Weekly Round Up: Naughty and Nice

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In the spirit of the season, today I'm recapping the naughty and the nice events of the past week.

Weekly Round Up: Solstice Countdown

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads. We're so close to the most wonderful time of the year.  No, I'm not talking about Christmas, for me it's all about December 21st.  Let's get the darkest day of the year out of here and start working on getting our daylight back!

Weekly Round Up: Beige

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.

The best way that I can describe this time of year is "beige".  It's not snowing yet so everything outside is brown, and the short days mean that all of my photos have a distinct beige tone.  I mean it's fine but it's...a much of a muchness.  I just need someone to push the fast forward button to get us on the other side of December 21 so that we can start getting more daylight up in here. 

Here's what's been going down...

Weekly Round Up Part 2 of 2: An 80's Movie Binge

 Last week I posted A Big Ol' Movie Roundup and today I'm here to report back.

• I feel like Risky Business keeps coming up on my radar.  I hadn't seen it or thought about it since it came out (dear God that's awfully close to 40 years ago) and Tom Cruise is one of my least favorite actors but the chatter keeps coming so I was interested in taking another look.
  
• I had never seen or for that matter heard of a movie called Heathers but it was on the roundup list and looked interesting.  Out of the movies that I asked for feedback on, this was the one that popped up on everyone's radar.  There's a mix of positive memories and a lot of "uh...it has subject matter that was fine in the 80s but probably isn't now."
• My third watch isn't from the roundup list and do you even need me to tell you that it's from Unspooled?  I mean, where else do I get movie ideas from these days?  They just did an episode on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles so I wanted to see it in advance of listening to it.  As best I can remember I saw this when it came out and found it to be dull and cringe worthy.

This weekend I took advantage of the family being away at Boy Scout camp plus being overwhelmed with life and needing a break and got 'em done.

• All three of these movies are spectacular in their own unique way.
  
• Bonus points for two out of the three movies having ties to Chicago.  I grew up in Champaign, so whenever my closest childhood Big City gets representation I'm there for it.
  
• The first time that I saw all of these movies was at the wrong point in my life!  Today I'm too old for one and the right age for the other two.
   

Weekly Round Up Part 1 of 2: A Hot Minute

 

Hey Friends, it's been a hot minute since we last talked!  Post NaBloPo part of me feels weird that it's been a whopping five days since I last posted and the other part of me is here to say I HAD A WEEK and just about lost my mind.  Here's what's gone down.

NaBloPo: I'm Out!

True confession: "I'm Out!" was the original title for my November 3rd post.  It was a hectic day and it was after dinner and I had no post.  I wrote that yes it was a nice thought to jump in on NaBloPo at the last minute but it was already too stressful to get it done.  And then I started blabbing about my day to give an example and before I knew it I had a post so I took out the "I can't do this" intro.

True confession: "I'm Out!" was the original title for my November 4th post.  I recycled the intro about how writing is hard and the problem wasn't that I didn't have ideas but that I didn't have time to develop them.  And then I started blabbing about my day and suddenly I had a post after all, so I kept the "it's hard" part and took out the "I can't do this" part.

And that's the last time that I started a post with the title "I'm Out!" until today.  But it's the last day of NaBloPo, so it's OK to be out.

NaBloPo: A Streak Saving Post

Oof Friends, my brain is fried tonight.  In run streaking there's a thing called a streak saver mile where you run just one mile to keep your streak going*  This is a streak saving post.

• Did the workout thing.
• Did the work thing.
• Did the dinner thing. 
• Currently doing the sitting on the couch thing.
  
• Procrastinating on the "I didn't get around to cleaning the bathrooms last week so if not now when?" thing.

Alright, Ima get off this couch and get it done.

*PS for the non-runners out there run streaking means that someone runs EVERY day, generally for a minimum of one mile.  It does not mean streaking as in no clothes, though surely there must be a society of streaking run streakers out there somewhere.

