marcicat: (snowy cat)
I love advent calendars in general, and this year I have THREE:

1. COFFEE: mmmm, delicious coffee advent calendar. There's a bunch out there, this is my second year of the Door County Coffee one.

2. DIGITAL: so easy to store! The family has gifted each other the Jacquie Lawson advent calendar for years.

3. CRAFTY: I re-used the 2024 Woobles advent calendar box to put in my own small craft projects (mostly crochet and diamond painting). I wasn't sure if I'd love this one, but so far it's been great!
marcicat: (cats at sunrise)
*Good news! I made it safely there (the car spa) and back again, and now my car has snow tires!

*Less fantastic news! I'm definitely going to need the snow tires, because I'm supposed to go to the office today, and the plowing situation in the parking lot here is currently 'the driving lane was cleared at some point, everything else we'll do later.' Which is fine! It's just that I'm gonna need to drive through that 'everything else' to get to the driving lane. (lol so many memories of the apartment parking lot after a snowstorm...)

*Anyway, work is work. Our team just got moved to a different team (temporarily?!? I guess?!?) for reasons unknown. The reasons we've been given make very little sense, and it's hard to know if that's because they're untruthful or just, you know, corporate.

*We're supposed to be doing our year-end "self-evaluations" immediately, which means I've been sorting all the stuff I planned to catch up on in December into two piles: 'hurry up and do it before the evaluation so I can say it's done,' and 'safe to say it's on track to meet the 2025 goal.'

*Yeah.

*But coffee!

*Yay!

it's time

Oct. 28th, 2025 06:36 am
marcicat: nano mug (nano mug)
Time to get serious about prepping for November writing!

Haha just kidding, it is never time to get serious. It IS time to re-listen to 'Exit Strategy,' so I have more than just a vague recollection of what happens.

Other things it might be time for today:

*using the office lap blanket

*wearing the hat that keeps my ears warm

*COFFEE (two coffees??? in-office days always have the option of TWO COFFEES, just to keep things exciting)
marcicat: kismet sleeping (kismet sleeping)
Stuff I'm looking forward to today:

*I have (probably?) three-ish border rows left to do on my current blanket project, and I'm very excited to work on it! (Was planning to make more progress last night, but the cat was sleeping on the blanket.)

*The sun is out for real after a few cloudy days, and I get to go outside for a walk! (just need to brush my teeth first!)

*I get to drink delicious home coffee instead of work coffee, which means it's AUTUMN SPICE BLEND time, heck yeah!
marcicat: (penguin)
The current state of things:

*I AM OUT OF FRUIT

*I AM OUT OF PASTA

*I AM [ALMOST] OUT OF HALF AND HALF FOR MY COFFEE

Clearly it is of the Utmost Importance that I get to the grocery store today. This morning. Immediately! I mean, after I get dressed. And brush my teeth. The basics. ::deep breaths::
marcicat: (summer foliage)
This is one of those weather days when we should all be allowed to lounge around inside and take lots of naps. Since I am headed to the office instead...

THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO AT THE OFFICE

*free coffee (it's not as delicious as my Home Coffee, but I also don't need to wash the coffeemaker afterwards)

*free lunch (everyone is in agreement that this promised perk won't last long, so we might as well eat as much free food as possible while it lasts)

*audiobook time (my current audiobook has not been as engaging as I expected, probably through no fault of the book itself -- I couldn't even focus on reading the cat distribution system, by ScarlettStorm last night, a fic so aligned with Things I Like that I made actual grabby hand motions at the screen when I saw it)

So: drive, eat, be seen, drive home again. It's a plan!
marcicat: (aquarius dreamsheep)
I went searching back through past entries to see if I've talked about pumpkin spice coffee before (answer: sort of), and found that I pretty much have a similar experience every September, and it goes like this:

1. yay it's september!

2. melancholy

3. 50% existential dread, 50% I LOVE AUTUMN LOOK AT THESE COOL LEAVES

Also a lot of posts about cats and coffee. (I had pumpkin spice coffee yesterday! I add a lot of half and half to my coffee, so it mostly tasted like hot milk and cinnamon. The cat was unusually interested in the mug once I was done -- usually she ignores it, but yesterday she wanted to lick it and also stick her paw inside. No idea why. Maybe she likes cinnamon?)
marcicat: nano mug (nano mug)
Why is the BEST season starting today (for me)? Because my AUTUMNAL COFFEE HAS ARRIVED!!! (Very worthy of all caps and as many exclamation points as the heart desires.)

