Medical Day

Sep. 6th, 2025 12:53 am
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[personal profile] days_unfolding

It took me five minutes to clean off the stairs. Funny how something that seemed daunting last night was so easy. And Bella’s diarrhea seems to be gone, so I’ll call and cancel the appointment. Someone at work wanted to meet with me this morning, so that will work out well. I’m going to lie down for a half-hour.

I spoke too soon about Bella’s diarrhea. I got a sample. Tried to lie down, but the dogs were restless, until I got up, and then they closed their eyes. Snots :)

Oliver and Lily are chasing each other. A quiet, peaceful workplace. NOT!

I took Bella to the vet. They said that the fecal sample that I provided was too small, so they would do a rectal exam—and found normal poop. It had to have been Bella with the diarrhea though because she was the only one in the room with me. They’re running tests out of an abundance of caution. Bella put her front paws at the front desk to say, “Good-bye”. Everyone ooohed at her.

I signed Bella up for an obedience class at PetSmart on Sundays.

I had my appointment with my psychiatrist. We're just going to keep on keeping on with my meds, etc. She still will be available despite the changes at OSF.

Bella is still Giardia- and other parasites-free.

I moved my COVID and flu shot to next week because I'm not going anywhere soon. I really want a nap after work. Slept until 11 PM. I had a face full of dog kisses. The cats are like, “What’s with you? Feed us!” Fed the critters and gave Gracie her meds. Now I need to eat. Gracie: "I really want your food." Me: "Forget it, Gracie. I get to eat too." Gracie: "But I REALLY want your food." Etc.

I'm going back to bed.

(no subject)

Sep. 5th, 2025 12:15 pm
greghousesgf: (pic#17098464)
[personal profile] greghousesgf
Had some sugar cookie tea, I don't know how they do it, but it tastes exactly like sugar cookies and it doesn't have any sugar in it.
I don't feel like swimming today anyway the weather's not great for it. I do have to mail a letter but I can do that later this afternoon.

Tech help

Sep. 5th, 2025 09:33 am
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[personal profile] susandennis
Last night, Hazel came in for help. She had, earlier in the day, brought John over to the apartment and he could not get his Fox news on the TV. Only Netflix (which is her channel). The most difficult part was understanding what the problem was. The answer was the cable box had been turned off. Hit that button and all was fine. She thinks I'm a genius.

Just now, Jim, knocked on the door and needed me. Jim moved in just after I did. He's been on a neurological decline ever since. His ability to articulate is nearly gone. Today, he poked his head in and said he needed me. I said here? or your place? My place. So we went over. And here was the conversation:

Me: So the problem is the TV?
Yeah, this is what I want [pointing to the TV] but I can't get it.
I got up and got something and when I got back, this [pointing to the TV] is all. And, nothing has changed [pointing to the coffee table].

Jim, where's your clicker? Your remote?
Oh, I have to find that. And he immediately opens his refrigerator.

I looked around and spied it on the desk next to his computer.

Is this the missing link? Now will it do what you want? I put the remote in his hands and he punched a few buttons.

You are a genius.

I am kind of proud that I cracked the case with so few clues.

(no subject)

Sep. 5th, 2025 01:17 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
I had to think hard this morning to work out what day it is today. The Monday holiday threw me off, I think.

It rained overnight, quite a lot according to my son in law. I have no idea about the weather outside when I'm down in the basement, but when I went upstairs I could of course see that there had been some rain. It was interestingly misty while I was having breakfast, but by the time I went out for a run about 9 am the mist had burnt off. It was still quite humid though.

Yesterday evening was parents' night at the girls' school, so I babysat the girls while their parents were at the school. (The girls watched a movie and stuffed themselves with popcorn.) I thought it was going to be individual appointments with each teacher to speak about each particular child, but apparently it was more of a group thing with all the parents together in the classroom with the teacher, and it seems that Eden's teacher reprimanded all of the parents of her students collectively because none of the students is really where she thinks they should be in maths. I don't really think the parents can be held responsible for this if it's every kid in the class; wouldn't it really be down to the teachers the kids had in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade? (I might be missing some detail here since I'm not Eden's parent and I wasn't in the room last night to hear what the teacher said.)

