Vacation Projects, Baking, Street Reconstruction #19 and More

I've been busy this past week, resting and recreating takes a lot of time and effort.  I'm on my first real vacation in a year since being new at a job and other than having Covid when I was on vacation last September.  As usual, a staycation to take care of little projects and other things without the interruptions of work.  So far I've gotten a few things done and we've had nice weather, for the most part.  There's a lot to say so I may jump around a bit, and I'll likely add a break due to the length once I add pictures.

Vacation Start

I started this vacation by going to my Mom's on Saturday.  We got a few little things done for her, but it was more about spending the time, I think.  I was just there a few weeks ago, but an overnight visit allows for more time and relaxation while catching up on what's going on in her life.  I got back to town mid-day Sunday and I don't think I did much the rest of the day.

Lots more after the break!

Easter This-And-Thats

I haven't really been in a writing mood recently.  I managed to post about the pavilion, but there are a few other topics I've been meaning to mention so time to sit, type and see what happens.

• Today is Easter, but this doesn't mean much to us.  I had a paid holiday for Good Friday and my wife and I may venture out later today, as we tend to do on Sundays, but will have to check ahead to see what's open.  I was going to go down to my Mom's yesterday as my sister and her kids are there this weekend, but things to do and I've been real sick of driving lately so I stayed home.

• My wife was laid off from her job this past week.  She found out about it 2 months ago, so had to endure all that time knowing, but meanwhile her anniversary came and went so she got all her time off back which will be paid out, and a severance package as well.  Another bad decision by a terrible company that keeps losing contracts, but it was her career.  She does not plan to look for a new job until her dad dies, and we're in a good enough position she can do that.

• 
  Also this past week we had to take Basil to the vet twice.  He'd lost weight, had a UTI and we already know he gets crystals real bad.  He'd also stumbled at times, and started withdrawing from us and eating less.  He got an antibiotic shot, a pain shot, and was already on medicine for hyperthyroidism but that dose got doubled.  It's taken several days but he does appear to be acting normal and feeling much better now, thankfully.  And today both the cats turn 13 years old.

• We recently bought two new computers, a laptop for my wife since she had to turn in the one she was using and a desktop tower for me because of the display driver issue this one has, plus it often shuts itself off.  Never while I'm using it, but while it's in sleep mode, and it seems to be happening more.  Both are made by Lenovo, a new brand to us but great reviews so we just went for it.  I'm going to have to take my wife's in for help getting it out of S-mode - Microsoft's new security that goes overboard in trying to save you from yourself.  I just hooked up the desktop and got that going briefly, and thankfully I don't have it on this one.  I did hook the old computer back up because I have some work to do before making the switch.

• 
  I've taken a few weekends off from baking recently, but I did make a cheesy garlic bread yesterday that I saw in a ToYoube video.  It just looked so good, so I made it and it was, but it made a mess of the oven.  I used a frozen bread dough loaf so it was quicker and easier for me, but this is one of those recipes that was fun to try but I may never make it again.

We still may get out this afternoon, but it is raining now and the day seems destined for rest and relaxation indoors.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter weekend.

Street Reconstruction Part 18, Burn Day & Blogday

Yesterday morning, shortly before I had to leave for work, we had to scramble to get my car out of the garage and her van into the driveway.  We knew there was no parking on much of the street starting this morning, but they had gotten to work earlier than we expected.  It was time to plant the trees on our street and the next street over.

I grabbed a quick picture after our little fire drill, and after the holes were drilled on the terraces for planting the new trees.  The workman walking by the hole where my wife was parked was a coincidence.  I had no time to try for a better picture as I had to then leave for work.

When I got home, several new trees had been planted.  There's been lots of trees cut down since we moved in, now each had finally been replaced.  And in almost the exact same spots, too.  Not surprising, actually, when you think of the underground utilities going to each house.  My wife said they were easily done by noon, which didn't surprise me with such an early start.

The second picture shows the new tree in front of neighbor Jane's, and not many more.  A similar shot on the other side of the street facing the opposite direction would have shown several more, but neighbors might wonder what I'm doing over there taking pictures, and they all look pretty much the same right now anyway.

Another thought about the street:  If it had to be parking on one side only then I'm very glad its the other side.  Especially on garbage day when the bins are all out.  No parking within 4 feet of a driveway or within 2 feet of the next car, per city rules.  We've not had a big issue yet, Kate and I, but I know others have had to adjust, especially when someone else has guests over.  And I know one neighbor has to park at least one and sometimes two cars all the way up at the top of the street on the next block.  Older and adult kids living with parents clog up much of the parking, at least on this end of the street.

Separate from the street reconstruction, we had another *biennial (*corrected) rite of spring happen.  While I was at work today the city did a controlled burn along the creek.  I'll add those pictures after the break, if anyone would like to take a look.  The banks of the creek won't be this clear for another two years.

And, finally, today is my 16th Blogday.  Still chugging along, after all...

Happy New Year 2025

 

Good luck to us all, we're going to need it.  Let's hope his visions don't come to fruition.

Party (enjoy your freedoms) while you can!  After all, we have about 3 weeks still until it hits the fan.  Four years ago it was a relief, though a scary time on January 6, when it finally ended.  Now it will begin again, and this time he's angry, fearless, and inexplicably empowered by those he will hurt the most.

But I don't want to dwell on a vengeful orange wanna-be dictator and the hell that is about to be raised.

Sorry to make this political.  A google search for HNY 2025 pics also brought up Project 2025 pics.

I had today off, got some baking and housework done, went out to lunch and now I'm relaxing while watching the Bucks game.  Tonight, my wife and I will enjoy a nice t-bone steak dinner at home and a quiet, early evening.  I may stay up to see midnight, but I don't feel obligated.

No matter what happens in 2025, I wish the best for all of you.  Thanks for visiting.  Cheers!

Merry Christmas 2024

Happy Holiday, everyone.  

I'm not sure exactly what I'll do today, but it likely won't be much.  I do have some tedious tasks that I want to get done by the new year, maybe today's the day.  

Or I could go out and watch some football that is only on a streaming service that I don't have.  Might depend on what my wife needs to get done.

Whatever you're doing today, I hope it is pleasurable and rewarding.  

Merry Christmas.

Winter Solstice 2024

The winter solstice arrived early this morning, hours before I got up.  For several years now I've been having a fire on this day, in cold temperatures and in a bit of snow, but we have both this year.

So, no winter solstice fire pit this year but at least the days will start getting longer.  Very soon here I will be making the drive to Mom's and will be spending the night.  My wife will be staying back and taking care of her dad, as usual.  This week will be especially hard for her with the holidays, as well.  My sister and her family were supposed to arrive there yesterday but they came down sick, and it sounds like my brother and his family will be there for a few hours this evening.   This is our Christmas gathering this year.  Happy solstice, everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend 2024

Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone.  A much needed 4 days off from work here.

I wasn't feeling the best yesterday, but I traveled down to my Mom's house.  I wasn't sure if I was getting sick or not so I wore a mask the whole time and cut my visit short, leaving shortly after my sister and nephew got there early afternoon.  

My wife made a traditional Thanksgiving spread with a large turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce and dinner rolls.  Kate then took some to her dad, but they wound up going to their family gathering.  She's been his caretaker for many years now, and he just gets more difficult as he gets older.  Anyway, there's plenty of leftovers for us to eat, plus she'll make up some freezer meals for her dad.

There's a dusting of snow on the ground and it will be cold, but there are some outside chores I could do.  And we'll see if I have a fire pit tonight or tomorrow, but otherwise the time will be spent inside.  There's a lot of football on the next few days, but otherwise I have some inside chores to do, maybe some baking, and lots of relaxing.  Cheers!

Happy Halloween 2024

The windows mummy is no more this year, but I did get a neat black skeleton with lit eyes to hang on the front door tonight.  I also got a cheap purple spider web that I was hoping to cover from awning to bottom rail but it was way too windy to try and set that up, so it'll be put away for next year.  A flickering flame porch light and a couple squat pumpkins would round out our Halloween look this year.

I had a good day with some Halloween celebrations at work, then getting ready for trick-or-treaters at home.  We'd had great weather the last few days.  I was even able to wear shorts and sandals out and about the last couple days, but today was to be different.

It had been windy recently with a couple nice warm days, but today was more windy, sustained winds 15-20 mph with gusts that can stop you in your tracks.  Thankfully that's easing off a bit tonight, but we've also gotten so much colder with this front coming in.  By morning we'll be near freezing with barely a breeze.  

Despite the weather, we had a few more trick-or-treaters than last year, but still only 14 by my count.  We shut it down before 8 tonight, more than a half hour since the last ones.  Gave out less than half of the candy we had, so now we have that problem, too.  Happy Halloween, everyone.

500,000 Hours Old

At some point today I will turn 500,000 hours old, per this website.  (Or 30,000,000 minutes old.  Or 1,800,000,000 seconds old.)  I'm guessing it will happen 3 hours and 40 minutes after the site says, since to go back to that date would be to go back to midnight and I was born at 8:20 pm, but splitting hairs here.  A couple years ago I turned 20,000 days old, and a few years before that I turned 50 years old, but I think this is about the last of the notable round numbers I will achieve in my lifetime.

57

Won't be official until about 8:20 tonight, but unless this bout of covid gets me very soon it looks like I might survive 56 after all.

July 4th, In Pictures

Happy Independence Day, everyone.  (Those in this country, anyway.)  I don't have a lot to say right now, I'm just enjoying a day off work so here's some recent pictures I found interesting.

We took a walk to the Atwood area for lunch last Sunday.

From the breakwater at Tenney Lock yesterday, the capitol building in the distance.

Interesting skies in the waning minutes of daylight last night.  Good to see bats and fireflies about.

I made each kind of cheese penny this morning.  On the left is parmesan on top and sharp cheddar with cayenne below. On the right is the last of the mild cheddar and bleu cheese below.

I think we may go out to lunch here in a bit, but I'm otherwise just relaxing after some baking and making pizza dough this morning.  Back to work tomorrow for a day and then the weekend.  Cheers, everyone.

Yard Updates

Happy belated summer solstice, everyone.  Hard to believe the days start getting shorter already.  I took some pictures out in the yard last night and everything looks exactly the same today, the weather as well.  We've been stuck under a stationary front for days now that's been giving us sporadic rains every day, sometimes very heavy.  Last spring was super dry and it's certainly opposite this year, but good for fungus and toads (and mosquitoes) as we've seen both in the yard.  The toads are harder to get a picture of as I'm busy doing the strimming before mowing when I see them.  Oh well, on with the updates.

I finally got the back steps sealed last weekend, before this front came over us.  The "transparent" sealer does look good when freshly done.  I hope the color sticks better the more I reseal every year.  Tiger lilies are blooming and the alium are going to seed.

The two sunflowers are still doing well.  They've almost outgrown the cage but I'm not going to remove it until I have to or they get much bigger.  I also added a stake in the ground to the left, in case support is needed later this summer.

And all sorts of things are growing in the tree stump area, some unknown wildflowers seem to be doing well but no blooms yet.  I moved the solar lights to this area from the back, but not sure it will make a difference.  I'm noticing these six turn on much earlier than sunset, so don't have much battery left after dark.  I believe they are on in this picture.  I don't think I can do anything to fix that.

It's a good time of year, just too wet recently for firepits.  Otherwise, life goes on as usual, so no news is good news, I guess.  Work is good, and there is so much less stress in this job.  I baked more baguette this morning and prepared two rolls of cheese pennies this afternoon, so I'm still baking but just the same things over and over for now.  And less than a month until street reconstruction starts.  Yay.

