10/06/2020

Today was pretty busy for the first part while I was at the office. Two of my coworkers were in the office today with me till I left around 2pm. It's funny, there was so much to do at the office and then I went home and it was just nothing for the rest of the day except for one person needing me to redo a letter and send out a transcript that was already done to somebody who had just ordered a copy of it. I was able to watch The Mummy, fill and run the dishwasher, and get dinner started before logging out for the day.

While dinner cooked, I walked on the treadmill. I do like to be outside when I can but there are several factors that make the treadmill a better option for me to exercise consistently. Dinner was delightful. There are these curry packets we get that make wonderful stew and today's was a madras curry. It's just spicy enough to clear your sinuses but not burn your mouth or give you heartburn. I always try to have some on hand. I'm looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!

We finished out the Roseanne Halloween episodes and have moved onto the Home Improvement episodes. This is the fun part of the holidays for us. Deciding what shows to watch when to make sure we get through all of it in time.

10/05/2020

Today was a slower day at work that it looked like it would be at first. There was a lot of emails but most of them were for audio stuff or referral jobs. I ended up leaving the office around 2pm and finished the day at home. Obviously I don't mind much and I haven't been feeling too good today so I didn't mind coming home sooner. I turned on Beetlejuice while I worked.

After work, I did the treadmill and took out some of the recycling I forgot to do yesterday. I also took care of the garbage and compost because we'd created a lot from dinner last night. I think I'm going to try to take it all out every day or every other day from now on because it just gets too smelly under the sink.

Today my sister and I decided that we need to embrace Halloween this year like never before. Our Christmas tree is just a black tree with lights that are either white, or multicolored, so we decided we're going to put it out and do it up as a Halloween tree. We had fun looking at some ornaments, a tree skirt, garlands, and of course, Halloween stockings. This will no doubt become an annual tradition, so I have a new set of ornaments to start looking for on day trips and vacations. We just ordered everything today but I'll definitely take pictures when it's all ready. I need to figure out what to do for Thanksgiving, but we might just do an autumn tree. I definitely don't want turkeys and pilgrims on a tree, that's just weird...

Leftovers tonight, and I baked a few of the cookies I bought at the store. Peanut butter. Always tasty! Watching the Halloween episodes of Roseanne tonight.

10/04/2020

Today was a lazy Sunday, just like I like them! I got up at a decent time and sat in my reading chair, reading for about an hour. then we went out and picked up doughnuts and Taco del Mar for lunch. We watched the last Harry Potter movie, so next week we'll watch the Fantastic Beasts movies. We also watched Sister Act 2, and the new Ghostbusters. We had extra time tonight so we did the first episode of So Weird on Disney Plus cuz they finally added the show. It's a fun one, spooky and perfect for Halloween.

I also did chores. I took out the garbage/compost/recycling, ran two loads of laundry, swept, wrapped and froze all the bread products we got at the grocery store yesterday, caught up with the sink and ran the dishwasher. There's always more chores to be done, but I got the place functional for the week to come.

Dinner tonight was pulled pork and it was delish! Using up stuff from the freezer, fridge, cupboards, and counters in hopes of getting this place yet even more functional. We're still trying to work down some of the panic buying food we got at the start of the pandemic. Each week I clear out some more stuff from the freezers so soon it'll be easier to find stuff in them!

It's finally cooling down around here and feeling and looking like autumn! It's been foggy and cloudy all weekend but I think the sun is supposed to come back for the next couple weeks. It won't be that hot though. I'm glad of that because I love this time of year because of the crisp, sunny days! I love them while they last!

10/03/2020

Today was grocery shopping day. Three grocery stores, a lot of food, and a lot more of my Christmas food blog items to boot. I got red and green glaced cherries, citron, and a jar of mincemeat so most of that kind of stuff I'll be needing has been procured! I also purchased stuff I'll need for the first two weeks of blog meals. It's hard to do this when we're only shopping every other week instead of weekly, but I'm going to try to manage it.

We picked up Taco Time for lunch and came home to watch The Others, one of my favorite spooky movies to watch around Halloween. During that time, I ordered some lotion from Bath and Body Works that was having a great one day sale. 4-8oz bottles of lotion and shipping/handling for under $29 is a sweet deal!

