Got some eggs

Since we were at Costco, and it's our last trip while we still have membership, we decided to get a few things to stock up on. Our main reason to stop was to just get a couple cases of Mountain Dew, but like my DD says "you don't tell Costco what you need, Costco tells you what you need" LOL. We walked in and took an immediate right to go down that back wall to the back corner where the soda is. Dh spotted a big case of blue shop towels, so he got that. We got back to the corner and no soda. They had moved it. Of course they did. Another one of the reasons I hate shopping at Costco. We spend half of every trip there walking around trying to find stuff. Finally, we found the soda on the other side of the store, now, along that wall. DH decided to really stock up and got 4. Since we were right near the freezer aisles I got 2 packages of the frozen hamburger patties (that will last us a few months) and some more of that orange chicken. On the way towards the check out dh decided to find some socks, as he needs some new socks. After my $30 rewards certificate, the total came to $151.74. About $149 more than I originally planned to spend haha.

Walmart finally had some eggs, so I was able to get 2 18-packs of cage free eggs. Wow - was Walmart's pick up area ever packed with cars. We've never seen it that busy before. Both sides of the numbered parking areas were full. We really didn't have to wait too long, though. 10 or 15 minutes. We decided to try a mom and pop burger drive thru nearby (instead of Wendy's) and it was really good and pretty much the same price. Plus, we were able then to head the "back way" out of the city and skip the busy road where it was rush hour with everyone getting off work.

I was tired by the time we got home and all the groceries put away. DH brings them all in and he does put away the soda and water cases. I do the rest. It's a good half hour job, by the time I take all the loaves of bread, put them inside another plastic bag and clip the ends of those bags and them make several trips out to carry stuff out to the freezer in the garage. We got home at 5:20 and I got done at 6pm. DH fell asleep in his den sitting in his desk chair (he always does that) and I ended up laying on our bed and taking about a 25 minute nap.

3/4 day Friday

I didn't get time to call SSA yesterday, so I called first thing this morning. This time the recording offered the call back and said it would be about an hour wait. Well, for some reason my phone put the return call through to spam - GRRR! So, I missed my chance to talk to someone and now I'm busy and just going to try again first thing Monday morning and guess I will just stay on hold until someone answers.

I am taking off work early today and we are going into the city to pick up a grocery order. And make one stop at Costco - to use up that rebate certificate before my membership expires at the end of this month. I think we will just buy a couple of cases of Mountain Dew for dh. Then he will be plenty stocked up (in addition to what I normally order from Walmart each trip) and no chance of running low (like happened last month LOL - gasp! it was almost the end of the world!).  I started work an hour earlier this morning and told m boss I was taking off an hour early. Her reply was to take the whole afternoon off, haha. See why I love her?!

It's a nice sunny day for a drive, though temps have lowered a bit this week. It's supposed to be overcast this weekend. I'm glad we don't need to do the trip to pick up groceries this weekend. I plan to try making another banana cream pie, again with the sugar free banana pudding, but this time am leaving the bananas off the bottom of the pie. They just ripen, get all brown/mushy too fast and then I don't think the pie is good and it also made the crust soggy. The previous couple of times I made the pie, I would just slice a fresh banana, when we were having a piece of the pie (usually takes us 3-4 days to eat it), and add the pieces to the cut slice of pie, on top, with some whipped cream. I'm in need of some dessert and using the sugar free pudding, should be a low cal dessert to have and it's one of dh's favorites.

 

A couple of things fixed

I just placed my Walmart pick up order (for tomorrow afternoon) and checking out with Paypal worked correctly now, and it charged my paypal credit card. So, glad that is fixed, even if it took a chat and 2 phone calls.

I also got a couple of emails from customer service for the Optase eye drops. They are sending me a replacement bottle and some samples of their single use vials. He also had mentioned in the email before that about sending my bottle back to them, so they could test it for quality control. Not sure if he's sending info how to do that with this replacement and samples or not, but if he does I will send it back.

I guess I get to call the Social Security Admin again today. It's now been 30 days since I called and they told me it would be processed/pain within 30 days. Wonder what today's excuse will be, but I intend on calling repeatedly now, until it's resolved.

DH was feeling a little better yesterday, so he did go out in his shop for a couple hours and work on making those drawers for under his wood/sawing table. He's never made anything like this, so it's taking awhile.

My half-sis's step dad passed on Tuesday. That was a long battle he gave, after breaking his pelvis last summer and finding out he had cancer throughout his body. It sounds like he lived a good long life, though, and made it to 92. Now she has to deal with being co-executor of his will. I have a feeling it's not going to be a fun process for her. I have no idea how the Canadian will probate process works, but maybe it's easier/quicker than here in the U.S.

