Weekend accomplishments
I cannot express how surreal it has been to be a native Californian now living in coastal Louisiana and low-key worrying all weekend about a hurricane... headed for California. My sister and brother-in-law live in Los Angeles, so this isn't just free-floating generalized anxiety, but the last time I checked #hurricanehilarytok it was mostly humorous memes and people surfing the crazy shore breaks, so I guess they're dealing with it. I texted Jamie a few times, and she said other than getting the grocery shopping done a day early and bringing in some plants they didn't feel like they needed to do much else.
Saturday I made eggs and toast, went to Five Below and the grocery store, washed a load of towels, did some dusting, had some lazy chi chis and went through Baking Yesteryear, which arrived with the day's mail, marking recipes I want to try. Everything from the 1950s section is technicolor pink or green (usually due to the use of Jello).
After supper I finished watching High Desert and figured out how to convert my existing planner into the new one. The old one was much bigger and had more stuff in it, but to be honest some of that always felt like filler.
I started with the start of August, which gave me a couple of weeks to work out the bugs or try different stuff, and this is what I eventually settled on:
"This week's priorities" is what in the old planner was just "brain dump"; "shopping list" speaks for itself; I actually had a section for affirmations/gratitudes in my old planner and seeing this had a section for that is one of the reasons I immediately knew I wanted to use it. Most of the other stuff that had its own section in the old planner I managed to work into the daily habit tracker. I didn't try to carry over the mood tracker, but now that I'm looking at it there's plenty of space for it if I want to.
The paper is surprisingly good quality, too; so long as I "blot" the stamps first on a piece of scrap paper, they don't bleed through.
Oh, and the columns of numbers on the right side of each workday are just requests I've closed at work, which I find useful to keep track of for various boring reasons.
Sunday I made waffles and bacon for breakfast, changed/washed the bed sheets, and watched a couple of the new episodes of Cold Case Files. Man, Bill Kurtis is 82, imagine being 82 and thinking "I should still be working, though".
After showering I had to run to the store, because I had decided to make Smitten Kitchen's toasted ricotta gnocchi with pistachio arugula pesto again, and I forgot I always need to double her recipes. Deb Perlman and her family must eat like little bitty baby birds.
I made lunch for the 'rents, then baked some red velvet cookies with white chocolate, made the pesto, had some wine and read, finishing The Axeman of New Orleans and starting Kate Folk's Out There.
My cookies didn't come out very "red velvet"-looking, the food coloring just kind of disappeared. However, the color doesn't change the way they taste, so eh who cares. Red velvet cakes usually have cream cheese frosting, because you want something really sweet to contrast with the earthy chocolate, and I thought the use of white chocolate was a clever way to convey that contrast in cookie form. This was a Southern Living recipe.
Also, I think I should invest in a cookie scoop.
Saturday I made eggs and toast, went to Five Below and the grocery store, washed a load of towels, did some dusting, had some lazy chi chis and went through Baking Yesteryear, which arrived with the day's mail, marking recipes I want to try. Everything from the 1950s section is technicolor pink or green (usually due to the use of Jello).
After supper I finished watching High Desert and figured out how to convert my existing planner into the new one. The old one was much bigger and had more stuff in it, but to be honest some of that always felt like filler.
I started with the start of August, which gave me a couple of weeks to work out the bugs or try different stuff, and this is what I eventually settled on:
"This week's priorities" is what in the old planner was just "brain dump"; "shopping list" speaks for itself; I actually had a section for affirmations/gratitudes in my old planner and seeing this had a section for that is one of the reasons I immediately knew I wanted to use it. Most of the other stuff that had its own section in the old planner I managed to work into the daily habit tracker. I didn't try to carry over the mood tracker, but now that I'm looking at it there's plenty of space for it if I want to.
The paper is surprisingly good quality, too; so long as I "blot" the stamps first on a piece of scrap paper, they don't bleed through.
Oh, and the columns of numbers on the right side of each workday are just requests I've closed at work, which I find useful to keep track of for various boring reasons.
Sunday I made waffles and bacon for breakfast, changed/washed the bed sheets, and watched a couple of the new episodes of Cold Case Files. Man, Bill Kurtis is 82, imagine being 82 and thinking "I should still be working, though".
After showering I had to run to the store, because I had decided to make Smitten Kitchen's toasted ricotta gnocchi with pistachio arugula pesto again, and I forgot I always need to double her recipes. Deb Perlman and her family must eat like little bitty baby birds.
I made lunch for the 'rents, then baked some red velvet cookies with white chocolate, made the pesto, had some wine and read, finishing The Axeman of New Orleans and starting Kate Folk's Out There.
My cookies didn't come out very "red velvet"-looking, the food coloring just kind of disappeared. However, the color doesn't change the way they taste, so eh who cares. Red velvet cakes usually have cream cheese frosting, because you want something really sweet to contrast with the earthy chocolate, and I thought the use of white chocolate was a clever way to convey that contrast in cookie form. This was a Southern Living recipe.
Also, I think I should invest in a cookie scoop.