Friday

Sep. 5th, 2025 09:33 am
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[personal profile] susandennis
I crawled into bed last night looking forward to continuing my book - a Scottish police procedural read in this wonder Scottish accent... only to discover my brother had returned it (he thought he was the one who had checked it out) and now it's not available. I have to wait in line... again! My brother and nephew and I share a Libby account with three libraries to pick from. It often works fine but once in a while, it does not. Grrrrrrr

I texted the two of them to ask them please not to do that any more. And heard back from my nephew. We had a lovely chat. He wants to come visit next June when the Red Sox are here to play the Mariners. That should be fun!

Much fog this morning. I got up and had coffee and internetted. I was not really all that interested in swimming but figured I'd go anyway and then stop and pick up the menu for next week and my package in the Amazon locker.

There's a COVID outbreak in the nursing/assisted care/memory units. Ugh.

The swim turned out better than I expected. I was glad I went. I got the menu and totally forgot the package. Oh well, more steps won't kill me.

Tuesday starts legit streaming of Jeopardy and I'm beyond excited. I've been watching it via illegal YouTube uploads for about a year. I will miss the janky recordings, the Arabian ads, and the hit or miss availability of the show. Actually, no, I won't miss those at all. But I do appreciate their efforts.

Both my baseball teams play at 4 today. The Mariners need to start winning.

Biggie's into his morning nap and Julio is playing with his laser toy. I think I'll get dressed and go get that package.

20250905_095722-COLLAGE

Crap. So to Speak.

Sep. 4th, 2025 09:22 pm
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[personal profile] days_unfolding

Got up at a little before 6 AM to roll the recycling bin out. Went back to sleep. Overslept and woke up at 8:30.

Bella is having diarrhea, but I don't know when I can get her to the vet. Tomorrow is problematic. Well, I have an appointment for her at 11 tomorrow. I'll have to drop her back and then go to my doctor's appointment. I feel like I’m living in a nightmare.

Had a case of the shakes after my shower. Food helped.

I'm trying Chronometer that [personal profile] bill_schubert mentioned. But I know why I've gained weight; eating lots of dessert. I need to get myself to eat fruit for dessert. Okay, I saved some recipes for low-cal desserts. Maybe I should focus on that first, and then the meals.

Man, I'm tired. My sleep consultation isn't until December too. I guess that I'll keep dragging myself along.

Picked up my groceries. Ran in to pick up some of my “cheap” makeup (I wear the cheap stuff for running errands and the expensive stuff when I go out of town, but you could argue that it should be the other way around) and some desserts.

Bought some books about determination because I could use a jump-start.

Brought groceries in. Damn, my back hurts. Ate and fed the critters. Started laundry.

I’m mulling over joining Planet Fitness because it’s nearby. I’m trying to decide on my membership. Do I want access to massage chairs and red-light booth? Yes, I joined, including the massage chair. It would be better to have meetings with a personal trainer, but I don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good. I'm more likely to drag my butt five minutes away. And it's 24 hours.

My back still hurts. It's kind of pathetic that bringing the groceries in messes me up (see above), but there it is. I need to get the rest of my (non-perishable) groceries off of the back stairs, but I want to lie down and stretch out my back. I'll get up early to clear the stairs.

(no subject)

Sep. 4th, 2025 12:25 pm
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[personal profile] greghousesgf
Yesterday I had a great time, my friend and I watched Spinal Tap and went swimming and then later her boyfriend met us for drinks and hot dogs at the bar across the street and then we hung out at their house for a while and vaped and watched videos.

(no subject)

Sep. 4th, 2025 02:49 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
I had an interesting encounter while I was out walking this morning. I was striding along minding my own business when I was hailed by a woman walking towards me with her dog. I was going to just greet her and keep walking, but she started talking to me, telling me I should hold my head up straight and keep my shoulders back, because she could see that I was walking bent over (I know I do that) and if I concentrated on holding myself up straight while I was walking I could straighten my spine. She said she was speaking from experience of her parents (in their 80s) having stenosis, but having just googled stenosis, I don't see that it's related to walking stooped forward or that it can be cured or at least eased by walking with your head held up and your shoulders back. She said she was telling me this because I otherwise looked to be in very good shape, and little changes can make a difference, but that she wouldn't have bothered to say anything if I didn't look like I was doing well. She seemed nice enough, and the advice to keep my head up and my shoulders back is good (and I'll try to remember to do it when I'm walking from now on) but it's still a bit weird to accost a stranger with this advice.

