Category: irl: food

weeknotes (nov. 9-15, 2025)

Life Updates

Kind of a bleh week for blogging but enjoyable for living– relaxing and non-stressful, which is all that I want.

One thing of note: I realized I booked my flight from here to my next sit for the wrong day, but luckily I was able to cancel it and use the money towards a ticket for the correct day. I DID end up paying double what I originally did, which sucks, but at least I’ll get there on the right date now.

And it worked out okay anyway, money-wise, because the owner invited me to stay the night before she leaves, so I’ll save $100-something on a hotel! It all balances out in the end, really.

🐈 Curious orange kitty (codename Mr. B-Denver) has figured out how to open cabinets and got into the ones right above the fridge, which was hilarious! Luckily nothing important is up there. Overweight Siamese kitty (codename Ms. S-Denver) meanwhile has warmed up to me a lot and is now regularly sleeping next to me while I work on the computer. They not lap cats, which is kind of a bummer, but they do like to be in the same room as much as possible.

Continue reading “weeknotes (nov. 9-15, 2025)”

[belated] weeknotes (oct. 5-11, 2025)

Life Updates

This week had some bummer personal things happening– mom went briefly into the hospital and had several tests done for potential mini-stroke, but luckily(?) it turned out to probably be an autoimmune thing instead. She got some meds for the symptoms and is doing better! (Or so she says, anyway.)

I had headaches 3/7 days and am sure part of it was the pillow I’m using, which is insufficiently cushion-y. But probably also partly the stress, and dehydration.

🐈‍⬛ The most curious cat, Mr W, has started going up onto the counters and sniffing every single food item I make, plus then trying to touch it and/or eat it. If I put a dirty dish in the sink, he tries to get in there at it. He also started drinking dirty sink water, which is gross, so I put a water bowl up on the counter to distract him from that and it seems to have worked.

Miss K is a little more chill but only because she doesn’t like jumping higher than the bed OR going into cabinets. She does like to sit on my lap for 5-8 hours a day, though, and despises my laptop. ;D

Continue reading “[belated] weeknotes (oct. 5-11, 2025)”

weeknotes (sept. 28-oct. 4, 2025)

Life Updates

Another week gone by, and now it’s a new month! The end of the year is racing towards me and it’s very annoying(/stressful) to think about, so I’m trying not to.

Another overall mellow week where I mostly stayed home and read/wrote, but I did go to a clothing sale this weekend and got two pairs of shoes for $8: one pair suede booties, one pair corduroy sneakers.

I’m not entirely sure they actually go with my current wardrobe, which is very summer-focused. These shoes are definitely more fall/winter.

I think I can make it work if I get one new pair of dark-colored medium-weight pants (or skirt), so I’m going to keep my eyes open at the thrift stores. On the plus side, if they don’t work out, I spent so little on them I won’t feel bad for donating them if I have to.

🐈‍⬛ I still haven’t done the cat info post for this sit (apologies) BUT rest assured these cats are adorable and friendly and want to me near me without being annoying about it. Their food must have some kind of anti-hairball thing in it because I haven’t found one yet, despite one cat being long-haired.

Media Consumption

📺 Got a Peacock promo subscription for a month (for free) and while I haven’t started watching these YET, I do have them on my watchlist and am looking forward to watching them at some point:

  • Poker Face (TV)
  • The Paper (TV)
  • The Phoenician Scheme (movie)
  • Drive Away Dolls (movie)
  • Honey, Don’t (movie)

📖 Still deep into the Star Wars fanfics and ignoring everything else. ;D

Beloved recent fanfics: Why Not’s and How To’s by Trixree; And Back We Go by miyaji_08; The Force of My Love by Quarra; Second ‘Verse by LauraBWrites; Your Smile In Stone by ecarian

🎮 Started playing Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds on my 3DS, which I’ve played at least once before AND completed! It’s one of the easier Zelda games, I think, but the mechanic is really fun (you flatten out onto walls and go through cracks into another reality) so I’m enjoying it. It IS a little strange to go back to the simpler style Zelda games compared to, like, Breath of the Wild, but it’s still got a good story/gameplay.

Food & Dining

Tried a new-to-me brand of soy milk and it’s horrible, curdles weirdly in my coffee and has a sweetness to it that makes my mashed potatoes taste weird. Bleh.

