alexandralynch

Roasting the turkey was successful, though it did resist dismembering at certain points (I must get a boning knife, that's just all.) The gravy and the turkey, carefully and attractively arranged in a foil pan by light and dark meat, are now in the fridge waiting for tomorrow. Tomorrow I must make a big batch of mashed potatoes, which Bear is going to peel for me, and then we will have our contribution all together. Happy.

I cooked a frozen lasagna of mine for dinner, as I knew I couldn't eat anything like turkey. It's an odd quirk of mine. If I stand over the stove for hours smelling it, I then can't eat it.

It may seem odd to you all who know how I cook that I have never done a turkey. Most of my life has been spent eating turkey at holidays that someone else roasted. But this year the munch is doing a dinner, and I volunteered to handle the turkey, the gravy, and the mashed potatoes. I won't carve it there, and so I can worry less about the overall bird presentation and concentrate on keeping the meat moist and flavorful.

The best technique I know for that is the one I employ with chickens. I roast it breast-down in the pan, with fresh herbs and a quartered lemon in the cavity, and a cup of white wine in the pan. Generally I lay a bed of carrots, celery, and onion in the pan, roughly broken up, for a rack.

I am thawing it today, and tomorrow will go to the store for some fresh thyme and sage to put in the cavity, and wine. I have lemons. I am, however, out of white wine. (I need to make another batch of white.) And then I will roast it , and I will see how it does.

A pretty good day, overall. I got up late but did not need to do lunch, since Bear had to run his mother on errands. She bought him an Italian Roast Beef from a pizza parlor (this is an old one that has been running since the forties, and uses original Neapolitan recipes) and so I just had a couple slices of beef in a pita. I'm thirstier than I am hungry. I made two recipes of white bread, which is three mini-loaves for meals and one full loaf with garlic and herbs in that I will freeze and slice for garlic toast with spaghetti on Friday. I also got the laundry done and put away. It was only four loads, and that only because I like to give queen-size sheets room to move in the washer, and so split the whites in two. This is a little odd, this getting things done and not having huge piles of backed up laundry and such. But I think I like it.

Jake was out all night at a party, and came home still a little drunk and feeling quite smug, as he had today off, unlike all his friends, to rest and recover.

I got another page done on the Yuletide story, and am very pleased overall with the direction it is going. I am currently setting up the possible bad guys...was it the husband who was enraged at her flirting? Was it the accountant who might have cooked the books and was looking at losing a major client and possible prosecution? Was it her maid, who was furious at being hit the day before for pulling her hair when she brushed it? (grin) I know who it is, of course, but getting there's half the fun. I was very worried, but now I have a handle on the story, and it is a good story, and if I mess up a detail my recipient will just have to take it in stride.

I am cold, though. I don't like it. I will have to shut the office door and turn the heater on.

I'm sitting comfortably in a size 24, which is actually loose on my thighs. I might be able to squeeze into a 22, but I'm not going to push it. Given that I'm actually seeing Changes In Size, I think I'll put off getting the new jeans until I need them. If I drop to a 22, I've got about five pairs. None of them are wonderfully new, but five pairs is way better than two. I can still wear the Blue 6 pairs I've got, and if I can stabilize in plus sizes in the end of it I'll still buy the Right Fits, because these 24 jeans are not Right Fits, and I can feel them gapping in the back. Curse of having Ample Behind + narrower waist. This losing weight is quite nice. I still don't want to be thin but I wouldn't mind being less fat.

I took the air conditioner out of the bedroom window today. It took a while to do because storing it meant moving stuff around under the bed so that it would have a nook to go in, while not blocking up access to the sewing machine or similar items that are stored underneath there. And I don't take the air conditioners out without knowing exactly where they are going. We've got rigid foam insulation, and I'm going to go measure the inside casings of the bedroom windows so that Bear can cut insulation panels to go in them. We never lift the blinds in that room anyway, because we like it dark, so this is not blocking light. While I was at it I swept under the bed, and swept the carpet and generally cleaned the bedroom up. I'm now making myself sit down til three pm to rest my foot and shoulders, at which point I will start dealing with the office, which is an absolute sty at the moment and needs me to move furniture and clean behind and under. (Given the amount of stuff in here, I am not looking forward to this.) I also have laundry to do.

