Friday Five!

KF - Did your flight go ahead? Hopefully you are somewhere pleasant right now (and not stuck at an airport!).

Landed and the captain said “Welcome to Florida.  It’s currently 25 and sunny.”

I unpacked last night. Brought 4 jumpers.  Lol.  How hard it is to pack when it’s cold and miserable!

1.  Charity bake sale at work today.  I was meant to bake pumpkin bread last night (everyone in the office loves it) and I couldn't find tinned pumpkin anywhere without going up the town.  So I thought about buying a couple of butternut squash to cook and puree as a pumpkin substitute...

2.  Thought about it, but ended up sitting down with a bottle of wine and YouTube.  They'll get over it.

3.  Bought Ian McNabb (my heart-throb) gig ticket last night... he'll be in Glasgow end of May!

4.  Thinking about doing (selling at) a car boot sale... it's been a few years since my last one, and I've got some stuff to shift.

5.  Hoping (but not expecting) the weather clears up for Sunday -- Greyhound Trust walk at Strathclyde Country Park.

Happy Friday everyone!

Hope the weather is good for you on Sunday Albatross!

Friday!

1.) Week has flown by. Things are busy!!! 

2.) Have a busy weekend of music rehearsals, PT training, and cleaning my  house!  Like proper cleaning, organising. Uggh.

3.) Was supposed to go back to China soon, but not happening anytime soon.

4.) Getting stressed, as the band I lead is competing in a music festival. Just want them to the best they can! Getting a bit silly with it though.

5.) Looking forward to a drink or three tonight.

Aww, Albatross, I get the Youtube and wine vs. going out to get the ingredients for baking... Well, I mean, right now, with my new oven excitement, I'd be ALL OVER that bake sale.  Wheeeee!  But I get the ugh of not wanting to go get the tin of pumpkin goo.  Fingers crossed for nice weather on Sunday!

Good luck with your band's competition, PB!  How long 'til the festival? 

My five:

1.  I'm currently final-proving a French loaf for this afternoon, and I'll be starting a soft white for the weekend shortly.  I love bread!

2.  I made "banana cake" a few days ago.  I couldn't remember if I'd already cut my recipe in half when I wrote it down three+ years ago, or if this was the full recipe.  I decided to just go with it as written, and when I noticed I'd written "loaf tins" (plural!), I decided it must be the full recipe, so prepared two tins.  Poured the batter in, and it barely filled the bottoms of the tins.  We have actual banana cake.  It's so flat.  But it's very very tasty, and we got double the edge pieces* this way.  Anyway, next time I'll know it's for one banana loaf.

3.  * Speaking of edge pieces, my new easy bake oven is a fan oven.  I've never ever used a fan oven before and didn't know how much quicker they bake things, and that you should reduce your temperature if the recipe assumes no fan... I only looked it up after about 10 minutes into baking, when I was smelling doneness, so my banana cakes had rather crispy corners.  I viewed this as a mistake, and when it came time to consume them, I graciously took the end slices (which contained the burnt corners, obviously).  I was halfway through the last crispy end when my husband saw that I'd left some middle bit in favour of the burnt end, and he felt betrayed!  I had no idea he was really looking forward to the crispy burnt end!  So I need to slightly over-bake all my banana cakes from now on to make it up to him.

4.  I'm booked in for another guitar lesson next week.  This will be my second one.  Unlike when I was a child and piano lessons were a weekly ordeal that my parents forced on me, but which benefited me not at all because I never practiced between lessons so never progressed, I am strategically booking the guitar lessons for when I feel like I have actually progressed from the last one.  That way, I'm not wasting my time or his time, and I'm not wasting money.  Also, my stools arrived yesterday, so I can finally sit and play, so I can work on the things from my last lesson.  Yay!  My fingertips are officially useless except for playing guitar, now.

5.  Booked in for my annual haircut on Monday.  Just last night, I was feeling annoyed as my hair kept wrapping around my neck and making me hot while I was trying to get comfortable and sleep.  Separately, my husband emailed me from work to ask if I could book a cut for him on Monday (he has most of next week off... again!), so we're both going in together.  It'll be such a relief!

1.  Went to the Magic Kingdom in Tuesday.  5 year old got really into seeing all the characters and getting their autographs.

2.  Husband and I are away for the day (flew late last night and early tomorrow morning). In Miami to see Seinfeld.

3.  Rented a Camero convertible. Husband is like a pig in slop

4.  In the Everglades on our way to an airboat ride now

5.  Family from Atlanta arrives tomorrow and it’s the local (gigantic) Mardi Gras parade tomorrow night.

Awwwwww!  I loved getting autographs at Disney World!  My cousin, sister and I bought autograph books, and we had everybody sign!  All the cast members, not just the characters.  My favourite one was the ferry boat captain ("Captain Bob"!) across the Seven Seas Lagoon.  We had the characters sign, too, but we had a lot of pages to fill in our books, and there were always huge lines for the characters, so...

1) It's sleeting sideways again today. And so gray and dark that I had to turn on a light mid-afternoon to be able to read a book.

2) We have packed our 60th box of books (after cataloging all their pertinent info). That looks like the last of the books. But I bet I'll keep finding the odd book here and there, under the bed, in a closet... So that's 90 cubic feet of books. We're still doing good, since the furniture we want to take all breaks down to flatpack, except my rocking chair and the two mid-century lime green living room chairs. Have sent word to the Heart Foundation that I've got a buncha boxes of stuff for them to take away.

