Wed. Dec. 23, 2020: Die for Your Employer Day 217 — Nearly at The Holiday Break

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Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Waxing Moon

Uranus Retrograde

Cloudy and cold

Up early yesterday, and out the door a little after 7 AM to go to Plymouth to my trusted mechanic to get the car inspected.  I realized that it was my first time over the bridge since last December – when I got my car inspected.

In a normal year, I’d be horrified that I was turning into one of “those” people who refuse to foray beyond the bridge. But this year, hey, pandemic. We were supposed to Stay the F home, and I did so as much as I could.

The mechanic used his small business loan to transform one of his bays into a socially-distanced waiting room. Well set up – MORE than six feet between each seating area. One of the other customers brought his five-month-old, white, standard poodle puppy, who was so excited to play with all his new friends! Totally made my day. They all followed protocols there ALL the time – unlike the idiots here on Cape where I had the oil change, who not only refused to follow the mask mandate, but gave me a hard time for so doing.

The car passed inspection – I was thrilled! The mechanic and his crew were really touched that I took the time to individually wrap the cookies so that they were safe.

Driving back over the bridge took some time – lots of traffic. Once again, people are ignoring the edict not to travel during a pandemic, and we will have a grim January and February.

I stopped at the grocery store in Sandwich that was on my way home and got the last few things I needed for the holidays. I got some beautiful cod for tomorrow night’s paella. I even found a duck for New Year’s Day! That thrills me.

Home, decontaminated the groceries and put them away, then masked back up, loaded up the car with the cookie tins and made deliveries. Most were no or distanced contact. People were thrilled.

By the time I got back, it was nearly lunch time. Decontaminated myself, had lunch, and then spent the afternoon on client work and on reading the book for review. I’m nearly finished with it – I’ll finish it today and send off the review. Only a day late.

I also wrapped the presents to do under the tree. With “help” from Tessa and Willa, which was hilarious. They are getting along, most of the time now.

Crystal Bar has continued a negative pattern of behavior/lack of customer service with me, and, much as I love their product, I’m done. Too much hypocrisy. She has the right to run her business however she wishes. I have the right not to place my money there.

It’s a disappointment, but hardly life-changing. Hell, I made my own bath products for years. I can always start doing so again. I can also source similar products from other small business artisans, try them, and see with whom I am the best fit. That’s a stronger choice than every order/interaction being a stressful battle.

Done. Solved. Moving on.

Besides, I have a duck for New Year’s.

Last night was our Knowledge Unicorns online holiday party. Some of the kids started winter break at the end of last week. Others had a few days scattered in this week. But you know what they did? All on their own? I’d mentioned how lovely the original Dickens “Christmas Carol” novella is, and, ON THEIR OWN, they got copies of it, split up the parts, rehearsed, and did a dramatic reading of it. It was SOOO cool. What fun! I’m so proud of these kids.

It makes me sad to hear about so many kids/parents struggling and worrying how much their kids are losing doing remote learning, while I have a bunch of kids who are thriving.

This morning will be stressful at the client’s. But then I’m free to enjoy the holidays for the rest of the week, and I intend to do just that. Christmas has no religious or spiritual significance for me anymore, but I do enjoy a series of home-and-hearth traditions, and I can use the rest.

I also plan to do some writing.

I wish you peace, joy, good health, and happiness AT HOME this Christmas. I’ll catch up with you on the other side of the weekend.

Tues. Dec. 17, 2019: Trying to Stay On Top of It All

Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Waning Moon
Uranus Retrograde
Lousy weather

Hop on over to A Biblio Paradise, where I talk about one of my favorite Winter Holiday books.

Busy few days. Sorry I didn’t post at all on Friday. I was up at 5:30 and out of the house by 7. Put gas in the car, then drove up to Plymouth, to my regular mechanic, to give them their holiday treats and get the yearly inspection done.

The car passed. All those things the place that replaced my battery told me I had to pay $1800 to get done or else not pass inspection — NONE of them were true. Which makes me both angry and relieved.

I’ve spent the past nearly three months in agony fearing the car wouldn’t pass, and I couldn’t afford the additional work. Because I was lied to.

Stopped at Market Basket on the way back to pick up a few things. Swung by the library to pick up a book and talk to the librarian who took her first trip to NYC this past week, and I wrote up directions to the stuff she wanted to see. She had a great time.

Then, I just hit a wall. I was so physically and emotionally exhausted that I couldn’t do much more than play with the cats, do some more decorating, and read.

I managed to pull it together in the late afternoon to put together and deliver the cookie platters to the neighbors. It was fun — a chance for us to catch up. We are all friendly in passing and help each other when we need it, but every now and again, it’s nice to spend some time in actual conversation. We are lucky in our neighbors. Most of them, anyway.

It looks like my health insurance might be sorted out for the next year. Wouldn’t that be nice for a change?

On Thursday night, we watched the version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL starring Alistair Sims, which is still my favorite. Friday night, we watched HOLIDAY INN, which I had ordered from the library by accident, thinking it was the Bing Crosby/Danny Kaye version later named WHITE CHRISTMAS.

Well, it wasn’t. It was a Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire film in black & white — also using the song “White Christmas” — and what a horrid movie. The racism — especially against blacks, with an entire musical number in blackface, and the awful way the black characters were written, anti-Semitic comments, the misogyny, and the fact that the characters are all so mean to each other. Awful. On so many levels. Some of the dance numbers are good, but the plot, characters, and viciousness of the movie are hateful. To think that, at any point in our history, that was considered “okay” much less acceptable, is discouraging.

Saturday morning, woke up to a bad storm with pounding rain. Made it through the flooded streets to the store to pick up a few things, and barely made it home. If I’d waited even a half hour more, some of the streets would have been impassable.

Made stollen, the traditional Dresden stollen recipe, from Mimi Sheraton’s German cookbook. Upped the almond extract a bit.

The recipe took me 8 hours to make last year, but only 6 hours this year, with the mixing and the rising. The yeast was fresher, and it rose faster.

This recipe makes 3 loaves of about 3 pounds apiece. When you think that a single pound of it from a store or ordered online costs anywhere from $9.99 to $34 and tastes like cardboard or could be used for a doorstop, this is a much better choice. In addition to being absolutely delicious. It’s an all-day project, but worth it.

Just about finished my cards on Saturday night, except for a few where I need to hunt down addresses.

Worked on the books for review. Started preparations for Winter Solstice, which is next Saturday. Got some writing done.

We put up the reindeer collection and the nutcracker collection, and cleared out my office, so that we can put up the tree in there. I cleaned up the roll-top desk, and I want to clear off my computer desk, so I can start the New Year and the new decade, with a clean desk.

I will have to make the next batch of stained glass cupcakes either today or tomorrow, and another batch of tollhouse cookies. I’m still making deliveries.

Sunday, I was up early and creating a new muffin recipe with orange, cranberry, and chocolate. It turned out well, although I think I will add some cloves next go round.

Got some writing done. Put up the tree in my office, and started decorating the rest of the office.

Watching THE QUEENS OF MYSTERY. There’s a lot of clever, fun stuff in it, but sometimes I feel it tries to hard to do too much and gets a little unfocused.

Monday, it was off to my client’s early (since we’re leaving early for our holiday lunch together). On the way, made some more cookie platter deliveries. Client work was okay, albeit a bit chaotic. Headed to the library after, to get some other work done, and send off one of the reviews.

Early at my client’s today, and then a couple of other appointments after. Decent first writing sessions of the day both days. THE QUALITY OF LIGHT is chugging along, and it will get to where it needs to go on time.

I’m working on my next essay for Medium, which I hope to post this week sometime.
Planning to finish up the reviews, so I can get them out and invoiced, either today or tomorrow.

This year, I’m very much hearth-and-home for the holidays. I’d rather do cards and cookie platters than running around to all the holiday networking events. My focus needs to be on other things right now, focused on the home front and the upcoming changes, not on socializing.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Thursday, December 25, 2008
Waning Moon
Sunny and mild
Christmas Day

It is way too warm here for Christmas. Wow. Maybe the ice around the car will melt, though – again, yesterday, I practically needed my skates, although I managed to get in and out of the lot safely.

I had a certificate for DSW that expired yesterday, so I dashed over in the morning to check things out at the store – and ran into several other women I know from the area doing just the same thing! It was pretty funny! I came away with a beautiful pair of chocolate brown patent leather pumps by Bandalino. Even with the heel, they’re wonderfully comfortable – and this coming from someone who rarely wears shoes anymore! But I wore them for the festivities last night, will probably wear them today, and they go with the New Year’s outfit, so it’s all good.

I had a quiet, but busy Christmas Eve. We celebrate the main portion of the holiday on the Eve, so it was a flurry. The cats LOVE to help with the unwrapping of the gifts, running around with the ribbons and playing in the paper. It’s like having a trio of toddlers, but it’s so much fun. There might not have been quantity this year, but there was certainly quality – everything was carefully thought out and lovely. And a friend sent me something she made — a spiced tea mix – that’s one of the best things I’ve ever had. Love it, love it, love it – thanks, Michelle! We drank it out the Friendly Village china cups along with some of my homemade sugar cookies, and it was perfect.

The dinner turned out well – the pork roast was perfect, prepared with a mixture of Julia Child’s dry rub spice marinade and the roasted apple grilling sauce put out by Stonewall Kitchen. I’m a huge fan of Stonewall Kitchen products – their prices are reasonable (though not cheap) and their quality is superior. The red cabbage was great, the baked potatoes took forever to get soft enough – but got there eventually. And I’ve decided that one of my favorite side dishes is steamed green beans covered with hollandaise sauce. Yum! The plum pudding was perfect for dessert.

I sat down and read A Christmas Carol in a volume of Dickens I have that was published in 1885, handed down from my grandmother, handed down in her family, or given by a friend of the family or something – in any case, I have a set of Dickens published in 1885, and the Christmas Books, containing A Christmas Carol is one of them. I’d forgotten how funny some of Dickens writing in that piece is – it’s been so watered down in subsequent editions and productions what we see has very little bite to it. In addition to making some pretty pointed social commentary (a lot of which is relevant to the Bush administration), he’s also very funny.

I tired to read some of the other books in the “Christmas Books” section, but maybe I was just tired or something, because I found myself thinking, “there’s a reason we’ve never heard of them.”

Still, Dickens wrote a great deal, he wrote quickly for money, and his work was serialized – one can learn a lot from him.

I’m going to jump in the shower now and then make pancakes for breakfast. Then, I’ve got to stuff the turkey and get it into the oven – it’s an eighteen pounder! Today’s big meal is roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, and, for dessert, a Yule log. No, I didn’t make it myself – I still don’t have the courage to attempt Buche de Noel!

Christmas Day is always quiet around here – mostly about talking to family and friends, eating a lot, and reading the books unwrapped the night before! And of course, the stockings. I’ll try to get some more work done on the revisions, and finish packing for tomorrow.

Have a lovely holiday. If you haven’t downloaded my free Christmas story, Holiday Wish List, featuring the popular Congress Corners characters, feel free to hop over to the Ava Dunne page and do so. It’s my gift to you, and will be available until Twelfth Night.

Have a lovely holiday.

Devon