My pizza last night was pretty good, but I don’t have a lot of experience making pizza at home. I need to learn to stretch the dough thinner, and have something like semolina flour to keep the dough from sticking to the pan on which I bake it. But, it was pizza, so how bad could it be?
Wordle: five, my starter was DOUGH
Connections: perfect, Green > Purple > Yellow > Blue
To my surprise and joy one of my neighbors had over ten bags of yard waste on their curb Saturday morning when I walked up to meet Betsy for coffee. I espied at least a half dozen that I would carry back to WLF. To my horror the City picked up the yard waste, on a Saturday, by the time we walked down my street about an hour later. Another neighbor had raked leaves into the street, but never seemed to bag them as they were gone by night with nary a bag in sight.
What a missed opportunity for WLF.
Wordle: four, my starter was ALIVE
Connections: one mistake in which I included one from every group!, Yellow > Blue > Green > Purple
Apple and I are definitely not seeing eye-to-eye on the future of software. They have changed/broken so many things with their latest operating systems releases that affect the convenient workflows that used to work so well. #sad
Slow weekend planned as we continue to speed toward Christmas and the end of 2023.
Wordle: five, my starter was BLASE
Connections: perfect, Yellow > Green > Purple > Blue
Quiet day yesterday. As I mentioned in the comments I walked to pick up my honey (excretion from bees, not a term of endearment for a companion). I tasted a couple of spoonfuls upon arriving home, and though a wee little bit expensive, is quite nice.
Dinner last night turned out to be rice and beans (from a box) made with real meat andouille sausage. I made a trip to Kroger, filled up on gas (more about this in a moment), and did some shopping keeping in mind the over abundance of food already at the ITP Estate. I allowed myself to buy three onions, two sweet potatoes, an avocado, and strangely, some meat. I have strongly held that I am not a vegetarian, but have bought meat in a grocery store fewer than five times in the past four years. Yesterday in addition to the andouille I bought a hunk of ham, and nearly added some chicken to my basket.
At one point in time I changed my phone number in the Kroger app and think this may be the source of problems I have when trying to redeem my discount for gas. I knew I had over one hundred points accumulated in November, which should have earned me a 10¢/gallon discount, but when I typed in my new phone number at the pump the best it offered was the standard Kroger Plus Customer 3¢/gallon. WTF? Remembering that I have seen an option to “Pay at the Pump” in the app, I attempted that bit of black magic and lo and behold saved 10¢/gallon after all. Considering the M6 required a little more than ten gallons to be filled, I saved $1.00.
Light schedule today which will be filled with administrative duties, an hour on the trainer, cooking, and who knows what else.
Wordle: four, my starter was LAUGH
Connections: perfect, Yellow > Blue > Purple > Green
Not a whole lot for me to discuss today. As I mentioned, I made my way back to Sandy Springs yesterday. Thankfully I know all the routes to get there and back because the was a ton of red on the interstate traffic maps when I traveled in each direction.
I spent all of the $45 I made (in five minutes) yesterday on lunch and beer. I’ll spend $10 of the other $150 I earned for the two-day survey on a new watch band for my Apple Watch. I unfortunately had to destroy the old one in order to swap watch bands yesterday. Because I wear my watch while farming and exercise a lot of gunk had clogged the channels in which the band slides, and it was fairly well cemented in. I had to use pliers to extract the broken pieces of the bad, and then give the channels a thorough cleaning.
The only slated activities for me today are to pick up the honey I ordered, and figure out what I making for dinner with Betsy tonight.
Wordle: four, my starter was SHART (it sure was)
Connections: perfect, Yellow > Green > Blue > Purple
On Sunday I found a small honey business which claims to have batches that are from bees who pollinated around East Atlanta. Yesterday I made my first order from Little Bee Project (of course I want to call it “Wee Little Bee Project” hahaha), getting some EAV honey, and some South Beltline honey. I would have ordered some Cabbagetown honey, but that was sold out. Why have I done this? Well, one to support a local, small business. And, two to see if eating locally produced honey really helps with allergies. We’ll see. As an added bonus this business has the option to pick up my order instead of shipping it. Given that they are located less than a mile from the ITP Estate I naturally chose that option.
