Archives for July 2020

I slept very well and got up around six. Did yoga, meditated for five minutes and made breakfast. When I was done with that there was no more time left for novel-related things.

My husband showed up pretty early and we had one of those endless relationship conversations that took up most of the morning. I walked to the supermarket in the heat. We had chili for lunch:

We talked some more, I did the dishes and ate a whole bar of chocolate.

Then it was time to teach. I had a huge break after the first student and just sat down and read for an hour. Then there were two more students. The boy and I watched an episode of Enterprise. I skipped folding laundry, playing the piano, working on the novel and writing the newsletter.

But I did the dinner dishes, so that was good, started writing this post and went to bed on time. After reading a bit more.

Today there will be the cleaning of the house and a free afternoon. I’m a bit torn between podcast-recording (probably not), sewing (probably not as well) and just planning out the upcoming month. I think I’ll just decide on the spot.

Hurray!

I woke up from the alarm at 5.30 and promptly did not do my morning routine. But I was early enough that I could finish reading what I had already written of the novel-in-progress. Big win!

When my husband showed up we ended up having a bit of an argument which lasted for the rest of the morning, that was fun.

I did dishes and such, went to the bank and then running. It was already pretty hot and all my energy had gone into feeling cranky by then. There are blue flowers on this picture but you can’t really see them:

I decided that running was just too hard after two minutes or so and walked the rest of the way:

It’s all exercise, so all is good. I almost skipped the run completely:

Back home I took a shower while my husband made lunch. We were also waiting for the heating guy to come back. He had said he’d come before one. Well, he did show up before two. Seems his clocks are running a bit different from ours.

Lunch had two courses, all fancy:

First fried zucchini. And then some spaghetti bolognese:

I procrastinated a little bit after lunch but at least I managed to do the dishes right away. And then, eventually, I finally started doing the taxes that are due on Friday. I had a pretty hard time finding out how I had done everything the year before. Things have changed and the way I have been doing taxes for decades is not allowed anymore. Phew.

But. I prevailed. I worked for 3 1/2 hours, printed out receipts and found missing pieces of paper and in the end – I was all done and sent it off. Vowing to do it all earlier next year, of course.

Then the boy and I had dinner in front of the TV while watching and episode of ‚Eternal Love‘ again. This time it was pretty action-packed and we even remembered most of the characters. We’re on episode 5 of 58 right now.

Then I started writing this post while my husband came back for seconds. He sends his love, by the way. With all the kerfuffle at the moment he isn’t eating properly and has been losing a bit of weight. Which in his case is not a good thing. Me, I’m eating when stressed, him not so much.

I decided to leave the dishes even though I really love making breakfast in a tidy kitchen and got ready for bed.

Today there will be the grocery shopping and some teaching. Maybe I’ll record the next podcast episode but I’m not sure yet. We’ll see.

I actually overslept. My alarm should have gone off at 5.30 but either it didn’t or I didn’t wake up. Anyways, I was up at 6.30 instead. Which, of course, meant no writing.

I did a little yoga, made myself breakfast and ate some more cake. Just when I was starting to go online for real my husband showed up fifteen minutes early. We talked. A lot. I made dentist appointments for the whole family and ordered firewood.

Shortly before eleven our heating contractor came to clean the floor heating. It also turned out that we needed to replace the pump yet again. Hurray! I had hoped that they would be finished by 2 when my first student was due but — they weren’t.

I walked to the health food store and bought some food. Not a lot, though. We made potato salad and brats for lunch:

Then it was time to teach. It was a long day but I had two breaks in between. I got a call from the firewood people, they’ll deliver next Monday. That was fast.

After teaching I found that my husband and the boy had done the dishes. That was highly appreciated. The boy and I watched an episode of Enterprise that started out very good but really sagged in the middle. Afterwards the three of us shared the rest of the champagne. By then I was so tired that I could barely form a sentence. I still started writing this post.

Today there will be a little writing, running, yoga and in the afternoon it will be all taxes all the time. That will be fun!

I did not wake up all that early because I went to bed too late yet again. Bad habit that I’m totally determined to break. Tonight. For sure.

