Category Archives: seasonal things

Happy Hanukkah!

Posted in budgets, California, home stuff, seasonal things, Uncategorized by

The mass shooting in Australia at a Hanukkah celebration certainly puts a very dark cloud over everything. Why are people so crazy with prejudice and malice? And look at the vileness that comes out of tRump’s mouth. Such evil, nastiness.

I had a nice walk this morning. The sky was very Maxfield Parrish-ish. A lovely time of morning. Today, I’m going into the gym, and then I think I will get some scratchers for tonight. I believe the Holiday Market has some tickets in vending machines, so I’ll check that out. I don’t remember anyone ever winning anything, though LOL.

My Apple Watch said I was awake last night for 2 hours. This is the first time it has been wrong. I slept almost all night with no interruptions, so that’s weird. I checked with my friend Chat, and I guess sometimes this is a common problem with Apple Watch if you’re using a CPAP machine.

I sorted out some Christmas ornaments to give my son for his tree. I have a few more to do since most of the superhero ones are his. I plan on making the latkes for dinner and having homemade apple sauce on the side.

It’s always something.

Posted in budgets, California, seasonal things, swimming, Walking by

Yesterday, I went for my early walk, and the top of my foot started bothering me, like it was painful. Now, I have had a stress fracture of the metatarsal before on my right foot, so I know what it feels like. I was like WTF?? So, I nixed my plans to go to the pool and Costco. I used ChatGPT to ask some questions. It was quite helpful. I iced my foot 3 times and kept my Hokas on all day. It also suggested wearing a hard-soled shoe like a hiking shoe to keep the foot from bending too much. I only have my Hokas, so I went to Amazon and ordered the shoes I used to wear, Merrills Moab. Why does it always have to be something??

Anyway, it feels better this morning to some degree. I don’t really want to make an appointment with my PCP because if it is a stress fracture, there’s nothing really that can be done except let it heal and don’t do anything to aggravate it. If it gets worse, I’ll call; otherwise I’ll stick to my plan of icing and wearing the Moabs when they get here.

So with that, I won’t go down to the pool or gym today. I did read on Chat that swimming is ok, so I’ll do that once I know what’s going on. If it is a stress fracture, it will continue to be painful, but this morning, like I said, it feels somewhat better. The last time when I saw the podiatrist, it wasn’t very productive except to wear the foot brace. Stress fractures take about 6-8 weeks to heal. I can only assume that repetitive behavior like walking every day can cause this, plus age is a factor.

On a positive note, my daughter and I went out to lunch at a new place to us yesterday. It was quite delicious. It’s a burger place that does smash burgers. It’s not a chain, just a local place.

My Diestel turkey breast is being delivered today. It’s frozen, so I’ll just put it in the freezer till next week. If my foot feels better, I plan on going to Costco tomorrow, and that’ll be the last shop before Thanksgiving. I don’t do any big store shopping the week before the holidays. If I need something, I just go down to the Holiday Market.

Quick update: I went back and checked when I had the stress fracture before, and it was 2018, so 7 years. It was the same left foot. So obviously, I have a weak spot in that foot. sigh:()

Fall things

Posted in California, cooking, seasonal things, swimming by

The Japanese maples are all turning red. We have quite a few that my daughter planted that have now gotten quite big. She’s been busy in the garden, cleaning up beds and the yard. I can’t really bend over to do the garden beds anymore, but I try to help by picking up random things and putting them away. Yesterday, I finally cleared off the patio table which does become a landing spot for lots of random things.

I’ve been practicing some embroidery again, too. I do like to do handwork, but my hands don’t always like it. What I wanted to do was create a little book with stitches to use as a reference. We’ll see how it goes. I have a few linen napkins I will do some embroidery on, too.

After swimming yesterday, I headed over to WinCo for some things and then across the street to TJ’s. At TJ’s, I scored a few of their mini fall bags.

These mini bags are always at a premium. People will go in and buy as many as they can and resell on Market Marketplace for triple or more of the price. I don’t know who would buy this bag at $15, but they list them at that. These are $2.99 in the store.

I finished making the applesauce yesterday and water bathed 4 pints. The flavor was excellent. I’ll give one to my son. As I said, these are our apples, so it makes it special.

Simple Sunday

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A nice walk this morning. 6:20 till almost 7 right now is a good time. We still need our headlamps when we start but by the time we’re finishing it’s getting light.

I went to the auburn gym and then over to Bel Air. I needed cardamom for the khruchiki to drop one of my knives off to get sharpened. They are also called Fattigmands Bakkelser I think in Sweden. My mother made the these at Christmas every year. I never knew their name because we called them ‘krusts’. I think because in Polish it’s pronounced Chrusciki. Martha Stewart’s mother had a recipe but it’s a little different than the Betty crocker cookbook’s one. Anyway they are quite rich but not that sweet except for sprinkling powdered sugar on top.

We watched Elf last night and that was fun. Then we watched an episode of ‘Astrid’ . If you have PBS masterpiece theater, I believe that’s where it is. It is superb. We linked it with our Amazon Prime acct.

I have my schedule for Christmas cooking laid out. Tomorrow, I’ll make the ‘krust’ dough and keep it in the fridge till Tuesday. I’ll make the cheese lasagna Tuesday as well. I have garlic bread and I’ll put together and antipasto plate. whatever I need, I’ll go down to Holiday and pick up. I’m also planning on cooking some cornish hens that Costco had. They only have them at Christmas time. So the meat eaters will have something besides cheese lasagna.

Other than that it should be a mellow week. B contacted Stanford but everyone is out on vacation till the first week of january. So no appts for a while which is a relief actually.

After Christmas…

Posted in books, California, cancer, cash envelopes, cooking, library, meal planning, seasonal things, Walking by

Today is my 3rd Velcade shot. I have another stye happening from the Velcade so my eyes are bothering me some. No walking this week as I must have overdone the leg muscles on the knee where the torn meniscus muscle is. So, I decided to just call this an ‘inactive ‘week, which drives me crazy because I want to walk and swim.

I’m hoping giving it some rest and stretching will help. Today after the shot, I have to drop books off at the library. I’m not going in because they have holiday hours and don’t open till 10am. Then I need to go over to the bank and then home. I’m considering doing upper body weights but I’ll wait till I’m there( by the library) to decide. ( The gym and library are next to each other).

On the menu plan this week:

breakfast for dinner

quiche with salad

steak bits and broccoli(tofu with broccoli for the veggie)

grilled chicken/ veggie pattie and some sort of veg

soup of some sort

New Year’s Eve will be our traditional sub sandwiches. I’ll get some GF rolls for my daughter. I saw some at Trader Joe’s so I’ll check there first. Her labs came back and she’s not celiac but she says she feels better not eating gluten right now so that’s good.

Our weather has been cloudy and cool. No rain but there might be some this weekend. Typical December/January weather, kind of gloomy and depressing.

Simple Sunday

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It’s Christmas Eve day. We had a nice predawn walk. The sky was quite lovely.

I had a nice swim yesterday and by the time I was leaving it getting crazy busy?? Why?? Anyway, I got there right at 7am and had a lane to myself the whole time. That was nice. Traffic wasn’t too bad on I-80.

I’m not going to the gym this morning even though it’s probably empty but I just don’t feel like it.

Today I’m making the zucchini lasagna and I guess we’ll see how that comes out. Since S is trying a gluten-free diet, I’m trying to do alternative things. So far, it’s not too hard to swap stuff out. The rest of us will have the regular lasagna and the cheese manicotti.

I’ve done a little decluttering before the new year starts. I had a pair of Merrell slip-ons that I loved when I first got them but now every time I wear them my feet don’t like them. Then the only other shoes I have besides my Birkenstocks and Hokas are a pair of Noat shoes that are black slip-ons. I bought them back in 2016 for an event that needed something dressier than Birkies. I’ve only worn them a few times and when I put them on they throw my back off so off they went to Goodwill. There were a few other random things as well. I certainly get ‘clutter blindness’ and just don’t see things that are sometimes just sitting there in plain sight. 😦

Christmas Eve dinner traditionally for us is fondue. So I’m heading down to the Holiday to pick the veggies for that, a baguette, and some other condiment things for a salad tomorrow.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I may post tomorrow about ending the year but I’ll see how I feel then.

Thankful Thursday

Posted in California, cancer, cooking, seasonal things, simple foods by

My 4th shot went well, and now I finished Cycle 1. The nurses are very kind and competent.

I decided to try and swim before my shot so B dropped me off at 7:50 so I could be done by 8:30. The pool was great. I got a lane all to myself and it definitely was not busy which is so nice. I may try and do this again but probably not on Saturdays because there are a few regulars that show up later being, Saturday I suppose.

After infusion, we went over to Costco( which we were supposed to do last week) and it went well. I spent more than I expected but got things that were on coupon and pantry stock-ups, so I’m okay with it. I bought a rotisserie chicken and some of their Yukon gold mashed potatoes so dinner was handled. When we got home I had to do some rearranging in the chest freezer and the refrigerator freezer. It took a while.

I’m grateful I’m handling dex better although I do have some snarky/bitchy moments usually a day or two after. Generally, something very ordinary will just set me off. I’ll try and get a grip on that for my next cycle.

I had some broccoli languishing in the refrigerator so I made a lovely broccoli cheddar soup. The bread is whole wheat sourdough from the bread machine and then baked in the oven.

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, budgets, California, cooking, Flylady, Halloween, Pantry, seasonal things, Walking by

A rainy simple Sunday. I’m grateful for the rain. Fire season is safely over. It’s hard to sense whether we are in for a hard winter or mild. With global warming, I guess all bets are off. Still, it is such a strange October to have temperatures close to 90 degrees. That’s never happened before.

We started out with our walk and it hadn’t started raining yet. It was quite balmy in fact. A very nice quiet walk. Most of the Canada geese are gone and the 3 little white duckies are gone too.

I came home and got the KBS bread maker going with a whole wheat sourdough. It seemed to not display the menu right and I had to do a reset that B figured out. Not sure what is the problem but I’ll have to check how long before it is that I can return it if necessary. It did go to the dough cycle after the reset. ?? humm, we’ll see. Anyway, it’s doing it’s first rise in the bread pan.

I did some weights at the gym and didn’t stop anywhere except our PO box. I’ve had 2 things lost this week and yesterday a VERY expensive Ebay item(christmas) it said delivered but no one came up to the house. So I’m freaking out a little as to where it is but can’t call the post office till Monday. Our post office has gone down hill this last year with things continually being lost, damaged, put in wrong boxes etc. I’m not sure what their problem is. But also, the person from E bay was not very nice and essentially said too bad. But I will open a dispute if it doesn’t show up. Anyone have an ebay item lost/not show up and get a dispute resolved. If it was just a few bucks I wouldn’t mind but this is in the 100’s. A very specific item.

My house tidying up is almost done. I just need to finish the kitchen. There’s one small load of laundry going. I vacuumed yesterday so that’s done. this week with Flylady, it’s the bedroom zone. I plan on moving all the rest of my canning jars out to the garden shed as I don’t plan on doing anything soon. I know I want do at least one other shelf stable meal, but haven’t decided what yet. We did love the white bean stew. Plus, it was vegetarian so B could have it.

Another blogger was showing some Halloween decorations she had out and I said I’d post a few photos of my 1940’s collection.

This one is probably 1950’s.

Vintage are items are VERY pricey as I’m guessing a lot of it got used and then tossed.

Simple Sunday

Posted in bread, California, camping, cooking, Flylady, home stuff, Lake tahoe, seasonal things, Uncategorized, Walking by

I made it around the park 3 times so that’s a big improvement. My knee is definitely improving. I didn’t use the treadmill though at the gym as I thought that might be too much. I did the weight machines twice.

We’ve been having supper out on the patio all week and even had 3 evenings of a fire in the fire pit before we come in to watch Bosch. I only watch TV for an hour or an hour and a half is pushing it. Even movies, we split into 2 nights. We watched Otto this week for 2 nights. It’s a good movie, maybe not a great movie, but still enjoyable.

After the gym, I put the bread in the oven. This is a new sourdough recipe from ‘Everyday Sourdough’ and it uses whey from yogurt making. Since I had just made yogurt I saved the whey. It uses a Pullman pan which sadly I do not have yet. So we’ll see.

Then I did the bathroom zone, vacuumed, tidied the bedroom, and dusted the LR zone. That’s about it for zone cleaning.

My daughter harvested most of the basil and I made four 4-ounce jars of pesto for the freezer.

The next batch of tomatoes you see behind the pesto, I will freeze till I have enough for sauce.

This coming week looks light. No appts, but we may go to Costco. I’ll wait and see what I need. I know I’ll go before our Tahoe trip so I have 2 weeks.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, frugalism, seasonal things, swimming, Uncategorized by

Let’s see, this week was ok. I went to Winco for more Ball jars. They seem more expensive than the last time I bought them, but what isn’t. They were $15 plus change. I bought pint and quart ones. Winco is still the cheapest around for jars.

I used 6 of the pint ones already for the salsa so I’ll need to get another case of those. i like the pints as they are perfect for 2-3 people.

Last night I made black bean burgers( my home canned black beans) at the request of B. I used the Pioneer Woman recipe but added some oatmeal since I like that texture. They came out delicious. We had beautiful thick home grown tomatoes and my refrigerator pickles on top.

B and I had a ‘date’ to the new co-op. Wow, sticker shock!!! But I price check some things and also picked up a few things I was looking for. Organic coconut flakes, Redmond salt and some organic pumpkin seeds. It’s a beautiful store and the deli will probably be what brings in the money. Lots of sandwich choices.

I filled up the Santa Fe this week at Costco. That should last me till next week. I do plan to go to the Rec center this morning but I won’t swim tomorrow even though I’d like to. I need to be reasonable about how much I’m driving and the cost of gas.

I don’t need anything from the store till next week and even then it might just be a few things. I plan to keep working on the freezer/ pantry challenge and eat down both till the end of the month. I don’t want to use up my ‘winter’ store but some things need to get used.

I did my budget for September. Fall is when our next annual bills come in and lots of money goes out:( There’s car insurance, house insurance , and property taxes. The house ins. with the California Fair Plan is still an unknown as to how much it’ll go up. Well, not much we can do about it anyway.