LJ for longer life!!

There's a banner on the page above where I'm writing this entry. It concerns the LJ problems and asks for patience and then it says: All paid accounts will receive a free extension of their paid time for the inconvenience.

Years and years and years ago, LJ offered up lifetime accounts for $100 and I bought one. So... I'm thinking that LJ is going to increase my lifetime! How cool is that??!!

Night before last, I didn't sleep well at all. Last night I slept like a log but woke up too early. Finally, about 5:30, I got up, got my suit on and went to the pool. Zero traffic on the road and in the pool although the latter did pick up fairly substantially by the time I was done. I had an easy ride home as well. I remember last year at this time enjoying no traffic as the holidays approached and musing that it would be another year before it happened again. It's a lovely holiday gift. But, now we're done. Tomorrow the gym does not open til 8. (But, a nice little piece of news... Last year the gym was closed on both Christmas and New Year's days. This year, it's open on New Year's Day!)

There is a gynormous office/hotel building going up a block from here - just in front of the Amtrak station. According to the real estate listing (and so veracity not guaranteed at all) there will be a gym in the building with a full sized (25 yards with at least 3 lanes would be my guess) lap pool. I don't know if it will be open to the public for membership or restricted to the office workers/hotel people. BUT I'm thinking it would be just heaven to roll out of bed whenever I wake up and walk a block to the pool without worrying about traffic or weather. A girl can dream.

Also that building will house one of my favorite restaurants ever. 13 Coins is a Seattle institution that I fell in love with the month I moved here 25 years ago. Now they are coming to my house and I can't wait. Last week they put up a big sign announcing the restaurant's opening in 2017. Yahoo!!

This morning I'm going to make a breakfast strata. I've had it on the brain for a while. It's one of those things that is never made successfully commercially and rarely available anywhere for take out but pretty easy to make. It also freezes beautifully. So, today's the day. I like making mine with old, dries out bread but that's hard to buy at the store so I'm going to have to oven dry out what I've got. Also I could not find sausage crumbles so I'm going to have to make my own. Such a hard life.

Then sewing. My brother and his techs are not happy with the new cam arrangement. They want the cameras swapped. I don't want to move the Dropcam (wide angle living room shot) so maybe the el cheapo I ordered from Amazon isn't going to go back after all. And the cable art on the wall will still be needed. Worst case, I'll get a used dropcam and stick it in the sewing room.

One of my brother's tech's said that Zoey was crawling all over the sewing machine this morning while I was swimming. That's the room she spends the night in - her bed is in the corner. She was in it when I left. And apparently doing some early morning exploring while I was gone.

Ok, off to the kitchen.

No snow...

Twitter reported snow around town but we haven't seen any here. At least not yet!

I just made my daily pool call. I got this from the guy who answered: 'I talked to the pool guy this morning and he's going to try to get here tomorrow to put the new parts in but if not tomorrow then, Tuesday.' WTF? We have the parts now (10 days later) and our schedule for fix is now WHENEVER????? They close at 2 tomorrow. I have a reminder set to call them at 1 - just to torment myself one more time before Christmas. At least I have the Ballard pool. And at least the traffic probably still won't be horrible next week.

My strata is in the fridge ready for baking. I think I'm going to make that my dinner. ljtourist recommended two different kinds of tomatoes. I tried the first ones and they were good. This morning I found the second ones so I can have them tonight with the strata.

I got a new mouse for the new computer and it arrived today. It's bluetooth. I've never had a blutooth mouse before and I really like it. I loved my old mouse but it was sooooo old and it took up a USB slot. So buh bye. Hello, new mouse. You are very sleek and pretty and most importantly, you work! So now the new set up is complete. Everything - two monitors, 1 keyboard, 2 harddrives and a speaker are all plugged into the dock along with the computer. So when I use the computer at the desk, all is great. When I want it in my lap, I just unplug one thing and then replug it in when I'm done and everything hooks back up.

And I made a couple of dolls. The other set of sisters. Zoey was fairly invested in my not taking these pictures so that's why the angle and light is different. It was a battle.

Delicious

eggs, milk, cream, sausage crumbles, old (not really) bread cubes and cheese.  Oh and mushrooms and Worchester Sauce.  They sat all mixed together all day in the fridge in two 8" cake square cake pans. Tonight I baked them I was thinking 350 for 45 mins. I was thinking wrong. Turned out it took 1 hr 15 mins but OMG so very worth the wait.

Now I have 7 helpings in glass baking dishes. I may freeze a couple but maybe not.  Wonderful breakfasts loom in my future.

I hate to cook but once in a while, there's just no choice. Yum.