Weekend accomplishments
I took Rian with me on my Saturday errands because he's been here nearly a week and I don't think he's left the house. I mean I didn't forcibly drag him with me or anything, I asked him if he wanted to come and he said sure.
I told him, you know, I'm off most of the week between Christmas and New Year's (I have to come in one day, I think it's the Thursday), so if you want to go somewhere all you have to do is ask. I know we'll probably go to Avery Island, because he likes the store and I need to buy some coffee mugs to replace all the ones that have gotten broke or gone missing over the past year. Also I love the boudin in the cafeteria. I can get boudin anywhere, obviously, but theirs is always good and they put pepper jelly on it. So good.
Fuck, now I'm craving boudin.
Saturday I made eggs and toast for everyone, then finished listening to Rachel Maddow's Prequel on audio while I made some shopping lists and just generally tried to organize myself. There's only one weekend left before Christmas, and that barely counts because Christmas is on a Monday! Anyway so then I bored Rian by dragging him with me to get dog food at Tractor Supply; to Michael's to get masking fluid, a tube of Payne's Grey, and some aida and black floss for a cross stitch I'm going to start this week. I'll have to take a break from painting while everyone's here because I just won't have room for it downstairs.
I treated Rian to lunch at Raising Cane's because he'd never had it; turns out there are like 7 locations in the Chicagoland area. It started in Louisiana but clearly hasn't stayed here. I like Cane's: they make it when you order it so you never get chicken that's been under a heat lamp, that sauce is bomb, and the restaurants are always spotless. Plus the only charities they give to are animal charities--the original Cane was the founder's dog, so pets are sort of part of their public brand--so you don't have to worry about your money funding hate groups, unlike like some other chicken franchises I could mention. (Homophobia aside, Chick-fil-A is a deeply mediocre product and I am convinced that most of their present fan base is purely spite-driven.)
Anyway, so then we went to Rouse's and went home. Rian helped me put everything away, and I took the dog for a walk which she did NOT enjoy because it had rained most of the morning. Eww, puddles! For most of the rest of the afternoon/evening I went back and forth between working on some painting in my bedroom and visiting with everyone downstairs, usually when I was waiting for something to dry so I could then proceed to the next step. (Something I very quickly discovered about watercolor is that a lot of it is just waiting for your paint to dry. You can hurry it along with a hair dryer, but I usually just let it dry by itself. Sometimes I'll work on as many as 4 paintings at once, so I can work on them in rotation during drying times.)
Sunday I made the Boursin omelette from The Bear for breakfast, because I knew Rian wanted to try it. (I used Zapp's Cajun Dill Gator-Tator for the topping.) We watched Dateline, then I went back upstairs to change my bed sheets, paint, and start listening to Mandy Mattney's Blood on Their Hands, her book about the Murdaugh family. She's been reporting on the story since the story was just "connected lawyer's drunk failson crashed a boat and killed someone", so this is the one I've been waiting for.
In the afternoon I baked a cake, did dinner prep, washed my sheets and a load of laundry, made turkey and bacon sandwiches for lunch again (this time I mixed a little BBQ sauce in with the mayo *chef's kiss*), drinking wine and reading in between everything. I'm about halfway done with Red Mars, the first book of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, and it's really good so far. Did you know Robinson is from Waukegan, IL? That's Ray Bradbury's hometown. Man, what they putting in the water in Waukegan.
Dinner was tonkatsu again (Rian likes it but my sister doesn't eat pork so I usually make it when he's here but before she is). Dessert was Rosalynn Carter's strawberry cake, a very midcentury combination of boxed cake mix, Jello, and frozen strawberries. I want to try her cheese ring recipe too, but I need the right kind of mold. Maybe for Easter.
I told him, you know, I'm off most of the week between Christmas and New Year's (I have to come in one day, I think it's the Thursday), so if you want to go somewhere all you have to do is ask. I know we'll probably go to Avery Island, because he likes the store and I need to buy some coffee mugs to replace all the ones that have gotten broke or gone missing over the past year. Also I love the boudin in the cafeteria. I can get boudin anywhere, obviously, but theirs is always good and they put pepper jelly on it. So good.
Fuck, now I'm craving boudin.
Saturday I made eggs and toast for everyone, then finished listening to Rachel Maddow's Prequel on audio while I made some shopping lists and just generally tried to organize myself. There's only one weekend left before Christmas, and that barely counts because Christmas is on a Monday! Anyway so then I bored Rian by dragging him with me to get dog food at Tractor Supply; to Michael's to get masking fluid, a tube of Payne's Grey, and some aida and black floss for a cross stitch I'm going to start this week. I'll have to take a break from painting while everyone's here because I just won't have room for it downstairs.
I treated Rian to lunch at Raising Cane's because he'd never had it; turns out there are like 7 locations in the Chicagoland area. It started in Louisiana but clearly hasn't stayed here. I like Cane's: they make it when you order it so you never get chicken that's been under a heat lamp, that sauce is bomb, and the restaurants are always spotless. Plus the only charities they give to are animal charities--the original Cane was the founder's dog, so pets are sort of part of their public brand--so you don't have to worry about your money funding hate groups, unlike like some other chicken franchises I could mention. (Homophobia aside, Chick-fil-A is a deeply mediocre product and I am convinced that most of their present fan base is purely spite-driven.)
Anyway, so then we went to Rouse's and went home. Rian helped me put everything away, and I took the dog for a walk which she did NOT enjoy because it had rained most of the morning. Eww, puddles! For most of the rest of the afternoon/evening I went back and forth between working on some painting in my bedroom and visiting with everyone downstairs, usually when I was waiting for something to dry so I could then proceed to the next step. (Something I very quickly discovered about watercolor is that a lot of it is just waiting for your paint to dry. You can hurry it along with a hair dryer, but I usually just let it dry by itself. Sometimes I'll work on as many as 4 paintings at once, so I can work on them in rotation during drying times.)
Sunday I made the Boursin omelette from The Bear for breakfast, because I knew Rian wanted to try it. (I used Zapp's Cajun Dill Gator-Tator for the topping.) We watched Dateline, then I went back upstairs to change my bed sheets, paint, and start listening to Mandy Mattney's Blood on Their Hands, her book about the Murdaugh family. She's been reporting on the story since the story was just "connected lawyer's drunk failson crashed a boat and killed someone", so this is the one I've been waiting for.
In the afternoon I baked a cake, did dinner prep, washed my sheets and a load of laundry, made turkey and bacon sandwiches for lunch again (this time I mixed a little BBQ sauce in with the mayo *chef's kiss*), drinking wine and reading in between everything. I'm about halfway done with Red Mars, the first book of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, and it's really good so far. Did you know Robinson is from Waukegan, IL? That's Ray Bradbury's hometown. Man, what they putting in the water in Waukegan.
Dinner was tonkatsu again (Rian likes it but my sister doesn't eat pork so I usually make it when he's here but before she is). Dessert was Rosalynn Carter's strawberry cake, a very midcentury combination of boxed cake mix, Jello, and frozen strawberries. I want to try her cheese ring recipe too, but I need the right kind of mold. Maybe for Easter.