Friday, January 3rd, 2025
Friday Five
Happy New Year! This will be our first Friday sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:
- I missed posting a blog on New Year’s Day, sorry!! A combination of doing a bunch of stuff, and an annoyed stomach, got in my way. In good news though, early New Years Morning I took some Imodium and fully resolved my stomach problems so I could go on with my day. I really thought it was some kind of stomach virus so I lucked out!
- New Year’s Day we had Youngest, his wife and mother in law over for an early dinner. It was a last minute plan as I had to make sure Wizard was better. He is…although the cough will come and go for a while as they do. But otherwise, he’s fully recovered and I worry too much about him, LOL.
- For New Year’s Day dinner, I made ribs and two kinds of marinated chicken, roasted potatoes and green beans. I think people liked it? I mean they’re not going to tell me my food sucks, right? Anyway, it’s a lot of fun when people can sit at the bar while I cook. They are there to help when I need it, and also keep me company while enjoying wine, soft drinks and appetizers. My daughter in law was teasing me that it was like being at a cooking lesson. I’ve said this many times, I’m okay but not a good cook, so I thought that was funny. However I enjoy it, so its all good.
- I tried a new recipe out of a new cookbook (I fully confess, I have a problem buying cookbooks lately!). The cookbook is “Downshiftology Healthy Meal Prep” (Downshiftology is a food blog that focuses on healthy gluten free options). I made the Chocolate Espresso Shortbread Bars, although I tweaked the ingredients to what I had on hand and what I prefer. I was really happy with the way they came out!
- I’m happy the holidays are over, and ready to take on 2025! I don’t do resolutions, but I do like to think about goals for the year. My top is always showing up for the family I love, hanging with grandkids and this year, I’d like to really appreciate Maggie. She’s getting older, and while I expect she has many years let, there’s no guarantee and I don’t want to look back one day and think I didn’t appreciate her enough. I do have other goals, but no one wants to read that list
I will say one involves a new laptop (probably a 2in1 laptop tablet) and see how I do working on that. But that’s not something I’m ready to invest in just yet.
So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope you all have a great first weekend of 2025 and a fantastic year ahead!
January 3rd, 2025 at 9:01 am · Link
Happy New Year! Sorry about your stomach issues, but yay for getting them resolved. Yay for family time and yummy dinners! Yay for cookbooks! And yay for the holidays being over, so we can all get back to our regularly scheduled lives.
1) I’m rolling along with my Start Today mantra. Although, I didn’t actually do anything active yesterday, so there’s a bit of a stumble. No matter. I’ll start today.
2) I’m sooo close to being finished with this edit round. But it feels like every time I make progress, I’m back to the same amount of pages left to edit. (Cuz I keep adding words, which works out to more page. LOL)
3) I finally got my Christmas bonus check in the mail yesterday. Silly USPS. Took two weeks to move my check from MI to MO. Turds.
4) I’ve been letting my hair grow out since I stopped working. It’s shoulder length now. I keep threatening to cut it, but it’s finally looking nice, so I guess I’ll leave it.
5) I had a bald eagle fly right past the house while I was back in the sunroom. It might’ve been 20 feet away. So cool.
January 3rd, 2025 at 11:40 am · Link
Ugh on the buggy stomach. Glad it’s all better! Yay for family dinners and a feeling-better Wiz! Yay for cookbooks with recipes you like! Yay for goals and good luck with the laptop thing. I have to replace my desktop by May because Microsoft won’t support Win10 and my computer is old enough it doesn’t have the “guts” for 11. Okay, my five:
1. I’m slowly switching from holidays to winter. Door wreath and two tables “updated.” The rest of Christmas will come down when I find where LG hid the storage tubs.
2. Speaking of sick husbands and LG, he made a midnight run to the ER this week. He’s had several episodes of shortness of breath and coughing over the holidays. He insisted I didn’t need to go. Turns out he has a mild upper respiratory infection. They gave him meds and he’s feeling better.
3. Jake was an unhappy New Year’s Eve camper. Stupid fireworks. He FINALLY hid in the closet around 2 a.m. and stayed there until I got up at 6.
4. I’m trying to get more “social” on X. There’s a way to monetize, like Tik-Tok, but without having to do videos. I haven’t figured it out yet but if nothing else, I’m hoping to get better name recognition. I did pick up a new follower–Deidre Knight, long-time literary agent and author. I think that’s a yay.
5. Pete story of the week. It got cold. Not frigid like what’s coming this weekend and next week, but cold. Pete went out. I checked several times but he wasn’t at the door so I got busy. When I finally remembered, he was there waiting not so patiently. He came in, ignored me, and promptly disappeared. I found him 2 hours later curled up in the “cave” portion of the cat tree. The heater vent blows directly into the opening of the cave. I was good. I did not poke him. 😸
This is First Saturday. Not sure if siren test or lunch will go off–weather and soccer practice for Stormy. We’ll see. Other than that, I’ll be working. Probably.
Have a great weekend, all!
January 3rd, 2025 at 3:22 pm · Link
Happy New Year!
1. I’m sorry you started the year out with belly issues. It’s a good thing you had Imodium on hand.
2. Sorry Wizard still has the cough but I’m glad he’s pretty much better. That’s really nice having the small gathering.
3. The food all sounds yummy. Having everyone sitting around the bar while you cooked is nice. Kind of reminds me of how things were when we were little. Everyone was always in the kitchen while making dinner and great conversations “seemed” to be had by the adults.
4. The bar cookies were probably super good. Did you make them gluten free so that BLB could have them too?
5. No resolutions here either. A new laptop is a great goal to achieve.
1a. It’s been snowing here all day. It looks so pretty. I’m glad I went and ran errands early though because the roads are nasty.
2a. Hubs has been awful lately. He’s threatened me every day for over a week. I told C he has to take all the guns out of the house.
3a. The downstairs toilet broke at 5:30 New Years Day. That triggered more issues with hubs. C came over after work last night and replaced the guts inside the thing and all seems to be working well now. He bought a couple tools he didn’t use so I returned them this morning. He repaired the toilet in an hour and only cost $40 in parts. Just to get a plumber out here for a service call would be over $120.
4a. Went to one of our banks to get fund to do my final pre-pay of taxes and they were going to charge me $20 for a cahiers check. I told them no, that they should find a way to by-pass the fee. They said no, I said give me all my money (A HUGE amount). Off to Key Bank I went and put it in our money market account. I think C and I will take some of it and buy cold bars.
5a. It’s cold and snowy so I decided that it’s lobster bisque and grilled Havarti on pumpernickel for dinner tonight ☺️.
Have a fantastic weekend!
January 3rd, 2025 at 5:04 pm · Link
B.E. definitely on getting back to our regularly scheduled lives! I like the holidays, but so much of other life gets neglected for me.
1) Start Today Mantra is perfect! Also yesterday doesn’t matter since you can’t change it.
2) Man that takes me back to my editing days — I feel for you! But you’ve got this, you’ll be done very soon!
3) That’s a ridiculous amount of time for your bonus check to arrive! Sometimes I think they’re delivering by donkey. Glad it finally arrived!
4) Resist the temptation to cut if you like the way it looks! But put it up in a clip or ponytail if it bugs you. But I tend to have my hair cut when I’m bored or annoyed so I can’t really give advice, LOL.
5) Wow that’s an up close view!!!
Hope you have a great weekend!
January 3rd, 2025 at 5:13 pm · Link
Silver, yep, there’s no other way but to get an updated computer. I hate doing it, and I imagine it’s annoying for you too. But technology runs out lives.
1) You’re getting there! And you clearly are better at decorating than I am — I don’t have a winter theme
2) Poor LG! Glad he’s feeling better but sorry he had to make the trip to the ER.
3) Aw Jake, I’m sorry he had to go through that. Maggie was scared too, and it’s awful. Even though I know not to coddle or reinforce that fear, I still sat with her on the floor at midnight trying to reassure her because it’s awful to see.
4) That’s great that Deidre Knight followed you! I’m confident you’ll figure out how to monetize on X. It’s possible that’s available in the paid for platforms but my memory on that is sketchy at best. I deleted my account when I got rid of most of my Lyon accounts. If I open any again, it’ll be under my Apodaca name for personal use, not professional.
5) Oh Pete!! I feel for him getting cold, but he’s smart to find the warm vent and stay there. And pat on the back for not poking him!
Whatever the weekend brings, hope it’s a good one! And any amount of work is good work!
January 3rd, 2025 at 5:26 pm · Link
Viki, people have always crowded into my kitchens at least. This one is the most welcoming without me growling at people to move or trying to get around them as I cook/serve. I love it! And yes I made the bars gluten and diary free, I also tweaked a few things like using brown sugar instead of coconut sugar, but overall, it was a good recipe and easy to adapt.
1) You were smart to get your errands done early and be able to enjoy the rest of the snow day watching from your house!
2) I’m so sorry things are getting to that stage. And your making smart decisions about any weapons in the house. Since I’m NOT living in your shoes, nor do I know as much as you and your sons do about his diagnosis, I’m not going to add any more as I’d be doing it from an ignorant place and that’s not helpful for you.
3) C is so talented and skill at doing these repairs! And it’s a skill he’ll use all his life. He’s also very generous with his time to help you out, and I love that!
4) I’m sorry you encountered that frustration at your bank. I hope you’re happier, and have a better overall experience, at the new bank.
5) Wow your dinner sounds delicious! I can’t remember the last time i had pumpernickel bread.
Enjoy your weekend!