Category: Daily Life

These are my daily rants, stories, and what not.

Victoria Taylor – Wednesday Sept 2

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I have no idea who Victoria Taylor is. But she makes a great spice.

A few years ago for Christmas Sam bought me a jar of Honey Aleppo Pepper spice from World Market. It was amazing. Like blow my socks off perfect blend of sweet and spicy flavor. I put it on everything – chicken, wraps, pizza, pasta, rice…. everything we had. The jar was empty pretty quickly (ok, like 3 months or so of constant usage).

Now World Market is great. It is my go to store for Christmas Shopping, particularly stocking stuffing. And while I love walking through World Market, it is not in any way a cheap store. It sucks money out of my wallet like no other store.

Not to mention the store moved like 3 miles further down the road this spring – so its not a quick hop to get there anymore, its like a long lunge or something. A stride? I don’t know, not far away but not exactly convenient either.

I looked on Amazon but it seemed like a lot to pay for a spice. $1.98 an ounce.

But on the Victoria Taylor website I could buy the same container of spice for $1.56 an ounce. Or I could buy it in bulk for $1.23 an ounce. A way better deal. But I’d have to pay shipping which would raise the price.

UNLESS…. I bought two bulk containers. And had SPICE FOREVER.

You know what they say in Dune… “The spice must flow.” With two giant 19.4 ounce tubs of spice…. the spice can finally flow.

Thank goodness this stuff is shelf stable and doesn’t expire for several years.

In other news – I’m starting a new book today. Felt really good finishing two books in August – A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived and Find Me. I’ve already picked out my two books for September – The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) and The Maltese Falcon. I like the idea of reading two books a month, one non-fiction and one fiction, and neither are as deep as A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived was, so it shouldn’t be a challenge to finish.

Hyperbola vs Hyperbola – Tuesday Sept 1

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Way back in the before times of 2001 and 2002 I was living in Queensbury and reconnected with some old high school friends. We spent our not doing too much, but we had a favorite hang out and it was the Lagoon. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist anymore but was fun for a bunch of 22 year-olds. Free darts, cheap drinks and food. And of course some live music.

Hyperbola was a band that consisted of three guys I went to high school with. I’m not sure how many of their shows we attended. I lived in Queensbury from September 2001 until August 2002 and it seemed like more than a few times, and I quite enjoyed them.

I bought both of their albums – Long Dub Mini Groove and Long Dub Mini Groove II. Both pretty good and I still listen to them on a regular occasion.

Yesterday I was walking Marceline to the park, and decided to listen to some music while she was chilling in the stroller. It’s a mile walk and Marceline zones the whole time. But despite searching google, youtube and other places, I couldn’t find anything left over from that time period. No really old recording or video from their performances.

Instead I found this weird band named Hyperbola on the Spotify. Definitely the same band I saw in Queensbury. I listened to their album bringing it up from 2 listens per month to 3 listens per month.

I also found another band named Hyperbola on Bandcamp. Again not the same band, unless they moved to the Ukraine without letting anyone know. They at least sound a little bit closer to the band what I remember.

Anyways, I eventually pulled up a Hyperbola album I have stored online to listen to.

Here’s Reason to Love by Hyperbola.

Andrew, Greg, Tim, if you are out there… thanks for the great music.

Cups vs Glasses – Monday August 31

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I told Sam recently that I think we need to rethink out dishware and glassware. Almost all of our cups are coffee related or alcohol related glasses. The few pint glasses are stolen from the Old Pink or Essex St. Pub in Buffalo over a decade ago. A ritual from when we used to close bars at 4am in Buffalo in our early – mid 20’s.

The coffee mugs are all either gifts or stolen (my cherished Denny’s mug!). The only one that purchased outright in the last few years is the NPR “Stand with the Facts” mug we got when we donated to our local NPR station this year.

We have 8 resuable Starbucks mugs that are all over 5 years old and are our go to travel drink mugs. We bought two for a dollar each and were gifted the rest as Christmas presents.

And we have 2 Burger King Star Trek mugs left out of a set of 4 I bought for Sam years ago, a Coca Cola Buffalo Bills glass and a big yellow plastic mug that is 2 decades old and carries with it a fantastic story from a college Spring Break field trip.

All that aside, we have 5 Tupperware kids cups that Sam’s mother held onto for us until Marceline came along and we are grateful to have and use everyday for Marceline.

Essentially I’m saying we have no set of drinking glasses. If more than one of us sit down for a meal at a table, we would have different cups in front of us. Not a huge deal, but also kind of weird. On a daily basis we don’t use any of these glasses except for coffee mugs and Marceline’s cup. We (Sam and I) have two water bottles we carry around with us and use regularly, and other than coffee and water we really don’t drink much (I know…. there is diet ginger ale bottle in the background – but that 2 liter is 2 weeks old now).

Not sure if that is normal or not, but whatever…. it is what it is.

In today’s big news, Marceline got out a bottle of Worcester sauce from our Lazy Susan this morning. Not a huge deal, she likes getting bottle out and lining them up on the kitchen floor, and none of the bottle she can reach are very big. But she did drop it on her big toe, which lead to more crying than we have had in a long time.

Look at her poor toe!

Today’s list –

  • Clean Living Room and Kitchen
  • Vacuum Basement
  • Scoop Kitty Litter
  • Change out Marceline’s books in the living room
  • Vacuum hallway rugs
  • Walk with Marceline (she likes walking down the road holding my hand)
  • Put away laundry

The Kiboomers – Friday August 28

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We listen to a lot of the Kiboomers in our house. Marceline likes them a lot and Alexa plays them pretty easily without much error.

