P365 Day 82: It earned its name

Note: I have a friend who loathes soup. Loathes it. Unfortunately, she's probably already seen the nice, big picture above. Sucks to be her.

The soup I mentioned in last night's post turned out fab. It was hammy and potatoey and a little bit cheesy. Made for great leftovers for lunch. We enjoyed it enough to write down our modified recipe ... but, unfortunately, the amount of work involved — diced everything and then some — led us to title it "Effort Soup."

We probably won't be making Effort Soup often, though I might whip it up when my parents visit in a couple weeks (... says Kate, as she looks out upon the messy apartment and vows to start cleaning it tomorrow).

My Daily News work progressed nicely today. Time for a short nap, then I'll get ready to meet the people across the hall. We're taking care of their cat, Bootsies, while they vacation in Mexico. (Isn't that a precious name?!) In return, they're taking care of Fred and Joe while we go to Memphis for Thanksgiving. Considering our pet sitter costs about $20/day, it's a nice arrangement.

P365 Day 81: Champion in his own mind (and mine, too)

Unintentional third-day-in-a-row gaming post. Paul and I are having a blast with Champions Online, at least in the bits of time that aren't taken up by work and other responsibilities. The group with whom we played City of Heroes has largely re-formed, which makes for nice company.

On the menu tonight: ham and potato soup, a recipe downloaded from Allrecipes and heavily modified just because. It looks and smells delish, but I won't know for sure for another 15 minutes or so. Ooh — there goes Paul, mixing in something else. This is going to be Frankensoup. If it's any good, I'll post our recipe.

Sore throat is getting worse. It's just stupid post-nasal drip from my allergies, but it is so annoying. Ricola Cherry Honey drops are my new best friend. Sorry, old best friend, but you've been replaced by cough drops.

P365 Day 80: Puzzled

I'm stuck on this "get the garbage in the garbage can" puzzle. I started it last night, then went to bed on the premise that I'd subconsciously work it out in my sleep. No such luck. It's the first Layton puzzle to give me any grief.

I spent a decent portion of my afternoon chipping away at a project for the Memphis paper for which I used to work. I'm proud of the amount I got accomplished. It was enough that I don't feel guilty for taking a nap between now and the time Paul gets home from work. I've got a nasty little sore throat that doesn't need to get any worse.

[Edit: Within 15 minutes of posting this, I solved it.]

P365 Day 79: Come Together

Traded in a few games today and picked up The Beatles: Rock Band and Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. Sorry to see you go, Katamari. (Not really; after the novelty wore off, the only thing left was the great soundtrack, and that's downloaded to my iPod.)

I played a little of both TB:RB and Layton today and enjoyed both. Then I fell asleep.

P365 Day 78: Warning: Man in the kitchen

It's hard to get Paul to stand still long enough to show off the sausage and cheese plate he's cooking for dinner. Thus the blurry photo. Nearly every barbecue joint in Memphis serves a sausage and cheese (and pickles and crackers) plate sprinkled in dry rub, but we've yet to find a place in Charleston that serves one. Boo. So we just make our own with turkey kielbasa and reduced fat cheddar.

OK, he just sounded the "dinner's ready" alarm, so I'd better go. Yum.

P365 Day 77: Snow-oh-oh Globe

I found my long-lost Y2K snow globe with this super-flattering picture of Paul and me from 1999. We were silly 19-year-olds. Heck, we're silly 29-year-olds. Still, it's a good thing we didn't self-destruct on Y2K. I'd hate for this to be the last photo of us left behind for our families.

P365 Day 76: I see skies of blue and clouds of white

Ah, the open road. Actually, I was just on my way to the grocery store, but I'll pretend it was part of some great adventure.

The Seroquel is starting to make me feel a lot better. It certainly has its downsides — one being that I'm always hungry, another being that I'm still sleeping 16 hours a day — but when I'm awake, I actually have the drive to do things such as the aforementioned grocery shopping and knocking out a contracting project I'm doing for my former employer. It's been very hard staying motivated when I don't want to climb out of bed.

I'm actually glad I started Project 365. I set this goal for myself, and by God, I'm going to see it through. It's been one of the only reasons to even walk on my porch some days.

I hate that I have to take medicine to make my brain work like it should, especially the older I get. But I could have it so much worse. We all could.

TL;DR: I like driving! And I feel better!

P365 Day 75: Grocery time

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Is this thing on?
katesink@gmail.com

P365 Day 74: 'Nip heaven

That's my little 'nip fiend. Couldn't get her to hold still long enough to take a proper picture with the big bag o' catnip and the two bottles of catnip hydrosol. This was the best picture of the bunch.

Spraying Joe down with catnip hydrosol is one of the few ways to make her give herself a proper bath. Funny little cat, that one.

