No snow yet. The great autumn to holiday decorating transfer has begun. All the kitchen silk flowers, garlands and gourd shaped ceramics are downstairs. Norens are close to swapped out, they’re upstairs at least. The holiday metal stars on up out front, and the big wreath. Noelle will bring in the tree from the shed on Monday, and the bin o’ bells for under the eaves. The solar cat tails and the bench cushions get put away this weekend. I’m not bringing up the indoor holiday silk poinsettias, beads and bows until I talk to Noelle about patching the kitchen ceiling. Why put things up when they’ll just come down?
Ah, Black Friday sales. I ended up shopping on Thursday, we know that’s what I do when depressed. Found a lightweight battery operated mower for under $200, fantastic. Got socks, silicone trivets (I don’t really need them and the pattern is not as shown, boo), a cat toy basket, a cat basket which the cats love but is not for them, a green water bottle for more Loki stickers, and an octopus mug which has Seize the Day on the inside rim. The mug is twice as big as the vintage Fire King, but fits my hand beautifully. The Raven Lunatic mug is retired, it is developing a bad chip/flake under the glaze on the rim. I got a few other things a day later, a tarp, landscaping nails, spring loaded curtain rods. Needful things as it were. A gift for Desi for Yule. Oh, and a new auto cat feeder because I broke the old one. At least they were on sale.
Also ordered groceries from Instacart. I was excited to try a new recipe, Major Grey’s Mango Curry. Simple recipe, and the first one I have been excited to try since Larry died. There was a delay, that’s fine. Shopper substituted apricot spread for passion-pineapple, that was fine. Delivered to my back porch, they even took a picture. Fine. One bag must have been missing. No canned peas and carrots, well, okay. No chicken. Um. Not fine. Can’t make a chicken curry without chicken. I got a credit but am very disappointed.
On Sunday and Monday I felt quite sick. My hernia had been hurting because I had been moving things around, cleaning, working in the yard too. I went to bed early both days, aching and exhausted. Mentally flat, and frightened in a nebulous way. Running a fever, low grade at 99 degrees, but concerning. Sore throat and headache. I figured it out, benzoic acid reaction, this time to freaking apple butter. I had also put the last handful of diced dried apples in the pecan pie. Apples do me in now. Big nope on apples now, which makes me very sad. I love apple cider, and apple pie, and dried snack apples. Dang it. I have another pie crust and can make a walnut ginger pie.
And then there was the FB incident. I posted the picture of my kitchen with all decor down. A lot of it was still on the counter, I clean it before taking it back down and storing it. The garden tool batteries are on the counter, my lunch plate, and a few random things which are usually put away. In other words, a working kitchen in use. Shows my glass collection though. My carefully curated glass collection. One of my “friends” on FB, someone I know from Burning Man but am not close to, had the gall to suggest I was hoarding, and posting a Marie Kondo link. Said that 95% of my things would just be put in a dumpster. When challenged by another friend, he did the Yes, but, but thing. Fuck you buddy, you are no friend of mine. And no, my things will not simply be trashed. My heirs know to have a big old estate sale, and even which company I prefer. ARRRRRGH. Made me feel shitty though. I have had real hoarders in my life, the trash on the floor types, the compulsive shoppers who had rooms full to the ceiling, the ones with trails through the boxes and bags, the ones who could not toss empty containers or used foil. That’s not me and shall never be.
MaggieMayhem 