Frugal Friday

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, home stuff, Walking by

Mostly a frugal week since I didn’t go anywhere for 4 days due to feeling lousy. Then on Wednesday, I went to the pool. Before that, I got gas, and it had gone up quite a bit from my last fill-up. Costco gas is still the cheapest, but yikes, $5.69!!

After the pool, I went to Costco as I mentioned and spent a little over $200. I took out non-food and wine, so the food cost was around $100. Non food included batteries, an orchid, and I think something else. Wine was my favorite, Kendall Jackson, which is $9.59 at Costco. Oh, and I picked up that Rose for Mother’s Day and the most expensive thing was some steaks for Mother’s Day and for the freezer. I think the pack had 6 pieces of thinly sliced rib-eye. My daughter and I will likely just share a piece, and the other counts as LTF for the freezer.

My food total so far is running around $300, so not too bad. I don’t need anything, so it may just be a small Winco trip or something.

I ordered propane and put that on the CC. I’m slowly getting the card paid off, but then something like this happens, and I need to charge another $257. Oh well, I’ll get there. sigh:(

I haven’t really been doing active cash envelopes. Most of what I get, I just use for groceries. I guess I need to try to do better, especially for annual bills. It does help when I have the envelopes even a bit filled. Well, I have a few months with just a few annual bills. Next month is the truck DMV, but my son will pay for that as he’s the one using the truck, so it may give me a chance to fill some envelopes for fall. Having lost 1/3 of my income after B died is definitely a factor. sigh:(

Well, today I plan to go to the gym and the library. I have a book to return. I don’t have any holds, so I may just browse the new items. I want to keep up with my weights as I feel they really do help. I’d like to find a new walking path for when I’m down there, so I may look at RPR (Roseville Parks and Rec) trail maps to see what is close to the gym. Sadly, the only paved trail up here is the park I walk at. Auburn has another paved trail at a park, but it’s not in my normal route. The MV park is so well used by so many people, and they come from all over because it is paved. I’m at the stage of life where I’d be concerned for my stability on an unpaved path unless I used my walking sticks. I have been taking them with me even to this park because they give me an added sense of security. It’s tough getting older.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, decluttering, Gratitude, Uncategorized by

I’m very thankful to feel ok again. Whatever it was, I’d prefer it not to happen again. Next time, I will be sure to drink some electrolytes. AI seemed to think that the need for them was contributing to my overall yucky feeling.

My labs came in at 30.4, so up from 29.1, but not too bad. .7 increase, and my ratio came down to 2.65 from 2.95, so that was positive. Another month of just keeping on.

I’m thankful for a day with nothing planned. I don’t have any plans for the day, so I’ll see what I get up to. I’ve been decluttering a few random items that I’m not using and will take to Goodwill once I have a few bags.

Today, I plan on making a chicken salad with leftover Costco chicken. The rest I’ll just freeze. Plus, at some point, make some chicken broth. I think this time I’ll pressure can it, so I don’t take up so much room in the freezer. But that’s not today.

We had a dead deer in our upper yard near the pond. We’re not sure if it got hit by a car or what. My daughter called animal control, and usually, if it’s on private property, they won’t get it. But since we said we had no way to move it, they took it. Why couldn’t it die on our neighbor’s property? I’m thankful they took it, though, as a number of years ago we had a dead deer down in the woods, and it just decomposed and certainly smelled for a while. We think that one, though, was a mountain lion kill, as there were only pieces left. Anyway, it’s gone.

Midweek musings

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I think I’m almost back to normal. I feel good enough to try the pool so, I’ll report back and update.

Update: The pool was relatively empty (no coast guard). I got a lane and did about 25 minutes, and then felt done.

I need to stop for gas at Costco first. Then I’ll only try to swim for 20 minutes at most. Definitely don’t want to overdo it and feel lousy again. I will mention what happened to Dr. Laptalo when I see him next month and see what he thinks. Food has been off, and that’s not fun for me, as I love cooking, food, and eating. Maybe today my taste will come back for something. I did have a salad last night, which was the first since last Friday, so that was positive.

I got gas at Costco, and it’s up to 5.69, so up quite a bit. After the pool, I went to Costco for coffee(always), a roast chicken, eggs, WW bread, some steak seasoning, chips, and wine. I picked up a rosé brut for Mother’s Day.

Now I’m home and will chill for a bit and then see what I get up to. I’ve been doing some embroidery, which I really like doing. Very relaxing.

A rough one.

Posted in California by

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU

AND HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO

Wowza, did I get knocked out by this chemo or what? Usually Dex does me in for a day or so, but then I move past it. This time by Saturday, I was feeling a bit off but didn’t really think much about it. I was very tired, very achy, and definitely had the old chemo headache. It was awful, and I’m not sure WHY? Why would this cycle be any different? I have no idea. Today I felt somewhat better, although still a little lightheaded. I did feel like a walk, so I did that. It’s strange that I didn’t connect how I was feeling with chemo because that’s exactly what it feels like. Flu-type symptoms. Well, I’ll be better prepared next month. Well, at least I will figure it out instead of thinking I had caught a cold/flu.

UPDATE: I’M STILL NOT FEELING GREAT, SO MY DAUGHTER THINKS IT’S MOLD SPORE ALLERGIES DUE TO ALL THE RAIN. She’s probably right, the chemo effect wouldn’t be this long, at least it never has been and I am sensitive to mold spores.

UPDATE 2 Gemini Ai thinks it’s more like a dex crash and I’m getting hit a little harder than I usually do. And the mold sensitivity could be a factor.

So with that, I plan on trying to catch up on the house chores and not go to Roseville. I’d love to just drive down to the pool and swim, but I will err on the side of caution and rest more. I didn’t feel like eating much or cooking. I had some soup from the freezer. I don’t think I’ll do up a menu until I can look in the fridge/freezer and see what needs using. I think we have two salad packs.

The rain has stopped for now, and we are heading into warm weather with temperatures in the 80s. Wild weather.

Since today is Cinco de Mayo, I may see what I have for tacos or something like that. I always have beans, so I could do nachos.

I’ve been watching Star Wars, of course, and that’s always fun. No new shows yet.

Well, that wraps it up for now. Hopefully, back to a normal schedule tomorrow.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, home stuff by

We had a fun visitor in the yard yesterday. Big Bird!!

Mr Peacock lives down the hill from us but spent the day here in the front yard.

Today I plan on going to the gym and then home to do some house stuff. Tomorrow I have labs, so I’ll be leaving early and won’t have a chance to do my Monday reset. Hopefully, Dex will have done its magic and keep my numbers stable.

My son was over Friday night and spent most of Saturday doing stuff around here. He mowed and cleaned out the barn some more. He also took a load(another one) to the dump, and then he went up to his friends to get a truck full of firewood. Whew, I hope he didn’t overdo it. My daughter also did a bunch of mowing and weed-eating. This time of year, it’s hard to keep up with the grass growing. He’s a great thrift store shopper and found me a lovely Japanese print framed for $5.00. I’ll have my daughter hang it and then take a picture.

I went out and got gas in the VW. It was $5.15 a gallon in Auburn. Then I hit up the thrift store to use my credit and found ( I hope) an ice cream maker that works for 12.99. I actually tested it in the store, and it turned on so we’ll see. I plan on doing a simple vanilla to check it out. It’ll be fun if it works to do seasonal flavors like peach and strawberry.

We’ve been eating some rice and beans and pulled pork for the last few days, plus salad stuff. Tonight I’ll do a big salad and something from the freezer souper cubes. I need to work on a menu plan or at least an outline for the week. I know tofu will be on the menu as I have a few packs.

Friday Things

Posted in bread, budgeting, budgets, cancer, cooking, Death, frugalism, husband by

I had a good day yesterday. After infusion, I went over to the fancy Nugget. It is beautiful, but I could definitely not AFFORD to shop there. I was going specifically to check what RG beans they had. They didn’t have a big selection, but I did pick up one bag. Interestingly, the price was the SAME as on the RG website.

I haven’t tried these, so I’ll check them out. Then I also bought a fancy sandwich to share with my daughter, Texas hold ’em. I had my half after I came home. Also bought some milk and half and half that I needed. Overall, it is a beautiful store, but way out of my price range. I picked up some radishes that at Winco would probably be 79 cents, and they were 1.99, so yeah:( I’ll stick to Winco, TJ’s occasionally, and Costco, and now using the month free trial ( actually $1) at Walmart.

I do like the Walmart delivery, and my daughter did a pickup after work( it’s right there on her way home). She wanted some Bubbly water and apples, plus she threw in a few other things. She said it was super easy, so we may do that going forward. My daughter hates shopping, so this works well for her.

After I came home, I started on some freezer meatloaf and some spaghetti sauce. Not too sure about the meatloaf. I followed a NYT recipe, but it kinda looked weird, so I won’t know till I bake it.

Since today is a DEX day, I don’t drive or get on step ladders, so I’ll just potter around and see what I get done. I have a load of laundry to fold and a loaf of sourdough to bake. I’m using a loaf pan to see how I like that rather than the dutch oven.

Some more California poppies and the loaf pan.

Wow, it’s May 1st. A little over 10 months since Barclay died. I miss him every day. I miss our life together. 🙁

Thankful Thursday

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That our temperatures are back to normal for this time of year, mid-70s. I was able to grill our burgers on Webi, and it was nice to sit out for dinner.

I’m thankful for the bravery and courage of Virginia Giuffre, who wrote” Nobody’s Girl” about Epstein and Maxwell. The book is very hard to read, so be forewarned. But because of her, she exposed many rich, powerful men who abused young girls and women. Although she died by suicide, she has left a legacy behind. It’s sad, though, it came to that.

