Soledad's Journal

… that states: “Help yourself and God will help you, too”.

In that spirit - since IT guy still hasn’t shown up - I took out Methuselah, the geriatric laptop and started typing up some stuff I had written in recent weeks. Now, a laptop’s keypad is still a lot less comfortable than a proper keyboard, but at least I can type on it using all my fingers. Since Methuselah can’t connect to the Internet, I then saved the stuff to a data stick and will upload everything to my desktop PC as soon as it is safe again. Granted, the method is a bit complicated, but at least I can make some headway.

In the rest of the time I gave Mum her weekly shower, washed my hair, finished Teddy #8, served leftovers for lunch and took down the dried washing. Other than that, I just lazed around, watching telly and YouTube videos and playing Solitaire on my iPad. More than enough for a single day, I think.

All I did was making one more mini teddy and preparing things I need to take to school, to the bank, to the post office and to the doll clinic tomorrow. For the rest of the day I was just, well, resting. In advance, actually, as this week promises to be brutal.

Now, the evening, OTOH, that was busy. I’ve basically emptied the balcony, so that the cleaning lady can move around freely on Wednesday. I’ll still have more than enough things to move tomorrow, so having the balcony done is a relief.

... has arrived. Isn't he adorable? Take a look:

https://hu.pinterest.com/pin/341640321755309611/

Otherwise we had a quiet Sunday. Mum got her weekly shower, I cooked asparagus gratin for lunch, we watched "Salvage Hunters" and the GBBO, and afterwards I slept for two hours, which was bitterly needed. Still mostly on my iPad, though, I hope I can get hold of my neighbour, the IT guy, soon.

Today I was very effective.

I've finished the middle-sized teddy I had started yesterday.
I've stitched the face of another mini-teddy.
I've made lemon-coriander chicken for lunch.
I took out Mum for an almost-walk - we only got to the post box on the ground floor, but even that's more than nothing.
I called my friend Evie and had a nice chat with her.
I had a nice, relaxing nap around noon.

AND I EVEN GOT SOME WRITING DONE! Go me! The last posted chapter of Sleeping Dragons 5 will be updated in a few minutes, and then I'll start typing up what I've written for the penultimate chapter today. Go me!

As every Sunday, I got up an hour earlier, so that Mum could attend to Mass via TV. I took down the dried laundry, gave Mum her weekly shower (which includes the reconfiguring of the bathroom every time), washed my hair, took my own shower and then breathed a bit for the first time of the day.

Today was also cooking day, for two days in advance as tomorrow I'll have to hit the supermarkets and other shops. I made potato cream soup - managed not to kill the taste this time - and Kleingehacktes, which is basically a very simple thing of minced meat, generously seasoned with garlic. As we didn't want to have too much carbs in one meal (and preferred to take said carbs in the form of ice cream), I made no side dish; we had a piece of bread with the thing, each. And some cucumbers; otherwise the fridge is almost empty. Which is why I'll have to make the food run tomorrow.

Crafting-wise I've reached a milestone: all twelve mini-scarves are done! Next step: stitching the little teddy bear faces. But I didn't feel like doing anything more today. Instead, I took two naps: an hour-long one and a short one. Now I almost feel human again.

I'm going to import this week's LJ entries to DW; I'm curious to see if the comments will get through. They haven't done so for the last three weeks, but miracles can happen. *fingers crossed*

... are important, too. And, fortunately, I had my fair share of those today.

- My second batch of basil and balsamico strawberry jam turned out as well as the first one.

- I've finished equipping my pot holders with hangers. Take a look:
https://hu.pinterest.com/pin/341640321755238123/
I find they look rather decent for a repurposed bathroom rug. *g*

- I finished mini-scarf #9 and started on #10. Soon I'll be done with the knitting part and can continue stitching on the faces of the little teddies.

- The puff pastry roll with ham and cheese was delicious.

- I managed to secure a dentist appointment for May 11.

The fact that YouTube doesn't seem to like my poor old desktop PC and keeps acting up from time to time is a small thing compared with all the above.

I've made the B&B (=basil and balsamico) strawberry jam, and it worked beautifully. You can't actually taste the B&B but it gives the jam a wonderfully spicy note, so I'm going to make more next week. I also figured out the almost embarrassingly simple solution for making the jam set properly: a double portion of Dr. Oetker jamfix!

Other than that, I did a tiny bit of crafting: finished mini-scarf #6 and started mini-scarf #7. I know it isn't much, but at least I've arrived at the half-way point, which is very satisfactory.

Not much else happened. I was a bit lazy, watched some telly and some YouTube vids, blanched and froze the cauliflower I bought yesterday and made Tütensuppe using its boiling water. No social life, just like for the rest of the week. When I don't call people, they rarely bother to do so... unless they need something.

We put everything back onto the sideboard and the shelves. Needless to say, neither us remembered how all that trash had been arranged, and I forgot to take a photo, so I couldn't quite squeeze everything back into the same place. Of course, I might have piled up my reserve sugar packs differently, so that the available place wasn't quite the same, either, but that can't be helped. I won't unpack 60+ pounds of sugar if I don't have to.

( Boring kitchen activities )

After a late lunch, we used the last warm day promised to us and went for a walk. It was really pleasant, even though I was fairly tired by then. So I took a nap; then I got up again and finished knitting mini scarf #5 and seaming pot holder #3. Alas, not time or brainpower was left for some writing, but even so, I'm fairly content with my progress.

I had bought this ready-made croissant dough in a tin and tried to make croissants for breakfast. Only that the dough didn't work the way TV ads made us believe - for starters, I couldn't even unroll it at all. So I got angry, cut the roll up into slices, put shredded cheese on them and baked them. We ate some of them for breakfast and I froze the rest; that will solve the problem of three future breakfast, which is always a win.

Crafting-wise I've finisher pot holder #2 and started knitting mini scarf 4. But that's all I can tell about this day. After all that excitement the day before yesterday, I slipped into grey mode again: lazing around, taking naps, watching stupid YouTube videos... the usual. These are days when I find it increasingly hard to do the simplest things. Time seems to run through my (hypothetical) fingers like sand. And I didn't even have to cook today!

I so wanted to do at least some writing, now that I would have had the time for it... in theory. In reality, my brain is... well, not frozen solid, rather in the state of molasses or whatnot. I just can't make two brain cells fire at the same time. *sigh*

I've finished all the little Santa hats. I also drew the features of the little teddies with textile pen; now I only have to stitch them. All 10 of them. Eventually. And I started knitting the little scarves for them. The first one I started with 6 stitches - and had to rip back the whole thing because it proved to be too wide. I've redone those 5 centimetres with 4 stitches. You can imagine how small the whole thing is going to be.

Today I could no longer avoid cooking. Fortunately, I had boiled too much pasta for the previous dish, so I hacked some Easter ham into small pieces, mixed it with the pasta, poured sour cream over it and added some shredded cheese. It was yummy with a mixed salad and leftover soup. What's even better, we could only eat half of it, so - no cooking tomorrow! Hurrah!

Not much else happened. I did a few crossword puzzles (in German), had an ungodly long phone call from my friend Evie and we watched some telly. And that was about it.