I’m on new benefits plans as of the first. They sent me my cards in October and I very carefully put them in a safe place so I could find them at the first of the year.
I bet you can see where this story is going.
I’m not sure where else to look and I’m paranoid that, NOW, I’m going to keel over in the street and since I don’t have a current insurance card they’re going to leave me in the gutter. And everyone will see me with my mouth hanging open.
For many, many years of my life I wished to work from home or be independently wealthy. I thought that sitting around the house all day would be fantastic. Especially if I could make a living writing.
For my first job out of college, I actually liked the work but the owner was an unreasonable jerkwad which made the environment awful.
I’ve never written about my second main job out of college and the short version is that while I liked most of the people I worked with, I generally didn’t enjoy the job or clients. That job I would sometimes feel like weeping on Sunday nights thinking about the work week.
The paralegal thing took awhile but I really like my job and working with tribes and these days, I rarely think that I’d be happier sitting around the house all day long.
I just finished an epic holiday that I was greatly looking forward to. Between weather and holiday office closure, I think I only worked two days in the last three weeks. That’s a lot of time.
And I had grand plans for all these amazing things I was going to be doing. To be clear, I completely enjoyed the time and I did accomplish a huge pile of stuff. But I was dismayed by how quickly the time passed and how often the day would be coming to an end, and I’d barely gotten into one project. With endless piles of time, I still struggled to get my stuff done.
I thought this post would be more interesting when I started it. No time to go back and sweeten it up, now. But I think my point is that I’ve never been happier about getting back to work than I was this morning.
Today’s post is dedicated to Kira and Shane and if you want the inside scoop you should read this story.
Today I did my writing stuff first thing in the morning. I’m still working on the holiday letter. I know, whatever. I’m sorry. Yesterday I got all bogged down making my 2009 bookpage. So bogged down I did a totally half-assed review of Book #1 (Bridge of Sighs) and it was a FABULOUS book. I’m doing online book group with Kim (we just invented it) and we’ve both been discussing like nobody’s business.
Then I baked a loaf of no knead bread. I added a big plop of sourdough from my sourdough feeding and I’m not sure if this is a brick or not. It wasn’t as big as other loaves I’ve made. But we didn’t cut into it tonight. I’m betting it will be decent but a tad heavy. Not sure which part went wrong. I’ll watch the sourdough addage more closely next time.
At noon I stripped the turkey carcass from Xmas dinner. It’s been waiting for me in the freezer and I haven’t had time until now. I used the meat to make a turkey pot pie using the same recipe from last month. This time I used filo because I had one in the fridge and I’d already made a pie.
And I put the carcass in a pot and made turkey soup using a Cook’s Illustrated recipe.
I actually enjoyed the extended day in the kitchen. I had a bunch of Firefly’s on the TV. I’ve said this before but I’m not a big fan of TV on just for noise but during big kitchen projects, I like something familiar in the background. Everything smelled delicious. And it started snowing around 4pm. (I know, seriously, enough already. If I wanted to live in a snowy place I would have moved to SnowLand.)
I’ve been saving up some photo printing and I finally finished my stack and took them in for processing this weekend. Fred Meyer had a coupon and I thought what great timing. So I used the coupon for my order of 300+ prints. The computer discounted each print individually. We had to wait about fifteen minutes for the register to process this. And then print out this receipt.
The snow is supposed to change over into rain and I hope it does because I’ve enjoyed this time off but I’m ready to get back to work. Seriously.
So, does Toyota think we’ll be less pissed if we know nothing of the status of our car instead of calling us and telling us they still don’t have the part? I don’t understand why they wait for us to call them. Do they think I have nothing better to do with my car than park it across town?
This has not been the most optimal holiday season.
Sorry for crapola quality, my camera is basic and I took this standing on the back porch.
This bunny showed up in our yard yesterday. Our neighbors have bunnies and we asked if they lost one and they said no. It doesn’t run away when we go outside. It’s very cute and seems to think under our back shed is a great place to hang out.
Still don’t have a car. Boo. I would never have taken it in this week had I known I’d be carless all week. Must move on.
Quiet night at home tonight. Party tomorrow afternoon.
Happy New Year.
Oh – and Slumdog Millionare: FANTASTIC.
This is my Pirates of the Caribbean wristband I got at the Super Biz Mart store this morning for a dollar. They have more and also red ones so if you want one, let me know and I’ll go back and buy you one. You can also see the purple spot on my thumb where I shut the shower door on it the other day.
Starting at Thanksgiving I suddenly randomly couldn’t pump gas into my car. The nozzle would keep shutting off. First I thought it was the pump I was using so I moved my car. But it wouldn’t work that one either. I asked Bob if he could try and he went to a different gas station and had the same problem.
You can get gas in the car but it’s a lot of work. Luckily I don’t drive much so it hasn’t been a huge issue.
Between weather and holidays we haven’t had time to deal with it so I thought I’d just get it over with today. I hate putting off car stuff. They gave me an early appointment so I thought, “Good I’ll get this over with and have the whole day.” I set my alarm and got up at dark-thirty and rushed out of the house. Bob picked me up and we went for breakfast and killed some time visiting a few shops because Toyota is completely across town from us. That’s why we were in Super Biz Mart (possibly not actual name).
Finally at about Noon I called to see what was up and they still hadn’t looked at it. Why the hell did they ask me to come in so early if they weren’t even going to look at it?
We went home and sort-of put our plans on hold not knowing when we’d have to go over and pick it up.
You know that thing I do when I always expect it to cost $600? Well, I didn’t do that this time. I just assumed this was going to take an hour or two, a hundred bucks and I’d be on my way.
Oops. They finally just called and the combobulator filter agitator trip-wire bungyuny is all fouled up and needs to be replaced and there is one part, somewhere in Portland and they think they can get it tomorrow and if all goes well I can pick up my car by this time tomorrow. For about $525.
Okay. It’s not $600 but farkity-fark-fark-fark.
I was mad but I got over it quickly. Lots of things to be grateful for right now. It’s just money. Besides my “If Dec 30 is your birthday” horoscope says that the year ahead will offer “many chances to get ahead.”
We are on our way to see Slumdog Millionaire and have a bite to eat.
Here’s the Christmas alien enjoying the teeny bit of snow left in the front yard. It all seems like a dream, now.
Here’s a terrible photo of the Lord of the Rings glowy mugs. Please, steal this image all you want.
I said I’d finish a certain writing project by the end of the year and today’s the day. Tomorrow I’m at the office and yoga for a full day. Tuesday I am the birthday queen. And the thirty-first I don’t want to be all stressed out about completing 2008 goals.
If I haven’t called you back or responded to your messages or otherwise have blown you off, don’t take it personally. I’m doing it to everyone. (My poor neglected husband.)
Not done yet. Back to work.
I bashed my thumb in the shower door while cleaning. I told it off with a number of really fabulous bad words. It’s already turning blue. Photos in the future, if it gets really ugly.
* * *
I spilled come candle wax on my clothes and thought I’d check the Internet to see if there were any great tips for removing it.
The first one I found said this: “The best way to avoid wax stains on clothing is to not get them in the first place.”
Wow. That’s genius. Let’s think of all the places we can extend that fabulous bit of thinking. “The best way to avoid overcoming brain damage is to not fly through that windshield in the first place.” “The best way to avoid a painful, lingering death is to not be born in the first place.”
What kind of person typed that first advice? I bet if s/he has kids, they hate him.
* * *
The thaw is on. Now we have flood warnings. Yay, us. At one point the awning over the back deck appeared to be caving in. Looks fine now. A guy is going to look at the gutters on Monday.
* * *
I cleaned house today and then mulled some wine to drink in my Lord of the Rings promotional goblet with the red glow. I’m too lazy to take a photo and I just cruised Flickr with some luck but no Creative Commons licensed photos. Please world, learn about Creative Commons. It could have used an orange slice but otherwise, pretty good.
Guess what happened yesterday?
It snowed some more. Snowiest Christmas in history. The snow on the garage took out that raingutter, too.
But it was was the kind of snow with huge pretty fluffy flakes and I could watch while I made dinner.
I made a bunch of delicious recipes from the Sunset magazine holiday recipe round-up like broccoli gorgonzola casserole and artichoke parmesan stuffing. I’d love to link to them for you but Sunset’s website sucks major ass. Sunset has been including quotes from blogs in their pages. I sure hope they get that one.
I also made their herb dinner rolls. The recipe calls for fresh herbs and I had bought a few herbs to supplement what I have in my yard. Except we couldn’t find the herbs we bought. Must have been left at the store somehow. And I didn’t feel like putting on boots and tromping across to the backyard and digging out my frozen garden herbs. So I used dried herbs and the rolls still came out good. I just ate a leftover one cold and it was delicious.
And we had turkey and mashed potatoes and some brown sauce that some might consider calling gravy, and I made a pumpkin pie from pumpkin I grew myself. It was good but a lot of work for one person. After we finished the last dishes I took a hot bath and then finished watching The Two Towers which is my favorite of the three. That was Christmas.
The day before yesterday I watched Attack of the Clones. I re-watch episodes IV-VI all the time but I haven’t seen any of the first three in awhile. There’s really no way of getting around how monumentally stupid that movie is. I enjoyed it in a dorky fangirl way but sitting there watching it again, I found myself cringing. That’s why I gave up on Jedi and switched to Hobbits.
Hello guest reader Joel. Sorry your flight got canceled and you can’t be in town to enjoy all this endless snowy mess.
*Note snow on roof. Will figure in later in this post.
This is our “cleared” driveway from yesterday. I had the front porch and walkway all cleared off, too. It felt like we were making progress.
Here’s our street. I thought I had the exact same photo from this fall but I can’t find it right now because I’m lame at organizing my photos and searching through a couple hundred of photos in a folder called “Around Our House” isn’t yielding much so you’ll have to image the golden autumn light and clear pavement in your head.
Here’s the Safeway parking lot. Doesn’t look too bad. The parking lot across the street was PERFECTLY clean. There’s a library annex there and we guessed they must have a private contract with some sort of do or die clause in it.
That was yesterday. Now on to today.
This is our driveway this morning after the latest round of snow.
I was sitting here at my desk, all buckled down to get some work done before I power down for 36 hours to do holiday cooking, cleaning, decorating and celebrating. We never got a tree so I’m going to hang a string of lights and a few ornaments on the Ficus. I’m not much of a decorator to begin with but this is awfully pathetic.
But back to my writing. I heard a huge clattering sound on the roof and since it’s way too early for Santa I figured the snow must be sliding off and I jumped up and ran to the window.
I was right. It was scary loud. I sort bent down and covered my head which I’m sure would have been very effective if the world was crashing through the roof of the house.
The snow completely filled in our nice shoveled walkway. Piled on our front porch.
And almost completely destroyed our rain gutter. Look at the way the icicles are pointed in. And the way the wood is all chunked off.
We’re not too upset. We stood around on the lawn gaping and laughing. One more thing to go on the list of things to fix. I broke the control string on the window shade in my room, too. And then there’s that car thing.
Here are some killer icicles in case we get the urge to stab each other.
I told myself I wasn’t going to sit at the computer beyond 1pm but the snow thing got me all distracted. Just two more things to finish before I log off.
Happy Holidays Everybody.
I am planning on doing a holiday newsletter but probably after Jan 1st. And it’s probably going to be shorter but I’ll offer a story for people who like stories. And it was going to be a Christmas story but since I’m running behind, maybe I’ll make it a winter story. I guess I shouldn’t worry about it. Not like there are Christmas story police.
