Weekend accomplishments: Labor Day edition
Saturday I made breakfast, then spent an annoying chunk of time fiddling with my Kindle Fire and trying to Google a solution when it wouldn't turn back on. I don't have a desktop, laptop, or TV any more, so my Fire is how I do anything on the internet, watch any content, listen to music on Spotify, and read most of my books. I can do most of those things on my phone of course, but I really don't like to when I'm at home. (Except TikTok for some reason, I hardly ever use that app on my tablet.) Out of the house, of course I'll use my phone more. I don't like to take my tablet out of the house (I make an exception for Silent Book Club meetings), partly because I am so dependent on it.
September's SBC meeting was supposed to be this Saturday, but it was canceled; I believe the organizer's mother died. So instead I went to the record store in Rayne, then to Rouse's. At home I put away groceries, cleaned the kitchen, prepped my planner for October, vacuumed the downstairs rugs, and took Penny for a walk. (It was raining on and off and in between rain wasn't too hot.) It was obvious by then that my Kindle Fire was kaput, so I bought a new one. Then I decided to finally take some of the Road Trip mushroom gummies I bought almost a month ago. I had planned to take 4 of them, then realized that was kind of insane since I'd never taken this brand before, so I took 2.
Physically, it felt like the times I took psilocybin in my 20s: like the gravity had been turned down, or my head was full of helium. It hit fast and I felt pretty crazy (in a good way) for a couple of hours, but the crest receded and left a more manageable high--as in, I could be around my family without it being super obvious that I was tripping balls, not that they would care--for the rest of the evening. Maybe also because I ate; David made these banging chicken ranch croquettes and corn maque choux.
That was in the nature of a farewell (temporarily) party, because I'm going on a tolerance break between now and when I go on vacation at the end of the month. I'm overdue for one, it's been more than a year. I still have to take my melatonin gummies because I can't sleep without them, but those are just CBD, no THC (well, except for the fraction of a single percentage point that can't be avoided).
I didn't want to watch anything on my phone--me and David Lynch agree on that--so I listened to my new records and tried out the new Kuretake Art Nouveau watercolor set, which had arrived that afternoon. I didn't swatch it or anything, because why would I want to do that when I could just jump in feet first and completely fuck up? I made 2 very different landscapes with it.
They are way more pigmented than I was expecting, almost more like gouache. Which I am not complaining about, I've posted enough of my watercolors to show that I do not go in for the kind of misty vague pretty pastels that most people picture when they think of watercolor.
I finished reading Megan Abbott's Beware the Woman, which I fucking loved. It reminded me of a Mary Higgins Clark novel, but with themes more suited to 21st century feminism, and really good writing. (I loved Higgins Clark's books as a teenager--possibly that's one reason I absolutely never wanted to be married--but her prose was never anything more than "workmanlike".) I started Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Refugees, a collection of short stories published after The Sympathizer. It's funny when I think about it, that I grew up in one part of the country with a large population of Vietnamese, and moved to another one. Hey I love Vietnamese food, I ain't complaining. Louisiana has had Vietnamese communities since the 19th century, so it's not entirely because of the war, although a lot more came because of it.
Sunday I hadn't had any particular inspiration for breakfast, so I had bought some lemon poppy seed scone mix at Rouse's. I changed/washed the bed sheets, did 2 loads of towels and washed my Overlook Hotel caftan (it has to be washed and dried on delicate, so I always wash it by itself). I made lemon raspberry custards, bacon and egg salad sandwiches for lunch, did some dinner prep, and read, finishing The Refugees and starting Dan Simmons' The Abominable. I can already tell there's going to be a lot of descriptions of mountain climbing, something I have zero interest in. Hopefully the story is interesting enough and the real Yeti aren't just the mountains we climbed along the way. (I have read 3 other Simmons books and liked them all, so I'm hopeful.)
For supper I made a tuna melt calzone with cheddar sauce, an easy Bisquick recipe. After supper I just read until bedtime, since I still didn't have anything to watch anything on. I'm still watching Homicide: Life on the Street and am now on the 3rd season. For some reason it's just easy to let episode after episode play, like I always think "Do I want to watch more of this? Eh, why not." I swear I've recognized several bit players from John Waters movies.
My friend Susie and I used to make fun of the title of this show back in the '90s, we'd always say "Hooomiciiide: Life on the STREET", like we thought NBC was trying to sound tough and woefully failing. I realize now it probably came from the title of David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, which I read a few years ago. Somewhat histrionic title, but a good book, which led to Homicide the series, which of course led to The Wire, which was the Greatest Show Ever according to every ex-boyfriend. (It was a very good show, I just get tired of how certain kinds of white men will bang on about it incessantly.)
Monday since I'd had to buy a new tablet I decided not to go to Baton Rouge. I did go to Five Below to look for a cheap tablet stand, but I couldn't find a single one! I bought Penny one of those fish that flops around, which she turned out to be scared of, and some pens and sticky notes that look like toast and come in a little toaster stand. Sticky notes that look like something else are my weakness, I buy them faster than I can use them and I have sets that look like sushi and onigiri, dim sum, clouds, and milk cartons.
I set up my tablet when I got home, which didn't require much since Amazon knew all my apps and passwords from my last Kindle Fire and restored everything itself. It took about an hour for the 3rd party apps, but Kindle was available right away so I could read as soon as I turned it on. As I'd suspected, my old cover doesn't quite fit; the tablet is the same width and height, but because it's a little thinner it doesn't "click" into the cover. I can still use it to read and stream, because it tilts back, but I just know I'll eventually wind up dropping the fucking thing if I don't get a cover or a stand that fits.
I gave Penny a quick bath, then read and had a glass of wine while David finished making pulled pork and slaw sandwiches with baked beans for supper. After supper I watched some Homicide and made a few more paint pen sketches.
I want to finish the sketchbook, then I'm going to use the Kuretake Art Nouveau set some more. And my Life magazines should get here this week.
September's SBC meeting was supposed to be this Saturday, but it was canceled; I believe the organizer's mother died. So instead I went to the record store in Rayne, then to Rouse's. At home I put away groceries, cleaned the kitchen, prepped my planner for October, vacuumed the downstairs rugs, and took Penny for a walk. (It was raining on and off and in between rain wasn't too hot.) It was obvious by then that my Kindle Fire was kaput, so I bought a new one. Then I decided to finally take some of the Road Trip mushroom gummies I bought almost a month ago. I had planned to take 4 of them, then realized that was kind of insane since I'd never taken this brand before, so I took 2.
Physically, it felt like the times I took psilocybin in my 20s: like the gravity had been turned down, or my head was full of helium. It hit fast and I felt pretty crazy (in a good way) for a couple of hours, but the crest receded and left a more manageable high--as in, I could be around my family without it being super obvious that I was tripping balls, not that they would care--for the rest of the evening. Maybe also because I ate; David made these banging chicken ranch croquettes and corn maque choux.
That was in the nature of a farewell (temporarily) party, because I'm going on a tolerance break between now and when I go on vacation at the end of the month. I'm overdue for one, it's been more than a year. I still have to take my melatonin gummies because I can't sleep without them, but those are just CBD, no THC (well, except for the fraction of a single percentage point that can't be avoided).
I didn't want to watch anything on my phone--me and David Lynch agree on that--so I listened to my new records and tried out the new Kuretake Art Nouveau watercolor set, which had arrived that afternoon. I didn't swatch it or anything, because why would I want to do that when I could just jump in feet first and completely fuck up? I made 2 very different landscapes with it.
They are way more pigmented than I was expecting, almost more like gouache. Which I am not complaining about, I've posted enough of my watercolors to show that I do not go in for the kind of misty vague pretty pastels that most people picture when they think of watercolor.
I finished reading Megan Abbott's Beware the Woman, which I fucking loved. It reminded me of a Mary Higgins Clark novel, but with themes more suited to 21st century feminism, and really good writing. (I loved Higgins Clark's books as a teenager--possibly that's one reason I absolutely never wanted to be married--but her prose was never anything more than "workmanlike".) I started Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Refugees, a collection of short stories published after The Sympathizer. It's funny when I think about it, that I grew up in one part of the country with a large population of Vietnamese, and moved to another one. Hey I love Vietnamese food, I ain't complaining. Louisiana has had Vietnamese communities since the 19th century, so it's not entirely because of the war, although a lot more came because of it.
Sunday I hadn't had any particular inspiration for breakfast, so I had bought some lemon poppy seed scone mix at Rouse's. I changed/washed the bed sheets, did 2 loads of towels and washed my Overlook Hotel caftan (it has to be washed and dried on delicate, so I always wash it by itself). I made lemon raspberry custards, bacon and egg salad sandwiches for lunch, did some dinner prep, and read, finishing The Refugees and starting Dan Simmons' The Abominable. I can already tell there's going to be a lot of descriptions of mountain climbing, something I have zero interest in. Hopefully the story is interesting enough and the real Yeti aren't just the mountains we climbed along the way. (I have read 3 other Simmons books and liked them all, so I'm hopeful.)
For supper I made a tuna melt calzone with cheddar sauce, an easy Bisquick recipe. After supper I just read until bedtime, since I still didn't have anything to watch anything on. I'm still watching Homicide: Life on the Street and am now on the 3rd season. For some reason it's just easy to let episode after episode play, like I always think "Do I want to watch more of this? Eh, why not." I swear I've recognized several bit players from John Waters movies.
My friend Susie and I used to make fun of the title of this show back in the '90s, we'd always say "Hooomiciiide: Life on the STREET", like we thought NBC was trying to sound tough and woefully failing. I realize now it probably came from the title of David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, which I read a few years ago. Somewhat histrionic title, but a good book, which led to Homicide the series, which of course led to The Wire, which was the Greatest Show Ever according to every ex-boyfriend. (It was a very good show, I just get tired of how certain kinds of white men will bang on about it incessantly.)
Monday since I'd had to buy a new tablet I decided not to go to Baton Rouge. I did go to Five Below to look for a cheap tablet stand, but I couldn't find a single one! I bought Penny one of those fish that flops around, which she turned out to be scared of, and some pens and sticky notes that look like toast and come in a little toaster stand. Sticky notes that look like something else are my weakness, I buy them faster than I can use them and I have sets that look like sushi and onigiri, dim sum, clouds, and milk cartons.
I set up my tablet when I got home, which didn't require much since Amazon knew all my apps and passwords from my last Kindle Fire and restored everything itself. It took about an hour for the 3rd party apps, but Kindle was available right away so I could read as soon as I turned it on. As I'd suspected, my old cover doesn't quite fit; the tablet is the same width and height, but because it's a little thinner it doesn't "click" into the cover. I can still use it to read and stream, because it tilts back, but I just know I'll eventually wind up dropping the fucking thing if I don't get a cover or a stand that fits.
I gave Penny a quick bath, then read and had a glass of wine while David finished making pulled pork and slaw sandwiches with baked beans for supper. After supper I watched some Homicide and made a few more paint pen sketches.
I want to finish the sketchbook, then I'm going to use the Kuretake Art Nouveau set some more. And my Life magazines should get here this week.