falling apart

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Five for Friday

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.

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Wednesday Randomosity: Squeaking in at the Last Hour Again

Okay, maybe it isn’t the last hour, but it’s pretty late. 

Once again, all I have for you is a collection of small random things I’m thinking about. But first: I am typing this from the armchair (Stephany: Pottery Barn Kids, purchased in 2013) in the corner of my room while my husband entertains his parents. An owl is hooting halfheartedly outside, or perhaps it is a mourning dove; they have similarly soft voices. 

From my vantage point, I can admire the new lamps for our nightstands, which arrived today! My husband set them up and they are lovely! I am still not 100% in love with the shape of them, I think, but I like the color (blue on ivory) and I really like the soft arcs of light they throw off. The dimmest setting is not as dim as I’d hoped (I wake up at the slightest provocation, so wanted dimmable lamps so my husband could see without jolting me out of sleep every night), but they will do, probably. 

I haven’t had a lamp on my nightstand since we moved in, so I’m very pleased about the presence of LIGHT! and I feel like I will warm up to the shape of the lamps.

Furnace: My furnace emailed me today. First of all, I didn’t know it could do that. Secondly, it is the kind of furnace that apparently only deigns to talk to you if there’s a problem. No, “Hey, how’s it going?” No checking in on how *I* am doing, just reporting issues like we don’t live in the same house together. 

THIS CAN’T BE GOOD.

It wanted to let me know that “your system briefly stopped heating your home several times.” What? Why? ARGH. I don’t know what’s going on with my furnace, but the whole thing is worrisome. We had our HVAC people out a couple months ago to do a check up, and they reported that the system is working fine. But it’s aging, as are we all, and the HVAC technician strongly suggested I register for the extended warranty on the furnace. But when I called, they said I only had 90 days from the day we bought our house to purchase the warranty, and they needed a copy of my title and the title transfer paperwork to get the process going. The title and paperwork we did not yet have. So I called the title company and asked where was our title, and they said it had been mailed, coincidentally, earlier that same week, and we waited for it, and it never showed up, and I badgered and it didn’t arrive and then the 90 day furnace warranty extension period evaporated. So. We don’t have the extended warranty on our furnace. (We do, finally, as of two weeks ago, have the title for our house. Not the original, which has apparently been lost to the whim of the US Postal Service, but a copy, which I had to prod and bother for.) This is all to say: of course our furnace is absolutely going to die now, isn’t it. 

Someone asked recently if I am feeling more settled now, and the answer is yes: more settled. But am I loving our house? Not yet. I am still hopeful it can happen. But right now, it still feels like there is so much. So many things to take care of, new problems popping up all the time. And with my in laws here — well, this is the first time they have been to this house, so we are showing everything to them and revisiting the early days of owning this place. Plus, they tend to be… quick to see the negatives in a situation, and they seem to often feel like people are out to get us all. So I am plunged back into feeling pretty low about the whole thing. I think (I hope) that this is all Part of Moving, and I am holding on to Jen’s assurance (HI JEN) that it will take me a good six months to feel like this is home. Maybe by the end of February I’ll feel better? Let’s check back then. Maybe my furnace and I will be on better terms.

Face (again): I know I just talked about face-washing yesterday, but it’s top of mind because a) my face is in A Right State lately and b) I had to buy a new bottle of Cetaphil face wash from Target and c) I just had a dermatology follow up to my diagnosis of rosacea. The dermatology appointment was a little disheartening. I don’t know what I expected, honestly. My skin hasn’t improved. If anything, it seems to break out more frequently than ever. The dermatologist kind of shrugged and said that it’s a chronic condition and there’s nothing I can really do to get rid of it. So. That’s the disheartening part.

I also had questions about the sulfur-based face wash I have been using (works pretty well, makes me smell faintly of sulfur which is unpleasant and self-conscious making) and I also wanted to ask a Vanity question. Background: I have been using either Cetaphil or the sulfur face wash to clean my face. When my face feels like a desert dune, I also use Cerave moisturizer. As a result of this regimen, I feel like my face looks SO OLD. Crepey and wrinkly and bleh. Fine lines really get a good grip when the skin is dry, I think. (I really, really miss my Beauty Counter face oil.) So one of the questions I had for my dermatologist was WHAT CAN I DO. WHY HAST YOUTH FORSAKEN ME SO. Etc. The dermatologist recommended – brace yourself – Vaseline. On my face. Like. All over it. 

I use Vaseline on my lips, and, yes, it seems to stave off the flakiness (although I don’t think I’ve used it yet in the dead of winter, so I will report back). But… on my whole face??? How would I sleep? My pillow would become an oil slick. Is this… a real suggestion? I feel like it cannot work and yet: I would try a lot of things in the name of vanity. 

Fashion: My husband’s holiday work party is coming up and once again I have no idea what to wear. It’s sort of dressy, although people wear a wide range of clothing items. Last year I wore black Ponte pants and a black top and maybe a sparkly necklace. What should I wear this year? 

By posting at night two nights in a row, I feel like I’ve really messed with the rhythm of this blog. And also, I still have houseguests, so I am guessing I will post again (if at all) late tomorrow night. But we are down to the wire of NaBloPoMo, and I am not going to fail now, Internet! 

I am kinda sorta attempting to complete NaBloPoMo, with the full expectation that life will make it impossible any day now. If you want to follow along, or join the fun, check out San’s blog here.