But it seems now that the fibro in and of itself is less of a limitation to my life than the fact that my foot and ankles are messed up and dislike weightbearing for prolonged periods. Which is, really, a great big happiness.

LOTS of shopping.

Got up at ten-thirty, and it was evident I was already starting to spasm badly. So on went the TENS unit as I got dressed, since I knew I was going to be doing a lot of walking. Penzey's, Costco, Rockler's, and then back to Anderson for Aldi's and Kroger's, which I did by myself.

This gave me the opportunity to buy Bear a birthday present. Which he does not know about. (wriggles with delight) Is all wrapped now, and I'm not going to say what it is in case he reads this. But it is a good one.

We're going to go down to the IMAS munch tomorrow, I think.

And now I am very tired and want to go fall down. So I will do so.

Well, this is lovely. I've gotten matched with someone who researches for a living the setting of the fandom that I need to write in. Way to yank my perfectionistic chain, Yule Goat. (sigh)

Still, I have done a fair amount of research in that direction myself, so I should be able to make it decent.

But....gaaaaah.

However, I have an idea, which relies strongly on the fact that people are people and have been people whether they wore gowns and hoods or three-piece suits and backless evening dresses. Politics is ancient, character assassination also ancient, and jealousy is an old, old human motivator. So I think I have something decent. Now to sit down and marinade myself in the source to find out who was doing what when, and what so-and-so's name was.

(deep breath) I can do this.

I have Adderall prescribed to me now. So far I've been on it a week, and the house is now clean enough that I wouldn't be embarassed if anyone came over and was normally social. 

At the moment, my closets, the top of my desk, and my basement are embarassing. But I've only been on it a week. (grin) And I'm waiting for the closet organizers I ordered to show up in the mail before I attack the one, because it's rather pointless if I don't have that.

I wonder what I'll do when I get the house done.

Write a couple books, I suppose, and work on progressive causes, and work on saving money towards the hot tub for the basement.

Or, you know, write something really good and sell it, and add onto the house so you can have the hot tub on the main level. (grin)

Either would work.

First of all, thank you for participating. You got stuck (laugh) with someone who loves the fandoms she chose for their style and tone as much as for the characters.

I am very fond of a good story. Life often gives us those; that's why I suggested the boiler incident. But perhaps there's one that I don't know about yet. I like the characters to be well done, their voices to be true.

I am not, myself, wanting a story set "at Christmas", so much. I understand, though, that sometimes the story just leaps into your head fully known and you just have to write it down, and if it does that and it happens to be set at Christmas, I'll understand.

Actually, of course, I'm just happy to get  a story, and I look forward to seeing what it is. This is one of the few presents I'll get this year that I do not already know about; indeed, I've wrapped most of my own presents myself. So I am really going to enjoy reading it.

Again, thanks for playing, and may I hope that your story delights you as much as yours will undoubtedly delight me.

I'm wondering what got into me.

So I slept til one pm, got up barely in time to kiss my husband goodbye before work, and started...doing things. Like dishes. And wiping countertops. And cleaning the stove. And making bread. And lemon-poppyseed sweet bread. And curried chicken and rice. And washing the floor.

I can't really go to sleep tonight, because I don't have a pill to make sure that I won't do the sort that makes me hurt, so I am just going to go with the flow, sit for thirty, work for ten, and keep on cleaning the kitchen, because it can use it and I'm on a roll.

We're having french toast and sausages tomorrow, which is why I made the plain bread; French toast done with homemade bread is a quantum leap above anything else. And there is homemade peach jam that is runny enough to be a good syrup. And I may have pecans. And I know I have whipped cream. NOM.

I'm actually not in much pain. My neck and shoulders are a trifle stiff; I'll have a hot bath in a bit and put a compress on them. And my foot is vigorously expressing its opinion of the change in weather, but even that's only about a five, so that's entirely tolerable.