For all things NaBloPo head over to The Inbetween in Mine  

NaBloPo: The Monday-est of Mondays

 

Yikes, I feel like I had a four YEAR weekend instead of a four day weekend.  Here's what's going down in my world.

NaBloPo: Exciting Things To Tell You About My Weekend

 

Exciting things to tell you about my weekend

1.  It was a weekend.

That's it, byeeee everybody!!!!!

No wait, let's get some more detail in here.

NaBloPo: A Big Ol' Movie Round Up

 

Ah the aftermath of Thanksgiving.  The downside to our big family get togethers is that everyone tends to take home what they brought so it's hard to put together leftovers.  We have turkey, gravy, and rolls.  Last night we made a batch of mashed potatoes to add into the mix.

By now you surely know how I feel about turkey, so I took a pass and pulled a serving of gochujang pasta with meatballs out of the freezer.  The fellas will get another meal or two out of the turkey and then we'll freeze up the rest and I'll bring it back in a turkey pot pie or something like that at a later date.

NaBloPo: Thanksgiving Recap

 

Hey Friends, we had an epic Thanksgiving with the fam yesterday.  Here are all the deets!

NaBloPo: A Wild Thanksgiving Eve

 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!  Here's what's gone down since we last talked.

NaBloPo: T-Day Eve and Baking Pet Peeves

Happy T-Day Eve!  Preparations are well underway.

NaBloPo: The Eve of the Eve

It's the Eve of Thanksgiving Eve!  Prep is underway so it's another short post tonight.

Holiday prep update: The kitchen has been deep cleaned and I bought the final round of groceries that we needed.

Apropos of nothing update: I bought makeup tonight for the first time since before the pandemic.  I had to stop wearing eye makeup in my 30s due to eye sensitivity, and then when the pandemic started I stopped wearing all makeup except for special occasions.  My concealer was totally dried out and I figured that my foundation wasn't in great shape either due to, you know, being at least three years old.   It was time.

Question of the day: do you wear makeup?  More or less than before the pandemic?

For all things NaBloPo head over to The Inbetween in Mine  

NaBloPo: The Leftovers

Sigh, I'm in a bit of a NaBloPo rut.  My big idea for today's post just does not want to be written so we'll fill in with scraps.

NaBloPo: Another Quick Hit

Hey friends, it's an "I've got exactly five minutes to get this done" kinda day for blogging.

• Everyone is back home from Boy Scout camp!  As a result the house is piled high in Boy Scout camp debris.
• Stepson #2's music school had a student recital today.  It was his first time playing in public and he nailed it.
• It's still wicked cold outside.
• And that's it!  That was so short that I don't even need a jump break for today's post.  See you tomorrow!
  

 For all things NaBloPo head over to The Inbetween in Mine 

NaBloPo: My Work Here is Done

 

This morning I headed out to Costco and then sent my status update to our family Thanksgiving planning group text: "my work here is done".

NaBloPo: My Blogging Backstory!

 

It's a chilly but otherwise chill Friday up in here.  What to write about today...ooh I know.  Let's kind of pick up where we left off at the end of my cooking backstory and talk about what I'm doing here in the first place.

NaBloPo: Quick Catch Up

 

Friends this is going to be a short one tonight.  Let's bullet point it!

NaBloPo: Cooking at Home

 

Breaking news: I got to cook dinner tonight!!!

NaBloPo: Notes from the Day

 

Wha it's the half way point for NaBloPo and I'm still in it????  How did that happen?

NaBloPo: Two Pet Peeves

Hey Friends, for the most part I try not to get my dander up about the small things in life.  But I do have a small list of "issues" and two of them came up recently, so I thought that I would rant a bit about:

Pet Peeve #1: people telling other people how often to wash their hair

Pet Peeve #2: sleep trackers

Diary of Kindergartener: The 5th Annual Weekly Eats Roundup

 

How time flies!  Five years ago I transitioned from being an irregular recipe blogger to a regular weekly "what I ate" blogger.  The weekly eats post is now old enough to go to kindergarten!  Today we're here to do our annual look back and highlight the best of the best.

