Weekly Journal 9.7.26
Reading
I devoured Mortuary Confidential the way I do any book about funeral directors, medical examiners, or death investigators. This was an anthology of first-person stories by people who work in mortuary services. I've read a lot about the profession but found a lot of new tidbits to enjoy in their accounts, for instance, a real life coffin flop.
While not a great literary work, it was heartwarming and quirky.
Watching
I started Girls over again. Besides that, I'm not finding a lot of TV to watch. My son continues to request The Simpsons on most nights, and we're now getting to the end of Season Four. We just watched "The Front," which was one of my favorites as a kid: the one where Bart and Lisa start writing episodes of The Itchy & Scratchy Show under Grampa's name, and Homer retakes a high school science class since it's revealed that he never graduated. I hadn't realized how much of this episode was baked into my head. It must have been one that my brother and I watched repeatedly on VHS. To us, it was full of classics like:
Lisa: "Grampa, how'd you take off your underwear without taking off your pants?"
Grampa (shrugging worriedly): "I ... don't know!"
Cooking
We had a roast chicken that needed dressing and biscuits that needed topping. What else could fill both roles as well as apple butter? I never buy apple butter, but I love it obsessively any time I get a chance to sample some. I had also never made any of my own until this week. It was fairly easy since I already had some jars of homemade applesauce. I combined the applesauce with brown sugar and cinnamon, and reduced it for half an hour or so, pureeing it further with an immersion blender after it had cooked for a while.
I probably could have cooked it down a bit more, but it's very tasty. I made more than I expected to. It won't last long in the fridge, so I will need to get creative about consuming it.
Doing
The kid goes back to school in a few days, so I've been making sure his paperwork is in order and his backpack is cleaned out. The bottom of the backpack was inexplicably coated in glitter.
Our biggest challenge is likely to be waking up on time to get to school by 7:50 each morning. My son has been ultra-energetic lately, staying up until 11:30 or later. We will need to bring down the hammer of lights-out at a reasonable hour.
Listening
I discovered a lo-fi rock musician who goes by the name Sharp Pins. He's great. Listen to some of his tracks here.