01/31/2021

Today was a nice day. I got up and made my bread recipe for the week and it turned out well. My parents stopped by to pick up the last couple week's worth of stuff I've made that I froze for them and I was able to give them half the muffins. They were finally able to see all we've done to the apartment and the winter decorations. It's slow-going, but I really love what we're doing with the place. Today I hung up some decorative oven mitts that we usually keep above our little oven, but have been on the floor in front of the oven since we moved. Our floor around the tv area needs work. It's a work in progress for our dvds, but eventually that will be under control too.

Once my parents left, we settled in for a day of Sliders and a few chores during and in between each episode. I did two loads of laundry, filled and ran the dishwasher, and did the by-hand dishes. I also prepped and made our fried rice dinner which turned out amazing! Tomorrow, I'm going to scramble an egg to go in it because I love fried rice with scrambled eggs in them.

I also worked on the IOUs and prepped a bill to go out in the mail tomorrow. It's a new month too, so I'll pay rent online tomorrow too. Tomorrow is an office day and I'll be taking all the tv dinners I bought yesterday to the freezer there. Now that they're full days, I need a lunch, for sure. Because it's just one day at a time, it makes more sense to do a tv dinner instead of bringing food which I always plan for a two day set of meals. One can of soup is two lunches for me.

We've switched from Sliders, and are doing our Sunday night Disney movie, which is Robin Hood this week. We'll do an episode of GBBO to finish out the weekend next. I might do one episode of JAG too.

01/30/2021

Today we actually went out and did stuff. We tracked down the nearest Hallmark store to us, which is in Lynnwood, and went there to look around. We got some discount ornaments for the Christmas tree next year, and one ornament for the winter tree now. We each got some other knickknacks for the apartment. It was fun and felt normal, even though everybody had masks on. We also stopped by the See's candy shop at Alderwood Mall and got some treats. It's outside the mall so we didn't have to go inside. After that, we did our grocery shopping and got Taco del Mar for lunch.

It was late when we got back and put all the food away, so I decided to switch the menu around and not make what was planned. I'll do it for tomorrow. I'm going to make fried rice, and the attempt to make rice in the rice cooker were ruined when I apparently had rice stuck to the bottom of the outside liner and burned it and the cooking function stopped and would only let me "warm" it, so I had to use a pan on the stove. I haven't made rice on the stove in forever. This rice cooker came with me when I moved out of my parents house and has lasted that long. I was just saying yesterday I wanted a bigger one when this one bites the dust, and apparently I jinxed it, cuz the next day I broke the dang thing! I'll have to keep making rice on the stove till I can get to a store that sells them because I want to look at it in person, not trust the internet only.

We did order something off the internet this afternoon though: Hallmark Christmas movie t-shirts. So we can just up our nerd game on Friday nights. It should be fun!

We have settled in for Sliders the rest of the day and tomorrow too. It's a fun show. We're in season three now.

01/29/2021

Today was a work-from-home day that was slow all day till the late afternoon when pretty much everybody turned everything in. During the earlier part of the day, I watched two of the movies I got at random from the library. I actually started one and got maybe 10 minutes into it when it glitched and returned to the previews, so I didn't try to get back to where it left off and just switched to another movie. I got through the rest of them and also took the time to flip through the cookbook I got from the library too. I get cookbooks from the library and take pictures of the recipes I want to try so I can copy them from my computer instead of needing the cookbook itself. I ran down to the library in the afternoon and dropped it all off. I really love living so close to a library!

I also had time to make an apple tartlet recipe I've been wanting to try. I have a few leftover ingredients from my Christmas blog project and marzipan was one of them. I'm trying to find good recipes to use them up, and ran across the recipe in a magazine my sister was getting rid of. They turned out pretty good, a bit sweet, but that's marzipan for you. I froze half of them to give to my parents.

I also made the bbq sauce for dinner tonight and left the chicken marinating in it all day. It turned out really delicious. It was super easy to make. A keeper recipe, for sure. There's leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, and I am going to make a lot of rice because tomorrow's dinner is fried rice, so I need leftover cold rice.

After logging out from work, I put in a half hour of working around the apartment and swept all the floors, dusted and vacuumed the entire apartment before taking a shower and finishing cleaning the shower. I'm trying to get better at chores because I now spend so much time here that I like having it not being a pit all the time. I also filled and ran the dishwasher.

We watched the latest mind-blowing episode of WandaVision while we ate, and then did an episode of GBBO before getting ready for the Hallmark Friday night Christmas movie. It's just so much fun to watch each week!

01/28/2021

Today ended up being a nice day at the office. I took over the phones around 9am and fielded about one call an hour, which was a nice amount for me. I had work till about 12:30pm and then found stuff to keep me busy the rest of the day. I was able to figure out some stuff on the phone calls that I'd never done before, so it was nice to find out how to do things.

I left the office just after 4pm, and made great time getting home. I was in the door before 5pm. I finished up with my shower and then read for about a half hour in my room. I like having time to read again.

Random: I've been having problems with dry, itchy skin lately, so I am upping my hydration game with lotion on my legs, feet, and face. If I can really keep it up for a week, I think it should make a difference. And also drinking more water should help too. I don't always feel that thirsty in colder weather, so it's harder to remember to drink enough water.

Working from home and if I can, I'm going to try and get some household chores done. I also need to get the bbq sauce made for tomorrow's dinner. The chicken has to marinate for two hours in it first. It should be a good recipe!

01/27/2021

It was a better paced day today working from home. I was able to take actual breaks and full lunch hour, which was really nice! On my lunch break, I washed the by-hand dishes, walked to the library to drop off two of the movies I watched today, and picked up two books that were waiting for me, and then came back to read for the rest of the time. I was refreshed, and able to concentrate on work better. It is something built in to the office schedule in the before, but it's been decimated now. But we came to the agreement that when we go into the office, that we will just plan on being there the whole day. And office day is an office day. It will allow us to plan our meals and weeks better. It removes the pressure of "Oh if I hurry I can get out of here in a half hour!" It allows us to get deliveries out better for local offices that are open. And it'll allow us to take over the phone a little more easily and give my manager a break from it. There will still be moments of boredom, but it is what it is.

We are scrambling for the next couple days for our menu because now that I'm working a full day on office days, I won't get home in a good time to make dinner tomorrow. We're just going to do our own thing, but I'll be home on Friday to make the baked bbq chicken I was planning. I'm going to freeze the cooked chicken that was going to go in tomorrow's dinner and use it at a time that I can do the recipe.

After logging out for the day, I read for a while in my room, took out the garbage and recycling, showered, and then had leftover tacos for dinner. West Wing, Great British Bake Off, and JAG tonight. Very exciting!

01/26/2021

Even though I worked from home, it was a super busy day today. I was here, my coworker was at the office, and she was there till the same time I was yesterday. It was just nuts. And I saw our calendar today and business is picking up, so the next few weeks will also be quite busy. I did manage to take one break, and got a few little things done in the kitchen. Running the dishwasher now.

I finished the 6th season of When Calls the Heart this afternoon and was going to walk it down to the library after work, but it was really dark cuz it's so cloudy out and I didn't want to go out when it's that dark. I'll try to run it down during the day tomorrow when I need a break.

My new pillow is definitely helping my shoulder and neck issue, though there is still one new place that has been hurting since I got it. Hopefully I just need to adjust a little more. I feel like I'm sleeping better because of it, which is good. It's nice and soft, but supportive too. A nice balance.

Tacos for dinner tonight. Leftovers tomorrow. If I have time tomorrow, I want to do some housecleaning and watch one of the movies I got from the library. We'll see if that happens...

01/25/2021

Today ended up being a full day at the office. I don't mind being there if there's actually work to be done. It was busy all day, so it was cool. I had the radio streaming all day, and the day passed pleasantly. There weren't too many people on the bus home, which was nice, but the driver had a layover at Northgate, so we just sat there for about 10 minutes. At least I had a book with me...