NaBloPo: The Saturday Report

 

Hey Friends, I have more than five minutes to talk today!  I'm on the back end of a meal prep session, which means that I've done all of the hands on work and washing up, I'm just sitting around waiting for stuff to finish cooking.  So let's chat!

NaBloPo: 5 Minutes

 Hey Friends, I have another 5 minute time limit on posting tonight so bear with me.

NaBloPo: Brinner

 

Hey Friends, I have a five minute time limit on posting tonight so bear with me!

NaBloPo: My Cheatin' Heart

Hey Friends, we're kickin it old school tonight with a no pictures post! I'm fresh off a job interview and processing some things.

NaBloPo: Quickie

 

It's slim pickings around here for blogging content today.  Let's start with a shot of the huge moon and then let's bullet point it.

NaBloPo: Monday Matters

Well this is quite interesting.  Since I've been posting once a day I shouldn't have enough material to fill up my normal Weekly Roundup post but somehow it's pretty close.  To be fair there's really nothing to talk about for workouts or TV, but I got eats, a book, and some snarky werk talk.  Let's go! (Wait I stole "Let's Go" from Caroline Girvan so I guess we have workout talk after all).

NaBloPo: Status Update

 

Update #1: it's day 6 of 30 of NaBloPo and not only am I still in it but it's also starting to feel more natural to sit down at the computer and post of bunch of mumblings on the internet every day instead of once a week. 

Update #2: the family party last night was a ton of fun and now we have leftover pizza for days.

Update #3: I broke my non-running streak of 73 days today.  My current status is "not a runner but not a non runner".

NaBloPo: Weekending

 

Update #1: its day 5 of 30 of NaBloPo and I'm still in it

Update #2: the weather is unbelievably gorgeous.

NaBloPo: Fridaze

 Update #1: its day 4 of 30 of NaBloPo and I'm still in it

Update #2: bye bye fog, it's gorgeous out.

NaBloPo: The Irony

 

Update #1: it's day 3 of 30 of NaBloPo and I'm still in it

Update #2: it's still foggy as frick up in here.

NaBloPo: Notes of the Day

 

Ooh day 2 of 30 of NaBloPo and I am still in it!!!  Here's what's going down in my world:

For all things NaBloPo head over to The Inbetween in Mine.

NaBloPo: I ain't got time for that

 

November is a great time for blog fans.  It's National Blog Posting Month which means that some of my favorite bloggers write daily posts.  

I've thought about it for the past few years, but there's no way that I can commit to a daily posting schedule.  This year when folks started talking about it, I made some noise in comments that yeah maybe I would do it but as the time got closer, once again I realized that I just ain't got time for that.  Besides, it's just going to be a bunch of "what I ate" plus random pictures of all of the Halloween candy carnage on the streets that I saw on my lunchtime dog walk.

And then as I saw all of the new posts coming out today I got a case of FOMO.  I still don't want to commit to posting daily so what to do...hmm...in running there's a name for when you aren't registered for a race but you show up on race day and run anyway.  It's called "banditing".  So I'm going to sneak on to the NaBloPo course and run for a long as before I have to drop out because I wasn't prepared.

Weekly Round Up: Experimental

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week was all about experimenting.

Weekly Round Up: The One Up

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads. 

Last month during Boy Scout camp weekend: I went on a solo long weekend trip

This month during Boy Scout camp weekend: I did a one up and invited my SILs and nieces to come along on a long weekend trip!

Weekly Round Up: A Tale of Two Soups

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I made two soups with two different results and saw two 70s movies, also with different results.

Weekly Round Up: They All Laughed

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week I explored pumpkin cuisine to the great amusement of my family.  The joke ended up being on them when I whipped up a delicious cake.

Weekly Round Up: Seasonal

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  Our food this week was a mix of seasonal fare and old favorites.

Weekly Roundup: The Getaway

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week the boys were away and this girl got out to play.

