Thursday onward
First of all: L'Shana Tova to my Jewish friends! May you have a sweet new year.
There's a significant enough Jewish population around here that schools are closed for Rosh Hashanah (and again next Wed for Yom Kippur). My kids definitely appreciated having a long weekend, and extra time to breathe in between rounds of homework).
My aunt and uncle were in town briefly last Thurs and stayed over with us. It was a very short visit - I picked them up at the Trenton train station at 3:30p on Thurs and they were back at the station, heading up to Boston, by 9:30a the next morning. But while they were here, it was lovely. Had nice chats with everyone, and Rob and my uncle seemed to hit it off, particularly. So, that was really nice.
I went to black belt class Fri night. The exercises were spaced out differently - different instructor - than in the past, so I was more wrung out by the end, and feeling exceptionally unready to ever be a black belt. Just didn't feel like I was performing up to par on some things. Will had worked at the college on Fri and stayed over in the house with me. I had a bite to eat, we snuggled on the sofa and talked for a bit, then went to bed. Except I realized I had left my meds in NJ, which meant I wasn't going to sleep well. I couldn't even take one of Will's stash of Benedryl as an emergency substitute for sleep, because he'd forgotten *that*. I lay in bed in that not-quite-asleep state until about 1:25a, at which point I gave up because I was STARVING. Got up and ate the protein bar I had stashed in my bag, read for awhile, then finally slept around 3am. Of course, that meant it took me a little while to get up in the morning, so Will took over mowing. I did some weeding, then vacuumed the whole house (we had an Open House planned for Sun), then left for class, stopping by the optical dept at Sam's Club (where we used to go) to get my glasses fixed. They're half-wire frames, and they'd always been incredibly stiff in the hinges ever since I got them right before we moved. The other day, as I was struggling to fold them, the lower wire on one lens went *sproing* and that was that. They weren't 100% sure if they could fix it or if they'd have to send it out for replacement (which would have been ok - I have spares), but they *did* have the floor model handy. I agreed to take that, so after class, I swung back to Sam's and picked up my new glasses (which are thankfully NOT stiff).
After cleaning up, packing up, and leaving with Will, we stopped briefly at Wawa because I was, again, starving, and it was lunchtime anyway. Then Will remembered he was supposed to get Karen some wine, so we agreed to separate; I had to pick up MiniPlu's sweater from the friend she'd visited last weekend (accidentally left it behind), then had to pick up MiniPlu from where she'd spent the night with her old BFF. So, he went for the wine and then went home from there, and I went home separately after picking up sweater and kid. Once we were all back in NJ, Karen and I took the kids to get everyone's new Six Flags passes activated for next year, then Will and I took the kids to church before we had dinner and settled in for the evening. Sunday was the usual exercise, errands, laundry, etc, except that it took me awhile to get on the treadmill, and I ran 10 miles, so everything else seemed to run behind schedule. Karen took the kids back to Six Flags, where they did the safari ride (first time they'd ever done that) and had a good time.
Today I had to take my FIL to an MRI. That took longer than planned, but eventually he was done, I took him home, and then the kids and I spent some time at the mall. Initially, we just planned to make two stops - getting a gift card for my niece's birthday and some lotion for MiniPlu at B&BW. But since it was so much later than planned, the kids were starving, so I got them a bite at the food court, and we ended up doing quite a bit more shopping. MiniPlu got fall boots at Payless for $37.50 instead of the initial $60, and a few things at Aeropostale, which is in the middle of Bankruptcy reorganization. (Why do all of MiniPlu's favorite stores close, just after she's discovered them?)
Which is all to say that boring life is boring. The only real exciting news is that I finished a New Year's Resolution story for last year's Yuletide. Started the fic back in January or February ... and then had to set it aside while I fixed the house, packed up, moved, settled in, and tried to find any remaining brain cells. But it's done, betaed (thank you, hamsterwoman!) and posted to AO3. It's Whyborne and Griffin, so not likely of much interest to anyone here, but I'm fairly pleased with it: Helping Hands. Shaving-as-foreplay, some m/m smut and foof.
I also signed up for this year's Yuletide today. It was weird - there was really no slash in anything I asked for this year - most of what I got was suitable for gen requests.
Sucked it up and bought Two his own Kindle today, albeit the most basic model. Will wouldn't let him get the cheaper "with special offers" variety, no idea why since Two said he didn't care. But Two admitted late last week that he's been struggling more not to have words "swim around the page" so a) I'm getting his vision re-tested as soon as I find a local place - he says he doesn't have that trouble with the blackboard, just books - and b) it seems he reads better on a screen than in print. Yes, he could use his tablet with the Kindle app (and has permission to have a personal device for reading because of his disabilities), but he pointed out that it was hard not to be tempted to use other apps when given the option, so having a basic Kindle will ensure that he can read. Period.
In other news: don't know if any of you have seen the news about this 12-year-old boy telling his school board what it means to be transgender, but: we know him. Had him over to our house once, last summer. :) It's pretty cool to see how widespread his message has gone.
And, finally, I must wholeheartedly recommend these flourless brownies. I haven't bothered with the ganache topping - honestly, they're so good, they don't need it.
There's a significant enough Jewish population around here that schools are closed for Rosh Hashanah (and again next Wed for Yom Kippur). My kids definitely appreciated having a long weekend, and extra time to breathe in between rounds of homework).
My aunt and uncle were in town briefly last Thurs and stayed over with us. It was a very short visit - I picked them up at the Trenton train station at 3:30p on Thurs and they were back at the station, heading up to Boston, by 9:30a the next morning. But while they were here, it was lovely. Had nice chats with everyone, and Rob and my uncle seemed to hit it off, particularly. So, that was really nice.
I went to black belt class Fri night. The exercises were spaced out differently - different instructor - than in the past, so I was more wrung out by the end, and feeling exceptionally unready to ever be a black belt. Just didn't feel like I was performing up to par on some things. Will had worked at the college on Fri and stayed over in the house with me. I had a bite to eat, we snuggled on the sofa and talked for a bit, then went to bed. Except I realized I had left my meds in NJ, which meant I wasn't going to sleep well. I couldn't even take one of Will's stash of Benedryl as an emergency substitute for sleep, because he'd forgotten *that*. I lay in bed in that not-quite-asleep state until about 1:25a, at which point I gave up because I was STARVING. Got up and ate the protein bar I had stashed in my bag, read for awhile, then finally slept around 3am. Of course, that meant it took me a little while to get up in the morning, so Will took over mowing. I did some weeding, then vacuumed the whole house (we had an Open House planned for Sun), then left for class, stopping by the optical dept at Sam's Club (where we used to go) to get my glasses fixed. They're half-wire frames, and they'd always been incredibly stiff in the hinges ever since I got them right before we moved. The other day, as I was struggling to fold them, the lower wire on one lens went *sproing* and that was that. They weren't 100% sure if they could fix it or if they'd have to send it out for replacement (which would have been ok - I have spares), but they *did* have the floor model handy. I agreed to take that, so after class, I swung back to Sam's and picked up my new glasses (which are thankfully NOT stiff).
After cleaning up, packing up, and leaving with Will, we stopped briefly at Wawa because I was, again, starving, and it was lunchtime anyway. Then Will remembered he was supposed to get Karen some wine, so we agreed to separate; I had to pick up MiniPlu's sweater from the friend she'd visited last weekend (accidentally left it behind), then had to pick up MiniPlu from where she'd spent the night with her old BFF. So, he went for the wine and then went home from there, and I went home separately after picking up sweater and kid. Once we were all back in NJ, Karen and I took the kids to get everyone's new Six Flags passes activated for next year, then Will and I took the kids to church before we had dinner and settled in for the evening. Sunday was the usual exercise, errands, laundry, etc, except that it took me awhile to get on the treadmill, and I ran 10 miles, so everything else seemed to run behind schedule. Karen took the kids back to Six Flags, where they did the safari ride (first time they'd ever done that) and had a good time.
Today I had to take my FIL to an MRI. That took longer than planned, but eventually he was done, I took him home, and then the kids and I spent some time at the mall. Initially, we just planned to make two stops - getting a gift card for my niece's birthday and some lotion for MiniPlu at B&BW. But since it was so much later than planned, the kids were starving, so I got them a bite at the food court, and we ended up doing quite a bit more shopping. MiniPlu got fall boots at Payless for $37.50 instead of the initial $60, and a few things at Aeropostale, which is in the middle of Bankruptcy reorganization. (Why do all of MiniPlu's favorite stores close, just after she's discovered them?)
Which is all to say that boring life is boring. The only real exciting news is that I finished a New Year's Resolution story for last year's Yuletide. Started the fic back in January or February ... and then had to set it aside while I fixed the house, packed up, moved, settled in, and tried to find any remaining brain cells. But it's done, betaed (thank you, hamsterwoman!) and posted to AO3. It's Whyborne and Griffin, so not likely of much interest to anyone here, but I'm fairly pleased with it: Helping Hands. Shaving-as-foreplay, some m/m smut and foof.
I also signed up for this year's Yuletide today. It was weird - there was really no slash in anything I asked for this year - most of what I got was suitable for gen requests.
Sucked it up and bought Two his own Kindle today, albeit the most basic model. Will wouldn't let him get the cheaper "with special offers" variety, no idea why since Two said he didn't care. But Two admitted late last week that he's been struggling more not to have words "swim around the page" so a) I'm getting his vision re-tested as soon as I find a local place - he says he doesn't have that trouble with the blackboard, just books - and b) it seems he reads better on a screen than in print. Yes, he could use his tablet with the Kindle app (and has permission to have a personal device for reading because of his disabilities), but he pointed out that it was hard not to be tempted to use other apps when given the option, so having a basic Kindle will ensure that he can read. Period.
In other news: don't know if any of you have seen the news about this 12-year-old boy telling his school board what it means to be transgender, but: we know him. Had him over to our house once, last summer. :) It's pretty cool to see how widespread his message has gone.
And, finally, I must wholeheartedly recommend these flourless brownies. I haven't bothered with the ganache topping - honestly, they're so good, they don't need it.