random thoughts – Day 2,312 (Tuesday) – cookbook, weather, and cherries

Cookbook arrived!

The threat of heat rolling in again and another heat advisory meant I took my walk to the mailbox in the morning instead of waiting until after dance class. Plus, I had a notice from the Post Office that my high calcium cookbook delivered and I was excited to have it. 

I now have 250 pages of high calcium recipes for dips and appetizers, entrees, desserts, and sauces and dressings. I flipped through it immediately and noticed that the key ingredients in many recipes are cottage cheese and nonfat dry milk. It turns out my instinct to add those two ingredients while cooking was correct. Now, I have lots of official recipes to help with the calcium consumption challenge.

There was a breeze this morning and most of the afternoon, and it was comfortable. At dance, the air conditioning was refreshing when we arrived, but we were all bathed in sweat after an hour with the second hour still to go. I used my just-bought knee pads today and they helped greatly. A lot of our dances include kneeling and one is done totally on the floor, which was not an issue when my knees were 17 years old, but it’s a different and painful situation now. Thank goodness for cushiony knee pads.

When I stopped for gas after dance, I noticed the sun was especially orange in the gray, overcast sky. Later, I learned the smoke from wildfires in Canada has reached us and tomorrow is supposed to be pretty bad again with the newest round of heat and humidity plus the smoke. It sounds like it might be a good day to stay inside, not that I usually need any encouragement.

Chilled cherries!

A bought two pounds of cherries on Monday. After I washed them, I set them in the fridge and they are perfectly chilled. I have been grabbing them by the handful and devouring them and will likely need more by Wednesday. 

Then, after a full week of cherry consumption, I should be all set with cherries for a bit. That is what seems to have happened with the green grapes I couldn't get enough of for a couple weeks and am suddenly no longer interested in. Most of last week’s grape acquisition was chucked into this week’s trash. It’s how my erratic and fickle tastebuds roll.  

random thoughts – Day 2,311 (Monday) –k-drama

The lead characters looking sharp.

I recently succumbed to the Netflix suggestions, and after a long stretch of not watching Korean dramas, I started watching Vincenzo. The premise: Korean guy sent as a young child to be raised in Italy rises to rank of Mafia consigliere. Now he’s back in Korea with a mission.

As usual, the cast includes the supremely attractive male and female leads, the ever-so-slightly less attractive male and female second leads, and the usual slew of character actors providing comic relief with their quirky personalities.

Crazy suit with a cutaway back.

The wardrobe in this show features impeccably tailored suits for the leads, along with some interesting designer pieces. The female lead is a lawyer and is usually dressed in beautifully fitted suits with five buttons on the sleeves. Five! Even in my corporate finance days of splurging on suits worn almost daily, the most I ever had was three buttons on the sleeves. 

One very weird suit jacket on the female lead had a full front with lapels and pockets, and a cutout back. So weird. Another dress on a female character looked like a sculpture in gray wool with an exaggerated shoulder line and rounded sleeves. Mostly, the clothes were normal. 

The businessmen are sporting crisp shirts, silky ties, and beautiful jackets. Vests and collar bars seem to have made a comeback. The watches look fancy and pricey. I have always had and continue to have a weakness for a man in nicely tailored suit, and this show is filled with my favorite fantasy attire. Sigh. Side note: X1, for all his shortcomings, liked to dress up and looked like a million bucks in a suit, and often better than my finance colleagues. My schlubby manager often commented (more like whined) that my home-builder husband had better suits than he did. 

Anticipating "the flick."

In this K-drama, there are running gags involving the consumption of roasted sweet potatoes. And there is “the flick” square to the forehead. Lose a bet? You have to close your eyes and get the forehead flick from the winner of the bet. The male and female leads shared moments of exaggerated romantic tension involving anticipation of the flick.

I forgot how much I liked K-dramas – in the original Korean with English subtitles. This show has pulled me back into the genre. The wardrobes, the furniture and decorating features like screens and room separators, and the food. Seeing the food makes me want to visit a Korean restaurant, but I usually end up just making ramen at home.

As a bonus, reading subtitles gets me to set the phone aside for a while, which is a good thing.

random thoughts – Day 2,310 (Sunday) – shelving it

After: More tidy under,
less empty above.

