Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

Less than two weeks now until the end of school and the onslaught of summer vacation. Phil says I always act like it's this big scary thing to have the kids home and like I won't be able to do anything else for the whole time--and he's right. I do act that way. BECAUSE IT'S TRUE!

Kidding. A little. But I am trying really hard to finish writing the rough draft of Desolation Station before summer hits, and I don't expect to get a whole lot done after that.

Yesterday was my birthday. I didn't go collecting birthday freebies or do much this year, mostly because I was still recovering from Saturday's 5K. It's not as much fun going places when you're using a cane and prone to unpredictable spikes of pain in your knees. But Phil got a fancy "tuxedo" cake, and steaks, and corn on the cob. We had a very tasty dinner--the steaks were *so good*. Grilled perfectly, just short of well-done but still juicy. Penzey's Chicago Steak Seasoning is delicious. The kids got me a candle (Theia) and an "Ignore the Mess" mug (Cassius--very funny, kiddo!). Phil plans on taking me to a home store to buy a new lamp for the bedroom. And then after the kids were theoretically in bed, we watched Inside Man.

The 5K was on Saturday! Theia's been doing Girls on the Run this year, an afterschool program that culminates in running a 5K at the State Fair Grounds with approximately 3,000 other Girls on the Run, their running buddies, and their coaches. Theia needed a running buddy, and it was very unclear if I would be physically capable of this. Phil tried running. Once. And immediately got shin splints that ruled this out. Because of his recent work trip to China and how busy he's been at work with other projects, he didn't have the time to try and scale up training. I've been doing a Couch-to-5K program this spring. I tried this program last year, too, and it went really badly. I was basically always crippled after trying it. This year I was smarter and did a lot of physical therapy work before beginning running. I have really bad knees thanks to post-traumatic osteoarthritis caused by blowing out my ACLs and the surgery that replaced them.

And now I need to rest a bit and do more of my physical therapy exercises to recover.

(time passes)

So now it's one week until the end of school. ::runs around screaming with panic--except I can't run right now:: I am still getting lots of gnomes randomly stabbing my knees with daggers. This is what happens when my knee inflammation flares up and I get meniscus involvement and some other bullshit. I can kinda walk down stairs semi-normally today, though, which is better than the rest of the week. (Edit: nope. Thought I could, and then a gnome stabbed me in the knee while I was going downstairs and I nearly fell down the damn steps.) So that's severely inhibited my ability to do things around the house, plus I need to take time to ice my knees, do physical therapy exercises etc. I am not good at taking that time.

And then our dishwasher flooded all over the floor on Friday. We were able to get an appointment to have the repair guy come out on Sunday and take a look at it. He did, he has ordered new replacement parts for the filter and pump, and when they arrive we will need to make another appointment. In the meantime, we maybe cleaned out the filter enough that it kinda works? With close supervision? (Edit: also nope. It flooded all over the place. Again.) And there have been a lot of handwash dishes, which is a problem for me since standing for long Angers The Knees. But Phil's been great, and I made the kids wash some dishes too.

We had been thinking of maybe traveling to Wisconsin for cousin graduation parties, but appliance repair plans and long car rides being bad for knees nixed that. Instead, on Saturday Theia had a birthday party to attend at Johanna Beach, which is a nice little beach in Arden Hills that I'd never visited before but it was the perfect weather for it. And Phil and I looked around Home Depot and Target and surveyed lamp options for my "new bedroom floor lamp" birthday present. Eventually I concluded that modern lamps all suck (and are too short! what's up with so many modern floor lamps being under 5' tall???) and I'll be buying a Tiffany knock-off from the internet.

The rest of today is basically going to be struggling to get the kids to do their homework. (Edit: That went really badly. 5 hours of being screamed at.) Next week is field trips and special events and school wrap-up events. And then next weekend is 4th Street Fantasy convention for me, a writers' convention that I look forward to every year! As well as Father's Day, so I need to help the kids do something for that.

Hey, I finished a journal entry!

x-posted to Facebook

I am trying a 10-minute morning journaling thing. We shall see. I imagine it will be some part brain dump, some part to-do list, some part memories. Will I even be typing it normally, or will I be handwriting it? I like the idea of posting it so it can be seen again in memories or shared with others, but I also like the quietness of the habit of morning handwriting. We will see. There’s no reason I couldn’t do both, I guess.

The kids loved their first week of summer school. They both came home on the first day claiming to already have best friends, which is status quo for Theia and a delightful surprise for Cassius. Cassius’s class has been biking every day (for, he says, 2 hours?) between parks and then having some playtime at the park. Good thing he got competent on biking in the week before summer school started! Theia spent a lot of her time this first week making a unicorn head pinata, which she proudly brought home. We bought candy and she made special Model Magic sculptures, and then she made individual treat bags and stuffed them inside. We hung the unicorn head pinata on the Russian olive tree in our front yard and walloped it good until all the strings holding it up broke, and then we had batting practice until it split open. Good fun was had by all.

Phil DM’d a one-shot for the Sons’ D&D Friday night. Sounds like it went well. He could use my webcam to point at the board so they could see what was going on. That little purchase has really paid for itself in the last year and a half. I spent the evening curled up on the couch reading a book, which has become my habit. It’s nice, because the living room is quiet with the TV off and so reading is a lot easier. I’m almost done reading Memory in Death by J.D. Robb, a pulpy SF procedural mystery. The whole series is set in a well-drawn SF future with some rough subject matter but engaging characters and loads of found family warm-and-fuzzies to balance it out.

Still no stove. It should arrive Wednesday and hopefully be installed Thursday. Phil snapped and bought a hot plate that will arrive today. I was doing okay cooking with the Instant Pot/Microwave/Toaster Oven combination, but when I got sick and Phil had to take over cooking, he was not comfortable with that.