Because....of course that's how it would go.

 As we last discussed, I gussied myself up for a dental appointment...only to show up three days early.

Last night, as I prepped for bed, I reminded The Husband that I needed to be up and ready to go this morning.  Accordingly, he set his alarm for his usual time - which would give me PLENTY of time to get ready to be "public" ready.

You can see where this is going, can't you?

This morning, I woke, stretched, looked at the clock and jumped out of bed asking, "Aren't you going to work today?!"

This lead to him jumping out of bed, cursing...because apparently he had an early meeting starting in twenty minutes.  Which meant that my preening would have to wait.  It appears he set his alarm for 6:00 pm and not 6:00 AM.

The difference between the two is...to put it mildly, HUGE.  

He made his meeting.  I made my appointment.  But there was no time for preening.  I showed up with minimal makeup, hair thrown up into a pony tail, of sorts and in a sore need for caffeine.

Am I surprised?

At this point, no.  I am no longer surprised by anything.

So the whole day has been out of whack...which is the way of the world when your day starts off with you running behind.  

Here's hoping tomorrow will be smoother sailing.

Monday...the pandemic edition

 I noticed an alarm from my calendar early on Sunday evening.  It informed me that I had a dentist appointment this morning.

Well!  THAT was an exciting adventure to start my Monday!  This morning, after The Husband left for work, I began to get dressed...what?  I was GOING SOMEWHERE to see OTHER PEOPLE.

I washed my hair, did my makeup (more so than I usually do since the pandemic began), I added jewelry AND perfume...something I normally skip these days.  Yes, I still wash my hair, shower and add minimal makeup...but the jewelry and perfume usually, these days, sit on the dresser; unused.

Timing my arrival to the tee, I drove into town.  I was practically giddy...to get my teeth cleaned.

This is where we are now...I accept it.

While driving in, I wondered why I hadn't received an email, text or phone call confirming my appointment.  I swatted that worrying thought away from my brain...despite the fact that I have ALWAYS received a notification at least one business day prior to my appointment.

I pulled into a parking spot, dialed the number, and informed the receptionist that I was here for my appointment.

Whereupon, she informed me that my appointment is actually scheduled for Thursday.  🤦

Because of course it is!

Between you and me, I'm beginning to wonder about my state of mind.

So this is where I am now...

My life is either really, really boring or it's NOT - apparently there is no in between.

 Isn't THAT the truth!  If you've been around here for any amount of time, you are nodding along in agreement.

About two years ago, we had a winter "event" that was pretty significant - but apparently, not significant enough to post a follow up.

So, long story short, that event took months to rectify.  Mainly, because The Husband kept insisting he could deal with it.  The pictures, as bad as they were, do not capture just HOW bad it was.

Eventually, he caved and called a company to come deal with the damage.  It was amazing how quickly they dealt with it.  It was also pretty damaging to the wallet.  Talk about un-sexy spending.

At any rate, it was a "once in a lifetime event," correct?

No.

Friday night we plunged into the the freezing range - complete with rain/ice.  So, we weren't too terribly surprised to wake up to no power on Saturday and notice that all the trees were coated with ice.  Thick ice.

But when the tops of the pines, laden with ice, started snapping in the backyard, we started to get nervous.

The first tree to fall is in the foreground.  Those in the
back and on top of the shed came later.

And the snapping noises continued...constantly throughout the day.

Which added to the tension
every time we heard one fall

And then there was a GIANT BOOM!

This tree fell mere feet from the house.

This was just how close to our bedroom.  Thank God it fell the
way it did.

This caused us to gather every single thing we might need from our bedroom/bathroom and move it to the other side of the house - where there aren't any menacing trees - because there was no way we were sleeping in there until danger had passed.

Surveying the damage

Yesterday, he asked that we create a video...which will NOT post no matter how much I beg the internet gods.

But trust me when I say, the damage that the pictures (and video that you can't see) show does not even BEGIN to relate to just HOW bad it is.

The Husband had just made the decision to fix up the shed rather than replace it - now?  Who knows.  From where we stand, we can't see any major damage.  That shed must have some kind of magic spell saving it - with all the trees from the last event and this one and the darn thing is STILL standing.

When we were out there Saturday, we feared that the septic field was damaged - based on the smell.  However, yesterday when we were videoing, the smell was gone - so hopefully we were spared on that front.

Luckily the house was spared and we are safe; so we are counting our blessings.

An Organizing Project

 As The Husband is currently trashing my kitchen making goodies for The Big Game - which he will watch alone, as I have zero interest (although, I admit freely - I DO have an interest in sampling some of those goodies!) - I have taken to the keyboard to tell you about my organizing project for the day.

In the frantic search for the recipe, that I never printed, as mentioned in the last post, it became obvious that my recipe binder needed an intervention.