One of our neighbors dog's has been sick, poor guy. Mr has had him to the vet twice in the past week and he had to have some kind of surgery. I'm not sure how old the dog is now, but getting up there and also a large breed type dog. I think he's probably around 8 years old. I also can't remember how old their other dog (yellow lab) is now. I think he was 3 when they got him and they've probably had him 3-4 years now. 

Think it

I think I manifested getting myself a raise. A few weeks ago I started trying an experiment. I started envisioning that I had a higher salary. I even put a sticky note taped to the bottom of my monitor with the salary I wanted. This morning I logged into my payroll profile (because I was going to update my direct deposit) and there it was (I had to blink twice) - the new salary I had been envisioning! It's also perfect timing, as last night my side job boss texted me that this month will be the last payment to me for working for them. My salary increase exactly replaces what they've been paying me the past year or so, since they sold their business and have been winding everything down. My increase was 6.3%, which is very decent. But raises, the past 6 or 7 years have been pretty hit and miss with my company, so nothing is a given anymore. We used to have annual reviews and increases and they just sorta dropped that. A few years ago I went 3 years without a raise. The management has just been very wishy washy, but now seems to be trying to be back on track, which is nice.

I think my headache is sinus related, which I get around this time of year for about a week, so I'll take some sinus headache meds instead of tylenol (which does nothing for my sinus headaches). 

DH has been feeling pretty crummy the last 2 days. Feels like his pancreas, again. About a week ago he was feeling pretty good. No clue why it comes and goes. His phone consult with Mayo Clinic isn't until mid April.

Not much else new going on around here, so I guess I'll make this post short and sweet.

I'm squeezing wrong

How weird is this....that package I was sent via a Walmart (3rd party) order that said it was shipped USPS and put in someone's PO box on Friday.....it showed up Sunday, in Amazon packaging, delivered by an Amazon driver! I'm so confused LOL. I think this is a Walmart issue - this happened to me once before with something I ordered from Walmart online that was shipped by one of their 3rd party sellers. The tracking showing for the order was not for my order. That time it was UPS and our UPS guy was able to look up the tracking# and saw it was not even to my name or address, yet that is the tracking# I was given. Amazon delivery has been better the past month or two. They now seem to have one dedicated driver, who is in a white van. 

Yesterday we went to the get-together at our friend's house. Met a few other couples around our age, which was nice. We all ended up being way later than we realized it was LOL. By the time we got home it was 4pm and while we had some snacks there, we were hungry. We opted to just have a sandwich and call it dinner. Works for me.

It was a lovely weekend, weather wise. Cloudy today and possibly a little rain. Around here we call this time of year "mud season". The snow is melting, the ground is wet and muddy for a month or so. The Canadian geese are back and we now hear them honking as they fly along the river every day.

I woke up with a headache this morning. It actually started yesterday morning. I thought maybe it was because instead of my cup of coffee/caffeine yesterday morning, when I got up, I had decaf. I knew friend would have coffee to drink, and I can only have one cup per day, so I wanted to wait, so I could have some coffee there. I took some tylenol before we left to visit friends and that took care of it, but it's back. 

I just got an email back from Optase about the eye drops bottle. Apparently I'm supposed to tip it upside down and then squeeze into my eye.........who knew?! LOL. Of course that is how I dispense the drops. And then I'm supposed to turn it back upright and wait until it fills back up with air, before I do the other eye....so what? the next day? LOL. Because that's how long it take to fill back up, leaving the cap off! and I really don't think leaving the cap off (even though it's a very tiny hole the drop comes through) is very sanitary. I guess I just don't have the knack for this bottle, haha.

More cost increases

My cell phone bill with Verizon went up $15 a month starting this month - except it's really an $18 increase. Taxes and surcharges on the $15 I assume...though 20% tax seems absurd. I haven't looked at the bill to get to the nitty gritty. I am going to have to ask our neighbors which carrier they use. I've just always liked Verizon because I pretty much seem to get service everywhere. When we were building (and living here) the subs would come out to work and some of them, depending on which carrier they used, couldn't get service or it was very spotty. But $120/mo for 2 cell phones on their smallest data (only 3gb) plan seems pretty ridiculous.

My new 4-letter word is becoming "staining" LOL. These are the posts I had to stain yesterday. 

There were 4 of them and it went quick, as I was only staining about half way. The other half is going in the ground. DH put some sealant type stuff on the half that is going in the ground. He's got 4 spots on our property where he had pre-planned for possible electrical needs and there is conduit sticking up out of the ground, with a little box on top. He wanted to add the posts next to them, to keep the conduit from accidentally getting broken off. While it didn't take me long to stain at all, I then helped him for about an hour getting the black goopy sealant on them. 

