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lonelygiving 2020

lonelygiving 2020

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holy cow, how is it thanksgiving NEXT WEEK already? when this year is over, i expect a refund on all the time i’ve missed! i guess this means i need to go grocery shopping this weekend for some thanksgiving food stuffs.

oh, you bet i’m still making full on tday dinner! i’ve already got my turkey, bread crumbs for dressing, and 8 cans of organic pumpkin. i think the splendid table was trying to convince me on twitter that recipes for downsized pies were the way to go this thanksgiving.

excuse me? you underestimate my ability to eat pumpkin pie, all day, every day.

so, still doing the traditional stuff: turkey, dressing, potatoes, squash, cran sauce, and some other vegetable (brussels sprouts?). the plus side about doing full on tday for two people is the leftovers, so that’s good news. and of course, all the pie for me. gonna make me a butterscotch tart again this year. and if there’s no company, that means i spend all day taking food pics. there are worse things than a lonelygiving. i mean, in addition to spreading covid throughout the land.

hmmm… maybe i could livestream my cooking….

if nate pops up with a negative covid test and i pop up with a negative covid test, jane is welcome to show up if she so wishes, but this may be the year of watching die hard via zoom. maybe others could join us!

in which i talk about covid, covid, the apocalypse, and a free press

in which i talk about covid, covid, the apocalypse, and a free press

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i talked to megan tonight, who does an occasional shift as a pharmacist at a hospital in the cities, and she said she has never ever seen anything like what’s going on there right now. covid is taking over the hospitals, so god forbid you need the ICU for something like a broken bone or heart attack. i think that my work is set up that we are overflow for the st cloud hospital, but we haven’t gotten to that point yet. (we’re a block away from the hospital and we have several labs for our nursing programs).

on a positive note, nate is symptom free so far. turns out his coworker did test positive, and the last time he was with her was a little over a week ago, so i’m holding out hope that he avoided that exposure. he got a mail-in test and will do that tomorrow morning. i’ve got one coming tuesday, i think, so i’ll take one too just to make sure. in the meantime, i’ll stay at home from work until after thanksgiving break.

there are several severe conservatives on twitter talking about rising up and taking up arms over stupid mask mandates. over wearing a MASK. no one is asking you to cut off a limb or flagellate yourself; you wear a mask to prevent your germs from spreading to other people. you know what they say: your rights to swing your arms end where my nose begins. (i think a scotus judge said that.)

so the apocalypse comes, and instead of having to defend yourself against the zombies (haha at first i wrote zombines, the best defense against the buggers) with guns and knives, you need to wear a mask to protect others. the lack of empathy is pretty resounding and just confirms that many americans are sadly hyperindividualistic and can’t see past their noses for the community that they are a part of. but they’ll certainly bludgeon others’ noses.

i would also like to talk about this image, but i think i already did.

imagine a world without a free press and not knowing what was going on (well, it might be nice to take an info break, but i think that’s more about instant saturation of the newscycle that we’re currently in). there’s a reason that a free press is part of the first amendment.

GRRRR.

(i have to say, my anxiety level is much lower now that i know we’re not getting four more years of psycho orange goober, but i’m still annoyed at 2020.)

(also, i have no solutions in this blog post. just a lot of ranting. please post your solutions.)

newphonenewphonenewphone

newphonenewphonenewphone

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oh, you know that i was watching the little UPS truck* track along the roads of avon all day today, bringing my phone to me sometime between 2-6 p.m. right around 5 p.m., it showed up at my door!

so now i’m getting used to the swipe-y-ness that is the new(ish) iphone interface.

before i packed away the iphone SE2 to send to lori, i took some comparison pics between the iphone SE1, SE2, and the iphone mini.

the mini falls almost directly in between them. it’s almost as wide as the SE2 but not nearly as close in height as to the SE1.

and while the 4S will always be the perfect pocket phone, if i have to have a phone that goes in the pocket with a decent camera, then the mini will have to do! and, with the mini, apple brought back the square corners, which feel so much more substantial than the rounded corners. i really like that design, and i’m happy that they went back to it.

i had the SE2 for only 5 months, but i’m glad that i went to the mini. it’s more compact and i’m excited to take some pics with the camera and test it out! more in the daylight.

*i really wish fedex and UPS would combine their features. if i login to fedex, it automatically populates my deliveries without tracking numbers. but i can watch my package on a map on UPS. #firstworldproblems

 

ugh!

ugh!

