Name Three Things - 2024

[catapault]

My friend said since I knew the route I should drive. So I ended up driving all the way to the botanic garden and - obviously - back home. The return was horrid, as I was driving west right into the sun.

G scale trains, which is the largest gauge. And buildings made all of plant material, replicating historic New York City buildings.

​

The media preview - usually about 30 or so people. This year there were also influencers, many, many influencers.I'd guesstimate there were altogether 100 to 150 people. Oh well. I took around 100 images, have already deleted a few. Will select the best and create an entry for my site.

My friend and I having each been granted an all garden pass we took the tram around the garden to the kiku exhibit which was lovely. And perhaps six people. Guess the influencers didn't know about it. Their loss. But then, the exhibit ends this Sunday so not the same as the train show which extends into the new year.

 

[vampiric_conure]

- One of my best friends' birthday is today or tomorrow, so a bunch of us are going to spoil her with a cake and food at a local restaurant.
- Cats need wet food, like, wow, LOL Puddles is turning her nose up at the dry stuff...
- Sometime this week I need to get my blood drawn.

 

[Winchester]

Yesterday, we had a meeting with our elder care attorneys to update our wills and to finish off our trust. The update was basically increasing the monetary amount to my sister for her willingness to care for "any and all pets in our possession" at the time of our deaths. We changed the wording from "cats" to "pets". Followed by a late lunch/early dinner, so I didn't have to cook last night.

• Breakfast for the girls at 5:30 (this whole Standard time thing isn't working out for the girls at all!), made our coffee, and went back to bed until 8:00.
• The two loads of laundry that I didn't get done yesterday.
• Nothing really to do outside as we got leaves done for the time being. So I'm going to attack the bedroom today: a good vacuuming, dusting, washing windows, etc. Change the bed sheets.

On Saturday, I'm putting Christmas up in the kitchen: the Winterberry dishes, Christmas bells, glasses, etc. Since I didn't get to do much last year, I'm excited for this year!

 

[susanm9006]

The last of the fall work today, always a little sad. Putting away yard decor, hanging rakes, moving the lawnmowers to the back of the garage and the snowblowers to the front.

 

[artiemom]

yesterday, was a semi-busy day..
Played with Tux,
breakfast for both of us
Regular morning chores
Gave him some calming treats
Quick dry swiffer, vacuum
Went to 'cooking class'-- not a good one.. kind of like an asian coleslaw, but without much flavor- did not agree with me
Coffee with a friend.
Into Boston to pick up some meds
Grabbed a horrible pizza from downstairs..
Played with Tuxxie
Yelled at Tux for jumping on things..
That was it for the day..

This morning:
Played with Tux,
Breakfast for both.
Medicated Tux
phone call
ran out to Dollar store for a gift bag (friend who was in hospital; came home- gift of PJ's from 3 of us0
played Cornhole-- lost
Quick coffee
snack
Then visit said Friend.
Tuxxie---
? supper.. maybe something from freezer.

 

[susanm9006]

yesterday, was a semi-busy day..
Played with Tux,
breakfast for both of us
Regular morning chores
Gave him some calming treats
Quick dry swiffer, vacuum
Went to 'cooking class'-- not a good one.. kind of like an asian coleslaw, but without much flavor- did not agree with me
Coffee with a friend.
Into Boston to pick up some meds
Grabbed a horrible pizza from downstairs..
Played with Tuxxie
Yelled at Tux for jumping on things..
That was it for the day..

This morning:
Played with Tux,
Breakfast for both.
Medicated Tux
phone call
ran out to Dollar store for a gift bag (friend who was in hospital; came home- gift of PJ's from 3 of us0
played Cornhole-- lost
Quick coffee
snack
Then visit said Friend.
Tuxxie---
? supper.. maybe something from freezer.

Tuxie sounds like so much fun but tiring!

 

[catapault]

Dry weather continues. Serious matter. In today's news -

"Two major reservoirs in New Jersey were at 51% and 45% of capacity on Wednesday, enough to keep the taps flowing, but low enough to cause concern for what might happen with additional weeks or months of low rainfall. One river that is a supplemental source of drinking water was at 14% of normal.

"September and October were the driest two-month period ever recorded in New Jersey. Since August, the state has received 2 inches (5 cm) of rain when it should have gotten a foot (0.3 meters). No significant rainfall was in the foreseeable forecast, officials said."

Reports indicate soil is dry 8 inches down which means apparently extinguished fires can continue smouldering below ground. Trees need water at their roots to successfully survive winter. Bulbs such as daffodils are rooting now, or should be. Difficult without moisture in the soil. Not good.

On to other things.