I noticed dh repaired his old saw horses with some new boards. These are his dad's old saw horses that he has had for years and they finally got so wobbly he had to put some new boards on them. They just have sentimental value to him.

As you can tell, I really do not enjoy spending half of my weekend day out in the shop on his projects....every so often is fine, but this seems to be turning into every weekend and it's cutting into my time to clean house and do my chores. Plus, I really don't enjoy spending time in the shop - it's tooooo full of stuff, stuffed to the gills. Too claustrophobic, even though the ceiling is very high. It's never going to change, so the less time I have to go out there, the better.

Yesterdays temp got to 62. This morning when I got up it's 22. Daytime wants to be spring - nighttime wants to be winter.

I have a strange thing going on with an order from Walmart I did. One of the items was shipped separately and says delivered to me USPS on Friday. We didn't get it. Tracking is very odd. The tracking# Walmart has for it is not showing up in My Informed Delivery, yet it shows being put into a PO box at my town's post office. I don't have a PO Box and even if by accident they put it in someone's PO box, why didn't the tracking # show up in My Informed Delivery? If you look at more detail via USPS on the tracking history it also makes no sense. On Thursday it shows originating at a little tiny town up in the northwest part of our state (not likely at all). Then on Friday it shows leaving PA (more likely) and somehow got to MT the same day and put in a PO box? Makes zero sense. I'll give it a few more days this next week and see if it shows up, before I report it as not received.

Well, dh wants me to wake him up at 8 this morning, so I need to get back downstairs and do that and make breakfast. We are going over to the friends at 10:30 this morning.

 

My newest complaint

Are you kidding me? I have to do more wood staining?! LOL. Good grief. Now he's decided that he will use up a few posts for another project and needs those stained LOL. It'll be quick, but dang, it's never ending ;)

Last year my eye doctor recommended some eye drops for me called Optase Intense. They are really great - their product container/bottle, not so much. The bottle is just too soft and when trying to squeeze drops out, it just collapses. I have a full bottle that I just started using and this is what it now looks like after trying to use it a few times

This makes it almost impossible to squeeze now and get drops out. It also seems like this bottle is worse than previous purchases. At least with my previous purchases the bottle did not start collapsing until it got about halfway down with the solution left inside. Then I'd end up wasting a lot of it, when it got down to about 1/4 left because there was just no way to squeeze it anymore. There's also no way to get the top off, to try some other method (eye dropper?) to get to the solution. This stuff is too expensive to not be able to use much of it. It's about $24 for this little bottle. I found Optase's website online and was able to send a complaint message. This stuff works great, but not with this bottle they put it in and I'm not spending that kind of money on it anymore and told them so. Every other eye drop I have ever purchased has a bottle that is firm and able to squeeze drops out and holds it shape and they should be able to make this usable.

March 1st today. Spring will be springing now that we don't have much snow left. Of course it still will likely snow again, but it won't last long with the temps now. Also curious to see if we will be seeing some building start on the 2 lots next to us. I have talked to the guy that owns the 3rd (farthest from us) lot, but they are not starting until September. They will likely only be able to get site work and a foundation dug before it's too cold, so their house most likely won't be finished until mid 2026. But, potentially this summer/fall there could be 3 houses being built on our street. That would be crazy, LOL. 

It's another blue sky sunny warm day on tap. I'd better enjoy and appreciate it, because starting tomorrow it gets cloudy and a little cooler again.

Tomorrow, mid morning, we are going to some friends house for some coffee and baked goods and a visit. Friend said they will have Mountain Dew for dh LOL. I think they are just trying to attempt to start inviting some folks, get to know each other better, get a better sense of "community" in the area (it sure needs it!). Maybe it will turn into something more regular and we can do a turn at hosting in the future. Anyway, it will be nice to get out of the house and enjoy some nice (and intelligent!) company.

Let's call February a wrap

Happy Friday :) Two months of 2025 done already. I feel like I am trying to be more mindful and appreciative of each day, but they sure do have a way of passing fast, most of the time.

I got a call from Harbor Freight yesterday afternoon that the dust collector/vacuum dh ordered (and we pre paid for) was already in (they had said mid March). We were hoping to time the pick up with our next grocery run, but he didn't want to leave it there and chance them selling it out from under him (they all seemed a bit confused on how they handle these orders when we were in the store) so he decided to drive into the city himself yesterday and pick it up. 

