Hibernation

 

Pretty strong hibernation action (non-action) going on over here.

Now that we've gotten through all 839 days of January and

can soon begin a different month on the calendar, I thought I'd share

a bit of what I've been doing all month.

Reading books, finishing old projects, putting in some couch potato time,

going through the house to clear out old and broken things.

Hey Vern!

Ernest is here!

In Screaming Pines!

Found it on the online auction website.

Not many listings for this Ernest P. Worrell talking doll

from the 90s.

The talking box doesn't work on this one, but he's in great shape otherwise.

Even has his hat, which is removable and easy to lose.

A small part of my childhood, full circle again.

My two personal gods.

Both have birthdays in January.

Huzzah! Huzzah!

Working through the food in the fridge and the cupboards.

Got a nice piece of salmon and for an easy dinner, I

steamed the fish in the air fryer and sauteed some zucchini spears.

A tasty meal.

After covering all of my bills, hacking down a huge chunk of

debt, and putting extra cash into savings, I had some mad money left over.

So, after finding the Ernest doll on eBay, I tried to replace some aging cosmetics.

Found some palettes from the Pixi clearance sales. Plus glitter, because you

never know when you'll need some serious glitter. Couldn't find the Pixi

product I was searching for; I guess it's not available anymore.

A rare, almost nice-looking photograph of Sammi Turtle.

She is also hibernating, and not much interested in food or

really anything.

She spends a lot of time basking under her UV lamp and living the easy life.

Procured passport photos, plus a digital copy, and went through the

process of renewing my expiring passport.

I qualified to do the renewal online this time, hence the digital copy

of my photo, and after a few weeks, my shiny new passport

arrived in the mail. All set for new adventures.

Finishing some other books, I dug out this book on the history of ska music

that's been in the to-be-read stack. I also found a copy of Medieval

history on the bookshelf that will go nicely with the Comm U class

I'm attending in February.

A local musician friend died. Somewhat unexpectedly.

So I took a few hours off of work to attend his service.

Several other musicians were there, and we had enough to form

a little band to play some tunes for the service.

Back to makeup stuff.

The top palette is one I've had for way too long.

But I really like it and it's a great everyday, neutral colors eyeshadow palette.

I knew the end was near, so I set out to see if it was still being produced

by Lorac.

And it is!

Exact shades and compact.

And very reasonably priced, as far designer brand makeup palettes go.

Ahh. Fresh and new.

The lighting makes the colors look different in this picture,

but they are the same shades.

A tasty African lunch on one of the coldest days.

This spinach sauce with rice is so nice and warm.

With a refreshing ginger juice.

Replaced the old TV antenna with this sleek black one.

It blends in better on the TV stand.

I didn't intend to replace this, but I picked up the

new one while at Menards for the 15% off sale blitz.

Anything you can fit into the paper bag gets the discount.

Shown here, it worked right out of the box, and picked up a channel

showing a marathon of Murder, She Wrote episodes. Double score!

yeah, it's been a slog of a week...month...year?

In the spirit of going through what's already in the house,

I've been going through the collection of hair supplies.

This collection is a result of a Birchbox subscription that I

had for a few years. I ended the subscription a while ago,

but still have a lot of products to use.

Because most of them are sample sizes, I can use up

the ones I like, and if they don't work for me, well, it's okay

it was a sample size.

A friend had a Lego party night.

I braved the frigid cold and over tea and cheese and cracker snacks,

I built this cute little toucan.

I named it Rick James.

Because Superfreak was playing on the radio when I finished it.

The kit is a 3 in 1. Meaning the parts can be rearranged to make three different builds.

Naturally, I chose the bird option.

The watermelon and the flower are all part of the bird design.

The base part is supposed to be a round green piece, but it wasn't in the

bags of pieces. It was missing!

How could Mr. Lego do this to me!?

My friend put together a base from leftover pieces, and that worked pretty well.

Broke out the super warm sweaters and hoodies to get through the week

of frigid cold temperatures.

The Running from Yeti hoodie is a remarkably good quality piece of race swag.

The T-shirts from races aren't always very good, because they get them 

cheaply in bulk, but this hoodie has been great.

So, I've dealt with all the oranges by squeezing them into

delicious juice.

Now to do something about the abundance of apples in the fridge.

I've never made an apple crisp before, but it didn't seem too hard,

and I had most of the ingredients already, though I had to

make a trip to Aldi for some sugar, as I was all out.

I don't do much baking.

My apple crisp took all afternoon to finish.

Peeled and cut the apples, added the sugar and cinnamon

and made the oatmeal topping. 

Making the topping.

I added chopped pecans because I like pecans and it

is an easy addition.

Ready for the oven.

While the apples were crisping, I enjoyed a tasty dinner of

sweet potato, veggies and a lentil/rice mix.

Simple but good.

The apples are baked through, the topping is (mostly)

cooked and melty.

I added some butter pecan ice cream.

Because if I'm going to go through all the work to

bake this, I might as well enjoy it properly.

Very good. One of my better dessert creations.

And with more than enough leftovers to eat apple crisp all week!

Between work and the gym and teaching and just lying around

waiting for something to happen, I finished this cross-stitch project.

I found it in a box of old things.

I'd started it at least 15 years ago and didn't finish it.

A Live Trax of a show I was at!

This was last year's show I attended in Chicago.

Excited to listen to it again.

It was a great set.

The apple crisp warms up nicely in the air fryer

(remember that I lack a microwave by choice).

So yummy.

With the gift card I won from the costume contest at the

10K in St Louis last October, I did some shopping on the

store's website.

They didn't have any Asics, my usual brand, but there were some

winter discounted Brooks. Found a colorway in my size, and,

after reading some reviews on this model, I Added to Cart.

They arrived within a week.

Feel pretty good on try-on.

Hope they carry me many blister-free miles this year.

The cross-stitch project finished.

Maybe I can figure out how to clean the pen marks in the middle,

but it's done now.

Only took me 15 years.

Maybe I'll frame it and hang it on the wall.

Is January over yet?