My daughter told me a few days ago (when we were talking about me moving up here) that she would like to see me moved up here (either to her house or to an apartment) as soon as October. The idea feels very daunting, but while I've been going about my usual life here, my mind has been busy working out how to organise it. I think the two most daunting things that are necessary are making lots of phone calls to cancel various utilities and other services (e.g. regular gutter cleaning), and getting rid of some large pieces of furniture that I don't plan to keep, like the two couches and the Ikea bookshelves in the living room, and one of the two queen beds and latex mattresses. (Those latex mattresses weigh a ton! We had the newer one delivered in 2020 during Covid and the delivery people had to leave it outside. It took S's and my combined strength to wrestle it into the house and onto the bed frame, and we just barely managed it. I imagine a couple of guys wouldn't have quite such a hard time though) Some of these things I can offer for free on the town email list or a freecycle group and have whoever wants them be responsible for getting them out of the house, but some, like the old couch we bought from Goodwill for $100 some years ago, just need to be thrown out. I'm thinking of hiring someone like "College Hunks Hauling Junk" to take away whatever nobody else wants.

Moving the stuff I want to keep is another separate project. I could hire a moving company, or I could use "Pods", which brings a pod to your house for you to load, then when you're ready transports it to wherever you want, either to a private property or to their local storage facility for you to retrieve later.

Then there's the whole matter of selling my house. I'm hoping to be able to arrange to sell it "as is" (as bad as it is right now) and take a cut in price to save the hassle of trying to completely fix it up for sale, since it will probably be torn down anyway.

I'm leaning towards moving here to my daughter's as the first step, and then transferring to an apartment within a few weeks, because it seems like it would be easier to arrange an apartment here if I'm physically here.

Thursday

Sep. 4th, 2025 08:38 am
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[personal profile] susandennis
The two things I need to do today are play volleyball and distribute the Timber Ridge Times on my little hallway. Done and done.

I saw yesterday that the aqua yoga class has now been renamed aqua stretch. All the things - class schedules and descriptions and the calendar have all been changed. Interesting. Our first class since the change is Monday. Be fun to see if they have more changes there.

In other big news, tonight is pizza night at the buffet. They make very very good pizza here and I have meal bucks to spend so I will be at least doubling up and maybe tripling up on the pizza dinner and stocking the freezer.

I saw John yesterday. He has probably lost 25% of his body weight. His smile is the same size, though.

Bonny needed to buy a bunch of birthday and other cards for people here in our neighborhood. She's taken over that job from Joan and, I must say, really stepped up to the plate and has been doing a good job. She had gone to Target and was appalled to see that the cheap cards were $6. "Will you go with me to the Dollar store?" hahaha She's always bragged that she's never been there. So for the second day in a row, I went to Dollar Tree. Bonny was impressed. She got a boatload of cards and a Happy Birthday sign. $10.63. She is now a Dollar Tree advocate. I will say that their $.50 card aisle is pretty rich in selection and quality.

I had two baseball games yesterday at the same time - one on the computer and one on the TV. They sucked neck and neck until the very end. Yikes. Today only the Phillies play.

And that's it so far today from the cult. I need to get dressed and go out and finish up the puzzle in the elbow. There are only about 100 pieces left so it won't take long.

PXL_20250904_001638397
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[personal profile] fauxklore
I first became aware of the Balkan Heritage Society and their archaeological field schools several years ago, when I was browsing various listings of volunteer and field school opportunities on-line and saw a workshop they were offering on photographing Roman mosaics. I didn’t do anything about it at the time since I couldn’t have made it fit my schedule. But I would continue to browse their offerings every few years.

Being retired helps a lot with schedule flexibility and this time I saw they were offering a workshop on textile conservation, which would fit in nicely with my crafts interests. I was all set to register for that, but then I got invited to do my travel talk at my MIT reunion and - poof! My life is a schedule conflict! But I noticed that there was also a workshop on paper conservation that was a couple of weeks later. Since: a) that would fit my schedule and b) I do play with paper crafts (particularly bookbinding, but I’ve also made paper and done plenty of surface design, e.g. marbling, over the years), I thought that would be worth doing. So I signed up, and began devoting some time to figuring out how to get to Zakynthos, Greece, where the workshop would be held. I also tried to make a dent in the somewhat intimidating reading list they provided.