I have probably three more sinkfuls of dishes, the last section of floor and back hall to wash, and the main countertop and the bit under the microwave to wash, and then the dry dishes to put away. So this is well more than halfway done, and it makes me feel very good. Hopefully I won't be too sore tomorrow, and I can work on putting away the stuff that has accumulated on the dining room table.

ETA: Floor mopped. The last sinkful of dishes is soaking. I can put shit away tomorrow, or possibly after I have a hot bath, depending how wiped I feel. Though at this point I might as well stay up two more hours, because Bear will be up around nine to go get my pills and put gas in the van. So.

A slightly better day today. I made spaghetti bake with the leftover spaghetti, and while I won't be taking it to a dinner party yet it's entirely satisfyingly edible.

We have to go get cat food when Bear gets home; Her Majesty was forced to dine on a scrambled egg today. Not that she minded. But that's not a good kitty diet long term.

I have to go donate plasma tomorrow, or borrow money from my mother in law, in order to get my sleeping pills. I really wish I didn't need them, but they really do matter. I'm pretty tired right now, but I'll get up and walk around a little when I finish the post, and probably go wrap a couple presents that came in over the last two days. Peter's book FINALLY came, and Bear's videos for his birthday. So it's good.

Of course, the sagging eyelids may be due to three cats sleeping in a 12 x 12 room, too.

I'm busy thinking up LPW ideas I'd like for Yuletide. Could someone be a dear and find me the exact quote of the line in Busman's Honeymoon where the Dowager is commiserating with them about domestic misery and mentions the boiler bursting when the Prince of Wales was visiting? (I do hope someone writes that. I think that's a story that needs to be expanded on.)

Because, of course, the book is hiding to tease me. (sigh)

Puck the ever-stupid was up on the dresser today. He turned too fast and fell off, in an utterly graceless heap. And this time he was a little smarter, apparently, because his body language said he knew that was stupid, and he knew I was laughing at him. Which, you know, I was.

Jake is going to get one next week. Write down how much it costs and buy it from him once regular checks are re-established.

Given that my ear is insane, sitting up is going to be the limit of today's big activities.
Gaaahh.

And we have a short check.
All of which combines to severely bite.

Today: 

Phone line experiencing difficulty. Solution: hook a line into the telephone box and run it into the office, thereby providing at least one phone with the ability to ring in and out.

Problems with connection to top of water heater. Solution: Go buy plumber's tape and find a suitably size steel wool brush. Borrow pipe wrenches from your nephew. Go down, clean the fitting and refit and see if that doesn't stop the leak.  Leak is not stopped. $5 repair turns into $400 repair. Le sigh.

House is not warm. Wife timidly asks if she might turn on the furnace now. He says, "Furnace is on, just turn up the thermostat." Turning up thermostat produces no effects. Solution: Wife gets up into storage area of bed and produces the thermostat we bought last year. Husband installs thermostat.

Currently awaiting Warming! effects of turned on furnace.


While all this went on, as Chambermaid to Her Royal Siamese Majesty, I removed the soiled cushion, removed the soiled carpet, removed, emptied, and cleaned out the box, wiped down the table, laid a new towel carpet, fetched a fresh ration of crunchies for between-meals snacking, replenished the water dish, opened and decanted a can of Turkey And Giblets Dinner, and placed a new cushion for Her Majesty's post-meal repose.

This may mean she will not try to pee on my keyboard tonight.

My life is incomplete without a dragon draft dodger for the front door. That is just all. I shall have to get into my fabric stash and create him.

Also, the cat deck access panel will have to be removed for the winter. It is just too drafty. However, the panel works fine for the summer, except that poor stupid Puck has still not figured out how to work it. (sigh)   He must have been dropped on his head as a kitten, that's the only explanation I can find. For example, he was asleep on the dresser, spread himself a bit too far, and fell off. (shakes head)

I am not looking forward to winter. December, yes. I always enjoy December, because of all that is going on, no matter what the weather does. But then it is a long cold grind to April and warmer weather.

I got the big air conditioner out today. As shitty as it was to get out, it will be even shittier to get back in. Still, it will save on heating costs because I will be able to plasticize that window and not have it leaking cold air in constantly. Speaking of one more job to do before winter. (sigh)

Still, it does help on the gas bill, and I'm now accustomed to having rheumatic issues in winter, so I know to plan for them and to hell with anyone who thinks I look silly.

