Monday, August 26, 2024

Weekly Round Up: And Then There Was One

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition a garden surplus turned into a delicious meal, I've been reading up a storm, and my number of employers has been reduced to one.

Eats

The best thing that I've had to eat recently was c/o my SIL  She has an epic garden and asked if we wanted any cherry tomatoes.  Fresh garden tomatoes?  Oh yes, I wanted some.  Specifically I wanted enough for a salad or two.  Everyone else in the house has a low-to-no tomato consumption.

The blessing and the curse of having a gardening friend is that their food gifts follow the feast and famine cycle.  My SIL didn't need to get rid of a handful of cherry tomatoes, she needed to get rid of a gallon ziplock of cherry tomatoes.  They were beautiful, all shades of red, orange, and yellow, and several different varieties.  I would show you a picture except...um, I didn't think to take one.

I snacked on a handful of the tomatoes and added a few to salads over the next few days, so that left me with most of the gallon ziplock that I needed to do something with pretty soon or by default that beautiful bag was headed to the trash.  What to do...what to do...wait, can't you make pasta sauce out of cherry tomatoes?

I looked at a few recipes, and went with a loose riff of this one.  I didn't have thyme and I used a sprinkling of Italian seasoning in place of basil.  I didn't find it necessary to simmer the sauce since it was already pretty thick.  While I was roasting the tomatoes I sliced up a pack of chicken sausage to roast along with it and then boiled up some pasta and threw in a few handfuls of fresh spinach.  The result was the most divine thing that I have ever eaten.

Workouts

Still running believe it or not!  I haven't gone an further than two miles since that feels like the right amount of time for workouts.

I've fallen off the pushup/hanging on the pull up bar under the delusion that it would ever lead to me being able to do a pull up thing a bit.  But I'm still in the game.  I haven't bothered to do any other strength work for a while.  I'm just not seeing or feeling a benefit to it.  And also, what Kae said about the amount of time that a person spends outside when they have a 14 month old puppy.

Watching

Nada c/o having a puppy and being more interested in reading right now.

Reading

Let's catch up!

  • I finished 11/22/63 and oh gawd was it good.  All that I knew going in was that it is a very long book about a man who has a chance to time travel back to 1963 and stop the assassination of JFK, and I think that's about all that I want to say about it since I think that's the right background to have.  I didn't know where the story was going to go at all and it was delightful and amazing to watch it unfold.  I think I would like to watch the TV series so that I can hang out with the story for a little longer.  Ok, I will drop one little deet that amused me.  When the hero first goes back in time, he stops at a bar to get a beer, and has a slip when he orders a Miller Lite, which did not exist back then.  The bartender says "did you mean a Miller High Life?" - I enjoyed that little snippet because it reminded me of the Miller Brewery tour that I did back in May that included samples of both beers.
  • I finished I Capture the Castle for The Cool Bloggers Book Club.  The story had started to slow down after the halfway point but the last week's worth of reading brought everything back on track and I got the ending that I wanted, so it was a fun journey.
  • And then...I went back to the Linda Castillo Amish Murders!  I read book #8 in the series, Among the Wicked.
  • What next?  I find that I can't think about anything else but the Linda Castillo books, so I'm going on a bender.  I've already checked the next two books in the series out on Libby.  Hey, when you've got an itch, ya gotta scratch it.

I found myself putting in some extra reading time for 11/22/63, and now I find that I'm continuing the trend.  Someone has been very happy to join me.

And Then There Was One!

As in one jobby job!  I started my new job in May and ended my old job about two weeks ago.

The good news is that I got a bunch of extra money and perks by double dipping.

The bad news is that...well, as I've been feeling for a while, I'm just not that in to work.  There are parts of the new job that are interesting and the rest of it is...not.  Unless something changes I'm on track to leave next year after I've maxed out my 401k and become eligible for my first round of stock options (in English that means I get something that might or might not be worth money later on).  I'm trying to make it a game but not succeeding very well...the days are all the same and I'm so bored that I'm numb.  Hopefully I just need a little more time to decompress from the old job and then I'll get some kind of a groove back.

And Finally

It's National Dog Day!!!  Ms Doggo is here to represent.


 


 

22 comments:

  1. Ooooh I hope the stars align and you join the retired folks next year!
    Hahahaha can I ever relate to the garden thing. I mean, I am giving away zucchini left and right, I have so many tomatoes that I'm constantly roasting them to freeze, and the herbs! My god, the herbs. My SIL has taken some and I'm going to dry them too but...SO MUCH PARSLEY. I don't even love parsley.

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    1. Between you and me - does anyone like parsley? I'm told that it's supposed to enhance flavors or something like that. Apart from chimichurri sauce, I can't think of a good use for it.