P365 Day 73: Sunny day

I'll take another picture after the leaves fall and it's a little easier to see through the trees. I had a little trepidation about tramping through the brush (alligators, etc.). But I still have a nice view of the Wando River reflecting the sun. I love where I live!

P365 Day 72: And I got to wield the big knife!

Paul and I are having sweet and sour chicken for dinner. Yum! I put him in charge of the "yucky" job -- cooking, trimming and chopping the chicken -- while I chopped vegetables, took a picture and posted it to my blog. That's a fair trade-off, right?

Okay, back to work. That bell pepper isn't going to saute itself.

P365 Day 71: What comics?

I needed to grab something at the comic book store today, so I trusted my handy-dandy GPS to get me to the closest one. Alas, this is all I found. Boo-hoo. I just didn't have the fortitude to make it all the way across town to another store, so I just scooted it over to my list of things to do Monday.

Fangirl FTL.

Yesterday, doc added Seroquel to my current regimen (now 4). Man, it makes me mellow. I'm so chill, I'm ___(insert chill joke here)___. And I'm just getting started. Does anyone have positive/negative feedback about Seroquel?

Bummer about the comic book store, you know? My GPS has led me astray.

[Edit: Forgot to point out the text next to the black paint on the door. It says, "Let me in please." Somebody really wanted in, but not at the expense of etiquette . Magic word, ahoy!]

P365 Day 70: For those daytime midnights

MidNite PM (for the middle-of-the-night midnights) and regular MidNite (for all the midnights not in the middle of the night). You see the strangest things when you're killing 45 minutes at the pharmacy.

Speaking of the pharmacy, Paul and I got our flu shots when we went to pick up one of my prescriptions today. So to the 30 cadets who have the flu: You won't find us in your germy clutches! Aha!

P365 Day 69: Doc's office reading choices make my wait seem even longer

P365 Day 68: Chess: In Concert

Woah, I'm watching something that runs longer than 30 minutes? Amazing.

After keeping our last Netflix pick for a little more than four months -- it went to Memphis and back with us -- we finally sent it in and received Chess: In Concert Monday.

I'm a little less impressed with it than I thought I'd be. It picks up in the second act, but I almost didn't make it that far. In fact, I probably would have abandoned it altogether if it weren't for Idina Menzel and Adam Pascal -- I'm a Rent fan -- as well as Josh Groban. The three of them make this watchable. I can sort of see why this didn't do too well on Broadway.

P365 Day 67: Every donation helps(?)

Fred supports Goodwill by fuzzing everything we plan to donate. Thanks, Fred!

In all seriousness, I think we're going to have to throw out the top layer of clothes in that box. They're past the point of no return, fuzz-wise. I can't imagine what it would look like if we didn't brush her every day.

P365 Day 66: Horse pills

You know that prescription Paul picked up for me the other night? There's a new supplier for the generics, and the pills are huge. Like gag-inducing huge. Is it improper to tell the pharmacy to stick it to the new supplier? Ugh.

Hey, if you're looking to kill some time, check out the videos at Everything is Terrible. I found it through a Tweet from @ellekasey linking to an instructional video on cat massage. My favorite video is called "Face Magik." Watch it now!! Funny stuff.

P365 Day 65: Not *quite* as impulsive

At least I (mostly) stuck to my list. Apples instead of Oreos, fat-free Italian ice instead of Ben & Jerry's. Take that, Paul.

P365 Day 64: Impulse shopper

Paul went to the store to pick up a prescription for me and came back with a frozen pizza, Double Stuf Oreos, a bag of Dove chocolate, a bag of Kit Kat bars and a big bag of sour cream and onion chips.

... At least he remembered the prescription.

P365 Day 63 (Take 2): The "cool" shirt

The first photo I posted didn't come out very well, so I'm instead posting the hip(?) shirt Paul wore tonight. He picked out the first black shirt he found in his t-shirt drawer. It happens to say "Pirates and ninjas do not get along." This caught the attention of some dude who thought it was super-cool and told Paul to visit My Life is Average. (The site? Eh, average.)

Paul says he's too grunge to be a hipster. He should have worn his heavy metal shirt instead.

P365 Day 62: What's in the box?

It's like a big cereal box with a bigger prize inside:


It's computer parts! Yay!

P365 Day 61: And it's screened in, too

This is the view from my porch, which is where I'm hanging out because my computer parts have not yet arrived. They have left and arrived in West Columbia, S.C., twice now, just far enough away to make the drive annoyingly long. The parts are slated to arrive tomorrow.

Can't complain about being out here though. The weather is nice and the fresh air is welcome.

Bonus: A pic explaining P365 to a friend, in which he demands to be part of the project. You're welcome.

P365 Day 60: In which I try to overcome my fear of jellyfish

Paul had to teach on Labor Day, so we spent this afternoon at the beach. As you can see, we were the only ones there!

Unfortunately, after my run-in with a jellyfish a few weeks ago, I had a little trepidation about going in the water. For the record, my stings are still quite visible — I'm resisting the urge to post pictures of my lovely legs — but we followed all the anti-jellyfish rules: We went at low tide, after August ("jellyfish season"), when the water was cold and no hurricanes were nearby.

But here's the thing: In doing my research about how to avoid jellyfish — look, this was a real mental block for me — I came across this Surfline page about the South Carolina coast. Of course, the site was about all of South Carolina, but I immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was only about my part of South Carolina. The scary parts:

• "You will find sharks up and down this coast year-round. Mostly, there are smaller black tips and sand sharks, but also found out here are thresher, mako, hammerhead and tiger sharks."
• "Skates and stingrays also live here, and both have nasty poisonous barbs on their tails. Skates like to bury themselves in the sand and wait for someone to step on them."
• "Peak season for stinging jellyfish happens to be August, which, unfortunately, coincides with hurricane season. Strong swells can push hapless jellyfish into shore, where they make contact with your face as you duck-dive under that juicy peak."

(All of that is courtesy of Surfline, and it's only part of the story, so if you happen to stumble on my blog, go read the rest of it here.)

Well, it was enough for me to be sure I was going to run into a jellyfish with my face and sure I was going to step on something barbed. Paul made it worse by stepping on "something sharp" as soon as we got in the water and screaming like a little girl. I refused to go back in the water until I put my flip-flops on. For the record, it's hard to tread water while wearing flip-flops.

Anyway, we swam around for 45 minutes or so and I emerged unscathed. Looks like we'll get in about four more weekends before it gets too cold to go out.

P365 Day 59: Good reason to go to the gym

Have you tried this stuff? Decadent.

P365 Day 58: Short post so I can go back to weekend fun

This "I'm trying to sleep" picture beat out a picture of the chili we had for dinner for P365. Chili and Dane Cook on the DVR. Great weekend night -- even if it's not really picture-worthy.

Sigh. I'm torn between playing Champions, Pokemon Platinum and Rock Band. What to do, what to do?

P365 Day 57: Closet wonder

I am totally addicted to Wonder Hangers. I own way too many winter clothes, and Wonder Hangers are the only way I'm able to fit them in my closet. Yay, Wonder Hangers!

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This afternoon, I found a site called Paper Cuts that lists the number of newspaper layoffs and buyouts since the beginning of the year. It tops 13,500. At that rate, the number of layoffs/buyouts will top last year's 16,000. The site has a number of different mappable options (e.g., papers that closed, papers that went online-only, etc.). Little wonder why it's hard to find work out there.

P365 Day 56: In which Paul and I get new computers

(Go ahead, click on it. I'm Macarthur Snark, smack in the middle of that screenshot. Pixelation ahoy!)

When I heard about the Champions Online beta a couple of months ago, I was so excited because I have fond memories of playing City of Heroes with a nice little group of folks from Arsclan.net. Paul and I rather unexpectedly found ourselves in the CO beta, where we made a craptastic discovery: Our ancient computers simply could not handle the game.

Oh, believe me, I tried. I made it nearly all the way through the tutorial at 5fps (fewer?) with graphics that looked like this. It was really pathetic. But it wasn't like we could just run out and buy new computers; I'm still not working full-time, and we simply don't have the money.

And Paul said as much when one of our friends asked why we hadn't been playing.

Well, lo and behold, my brother-in-law — who really wanted to play CO with us and read the post — took pity on us and bought us each a new computer. New graphics card, new motherboards — the works. I won't say how much it cost, other than it started with an 8. The parts will get here Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm still not quite sure what to say (well, other than "thank you").

Just ... wow.

P365 Day 55: Cocoa mug

Congratulations! It's a lithium!

I woke up early and did my hair and makeup on the off-chance my doctor's office would call with a cancellation. They didn't, which means (1.) I should have stayed in bed, and (2.) I won't get to see my doctor until the next time he is in my neck of the woods — Sept. 17.

No worries. It's not swine flu or anything like that.

P365 Day 54: Little helper

Paul usually has a "helper" (not "hinderer," I swear!) hanging around when he's working from home. And, no, I'm not talking about me, though I'm sure I do my share of helping/hindering, too.

I got a voicemail from Mom today that said she just wanted to check on me and that she hoped "Fred and Joe were doing good and Paul was doing good and I was doing good." She called back literally one minute later and left a second message that said that she had to correct her message because I am an editor and that she hoped Fred and Joe were doing well and Paul was doing well and I was doing well.

Oh, I finally got around to making a mangatar. This is what mine looks like. It's like \(^-^)/ — but better!

P365 Day 53: Barbecups for dinner

... and seasoned corn.

The weather here is absolutely awesome — well, it's cloudy but the temperatures are nice and cool. When I went to the grocery store this afternoon, it was 77 degrees out ... not the eleventybillion degrees + humidity that's the norm around here. Niiice.