I still feel a bit woozy -- like when you first put on a new pair of strong glasses, a bit weak, and cold.  I slacked this morning until just before my 11am stakeholder call but truly still didn't feel like doing the things that need to be done.  I, as my mother would have called it, "rested my eyes".  Ultimately, I don't think this one will kill me.  Admittedly it is prb my own fault for not getting a flu shot this year, something I have done for the past 15 or so years... but my distrust is too high to convince myself to do it.

Of course, now you have the next novel cough-cough spinning up in chy-na.  Get ready for the long cold winter of death in preparation for an election year where you simply MUST vote by mail.

In theory I go back to work tomorrow.  I'm tempted to take another day to make up for my lost time... but I'd prb feel bad for do so.

I froze all night, but the chills broke (note, not once did I show as having a fever) earlier today and I am back to overheating way too easily (I just came back in from sitting outside for a minute).  What overheated me was lugging several containers of Christmas decorations up from the basement, which took 2x as long as it should have due to breaks in between.  I definitely still feel wobbly and a bit off.  The only thing I put up though was the greenery on the front door.

I didn't get up until 9am this morning and that was due to my lower back aching from being in bed too long.  So I moved to the couch and wiped out until around 2pm.  I have to praise the kiddo, she understands I am not feeling well and has been so sweet.  She's kept herself pretty busy and has repeatedly asked me if I'm okay.

I did get up to feed her and to tend to the beasts.  When I get sick I am always reminded of the flu I had in January or February of 2020, right after the ex had headed to NC.  That will always be my measuring stick.  This round of ick was tolerable - At least I walked to put the dogs out and didn't have to crawl.

Hopefully I don't feel like a complete pile of poo when the tylenol wears off.  I'm not much for taking meds, but this is an occasion that calls for it.  I even took 2 tablets instead of 1.  I did wrap up the chicken and the enchiladas are baking, so we will have a decent dinner.

The signature drink for Thanksgiving went over well.  I did make a bit of a mod to it... partially because I didn't have enough heavy cream as required for the amount I was mixing and the mac and cheese I was making, but also to reduce the irish cream and up the vodka.  The mac and cheese recipe came from the Monin website - the place where I order my flavored syrups.  Color me surprised that they had so many non-alcoholic recipes.  It too was pretty darn good and I'm pleased to have leftovers.

I didn't get a ton done this weekend.  I was supposed to be off on Friday but I put in a solid 6.  Saturday we mixed up the dough for pizzelles, good thing too or I wouldn't have budged to make them today.  I spent more time on the couch today fighting with sinusy issues than I'd like to admit.  I did do an emergenc this morning because I was feeling a bit off yesterday and more so today.  At this point I have chills, but no fever.  Let me repeat - I am cold.  I haven't been cold but a handful of times in the past few years (yay menopause).

Regardless, I did get the pizzelles made -- with extra hand washing and mitigation activities to ensure they aren't typhoid mary signature cookies.  If I had gotten started earlier I would have made choco chip too, but that didn't happen.  I cooked chicken and put it to marinade for honey lime enchiladas yesterday, but they too did not get made today.

I gathered the fall decorations, but didn't put them away.  Not a single box of indoor Christmas decor has come up the stairs, but I did get 95% of the outdoor stuff out/up including the wreaths on the windows.  I had big hopes to start wrapping gifts or to start Christmas cards.  Those are both big no-gos.  I am really hoping a good night's sleep sets me right and maybe I will embrace the day off I scheduled for tomorrow a little more fully - be it to get things done or to sleep.

And another burst of pretty decent temps!  I'm loving this, especially now that my time outside isn't working to prepare it for winter - although I could prb mow the back again as a result of the nicer temps.  At a minimum w/ the kids playing on the swing set I am scooping regularly, that definitely lightens the load come spring.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week.  I have planned to make a mac and cheese that involves pumpkin and some of Alton's pb fudge as our food contribution to the gathering.  I have also gotten into the habit in the past couple of years of coming up with a feature drink that appeals to my favorite egg's two female cousins and I.  This year during brainstorming a pecan pie vodka was mentioned, but noted that they've never seen it.  Well, the PA LCB was willing to do a special order, so I ran and picked that up last night and did some stocking up of various other items.  Of course, I left w/o Irish Cream, which is needed for the one recipe we wanted to try w/ the pecan pie vodka so I need to pop back in.

