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Bite me, Brian

I love my car repair place. They always welcome me and my Smart Car with open arms and take very good care of me. But, BrianTheServiceAdvisor (I have his card so I know his title) isn't their star. They open at 8. They want you there at 8. But if you get there before 8, you have to wait outside. I got there this morning at 8:02. Door locked. So I went back to my car to get the mileage which I'd forgotten to jot down. 39925.

When I got back, the doors were open and Brian was waiting. I handed him the letter that shows I get %30 off and pointed to the mileage. The correct answer was "Oh, thank you!" What I got was "oh, I don't need that". I do need the key. "The key is in the car." The correct response is "oh, great. we really rather you bring it in so no one can nip the car while you are in here! But, that's for next time. I'll go get it right now." Brian says "don't ever do that!!!".

It's a tone, Brian. A tone makes the diff. Didn't your mother teach you that?

(The Mercedes place in Seattle had a fit if you didn't leave your key in the car BUT, in fairness, that was after you drove into their massive windowed garage.)

Brian told me to have a seat. They have this fabulous snack basket/coffee area and I had already eyed a little package of iced cookies BUT before I could get my ass into a chair, a really nice voice behind me said "I'm actually ready to go if you are." And I was home by 8:15. Realizing that Brian had not asked me if there was anything special I wanted them to look at or described the services they will perform. I trust them. I just don't like Brian.

But, it will be fine.

It's not nearly as cool out as I was expecting. And my a/c is acting wonky. Right now, it's too hot in here. In about 10 minutes it will be too cold. I suspect we're now dealing with residual building heat after the last few days of too hot. This, too, shall pass.

My measure of a good hair cut is when I roll out of bed in the morning and there are no stickie-outies. I can just smooth it out with my hand and I'm good to go. Bonny did an excellent job yesterday. It was perfect when I rolled out of bed this morning. She now has a permanent job.

I'm still stressing about my banking situation. BUT I've decided to hold off doing anything about it for now. I've still got my main accounts and a small backup checking account at another institution and probably, really, that's all I need.

No plans for today - well, TV, puzzle, baseball, knitting... the usual. And go pick up the car when it's ready.

Entry tags:

Another Busy and Productive Day

I can never forget to feed the cats because they will remind me. The dogs are more low-key (well, Gracie wants everyone's food), but once I start feeding the critters, I feed them all.

I wanted to register for Digital Photography at Parkland this fall, but it conflicts with choir. Bother. Oh, I couldn’t do it anyway because it starts when I’ll be gone. Hmm, there is a mastering your DSLR online class. Maybe I could do that in the spring.

Got up with my alarm at 7 AM.

Got Gracie's appointment set up for tomorrow.

Very busy at work. Our boss is out sick, so I picked up one of her tasks on the sandbox testing. We found a ton of errors today. That made me feel better because I take my errors personally, and these weren't mine. We found them!

The FedEx guy came by with a Chewy box of Gracie's food, and he said "Hi" to both the dogs, who were thrilled. Then the mail carrier came by and said "Hi" to them as well. This is a great neighborhood for them to live in.

I went to the bank to order Euros. I got a bank guy who really knew his stuff, and put notes in my account about when I'll be gone, and I mentioned that I will be flying through Germany (outbound) and Switzerland (inbound), so he added them to the note on my account. The Euros should arrive by Friday. I also got the cash for the pet sitter. That reminds me to call my credit card company to let them know that I'll be gone.

It looks like it's going to storm. I decided to swap my stoneware return to Costco to Thursday because I want to get as much garbage (today) and recycling (tomorrow) out as possible. I will have my COVID shot tomorrow, but that won't take long. Just as well because I don't want to wrangle the stoneware boxes in the rain.

It's going to be really hot in Sardinia. A couple of my beach days might be beach in the morning and lounge by the pool in the afternoon so that I can go in. I need to doublecheck that my hotel has a pool and a/c. The Costa Smeralda hotel has a pool (three pools!), and maybe a/c? The Cagliari hotel does not have air conditioning, so that's going to suck. Must remember to bring a fillable water bottle. I ordered a handheld portable travel fan and a collapsible water bottle.

I saw a waterproof bed blanket protector for households with pets on Facebook. I googled it, and it turns out that Chewy has something that’s fairly cheap, in gray, for full-sized beds so I ordered it.