Men are here disassembling our primary bathroom shower. As an aside - daughter told us "master" is no longer an acceptable descriptive term. Any opinions? It will be next Wednesday or Thursday before work is completed. Good thing it is not our only bathroom. Cats are coping quite well with yesterday's very noisy removal of tile on walls, floor, ceiling of shower area. Today is much quieter with occasional water shutoff.

After they left yesterday I did several smaller loads of laundry. After they leave today I will run dishwasher.

Himself dropped small juice glass this morning. I swear, it exploded like a bomb, grass shards over half the kitchen, some large enough to be visible and others so minute to not be seen unless they catch the light and glitter. Swept up what I could but worried about the tiniest ones. Cats feet could be hurt. What to do - used an old T-shirt, wet it down, over a floor mop.

Tomorrow a dental appointment.

Am I having fun yet? Don't think so.

 

[susanm9006]

C catapault , I must confess I call my bathroom the “master” on occasion but mostly it’s the very descriptive “little bathroom” and the guest bath is the “big” bathroom. I don’t envy you the remodel project. It is not easy on cats or people, but in the end it will be so worth it.

Aunts house today with sis and BIL. I am hoping this will be the last cleanup for the winter months except for semi monthly house checks. My sister is great at digging thru things and finding items she can use but is terrible about actually packing them up and taking them. So the main agenda today is to get her stuff out of the house, make sure everything else is stacked and put away, and do a full house vacuum, I also hope we can clean the fridge because it is a horror.

 

[Winchester]

My sister called me this past weekend and told me not to buy a turkey this year. She got one and doesn't think she'll use it. Well, that works! So I texted her this morning and told her I'd come over to pick up Mr. Turkey. She called me....Mr. Turkey is a Mr. Ham! So I still need a turkey.

We decided that we are going to brine, rub, and smoke our Thanksgiving turkey this year. Last year, we grilled it, but we have the Traeger. Experiment!

• Two more loads of laundry. I don't do more than two loads at any one time because of the drought. We're not sure about our well.
• Worked outside this morning, cutting back in the flower beds. It's cold! And windy!
• Worked on my menu for Thanksgiving this year. Pretty much the same, except I dried corn this past summer and will be making creamed corn from my dried corn. Should be interesting. I was able to make up my grocery list from my menu. I don't need much. I ordered Rick's cheesecake from Junior's and it will be here by Thanksgiving, but he's not sure if he wants it for T-Day or for Christmas.
• We're going down late this afternoon to (finally) buy the bed. The sale started the other day, so we saved a bit by waiting.

Forgot to mention....my hair is purple! Not lilac, not lavender. Purple. She put purple highlights in my hair and, while it is a little much, I'm starting to like them. Something different. It will wash out and as the highlights fade, they will turn silver. It works.

 

[vampiric_conure]

I have to drop off Omen today to be neutered. Then somehow I have to drop off my art at a friend's place to be set up for a craft show tomorrow. Then after that, Omen gets picked up.

Oh..and the trip to and from the vet is 3 buses. Ugh.

Can't find my business cards for the craft show. &^%$ it. I wonder where the cats dumped them?

 

[artiemom]

