This has been my kid’s second five-day school week since the beginning of 2026, which seems wrong in all sorts of ways. It has also had the effect of feeling incredibly long. Don’t worry – we don’t have another five-day school week until March.
Five random things on my mind today.
Another Mystery
I have a tea subscription that supposedly arrived Wednesday. I got the confirmation email, complete with a photo of the box in my mailbox. The confirmation email, strangely, said “Your package was left near the front door or porch.” even though my mailbox is near the street and not near my front door. Whatever, the driver must have checked the wrong box, the photo clearly shows it in my mailbox.
I did not check my email or the mail on Wednesday, which feels like a crucial point. But yesterday, when I finally read the confirmation email, I went to the mailbox and retrieved a whole pile of magazines and letters and bills and junk mail. But no box. Neither was the box on our front porch, nor was it near the backdoor. I interrogated my family members, but neither of them had retrieved a box. I looked in the cupboard where I normally keep my tea; nothing. WHERE IS MY TEA? My theory is that the mailman opened the box to put in Thursday’s mail, was unable to fit it securely around the box, and removed the box temporarily to put the rest of the mail in. Then he forgot about the box and drove away with it. I’m hoping he returns the box today, but I suppose we’ll see.
Palm Update
I have been babying my palm trees (which did not adjust well to moving indoors this winter) and they both have some new growth. One of them is still struggling – some of the new growth has already turned brown, and it’s not putting out as many new shoots as the other. But the other one seems almost happy? It would possibly be more happy if the cat didn’t so thoroughly enjoy nibbling on its leaves. I really hope I can keep them alive until it warms up enough for them to move back into the sunroom. They liked it much better out there.
Everything Falls Apart
When it snows, it dumps, right? Well, first the freezer in our garage refrigerator died, taking along with it a ton of food.
Then my oven started acting up, which is something it does periodically, and about which I have complained extensively before. (It doesn’t seem to want to heat to the correct temperature. However, an oven repair guy came out to check it – along with the other, more expensive oven, which somehow has the same problem – and after three hours and $300 told me both ovens are just fine and perhaps it is user error.) I made these cookies (which are just as delicious in February as they are in November) on Wednesday and the oven refused to heat to 350 degrees. It just got stuck at 340. But it was still in preheating mode. I am assuming, with no actual knowledge whatsoever, that the preheating mode injects extra heat into the oven, and that’s why my cookies got quite crisp around the edges before they were supposed to be done. (They were still scrumptious.) I wrote this off to me not allowing the oven enough time to come up to temperature. Then, later that night, I preheated the oven to 400 for dinner, left it alone… and completely forgot about it because the “I’m done preheating” beep never happened. An hour later, I remembered that I hadn’t put anything into the oven, and hurried into the kitchen to find that the oven was still preheating and still at 395. Okay, fine. I will turn it off and try again. Then it got stuck at 370 until I finally gave up and used the air fryer. This morning, however, I set it to 350 to reheat a breakfast sandwich, and it worked exactly as it was supposed to. Either it was having an off day on Wednesday and is back to full strength, or it only heats to 350.
After I dropped off Carla, I went into the basement to walk on the treadmill for awhile. But when I powered it on, it said it was paused. And no amount of pressing the pause button, the stop / start button, powering it off and back on, or unplugging it and plugging it back in made the pause screen go away. Obviously, none of these things is dire. We are fortunate in that we have both a second freezer and a second oven, which allows us to meet our freezing and baking needs. The garage fridge is pretty old – we bought it in 2012. And the oven is probably 10 to 15 years old (and seemed to have never once been cleaned before we moved in, so who knows what kind of maintenance it had). The treadmill is even older. My in-laws bought it when they lived in Europe back in the early aughts. They brought it back to the States with them in 2005ish, and then gave it to us in the early 2010s. It has served long and hard.
To recap, these losses are not dire and were going to happen sometime anyway. But I hadn’t anticipated that they would happen so close together. As we use all three of these appliances daily, we will be replacing them. Good times.