He had to get gas. For the past few months he's been keeping track in his phone notes what the price of gas is per gallon. It was like .20 cents a gallon higher than a month ago. So much for our costs going down..... He also stopped by the town lumber store and picked up what he needed to get started on the drawers he wants to make for underneath his big wood work bench.

Four more days and the 30 days is up that SSA told me the payment would be processed. Do you think I'll see the money in the next 4 days? LOL. I will be calling again on 3/5, I'm sure. Nothing has come in the mail about it, either, if they have come up with some reason not to process it.

Last night I watched the newest episode of Severance. What an episode! The whole time I was just like "What the....??!" It's an interesting show and having to wait a week in between episodes makes it even  more suspenseful. There's only 3 more episodes of this season left. 

Work today feels like we (my boss and I) are getting a lot of various small issues resolved. So, it feels like we are making lots of progress today, LOL. On the flip side, it's a lot of emails and messaging back and forth to deal with. It's not being a quiet day haha.

Another super nice day - blues skies, sun and high 50's.  

Fixed a problem on a sunny day

I think I have resolved the issue with PayPal and my PayPal credit card not getting charged when checking out with Paypal, as the payment method. It took a bit of time. First I was on a chat with support and they were looking into it (over 2 days). They told me they couldn't see my PPCC in my PayPal wallet. I was then told to call the customer service number on the back of my card. I knew that wasn't going to work. The credit card itself, has nothing to do with my PayPal account/wallet. It could have been a totally unrelated card that I had set as my preferred payment method and they certainly couldn't control what checking out with PayPal uses as my preferred method. He, of course, instructed me to call PayPal support back and gave me a number.

That person was apparently more knowledgeable than the chat person. (I started to type "more helpful" but no, the chat person was just as helpful.) He could see the cc in my wallet. I'm not even sure I can explain what the issue was, but I did understand what he meant.LOL. Even though you can have a preferred payment method set, there are still other "payment settings" set up, per company you are purchasing/have purchased from in the past. Apparently these settings override. He went into those setting and fixed Walmart so that the payment will go on my cc. He also sent me an email with instructions on how I could could access this in my paypal account myself and look for any others I might want to update. Who knew?! It's buried in a payment setting called "Automatic Payments", even though he explained to me that name is misleading. It could be a setting for a one time purchase, not something you have set up to pay monthly. Next time I do an online order and do Paypal checkout, I guess we'll see if it works now. At least neither of the 2 times I called did I have to wait on hold at all, so that was nice. I'd say any time I have had to call Paypal over the last 15-20 years I have had an account with them, it's never a long wait to get to talk to someone.

We had a beautiful, sunny 50 degree day yesterday and another similar day is on tap for today and even a bit warmer. It's still around freezing at night, but once the sun it out it warms up quickly.

DH spent part of the day going through his big stack of wood scraps of all kinds and now has a separate pile, to be burned this spring. A few pieces were long, so he cut them up into smaller lengths that will be more manageable to put on the fire.

Today I have a quarterly phone meeting with my guy who runs my inherited IRA. It sure doesn't seem like it's been 3 months already, but I guess it was November when we last chatted. It's also hard to believe that in a little over a week, I will have now had the account one full year. The plan I have with the money is still the same - pay off my mortgage, so it's fully paid when I retire. Since I don't plan on retiring for another 6 years and want to spread out my distributions over the years, so that I'm not at the highest tax bracket, I'm letting most of it stay invested as long as possible.The calls are usually only 10-15 minutes. My work's 401k advisor is also offering their annual meetings, but I think I'm good on that. I talked to them a year or two ago and still want to keep the investing at it's current settings.

 

 

 

Whacky Wednesday

I'm having a frustrating start to my morning, with work. Nothing seems to want to work right. I get past the issue(s) and that is creating another issue to deal with. And to make me even more annoyed, Amos is spending the morning meowing. He's been outside twice now (once with me literally tossing him out the door) and then comes back in a half hour or so later and starts up with the meowing again. Back out he just went. I'm not in the mood for all this and starting to think I must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, LOL.

It's looking to be a nice sunny day, at least. Blue skies and highs in the upper 40's. The upcoming weekend is up into the 50's. Every day I am hearing more and more birds chirping outside. I'm not really seeing them much yet, though.

Not much happened around here yesterday. Recently dh had me order some various stainless steel wall outlet cover plates to replace the plastic ones in the shop. Only one of the styles we ordered the holes were not drilled standard. They were almost 1/4" farther apart.  I ordered them through Amazon and was able to contact the seller company via email and they have been replying back. I showed them by putting a ruler across one of the plates and sent the picture in the email. They think it was a bad production batch and are now sending out replacements. Keeping fingers crossed the next set will be the correct ones.