I do have to call and cancel cable internet sometime this week.  Wish me luck.

First Mow & Mother's Day

Today was a beautiful and sunny 69ºF and the lawn has had it's time to awaken and grow tall so after work today I mowed for the first time this year.  Unfortunately a bit too breezy and a chance of a passing shower later so no fire again tonight.

Madison is again promoting Low Mow May for the pollinators, but I still believe it's mostly the weeds in the lawns that are used for pollinating and not the grass, so really no matter for my lawn.  Although, I have been seeing a new weed in various areas of the lawn this year, and a ton of it everywhere else this year, too, actually.  I'm not sure what it is yet, but I've been fighting it as best I can in our yard.  It seems to crowd out the grass where it grows so it appears it will be an issue for some time with having to patch/reseed in areas eventually.

This weekend is Mother's Day for us, so I will again be going down to see her Sunday morning.  I'd not mentioned this here yet, but she has been recovering from a procedure so my sister stayed with her for a few weeks and I've been going down there on weekends since then.  But the good news is she's recovering well and will surely be fully independent again soon.  I've been taking her baguette and a sample of parmesan cheese pennies once and will again be baking in the morning to take her more baguette and cheddar cheese pennies for Mother's Day.  And my sister and her kids will be there so will be good to see them.

Other than that, I have lots on my list to get done this weekend but we'll just have to see.  I'd like to get the back steps power washed on Sunday afternoon and start on a fenced area where I will plant sunflowers soon, plus all the usual weekend chores will still need to be done.

So a busy weekend here, but welcomed after a long winter and a spring that has dragged on before really springing just recently.  Have a happy Mother's Day or otherwise have a great weekend!

Final Fence Prep

The last thing to do before having the fence installed was to move the firewood, and we dumped it to the ground this afternoon.

We put down a tarp with cardboard on top of it to try and prevent any of it tearing up the soft sod, and we just pushed it over.  It fell neater than I expected, so it was just a matter of moving the rack and bringing up the ends of the tarp where we could and covering the whole thing with other tarps, using some logs to hold it all in place.  Then just a quick rake of the lot line and we appear to be ready for the fence installation (tomorrow, as noted in the comments of the last post).  The rain should be mostly over for today, but we may get a little more overnight then a better day tomorrow for the installation, though I expect it to still be pretty muddy.

Now, my back has been an issue for the last few weeks, and this prep for the new fence hasn't helped any.  I don't have much time off at my new job but I'd like to be here when the fence is installed, so I think I will call in tomorrow for my back so I can be here to oversee and answer any questions they may have - and I do remember they had several questions when they did the back fence a few years ago.  It may be stretching the truth just a little bit to call in, but it's not a complete lie and I will feel much better being here to supervise everything.

Google calendar just now reminded me that tomorrow is my 15th blogday, too.  I'm hoping for a smooth fence installation and a better back for my blogday, please!

Leap Day & Mom

Happy Leap Day, everyone.  Not really a holiday, just novel in that it only comes about every 4 years, usually.  (Century years must be divisible by 400 to have this extra day.)

Today would have been a normal workday for me but I took it off as my Mom returned from Alabama yesterday afternoon.  After work I gathered my stuff, plus some snacks since she had no food in the house after being gone a couple months, and headed to the airport to pick her up.  Everything went smooth and quick and soon we were on our way to Dodgeville.  We got dinner and stayed up to watch ToYoube videos and talk.  The next morning I did a couple small things that needed to be done, but everything was pretty much in order since she hadn't been around.  She ordered groceries for delivery and we had a lazy morning before I left mid-day after they had been delivered.

It's been 10 years since my wife and I visited her down there.  She shares the rental with a sister now and many other family and friends have done the same visit.  And going back to the same place every year she's made friends with other snowbirds from various other places.  All in all, she enjoys her time down there and I'm glad she gets to do it.

Every time I go down to Dodgeville for a night I seem to forget one thing, this time it was the two baguettes I was going to take to her.  Bugger.  For some reason I still don't have bread flour again yet but I will soon so hopefully I'll have even better ones for her next time.

And, of course, the cats didn't seem to miss me one bit.

Happy New Year 2024

Happy New Year!  I don't know if I'll be up for it so I'm writing this from the past and scheduling this for just after midnight.  By the way, Sunday's date was 123123, but mostly only in this country and not the rest of the world - 311223.

Last night my wife went out to a fancy dinner with her friend Terry and sister Becky.  I stayed in so I could catch the Packers/Vikings game.  Then later this new year's morning the Badgers play their bowl game against LSU.  I got my current list of chores done the last few days so aside from the game today it looks like it will be a good day of rest (with a little experimental making of pizza crust dough with 00 pizza flour) before returning to work tomorrow.

However you chose to ring in 2024, I hope you enjoy the holiday today and all my best wishes for a wonderful new year.

Merry Christmas 2023

Merry Christmas, everyone.  I hope you had a great weekend and are having a good day today doing what you wish with those you want to be with.  Or anything close to that is still pretty dang good.

We spent some time on Saturday with my wife's family and some time yesterday with mine.  Gifts were exchanged and holiday greetings and catching up were shared.  It's so much less about the giving and getting stuff than it is about the time spent, or should be.  It was nice to see everyone, including the nieces and nephews that we don't get to see too often.  And a shame we couldn't see the others, which seems to happen too often.

It's certainly not a white Christmas here this year with temperatures yesterday and today in the 50's with 100% humidity.  Outside has been overcast and very foggy for a few days now, but that's still lots better than if it was snow and frost.  We've had less than two inches of snow here this month when 12 inches is normal for December, and will get no more though we return to highs around the freezing mark over the next week.  But January is next, and January is, well, January.  Until it becomes February, normally another very cold and snowy month.

Warm bread helps.

Solstice Firepit

 Happy Winter Solstice, 2023.  Finally the days will begin to get longer, though winter has barely begun for us.  We've had a taste of snow and really cold, but mostly have been a bit warmer than normal (above freezing) and that is expected through the holidays.  There is plenty of rain in the forecast that would otherwise be snow, too.

I've not had that many fires this year, but I do like to have a fire on the winter solstice when I can.  This year, today was fully cloudy and damp but a few degrees above freezing so I made myself get out there for likely the last time until Spring.  We're in for a mild winter, they say, but we'll see.

Happy Solstice, everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving 2023

A welcome 4 day weekend and a happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  A quiet weekend around here, just rest and some chores.  The Packers were on early so sorry to get this posted a little later, but at least the Packers won.

There have been changes around here and I'm still not too sure exactly how I feel about it so I'm going to continue taking a break from blogging through the end of the year, I think.  Nothing for anyone to worry about, though.  I'll write more in due time.

Thank you.

Halloween 2023 and First Snow

Happy post-Halloween, everyone.  It was mostly a quiet night around here, so thankfully I got only about a third of the candy we had last year.  We got just 9 trick-or-treaters this year, but were only one of 3 houses on the block that I noticed had their lights on.  The last two kids were growing mustaches and it was pretty cold so I shut it down about 7:00.  It barely got above freezing yesterday with occasional light snow flurries off and on all day for our first snow of the year, though it didn't stick.  

I carved a pumpkin again to display on the front steps last night, and today it is on the stump in back waiting to be ravaged by the squirrels and rabbits.  I have the trail camera aimed in that direction but I got a pretty good video of it getting eaten bit by bit last year.  The mummy in the windows was showing wear on the fold seams, and I was getting tired of it so this was the last year for that.  I also pulled out the mask with the moving mouth LED lights to wear again but that wasn't working right so is also in the trash now.

We had a good run, but I'm not sure I'll do so much next year.  It doesn't seem worth it for just a handful of kids so maybe just candy next year, and maybe the flickering flame light bulb again, too, since I have it just for this holiday.  Hope you had fun if you chose to celebrate.