So found a fat-positive fashion blog, and for some reason this week three quarters of the outfit pictures are women who are positively huge, who have amazing figure challenges.

Why, I can't figure out where these size ten, X proportioned  people are ever going to find clothes.....


I understand that in a culture where models die of starvation on the runway that a difficulty accepting your own body is tough even when you have a more societally accepted figure.

but damn it, it doesn't help me one damn bit to see tips for stores that do not carry my size on the fat positive fashion blog. It helps me figure out my own style to see women bigger than I am, built like I am, with figure issues of bigness that are, perhaps, not mine, but are allied to mine, on there. true, there's a lot of stuff where I would never wear it but it's surprising how good it looks on a big woman.

I can find size ten people talking about how they find clothes in other venues, y'know/

or it may just be that it is four am and I have an atrociously stiff neck and consequently a bad temper.

I suspect I'll want to work with this yarn again, and so I am writing a note to tell myself the mitts were done in Patons Stretch Sock lightweight cotton blend yarn, with a 2.25 mm hook.

I now has new keyboard. Pro: Has working keys. Downside: is not ergonomically configured, cause we were closer to broke than not. An ergonomic keyboard will occur again in the future.

I also has a real period, which does rather make me feel psychologically better. However, we can avoid doing the "week and a half of spotting" before the next one, kthx?

My foot and ankle seem to have settled down so that I can pay full attention to my cramping. Isn't that nice of them to share the limelight.

Tomorrow is plasma donation.

My foot hurts worse. Which is to say that the baseline of daily ache is now at a five, instead of a three. And the ankle is measureably worse. I have been living in the ankle brace, and when I take it off it has a very wrong feeling around a certain section and there is noticeable destabilization. Yes, well, nice to have that confirmed, I suppose. (sigh)  I think part of my Christmas will be two new ankle braces, so that I do not put the one on the other side in bad ways as I try not to stand on this one so hard.

Bear is still off work. He goes to see a physical therapist tomorrow morning for his back. Which means I get to go and sit and read and sip my morning soda. Hopefully he will get back to work soon. Not that I can get much done with my foot and ankle yelling, but as we ladies all know, I still can't do anything with him around, and I miss my alone time to stare at the walls and make odd faces. 

I am also getting off soda at the moment, and substituting in weak black tea. If I make it weak, it's got enough flavor and bite to be there but not so much I start to get palpitations. This is good, as my personal fluid consumption is right at about six liters a day, what with the dry mouth.

Bear has decided that we will make a rope bed to put in the dining room under the foam mattress we've got, and it can double as a bondage bed and as a daybed/couch sort of thing when I don't need to sleep on it myself.

I also have plans to put curtains over the kitchen doorway and put a new set over the alcove doorway. It will help with drafts this winter.  I am also at the point where I contemplate where I am going to put the air conditioners over the winter. I know the one in the office goes under my desk, and the one in the bedroom goes under the bed,  but the big one in the dining room IS coming out this year, and I am not sure where exactly it is going. And it weighs enough that one wants to know and have the path cleared and all in readiness before yanking it.  As soon as he goes back to work I am SO yanking the small one in the office, cause I can do that on my own. It is not in there air-tight, and there is quite a draft.


I have discovered the perfect thing to give to my sons for Christmas: air guns that shoot miniature marshmallows.  They are inexpensive, too.  And I think my husband is going to get something that he wants but never expected to get. Which wouldn't be possible except that the item is seriously on sale, and it better stay on sale for another two weeks so I can finish donating plasma to get them. Ahem.

My period is playing Hide and Go Fuck Yourself with me. This means that if I sit very still and only type or read, I'm fine. I just can't DO anything without hurting like hell. This gets old very quickly.

The sleeping thing is still a problem. I don't know what we're going to do, but at the moment I contemplate sleeping in the dining room as a possibility. (sigh)  I was awake til about six am trying to get myself so exhausted I'd go to sleep despite the Arctic Wind Tunnel.

And my foot hurts more and worse.

So life is not so great here at the moment.