Dinner tonight - before leaving for work, put a pork roast in the crock pot - roast had been seared with s&p and thyme. In searing pan, threw in some onions and ground ginger. Deglazed with some water added the water and two eighthed honeycrisp apples. It's been cooking since this morning. The pork is falling apart and there is a lovely chunky apple-y sauce. In the oven are some potatoes tossed with s&p, lemon oil, fresh rosemary and wild onion (courtesy of my across the street neighbor). When the potatoes are done roasting, I'm going to be a happy girl.

I can't find a copy center that can copy my 5 1/2 and 8 1/2 wedding announcements. "Our old machines could do that, but the new ones can't. t panicking

Congratulations, Barb!

Happy birthday, Ginger!

I hope things fall into place for you, sj.

I am tired like an tired thing that is tired and being REtired to the glue factory. Woke up at 7:30. Went to find a tarp in the garage. No dice. Took a canvas drop cloth instead. Got the shovel and the gloves. Then went with my dad to a construction site about 2 blocks away to get some of their fill dirt. My dad did the shoveling and heavy lifting but I did physical stuff too. Probably past my boundaries. It took us 3 trips to get enough because the pickup hit its weight limit before it hit its volume limit. On our 3rd trip, a nice construction guy came up to us and offered to use the trench digger attachment on the bulldozer to get the rest of the soil for us. Swell guy. I had already given the construction foreman 2 bags of cookies. I felt bad I wasn't prepared with more to hand out.

Then I went to buy manure and pick up some things from the store.

Then when I was done with that I cleaned the kitchen because that's my chore this week.

A lot of my exhaustion is from physical stuff but there was also a LOT of stress today due to the dysfunctional family circus. I wish I could just let it roll off my back but I'm very bad at that.

Now to take an early bath or shower because I smell like a stevedore.

Sounds nom, Vortex.

Spidra, I am right there with you. I have a migraine from bending over picking up trash all day, and am going to bed now.

I think Vortex's dinner wins, although mine's looking pretty good. It's been rainy and cold all day here, so I declared a chili day. Half pork/half beef mix with lots of spices, onion, red pepper, chipotle chiles in adobo, and a big bottle of ale. And other stuff. House smells divine.

OMG, Vortex, that sounds AMAZING.

...though Barb is conveniently nearby...if only I didn't have a crapton of stuff to do before I leave again tomorrow. I've been putting a bunch of it off all afternoon, but really need to get it done.

I want supper at Vortex's.

So, we just got out of a meeting to discuss our district's financial forecast. I feel sick to my stomach and very scared about my job.

I think I'm going to go home and put my head under the covers.

sj, can you call a couple of the printers and ask if they know who might have a working machine of that type? Or get their advice on the possibility of modifying your design(s) to work on their machines? If that's a simple thing to do, it's probably the best way.

oh no, ChiKat! Financial future~ma for your district.

sj, I know you'll figure something out.

We went out to a tapas place downtown called Rambla to celebrate Tom's promotion.

Hey, remember when I had the energy to blog? Man, I miss being unemployed. Except for needing the money to live and stuff, this working thing is for suckers. I do like the job still, but it is pretty freaking draining.

100 Best Signs from the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear: [link]