Thursday Thoughts - I don’t need to fight to prove I’m right, I don’t need to be forgiven

1. This is late and lame - late yesterday I was like shit tomorrow is Thursday and I should have Thoughts. MFD was supposed to come home from the shore Monday but didn't get home until Tuesday so I left work early Monday to finish out the day at home and worked from home Tuesday as well. I'm all confused. Plus I'm off tomorrow, my first day off since March 15. I am thrilled. Confused on days, but thrilled. Almost as thrilled as the dogs are when I work at home.

2. Confused on how to leave the house to run errands too, apparently. 

3. Someone finally diagnosed what's wrong with my oven and the part is on order. Praise Jesus and Hallelujah. It only took three freaking visits over a 31 day period. It's the goddamn igniter. It's not that hard. 

4. At the shore MFD painted the ceiling and someone came out to replace a disappeared screen on the fourth floor, which were two of the remaining big three things that need to be done before Memorial Day. The third is power washing and that will happen Sunday. I updated the About the House and Around Town shit and I always feel like we're stealing home base heading into Memorial Day. It comes up quickly. Also who the hell has ever heard of screens just disappearing out of fourth floor windows? 

5. I won a cookbook from Gina. I freaking love Ina. Do you guys follow Gina's blog? Go check her out at Ciao Bella.

6. Nails: OPI My Private Jet.

7. Let's see, what else: reading netgalley books and fucking up my goodreads tracking over the past week, wearing my Divine Badass shirt from Gena, putting the rest of the year's vacation days into my calendar, keeping up with picking up around the house, scheduling a Vietnam Vets pickup, perusing thrift stores and online yard sale sites for a chair, raging over the carnies causing chaos on my street this week,

8. I am ready to set the world on absolute fire. I can barely scroll through social media. I want to drop everything and act. I feel like a never ending scream is caught in my throat and I'm not even a child bearing person in one of these states, someone of color, someone without means. It is infinitely harder for all of those womxn. Solidarity. This is the hill I will die on. There should be ZERO abortion laws on the books, anywhere. It is a womxn's choice made in consultation with her doctor and if she has one, her higher power. It is certainly not my business, or yours, or any government official's. It is not your right to impose your beliefs and your higher power on someone else. PERIOD. What you personally would or would not do, what you believe in according to your faith has zero bearing on the bodily autonomy of other people. The country is not ruled by your religion, and women you don't know aren't either. Fuck the patriarchy, fuck the white men making these laws, fuck the women who are their foot soldiers, and fuck you if you agree with any of it.

9. Reminder: As long as you need, whenever you need.

10. Ecards.

What appears after the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts is a song lyric to whatever I'm listening to when I start to write the post. This week is Baba O'Riley by The Who

Thursday Thoughts: any way the wind blows

1. I'm feeling in between this week...in between summer and fall, in between working and living, in between home and shore home, in between wanting to do and wanting to be lazy, in between this book and that book. In between isn't bad, it's just weird.

2. I'm not feeling in between on commuting. I'm feeling straight up worn out. It has been prolonged hell with the trains still out of service and the 20 SEPTA put back on last week already pulled off for further repair. Every morning and evening commute is at least 20-30 minutes longer than it normally is. It's grinding me down.

3. The Samsung Dishwasher Debacle of Summer 2016 has finally come to an end. After 15 phone calls, over 30 emails, and a lot of insanity, they have deposited the $404 they've owed me since July 18 into my account. VICTORY IS MINE.

via

4. Many Trump supporters are calling Hillary old...do they know he's older than she is? Continually LOLing and WTFing over this entire election.

5. I'm really doing it, you guys. I'm attempting to pack for Ireland in a carry on. Debbie showed us her ways at the shore last weekend. I'm giving it a go. It helps that I'm planning to do a load of laundry mid-way between the trip. I bought a new suitcase for the task at Marshalls and am waiting on a compression bag. I also want new leggings. So basically any recent shopping is for our upcoming trip.

6. And I've also been shopping for Libby, the newest member of my aunt army. Kim and Steve ushered this lovely little lady into the world last week in Boston. I cannot wait to meet her but photos will suffice until then.

7. Geege is this week's million dollar dog. He's having pricey as fuck dental surgery today. It worries me to have a 12 year old dog put under. Keep a good thought for him if you could!

8. Tomorrow! Are you ready?

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9. Reminder. Thanks to Rebecca at Knit By God's Hand for sharing on Friday.

10.  E-card of the week...

Thursday Thoughts - dip trip, flip fantasia

1. You know what forces you to get your purging act together? Scheduling a pickup for 8 a.m. on Saturday. Thanks Vietnam Vets Assn for picking up! Things I am not allowed to purchase more of: lounge pants, pajama pants - not even using the one in, one out rule. I could open up my own store for both.

2. I went to a small local shop near my office and got professionally fitted for bras on Monday. And by fitted I mean she eyed me up and put me in the size she thought I was without using a measuring tape, and she was correct. She pushes your boobs in there how they should be too. I was wearing the total wrong size, by like a lot, and it is amazing how much better you look and feel in the correct size bra. Mona said, "Steph, they don't call them foundation garments for no reason." Boom. Anyone in Philly, take yourself directly to Mona the Bra Whisperer at Coeur on 17th Street. Support your small, local businesses! When I went back Tuesday to pick one up, she gave me a hug and a high five.

3.  Tuesday night dinner at Carlucci's for mom's 60th. I think the crown can be worn all year, don't you?

4. The nearly seven week saga of the not working at all - sort of working - need to run a load through three times - fixed - not working again - need to run a load through twice - fixed - not working again dryer culminated in a War of the Roses type battle between me and MFD that resulted in this being delivered this Saturday and our warranty company sending us a check in the mail to cover more than half of it. Pray it's an early window or I'm going to need to phone a friend to receive delivery so I can make dinner/Paul Simon.

