Scintillating coffeemaker update!
So first of all, thank you for all of the coffeemaker feedback you left on my last post. It was very helpful, and I was over on Amazon, comparing and contrasting, and in the meantime I was drinking expired espresso made in my Tassimo (because once I won Otto over to the dark side and he started drinking coffee with me, I pretty much retired the Tassimo because I’d rather just make a whole pot). I was hovering over the “BUY” button when Otto said he wanted to try cleaning out the pot lid before we gave up.
Huh.
He soaked it in some stuff. Things did not look promising. BUT THEN he poked around in the lid with a Q-tip and soaked it again. (This is our pot lid; it has a “floating” ball inside there that magically lets coffee drip in but then settles to seal the pot and keep the coffee warm, after.) On the post-Q-tip soaking, about a half a pound of powdery coffee grounds floated down out of the lid. MAGIC. It’s like the lid was its own coffee-laden clown car.
This morning the coffeemaker worked perfectly. Order (and caffeine) are restored. Phew.
Moving right along
Despite my insistence that time SLOW DOWN ALREADY, life continues to zip right by at a maniacal pace. And now we can all stop and consider that statement and laugh at my fickleness, because wasn’t I JUST wishing for 2013 to get here? And now I’m complaining that the year is nearly over and I’m not ready?
I am nothing if not illogical. (No, YOU!)
It’s not clear to me what I feel the need to DO or FINISH this year—I mean, other than the usual sort of “everything!”—but here I am, feeling like time is spinning by and I’m on a deadline. What or when that deadline actually IS remains a mystery, but my brain is convinced it exists. I feel like it may be related to the fact that I’m working a lot and also shoveling all available food into my mouth as often as possible, but who knows. (I mean, I could work less, and maybe take the dog for a walk or something, but let’s not get CRAZY, now.)
So how about a few updates? Yes, let’s! read more…
He’s totally That Guy
Hey. Hey! It’s Otto’s birthday today. I made his morning extra special by forgetting to make coffee before I had to run off to physical therapy, and telling him that I would see him tonight. Rawr!
I will totally make it up to him later by… making coffee. (What did you think I was going to say? Oh, you.) Also, I’ll be taking him out to dinner. And maybe I will reprise last night’s hijinks where I totally sidled up to him and said in a husky voice, “I’m gonna go slip into something more comfortable,” and then I went and put on a t-shirt and my fleece pajama pants.
Anyway, this is the part where I’m supposed to wax nostalgic on how every year together makes us better and more in love and how I’d never want to walk through life with anyone else and he’s the wind beneath my wings. All of that is true, but in case you haven’t noticed (see: fleece pajama pants sexytime), that’s not exactly my style. Also, in case you haven’t noticed, this year has pretty much sucked hairy donkey balls for our family, so it gets a little complicated to be all grateful and stuff, just now. Nevertheless, I have a few things to say about the man who occasionally wakes me up to discuss snakes. read more…
Meeeeeerry… okay, fine, whatever
This weekend it became clear that 1) Christmas is going to come whether I want it to or not, 2) I have about eighty billion things to accomplish between now and then, and 3) I am starting to hate everything and everyone again.
What a delightful combination! (STEP RIGHT UP, watch the Amazing Grumpy Woman attempt to get into the holiday spirit! Just don’t, you know, breathe too loudly in the same room with her. Just a friendly warning.)
In a completely transparent attempt to jack up my holiday spirit with zero effort or personal growth on my part, I gave Monkey this year’s LEGO Advent Calendar on Saturday. See, it says it’s for ages 5-12 right there on the box, and my sweet baby boy is HEARTLESSLY turning 13 shortly after Christmas this year, so I figured it would be a good way to celebrate his last non-teen year by buying into a overhyped consumerist trend of paying too much for tiny little toys.
It totally worked, by the way. He bounces out of bed to open a compartment every morning, and his joy is infectious. Also, on Day 2, the door opened to reveal… a tiny LEGO chainsaw. Day: made. read more…
Various super-important updates
1) Yesterday I found out that the hulking, terrifying mass which has become my gimpy hand is apparently “perfectly normal.” Well, that’s a relief. I was getting tired of waiting for an alien to burst forth from the scar. But, uh, I kind of miss the days when my hand looked like a hand, y’know? So I am now on a strict regimen of weirdo anti-inflammatory treatments via battery-powered patch. Really. I have to drive over to the orthopedist’s office every other day to have said patch slapped over my hand/wrist. Thank goodness I’m a lady of leisure and don’t have anything else to… oh. Crap.
2) Are you taking the Little Drummer Boy Challenge? It amuses me. Though it amused me more before Monkey’s doctor’s office knocked me out about fifteen minutes ago. IT IS NOT EVEN DECEMBER. I PROTEST.
3) We have our favorite Visiting Dog at the house right now, and last night I woke up certain I was having a hot flash. I wasn’t. I was, however, having two dogs laying on top of me, both eager to show the other that they could have me. It’s nice to be loved…? Kind of? But also sort of sweaty.
