Three confessions
1) I’m not putting up a Christmas tree this year. Since we’re leaving for our Tennessee trip the day after Christmas, I don’t want to leave it up while I’m out of town. (I don’t trust those sweet, darling cats of mine!) I’m sad not to have a gorgeous sparkling Christmas tree to enjoy, but I have enough other decorations to keep the place merry and cheerful.
2) Earlier this week, my apartment complex sent me a note that they will start charging a flat rate for our water bill. Previously, it’s been charged by usage and I never paid more than $50 a month. My flat rate will now be $70 and I am so annoyed. But the bright side is that guess who’s about to do the smallest dishwasher and laundry loads she’s ever done? Two baths a day? MAYBE. (I’m joking, of course.)
3) Riddle me this: I don’t like raisins on their own or in oatmeal cookies or in most other forms. But I am obsessed with cinnamon raisin toast, and I eat the raisins in the toast. I find them delicious! How is this possible?!
Three podcasts on my to-be-listened-to list
1) Megacorp – This podcast released in 2022, discussing some of the unethical and downright dangerous practices of Amazon.
2) Corporate Gossip – This podcast is hosted by a brother-and-sister pair and they discuss all sort of crazy and wild corporate news in a gossip-y, fun way.
3) The Crossbow Killer – A true crime mini-series that sounds pretty wild.
Three things I’d like to do in Tennessee
1) Go snow tubing – We’re thinking of spending a day at Ober Gatlinburg and I want to go solely for snow tubing. The last time I went on a winter vacation like this, I was in 6th grade and we had a day where everyone went snow tubing, and I was too scared to try it. I need to do it for 12-year-old me!
2) Spending time in the Smoky Mountains – We’re staying in Sevierville, which is about 20 miles north of the Smoky Mountains. I’ve planned two days of our trip to spend there; once with the dogs (there are two dog-friendly hikes we can do) and once with just us. I’m scoping out very easy hikes for us to do because strenuous hikes are not for me.
3) Lots of lazy cabin nights – We booked such a beautiful cabin and I’m really looking forward to utilizing it to its fullest extent. There’s even a hot tub!
Three favorite game apps
1) Happy Color – My mom just started using this app and now we get to gush about how obsessed we are with it. Yay!
2) Cooking Fever – The app that takes all of my money and I’ve learned to be okay with it.
3) NYT Games – I play Wordle, Connections, Letter Boxed, and Tiles on a daily basis through this app. It’s so much fun!
Three cute things my cats did recently
1) Eloise trying to chase her tail while she sat in a pile of garland.
2) I was sitting on the couch reading and I turned my head to the left to see Lila on her back, staring at me with one of her paws outstretched. She was impossibly adorable and I had to give her all of my love and attention!
3) Every time I walk into my bedroom and they’re sleeping on the bed together. They don’t snuggle with each other, but will sleep in their own spots and I find it so cute.
Three of the highest-rated books on my Goodreads TBR list
1) Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (4.78 stars on 77 ratings) – This book doesn’t come out until 2024 and there are a handful of 5-star ratings from people who have not read the book, but are confident they will give the book 5 stars. So annoying.
2) The Night Parade by Jami Nakamura Lin (4.75 stars on 53 ratings) – This book just came out a week ago, and Jamie Golden gave it a “green light” on The Popcast, so I’m intrigued! It’s a speculative memoir that sounds really intense, but incredible.
3) Dear White Peacemakers: Dismantling Racism with Grit and Grace by Osheta Moore (4.7 stars on 1,022 ratings) – This book was published two years ago and hasn’t gotten a whole lot of attention, but those who have read the book have loved it. This one isn’t available through Libby or through my library, so it’s one I would have to buy and I haven’t felt particularly inspired to do so.
Three goals I have for 2024
1) Get my nose pierced – This was a goal for the end of 2023, but I don’t think it will happen. That just means it’s a goal for 2024!
2) Go on a solo vacation – I’ve never been on a vacation alone! It’s not cheap to vacation solo (nobody to share the cost of the accommodations!), which is why I haven’t done so. But in 2024, I am going to make a point to take a solo weekend away.
3) Launch a new blog theme – Once my blog recategorization project is complete, I want to find a new blog theme (I use Etsy!) and spruce up this place a bit. I’ve earned it!
Three recent purchases
1) A set of 11×20 black picture frames. (Here’s what I did with them!)
2) A new litter mat for the girls. The one I have now just isn’t working as well as I thought it would, and it’s time for something new.
3) Mrs. Meyer’s hand soap in peppermint scent. Yay for holiday soaps!
Three TV shows I have no interest in watching
1) Sex and the City – I feel like this is the kind of show that you had to watch while it was live and doesn’t exactly hold up in today’s times. I know many people who loved this show, but I think I’m just fine not understanding which SATC character I am.
2) Orange is the New Black – Prison storylines are triggering for me, and a whole show about prison? Nope.
3) Girls – I’m not a Lena Dunham fan and I have no desire to see this TV show.
Three things on my to-do list
1) Fix my clock – Ugh. So, I took my big wall clock down so I could change the time to the correct one. And I guess I didn’t stick the clock back on the wall as firmly as I should have (it’s hung using Command strips), and the wall clock fell off my wall and a sliver of the top section broke off. I can fix it with some wood glue, I think, but ugh, I am so mad at myself!
2) Call maintenance – I need a bunch of things fixed in my apartment (my tub drain, some lighting fixtures, my toilet seat, etc), and I just keep putting off the call to maintenance. And now that I know that one of our maintenance guys is McDreamy-level hot, I’m going to have to make sure I’m looking my best whenever I do make that call. He won’t catch me unaware again!
3) Hang up my floating shelves – I bought a pack of drywall anchors that I can screw into the wall with just a screwdriver (h/t to Elisabeth for alerting me to these products!) so I think I can hang up these shelves myself. I want to give it a try, at least.
What’s a TV show you have no interest in watching?
OOOOOh- a solo vacay sounds really fun. I love those frames! The Smoky mountains are so beautiful, and I best Christmas time is a perfect time to be there all snugly in a hot tub with snow and bears and pretty lights— how fantastic.
Based on everything I know about cats==>wise decision to skip the tree
Yay for all the vacays! Solo and otherwise. TN is an easy place for me to get to, so I’ll be taking notes when you write about it.
I’ve had the NYT app for years! Yes it’s $40 a year, but my cost per use is nothing.
TV shows – I was obsessed with SATC…20 years ago. You couldn’t pay me to watch it now. The book for Orange was really good and so were the first few seasons, but then it got stale so I stopped watching. Girls was a slog.
That’s annoying about the flat rate and I’d totally be tempted to use more water!!!
Snow tubing sounds so fun! I want to do that this winter too! And yay for spending time in the mountains! I hope the trails you want to hike aren’t snow covered!
Your girls are adorable! I always love hearing about them!
That is really annoying people are giving Just for the Summer high praise when they haven’t read it. Authors can have stinkers. I hope it isn’t, but they can!
Where are you thinking for solo vacation?
You definitely don’t need to watch SATC – it’s so old now and the new ones are a trainwreck! Girls is meh too (but I’ve watched all of both of those LOL).
TV show I have no interest in watching – Big Bang Theory, Friends, most of them, actually. I have a hard time paying attention to TV shows.
I’d probably do a drivable distance for the solo weekend. Maybe St. Augustine?
Ive done solo vacations – well went to my parents house on my own over a long weekend. Does that count? I mean it is nothing new and I don’t have to pay but it does feel like a mini vacation.
I do want to take a weeklong vacay on my own though for a photography retreat in Scotland. Or the Galapagos Islands. That would be so fun.
Having a flat fee for water is unthinkable here in germany. I think it is actually a law that it needs to be billed by usage. It also doesn’t help for environmental awareness I’d say. Some people my not think about water much when its the same same all the time.
I’d definitely say it counts!
I am so angry that it’s not being billed by usage and is just a flat fee, especially because it’s almost DOUBLE what I pay myself for water monthly. And you’re totally right that it doesn’t help people use water responsibly when it’s a flat fee like this.