5. I have outrage fatigue over gun nonsense. Is no fly no buy perfect? No. Anything involving lists is not perfect. Everyone should have been banging that civil liberties drum when the Patriot Act unanimously passed through the GOP.  I want universal background checks. I want waiting periods. I want the smallest step taken towards getting them. And I want that step taken now. Few things in life are exactly as we want them to be. I'm done arguing with gun lovers - please, don't waste your time with me. I don't want to take your guns so chill the F out. Except those AR-15s...those I'd take. Go pet and hug and stroke your guns and whisper to yourself how I'll wish you were around with them in a crisis instead of telling me there is not a gun problem. If guns aren't the problem, why do no other civilized countries have mass shootings? If the Founding Fathers knew an AR-15 could ever exist and what it could do to a crowd and how people would use it I think they would have worded the second amendment a little differently. Rep. John Lewis, you still got it. No bill no break indeed. Paul Ryan, you are a sniveling little brat sucking the teat of the NRA. Many LOLs for people saying this is illegal...have you heard of John Lewis and Martin Luther King and non violent protest and the right to assemble? Or do you only know gun rights? Andplusalso the republicans shut down the government over vaginas. Stop it.

6.  It's the very first week of summer and I already don't feel like figuring out meal prep for next week, getting out of bed early, or making my zumba classes. I hate the lazy season.

7. Did you know tomorrow is bring your dogs to work day? I swear, if I was going to the shore this weekend, I'd bring my motley crew in here and let them loose.

8. Sneak peak of what's on my list...and I was mumbling around in our Monday after 9 pm recording and could not come up with the blog name at the time, but I got the hots for the Red Rising trilogy from Rose at Ramblin' Rose on a few Show Us Your Books posts. Thanks for the recommendation, Rose.

9. Important:

10. E-card of the week

TWTW - where is January going?

Spotted at the gym Friday night: a Ghostbusters car. After a year and five months of living here Mae realized the china cabinet rattles sometimes and remained obsessed and disturbed all night while Gus adopted his typical WTF attitude about the situation. Other excitement: laundry and obsessive book reading. Have you heard of You?

Saturday presented itself with a small amount of wet, heavy snow. I am the neighbor you see outside shoveling snow in her pajama bottoms. It wasn't that cold, so no need to get gear on or get dressed to shovel. I followed that up with a nice breakfast of avocado on multi grain toast, eggs, and strawberries. Then I sat in my nice quiet house (thanks Kate for the gorgeous flowers) and ordered a new washer because ours shit the bed that morning. I was downstairs wringing out clothes over the sink like Laura Ingalls Wilder on the freaking prairie and MFD yelled down, "I guess we're not calling American Home Shield." No, we are not.

Things I'm attempting:
-Eliminating a lot of driving/after work errands so I had groceries delivered on Saturday. I was always all no one else can pick my produce and wrong again, they actually can.
-Sticking to my eating well 80% of the time thing, as evidenced by weekend lunches which usually tend to involve a lot of cheese.
-Using up all of my candles. I like how cheap and smelly (in a good way) some Glade candles are, but they burn foolishly. No thanks.
-This isn't new, but making more granite cleaner for my counter tops. This time I used melaleuca and wild orange essential oils.

Saturday night we met our good friends Jill & Frank at Cibo for a late dinner. Good food and the wait staff all sings so there was entertainment too. I had pan fried goat cheese over arugula with a balsamic reduction (I would eat this every day) and linguine & clams, one of my old favorites. I was not impressed with their dessert menu. My cheat meal for the week and those fuckers didn't have any cake. Why I didn't bring my point & shoot, I don't know. Sorry for the grainy pics. But take note of the elevator graffiti. Juicy karkass indeed...it hurts me to mirror their misspelling.

Work is crazy, so I spent a lot of Saturday day and Sunday working. I wanted to get going right away on Sunday morning so I whipped up a two minute breakfast, egg in a mug (click to go to the recipe), thanks to Nicole  from Nicole Marica Blog. I used regular eggs, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese. You can't beat the simplicity. Try it! Our washer was also delivered and installed before 11 a.m. Now that is some awesome.

Weekly food prep, starting from the bottom...hard boiled eggs and power breakfast muffins for this week's breakfasts; potato leek soup skinny style for this week's lunches; butternut squash, peas, quinoa in an olive oil/rice wine vinegar dressing; and baked shrimp, sauteed veggies, and brown rice for Sunday dinner with leftovers for Monday. Other dinners include baked chicken with the quinoa side, blackened salmon with roasted fingerling potatoes and steamed veggies, and eggs scrambled with veggies and salsa.

I closed Sunday out with the gym, clothes all laid out for the week, a book, and my beloved Downton Abbey.

If I could trouble you for a minute of your time on this fine Monday, would you mind clicking here and voting for MFD (Michael Doyle on this list) for Bucks County Happening Realtor and clicking here and voting for Mugshots owned by our BFF Angie on the Philly Happening List? And of course, if you're looking to buy, sell, invest, rent, or anything else to do with real estate in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, I got a guy I can recommend (MFD). And if you want a good local coffee place in Philly, check out Mugshots!

Lots of good stuff coming at you this week: breakfast burritos; recommendations from me/Emily at Martinis & Bikinis, and Nicole at Nicole Marica; a giveaway, and more. Let's end (!!) January on a high note, shall we?

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending