We are having a nice, quiet day here. Belovedest is watching Hogfather.

Mundane miscellaney:
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The festive sweater/"sweater" lineup for the whole household:
Steph: festive bearded dragon (t-shirt)
Me: "All I Want For Christmas Is A Dragon", with a dragon silhouette (t-shirt)
Belovedest: A dragon, flaming, with presents going everywhere (actual sweater)
alexseanchai: Grinch fingers pinching an ornament with dragon (t-shirt)

Select your turkey. Consider how much turkey you need, based on number of omnivores, roaster size, refrigerator size, time remaining until T-Day, thaw time, and, and I cannot stress this enough, local physical strength.

Do not buy a turkey so large that you have to team-lift it. Do not buy a turkey so large that you might be unable to lift it while it's hot with a roasting unit full of scalding juices. Or merely raw and ready to contaminate anything it touches.

1 turkey. Note the weight on the sales label, and write it down prominently. Look at bag for any helpful tips, like plastic shit we need to remove.
Calculate the roasting time by turkey weight. Check the Butterball website if confused. Working backwards from serving time, put the roast time in your calendar for Thanksgiving day.

https://www.butterball.com/calculators-conversions

Calculate the thaw time, in days. Consult the Butterball website if in any doubt. Working backwards from an hour before your roasting start time on Thanksgiving morning (early), set a calendar event to start the thaw.
Clear the lowest shelf of the refrigerator. Thaw in a pan that is hopefully larger than the bird to catch any stray drips. This does not need to be the same pan as you intend for the roasting process. If possible, it should be in the bottom of the fridge so there is no chance it can drip on anything, particularly on your salad or any other thing that might not be cooked to a poultry-safe temperature.

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These days for this household, Christmas the date is increasingly observed as the date that far-flung relatives are having their parties, and the date that people not-of-the-household would like presents from them opened.

Belovedest's family developed the tradition of going to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve between First Mass and Midnight Mass, and that has translated to getting takeout. This time Belovedest decided to beat the rush and place an order in early afternoon so we'd get it in time for the evening. So we had the meal in the early afternoon. We picked a local teriyaki chain, and got their #2 feast combo with an additional specific combo on account of that was what Alex wanted, and requested both without bell peppers. I have made a note that this was excellent, upon the Seasonal Festivities paper, with some additional notes for managing the mess inherent in getting a large party platter in a bakery/deli tray. We watched Hogfather. I recruited some help in putting together a folder in the household media server with shortcuts to assorted Winter Holiday fare (mostly Christmas).

There were enough leftovers for eating, but not so many that we had to make super extra room in the fridge. (Steph helped a lot with the OK that thing needs to go survey.)

We opened stockings on Christmas morning, as is my family tradition, and presents after that. Everyone got a little wax seal kit, with a seal head or two, a handle, and a pair of wick-type sealing wax sticks. (Wicked!) Belovedest distributed chocolate oranges.

( Earlier in the week, later in the week )

Enumeration of dishes:
* Spiral-cut ham, from the depths of the freezer
-- took much longer than anticipated to cook because it was not fully thawed, did not begin to get particularly warm until we cranked the temperature in the oven to ostensibly 300 (recommended: 275)
* Stuffing from a box, side dish
-- classic, quick to make, no notes except Alex took a Hot to the foot when condensed steam dripped from the lid and that was Unpleasant
* Mashed potatoes
-- I think we made exactly the right amount for the amount of feast, 2 cups of flakes for 8 standardized servings, putting the seasonings in the boiling water before adding flakes. The butter could have been warmer (it was just off frozen and I hauled out the big chopping knife to cut it)
* Sausage stuffing a la Our Friend Big Bad Daddy K
-- I think we got it exactly right this time; I boiled the mirepoix extremely hard until it was not only tender but the liquid was nearly evaporated, so it took much less time to crisp the top. I used the slap chop and the finger slicer on the vegetables. I cannot cut an intact half-onion with the slap chop and should not have tried.
* Grocery store brownie with the shiny cronch balls
-- the shiny cronch balls are pearlescent coated crisp rice or something similar, not classic dragees
* Grocery store mini pecan tartlets
-- not the mini pies, but the just over 1" ones, very cute (and the only pecan pie adjacent thing left in the store)
* two cans of biscuit
-- I scorched my hand on one of the trays and that was Unpleasant. Next time definitely spray grease the pans and maybe save baking the second can until the first can is nearly gone?
* Ham "gravy"
-- failure: too much cornstarch and too much dripping. It was a concentrated salt gel.
* Cornbread
-- The part that didn't go in the stuffing
* there were leaves for leaf bucket in the fridge
-- there certainly were
* lingonberry "fruit spread"
-- IKEA, perfect, no notes
* "pomegranate" 7up
-- it's certainly red? Not unpleasant but it maybe walked past a real pomegranate and got scared by it as a child?