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  2. Aw, Happy Dog Day to Doggo! I love the photo where her back legs are stretched out behind her
    SO glad you liked 11/22/63. I know- you can't say too much about it without ruining it. I wanted to talk about it in my post of "what if WWI had never happened?" but I couldn't.
    I'm glad you're down to one job! But, sorry that job kind of sucks. Like you said, now that you finally don't have the old job, maybe you can settle into this one a little. If all else fails, at least there's light at the end of the tunnel.

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    1. Yep, there is always tunnel light! I've made it through a few more days since writing this post so that's something.

      I can't say this enough - if it hadn't been for you I wouldn't have picked 11/22/63 up and finally read it. So thanks!

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  3. Yum, I wish I could have taken some of those cherry tomatoes off your hands! But when it doubt, roast them! But it is really feast or famine. I remember trying to give zucchini, cucumbers, and tomatoes away! I miss having a garden but don't miss offloading the excess produce. I had a spot at a community garden and someone else would put a cooler out so donations could be taken to the local foodshelf, so that was a good way to get rid of things and feel good about where they went.

    That is a bummer that you are bored in the job. But the year will probably fly by. But the work days can really drag when you are bored and don't enjoy what you are doing!!!

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    1. Kyria had a great example in her "you can do it" post about wanting a garden full of tomatoes without having to, you know, do the gardening part. That's exactly how I feel - I want my SIL's garden but I'm happy that I've spent 0 minutes gardening this year. The donation bin at the community garden is a genius idea.

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  4. Yay for old job ending but boo for the work not being great at the new one :( the great news is, we got to see cute doggo pics in this post. lol

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    1. At this point it's pretty much a guarantee that all posts will have Doggo pix!

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  5. Okay, I hope you know I FULLY support your plan to leave the workforce, and yet I am also hoping for the sake of your mental health that the new job is just a very slow ramp up, and you will soon find a groove that feels good/interesting/the right amount of challenging.

    Love that you got a big bag of tomatoes and found such a wonderful way to use them up! My tomatoes are ripening very slowly, a few at a time, so my kid just goes outside and eats them right off the plant.

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    1. Thanks Suzanne! You get it. There's just kind of a dull cloud hanging over everything.

      That's my experience with gardening. My plants were great for providing the occasional handful of tomatoes, but that was about it.

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  6. Yay for FIRE plans!
    We decided on a FIRE date, got ourselves cardboard calendars of 2017 and 2018 and then ticked off the days. During that time, it felt like everything was moving in slow motion.
    Thinking back, it was a special time: full of "Vorfreude" - the time of joyful anticipation, knowing that your life will change for something so much better.
    (And it is sooo much better! FIRE is incredible, Birchie!)

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    1. Ha ha the minute I found out my vesting date I set up an Excel on my work computer and calculated the remaining work days - great minds think alike!

      I get the feeling that FIRE will be incredible. It's like I'm watching this really fun party but keep finding excuses not to join it. Soon!

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  7. Happy National Doggo Day to all the doggos. Hannah enjoyed it by having to say inside because it was too hot for doggos outside, even if they wore their fancy shoes.

    Have you ever had Sun Gold cherry tomatoes? They are life.

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    1. I'm sure that some of the tomatoes were sun gold - not because I know what those are but because there were so many different kinds - cherry, grape, red, orange, yellow - they were all good!

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  8. I have been so intimidated by 11/22/63 because of the length but I think I am going to have a goal next year to read a few LOOONG books, and that will be the first book I try!

    I'm sorry work still feels dull and boring. I don't necessarily feel that way about work, but I'm also not someone who is passionate about career and working. If I could retire early, I would, so YAY YOU!

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    1. I feel confident that if you pick up 11/22/63 that you won't be disappointed! It's a long book but it didn't feel like it.

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  9. Oh, the joys of knowing someone with a bountiful garden :) (I haven't even tried to grow anything this year.)

    Love the photo of Ms Doggo - she looks so relaxed and happy!

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    1. Same...I haven't been motivated to garden for the past few summers.

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  10. Ms Doggo is so cute! Your pasta dish looks so delicious! Is there anything better than homemade sauce made with fresh tomatoes?

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    1. Homemade sauce made with fresh tomatoes that someone else grew! It's the best!

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  11. Oh, Doggo. Love all the pictures. Also, the sprawl in the reading-with-you picture is gold.
    Roasted cherry tomatoes (that someone else grew!) are fabulous. Did you freeze the leftovers? Or the leftover sauce? I've done that before and it works out wonderfully.

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    1. Leftovers? What leftovers???????????????????????????????????

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