I didn't have much time to do anything when I got home, I showered and just jumped into heating up dinner and settling in for the night. We did one episode of The West Wing, but actually have new shows we watch on Monday that will be starting in a few minutes.

Working from home the next two days. Should be nice. Tired, hopefully I'll sleep well tonight.

1/24/2021

Today was a stay-at-home day. I woke up around the same time I do on an office day, which will be tomorrow, so I decided to get up even though it was early. I read in my reading chair in my room for an hour or so, and it was lovely. I should do that more often! My body is still adjusting and improving from the new pillow. So far it feels like sleeping on clouds, which is really nice!

When it was a lightly more decent time, I got up and made the scones for my food blog today. Luckily, they turned out pretty good and became part of my breakfast and lunch! Once my sister got up, I started laundry and then we went into more Sliders. We forgot that we were going to start with the new episode of WandaVision, so after the first episode of Sliders, we switched to that. It's such a fantastic show!

We did Sliders and chores all afternoon. I also made a pork chop dinner for us tonight, with leftovers for tomorrow. I got all the food for work tomorrow ready and cleaned out a few things in the fridge, and ran the dishwasher. We switched from Sliders to watch our Disney movie of the week, which was The Aristocats, and now we're doing an episode Great British Bake-Off to finish out the weekend, though I will probably do an episode of JAG after my sister goes to bed, before I go to bed. Not the most exciting week, and it never snowed, like the rumors we'd heard, but it was pleasant enough!

01/23/2021

Today was a pretty lazy day. We did a little more grocery shopping, but I should be set for the next couple weeks now. I was going to help my sister with her room, but she ended up taking care of it all herself. I filled and ran the dishwasher, and that's about it. The rest of the day was spent binge-watching Sliders, a first viewing for me. We did manage to not go out to eat, so that's good.

I used my new pillow last night and woke up feeling a lot better. Not completely fixed, but on the way. I could feel my whole body was aligned differently then it was with my old pillow. It took a lot of time to get to this point, so it's going to take a while for my muscles to stop hurting. I think it's a move in the right direction, though. And it may be connected, but I was able to fall right back to sleep each time I woke up in the night, which is also good. Hopefully tomorrow I'll just be that much better.

Tomorrow will be a little more productive, some chores, and baking, and I'll be testing a new recipe for dinner, so that should be fun!

01/22/2021

I worked from home today and it was suuuper slow. I was told the other day we're supposed to be taking our lunches and breaks even when we work from home, so I tried it out today. It was pretty nice! I read on my breaks. And during the slow time I made more progress in the den and the front hall closet. It looks so nice now and I can actually access all our household cleaning products now. I also watched some of the season of When Calls the Heart I picked up from the library on Tuesday. It's such a fun show!

After logging out, we went out and did some errands so we don't have to do it over the weekend. There is a threat of snow, so we wanted to just get it all over with if possible. We still have a small shopping trip to do in the morning and my sister needs to get something done with her car, and then we'll just settle in for the rest of the weekend. We picked up dinner on the way back in and they messed up our order, but it worked out pretty much ok in the end. It was too much to deal with the go back out and get it fixed.

I bought a new pillow specifically for side sleepers, and I'm hoping it will help out at night with my neck and upper back pain. Fingers crossed!

01/21/2021

Well, luck was not on my side, and it ended up being another full day at the office today. It was a slow day, but I managed to stay occupied. I stopped by Bartells on the way home for a few things. I really do love living so close to one! I will be working from home tomorrow, thankfully. My lungs are still not happy after I went out after work on Tuesday to do a couple errands and walked too fast and got too breathless. I need a day of sitting around for the most part.

Not a very exciting day, but that is actually good now. I don't have to constantly worry about what horror will be unleashed out of the White House next. It's luxurious.

Leftovers for dinner and West Wing episodes tonight.

01/20/2021

Today ended up being a full day at the office, but I was able to stream the inauguration and listened/watched most of it. I was able to stay busy for most of the day too, which is nice. Tomorrow may or may not be as long, depending on how long the first part of the day goes. If I'm lucky, I'll get to finish my shift at home, and if I'm not lucky, it'll probably be another full day at the office. I think I"ll have to listen to Hamilton again. It seems like the right time for it.

It's nice to feel hope again. It's nice to not feel horror, terror, and sadness, if only for one day. There were so many times that I wasn't sure we'd make it to today. The our country would still be here. But it is. We made it happen. We fought the giant, and won. We dropped the One Ring into Mount Doom. Today we get to take a breath and enjoy it, but tomorrow, we get back to work. There's a lot of damage to undo, not just from the last 4 years, but from the last 400 years. A lot of people are afraid of what they think they'll lose from equality and equity. Our job is to work on those people. It's going to take a long time and a lot of hand-holding.

I need to get a new pillow. My pillow is great, but it's for back sleeping. I am a side sleeper, which means my neck is killing me and has been for a long time now. I got a $100 gift card from work for Christmas, and I think that might be a good use of that money...

Leftovers for dinner. West Wing tonight.

01/19/2021

It was a super busy day today. I was focused on work for the most part, so I didn't watch anything but the Hallmark channel. I was a little bummed out because I was set to work from home tomorrow and watch the Inauguration live, but my boss needs me to come into the office tomorrow AND Thursday probably for full days to be there for some people who are going to be there, so now I won't be able to watch it after all. I don't think I have ever been able actually watch it live before, so I guess I won't be breaking that streak any time soon. Ah well, I guess I'll catch the highlights on youtube later.

I did have enough time today to prep our dinner, which came from my new Goldbergs cookbook. It was a casserole that I was able to get mostly ready for the oven and then left it in the fridge for dinnertime. And I was very excited because it turned out to be awesome! I can see this becoming part of our regular rotation.

After logging out of work, I walked down the street to the library and finally used it for the first time since we moved, and since the pandemic started. I had no problems, no line, and even picked up a drama movie pack that they picked at random, so now I have lots of movies to watch and try out! It couldn't have been easier, and they announced today that they're adding two more days to being open, which means that the lines will be less long, which is great.

After that, I walked down to Bartells and picked up a couple of my prescriptions. I sure do like having 3 month prescriptions again! It's starting to get lighter again, so I didn't feel too uncomfortable going out that time of night.

Tonight, we started a West Wing watch. We've both seen some of the show, but a long time ago, and neither of us finished the series originally. I think going into a new administration is the perfect time to watch it. I just couldn't bring myself to watch it over the last four years. It was just too painful a reminder of reality...

I have my food prepped for work tomorrow. Hopefully a good night's sleep will be had. Tomorrow's a big day...

01/18/2021

Today was not too bad. I logged in to work for two hours and was done just after 10am. Then I raided the freezer and whipped up a bit of a brunch. I'm trying to clean out the freezer, so that was nice to get rid of a few things. We settled in for the rest of the morning and the afternoon for a Punky Brewster binge watch and we finished out the series. I will always love that show.

After that ended, we went out for a short walk and dropped off dead lightbulbs at the nearby hardware store, and got rid of my sister's old epipens at the drug store. Then we settled in to try out Cobra Kai again and it's just the best show. We're finishing out the first season now and will switch to something else so we don't go through it too fast.

Leftovers for dinner tonight. Working from home tomorrow.

01/17/2021

Today felt like a super lazy day, but I did a few things. I slept in and when I got up, I just jumped right into making my recipe for my bread blog project. Instead of baking it right away, my sister and I discussed switching our lunch and dinner plans, so I put the pan in the fridge till later and got right into making the macaroni and cheese recipe. I got that all ready to go as well and put it in the fridge so we could go out and pick up the fried chicken from Heaven Sent we planned to eat with it. Heaven Sent is expensive, but it's a Black-owned local small business and we wanted to support it on MLK weekend. When we got back, I got the mac and cheese in the oven.

We settled in for a long afternoon and evening binge watching Punky Brewster, which we'd stopped watching when the holidays started up and we had no time for it. I also baked the bread, and filled and ran the dishwasher. Then it was just tv all afternoon. 

I will be logging in to work in the morning to clear out the in-box and then logging off for the rest of the day. It's sort of a compromise because we normally work that day, so I will definitely take that! We're also getting back into our Disney movie watch tonight with The Jungle Book.

01/16/2021

Today was a tiring day. We got up and started working in my sister's bedroom and got a bunch of stuff rearranged in her room. She still have a lot of stuff to deal with, but the infrastructure is now what she wants it to be, so it should help her get it under control. After that, we moved onto the den and rearranged everything there. We moved one item out to the kitchen area and then shifted everything around and it's amazing how much space it opened up. It feels bigger and way easier to deal with. I also had time to clean up the food shelves and you can see exactly what we have and how much, etc. It'll really help our food preparation and shopping from now on. Now I just need to keep making headway with the freezers. Those need a lot of work too.

We ate take out for lunch and dinner because it just sounded good and it fit in with our schedule better. We finished the last of the LOTR specials and also dropped off some stuff at our parents' house, did our grocery shopping for the next week, and attempted to take stuff to Goodwill but the line was too long.

Before taking my shower tonight, my sister cut my hair for me. It's been getting too long and I didn't really have any other options available to me. I don't want to go to a salon right now, and even if my aunt who normally cuts my hair would interact with me, we can't because of the pandemic. So, it was either let my sister do it, or let it keep growing. She said it was a lot of fun, so maybe I'll let her cut it when it gets too long again!!

Pizza for dinner tonight and watching a DCOM called Tiger Cruise, because we watched the Hallmark Christmas movie last night that took place on a Tiger Cruise. Hopefully I will sleep well tonight because I am exhausted!

01/15/2021

Today was a super busy day working from home. We've been dead for two weeks and then suddenly it exploded. And of course the computer had a meltdown. Luckily my coworker was in the office and was able to restart it for me which fixed it. I was super busy till about 2pm when it finally calmed down for the rest of the day. We decided to be off on Monday but I will log in in the morning and get the in-box cleared out. And my coworker volunteered to come in Tuesday, so I only have to go in on Thursday next week, which I can't complain about!

Dinner tonight was pork chops and roasted Yukon gold potatoes. Quite tasty! We have plans to watch the first episode of WandaVision tonight and then settle in for the Hallmark Christmas movie of the week. Hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep tonight because we are doing some rearranging of the apartment tomorrow and will most likely be exhausted when that's done! Not too many special plans this weekend, though I will be starting my bread food blog project, so that should be fun.

01/14/2021

Today ended up being a full day at the office, and just now I feel terrible because I realize I left my dirty dishes in the sink and didn't clean them before leaving. I was just so tired by the end of it that it flew out of my mind. There wasn't too much to do, but I managed to stay busy for the most part. I moved the speakers from the the back room to my desk and listened to Hamilton and then the radio and that kept me entertained for most of the day. There were too many people in the office for my tastes, but it cleared out eventually, so it was ok.

I had to stay till the UPS guy came with our order and he didn't come till almost 3pm, and I had stuff to do after that it just made sense for me to stay till 4pm and then just leave for the day, so that's what I did. It was light enough when I left that I decided to stop by See's Candy and pick up some goodies. I'm happy that they're still up and running during the pandemic.

My sister picked up sandwiches for us and drove by me on the way home as I walked home from the bus so I got a ride home for the last block! The sky was so pretty today, it looked like pink cotton candy. The sandwich was quite tasty. LOTR specials tonight. Hopefully I'll sleep very well cuz I am tired!

01/13/2021

Last night was rough. We lost power twice and it either kept me up or woke me up both times. I sleep with fans and it's amazing how hard it is to sleep in complete silence. And how warm it gets without them on! This morning I was pretty tired, and I've been tired all day. But I'm better off than my coworker who lives in West Seattle who lost power all night and ended up having to go into the office cuz she still had no power. No fun. My work day was probably the lightest it's been so far this year, and that's saying something. It was just dullsville. I listened to an antiracism podcast. I finished out my When Calls the Heart rewatch and put the next season on hold through the library. I looked into the pick up process and it's actually super simple, so it shouldn't be an issue to get stuff from the library again. After that, I started a Black Lightning rewatch, since that new and sadly, final season starts up soon. Then I took a break and finished out the first season of JAG. I also got all the dishes caught up, which was my big chore of the day. I also spent some time in the den looking around and measuring stuff. We're going to work on rearranging it over the weekend.

I was going to stay home from the office because it's just ridiculously slow and there's no real work to do there, but we're expecting a big UPS delivery at the office and somebody has to be there for it. Hopefully it'll arrive very early and I won't have to stay too long.

We're slowly working on stuff in the apartment. Since we spend so much time here due to the pandemic, we're trying to get it exactly how we like it most. It's going to be a lot of work, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Of course, the big news is Trump's impeachment redux. I couldn't find it on the local channels in the morning and then I decided I didn't want to endure it, so I just read about it after the fact. Biden is inaugurated in a week, and it can't come soon enough, imo!

Dinner was a new recipe that was merely ok. It filled our stomachs, but I won't be making it again. LOTR specials tonight and a peach turnover for dessert in honor of the impeachment.

01/12/2021

Today I worked from home. It was not very busy, but steady. Well, maybe not, but I did a lot of cleaning the apartment, so I stayed busy with that. I swept all the hard floors, dusted the entire place, vacuumed, cleaned the toilet, and filled and ran the dishwasher. I was pretty hot and sweaty by the time I was done! I also watched a lot of When Calls the Heart, and the Golden Girls. I will probably finish out WCTH tomorrow and then I'll look into getting the other seasons from the library.

I was going to walk on the treadmill after logging out, but I started feeling a little dizzy in the afternoon and decided not to. I think there's some air pressure stuff going on with the weather today cuz I keep trying to pop my ears. I hear it's supposed to be windy and rainy tomorrow too, fun fun fun!

Tonight was leftover sloppy joe filling on baked potatoes. Boring, but filling. I'm working tonight on selecting the recipes for the next two weeks of our menu. More LOTR specials tonight.

01/11/2021

Today was an office day. I gave a mask to a guy on the bus who didn't have one and was trying to rig one up with a paper napkin. I always keep a few extra disposable ones in my backpack in case I need them, but this is the first time I've given one away. Luckily, he was really happy to have it. It's so disheartening to have people resenting masks. Always nice to encounter fellow mask enthusiasts.

Not too many transcripts today, but lots of busy work that needed to get done. I stayed till just before 2pm before coming home to finish the day there. It was pretty slow from the time I got home till the end of the day. I took out the compost/garbage/recycling after logging out after work, and then got to work on dinner, which was sloppy joes and randomly, hashbrowns. But I couldn't find any tater tots or french fries in the freezer and wanted something to go with it. It was all pretty tasty!

Tired tonight. Watching LOTR specials. Popcorn in a while for a snack. Very exciting day...!

01/10/2021

Today started with sitting around watching Youtube videos, and then walking to the Panda Express a couple blocks away to use a coupon that expired today for lunch that we took back home to eat there. Most of the day has been spent watching LOTR specials, and doing laundry. I did make my final Christmas blog recipe, which is also the unofficial start of my winter baking project. Convenient!

Breakfast for dinner tonight to use up the bread we got yesterday for lunch, so I'm rearranging my menu a bit, but it'll work out fine. I go to the office tomorrow. Not sure for how long, we're expecting a delivery I need to be there for, but I don't anticipate a lot of new stuff showing up. I could be wrong though. Guess we'll find out!

1/9/2021

Today started off with a trip to the grocery store. First thing in the morning seems to be a great time for shopping with little crowds. I highly recommend it. When we got home, we launched into more of our LOTR rewatch. Today was TTT and ROTK cast commentaries. We may have some time for specials after, if it's not too late.

In between movies, I went out for a walk and was excited that I was able to do my full walk at the pace I normally walk, so that was nice. It was really cold, so having a mask on actually made it easier to breath because it warmed up the air before I inhaled it into my lungs. Normally in the winter I have to walk with a scarf around my mouth to do that because the air is just too harsh on my lungs.

Dinner tonight was gnocchi with a quick tomato and Italian sausage sauce and it was really good! Unfortunately, gnocchi expands in your stomach more than I realized and I went back for seconds. I am regretting it now! Filled and ran the dishwasher today, as far as chores. More chores will be done tomorrow.

Tired tonight. Hopefully I'll sleep well!

1/8/2021

Well, it was the slowest work day of the year/week yet. Definitely a good day to be working from home. Next week will be probably just as slow. Maybe next week will less stressful politics-wise and I can work on my editing in the slow times. I did get through a lot of When Calls the Heart. I'm about to start the 5th season, the last one on Netflix. I will definitely be done before it leaves Netflix in a few weeks. Then I'll try to track down the next two seasons through the library. It's time I figure out how to use the library in the pandemic.

Dinner tonight was homemade chicken nuggets and oven fries. Very tasty. We're watching the Friday night Hallmark Christmas movie, which will probably be our new Friday night tradition from now on. We're trying to eat out less and having a fun movie like that to focus on instead of take out as our reward for getting through the week is a great alternative.

Politics: Trump finally got permanently banned from Twitter and more people are calling for impeachment and/or removal from office. Rumor has it Monday will be the start of the impeachment process. Good times...!

1/7/2021

Today was an office day. It ended up being a decent day there with enough work to keep me there till nearly 2pm before I headed home and finished working from here. It's still kind of sad that it was basically three days' worth of work and it still only took till then to catch it all up again. I was unsure if there would be problems downtown after yesterday's political incident, but nothing was out of sorts. I got to the office and back home again with no issues. I work from home tomorrow.

I watched a Christmas episode of When Calls the Heart when I got home, and filled and ran the dishwasher, but that was it for chores. I didn't sleep well last night and then today was a long day on my feet, so I am tired! Tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to get some chores done while I work. Dusting and vacuuming is my main goals, chore-wise.

Policitics-wise-That man is still in the White House. I'd hoped he'd be gone by the time I got home today, but the GOP is chickening out, yet again, on doing the right thing. Keeping my fingers crossed on the rumors of a second impeachment, though...

01/06/2021

Well, it was a day. I'm glad I worked from home today. It was still a relatively light workload, so I watched tv while I worked, as usual. At 10am, the show on Hallmark was a rerun because they had decided to stop production because of the surge of covid cases in LA, so I turned on the news because it was the start of the counting of the electoral votes today. And it started off boring and predictable and I was in the kitchen making rice krispy treats when they started talking about people walking into the Capitol building illegally. For the rest of the day I watched as a coup attempt went unstopped by any people in authority who could have stopped it. I watched my nation be attacked by domestic terrorists. I watched the POTUS throw fuel on the flames, for which twitter finally blocked him for a while. It was awful and I don't know how it all ends. This event will end, but people are so poisoned against the truth and have been brainwashed by the POTUS, that I don't know how we go on from here as a nation.

Over the course of these past four years, I have lived far too much of The Order of the Phoenix and LOTR for my tastes. I like to read them as stories, but not so much living them in reality...January 21st cannot come soon enough...

01/05/2021

Today was another super slow day, with a few bits of work coming in, but very light overall. It was a good thing I got to work from home! I did some chores during commercial breaks. I swept the floors. Put the clean dishes away. Cleaned my bathroom sink. I organized my dvds which were sort of in flux and cleaned off some of the floor. I got through several more episodes of When Calls the Heart, and the latest episode of All Rise, and made a homemade dinner with a brand new recipe, that turned out to be really easy to make and delicious!