We first discovered them in the spring when Marceline’s favorite book was Five Little Pumpkins. Now I know the five little pumpkins song as:

– Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate
– First one says oh my its getting late
– Second says there are witches in the air
– Third one says well I don’t care
– Fourth one says lets run and run and run
– Fifth one says lets stay and have some fun
– Ooooo went the wind
– And out went the lights
– And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight

The book has a few changes to the lyrics here and there. But overall is the same. Sam had never heard of that song. Both of us though got sick of book after reading it 10+ times a day to Marceline.

Where it ties into the Kiboomers is that we asked Alexa to play the Five Little Pumpkins, and the version it chose was by the Kiboomers. Which while having different lyrics than the book or what I’m familiar with, at least keeps the same pace as the book and gave us a little bit of a break.

Eventually we asked Alexa to play songs by the Kiboomers to expand what we were listening to. They have a lot of songs. Over 70 albums, including at least 4 that start with 50 songs…. and one that is titled 150 Toddler Songs. It is ridiculous. A lot of their songs are almost exactly the same. Their songs We’re going on a bear hunt and We’re going on a lion hunt are identical except for seven words.

It leaves me hoping that Marceline’s first full sentence is “Aren’t these the exact same song?” when we hear them back to back again. Just out of nowhere with incredulous inflection.

Highlights from yesterday:

  • Marceline colored a lot
  • She demonstrated that she understands our commands – when we tell her things like “Crayons have to be at the table,” she puts the crayons back on the table. When we say “put down your toy before a snack,” she will throw her toy down to get a snack. She also understands, hug, gentle dollie, and more.
  • Sam hasn’t been feeling well the last several days, but felt better yesterday.
  • I got halfway through my book. Not bad for three days.

Today’s List:

  • Pick up desk area
  • Clean living room and kitchen, including stove top
  • Replace sheets on guest bed
  • Sweep cat litter area
  • Marceline bath day
  • Order photo prints from July forward.

The Good – Thursday August 27

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Yesterday I noticed some blood coming from Marceline’s mouth while we were reading books. Stuck a finger in her mouth to inspect her teeth (which by the way… ew), and her molar on the upper right side had burst through her gums. I’d been able to feel it under her gums for a few weeks, but it was there fully through – which Marceline promptly let me know by chomping down on my finger.

As far as reasons to bleeding from the mouth, that is pretty innocent.

But I am pretty sure that is also why she woke up at 5am this morning and didn’t feel like going back to sleep.

Totally stole this image from the Columbus Dispatch

Oh, and the Cuyahoga River is on fire again. The 14th time! This time it is from a car accident that resulted in an oil tanker spill. And thankfully is much smaller than the larger garbage, trash and pollution fires of the past. Still kind of funny and sad that a river is on fire.

Marceline and I ate breakfast outside today. I think we will try to do this more often. The biggest difficultly is getting outside with Marceline and the breakfast without the cats joining us. They like to try and go outside even though 3 out of 4 of them are scared of being out of the house. They other one will go outside and immediately bolt for anything he finds interesting.

Marceline enjoyed it mostly for the three dogs across that were playing in the yard across the street. I enjoyed it for the quietness and ability to drink my coffee outside.

WCLV has been calming on what already feels like a long morning. I absolutely love that Cleveland has a classical radio station.

Today’s list:

  • Buy cat litter (didn’t leave the house yesterday)
  • Clean Marceline’s room (didn’t happen yesterday)
  • Hydrate (I drank way more coffee than water yesterday)
  • Put away laundry
  • Vacuum, sweep and mop kitchen and living room
  • Mow backyard?
  • Organize downstairs bar*
  • Dinner plan – Corn on the Cob, peas, chicken breast, garlic bread?

*the bar is a holdover from the previous owners. We use it as a tv/entertainment stand.

Wednesday – August 26

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Our bed is too small.

We have a queen sized bed we bought several years ago. It is still pretty comfy, but we bought it when our household consisted of two cats and us.

Surely this can fit 2 adults, 1 kid, and 4 cats…. right?

Our household now consists of 4 cats, us, and Marceline. That’s three more occupants than when we bought our bed. And even though we now have two more cat beds, two additional large cat trees, one more full size bed, and a crib that didn’t exist when we bought our bed, everyone seems to want to join us now.

Last night Marceline went to bed at a normal time, and didn’t even fight as much to fall asleep, but come 11pm she decided she didn’t want to sleep in her crib anymore. She would fall asleep on me in the rocking chair (Ikea chair), but when I tried to put her down in the crib she would wake up and start crying.

After 30 tired minutes of that, I just brought her to bed with us. Where she tossed and turned and spun 360’s and kicked all night long while happily asleep.

Combine that with Sam and a one point three cats in bed with us, and our bed is too damn small.

We actually acknowledged this issue months ago, about the same time we realized our refrigerator was going to need replacing. We decided the fridge was the priority – the freezer section wasn’t keeping ice cream hard, it was like soft serve.

And I shouldn’t say was in the past tense, because like the adults we are, we haven’t bought a new fridge yet either.

I accomplished most things on my list yesterday. Didn’t buy cat litter nor vacuum in the basement. They go on today’s list. I did start a new book – Find Me.

It is the first fiction book I’ve read in a while. I forget how much faster they are to read than non-fiction books. It is good so far, although I’m only a few chapters in (Chapter 5 I think?). It is a suspense book – the lead character’s father was a serial killer who used the lead character to lure his victims when she was a child. Years later and the serial killer dad says he will only lead police to his victim’s bodies if his daughter goes with them. Kept me reading so far.

Today’s list:

  • Keep living room and kitchen clean.
  • Bathroom Laundry (towels, washcloths, mats)
  • Vacuum Basement
  • Buy cat litter and change litter boxes
  • Clip Marceline’s nails
  • Clean Marceline’s room?
  • Run