I woke up at 6:30, worked most of the day, including housework and boy-caretaking/interaction, watered my out-of-town friends 50 plants (seriously, she used to be a horticulturist) and worked some more until I fell into bed at 9 pm.

Already replied to a client and will be starting working again as soon as my 2nd cuppa joe is inhaled.

IOW, GNNAARRRHH!

I got up late for me, but made a lovely breakfast plate of cheesy eggs, hash browns, steak, and tangerines for the birthday DH. Black coffee or me.

Already replied to a client and will be starting working again as soon as my 2nd cuppa joe is inhaled.

Whoo-hoo! (smiley emoticon here) Glad you're feeling better!

I am in Boston about to drive to Schenectady NY. Have seen family and got to spend the whole day yesterday with my sisters and nephews and niece. That was fun! Driving back to Brighton from Salem in the dark with some snow sprinkles was less so. (it wasn't a full on snow fall, but I was concerned about ice and slippiness and I haven't driven in winter weather for almost 3 years!)

So far things have been relatively chill, I think the key is to hang out with different family factions separately rather than in one huge dysfunctional group. Thus, the rental car roadtripping. I haven't told any friends I'm in town, because I just have so many family things to deal with and I need to focus on that. This includes Buffistas- sorry, guys!

Working half a day today. Should have been a full day, but I came in for half a day last Friday when I should have been off. It's the Acting Director and me, and I think that's all in this division.

I'm putting in a few hours. I have one PM who contacted me last night in desperation asking for assistance. I told him I'd be available around 9am this morning. So far I have an e-mail from him saying he will be sending me a link to the schedule, but so far no link. I'm not going to sit around all day to help him.

I really just want a nap.

I thought it was curious that I got 2 gas bills 2 weeks apart. Since I don't check mail every day, not sure when they arrived, as it's been rainy and the mail box is on the other side of the property. So, 2 in one pick up was curious. Upon closer reading, I saw one was for service rendered to my old address. Seems when I called and cancelled, I missed the part where they said I must call to confirm again within 25 days of shut off, instead of 30 days. And as a result, have been billed (and paying) for both locations. Not sure how much I've paid into the others. In grand scheme of things, less than $20 a month. Ugg. Happy Christmas to the residents of my old apartment. Your free gas is being turned off on Jan 2nd. Arrgh.

Ugh, Mom's birthday is on Sunday and her brother and brother-in-law are coming up. Tomorrow, actually but it's very last minute and I had already planned to spend tomorrow with my Dad. So I will see them on Sunday.

And she finally decided she wanted me to cook dinner. Okay then. I've been trying to get her to choose how she wanted to celebrate her birthday for weeks.

She wants shrimp pasta which is another thing I haven't cooked in long enough that I am glad it's in the Buffista cookbook just to remind me of amounts and general cooking protocol.

I suggested lavender creme brulee as well. Which I think I just messed up. But I'm not certain. The recipe makes four (I've serving four) so I either cross my fingers and hope for the best or start over. I've also only got four custard things. If I start over, I need more cream. And Xanax. But I don't want to serve disappointing brulee on Sunday.

I think my oven runs hot. I wish I'd considered this and checked earlier. Maybe picking up an emergency stash of cookies would be a good idea.

Or maybe an oven thermometer, just to check?

Closet tracks are hung. About an hour to hang both. Last week it took 3x that to figure it won't work. Now cutting doors to fit. Yay for progress.

Well definitely an oven thermometer will be key. But either the cremes (to be brûléed Sunday) worked or they didn't. I didn't have a clue there might be an issue until they had already been cooked. They look mostly okay though it shouldn't be a total disaster. The custard base with lavender tasted amazing. That should forgive a few points of less than perfect cooking.