Happy Thanksgiving

Here's what's happening around the homestead . . .

I paid $20 bucks at the Y and got this t-shirt. If I maintain my weight within 2 pounds until the final weigh-in on December 28th (I better have lost some by then!!) my $20 goes toward my next years membership. If I don't maintain, my $20 goes to charity.  I should say WHEN I maintain my weight (and lose some!), my $20 will go toward my next membership.

I think there is a scary Y-Man that could pop out and make me feel guilty if I go to the bakery. Or maybe "he" is Santa. Not sure

More kindness from friends. I'd like to thank Sue, Bonnie and Connie for the outing. Thanks to Sue for organizing, and for the company, and to Bonnie for the shrooms and to Connie for treating me to dinner and drinks. It was fun.

Also a shout out to Sue for helping me get my feet out of the rowing machine at the Y. That's all I have to say about that. What happens at the Y stays at the Y! I hope . . . I certainly don't want some of my shenanigans following me home . . .

I cleaned some more drawers and floors, and knocked down some cobwebs. I hauled a window with a broken seal to the glass shop and ordered a new one. Why didn't I do that when the weather was nicer lol?

I had a fun outing with John's work friends to a trivia event in Streator. The beer was great! Our team suffered from the absence of one team member (Diana!), but a good time was had by all.

I got my first unemployment check. I certified myself on Tuesday. I'm certifiable I guess.

I made Finn a kitty condo. and he moved right in. I think he went out in the rain multiple times last night because he loves getting toweled off.

 
I job hunted.
 
I cooked some good stuff.

Food is hard to photograph. That is pork with a mustard cream sauce . . . made with leftover half and half from the mashed taters (Pioneer Woman recipe). Those reheated wonderfully today for Thanksgiving dinner. The sweet potatoes are glazed with bourbon and dark brown sugar. Wow. Delicious. I know, two starches. That's just the way I roll sometimes. Not pictured is a hot buttered roll . . .

One day after John went to work and I turned his thermostat up to 59! Maybe even 60.  His kitties meowed in thanks and each ran to a heat vent lol. Hera is doing great. Anorexia is a distant memory, thank goodness.

Isis

Hera

I have to pick a healthcare plan from the marketplace by December 14th. I find the decision strangely hard. I'm going to pick one by Monday. And not with a dart or anything. 

First Thanksgiving without Dad. We had a nice dinner, turkey with all the trimmings, carrot cake for dessert. I burned the garden carrots I so carefully peeled and sliced. Tsk tsk. 

Prayers for Uncle Jim in the hospital and Cousin Peggy and for my whole family after a sad, bad year. Not that it was all bad, but a lot of bad things happened, that's for sure.

Peace. 

Kay :)

Unemployment is Painful

My ass does not like Gentle Yoga. Ouch! Everyone in class told me it would get easier. Except one old guy. He said, "I won't tell you it will get easier. I will tell you that it will get better!" LOL  Actually though my ass did not like it, I did. LOL

Finn is turning into quite the daredevil, sleeping on the edge . . .

I couldn't clean up, didn't want to bother Finn.

Did you know they make coloring books for adults now? The one I have is designed to relieve stress. I hate to break it to anyone, but staying in the lines is hard, and STRESSFUL!

Time to check the job postings!

Kay

Sunday

Things you can do while you are unemployed:

Harvest your garden vegetables. Plus make a mental note to remember to thin out the carrots next year. I'll leave it to my readers to caption this photo . . .

Chillax with Finn.

Work a puzzle.

Try to fold some laundry.

And enjoy Mother Nature.

No photos, but: clean out 9 drawers; cook stuff that has been hanging out in pantry for too long; haul some stuff junk to the Goodwill; wash cat nose prints off a window (twice); apply for unemployment; check out Obamacare;  let your good friend buy you lunch over your strenuous objection (thanks Donna!); update your resume; go to the YMCA and work out, and try your first yoga class and, on sudden impulse,try a Cardio/Weight class. Thank God no photos exist of these endeavors! 

Ciao. 

Kay :)

The First Fifteen Minutes of Unemployment

Well, as of 4:30 I'm officially unemployed.