The nesting continues. Or maybe it's still technically moving in and setting up. However it is categorized, today featured the assembly of two small (24-inch tall) floating corner shelf units. One went under the TV corner shelf, the other went above it as the first step in solving the issue of an odd empty space.

I had seen the shelves online through a couple retailers, but a recent email from Ocean State Job Lot had the exact shelves that were hanging around in my Amazon cart for a lower price. It's not the first time and I am guessing the Amazon markup funds the allegedly free shipping. I will drive one mile to pick up at your store Ocean State. Yes, please and thank you.

They were easy to assemble, especially compared to the larger stuff in the house came in a flat box and required my ever-improving skills with a screwdriver. Today also involved the drill to mount the shelves to the wall. Good times! I am living large and in charge with a power drill and a mini-chain saw.

Between the router and cable box, power strip, multiple power cords, and a mile of cable, there is still an eyesore cluster of electrical cords and cable in the corner below the TV. I mounted an acrylic shelf to hold the power strip, but the rest is still messy. Baby steps.

Before: Messy under,
empty above.

I really wanted a small cabinet for the corner under the TV shelf, so that the nesting end tables currently in service in the corner could fulfil their potential as side tables but the heating vent on the floor in the corner was an obstacle. Finding a cabinet both short enough to clear the shelf and high enough off the floor to clear the vent and deflector was a losing battle. 

The floating shelf solution is good enough for now and the armchair now has a side table available for setting a cup of coffee and a plate. I’m taking the win.

random thoughts – Day 2,309 (Saturday) – squash blossoms and belly dance

Squash blossoms in the morning.

The squash plant, recently set into the ground in the backyard, had two gorgeous open orange blossoms that greeted me this morning. Until today, I had only seen the blossoms mostly or fully closed when it was in the pot. By 12:30, they were both closed again. Now I will be stalking the plant to learn the blossom opening and closing times. 

There was a morning visit with Mom, then it was back to my house. The second step of the blue embroidered and sequin dress remake was executed. With red thread (for visibility and easier removal), the mesh overlay was basted to the lining, about a half inch below the waist seam. This will allow me to cut the skirt off below the waist seam while keeping the two layers held together for the future step of forming the waistband casing.

Th weather was gorgeous with breezes blowing the curtains. This helped during the one-hour long stressful search for something to wear to a dance show tonight. I am no longer used to dressing for events, but I knew I wanted to wear my bronze-tone bejewelled sandals.

None of the three pairs of summery wide-legged pants looked good today. The first-choice skirt, a silk crepe de chine number in browns and rust with gold accents, fit great, but I couldn’t find a season-appropriate top to wear with it that didn’t look stupid (it has been worn only in the fall with a sweater). The next choice was a long black silk stripe on stripe flowy skirt. Again, the problem was tops. And memory. I couldn’t remember what I used to wear with said skirt, and nothing in the closet felt right. I ended up choosing a black mesh top with tiny gold beaded embellishments. I am so out of practice with dressing for a social life. 

Once upon a time, multiple times a day, I could dash into the house for a complete costume change executed in under ten minutes and be out the door to another activity. I could shift from gardening clothes to an outfit for a formal event in no time flat. While blindfolded, a bag could be packed for a weekend away and events from the beach to shopping to a night club were covered. Lately, I specialize in stay at home with no plans outfits, stage performance costumes, and pajamas.

Anyway, once dressed, I sat around quietly basting the skirt part of the dress and then playing games on my phone while episodes of the show Animal Control streamed on Netflix until it was time to leave for the belly dance show. In addition to professional level skills in staying at home, I am excellent at sitting quietly, a skill I have perfected in the past several months. It is time, however, to work on my social skills and pull myself back from the brink of being totally feral. Study tips are welcomed.

Aurelia Pearl dances to Swan Lake.

The dance show, called "Molten," was co-hosted by Greenfield area dancers Aurelia Pearl and Eshta Amar. It was a fun production in the intimate space of the LAVA Center in Greenfield and featured seven solo performers and a duet. 

The costumes and veils were colorful and sparkly and various musical and dance styles were presented. One dance was to music from the ballet Swan Lake arranged with a Middle Eastern beat. Very cool. It was all very cool. 