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last weekend, nate’s coworker came to work with a 102º temperature. then on monday, she decided to get tested for covid. her husband was also getting test for covid (before the deciding to come to work thing).

nate has shown no symptoms, but i do know that he contracts sickness like my white pants contract cat hair. so if he WAS exposed, he will probably get covid. and he said his work idiot is one of those people who pulls down their mask to sneeze.

excellent.

so, while nate has no symptoms and is waiting to hear, he is not getting tested yet. i told my coworker and my boss what was happening in the chance that he will need to get tested. and today, they decided to implement stricter stay at home rules, which means i have to stay home from my job where i mainly sit in the corner and do my work, even tho nate’s the one who was exposed and is waiting for a result.

meanwhile, nate is still going to work at his workplace where he interacts with a lot of people on a daily basis. in what world does this make sense?

my luck, her test will come back negative and i’ll have to just pack up my work computer and other junk and take it back tomorrow. (i work with a lot of large files on a work server, which is frustratingly slow when connecting via VPN or remote desktop, so i prefer to work at work.)

and while all this is happening, my coworker’s kid was exposed and needs to stay home from daycare for 14 days, and he needs to be watched! so now my coworker is basically out sick for two weeks. this was the very scenario that he was working from home to prevent 😂

what a time to be alive.

jugglin’ phones

jugglin’ phones

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friday was such a flurry amid election news, that when i got to work that morning and a reminder on my phone went off to “order iphone mini,” it was complete (and pleasant) surprise!

in june i got the iphone SE2 – after about 2 years of using an SE 1 and 3 years prior to that of the iphone 5 (and prior to that? iphone 4S – RIP).

so the SE2 was a huge jump in size and was heavy compared to the SE1, not to mention took up more real estate and was cumbersome to reach the upper left one handed.

when they announced the iphone 12 mini, i was like, sign me up! even though i’d just purchased a new phone. anything to bring down the size in my pocket.

last friday was pre-order day, and after some back and forth between apple and tmobile, i ended up going with tmobile’s purchase. got my new iphone mini in the sea green color coming to me this friday!

cousin lori is going to purchase my SE2 from me – and so i erased it and cleaned it for her on sunday, then pulled out my sim to put in my SE1 to use til my mini showed up.

the keyboard is TINY!! i had enlarged the keyboard on the SE2, and going back to minikeyboard was kind of funny. i’m not complaining, because that phone sure fits nice in a pocket, but it was kind of funny going backward on size.  here’s hoping the mini will be all i’m hoping for!

it’s pie time!

it’s pie time!

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i was hoping that quarantine in the fall meant i’d see nothing but pies all over my feeds just like spring brought the bread, but no such luck. but what better way to celebrate fall than with some pie?

i had some cranberries that i wanted to use, so i did a search for fresh cranberry options, and let me tell you – there aren’t a ton. but i found a cranberry custard pie that looked like a good starting point. i sort of followed the recipe but added about a cup of pumpkin puree into the custard along with some pumpkin pie spice.  also it calls for two crusts on the bottom, which may have been my downfall. i went with just one.

since there was much success with it last time, i used the test kitchen recipe for crust that had vodka in the ingredients. i also tried out blind baking the crust with my pie weights, and that just does not turn out well for me. the crust shrinks up on the sides and just overall isn’t a good time. i’m going to have to do some research on that.

but it’s delicious!

the cranberries add an awesome bite to a more traditional pumpkin pie, and it tastes really fresh, even if there’s more sugar in this pie than you can shake a stick at.

it doesn’t exactly look very appetizing – you should have seen it before i dusted some powdered sugar on it. but it does taste pretty awesome. my crust, unfortunately, has a soggy bottom even WITH the blind baking and me putting it in a 500º oven (a tip from an expert pie baker). mary berry would’ve sent me out of the tent. the rest of the crust is spot on though.

then i made some cute little leaf cutouts. i really should look into finding cookie presses so i get the little details better.

and since i was making crusts anyway, why not go all out? i made my squash galette today, an autumnal staple for me. it’s just delish.

oh no i’ve already lost

oh no i’ve already lost

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well, a blog post every day of november is off the table now. i was just so productive yesterday! thanks, election results, for kicking me in the butt to get stuff done!

  1. nate and i put up the outdoor christmas lights. it was warm out, which is a huge plus when putting up the lights. i’m always scared the stupid ladder’s going to slip on cold concrete while i’m up at the peak of the garage. plus nate was holding on to the ladder, so that adds an element of ease. so the lights are up! i still have two strings i could do something with – we’ll see what that could be!
  2. after the lights were up, i came in to find a text message from my coworker, an IT dude who should be retired, who is a reagan republican turned democrat (he voted for obama, GW once, etc. and now he’s full blown dem – we have a lot of fun at work) with the updated election results. i spent the next hour or so feeling a sense of relief that the next four years won’t be spend in fear of dying in nuclear war. and found a GREAT video that i will try to find a youtube of (it was on instagram).
  3. i was all keyed up! wanted to do something with the mask on. called jane to see if she was up for a socially distanced MOA visit that evening, and she was! but first….
  4. a run for two miles. two very sloggish miles, but two miles. outside! it may have been the last outdoor run of the season, and i wish it would’ve been better. but i can’t win them all.
  5. headed down to the moa and met jane’s BF, had a couple drinks, wandered around the mall, etc. overall, the mask usage in the mall was pretty good! there were only a couple times i saw some weirdos without masks, and i stayed far away from them.
  6. came home and played a game with the fam via zoom!