4) I have a new post up over at Feel More Better, all about my very first car (which wasn’t a car at all, actually, but a truck). You know how I like reminiscing about the old days, and then waving my cane at the young’uns and telling them to get off my lawn. Come on over and tell me about your first ride, if you like.
Poor little daft princess
Licorice is having kind of a tough week.
First there was the long holiday weekend, which meant people were home all the time—YAY!—and then strangers were here—BOO! Except FOOD! YAYYY!—and then people were home but the doorbell was ringing a lot.
We’ll never know what Licorice’s life was like before she came to us, but I strongly believe at some earlier point in her development, every time the doorbell chimed, someone kicked this sweet little pup in the face. It’s the only explanation I can think of that justifies the way she loses her ever-lovin’ mind whenever someone comes to the door. She runs in circles and barks her head off and generally has a mighty conniption. (Yes, we’ve taken her to training. Yes, I can get her to shut up and sit down when she’s doing it, but as soon as I stop LOOKING DIRECTLY AT HER she goes back to freaking out, and as I find it kind of funny I haven’t bothered working on it further with her. I know, I’m a terrible, negligent doggy-mama.)
And, see, ’tis the season of Amazon Lightning Deals, which means the UPS guy is here a LOT. Also the FedEx guy, sometimes. read more…
Exactly
I knew, but didn’t really know, that the holidays would be hard this year. I knew intellectually, but didn’t really grok how it would feel. It felt wrong to have Thanksgiving without Chickie—as thankful as I am for so many other things—and although we usually do the tree and the decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving, I didn’t say anything, and neither did Otto or Monkey, so we just let it go. There’s plenty of time. She’ll be home in a few weeks, for a bit, and we’ll try to figure out how to cram in all of the family togetherness we need around this year’s unprecedented weirdness.
So we had a nice meal with friends and have been doing Leftoverpalozza ever since. Yesterday was the first batch of soup, and the moving-of-all-leftovers-from-giant-containers-to-slightly-smaller-containers, and this morning I lovingly packed turkey sandwiches for the boys to take in their lunch. (“Turkey again?” YOU WILL SHUT UP AND EAT IT AND YOU’LL LIKE IT.) Some things are the same as always, even with other things so very different.
But I am trying to get into the Holiday Spirit. read more…
Happy Thanksgiving! Eat this!!
I spent half of yesterday prepping/cooking and then got up at 6:00 to start throwing everything into crock pots. What? You don’t do that? It’s awesome, because then instead of musical ovens your guests come and say, “What can we do to help?” and you just wave an arm at your counter full of crock pots and say, “Nothing. It’s all done.” And then they back away slowly. Yay!
This year I’m thankful for lots of things, like that I didn’t break any other bones while cooking stuff, and that my family and friends are awesome, and my readers (that’s you) are lovely and supportive, and that this year is almost over. (CAN I GET AN AMEN?)
Of course I am missing having Chickie here—she won’t be home to visit until next month—but in the spirit of my new the-glass-is-half-full-dammit outlook, I compensated for her absence by putting meat in every single damn dish. (Sorry, honey. I’ll make whatever you want when you’re home for Christmas, sans “chicken juice,” I promise.)
Otto is blasting “Alice’s Restaurant” while hard at work on the turkey and I’m about to go make some rolls, but I have some crappy iPhone pictures to share with you because I’m taking a break and I’m a giver like that. read more…
From grumpy to thankful
I’ve had a bit of an outlook shift in the last few weeks. It kind of snuck up on me, and it definitely wasn’t a linear progression, and I’m sure I may yet falter and/or regress. Nonetheless: I am a happier person than I used to be, because I’m tired of being sad.
Does this mean I will no longer regale you with verbose whining about the inconsequential, annoying minutiae in my life? Of course not; hyperbole is never going to cease to entertain me. But in the purest sense of where I’m at? I’m grateful for the good, and better able to see the not-so-good as sucky, sure, but not the be-all and end-all of my existence.
It turns out to be very freeing. So I thought it only fitting to share more about it this week, before I break another bone on preparing Thanksgiving dinner. (Kidding! I hope!) Come on over to Feel More Better to read about the secret I discovered. Spoiler: It’s not really a secret.
Food fight?
Wow, I had no idea until that last post how strongly people feel about 1) mayonnaise in general and 2) deviled eggs. I was left feeling like I should get my menu approved by everyone here before letting our guests into the house on Thanksgiving, and also like that could possibly end in blows while people scream at each other about hors d’oeuvres.
[I’m not saying y’all are that crass. I’m just saying that after the year we’ve had, nothing surprises me anymore. NOTHING.]
So I got to thinking about whether or not I need to be figuring out more pre-dinner munchies for Thursday, and in talking about it with Otto, my darling husband decided the solution to my confusion was to invite some folks over tonight, as well, and that’s entertaining twice in a week and THE SUNLIGHT, IT BURNS, and so now I am thoroughly befuddled and also, apparently the hostess with the mostess (what I have the most of remains a mystery). So. read more…