TWTW - the first one of the last month of 2020

Friday Work work work. I started early to finish early so Bruce could get his booster shots. He was  not okay with it as he had a bad reaction to the initial ones. I took the best friends down to Corson's Inlet to run around while I looked for shells. They came home tired out, I finished a few work things and ate the dinner I had ordered for contactless delivery earlier, and my big Friday night was grocery shopping at 8:30 pm when I was the only person in the store aside from two workers. 

Saturday I unapologetically did nothing. I read a bit, but mostly cleaned shells in batches.  

We headed for our beach walk once the weather cleared. There was like an entire whelk village on my beach. It was amazing. My pickings from that are in the bottom right photo above - all those in under 10 minutes in less than a block. Bruce was not having it. It was cold and he wanted to go home. I understood. More lounging and reading followed. 

Sunday there was a little more life. I put stuff away in the apartment and house, vacuumed the apartment and cleaned the bathroom, cleaned out the dishwasher filter in the house and ran that with vinegar, sorted Christmas gifts, did my SUYB blog, did some beach walking with the best friends. MFD was taking care of stuff in Philly and arrived late with the old dogs.  

I made pork chops in the air fryer, rice, and broccoli for dinner. I also made tuna for lunches. This week the dogs are eating skirt steak, chicken tenders, rice, mixed veggies, and sweet potatoes as a topper for a bit of dry food.

Show Us Your Books tomorrow!

Friday Five 11.20.2020

1. If I wear something with pockets and don't wash it there is an 85% chance I will find a shell in it when I put it on next.

2. As we head into winter, I'm getting diligent about my body moisturizing again. Two of my favorites, both of which are cruelty free: Andalou Naturals CannaCell Botanical Body Lotion in Joyful. The scent is rosemary and lemon balm and, you know, joyful. I also like Scottish Fine Soaps Au Lait Body Butter - you can find this at TJMaxx (online for those not going to stores) and Marshalls too for great prices. Perfect stocking stuffer. 

3. It is my estimation that everyone has at least one thing they are never happy with the results of other people cleaning. For me that is my gas range top. This slippery little sucker can be difficult to find, but it is amazing: Weiman Gas Range cleaner. They make the stainless steel cleaners that are great too. 

4. Always, RBG.

5. I have loved kiwi since I was a child. I've subsisted on that, steamed asparagus, and various ravioli (toasted from Aldi's freezer section and cauliflower cheese boiled from Trader Joe's fridge section) this week.

I hope you have not slept on the High-rise ankle pants from Target (that link is an affiliate for Chelsea at The Girl Who Loved to Write, who turned me on to these, purchasing  through an affiliate link costs you nothing and the person benefitting makes approximately three cents on each transaction) from last week's Friday Five because Sunday I got showered and dressed to go for a bike ride and MFD asked me why I had nice pants on and when someone says that about your lounge pants I think you know you've made it. Order that shit for pickup and wear for Thanksgiving!

Happy birthday to Steph today!

I'm off next week and I cannot wait to exhale. Happy Friday. Wear a mask and be kind to each other out there, okay? 

Thursday Thoughts - Now where did you find her among the neon lights

1. I never realized until this year how much I love what I call the silver days. It's overcast but bright, and the sky and water are almost the same color. Sun peeks through and hits the ocean so it appears as glass. When the sun comes through, the water glitters like diamonds in some spots. Despite everything 2020 has thrown at the world, it has allowed me to live here full time without dealing with issues I’d have to address to do that in normal life. People keep asking if I’m still “staying” at the shore. I’m living here and I have since May and we might not close this house up this year. I have bottomless appreciation for that as well as the rest of the unexpected opportunities and joys this year has brought me while simultaneously acknowledging that it has done a number on me mentally and emotionally and wrestling with the frustration, grief, and rage I feel on behalf of those who have not faired well health-wise or financially this year and been left hung out to dry by their government.

2. I have moved my office upstairs this week in an effort to strike a better work/life balance and it's been great. I go up to start work, I leave to walk the beach at lunch or run errands or both, back upstairs to work, and then I go to my apartment after. This is where we are with the best friend dog's attachment to me. 

3. Show Us Your Books prizes still open, and Instagram books still up for grabs (can't get to the post office until Monday anyway). I read this this week, it was great. Thanks to my friend Mush for the recommendation!

4. One of my fall intentions is to make sure I'm out shelling at least three times a week. It's something I absolutely love to do and it doesn't involve screens and my velcro dogs can come this time of year. Shelling has been stellar this week. I'm not after only the perfect ones because how boring is that? After the storms rolled out some of the rocks I found were shorn in half. The power of the ocean is amazing. 

5. I also love seeing weird stuff. 

6. I made breakfast burritos to freeze for the first time since like February. It felt like my old self came knocking. 

7. Just some stuff from around the interwebs. Casual.

8. I have the very en vogue O-Cedar mop made so by GoCleanCo but I need a swiffer like thing upstairs and I'm giving this Promist Max a whirl. You can wash the microfiber mop and you just squeeze so it doesn't need batteries. I'll report back. Links are affiliates.

9. Reminder

10. ecards

Any thoughts to share from your corner of the world? 

The words following the hyphen are the song I am listening to when I start the Thursday Thoughts post. This week is Beautiful Girl by INXS

TWTW - the one with just one dog

This weekend was just me and Bruce at the shore. Having had two dogs for like 10 years and three for at least five but probably more like six or seven, it was so weird to just have the one with me. Weird and extremely easy. 

Bruce and I got to the shore Thursday night around 9 after packing, running the dishwasher, washing a load of towels, etc. I worked from there Friday which meant lunch was a beach walk. 

After work I applied an initial coat to one of the dressers upstairs (Annie Sloan Napoleonic Blue). Bruce supervised which made me nervous as fuck but he was really good and stayed away from the paint. 

To reward both of us, we headed down to Corson's Inlet and hiked through the trail to the beach where we came upon the mother lode of shells high up in the sand and not a soul in sight. I was not paying attention to where we were going but Bruce, born in Sea Isle, led the way back around to the car. He is a shore dog through and through. We hung out and watched the sunset - that's the sun glowing red going down reflected on me, not a red face - then went home and cleaned shells and read. 

Saturday sunrise + a 45 minute beach wog down to the Music Pier. The erosion from the numerous N'oreasters is just incredible on some beaches - there's quite a drop off as you can sort of see in the puddle photo. 

After a short rest I was back at the Music Pier to register for the beach clean up, then I spent some time on my beach doing that. The plastic is literally killing us.

Another coat of paint on the dresser, then a three hour tour down Asbury Avenue to get Bruce used to people and noise. It took so long because he stops and stares at shit and won't move. We also paused in front of The Chatterbox for a long time. Under new ownership this season, the old girl is being lovingly restored to her former glory. Aside from a quick run to Bennie's for scalded milk cake during which I realized I looked like a giant blueberry, we stayed in and I read most of the afternoon.

Another jaunt down to the beach followed by my favorite picky dinner and Legally Blonde. 

Sunday sunrise - often behind the sunrise is as pretty or prettier as the sunrise itself.

Coffee, relaxing, cleaning our apartment, finding storage for my new shells, 

taking everything out of the kitchen closet and priming it with spray primer due to laziness, then cleaning up the dust that kicked up, a clear coat on the dresser - I let it pull through white on purpose, and a last jaunt to the beach. We were supposed to come home Monday, but we didn't. 

We should have, because when I got home the house was a disaster, the dishes I ran in the dishwasher Thursday night were still freaking in there, I spent a zillion minutes on the phone with Comcast on MFD's behalf, and the ants are back, hence the borax sugar water appetizer. At least dinner was good and no one did any murdering? And by no one I mean me. 

Weekly food prep: scrambled eggs with spinach for breakfast, hummus/veggies/pita for lunch, dinner is probably going to be ham and potato soup and leftovers from the grilling. Cantaloupe for a snack.

This was the first Sunday night in forever that I've purposefully gone to bed without TWTW queued up for the next day. I can only recall doing that one other time and it involved me still being in my bathing suit in a bar at the shore at like midnight.  The other times I've missed Mondays I knew ahead of time that I would. No real reason for mentioning this except to note that while I do love to recap weekends this way for my own memories - what did I use? where did I go? was that that weekend? - it felt freeing to not do that on the time table I usually do. Also to say that if photos and collages sized the way I wanted them to on my phone, I'd never have a thought about doing that again - I've done this so many times, it's second nature.