Thanksgiving weekend accomplishments
Thursday wasn't that much work, we decided to do the set meal from Hebert's Specialty Meats again: cornbread-stuffed turkey (deboned except for the wings), green bean casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, and white chocolate bread pudding. David picked it up on Wednesday and I stopped at Rouse's on the way home from work to pick up some brown and serve rolls and a couple packets of McCormick turkey gravy. The hardest part was timing everything so it all finished together.
While it was all cooking (the turkey takes 3 1/2 hours) I also vacuumed the downstairs rugs and did a load of laundry, and got a lot of reading done. For some reason last week I suddenly remembered "Hey, wasn't Netflix going to adapt The Talisman with the Duffer Brothers? What happened with that?" Googling only tuned up year-old vague press releases, so I assume it's gone the way of all previous adaptations: nowhere. Anyway, thinking of it made me decided to read it again, for the first time in at least 25 years. I think I'll read the sequel again, too; I'm fairly certain I only read it once, right after it came out in paperback. Supposedly Stephen King wants to publish a 3rd book and close it out as a trilogy, but Peter Straub died in 2022, so he'd be doing it solo.
Funny how the Dark Tower universe is so vast it even pulled in a different author.
Friday I thought about what to do with the free day. I knew I didn't want to spend it brawling with strangers over electronics that are only cheap because they're made with slave labor. But I also didn't feel like driving either very far or doing anything in Lafayette, where the traffic was bound to suck. I hit on going to No Name Records in Rayne, the bizarro unorganized record store that's only open 3 days a week. Rayne is a weird town, too; it exists because of the frog industry (as in frogs as food), which peaked about 100 years ago. It still has a Frog Festival and frog murals on all the old buildings.
I'll eat frog legs but I don't love them. They taste like a chicken and a fish had a baby.
Anyway, an hour of digging through crates and $15 later, and I left with Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight, Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die, The Cars' Shake It Up, and Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass Band's Whipped Cream and Other Delights. Honestly I have no idea how I didn't already own a copy of that last record, I've never not seen multiple copies of it every time I've gone into a record store. It's a perfect slice of 1960s "square culture" cheese.
We had leftovers for supper and I watched the new episode of Silo. Really happy to see Steve Zahn on my television (well, tablet) again.
Saturday I had planned to go into Lafayette and start distributing my donate pile books to the Little Free Libraries. But I decided to put that off because the shopping traffic was bound to be a thing all weekend. In fact, I might put it off until after the holidays--although "after the holidays" here means "the start of Carnival season", so maybe not. Anyway, so I only went the back way into Youngsville to go to the carwash and the grocery store.
At home I cut Penny's front toenails; it stresses both of us out so much that I usually have to do the front and back feet separately. I finished up the non-closet bedroom decluttering by cleaning around the other twin bed in the room, which I have to admit I tend to treat as storage since I never use it. I cleaned and vacuumed under the bed, put most of the stuff on the bed in the closet (where I'll deal with it again when I clean that out), found a better spot for the photography books and cookbooks that were piled around and under it. I put the photography books under the nightstand, and the cookbooks under the desk. I took all the records out of the crates so I could dust the crates, then vacuum underneath them.
And I almost threw out my manual typewriter because the last time I tried to use it the ribbon wouldn't lift for the keys to strike it. I decided I should probably at least try to see if I could fix it myself before tossing it. It's a Brother portable (circa 1960) and was actually meant for Japanese schoolchildren, so it doesn't take up much space. Turns out the ribbon color selector (I use 2-tone red/black ribbons) was perfectly between selections, all I had to do was move it back down to black.
I also ran some diluted vinegar through my diffuser, and packed away the hurricane season altar to make room for the St. Lucy altar. David made vegetable fritters for supper, and afterwards I decided to watch The Fall of the House of Usher again. I forgot how gnarly the first death was, especially how it sounded. All that melted skin squishing together. *shudder*
Sunday I made waffles and bacon for breakfast. There wasn't any new Dateline, so I read for a while. And when I stripped the sheets off the bed, I decided I was going to switch mattresses, too. I've used the same bed since I moved to Louisiana, and although I'm not very picky about beds--anything horizontal, big enough to contain me, and at least slightly more yielding than the floor is generally okay with me--its best days are definitely behind it. But the other bed has only been slept in a handful of times since it was purchased (right after the 'rents moved to Louisiana.)
The beds are only a couple feet apart, so it was pretty easy. I didn't need to lift the whole weight, just kind of rock and slide them around. I made up my bed with clean sheets, and the first time I sat on it it felt a lot higher than my old one, which made me realized how compressed/sunk it had become. It's almost like having a brand-new mattress!
I had extra time in the afternoon, because the Sunday after Thanksgiving I always make an easy gratin with store-bought mushroom ravioli, pesto and cream whipped together, and grated parmesan cheese, with a (bagged) salad and garlic bread. It takes less then an hour. So first I made a batch of Penny's cookies (she got a fresh one after she let me cut her back toenails with a minimum of squirming and yelping), then I made the jam cake from Snacking Cakes with concord grape jam.
In between baking, reading, and having some wine, I took Penny for a walk, and coming back realized the package from sirena73 that was supposed to show up on Monday had finally arrived. I'm sure it wasn't on the front porch at any other time during the week, because I know it's where the carriers like to leave packages that don't fit in the mailbox and I've been checking. Why or how it got delivered on a Sunday is a mystery.
So going through that was a fun diversion. It contained many nice things from the northern California coast (including some special gummies), but my favorite is the puzzle made from a local photographer's picture of the Sea Ranch Chapel, taken last spring when the northern lights were going crazy. When I was in high school, Phil did clinic work in Gualala, and Mom and I went up to stay in the area some weekends. I loved the Sea Ranch Chapel from the moment I saw it and I've always remembered it.
While it was all cooking (the turkey takes 3 1/2 hours) I also vacuumed the downstairs rugs and did a load of laundry, and got a lot of reading done. For some reason last week I suddenly remembered "Hey, wasn't Netflix going to adapt The Talisman with the Duffer Brothers? What happened with that?" Googling only tuned up year-old vague press releases, so I assume it's gone the way of all previous adaptations: nowhere. Anyway, thinking of it made me decided to read it again, for the first time in at least 25 years. I think I'll read the sequel again, too; I'm fairly certain I only read it once, right after it came out in paperback. Supposedly Stephen King wants to publish a 3rd book and close it out as a trilogy, but Peter Straub died in 2022, so he'd be doing it solo.
Funny how the Dark Tower universe is so vast it even pulled in a different author.
Friday I thought about what to do with the free day. I knew I didn't want to spend it brawling with strangers over electronics that are only cheap because they're made with slave labor. But I also didn't feel like driving either very far or doing anything in Lafayette, where the traffic was bound to suck. I hit on going to No Name Records in Rayne, the bizarro unorganized record store that's only open 3 days a week. Rayne is a weird town, too; it exists because of the frog industry (as in frogs as food), which peaked about 100 years ago. It still has a Frog Festival and frog murals on all the old buildings.
I'll eat frog legs but I don't love them. They taste like a chicken and a fish had a baby.
Anyway, an hour of digging through crates and $15 later, and I left with Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight, Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die, The Cars' Shake It Up, and Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass Band's Whipped Cream and Other Delights. Honestly I have no idea how I didn't already own a copy of that last record, I've never not seen multiple copies of it every time I've gone into a record store. It's a perfect slice of 1960s "square culture" cheese.
We had leftovers for supper and I watched the new episode of Silo. Really happy to see Steve Zahn on my television (well, tablet) again.
Saturday I had planned to go into Lafayette and start distributing my donate pile books to the Little Free Libraries. But I decided to put that off because the shopping traffic was bound to be a thing all weekend. In fact, I might put it off until after the holidays--although "after the holidays" here means "the start of Carnival season", so maybe not. Anyway, so I only went the back way into Youngsville to go to the carwash and the grocery store.
At home I cut Penny's front toenails; it stresses both of us out so much that I usually have to do the front and back feet separately. I finished up the non-closet bedroom decluttering by cleaning around the other twin bed in the room, which I have to admit I tend to treat as storage since I never use it. I cleaned and vacuumed under the bed, put most of the stuff on the bed in the closet (where I'll deal with it again when I clean that out), found a better spot for the photography books and cookbooks that were piled around and under it. I put the photography books under the nightstand, and the cookbooks under the desk. I took all the records out of the crates so I could dust the crates, then vacuum underneath them.
And I almost threw out my manual typewriter because the last time I tried to use it the ribbon wouldn't lift for the keys to strike it. I decided I should probably at least try to see if I could fix it myself before tossing it. It's a Brother portable (circa 1960) and was actually meant for Japanese schoolchildren, so it doesn't take up much space. Turns out the ribbon color selector (I use 2-tone red/black ribbons) was perfectly between selections, all I had to do was move it back down to black.
I also ran some diluted vinegar through my diffuser, and packed away the hurricane season altar to make room for the St. Lucy altar. David made vegetable fritters for supper, and afterwards I decided to watch The Fall of the House of Usher again. I forgot how gnarly the first death was, especially how it sounded. All that melted skin squishing together. *shudder*
Sunday I made waffles and bacon for breakfast. There wasn't any new Dateline, so I read for a while. And when I stripped the sheets off the bed, I decided I was going to switch mattresses, too. I've used the same bed since I moved to Louisiana, and although I'm not very picky about beds--anything horizontal, big enough to contain me, and at least slightly more yielding than the floor is generally okay with me--its best days are definitely behind it. But the other bed has only been slept in a handful of times since it was purchased (right after the 'rents moved to Louisiana.)
The beds are only a couple feet apart, so it was pretty easy. I didn't need to lift the whole weight, just kind of rock and slide them around. I made up my bed with clean sheets, and the first time I sat on it it felt a lot higher than my old one, which made me realized how compressed/sunk it had become. It's almost like having a brand-new mattress!
I had extra time in the afternoon, because the Sunday after Thanksgiving I always make an easy gratin with store-bought mushroom ravioli, pesto and cream whipped together, and grated parmesan cheese, with a (bagged) salad and garlic bread. It takes less then an hour. So first I made a batch of Penny's cookies (she got a fresh one after she let me cut her back toenails with a minimum of squirming and yelping), then I made the jam cake from Snacking Cakes with concord grape jam.
In between baking, reading, and having some wine, I took Penny for a walk, and coming back realized the package from sirena73 that was supposed to show up on Monday had finally arrived. I'm sure it wasn't on the front porch at any other time during the week, because I know it's where the carriers like to leave packages that don't fit in the mailbox and I've been checking. Why or how it got delivered on a Sunday is a mystery.
So going through that was a fun diversion. It contained many nice things from the northern California coast (including some special gummies), but my favorite is the puzzle made from a local photographer's picture of the Sea Ranch Chapel, taken last spring when the northern lights were going crazy. When I was in high school, Phil did clinic work in Gualala, and Mom and I went up to stay in the area some weekends. I loved the Sea Ranch Chapel from the moment I saw it and I've always remembered it.