It’s almost May

Google remembers the dearly departed Alan Rickman. Google Doodle, April 30, 2023 Kind of nice to commemorate a day when he had a career success in the theater, rather than death day, or even birthday.

What a week – the electricians are here, curing the knob & tube – essentially rewiring the entire house – so there are holes in the walls and random disconnected light fixtures lying around and plaster dust everywhere. Plus Mark and I need to be outta here, since there’s no power, so no Internet, plus the electricians’ work is never confined to one spot since they’re following wires all over the place, so hard for us to stay out of the way.

So, I was kinda happy that I had two Jasper days this week, Tuesday and Friday – keep me out of the house. Sadly this last Tuesday, when it was just me and Al and Jasper, was even worse than the one before. I couldn’t get Jasper to take a bottle and I couldn’t get him to sleep and generally did not adhere to that sleep, change diaper, eat, play rhythm that we’re trying to stick to, where Jasper’s never up for longer than maybe 2 to 2 1/2 hours. And Al stormed upstairs a few times in great consternation over not only crying baby but also frustrated with work stuff.

Happily Friday was a much better day. Emma decided to work from home rather than going onsite, maybe for me, maybe for Al, maybe for Jasper <grin>, but anyways, that helped I think. I got naptrapped – rocked Jasper back to sleep in the nursing chair and he slept on top of me for almost an hour, so that’s got to get him more acclimated to me. Good thing the chair’s a lounger with a foot rest that you can raise for support. I gave Jasper two bottles, the first he only took about 3 of the 4 ounces, but the other he sucked down all the way, though it did take us sitting in several positions. But after that super long nap, I’m sure he was hungry. I also tried out feeding him some of his purees, peanut butter and wheat cereal, and squash & carrots, all with a dash of breast milk. Emma made these but she also ordered some; ingredients that she would not necessarily buy and puree like parsnips, golden beets, or pitaya, that I only knew as the name of a clothing store, but is actually Spanish for dragon fruit – Al’s reaction, “they just anglo-ed the hell out of that name” – and I guess since it’s native to southern Mexico and Central America, he’s right. The box arrived when I was there and I think it might be this stuff because she said each container had a spoon attached to the top.

The other good thing about Friday was I baked a loaf of sourdough Thursday night and took half of it along with some of my Koeze’s Sweet Eileen crunchy organic peanut butter over to Al & Emma’s, and ate it for breakfast there. Emma’s mom has already ordered a case of the Cream Nut like I do; I’m seeing if Emma likes the crunchy. I doubt we will convert Al from his smooth Skippy, but maybe.

Friday after Jasper-care I headed home and got there just as the electricians were finishing up which was good since I could check in – Mark had been chatting with them already – and yes, things are going OK, but also yes, they will be back Monday and not sure how much of next week. The original estimate was about 8 days, which would be done by Wednesday next week. But maybe 10 days so that would be ALL of next week.

I’m still on my no walks outdoors without crutches, so I’ve been driving everywhere, but tomorrow I am going to crutch to the bus, and Thursday I am going to try biking to Colectivo and meet Susan there.

Not doing so well with eating; too many afternoons of eating something at 4:00PM instead of waiting for dinner and too many nights of  eating junk, mostly chocolate, after dinner. It seems like the not-walking blues are sort of cured by chocolate, although I suspect  it’s just exchanging one way to feel bad about myself: not exercising; for another: overeating.

Friday I made spicy tofu & noodles for dinner, kind of this Bon Appetit recipe that I made back in the winter of 2022 when Maya was here and everyone liked it. I left out the mushrooms because I didn’t have them and used green onions instead of shallots. It also made the instructions simpler. Instead of browning the tofu, removing it from the pan, cooking the mushrooms and shallots and garlic and ginger, returning the tofu to the pan, and then adding the sauce, I just cooked the tofu, and left it in the pan and added everything else.

I’m trying to remember what other good dinners there were – mostly all I remember is sitting at the kitchen counter reading my Inspector Gamache book in my phone and eating chocolate.  Last week I read A World of Curiosities (2022) and after I finished that one I was hoping for another to come in off hold and had read a few pages of this other book that I wasn’t really getting into, thinking all I want is another Gamache, and How the Light Gets In (2013) showed up. It’s a little weird to go back in time, but I can deal.

Let’s see … Monday we had leftovers, the bacon mushroom spinach galette and the cauliflower pasta and at some point I made my favorite squash gratin with some squash that I had roasted and frozen last fall, so leftovers of that too. The freezing did not improve the squash texture – it got kind of stringy. But the tomato sauce was good, tomatoes I froze last summer, rosemary, white wine. Mark wouldn’t eat it.  Tuesday we had sandwiches with leftover turkey chili and veggies and pretzels with caramelized onion dip. The dip figured heavily into my non-sanctioned 4:00 snacks the rest of the week.

Wednesday Mark came to campus and we had lunch together. We finished the cherry muffins I’d made on Sunday. And I’m really glad I froze half of them since we’re not eating at home all week. Then we went to get me a new phone. I’m still kind of stunned how much I paid for it but it is a big upgrade from my 8 Plus to a 14 Plus. Everything seemed so dusty and gritty when we got back I didn’t want to cook and we ordered a pizza and a salad. Pizza Brutta, which I now think is probably better than Novanta.

I didn’t record any foods in my diet & exercise diary on Thursday so I can’t really remember what we ate. Susan and I met for coffee up at the Colectivo on the Square and then I met Mark at Ancora on University, so we could go to a memorial service for a former librarian, who recently died. In addition to knowing the departed from campus, he lived across the street from Mark. The memorial was at the First Baptist Church where I’ve run the election a few times, probably the most liberal church in Madison. I do remember that I only took fruit to work since there was going to be a volunteer appreciation party with cake at the library.

Now that it’s the weekend, I have done more cooking, starting with the tofu on Friday, and enchiladas on Saturday. Filled with chicken and cream cheese. The chicken meat was from the chicken thighs I roasted on Passover for the sedar plate; the cheese was this jalapeño popper dip, frozen since Jane & Jonathan’s tamale party back in March. No pics. I might’ve overdone on my knee Saturday actually; I did pick-up farmers market, but then went to Metcalfe’s and Whole Foods. Oh, and laundry so lots of trips up & down the stairs to the basement especially because I had to bring the drying rack for my gentle cycle clothes, that means all my leggings, upstairs because there’s too much plaster dust in the basement for drying clothes. Maybe that’s why I dived into the chocolate after the enchiladas.

Saturday I made David Lebovitz’s Blueberry Muffin Cake, and we ate it for Sunday brunch, with a version of Smitten Kitchen spinach strata made with fresh spinach instead of frozen and (kind of dried out) hot pepper bread from the first farmers market. For these I have pictures.

Now I’m gong to go and try out Nigel Slater’s chocolate oat cookies. I’ll let you know how they come out. I’m attracted because it sounds like they’ll be chewy rather than flat, and it’s a small batch. Oh and LAST Sunday’s desert was a cream slice with strawberry sauce. I cut it into four big slices, and it was good Sunday and then Mark had it again one night, Thursday?, but I composted the last hunk totally soggy Saturday afternoon.

And instead of ending with random Jasper pic, here’s Al & Jasper together on Saturday.