a saturday like this

whelp. let's talk about today. i woke up at 7, and sent my hunny a message, as I always do.   while waiting for him to answer me i checked out what videos he sent me while i was sleeping. this time it was squirrels jumping on the trampoline, (that's ai, i told him later. i was met with silence followed by a reluctant 'maybe'. he loves squirrels so much.), a cute compilation of owls, (loved that), and a mommy hedgehog showing her naked little baby off. i got one more--squirrels climbing up someone's leg to receive large nuts, before we connected on our morning video call. 

i didn't lounge around in bed for long. jf i do, mohammad will say 'you don't want to walk?' i do... just sometimes i want extended lazy time and sometimes it's only 5:30 in the morning. but today all the conditions were right so soon we were up and out the door on a walk-a-roo. if he catches me in time, mohammad will remind me to drink some water before i go. but this morning he missed his chance and didn't remember until we were already on the road. i think the neighbours are pretty used to seeing me walking around holding my phone out in front of me in mid-conversation. i always say good morning to whoever we pass and sometimes mohammad will too. sometimes he will ask me if that was a man or woman. it's almost always a woman.... haha. anyway we walk and talk. today we were noting the changing of the leaves. the weeping birch tree on pinewell crescent had streaks of yellow in her hair. and the deep wine maple leaves on our road were begining to lighten to their gorgeous orange rust. everything was wet and dripping. i taught mohammad the word 'puddle'. we were almost home--back in the park--when mohammad had to 'do something.' "just some minutes," he said to me. "ok." i said and walked on my phone lowered to my side. i was on the path on the north end of the park that heads east to our house. there's townhouses on one side and big green field on the other side. ahead of me a man was walking towards me with a shaggy dark german shepherd. i noticed that as we got closer he moved out on to the grass. in my mind i thought 'oh that dog is probably not good with people.' a guy i see all the time in the mornings who has a border collie, always does that. so this man was moving his dog to the grass. he looked like he was going to give me very wide berth. but then the dog stopped to smell something in the grass. i saw the man gather up the leash to hold him very tight.  just as i passed the dog looked up at me and lunged with a bark towards me. i reacted very quickly without thinking. i moved my hips in and swiveled to the other side of the path and actually off of it, all in silence, and kept walking. my heart was thudding though. i heard the man telling his dog no and restraining him...but that felt too close for comfort.

back in the safety of our yard, i sat on a chair and caught my breath and of course texted my lover all that happened. he called me and was appropriately engaged in my story and concerned for my safety.  satisfactorily validated, i went upstairs to get my purse and keys. i had to go to work to put up a sign that we were closed for the day. "you must eat something. you need something after your walk!" insisted my hubbles. "eat some small thing," he coaxed." "i'll eat some dates," i said stuffing one in my mouth.  "what do you do with the date seeds?" he asked. "do you throw them in the garbage?" i showed him my bowl of date pits. "some people make coffee out of them..." he was telling me. "i know! that's why i'm saving them for you." i smiled as i headed out the door. and off to the clubhouse van which i borrowed for the weekend. mohammad and i were by that time sharing stories--he of a time a dog was attacking him near the village and he surprised himself by being in fight mode. he surprised the dog too. i told him about the time that dog blue in prince george, that we were all afraid of and was always off leash and belonged to the bus stop bully, was running to attack dad and dad kicked it in the head. but my heart smote me at that. i can't help but feel sorry for the dog.

anywho i got to work and went to print the sign but it wouldn't print because we shut off the printers on the weekends--which i'm gonna change because--annoying. so i printed it out and someone was ringing the doorbell and it was annoying me. so i was like "why are you guys ringing the doorbell." and they were like "aren't we open?" and i was like "first of all it's not 9:30 yet." and they were like "we open at 9." and then i felt like a heel for being snippy with them.

"don't forget to get chicken." reminded my hunny. 'chicken' is our shorthand for my once-in-a-while rushed breakfast which is a chicken mcgriddle. today i splurged and got a hashbrown too. it's the weekend afterall. i dipped it in hot mustard sauce. i ate it in the parking lot of kins fruit and veggie stand which was our next stop. we wandered the store talking about all the produce and finally i picked out some crunchy red grapes, some honey crisp apples, red pears, one pomegranate, sage and one really fancy mango. then i saw some baby bananas from colombia and bought those too. i always buy too much fruit there. i love fruit!

on the drive to the grocery store i told mohammad that the fancy mango turned out to be $14. this started a long back and forth. "one piece of mango? or one kilogram?" asked my incredulous hubs. "one mango! $14! one-four!" i would laugh. "laura. i asked one piece of mango? or one kilogram??" and i would reply the same way. and on we would go. the sound had become weird and he couldn't really hear me--which is a thing that happens all the time. so the call dropped. when i parked at save-on i called him back. "one mango. $14. one-four." i said before he could say anything. "that's what i wanted to know." he said.

at save-on i got butter and cream cheese and eggs, flour and sugar. nothing of note happened except i picked what looked like the shorter line but ended up being the longest wait. oh well.

by the time i got home we were disconnected. bethany was sitting under the balcony and picked up my sage packet which slid out of the kins box. i paid her with a grape. then when i was on the stairs it fell out again. again she got it and again i paid her with a grape.

sometimes one can go months, yea years with a dirty messy fridge and not bat an eye about it and then one day--one is ready to face the fridge. today was that day for me.  the produce bin was full of empty produce bags, rotting or hard as a rock limes, black un-recognizable herbs... i pulled it out, emptied it and washed it. underneath it on the fridge floor was a horror of crusties and moldies from some  spill in the past that i neglected to do anything about. today was the day. i tackled it with vigor. the glass shelf was mucky. today was the day. i washed it with hot soapy water. there were multiple jars of rotting things--i took them all out, and yes the eggs from  february were removed as well! hubs called me near the end of the fridge clean out. he was astounded about the eggs. they said feb 22 so at first i thought they were from 2022 but then i saw my new eggs said nov 22 so i knew it wasn't the year. still that stuck with him. "i'm going to tell your mom that you have eggs from 2022." he teased me. "she won't be surprised." i answered.

so i composted the disintegrated carrots and turnip. they do last a longer time in a jar of water...but not forever. and i dumped the tofu spread and soaking legumes in the garbage. as well as the cottage cheese from 2024--that's real. "if you are busy you can cut." says my lover from the shelf i have propped him on. "i'm not busy," i say as i balance a box of rotted fridge items and compostables. 

we lost connection some time after that. i went on to start my japanese milk buns. i worked that dough hard. "make sure you knead the dough until it reaches the window stage," intoned the internet girl. what is the window stage? the window stage is when you can stretch the dough so thin without it tearing. so thin that it's translucent. well a window is usually transparent. but not always. you don't know everything about windows. you don't know about dough windows. i worked the dough. i literally beat it. i told alexa to set the timer for 10 minutes. after 10 minutes it didn't stretch--it tore. 6 more minutes alexa. little bit stretchy but no window translucency. 6 more minutes alexa! and after that was done i beat it a few moments longer. i could no longer feel my wrists. what am i getting weak wrists now?? 

while abusing the dough i heard notifications on my phone but i couldn't really answer with my dough hands. it was hub-a-dub-dub. we video chatted more and i rested on my bed. saturdays are our days to spend more leisurely time together. i was telling him about my dough beating but he didn't seem impressed enough. he had been doing his own hard labour--winter-i-fying his apartment by putting all the carpets down. we talked for an hour and a half. by this time i also had some veggie stock boiling on the stove because i didn't want to waste my 2 successful garden beets. survived my garden to go soft and shriveled in the fridge? no! i can't let that happen!

after this little rest the next hour was a blur. i shaped my buns left them to rise, made my brown butter herbed cream cheese mashed potatoes and honey sage butter for the buns, did an egg wash for the buns, and put them in the oven down stairs to bake and brought up bethany's veggies to roast in my oven. i have a roasting oven but not a baking oven. i broke a jar in my sink when  draining the potatoes. my kitchen is a giant mess but everything is done. i pile the potatoes in a towering mound and bring everything downstairs.

mohammad calls me again and i show him all our thanksgiving foods. he's very sleepy by this time and we say goodnight. i help set up the dining room only flipping my lid about stupid little things a few times. i remind myself of dad sometimes. mom wants her beautiful turkey on display on the table without being carved. duncan and jenny are an hour and a half late. my buns are super tall. i glaze them with the sage honey butter and sprinkle flakey salt on top.

just the minute before duncan and jenny arrive mom decides that i can carve the turkey. but then i feel on the spot. i do it but i'm high on grumbles and low on grace. "i annoy her sometimes." mom says to duncan and jenny. sigh. but then we eat and everything is delicious. i had 2 buns and am full very quickly.

visiting happens.

i carve the rest of the turkey and put the bones in the pot for a soup.

duncle and jenny leave. i follow them to make sure they see my green house.

and that is my day. i cooked and cleaned. i chatted off and on with my lover. i was too snippy and my kitchen is till a mess. and the question remains, will mohammad wake up before i fall asleep?