Catching Up

Thank you all for your kind comments about Howard.  I love that people who never met him enjoyed his pictures and personality.  He really was a very special cat.

Since I didn’t blog at all in October or November, I’ll share some highlights to catch you up.

Our neighbors did tons of great Halloween decorations, including a miniature cemetery in their front yard.  There were “tombstones” for everyone on our section of the street.

Here’s mine:

Caroline is definitely our most temperamental cat and takes tortitude to a whole new level.

And here’s Nick’s:

We also did a neighborhood Halloween event on the last Sunday in October.  It was surprisingly warm that day, so we sat outside by one of the neighbor’s fire pits.  I made a huge batch of chili, and our neighbor Lori made jalapeno popper bread and desserts. 

Three of the adults (including Nick) and two of the older kids went to a haunted farm.  The other three adults (including me), one of the older kids who wasn’t feeling well, and the two younger kids stayed behind to watch Hocus Pocus. 

Everyone had a great time, and it worked out well that some people wanted to do the haunted farm while some of us weren’t into that kind of thing at all.  We’re talking about making it an annual thing. 

I’ve struggled some with getting into the holiday spirit since we lost Howard, but I knew I wouldn’t be happy skipping Thanksgiving, so we had our usual huge Thanksgiving.

Since our fridge is a little bit smaller than the old one, I had Thanksgiving food stashed in four different mini-fridges at work the week before.  The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I took several things we wouldn’t need over the holiday weekend and left them at work to make sure we had room for all of the Thanksgiving stuff. 

I took the day before Thanksgiving off to do all of the baking.  I couldn’t fit all of the desserts and sweet potato bread on the table, so there are two pictures. 

As usual, Nick did a lot of cleaning.  I’m a very messy cook, so helping clean up when I do that much cooking is a massive job.  At one point, he was dashing into the kitchen with the vacuum or Swiffer every time I left it.  And one of the neighbor kids very sweetly came over and helped out with some food prep and cleaning on Wednesday night. 

The day before Thanksgiving is always my highest step count for the year!

We took Thanksgiving dinner to the hospice house for lunch.  As always, they were so kind and made me cry.  There’s a nurse we’ve seen for the past several years, and she hugged both of us and was just incredibly nice.

After we dropped the food off there, we went home and finished getting ready for our Thanksgiving dinner that evening.  I almost forgot to get any pictures of the food until someone else mentioned taking pictures, so I only got two not-so-great pictures of the food.  We had food and desserts on nearly every available surface.

We had a total of 14 people: all of the neighbors on our end of the street and some friends from Nick’s job.  Everyone ate, talked, and played games.  It was everything I love about Thanksgiving.  As usual, we had tons of leftovers, so no one had to cook for the next couple of days.  After everyone left, Nick and I were talking about how you can always tell whether or not it’s someone’s first Thanksgiving at our house by whether or not they bring storage containers for leftovers.  No one does the first time, but everyone does the next time. 

We also had an inflatable Thanksgiving decoration this year.  I bought him on sale after Thanksgiving last year.  His name is Gregory.  Good for you if you get the reference to the Doris Day movie, “By the Light of the Silvery Moon.”  I’m hoping to add more Thanksgiving decorations every year. 

Frankie absolutely loves the box that Gregory came in.

I’m not sure how he managed to stuff himself inside the box, but he happily hung out in it for hours at a time. 

So what about you?  How were your October and November?  And how were your fall holidays?  

A Catch-Up Post

I thought a catch-up post was in order since it has been almost two months since I posted anything.

There hasn’t been anything especially interesting or exciting going on.  We’ve just been busy, mostly with work.  We’ve been stuck in a rut of not leaving work on time/taking work home with us (sometimes the whole “do more with less” gets really out of control), which hasn’t left time for much else. 

Most of this year has been that way, and it has felt like we’re stuck in a cycle of just trying to make it through the week only to arrive at the weekend exhausted and behind on all of the life stuff that got put off during the week.  When that happens, we seem to spend the entire weekend trying to catch up and getting ready for the next week of work. 

