Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Today was all about running errands. Getting my TSA PreCheck stuff was a breeze – no line for that service and was in an out as quickly as the quirky tablet would let the poor MVA (aka the DMV – Maryland uses “Motor Vehicle Administration”) worker process things (it was having issues, but she handled it stoically). Was actually out of there before the scheduled appointment time, unlike the rest of the MVA, which was packed. Then we wandered the Annapolis shopping mall, picked up some odds and ends, and window shopped at the LEGO store before heading to lunch. Some book shopping afterwards for the husband to finish purchasing the Dungeon Crawler Carl series (he’s hooked) and me to grab yet another cookbook. Mailed some stuff to family members, then hit the mother ship branch of our comic shop for a comic frame and a back issue we missed. Was a successful, if long day out.

In unrelated news, I had forgotten how much dreck Animal Crossing: New Horizons makes you dump all over your island to “decorate” it to get it up to a five star rating. Like, I want it closer to a wild forest, not a planned botanical garden, but that’s not what it wants. Just want to get there before the update drops in two weeks. I suppose this is what I get for starting over on the Switch 2.

Bed at a normalish time yesterday, but still slept in until 7 or 8 something this morning. We watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves last night because our young friend had read some Reddit post about it being a good post-breakup movie (?), he hadn’t seen it, and we love it, so it worked. Ordered pizza in for them, a sub for me, and movie time. Perfect.

This morning the husband did some more of his graduated Xmas cleanup. Two of the three trees are now down, and all of the legos. Supposedly the focus on the rest of the stuff will be this weekend. I just show up and help, and happily leave the organizing to him.

Because of the young friend’s moving to his own place and needing to get new furniture the husband has been spending a lot of time with him at the local Ikea, and I think he’s grabbing some shelves to help organize the utility closet downstairs. He showed me what he’s thinking, but again I’m leaving this to him.

Currently waiting for the new bread maker he got me for Xmas to finish the first loaf. The volume versus weight measures seemed a little off in their recipe, or the flour was too tightly packed, but I ran with weight side, as that’s usually safer when baking. This first loaf is all for the husband, being regular wheat flour and having dried milk in the ingredients (both of which bother my digestive system). I’ll try a piece, but that’s probably it. Next will be trying a gluten free loaf with brown rice flour and the manufacturer’s recipe.

I’ve been slacking off on my PT exercises for the repaired knee, with the (expected) result that it’s been more sore lately. Splurged for a squat wedge, which is a lot easier to use for heel elevated squats. I can get a lot deeper into a squat than on flat feet, and that was one of the things they had me doing a lot when I was going to PT on the regular. Between that and the slack block my knee is feeling better.

Was back to work today, teleworking. Relatively quiet, so mostly cleaned out email and read a longish memo from justice that pertains to my small gubm’nt agency’s work, though it was written for a different agency. We’ll have to change some of our programs, and cancel some others, under this new guidance. But that’s a problem for next week.

The husband and I are going to take some trips via airplane next year so I’m applying for TSA’s PreCheck clearance. He’s already got it, and I consider it worth the cash to not deal with as much security nonsense at the actual airport. Less valuable in the DC area where it’s well known and so well subscribed, but for flying back I understand it cuts out a lot of hassle.

The family got underway around 6 this morning. I went back to bed after they left and slept in until 10-something. In the meantime the husband was still very much awake, so he cleaned. Worst part was that we had at some point attracted at least one mouse into our garage, so he spent most of that time cleaning up mouse poop and clearing out attractants. On the plus side, that side of the garage looks much better, and we tossed a bunch of stuff we no longer needed.

Now we just have to figure out where to store the stuff we got for Xmas. The bookshelves are already packed, and we always get more. I think a donation/used bookstore run may be in order soon.

While we were hoping for a relaxing next week, one of our young (late 20s) friends broke up with his fiancé on Boxing day, and I think we’ll be hosting him to help work him through the emotions there. First long term relationship, so all of the attendant stuff that goes along with that. Ah well.

‘Twas a good Xmas day. Gifts handed out, silly games indulged, too much candy had by all. Not much in the way of “regular” food because few people felt hungry, post-candy, which was fine by me as the main cook.

And tomorrow will be an early morning. But we played games until far too late this evening. Holding off on stockings til the morning. Non-food stuff is sorted, but I need to split up the candy.

Good run to get comics, and lunch at the local Italian restaurant next to the comic shop. Brief nap mid-afternoon, but not quite enough. This is why I took Monday off as well, so I can catch up on sleep once they head out.

One more sleep ’til Xmas.

We went indoor skydiving this afternoon. The husband, his sister, and I all did it – 3 sessions each of about a minute and a half each session. Two stayed low, the last one we went “high” – maybe 10 feet up – with the instructor. They were very patient and explained things well, and I had a ton of fun doing it. The husband has been known to bungee jump and leap off of buildings for fun, so this was right up his alley. He of course bought another session for the two of us, which we can cash in whenever. Not something I ever expected to do, but I really enjoyed it.

Past that slept better last night, but still not quite enough. Trying to manage the female cat’s moods and movement as she gets crankier in her old age is tough. At least I managed not to trap myself under her and the comforter last night, just her and a thin blanket, which was quite warm enough.

Haircuts went well, got in on time, then off to the local diner for breakfast.

Family arrived safely, early afternoon. I needed a nap, but no go when you’re entertaining. Stood a bit too much today, bothered the knee, so tomorrow will need more sitting. Have to get one of the folding chairs out of the garage so we have five chairs for the dining table. We have four that’re out normally, but there’s one more human than that when they visit.

Cats are doing okay so far. I partially closed the bedroom door to help calm our female cat while she staked out the bed, and the male cat just hid in my office on his heated bed hidden away under some shelving. They came out for evening treats and food, but retreated once they’d had enough.

The husband’s sister and her family should be here in a little less than twenty-four hours. Loins are girded, last minute laundry is going. Ran to Home Depot for cinder blocks to prop up a table on our deck to solve the issue of an inflatable Santa sliding off the edge (back onto the deck, thankfully, and not off the front of the house). The husband is baking cookies (“stress baking”). Beds have been made. We did a run to BJ’s yesterday, but I’ll need to drag the sister-in-law to the grocery store after we figure out what stuff we want to cook for the week. Haircuts scheduled for first thing tomorrow morning. Then it’ll be trying to stay out of the way while the husband obsesses over cleaning things that are already clean, and drives me nuts by wanting to me to put things ‘away’ into some mystical ‘away’ place that doesn’t exist in our townhouse.

I’m most excited that everyone is going to get a small Easter bunny in their Xmas stocking, because BJ’s not only already had Valentine’s candy out (semi-normal, though still too rushed), they had a partial array of Easter stuff. So of course we picked up some kit-kat bunnies, because why not. I guess it beats leftover Halloween candy. I understand that orders have to go in to get stuff shipped in time, but c’mon guys, Easter? Already?

My coworkers seem to be settling back into the fully remote routine. I think it helps that it’s so close to the year-end holidays, so much of the normal business of the agency is quieter than usual. Not to say that we’re not working, but the normal urgency isn’t quite as bad as the norm.

Comics, dinner, and a Target run. I was surprised at how quickly we were able to get out of Target. The husband’s sister had ordered something for her husband that she had us pick up, and then we went ahead and got the candy for stockings while we were there. I also picked up a Roku stick for the monitor in my office, as I slowly turn my office into a pseudo-man-cave. Hoping that the better seating and some TV will be conducive to more knitting and cross stitching. In unrelated news I finally finished the first section of dark grey yarn for the latest scarf so now I have to refresh my memory of how to switch colors. I know it’s not hard, I just haven’t done it in a while. I did some knitting on it while we were in Ocean City, and managed to finish the section today while waiting to pick up the husband from the Metro.