Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 

christmas 2016

Christmas has come and gone once again. We did Christmas Eve at my in-laws’ and Christmas Day at our house with my family. We had Monday off work, but did not do anything of consequence. Though, we did have a visit from my in-laws that night. Yesterday, Jake had a bunch of doctor-type appointments and we had Judy over for supper. That probably concludes our Christmas visits for the year, but you never know what else might pop up.

We’re both off alternating days this week (to ensure coverage at the office). Today’s my turn to go in. I have a few things that need to be done before the end of the year, so I plan on accomplishing those things today. Despite all of the recent days off, I am looking forward to an event-free New Year’s weekend. I have much to accomplish around the house. I keep thinking I’m going to get stuff done this week, but it’s just not happening.

without mercy

This was definitely not one of the better books I’ve read this year. I think I’m going to have to become more selective with my reading.

The story was about some murders that happened at a remote boarding school. And of course, a big winter storm rolled in at the same time, so everyone was isolated. And, just when they figured out what was going on, there was a surprise twist (but not in a good way).

My rating: 2.5/5

beer

Brian and I made my raspberry lambic for the 2nd time today. I would not have guessed that we first made it 4 years ago. But, here we are. We were waiting for a “nicer” day to do it. Today wasn’t terribly cold, so we seized the day. The only real snag we ran into was that the hose was frozen and we needed a water source, so Brian had to carry the giant pot of beer to our basement for the final cooling step.

This beer has to ferment at around 50 degrees, so that’s why we make it in late fall. That way, we can put it in Brian’s shop, which is unheated, to ferment. We did make one change this time–the first time we used fresh raspberries and this time we’re trying a canned raspberry product. Whatever one works out better is the way we’ll do it in the future.

hillary

Sylvia the cat earned herself a new nickname today, Hillary. She has a penchant for walking all over my keyboard when I leave the room. Today, when she did that, she deleted all of the emails from my inbox. Of course, they just went to my trash folder, so it’s not like they were gone forever, but I’m not sure I recovered everything that required a follow-up. I really need to remember to close my laptop when I leave the room!

thanksgiving

Another year, another Thanksgiving. It was looking a bit touchy this year, with Jake’s surgery. But, he felt well enough to travel (mostly, I think he didn’t want to miss out on dinner), so we went to my in-laws’ house for dinner on Thursday. It was a doggy kind of Thanksgiving (my favorite kind). They have two dogs and Brian’s sister has two, so there were plenty of dogs to go around.

Other than that, we haven’t done anything to speak of over the break. I have all of these things that need done, but despite being home, I can’t seem to accomplish anything. I think it’s partly because I’m tired–I didn’t get much sleep earlier in the week. And, I’m still sick–day 26 for those of you who are counting.

One thing I did do was my Christmas shopping. I started it yesterday and wrapped up this morning. It used to be my goal to be done with the shopping before Thanksgiving, but my new thing is to do all of my shopping Thanksgiving weekend. I still look for ideas throughout the year, but I bookmark them instead of making the purchase. We really have no storage in our house, so this works out well.

As for Jake, he’s doing a lot better. He’s already gone to PT twice and did especially great yesterday. He was feeling so good last night that he wanted to go out with his friends, but it’s still a little early for that.