Life news this week:
- Saturday I got up on the early side and worked on my short story. Got my steps in and did my blogging. Wrapped up some holiday plans. Did some more sorting and scanning of photos.
- Sunday I got up pretty early again and it made the day feel long. Did laundry and trash. Worked on the short story all day but didn't get much done somehow. Worried about Jeaux because something went wrong with his phone and he wasn't answering some kinda important questions. We talked later in the day when his phone started working again.
- Monday was my last day of work before the holidays. I sent in a letter, bothered people to reply to me with materials they owed us, and updated a project report. Then I worked on the short story and finally finished writing it in the wee hours (though it's just a bloated draft). Also had to coach Jeaux on what food to buy when he did his shopping.
- Tuesday I got up late. And had to text with Jeaux about a butter emergency. Turned out both of us miscalculated some of the ingredients we would need and the butter was just the first stumbling block for that! But he was going to the store for other things anyway so he was able to get me more butter to bring the next day. My cookie-making plans got a little screwed up because I wouldn't be able to get one of the ingredients until Jeaux came over on Christmas, so I just made the cookies I could make with what I had in the house (snowball cookies and candy cane kiss cookies). I had issues with my mixer not letting me put the beaters in (but eventually I found out what was wrong), and also weirdly I got an egg that had THREE yolks in it. Weird! Then I did some dishes, washed the bedclothes for Jeaux to stay the night the next day, and recorded a karaoke song. And I did a Polo for Steve. AND I finally finished the last of the photo scanning from the photos in the garage. Very productive day.
- Wednesday I got up on Christmas Day and sent Jeaux a list of things to remember to bring. I prepared a recipe that would be complete once he brought sour cream, but he was kinda late so my cookies got into the fridge to chill kinda late too. Then he helped me make a cheesecake--my first cheesecake!--and we discovered we didn't have enough heavy cream or cream cheese for everything. But beyond that we did okay. We went out for Chinese food on Christmas, and then when we got back we made our homemade Thin Mint-inspired cookies and the chocolate wafer cookies that become sandwich cookies. After they cooled, we dipped the Thin Mints in chocolate coating and we made filling for the sandwich cookies, and once I sliced the refrigerator cookies and baked those too, we were done! Jeaux went to bed, I vacuumed the baking mess up and finished the dishes, and then I crashed.
- Thursday Jeaux and I got up early to run to the store to pick up our missing cream cheese and heavy cream! We were ready to start making our feast for my family gathering. I made biscuits, did dishes, took a coffee break while Jeaux logged in at work, and then began making a new recipe for me: fake chicken pot pies. Jeaux jumped in to make his vegan scalloped potatoes. We shared the kitchen pretty nicely, but I was stressed out because we were kinda behind schedule. I prepared some fruit and cheese to put out for my family in case they needed something to munch while waiting. (The cheese was very popular once they got there.) We then moved on to our other recipes: I made something called yum-yum corn, and he made green bean casserole. My dad and Connie arrived with brisket my dad made from his mom's recipe. We figured out how to get everything to share the oven, got the table set, and provided beverages. And then later Lindsay and Mike showed up. Very nice to see everyone and Lindsay asked "How's my little big?" (That is so cute. I am her "little big" because I'm five inches shorter but five years older.) We had a lovely meal and everything turned out as good as I could have hoped! I think everyone liked everything despite that apparently half my family does not like peas. (Peas were in the pot pies.) We then moved on to coffee, then dessert (my dad bravely had one of each of our SIX cookies plus cheesecake!), and finally gifts. I got some awesome presents from my generous family and Jeaux. Felt very loved. They left relatively early, and Jeaux hung out a little to help me clean up a few things and put the table away, but after he left I did a bajillion dishes and went to bed early.
- Friday I went back to work! I did some timesheets, reports, team invitations, reminders, and wrangling some communication. And also, something weird that will be a surprise to everyone: I found out I was cast in an upcoming comedy podcast as a voice actor. (I have not told anyone I was trying out. But I got the part!) More on that as it develops. After work I had to rush to draw Negative One because I did not do any drawing on the family celebration day. I got it all done and then had to do a lot of walking to get my steps in so I did a Polo for Steve. Then I processed some of my received gifts into lists I keep if they added to any of my collections, and sent thank-you texts to the appropriate people. And I finally got to read over about half of my recently completed short story.
Interviews, Articles, Mentions:
- ingloriousgigi on Threads recommended my videos and my book to people who want authentic information about asexuality, and two people discuss how important the book was to them.
New Reviews:
- Booklady gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Amazon.
- Claire gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Goodreads. (It appears to be the same as the Amazon review.)
Health Plan Update:
- Weight stuff: Well I've had a ton of weird eating this week because it's the holidays! Which is why it's also very strange that I had a new low within the week. Who knows how that happened. I recorded a high of 114.3 and a low of 112.4.
- Nutrition stuff: Holiday time is a good time to avoid worrying about restrictions, but despite that I am still managing to get three servings of fruit and veggies a day. It's become a definite improvement to my daily routine and I don't have to try very hard to make sure I get them anymore. I am still regularly taking vitamins.
- Activity stuff: I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Sunday at 10,036 steps, and my high day was Tuesday at 13,881 steps.
Books Read:
- Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
- Currently Reading: Dream to Me by Megan Paasch. I'm on page 74.
This week's karaoke song is "Over at the Frankenstein Place" from Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Stuff drawn:
My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One:
#1024: adele #251: an unearthly color.
Videos Made:
None.
New photos:
There is now a Christmas Album for 2024 if you want to see all the food pics and unabridged photo collection, but here are my favorites:
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| One egg with three yolks |
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| Hanukkah Day 1! |
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| Jeaux putting together a sandwich cookie! |
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| The holiday dinner spread. . . . |
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| Family enjoying! |
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| My plate. |
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| The desserts! Six cookies and a cheesecake! |
A few of family opening presents:
Social media counts:
YouTube subscribers: 5,468 for swankivy (no change), 680 for JulieSondra (no change), 16 for v & V Vids (no change), 210 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 66 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 802 for swankivy (lost 1), 3,658 for JulieSondra (lost 5). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 643 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 252 followers for So You Write (lost 1), 100 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (lost 1). Tumblr followers: 2,427 (no change). Instagram followers: 281 (1 new). Threads followers: 77 (1 new). Bluesky Social. Bluesky followers: 262 (8 new).
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