I’m thankful for my first cup of coffee in the morning. It’s always the best.

I’m thankful for the comfort of my home, albeit small. It’s true that if you remove things, all of a sudden your house can feel larger and less cluttered. I’m on the lookout for a cabinet for our entry way that can hold more stuff that I don’t want out, visible. Right now, I have the Ikea lockers, which I do like, but I was hoping for something with more storage and maybe drawers. I’ve been checking the Marketplace, but most stuff is in Sacramento, and that’s too far for me to just go check something out.

I’m grateful for the infusion nurses who are great at what they do. I was in and out in 20 minutes, so very nice.

Menu Monday

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The RG beans were outstanding. I added onion, garlic, and some of my homegrown oregano. I’ll definitely buy them again.

In no particular order this week:

I’m planning on BBQing burgers one night as the weather is going to be fabulous. I don’t have any beef, though, in the freezer, so I may stop at Costco after the pool when I go this week.

I’m planning on a BLT night with homemade sourdough and avocado. I’ll cook extra bacon for the quiche.

I have extra-heavy cream, so I’ll try a quiche with bacon and Gruyère. The last one I made didn’t come out very well for some reason. It was not custardy but kind of dry. I’ll check the recipe; I may have the egg/cream ratio wrong. I’m going to use puff pastry instead of a regular crust, as I have some in the freezer.

I have chicken pot pies in the freezer, or I have chicken shredded, I can make my own.

I think I’ll cook up some brown rice and do some kind of bowl.

Other days, I’ll have to see what needs using up.( the beans with tortillas)

Today, I plan on staying home as I’m feeling a bit tired. The only thing I really need to do is get gas in the VW, but I’ll wait and see what I get done this morning. I like Mondays to be my reset day for the week. Plus, I like to do a full house dusting and tidying.

Here’s the Hokusai. I didn’t realize it was on canvas, but I still like it. Plus my newest orchid. I’m sort of obsessed with getting them to rebloom. I’m watching two that haven’t put any spikes up. I think I’ll take the one out of the pot and clean the roots. From watching YouTube, I guess it’s important to snip off the dead roots. I also have moss in my Amazon cart to buy, which is used for orchids.

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, Uncategorized, Walking by

Even though it was sprinkling, I decided to go for a walk. The park was mostly empty except for the park worker who came in at 6:30, driving a big truck and maybe a little too fast. sigh!

We had a fun day yesterday at Sierra College’s time capsule event. It was well attended. We were going to go into Grass Valley and walk around, but the streets were closed for a vintage car event. We decided to go down to Colfax to Il Pizziaoli for their wood-fired pizza. It was delicious, and we had leftovers for dinner. yeah!!

I finished Untamed about Yosemite. I’d give it a B. The scenery was beautiful, but the story was not very developed. Just ok.

Today, I’m actually going down to Roseville because I saw a print of ‘The Great Wave’ by Hokusai on the marketplace. I’ve wanted this forever, and it’s framed. I’m going to meet the person at Trader Joe’s and then get a few things in the store. If I’m energetic, I’ll go down to the gym; otherwise, I’ll just come home.

I plan to make Rancho Gordo beans today in the crockpot. These are ‘eye of the goat’ beans, which I don’t think we’ve had before. I also plan to make some polenta as well. Other than that just home stuff and plan the week out.

I have Velcade on Thursday, so that means it’s Dex time again. sigh….

There’s a brand new Nugget market right by the infusion center, so I plan on going in and checking it out. I know they are carrying Rancho Gordo beans, so I’ll pick some up. I’m hoping they have RG’s Mexican oregano, which is absolutely delicious.

Oh, and my random loaf of sourdough.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any cake:(

Saturday happenings

Posted in bread, budgets, California, cooking, Death, Walking by

The estate planner meeting lasted all of 5 minutes to just sign the papers. She was going to record them that afternoon. Then the county mails back the paperwork to me. All good.

I walked this morning, and no one was around except the geese. It was nice. I did feel sad that one little gosling had been separated from its family, and the 2 adults it was trying to be with kept attacking it, which I’ve seen happen every year. Sad, it won’t make it.

Today I have a plain sourdough to bake, no inclusions.

This one is the everything bagel seasoning. The blueberry cream cheese one was interesting. I like the blueberries, but not the cream cheese. I froze most of it, thinking it would make a good breakfast bread /egg casserole. I wanted to bake this one in a loaf pan, but my cast-iron one is too small. I will need to buy a USA loaf pan to do that. I do have my pullman pan so maybe I’ll try that today.

The archive stuff my daughter has been doing is having an exhibit today. It’s for Sierra College’s 30-year time capsule. So we are going to go see that and get lunch out.

I finished watching Season 3 of Resident Alien. There is a season 4, so I’ll start that at some point. I then started Untamed, which takes place in Yosemite, and I like it so far. That’s on Netflix.

It’s cloudy today, and it looks like there is some rain forecast for tomorrow. But then next week looks really nice.