I spent the evening watching a podcast with a "sleep expert" scientist phd guy on. It was a long 2hr interview, but had lots of good information on how important sleep is. Part of his interview he talked about sleep and Alzheimer's and the possible correlation between poor sleep and getting Alzheimer's. Makes me wonder even more about my mom and why she may have gotten it. Obviously she was having sleep issues years before, because she started taking those PM meds with benadryl in them. When then in turn, long term use of those anticholinergic class of drugs is knows to cause dementia. Obviously taking those meds long term was NOT a good solution. I did ask my boss recently if she got herself off of those and she had finally seen a doctor and was trying something else to help her sleep.

Refunds and purchases

My mom's state tax refund showed up in her checking this morning, so I can stop watching for that one now. Now, the final item is just her last social security payment still owed. 

DH's new towing mirrors got delivered yesterday. Via UPS, so that's always later in the day, typically around dinner time. He was going to wait until today to install them, but decided to do it last night. I'm not sure how long it took him - 2-3 hours I think. At one point he needed a few minutes of help and it looked like quite the project. He had the door panel inside the door off and was having me hold the mirror while he figured out what wiring went where. He's very happy with them and has wanted towing mirrors on that truck for years and years. These were my Christmas gift to him and since I was expecting to have to pay like $500 for (original) mirrors, he could only find aftermarket and they were only $165. So, yesterday he also ordered a cover for this truck, since it's mostly just stored in the garage. The one he found was $199, but I found a 15% off code for this car cover site and saved $30 on it.

I've become a bit annoyed with PayPal lately. They have the option to set a preferred payment method. I have my paypal credit card set as the preferred method. So, when checking out during purchases, some sites have "pay with paypal" option. I have used that lots of times in the past, with no problems. Plus, if I use this method, I'm supposed to get 3% cashback on these methods of purchases, instead of 1.5% (and this has worked fine in the past). Two or 3 times, recently, I have used paypal to checkout of a purchase and without even showing me what method it got charged to, the purchase is going through and NOT using my preferred method. It's using my back up method of my checking. VERY annoying. One purchase was my grocery order with Walmart. I want it on the card so I at least earn 1.5% cash back. I had noticed Walmart has a check out with paypal option, so I clicked on that (to see if it would then earn me the 3% rate) and it pulled the payment from my checking. The same thing happened with a Target purchase. And it doesn't even give you any warning to show which payment method it's using. I've tried to google the issue and it just sounds like Paypal just does whatever it decides it wants to do, so I don't even see a reason to set a preferred payment method. Stupid. I do have a message about it into their customer service, but I'm sure it will be some stupid, vague answer.

Yesterday got up to 55 degrees! What a tease, LOL.  Amos sure enjoyed the extra outside time, though.

I didn't end up making spaghetti Sunday. DH wasn't feeling very well, stomach wise, so we just had soup. But, I made it last night, so that is probably what I'll have for leftovers and he can have his burger tonight.

Payroll processing is already fun this morning.........GRRRR. One hourly employee doesn't show clocking in or out last Tuesday, but also doesn't show taking the day off. I emailed her over an hour ago and no reply. Seriously - answer your emails! The other one is another new hourly employee, who already seems to be turning into a problem employee (and my boss just said this herself in a message to me).  We have set work schedules, but a lot of these new employees sure just seem to set their own times LOL.

Weekend over

I tried the brownie recipe that Lori mentioned yesterday in her comment. I substituted monkfruit for the regular sugar. Very tasty! And I like that the recipe didn't include vegetable oil.

I saw this cute meme this morning. Except my easy bake oven was around 1970 haha!

I also made some tapioca pudding, but not sure what I did wrong (I've made it bunches of times) but it didn't set up very well. Maybe I didn't keep it at a boil long enough. It still tastes fine and will get eaten, LOL. I also don't know why they call it "Minute Tapioca" - it takes almost a half hour to make, haha. My least favorite part of making it is having to stand there, continuously stirring for like 15 minutes until it comes to a rolling boil.

