A California Yankee in King Cake's Court

Saturday
Made eggs and toast for the 'rents and I, then did some planner/bullet journal work. Showered, went to the carwash (vacuum and checked the tire pressure since I'm driving to Alabama on Friday), grocery store. Made some corndogs for lunch; I bought a box of frozen corndogs at the grocery store since everyone was so enthusiastic about the corndogs I bought from Sonic last week. (When you are helping to take care of elderly parents one thing you learn is that if there is a food they like, you stock up on it.) Replaced burned bulbs in the 'rents' bedside lamps, in the process of which I realized there was an inch of dust on the stained glass shades, so I also removed those and cleaned them off. It drives me crazy when one chore leads to three more.

Decided it was time to switch to this seasonal cross stitch panel in my avocado ita bag:


Had some vodka sodas and read, then took Penny for a walk in the evening. Dinner was the leftover chicken and sausage gumbo that David made for Mom's birthday on Friday. (I'm a really good cook, but my brother is the Cajun food guy in our household.) I took a Delta 8 gummy and finished watching Derry Girls. The last season was both more surreal and more serious than the previous two, with more of a focus on the Derry Girls' parents. There was an episode that went back and forth between their high school (or whatever you call it in Northern Ireland) graduation in 1977 and their 20 year reunion that was a real mobius strip of nostalgia: it's set in the 1990s when the first wave of nostalgia for the 1970s flared up, and in the present there's nostalgia for the 1990s, which includes that nostalgia for the 1970s...

...you know what, that was probably just the gummy twisting my brain a little.

I finished this coloring page while I was watching that:

I based most of my color choices on actual bird feathers: bluebird, guinea fowl, robin, goldfinch, peacock, parrots.

Sunday
Made oatmeal for breakfast, which doesn't sound exciting. But I make oatmeal with hot milk instead of water, a big pat of butter, some maple syrup, and a crumbled bacon slice.

It's about as delicious as you can make oatmeal.

I watched Dateline and started a new coloring page, changed/washed the bedsheets, showered, made a cake, swept some of the downstairs rugs. The 'rents said they didn't want anything for lunch, but I don't like them going that long without anything to eat, so I gave Mom some strawberries and cream and Phil a bowl of peanuts. (Another lesson in taking care of elderly parents: Ignore them when they say they aren't hungry. Give them food that's tasty enough and they'll eat it.) Had some wine and read before starting supper.

Mom's birthday was Friday, so I made one of her favorite foods in my repertoire, tomato cobbler with blue cheese biscuits, with prosciutto-wrapped chicken:


Dessert was another one from Snacking Cakes, cinnamon honey cake:


Tonight's spooky season movie is You Should Have Left on Peacock. I read the novella it was based on last year; "cursed architecture" is one of my favorite horror tropes. The ne plus ultra of this genre is Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, in which the book itself is a kind of surrealist structure.

The new season of Derry Girls is finally coming to Netflix next month, so I've been re-watching the first two.

I have no idea what kind of framing device it will use, since the second season ended with The Troubles coming to an end. Maybe it will jump forward in time to Brexit and the haggling over what kind of border to have between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland once they weren't both members of the EU.

Sectarian violence just isn't what it was in my day, I tell you what.

Although there was like 2 1/2 years between Clinton's visit to Derry and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, so I guess they have enough time for another season.

I don't know how I, an atheist, relate so much to a character who's a nun, but well:

"If anyone is feeling anxious or worried or even if you just want to chat, please, please do not come crying to me."

Actually, I'm not sure Sister Michael isn't also an atheist, although she does love a good statue. But the vibe I get from her is becoming a nun was the only gig available to her where she wouldn't constantly be nagged about getting married and having children, and also would reward her for being mean.