Web Updates

Gave up on completing the change-over in a timely fashion and put the Docuwiki version of my site back up for now. I think the bots are still attacking, but I have it set up on Cloudflare and I blocked Brazil (where most of the bots were coming from apparently) so that should help.

Looking Forward

I’m currently working on a) setting up various emails tied to various personal domains and b) swapping over everything I want swapped from my Gmail to those new emails.

Some things are harder to change emails for than others AND one of my domains refuses to update its DNS records for some reason, so it’s annoying on both ends. However, I’m hoping to mostly have everything forwarding into my Fastmail account by the end of the week. And perhaps I can even close some of my lesser-used Gmail accounts!

weeknotes (sept. 21-27, 2025)

Life Updates

This week has fairly flown by but honestly I’ve been spending most of my time petting the cats, wandering the neighborhood, reading fanfics, and doing a BIT of work.

It’s a very enjoyable life, but at the same time I wish I’d gotten more done than I had. Oh well! There’s always next week…

Media Consumption

📺 Tried watching several movies and nothing much caught my eye, so instead have been putting Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes on in the background. Some of the newer episodes– including the very newest ones that were audience-funded– are now available on the Shout TV streaming channel (or Tubi) which is interesting because there’s a whole new host!

📖 Currently halfway through a very fun Star Wars fanfic, The 212th Attack Battalion’s Guide to Staging Rescues by antigrav_vector and Quarra, and am very much enjoying it.

🎮 I have my (hacked) 3DS with me, and am currently playing a fan translation of Rocket Slime 3 (not as fun as Rocket Slime 2, but okay) and Animal Crossing: New Leaf (which will get its own page on my website eventually).

I also have Sanrio Characters Picross going, which is super cute– you get “stickers” for finishing puzzles and can use them to decorate the backgrounds IN the game.

I’m planning on writing a post later about my 3DS because a) I decorated it and want to show off, and b) there’s some fun homebrew stuff which came out recently and has made the 3DS community more active than it was a few years ago when I first jailbroke it.

Food & Dining

Went to the farmer’s market and splurged on a few things, including a packet of “Reaper” flavored cheese from a local dairy farm and a $10 loaf of jalapeno cheddar sourdough (yum).

Also stopped by a coffee truck and got a honeybun latte, which was good but perhaps just a little overpriced ($7+ yikes).

Web Updates

I need to get back into the habit of posting again! I have so many drafts, but very little energy to finish them. Until then:

Looking Forward

Next week is several fun local events, including a flea market. I’m also planning to go to a thrift store and perhaps a Little Free Library. And of course, reading lots of fanfic (and maybe finishing a book or two).

📝 weeknotes (sept. 14-20, 2025)

Life Updates

Well, that was a longer gap than I meant to do! From my last update to now:

  • have left my Ann Arbor catsit
  • flown to California to visit parents and sat in a SoCal heatwave for a week
  • bought new suitcase, repacked items, swapped out clothes, etc.
  • flew to new catsit in undisclosed location (in the Western part of the US, anyway)
  • settled into new catsit for about a week, then
  • became vaguely ill for a week and
  • only now picked up laptop and felt energetic using it

I’ll do a more precise (friends-only) catsit update to introduce y’all to the new kitties, but overall I’m really enjoying this new location– though I miss the garden from Ann Arbor! I do have a balcony with a view of the river with an enormous amount of ducks here, though.

Continue reading “📝 weeknotes (sept. 14-20, 2025)”

📝 weeknotes (aug 17-23, 2025)

Life Updates

Overall I feel really good! There’s the creeping sense of dread re: finances which pops up every month or so, but otherwise I’m excited for the next few months of travel/catsitting.

I think it’s helped that I’ve been regularly going outside and walking for ~45 minutes every day. I’m really bad about doing that normally, but this neighborhood is good for walking and has enough interesting things to look at that I don’t feel bored. My Health app even says my step count is about double what it was last month!

I’ve also been venturing into some of Ann Arbor’s nature preserves, which are much hillier than I expected. Very beautiful trees, though! And usually not too crowded, so it’s peaceful.

Continue reading “📝 weeknotes (aug 17-23, 2025)”

📝 weeknotes (august 10-16, 2025)

Life Updates

I’ve been so enjoying my time in Ann Arbor– or at least in this part of A2 in particular.

