TWTW - the first one home in a month

I almost forgot what it was like not doing a gaht damn thing Friday night, but my dogs helped me remember. Wings for dinner, frozen berries and some reading for dessert, and four episodes of Season 3 of Bosch.

We were equally lazy Saturday morning until it was time to go to the March for Science in Doylestown. We were originally going to the Philly March, but the Doylestown March was organized by high school students and helped by Rise Up Doylestown and many local sponsors and we felt the need to support them in that huge undertaking. Kids, you rock! And you give me hope for the future. It was a great day despite the damp cold and rain and I was really happy to see large turnouts in the 600+ science marches around the world even though media coverage of the marches sucked. Climate change has us all in the soup together. I made sure to rep Mother Earth in my choice of attire.

After that there was almost a massacre because I got hangry and I think we all know how that goes. We settled in at Andale Latino Grill in Feasterville for really freaking good food. It looks a little hole in the wall-ish but damn. It was delicious. I picked up a few things at the grocery store including $5 flowers and spent the night doing a face mask, purging dressers, and reorganizing for the spring/summer seasons.

Sunday morning I took care of the weekly food prep: breakfast is an egg bake with ham, cheese, and broccoli; lunch is pork chops over sweet potatoes and broccoli;  snacks are celery and PB, cucumbers, and yogurt; dinners are baked buffalo chicken pasta and salmon with steamed broccoli and rice. I also made the egg part I need for breakfast burritos to freeze. I'll finish making them this week.

Then we picked up our friend Bob and headed up to the Nakashima House to hear Regina Brave, Charles Whalen, and Loren Bagola speak. I met them along with the men's significant others and Regina's granddaughter the day before and had a total wow, I'm meeting fucking Regina Brave moment. She is a warrior for the sovereignty of the indigenous people and the energy coming off of her is tremendous. As a reader and a writer, I love to hear people tell their stories. It was wonderful to hear her tell the stories of her people. Not so wonderful are the stories themselves of what the US government has done to the native people. All three were an emotional listen - Regina with her stories of all the things she's seen in her 80+ years, Loren with his stories of violence he saw inflicted on the water protectors on the front lines at Standing Rock, and Charles with a mix of both of those things along with his thoughts on water and the environment and passive resistance. Standing Rock is not over. There are people still standing for the water, and they are out now speaking to spread their stories. There is a treaty. We are in violation. We need to listen. Here's Grandma Regina at Stanford last week. Not to mention that the water from the Missouri feeds the greenbelt. If that gets poisoned, we're all fucked. 

Charles at the Doylestown March Saturday / Regina Brave here and there / Charles & Regina at Nakishima Sunday

The Nakashima Complex is really beautiful and is open to the public on Saturday afternoons. If you're in the New Hope area, check it out. George Nakashima's story is pretty incredible too. It is fucking crazy to think one of the preeminent furniture designer-craftsmen in the U.S. was interned in a Japanese relocation center. The grounds and buildings are gorgeous and my fat ass sat in a Nakashima chair.

Other Sunday things: purging of the closets, reading, nail painting, Sunday night blues.

The only thing I needed to do this weekend was go to Target. The only thing I didn't do? Go to Target. You know how that goes. 

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

TWTW - the one before my birthday

Friday MFD was in DC for the Native Nations Rise March so it was my job to get the dogs up, which he usually does. They were not pleased.

Friday night I organized going to the shore stuff (heart emojis for sea horse outdoor ottomans) and fell asleep on the couch watching the Golden Girls after food prep (see bottom of post for what I made).

MFD got home late and I ended up sleeping in, but by 10 am Saturday we were on the way to the shore. We did some stuff in the house and removed old porch furniture before having lunch at at Jon & Patty's.

We also hit the beach. It was so beautiful it hurt...or maybe that was the cold air on my face. Excuse me, I am being petty and ungrateful and battling a bad attitude about not being able to open the house this weekend and not spending my birthday there as planned due to stupid impending Snowstorm Stelllllaaaaaaa.

We were home by 3:30, and by 6 I was watching my niece Lola Jean, which is the next best thing if I can't be at the shore. MFD came over and we got Jay's cheesesteaks. The pretzel roll is clutch and Jay gives back to the community a lot, which we love.

The best time to go to the grocery store before an impending snowstorm is 10:30 on a Saturday night. Seriously. I got home and unpacked and went to bed around 11:30, but I could not go to sleep to save my life and I was still up when MFD got up at 1:30 to do his overnight Code Blue volunteering for the homeless with AHTN. Mae thinking she was a people and should share my pillow didn't help. 