I had also ordered a signed bottle of Four Walls Irish Whiskey.  For whatever reason, PA LCB would ship that direct to me but the special order bottle had to go to the store.  Whatever, it's here.  If Four Walls is meaningless to you, it is from the gents (Glenn, Rob, and Charlie) of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  I'm not a whiskey person, but... eh, why not fan girl for a hot moment?

I often have to return to my notes here in my blog to get dates and timeframes.  As I return here this evening to see when Barnabas joined us - as to be able to calculate when we should be celebrating his birthday - I figure I should post it.  His gotcha day is Sept 2 and if he was approx 4 months old at that point that brings us to May 2.  So it shall be.

Another burst of warm weather - thank goodness.  By "warm" I mean upper 50s.  Perfect if you're outside moving around or have at light jacket.  With the time change I managed to get up for early mass before cathecism.  We had to get up for the early mass as Avery had swimming lessons!  The neighbor alerted me that another session had been posted and I quickly registered her for another 4 lessons.  It looks like they didn't do a great job marketing it as there weren't a lot of kids, but that was a huge win.  It was just Avery and one other boy in her lane this morning.

From there it was time to get moving here at home.  I am happy to say the hot tub water is now changed out, the rest of the brush (which ended up being a second garbage can - I had already gathered the first garbage can on Friday) is ready for the curb tomorrow, the hoses are away for the winter, and the hose bibs are covered.  Halloween is almost all down (except window clings) and a good chunk of it is away in bins and back to the basement, but some remains to pack up.  Somehow I manage to always need another bin, the stuff expands outside of the container, I swear.

All that time I had some pork cooking, so from there I needed to only prep the potatoes to cook for mashing and that's my day.  My back is barking. I would go get in that fresh clean hot tub water, but frankly, I'm too tired.  The lunch box and snack bag are packed.  It's time to zonk..

I remain exhausted and behind.  While I got a good bit addressed outside before the first snow (we woke to it November 1) I didn't get the hot tub water changed out, nor did I 'disable' my rain barrel - I did drain it, but I should probably flip it over and put the rest of the downspout back.  I think there is another two large garbage cans of clippings to make in winter prep.  The lawn did get mowed one last time about a week ago.

School was out last Friday and this past Monday.  Wednesday was our parent teacher conference and a holy day of obligation.  Today (Thursday and Friday) are half days.  It's keep the kid occupied while getting work under control season.  Thank goodness they gave us a week off from homework.  Hopefully I'll get the Halloween decorations down --and away-- by Thanksgiving.

I'm also struggling to get enough sleep again.  There's the waking in the middle of the night from the dogs only to be followed by the cleanup necessary when Saffy then still poops in the house.  I almost fell asleep during church last night.  Tonight I made it to 4pm with work when I cut out a bit early to nap on the couch for two hours.  I'm still feeling like I could zonk right back out, and hopefully I will at bedtime for a full night.  Yep, and it's time for them to frell with the clocks to screw me up further.

On another, but very related and necessary note, I got a moka pot.  I've had my eye on one but it seemed needlessly complicated.  I think I have it figured out and I gotta say, it's pretty delish - and strong - which is needed these days.

I know with all of this going on it seems crazy that I took on more foster cats, but getting to sit peacefully holding them is actually quite soothing.  We've made some progress.  I can hold them, but they still look fairly scared and we haven't had our first purr yet.  There is debate on the gender of the black cat.  I'm pretty sure we're talking male but the records for that # cat indicated female... I'm just not seeing it.  If that situation is what I believe it to be, we have Jackson (black), Summer (tabby female), and Pickle (tabby male).  Can you tell it was Avery's turn w/ names?.

How many cats must one have before officially being a crazy cat person?  Asking for a friend.  On a related note, it's official - we applied to adopt Barnabas.  He and Church get along so well and hang out together more often than not.  Barnabas comes in to cuddle with me at night.  He told us from his first meow that he wanted to come home with us - I just finally recognized it was time to agree.  Welcome home sweet boy.

On that note, the rescue did another round of trapping where Barnabas came from.  Of those, 3 more have come home for fostering.  They will need some more time to get them to understand how cool people are, but we'll do it.  2 boys and 1 girl.  Time for some names!

