So I’ve done exactly zero paying work today. Several things needed to be done today, not least of which was to update the Copyeditor’s Desk website to reflect the kind advice of Jackie Beck, our Pinterest guru. She has some good suggestions, which I’d like to apply forthwith. And to figure out a client’s complicated manuscript layout, which I inflicted on a subcontractor but succeeded only in setting her head a-spinning. Those two things really did need to be done today.
But…well. No.
At dawn’s first light, it was off to Scottsdale, to the weekly networking meeting of the Scottsdale Bidness Assn. From there I flew back into town, did some bookkeeping, answered a phone call from one of the PoD guys that clarified a little mystification.
Then it was off to the credit union to deposit incoming checks and make the Copyeditor’s Desk reimburse me for fees I had to put on my debit card (because the vendor won’t take an AMEX card). Got about halfway up there when I realized…yeah. I hadn’t brought the goddamn checks!
So I had to navigate some impossible road construction, turn around, shoot back down the freeway to the Funny Farm, grab the damn checks, and start…all…over…again. Extracted a chunk of dough from savings for a workman who craves to be paid in cash. Hid that in my jeans pocket, lest my purse get lost or snatched while I’m traipsing around the city.
Went by Home Depot and learned that they no longer carry the type of incandescent lightbulbs I use in my garage. Both ceiling fixtures are burnt out, so I need to buy bulbs. Annoyed.
Thence to Costco. Buy gas. Fly into the store. Grab dog meat. Grab some of those wonderful yellow mangoes that I like to eat for breakfast.
Decide to break with custom and buy some prepared foods.
Thanks to the ongoing bellyache (or whatever one would call it), I have not been eating. Last month the AMEX bill, which is budgeted at $1100 to cover all expenses except utilities and insurance, came in at $770…mostly because the cupboard is totally bare. The only thing I’ve been eating is ice cream.
That’s right: I’m gaining weight even though I’m barely eating, because the only thing that quells the GERD phenomena is a bowl of ice cream. Quite a few bowls of ice cream have been consumed over the past two or three months.
Not only do I not want to eat, I absolutely positively do not feel like cooking anything to eat.
So I figured I’d better look for something that’s already cooked. Like Costco’s highly creditable sous-vide lamb shanks.
Found those. Also found a package of “Irish lamb stew” that looked pretty tasty…and it has some vegetables in it, something that has not passed these lips in weeks.
And a package of scalloped potatoes, which I love and which can be guaranteed not to kick off any fireworks.
When I got home, I had to find room in the fridge for these fine items. It being filled with spoiled food, I had to shovel the thing out.
Ended up hauling literally the whole refrigeratorful of food out to the garbage. The refrigerator still stank, so I moved on to taking it apart and cleaning it (long as it was already empty!).
Fortunately, I felt pretty good, for reasons unexplained. Didn’t sleep well last night and had to get up at the crack of dawn, but hitting high gear seemed to make the physical manifestations go away. Or at least become unnoticeable.
So the refrigerator got emptied and scrubbed down and the Costco loot stashed and the mildewy emptied-out containers packed into the dishwasher.
Then I opened the lamb stew. Put about a third of it in a bowl to microwave (the preferred cooking method, according to the package instructions) and stashed the rest of it in a tupperware. That and a piece of Costco “country-style” bread filled the belly like a lead ball. Six hours later, I’m only just beginning to feel normal again.
The stew was pretty good. Salty, like all prepared foods. SO salty the stuff leaves your lips puckered up. That’s not going to help the weight gain problem: oversalted food always packs on the water weight. However, I figure the trade-off is either I eat something that’s not ideal but has some meat and veggies in it or I keep subsisting on ice cream. Water weight is a lot easier to get rid of than dairy-&-sugar weight. 😉
What I really need to do is go out and buy some beef, lamb, or pork and make a real stew. It’s just not that hard to do, and I what I can cook up sure as hell tastes better than something that comes out of a box. Doesn’t drive your blood pressure into the stratosphere, either…
At any rate, along with this exotic meal, I decided to have a bourbon and water. It’s the first alcoholic drink that’s passed these dainty lips in three months. Actually, not quite: I had a glass and a half of wine at M’hijito’s house last week and a small glass of white wine with friends on Easter. Neither of these caused any noticeable upset, so… Lacking a bottle of wine to swill I figured it was worth risking one drinky-poo.
Probably not a good idea. It hit the gut with a reverberation, but that was soon quieted by stuffing in some food.
Yesterday, I made myself good & sick by eating an orange. One very small orange. Fresh-picked off the tree. One. Orange. Small. About the size of a tennis ball. Swallowing a mouthful of orange elicits a sensation like a blow-torch going off in the belly.
So it looks like my orange-eating days are over. That’s very sad, because the Arizona sweets that grow on the two trees in the backyard are just like candy. I love them! Next spring, they’ll all have to be donated to charity.
Anyway, in brighter news, the bourbon had no extended repercussions. Hallelujah, brothers and sisters!
However, one b&w and more food than I’ve eaten in weeks pretty much put me in a coma. I’ve spent the afternoon playing games on the Internet. :-/ And buying things…
Amazon had the desired lightbulbs, for two bucks apiece. Ordered a dozen, figuring they soon will disappear from the market altogether. Since these things last about a year, 12 of them should last me six years. With any luck. Maybe I should buy more?
Also ordered some solar-powered, motion-activated spotlights, which I intend to put on the wall over the Bum’s Latrine outside my back gate. Got three for the price of one (much fancier but more cumbersome) such light at Costco. Many positive reviews, at least some of which appear too good to be true, but a number seem to real assessments and are pretty positive. Complaints are that they don’t dim, they don’t come on dim and brighten (not needed: I want to spook the bums) and they cast a ghastly blue light (good! the creepier the better!). And that they don’t last…which one would expect, given a price of 11 bucks apiece.
They probably don’t have to last long. If they help to chase the current occupants off, that may end the problem.
But along with the evening, in comes an email from our networking group’s webmaster announcing he’s retiring and, surprise! He’s taken our site down. He’d be happy to give the files to us on CDs for us to figure out what to do with.
Thanks for the advance notice, pal!
Peeved, I unearthed the site’s cached versions, which I downloaded as HTML files; also pasted the pages’ copy into Word. My plan is to create a WordPress site, preferably on my host’s server (as opposed to WP.com), update the contents, and paste it into the proposed site. Voilà. We can transfer the old domain name, or get a new one: two that fit are available, conveniently enough.
A couple of the pages need to be updated, anyway. So this will be a good opportunity to do that. And it’ll be a lot easier to ride herd on the thing if I’m doing it from my computer.
Yeah. I really needed something else to keep me busy. 😉