I got up, decided to skip yoga and everything and have breakfast in peace all by myself:

I got emails and text messages and a really wonderful sewing book („Gertie sews Jiffy Dresses“ from my sister) and my husband showed up with clippings from my poor, neglected hibiscus and promised me to either nurse the thing back to health, or regrow from the clippings or buy a new one.

The boy showed up on time and gave me a hand drawn card that is really pretty.

I did not do the dishes but instead went walking/running:

It was hot and it turns out that eating lots of cake for breakfast does not make for quick feet. This is what 53 looks like while running in the heat:

I came home, my husband was washing up and grumbling because I was a little late, I took a shower, did not dress in my new dress because it isn’t finished yet and off we went to the Greek restaurant. I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of my food, sorry. I did take a picture of myself, though, and of the boy and my husband. I won’t show you those, just of me after taking a shower.

No idea what’s going on with my left eye there, I think it was just way too sunny. Should have put my sunglasses on.

In the afternoon I didn’t do much and I did it on purpose. I finished reading „Peace Talks“ and hung out in the hammock, something I never do. I startled my husband when I went outside while he was watering all the veggies:

I did a bit of research on how to sew buttonholes. I’m still not sure if I want to sew those by hand or by machine.

We opened a bottle of champagne before dinner:

(Why yes, the house is rather messy, I already noticed.)

And then the boy and I watched two episodes of „Miss Fisher while eating potato chips and ice cream.

So, I’m calling this a rather good birthday if a little low-key. I definitely ate more than enough and it was all delicious. And then I even managed to go to bed at a reasonable time.

Today there will be the walk to the health food store, the plumber cleaning the floor heating in the annex, and then the teaching of all the students. I’m really hoping that the cleaning and the teaching will happen one after the other and not at the same time but one never knows. Oh, and I will do the benchmark test for the Nerd Fitness chin-up challenge.

Set the alarm a little earlier and did yoga and meditation but no work on the novel-in-progress. I need to change something it seems.

Had breakfast, talked with everybody and finished a pair of socks:

I wound the skein of self-striping sock yarn that I had splurged on and started the next pair right away:

The colorway is aptly named ‚ice cream‘. There was lots of cooking:

The main thing my husband wanted to make were dolmades from scratch but they took a little longer than expected and we were all pleasantly full at that point so we decided to leave them for dinner.

I pulled out the sewing machine, did the understitching on the dress I have been procrastinating about for years now and did some hand-sewing. So it looks as if I won’t wear that dress today, it isn’t finished yet. I still have 15. Buttonholes to make, 15 buttons to sew on and the hem. Still. I made progress.

Meanwhile my husband did some additional cooking for dinner:

And afterwards the boy and I watched a pretty good Star Trek: Enterprise episode with Ferengis and another episode of ‚Eternal Love‘ I found it very enjoyable but we couldn’t figure out who the guy with the beard and the Phoenix was.

Then I spent too much time on twitter, started writing this post and decided to leave the dirty dishes for another day.

Today I won’t do anything. There will be cake for breakfast and we’ll probably go out for lunch. I think I’ll decide whether to sew the dress’ buttonholes by hand or not. There will be knitting and I’ll probably finish reading the Dresden Files-book.

I slept until after six without realizing. Huh. So no yoga, no nothing. Breakfast and talking with my husband and knitting on the sock that never seems to end.

Then I went running right away to beat the heat and it worked. Well, almost:

I ran most of the first running interval which was 25 minutes and walked most of the second one. I guess it’s all exercise.

It was pretty warm:

Then I did all the dishes, took a shower and helped very little with lunch. My husband made Thai curry:

In the afternoon I wanted to sew like crazy and work a bit on the novel-in-progress. I did way less than I wanted but managed to find everything for my sewing project and watch some writing lectures. I did not spend the whole afternoon sitting on my butt at the kitchen table, so that was good, but there was the usual situation of other family members walking in and out at the worst times. I need to move myself elsewhere for this.

The boy was so tied up in the paper he needed to write that we didn’t watch anything together. Instead I watched two whole episodes of „Miss Fisher“. I really like it.

Today. There will be yoga and writing and sewing and the making of dolmades.