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A better day
Nov. 2nd, 2013 07:39 pmI don't think there are words for how much better I feel today. Still the occasional bit of coughing here and there, but none of the ridiculous lack of energy that's characterized this entire past week. I'm still loading up on the Emergen-C and fluids, but I'm hopeful that this is the end of it. Which is good, because I'm sure you all were tired of listening to me whine. As I was texting to a friend earlier - "If only complaining on LJ were positively correlated with a faster recovery!"
We decided to celebrate my feeling better by continuing our auditioning of local coffeeshops. Our favorite so far has been Metropolis Coffee, which in addition to its awesome logo and community-oriented atmosphere (there's big signs everywhere asking you to share your table with people when it's crowded) roasts some pretty darn good coffee. But they're a good mile and a half away; easily reached on the train, but a bit far to stumble down to for breakfast of a morning. They've opened up a closer branch over in Andersonville that we haven't been to yet; it's a little over a half-mile away, so it might be a better candidate. Today's contestant, however, was a pretty strong contender; a place called the Kitchen Sink Cafe, which makes their coffee using Metropolis beans and also sells breakfast items, sandwiches, and the like. Brian's breakfast burrito and mocha were pretty excellent; my experience was more muted (both the yogurt and latte I ordered were a bit sweeter than I like), but generally positive nonetheless. Plus the seating area has a giant skylight and an even more giant backlit stained-glass window that I assume was salvaged from a local church. And it's all of two blocks away, which may end up being the deciding factor. We shall see.
Afterward, I was still feeling remarkably energetic, so we finally made our long-delayed new-home hajj to Costco.
We...may have gone a little nuts.
In our defense, and as always happens during a Costco trip, there were so many awesome things that were such an excellent bargain. Especially excellent finds this time: a big thick fuzzy throw blanket (you can never have too many blankets in wintertime, right?) in such a rich shade of purple that Brian's nicknamed it the Pimp Cape, a 12-pack of our favorite ginger beer (that usually requires a special trip to World Market) for $6 less than the WM price, ten whole vanilla beans for $12 (I've never seen vanilla beans for less than $15 for two!), a 1.75 L bottle of Kirkland-brand spiced rum (that turned out to be quite flavorful and good!) for $15, a Blue Moon 24-bottle variety pack, and a pair of wool dress slacks for me that turned out to fit so well (and be so warm - I could totally see walking around outside in the winter in them) that I'm probably going to go back for another pair later this week. We got all the ingredients for our amazingly rich egg nog (which will likely be tomorrow's project, as we want it to have time to sit for the requisite 30 days before it makes its debut at Brian's work Christmas party on December 4th). Plus all our usual grocery-type items. But probably my favorite item was a pair of leather gloves. Designer, so even with the ridiculous Costco markdown they were still frankly expensive (just not as obscenely expensive as they would've been at the original retail price), but they're exactly what I wanted - cashmere lined, long so they don't leave my wrists bare, windproof, elegant and well-made *and* practical. And that rabbit fur cuff is so soft. I just want to sit and pet it for hours. But then Tripp would get jealous.
Needless to say, our tally at the end was a fairly eye-watering number, but I'd had enough to cover the bulk of it set aside already (stocking a new house is never cheap), and just figured I'd pull a bit of cash out of savings for the rest. We packed our ill-gotten gains into the car and headed home, where I checked the mail...and discovered a cheque for our deposit refund from Bisbee Realty, for almost exactly the amount that we'd just spent. (This is more of a windfall than it sounds, as said realty is somewhat infamous among Bisbee denizens for never ever giving back your deposit, ever. And given that I hadn't had time to do more than the bare minimum of cleaning, I assumed they would use that as an excuse to keep the entire thing, so I hadn't budgeted for the extra income.) So, hurrah. It'll be nice to have that money in savings.
Even though I still feel pretty good, I'm not going to push things by going out dancing, even though there's a supposed-to-be-fantastic gay bar nearby. And I'm limiting myself to one drink for the next few days (after a week of not drinking at all, I might add), which is slightly frustrating, as this is the perfect sort of fall evening for a glass of wine by the fire, but I want to save it to have with the stew Brian's got cooking on the stove. But between the new fuzzy blanket, the fire in the fireplace (Did I mention we have a fireplace? We have a fireplace! And the sort of weather that makes fires super-cozy!), the wonderful smells from the kitchen, and some Dead Can Dance on the stereo, I'm feeling pretty well served, and far less likely to relapse again, to boot.
