Weekly Round Up: Camouflage

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week Doggo adopted a hidden in plain sight hangout in the back yard, and I'm using the same approach to get through my final days at work

Eats

When I was staying with Elisabeth, she made homemade mac n'cheese one night that she served with a salad.  

I decided that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery/meal planning, so I copied the meal for dinner one night this week.  I pulled the first hit that google brought up for the mac n'cheese, added some chicken nuggets to Hubs's plate, and a side of Costco frozen broccoli in the air fryer.

There was a spoonful of mac n'cheese left that was too big to throw out, but too small for a meal, so I bundled it up in the fridge and hoped for the best.

The next day I met up with a friend for lunch and had a fancy mushroom pasta dish.  I ate about half of the portion at the restaurant and brought the rest home.  Then dinner rolled around, as if does every night, and I had no idea what I wanted to make.  Hmmm...I had the tiny dab of mac n'cheese and the leftover pasta, was there any chance...

Yep!  The scary part is that the half serving of pasta that I'd brought home was more than sufficient to stretch into two home sized dinner portions.  I added some Costco meatballs, the dab of mac n'cheese, and more air fried broccoli and we were set.

On the treat side, I had been daydreaming about the peanut butter marshmallow bar that I had in Nanaimo a few months ago.

I grabbed a recipe off the internets and took a stab at recreating it at home.

It was a good first attempt.  The original had a bigger ratio of fudge to marshmallows, so I'll work that out next time.  Normally Hubs's sweet tooth is more interested in chocolate than sweet, but he was a fan of these as well.

Workouts

Our fall colors are less intense than they have been in previous years, but still worth seeing.  On Saturday we took Doggo to the prime Leaf Peep hike in our area.  It was crowded, which cramped our photo taking opportunities, but it was still great to get out there.  And yes the blue thing is a collapsible water bowl, because if the hike is long enough for the hoomans to want to take their water bottles then the dog gets water, too.

Closer to home she continued her participation in the Cool Bloggers Walking Club.

In other hiking news, "today I walked" is a social media trend that I can get behind.

Watching

Alfred Hitchcock movies!  The first recap post will be coming out soon.  Just a note that I did not crank my way through five movies in the past few days, it was more like three weeks.  I drafted the intro post a few weeks ago and held it back until I finished the Maritime recaps.

For Hot Couples' TV, Hubs and I saw John Candy: I Like Me.  Spoiler: everyone who knew him absolutely loved him.

Suzanne left a great comment on the Alfred Hitchcock post, and I think we should take a minute to discuss it.  Let's go paragraph by paragraph.

The easy one is that I can guarantee that some of my rankings will change.  I mean, of course all of the "I don't remember it" ratings will go, but beyond that I've had the experience of thinking that a movie is GREAT, and then coming back to it later and saying "what the heck is this?".  Sometimes I'm in a mood when I watch something and I see it later and wonder what my problem was.

Shoutout to Rebecca and Strangers on a Train!  I am in a dead tie over whether the book or movie version of Rebecca is better.  It's been a long time since I've read Strangers on a Train, but the more that I think about it, the movie might be better.  Oh darn I'm going to have to read Strangers on a Train again to know for sure.

The kind of movie watcher I am depends on how good the movie is and if I can give it my full attention.  If it's good, then I'm probably fully focused on it, but possibly turning to imdb here and there to look up trivia or to try to figure out why a certain actor looks familiar.  If the movie isn't holding my attention or if my mind is wandering, there is a high probability that that my phone or laptop is on the scene.  There are often dog related matters to attend to, such as an empty food bowl, needing to go outside, or wanting to play, and then I'm always making a judgement call on whether I need to push pause or if I can focus on the TV and the dog at the same time.

Is it better to watch alone or with someone else?  In a perfect world, always with someone else, but not if the other person isn't interested in the movie, so that's why I mainly watch shows and movies by myself.  Hubs and I have a lot of overlap, but he is not naturally inclined to kick back with an obscure silent movie, and I'm taking a hard pass on his current 80's Sword and Sorcerer movie binge.  If I'm by myself then I'm probably not saying a word, and if I'm snuggled on the couch with Hubs, we're probably doing light commentary.

I almost never pause and rewind unless I feel like I've missed something major or if I made the wrong call on not pausing for a dog matter.  Whether I watch the movie in one go depends on how much time I have.  If I want to start watching a movie on a weeknight or on the treadmill for a short workout, I have no problem pressing pause and coming back later.  The only time I've ever used subtitles is if there is another reason why I can't hear.  For example, we used to have a very noisy treadmill and there was just no way to get the volume up high enough.

Last but not least, I know exactly how to overcome the obstacle/objection to watching old movies.  99% of the time, the correct answer is DON'T.  We all have our "I'm not into that" things, and while yes it's good to keep an open mind and try new things , the reality is that we also have our "I'm very into that" things that we can and should be spending our limited time on.  I know that there are so many great foreign languages movies out there, but I'd rather rewatch Hitchcock and play with my dog.

So I would say to Suzanne that if she wants to venture into Hitchcock territory, that either Rebecca or Strangers could be good entry points because she's read the books and has interest in the stories.  Just about everyone else should start with Rear Window or North by Northwest.  Do a pulse check 10 minutes in - if you like what you see, keep watching, and if you're feeling so restless that you're staring at the clock and counting down the seconds, then you can move on to something else with a good conscience.

Reading

Not much to say.  I'm still working my way through The Joy Luck Club for CBBC and American Dirt.

Audiobook wise, I started listening to The Next Day by Melinda French Gates, which is her reflecting on the moments of change in her life which seems like a good book for me in this season of life.  It's very short, and so far I like it.

Werk

Nine working days stand between me and freedom.  

My replacement started two weeks ago, and does not seem happy with the job.  At times I've had the "uh oh what if she quits?" feeling, but then I realized that this isn't my problem.  My job is to pass on the info, and it's up to her if she wants to put in the effort to try to take it over while I'm still around.  If not she can figure it out after I'm gone.

Peace out! Tell me your answers to Suzanne's questions.  If movies aren't your thing, substitute TV shows for your answers.  Do you have a pet who is good at camouflage?  Have you ever bee able to turn restaurant leftovers for one into dinner for two?