I had a donut in my hand and went to see whom Gracie was barking at. (I think Oliver.) Bella took a bite out of my donut! Cheeky girl :)

Did laundry. Got a lot of garbage out. Now I just need to feed the critters and go to sleep.

Current Music: Paolo Conte

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Hoping to hear from a friend about a ride to Skeptics in the Pub tonight, I've already e mailed him a couple of times and he has my cell number. In the meantime I have to mail in my electric bill payment, pick up breakfast stuff and go to PT.

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Someone came and took the air mattress from the kerb/curb yesterday morning. I was glad to see it go. Today I've taken a few more things to Goodwill, so gradually whittling things down.

Yesterday evening a high schooler posted to the town email that she is looking for donations for a school supplies drive, so early this morning I went to Safeway and bought about $50 worth of things from her list and then took them to her house. I did all this on foot, since everything was easy walking distance from home.

It's sunny and hot today. I thought I'd seen on the weather forecast that it might rain today so when I did a load of washing I hung the wet things on clothes airers inside to dry. Turns out I could have hung them outside but oh well. They'll be dry by tomorrow hanging inside.

Too hot? Wait 3 days

Wild.

I started bank dancing yesterday. I'm currently happy with BECU but I do hate having all of my eggs in one basket. My backup basket has been Key Bank but I'm pissed at them again. I'll leave a little in a free account there, but then I went trolling for high yield savings. I started the process of opening a new account at a new place but, today I've decided that if I do move some funds, it won't be there. They have no chat. It's called or nothing. Nope. I will make one call, if necessary, to back out of the process but, I think if I don't report my .23 and .13 and .09 the application will die on the vine. As long as it dies.

I'll stick with BECU for now.

My hair is getting too long. This is measured by sticky-outy-ness. When I wake up in the morning, if I have to touch it - comb down one bit or another - it's too long. Myrna used to cut it for me. Actually she usually told me it was time for a cut and then cut it. I thought I'd get Bonny or Martha to do it. I started with Bonny and texted her this morning. The good news is she's happy to do it and will come on down before lunch. The bad news is she reminded me that today is the 3rd floor meeting. I intend to pass on it but she thinks I should go. This will take some maneuvering. But, it's fine.

The meetings are always dreadful but this week is Yet Another Emergency Preparedness meeting. This is a topic that has no right answers and plenty of ???? and everyone thinks they are correct in their plan. It always leads nowhere and I've been there and don't want to go back.

Both my baseball teams are on the east coast for the next 10 days or so and so it will be two games at once for most days. They, in fact, play each other starting Monday. Since they are in different leagues, they play each other very rarely. Should be interesting.

My baby brother turns 72 today.

Entry tags:

Busy Day

Watered the outside plants, although they’re predicting a storm this afternoon. Oliver is telling me that they missed a meal last night. (True.) Closed the bedroom door because Gracie will chew the sheets. I might be postponing the inevitable, but I’m trying.

I flopped back and forth about sleeping instead of showering, but it was late to go back to sleep, so I’ll shower.

Work is very busy because we have a refresh of the "sandboxes" for our libraries. A lot of tasks need to be done in order. We're using Microsoft Planner to keep track of the tasks. It occurred to me that I could use Google Tasks for the stuff that I need to get done before I leave for Italy. (I don't want to use Planner because it might collide with what we're doing for work. I might look for another planner though.) I found a Web site called ClickUp that's a good task planning site. And it's free!

Couldn’t nap at lunch. Not surprised because I got 10 hours of sleep last night. The sheets and duvet are heavenly though.

I already have $120 in my Acorns travel fund. Good deal. My hope for the future is to go on one overseas trip and one US trip/cruise a year. We'll see if I can pull it off.

Hmm. I want to do some packing tonight to make sure that I have what I need. I'm going to get my meds tonight (done) and return library books. (I’ll gather them up tonight and take them tomorrow.) I'll return the stoneware tomorrow because I need to feed the beasts.

Hmm. I saw an ad for a u-shaped body pillow that looks good, but it's expensive. But I don't want to order it now because it'll get here when I'll be gone, and it'll be a big box. So I'll wait and see if I can order it when I get back (if I decide to spend the money, although spending money on sleep things is a good investment). Hey, I found one cheaper that I should be able to order when I get back! It occurred to me to get some self-watering spikes for my plants.

