Snippets of the weekend 10.30.2023

I was supposed to go to the shore Thursday as Mom & Rich were headed down, but we picked up Mr. Edward Rooney from his foster fam on Thursday. Friday we realized he had an infection and took him to our vet. He did much better after he got some antibiotics. I headed to the shore after work.

Saturday Mom and I walked the boards while Rich was on a bike ride and walked back along Asbury. We waited for him to get back then headed to the beach. Absolutely stunning warm day, and a full moon at night. Just perfect. We  had Durham Deli goods for dinner and sat out on the porch enjoying the weather.

Sunday more hanging and walking - thank God my mom was there because I dropped dog poop bags somewhere and she ran back to the house for replacements LOL - soccer on the telly, MFD arrived in the afternoon, and Mom and Rich took us to dinner at the Anchorage. 

It was a good weekend and a nice visit, much nicer than it would have been if they came down the monsoon weekend in September as originally planned. 

weekending reels on Instagram - current favorite weekend look back mode.

TWTW - the one with Mom

Friday MFD did a big clean in the morning as there was sawdust everywhere after the doors got installed. Like, everywhere. And it keeps coming back. Mom and Rich arrived in the afternoon and then went out to do shore things while I finished work. Michelle and Amelia stopped by, and we hung upstairs with Mom & Rich when they got back. 

Saturday Mom and Rich did donuts and beach and boards walk while we got some stuff done around the house. I got a bunch of stuff listed on the local Buy Nothing group and all except one thing was picked up. I love seeing things go to use for others that still have life in them and I don't have the patience to sell most things. I also dropped a book off at the library and lots of cardboard to the recycling center. Mom and I hit Asbury to support some small businesses - I got a new frock at a new boutique occupying the same real estate as my old favorite Blue Lotus that is no longer there. I also got beach tags for the season and we had lunch out! At Hooked on Breakfast. It was good. We relaxed on the porch as MFD was on his Bass Pro Shops odyssey and Rich was on a bike ride. 

When Rich got back we went to the beach and it was lovely down there. As we were sitting there I was like is that Michelle? Her and Amelia were standing right in front of us. I texted her and we were LOLing all night. Mom got chips and shrimp from Ike's for dinner and we hung out for a while before her and Rich hit the boards and I lay down to finish my book. 

Sunday Running on about 4.5 hours of sleep due to Gus moving around a lot and a trail of turds, I took my mom up to Corson's Inlet to go shelling. Not a great selection of shells, but a wonderful dramatic performance by the sky. 

We came back and slugged around. MFD and I did some hanging and moving wall stuff around and reorganizing storage on the third floor which devolved into me screaming about the patriarchy. He went to get a haircut and look at furniture and I met Mom and Rich at the beach. It was hot AF and then cold AF when the wind changed. Regardless of weather it was so awesome to see the return of beach season, people gathering together, and a feeling that was much much lighter than any May 2020 feelings. Get vaccinated! Let's go!

We came back to the house and Mom and Rich left for home. I read and rested and had ice cream for lunch in the afternoon. Mark and Sarah and Harry arrived around 8. We tried the Wawa burgers and fries at 9 pm. The burgers are surprisingly good. 

So happy to see some sort of livable world again - science is amazing. Thanks to everyone doing something wonderful for the world and caring about the health of others by getting vaccinated.

I also met my new shore neighbors and am relieved that they are nice and laid back people. Good neighbors are always important, but when you're running a seasonal rental, it's extra for those few months. 

Thursday Thoughts - What is it that they're really looking for just a hobby on the internet

1. Mom and Rich were here Monday to last night. It was a nice and relaxed visit. We walked the boards Monday night and saw a lovely sunset. Tuesday after work I hit the beach with them and Mom bought pizza for dinner, and Wednesday we did sunrise and shelling at Corson's Inlet, Mom and I went to the Farmers Market, and we strolled Asbury at lunch. Plus dog walks and general lolling around. 

2. That's right, sunrises are back. No regrets avoiding the wake up before 4:45a, hazy, buggy, crowded summer sunrises in favor of the wake up around 6:20, quiet, my dogs can come fall ones. Best friend dogs are back on the beach seven days earlier than technically permissible. We all break rules (even those law and order people), this is one of my big ones. 

3. This is that Monday night sunset. The waves were big and the currents very strong most of the week from storms churning up. The light has been beautiful at night. 

4. Fall light is wonderful, and it became official on Tuesday. 

5. I saw this on Instagram and bought it. Is it perfect or is it fucking perfect? 

6. I am off Friday and Monday and I frankly cannot wait. 

7. Nails of the week - Essie without reservations - this has some sparkle to it which you can't see well in this photo. Solid fall color. Or any time of year color because we do what we want when we want. 

8. Breonna Taylor was never getting justice under this system which was designed to work to be unjust for Black and brown people. The entire system is guilty. It needs to be abolished and we have to start fresh and build one that is just for ALL people. As Audrey Lord said, the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." Kentucky has a democrat governor, Louisville has a democrat mayor, the Attorney General is Black and the police chief is Black. NO CHARGES FOR THE POLICE THAT KILLED BREONNA TAYLOR because the goddamn system is working as it was designed to. There is no justice in this systemically racist system even IF people working in it say and believe Black Lives Matter. Even IF people working in it are themselves Black. Charging a police officer for wanton endangerment for his bullets going through walls and possibly killing someone versus not charging him for his bullets going through someone's damn body and actually killing them. How can you not see this? How can there be justice when shooting the walls of a white person's apartment brings charges and killing a Black person with the same bullets during the same incident does not? Legally allowable does NOT equal justice and we all fucking know it. Slavery was legally allowable. How can there be justice when regular people focus on property damage around protests instead of people protesting EN MASSE all over the country over the lived experience of Black people in America? Hell they're protesting on behalf of Black Americans in other countries too. Property over people is a fucked up place to live, and that's why I freak out when people focus on property damage surrounding any protest against racial injustice - it all connects. See where it connects here? What exactly do we mean when we say Make America Great Again? To return to our lips not coming near the same water fountains, our asses not sitting on the same seats, our kids not going to the same schools, our neighborhoods staying lily white, red lining, Jim Crow, Black bodies being used and discarded, Black labor being valued differently? Was America great in those times? What time do we want to go back to when America was great? The entire time we've been racist since the beginning? The incredible horror we've inflicted on the native people and the land? The time when we fought World War II against fascism? Wait, people are against Antifa now, which essentially means being in support of fascism, so that can't be right. It seems like we want to go back to women dying from back alley abortions too. Is that the time? All of the above times? I don't have enough expletives right now. And to quote something I saw on the Internet last night, fuck off I'm not leaving just because it's unjust and fucked up here. There is work to be done. We cannot change the past but we sure as FUCK should not be going back to any time in it because America was NEVER great for ALL of her people. Act right and stop saying Make America Great Again. Your racism is showing. Work to build a better tomorrow for EVERYONE instead. No fucking exceptions. To see how many white people are invested in upholding this system that disproportionately benefits them, read any comment section on the Internet. The longer we hold on to old ways designed to keep a foot on the neck of Black people (read a book, the criminal justice system was literally designed to do this, and modern day police themselves were born from slave catchers-we need to start ENTIRELY OVER), the more the unrest grows and makes everyone less safe. Change is needed for the well being of Black people, brown people, white people, and police of every color. 

9. Reminder

10. E-cards: I'm not kidding.

And you? 

The words following the hyphen are the song I am listening to when I start the Thursday Thoughts post. This week is New Biography by Van Morrison 

TWTW - the second of two three dayers

Thursday I headed to the beach after work. There was a weird creeping fog but it was overall nice. I found some seaglass, finished a book, had a salad, then we strolled the boards. Have you had Ben & Jerry's salted caramel blondie? Holy crap. We sat on the porch for a bit then hit the hay.

Friday Off for the day for Mom's birthday! Rich got Brown's donuts, they did a surrey ride with Kate and the kids while I did a little work and made up foaming hand soaps and shower spray. Then we all hit the beach. It was a perfect beach day followed by a perfect porch day. After a while Kate and the kids headed home, and we had fried chicken and onion rings from Boyar's before Mom & Rich headed home. I did some touch up painting and then read. 

Saturday I was up at the ass crack walking two sets of dogs, packing up, watering flowers, etc. I hit the beach for a few hours before heading back to Philadelphia for the first time since May 12. I was not that thrilled. I returned something to Target, MFD made dinner, and I was up finishing a book until 1. 

Sunday I slept in and it was glorious. I did some cleaning, laundry, made million dollar cream cheese and garlic dip (year of the dip lives on, this was a good one), and we stopped to pick up Rita's water ice. Stopped in to see Rich for Father's Day, then on to Aubrey's parents' for an outside Father's Day celebration sponsored by delicious food and a very nice breeze. 

How was your weekend?

Today is Friday and I am

Out of office.

Full of That Friday Feeling. 

Spending the day with my Mom for her birthday (happy birthday to my cousin Ashley too)

Headed to Cape May Brewery later.

Happy MFD installed new blinds and hung up a second kid book basket before he left yesterday.

Researching fiber laser marking

Commemorating Juneteenth 

Eating Johnson's buttered popcorn like I'm going to the chair. 

Preparing to go back to Philadelphia for a few days on Sunday for the first time since May 12. Seeing my Dad of course, and also getting my car inspected and going to the dentist to finally deal with the filling that half fell out the third week of quarantine

Cleaning up excessive amounts of dog hair and considering this deshedding tool

Investigating additional ways to take payment for shore rentals and perusing sites like https://www.northamericanbancard.com/features/security and considering updating photos because it has been at least a year and I always think I'll be better at that then I never am

Pointing out that your president and his team used a Nazi symbol in his campaign ad 

You? What's on deck for the weekend?

Have a great one! 

TWTW - the one that is not three day for me

Friday I have seldom been so happy to see a week end. I moved the email icon on my phone out of the home bar on the bottom and onto page three for the weekend and it was fucking glorious. While MFD was making dinner I did my in-home walk. He made steaks and asparagus and fries in the air fryer and we zoned out on the couches with Parks & Rec and me with a book. 

Saturday was leisure-tastic. I finished a book, read an entire other one, and started a third. I painted my nails (Zoya Annie and Charla) and did a bentonite clay mask, we did a family walk on the trail near our house with me splitting off early to bring the old dogs home, and I did a super simple dinner of salad, corn bread, and chicken drums in the air fryer. 

Sunday My mom came over for a visit bearing bagels and her delicious baked goods. MFD and Vincent went to Quaker meeting and I did an in-home walk and showered. What else what else. Normal sheet changing and towel washing and putting the house in order. I should have done laundry but I argued with people I don't know online about why Bloomberg is so fucking terrible instead. After years of saying we were going to we finally bought a new sectional for the shore (no ottoman, but the sectional is the ottoman color) and went to dinner at Margaritas since it was right across from there. The service was great but the food was fucking terrible, we had immediate regrets/should have gone elsewhere. I finished reading Just Mercy and whew. 

Weekly food prep: Breakfast is savory oatmeal and a banana. Lunches are salads with a hard boiled egg side car. Snacks are baby carrots. Dinner is spaghetti with veggie meat sauce from the freezer, garlic bread to use up bread from last week, and side salad - MFD is making that Monday night. I'll probably do sheet pan veggies and smoked sausage mid-week. That's one of the only meals I am cool with making the day of during the week. So no pics because the only things I made were hard boiled eggs and oatmeal and cut up some stuff for salads. Oh I lied. Here are some tomatoes. Bye.

Is this just a weekend and books and Thursday Thoughts blog anymore? In this season of life, seems like it. I am not off today, but I do feel more rested than I have in a while.

Thursday Thoughts - merry Christmas time come and find you happy and there by your fire

1. In case you don't know what to get me for Christmas.

via The Sweet Feminist

2. Witness my camera getting shittier as apple wants me to update my phone.

3. I still have a cold and fatigue which makes it hard to get things done at home and I'm tired of a lot of shit right now including tired of being physically tired, blowing my nose, and coughing. Also, why can I smell nothing except urine in the street and my own sweaty feet after walking all over the city in velvet Toms? Like if you have to not be able to smell things, let’s not be able to smell those things for sure.

4. All I've managed to do consistently this week is work because everything is hurtling forward toward next Friday when many people are peacing out. I've worn Doc Martens twice and someone asked me if they still sold them. LOL forever. Yes. Yes they do.