Every morning I wake up around 6, make a cup of coffee and go out to sit in the garden for an hour or two. Then, after feeding the cats, I go walk around the neighborhood for as long as I want, usually 40 minutes, come back and shower and then get to work! I sit at a high desk and watch the garden out the window, and I see all sorts of animals: groundhogs, rabbits, squirrels (three kinds), chipmunks, stray cats, and once even a deer!

The week has fairly raced by! I did make it into town once this week, to check out the farmer’s market and a few shops. I stopped at a used bookstore called Digger’s, where you literally dig around for media (books, DVDs, games, CDs), and managed to find four books for $0.75/each. Now I’m REALLY in trouble, between those and the ones I got from the Little Free Libraries earlier– and did I mention I found an UNLICENSED LFL on a walk the other day? Of course I got a book from there, so now I’m up to (I think) 10 books still waiting to be read.

Continue reading “📝 weeknotes (august 10-16, 2025)”

📝 weeknotes (august 3-9)

Life Updates

I can’t believe another week has gone by already! I’ve been enjoying myself immensely here, sitting in the garden and harvesting handfuls of cherry tomatoes. I haven’t even made it into town proper yet and I’m coming up on my third week in this housesit. Whoops!

🐈‍⬛ Cats are doing well, and the shyest one even let me pet him (once) when he saw his siblings in the same room with me. They’ve also started coming to wake me (at 6am) which I’m taking as a sign that they like me.

Media Consumption

🎧 Too Many Tabs podcast has started their Quack Month, where they focus on quacks in August. It’s one of my favorite months for their podcast, partly because Mrs. P is the one researching and explaining everything, and she’s great. (Mr. P is also good but his shtick is shouting enthusiastically about everything which can be tiring. Also if you’re looking at the thumbnails– only Mr. P is onscreen because Mrs. P doesn’t want internet fame.)

The first episode was about Liver King, who I’ve only seen on the periphery on TikTok from people talking about how horrible he is.

📺 I watched The Producers (1967) which I think I’ve seen before– but I don’t remember the entire last half of the film, so basically it was like watching it for the first time. I enjoyed seeing where they changed things for the musical (which I love) and what things they kept. I much prefer the characters in the musical, as they have a bit more depth.

I also watched The Wiz (1978)! I loved the actors/singing/music, but the empty urban pseudo-NYC streets freaked me out (maybe it was supposed to do that?) and some of the musical numbers went on way too long (the intro to Oz scene where they change colors over and over). I’m planning on watching the Live production of the musical whenever I can track it down, as apparently the stage version is much better.

📖 Finished reading Moby-Duck (reading log + review), which I overall enjoyed but I do think it needed a bit more tightening up.

Also finished Seasons of the Wild (reading log + review), which was underwhelming.

Currently reading Climate Resilience (reading log), which is a good topic and has some great tips for getting more involve with climate activism, but some of the language feels…idk…over-the-top? I’m not sure how to describe it. Like, instead of just saying “I met this person and it was great,” it’s written more like “I had the honor of being in the same room as this amazing activist who has done 50 million things and is a mother, daughter, sister, aunt and earth goddess.” :/ Also they’re edited/compiled essays from interviews and everyone ends up sounding the same because of that, which is a shame.

I think I may temporarily swap over to my Kindle and read a fantasy/romance book as a palette cleanser.

Food & Dining

I harvested enough cherry tomatoes to finally be able to make a soup, which I did. (I used this recipe.) Of course as soon as I made it, I didn’t want to eat it, so it’s in the fridge for later.

The next batch of tomatoes are going to be made into a pasta sauce. I have some non-cherry ones ripening in a paper bag, and they’re nearly ready to use. I just need to track down some jars so I have somewhere to store it all!

Web Updates

New on the site:

  • Added a new note to my Commonplace Notebook on the Notes about AI page

Posted on the blog:

I also did a lot of theme customization, which I outlined here on this page.

Looking Forward

My usual goal to write here and on my site. I’m nearly done with a guide to customizing the look of your Calibre library, I just need to finish the formatting.

I’d also like to get in the habit of leaving comments on other people’s blogs (or emailing them), especially if I link them in a linkspam post. Right now I do it sporadically and I think if I make it more of a habit then it’ll stick better.