that was saturday! i’m backdating this so it counts for saturday and will post something else for sunday later on.

a lite interlude

a lite interlude

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let’s talk about some things that are pulling all through this tumultuous time right now! well, me at least. you take these tips and run with them, if you’d like. or tell me to stuff it because these suck! your call.

  1. fluffy slippers. i was looking at a pair of fur-lined birkenstock slides to get me through the winter because i LOVE my other birks but they have a toe thing, and there isn’t much better than pulling off your work socks at the end of the day and then putting on a fluffy pair of thick socks for the cold evening. so i needed a sock friendly slipper! instead of doling out $100 for a pair of furry birks, i spent $25 on a knockoff, and oh boy are they nice! supportive cork base, furry insides, and a sandal top. perfect for socked OR bare feet.
  2. lighting a candle for yoga. i have a candle on the floor while i do yoga, and it really sets the mood! i have rather ambient light in my living room anyway, and to add a candle on top of that just makes it so nice and cozy. and then when my fireplace goes off? woo!
  3. weekly tv shows. the mandalorian and great british baking show release new episodes weekly, which is FANTASTIC and i missed the anticipation of waiting for a new episode of a tv show and the joy of seeing OH BOY look at that new episode up there!
  4. instagram is a nice social break that can be nonpolitical. i do follow people who CAN be political, but it is more than possible to follow people there who will just post pics of their food or plants or weird japanese creations or makeup or home improvement or tequila and lifting or whatever you could ever imagine. some people i am enjoying looking at IG right now are martha stewart, the splendid table, greg nohner, my tattoo artist, explore minnesota, seed savers, a bunch of cats, national geographic photographers, etc.
  5. new phones! i know my dad just got a rockin new flip phone, and this morning i preordered the iphone MINI! i’m excited because the camera will be good and the size will be small! it should be here nov. 13. i don’t know if a new phone is in your future, but it’s the small things. or the expensive small things, at least. (yikes.)

and now that the light’s basically gone forever, i’m pulling out some oldies but goodies: puzzles are coming out this weekend and i’ve alreayd made a crapton of bread that’s hanging out in the freezer.

so! let’s hear what YOU are doing to pass the time delightfully during the pandemic! or while you’re waiting for election results. or while you’re waiting for 2020 to die a slow death. whichever version of funk that you may have!

what’s the word?

what’s the word?

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today’s word of the day: tenterhooks.

used in a sentence? “it’s safe to assume that all my readers are waiting on tenterhooks for the election results.”

so what’s the background on tenterhooks?

back in ye olde timey days, people would make their own woolen cloth. after it was woven, the cloth was still oily from the fleece (lanolin!) and dirty. it was cleaned and then it had to be dried in a certain way, or it would shrink – as those of us know who’ve accidentally thrown a wool sweater in the dryer.

but pre dryers, the cloth would be stretched out on a wooden frame called a tenter. and on the edges of the frame were hooks! hence, tenterhooks. i guess this could be a large-scale operation, with fields of wool-laden tenters oft seen by ye olde peasantry.

soon after the word became a word in the 14th century, on tenters became a phrase known for tension, unease, anxiety, or suspense. between the nervousness of keeping wool in shape and the tension of the stretched fabric, it’s an apt metaphor. also, sheep are skittish, so the whole operation was probably a lesson in patience.

bread break

bread break

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say hello to the new addition!

bed bath and beyond had a sale on their cast iron, so i got the baby in the front for $40, which is a steal. it’s a 6 qt, which is bigger than my black lodge cast iron in the back. now i can bake two loaves at once! also, do not put your cast iron pots directly on your pizza stone. you get burnt bottoms. worse than a soggy bottom? not sure.

i took monday off, so i got out my sourdough starter on sunday and boy did it go gangbusters. i ended up making 5 loaves of sourdough on monday, and it actually turned out like it was supposed to – holey!

i also made myself another loaf of honey oat sourdough, which is pretty good.

for my white bread loaves, i ended up splitting a recipe that was probably meant for smaller pans. next time i make it, i’ll try to make one giant loaf in the big pot. next time!

so now i’ve got three loaves of white sourdough and one loaf of honey oat in the freezer. not too shabby. we’ll see if pie season takes off like bread season has.