We both struggle a little bit with setting boundaries, so that’s something we’re making a real effort to work on.  We’re also trying to work on better time management.  I think better time management will follow if we get better at boundaries.  You can’t really manage time that you’ve allowed others to take control of. 

Hopefully, this means we’ll have a little more time for things we enjoy, which for me includes writing blog posts and visiting your blogs.

We both still have a long way to go when it comes to setting boundaries with work and leaving on time.  Hopefully, we’ll see some improvements soon.

We did finally make a plan and stick to it for this past weekend, though, and it was wonderful.  We bought tickets in advance for a Saturday afternoon showing of The Little Mermaid.  It’s one of my absolute favorite Disney cartoons, and I really wanted to see the live-action movie. 

It was so good!  It was just different enough from the cartoon not to be predictable but stayed true enough to the cartoon to be familiar.  There were some new songs that were great.  And I absolutely loved Melissa McCarthy as Ursula. 

In other catch-up news, I took a CPR class.  I took a compressions-only class years ago but never a full CPR class.  I had the chance to take one with Nick, so I went for it.  I’m always nervous in medical settings, so going through the class with Nick made me feel a lot better about it.  I did a lot better than I expected to with chest compressions, and I learned how to use a bag valve mask.  I still hope I never, ever have to do CPR on a person, but at least I know I can. 

It was neat to take the class with Nick, too, because even though he wasn’t teaching it (he’s not a CPR instructor, but has plenty of CPR experience after spending over 20 years in the fire department), he was helping people who were struggling during the practice and practicals.  It was neat to watch him teach other people and, in some cases, just help people find the confidence to do it. 

So, what about you?  What have you been up to for the past couple of months?  Are you good at maintaining a good work/life balance?  How do you do it?  Have you seen the new version of The Little Mermaid? 

A Lot Can Change in a Month

I don’t think I’ve ever written a catch-up post without random cat pictures sprinkled throughout, so here’s one of Tara to get things started. 

Tara

One thing (maybe the only thing?) that has been consistent over the past year and a half is how quickly things can change.  If you wait a month in between blog posts, what’s going on in your little corner of the world can drastically change.

I’m back to working from home.  We were back in the office for about a month.  Our official work from home started on August 9^th, but a few of us started working from home about a week before that.  We have mask requirements in place again, but there was about a week between those starting and when the CDC started recommending masks even for vaccinated people in areas with substantial or high spread.  Our county continues to have high spread and a lower vaccination rate than the rest of the state, so we’re fortunate to be able to work from again.

Charlie

Caroline is thrilled that I’m working from home again.  My work laptop seems to be her favorite thing in the world, so she’s back to spending her days on my desk. 

On my last day in the office, I discovered that I have a mask and dress that match perfectly.  I didn’t realize it until that morning when I was getting ready to leave, but I was pretty excited.  Lots of people commented on it.  One of my coworkers asked if I had a mask to match all of my dresses.  I don’t, but that would be pretty cool.  I still seem to be the only person at work embracing more colorful masks.  As one of my coworkers pointed out, though, I have a pink office, so no one should expect me to show up in a dull mask.  I still think that masks in cheery colors or patterns help make the best of a bad situation.

Our library system did a summer reading program.  You were given cards to fill out with time spent reading.  It was a check-off system, in 30-minute increments, and you turned the cards in when they were full to be entered in a drawing for prizes.  They had a program for kids; they got a free book every time they turned in a card, in addition to being entered in the drawing for prizes.  The adult program was just for the drawing at the end.  Each branch did a drawing and had prizes.  I won one of the prizes! 

I was so excited to win!  I know the picture isn’t the greatest, but my prize was a tote bag (great for taking books to and from the library), a tumbler, a book light, and a puzzle.  I’ve loved the library for as long as I can remember, and the only award I ever won in public school (before we started homes-schooling) was for reading, so I was very happy to win anything in a reading program.  Even as an adult. 

We’re currently enjoying some cooler weather, which is a nice change.  It’s still warm but not miserably hot.  We’ve been opening the windows in the mornings and evenings.  I love it when the weather is mild enough to do that.  I’ve seen a list of the 12 seasons of the Carolinas floating around the internet, and I’m not sure who started it, so I’m not sure who to link to.  Here’s a link to it, showing that we’re currently in False Fall.  I’m just glad we’re no longer at Hell’s Front Porch.  It’s one of the most accurate things I’ve ever seen about our weather, especially the various winters and springs. 