And there were a lot of autumnal flavors to choose from (I did not choose, I got the sampler pack so I could try ALL of them), so I have a LOT of coffee to drink before the Christmas flavors come out. I am up for the challenge!!! (I'm locked in? Is that what people say now?)

Apple Pie Spice coffee? Bourbon Pecan? Autumn Harvest? Maple??? Yes, please! I'll try all of them! (Maybe not all today. Probably going to start out with the apple pie one, because APPLE PIE.)
marcicat: (awww giraffe)
As of LAST SUNDAY, it is Officially Autumn at the local-ish grocery store. (Not to be confused with the Most Local grocery store. I have no idea if they are celebrating autumn yet.)

And what is the FIRST SIGN of AUTUMN? There were two, so I guess that's the FIRST SIGNS of AUTUMN.

1. PUMPKIN SPICE COFFEE ENDCAP DISPLAYS (it's time? I guess?)

2. BIG BAGS OF CANDY IN THE SEASONAL AISLE (not actually Halloween-themed bags yet, but definitely candy in larger quantities than is normally stocked in the candy aisle)

So actually, as I look at that list, I'm not sure if it's saying 'time to get ready for autumn,' or 'you're going to need a lot of candy and coffee to get through the rest of summer.'
marcicat: (badger stream)
After my adventures with the coffee advent calendar last year, I decided to try the same company's 'spring and summer' options. (They offer a set of 'single-pot' bags with the various flavors. Since I'm making one cup at a time, and mixing the flavored coffee with regular coffee, they last a WHILE.)

So far I've tried:

*Blackberry Crumble: unexpectedly delicious, wow! I was wary of all the fruit flavors, but this one was great.

*S'Mores: YUM

*Blueberry Cobbler: ...I'm not sure

See, the thing is, MANY years ago, I took a bunch of powdered blueberry-flavored Crystal Light on a trip I didn't really want to go on, and the blueberry smell of the ground coffee is EXACTLY the same. (Okay, I have no idea if it's exactly the same. It reminds me of how that smelled. So the mental association is there.)

BUT once the coffee is brewed, the blueberry smell is much less, and the taste isn't bad. As long as the ratio is Very Little Blueberry Coffee : Much More Regular Coffee, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I'm not sure I'm enjoying it enough to KEEP enjoying it through the entire packet, let alone the SECOND one, though. (Why two blueberry, and not two delicious, delicious blackberry???)
marcicat: (santa hat cat)
I've greatly enjoyed my coffee advent calendar (thanks, Door County Coffee!) ever since Thanksgiving. For a variety of reasons, I'm only just today finishing up the last of the Day 6 coffee. And I thought 'I should skip ahead to the Christmas Eve coffee!' (Each 'day' lasts me for about 3-4 days depending on how enthusiastic I get pouring the grounds into the strainer.)

And I'm so happy about doing that! And it feels like a good reminder to myself -- sometimes you don't need to follow the arbitrary rules that you made up about a thing (like opening all the advent calendar doors in order). The rules were meant to make the game more fun; if changing them or breaking them ALSO makes the game more fun, do it! Skip ahead! Drink the Christmas Eve coffee!
marcicat: (blue footed bubi)
::deep breaths::

::resolves to ACTUALLY go to sleep earlier tonight::

OKAY! LET'S DO THIS!

Despite my reservations about everything the fact that it's still only Thursday, I recognize that many of those reservations would probably be resolved with 1) a few more hours of sleep tonight; 2) a walk outside in the sunshine; and 3) eating some food.

Ooh, and coffee! It's time for a new flavor from my coffee advent calendar -- each 'day' has actually been lasting me about four days, since I only drink one* cup a day.

(*LOL "one cup" in a 20-ounce mug, which I do realize is Not Exactly One Cup, but is sort of close enough for the purposes of this post.)
marcicat: (dreamsheep rainbow)
*I'm back to working from home today, just in time for some slushy snow!