Here's to autumn - may we all have warm fires, cozy blankets, and good wine, and delicious stews to see us through the winter, and loving and patient friends/spouses to take care of us when we're ill. <3
oh my god this stew is phenomenal
We decided to celebrate my feeling better by continuing our auditioning of local coffeeshops. Our favorite so far has been Metropolis Coffee, which in addition to its awesome logo and community-oriented atmosphere (there's big signs everywhere asking you to share your table with people when it's crowded) roasts some pretty darn good coffee. But they're a good mile and a half away; easily reached on the train, but a bit far to stumble down to for breakfast of a morning. They've opened up a closer branch over in Andersonville that we haven't been to yet; it's a little over a half-mile away, so it might be a better candidate. Today's contestant, however, was a pretty strong contender; a place called the Kitchen Sink Cafe, which makes their coffee using Metropolis beans and also sells breakfast items, sandwiches, and the like. Brian's breakfast burrito and mocha were pretty excellent; my experience was more muted (both the yogurt and latte I ordered were a bit sweeter than I like), but generally positive nonetheless. Plus the seating area has a giant skylight and an even more giant backlit stained-glass window that I assume was salvaged from a local church. And it's all of two blocks away, which may end up being the deciding factor. We shall see.
Afterward, I was still feeling remarkably energetic, so we finally made our long-delayed new-home hajj to Costco.
We...may have gone a little nuts.
In our defense, and as always happens during a Costco trip, there were so many awesome things that were such an excellent bargain. Especially excellent finds this time: a big thick fuzzy throw blanket (you can never have too many blankets in wintertime, right?) in such a rich shade of purple that Brian's nicknamed it the Pimp Cape, a 12-pack of our favorite ginger beer (that usually requires a special trip to World Market) for $6 less than the WM price, ten whole vanilla beans for $12 (I've never seen vanilla beans for less than $15 for two!), a 1.75 L bottle of Kirkland-brand spiced rum (that turned out to be quite flavorful and good!) for $15, a Blue Moon 24-bottle variety pack, and a pair of wool dress slacks for me that turned out to fit so well (and be so warm - I could totally see walking around outside in the winter in them) that I'm probably going to go back for another pair later this week. We got all the ingredients for our amazingly rich egg nog (which will likely be tomorrow's project, as we want it to have time to sit for the requisite 30 days before it makes its debut at Brian's work Christmas party on December 4th). Plus all our usual grocery-type items. But probably my favorite item was a pair of leather gloves. Designer, so even with the ridiculous Costco markdown they were still frankly expensive (just not as obscenely expensive as they would've been at the original retail price), but they're exactly what I wanted - cashmere lined, long so they don't leave my wrists bare, windproof, elegant and well-made *and* practical. And that rabbit fur cuff is so soft. I just want to sit and pet it for hours. But then Tripp would get jealous.
Needless to say, our tally at the end was a fairly eye-watering number, but I'd had enough to cover the bulk of it set aside already (stocking a new house is never cheap), and just figured I'd pull a bit of cash out of savings for the rest. We packed our ill-gotten gains into the car and headed home, where I checked the mail...and discovered a cheque for our deposit refund from Bisbee Realty, for almost exactly the amount that we'd just spent. (This is more of a windfall than it sounds, as said realty is somewhat infamous among Bisbee denizens for never ever giving back your deposit, ever. And given that I hadn't had time to do more than the bare minimum of cleaning, I assumed they would use that as an excuse to keep the entire thing, so I hadn't budgeted for the extra income.) So, hurrah. It'll be nice to have that money in savings.
Even though I still feel pretty good, I'm not going to push things by going out dancing, even though there's a supposed-to-be-fantastic gay bar nearby. And I'm limiting myself to one drink for the next few days (after a week of not drinking at all, I might add), which is slightly frustrating, as this is the perfect sort of fall evening for a glass of wine by the fire, but I want to save it to have with the stew Brian's got cooking on the stove. But between the new fuzzy blanket, the fire in the fireplace (Did I mention we have a fireplace? We have a fireplace! And the sort of weather that makes fires super-cozy!), the wonderful smells from the kitchen, and some Dead Can Dance on the stereo, I'm feeling pretty well served, and far less likely to relapse again, to boot.
Here's to autumn - may we all have warm fires, cozy blankets, and good wine, and delicious stews to see us through the winter, and loving and patient friends/spouses to take care of us when we're ill. <3
oh my god this stew is phenomenal