So how are things for you?  Are you working from home, or are you back in the office?  How many seasons do you have?  And which one are you in?

Happy New(ish) Year!

You can still say Happy New Year in January, right?  Even if it’s the very last day of January?  Anyway, I hope 2019 ended well for all of you, and that you’re all having a great start to 2020.

I meant to do at least a few posts in December, but as usual time got away from me.  I had a few projects at work to finish up, and the usual holiday stuff just seemed to take over beyond that.  Here
are the highlights since the last time I posted:

An oldie but a goody:  Howard the meerkat.

We had our holiday meal at work.  It was a lunchtime potluck in mid-December.  I really like how the new job does it.  There aren’t many nearby options for lunch so almost everyone brings their lunch almost every day.  So bringing food to work and eating it there wasn’t really an inconvenience for anyone.  And I loved that it was during the workday.  It’s so much better than trying to fit in yet another event after work or on the weekend during the holidays.  And the food was awesome, which I’m sure contributed to my good opinion of it.  I got a few new recipes I’m looking forward to trying.  I brought macaroni and cheese, which went over very well. 

Nick and I went to my sister’s for Christmas.  It was just the three of us this time.  Nick’s mom and step-dad weren’t able to come because one of their cats was extremely sick, and they couldn’t leave him.  Fortunately, he’s doing much better now.  Our friend Alex ending up going to Florida to be with her family.  It was a little odd without our usual group, but the three of us still had a great time.  We’re working on putting together a second Christmas so everyone can get together to see each other and exchange gifts.

I bought a camera.   A nice one.  I’ve been toying with the idea for a long time.  I took pictures for a Realtor for a couple of years while I was going to school, and I fell in love with taking pictures.  I’ve never had any formal classes or training, but I love it, and I’ve dabbled with trying to improve my skills over the years.  I’ve never taken the plunge on a good camera, though.

One of my coworkers, Doc, has a degree from an art school and has done professional photography.  He was nice enough to look at some of my pictures (taken with a cellphone) and offered me some pointers that have been helpful.  He also said I have a good eye and have potential.  One really good Cyber Monday sale later, I was the proud owner of a new camera. 

Doc showed me a few things with the camera, and has sent me out into the world to practice.  He has promised to look at my pictures and tell me what’s working, what isn’t, and how to get them to turn out how I want them to.  I haven’t had as much time as I had hoped to experiment, but I think that will change now that the holidays are over.  You’ll probably be seeing more pictures from me.  Hopefully you’ll also notice an improvement in the quality. Just FYI, the pictures in this post are the usual cellphone pictures.

Nick’s mom sent the cats some catnip bananas for Christmas.  All six of the cats absolutely love them.  Tara loves them, which made me so happy.  Tara was a few years old when we adopted her, and had an extremely hard life.  She’s still very skittish around people.  Some days seem better than others, and lately she seems to be really coming out of her shell.  She loves the bananas so much that she came out and played with them, and even let me get some pictures of her playing with one.

Tara

 It snowed today.  It started off light around mid-morning, and then started coming down heavily.  We have the option to work at home during bad weather, so I panicked, took my laptop home, and finished up my work for the day at home.  I’m a South Carolina native, and we don’t handle snow well!  It’ supposed to get warmer this evening, so the snow should all be gone by tomorrow.  I certainly hope so!  Nick sees this as a dusting.  I see it as accumulation.   I think most of you who read and comment regularly live in colder climates, so I suspect most of you will see it as a dusting like Nick does. 

The view down our street. 

In my defense, it did snow some more after this picture was taken.

We had a Crock Pot cooking competition at work last week for a fundraiser.  I entered my macaroni and cheese.  I came in second place.  Obviously, first place would have been great, but I don’t think second place is too bad. 