There is a lot of beauty and talent out in the world. 

random thoughts – Day 2,308 (Friday) – fri-yay!

Things were accomplished. The morning included the trimming of low-hanging tree branches and the pulling of weeds in the back yard. A small trash bin, a large planter, and a bucket full of trimmings were loaded into the car and brought to the neighborhood yard waste drop off area which is a splendid feature of living here. A faded garden decoration that was once blue, green, and gold, was sprayed with fresh silver paint and set near the basil, lavender, and squash. 

Laundry was done. Food was consumed. The zipper was removed from the embroidered and sequin trimmed gown bought on Wednesday, and a plan made (and documented!) for the next steps to its transformation. A book was read (not the whole book, just some chapters). A walk around the ‘hood was taken. Several people were sitting in their yards, driveways, or under their carports enjoying the most pleasant evening air, and I was waving at people like I was Miss America in a parade. When I got back home, I noticed a tear in the back of my beloved camo print cargo capris and was grateful that the majority of houses sit far back from the street and also that most of the neighbors are elderly and probably couldn’t see my butt flashing my undies from their chairs.

Stuff got done.

There was an evening session with my new favorite household tool, the mini-chainsaw, and I trimmed ground-level branches from the overgrown flora in front of the house, still in my camo print torn in the back capris with blue underpants underneath. It felt reckless. Is anyone really watching? Can my elderly neighbors even see that far? Do I really care? Whatever. For the record, I love that little chainsaw.

A second trip was made to the drop off area with the evening trimmings and then it was time to relax with a Korean drama on Netflix and some calcium-rich cheese slices and crackers. What a day! Not exactly a day in a cottage at the beach, but still fun and fulfilling.

random thoughts – Day 2,307 (Thursday) – lunch, dice, and plants

Bacon cheeseburger with fries and pickles.

A spontaneous lunch invitation livened up a potentially dull day. Mom, Sis, my youngest niece and I, after brief discussion about who was already hungry, who likes what, and what places are nearby, chose Kay’s Dairy Bar as our target destination. It has a varied menu, and we debated sharing an appetizer and then having ice cream, but in the end, we all ordered lunch plates like adults. It was good.

After lunch, we went back to Mom’s and played Yahtzee. The dice were not favoring me today. My niece rolled a full house so many times we wondered if the Universe was sending her a message. I kept rolling crap and ended up taking zeroes when I missed required combinations, which also felt like a message from the Universe.

After a supper of grocery store ice cream, I decided to plant the spaghetti squash Sis gave me a few weeks ago. Knowing there is a ground hog that visits the yard, I checked what plants they hate to surround and protect the squash plant. I got lucky and it was several plants I wanted anyway, including basil, lavender, and rosemary, plus bleeding heart, which I planted a couple months ago.

Tiny backyard garden.

In a matter of minutes, I was in the car and headed to Tractor Supply where I bought a second pot of basil and a lavender plant. An hour after the internet search about plants, the squash was finally in the ground near the bleeding heart, flanked by the new basil plant and the one bought a couple weeks ago. The lavender is nearby, still in the original pot, while I decide if I want to try and split the plant. The plants were surrounded with wire flower bed edging to keep the lawn mower at bay.

random thoughts – Day 2,306 (Wednesday) – shopping

The weather pendulum has swung back to the warmer side of things after a couple cooler days. Mom and I went to the air-conditioned comfort of the duchy of Kohls in the kingdom of retail. My list was short – look for outdoor décor and sneakers on clearance.

Bird for the yard.

The odds were in my favor, the yard décor curse has been broken,  and I found a figurine that I liked (a bird). It was less successful in the shoe department and the other departments I breezed through. Mom didn’t find anything she wanted to buy.

Our next stop before heading home was a consignment store we both like. There were two racks of clearance clothes in the sidewalk. The pants I liked didn’t fit right, but I found a raincoat for $2 and a blue full-length gown, brand new with tags, for $1. The gown has perfect seaming to easily be taken apart and turned into a dance skirt and a top. There was another clearance rack inside and I got several items to use for head wraps, plus a pair of like-new Skechers sneakers for $10 in the not clearance stuff. Once again, Mom found nothing to buy. Usually, the roles are reversed and I’m the one leaving empty-handed.