For What It's Worth


Friday, March 15, 2024

It's a wrap! Weekly update - life, baking, watching, reading, music

 IT'S ALMOST SPRINGπŸŽ•

My plants are budding, we will have SUN for at least 5 days. I am happy! 

Not a whole lot going on here. I've felt kind of sick and the weather was awful so I've mostly only done what I had to and not much else.

Our counter was finally installed and fit this time. YAY! Just tiling the backsplash is left. 

Kevin and I had our 37th wedding anniversary this Thursday. Hoo-boy that's a long time! We were just babies when we got married at 22 years old. All the people who said it wouldn't last are now divorced so ha!

Also, I totally forgot to celebrate (due to the not doing much blogging thing) but December was my 14th year of blogging. WHOA. So much has changed over those 14 years and only a few of you are still here and blogging. I may be scarce but I'm still not ready to give it up.

So what have I been doing this week?

BAKING:

I was planning on baking a cake and trying my hand at making my own frosting for our anniversary - but, like I said, I wasn't feeling great and a giant sugar bomb was not what I was in the mood for. Maybe next week. 

I did make a sourdough focaccia. It turned out really well but I tried a new method and it didn't rise at all at first. Normally, I would have gotten defeated and thrown the dough out and never baked again lol but I had invested so much time - so I threw the whole thing (pan and all) into the fridge overnight then put it in a warm spot to rise the next day and it worked!

I had also put olives, rosemary and sundried tomatoes on top but the tomatoes burned to a crisp so I plucked those off. I send a lot of my baked goods to Kevin's work and this one got a thumbs up. 

I've also now have people suggesting recipes to me try and I LOVE THAT! I did the Pandesal rolls last week and Sam sent me a recipe for chocolate brownie sourdough and I think I'm going to give a try! It's a bit more challenging but I'm game to try.

WATCHING:

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom - MAX - This was bad (IMO of course). Bad story, bad acting, really bad CGI. Neither of us liked it. It wasn't even silly, cheesy, good/bad fun. 

The Gentleman - Netflix - We're watching this now. It's a series by Guy Ritchie about an aristocrat that inherits his families estate and discovers they are running a marijuana business on the property. He tries to sell it and get the family out of the whole thing but gets caught up in mess and after escalating mess. Very violent, kind of fun. I like Theo James (the aristocrat) and Kaya Scadalario (daughter of the marijuana business) as the leads but it's also getting increasingly wacky. 

Damsel - Netflix - We both loved this one! It stars Millie Bobbie Brown as a girl sent off to marry a prince to save her family from poverty. She thinks she's marrying a pretty good guy and helping her family survive, until after their wedding ceremony where she learns she is to be a sacrifice to a dragon. Really fun movie - a nice twist on the genre and I loved the ending.

READING:

I finally finished listening to Lights Out in Lincolnwood by Geoff Rodkey.

I really wish I DNF'd this one. 

It was supposed to be dark humor & satire on the rich having to struggle and get scrappy to survive an apocalypse but it was basically a whine-fest with too much set up.




MUSIC:

Most of you are much younger than I but a-ha and their groundbreaking (& still fabulous) video for Take on Me were a big deal in my day (the 80's).

Here's the band doing an acoustic version for MTV and it's gorgeous. I love it, but I have to admit, in my brain, I kept singing it faster and mentally twirling through rooms like original lol  

a-ha Take on Me acoustic 



How was your week? What are you reading, watching, doing?

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Tell Me Something Tuesday


4 women of various races sit on a blue sofa thought bubbles about their head that say Tell Me Something Tuesday
Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post where bloggers discuss a wide range of topics from books and blogging to life in general. 

It is co-hosted by (Linda from Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell, Roberta from Offbeat YA, Jen from That’s What I’m Talking About, Berl's from Because Reading is Better than Real Life  and me) 

Join in by answering this weeks question in the comments or on your own blog.

If you would like to join TMST and receive periodic emails of upcoming topics, please fill out this GOOGLE FORM. TMST is a laid back meme – join in or opt out depending on your interest in topics or schedule.


Question: What genres do you tend to avoid?


Answer: My reading has changed so drastically over the years that is tough for me to answer. 

I guess, the few genres that I still struggle with overall are:

Fantasy - I just don't care what color the sky or blades of grass are, or some new language. The world building tends to overshadow the characters & I glaze over the laborious descriptions.

Thrillers - I know this is a hot genre right now and I've tried, but it's another genre that features plot devices over character and it ends up being difficult for me to care what happens to anyone. And I almost always figure it out by the second or third chapter, so I'm left waiting for the supposedly brilliant investigator or whoever to figure things out. 

Sci-fi - another one with details that escape me and I glaze over. 

The two above genres (thrillers and sci-fi) have a somewhat procedural/bland tone to me when I'm reading and I get bored. 

Multiverse - I hate it in movies and books. There are so many possibilities that anything can happen - then unhappen - then happen again. For me, nothing means anything after a certain point because it can all be reversed. (I'm so, SO sorry Roberta lol)

I say this with the caveat that I have found books I've loved in all of the above genres. But who knows! I used to be a hardcore - 5 book a week - romance genre junkie and now I can barely get through one. I used to HATE angsty YA, now it's what I prefer (in audio). 

So, maybe next year I'll be an avid sci-fi reader lol Who knows!

What genres do you tend to stay away from?



Friday, March 8, 2024

Weekly Update: Life, Baking, Watching, Reading & Ripley...

I'm not sure what to call this post - other than the super exciting - Weekly Update. I was sure I wouldn't, in fact, update weekly so I didn't worry about it too much - but here I am TWO WEEKS IN A ROW!

I even did my TMST again this week and have three more already drafted.

It was a somewhat slow, uneventful week. We're putting in a small coffee bar type area in my kitchen. The process has been going on since around November as the stars never seem to align for ordering the cabinets and installation. The cabinets were finally installed a few weeks ago and the countner was supposed to be put in Wednesday - but after they got the counter up here - it didn't fit. Grrrrr So take two happens next week and fingers crossed it will be done. 

a park setting covered in a light snow, with daffodil blooms to the right and pond in the background

March is a moody beyotch. After a glorious week of fake spring - this happened. Every day it rained, snowed, hailed, sun came out - repeat. So rude! We're having a few days of sun Thursday and Friday but very cold before we go back to a week of rain. 

Over. It. 

BAKE:

a tray of freshly baked pandesal rolls
After posting about my ube brownies on IG - a friend told me a had to try making Pandesal rolls and have them with ube.

They are a popular Filipino breakfast/snack roll . They are super soft and rolled in a very light coating of bread crumbs for a bit of crunch. Sooooo good, especially warm with the ube jam! A+ rec!

*For those who don't know - ube jam is made with purple sweet potatoes - usually found in Asian grocery stores. I used jam from Trader Joe's that they usually sell around June-ish.

This is the recipe I used No-Fail Pandesal recipe. I have a bread machine and I mix on the dough only setting and then shape/bake in my oven. 

I used ube jam spread after they baked , but many recipes have you using the jam as a filling or even using a melty type cube of cheese before baking. I'll definitely be making these again.

WATCHING: 

Napoleon - Apple+ - ok, so this was never going be a *me* movie but it was soooooo 😴😴 Even Kevin didn't like it. It felt woefully miscast with Jaquim Phoenix as Napoleon.

Other than that, we haven't started anything new. We're waiting for Shogun to rack up a few more episodes before starting that and we watched the latest episode of Masters of Air on Apple+.

READING: 

I'm still reading Lights Out in Lincolnwood by Geoff Rodkey. I'm almost done and I don't hate it but I don't really like it either. All the characters are just so whiny and useless lol I think I might write a review for it because, even though it's not my jam, I think some of you would like it. 


HAPPY BIRTHDAY RIPLEY πŸŽ‚πŸ₯³

a sable and white sheltie's face looking down from a black leather sofa

Ripely turned 4 on Tuesday and, unfortunately, had to spend it at the vets for an ear infection. (weirdly - the same exact thing happened with Kai on his birthday in December) 

She is definitely one of the more challenging dogs I've ever owned but I adore my, let's be nice and say, feisty, baby girl  πŸ’•