My wifi adapter got delivered yesterday (Amazon driver) so I got that plugged in and the driver for it downloaded and it seems to work fine. Since my computer doesn't have a wifi card in it, this adapter is my backup plan. If for some reason our internet goes down (which has happened on rare occasions), I could still create a hotspot with my phone and get wifi through that to keep working. Good to be prepared and it was only $7.50. I remember when I was spec'ing out dh's computer, adding wifi to the computer was an option and it was only $10 more. Mine is the only computer plugged into our phone/internet jack, as we put an outlet in my office. Partly just to have a solid connection straight to the router/modem and also because my office is the farthest corner, upstairs, from our modem/router, which is downstairs in a panel in the garage. Though we do have the Google Home WiFi system that helps extend our range throughout our home and even out into the shop, so using wifi doesn't really seem to be an issue in my office, anyway. Next time I need a new work computer, I'll make sure they add a wifi card. I think I've now had this computer since either March of 2020 or 2021, so it's probably getting close again for needing a new one. Sure doesn't seem like it's been that long! I'm probably the only one that uses a desktop computer. Everyone else at work has a laptop, but they are also using it to work at the office and work at home, as our office is still hybrid - work from home on Mondays and Fridays. Seems like the laptops have to be replaced more often then my desktop, plus they are twice as expensive. I just don't see the point of me having a laptop. I have to have 2 screens anyway, plus I'd have a separate keyboard and mouse because I can't stand typing on a laptop.

I see my boss in logged into work this morning, so I just sent her a message to ask how she's feeling. Hopefully better. There sure is a lot of nasty stuff going around. So many people we know are sick. We are just trying to stay away. DH wants to go to the lumber store in town, but he's holding off for now. The last thing he needs is to get sick with some virus and feel worse then he already does.

 

a long day

That little cabinet lighting project turned into a 4 hour job. No real problems, it was just very time consuming. I just stood in the kitchen handing him stuff when he needed it (so he didn't have to keep going up and down the ladder), so I'm not exactly sure what all he was doing, LOL. But, it all works now and looks much better. Plus, when our electrician's originally did it, they only put the lights in the middle, not all the way across the top of the cabinets (but I'm sure they charged us like they did the whole thing!). I couldn't remember where exactly I had placed the fake greenery up there. I'm sure I have a picture with it, I'll have to search. It's not looking right LOL

I can't stand for long periods - my hips start hurting, so I when I wasn't needed I ended up sitting at one of the bar stools reading a magazine that came in the mail. An AARP magazine - which then reminded me I need to cancel that subscription to AARP. I only joined it (for $9) last spring, so that I could save $200 by buying $2000 in Royal Caribbean gift cards through them for $1800, to pay our cruise balance. 

It was 3pm when we got done and we started around 11am or maybe even a little earlier. The only problem he had was when he was doing the 2nd section of lights, they wouldn't work. He couldn't figure out why. He had tested them first and they came on. That was a bit frustrating, but probably only added 15 minutes to the job. He ended up using a different connector and that one worked. It was tiring and past my weekend nap time, but I took a nap anyway for an hour. Then started dinner at 4:30 and didn't do much of anything at all the rest of the evening.  

I also looked for a brownie recipe that I could make from scratch but all the recipes I could find online called for chocolate chips, which I don't have and in my 2 old cookbooks they called for unsweetened chocolate squares, which of course I didn't have. Not that I ended up with any time yesterday to make something. But, this morning I did find a brownie in a mug recipe and that's probably better, then I'll only eat one serving, haha. I'll probably end up using up some ripe bananas and make banana bread today.

The rain has arrived, here to wash away our beautiful white landscape. It got to 48 again yesterday and I noticed most of our roofs really melted off a lot of the snow.

I'm trying to decide what's for dinner tonight and if I need to get anything out of the freezer for it. I think I'll make spaghetti. That'll give me some leftovers, that I can have for lunch or dinner (when I make dh his bunless burger and I don't have that).

In my expense tracking I've been doing the past few months, I've realized my budget for food is too low by about $75 a month, so starting March I'm increasing it. What choice do we have, eh? It is what it is. I didn't make my substitutions/changes to some items until last grocery order purchase, so maybe those changes will help offset some of the $75/mo. We'll see, in a couple months, when I average out the next couple months and see what I am spending. I remember when we still had the kids with us and I grocery shopped weekly and for the 4 of us I'd spend $100-$125 a week - for 4 of us. Gone are those days.

Warm weekend

We sure had a nice sunny warm day yesterday. It got up to 47. Even Amos enjoyed staying outside longer, though he didn't do much since the ground is still covered in snow. Today is supposed to be cloudy and mid 40's but the rain is holding off until tomorrow. They are actually saying some areas might flood due to how much rain we are going to get, because the ground is still so frozen, it will have no where to go.

While the week went fast for me, apparently it was a long week for Amos. He was laying on the back of the couch like this last night, LOL. No clue why he had his head face down, haha

DH decided to wait until today to work on replacing those lights above the kitchen cabinets, because he wants my help. Plus we want to try to dust/vacuum, while we are up there. I don't know why those lights went out - there are lights underneath the cabinets as well, and those have not gone out. Of course they are all LED type (and both are the same kind) so they should have lasted a lot longer.

