The Marci Rating System

I was planning to write a post about mosquitoes (are there usually still this many mosquitoes in August??? I feel like no???). But it didn't seem that interesting, and I was enjoying eating my breakfast chocolate and drinking my breakfast bev, so I was putting it off by rambling around the internet.

Which was, as they say, A Mistake. Now I have seen the news and done my daily weeping, and I think it must be time to stop being on the internet and enact my plan for the day:

Step 1: get dressed / prepare for the day enough to go for a walk outside.

Step 2: come back, take a shower.

Step 3: lunch, coffee, turn on the AC and sit with the cat for a while. maybe nap?

The great thing about switching my weekly grocery trip from Fridays to Wednesdays is that it spread out my car usage -- now I'm using the car Wednesdays and on the weekends, which (so far!) has been enough to keep the battery going without extra effort. Yay!

The less great thing is that my brain is very used to thinking 'time to go buy groceries for next week.' Which doesn't make much sense when you're shopping on a Wednesday. Next week is so far away! Eat the groceries now!

And the funny thing is that I still very definitely connect 'grocery shopping day' with 'last day of the work week.' I've already had to remind myself MULTIPLE times this morning that it is THURSDAY, so I need to log in for work. Not the weekend yet!

*The cat WENT DOWNSTAIRS today! Which is to say, she did a single circuit around the ground floor and then went back upstairs, but STILL! I'm very excited about this.

*I'm procrastinating on going to the grocery store. Time to go spend some money so I can use my coupon before it expires.

*In the state of New Hampshire, landlords have 30 days to return your security deposit.

*Short walk at local park went well yesterday. Parking was easy (often the most challenging aspect), the trail was well-maintained, and I was there early enough that it was not crowded or too hot. Overall, a win!

*Today's challenge adventure: cooking some food! Also with the goal of doing it before it gets 'too hot,' although that's a moving target for sure.

THE DAILY DISTRACTION
Got completely sidetracked researching 'can I turn off the ice maker in the freezer and leave it off,' with a side of 'if yes, can the ice bin be repurposed for other freezer storage.' The answers appear to be yes and yes? I did manage to find the legit instruction manual online, which was -- surprise, surprise -- not very helpful. Various other sites online indicated that these questions were common, and in general the advice seemed to come down on the side of 'if you're not using the ice, you SHOULD turn off the ice maker.' (Both for energy-saving purposes, and because having the ice sit around for long periods of time as the freezer cycles can make it turn into a solid block (not ideal).'

So far, I have not cooked anything, but I HAVE emptied the ice bin and manually turned off the ice maker. I think. We'll see! (The ice bin is SO BIG! WHO NEEDS THAT MUCH ICE!?!?) Very excited to potentially increase our freezer space by 20% or so.

*Getting a radio set up on both levels was an easy way to make the space feel more like home.

*Putting rugs on the floor seems like a non-essential task, but they take up so much space when rolled up, it turns out it's actually super helpful in making it look A) more homey, and B) less cluttered!

*Why do I have so much stuff??? I have already started a box of 'things to get rid of.'

*Successfully used the oven and the washing machine! Very exciting. The washing machine is HUGE! (It is normal-sized, but my apartment had the small-size stackable washer-dryer combo, so a regular-size washer holds SO MUCH MORE than I'm used to.)

*Also got the internet set up, so now I need to mail back the old box. If it stops raining, I may venture out for a walk; there's a UPS drop box not too far away.

Cat Update:

The cat has now explored the rest of the upstairs (haha, aka the other room). She seems eager to explore more this morning, so we may try the downstairs today. There's no easy way to block off any particular areas down there, so it may be an all or nothing kind of thing. Yesterday she was kind of cranky with me (and the situation in general), but she came over for pats and kisses this morning, so I may have gotten a reprieve, or possibly she was just feeling smug about waking me up twenty minutes before my alarm.

Day 2 Goal:

I'm supposed to be back at work tomorrow (from here, not on site). So I guess I need to make a space for that to happen! I'm guessing it's going to be a good day to stay off camera, or at least use the blur background. Pay no attention to the box kingdom behind me! And in front of me! All around me, really!

First I got rid of all the spices I didn't actually use, which was -- a fair number. (There was a point at which I tried using the spices a recipe called for, instead of just figuring they meant 'a flavorful spice you like.' Changing my approach on this made food prep much easier and better, but left me with a bunch of spices that wound up expiring while I pretended not to see them taking up space in the cupboard.)

Then I packed all the spices that I do use, but not that often, or mostly for things that I'm not making right now because other things are packed. (Still not sure where that pan cover is...)

And THEN I packed everything I figured I could do without for a few weeks, which makes it sound somehow like I had dozens of spices involved in this project, but really it was much fewer. It's just been a long process!

Which leaves me with the final three spices, which will get packed last, with the food. Last spices standing winners are:

*Penzey's Justice blend: savory and salt-free, excellent addition to a frozen meal, eggs, or avocado toast

*Camp Mix: salt and pepper and garlic all together in one container, delicious

*Everything Bagel Seasoning: for when you want Camp Mix, but with a crunch; so good on mac and cheese

Waaaaay back in 2013, I got food poisoning in March, which -- just generally speaking -- I do not recommend. It took me a month to feel mostly recovered, but *every year* since then, in March, my body is like 'hey, remember what it was like when you had food poisoning? it felt like this!'

THANKS, YES, I REMEMBER.

So yeah, every year in March I get this weird food poisoning echo -- nowhere near as bad as the first year, but a similar feeling. It sounds ludicrous, and makes zero sense at all, but I just live in this body, I don't make the rules.

Anyway, that's why I ate a lot of bland crackers this week. (Not even expired ones! ::cough:: Okay, not all expired ones! That's gotta count for something!)

It has been A Day. I am currently sitting in a mostly-dark room, eating a snack bar for dinner, because I figured eating something was a smart idea, and the snack bar is easy to eat without thinking too much about it.

The cat is on my lap, and she has been both brave and patient the entire day. Gold star, cat. Gold star.

*I didn't have any coffee yesterday (not for any particular reason, it was just never the right moment) so I am extra looking forward to having some today.

*Back to work today but it's a three day week, since I'm taking Friday off for my birthday.

*Just got a coupon or $4 off any purchase of frozen goods over $20 at the local grocery store. (That's like a whole free Talenti!)

*I finally reached the point in packing where I've taken enough stuff out of the places it was stashed that can start putting the packed boxes back in those places. Hopefully this will make my apartment feel much less crowded.

*Dreamed about flying last night, for the first time in many years. (Also dreamed about a Superman AU in which Jimmy Olsen knew from the beginning that Clark Kent was Superman, which would have been A+ great.)

I got a good grocery store coupon that I could use either this week or next -- one of those $10 off $100 deals, which meant a stock-up trip. And I reeeeally didn't need to stock up this week, so I transferred everything I could off of this week's list and over to next week's.

Here is what the list looked like when I was done:

cookies
hummus
honey roasted pecan pieces
distilled water

Yep, looks about right.