Duke had surgery a couple of weeks ago.  He had two cysts on the top of his head that needed to be removed.  He also had some broken teeth that needed to be pulled.  The vet thinks he probably broke the teeth chewing hard on something.  Given everything Duke gets into, I think that’s an excellent explanation.  He did well with the surgery, and is recovering nicely.  Duke is pretty popular at the vet’s office, so I know he was treated very well.  He insisted on going around to tell everyone bye before we left.  He did manage to look very pitiful the next day, and convinced us to give him quite a few treats. 

Duke

Nothing else is really coming to mind that merits posting about.  It always seems strange to me how the end of the year seems insanely busy, but whenever I try to list what we did there’s just not much.  Does that happen to you? 

So how has 2020 started off for you?  Was the end of 2019 insanely busy?

Of course, no catch up post is complete without random cat pictures, so here are a few more for you to enjoy. 

Charlie & Mortimer

Howard

Mortimer

Caroline

Playing Catch Up

I’ve been a bad blogger and a bad follower lately.  My deepest apologies.  I wish I could regale you with exciting tales of what I’ve been doing while I haven’t been blogging and commenting, but I really don’t have anything very interesting.  I haven’t found the cure for cancer (not that I expect to, since I don’t work in the medical field), published the next Mastering the Art of French Cooking, or been to exciting places.  So here’s what’s new in the land of Sweet Tea :

 

My grandparents are in an assisted living facility.  It’s a nice place, and has taken a lot of pressure off of my parents.  My grandfather has reached the stage (that everyone says is common) in Alzheimer’s where he’s being really mean to everyone.  It’s not pleasant, but the staff at the facility has been great about everything.

 

In an incredible stroke of good luck my sister and one of her friends took both of their cats, instead of my husband and I ending up with at least one of them.  (They were allowed to keep them, but for reasons unknown to the rest of us chose not to.)  Don’t get me wrong, I love cats, but these cats don’t like dogs (we have one) or most other cats (we have four).  Based on the stories my sister is calling me with this is about the same level of good fortune as winning the lottery would be. 

 

My mom broke her arm.  Not good!  When she called to tell me what had happened the story didn’t make much sense at all.  I actually made the comment to my husband that if anyone else was telling me what she was I would swear that copious amounts of alcohol had been involved.  Definitely not the case with my mom! 

 

She somehow (this is where I get my clumsiness from) tripped over nothing in their carpeted hallway.  What should have been just a minor annoyance resulted in a broken shoulder (and possibly more damage depending on what today’s MRI shows) because my mom now has a raging case of osteoporosis.  The doctor she saw yesterday told her that at this point pretty much any fall will result in a broken bone. 

 

My mom is only 56, so that’s a little scary.  She’s on some pretty serious pain medication right now, so I’m not very clear on what can be done to help with this.  I did get a lecture on the importance of calcium, from Mom and my husband.  It turns out that my yummy gummy vitamins (seriously, they’re like gummy bears, not vitamins) don’t have calcium.  So now I have to add calcium to my daily pile of vitamins. 

 

I took food to my parents’ house on Monday since my dad doesn’t cook.  My sister and I agreed that I would be mostly in charge of keeping them fed and she will be mostly in charge of dealing with care giving if my mom ends up needing surgery on her arm.  It works for us.  My sister doesn’t enjoy cooking and surgical sites make me queasy. 

 

I had forgotten just how far my dad’s not cooking goes.  Keep in mind that he is of that generation of men who has a mama, a wife, and daughters, so the men don’t cook.  They cut the grass, change the oil, and take the trash out, but they don't cook.  I brought a few casseroles and dinners to freeze.  I had them clearly labeled and was explaining to my dad what each one was and that he would need to decide in the morning what they wanted to have for dinner that night and take it out to defrost, then just heat it up for dinner. When I finished my spiel my dad looked at me with panic in his eyes and asked “Do I have to cook each one?”  It was so funny.  I then explained the difference between cooking and reheating.  He was very relieved. 

 

I won a giveaway!  Linda Jackson, of Writers Do Laundry Too, had a giveaway on this blog, and I won a copy of Chicken Soup For The Soul; Here Comes the Bride, which has one of Linda’s stories in it.  I confess I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but I’m looking forward to it, and it was very exciting to win something.  I don’t think I’ve won anything since I was about 13.

 

So what about you?  How have the past couple of weeks been for you?