I just used a moka pot for the very first time!  I'm not little miss refined pallet, but I think it takes pretty good for my first attempt.

The worst part about having a garden isn't planting.  It isn't tending to them and watering them.  It isn't even chasing the dog away so he doesn't steal the tomatoes.  It's the end of season -- and even then it isn't the activity of clearing things out, for me it's the emotions of it.

Every year I find myself thinking "if this plant only had another month!"  I feel guilty plucking every last tomato off of the plants, especially those that are continuing to offer me blossoms despite downright cold overnights.  Good job ladies.  You served us well and I am grateful for your bounty.

Two lipped plates of tomatoes, one cherry sized and the other larger tomatoes, have been brought inside.  Unfortunately, I cannot leave them on the counter - ahem, CHURCH - so I have to put them into the cabinet and monitor them for ripening.

When I take another 10 minute pass I'll pull the remaining peppers from those plants.

The hours aren't that much longer than they were in pre-k, but for some reason the time seems to be going faster and the amount of time to do things outside of work hours feels a lot shorter.  I'm feeling pretty wiped out.  I guess the seasonal allergy thing doesn't help either.  So grateful to have indulged and headed upstairs to ready for bed at 7:30 last night.  I was asleep by 9 and I needed it.

I need to find the time to clear out the remaining garden plants out back.  There are a few tomatoes that I was trying to give every opportunity to ripen on the vine.  The basil never tried to go to flower/seed on me, which is crazy - I'm going to try taking a snip to grow through the winter, we'll see how that goes.  I am also going to cut back a couple of the pepper plants and try to winter them over again.  At some point I'll get good at that if I keep trying it, right?  The last round of lettuce looks nice, so that has to come into the basement as is.  We're looking to hit 35 on Sunday, so time is short - I need to make it all happen.

For today, I have some running to do while I pick Avery up from after-school activities.  I'm also going to hit the newly opened (this morning at 9am) Ollie's in Washington.  I'm so excited to have one closer!

I caved and turned on the furnace this week, mostly for the sake of the cats overnight and the kid in the morning.  Church is still cuddled up against me overnight, which is nice.  Barnabas, our current foster, was out running about most of the day yesterday.  He's still not thrilled with the dogs and gives them hisses when they come near, but he has made great progress.  I am very proud of Zero, who has been very chill around Barnabas; it isn't often I get to tell him what a good boy he's being!

They say you don't smell things when you're asleep.  I have to disagree (light up the internet calling me a science denier).  Saffy had a banner day yesterday - she was hungry.  Saffy ate 4 times, which is insane for her.  Probably about 2x as much food total than she would normally eat on a good day months back.  What goes in must come out, and if you have a dog that isn't 100% in control of her pooper it isn't a surprise when it happens overnight.  My point, yes, at 12:30 I smelled it and got up to clean it up.

I would consider one ding in my sleep to be a good night because I've had a few in the past couple of years where I was awakened after an hour of sleep every time I went out and the going out was hard taking an hour or two itself.

Nope, that wasn't the last waking, but not Saffy, instead the exorbitant amount of water the kiddo drank did exactly what I warned her it would do, she peed a little.  At 4:30 I hear "moommy."  So now I'm up striping  a bed and starting a load of laundry.  She's cleaned up and back into a fresh set of warm pjs and into my bed because I am not making a bed at 4:45 in the morning.

Thank God for that one more hour.  I still curse you alarm.  Getting up earlier since school started (another 35 minutes) has been draining me.  Can I schedule a nap on my calendar?

I am having more fun than I'd like to admit using my little breaks during the day to step outside and swat all of the lantern flies around the house.  They seem to like the brick and the black fence.  I'm sure I look like the crazies a few years ago wandering about trying to "catch pokemon" to my neighbors.

On an unrelated note... I really thought I broke my toe today.  I don't even understand how I did it.  I often bounce off of door frames etc because I misjudge and slam myself into it.  Today I bumped off of the dog crate in the dining room and as my foot came down my second and third toes crunched under my foot.  I watched and waited for the swelling - it really hurt.  It didn't swell too bad, just a bruise, but one heck of one.  It didn't help that our resident doofy dog stomped my foot later in the day.