Weekly Round Up: The Graduate

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, reads, plus the usual puppy brags.  In this week's edition we had a family party, I'm reading the latest It Book, and everybody in my house now has a diploma.

Puppy News

It's baby deer season.  From what Google has told me, Adult Deers have Adult Deer Scent that attracts predators, but Baby Deers don't really smell like anything, so the way for a Mama Deer to keep her baby safe is to park it somewhere and for her to stay away from it until it matures and gets Deer Smell.  That's why this time of year it's not unusual to see baby deer asleep in people's yards.

First thing on Tuesday morning I got Doggo out of her crate and hooked up her leash for our first outing of the day.  I saw a brown blob in the middle of the yard and braced myself for our first deer encounter.  Thankfully Doggo didn't notice the deer while we were outside, and only figured it out once we were back inside and I went to town with my zoom lens.  Then she took up a post at the back door and kept up a low growl until the intruder left.

This Saturday was another milestone for Doggo.  She finished Puppy School!  She has a diploma and everything.  Afterwards we took her to the pet store for a new toy.  There were a few other dogs there and she lit up like her newly social self and stole the show.  We had the fam over on Sunday for another party and although she wasn't as much at ease as she was last weekend, she took to the intruders fairly well and tentatively worked the room for treats.

Eats, Party Edition

We had a family party at our house this weekend.  Normally I can set these parties up on autopilot.  We either have a taco bar or get pizza and add a dessert.

It so happens that we had two family parties last weekend: there were tacos at one and we did pizza for the party at our house.  So my two go-to party menus were both played out.  Ok, what else do people eat at parties?  We've done sandwich trays before, and Jenny's Reading and Eating post last week reminded me that pasta is an excellent party option.  Either lasagna or something like a baked ziti would fit the bill.

We were talking it over with the boys and Stepson #1 piped up "we could do sliders like SIL#1s family did for New Years".  He spoke about the sliders as though the party had been yesterday and it wasn't until just now that I realized that the boys were recovering from getting their wisdom teeth out last New Years so the Epic Slider Party was...New Years 2023?  Maybe even New Years 2022?  But anyways, yes they made ham and turkey sliders and everyone was nuts about them and my family got the [few] leftovers.  And the more I thought about it, sliders should be very easy to do, even easier than calling the grocery store to order a sandwich tray.

I looked at two recipes: Recipe Tin Eats and The Dashley's Kitchen and did a mix n'match.  I separated all of the buns via Dashley and used the butter topping from Recipe Tin Eats, though I skipped the poppy seeds and onions.

For 11 people I got two trays of Hawaiian rolls that had 24 rolls each, two 8 oz packets of Swiss deli slices, and about a pound each of ham and turkey lunch meat from the deli. I mixed up some mayo and mustard and slathered it on the bottom and then topped half of the rolls with turkey, half with ham, and then added a layer of Swiss and the tops of the rolls.  I brushed the sliders with the butter topping, covered them in foil, and baked them at 350 for 20 minutes, took the foil off, and gave them about two more minutes to get the cheese a little bubblier.

I rounded out the rest of the meal with veggies (baby carrots, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes) and dip, a pack of deli macaroni salad, deli cole slaw, and chips (plain Ruffles and Doritos).  For dessert we got a massive Key lime pie from Costco.

Result: an easy peasy, budget friendly party meal that was a hit with everyone.  Leftover wise we had enough sliders for dinner on Monday night.

Workouts

I've run into a snag with Operation Pull Up (my baby step "I made it up myself" plan to possibly work myself up to being able to do a pull up at some point in my life).  Last week I told you that I can now hold myself up at the top of the bar for a count of 15 and do it for 3 reps.

Since achieving this milestone I've also had a bit of neck strain, which has ended all of my previous pull up efforts so...well here we are again.  Lol instead of trying to do a lot of pull up work and burning out, I've done a little pull up work over the last 5 months for a slow burnout...oh well.  My plan is to switch to lowering myself slowly instead of hanging out at the top of the bar, but if that doesn't work I'm not sure where to go with Operation Pull Up from here. 

Watching

Cute 1970s comedies anyone?  Hubs came up with Foul Play for date night.

Reading

At long last my Libby hold for The Women came in!  For those of you who have been living under a rock, this is the It Book of 2024, and it tells the story of nurses in the Vietnam War.

Originally I did not want to read it for two reasons.  

Reason One: it shares a title with one of my least favorite movies.  The Women was a 1939 smash with an all female cast (tag line: "The Women: it's all about men!") and from what I remember it was the most dreary, schlocky mess that the 1930s ever produced which is saying a lot.

Reason Two: I hated the ending of The Four Winds so much that I vowed that I would never ever read another Kristin Hannah book.

Kristin Hannah is a polarizing author.  My history with her is: I think I read The Nightingale but I'm not sure, so if I did it's fair to say that it didn't stand out for me, I looooved The Great Alone and was mystified by all the hate that I saw out there for it, and then something in The Four Winds rumpled my feathers to the point where I said "never again".

When I heard all of the hype on The Women my first reaction was "nope" but I changed my tune after a large number of Real People sources backed it up.  Then came an epically long Libby wait, and now The Women is mine, all mine.

One thing that sometimes bugs me about historical fiction is that I feel that authors don't have the confidence to just say "hey it's 1492" and run with their story.  Instead there is a tendency to get bogged down with historical facts and figures to the point where every other sentence will give you a detail about corsets or hand cranked cars.  The first few pages of The Women knocked me over with the vibe of "hi it's the 1960s and we're gong to really drive it home" and felt very clunky with all the talk of hair spray, beehives, country clubs, and It's a Man's World.  But it didn't take long for the book to get in a groove and believe in its setting.  Once it did, man oh man there's a reason why it's got all of the hype!  I'm 80% in and I can solidly recommend it, though I feel like it's going to have exactly the same ending as The Four Winds.

Of possible interest: this profile piece on Kristin Hannah.  I did not know that she is a lawyer turned author.

Who's Read The Women?  Thoughts about Kristin Hannah?