Weekly Round Up: Now Everyone Wants Some

 

A weekly roundup: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week I learned that everyone is really, really into one of my meal prep staples.

Weekly Round Up: When the Moon Hits Your Eye

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I'm talking new recipes, the surprising thing about not being a runner, and the moon hit my eye like a big pizza pie in my movie watching.

Weekly Round Up: Something Old and Something New

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I made both an old and a new recipe from Cheap Lazy Vegan, I'll recap my first week as a non-runner, and I'm talking Bogie and Bacall movies.

Weekly Round Up: The Break Up

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week I made some delicious sesame noodles, broke up with running, and saw the perfect silly movie.

Weekly Round Up: Cliche

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week COVID took a hike but left a cliche behind.

Weekly Round Up: No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  No one expects the Spanish Inquisition and I did not expect to get COVID this week.  But here we are.

Weekly Round Up: BLT Nirvana

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition the universe aligned for a rare BLT, I made a bold move to shake up our dinner routine, and I'm figuring out the fitness thing.

Weekly Round Up: When to Fold 'Em

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads. In this week's edition I'll show you what we've been eating lately and bring you up to speed on my running situation.

Weekly Round Up: Empty Nest

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition we had a mostly empty nest, I tried another Cheap Lazy Vegan recipe, and I'm mostly there on staying put in my job for now.

Weekly Round Up: On Repeat

 

A weekly roundup: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition we did A LOT of repeat meals and binged Stranger Things.  On the job search front I have a rare employer shout out plus an unexpected development in my current gig.

Weekly Round Up: Salad Shoutout

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I have a new favorite salad and I'm going to tell you how my family did when I turned dinner responsibilities over to them.

Fly on the Wall Report: I Gotsta Get Paid

I've become a perpetual job hunter.  If you've been hanging out with me for a while, you know that I left my once-beloved long time job last year and the job that I have now is "OK but I think there's something better out there".  Since I restarted my job search back in February I've shared all of my hunting stories here on the blog.

I have an update on the company that I called Big Spender, the one who tried to tell me that I should be considering PTO and health insurance to be part of my salary.  Before I get to that, I thought that I would go back to the beginning and explain how I came up with the salary number that I'm looking for and tell the never-before-told stories of how various companies have reacted to it.  

If you're new here, I'm an accountant who specializes in payroll.  For the past ten years at every job I've had a full view of the salaries of everyone that I work with.  Folks, I've seen some things.  Sorry not sorry but this is going to be a long post.

Weekly Roundup: Spam and Shipwreck

 

A weekly roundup: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition my family came home from the wilds, I made vegan spam and I need to talk about it, hubs may have found a solution to our family dinner problem (no, it's not vegan spam), and I ran a one mile race...and a five mile race.

Weekly Round Up: Home Alone

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  The big exciting news of the week is that I have been home alone with no adult supervision.  No husband, no stepkids, and no dog.

Where is everyone you may ask?  Well, hubs and stepson #1 are somewhere off the grid with the Boy Scouts on a hiking trip.  Stepson #2 is with his mom, and stepdog goes where the kids go so that's how I ended up with a week of zero adult responsibilities.  So what does the single life look life you may ask?  For these answers plus two excellent movies and a "bad date" job interview story read on!

Weekly Round Up: Life in The Treehouse

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week we lived in a treehouse for a few days, I tried a few recipes from Cheap Lazy Vegan and learned a Game Changing Tofu Technique, became obsessed with a trashy reality show, and am raving about a good book.

Weekly Round Up: Off the Grid

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition: we had a major storm that knocked out our power for a day, I tried some new things in the kitchen, and I'm re-evalutating my goal for the mile race.

Weekly Round Up: Full Frontal

A weekly roundup: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I got resourceful with Chipotle leftovers and saw some things that I will never unsee.

Weekly Round Up: It's Not All Bad

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This week is rated M for "meh" but of course it wasn't all bad.