Archives for November 2024

Despite sleeping only 5 1/2 hours (and rather restless 5 1/2 hours at that) I still managed to get up at 6.30 and do my complete morning routine. Including the SAD light.

I also found out that tonsillitis usually involves a fever and swollen lymph nodes. I had the swollen nodes on Friday or Saturday, I think, but no fever, so that was good.

My plan for the day mostly involved staying in bed, drinking tea and reading but turned out to consist instead of lots and lots and lots of deep, emotional conversations with my husband and we all know how much I love these in high doses.

Husband didn’t want to cook so I agreed to go to the nearby Greek restaurant:

I tried the kritharaki casserole for the first time in ages and it was better than expected. 

We came home to a boy who hadn’t checked his texts and wasn’t even aware that I had asked him if he wanted to join us. So he made himself something packaged from the freezer.

My plan was to spend the afternoon either in bed or on my favorite chair doing nothing but I never really made it there. I spent time talking online with friends, I spent more time talking with my husband, I talked with the boy a bit and showed him the pattern I had found for Chaos 40K fingerless gloves. The pattern is very barebones, it’s the charts and overshot instructions, there is no gauge given, the pattern description says you need DK yarn and the pattern itself says fingering but I think I can make it work. I mean, I could in theory write a pattern like this myself, so no problem. I hope.
Anyways, we found a suitable yarn in my stash so that will be fun. Eventually. Once I’ve finished the mystery shawl and the thirty other knitting projects on the needles.

Then there was dinner, more talk with everybody around, I opened my bullet journal for the first time since Saturday morning, planned the week and wrote a bit about the day and I decided that the next step in my attempt to sort out my websites and hosting plans is to actually write down all my questions and the problems that I have. Then I can either make that into an email that I send to my provider or otherwise use it as the basis for asking the right questions.

I started writing this post, did Duolingo and my foot exercises and had another beer in front of TV.

And today it’s back to teaching again. And trying to get a grip on my sore throat.

I slept for eight hours straight and woke up at 6.30 from the alarm.

And then I made use of new month energy and did my complete morning routine. Including using my new SAD light for the very first time. We’ll see if that makes any difference.

After breakfast there was another long conversation with my husband and then I started tackling housework. My throat was still sore and since I also had a bad case of tension headache I decided to take some ibuprofen after breakfast. Which only helped a little.

Then I changed the sheets on my bed and started the weekly cleaning. At around noon I had to take a break, the headache was getting worse and, well, cleaning is more exhausting than sitting still.

Lunch was chicken, black beans and rice:

There was more talking at lunch and after and then I did the dishes right away. The boy came downstairs and we talked briefly. I have to say, every time yesterday that I tried listening to music with headphones on someone would come to talk to me. The classical piece of the day was Beethoven’s 9th, not my favorite piece of music so at least that was not all that bad.

I spent an hour or two playing silly iPad games, reading and talking some more, before finally getting back to cleaning. My husband offered to do the bathrooms in the annex. He also offered to do the vacuuming and/or folding of the laundry but all I wanted was to putter around in peace.
I did help him change the vacuum cleaner bag and to stuff the foam filling back into the wedge pillow he had washed last week.

Then I finally took a shower, ate dinner (I toasted the last few slices of stale sourdough bread and ate them warm with cheese, that was delicious), started writing this post, finally planned the month ahead, made myself some tea and did my foot exercises and Duolingo, watched an episode of C-drama while knitting (I finally got the hang of the pattern) and went to bed.

The whole day felt like Saturday because of the public holiday so I guess we’re getting a bonus Saturday this week.

I did sleep in because I had turned the lights out so late and barely got up in time to wake the boy at 7.30. Because I still had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling great I skipped my morning routine yet again.

This time my husband started making breakfast even before I was up. We talked at length after breakfast about relationship stuff which seems to have been necessary but was rather draining.

Then I finally did all the dishes from the day before, too late, while listening to the pieces of classical music from the days before. That was a nice selection. Smetana, Gershwin, something contemporary where I forgot the compose and Palestrina. I love Palestrina. And Gershwin. The Gershwin was a version of „Someone to watch over me“ and I found a version by Ella Fitzgerald.

While I was trying to listen to music and do the dishes my husband was in and out of the kitchen. First, he still wanted to talk to me, and second he was starting preparations for homemade gnocchi di patate and saltimbocca all romana. But don’t worry because he planned to make it all alone without help from me.

I walked to the nearby supermarket because there wasn’t all that much on the list but I also ordered candles online, put a wineglass on next week’s list and texted the boy to please pick up some yogurt on his way home. By the time I finally left for the supermarket it was clear that my husband was in over his head again so I hurried to come back as soon as possible.

On my way back I was passed by four fire trucks, one of them turning his siren on just when passing me in an underpass. Which was rather startling.

I unpacked the groceries and made gnocchi. Lunch was very tasty and only an hour late:

Then more talking. This was the kitchen afterwards, by the way:

I sat down to finally figure out the next part of the MKAL. I had to rip out so much because I couldn’t figure it out but after sitting down quietly with both the video and the pattern I finally got it.

Then more talk. Husband really needed a lot of conversation yesterday. Then I decided to squeeze the dishwashing in because I was already low on energy and it was clear things wouldn’t be better after teaching. I did not manage to dry everything, my student was almost ten minutes early but then my husband offered to finish up for me because his student had canceled.

I had a break between students that brought more talking. My second student canceled which was no surprise because of the no train situation and instead there was – more talking. But not for long because then I ate dinner. By then the masses of trick or treater’s could already be heard in the street. The boy and I had decided not to give out candy this year but I couldn’t really turn all the lights off because I was still waiting for my last student.

I taught my last student, there was even more talk, then I put all the clean and dry dishes away, did Duolingo and my foot exercises, started writing this post, made myself a cup of tea, watched some C-drama while knitting and went to bed.

Today there will be all the cleaning. Probably not much more. Oh, planning the month would be food as well. And folding laundry.