I came downstairs after work. The dogs are like, “Mom, I’m so glad to see you!” The cats are like, “FEED ME NOW!!”

I’ve been pondering how to grow tomatoes without the dogs getting into them. I’m looking at a small greenhouse. I saw one on Amazon for $169. That would be some expensive tomatoes, but I love home-grown tomatoes. They taste so much better than store-bought. I also want to start seeds next spring in the basement.

I found a sesame tofu recipe that looks good, but you need an air fryer. Hmm. If I’m going to cook, it might be good to have one, but I’ll wait until I cook regularly.

Oh shit. Gracie's vet appointment was today. I'll need to reschedule it.

I got my tasks before the trip on my planner, and looking at the calendar makes it more manageable.

By the way, I'm feeling better today.

I don't think that I'll pack tonight, but I need to check on my sunscreen situation to see if I need to order any. My stuff is partially packed anyway.

I need to feed the critters again before going to bed.

Current Music: Alan Stivell

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Got everything done that I needed to get done. Slept like a rock last night.

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When P arrived yesterday the first thing she noticed was the almost empty bookshelves along the wall of the entrance way, because last time she was here I hadn't started culling the books. I showed her the old books from S's parents which I need S's kids to look at before I can do anything with them, and P suggested that if they don't want them (which is very likely) I could take them to a shop which buys and sells old books which have some value. She gave me a couple of names of such shops, and I'll probably look into this. Most of these old books aren't in good enough condition to be donated to Friends of the Library, but apparently this might not be such an issue with these used bookstores.

I've just looked up these two shops; one of them doesn't seem to buy books but the other does. Their instructions for selling books to them sounds a bit sketchy but I'm sure it's not: drive into their carpark and park beside a van with a sign next to it that says "Selling books? Park next to me." The person in the van will look over your books and make you an offer, take it or leave it. Sounds good to me and I plan to do this, eventually.

365 Questions 2025

10. When you look back over the past month, what single moment stands out? I can't say that any one single moment stood out this past month.

11. What do you do to relieve stress? Play mindless games on my computer; maybe go for a walk or do a jigsaw puzzle.

Monday

I did not leave my apartment yesterday and I ate way too much and it was a lovely lovely day.

Today I have nothing on the calendar. No clue why aqua yoga was canceled but I'm delighted. I will probably go out and puzzle some. I might order a meal for pick up. I will watch the Phillies game (the Mariners are off today) but, that's the entirety of the plan.

Looks like my new coffee table might get here on Wednesday which means I might actually have it on Thursday. They used to let us come pick up packages after they were delivered but now you have to wait for them to bring them to you and that's generally not until the next day. Annoying but not a huge issue most of the time. It will be a huge issue when I order a new phone or some other new tech gear. I'm not sitting around waiting for it. BUT I want to use my special case begging for exception for special cases. And Thursday will be fine for the table.

I started a one line a day journal in January of 2023. It's a 5 year book. and I noticed last night that I am now more than half way through the book. I do my entry when I get into bed at night. It is interesting to peek at what happened last year and the year before. This week two years ago I was just about to start thinking about CCRC's for real and looking into places like Timber Ridge.

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Sunday

I stayed up later than I intended, but we’re all fed now. Had problems falling asleep because I forgot to take my meds at first.

Woke up with my alarm at 9 AM. Fed us all.

I need to go out and get soda today, so I might go to Costco and return the stoneware. I need to pick up meds too.

I can pick up my meds tomorrow. Much as I hate to use Walmart delivery, I really want to stay home. I just made some food but don’t feel like eating it. I could put it in the fridge.

Showered and am feeling a bit better. I’m cleaning the kitchen, and Bella is sneaking stuff out of the trash to put in her stash. Sigh.

Took a break to eat dinner. Now it’s critter feeding time. Headache. Fed us all. Got my new sheets, duvet, and duvet cover on the bed. Lectured the dogs on how these are nice sheets, and they shouldn’t chew them. Received my Walmart order.

Now I’m going to lie down for a little while. Bella doesn’t want Gracie to lick me. Gracie is trying to chew the sheets :( I booted her out of here. Took a nap and slept through until 6:30 AM.

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I was tired all day yesterday after my active morning, which surprised me a bit because I did exactly the same amount and intensity of activity the previous Saturday without feeling tired afterwards. I slept really well last night but was still feeling tired when I got up this morning. I dragged myself out for a walk (at a fairly leisurely pace for me) because it was too perfect a morning to waste (16°C/61°F) and ended up enjoying it, of course. I hadn't gone very far when I ran into a woman walking her dog who wanted to stop and chat (the woman, not the dog, although the dog wanted to get to know me too) which is unusual around here. Most often, if you don't know the other walker, you just say hi and keep going, but she started smiling at me from several metres away and stopped when we drew level and started chatting about the lovely cool morning and how she hoped it was the beginning of fall. It was a nice little encounter.

My friend P is coming over to do crafty stuff in an hour or so. That will be a nice relaxed way to spend the rest of the afternoon.

the cycle

This morning I went through another round of stressing about my backup email. All it takes is a glance at a random tail about someone losing access to their google account and boom - into a tailspin I go. The last round - not even that long ago - sent me to set up a backup situation where all my emails were sent to my susandennis.com hosting server. But, turns out, that's just not practical for several reasons. So now it's back to outlook.com. It cost me $20 a year and Microsoft is about as dodgy as Google if my account gets hosed but at least I now have two places - cloudwise - I can find out what size swimsuit I bought from that place where I used to get them way back in the before times - easily.

I somehow forgot to do laundry. I remembered last night but it was too late to start so that's what's happening now.

We're going to have a few days of really hot weather here this week but it's fine. I do have to go outside on Wednesday but it will be in an air conditioned vehicle. We're almost done here. The days are getting shorter and if/when more heat comes, it will only really be for a few hours. I can handle it.

Today is baseball and knitting. AND I have the gift of nothing on the calendar tomorrow. Nice. They had meatloaf and chicken on the buffet last night. I got both. Ate the chicken and plan to see that meatloaf on a fabulous sandwich today. Last night was my last night for this month's $600. I had $3.00 left after the buffet. I breezed into the bistro (our 7/11) and told Nohn who was on duty, my problem. "What you need is a toffee ice cream bar. Yep. He was right. It's in the freezer now for this afternoon and my account is $0.

Time now to watch Tia Watson's Sunday morning video. She bought a house for $1 and is fixing it up. She is as good as house fixing up as she is at video editing and it makes a delightful way to start my Sundays.

Current Music: Michael McGoldrick

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I have to do both grocery shopping and laundry today, fixing myself a bigass pot of Celebration tea because I need the energy. God, I wish I had a car.

Entry tags:

Ugh. I'm Feeling Lousy Again.

Fed us all. It’s starting to get light. I need to clean up some poop in the bedroom. (I can’t blame Gracie because I was asleep for a long time.) Then I’ll go back to sleep for a while. The dogs promptly crashed out.

Woke up at 9 AM with Gracie licking my face. I caught Bella in the act of moving a cat dish around. Me to Oliver: “You got fed earlier.” Oliver to me: “That was then; this is meow.”

My stomach is upset, so I’m going to lie down. Bella snoozes until the last possible minute before I get up. I told her that she doesn’t have to get up when I get up, but she thinks that it’s her duty as The Dog to follow me around. Gracie is more independent.

I was trying to figure out where to put my new drying rack for clothes. I’d rather put it on the shaded side away from the street. The sunny side is right along the sidewalk. I’ll try it on the shadier side and see what happens. Also, the garage-to-be will clear the clothesline posts in the back yard.

Bella and Gracie were playing tug of war with a stick. Bella won twice. A neighbor said “Hi” to the dogs. Gracie was upset and barking because the guy left, and I told her that the world didn’t revolve around her. She is not convinced. Gracie: “My water dish is empty.” Me: “Your water dish would stay full longer if you didn’t play in the water.” Gracie: “This does not compute.”

Ugh. My stomach is still upset. I would stay in, but have a grocery pickup at Meijer at 4. Hmm, I really need to go to Costco today because I’m planning on staying up late working on the kitchen. But I’ve been feeling dizzy.

I was thinking that I had an easy choice to euthanize Mimi. A brain tumor is serious stuff. I have a feeling that I’ll have a tougher choice with Zara. She keeps losing weight, but her kidney numbers are good so far.

I received my InstaPot. I’m looking forward to learning how to use it.

Lily is fussing over me. I think that she’s hungry.