Avocados
I am not particularly interested in the Super Bowl this year, but my husband is excited about making a seven layer dip. I do not care for seven layer dip, but I will make the guacamole and eat plenty of that. Our grocery store had a nice sale on avocados – $1 apiece – so I bought a few. And then I went to Trader Joe’s and they had ENORMOUS avocados for $1.49 apiece. I had to buy two, just to see if they are as good as the normal little guys. I will try to remember to report back.
Cat Curiosity
My cat continues to be the best cat. He exemplifies the whole “cats are curious” personality type, and is constantly investigating everything. The exterminator came the other day to check our mouse bait and he said, of Lenny, “He’s a nosy little guy, isn’t he?” Yes. Lenny has to be where the action is, and he needs to be apprised of anyone entering the house and insists on doing a thorough inspection of their shoes and any bags they might bring.
He is, of course, wildly curious about Outside. Any time a door opens, our security system chimes, and that’s the cue for Lenny to beeline to the door and try to sneak out. We usually keep the laundry room door closed, so that it acts as a sort of airlock between the kitchen and the garage. He knows that we often disappear when we go into the laundry room, and that we appear through that door at the end of the day. As soon as the door chimes, he takes up a spot near the door – usually on the floor just inside the kitchen, but sometimes on the counter right next to the laundry room door. Then he greets us with a deep stretch and some little chirpy meows.
This week, he’s taken to hiding in the laundry room while we’re in there putting our shoes and coats on. He is a very good hider. So good, in fact, that one day he was unable to extricate himself from his hiding place. Can you find him? Slide the photo to the left to reveal his location.
That’s all I have for today. It’s snowing here, once again. I hope you are warm and cozy and that you have a restful weekend.
I hope you locate the missing tea! That’s a strange happening. I would be SO frustrated with the oven situation. I don’t use mine a lot but when I do, I expect it to work. Even though it’s 30 years old!
Our oven does this! Unplugging and plugging back in was Very Helpful. Also I usually ask it to get hotter than I need. Repair guy says it is the electrical panel and advised us to buy a new oven but that’s because ours is super cheap.
He is very good at hiding, wow!
Ack, all those things Not Working would send me over the edge. But on the flip side, it will be fun to get new ones. (“Fun!”)
I discovered last week that it wasn’t our dishwasher that was broken when it refused to drain… it was the connected pipes that were clogged… by me, putting sourdough discard down the disposal. Oooops. I mean, I tried to run hot water in after it! But I’ve baked a lot of sourdough since July. Lesson learned, do not be like me!
Enjoy your snow if possible!
An oven should not be allowed to have an “off day!” That’s just so freaky! I wonder if you had a power surge to make all three items suddenly go bad. Awwww, isn’t Lenny the best hider!! So funny! I’m so curious to know what happened to the tea.
Weird that all the machines are going kaput! Our bonus fridge in the garage was freezing everything. I noticed it when the soda cans started bursting and puzzled why the fridge temp was so low. The digital display read 20F for its temp and no matter how many times I increased it, the temp stayed low. Well, duh, there’s a cold snap and the uninsulated garage is very damn cold!
Meant to say: It’s not apparently broken. First world problem for sure! Lucky to be cozy and warm on these cold days.
I am all for complaining with perspective, and I guess no one of those things are dire (second oven? Am I jealous? I’m unsure whether or not I’m jealous. Would that just be twice as much pressure to cook every night?) but all at once in January/February? Cruel and unusual. But Leo. There is Leo. It is snowing again here too, and I am warm and cozy and only have one plan for tomorrow late morning and then I am going to make warm and cozy the rest of my weekend plan.
Are you 100% sure that is your mailbox? It’s Amazon, so they could have just delivered it to the wrong address? Happens all the time (apparently). I hope it shows up. Ugh, sorry about three appliances going bad. That is really bad timing.
Suzanne, your oven is cursed! How frustrating (and expensive) and annoying. Especially since it sounds a bit like going to the doctor with an issue and then it miraculously clears up just long enough for your appointment. My parents had a glitchy oven like this for YEARS.
I want an update on the missing tea when you have one. The Great Caffeine Caper. It has bestselling novel written all over it – haha!