I have seen all three of those TV shows and enjoyed all of them, and yet I think you aren’t missing a whole lot by skipping them, LOL.
My daughter and I have been playing Connections together. She is really good at spotting how things go together!
Connections has been SO much fun! It really stumps me sometimes.
I have no interest in most tv – Sopranos, The Americans, Mad Men – I don’t want to watch it. It all sounds like homework. LOL. I have watched Sex and the City (I liked it!), but otherwise I haven’t seen those other two, either. I did read OITNB and I thought Piper Kerman sounded like a terrible person.
A solo vacation? Since you mentioned a “weekend getaway” I’m wondering if it’s going to be a driving trip in Florida. I”ll be interested to hear all about it!
There are only two sadder things than not putting up a Christmas tree: 1) putting it up but then having to take it down the night of the 25th, or 2) returning from a trip way after Christmas to find the tree still up. So I think your choice is correct.
I love the portraits of the pets! And, after I wrote in my post yesterday about how my cats don’t like each other, I found them lying on the bed together, pretty close to each other! I think they were both a little worried because electricians were in the house.
Yes – I’ll probably do something driving distance. I was thinking of St. Augustine!
Awww, Charlotte was letting Muffin find comfort with her! That’s adorable.
Sex in the City absolutely is a show you needed to watch when it was first out. It was really something back then and omg it would not hold up well now. I loved it back in the day, let us not get it wrong! It was also the cause for one of the biggest fights between me and my husband. We had such an argument about one of the episodes, it’s ridiculous to think about it now.
I have no interest in watching most shows! It would be hard to think of one that I am interested in. We have been watching Only Murders in the Building, and I’m enjoying it, but we are in season two and I’m losing interest.
Your trip to Tennessee sounds fun! I totally understand about the tree.
OMG, I need to know more about this fight between you and your husband based on SATC. Did you write about it on your blog?! It’s so funny how shows can do that to us!
“I eat the raisins in the toast.” I am the same way and it makes no sense, but there you have it.
A new blog theme will be exciting, I look forward to seeing what you choose. I did this a few years ago and about lost my mind with indecision.
I won’t watch Game of Thrones, ever. The book Orange is the New Black was infinitely better than the TV show.
There are so many shows I have no interest in watching. I loved SATC but have no interest in the other 2. I feel like the shows I have interest in is a very very short list and I can pass on the rest. Like Better Call Sal, West Wing, Parks and Rec, and the list goes on. I am just not a tv person!!
The question is – which TV shows would I be interested in watching? I don’t watch much TV and haven’t seen SO MANY shows others rave about.
A solo vacation sounds amazing. I have traveled alone (although I wouldn’t call it a real solo vacation per se) and I’d do it again. There’s something freeing about it.
Ugh, the flat rate for water is so dumb IMHO it just tempts people to not use their water responsibly… and I know you take a lot of baths (compared to other people), so if your water bill was lower than the flat rate, I wonder how much water other people are using in your complex.
Negotiate that flat rate! If you have records showing yours is always $50, I’d show them!
Ok, the flat rate for water is just stupid. Who came up with that? Did they just take the total usage and then divide by the number of people? Are people who have more than one person in the apartment getting charged more? This makes no sense – I’d push back.
Solo vacation. Go for it. We’ll all live vicariously through you, thanks. Also for the Smoky Mountains – have ALWAYS wanted to go there. Always. I can’t wait to see your pics!
I loved Girls, but I would never bother with SATC. I’ve tried the first few episodes, like, three times, and it just doesn’t interest me at ALL. I think you’re definitely right that it was a “you had to be there” kind of show for when it first aired! And the same may be true of “Friends,” IMO? I am, however, currently watching “Six Feet Under,” which started in 2001 and it’s AMAZING!
Also, I remember giving you some travel tips when you’ve never been anywhere before, and you were SO nervous. Look at you now, thinking about traveling alone! I love how much you’ve come to love exploring new places. I’ll be in Tennessee around Christmas, too, but to visit my sister-in-law in Nashville. I haven’t been to see her since she moved, so it should be a fun trip.