I haven’t really been baking for a while, so I decided to make a blueberry lemon Bundt cake. It’s actually so nice to do these things and not just sit on your phone watching youtube videos. So I zested and baked.
I tried this thing where I sugared the pan instead of flouring. It’s suppose to add a crispy coating and release a bit easier, but I didn’t find it to be true. I might try it again sometime.
Delicious.
I went to Christine’s 60th birthday party and wore a scandalous (for me dress). It was fun.
So as of last night, all of Edda’s adult services have been suspended. So payments to her day program, transportation and personal supports have hit a random snafu. So everyone called me and basically said – super sorry, Edda can’t come until this is fixed. Can I say that this was completely unexpected? No, not really, I knew the start up would take time and hit roadblocks, I just didn’t know which roadblocks. So here we are, Edda is at home with us all day, so she’s bored and we a little more constrained with our day, doing more Edda-care during the workday, but we are managing. The worst thing about this entire thing is the lack of email response, the full voicemail boxes, the not knowing if everything can be reestablished in 72 hours or 6 months.
My mood, though generally good, has been slipping. Jeremy is headed out of town next week, so I get a little grumpy, but it’s just going to be me and Edda in the evening – we should be fine.
The cat is set to be rehomed on Sunday afternoon and fingers crossed that it doesn’t fall through. The cat is lovely, cute and sweet – but it also really, really wants to go outside all the time and is a yowl-er which during the day is fine, but at night, esp at 5 am can be problematic. Perhaps it was exiled out of it’s previous home based on the amount of night-time meowing – I mean, it happens at 5 am and lasts…maybe 10 minutes or so. I love cats, but my best friend is my bed and my love of sleep. (I have many friends who stay up until 11 am, midnight, etc, and I’m like – have you found the joys of going to bed at 8:30? and they look at me like I’m a crazy person, which I am). I’m a little worried that the cat will boomerang back to me in four days time. Jeremy’s been going around the house singing…but the cat came back, the very next day…
I told Jeremy that we needed to leave the house on Friday night (because I was moody and Jeremy never leaves the house unless it’s to the 1. grocery store or 2. on a business trip – really, it’s 50/50 when he leaves the house if he’s headed to buy food or go to the airport), so we headed to the art show at Main Street which was lovely, but was slated to run from 5:30-6:30, but in reality ran from 6:00-7:00. We accidentally left Edda’s wheelchair in the front of the room while she walked around and then it was trapped by lots of people and the speaker, so we couldn’t make a fast exit when it was clear that it would run long and Edda and Jeremy got hangry.
And because this was supposed to be a nighttime adventure, we went to this Filipino restaurant in town that was rated one of the top 25 restaurants in DC by the NY times. Now I am a little dubious of this list because it lists another particular restaurant that is within 0.25 miles of my house and I’ve been a few times and each time I’m like….maybe it’s really good this time and I leave and feel: meh. I feel like if you are one of 25 restaurants in DC that is listed in the NYT list and you are about 4 feet from my door, I should almost always want to go there at lunchtime. But I don’t. To be fair, the restaurant replaced my walkable pizza place that I loved and went once a week and knew the owners and workers and, well, the new place is not pizza – which I’ve declared is my favorite food on the planet.
Anyways, this Filipino place was very good and satisfying and fun to try new things on a Friday night. Though after we got home, I asked Jeremy how much it was and he was like $70? To which I was like…ah yes, this is why we don’t go out much. Delicious food for sure, but basically counter service and plastic plates and utensils. And to loop it back to Edda’s care, she’s approved (well, kind of approved, right now she’s not approved) for a budget of about $220,000 a year for her services, but the actual staff who are with Edda and take care of her at paid at $17.50/hr. I literally can not wrap my head around that, what the hell are we doing where is all that extra money going? Can you take your family out for quick eats Filipino food on a random Friday night if you are making $17.50 an hour?
I took Zeke to the vet to get his first round of shots and an exam. The bill was only $250 which was much less than the $400 I had made up in my mind. I do love this cat, but I also made it known that I was giving the cat away. And the entire vet office fell in love with this very sweet cat and I scored and found a vet tech who is between pets and is looking for a cat! omg. I had to clear it with both Megan and Christine – Megan immediately said – yes! perfect! give to the vet tech! Christine was a little more reluctant to ease the cat out of our house. She is a tenant who came to our house with a large dog and then over the years, has acquired 2 cats – so it’s crowded down there and the thought of four animals in that space sent me a little out and honestly, the reason that the cat is “mine” is because between the four animals, there is hissing, swatting and general uneasiness. Anyways, I slowly convinced Christine that she can’t adopt every cat she meets on the street. And then I texted the vet tech, who is a slow texter and we are meeting on Sunday to give the cat away. I won’t say it’s a done deal until the cat is out of my hands, but I’ve relished being a cat owner for a week and I will also be very happy to give the cat to a loving home. I canceled my amazon order of air purifiers, little broom to clean the scattered litter, the anti-allergy food, and kitty treats. Kitty is going to have a new home. Christine and Megan have also both changed his name to Rupert.
That afternoon, I volunteered at a Main Street event at a pizza place. This is Mama Peace, the mother of the famous Mattie Stepanek. She’s a board member of Main Street and hosts pizza nite every few weeks to talk about things like – stress, self care, etc. It was nice, I served pizza to my friends and helped clean up and set the tables back.
So the government shut down today, but (selfishly) no worries about me. My agency is self funded, so we have about 52 days of operating reserves. So I still go and defend the constitution. With Edda by my side, we will trudge through this swamp.
Jeremy has been taking long walks with Elka, especially in the am. For which I am grateful, I haven’t had time to take Elka to the dog park much. Since the “country club” dog park closed, the “public” dog park is actually much better in many ways, but it’s just a smidge harder to get to and more out of the way in my daily life. So…that’s that.
I have removed so many apps from my phone, that it is the most boring piece of equipment ever. My texting is basically not very social, just very logistical. I still reach for it, but I mess around with it for a bit and then…it’s so boring.
As I said, I’m interested in having a planted tank, which is a fish tank with a lot of plants and not a lot of fish, so it can sustain itself, but it looks like a lot of work and money and now this cat has inserted itself into the picture. I’m mixed on cat ownership, I like the cat, but he’s extra work. Everyone is slightly allergic, so I’m reading up on how to make the cat as unallergic as possible. First up is air filtration, we need to put new filters in our covid era HEPA filters which have been running for five years now.
