Thursday, December 29, 2016

Day one

Ichinichi-me

Not bad. Today, I--

-got out of bed at six after hemming and hawing for an hour, and ran 6k

-reviewed some English proficiency test prep stuff with the Pumpkin Princess for an hour

-pulled the dead plants out of the flower bed. I still have to fertilize and turn the soil, though. I also noticed the dead plants in the pots I have on the front steps.

-chucked the dead potted plant in the bathroom and replaced it with a mason jar of ivy cuttings

-bought rubber gloves for cleaning the kitchen fan and hair dye

-made hummus with yuzu from my neighbor's yard

-made pressure cooker chicken stock from the Christmas chicken, made curry with half, and saved the rest for tomorrow's soup

Hoping I don't burn out tomorrow!


Tuesday, December 27, 2016

New Years' Plans

Shougatsu no yotei

The New Year holiday is six days this year. It's shorter than usual, and the same as last year. I don't do New Year's resolutions, but I do do New Year Holiday goals, because if I don't I'll spend the entire time in the internet vortex besides the occasional moody emergence to fix meals (Why. Do. They. Ask. For. Food. Three. Times. A. Day) and reluctantly interact with relatives.

So my goals are:

1. Do an online course on a work-related topic. I found this website a couple years ago. The course was good, and I promised myself I'd come back. Guess what happened? So, I'm setting myself up to actually do this and get this done. It's supposed to take 8 to 12 hours. If I don't finish, at least I will have a good start for the New Year.

2. Make a drawstring backpack with the Pumpkin Princess. She bought a kit from school so that we could make it over winter vacation.

3. Clean kitchen fan.

4. Prep flower bed for planting (pull dead plants and fertilize). Yes, it's December. Yes, the plants all died in September.

5. Make roux cubes. Frozen cubes of roux make corn chowder and mac and cheese easy. I ran out of cubes in October and never got around to making a new batch.

6. Run x3 x2  x1 Hopefully 8k at least once.

7. Minimal New Year's cooking. I want to make, at the very least, an egg dish, and hopefully a couple more items.

OK, that's the plan. If (and I said if) I run tomorrow, it's going to count as having run during the New Year Holiday.

(eta: I also need to color my hair.)

(edited on the 29th: ran 6k and pulled weeds)

Untitled

Mudai

Dear body,

Thank you for giving me all those nice things to eat during that work trip (Pizza! Ribs! Tacos! Middle Eastern food), and letting me eat all those nice things for Christmas. I decided to return the favor by having us go running. You are very important to me and I want to look out for you.

So, I don't really think it's right of you to protest so much. It was only 5 k, and I'd run the same distance exactly one week before. It's not like I hadn't run for a whole month, which is what happened a week before. I get that that wasn't fun. I'm being understanding about the soreness from that time. But today? No. Just, no.

In the future, I hope you will be more appreciative of my efforts to take care of you. You should be thanking me, not giving me grief.

Because the KFC whole roast chicken was delicious, and I'd like for us to be around to enjoy it for years to come.

Kisses,
Pumpkinmommy.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Bad luck

Un ga warui

The ATM I use is a booth with an automatic glass door. The door has a design with the bank logo painted on it for privacy/ security. Today I needed the ATM for multiple tasks, but I was ready to step out and get into the end of the line if one formed. I’m always annoyed when someone hogs the ATM, so, I’m careful not to do it myself.Every time I made a transaction, I turned around to check if someone was waiting for me to finish. Every time, I saw no one, so I kept going and did everything I wanted to do, very pleased with my good luck.


When I stepped out, there was a woman giving me the stink-eye. I apologized, and wondered how I hadn’t seen her. Then I realized she was slightly shorter than me and the perfect height to be completely obscured from my view by the stripe painted on the glass door. I pondered the potential effect of suggesting to the woman to switch banks to one whose window design would make her more conspicuous to ATM users and decided against it.