Miscellaneous shit from the past month Vol 5

After a long hiatus from doing concerts and all via Covid and just general disinterest due to life stage, it felt good to be back this year since I intentionally tried to make it The Year of Live Music that turned into the Year of Live Things in General. I saw Jagged Little Pill the musical in January, Bruce & the E-Street Band in Atlanta in February, missed the goddamn Gin Blossoms in February due to Covid but they were booked, Harlan Coben in March, music in the park in Langhorne at the end of May, Elin Hilderbrand in June,  Bare Naked Ladies/Del Amitri/Five for Fighting in July, and of course I saw Bruce at the Meadowlands, which was a bucket list concert for me, with Melissa and Tris the week before Labor Day weekend. Bruce was scheduled for Philly too with my Dad & brother but that was postponed until August 2024. Today is Bruce's birthday. Happy birthday to the boss!

Anyway the Year of Live Things concluded its booked portion this week with Ray LaMontagne at the Met and Kate Baer in conversation with Jessica Knoll at the Northampton Library. I also saw Jennifer Weiner at Bucks the Thursday after Labor Day, and had dinner with my mom after. I'm on the hunt for some live music/things to do for the remaining three months of the year, preferably around the shore since I'll mostly be there with a few spots of Philly intermixed. The live music/event doesn't have to be famous so if you have suggestions especially near the shore, let me know

The end of summer at the shore was good - MFD’s fam was down, mine over Labor Day, his Aunt Maureen spent a few days with us and it was nice to visit with her. Mom and alRich were supposed to be down this weekend but switched to end of Oct due to weather. 

Have I mentioned stilt people are at the top of the list with clowns of things I do not ever want to encounter?

Isn't she a beaut? I actually got one of those Brads deals things in my signature color. This was a fucking steal. It's quite a bit bigger than the yellow one from Aubrey I've been rocking the past few years and will likely continue to use for my shorter beach trips.

I just need to leave this here.

This will never go out of style. Fuck him and everyone excusing him and everyone on the fascist down escalator to hell.

Random things that have been kicking around in my head.

My hand is raised.

In the past week the dogs went back to Dog Beach and loved it - still another week before they are allowed back on our regular beach - and Shittah went to the vet and hated it. He refuses to be in a carrier so he went on his harness. He was pissed regardless.

Covid pause killed all of my creativity including cooking but I'm feeling like I'd like to do it again. I made greek chicken bowls recently, and ground chicken with a cauliflower veggie mix and some sesame oil and soy sauce to clean out the freezer. On the last day of summer (yesterday) I finally had two really good pieces of corn on the cob. I feel like I didn't get enough fresh farm food this summer. Also Snoop has cereal and it's not good. 

We cannot get enough of topo chico in the glass bottles with a little lime over ice. 

Adult level joy is finding the tart cherry juice you flavor your water with on sale for half price.

The only time I would ever touch Hunt's ketchup is to purchase it for a blind ketchup taste test happening this fall. Heinz only, FOREVER

Are we all loving connections as much as me? I do Wordle, connections, and a daily crossword all on my phone (I also do crosswords by hand still obvi). Gotta keep that aging brain fresh to death

This is my perimenopause headshot. Do you like it?

We are one main mini split and one window AC unit down at the shore. We are in the make a list of things to do portion of shore time.

Happy first day of fall. This is my favorite type of pumpkin.

My weekend plans were changed due to rain so I figured I'd use the time to catch up on random shit I like to keep on the blog. Hope you're well

Friday Files 2.17.2023

This week has been like a grown up obstacle course personally and professionally. TGIF

New exterior front and back storm doors in Philly FINALLY installed on Wednesday. If you are in Northeast Philly I highly recommend Gallagher Brothers - they know what they're doing both in measurement/styling your new doors with you and in installation. I got these factory painted which is not what I've done at the shore - I painted all of those myself. These doors have needed replacing for years - the back door could have been broken down in a second and the storm door back there was literally held together with a zip tie - but they are so fucking expensive for quality doors. We did all of them at the shore over a two year period as well and I wish they told you when you were growing up how much shit like this would cost because I swear I thought this was a small/cheap home improvement project and it is absolutely fucking not. Back to a yellow door up front - gere are shitty befores & afters  - the manufacturer has to come replace the screen part of the storm door because it's off as you can sort of see here:

but no befores of the back because they arrived and started that immediately and I refuse to ask people to stop working so I can take a before photo. I wish I had them as the exterior door was peeling on the outside, like wood curling up, and the entire frame was fucked with busted locks etc, and the screen door was circa early 1970s, handle-less at this point, and held in place with a fucking zip tie as a latch LOLOL

People who know about our key fuckery will be pleased to find that we are using keypads now which will hopefully cut down on being locked out.

