IMHO, it's an amazing feeling when you finish scrubbing out a stove. it's a huge feeling of accomplishment, knowing that - once again - the oven is (mostly) clean. after spending all of this Monday roasting pumpkin and pumpkin seeds, knowing some drips were getting away and the grease was building up, it was on my mental list of jobs. now it's done ( Read more... )

since ravena_kade and deva_fagan asked, the new countertop:


( Read more... )

so we pulled it off, all of it: the surprise (mom cried), the socializing (mom stayed until 7 PM), the packing/cleaning up, and the getting everything back where it belonged (including my nephew, to Washington DC). i even succeeded in keeping the fact that Dave and i were headed back to the Charlton Scottish Inn (where we'd first escaped back on ( Read more... )

i have completely lost control of the garden here in NY, if i ever had it.

"There's great strength in vulnerability... there's great strength in choosing to be hopeful, cause that's a scary place to go. It's less controlling, but it's actually possibly leading to a better thing."

actress Danai Gurira, on Talking Dead, speaking about the recent actions of her Walking Dead character, Michonne.

i called my mom today in between errands. she asked me if the GEICO rep who called the house this morning had managed to get a hold of me. i told her that the woman had gotten a hold of me; she'd called around 8 AM. my mom said "I wasn't in a very good mood when she called here. She caught me in the bathroom. And when she asked for 'Chris', it was ( Read more... )

( cause it's nice to watch? )

i haven't exactly been cursing my laryngitis, but it's never pleasant to be unable to talk, especially when one is used to running one's mouth constantly. *wry look* i've been looking at it more as yet another aspect of my (karmic) debt/payment for all the effort of the past two months, and feeling that it's likely the last tiny bit of this last ( Read more... )

i've been energetically threadbare and multiple-times sick since my father passed.

i'm praying, hoping, and setting my intention for a healthier, more centered, more grounded year to come: to be more organized and productive, as well as more loving, more patient, and more compassionate.

Happy Yule!

there was a bluebird in the backyard today, btw.

(in addition to nuthatches, sparrows, finches, red-bellied woodpeckers, black-capped chickadees...)