Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 37

Do You Binge Watch?

I hope all who celebrated the Fourth of July had a safe and fun time!

Okay now let’s talk about binge-watching. Wizard and I don’t binge watch a lot together.  I’m not really sure why, but if I had to guess, it’s just habit that we usually opt for a movie or documentary or something like that rather than an ongoing series that will suck us in. But a few days ago, we stumbled onto a series on Peacock called “Based On A True Story” and watched all 8 episodes of Season 1 over 2 or 3 nights (I lost track of time ). Then we found out that Season 2 hasn’t been renewed yet. Bummer.

This series is not great, but dang, it was so addictive and fun! Kind of a dark comedy soap opera thing. The concept is a struggling married couple come up with a killer idea for a podcast, strong arm someone else into being the subject of the podcast, and very soon lose control of the whole situation. Watching these two getting in deeper and deeper was so entertaining.

What Wizard and I learned is that we need to find more mindless, ridiculous and addictive shows to binge-watch, LOL!

How about you? Any shows you binge watch?

The post Do You Binge Watch? first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

A pretty good weekend, aside from one annoying thing. So for Turbo’s cupcakes I decided to make Italian Meringue Icing, which requires a precise method of heating sugar syrup to the soft ball stage using a thermometer and whipping egg whites at the same time. It’s both harder and more time consuming than American Buttercream but I wanted to do it to keep my skill up. So I did all the prep, got to work and half way through heating my sugar syrup my  thermometer died.  It was such a waste, but I pivoted and made a chocolate American Buttercream and Turbo was very happy with his cupcake (so were the others who ate them!).  Once we got to Turbo’s I had a great time playing with him. Wizard played with him too, but one of our other sons was there, and Wizard spent some quality time chatting with him while I hogged, uh, I mean played with Turbo.

Sunday Wizard went racing so I did a ridiculous amount of exercise, batch-cooking and cleaning because I had both the will and energy even though I knew I was going to pay for it today with a bit more pain. But there’s always a tradeoff in life. All the additional exercise, plus the way I’m eating, has upped my energy, but increasing the daily repetitive exercise is taking a toll on my joints and neck issues that spread down my right shoulder and back. I’ll have to adjust after I get done whining about it. It’s really not a big deal, I’ll add in some rest days and that will likely solve it. Maggie would benefit from rest days too.

That’s about it, my weekend doesn’t sound too exciting, but I enjoyed it. How was your weekend?

I hope everyone celebrating in the U.S. has a very Happy 4th of July!! Please stay safe and watch out for our pets during the fireworks.

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

TGIF! Time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

So far, more than 90% of all our plants are surviving! I think we’ve had two or three that died. I’m pretty happy about that! And we’ve had a lot more sunshine which makes the plants happy. Sadly, we elected not to get a lemon tree because Wizard is worried it’ll get too big and we don’t want that. I think I need to put my tomato and bell pepper off until next spring. We’ve gotten so much done, I’m fine with it. I happy just to have my little herb planter. We really enjoy the backyard.I had a couple days of not feeling my best, and made myself do less. YouTube shorts are a great way to distract myself and keep from starting projects that will end up making me more sore.On Thursday when I got up, I felt so much better, which means it’s nothing big flaring up, so yay!  As I had my coffee and planned my day, I swore I wouldn’t overdo it. And then I overdid it by 2 p.m. and kept going until the evening, LOLOL! I’m nothing if not predictable! But then again, why not? Life is too short to always worry about how I’ll feel the next day.Oldest, Special K and Turbo went to the Caribbean last week and just got back. My son has called twice to tell me all the fun things they did and the tasty food they ate. I’m not jealous   But truthfully, I am really happy they had such a good time because they both work so hard. The did have two glitches; a  travel delay for a day in Florida, and Special K had a little encounter with fire coral which she does NOT recommend. But otherwise they had a great trip!Tomorrow evening we are going to see Turbo and family to hear more about the trip and just hang out for dinner. I’m taking cupcakes because that’s what Turbo wanted — chocolate of course. Sunday Wizard is racing and I may or may not do something. Fourth of July is next Tuesday — time sure keeps flying!

So that’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours!

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Just For Fun — Choose Your Weapon!

A few months ago, I was cleaning blinds and listening to some comedy sketches when I heard a hilarious story that took place in Florida “Local Man Robs Wendy’s with Alligator”  The man was eventually charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon. I don’t know how that case played out because the funny part is robbing a fast food joint through the drive through with an freaking alligator as a weapon.

This basic story was true, you can look it up. The man had picked up an alligator that day–where??? I don’t know because I’ve never once wanted to have an alligator . But this guy got himself an alligator, and while it was in the car with him, he then decided to rob a Wendy via the drive-through because, clearly, he’s a efficient genius. If you stay in your car, then you shave off the time you would have spent running to the car and getaway faster, right? Anyhow, apparently he got a soda, and then he didn’t want to pay for it. And that’s when he picked up the alligator and threw it through the window. Then he drove off.

He was later caught and arrested. Dang, who could have guessed there was video surveillance? It could happen to anyone!

So I checked the story out, and yep, it’s true according to newspapers. Even better — his mother defended him and insisted it was a prank. I’m sure the three and a half foot alligator and the poor clerk had a good laugh about it. For the record, they were both fine (although they may both have some PTSD after that!) The nicest thing I can think to say is this mom may not be helping her son as much as she thinks she is.  Yeah, let’s leave it there.

But this story got me to thinking, if I was going to be arrested for something like assault with a deadly weapon with something really stupid, because lets face it this whole plan was stupid, what would that weapon be?

Luckily I have actually thought of this: My rolling pin! You see, this rolling pin is special. Wizard got it for me as one of the first birthday gifts after we were married. A. Rolling. Pin. For the record, I said thank you Let me just say that Wizard has improved significantly in the gift giving department! He’s actually better than me at coming up with good gifts! But that rolling pin has been a family joke for decades now and in a weird way, I cherish it. It’s a heavy, old fashion one that could do some real damage. Even better, it’s unlikely to hurt me in the process! So that’s my stupid weapon I’d be hypothetically arrested for.

What’s yours?

The post Just For Fun — Choose Your Weapon! first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

My weekend was fine. Nothing terrible, nothing super exciting. I did do some things I enjoy — working in the backyard, going on walks, some cooking and I went shopping which I don’t hate as much if I doing it just to get out and look around. So nothing really exciting to talk about there. Instead, let me tell you about this book I just listened to and the weirdest thing I’ve encountered in a very long time.

It’s a Women’s Fiction with five women getting together for a weekend, and each of them, plus an adult daughter filming this weekend, have a POV and a character arc. The women alternate POV’s as things are revealed, working up to the Biggest Reveal (AKA Black Moment) of the main character.  Okay, that’s typical Women’s Fiction. Now for the weirdest part.  Right after the biggest reveal, the dog of one of the characters suddenly has a POV. Like a human. Since I was listening to the book, rather than reading it,  I checked the time stamp and it’s about 3 minutes long. As best as I can remember this was the one and only time this dog had a point of view. Furthermore,  there was no point to this part. It didn’t move the story or reveal anything more about the characters. It was so freaky-weird, it threw me out of the story. Hard. I’m still shaking my head about this. My only guess is that maybe the author had included the dog’s POV in several places in her first draft, and she and her editor decided to remove them and this one was missed?

For the record, I’m not against a dog having a POV in a book if works. I find they work best in comedy, children’s or young adult or some kind of magical place. But not in this book. It just didn’t make sense.

Anyway, that’s the weirdest part of my weekend.

How was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF!! Friday is so reliable and shows up every 7th day like clockwork. I appreciate that! Okay time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine!

Top of my mind as I write this is that the five people on that Titanic submersible are presumed dead. So tragic. Confession time: I tried not to read this stuff and get invested because submarines in general trigger my fear of being trapped, plus the fact that wasn’t a fully functional submarine but a submersible dependent on a launch ship, and finally, I didn’t think this would have a better outcome. But I got sucked in, and I really feel for all the families and loved ones of the victims. Just to be clear, despite my own fears, I respect those who are more adventurous than me, and I’m deeply sorry this tragedy happened.I have not baked anything since Sunday. I’m mildly proud of that for some reason, LOL. I was on one heck of a baking spree last week.Yesterday I met Biker Witch for coffee, a little browsing and then we finished up the day at Trader Joes. I so enjoyed just seeing her and hanging together. Plus the coffee at the little pastry and sandwich shop we went to was amazing! It’s been awhile since I had such good coffee. The people who worked there (and I think owned it) were so nice and very friendly too. I love that. Then we found another lovely woman in a small arts and crafts shop — she’s a retired accountant now working for fun in her son and daughter-in-law’s business. I found her refreshingly happy and living the life she chose with joy.Oh, I just looked at my walking app and discovered I’ve walked 30 miles this month (that I tracked, I only track dedicated walks, not anything else). That shocked me. Of course, the math makes sense, but I just hadn’t thought about it. By the way, Maggie is fine now, I’m just making sure I keep her walks a bit slower and no more than a mile through at least today. Then we’ll edge up a bit more if she’s ready. She is an aging girl and it’s getting hotter so I’m keeping a close eye on her.Wizard and I planted the rest of the hill along the side of the house. I’m amazed at how much Wizard is doing now that his back is healed. He laid the rest of the drip line and dug all the holes for the plants! Now we have a couple bare spots here and there left to fill in with some plants but that’s easy to do. It’s been a bit of work and a lot of pleasure to work on this back yard. I hope we continue to love it over the years as we do now. Even Maggie really enjoys being out there! That said, in the summer we will miss our old pool, and that’s okay. We can always invite ourself to Youngest’s house to use his pool!

That’s my five now I’d really love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a fabulous and healthy weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Wednesday: The Good and the Bad

I’m going to do this backward — first the bad.

Here’s a pic of Maggie in one of her favorite spots 12 days after her hernia surgery:

I took this pic right before I wrote this blog. She looks good and acts normal, so I took her on a normal walk yesterday. When we got home, she threw up a little. I had an instant attack of major guilt. What the heck was I thinking???? Did I take her too far, push her too hard? But she was absolutely fine the rest of the day. And she has a history of occassionally throwing up for no reason anyone can find, so who knows? Wizard and I have been distracted with very serious worry about someone else we love, but that’s no excuse for me to be careless with Maggie. Her health and recovery are important too, so I’m going to keep her walks limited for another week or so.

Now for my good. My adult nephew stopped by unexpectedly. That was a joy! He was working in the area so he just popped in. I was in the middle of cleaning bathrooms and looked awful in my tank top and rubber gloves, LOL! But he didn’t seem to care, so I didn’t care either. He really brightened our day! Maggie met him once before, and clearly remembered him. She was as happy as we were to see him.

So that’s my good and bad, what’s yours?

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Weekend Roundup

I hope all the dads had a terrific Father’s Day! I think Wizard did. We went over to Youngest’s house for dinner and had a great time. Otherwise, I spent the weekend baking. First I tried a gluten free lemon cupcake recipe that I didn’t like. I threw half the batch away (they were underbaked) and froze the other half to taste another time. Sometimes it’s just me.

I regrouped, and made some gluten and dairy free chocolate crinkle cookies that came out delicious–they were my favorite with a tender flakey shell outside, with a brownie texture inside. After that I made some gluten and dairy free sugar cookies, and turned those into sandwich cookies with a dairy free chocolate buttercream — those were youngest’s favorite.

After that, I made the cookies I’ve been looking for an excuse to make: A raspberry cheesecake cookie that’s supposed to be a dupe for the Crumbl cookie version. I made those for Wizard and my daughter-in-law, and they were a winner with them! Since I’ve never had a Crumbl cookie, I have no idea if they were close to their version, but the as long as the people I made them for are happy, that’s all I care about. There’s was no reason to make so many different cookies, but I did it just for fun to test some recipes? That should hold me in the baking department for a while.

I finished listening to A HARD DAY FOR A HANGOVER and was sad it was over.

How was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF!! If I have my days of the week correct, then it’s time to share 5 random things about our week! Here’s mine:

Maggie is in the dog house! So her stitches are fine, and if you ask her, she’s 100% and has no clue what all the fuss is about or why I’m taking her on fake walks only to the end of the street and back. So I was outside working with my plants, and I got a new plant — chives — which I transplanted and gave some plant food. Maggie tried to eat the plant food <> and I told her to leave it. Then I decided to wash out my standing planter and put all the herbs on the ground on the side of the house. When I went back a couple hours later to move the plants — Maggie had dug out half the soil in my chives, probably eating the plant food or maybe the chives just smelled interesting, I don’t know. I was so mad at her! But it does show that A) She’s feeling good enough to be mischievous enough to get into something I’ve never seen her do before, and B) I’m leaving her out in the back unsupervised so I’m not worried about her.  I am worried about the poor chive plant! We’ll see if he survives.Wizard told me yesterday I couldn’t wash the floors because I’d done too much already. I just looked at him. He goes, “What? You say that to me and I listen.” Ha! Sometimes, he listens. Also, I washed half the floors only because I ran out of time and energy to do the rest. So I guess we both won? (Yes, I do listen…sometimes.)Wizard started clearing rocks and raking out the soil on the long side of the hill (with the retaining wall) where we haven’t planted anything yet and I helped in between making sourdough bread, which was as crazy as it sounds, LOL! I moved tons of rock. Well okay maybe it was pounds rather than tons, but I was happy I could do it without hurting myself. It’s so nice to see Wizard feeling better! We’re going to put my tomato and bell pepper plants there as we don’t think there’s enough sunshine on the other side where I originally wanted them. I’m not even sure I can keep the plants alive and get them to produce, but I’m gonna try!Last week I hit 10 miles of walking on my tracking app. I was pretty happy with that since I only track when I go out for long walks. This week will be much sadder. I think I got one or two 2-mile walks since I feel guilty going without Maggie. I’m trying to save the last couple hours of the audio book HARD DAY FOR A HANGOVER because if I don’t have Maggie with me, I love listening to it while walking. I just need the time in the morning when I tend to be busiest!I made and froze four layers of 8 inch found cake so I can decorate them for fun when I get the inspiration and chunk of time. It’s nice to have the cake layers in the freezer, ready to go when I am.

That’s my five (I know, I’m soooo bring these days!), now I’d love to hear yours!

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY to all the Dad’s!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

A Weighty Conversation

Before I get into the blog, I need to say I heard Monday night that Julie Garwood died. It feels like the world has lost a truely original talent. I loved her books! I want to thank her for sharing her sweet, funny and sassy romances with the world. I adored her heroines!

Now I want to share a conversation I had yesterday. I was standing in line at the grocery store while clerk was trying to stalk the point-of-sale racks there — you know the ones with the candy bars and snacks — and I was trying to stay out of her way. She stopped stocking, turned to me and shyly asked, “I see you in here all the time, I wonder how you stay so in shape?”

I was caught by surprise, and said something I think was polite and nice, but what I remember is away she said next. “I try so hard…” and she went on to describe her workout and how hard she works to eat right and she said she was 55. I would have guessed her to be late 30s, maybe early 40s! I told her how floored I was because that she looked much, much younger and that I thought she was lovely.

She was very gracious, but the weight bothered her and she told me some “old friends” had commented on her weight. I could feel that in my heart. This beautiful woman, who also appears to be kind and hardworking from what I could see, was really distressed by a few extra pounds. And I’m not only sad for her, but pissed.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why people would focus on something as unimportant as putting on a few pounds when this woman appears to have so much more to offer? I’m just mad, sad and disgusted about it.  I’ve had people say things to me over the years too, we probably all have. Sometimes, it’s just people with foot-in-mouth disease and say stupid things and I try to give them a pass. God knows, I’ve occassionally suffered from that disease myself and I’m always mortified.

But others? I think they are looking to bring us down to make themselves feel better. Which is utterly pathetic. Given that this women looked so young, maybe that triggered others’ insecurities, who knows?

What I really wanted to end with today is that each and every one of you have a special kind of beauty. Let’s all try to listen to our friends and family who recognize our positive beautiful qualities and ignore the mean idiots who find our insecurity and comment on it. They are the pathetic ones who don’t deserve our attention.

P.S. I’m not in any particular “good shape.” I think this women just needed to talk to someone and I’m glad I was there at the right moment.

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