📸 garden haul: cherry tomatoes + bell pepper

Basket of garden vegetables: two large handfuls of orange-colored cherry tomatoes and a hand-sized green bell pepper

The cherry tomatoes are absolutely popping right now and I have to pick them a bit early or else the birds and whatever else (chipmunks probably) get them. Luckily they ripen pretty fast even in the kitchen.

The bell pepper was the biggest of the bunch, so I picked it despite it looking a bit weird. You can see a slight spot of red coming at the top!

UPDATE from Garden Window Viewpoint: Caught one of the chipmunks EATING A CHERRY TOMATO!!!! (One that I left out there because it’s slightly underripe.) Vegetable thief!!!!!!!!

📝 weeknotes (july 27-august 2)

Life Updates

Finally starting to feel settled into this housesit in Ann Arbor. Though the bed is comfortable, I haven’t been sleeping well. I wake up exhausted, which isn’t good. Feeling tired when I wake up makes me not want to go out and do things, so I’ve mostly been in the house slumping on the (admittedly very comfortable) couch with my books and my Roku.

But this week things changed! I dragged myself outside and did a walk around the neighborhood on Tuesday, one of the less-hot days, and I’ve switched to spending my mornings outside in the garden with my book and coffee mug. It’s an urban area, but this particular plot/neighborhood is ripe with tall trees and plants, so there’s lots of creatures to watch. Yesterday I spotted a goldfinch, and today I saw a chipmunk and a groundhog.

This morning I woke up feeling normal, so I think it’s working. I may start going on sunset walks when the temps cool down in the evening.

🐈‍⬛ The cats continue to mostly ignore me, but in a benevolent way. Miss F and Mr N have started letting me pet them more, but Mr B still runs if I get closer than 10 feet away. I suppose the upside is they’re very independent and I can get a lot of work done without having to shoo them off my keyboard.

Media Consumption

🎧 Lots of podcasts this week. Caught up on My Brother, My Brother and Me episodes from the last two or three months. I used to listen to eps regularly but this past year in particular it’s gotten increasingly obvious that they are aware that they’re, like, being watched? Like, it’s a little too much “looking for the bit” so they can clip it and put it on TikTok.

Also caught up with Too Many Tabs, which has topics I enjoy but which has gotten maybe a bit more shout-y since they started recording videos for Youtube. I’m sensing a trend.

Also listened to a great episode of Gender Spiral Podcast, which I wrote about here (DW).

📺 Continuing on my Midsomer Murder binge-watching. I’ve made it through DS Troy and have gotten into DS Scott’s episodes.

One thing I’ve been thinking about more during this rewatch is what happens to all these victims and secondary characters after the episode ends. So many people who find a dead body, lost a loved one, had a family secret exposed, etc. and they just disappear from the world entirely.

Hardly anyone shows back up again– there were a few times in the early seasons when a character from a previous episode would be referenced, and there’s one memorable time in season 10 (I think) where the same two character actors show up as the sister/nephew of characters from season 1. But other than that it’s just a swath of murder and misery in this one small UK county and nobody talks about it!

Which obviously has to happen, or else the story would never continue. But I think it’d make for an interesting story (perhaps a satire), to focus on what happens after a TV murder mystery. Anyone know if something like that exists? I’d be very surprised if a satirical author hadn’t put something out already.

📖 Still reading Moby-Duck, and am about halfway through it now. Very much enjoying it (especially when I’m reading it under a tree in a garden).

Food & Dining

I ate a salad and am very proud of myself.

Basically I ate all the good stuff from my major order (DW) and am down to eggs and beans, so I need to head out this week to get rice and potatoes and other starchy things I can put eggs and beans on.

Besides that, though, I actually have quite a bit left from my last order and I think I can put off ordering again for at least another week. Or at least until DoorDash gives me another coupon.

Web Updates

Joined heaps of fanlistings and a few cliques, as well as two site directories (Smooth Sailing and LinkLane.net) and a webring (No AI Webring). I joined the MelonLand Forum and am dipping my toes in.

New page added to the main site:

And blog posts:

Looking Forward

Keep working on my website, write more blog posts, finish Moby-Duck and maybe one more book, perhaps start an animal-spotting log for this garden because WOW and catch up on my Dreamwidth correspondence.