Fall Chitter Chatter (2020)

[Ryrin]

                           

 

It finally looks like Fall here.

 

Can you list your 5 favorite things about Fall?

[Ryrin]

My favorite things:

 

1. Cool Weather

2. Hot chocolate

3. Baking.

4. Candles

5. Dog Walking 

 

I've been preoccupied. We've had a slew of holidays!

[LadyWordsmith]

Favorite Things About Fall:

1. Cool weather for walking 
2. Rainbow leaves that rustle in the wind 
3. Smell of campfires/chimney wood fires 
4. Hot Soup Season! 
5. National Novel Writing Month! (November is coming) 

[Ryrin]

Oh, I’ve been walking. I use those Nordic type sticks when I’m on a trail. They help because I have back problems. I went the last two days.

 

How could I forget soup? What kinds do you like to make? I use Asian soup bases, bone broth, lots of veggies, and maybe chicken.

[LadyWordsmith]

A wide variety! I love seasonal soups (like creamy butternut squash, pumpkin soups, and the like) but also thicker things, like stews. Schi is another favorite (Russian/Eastern European cabbage soup, we like to make it with beef sausage). Also more asian-inspired soups (we're pretty good at Ramen lol, though nothing fancy yet or heavily authentic, but at least it's got meat and vegetables). Once we get moved I have some translated cookbooks I want to play with doing more Japanese and Vietnamese soups. 

Tonight's stew is a beef-and-bison with a tomato base, with small potatoes (multicolor blend), rainbow carrots, sweet onions, sweet corn, butternut squash, and a healthy dose of 'Forest Lord' spice mix (from Auntie Arwen's Spices), with a little extra garlic. I made an entire stock pot full, so it should feed us most of the week. I like how it turned out, so I'll probably write it down. ?

 

[Ryrin]

  On 10/13/2020 at 2:32 AM, LadyWordsmith said:

A wide variety! I love seasonal soups (like creamy butternut squash, pumpkin soups, and the like) but also thicker things, like stews. Schi is another favorite (Russian/Eastern European cabbage soup, we like to make it with beef sausage). Also more asian-inspired soups (we're pretty good at Ramen lol, though nothing fancy yet or heavily authentic, but at least it's got meat and vegetables). Once we get moved I have some translated cookbooks I want to play with doing more Japanese and Vietnamese soups. 

Tonight's stew is a beef-and-bison with a tomato base, with small potatoes (multicolor blend), rainbow carrots, sweet onions, sweet corn, butternut squash, and a healthy dose of 'Forest Lord' spice mix (from Auntie Arwen's Spices), with a little extra garlic. I made an entire stock pot full, so it should feed us most of the week. I like how it turned out, so I'll probably write it down. ?

 

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 That sounds really good!

[LadyWordsmith]

Thanks! It turned out really delicious.

 

Trying not to be too nervous about Tuesday. So, a little over a week ago our Buyer had to back out of the house contract 'one week' before closing (We were supposed to move on the 16th). Not his fault. The new job he was moving here to take decided to nix the position before he started, and he was moving over 1500 miles. But very frustrating for US since we can't close on the new house without the money from the sale of this one. 

So I had taken this week off to move, and I decided to just take it off anyway (it's only 3 days, thank you Fall Break), and focus on the fact we had to throw the house BACK on the market and pray for a quick sale so as not to lose the house we really love where we are moving. 

 

In good news, in just about 7 days, we got and accepted a 2nd offer. Thankfully this means that our Seller was willing to sign an extension to close right before Thanksgiving instead. 

Tuesday is the Inspection with the new Buyer. Praying that it goes great and they don't find anything the last Inspection missed, because we fixed nearly every single thing the last Buyer wanted (to the tune of thousands of dollars) but did not raise the price on the house so our new buyer (who is also a first time buyer) is getting a fantastic deal. I just really need her to not see something on this inspection that scares her (there should not be anything but at this point I'm a little nervous since everything was going perfectly with the last sale until the other guy's job disappeared). 

[StarRisk]

Hope all went well @LadyWordsmith! Love to get that recipe ? always looking to try out new soups! My fav is ZuppaTuscana (like a sausage/kale). 

 

1. Crisp, cool air

2. Smell of fireplaces/Camping

3. Cool weather for walks

4. Changing of the landscape

5. The Holidays ?

[LadyWordsmith]

Oooh, I love Zuppa Tuscana! 

So far it's going well! We've signed TRR and are moving forward with the sale and should be moved by Thanksgiving. 

Of course, this is the same week ice storms bring down branches all over the neighborhood. Thankfully nothing on our property was damaged by falling branches (except the trees that lost them). The ice has melted, but it's still pouring rain and under 40 degrees outside so all we've managed to do is collect the debris, pile it, and cut down the largest pieces at the moment. It's going to dry out and be nice and up to 60 Friday and Saturday, so we can probably finish up most of it then. I am 'hoping' our preferred Arborist will be available to help get down the limbs that are broken but still 'in' the trees and haul it all away. But he may be swamped. 

[StarRisk]

Great news and good luck! I've had trees go through my folks roof, so i know the dangers, yikes!

[LadyWordsmith]

Thanks! Fortunately we were able to get on the priority list for one of the few certified Arborists in town. We will probably have to wait a few days to get the broken limbs remaining 'in' the trees safely out, but it won't be the 'weeks' until free pick-up the city is offering for the already downed stuff. 

And today it's 55 degrees and all the ice is gone and the sun is out! Amazingly it looks like no houses sustained any major damage (a couple of sheds and carports have things leaning on them). Lots of branches 'down' but all in yards. ?

 

[Ryrin]

I’m glad you have better weather and things are ok. Downed branches can be dangerous.

 

Relaxing today and watching football. We also had a Zoom book club meeting.

[LadyWordsmith]

That sounds fun! What book are you reading?

[Ryrin]

We read “If we could hear them now” by Alice Backer Lehrer. It’s about remarkable Jewish women throughout the ages. The book is in an interview format as if these women were still alive. It’s the book club for my sisterhood.

[StarRisk]

Sounds amazing! Adding it to the list ?

[Ryrin]

I’m also reading the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva.

 

 

[LadyWordsmith]

Sounds fascinating! (Both really). I haven't read anything 'new' lately because we are still in the middle of moving and the semester and now it's NaNoWriMo. So I only re-read old things when I need to keep my focus elsewhere. ? Once we get moved I can start working through my to-read list again! (New closing date is Nov 23rd. All prayers and good wishes of any sort welcomed that we actually get to closing this time and get moved!)

[Ryrin]

  On 11/8/2020 at 2:42 PM, LadyWordsmith said:

Sounds fascinating! (Both really). I haven't read anything 'new' lately because we are still in the middle of moving and the semester and now it's NaNoWriMo. So I only re-read old things when I need to keep my focus elsewhere. ? Once we get moved I can start working through my to-read list again! (New closing date is Nov 23rd. All prayers and good wishes of any sort welcomed that we actually get to closing this time and get moved!)

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Both prayers and good wishes!!

[Ryrin]

Gabriel Allon series;

Gabriel Allon is a master art restorer and sometime officer of Israeli intelligence.

 

Gabriel Allon is the main protagonist in Daniel Silva's thriller and espionage series that focuses on Israeli intelligence. The main characters refer to their employer as 'the Office', although it is not specified that it is Mossad (known internally in the Israeli intelligence community as HaMisrad [עברית: המשרד], literally 'the Office'). Allon's career began in 1972 when he, Eli Lavon and several others were plucked from civilian life by Ari Shamron to participate in Operation Wrath of God, an act of vengeance to hunt down and eliminate those responsible for killing the Israel athletes in Munich. Wrath of God is referenced in the books throughout the course of his life.^[1]

 

[LadyWordsmith]

We did it. We moved! The past eight days have been a mass of frantic loading the Uhaul, and unloading the Uhaul (from the house, from storage....our stuff ended up in three different places while trying to get it out), and dealing with our Buyer's even more apparently incompetent realtor (honestly we thought she was maybe just new and really uptight, but she turned out to be really awful - the realtor, not the buyer). Closing on the house we sold was easy on our part, then dramatic as the Buyer showed up $660.00 dollars short on her part of her downpayment and there was a multi-hour mess while they got that sorted to close things out while we were driving South praying the money would get wired in time for our Closing on the new house. (Which it did, while we were there four hours later). But the 2nd closing was much smoother, and then we spent days getting all our things from storage into the new house. The last load was moved Thanksgiving morning. 

But now we are HERE. And unpacking is much more enjoyable to me than packing. So hopefully we can whittle down the pile of boxes of doom relatively quickly. 

We do not yet have actual internet. The earliest Cox could schedule us is this COMING Tuesday. But in the city my phone hotspot is surprisingly good. So I'm running my laptop off that for a few days. 

[LilyElizabeth]

Congratulations! Enjoy settling in to your new home.

[StarRisk]

congrats!

[LadyWordsmith]

Thank you! We finally got internet last night. So I am back to work today (of course we have MAP testing for my high school students the day I first get back so I have been proctoring all day long). 

[Ryrin]

I had a really fun Thanksgiving. It was just my husband and I. My youngest son was working on the ambulance crew. Looks like he and a couple of friends are getting a house after December!

 

I had really bad asthma about a week ago. Much better now. 
 

Chanukah starts next week so we’ve been busy getting ready. 

[LilyElizabeth]

I'm glad you're feeling better. 

 

I think when I met you your son was about 16. Now, he's moving out. Time flies and kids grow up. I'm proud of him for all he has achieved.