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Today started out with a power outage. Thankfully, I slept through most of it! Today my plan was to do Christmas cookies. I had made them all and frozen them last month, so today was baking. But the power kept going off mid bake and it messed up my oven, which then kept turning itself off when the power wasn't having issues. A quick Google search told me turning off the breaker would fix that, and it has. The power outage also messed up my Internet, but I was able to get that back up and running. It really is true that unplugging electronics is always the first line of defense to fix a problem! I fixed my dryer the other day turning off the breaker too. I was convinced it wouldn't work since the dryer still had power, but it did fix it.

The cookies are progressing nicely except for one that just spread out and didn't rise. Irritating as I was looking forward to that one. I'm going to teach myself how to do royal icing on cookies, but I'm tired right now so the baked cutout cookies are just in a container waiting. And here's an opinion nobody asked for, spritz cookies are a pain in the butt! But I colored my tree ones green and my wreath ones red and sprinkled them with crushed candy canes since I couldn't find any Christmas sprinkles at the store.

I realized that some of the people I was going to give cookies to are out of town, so I gave a bunch to the four guys that are working on my roof deck. They seemed very pleased!

Our Michigan family friend that is moving here is coming by at three to check out what's left in "Ceci's Attic" that they might be able to use. I'm hoping rugs are on their wish list because I sure have a lot of those. She will be going home with cookies as well. Cookies for everyone!!!

Lord, my kitchen is a mess. But the dishwasher is running, and the handwashing is done. I need to put everything away and wipe up all the crumbs and butter streaks from the counters. And thanks to Zepbound, I've only had one cookie and really don't have a desire to have more. It was an excellent spiced iced oatmeal gingerbread cookie. Here's the recipe: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/iced-gingerbread-oatmeal-c ookies/

Ofor to read about how to do royal icing... Take care, everybody!

Oh yes, the news has been quite devastating lately. How do we absorb all of this? At DD's commencement, one of the speakers said, Joy is an act of resistance. That really stuck with me. We can see and fight against hate and sadness and injustice and still find joy in this terribly imperfect world.

Has there been a lot of snow on the Cape? We are somewhat ahead of the average snowfall for this time of year (and the month not over yet) but it doesn't feel like soooo much more than I would expect.Today might reach 40 degrees! Crazy swing, as it was -13 Sunday morning.

Our quick trip up North was delightful! The high was 26, with no wind. With the right clothes, it was tolerable to be outside for more than a few minutes. Sunday started with a fantastic concert. Instead of the whole Orchestra, it was mostly brass and percussion to make a big band sound. The concert was called Merry and Bright and it was all that. I think we need to add this to our list of annual Christmas events. We got to Duluth around 7pm, checked in, and then went to a ****tail bar (which also had a big screen) and watched the Vikings game. Monday we toured the historic mansion. With no crowds, we did the expanded audio tour that even included the attic, and we took about 2 hours poking into every nook and cranny we were allowed to access. After a very nice late lunch, we headed over to the light display. It was really so fun! On the way home, I noticed my much younger cousin (by about 24 years) who lives near Duluth, was posting pictures of herself and 5 kids there! We were there at the same time, but didn't see each other.

It was nice to have a break from some of the real world stuff. Now I'm back home, catching up on administrative tasks etc. I had an online visit with my weight loss clinic. They are prescribing my Wegovy, and require a visit every 6 months. The PA I meet with said they are expecting Medicare to begin covering GLP-1s for weight loss mid 2026, and the anticipated copay is $50. Here's hoping!! She asked me if I wanted to try Zepbound to see if I could lose another 10-15 pounds. I'm thinking about it, but if I do, I don't want to start until after I get back from Brazil.

The house got a little cluttered over the weekend while I was busy doing other things, so that's next. It's surprising how one item out of place becomes 6 items so quickly. It's also so surprising how much it matters to me, now that i've had the time and energy to keep things relatively tidy. It's only now that I can see I was in more of survival mode the last year or so of work and conserved most of my energy to get up and go there and get it done. Did I mention I like retirement?

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Didn't do much yesterday other than get ready to leave today as it was windy, cloudy and cool out all day. Though we did have a ****tail with our older neighbors downstairs in the late afternoon. They are the couple with the dog we ended up watching for a few days until we could arrange his transport this past spring.

Leaving for the north in 1.5 hours. I am drinking my coffee on the lanai where there is now 1 slider out of 3 where the plastic has been removed. They covered up the living room window instead yesterday. I am glad we won't be here while they seal up the rest of the windows as they move along the building.

We should be at the house on Cape Cod by early afternoon and will go food shopping at that point. Hopefully there won't be too much snow in the driveway.

I just opened up the news and the first 3 stories were the Brown University shooting, the shooting at Bondi Beach, and the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife. What a sad and angry world we are in right now.

Somehow we need to manage to have a twinkling Tuesday.

We bought the knock off of Cards against Humanity called Crabs against Humidity and played it once. It was too raunchy, or more accurately politically incorrect, even for the kids. We tossed it! They can take sexually overt stuff but get into bigotry, racism, etc. and we are out!

He was a terrific filmmaker and I am so saddened by the murder of him and his wife. Horrific way to go and at the hands of your child...unthinkable.