As this was the old oven's last hoorah, we'll have new quirks to work out for next time we try for a feast.
- we definitely should have used the roaster, although that would have involved some Rearranging
- it also would have needed Some Cleaning
- Belovedest gets the Gold Star for cleaning stovetop and sinks and putting away the dishes; that let us drop cooking-dishes directly into the dish washer and I believe the dishes are quietly drying now
- About half the meat is in a box marked SLAM (SLiced hAM) and the other is in a bag with my intention of split pea soup
- there are two boxes made up with a full Leftovers Meal tray
- there are two smallish mint-green-lid boxes with Box Stuffing
- there is a large box the size of the SLAM box with the Sausage Stuffing
- all except one of these boxes is in the bottom drawer
- the bone bag is also in the bottom drawer
- I claimed the last of that jar of lingonberry for a drink, but I may not be able to finish the rest of it tonight
- unsure where the TJ's lemoncello bottle is; I know where the empty one is but that wasn't the question
- unless it's behind the microwave, it seems like a thing that could hide behind the microwave
- anyway the drink is sparkling water with lingonberry jam and a splash of triple sec and maybe I'll go wild and dissolve a cinnamon Atomic Fireball candy in it?
- Belovedest clearly needed a little more sustenance throughout the cooking process
- one of the wheels has started falling out of my desk chair and I have ordered a FUCKING METAL new base for it
- in the meantime, I have Belovedest's desk chair, and they're not scheduled for WFH until like Tuesday, and the object is supposed to arrive by Sunday

Called Mama in the midst of prep

I managed to make the huge 9th House skull I was thinking about making, as a decoration for trick-or-treat night. We had a number of kids!

This year I finally got my act together to order some toys ahead of time. The "mochi" squishy animals were a hit, and there were several takers for the fidget toys as well.

I decided to dress up at the last minute: black clothing, clip-on sunglasses for my glasses, sword, and black and white face paint. My hair wasn't the right color, but I made it stick up on end pretty well. That rendered me Cavalier Primary to the Ninth. ;)

Partway through the evening, Belovedest came home and was able to swap out the bulb in the entrance light for something that would do colors, so I was able to sit in dim purple light instead of light so bright I could barely see outside, or only scattered light from the living room so nobody could see my haphazard nun of the Locked Tomb skullface.

We got only one little group after 8-something, so we closed up shop at 9, though I spent another little while culling the candies we don't like from the group (sour apple, banana, peanut M&Ms) plus some token other ones, out in an offering basket on the doorstep.

Much internal silliness with Steph claiming some gummy sour worms for Science! (unknown type) and other such things. Steph has "absconded" with the big box of Welch's fruit snacks and most of the sour gummi worms.

Now I get to go scrub my face, take a shower, and get some sleep before it's Fun Time tomorrow morning.

People have my post-by-email keys, so there may be a few updates after I have to surrender my phone.

We got the odd pop here and there in the days leading up to the 4th, but it was less intense than I remember last year's being. alexseanchai and Escape Calico headed down to the basement early.

Later on in the afternoon, Yellface started flinching as the booms got louder, so I decided it was time to pill her. Belovedest retrieved my bedtime meds box, I withdrew the correct increment of tablet, and the task began.

Yellface is disinclined to be pilled in general. Belovedest was out of pill pockets, but had some quite high-value treats (dried salmon cubes) and presented her with one to gobble down, and then another with the pill on top.

She spat out the pill.

Okay, so we're doing this the hard way, then.

Belovedest got her mouth open. I popped in the pill. The next two seconds or so were very quick and very confusing, but I caught her just after she hit the floor with a hand on her shoulders, pressing her gently to the floor. We scooped her up and looked. No pill stuck to my dress. No visible pill on the floor. I stroked her throat in the hopes that the pill was still in her mouth, as Belovedest searched the couch.

One pill found somewhere within the cushions, but it was much smaller. One of my supplements.

"Well, I guess she probably took the pill... I guess we'll know in a while?"

Belovedest offered the last few treats, which she sniffed suspiciously but ate.

Within the next half-hour, it became apparent that she was moving much more slowly. Her tail-twitch speed went down to about five times slower than usual. She stopped flinching at the bangs. She poked her nose into her carrier (set up as a hide in the living room) and eventually disappeared somewhere. Later we searched for her; she eventually jingled from underneath the dragon-sized chair. She'd been napping. (Next time I'm thinking we may make her a secure nest of some sort. I'm guessing that she knew she was about to take an involuntary nap and went to look for a very secure hide.)

Escape Calico was also not enjoying the booms. She's a lot more concerned by such things than Yellface. So Alex brought her upstairs and we pilled her as well. No teeth getting in the way this time, but she's more emphatic with her claws.

"Poor baby, I know they taste terrible." She was disinclined to take the offer of water to rinse out her mouth.


Belovedest found my other good folding chair, and I went outside to watch the booms for a while. Despite the UV bug lure/zapper, I did get tagged by a mosquito at some point. One of our neighbors was watching the show from their roof. That does seem like the ideal place. The best fireworks in the hemisphere I was looking at were at opposite ends, so it was hard to watch. I didn't bother to try for pictures this time.

It got chilly after a while, so I retreated inside after not all that long.

Yellface spent the night in one of her hides.


To celebrate Belovedest's birthday, Alex made M&M-chocolate-chip-cookie bars, with some of the pastel M&Ms. They also discovered an almond oil spill in the baking shelf, alas. I sourced some very large pink silicone oven mitts, and Belovedest sent a gleeful picture to the sibling chat. Today we took advantage of a post-holiday sale and got a roast meats feast (featuring an unexpected container of mushrooms and a missing container of potatoes; Belovedest got to make another trip to correct the omission). I was able to fit the remainders most handily into the fridge. (This was possible since I'd been planning for it.)

Strattera: still doing well, about to bump up to the next dosing level when the set of pills I just chugged kicks in. (I was on 25s; there were still some 25s left when I got bumped to 60s; I am getting the rest of the 25s out of the way by having 50mg for as many days as they last (not many). I kept with the 25s until the next bottle was actually in my hands, which is why it's starting today instead of Thursday. It was actually supposed to start yesterday, but I forgot to take my morning pills until around 5, so it's no good doing THAT. But today I start the 50mg.)

Dr. V was impressed by my bullet journals, and actually said that I could probably teach a class on How To Use Lists To Organize Your Life. I find this slightly alarming, because I'm not actually sure I'm qualified to help other people find a thing that works for them, vs. teaching my personal method.

He tried to give me an article on prompt waking from a respected psychiatrist. I politely told him that I could not accept this, handed it back, and told him about That Terrible Sleep Neurologist and that I had to respect my body's communication on what is and isn't enough sleep. (But the great thing about this stuff? I've been waking up coherently in the morning and able to get out of bed and start my day if I'm not still sleepy and in need of a little more.)

Due to the surgery, I am not quite yet cleared to use straws. This means that taking a drink in an inhabited area involves nearly full mask removal, not just a quick lift to shove the straw underneath. So I injured my throat during that appointment due to talking with extremely dry mouth. This is Annoying.


Last Christmas: I lost the Wham! game at the pre-surgical appointment.
From Tumblr:

last christmas
I gave you my heart
But the very next day
you said you were gay
This year
I found out I’m queer
and I even transed my gender

Yulegoat: Burned!


Surgery: went well! Because I was not sedated, there were no food restrictions beforehand. (And I saw that their instructions were for a six hour fast beforehand, which was pleasing on account of Rah's yelling-at-professionals over on the Twits.) I was on oxygen, which both cleared and irritated my sinuses. I had an increased level of nosebleed for the few days after. They made me nice and comfortable with my knees propped and head cradled, and then tilted the chair to the side, which made me worry that I'd possibly fall off during. I put myself into a brainspace where I was Not Bothered by the Goings-On, and proceeded to zone out during the procedure. This was helped by the dinging of the heart rate monitor, because that helped me focus on my breathing. There were a few stitches, the surgeon trimmed the edges off the invisalign-type plastic tray that contains The Fake Tooth (it is an Essix Appliance, apparently) and sent me off. The assistant told me I have very nice skin, after wiping some of the blood off my face.

( pain meds talk )

Between Ev and all of the support from others, the costs are covered!!! Hooray!

Recovery has been going well. I had a Mystery Tender Warm Lump near the end of an incision. I applied hot tea to it, the tenderness started to resolve promptly, and by the next morning I was satisfied with the progress. Belovedest helped me try and photograph it. This involved me sticking my phone in my mouth and them kneeling under it and peering up to tell me when I was in focus. I found this hilarious.

Food restrictions are going slightly less well. I have been judiciously ignoring the prohibition against Cronch when my mental health required it. Chips with hummus: not a problem when I have been careful, and I have been careful. "Cheese Bites" in soup: one stabbing so far, but it has not caused a problem. (And the Kellogg's strike and boycott are over, for now, so we can resume Cheez-Its, which are a little less sharp.)

We have ordered some things off the internets to attempt a DIY Essix Appliance, on the scale of $30 rather than $300, in the event that I manage to break or lose mine. So far we have two of the items. I have discovered that my water flosser is great for getting gunk out of the bits that are unreachable via the toothbrush.


Craigslist: Some recently widowed guy on Craigslist posted his late wife's clothes for free. We exchanged a few messages. His wife had died at 41 of uterine cancer. After a few go-rounds, it turned out he wasn't ready to give up the clothes just yet, but I could contact him in a few months. Perhaps I shall. I did get some weird Lonely Widower vibes, so I made sure to mention Belovedest after the first few messages. The first intended meeting was interrupted by his mom breaking a hip, and after that I had A Feeling.

The Expensive Office Chairs from an earlier Craigslisting are coming in super handy. One is in Sewzb0t Parlor and is much better for sewing and sorting than the armed one. One is Around in the basement and I have a thing I want to do with it. The third one is sitting in the kitchen and means I can sort and put away things in the fridge without Falling Over, and it's GREAT.


Internet Culture: The whole internet loves Jorts and Jean, the wholesome office cats!
*5 minutes later*
I am delighted to inform you that Jorts is kind and inclusive on the level of Dr. Tingle, and Jean is pro-union.

(I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE BUTTERED JORTS)

The official euphemism for "Am I The Asshole", according to amynewsmith, is "Who's The Bad Guy Here?" which can be used in explanations to children who are too young to hear their parents saying Asshole.


Gaming: Good times. J was sorting the Extremely Unsuitable For The Situation cards out of a Cards Against Humanity deck. We helped. Then we played with that deck, and found a few more cards that were Not Suited Either. We had dinner, and Jackbox.


Media room: with some help from Belovedest and Ev, I rearranged the items that were making the room basically impassable into something much less terrible. The electronics came out of the closet, the book boxes got stacked inside, the table got turned around so the monitors can be docked with, the Big Monitor got shoved out of the way towards the back of the desk, the CDs and DVDs got shelved, clothes were moved, the Big Monitor Box went in the weird gap in the closet space, and the electronics bits went into our bedroom.


Heat pump: tech came out in daylight and examined the outdoor connections. It looks fine, with none of the discoloration and other things there would be from a further refrigerant leak.


Ev: came over with Meow Meow and got her settled in and we did some shopping for snacks. Then I woke up at ass o'clock for the airport trip, and she flew off to her birth parents' for a week, extended on account of snow at Sea-Tac and possibly Omicron in the crew. She's rebooked for Monday but we'll see how that goes. Her mom is currently mad at Grandma and Bro, for some reason, which makes Ev the golden child and so mom is avoiding her. Grandma is sniping about lack of boyfriend and acne (clearly the lack of boyfriend is caused by acne). Mom is surprisingly reasonable about lack of boyfriend, because Mom's standards for any boyfriend of Ev's are high (and wrong for Ev).


Cats:
Escape Calico tries to practice Inaccupressure on Alex. It's not very effective. She went on An Explore outside today. When it's inclement, she keeps to the side of the house for her explorations, and is a bit harder to catch.
Yellface is upset that Meow Meow has infiltrated her space, and has been getting hissy at humans a little, too. Poor Yellface. (She took offense at Ev walking around, because Yellface was trying to get out of Ev's way and then Ev kept walking along the same path that Yellface was taking. She also took offense at me trying to pet her when she was upset, and at me carrying her to the bedroom past Meow Meow.)
Meow Meow can be Stinky, and is extremely hit or miss on burying her poops. (She does attempt, but often it's trying to kick the side of the litter box over the poo, not trying to kick litter.) She is also very sweet, and has snuggled up to me and stood upon me. Like Yellface, she has Opinions when she believes the service in this establishment is Slow. She has also been informed that we do not go in the garbage cans, and we do not jump up on the sink.


General ADHD chaos: I have no fuckin' idea where my iPod is right now. It's somewhere in the house. I knew where it was. Then my brain got slammed with other things and I have no idea where it is right now. I cleaned several places in search of it! I found the mini-purse I thought it was in. Nope. WTF.


Holidays!
Solstice: Yay longest night. Yay sunrise!
Christmas Eve: selected a restaurant and picked up the traditional feast. Nom.
Christmas: One of Belovedest's family sent a refurbished Pixel 3a XL, and it turns out to be Locked in a way that makes Belovedest's intentions impossible. Now, I have one that seems to be Unlocked. So we are doing A Swap. So I was doing that, among other things. Unfortunately, the swap has not solved my problem of the screen blacking out on certain notifications. Woe.
Boxing Day: It started snowing on Christmas and snew overnight, so that we had two inches on the sidewalk by noon. Belovedest went out and scooped the driveway and I believe sidewalk as well. We may have to shovel more to get out tomorrow to pick Ev up.

Apparently the numbers are creeping in the wrong direction, but WA is one of the less-bad states. So we sorted our candy into the three major categories and put them in labeled bins. Fruit, chocolate, chocolate with peanuts.

Little clusters of kids drifted past occasionally. There was an inflated Pikachu.

The candy was outside, on the front porch. We were inside, behind the closed glass storm door. alexseanchai was an Angst With Happy Ending writer. Belovedest had on a fun shirt and a dragon tail. I painted their face green. I was a witch on laundry day -- floral black skirt, bleach-stained black top, witchy makeup, hair loose with sprayed-in glitter, tiny hat on a headband.

We got about half as many kids as last year.

After that, the local NaNo chapter watched The Mummy. The living room had commentary.

Earlier, I'd puttered around in the basement on the phone with Ev. All of everything has been catching up. She might come down here. Meow Meow is on some new meds. ( Read more... )

Monday is Ev's day to pack up her stuff from work. The office is staying closed until mid-2021 at minimum. She has Tuesday off as a company-wide holiday.

Depending, I may spend Tuesday downstairs or in bed.

Belovedest's cat is sometimes a burrower. She will dig her way under or into the coat they've left draped across the couch and look ridiculously cozy.

The living room couch is also a bit of a storage space, containing everything from clothes to mail to a (clean, holding maybe one Euro in coins) Darth Vader mug, to the Christmas tree skirt that figured in last Friday's public transport adventure. (3 broken lifts, an artificial tree, and me.)

The PNW had one hell of a snowstorm (by local standards) a few weeks ago. I ordered a driveway scoop and two car shovels, which of course only arrived after it was safe for the delivery people to venture forth (as is right and proper).

My partner is a Tol. Or, sometimes more frequently, a Lóng. They tend to sprawl lengthwise across the floor with their legs under the couch, face down in something, often Pokémon or the ritual giving of grief to P.E.R.N. This is a particularly pleasant sight.

My partner's backside is particularly fine, admired in at least four states.

So there's the cat, digging under the black wool trenchcoat and under the fluffy lavender MLP blanket, such that her tail is sticking out one end and her head the other.

Both ends disappear under the pile. This is adorable.

A box shifts.

"Oh dear," I say. "She's about to drop a shovel on your ass."

And she looks so innocent and sweet and fluffy.

We had our celebration on Saturday. I talked belovedest through turkey prep, including the seasoning, the night before. Then they set an alarm for fuck o'clock to put it in.

It was a smallish group: the household, , and a couple who were among belovedest's first independent friends post-ex, and their kid.

Mr. K had to leave early, alas, but not before turkey and biscuits.

Then we watched some Miraculous Ladybug and played a riotous tournament of Suspend. The kid brought the riot.

The rest of the evening was quieter after Mrs. K left with the kid. Rather than have big containers of potatoes and stuffing and such to contend with, we portioned them out into meal boxes, and put the rest of the bird carcass in a crock pot to stew down.


Sunday involved a generous amount of sleep. We picked through the meat and made turkey soup. Dinner was BLTs minus the L.