Sunday morning I got a pedicure and perused the aisles of Ross. Now you know my toes had to be in bad shape for me to run errands with flip flops when temps were below freezing.

I also got flowers because if it's not going to act like spring outside damnit it will look like spring inside. I supplemented birthday flowers from Kim that arrived last week (top left pic). 

Sunday afternoon Mom & Rich took us out to Carlucci's to celebrate my birthday and Pop's 86th, which was Saturday. The seafood canneloni was amazing. I love their veggies and potatoes too.

After that I pulled the birthday card and made MFD go to HomeGoods. He was not amused but he did humor me and stand next to the letters someone made say ass. 

Weekly food prep: Breakfast is whole grain english muffins with PB and bananas; lunch is this one pan chicken and veggie meal over quinoa (I didn't love how this came out, I will likely prepare separately in the future);  snacks are blackberries, bell peppers, and yogurt; and dinner is chili and corned beef/cabbage/potatoes (not made yet). Some of that chili will go in the freezer for future lunches, and I made breakfast burritos to freeze too. I will be eating breakfast burritos from the freezer a lot because a) I love them, b) I don't mind eating the same thing daily, and c) they're the easiest to make ahead and freeze when I'm at the shore. 

Favorite day tomorrow! Show Us Your Books + Birthday Eve!

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

TWTW - the one before the mad holiday rush

To begin: Friday morning fuckery in the form of zero trains coming in the hour I stood at the train station. Frozen and pissed off, I went home to work for the day. I ended up getting a shit ton of work done and it was one of my favorite days of the month: the day Linda comes to clean. I also got awesome mail in the form of two sugar scrubs from my favorite shore shop and two sweet ass pairs of designer sunglasses I scored on the cheap from my sunglasses dealer, Kimmy Foo Foo. I don't care about shoes, purses, cars...but I love me some sunglasses.

Friday night MFD returned from an eventful and tumultuous trip out to North Dakota to purchase and deliver over $1200 of supplies to Standing Rock. In addition to spiritual healing and a sense of purpose, he returned with second degree burns on his hands from a propane fire and a thankfully recovered phone left on an airplane. Never a dull moment around here. Never a dull moment. Click here to read about days three and four of his trip and thanks to everyone who donated money for supplies - they were needed and delivered. I'm very happy to have him home - it's hard when your partner is far away and hurt and you can't do anything. The fight goes on out there - Energy Transfer Partners is STILL drilling even though the Army Corps of Engineers told them to stop. This is far from over. Water is life. Keep an eye on it. I made a pot of spaghetti, read, and watched Marcella on Netflix followed by Dazed and Confused while he caught up on sleep. Alright alright alright.

Saturday morning I lounged and did some work, then ran my company's Christmas party at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Anyone looking for a spot in the city, this was really cool and great for all ages. 12 Street Catering does the food there and it was delicious and a nice spread.

I was beat after that, so after providing minimal help to MFD in changing his bandages, I finished a book, started another, and hung with the dogs. There are reasons why some people are nurses and some people are not. Insert puke face emoji here.

Sunday morning I slept in again and it was awesome. I did some work, then got right on weekly food prep: power breakfast muffins to freeze because I fucked them up last week, spinach muffins to freeze, egg muffins with spinach/green onion/sharp cheddar for breakfast, defrosted quinoa mixture from the freezer for lunches, sliced green peppers and oranges for snacks, pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots for Sunday dinner + leftovers. We'll be on the go several nights this week so I didn't need much in that area with the leftover meatballs from Friday.

Other Sunday things: purged medicine cabinet/beauty items/slippers/flip flops/pajamas to get rid of two bags of trash and a bag for Goodwill, read, purged the pantry, face mask, lounged with dogs, drank tea, ran the dishwasher, wiped down the kitchen 32 times, changed sheets, washed sheets & towels & 59 other things, blah blah. And I took the trash and recycles to the curb because Hands-free MFD is unable to do that at this time.

Things I did not do: wrap gifts, because I don't like to do that and am ignoring it. 

Today would have been my Gamma's birthday. I'll think of her when I read today, like I always do. I was so lucky to have someone who loved me so much for so many years. 

Book talk tomorrow, including our annual holiday giveaway! See you there. 

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending