Thursday Thoughts - Everything's all right, I'll just say good night and I'll show myself to the door

Blooms. Monday morning nothing, today something.

I am the toilet paper replacer. Sunday, in a public restaurant. Tuesday, private event at someone's home I don't know. Wednesday, my own home. I need to accept that this is part of my journey.

Summer foods, make me feel fiiiiiine.

Bruce's work day.

Every day is a good way to break generational cycles. Tuesday was my uncle's funeral services. My cousins and aunts did a wonderful job and the day was balanced between truth, grief, and laughter. It was great to sit with my cousins after. We don't see each other like we did when we were young. We are spread out and people have their own lives, families, and in-laws. We can be in touch more, and we're going to get a family weekend on the books next year at the shore. Every time something devastating and unexpected happens, we are all given an extra opportunity to be better going forward. That's ours to take or not.

Fetterman for PA. MFD and I attended a private event in Mt. Airy on Tuesday night with Senator Murphy from CT, John Fetterman and his wife Giselle. It was great to see John out in his typical hoodie as his typical self after his stroke earlier this year. 

I've heard enough from old white men. Period.

Happy birthday Carol! Our family activities director, one of the Musketeers, and a great adventure companion, stepmom, mother-in-law, and Cici!

Happy birthday Jared today also, a member of our framily via Stephen

No, YOU panic lost your bra in a bag at the mammogram place. In my defense, it was early, I was hangry, and I had no coffee. Get your yearly checks everyone!

You can mail your poop. Since I'm 45 and am removed enough from any familial history with colon cancer or issues, my first option was Cologard where your doctor facilitates a box being mailed to you, and you poop in it and send it to be tested and if it's okay you do not have to get a colonoscopy yet. Mailing poop. 2022. What a time to be alive. No photos of this. You're welcome. But take these tests please!

The reaction to this raid from the GOP is Anti-democracy. Anti-America. We are literally talking about a man who hired the current FBI Director, and who made it a point to sign a stricter law about confidential files, making it a felony. The party of Law & Order needs to apply that to everyone, including themselves. You're all fucking dangerous. Stop it.

Beauty this week. In Mt. Airy. Under the burgeoning Sturgeon Moon.

 
What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks, for my uncle

Thursday Thoughts - Want a little grace but who's going to say a little grace for me?

Loving the fall skies. It's a great season in the sky.

Wishing I could be in many places at once all the time, but especially the next two weeks.

Hoping this weekend goes off without a hitch. I've got a lot of different moving parts.

Celebrating my niece's fourth birthday yesterday. I meant to write a whole blog post but got too busy. You'll not see her photo on here but she is the absolute best and being an aunt is one of my favorite things to be.

Spending a lot of time outside this week and it's been lovely except I'm glad it's not going to be 93 degrees again any time soon.

Anticipating delivery of my new oven tomorrow. If anything happens to thwart this, I'm going to lose my fucking mind and you'll hear it from wherever you are. Trust. 

Visiting Kristi, the best hairstylist around yesterday. 

Sending love to our friends Jenn & Steve and their kids and fam over the loss of Jenn's dad. 

Smiling when I saw my sister-in-law and mom both tagged me in this within an hour of each other.

Shaking my head over the insanity every fucking day. The authoritarianism and flagrant disregard for the constitution is one thing. Voting this cruelty into the office of the President of the United States is something we will never recover from.

Photographing sleeping dogs as always

Worrying about Mae. She's not doing well this week. I got her into the vet Tuesday night and she perked up enough to be nosy AF like usual but as of last night she was not back to normal. We think it's a bladder infection take two and that's what we're treating it as with antibiotics but we'll see.

Reading ....Not that much, which always feels weird but which I’ve come to expect for certain periods every year. I've read 136 books so far in 2019, and the last time that happened I experienced the same thing come September and spent most of a month barely reading like my brain needs a break in order to be able to absorb more. I'm taking that slow boat through novel land this week with the second Jane Doe - if you liked that one, there's another one out coming out in March 2020 (available now on Netgalley)! The fifth anniversary of Show Us Your Books is Tuesday. Are you joining us? There will be giveaways.

Listening to Unbelievers by Vampire Weekend (the part of the title of Thursday Thoughts after the hyphen is what's in my head or what I'm listening to when it's being written)

Reminding you to

Laughing at

What's new with you?

Linking up with Kristen

Thursday Thoughts - He’s the king of them all, y’all

1. Happy 14th birthday to the king of them all. I never thought this dog was making it to today but he does what he wants as he has since the day we got him in October 2005.

2. I always see the best skies in Target parking lots.

3. Nothing else was the best though. I felt like I was wandering around aimlessly last night because they're remodeling and I couldn't find anything. Cute new book section though.

4. Let this be known as the week I ran out of everything. $$$ I had to replace my eye cream (using Banana Bright by Ole Henriksen), dry shampoo (Living Proof is the GOAT), and deodorant (trying Native). I also bought Gus a new bed for the shore and took Lola Jean a book last night when I stopped by to see her and Baby Stephen and have pizza with them.

 5. I had no lunch for today or dinner for tonight so yesterday I whipped up one of Missy's favorite go to meals - I saw her comment on Lindsay's blog post on a healthy and easy weeknight meal and it sounded good so it was off to the races. I didn't have everything, so I browned ground beef with some Penzey's shallots, drained it, topped it with a bag of frozen riced cauliflower and a jar of salsa, added salt and Forward by Penzey's, chopped up half a jar of banana peppers and threw them in, and let it ride for a while. Then I topped with pepperjack cheese and broiled it.

6. I worked from home yesterday and I'm working from home tomorrow. Bruce is pleased. He likes to look over my shoulder or sit at my feet while I work.

7. I love when the Comcast building looks like part of the sky.

8. I've got no commentary on the state of the world in this post. I'm on vacation next week, leaving for the shore tonight with nothing packed, we have a lot of things going on personally and at work, and I barely got this together. I left my house this morning with no face moisturizer, eye cream,  or mascara...that’s three out of five things in my morning leave the house routine. Toner and under eye concealer made the cut. Not like I didn’t have time either, I did. My brain needs a break. Fuckitville, population: me.

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 Sweet Soul Music by Arthur Conley

Some days are diamonds

Yesterday was one.

New book, three longer walks including one with the fam, lots of fresh air, some sunshine, gorgeous mural art, acupuncture appointment (I rarely feel as good as I do when I strut out of that office - new body, who dis?), fresh nails (OPI Silken Cord), check marks next to large work projects...a series of small things that added up to a diamond of a day, which was  unexpected and lovely given my shitty attitude this week. I forgot my sunglasses and my mouse and was still grinning. Forgetting my sunglasses is usually a torpedo into my day. Sensitive eyes and all.

I capped it off feeling extra good about myself because MFD watched Behind the Curve, a flat earther documentary, and no matter what else is happening in my life, I am not a flat earther and that is something to be thankful for. Get the F out of here with that.

Wishing you a diamond day today. Hell, have yourself a diamond weekend. Go on.

TWTW - the one with the Fourth

Bruce Springsteen was screaming from my windows as I tore through the dark, back roads to the shore on Thursday night. I worked from there until noon Friday, then ran errands on my bike. An unplanned errand was the purchase of this fabulous necklace from Henry's. Thanks MFD! Errands through, I rewarded myself for not falling off my bike or getting hit by a car in the crazy holiday weekend traffic with coffee & a donut from Drip n Scoop. I set up the porch and sat out there most of the day with the dogs and a book. 

A storm rolled in Friday night, and I rode my bike back along the bay scoping out the awesome skies. At one point it was so dark with a very thin line of pink on the horizon. I am a total sky ho.  

Speaking of skies, Saturday's sunrise:

After meeting up with my cleaning lady and doing some clean up / improvements in the main house myself between renters (I love white duct tape), I hit the beach. MFD arrived around 4:30 and we stayed down there until close to 7. This was actually the first time we were on the beach together this year.

After dinner at the Beach Club with a great view of the ocean and fabulous people watching, we went down to the beach because the water was like glass and the skies were beautiful.

Boardwalk trolling, shopping, and gelato. Manco & Manco is taking over the STRAND space and changing the sign out. I am pissed off and not patronizing them. 

Sunday started off drizzly. We rode our bikes down to the OC Surf Cafe in light rain and had a freaking awesome breakfast. We made a stop at Drip n Scoop for more coffee before riding through puddles down the alleys all the way home. That was fun, I haven't done it since I was a kid. After recording The Armchair Librarians with Jana, I hit The Bookateria Two for a paperback.

Sunday was an exceptional people watching day on the beach. Good thing, because I broke my brain reading and wasn't having any luck in that department, even with a new book it was slow going. We were going to go to Michelle's beach party over past Strathmere but never made it out of town or even out to dinner. Lazy bones day. 

Sunday night porch sitting & a nice visit from our favorite beauty guru blogger and friend Jill & Frank. I look like a troll in this photo and Jill was all I didn't blowdry my hair (neither did I and hers still looks better than mine) but it's the shore, so it's fine. We're fine. 

Monday, the Fourth of July. I got up and I was tired. It looked overcast at first glance. I nearly went back to bad. Holy shit I'm glad I didn't. It was a skies on fire sunrise. When I first got to the beach, it was literally glowing pink. The entire thing was amazing, and once again all the magic (to me) happens at least 15 minutes before the sun actually rises. If you prefer video, click here. 

The bonus was the rainbow coming out of the sea behind me.

I left early and was home before 9 a.m. I spent most of the day doing laundry and resting after going to the food store. I chilled, I grilled, and when MFD got home from his parades, we ate and watched Independence Day. And listened to Geege and Mae bark themselves sick over fireworks. 

Weekly food prep

Breakfast is egg muffins with asparagus and cheese with a side of power breakfast muffins (no pics, no cares). Lunch is leftovers from the Fourth dinner (grilled chicken thighs/smoked kielbasa/organic hotdogs - I know, what? - macaroni salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, watermelon) until they're gone, then salads. Snacks: peaches, plums, cucumbers. 

Assorted snaps that didn't make it in the collages above or Instagram...this is how I document life, after all.

I'm off Friday...three day week, here I am. Thank God, because SEPTA regional rail is in a world of pain right now and I suspect every commute for the foreseeable future will be a big hairy asshole. 

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending &