Missed it again!

I realized this morning while checking blogs that yesterday was the 14th and I failed to keep good track of my day. (See prior post referencing this topic.) I'll do the best I can and vow to do better next month.

5am. The alarm went off and I fully intended to hit snooze a few times, but Picasso started yowling outside the bedroom door. I got up and turned on the water for him to drink, then headed back to the bedroom, but as I walked he reached out and grabbed my ankle with his paw. I was so shocked that I gave up on sleeping longer.

I needed to take the car to work, to get home earlier, so I have about 40 minutes extra to get ready. Filled two bowls with the makings of oatmeal (one for a friend at work) and packed lunch. I had gotten a bargain on bone-in chicken breasts and baked them the night before. I took a chunk of italian-seasoning chicken, instant potatoes, and mixed veggies for lunch.

Checked my regular websites, took a shower, decided to wear my cute new skirt I bought at Ross for $5.49. It's brown with white polka dots, jersey fabric. The camera batteries are dead so no pictures of the day. Put a netflix movie in the mail and grabbed the inbound mail, all junk.

Normal day at work. Left right on time and happily hopped in my car to head home. The A/C isn't working in the car, so I rolled down both windows, found a ponytail holder, and quickly braided my hair at a long stoplight. Scrunched up one sleeve and stuck my arm out the window so I could darken my arm-out-the-window-tan. It's the only part of my body that tans instead of burning, so I love to do that.

Got home at 5pm and called my neighbor to tell her I was home. Grabbed a drink of water, dropped my backpack, and left to drive her to the Trax station so she could get to work. On the way, she told me the crazy story about why her van was dead. It caught on fire while her family was driving up the canyon for a day trip. Another driver who promised to call a tow truck at the bottom of the mountain didn't do so. After waiting for an hour with no cell reception, she hitchhiked with a stranger to a phone - scary!

Home again at the time I'd normally be home if I had taken the bus. Time to cool down and get a drink. Bye-bye nylons! My skirt was nice and cool so I didn't bother changing. Suddenly I was starving. I grabbed a big glass of water and dug in the fridge for something quick to eat. I ended up eating leftover "german pancakes" (not so good left over) and raspberry syrup from our local farmers' market. I headed downstairs to the computer, as it's cooler downstairs, to veg until the sun started to drop. I got a little too involved in a free online game, but at least it was cool and I was re-energized by the time I went upstairs.

Opened the blinds, put on an apron, and got down to business! My friend Lisa had her baby and I agreed to help take dinner tonight (Tuesday), veggies and dessert. Decided to make cake mix cookies. Chocolate cake mix, divvied it up into two batches, one with mint chips (yum!) and one with butterscotch chips. In between switching cookie sheets in the oven, turned on the water for various parts of the garden.

Since the oven was hot, I decided to make balkan meatballs (recipe from the OAMC cookbook) with the ground beef I just bought on sale. They are so yummy! Approximately tripled the batch, with my normal oh-so-precise measurements, haha. Somehow I always manage to fill the kitchen with smoke when I use the broil setting in the oven. I bumped up the thermostat so the A/C wouldn't switch on, opened the kitchen window and sliding door, and hastily fanned the air. Thankfully, the smoke alarm didn't go off.

Washed dishes and cleaned the counters/stove between the last few batches of meatballs. Froze some of the meatballs and put the rest in the fridge to make into meals. I'll probably freeze some complete meals and share one with Lisa. I figure you can always use more dinners when you just had a baby! The water pressure was kinda low while doing dishes, since the backyard and garden sprinklers were running. Contemplated what I'd accomplished that day while doing all this.

9:50 p.m. Not bad. I started the kitchen projects at 8pm and now everything's cleaner than when I started.

Got ready for bed, closed the windows, chugged more water (I get so dehydrated on summer nights), popped in the netflix movie I was trying to finish, and relaxed on the couch. Called Nathan first to have prayer. Woke up about 20 minutes later, stopped the movie, and went back to sleep.

Here are some numbers for the day:

Calls taken at work: 74
Emails resolved/forwarded at work: 79
Cookies: 3 dozen
Meatballs: 10 dozen