Just regular folks.

I had a very nice birthday – the best gift was the first beautiful non-humid day in a while and I luxuriated in the feeling. I also felt 100% better after my covid shot and I took the day off of work. I got a birthday massage in the morning and then I spent the day doing things I consider fun which involved some garden work since it was so nice outside – I mowed the lawn mid-day. A treat! I got my cordless weed wacker to weed wack (I will never ever master string deployment on any weed wacker in my life). I protected some new-ish plants from deer with unsightly wire cages. I watched monarch caterpillars eat milkweed, their little mandibles going chomp chomp chomp. I could spend a long time watching that, it’s quite entertaining. I also went to the library where I got a couple of books and to Trader Joe’s where I bought an assortment of flowers keeping it about $20 and then did the arranging myself at home based on some youtube videos I had watched over the weekend. I was in the middle of all this greenery, clipping, leaves flying and water spilling and general messing around when Jeremy walked downstairs and I told him – don’t buy me any flowers for my birthday, I bought them myself. And he looked at me and said – I can’t buy my wife flowers for her birthday? And then he paused and said – I see you are entertaining yourself.

Here’s the bouquet, not bad, the flowers are a bit short the greens a little too much, but it’s all OK!

Jeremy wanted to take me to lunch and we were headed out and then Elka looked at us and said…wait, I want to come! (pls don’t leave me alone). And so we adjusted our restaurant choice to one with outdoor seating and Elka might have gotten a water bowl, a treat from the wait staff and multiple pieces of chicken from us. She was very pleased. I got tater tots! I was also very pleased.

I got my Covid/flu shot on Saturday, so I spend most of Sunday weary and achy. I feel pretty good today which is nice because it’s my birthday! I took today off work and I’m getting a massage and we’ll take a trip to the library.

I also am proud of myself, I successfully tempered chocolate and I found at least three monarch caterpillars on my milkweek plant.

And a bunch of other milkweed bugs.

Someone got a paper published! Nature! So proud <3! And noncanonical is one of my favorite words. Goooo Vincie!!!!

Anita was over yesterday and of all the Elka stuffies (there must be at least 10 in the house) that are available, she took Stitch. Stitch is the only non-thrifted stuffie because we called Elka Stitch when she was a puppy because she was so mischievous. Anita and Elka have a special relationship. Anita takes all of Elka’s toys and then sometimes grabs Elka’s collar and yanks it back and forth and Elka…kind of just stands there looking sad, but secretly I think Elka likes it. We don’t often have little kids in the house and I think Elka would really like a small person to hang out with.

Jeremy is headed to California again today. Not very fuel efficient, but what can you do? He tried to make it one trip, but with something last Tuesday and something this Friday with a long holiday weekend in the middle, it was just a little too much to rope into one go around. And Elka is so sad when he’s gone. She literally just stands there while his suitcase is open with her sad puppy dog eyes. He’s been preparing for a talk and he’s hosting a happy hour for 40-50 people. And this time he brought our Jenga set with him. He’s like my problem is like a Jenga set! He ordered a bunch of colored painters tape and made a prop.

I’m not sure what is going on, but it’s driving me crazy that that one “gas tax” block is upside down (these are his photos). And yes, he put the entire set in his checked luggage. Hmmm, I should have offered to write these for him, I have better handwriting. (Did I tell you that Jeremy fell in love with my handwriting first before he fell in love with me? lol. He was my TA in statistical mechanics. I wrote very clearly, so he could clearly see that I did not really understand statistical mechanics. double lol. But he loves me anyways…).

A lovely weekend, the weather was just great and I did many things. Water communion on Sunday and the choir sung – here’s a really nice photo of Mark W. who has been in the choir for more than 40 years. I made a small tiramisu for the potluck (demolished) and a veggie sushi tray for Wegmans.

Labor Day, I went early to the pistol range where I helped put in new target stands at the range and met some nice people. This is the range I’ve been using all summer in my league tournaments which I am performing very poorly at. Oh well. What can I say? I spent two hours happily painting wooden planks? Stakes? Timbers? and then I after that I kind of realized that the work was mainly tractor work and there were lots of folks there so I peaced out. I owe about 6 hours of work and now I’ve done four.

For Jeremy’s birthday, I made him these extra gingery cookies which he declared perfect. They have ground ginger, fresh ginger and crystallized ginger – I just love how beautifully they turned out. Almost like they came from a “real” bakery. And, of course, I enjoy making Jeremy happy. He can be hard to please with gifts because he’s very particular, so I tend to not give him gifts.

And then we went to Gene’s 90th birthday party. There was a kerfluffle regarding the BBQ that we had decided on, Jeremy forgot to order early, so he went to the BBQ place and waited in line hoping they didn’t sell out and then waited for them to prepare it. But I thought it was worth it, the BBQ was thrilling and delicious.

Colleen got this enormous cake for the two of them. It was both delicious and incredibly too much at the same time. Happy birthday!

Jeremy is on a two night trip to California – I’m not quite sure what he is doing there, but it doesn’t involve bringing a bicycle. Elka is always unhappy when he packs, giving him the side-eye. They walked 50 miles together last week! Fifty! That’s like more than 10 hours, I’m sure it’s more than 10 hours. Jeremy is listening to lots of history books and playing Pokemon. Elka is finding mud, patches of sun, pizza crusts and asking for ice cream.

