Inside The Perimeter

For last night’s supper I made this Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup using two pounds of the cushaw squash I roasted on Sunday. The soup tasted great, and I still have an ample amount for leftovers.

Let’s talk real estate. No, not the selling of houses, but rather to opening of businesses. Recently I heard that the Atlanta is getting its first Tim Horton’s. On Monday while driving up Cobb Parkway I saw the development of what I thought might be Georgia’s first Whataburger (I’m wrong about this, but there aren’t many). And finally, why the hell are banks buying property and opening new branches? Okay the answer is always “money”, but in very recent years I have seen a number of banks knock down a business in order to build a new branch. Other than me (who has to go inside a bank once a month until the sale of my mother’s house), goes to physical bank branches?

Wordle: five, my starter was CRAFT
Connections: perfect, Blue > Green > Yellow > Purple (I predict a lot of hate toward Connections today)

With the minor exception of the bag of dog shit, and the becoming-not-so-minor pain in my feet, yesterday was a good and fairly productive day. Perhaps the only thing I didn’t accomplish yesterday afternoon was getting a haircut. While making my way toward Barb’s and Allan’s I stopped at Total Wine, Target, Aldi, Goodwill (the only place at which I purchased nothing), and the fancy-pants new Kroger on Powers Ferry in Marietta. I bought things I needed, things I didn’t need, and three bags of dried spaetzle noodles because they were marked down to 35¢ from $2.19 at Aldi. I like these noodles but rarely bought them because I thought they were priced too high. I also received a call from the Florida funeral parlor and hammered out those final details, and made an eye exam appointment for January 9th, 2024.

After my shopping extravaganza I was fed a lovely dinner with Barb and Allan while watching three episodes of Survivor.

Today is “More Chores and Cooking Day”. Due to the quantity of food in my house currently I am going to do some kitchen reorganizing today, and a refrigerator clean out. In the process of doing this I will be making a squash soup for dinner, and eating leftovers for breakfast and lunch. It is my intention to not to go grocery shopping again for the remainder of the year, unless, I need something perishable called for by a recipe. Wish me luck… 🙂

Wordle: four, my starter was CADET
Connections: three mistakes, Green > Yellow > Blue > Purple (the Blue and Purple killed me)

Back in September when I bought the ticket to see The Get Up Kids and Manchester Orchestra perform at The Eastern I was elated. On Saturday night, the day of the show, I was tired and having foot pain, so on a potentially rainy night I skipped it. I hate missing shows for which I paid, but in the end I considered it the right thing for me to do.

With that out of the way, the rest of my weekend was good. I cooked a lot of food Friday, including roasting some squash and potatoes alongside a green bean casserole (this concoction didn’t make this year’s Thanksgiving dinner table, so I was missing it). I went to IKEA Saturday morning and bought all but one of the items on my list. I then met my buddies at Ideal Sports Bar Saturday afternoon for a few drinks and an early dinner. And yesterday, before putting in another hour on the trainer (thankfully my foot situation doesn’t seem to hamper pedaling), I started my reconfiguration/decluttering of a part of the basement while I listened to the million commercials which were shown throughout the snooze fest known as the Falcons v Jets football game.

On tap for today is WLF choring, doing research into what is wrong with me (this could take the rest of my life…), making some phone calls (re: my mother) to find out what the “next steps” are, and driving up to Marietta to have dinner and do some Survivor catch up with Barb.

Wordle: four, my starter was DRAKE
Connections: perfect, Yellow > Green > Blue > Purple

After puttering around WLF yesterday, doing even more small harvesting and cleanup, I drove up to Sandy Springs to hang out with my drinking pals. I know why these guys choose to drink at Hob Nob, and while I too am a fan of the bartender, she leaves at 5pm so it doesn’t feel as if we are getting the most bang for our buck. Oh well. Traffic was partially ghastly for my return ITP, but I managed to fend off being hangry by buying some nuts at Target and snacking on those while stuck in traffic.

It’s Indoor Friday! I’ve done my best to prepare the ITP Estate and WLF for the weekend of rain predicted. I will use the predicted weather to stay at home, indoors, all day while attempting to catch up on some of the cleaning, organizing, decluttering chores that have been ignored of late. Hell, I may even put the road bike onto the trainer, admitting to myself that there will be little outdoor riding this winter unless I tote the bike with me to Florida when I head down again sometime this month.

Instead of a walk outside tomorrow morning Betsy said she needs to go to IKEA, an idea which makes her shudder, so I have volunteered to be her support group. I like IKEA. I like the things sold at IKEA. I like the people, let’s be honest, women, who shop at IKEA. (the downside of the clientele is that like other Meccas for sightseeing, such as Crate & Barrel, they are mostly unavailable or uninterested) And besides, I need a new doormat and IKEA sells the type I like at a reasonable price.