New couches were delivered at the shore yesterday  as well because yes let’s schedule two anxiety-producing items back to back. They had to be hoisted over the railing and the door removed but they are in! MFD took one for the team to go and be there for this since the door had to be taken off. Big Wally's Furniture and my old friend Billy D are awesome.

Floors in two weeks, and I need to address a pipe issue in March then the big things are done for the year at the shore. After that we're about caught up in both houses for things we had planned to do pre-Covid that got pushed off due to lack of availability of supplies or folks doing the work we needed being well jammed up schedule-wise with the exception of basement ceiling in Philly and starting the process to get quotes for windows here. 

Pets of the week. Billy Hicks spent a day in my home office this week, which he rarely visits during the day.

I was in my office Wednesday and I absolutely love being in Old City. 

I was very happy to see AEB for a quick coffee when I was In the city - we haven’t seen each other since pre-Covid! Excuse the wind tunnel, it was wild on Wednesday.

My uncle and I got to see my cousin and her boyfriend Monday as they were in from Chicago

I hit the meat markdown day at the grocery store and got over $52 of meat to freeze for just over $24. Peak adult shit there.

One of the best batches of mashed potatoes I’ve ever made. 

This is an entire fucking disgrace. Fuck Joe Biden (see how easy that is to say, Go Brandon people?) for intervening in favor of corporations to divert a strike and fuck all the politicians on both sides who supported that. Sacrificing people's lives and the environment so corporations can rack up money for the rich to get richer. What a fucking joke. Another de-railment outside of Detroit yesterday too.

I try to hang in with crew neck tees and I end up cutting them all at the neck. Let me be freeeee

That's that about that for this week. Have a great weekend, it's a long one for a lot of you! Not here, ever. 

Thursday Thoughts - r o c k in the U S A

1. Tired, fearful, and loathing: how we felt about Monday in our house. 

2. The skies around the Harvest Moon make my soul burn.

3. Lots of fighting on the internet about what it means to be a patriot in America. Everyone who knows us knows both MFD and I are very liberal. MFD always posts things with political or social implications on facebook and he has a host of trolls who dogpile on the rabbit and like to talk to those who lean a little more left in a patronizing manner, as if we are children or people who don't understand how the world works. They call us libtards which seriously? Boils my fucking blood. If you are friends with either of us on facebook and you see me ever comment on one of those posts, you know I have reached fuck this shit o'clock with the patronizing bullshit and am flying my ship right into the Death Star. No matter what side you're on in any issue, remember this: civil discourse is still a thing. People who think differently than you are not your enemy, you don't need to de-friend or block them. You don't need to attack or get personal. You can discuss matters like adults or you can, I don't know, refrain from engaging. Grow up. And remember: it's not just your rights that are important. It's all rights. 

4. In other news of the week...we have a systemic racism problem in this country that will not go away until we all acknowledge it. If you cannot see how black America is different from white America, do some reading on slavery and what happened during it, who owned who and how it ended; then move on to segregation, and what happened to people during those protests; then go to mortgage discrimination, which was still happening up until the late 1970s and is a major contributor to the urban decay we accuse black people of causing; then you look at crimes committed and lengths of sentences and you look at criminals in general and how we approach and talk about them...then you tell me with clear eyes and a honest heart how we all have the same opportunities and are treated the same across the board. If you tell me those things, I'm going to be asking some questions to make sure you actually did the reading. Do not discount how huge of a thing opportunity is in our lives.  Someone who planted bombs in NYC and NJ and had a shootout with police this weekend was brought in alive. These people are being gunned down in the streets for getting out of their cars. What the fuck is going on here? There is injustice and I will not be quiet about it. If you feel there is injustice, I hope you won't be quiet about it either. 

5. Now that my Public Service Announcements are over...I'm loving my newest Alex & Ani Jill gave me this weekend. It is the perfect addition to my collection and one that I identify with right now. Your friends just know sometimes, you know? Thanks Jill!

5. I finally got my food prep shit together despite Whole Foods fucking me and forcing me to use chard instead of spinach in my spinach muffins. I did egg muffins with asparagus and goat cheese, turkey tacos, and steamed asparagus with baked chicken thighs for lunches. Snacks are grapes, bananas, and noosa yogurt. 

6. The above was accomplished despite Whole Foods sucking. I use Instacart grocery delivery when I'm in a pinch - I need things for dinner that night and don't have time to get to the store. That was the case Monday. I worked late, my fridge was totally bare, and I had to get some food in the house. Instacart shoppers and service are great - but the stock at Whole Foods is awful. They never have anything. I ordered 12 items and 7 had to be replaced or flat out not fulfilled. Luckily Amazon was delivering the bulk of the groceries the next day so I could put the Whole Foods fuckery behind me and get on with the food prep. 

7. This is MFD's favorite old woobie shirt. We do our own laundry, but whites are done jointly because we don't produce a ton of them. Whenever I'm the one to do the whites and I lay hands on this shirt, I consider hiding it. 

8. I didn't watch the Emmys on Sunday, and I didn't scour the Internet for Emmy fashion. Who am I? p.s. I was all up on the fall of the Brangelina Empire. Team Jen for life. 

9. Important. 

10.  E-card of the week...Lots of know it alls on the interwebs these days. 

First day of calendar fall, Bs.  

Thursday Thoughts

1. I think this is the universal sign for fuck everyone who enters this bathroom after me. Yes, this photo is from my own bathroom.

2. Since I've opened up with a roll of toilet paper rakishly left off the MFing holder, I might as well follow up with gross dog tales. Gus had a significantly awful butt incident Monday, went to the vet Tuesday, got checked out and tested for parasites...nothing. We think it's colitis. The vet says nothing. I hate when my dogs are not well, I really want them to be able to talk and tell me how to help them. I spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday nights cleaning up dog poop all over. MFD had the day shifts, which are infinitely longer. It's a veritable poopacalypse in our house. Geege remains my best nicest boy and Mae seems to be faring well on wet food only. She only pukes when I give her dry food. This concludes the report on my dogs' bodily functions that you did not ask for. Bye.

3. In June, I meant to participate in Dani & Erin's Challenge to read all of my books - books I've had sitting on shelves, paperbacks shoved into crevices. Instead I rode the Library Gravy Train to shiny new books. I did manage to clear out my Netgalley account and read the three books I had from them, as well as three that had been sitting on my kindle for what felt like a decade. I consider myself mildly successful in reading my e-books, although I do still have some long lingerers on the kindle. I didn't manage to read one single physical book I already owned. So, in addition to the shit ton of books still on my kindle, as well as the $2 paperbacks I couldn't resist at Barnes & Noble to leave in the apartment at the shore, I still have the stack of books on the bookshelf at home that I set aside specifically for this challenge, crying read me as if they're marooned on the Island of Misfit Toys. Maybe next month? Probably not. I can't quit the library.

4. Of course I partook in Amazon Prime Day on Tuesday. I got MFD a hammock he wanted ($30 off), a Kindle Paperwhite for moi ($20 off), and two sets of king size sheets, 50% off each. And this time I used Amex points so it was all freeee. Free is for me. The best way for me to shop Prime Day is to look on my various wish lists and buy what's on sale so I'm not buying random crap I don't need.

5. It is absolutely crazy to me that I can order groceries at 11 p.m. and have them delivered to my doorstep before 7 a.m. No, I did not order just one item. But I forgot something so I added it to my order immediately. The rest of the order was placed at 10:56 p.m.

6. I can't be on all the time. You can't be on all the time. We'll still be okay.

7. The news outlets are reporting that the SEPTA regional rail situation is improved this week. I have seen no change, in fact, it's more crowded. The mornings still continue to be a total clusterfuck (pic below from Tuesday morning) and the evenings continue to be fairly fine on my line. My stepmom's line is the reverse. I also think it's bullshit that I can only get a fare credit towards additional purchases. My train allowance is set by the quarter and I can't change it in between.

8. As of yesterday afternoon, all hotels/vrbos/whathaveyou have been booked for our Ireland/Paris trip this fall. This is another bouncing around trip hotel-wise.

9.  I just blocked out my calendar to spend every September weekend at the shore. I love it down there always, I just love it more in the off-season. 

10. E-card of the week. This made me LOL as I used the facebook unfollow button a lot this week:

For the second week in a row, today is my Friday.