We also watched the first of the Deathly Hallows Harry Potter movies, and now we're watching The Karate Kid. Leftovers for dinner. Pretty lazy day planned for tomorrow...!

10/02/2020

Today I worked from home. It was pretty slow, but had some moments of flurry. I managed to put up my Halloween decorations and watched a bunch of Call the Midwife on Netflix as I worked. It was a generally low key day. I keep getting complaints about my handwriting on some of the stuff I have to fill out at work and I really can't do anything about it, so I designed and ordered a custom-made stamp since it's something I write on al the paperwork, so it'll be nice. It's worth $20 to make the complaints stop.

After logging out of work, I walked down to meet me friend and we picked up food at a restaurant near my place. It was nice seeing her again, even if it was just for the time it took for our food to get ready. It's still nerve-wracking to be indoors, but we sat at a table waiting for our food, if not six feet apart, then pretty darned close and had masks on the whole time except when taking sips of water, which we did at different times. The food was delish. I picked up a calzone for my sister that looked amazing. I got the chicken marsala which was really good too. There's a lot of stuff on their menu that I want to try, so now that I know how it works, I can definitely see myself going there more often. It's nice because when we moved to the neighborhood, my sister and I wanted to try the restaurants out but the pandemic hit and everything shut down. We'll just have to figure out how it works at new places, even if we have to order online or on the phone and can't eat inside. It was easy enough to walk my food back and eat it at home tonight. I even have leftovers for tomorrow!

Since it's October, we are fully embracing Halloween and watching as many Halloween movies as we can this month. We're watching Disney's The Haunted Mansion on Disney Plus tonight. It's one I've actually never seen before! I do like watching spooky movies this time of year. We'll probably watch several more this weekend.

Grocery shopping weekend, and I'm thawing out a roast to make pulled pork for Sunday dinner. Should be delish!

American Presidential Elections and Contingency Plans

A lot of people are asking what will happen if something happens to Trump during this last month leading up to Election Day, in light of his recent Covid-19 diagnosis and being sent to the hospital. Can an election be delayed? What happens if a candidate drops out or is incapacitated and an no longer run? How does all of this work? Well, I looked all of this up, and it turns out that both the Constitution and the political parties have contingency plans for nearly every possibility. Here is a collection of links that will hopefully answer questions and assuage some of your fears.

Regarding postponing the election:

Newsweek Article

Reuters Article 

Quartz Article

 Regarding if Trump can no longer be the GOP nominee:

Quartz Article 

Newsweek Article 

Financial Times Article 

10/01/2020

Today was a good day at work. I had a good amount of work to keep me busy at the office till about 2pm before leaving to finish the day at home. I talked on the phone with my boss when I got home. I'm still not used to managers who actually have time for me and seem to care for me as a person, and not just see me as something they can squeeze more work out of. Most places I've worked, they just want to try to get you to do the job of four people for the price of one. It's left some lasting damage that's going to take some time to come out of, if I ever do. I'm not used to being supported. We're still all trying to work out the best way to do everything with the people we have, in the situation we're in. It's going to take continual tweaking, but hopefully we'll figure it all out!

Today was the first day since March that I had to actually pay bus fare to get on the bus. I put a monthly pass on my Orca card, and they've redone part of the site since I did it last, but it worked fine. It was strange to get on the bus in the front. They're still letting too many people on sometimes. Mostly in the morning. I wish they'd add one more 41 in the busy times.

I walked on the treadmill this afternoon after logging out of work. Watching the classic 60's Batman and this was the first time Cat Woman showed up. She's just the best. I still want to avoid walking outside while the smoke is in the air but it's getting better, so maybe by next week I'll be back outside after work. 

Pizza for dinner tonight. We had all the ingredients, including dough in the fridge, and it was delish! I'm getting together with a friend tomorrow night to pick up food, but not eat in the restaurant. It'll be the first time I've seen her since at least February. It might actually have been January. We stay in touch daily online but we used to get together every other Saturday to hang out so it's been sad to lose that time. I just don't feel comfortable being inside other people's houses for too long, though. We've been talking about getting together occasionally outside to get food so we can at least interact in person sometimes, but stuff kept coming up and pushing it off. Tomorrow will be the test run for it!

The Office and Punky Brewster tonight.