If you are not hiking the Grand Canyon this weekend, what’s on your agenda? I kid! I kid! 😀

Wordle: four, my starter was LEAST
Connections: perfect, Purple > Blue > Green > Yellow

November Summary: a whole lot of travel, meat, and laziness/injury

11/01 – ?, V, nothing ????
11/02 – ?, V, walking ????
11/03 – ?, M, nothing ????
11/04 – ?, M, hiking ????
11/05 – ?, V, nothing ????
11/06 – ?, V, yard work ????
11/07 – X, V, walking ????
11/08 – ?, M, walking, yard work ????
11/09 – ?, M, nothing ????????
11/10 – ?, M, nothing ????
11/11 – ?, M, nothing ????
11/12 – ?, M, walking ????
11/13 – ?, M, nothing ????
11/14 – X, M, nothing ???? ????
11/15 – ?, V, nothing ????
11/16 – ?, V, walking ????
11/17 – ?, M, nothing ????
11/18 – ?, V, walking ????
11/19 – ?, M, walking ????
11/20 – ?, V, yard work ????
11/21 – X, V, nothing ????????
11/22 – ?, V, nothing ????
11/23 – ?, V, nothing ????
11/24 – ?, V, nothing ????
11/25 – ?, V, nothing ????
11/26 – ?, V, nothing ????
11/27 – ?, M, nothing ????????
11/28 – X, V, yard work ????
11/29 – ?, V, yard work ????
11/30 – ?, V, yard work ????

Ah, the end of November. I now have twenty five days to get some semblance of Christmas Spirit.

Last night I used my InstantPot to make a pasta with meatballs, sausage, and cheese dish. I also brought along some (unfortunately disappointing) garlic knots and proceeded to set off Betsy’s new smoke detectors by using her air fryer to heat them up. Well, at least she knows the smoke detectors work! Dinner was good, and I was home early enough to work off some of the calories I consumed, but alas I fell asleep watching TV instead.

More choring on my agenda today. I will be swinging by CHaRM to rid the ITP Estate of some styrofoam, as well as a large sack of cables and electronics brought up from Florida. I also need to go to the post office in order to pick up any mail that was held during my Raleigh excursion. And finally, while I did a fantastic job of clearing out plants in WLF yesterday, I still have to do some water storage management today, and if time permits, put some winter tolerant plants into the newly opened spaces.

Wordle: three, my starter was FIGHT
Connections: perfect, Blue > Purple > Yellow > Green

As has seem to be the norm these days I did not get a ton done yesterday. The day simply slipped by before I knew it. I managed to accomplish a little in WLF, and made three meals for myself, but not much else.

Today I am braving the cold temperatures in order to do laundry, and a bit of grocery shopping. I want/ need to do more work in WLF in order to prep for the now much less than six inches of rain predicted for the weekend.

This afternoon I will pick the health plan I will have for 2024, and figure out how to transition from the one I currently have to the new one seamlessly. Wish me luck.

It’s my turn to bring food to Betsy’s and I have no idea what I want to eat for dinner.

Wordle: five, my starter was NIFTY
Connections: fail, Green > Yellow > X > X

It’s funny how ambitious I feel when I am away from home, and how quickly that ambition fades on the way home or as soon as I arrive. I made it into Atlanta before 3pm, and with the exception of picking green tomatoes and ripe peppers from their bushes before the freeze, I did little else yesterday.

Today?

This morning I am baking a breakfast casserole in order to use up food from the refrigerator and freezer, and heat the house a little using the oven in the process.

Later today I will work WLF in preparation for the freezes and nearly six inches of rain predicted this week. If I am feeling chippy I may also drive out to Sweetwater State Park to get in a short hike and renew my annual park pass. I intended to stop at Hard Labor State Park on my drive home, but then I decided that it was too far afield from I-20 and not worth spending the time for the detour.

Wordle: three, my starter was STORK
Connections: one mistake, Yellow > Blue > Green > Purple

Good morning. Expect radio silence again today, I’m (finally?) heading back to Atlanta.

It was a lovely weekend in Raleigh, hanging out with friends. Not even the inability of any of my favorite sporting teams to win their respective games could taint the weekend.

Amazon continues to work in mysterious ways that aggravate me. Over the weekend I put items on my Wish List that were labeled as “Cyber Monday Deals”. I returned this morning, on the fictitious “Cyber Monday”, to find most of the items no longer on sale. Fuckers! I guess the positive takeaways from that is that I am spending less money and possessing fewer things.

Hope you all had a spectacular weekend. I’ll check in from the road occasionally.

Wordle: five, my starter was EARLY
Connections: perfect, Yellow > Blue > Green > Purple

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was a very good day up here, and much delicious food was consumed.

Don’t know exactly what is on today’s agenda. What I know is not on my agenda is spending a lot of money for “Black Friday” “bargains”, eating a lot, nor spending any time watching the Jets game.

Today marks my one hundredth day of consecutive Duolingo usage for German.

Wordle: four, my starter was DAILY
Connections: perfect, Purple > Yellow > Green > Blue

Happy Thanksgiving friends! Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Wordle: three, my starter was REACH
Connections: perfect, Green > Purple > Yellow > Blue