I took a shower and dressed, but I feel shaky. Ate a BistroMD cookie to try to help the shakes.

Went and got the pickup order. I ran in to get some diet root beer, only to find that they were out of bottles, so I got some cans. I found some good food prep containers and a muffin pan. Came home to find that the new pots and pans are here.

Bought a dog fountain for Bella and Gracie, although Gracie doesn’t like running water. (I read a sob story about a dog who got dehydrated, and that worried me.)

Cats: we’re hungry! Feed us! Nothing subtle about Oliver. He gets in my face when he’s hungry. Fed us all.

The new copper pots look great! I want to clean the stove before taking a picture of them though. I think that I want a copper kettle too (ordered). I need to take apart the boxes that they came in.

I’m feeling dizzy. I was going to stay up all night cleaning, but I think that I need to lie down soon. I really wish that I’d stop being sick. I want to do dishes before I go to sleep though (done). I need to feed the beasts again, but then I'll go to sleep. I'm setting an alarm though.

toast

Between losing Mom and the move I am a blubbering pile of protoplasm but I will make my triumphant return later this week.

Saturday

The pool has been so cold and then, Thursday, cloudy. So when they sent the announcement that it was closing for maintenance, we really didn't think it was going to open any time soon. But it did! and this morning, the water was crystal clear and plenty warm and volleyball was very fun.

Elbow coffee was fine. No big news. Just comforting neighbors comforting. Everyone's really concerned about John. It's kind of like a wait before the wake.

Now I'm home watching the Braves and Marlins game because one of the umpires has a vagina! So far she's doing great. And they gave her a nice, but not overly nice, welcome. Deft.

So I added risers to my couch and that made the chaise piece look funny so I moved it to storage and then I discovered that there was a mess of wires under the table that just looked horrible so I plugged and unplugged and replugged and then eliminated a couple of cables and bundled the rest and it now looks much better. But, really, one thing and then another and then another...

Spacefem has another one of her financial entries up today that has me thinking. She has vastly different goals and needs and financial requirements than I do but her thots on her own finances always get me to rethink mine. Today I'm thinking about my Amazon purchases which I do not track in a lot of detail but want to start (or restart - I used to). I don't know that I'll make many changes, I just want to know for sure, what I'm doing.

And... here's a shocker... I have no Amazon returns!

Current Mood: confused
Current Music: Emer Kenny

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Had a great dinner last night and it was so nice to see my friends although I'm still not happy L. cancelled.
Since some of us are big science fiction geeks we were talking about the Twilight Zone and some strange things happened. One of my friends has tarot cards and I asked for a reading and got a really weird one that made no sense. On the way back home my other friend was not sure how to get to my place from the restaurant (he'd never been to that restaurant before) and the GPS kept leading him the wrong way, then what looked to me like a much bigger and brighter than usual full moon rose.

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It's another pleasantly mild day after a cool night, and I enjoyed once again being able to walk to and from parkrun. It looks like it's going to get hotter again during this week though.

I started out sleeping well last night but towards morning I keep half waking up, and now I'm feeling tired. It's taking me a while to recover from walking to and from parkrun as well as pushing myself at parkrun to try to keep up with my older "rival". (She beat me by a couple of seconds today, but we both finished more than 30 seconds faster than last week.)

Earlier I put an air mattress out on the kerb/curb, then sent an email to the town email list to let people know, and now I'm cringing because I got confused by the spelling and wrote "kurb" instead of "curb" for my American audience, and didn't realise until it was too late to unsend it and make the correction.

365 Questions 2025

5. What worries you about the future? Almost everything due to the current fool in the White House.

6. What one ‘need’ and one ‘want’ will you strive to achieve in the next twelve months? I both want and need to move to Connecticut to be closer to my daughter and her family. She is working hard to achieve this, working with an architect and a contractor to have an apartment built attached to her house. I am doing my part by clearing out my house here ready to move.

7. What life lessons did you have to experience firsthand before you fully understood them? The first one that springs to mind is how to drive.

8. Do you like the city or town you live in? Why or why not? I don't love the whole DC area (I don't hate it either) but I love the little enclave within it where I live. The whole small town is an arboretum and is full of the most beautiful tall trees.

9. What’s the best part of being you? I seem to have inherited healthy genes from someone. My mother lived into her 90s so I guess it was from her.