Another cheescake fail

As Administrator of the Estate, I have to file my aunt's final taxes and then once more next year as the Estate.  The CPA needed last year's returns and supporting documents, so I made a run to the house.  While I was gong through the office (it's all very organized) I came across a folder with my aunt's recipe's. I found the recipe for her cheesecake.  It's actually Lemon Cheese Pie.

After many failed attempts to give it another shot, I was finally able to try again last night.  I was surprised the instructions just said to bake it, without reference to a water bath.  But now I know, it's a cheese pie, not a cheesecake.  Well, it was about 8:30p and I didn't want to turn on the oven so I attempted it in the Instant Pot.

Oopsie, I was pulling it out after the prescribed cooking time & depressurizing time.  I DROPPED IT!  Lucky, no mess on the counter, just inside the pot.  The filling was watery and dumped half into the bath water.  I poured it into a strainer & put that into a bowl.  I was tired, so I just put everything in the fridge to deal with in the morning.  Tastes a little too lemony, too much lemon rind, but otherwise as expected.  Texture of what was left over the graham cracker crust is good, the part that I strained into a bowl was a bit soft.  Okay, I'm going to try again today.  Going to the store for a pre-formed graham cracker crust.  I've got more lemons, about 8 more cream cheese blocks (from Auntie's fridge to my freezer).  Going to do it in the oven this time.

Week from Hell

It was only a few days after the last post.  A really stressful week.  After almost 6 months with the incompetent caregiver.  Everything came to a head.  I was over 100% mentally and physically exhausted, yet I kept going to work like a zombie.  That was a mistake.  I don't regret it, I really had to meet with an engineer who works remotely from Colorado.  Oh man, I made a lot of mistakes at work and the boss was rushing things out the door without having been checked.  2-3 weeks later it all came back to me when the parts arrived with mistakes.  Boss sat me down with HR to witness - I think I was almost fired right there.

Honestly, I'm ready to semi-retire now at 55.  As much as I need health insurance, I can pull it off it until I get medicare for either turning 65 or  for going dialysis before that.  My grandfather retired at 45, and my aunt retired at 58.  My brother is in a position to retire when he turns 55, too.

So, I tried to work with the caregiver almost 6 months.  I stayed over many times to train and re-train her. I swear, her memory was only 25% better than mom's.  I've had a new caregiver in place 2 or 3 weeks now, wow, what a difference. I see now, she broke my back massage machine and she was the cause of my plumbing always backing up.  No problems ever since her departure.  OMG, I was going through toilet paper like crazy.  On her last day, there must have been 1/2 roll of toilet paper in the upstairs toilet--and it was plugged.  I texted her about it because Mom just doesn't use that much toilet paper!  She didn't admit to it, but she didn't put it on Mom either.

To be continued...gotta make breakfast.

Edit: I think it's a week since I wrote above.

So now, I've had a new caregiver in place--it'll be a month this week.  Night & day difference!  I could tell within a couple days, the new girl is conscientious and not a procrastinator.  Maybe the other girl just had bitch face, but I don't see attitude with this girl.  I don't have to listen to excuses because she's just doing what needs to be done.  So I doubled the hours (what I've been needing for the last 6 months, since Auntie died.)  There's a couple hours gap between the shifts to cover the time I'm away.  Now, even when wifi goes down at the house, I no longer worry about the cameras not working.  If Mom's doing something demented, I don't have drop everything and run home because somebody will be there to pull up her pants.

My stress had dropped from 100% to about 50%, then just yesterday I got what I've been waiting for since Auntie died--court papers that officially let me handle her accounts and sell her house.