We're waiting anxiously tonight to hear the results of the Georgia special election. Control of the House hangs in the balance, and based on how terrible the GOP is being lately, we need to win. Everything depends on it. Some people are calling it, but I'm waiting to see it from the big news sources before breathing easily.

Watched the newest episodes of The Neighborhood and Bob Hearts Abishola, and now finishing the day with Hobbit specials.

01/04/2021

Today I went into the office and since it was slow I did the transcript desk while I was there and ended up staying busy till about 12:20pm and then left to finish the day from home. I had one referral job in the afternoon, and that is is. My coworker isn't going in tomorrow because there's nothing for her to do. I knew the first part of January, if not the entire month of January, was going to be a snooze fest, so I'm so glad I now have the option to work remotely. There is just no reason for me to waste a day at the office trying to stay busy rearranging the rubber bands and paper clips when I can just be a home and not exposed to others during a pandemic. I am very grateful for this! If all goes according to plan, I will be working from home till Thursday, and then home again on Friday.

My main chore today was getting the sink and dishes under control. I also did a bit of an inventory of the food storage in the den. I want to make sure we don't buy stuff we already have, so I think I'm doing to make a spread sheet for it all.

I watched a few episodes of When Calls the Heart today, and now we're spending the evening watching Hobbit specials. Leftovers for dinner tonight. Brand new recipe to try tomorrow. Excited for our new menu schedule!

01/03/2021

Today was more LOTR, but we did do a grocery store run first thing in the morning. We've found that early on weekend mornings and later on weekend evenings are the best times to go into grocery stores to avoid large crowds of people. We have been working on our menu planning and I now have dinner plans for the next two weeks and all the groceries to make them. 

My parents stopped by to drop off a few things after that and I ran out to trade stuff with them. I gave them some of my mince pies from last week and heard back that they really liked them! I found some recipes to use up the last of the mincemeat, so hopefully soon I'll be able to use up the rest of the leftover ingredients from my Christmas blog project. I made a dinner tonight for that blog, which I'll write up next. I'm moving on to a winter bread baking project after I wrap up the Christmas project, so we'll see if I can't throw some of those ingredients into whatever I make for that.

I was pretty lazy today, didn't do any chores and only got the finances caught up and the rent paid, though it won't pull till tomorrow. I go into the office tomorrow, but I suspect it will be not a very busy day and I'll probably finish working from home, and if I have time, will work on the dishes that I am leaving undone. The dishes in the dishwasher got wet when everything on top spilled when I opened it this morning, so I have to wait for them to dry again. 

I dunno, sometimes you need lazy days. It's good for balance.

01/02/2021

Another lazy day watching LOTR, director commentaries this time. I did a few things though. Got my bills caught up and took them out in time to go out in the mail. I filled and ran the dishwasher. I made my blog dessert which was pretty much a fail and I probably won't feature it more than a mention tomorrow. I also finished setting up the Christmas Corner in the living room. I bought discount candy the day after Christmas and some containers for them and set them out in the living room and on the 25th of each month, my sister will open one and enjoy being one month closer to Christmas! I also put the Christmas countdown near it too, so it's fun!

We are planning on wrapping up LOTR by 9pm tonight so we can tune in to the first New Year's Hallmark movie. I managed to suck my sister into Hallmark movies over Christmas, so now we're just embracing it. They will be airing a Christmas movie every Friday night of the year, so we might plan our Friday night around that instead of around going out to get take out. Trying to improve our health and finances a bit by eating out less.

 Not a very exciting day, but a lovely day!

01/01/2021

 It's a new year! Finally! Today I put away the Christmas decorations and put out the winter decorations. The tree looks amazing! It's always sad to put away the Christmas decorations but I do love the starkness of my winter stuff. There's a beauty to it all that really fits in with this time of year.

Today was the LOTR marathon. We've still got Hobbit specials to watch but we'll go back and do those when we're all done with the movies and commentaries for LOTR. We did some chores in between the movies and changing discs. We have a lazy weekend ahead of us that will probably just be more LOTR!