I’m reading two books – Demon Copperhead on audio and Land on print. Both are steady, but slow reads for me. I’m not a huge fan of Demon, I find it slightly predictable and slow going, but I’m loving Land. Because Jeremy is out of town, I made simple dinner for Edda and me and spurned the cleaning up of dishes and then tucked myself into bed to read at 8:00 pm. At 7:30 pm, I was wondering if it was OK to go to bed at 8:00 pm and read, and I decided that it was OK. I will continue Demon Copperhead because I have a bookclub date on the 11th and I still have like 9 hours to go on it. So about an hour a day. I CAN DO IT.

Following up yesterday’s post about my inattentive ADHD, last night Jeremy and I discussed and I’m pretty sure I swing the opposite way – I tend more towards perfectionism, OCD, recurring thoughts and anxiety with a dash of depression which can show up as deep apathy or more recently anger (which is so out of character for me!). I don’t think I have a very severe case of any of these, but I have my moments of dysregulation.

I was having lunch yesterday with a friend who, in their mid-60s, just got diagnosed with autism. Now, I’m all for self discovery, but when you get to your mid 60s, does it help to label it? Dunno. And then I was trying to tell Jeremy that I’m autistic because 1. I love routine, 2. I don’t like small talk, 3. I’ve always felt different, 4. I have repetitive foot movements (I like to knead my feet when I’m falling asleep), 5. I don’t like crowds and Jeremy was like…you are not autistic. And I laughed, and I said, yes, I know I’m not autistic.

And then Ginny said – you have inattentive ADHD. And I was like, what’s that? And Jeremy was like – absolutely not. Inattentive ADHD means a person has: trouble paying attention to details, is easily distracted, finds it hard to manage time or finish tasks, forgets to do routine chores. I absolutely do not have inattentive ADHD, Jeremy is right and Ginny is wrong. But Ginny could not be persuaded. She was like…you always need to be doing something, that’s why it’s ADHD. It’s true, I always want to be doing something, but I usually almost always do it to completion. I complete lots of tasks which makes me….deadly efficient and a machine at times. Which generally equals not fun. I’m not very good at having fun.

One of the joys of getting older is focusing that energy to doing things I wouldn’t dream of doing as a kid – to just do things for fun and curiosity. It’s hard to remember that it’s fun and not turn it into a “job” which is what I struggle with a lot, exercise, baking, guitar, volunteering – such a gift to pursue these interests and it is so much fun. It’s extra fun when someone else is interested too.

Sometimes I can not believe I am here, so lucky to be living the life I have, go grateful for the opportunities and my enjoyment of exploring things as I go watching people I love do their thing, figure out the way, watching myself do the same.

I went to Edda’s day program on Wed to do a quarterly meeting and I was so pleased to see her bestie from school (Izzy) with her. Izzy is a year younger than Edda, so when Edda started, I know she was missing her and now the two of them are together again. Makes my heart sing – to be in community together. (Although about an hour after I left, someone got bitten by a racoon! The wheelchair ramp is in the back of the building and the woods runs along beside it. Yikes!).

I did lots of socializing this past week, I think too much. It’s a lot of fun, but also draining on me. This is Rick, a person I spend a lot of time with – he’s the president of the church and he’s very funny.

Saturday was our 28th wedding anniversary. Per protocol, we got ice cream at Carmens.

I asked for our traditional chicken with bread, cheese, avocado & tomato dinner. Jeremy used to pack all the ingredients in his backpack plus a cutting board and a knife and we’d go hiking together and then when lunch came around he’d whip out all this equipment and food. Back then, I had barely ever seen an avocado, they were very rare on the east coast. We also opened a hard cider that we’ve had for years and had gone bad.

And then we got this little cake – my favorite. And we discussed how lucky we are – so lucky.

We increased Edda’s Keppra and take a look at this gigantic horse pill. Unbelievable. I break it in two, though I think Edda may be able to manage this.

My peach cake, which was so beautiful on the outside, was a little undone on the inside. Hmmm… I bought more ricotta cheese to try again this week. If our peaches don’t run out.

Choir started again! I’m having fun.

I finished my second “meeting” hat – a hat that I knit when I’m in a meeting. I have many meetings in which I need to knit, so I’m doing the same pattern over and over again. It’s interesting, one can learn a lot by doing the same thing over and over again – using different yarns, using different techniques. This hat, I learned how to do magic loop knitting which is using a very long double pointed circular knitting needle to make any sized tube of yarn. Lots of people like it, I understand the appeal, but I’m not a huge fan of it. This hat is also too wide and probably too short on the head. I’m trying to not think about it too hard because…it’s my meeting hat! Only to keep my hands occupied during long meetings.

See? This is my first meeting hat – I made it with yarn from Bob and Katherine’s community. This hat, I learned to do helical knitting to make single row stripes. And I learned about blocking which I never used to do, but it makes such a big difference! I’ll do it from now on.

We went to Friday Vibes for a summer dance party. Fun.

This may be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever baked – peach ricotta cake.

This is a pretty photo too!