon comes out of the hedge — it’s just right of the middle of the screen. Those hilarious little tricksters.

Don’t get use to me posting this often. It’s amazing what a long stretch of time off does for a person.

A long time ago, I’m thinking it was the late 80s, I went on one of those package resort trips to Cancun. There are many tales to tell about that trip but the reason I bring it up now is that they pick you up from the airport in a short bus with a giant cooler full of booze as you board. The greeter told us that a week vacation was nice but it seemed like people really needed two weeks to fully unwind.

I think she was onto something.

To get back to the brown truck package — after the second delivery we returned it once again, time to the actual brown truck customer service center that is not far from our house. That individual also shook his head but said that a brown truck store wouldn’t know what to do with it so it was no wonder we got it back.

So far hasn’t shown up again. Hopefully the addressee is enjoying the well shaken contents by now.

Also, I didn’t mention but I have started working on the project of forever again. I know I’ve brought it up before and it’s a long story. I’ve probably written 50-60K of this thing over the years (much of which needs to be discarded) and promised myself I would finish it a dozen times.

I’m trying again. I have divided it into 3 smaller projects that I will worry about tying all together later. Part One is the project I used for my class and started writing earlier this month:

7446 / 30000 words. 25% done!

This is from the summer on one of our walks. I wondered aloud whether these people know they can pick the vegetables earlier. We did not take any. I think at that point we were battling garden over-supply ourselves.

My digital photo collection is in such disarray, it bums me to even think about how to rectify this. I would need to set aside a minimum of one entire weekend to get on top of it. Or take a whole week off from work.

I need a better system but also it’s too late. I have photos and duplicates. And I can’t take one picture of a pumpkin, I take 8 pictures of a pumpkin. Then it’s not like I delete the 7 less desirable ones.

Plus I moved things back and forth on my phone and have even more duplicates.

I do not recommend.

I wrote a note to write about this but now that I’m here I wonder why. We bought a cheap-o brand of rice and the leftovers go bad so quickly and so horrifyingly, I made Bob promise not to buy it again. What is it about rice, that when it goes bad it’s so gruesome? There are lots of food that are gross when they are bad or smell terrible when they are bad.

Anyone ever forget about greens?

But rice, OOF! If you don’t know what I mean, consider yourself very lucky.