3) STILL working on the fish problem. Running out of airlines to try. May have to resort to plan "b" soon.

4) Daughter is still waiting to hear from the Uni in the States. We are coming down to the wire here - two turndowns and one still forthcoming. They said it would be "mid Feb to early March". Oy.

5) Still nothing on her Irish citizenship application. They moved her to "stage 2" about six months ago - where they check to make sure she's of good character, etc.  They've had all the police certs for over a year. There's not a lot left to check. If they don't hurry up, though, one of her references is quite elderly and failing and they may not get to speak with them if they don't hurry it the hell up.

Oh. It's stopped hailing sideways. Now it's just raining again. I used to enjoy the rain when I got here. I'm now understanding why everyone is obsessed with taking vacations to like Corfu.

1. Survived first week at the new job. Huge learning curve, but steadily getting my brain back into the enterprise data models mode. After a very non technical job for 8 months it was overwhelming at first, but then like "oh yes, that makes perfect sense".

2. After a bit of a struggle and an overzealous health and safety person I got the things I needed for accessibility. *phew*

3. I'm a bit glad I didn't need to go to the old job this week, it was almost under water with the river on its front steps! Flood management in this country is a bit frightening, definitely need to keep an eye on flood plains when we buy a house. I hope everyone on here was mostly unscathed from the storms.

4. I treated myself to records and yarn this week. Music and crocheting make me happy.

5. Husband has been very helpful and made dinner all week since I was too wiped out most days. Can't believe we start the FLR(M) prep sometime next month.

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5) Still nothing on her Irish citizenship application. They moved her to "stage 2" about six months ago - where they check to make sure she's of good character, etc.  They've had all the police certs for over a year. There's not a lot left to check. If they don't hurry up, though, one of her references is quite elderly and failing and they may not get to speak with them if they don't hurry it the hell up.

Is there any type of an info line you can call? That would be awful if the reference passed away and it kept her from getting the citizenship. I'm sorry to hear they are doing poorly.

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3.  Rented a Camero convertible. Husband is like a pig in slop

I keep telling myself that next time i go to visit family in Texas, I'm going to hire a muscle car, like a Charger or a Challenger.  A Mustang or Camaro would also work!!  Enjoy it KFD!

Is there any type of an info line you can call? That would be awful if the reference passed away and it kept her from getting the citizenship. I'm sorry to hear they are doing poorly.

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The info line in Ireland is open for about 4 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I sat, last Tuesday, from the time it opened until it would have shut, redialing. About a half-dozen times I got through to it to ring. Which it did for 14 rings and then timed out.

I used my USA voip line, and also my Sky landline. I emailed tech support on the Voip line and they said it would have been the local carrier there in Ireland - they won't let you just let it ring and ring. Sky has been as usual useless, but I tend to believe the Voip guys. They are pretty much techheads and not the call-center public relations people you get with Sky.

Anyway, it ain't as if we haven't been trying. 

We can send an email, and in about a week we will get back a canned response saying that the application is still processing. I even recognize the text as to where they stole it from other Irish governmental websites (I usually remember when I've read something). So, nope, no luck.

I keep telling myself that next time i go to visit family in Texas, I'm going to hire a muscle car, like a Charger or a Challenger.  A Mustang or Camaro would also work!!  Enjoy it KFD!

He has now said next time we are splurging on the Corvette!  He is looooving it. It’s blue.

It's Friday again!

1.  My husband had Mon-Wed off this week, so it feels like Tuesday.  But I'll play along and pretend it's Friday.

2.  My cheesecake was fantastic!  I cut the recipe I was using to 1/3, and that yielded 4 surprisingly large individual portions.  I used Lotus Biscoff biscuits for the base, and that was a lovely flavour.  The texture of the cheesecake improved over time.

3.  I had my second guitar lesson yesterday.  I will have to keep reminding my instructor that even though I know music theory, I can't actually play guitar very well, yet.  My theoretical knowledge is misleading.  My muscle memory is lacking.

4.  We still haven't won the lottery.  Premium bond draw is Tuesday... here's hoping.

5.  I don't know what we're having for dinner tonight.   My husband works a half day tomorrow, so no cheese platter.  Today isn't a proper Friday.  It's Imposterday.

Hope you're enjoying the lessons JFKimberly?

Friday!!!

1.) Have loads of music rehearsals again this weekend & this week! Jazz band I lead is going into competition on Monday night. Brass band heads to Scottish Brass Band Championships this weekend. 

2.)  Allergies are acting up. I am blaming perfume in the office.  Achoo!! 

3.) I'm really itching to get outside and garden. My mental health is needing it. 

4.) Feeling very relieved about the results of some medical tests that had been happening within my family.  Was starting to save money in case I had to rush back to the US, but things are good! 

5.)  New MasterChef on! Things to watch again! 

He has now said next time we are splurging on the Corvette!  He is looooving it. It’s blue.

My first new car was a 1995 Camaro Z28. It was black with black tinted windows, and had a 5.7L V8 engine. Car & Driver reviewed it and said, "When you step on the gas, have a good idea of where you're going, because you're going to be there soon." I loved that car.