Do not get me started on how infrequent it is for kids to have a complete week of school…
I hope the missing tea shows up! That is so frustrating. And gosh that is a lot of appliance issues for one week. Sheesh. And then add on the lack of full weeks of school and that is tough. I hope you can return to some sense of normalcy soon. I feel bad for those with young kids. My sister is in DC and is losing her mind from the preschool closers as her daughter missed a week of Pk and she needs her out of the house for a bit for her sanity since she has a 10 month old and 3 yo. Gah.
Leo is a savant at hiding!
Ah yes. I’m WELL ACQUAINTED with the cat that wants to go outside. Currently, it’s Foxy who makes a beeline for the door every single time. Sometimes we sneak out the side door, sometimes we manage to slither in and out of the front door, and sometimes he gets past us and runs around outside. If this happens with Lenny, don’t freak out- he WILL come back! Foxy always comes back within five minutes (we’ve learned that’s actually more effective than us running around trying to capture him- he’s too fast for us).
That oven situation is maddening!!! I’m glad it didn’t ruin your cookies though (I remember that recipe- I made them several times a couple years ago).
I want a full avocado report! And wow, I hope that tea shows up! That is a real mystery (your explanation sounds good- I hope they bring it back!)
That’s the thing — when appliances go (especially those bought around the same time) they all go at once. It has been so cold I’ve used the garage as a back-up freezer (also helpful in a power failure, though fortunately haven’t had that!). A few days before Christmas it warmed up enough that we had to bring the ham in!
If you have a neighborhood FB page, post about this. That happens OFTEN here and I’m constantly seeing things on the page about either someone posting a photo of something they received or a plea about something missing.
Your cat is the “Where’s Waldo” of the feline world!
What on earth with the oven? I would freak out if my oven did that to me. (yes, I would take it personally). Leo hiding is about the cutest thing I’ve seen all day. Don’t worry – we don’t have another 5 day week of school till March. Stop it! Where on earth is your tea? I hope it turns up. So weird.
I am sorry about the missing tea. That would leave me feeling quite put out. Not the TEA!
In early January I mailed two packages to my younger daughter so she wouldn’t have to carry spices & heavy things on the plane. Both arrived at the stairwell where the packages are delivered in her apartment building. By the time she got home, someone had stolen them. I was more upset by this than she was.
That is very weird about the appliances all at once, but on second thought, it sounds very 2026 to me, now that I am getting acquainted with the train wreck that is 2026.
I do not see any cat.
I see the cat! Cheeky little devil. Could you not just let him go outside? Maybe I was skirting danger, but I let my cat go in and out as he pleased and he always came back! They like you more than you realize. 🙂
I have had the same issue with appliances/electronics! When it rains it pours indeed! That is a bummer financially obviously, but it is also mentally draining! I hate having to shop, or to schedule and wait for a repair person, or to have 8 plumbers running around my house on a workday. I just want to snap my fingers and have it be fixed. Right before I sold my house my kitchen sink started leaking, so on top of the tens of thousands I spent to stage it etc. I also spent $1,700 on plumbing while I was in the middle of moving things out of the house. It is a test, I say. Once we pass, we should get a prize in the form of rest and recovery!
Walter is very keen to get outside, too, and when I am drying laundry on the line or doing yard work I sometimes let him come out with me, but the past couple weeks it has been too cold/snowy for that and he is just going crazy with pent-up energy and frustration. He’s very good at dashing out the door when anyone opens it and then we have to chase him.
I hope your tea shows up. That would be very frustrating. Sorry about the appliances dying all at the same time. They must have been colluding with each other.
Whoa with all the misses and near misses… I hope your tea showed up!
Such a smart, sneaky little kitty! We also had an extremely curious cat who had to be involved anytime someone was working. Didn’t matter what, if she thought someone was “working,” she had to help. It was usually harmless, if a bit bothersome, until the day she helped the man servicing the gas logs and caught her fluffy tail on fire! He panicked. We scrambled. The cat was oblivious because she was so proud of her helping, LOL!
OMG I can see this happening to my cat so easly! Yikes!
Missing tea subscription! Noooo. I hope you can find it.
Eloise is definitely my curious cat, but she runs away whenever there are people in the house. She’ll come out after a while but she’s an absolute no for all maintenance people!