Yesterday’s venture north if ITP was successful. Day one of a two day survey was fairly quick and painless, and then I kicked around Sandy Springs and Marietta for a few hours before going to Barb’s for a lovely dinner and Survivor viewing with her and Sal.
Today I will return to Sandy Springs to conclude my two day survey, and, do another study with a different company. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s all welcome. I probably won’t be spoiling myself with a new iPhone (yet), but will spend some of my earnings on beer at HobNob with a couple of buddies before I return ITP.
Since I have once again returned to exercising I was hoping to get good news from my scale this morning, but alas, I put on one pound in relation to last week’s weigh-in. I am back in a weight range that makes me unhappy, so harder work is in my future.
Wordle: three, my starter was PLACE
Connections: perfect, Blue > Yellow > Green > Purple
Before the rain arrived this weekend I had to make an emergency transplant of some two-inch tall plants because the damn squirrels found them on the deck, and they started to nibble and kill them. Assholes. It was so damp on Saturday afternoon that I saw a large slug slowly slithering on the exterior of the ITP Estate. Given that it was nowhere near WLF, by slug standards, I thought it best to let it live.
I made a (fake meat) meatloaf last night for dinner, and roasted some potatoes in the oven while the meatloaf baked. I went a bit rogue with the meatloaf, adding green pepper and jalapeño peppers to the mixture. Why, because I have to use these before they mold… Lo and behold my meatloaf concoction was delicious! I was also going to attempt to make baked apples as a dessert, but wasn’t feeling that hungry so decided to pass on those.
When dinner was finally ready I started my Christmas show/movie watching for 2023; I watched “A Christmas Story”.
For my upcoming trip to Florida I had an idea to look into hashing there. While I didn’t expect Florida hashing to be the same as Georgia hashing, I did expect to be able to find out information about their trails without having to log into Facebook and join a private group. Oh well, no hashing for me.
Today I will be making the first of two days commuting to Sandy Springs. It’s like it’s the early 2000s again! On each of the next two days I will be participating in paid surveys. Tonight I will also be heading to Marietta to watch Survivor with Barb and Sal, so naturally I will be finding ways to kill time. Hell, I might even treat myself to a new iPhone for all of this hard work. Of course that would mean going into Perimeter Mall at this time of year. *shudder*
Wordle: three, my starter was REACH
Connections: perfect, Blue > Yellow > Green > Purple
Yesterday started with much promise, but fizzled quickly. I suppose I should be happy that I was able to make and eat food already in my house again. I’ll attempt to pull of the feat again today, but will be meeting my buddy Hank for drinks later, which may result in dinner out.
This week has been a hit or miss week for me. Occasionally I have been inspired to do things, but then my enthusiasm is destroyed by one thing or another, such as my lingering injuries/pains. I have to admit, that this is rather frustrating to me.
East Atlanta has a new (to us) wings joint. Urban Wings has moved into the space on Moreland Avenue vacated by Delia’s. You know that I am not a vegetarian, but also don’t want to eat much meat nor spend a lot of money, so I don’t see me hitting Urban Wings often, but I am sure I will give them a try sometime in the nearish future.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Wordle: two, my starter was CHASE
Connections: one mistake, Yellow > Green > Blue > Purple
Not a whole lot to report from yesterday. The highlights of the day were putting up my minimal Christmas decorations, getting an hour in on the trainer, and hanging out with Betsy for a little while.
As we march toward the Winter solstice there isn’t much happening in WLF. I have cleaned up almost all of the summer crops, and have a few edibles out there currently in the form of kale and mustard greens. Unfortunately my struggles with lettuce continue, so I once again sowed some seeds yesterday. I think I will do a seed purge in 2024, ad the germination rate for many seeds decreases with age.
With my leftover soup, today for lunch I am going to make this Apple, Cranberry, and Cashew Salad as a side dish. I’m going Mexican tonight, at home, by using a can of refried beans and an Old El Paso Soft Taco dinner kit.
Wordle: four, my starter was FIGHT
Connections: perfect, Blue > Green > Yellow > Purple
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)
