Too Stupid to Live

Made it to the weekend, and I wanted to do something fun and summery Saturday, but I woke up feeling a bit sick so I didn’t make any plans. It evolved into a “clean all the things” and GSD (get shit done) kind of day. Laundry, cleaning the dog and cat food areas, cleaning the air fryer, clearing out the basement freezer, cleaning the bathrooms and the front porch (the kids). Putting away random stuff from the trip that was still sitting around.

I did get into the garden Friday and Saturday and did some weeding and pruning. Not sure if I mentioned it already but I have little carrot, turnip, broccoli and Brussels sprouts… sprouts. I picked some herbs Saturday morning and dried them. They make the house smell good (along with the thrifted  “Forest Path” candle I’ve been burning).

Tom and T took the dog for a nice long trek at a dog park (Timber Creek). F went out with friends and N slept off a late night.

I did a meandering series of errands, picking up some food items and a new hose and sprayer because ours are messed up and Tom couldn’t fix them (went to Ace Hardware).

I sat down with T and helped him make sure all his various tickets from different jurisdictions were paid. He had had some trouble; turns out you can’t always use a Venmo-based card. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, and North Dakota — whew. Some of these dated back to April. A lesson for him about taking care of tickets asap.

Tom and I went out for snow crabs at Chickie’s and Pete’s for dinner — as Tom said, the best meal out we’ve had in a while. We were seated right next to a young couple who seemed to be having fun at the beginning but were breaking up by the end. We were close enough that we heard nearly every word and pieces of our crabs were hitting them as we cracked them open (luckily they didn’t notice).

Several nice harvests this week, variations of strawberries, beans, peppers and Big Rainbow tomatoes:

Today I took F to CVS for a sports physical, did a full grocery shop at Wegmans, and did some mulching and more wash. Now I’m about to make a gravy for the first time in a while. It was cooler and rainy. But I don’t feel sick now!

Meals this week:

Monday: bone-in chicken breasts cooked in the Instant Pot and finished under the broiler, mashed potatoes, Rice a Roni, and sauteed peppers and onions (all of us except N). The peppers were the Hot Cherry ones from the garden and they had a great flavor: more warm than spicy.

Tuesday: turkey sandwich with avocado mash

Wednesday: chicken strips and green beans from the garden (me and F)

Thursday: pizza at the pool for me

Friday: sandwiches from Primo Hoagies for most of us

Saturday: Chickie’s and Pete’s

Sunday: tortellini with brown butter sage sauce and P-R (for me). T is cooking up some chicken Parm at the moment as well.

Lunches: bought Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday (one was just soup).

Spending: $45 dermatologist co-pay (cash); $30 for a gift card for a sick co-worker; $50 or so for a new garden hose and sprayer: $20 for organic mulch; $30 for NYT subscription renewal (I promptly got it changed to a cheaper deal, $4/month); $72 for the physical.

And $17 for ice cream for me and F on Friday night from La Moralense. It’s really good homemade ice cream, and I had the tres leches cake flavor. Yummy! Will go back for that. (My brain just can’t compute that ice cream out costs that much. I’m shocked every time. I’m old.)

When I do something dumb, I often think of the old Cheers episode where Rebecca Howe wailed that she was “too stupid to live!” Today, I used salted butter instead of unsalted in my brown butter sauce, and the mushroom ravioli I was going to use originally had to be thrown away because they had gone moldy. I should be smart enough to remember that our fridge is not trustworthy, and things like that need to go in the freezer after purchase. Wheee, lighting money on fire…. There were some dumb things I did the other day too, but mercifully, I don’t remember what they were.

This morning when I let the dog out, I saw a goldfinch fly by! I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before. I need to get my camera feeder up and running again.

It is nice to head into the work week with a cleaner and more organized house, but next weekend I’m doing something different. Only two weekends of summer left! Wahhhh.