For those who don’t know (which is the vast majority of Americans), Zakynthos is in the Ionian Islands, off the west coast of Greece. There are flights there from a number of European cities and the least expensive route I could find involved flying to Athens and then going there by bus / ferry. Since I’d been to Athens before (way back in 2004, for the Olympics), I just spent a night there. I flew over via FRA, which is one of my least favorite airports, but it worked okay. I spent one night at the Hotel Mirabello, which is conveniently located near Omonia Square. The staff was friendly and helpful and there were plenty of reasonably priced restaurants nearby. I didn’t write down the name of the place I ate at, but I had a reasonably good moussaka. In the morning, the hotel had a particularly good breakfast buffet, by the way, with hot options that even included spanakopita. I would consider staying there again if I had some reason to be in Athens.

In the morning, I took a taxi to the Kifissos bus station, which is large and chaotic. By the way, buying my ticket on-line had been a bit stressful, because KTEL (the major bus company) apparently sells tickets on the route I needed only a couple of weeks in advance. Still, I had been able to get a ticket to Nea Manolada, which proved to take about an hour longer than Rome 2 Rio had claimed it would. It turned out that this was just a stop on the side of a road, not an actual bus terminal. There was a South African woman who was also heading to Kyllini Port for a ferry (in her case, to Kefalinia, which is the next island north) and we walked across the street to a kiosk where the proprietor called us a cab. I stayed overnight at the Glarentza Hotel, which was a short walk to the port and was reasonably nice. I had time to walk around the port a bit both that afternoon and the next morning, before boarding the 1 p.m. ferry to Zakynthos.

Our accommodations were at the Hotel Yria, which is decently central. However, the rooms are on the small side and the breakfast is just adequate. I was sharing a room with a young woman from France, by the way. This is probably a good place to note that most of the group were 20ish, i.e. young enough to be my grandchildren. Only four of us where there just for the paper conservation program, while the majority had been doing a three week program that included one week each of textiles, metal, and paper. Despite the age gap, I found them generally thoughtful and interesting people. (There were a couple of other older people, but I’m reasonably sure I was the oldest. Well, someone has to be.)

Anyway, the program started on a Monday morning and I’d arrived on Sunday. That evening I went with a couple of the other people to Solomos Square (the central square of Zante Town) to see an event called Giostra of Zakynthos, which was a sort of medieval parade, followed by a jousting tournament. It was colorful and interesting, but uncomfortably crowded. Note that there were groups from several countries - including Scotland!

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I wasn’t able to get close enough to the jousting to get any pictures worth sharing of the horses and the riders, who included a young boy. Eventually, I decided I should go find something to eat. There is no shortage of restaurants in the area and I got a tasty supper before returning to the hotel and going to bed.

The workshop itself began on Monday after breakfast. We met our instructor, Dr. Nikolas Sarris (and his dog, Jimmy) and were transported in a minibus to Ionian University. The first day started with a couple of lectures (history of paper, causes of deterioration of paper) and a presentation about documentation of paper objects, before we set out to document the paper objects that had been distributed for us to work on. I had a 12-page set of what were essentially census records from 1959. There were extensive tears and cuts on the front cover, and folded edges and stains on every page, as well as rusted staples (which later on proved to be small nails / pins, not staples) and writing on the front and back covers.

We started out with a few conservation treatments and I brushed and vacuumed it. Later on, I would spend time cleaning with various tools, e.g. vulcanized latex sponges and patching with hollytex, which is a sort of paper made of non woven polyester. One of the other people in the workshop referred to it as “magic paper.” Here is a picture of the document with the pins removed and some cleaning done.

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The edges of the front cover were patched but you can still see a lot of writing and stains.

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Anyway, we continued to work on our documents during the subsequent days. There were some other types of (mostly Japanese) paper used in patching paper. We also spent time on humidifying and flattening paper. Our lab work was mixed in with lectures. We did have morning and afternoon coffee breaks and a lunch hour, where we ate at the student canteen, which was okay. I’d estimate that we were doing lab work maybe 6 hours a day. By the way, we had been told to bring lab coats, which gave me an excuse to dig out this personalized one, which I’d been given several years ago when I went to an event at the United Airlines catering facility in Denver.

me in lab coat

On Thursday morning we had a field trip to the General Archives and the Historic Public Library of Zakynthos. There were lots of historic photos, many of them related to the 1953 magnitude 7.2 earthquake, which caused extensive damage throughout the southern Ionian islands. (By the way, there were a couple of smaller earthquakes at the end of my time on Zakynthos, the larger of which was magnitude 4.1. Having lived in California for 22 years, that didn’t even wake me up.)

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There were also a couple of cases of dolls.

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And, of course, there were shelves and shelves of books, many of which had significant damage, including tunnels from being insect eaten. Nikolas also talked about storage of books / documents. The next day, we made the most basic storage enclosures, essentially just folders.

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Friday night, most of us went out to a fancy dinner at a restaurant called Manoo. You can get surprisingly good sushi in Greece (and, less surprisingly, a good gin and tonic). We bade goodbye to the people who were leaving on Saturday. The four of us who were left had the weekend free. I was fairly lazy, with some reading and puzzles to catch up on, but I did spend some time at the Byzantine Museum, which has a lovely collection. Here are a few examples.

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On Monday, we were back to lectures and workshops. By the way, since we were down to 4 people, we went to and from the University in Nikolas’s car. We started learning about wet cleaning techniques and stain removal, including the use of suction tables. The rest of the week continued with paper deacification, paper sizing, removal of adhesive tape, and more advanced paper repair techniques. I’ll spare you the pictures of paper immersed in various chemical solutions. A local man had heard that there was a book conservator teaching our class and brought Nikolas some documents to look at and he had us work on them, too. I spent a fair amount of time cleaning and repairing this, for example.

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On Thursday morning we went to see the Church of Agios Dionysios, followed by the Ecclesiastical Museum of the Holy Monastery of St. Dionysios. The church was elaborately decorated outside.

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Inside, the architecture felt typical of Orthodox Christian churches I’ve seen, with an ornate iconostasis.

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The museum had a lot of books on display, including some very old ones.

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The workshop finished on Friday, which we spent making boxes to protect books. We also visited another room at the University, which had a nitrogen hypoxia chamber for killing insects. We also got our certificates for completing the course.

While I’d taken bus and ferry to Zakynthos from mainland Greece, I had opted to fly back to Athens. Sky Express was a new airline for me and I found their service reasonably good. Here’s an aerial photo of Zakynthos.

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I stayed at the convenient but very pricy Sofitel Athens Airport overnight before my flights home on Swiss (via Zurich), which went smoothly. Airport hotels are always a good idea when you have an early morning (6:55 a.m.) flight.


Overall, I think the workshop was interesting and worth my time. I don’t expect to do much with what I learned, though you never know what may come in handy. I also enjoyed getting to know the other students, who generally made me feel more optimistic about young people nowadays. What more could I ask for?

Booked a Cruise in November

Sep. 3rd, 2025 08:58 pm
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[personal profile] days_unfolding

Oh great. Oliver is attacking Lily. Probably displaced aggression from Gracie biting him. I think that I need to talk to a behaviorist. Bella is very patient with Gracie. Gracie chews on her, and she tolerates it.

Woke up at 7 AM. I’m tired. I'm working now and Gracie is asleep on the futon upstairs. She's getting big! I think that I need to nap during lunch and pick up Gracie's meds in the afternoon. No, I have a meeting at 1 that I don't want to oversleep. But I don't want to be late for the meeting, so I think that I'll go in the afternoon (done). Decisive, I'm not!

I'm explaining to Gracie that when the cats hiss at her, it does NOT mean that they like her! She is not convinced.

I think that I found a cruise that I want to take. It's on Norwegian, and it goes to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, US Virgin Islands, and British Virgin Islands. It leaves from Miami. It has a sailing date of November 9th, so I would have my birthday on the ship. Hmm, if I want a "solo studio," I should book it.

I'm wearing my "My dog thinks I'm cool" t-shirt and new jeans. My shopping is paying off.

Damn, the people at Carle (new health provider) are really on the ball. I was contacted about my scan and my sleep study already. (I’ll call back after my last meeting. Done.)

I canceled BistroMD, though one order slipped through and is coming this weekend. I need to get the kitchen in order to cook.

Crud. Rain alert (though the plants could use it). I won’t be able to get the boxes to recycle out. I'm going to gather stuff and get up early to put it by the curb.

I found the cruise on Vacations to Go's Web site. (They offer discount cruises.) Booked the cruise. Booked my flights. Changed my bus times. Booked a hotel for overnight in Miami.

Now I'm going to gather the recycling and get to sleep.

(no subject)

Sep. 3rd, 2025 11:18 am
greghousesgf: (Bertie Smile)
[personal profile] greghousesgf
Looking forward to having a friend come over to go swimming and watch movies. She's never seen Spinal Tap!

(no subject)

Sep. 3rd, 2025 01:13 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
I had trouble staying asleep for the first half of last night; I kept waking up every hour or so for a while. I was awake at 1 am and couldn't get back to sleep for at least an hour, which was very annoying, but when I did go back to sleep I stayed asleep until the alarm went off. I don't feel especially tired today, but I'm expecting to sleep better tonight.

Violet is obviously feeling better because she went to school today, but her mother has come down with the cold now.

It's another beautiful mild day today, but we're expecting some rain tonight and a couple of hotter days (in the 80s/high 20s) with corresponding warmer nights at the end of the week.

365 Questions 2025

Sep. 3rd, 2025 01:06 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
1. When you have a random hour of free time, what do you usually do? Most of my time is free time in that I don't have to go to work. If I've got time where I'm waiting for something or someone (eg. waiting for a repar person) I usually play some kind of solitaire game on my computer because it doesn't matter if I get interrupted.

2. What makes you weird? I don't think I'm weird; I feel normal to myself. But I know I sometimes unexpectedly find that my opinion or my taste is wildly different from everybody I know, so maybe that makes me weird?

3. If you could relive yesterday what would you do differently? I don't think I'd do anything different.

Wednesday

Sep. 3rd, 2025 09:01 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
The laundry is laundrying, the dishwasher will be washing as soon as I get up and put this plate in. Half the fog is gone but I got a swim in while it was still sunless. I had the pool to myself and it was lovely.

My bank swap seems to be going well. I need the initial funds to show as available in the new Chase account and then I can close out Key Bank entirely. They are showing as pending now. Should be able to get it all done by Friday.

My return phone hit a bit of a UPS snag over the weekend but it, too, looks like it will hit Google tomorrow and, hopefully, I'll have my refund shortly thereafter.

I have the final episode of Hostage (Netflix) to watch. I could have watched it yesterday but I didn't want to rush it. Great little series. I do love Suranne Jones.

Now the sun is breaking through. So glad I already got my swim in!

2025-09-02_08-23-09
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[personal profile] days_unfolding

The doggos finally settled down. Sleep time. Bella is resting her head against Gracie’s leg.

Woke up at 4 AM to use the washroom. I hope that isn’t a harbinger of things to come. Woke up with my alarm at 7 AM. Got a sample from Gracie.

Can't stop yawning.

Hmm. There's a Southern Caribbean cruise on Holland America out of Fort Lauderdale in November. Do I want to see Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao? Do I want to see the US Virgin Islands? Do I want to go on a transatlantic repositioning cruise? If I did that, though, I'd want to spend some time in Portugal. Does anyone have a strong feeling whether I should go to Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao, or The Dominican Republic (Punta Cana) and the US Virgin Islands? (My dad said that I have a lot going on and maybe I should stay home. But I'd like some beach time.) Or I could go to St. Lucia. Hmm, Virgin Cruises has a cruise over Thanksgiving that stops at a lot of the places that I’d like to see, but it’s kind of a party boat.

Dropped Gracie's sample at the vet. Fingers crossed....

My work laptop is steadily biting the dust. I can't see my second monitor.

Had a doctor's appointment with my doctor's Physician Assistant. She was very sharp and helpful. She wants me to get a lung cancer screening because of my smoking history and my mom's history of lung cancer. She did a referral to a sleep clinic. Otherwise, I'll see them again in April.

Gracie still has Giardia but it’s “much improved“. The vet wants to do another round of meds to knock it out. Meanwhile, I need to figure out when to take vacation this fall.

Hell. I was bringing some boxes in and Oliver got outside. Gracie got out and was biting him, and he ran back into the house. I got Gracie in and shut the door. I’m shaking. And Oliver scratched me.

I'm gathering the garbage, but I need a break. It's hot upstairs. At least I don't need to get up early tomorrow.