*Very excited to be back to my coffee advent calendar today -- I'm actually still back on day 2, since there's more than one cup's worth of coffee in each day's package. But it's more fun to make it at home with my special 'cat in a santa hat' mug, and then add AS MUCH HALF AND HALF AS I WANT, DAMMIT. (Which is a lot.)

*Also I'm very tired.

*Today? No thank you.

*Maybe the coffee will help with that?

DAY 14

Nov. 14th, 2024 07:16 am
marcicat: (duckling)
*In happy news, I am well-stocked with coffee and chocolate, two things I am very much looking forward to consuming today.

*In less fantastic news, I'm battling with a sense of 'I'm falling apart and falling behind in every way.' That this feeling is objectively untrue does not seem to make it less unpleasant to experience.

*Current word count: help, I can't do math. the goal is 23,333 today, and I hit yesterday's goal of 21667, I think, so... somewhere between those two? idk there are now three files and that's so many numbers

*A sentence I wrote today: "Why are you up so early?"

*Sometimes my computer tries to offer helpful suggestions like 'this sentence would be more grammatically correct if you took out this word,' and I'm always like 'I think you fundamentally misunderstand the purpose of this exercise.' Sometimes I add more words instead.
marcicat: kismet sleeping (kismet sleeping)
It was a PERFECTLY REASONABLE series of events: went to bed late Saturday night (wild night reading fanfic, heck yeah!), meandered along on Sunday morning, didn't eat lunch until after 1, decided that was too late to have coffee if I didn't want to risk my coffee brain making the decisions about how late to stay up on Sunday night.

The consequences of said very reasonable series of events: I dozed off around 8:30 on Sunday night, woke up enough to actually go to bed around 9:30, and slept until 6:30 this morning. (Okay, I woke up when the cat jumped up on a nearby table and was chewing on something, but not enough to check what the 'something' was. Luckily it was her own toy -- a string toy I'd stashed away up there. It wasn't sitting out or anything, either, so I'm very impressed she either remembered it was there, or went digging through the bowl of miscellaneous stuff just to see what was around. VERY capable of entertaining herself if I'm not being interesting enough!)

The point is that it is now Monday morning, it's time to clock in for work, and I am SO EXCITED for my morning coffee. Let's gooooooooooo!
marcicat: (froggy heart)
Today my coffee delivery AND my yarn delivery are both supposed to arrive... what a combo! Sorry boss, it is coffee and crochet hours for the foreseeable future!
marcicat: (penguins sliding)
Enthusiasm: high!

Output: low!

Luckily, battleship is a team sport. ALSO! I cast my eyes upon the stats for round 1, which included the total number of works posted during the round. Then I went back and counted how many people are on the team. Based on my simple math skills, my two posted works are sliding in juuuuuuuust under the average, which is very exciting to me!

(Exactly where I like to be during any team event! Shelter under that bell curve, heck yeah!)
marcicat: (freakout squirrel)
With June comes plants!

Other big plans for the day:

*take some more allergy medication

*drink coffee in my new rainbow heart mug

*pat the cat
marcicat: (kashmir mountain goat)
I've had TWO Mondays off in a row, so today I'm all 'what is this work you speak of?' APPARENTLY I'm supposed to clock in and do my job for eight hours.

BUT! There is some good news. Or at least, I'm sure I can think of some good news if I ponder it long enough.

...

FOR EXAMPLE!

*there is coffee

*and scones!

*it's not raining

*I think I only have one meeting scheduled for the day

*my phone battery didn't die overnight, so my alarm went off as planned

*I already did a few of today's chores yesterday

*I have a crochet blanket project calling my name for any time when I need a cool-down
marcicat: (freakout squirrel)
*Work continues to be work

*But I turned on my diffuser this morning and I can *almost* smell it even with my sinus congestion, so that's one good thing

*And I decided to make the cat a lil' crochet blanket for her bed, so I have a fun project for downtime, which is another good thing (this is maaaaaaybe a ploy for me to reclaim her current blanket, but if she's insistent, I'm sure she'll wind up with both)

*Also this day has coffee for drinking and leftover pizza for eating, and those are even more good things

*OH! And it's monthly budget day, which means after I do that, it's officially next month (financially, lol) -- time to start daydreaming about March purchases!

Profile

marcicat: purple (Default)
marciratingsystem

January 2026

S M T W T F S
     1 2 3
4 5 678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jan. 6th, 2026 07:27 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios