Saturday, November 2, 2024

Today is when I first heard of Veruca Salt and what she's a metaphor/metanym for.

I'll also cop to knowing nothing substantive about Oompa Loompa, although the name is vaguely familiar as a children's literary reference.

I'm not sure how I feel about the time change. If we didn't fall back, it would be dark here until 8:30 or 9:00 am in the winter. But in order to have some light in the morning, we have the sun setting around 4:30 during peak dark days in December. As it is, I go to work in the dark, and, if I stay late, return in the dark. So maybe it would be better to have the hour of light in the evening. When we spring ahead, by June we have the sun up by 5am and setting around 9:30 pm. I LOVE it. Is summer considered standard time?

Went for coffee this morning, and then to the mad house known as Costco. I think its best to avoid Costco on Saturday, but we needed a few things and decided to get it over with. I cleaned out the fridge to make room for the new food. DH loves to leave jars and bottles of things in the fridge with a tablespoon of product in them. Once that task was done, I cleaned out some pots and the flower bed in front of the house. We had a frost that killed the tender flowers, but the snapdragons soldier on. Some still have buds, but even if we don't have a hard freeze, I don't know if there is enough light for them to open. But I left them in place, all the same.

I finally got on the scale to discover that I was in the low end of my range. So here I was, considering being an ostrich, even though my clothes felt fine, even though I didn't look any different, because I was sure I was going to be up several pounds. The mind games we endure with the scale and weight in general.

I really need to do some basic cleaning chores, but have so little interest in getting them done. I know I'll feel better once that's behind me, so I should get going.

Nice that the scale cooperated. DH hadn't weighed in a long time because he said he would just measure by his clothes. I commented that his shirts seemed a little bit roomier but he didn't agree. He finally did stand on the scale and then asked if it was working properly because he was 6.5 pounds less than he thought he was (it works fine).

Today's gripe! I have a stand alone freezer in my laundry room (left by the previous owners). It's a Whirlpool. They had a part on order to fix it (it won't stay cold and hovers around 25-30 degrees, which is not food safe) that didn't come in until well after I took possession of the house. So I paid for the part when it came in and the service call. Then less than a year later the same part broke again. I had that fixed. Now it's broken AGAIN. I believe I have some warranty on the part (but not the $150 service calls), but I don't see this issue improving with time. I think I should just get a new non-Whirlpool freezer. But in researching freezers, every single one from all the brands has complaints! Freezing over inside, compressors breaking, losing entire freezers of food. It's so discouraging. What happened to solid appliances that work for decades? And the dimensions are all over the map so only the one I had will fit in the cabinet the way this one does. Others are too tall or too deep. So next to the matching fridge which does keep temperature, it's going to look funny. And the one that I think will look the least funny and is not a Whirlpool is backordered until December.

So I cleaned out my main freezer and Tetrised everything from the other one in there. Once again, nothing is easy!

We've had 4 refrigerators in the 37 years we've lived in this house, 2 stoves, and the original washer and dryer. I'm thinking whatever makes refrigerators refrigerate is not very hardy or durable. Even the stove, we didn't replace it because it stopped working, we replaced it because I wanted a glass cooktop. I would have liked to see if the original electric stove could have kept going. I think it could! But yeah, refrigerators and freezers are too delicate.

So you are going to wait for the backordered one at this point? I used to have two full refrigerators and had both freezers full. I felt like I never really knew what was in there and periodically had to throw out stuff that was frozen for too long so eventually gravitated to just having one. Though I do prefer a sizeable one in a side-by-side refrigerator. The drawers in the French door refrigerators (we have one here) do not seem to allow for efficient freezer use.

I'm stuck in analysis paralysis now! I didn't keep a lot in there - mostly Costco meats, stuff that was vacuum sealed so it didn't get freezer burned, ice packs, baged up chicken wrappers I didn't want sitting in the trash can stinking all week, etc. But I really like having overflow freezer storage so that neither freezer had to be packed tightly keeping me from knowing what was in either. The companion fridge in there is 100% drinks, which is really nice to have.

So the persnickety side of me is bummed they won't match anymore, another side is irked the upper cabinet is too low (67"), keeping me from replacing both with one normal sized fridge, which would still look off as the cabinet opening is 67" wide... It seems I so often have to play this game of "what appliance will fit in the hole?" because there are no standards in the industry...

Greetings all

Fall has arrived for sure. Ok by me. Jus****ched our football team lose a heartbreaker. Oh well. Only a game. At least we had a few hours without election news.

Got a call from the nephew - the one who is expecting the baby after years of IVF. They had important news. They had been told they were expecting a boy by previous doctor. Today they get told it's a girl! Some kind of screw up in which report the doctor was reading because they had multiple embryos. They don't care so it's all good. But jeez, how goofy is that!! I am kind of glad.

Peps have you ever had body fat percentage calculated? Might be interesting. Some of us are just made to be thicker than others. Or so I tell myself. I do recall that to maintain at my low weight I could only do about 1200 calories per day. Not sustainable long term. Maybe just my rationalization.

Hoping to get back to my walking soon. This afternoon has been a cough fest even with the meds. It's all sinus driven. Makes me miserable.

Yep I really don't care about daylight time but easy for me to say. Agreed that it is uncivilized to go to work and come home in the dark.

Exotic trips CC! Sounds like your friends have the right idea. Do it while you can. And boo on the freezer. Nothing lasts anymore.

We still have cold cuts and veggies. I think I am going to cook some of the veggies as it's kind of comfort food in the cold.

Still floundering around with the gallery lease. These people are not being very cooperative.

Not much else. Diane S

A girl! So exciting, but agree that it is weird these days for a doctor to get it wrong at first.

153.9. Bout the same. Wi**** would start going down again. The only thing I feel I should change is to add exercise. Just can't seem to get that motivation! I don't want to up my med dose as I feel I'm restricting calories just fine.

Last day for the kids to be here. The visit was nice but it will be nice for it to be just us again and not worry about meals and activities for others.

Went out for pizza tonight. Good, I ate my standard 2 slices from a 12 inch thin crust wood grilled pizza with just mushrooms and cheese. I ordered an Old Fashioned but could only drink half (if that) of it. Tirzepatide has really taken my interest for alcohol away. I think it is affecting my libido too which is sad! Makes sense though in how it works!