(no subject)

Sep. 2nd, 2025 04:32 pm
maju: Clean my kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] maju
Violet stayed home from school today because she wasn't feeling well. She wasn't feeling well yesterday morning either, but recovered by the afternoon, and today she repeated the same pattern. She says her nose is stuffy, so I hope she is just fighting a cold and nothing worse. I read to her for about an hour this afternoon, by which time my throat was very dry and scratchy, but we did manage to finish a book we'd started a few days ago. ("The Hamster Princess: Whiskerella", #5 in a series, all of which I've read to the girls over the last couple of years. Very funny, for both adults and children.)

This morning I went for a run after breakfast intending to cover about 5 to 6 km (3 to 4 miles) but the day was so nice that I extended it to 10 km. My legs were a bit tired by the time I got home because it's been quite a while since I've run this distance (I basically don't do longer runs over the summer or once the humidity rises) but I recovered quickly.

(no subject)

Sep. 2nd, 2025 12:27 pm
greghousesgf: (pic#17098439)
[personal profile] greghousesgf
I had a great time at lunch yesterday with my niece, her husband, my ex brother in law and my two friends of my family, I only wish it had lasted longer. Also, the people who run my apt bldg are not going to fuck with my windows at all, I was very relieved to get that all worked out.

Monday but it isn't.

Sep. 2nd, 2025 08:42 am
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[personal profile] susandennis
Growing up in the South East, sweater weather didn't even think about starting until November. (My first winter in Minnesota, it snowed the first week of November.)

But, when I first moved to this part of the country more than 30 years ago, Fall began the day after Labor Day. It was so weird. It was like someone flipped a switch. The week before was sunny and too hot and then on Tuesday, you needed a sweater. Global warming has put the kibosh on that. We have some more hot weather coming but this morning, Tuesday, it is cool and cloudy and even foggy out. Lovely. Alas, it's supposed to get up to 78.

Today is house cleaner day and I think I'll go the the dollar store while she is here. I have a dollar store list so I can just pound that out.

Only one baseball game today and it's not til 4.

Key Bank bit off my last nerve. I made a special point of going into the branch get info (as opposed to calling) and the woman told me that my remaining account - a checking account - was fee free. Then, over the weekend they slapped on a $25 service charge. Nope. That's it. I'm out.

My main credit card is an Amazon visa with Chase. And all I want with a backup checking account is atm's and a place to get five dollar bills if I want them and no fees. Chase has a brick and mortar just up the road. And their rules for no fees are crystal clear. So I opened up a backup checking account with them. I'll probably regret it some time down the road but for now, I'm cool.

My favorite swimsuit was still damp this morning after yesterday's swim. Not much but enough to be annoying at 5:30 am. It was only $19 so I thought I'd just go back and get another one. Amazon, of course. Only this time, it was $12!! Score. Be here tomorrow.

20250902_091849-COLLAGE

Plugging Away on the Kitchen

Sep. 1st, 2025 08:08 pm
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[personal profile] days_unfolding

I saw a patio set on Wayfair for $200. Now is the time to shop for patio furniture.

Gracie woke me up at 6 AM. That’s the problem with the dog alarm; it’s not consistent. Fed us all. And it’s still early! Nap time. Gracie is bugging Bella, and Bella’s not amused.

I did my favorite way to shop for clothes. I saw a neat navy outfit on Facebook. I went on eBay to get a similar top (navy with white stripes), bought some nice navy pants that I wanted anyway, and I already have a white jacket. And it's probably much cheaper than the actual outfit would have been.

The dogs are barking. Package?

The Walmart driver left the gate open, and Bella got out. At least, she doesn’t go far, unlike Gracie, who takes off to parts unknown. And I got more garbage bags.

We have a winner on the kitchen cart front, so I ordered it.

I’m trying to convince myself to take a shower (done).

I’m wondering if Bella would like a crate. She sleeps under the bed. When we’re in the bathroom, she climbs into the litter box. I’d have to rearrange my bedroom to fit it in. Hmm, I also saw a dog playpen. That might give Gracie a chance to run around.

I found a resort in St. Lucia that I like. Prices on St. Lucia are very reasonable.

Started cleaning the kitchen, listening to Jeff Buckley. Gracie is getting in the way. Hmm, I don’t know if I’d call the album the best ever, but he was a great singer. Nice cover of “Hallelujah”.

Dog wrestling on the bed. I’m rooting for Bella to pin Gracie down, but she hasn’t done so yet.

I was thinking of my mom’s phone number, but couldn’t remember the area code. I looked it up.

Started laundry. I want to wash my pajamas before I go to sleep.

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