ravena_kade

Friday morning I record a call that the cousins were having people over. I made overnight pulled pork so I had something to bring. We get there and cancer cousin is asleep. Stroke cousin is in Chair in the living room, lead cousin was at the hospital with the Mother and the last cousin was so stressed out she was practically twitching. Lead cousin left at 10 AM and stroke cousin had had 5 accidents. Last cousin standing had been changing adult diapers for and hour and a half and cleaning up leaks...she was fit to be tied. I suggested that she go upstairs and I could take care of things for an hour. I set up food and chatted with stroke cousin. At 1 PM the widow and kids and grand kids of the passed away cousin came in. The. young girls helped me set up more food.

Lead cousin comes home from the hospital and we all eat. Stroke cousin wanted to be waited on, but I know that her PT people say she needs to get things herself. She is capable. She just doesn't want to. There were words. 30 minutes later lead cousin gets a call that they are discharging my aunt so she has to go back to the hospital. I went with her to help...and to escape ;-)

Got home around 4:30 and headed into the garden for a few hours.

Saturday was a beach day at Cranes in Ipswich/. Yay. There were signs saying that sharks were spotted, but I did not see any. I wanted to. Spent 2 hours on the beach. The only wild found were 2 large lion's mane jelly fish. The beach was crowded where the lifeguards were, but pretty quiet a mile down the sand.

Sunday was spend in the garden and then floating in my spa/blow up pool. It was HOT, but the water was refreshing.

Today was work and more yard chores. I hope to be caught up with all of the yard stuff this week.

fbhjr

( My grip on linear time is not the tightest right now… )

phoenixswords

( Week 2 )

brickhousewench

Saturday and Sunday were devoted to getting MOAR shit done around the house.

This weekend I tried to do at least one 20/10 in each room of the house (that's another UFYH trick).

In the bedroom I took down the Christmas lights in the sunroom, because someone complained about them (technically they’re illegal, but other people have way more fugly illegal junk on their balconies and decks, it’s just that my simple white Christmas lights are at eye level as you walk into our building. Then I weeded the T-shirt drawers, because I’d gotten to the point where I have too many t-shirts to be able to fit them in the dresser and they’ve been piling up on my bedroom chair. Then I weeded the bra drawer, and got rid of anything that I don’t wear or is too stretched out. Then I weeded the underwear drawer and tossed a couple of pairs where the elastic was starting to fail.

I called Mom around lunchtime on Saturday to tell her really quick about an article I’d read that I thought would interest her. We only chatted for a few minutes, because they were busy with their after lunch card game. But then she called me back around 3:00 to let me know that they’d had an offer on the condo they've been trying to sell for months now. And mom accepted before dad could dither too long about it. So yay, the second condo is finally sold!

After mom called me the second time I realized that I was pretty tired. I started exercising this week, and between that and all the housework on Friday, my body was pretty cranky with me. So I had a snack and sat in the Comfy Chair for about two hours. Then I had a long shower and washed my hair, because I wasn’t fit for polite company at that point. The hot shower also helped loosen up my tight back.

I threw in a load of laundry and decided to pretty much call it a day once I got that all folded and put away (which is why the t-shirt drawer got weeded).

Sunday I tried to fix the vacuum, because it’s been clogged and wasn’t sucking. But it turns out it wasn’t clogged, it’s just on its last legs. I ordered a new vacuum, but it won’t be here until Wednesday at the earliest. And my carpets are just grotty, and now I have to wait a couple more days for the new vacuum to come in (and for me to make time to assemble it) before I can do the Hoovering. BAH! I might have to vacuum every day for a week once it arrives, just to see how much dirt I can get up before I pull out the steam cleaner and tackle the stains.

Not being able to vacuum really threw me off, and I can’t say that I got as much done as I’d hoped after I discovered that I wasn’t going to be able to fix it. But I did spend a lot of time just putting random things away, trying to clear some surfaces. Hanging up clothes, shelving books, putting things back in their cabinets or drawers. And things are starting to look SO much better around here. I’ve been slowly getting caught up on tidying, but this weekend was a big leap forward in that I got through enough tidying to actually get to do some cleaning before I ran out of steam. I wouldn’t quite call the house “clean” right now, but the kitchen and bedroom are SO MUCH better than they were at the beginning of the weekend. If I can get in a couple more productive weekends this summer, I will be quite pleased with myself.

This week (month?) I’ll be taking a crack at the books and papers in the living room. I’d really like to move down at least one more photo on the hoarding reference scale. Just to be clear, I don’t think my kitchen or bedroom has ever been worse than a three, but the living room? My living room is probably about a five right now. And I’d like to get it down to a three. But that means purging boxes and papers and books. So purging stuff out of the living room is going to be my ongoing project for the rest of the summer.

disneydream06

This Week's Movie Quote...

M. T.: What am I allergic to?
A. P.: Pine nuts, and the full spectrum of human emotion.

Poll #33331

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

View Respondents

Which Movie Does This Quote Come From?

View Answers

The Devil Wears Prada
2 (40.0%)

How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days
0 (0.0%)

The Proposal
1 (20.0%)

I Don't Have A Clue...
2 (40.0%)

Last Week's Movie Quote...

Walt Koontz: I'm not as stupid as you think I am.
Rusty Zimmerman: Honey, you could never be as stupid as I think you are.

It comes from the 1999 movie, "Flawless".
It stars Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
De Niro plays and UltraConservative security guard who suffers a severe stroke and for therapy,
Takes singing lessons from a neighbor. One little problem, the neighbor is a flamboyant Gay man who is also a drag queen.
A match made in heaven, NOT...

Watch on YouTube

Those Who Knew or Guessed Correctly...

gwendraith

adminbear

sidhe_uaine42

thoughtsbykat

christalin80

sunshine_two

seaivy

merlinwon

disneydream06

From the 1948 Disney movie, "Melody Time", we get a little bumble bee action in "Bumble Boogie"...

Watch on YouTube

brickhousewench

I took the vacuum apart today. I thought it was clogged because it hasn't been sucking very well. When I try to vacuum, it's more like it's just pushing the dirt around on the carpets, even though the roller is rolling.

It's not clogged.

I took the whole thing apart, and I used the long skinny brush (looks like an oversized pipe cleaner) that I bought to clean out the dryer vent to make sure that each section of the darn thing was clear. Because the last time I cleaned all the hair off the rollers, I did what I usually do and just sucked up the pile of hair instead of having to pick it up. I had assumed that pile of hair was stuck somewhere in the innards. But nope, it appears that my vacuum has just decided to stop sucking. Even though it's got a (relatively) new HEPA filter and a clean bag.

I bought this one back in 2012, and considering how many times I've replaced the belts, and what the poor roller looks like, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's just about dead. I checked Consumer Reports, and then looked around at a bunch of different company websites to try to find the model that I wanted. I ended up buying it off Amazon (curses!) because I couldn't find it anywhere else. So I guess instead of vacuuming today, I'm going to be vacuuming later in the week. *le sigh*

disneydream06

jazzy_dave

Elizabeth Von Arnim "The Enchanted April" (Penguin Modern Classics)

In this story, set in 1922, Mrs. Lottie Wilkins and Mrs. Rose Arbuthnot become disenchanted with their husbands. Acting as feminists for their time, they plan to spend the month of April away from men at a castle named San Salvatore on the Italian Riviera. They advertise and then invite Lady Caroline “Scrap” Dester and Mrs. Fisher to share expenses. They aren’t there long when the beauty of San Salvatore so overcomes Lottie Wilkins that she decides to invite her husband to join them.

Mellersh Wilkins, Lottie’s husband, arrives and immediately sees that meeting the people who are sharing the castle with his wife can be good for his business as an attorney. He is thrilled about this enterprising opportunity, and Lottie perceives that Mellersh appreciates her more than he had been, and her marriage becomes more fulfilling. Lottie, described as blessedly impetuous, tries to convince Mrs. Arbuthnot to invite her husband. However, Mrs. Fisher and Lady Caroline, who are not using the getaway to escape husbands, are less than enthralled with the anticipation of having more men among them.

