mousme: A picture of Darth Vader, captioned My Fandom Destroys Planets. (My Fandom Destroys Planets)
Another short entry, because I am still tired and all I want to do is go to bed. However, I am determined not to break my streak of posting every day, even if it's just a short and mostly symbolic post. It's not even the end of February, so it seems like it's way too early to give up on this particular goal, right?

 Anyway, today wasn't much to write home about. KK and I attended the second part of the retirement course. The morning was all about maintaining your health after retirement, and it was the usual slightly gas-lighty, victim-blamey stuff you hear from people these days: most of your health is within your control if you engage in these specific behaviours! I'm not saying we should abdicate all responsibility for our health, but I swear to God, if ONE MORE PERSON suggests I try mindfulness, I will not be held responsible for my actions! Blah blah blah, exercise more and eat your vegetables, and 40% of cancer is preventable if you make good choices (that last one made my blood boil).

The afternoon was much better. Far less rage-inducing. We covered estate planning and what you need to write a will and some of the trickier legal things about financial and medical powers of attorney. Some of the stuff I already knew, but there was a lot I didn't know or realized I hadn't fully understood, so I was quite pleased with that. Sometime in the next couple of months I need to scrape together some money, hire an attorney, and have a proper will drawn up so that if I get hit by a bus, someone will be able to take care of my dogs. KK loves the dogs but she's physically not up to the task of caring for them, and has admitted as much, so another home will need to be found for them, one which can accommodate two high-energy hooligans. I wouldn't want them to be separated, especially for Pixie's sake: she's never known a life without her pack, and losing me, KK (whom she adores) and Rika and also Peggy would be scary and confusing and stressful for her. Peggy would also be stressed, but she at least has known life as an only dog, so she might be more resilient, but Pixie is a stage five clinger. With any luck, we will never need to find out.

Tomorrow I need to crisis clean all of downstairs because we're having guests on Saturday and I don't want to spend all of Saturday cleaning, especially since I need to cook dinner. It's funny because the professional organizer is coming at 15:00 and normally I'd want to leave all of the clutter and nonsense where it is so she can see the disaster she's getting herself into, but guests on Saturday absolutely trumps that. I might take some before and after pictures for her benefit. I'm fully expecting her to flee for the hills, but we shall see. The very good news is that she is perfecty happy to wear a mask while she's here, which is awesome. I appreciate people who are willing to do that these days, otherwise I wouldn't be working with her at all.

I have some semi-elaborate plans for dinner on Saturday. I am making green onion bread rolls as an entrée along with roast red pepper soup, then as a main course I have sesame chicken with curry rice and roasted asparagus planned, then a salad (Caesar salad because it's the only one KK will eat), and for dessert I plan to pick up something from a local patisserie, because the cooking alone is going to take quite a long time and dessert is not at all my forte. I hope it all turns out good!

On that note, it is time for bed. I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow.

Success!

Dec. 30th, 2016 04:29 pm
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Baker's 12)
I've been preparing to host an "Un-Christmas" lunch since, oh, the beginning of December. I invited my parents and [livejournal.com profile] fearsclave and his wife, Carolyn, and started menu planning three weeks ago and cooking last week. Because I rarely entertain, when I do, I want it to be memorable. I flatter myself that today went really well, overall. My parents get along really well with [livejournal.com profile] fearsclave and Carolyn, and the four of them had a great time laughing about living "near the North Pole," etc. Carolyn got to see how well Maggie and Ben were doing (I adopted two of their cats over the past year, when they couldn't keep them anymore).

This morning I got up early in order to finish the last of the preparation: a last-minute vacuum/tidy of the house, then make the mashed potatoes, mulled wine, wild rice, and green beans. I didn't get it all done before the guests arrived, and we ended up eating about half an hour later than planned, but it all pulled together at the last minute.

The meal itself was a great success. I started out with a beet salad with goat cheese and candied walnuts. It's the only dish which I managed to capture in a picture. The rest of the food got eaten too quickly for me to be able to snap a picture, but there were lemon tarragon roasted cornish hens, balsamic glazed green beans with almonds and cranberries, tourtière, mashed sweet potatoes flavoured with maple syrup, and wild rice with raisins and almonds. For the cheese course we had brie with truffles, bleu d'Auvergne, and Oka, and for dessert I made apple pie and rice pudding (for the gluten-free guest). We finished it off with coffee, and I think all of us may die happily of food.


I was too busy running around trying to get everything on the table and everyone fed and taken care of to get many pictures, but I did get a few, and my parents took some as well. Hopefully between the three of us we'll have a nice record of the day.

Carolyn, my mother, and Darroch. I tried to get a picture of my father, but he keeps making faces at the camera.


Ben wanted in on the action, and kept climbing into my chair when I wasn't in it.

So, in short, I declare success. My parents gave me a sewing basket for Christmas (at my request), and it's glorious: huge, and red with white polka dots. I love it, and I want to get started on sewing something ASAP. Maybe I'll mend the dog's newest favourite toy: a no-longer-squeaky stuffed hedgehog, which he eviscerates on a regular basis.

I got my parents a framed set of my favourite pictures of them taken over the past two years, and they loved it. So I now get to pat myself on the back for a well-done Christmas, all around, even if it wasn't on Christmas itself.

I am due to write a year-in-review post, which I used to do regularly and then sort of forgot about. Tonight, however, I have a D&D game to prep, so it will have to wait.

Coffee...

Feb. 15th, 2014 09:45 am
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Gahoogy hoo!)
For the record, coffee does NOT do to me what is has done to the cat in the icon. I often wish it did, because I feel like I'd be a lot more productive.

First off, in baking news, [livejournal.com profile] pdaughter made Valentine's cupcakes for her French class. We also got cupcakes. Look at this image and tell me you are not jealous. Yes, the chocolate heart is made by hand too, because she's just that awesome.

IMG_2654


More Valentine's Day stuff under the cut )
mousme: A view of a woman's legs from behind, wearing knee-high rainbow socks. The rest of the picture is black and white. (Skillet)
As promised, an entry with pictures of the cooking day. Most of them are behind the cut.

Food pr0n! )

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