Other than helping him with that, I have no other plans for this weekend. I'm trying my best not to make some dessert, LOL. That used to be one of my typical weekend things. I think maybe I'll just make some tapioca pudding, using monk fruit. Then I get a little dessert, but no sugar.  I should find a brownie recipe and try it with monk fruit. Maybe I'll do that, too. I do have some baking cocoa, so I should have all the ingredients.

My boss was out sick all week, so I was the go to for some of the stuff coworkers contact her for. Easy stuff, but I think I got told 3 times yesterday "Thanks - you're the best!" LOL.  Hopefully she's feeling better. She got meds on Tuesday night from urgent care, but even yesterday she was still feeling pretty crappy, but was a little better (pneumonia). I think I'll text her this weekend to see how she's doing. She does have her daughter who lives close by her, so she's checking on her and helping her.

It doesn't sound like my half sis's step dad has much longer to live, but who knows. He keeps surprising them with how long he keeps going. But, definitely has congestive heart failure going on, more swelling, and getting harder to breath, as of Thursday night. At least he's now in hospice, where professionals are dealing with it all. That, at least, is making things easier for her.

Moving money

How did we get to Friday already? While this month is flying by, January seemed slow. Today is supposed to be 43 and sunny. Nice :) I do see the blue skies are out there now that it's light out, but it was 27 when I got up. My chicken is doing great and still on her schedule of 2 days of eggs then takes one day off, LOL. 

I'm hoping dh feels better and can keep busy this weekend with one of his projects. He said he plans to change out the dead above the kitchen cabinet lighting today. He's never done this before and I don't even know if he for sure ordered the right stuff, so I'm sure it's going to be more problematic to do, than he is planning on. 

I see my mom's state tax return has moved from "processing your refund" to "refund approved" status. It's getting there. It's been 17 days of the 30 days SSA told me to wait to get my mom's payment processed. At least I don't have to do anymore tax returns for her. Though I feel like I will be asking about this SS payment forever.........

I just logged back into my HSA this morning and the money is now in there, so I can reimburse myself. One more thing I can cross off my to-do list. I didn't want to pay the bills off with my cash back credit card until I knew for sure the money was being transferred to my checking and then available to pay off the credit card right away. Actually, I finagle it all a bit more than that. The card I just charged the hospital bill to, the payment on this charge won't be due until Mid April, as my statement just started a new billing period. I will move that HSA money over to my HYS (high yield savings) and will be able to earn about 6 weeks interest on it, until I need to pay the cc in full. That'll earn me about $25 in interest, on top of the $75 cash back.

I'm starting to hear more birds chirping outside my office window. Spring is coming!

Thursday this and that

Not much new going on today. Out of all the book suggestions (thank you all!) I was able to get one now to start reading. The one MegB suggested - Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman. I'm not too far into it yet, but very funny, so far.

I did a walk after lunch to get the mail. I can tell it's warmed up a lot. First time I haven't needed a hat in a long time. This weekend is supposed to go up another 10 degrees and possibly some rain. That will melt the snow on the ground.

I got an email offer from Bank of America to open a checking account and earn $300, by having direct deposits total $2000 within 90 days, so I decided to take advantage of the easy $300. I will just switch my direct deposit over to this account for one payroll and satisfy the requirement. The other requirement is to have $250/mo direct deposited to waive the monthly bank fee. Once the $300 is credited, I can close it, so that I don't have to keep having $250 deposited there. I like these types of offers better than having to open credit cards.

With the $5000 out of pocket medical costs incurred already this year, along with already paying $5000 the last quarter of 2024, I decided to pull this $5000 out of my HSA reimburse myself. What a long time this seems to take. I have most of my HSA invested, so I get that it might take a few days or so, but it's been a week now and I still am not able to transfer the funds over to my checking. Last Thursday I requested to transfer the $5000 from the investment HSA account to the main HSA account. The investment side is showing they transferred it out of the investment side on Tuesday, this week. The main HSA is still not showing it has deposited to there yet. How many days does it take to transfer? I know, in the past, when I have reimbursed myself for a few expenses, it transferred the money into my checking the very next day. This is slow and I guess if it's still not showing as available in my main HSA account by tomorrow, I'll give them a call. I want to pay the medical bills myself, directly, so that I  can just charge them to my 1.5% cash back credit card. Then I can earn $75 cash back. Then use the HSA money that got transferred to my checking to pay the cc.