yesterday was regular morning stuff...
Then off to Boston for doctors appointment
Picked up a grilled veggie sandwich on ciabatta bread with a bag of cheddar sun chips-- I remember them to be so much better..
Coffee
cocktail hour before fashion show. one small glass of wine!
Won a Door Prize from Macy's (they provided the clothes).. a nice gift of Dolce & Gabana, Marc Jacobs Daisy and a couple of other designer perfumes!!! Amazing I won!!
~~~~~
Today,
regular morning stuff; play, breakfast, on line, dishes, bed, swiffer, vacuum..
Hopefully write out a few bills.
Important Building Directors meeting...Have to take notes and speak on a few things..
Not suer for supper.. probably something from supper-- the food from the dining room is really bad.
Wait for phone call from VEt... re dose of Prozac for Tux.

I think that is all...

It is really cold around here.. woke up to 30 degrees. Have a lot to do in here-- winterize air conditioner, dust. pa[per work.. etc...

The drought is really bad. I really need an inside out car wash. Just waiting for a warmer day.. I should get it before they place restrictions on water use. Yes, it is that bad.
I have a funny feeling that we will make up for it with snow this winter.. sigh... We have had too many warm, light winters the past several years.

 

[susanm9006]

Made an early run to Home Depot to grab one of their door busters - wet dry vac for 50% off. I have a little one but it’s too small to do much water cleanup. This big one can handle a flood and definitely those have happened. I need to go do some banking and some laundry this afternoon.

 

[Winchester]

It's official...I am an ice cube. I hate this.

• Breakfast for the girls, emptied dishwasher, made our coffee, and went back to bed til 8:00.
• Scooped the boxes, raked leaves this morning.
• My second Penzey order came this morning, so I filled up my spice jars.
• Vacuum, swiffer, etc.

We bought the bed yesterday afternoon. They'll call us for a delivery date. They were going to bring it next Wednesday, but I have a dr appt. Friday is no better because I have treatment. Rick will not allow me to go to my medical appts by myself. So they'll call and we'll figure it out.

 

[artiemom]

It's official...I am an ice cube. I hate this.

• Breakfast for the girls, emptied dishwasher, made our coffee, and went back to bed til 8:00.
• Scooped the boxes, raked leaves this morning.
• My second Penzey order came this morning, so I filled up my spice jars.
• Vacuum, swiffer, etc.

We bought the bed yesterday afternoon. They'll call us for a delivery date. They were going to bring it next Wednesday, but I have a dr appt. Friday is no better because I have treatment. Rick will not allow me to go to my medical appts by myself. So they'll call and we'll figure it out.

I am an ice cube also.... too cold too soon.. just too darn cold... brrrr.. drinking some tea right now...

 

[catloverfromwayback]

Got the washing on, went for a walk (the now necessary settle-the-stomach walk) and got the drying on ... putting the clothes away became a leeetle trickier, though.

And clearly that's it for a while. It's sitting and knitting time.

 

[Winchester]

Rick is outside, working on cutting the weigela bushes at the pool. He didn't get them done last year, so quite a bit needs to be cut. When I look out the kitchen window, all I see is weigela.

• The kitchen is all Winterberry; I finished around noon. Rick brought up boxes for me. I removed dishes, washed them, put the Fiesta in the boxes, and took them back to the basement. The rest of the kitchen will be decorated the weekend after Thanksgiving.
• Scooped boxes, cleaned the kitchen as I decorated, and then cleaned the bathroom. I had to vacuum from all the little pieces of styrofoam that came out of the boxes.
• Got the laundry ready tonight to do tomorrow morning.
• Grabbed a hot, really hot shower to ease my lower back.
• Tonight, I'd like to work on my list of cookies and such that I'll be making for the holidays. There won't be a lot because there are things that I can't eat anymore. And Rick can't eat all those cookies by himself...not that he wouldn't try. Once I get that list done, I can work on a holiday grocery list for T-Day.

 

[susanm9006]

Procrastination items today. I put plastic over a garage window that only has screen on the outside and poor fitting window on the inside. I usually only think of it when snow starts coming into the garage in winter. I also got the snowblowner started, but it took four trips back to the house to regroup and research before it finally started. It is just a super picky machine to start and I do not like it for that reason.

 

[catapault]

Yesterday I bought a nice bone in pork butt, discounted because it had to be sold by yesterday. O.K. by me because this morning it went into the slow cooker where it is gently simmering with tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, chili seasoning, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar - and probably some other things - to become pulled pork, 10 hours after it went in.

Stripped meat off Costco rotisserie chicken. Meat is in refrigerator, carcass is simmering to become stock.

Hauled vacuum upstairs and gave bathroom a quick "do." I'm sure the men sweep up at the end of the day but there's grit and dust on bare feet when I wander in there, middle of the night.

Very windy day, bright sunshine, blue sky. Classified as severe drought here, but other parts of New Jersey are extreme drought.

 

[catapault]

Another bright sunny blue sky no rain day. Phooey!

Today I have bed sheets in washing machine, rather than typical Monday. Don't know if men will again have a few brief water shut off tomorrow but why wait. Make bed.

Yesterday evening I shredded pulled pork and refrigerated. Today I need to pack in multiple meal size containers and trundle into big freezer. Also strained chicken stock and need to decide what to do with it - portion out in what size containers and freeze, make soup - options range from chicken noodle to onion to who knows what.

Assuming concrete on shower floor is now well set (it was, after all, troweled out on Friday) we opened the bathroom door to allow smells to dissipate. Of course Mr Poe and Domino were promptly in there, investigating the disruption - tools, trash barrels, stuff..

Still working on train show entry for my web site and I am determined that it will be finished it today. Or else. Then I can do kiku entry. And a book review. And others that I have not done in as timely a manner as I should.

Am determined to repot three plants sitting in garage that will then go upstairs and onto shelf under windows in closet for the winter.

So those are a few things I should be doing rather than sitting here looking at TCS and drinking coffee.

 

[Winchester]

Worked outside for awhile…pesky leaves!

And that was pretty much it around here, other than making dinner.