Very Quickly on Thanksgiving

I hope everyone who celebrates the US thanksgiving had a lovely one.

I haven't really done my own turkey day yet, that has to wait for a day when I am not at work all day.

I do have a happy thing, though. I took my last final for this semester on this past Monday and even with all my worrying and fretting, I passed with a respectable margin.

So that makes me happy. I now get 1 week with no homework. But next week I start my next semester and move back into the economics classes. This is Macroeconomics, and hopefully will stay in my brain pan better than the Microeconomics. But no real expectations of that.

But to celebrate my lazy evenings, I took off my nail polish last night and re-did it this morning. (Yes, I did my nails before work. But it's okay, I use gel polishes, so I can cure the layers in about a minute. Trust me, this is super helpful. The polish is dry, like REALLY and TRULY dry. Not just dry-ish on top. I can tie my shoes or run my hand into something and not have marks on the polish. It's totally a life saver and well worth the money the light costs. That's the most expensive part, although the polishes are definitely not cheap. I manage to get nails that stay polished for up to 10 days sometimes before chipping really badly. And one of the best parts? If I am using a nail stamp to put images on my polish, I use regular nail lacquer for those and if I mess up, I can take them off without ruining the polish underneath.)

So today I have lovely purple fingernails and pale white designs stamped on top.

I've been knitting in the evenings quite frequently, and I am probably going to spin some more this weekend. I have 2.5 out of 4 bobbins done for my in progress yarn.

I'm still knitting on the baby blanket, but that takes some planning since I am working on the first of the two designs. It means that I need to be able to work on it for at least an hour, and not have lots of distractions. I'm planning to work on that more on Saturday.

I made another pot of bean soup on Monday after my test. I love my bean soup. I buy the 13 bean mix from Winco Foods in their bulk food section. It's inexpensive and has lots of stuff in there. I only sort of follow their directions. They say to soak the beans overnight, then boil them for 2.5 hours. I soak my beans for about 8 hours... ish. And then I rinse, and put them into a pot. I bring it to a very low boil and let it boil for about an hour to an hour and a half. Then I reduce heat a bit more so it's even slower at a boil, just a hair above a simmer. I add more water, because I've always had nearly a third of it boil away... I also add in my veggies. (These can, but don't always, include onion, garlic, celery, carrots, and tomatoes.) I also add in Smoked Ham Shanks. These are different from Ham Hocks. I actually do not like ham hocks. To me, hocks have about a 30 second window between tasting rich/meaty/good and pig butt that has been dragged through a sewer.

So if I can find them, I go with shanks every time. I throw in 1 or 2 huge shanks, bay leaves, and some italian herb seasoning. This then gets to simmer for about another hour or so. Then it is dinner time!

I also need to make some tofu dishes, since I have tofu patiently waiting in the fridge. I kind of think I might make that on Saturday.

Anyway, this has gotten longer than I meant it to. I need to head off and put stuff away before bed. Sleep well and don't forget to be thankful for something.

I'm thankful for my friends, for school being done for a week, for passing my test, and even for having a job. Never mind that I loathe and despise most of the management at my job and that I hate where I work. I still have a job and not everyone can say that. And when all is said and done, there are still worse jobs out there.