5.  I am in the process of updating like over 500 blog posts that dropped the signatures off of them. One of them contains the recipes my mom uses for Christmas cookies which I share every year. I can't find it, so here they are again:

Granny’s Sugar Cookies

1C butter

2C sugar

2 eggs

4C flour

4TSP baking powder

1TSP salt

1TSP vanilla

Combine. Refrigerate. Roll and cut out. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Mom’s Molasses Cookies

3&3/4C flour

1TSP baking soda

1/2TSP salt

4TBS unsweetened cocoa powder

3TSP cinnamon

2TSP allspice

2 sticks butter, softened

1C sugar

1 egg

1/2C molasses

Sift dry ingredients together. Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg. Add molasses and stir well.  Combine with dry ingredients. Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours. Roll and cut out. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Can be iced with sugar icing or topped with sprinkles. 

6. I’m working from home today and at lunch I’m hoping to get my dining room table cleared of the shit that has been strewn across it for what feels like months.

7. Right about now is when I start thinking I don’t have everything for Christmas.

8. Kudos to Finland, and Megan Rapinoe, and Greta Thunberg, and the USWNT. Fuck yeah, ladies. No kudos to the bully in chief who cyber shit on Greta before and after this cover. He'll go away at some point, but the people who support his behavior will remain and that's the real problem - don't lose sight of that. Double down on rooting misogyny, racism, and hypocrisy out of your personal life - there's no place for it means there's no fucking place for it, period - and triple down on Senate races in 2020. You don't win those, nothing matters. Vote and talk about voting and drive people to vote and you get the picture.

9. Reminder:

10. Ecards. 

Happy birthday to Meem, yesterday. And today would be my Gamma's birthday!

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 Christmas All Over Again by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

TWTW - the one with the fall festival

Friday Out of office. After coffee & porch time, Lori, Mom, Helen, and Mo and I took Bruce and Bender for a beach walk and collected a lot of trash on the way back. The seas were rough and the tide had come way up so a lot of stuff washed in. They went to breakfast and I painted my nails (Pacifica Mermaid and Treasured). Lori and I walked to the library which was like Choose Your Own Adventure since all the streets to get there were flooded. We hit Asbury Ave to do some browsing and Debbie arrived and met us there.

After some porch time (Ben in his new sweatshirt from Treat Lady), we had dinner at Angelo's on the boardwalk and did a nighttime stroll.

Saturday Block Party day was a beauty! Melissa arrived around 11 and we hit the street. I got another pair of tie dye pants so I'm set to be tie dyed out for the winter. Lori found me my moon pendant (switching necklace), I got crystals from my crystal lady, and admired but did not buy this Cousin Eddie pillow cover. I took the business card in case I get the urge to order because it was seriously fucking good.

It was hot AF so we made quick work of the way back. Debbie, Melissa, and I got a hotdog and Melissa and I hit the pickle man on the way back. Mom and I took Bruce and Ben to the beach. It was a stellar day, just gorgeous weather. After that I had to lie down for a bit and nearly fell asleep but my uncle Billy and aunt Sue stopped by so I rallied a little to visit with them. Mom got Ike's chips and Debbie and Lori got fried chicken from Boyar's and we went to town. Then we took a stroll on the boardwalk and saw an awesome moon. Everyone was dead tired by the end of the night.

Sunday Lori, Debbie, Helen, Mo, and I went to Bob's for breakfast, then they cleaned up and scattered along with Melissa leaving me and Mom. We took a walk on the beach, Mom got fried chicken to send home with me and filled up my gas tank, and we were on the way. I am physically ill leaving the shore at this time of year. I just don't want to, ever. I got home and sulked for a while then MFD and I picked up a few groceries, I put this together, cooked, did three loads of laundry, and read.

Weekly food prep: Breakfasts are greek yogurt and granola, snacks are bananas and cucumbers, lunches are spaghetti squash with cannellini beans/pinto beans/diced tomatoes topped with goat cheese. Dinners are mashed sweet potatoes and kale salad and something else spaghetti squash. Buffalo chicken spaghetti squash? I'm not sure yet. 

I love spending time with these ladies - lots of laughs and just a nice time. 

I'm not off today, no bank holidays here. Happy Indigenous Peoples day!