When I first put the recipe binder together - which I use for those random recipes that I stumble across in the paper, on the internet, from friends etc. it worked great.  Sure it was kind of hodgepodge with tried and true recipes mixed in with those that I wanted to try.  But it was fairly organized.

The Husband who is - how to say this delicately? - less organized than I, had a terrible habit of jotting down recipes/ingredients on any random piece of paper he could find, which he would then tuck into the most random of places...never to be seen again.  And then one day, in the last year or so, he had a "light bulb moment."  He realized that if he put all those papers into ONE spot he would be able to locate them.  

So he began to tuck them into the binder.  Which was fine...until I went on the mad scramble for that cookie recipe, searching through an ungodly amount of loose paper.  That is when it dawned on me...this system was no longer working for me.  Or him.

Today was the day to rectify this issue.

I sorted through ALL the papers and separated our recipes to go into two separate binders - one for him and one for me.  I asked him if he had any preference in how I organized his binder and whether or not he wanted his recipes encased in page protectors.  As expected, he did not care how it was organized and felt there was no need for page protectors.  So I organized it with all my favorites that I could identify, that is, first! 😉

The hilarious thing about his recipes though?  Most had no titles.  They were just lists of ingredients - some of which gave NO indication about what it might be.  When I pointed this out to him he replied, "Give it to me, I'm sure I'll know what it is."  When I handed one over for his identification, he looked at it and said, "I have no idea what in the hell this is." and placed it in the recycle pile.

After his binder was done - I turned to mine...which does have page protectors for those tried and true recipes - which includes the unearthed Best Oatmeal Raisin recipe.  The "want to try one day" pile, I ruthlessly cut out those that I know I will never, ever make never mind how delicious they sound.  Which meant the remaining pile was more manageable.

The tried and true were then organized into the following categories. Cookies, Pies, Cakes, Breads and Random (i.e. candies, appetizers, etc.).

What I did not expect when I waded into this project was that it would take the majority of the day.  But here we are.  It is done and he has a place to put his recipe/ingredients list and I have a place to put my recipes.

Now, I need to challenge myself to try out a couple of those "want to try one day" recipes so they can get added to the tried and true, page protected recipes.

It all started with a craving...

 Sometime last weekend, a particular craving struck.

I say "particular" because this treat isn't one that I would normally crave - oatmeal raisin cookies.

I mean I LIKE oatmeal raisin cookies - but it's rare that I crave them.  Generally, as far as cookies go I prefer chocolate chip or peanut butter.

But there we have it - the craving was for oatmeal raisin for whatever reason.

Sometime back - was it pre-pandemic? Or maybe late last summer/early fall? - who knows, I had this random craving for oatmeal raisin cookies; which I had never made before.  But somewhere, I sourced a recipe that my family gave RAVE reviews (even The Husband, who doesn't "care" for raisins) - although they, much like me, like oatmeal cookies but, given our druthers, would crave a different cookie (chocolate of any kind for The Husband/for Man-Child it's a toss up between spitz or chocolate chip) and I was informed for, future reference, that THIS was the only acceptable oatmeal raisin cookie.

ANYWAY...back to last week's craving.  I went looking for the recipe.  I don't remember much about the making of that original batch but I clearly remember that there was NOT a step that required chilling the dough or them being refrigerator cookies - both of which were the only recipes I had on hand; which I immediately dismissed.

Obviously, way back then, I sourced the recipe from the internet AND I had neglected to print/save the recipe anywhere. *sigh*  Classic me...find something amazing and then completely forget to preserve it.

Off to the internet, to a site where I *thought* I had found the recipe.  Nope.  I continued by searching my archives thinking "Surely, I posted the recipe here!?"  Nope.

On Tuesday, with that itch remaining un-scratched, I had the brilliant idea to search my internet history - without much hope as I was sure I had recently cleared the history/cookies/etc.  Much to my surprise, I found TWO possible recipes - which just goes to show how faulty my memory is as, clearly I haven't actually "recently" cleared my history.  

I opened the one and noticed it required chilled dough and was sure that wasn't it.  I opened the other, not expecting much, read through it and it sounded familiar.  I checked to be sure I had all the ingredients and was pleasantly surprised to discover I did.

So I whipped up a batch - the original recipe can be found here and it was perfect!  I will note that the 1 cup of raisins left me with more raisins than cookie dough - also she must make GIGANTIC cookies as her recipe claims to make 18 but mine yielded about 36.

At any rate - I was able to tamp down that craving.  

In the meantime, I have texted my friend two doors down to come and relieve me of the majority of these cookies for her kids...the ones with a metabolism that will allow them to eat cookies with abandon.

If you have a hankering for oatmeal raisin cookies - or are an oatmeal raisin cookie nut - I highly recommend this recipe...just be sure to "gift" most of them or your bathroom scale will scold you...much like mine has this week.