Here is what I know about it so far . . .

People feel bad for you and want to cheer you up and buy you lunch.  Not just people but friends. Friends are good. Thanks for the doughnuts Bonnie.  Friends give you good pep talks. Thanks Sue.

You might get an e-mail from a Fat Camp friend that makes you smile and feel better. Thanks Maureen!

Family sends you the sweetest card and makes you feel better. Thanks Cousin Peggy and Uncle Jim.  


Unemployment is scary.

I'm going to miss going to work and seeing said friends. I'm going to miss my paycheck and my insurance and my benefits. It's perfectly OK to grieve for those things.  But not forever. Suck it up cupcake and carry on!  Two weeks might be a little soon to suck it up, but I'm trying . . .

Unemployment is scary.

But my luck may be changing! This weekend I ran off to John's to lick my wounds and went to a fundraiser for Streator Unlimited, Food for Thought,  and had a great time! I felt it my civic duty to participate and vote in the Chili Cook Off, 6 different (and delicious!) chilis prepared by paramedics, firefighters and police officers. And I got my photo taken with 2 of John's clients!

Some people just got one bowl of chili at a time! Not the Mallaneys! Here I am with Anthony and Eric. And my chili.

And I won a door prize! Frankly I don't remember putting my little slip in this drawing for this basket, maybe it was adjacent to the candy bar flower pot I really wanted to win? Not sure. But I do like it and I certainly can use a hydrating facial masque (oh shut up, I know I can probably use more than one!) and some healthy energy drinks to balance and revitalize and do other good stuff to me!

And look, I was barely unemployed maybe 1 minute, when a parcel came to the door. Seems I won a prize in a Scotties Sweepstakes I entered on line! Wow. And good to replenish the old tissue stockpile, I went through quite a few last couple of weeks, I must admit.

Look at that! 8 boxes of Scotties! Woooo hoooo. I'm sure my good luck will continue.

Money will creep into your thoughts when you are unemployed. I shopped the clearance, and made some cheap, delicious food.

Clearance gnocchi. Who knew how good it could be!?

Love the clearance at John's Kroger! I'm told I'm Irish but I really wonder if there isn't some Italian in there too . . . ?

Scrapple, or scrapplin' as Dad called it. Boil up some pork neck bones, pick off the meat, and sift cornmeal into the broth and let it set. Dip it in flour and pan fry it. I hated it when I was a kid, what was I thinking! It's delicious. Dad said that Grandma Mallaney would make milkpans of the stuff after pig butchering on the farm during the depression. She probably did not fry it up in extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle on some clearance parmesan, and some Vulcan Fire Salt from The Spice House though.

Anyway, next on my unemployment list is to sign up for unemployment and check out Obama Care and update my resume.

In other news Mom turned 78! Happy Birthday Mom.

That's all for now.

Kathleen A.

Canned

Well I had a bad week. Tuesday especially. First I got laid off. Then in the next paragraph the new public defender told me that my position was no longer required and must be eliminated. I'm done at the close of business on November 10, 2015.  It only took 4 lines to wipe out my position, income, insurance, and pension. You are welcome for the years of service. I would have been there 23 years on December 1st. Now I get to work for the man who doesn't want me around for 2 weeks. Life is a pisser sometimes, is it not? When your desk gets moved away from the window and put in the corner with a view of the toilet, trust me people, nothing good is going to happen.

In other news I just made some chocolate chip cookies. I'm  good baker.

It has been a good Halloween so far, black and white scary movies, some twilight zone, and cookies.

Kathleen

Happy Fall!

Here's what has been happening on the ranch . . .

I had a good time at camping a couple of weeks ago.  Hadn't been down to Lake Shelbyville for a while. The weather was perfect. Great food too. Love the big breakfasts down at camping, delicious! Only one fall (not me!), and nobody had to go to the emergency room, so it was a successful trip. Drank way too much beer for someone my age . . . or any age really, and Donna, knowing my penchant for cinnamon, picked up some Fire Ball Cinnamon Whisky for shots. Go figure, I liked it!  I had those Fireball shots one night, got up, had camping coffee (Bailey's and whipped cream), then someone had a great idea to have Bloody Mary's. Sometimes I'm a joiner. Sometimes I'm not. Seems I was a joiner at camping! Then I had a beer with lunch, maybe 2, then I felt the need to rest and I hit the sack pretty early. It's OK to go to bed at 2:00 in the afternoon when you are 53 and camping. It really is. It was wonderful, lying on the sofa/bed thing in the camper, watching the wind blow the pretty fall leaves off the tree. Luckily after I rested for a while I was able to perk up and party on! Sort of . . .

I heard a ruckus outside the camper one night, but was too lazy to get up. In fact I felt like I was being watched, and later we found coon prints on the camper steps. Mar got up and tried to shoo the coons away, but they were bold and did not want to leave. Mar was standing at the camper door in her jammies and she turned to me with the weirdest look on her face and she said, "What is that sound like a metal basketball rolling down the hill?" and I thought to myself, "Oh my God! Mar has totally lost it! She better go to bed!" Well yadda yadda yadda, next morning, coons had made a big mess and then, after breakfast, one of the guys asked where the tin of cookies was. Well, guess what!? It was MIA! The coons stole it! LOL  One of the guys found it later, and the cookies were still intact, coons couldn't get that tin open.

We had zucchini out the wazoo this summer, and I was sad to see it end, but John was gracious enough to share his ENTIRE 2015 ZUCCHINI HARVEST with the fam . . .

The biggest one is as long as my first finger! LOL  John gave us those last weekend, we took a ride over there for lunch. Lovely day for a drive, but I bet we saw 50 dead coons on the way to Streator! It was freaky.  Hera has to worry about anorexia about as much as I do . . . she is fat (and sassy)!  Who cares, she is alive and still with us, that is what matters. Isis, though still shy, seems to be OK with a total of 3 people in the room. She will visit and be very charming. If the 4th person comes back, say from picking up a nutritious lunch of tenderloins and fried chicken and fried fish and a cheeseburger and a bunch of sides from this yummy place in Streator, she will hide again. Things are looking up though, we do get to see her now, albeit for a short time.

The Cubs lost! I gotta think, on some very high level, that Bernie was very very pleased! Uncle Jim called from rehab this week and he sounded great! We were very happy about that.

If you have vacation days to use up, I think you should take a ride. Maybe to Sheboygan! What the heck.  You can look at Lake Michigan on a blustery fall day and feel invigorated.

You might get the swimming pool at the Sleep Inn in Sheboygan all to yourself and you can do handstands and water ballet and have fun. What the heck. Live it up people! See that water pouring down there? It feels great on your shoulders and back and everywhere . . . until the next day when you wake up and you are 53 and you are all sore and feel like you got beat up! And maybe a clerk offered you a senior discount!? Sigh. Maybe you also used your AARP membership to save $10 at the Sleep Inn. Whoop-do-frickin-do.

You can go to the Water House Brewery in Grafton and eat the Ultimate Grilled Cheese . . . cheddar, jack, swiss and pepper jack cheeses are grilled with avocado, tomato and sliced red onion on fresh sourdough bread brushed with basil butter. Cheeeeese! It is Wisconsin after all! And make sure you get the bacon on that sandwich too! Yum. It's just a buck extra. One buck.

Mom's birthday is coming up November the 7th. She'll be 78! Wow.

That's all for now.

Kathleen

Corn Festival Weekend

When you leave town to avoid the annual Corn Festival, and you go to a rummage sale and see an ear of corn sun catcher (half off twenty five cents!)  . . . well, you just have to have it. When I checked out the lady at the table asked me "Ohhhhh . . . you must like cactus!" I assured her that I do! LOL  It was cute.

 You've heard of man hands? Well . . . Midge has man paws.

A photo of Joe and John from the reunion. I am cleaning pics off my camera. Can you tell?

Isis, the dainty little lady, relaxing.

Boss is retiring. Friday is his last day. I keep making jokes about how I should have worked for a younger lawyer. I really should have though.

Kay :)