Each woman’s unique reason for being at San Salvatore is part of this classic novel. Each didn't fully understand her unhappiness. But, each becomes enchanted with the grounds of their vacation rental and begins to view her life situation a little differently. The story intrigued me; I thought about how much has changed for women over the last 100 years and how much hasn’t. We are still debating whether the men in their lives should define women.

Additionally, societal’s expectations and views of women have changed, but perhaps not as significantly as many would believe. Elizabeth von Arnim encourages us to examine the completeness and complexities of women’s lives even in these modern times. She also teases us to wonder whether the four women were truly rejuvenated and refreshed by their enchanted Aril or whether they just accepted their lives or “settled” for what life offered.

jazzy_dave

Michael Wilcox "Outlines : Benjamin Britten" (Absolute Press)

Mr Wilcox bases his entire rational of Britten's operas upon the man's homosexuality and "liking for young boys" (a charge brought, as far as I can tell, by only one biographer of Britten).

Naturally, one's sexual orientation is going to influence any creative output, and Michael Wilcox does have some interesting insights into Britten's operas but, to concentrate upon only one issue does limit the scope. Mr Wilcox sites the fact that, in one opera, God is played by a male singer as proof of his theory: in the 1950's, and early 1960's, to suggest anything other than God being male would have been greeted with complete derision.

The fact that Britten liked to be surrounded by youngsters is again sited as proof that he was a closet paedophile. This may be so, but surely, without much more proof, this is simply the sign of a kindly man who, because of his sexual proclivities, is not going to become a father. I am not expert enough to judge which reading is the truth; I am concerned by a modern attitude of throwing mud at someone with no evidence and then, even if the judgement is proven to be flawed, the person is left with a certain taint of guilt.

I find it hard to understand Mr Wilcox's admiration of Britten, he does not paint a picture of a nice or a particularly proficient musician and, if the work is supposed to "out" Britten and, by so doing, enhance the position of homosexuals in society, then it is a massive failure. The casual acceptance that homosexuality and paedophilia go hand in hand, is, I would have thought, grossly offensive to the majority of homosexuals.

Not a book that I would recommend anyone to rush to add to their library

disneydream06

disneydream06

A Belated Birthday Wish for the People.....

Politics 1.43

brickhousewench

I ran into my upstairs neighbor Pat on her way out the door yesterday. I haven’t seen her in ages and I’ve been worried about her, because she’s elderly and has mobility problems. And I hadn’t seen her car in the parking lot, so I worried about if she was in the hospital? But this week a different car had appeared in her parking space, which is right next to mine. We had a chat while she slowly (she’s using a cane) walked out to her new-to-her car. She’d sold the new one (which was an SUV and too tall for her to climb into) to her son, and had bought a used car that was low enough that she could actually get into it. I stuck around to make sure she could adjust the seat in case she needed help. (It's that new to her, and she said this is the first time she's been out of the house in A YEAR). I remembered the last time I'd talked to her she'd said how much she hated her (previous) new car.

She invited me to drop in any time to chat, because we’re both a bit lonely. I will take her up on that, and make sure I get her phone number so that she can text me if she needs anything now that Marc (who used to help her a bit with things like carrying groceries upstairs for her) has moved out.

brickhousewench

Today was all about getting shit done around the house.

I washed two throw blankets/kitty blankets
I walked all the broken down shipping boxes out to the dumpster
I replaced two burnt out lightbulbs
I walked around the house with a trash bag and just picked up trash (this is a UFYH trick). And then I made sure that bag made its way out to the dumpster, because I didn’t want it sitting around the house.
I tried an internet hack that I saw somewhere. Of course, now I can’t find where I saw it, but whatever. I used four tension rods to create a shelf in the hallway above the doorway to the sewing room where I can put my stash of TP, paper towels, and Kleenex. I rather like it, and it helped clear some of the stuff that I’ve had stored on top of the dryer for ages.
I washed a ton of dishes. I’ve almost finished washing all the everyday dishes. Saturday I’ll wash the pots and pans and then start on the other things that have been sitting around waiting to get washed (the cat feeders and fountains, so I can finally put those away, some ceramic planters from my dead plants, a bunch of holiday cookie tins, etc.).

The nice thing about today is that it sets me up nicely for things I want to do tomorrow in the kitchen. Like clean the counters and kitchen sink (have to deal with the dirty dishes first) and cleaning the stove top (need to clean the pots and pans first).

brickhousewench

Just link parking this here, but it might be interesting to others too.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/podcast-ancient-greek-dinner-parties

Andrew: The whole book is written in Greek. So Deipnosophistae in Greek can be translated as “the philosophers at dinner” or like, “the wise people at dinner.” One scholar that I spoke with had a kind of funny translation. He translated it as “banquet wits,” and he said he likes this because it sounds a little bit like “twits.” And there is like a bit of irreverence or humor in the text itself. So, he thought that that was a funny way of translating it.

Dylan: Yeah, I mean it shows you something about the culture, that there was so much kind of fine dining and social maneuvering happening in this space that someone would go to the trouble of producing a text, which was actually quite a lot of trouble back then, to be like, here’s kind of what you need to know.

Andrew: It’s a very rambling book. The format is hard to pin down. The framing device is that it’s a bunch of people talking at a dinner party. So it’s kind of structured that as the courses of the dinner are coming out, they see a dish and it inspires them to talk about that ingredient. Like the food itself is inspiring what they’re talking about. And they’re telling stories and they’re quoting a lot from other authors. That’s what makes it such an interesting and important text is because it preserves the words of all of these earlier writers. And in some cases, you have writers whose work doesn’t survive in its entirety, but the little piece of it that’s quoted in Deipnosophistae is what we have that survives.

Dylan: It’s like super meta because it’s like in the format of a dinner party conversation, but is also like a great quotes book so that you can reference it for your future dinner. So, Deipnosophistae contains these quotes, it contains these kind of philosophical tidbits, but it also seems like it also has real recipes in here.

Andrew: Well, one of the most significant things is it contains the oldest recorded known recipe in Greek. During this time, especially the Greek cities in what is now Sicily, were known for kind of fancy haute cuisine. And so the recipe that we have in Deipnosophistae is for a grilled fish. It’s a type of fish called ribbon fish, and it’s topped with grated cheese and olive oil.

*****

Dylan: That’s amazing, because there isn’t actually patent law for recipes now. I like the idea of it being a one-year patent on a recipe because it’s kind of like, okay, you get a year to be a really hot star chef, and then everybody gets to take a crack at doing the thing. I kind of feel like that would be a good thing to bring back. So, this book’s fascinating because it’s so many things. In a way, it just reminds me of what I sometimes call a tidbits book, which collects a lot of little stories or a lot of quotes or just this and that. It reminds me of the books that people sometimes put on the back of a toilet, like the Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader kind of thing. The thing that you pick up and you sort of browse through it, it’s not really meant to be necessarily read in a go. You kind of open to some pages and go like, ah, interesting, very enlightening, and then you close it and you put it back on the back of the toilet.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/eat-like-a-greek-philosopher-oldest-fish-recipe

disneydream06

ravena_kade

Today Stroke cousin was released from rehab and sent back to her sisters' house. They said they could not handle her. There are only 2 of them and they are not strong so they can't lift her out of bed so she can make it to the bathroom. It takes 4 rehab staff to do it. It is hard to get 4 staff people together on one patient. PT says that stroke cousin is capable of getting up from bed...they worked on that in PT...but she does not want to. Oh boy. She was due to be released at 1 pm.

At 11 AM I get a call from lead sister. She is driving. They think my Aunt had a small stroke. Cancer cousin is in the ambulance with my Aunt. In the ambulance my aunt seemed fine. She was talking and could move her hands and feet. She knew all her kids names and even that the oldest son had died in January. They are keeping the aunt at the hospital and will run tests on her

Dad wanted to go over to the cousins tomorrow. I planned on making salad, potato salad and pulled pork. I told the cousins to text and tell me what is going on and if they want to be alone I will keep Dad home. No word and it is almost 11PM. I would have liked to make plans for the morning. Looks like I will garden and see what happens. The pulled pork freezes well.

brickhousewench

Now that it’s summer I’ve found that I have more energy to Get Shit Done. (I’m apparently solar powered) So I’ve been slowly picking away at getting Frogholm cleaned up. It helps that I’ve had more time off recently. I had Thursday June 19th off for Juneteenth (new Federal holiday) and then the following Monday, June 23, as one of our five company shutdown days. And this week is another four day week for Independence Day. The really nice thing about three day weekends is that even if I spent a whole day doing nothing, I’ve still got two more days off to attempt some housework. Lately I’ve been pretty good at keeping up with the dishes and laundry, (and reading Dreamwidth) which means I’ve had enough time to start tackling some of the many, many things on my lengthy To Do list around the house.

For example, I’ve got two broken towel rods in the bathroom. One pulled out of the wall, so it needs to be spackled before I can reinstall, and the other I grabbed onto when I slipped in the shower last summer (so I managed to break that one). They’re cheap wooden ones, the cheapest ones you can buy at Walmart, as I discovered when I started looking at Home Despot and Lowes websites, because I knew I’d seen them somewhere. Anywhoo, the Good News part is that when I found them on the Walmart website, it said something about “Fulfillment through [Other Company]. And since I’d rather not spend money at WallyWorld, I went to the Other Company website. Where they were the daily special and ONE THIRD of the price! Go me! Once those arrive, I’ll spend a day on bathroom refurbishment (replace towel rods, wash the shower curtain and replace the liner, new toilet seat, etc.)

This weekend I’m hoping to spend some time sorting through some of my many boxes of papers. I’d just toss them, but I know they need to be sorted first, and in some cases things really should be shredded. So I’ll work on that this weekend. And try to shelve some more books and maybe cull some of the herd to donate. My other project goal this weekend is to buy some houseplants. So that I’m not the only living thing in this apartment.

After work tonight I drove to the Post Office and mailed the bills. Then I hit up Target, and Staples for supplies for a couple of other things I want to get done this weekend. And then went to Wegmans to grocery shop, because I didn’t go last Friday and I was out of milk and down to my last yogurt. But that means I don’t have any excuses to leave the house Friday. So I can get cracking on the housework.

It feels so good to be moving forward again after treading water for way too long.

brickhousewench

Whelp, Congress went and passed the First Felon’s Big Bastard of a Bill. So now what?

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/what-next-no-kings-movement-protest-boycott-organize-1235367077/

Those next steps include a new national protest, dubbed “Good Trouble Lives On.” That protest is scheduled for July 17, and honors the anniversary of the 2020 passing of Civil Rights icon and Congressman John Lewis, who called on Americans fighting for justice to create “good trouble” in the name of redeeming the soul of America. The rallying cry for the march is “March in Peace. Act in Power.” The protest already has dozens of planned demonstrations.

The other action announced on the call is called “1 Million Rising.” Organized by Indivisible, the progressive grassroots juggernaut, the initiative seeks to harness the energy of protesters to build long-term political power. One Million Rising describes itself as “a national effort to train one million people” to become pro-democracy movement leaders, with “the skills to lead others.” The initiative aims to “build people power that can’t be ignored” and has as its mission statement: “1 Million Trained, Millions More Empowered.”

Mark your calendars!

Indivisible - https://indivisible.org/

Good Trouble Lives On - https://goodtroubleliveson.org/

1 Million rising - https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/803953/

brickhousewench

That feeling when you take your little morning walk.

And realize when you've finished, that your FitBit was on the charger and not on your wrist.

Oh well, at least my body knows that I walked, even if my FitBit doesn't. And that's what counts.

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ravena_kade

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Midsummer Fantasy Renaissance Faire

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Monday At The Movies.....

Songs From The Movies.....

Welp, the vacuum has died

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Book 26 - Elizabeth Von Arnim "The Enchanted April"

Book 25 - Michael Wilcox "Outlines : Benjamin Britten"

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Friday - Getting Shit Done

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