Thursday Thoughts - good night and joy be with you all

1. Happy St. Paddy's Day. You are a fucking delight and the pot of gold is inside yourself. Roasted corned beef on deck for today. 

2. I miss celebrating my birthday with my Grandmom - mine was Tuesday and hers today - we would alternate picking restaurants to go to and she always had corned beef for St. Paddy's Day. Hers was the best. 

3. I did much of nothing on my birthday, which was the plan. I had spent the weekend in reflective mode, which is typical for birthday time. MFD waited on me hand and foot, I read a whole book, unboxed my new homemade quilt made by Lori, had my favorite pepperoni & provolone bagel for breakfast, went on a long walk, spent a lot of time outside, was at the beach twice, took an afternoon nap, had a nice dinner out, and caught the tail end of a nice sunset. And of course I took the day off of work. Things of course went not according to plan also because this is real life - our street was dug up right outside my window at 7 am so no sleeping in, the restaurant I wanted to go to was not open Tuesday - but it was a good day and I am still here to age when so many people are not. This is 45 and it is damn good to be here. I wrote a bunch of phone notes that never transferred to a blog post but this is my instagram birthday caption where I try to collect my thoughts from the day. 

4. The electric work I had done in the main shore house was $300 over estimate because previous owners had cut corners. Use junction boxes, kids! I have three remaining that have not been replaced and now I'm moving that to the top of the list. Here are some of the new ones. I really love the hallway ones. Not pictured is a soft pink one for the small bath. I have a cheapie in the powder room, and need to repair the ceiling around it and put my preferred lightbulbs in all of them. All the interior door hinges and knobs are being switched out to black in May. The lights were those hideous boob lights and I'm glad they're gone. Just three more to go.

5. I am convinced that 99% of people who design sun hats have never sat on the beach all day in the slightest wind and absolutely never put their creation on with a pair of large sunglasses. Despite this belief, I continue to search high and low for one that I can lean my head back in, that won't fall off if you whisper at it, can be worn with large sunglasses, provides facial coverage from the sun but doesn't have an enormously ridiculous brim so I can't see a fucking thing, and doesn't give me a headache after 30 minutes. The first test of the season is on its way to me. 

6. We tried Crumbl cookies last week. They were fine? We got all six flavors for the week and I only loved one. The chocolate chip is straight trash, I stand by this statement. I need to get off the Sugar Dragon's back things are bad right now. My mom just loaded us up with Easter candy too. We are eating it all like fat asses then going straight to vegetables and fruit. Contact me for all of your nutrition needs. 

7. A good week on the beach, all days. 

8. The world is heavy to live in. Help people however you can, and accept help yourself when it is offered. 

9. Reminder via thepaperfern: I saw this just when I needed to, which happens a lot. This quote from Glennon Doyle is important - we focus so much on happiness that when I feel other sorts of ways, I am annoyed at myself. Like pissed off when my feelings are hurt which is...no. All of these things are a part of being human - we don't exist only in situations that feel good. Disappointment is the hardest thing to swallow, isn't it? 

10. Ecards - 

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is The Parting Glass, this version is The Dubliners

TWTW - the last one in Philly for a long time

Friday I worked from home with my daytime outing being playing lite brite with Amelia while Michelle was at her conference and picking up a donut after, so good start. After work I got a pedicure for the first time since freaking October. I made pizza and salad for dinner, purged the china cabinet, lined the it with contact paper until I ran out and had to order more, and read at night.

Saturday I was up at the ass crack, seriously before even the dogs so I got a load of laundry going and did some reading, put laundry away, wrote my SUYB post, purged some drawers, and did more laundry (since MFD was sick with the stomach virus, literally everything that can be washed is getting washed). The two new end chairs for the dining room arrived so MFD assembled those. I spent the afternoon watching Lola Jean and Baby Steeeve and they are a riot. My Dad & Carol came over so I got to spend a few hours with them too. We were outside as the sun was going down and Lola pointed out the signs of spring to me. I stopped at Target to return something and pick up eggs and stepped right into Doomsday Preppers. Remain calm, people who are not immune-compromised. Stop hoarding, leave some shit out there for people who are compromised. 

Sunday I always feel like I'm behind as soon as I wake up on spring forward day. I hate that. International Women's Day and my Mom-Mom's birthday, both good days to remind ourselves that women don't owe you shit. I changed sheets, did food prep early, packaged up donations, and ran some errands - Kohls to return some Amazon things and get a new sun hat, Ross to pick up a rug for the shore, and I dropped off a donation to a locker too. Ben was Ben, destroying new toys and turning over beds to sit on them. New socks from Aubrey & my brother, did some work work and some looking for light fixtures online before deciding to spray paint the existing one, outside sitting in flip flop weather with Brucie, painted my nails (OPI My Private Jet), and MFD prepped and painted the dining room.

Weekly food prep: Breakfast is yogurt with granola. Snacks are baby carrots and hard boiled eggs. I only need three lunches so I'm probably going to scrounge for those. Dinner is salad with chicken thighs in the air fryer and egg roll in a bowl. I also made chocolate chip muffins and Gus's food.

Birthday week is upon us! Three day week, visiting Aunt Carrie & Uncle Jim! Then opening the shore after that, hence the title of this post! Show Us Your Books tomorrow! All the exclamation points too apparently! 

How was yours? 

Thursday Thoughts - we shall survive, let us take ourselves along

1. Birthday Eve and today is my Friday because I don't work on my birthday. If I was president, neither would you. When your friends know you: a RBG candle from my work wife Beth & grammar pencils from my BFF Kim. We all know I dissent on every damn thing right now and love grammar policing and pencils are my preferred writing tool.

2. For my 42nd birthday, I got myself readers. It might be time. I don't need them per se, but when my eyes are tired they are helpful. And I used a coupon to get them. Just like I used a coupon to get my replacement paperwhite that arrived last night just in time for me to need to start a book on it. Hey ohhhhhhhh.

3. I had to sprint for the train Monday and Wednesday mornings this week. Not cool. And not a close sprint, either. It's a park & ride. It's not like 30 seconds. Hashtag not a sprinter.

4. I was handed this on Monday while on my lunch walk. The lady was old and spoke no english so I was like sure I'll take it. LOL forever. I've been walking a lot at lunch and getting in my 40 minutes of exercise a day except for Monday which is typically a hell day for me with DST and all.

5. I used my silicone molds for the first time making power breakfast muffins this week. They froze well in the pan and were great to transport muffins to work every day this week and wash out at the end of the day.

6. I am continually amazed every time I open my brown sugar to see it sitting there soft and lovely, kept that way by a piece of bread that has been in there for an eternity and manages not to mold. Yay science!

7. How sleeping goes here. And when MFD comes up everyone has to shuffle and sometimes that raises Mae's ire beyond what she can stand. It is rare to sleep through the night without getting up to yell.

8. There is some small petty annoying thing that I keep meaning to include the past two weeks and every Wednesday I can't fucking remember what it is. It's driving me insane.

9. Reminder:

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 Bennie & the Jets by Elton John