* Work. SO CRAZY. Very busy, and very stressful thanks to The Bastard, but if not for The Bastard would be so, so good (with The Bastard it's...well, I make good money. Also I really like my boss and the vast majority of the customers).
* Last night we thought Clementine was dead, or rather, Hotter did. He said he prodded her with a finger and she didn't react, and her body moved as if dead. We were devastated, because Little Child was at The XY's, and it would've been like "welcome home, bubs, and happy birthday. By the way, your lizard is dead." And okay fiiine because we like her. Then this morning Hotter approached the tank to bag up the corpse (thinking to let Clem lie in state in the dog meat drawer of the refrigerator until the next of kin was home to plan a funeral), and Clem was up on the basking tree staring at her heat lamp and apparently wondering why there was no heat coming from it. So Clementine lives but Hotter is blind. Oh, Hotter.
* His eyes are getting really terrible. I kept losing him in the grocery store because he couldn't tell which blob was me or which aisle I'd gone down. I really hope the cataract surgery helps.
* It turns out my out-of-pocket on an EpiPen is nearly $200, so I did not fill that YET. We'll see how the new employer-subsidized insurance does with it in November (if anyone around had ever had an anaphylactic reaction to a beesting I'd eat the $200, but seeing as it's just a precaution...no). Yes, November. I signed my offer letter from The Ritz on 6/29 but did not attend orientation until 7/2, and you don't start receiving benefits until the first first of the month after your 90-day anniversary. SIGH. Stupid arsehole calendar.
* I made a pumpkin pie with a GF crust, and the filling was sweetened entirely with honey and thickened with Squatter Workshop eggs. The crust...well. It overbrowned, and according to Hotter is "gritty." He blames the brown rice flour (I used a cup each of brown rice flour and coconut flour, both chilled, with a teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt, then cut three tablespoons butter and 2/3 cup of coconut oil into the mix, then wet it with four ounces of heavy whipping cream. I could tell it wouldn't have rolled worth a shit, so I pressed it into shape in a large Pyrex pie-pan by hand). I pointed out to Hotter that he didn't have any trouble choking the pie down a la mode, and was like "well, PIE." All ribbing aside, there's a reason I started the test-baking for Thanksgiving in September (you do not fuck, dear reader, with Thanksgiving in this house).
* I'm wavering on when to pull the honey super off Alpha Hive and turn their entrance reducer. Bravo Hive will be wintering in a single "deep," which is less than ideal, but my beekeeping mentor has successfully overwintered bees in NUCs so I figure they can manage it.
* Has anyone else noticed that those "box of the month" subscriptions are The Latest Thing? They have them for girly beauty products (which...yeah, no), food (too fraught with gluten), and even dog treats (my dog, however, is grain-free and couldn't enjoy much of what's in those boxes). Friend of the MFAmily Natural Mom Reviews just highlighted a company on her site that does gluten-free boxes! SOLD! Especially since you can get two months free if you sign up through the link on Natural Mom Reviews. Apparently I missed the cutoff for September shipping, so my first box won't ship until mid-October, by which time I will probably have forgotten all about signing up for the thing, so when it gets here I'll be all "OMG A PRESENT!" This is made of win.
* So is picking up extra shifts at work that allow me to cross-train in other departments. Which is part of why I'm so tired that I'm not blogging much. Also, I finally succumbed to Big Child and Hotter's cold, and so has Middle Child. Little Child, I can only assume, is next.
* How are all of YOU?