Category Archives: doing it wrong

From the backyard: some rascal nibbled on a tiny green apple. I’m guessing squirrel.

On Wednesday it got warm in the office.

I believe it is well documented here that I am always cold and while I enjoy the practical benefits of air conditioning, I dislike cold air blowing on me or near me.

I bought an indoor/outdoor thermometer so I could prove that during the winter I am “freezing.” The indoor sensor is in my office and the outdoor sensor is in colleague’s office. When I’m freezing it usually reads 70 degrees in both our offices and has failed to prove my point.

But on the warm day it went to 74. Then 76. Then 78. In both offices.

I hate complaining because (a) I’m terrified they will make it so cold I will regret it and (b) because you have to log into this website and fill out a form and then get a series of emails reporting on your work order and I don’t like to do that plus I can never remember my password or username.

But when it hit 79 at Noon it seemed obvious there was a problem. I found my login ID, navigated the website, filled out the form and suggested it might be getting a little warm in our suite.

Turns out the AC wasn’t working for our entire floor. How was I the first one complaining?

They turned on a fan and had a technician come in right away and within 2 hours I had to put my sweater back on. When the building staff came to the office to see how we were doing, I said: We’re usually not the first in line to complain but …”

They said: You aren’t even close to the first in line to complain.

They told me I should let them know if anything is going on. But I probably still won’t.

First berries! I knew the ever-bearing were out there but I was surprised to see some red ones, too. I think the crop is going to be a little smaller than the last couple of years. But still should be plenty.

Getting organized to hop on a plane tonight and fly to Madison, Wisconsin to visit with friends. I love everything about this trip except the flight.

(Well, and saying good-bye at the end but let’s not talk about that now.)

Here’s a post from when I made this trip in 2011.

My Sweetheart gets a weekend with the house to himself. He already mentioned something about a film festival.

Be good while I’m gone.

Mad Men is the only drama that Bob and I watch together. We decided that we would watch the series finale live so we wouldn’t have any spoilers.

Since I started using a DVR I have no idea when my shows are on. I watch them when they show up on the DVR.

I checked Mad Men and learned the finale would air on Sunday night from 10-11:15.

Who can stay up that late on a school night? I don’t even like to stay up that late on the weekends. Or ever. Even if something fun is happening.

Normally Monday night is yoga night and Bob goes to visit his Mom but we are swapping so we can watch tonight.

I have been having the craziest dreams lately. Sometimes a bunch in one night or sometimes just a really long one that goes on and on. And if you tried to summarize it for someone it would be like: I was at the movies but I had to go sit by the teddy bear but then I had to go to the bathroom and it was behind the candy buffet and there was a stream running in front of the doors.

Last night we had tacos so that explains the candy buffet dream. I also dreamed someone was flashing a light in the bedroom window so I would go answer the door. I thought it was a homeless man who wanted to sleep in our backyard but it was an Indian whose truck broke down and wanted us to sit in the truck bed.

Yeah. Tacos.

My mother-in-law makes these cookies – I have the recipe but I can’t put my fingers on it right this second.

They are no-bake cookies and I think it’s butter, sugar, butterscotch drops, quick-cook oats, butter, and sugar.

She made us a bunch and we were stuffing our faces. My husband finally asked me to share some with colleague.

I warned colleague: These are Narnia cookies – Turkish Delight.

I said: These are the best and worst cookies you’ve ever had.

Best because they are yummy, worst because once you have them you can’t stop thinking about them. If they are in the house, you are constantly bargaining: should I eat one? One bite? Half of one? They are so sweet. Maybe just 2 bites. I’ll wait until after dinner. Three bites.

It goes on and on.

I gave colleague his bag and then in the afternoon, in a strained voice asked: Aren’t we going to try those cookies?

After he tried one, he agreed.

I don’t even use very many programs or apps yet all my devices (said with disdain) are like puppies, whining and whimpering because I need to do something for them. WordPress is totally needy. Please update now.

Update yourself. And there’s a little widget telling me that 7 other things need to update. And then my phone has a notice because some app that I still don’t even know how to use needs to be updated. Adobe Flash – I swear that thing wants to be updated every month and it always interrupts me when I’m right in the middle of something. And remember when I updated my operating system and now I can’t get Acrobat to work right?

Technology is like everything in life, sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes a complete annoying pain in the butt.

So this is the garden. This is the garden with me having done nothing except bury a few withered potatoes. A lot of what you can see there is weeds and sunflower volunteers.

I’ve partially cleaned it up and will try to do it a bit more completely this weekend. I’m ambivalent about the garden this year. For sure there will be tomatoes and pumpkins. And I tidied up the raspberries but I’m not in the mood to do the rest.

I originally was going to talk about my lunch today but I was so busy at work I never got around to it. I’ve written about this before but when I bring my lunch to work I tend to bring way too much. I have a bunch of tiny plastic containers and I bring little bits of leftovers, hunks of cheese, crackers, nuts, cookies, vegetable wedges with pickles. Today I had hummus and Cheez Its. (Which I did not eat together.) I also bought a bag of those tiny tangerines and I had a bunch of those. I thought I could make this more interesting but now I’ve had a long day plus on my lunch hour I went on a big walk with a friend and now I am beat, body mind & spirit.

Shadow got a treat and he ate every bit except for the green thing. Silly dog.

I could swear I made fun of this service in a post somewhere but I can’t find it right now.

Kira gave me a week of Blue Apron for my birthday and we finally signed up for it and got our meals last Friday.

The stuff comes in a big box with cooler packs. Here is everything from the box which will make 3 meals.

Look at this adorable tiny avocado and onion.

The knick knacks are spices and little things you need to add. We had to supply salt, pepper and olive oil.

Here we are ready to go with our blackened cod and red rice salad. (Red rice is still cooking.)

It was really delicious and a recipe I would never have tracked down on my own. It exceeded our expectations. The portions are generous enough for 2 good eaters plus a little left over for 1 person to have for lunch the next day.

The other two meals were a Chicken Verjus with pearled barley that Bob made last night for his Mom. I’m going to eat the leftovers as soon as I hit the publish button on this. And tonight we’re making a Lamb Meatball stew, to have with some other dishes with Bob’s Mom.

Voila!

The menu instructions are well done and mostly easy to follow. There were a couple of steps that I thought were not explained very well but since I have experience cooking I could figure out. The “time to make” estimates were slightly delusional unless you only counted the actual cook time and not the prep.

I would say that this service is best for people who like to cook and want to learn more dishes or maybe don’t have well stocked kitchens. I would say it’s not good for people who come home tired and hungry and need to throw something together really quickly. The meals didn’t take long to make but you still have to chop, peel and brown stuff.

But fun to try. Great gift idea Kira!! Thank you.