I was trying to find an old email or Teams message about something related to work and came across an exchange between me and my boss, last summer, about her ordering me a wi-fi adapter for my computer, because it didn't come with wi-fi. Not sure why it wasn't ordered that way, but I guess since I told our IT guy I am hardwired into our internet. Anyway, I thought it might be a good plan to have a back up for wifi. If our internet went out for some reason (but we still had power) I could do a hotspot with my phone and then still work. But with no wi-fi on my computer I can't do that. I had sent her a link for one on Amazon and she said she'd order it. I completely forgot about it! I sure don't remember ever getting one sent here last summer. They are only like $10, so I think I'll just order one and not bother her with it, LOL. 

Good deals

I managed to snag some savings on some things I needed to purchase yesterday. First up was cat food. I buy the 16lb bag size that is about $32. Amazon had it, but I also saw Chewy had it for the same price and since I also needed more chicken scratch and mealworms, I figured I'd be over the $49 Chewy free shipping threshold. I used to buy 50lb bags of scratch, but that was for 4 chickens and even that lasted a very long time, so I just got a small 8lb bag and a small bag of mealworms and it came to $49.68. Then I noticed a coupon code in their banner that said we've missed you, take $15 off a $49 order with code. I figured that would put me below free shipping, so I'd have to find something else to order, but pleasantly surprised, it did not. Then I saw that the cat food was offering a free 4 pack of wet cat food with the purchase, so I added that with the code to get it free. I got all this, after the cash back I will get, for $34.

I also need some more of the shampoo and conditioner I like. I usually get them from Vitacost but they also have a $49 shipping threshold, but Rakuten was offering 8% cash back and sometimes, depending on price, I also get dh's Zyflamend Prostate supplement from Vitacost. Then I noticed they were offering 15% off with a code that would apply to the shampoo and conditioner and a 20% off code on the supplement. It was a no brainer to order from here, then. When I can get dh's supplement at around $25/bottle (30 day supply) I am happy. Regular price is $30-$32 most places.

I had a good day getting the company checking account bank statement reconciled. Most times that is a bear to work on. It's like a 7 page bank statement and I'll spend half the day trying to find where I am off - which is typically that I missed some ACH withdrawals or one of the many deposits we get that are ACH. Most everyone pays us ACH nowadays. But, I got the reconciliation done in less than an hour. My boss is out part of this week - it was supposed to be for PTO/time off, but she's been sick with a high temperature. She said she will go to urgent care this morning, if she is not better.

Now, I'm back to nothing to read. The library e-books always seem to come at the same time. I've still got 3 on hold, but looks like those are weeks and weeks waits. And I haven't come up with any new titles to see if they are available or add to the hold list. What have you read lately, that was a good read? I can't ask dd, because she has been trying to get through all the Outlander books and if you've read those, you know how long each book is!

Short and expensive

February, while a short month, is also an expensive month. Car insurance and car tabs on 2 vehicles due. Ouch. DH also bought 2 of the drawer sliding mechanisms and that was almost $500. Those were supposed to be delivered yesterday, but got delayed due to adverse weather conditions. They should show up today, now. Plus, he ordered that dust collector shop vac thing. Then he finally "cashed in" on his Christmas gift LOL. I had given him a picture of some truck towing mirrors (not knowing which exact one's he'd want), for him to pick out and buy. Well, he finally did that, yesterday. It ended up being cheaper than I figured, because neither he, nor our SIL, could find OEM mirrors. He had to settle for after-market and they were way cheaper.

And here's something interesting - dh said he found them for $164 on Amazon and sent me the link. I open the link and it says $179. I say I thought you said they are $164? He sends me a screen shot from his computer and it says $164. On my computer I was logged into the Prime account I share w/DD. When I logged out of that and opened my regular Amazon it then showed the lower $164 price! What a rip-off! I will be watching for that from now on!

The big snow predicted Monday did not come. It even warmed up enough that it was a bit of rainy snow, what we did get. It looks like next week our highs are supposed to get up into the mid 40's. 

I love how they are saying the SSA is ripe with ineligible payments going out, yet they can't (won't?) seem to figure out paying an actual legitimate payment. Government and bureaucracy at it's finest.  

We found out why neighbor dogs have been barking so much lately - Mrs is out of town visiting their son and family. Oh well - better than them here, LOL. I think Mr mentioned to dh awhile back that since they were here over Thanksgiving, they won't be coming next summer (fingers crossed!)

I cannot get comfortable temperature wise in my office this morning. At 69 I'm getting too warm. I turn it down to 68 (I can do this from my phone) and then I'm cold. It's getting annoying.

My boss is out sick. One of the salespeople needs his expense report approved, so he can get his money (he sent me a Teams message), so I guess I'll get logged in to work a few minutes early and get that taken care of, first thing.

Let's begin the week :)

Happy Monday. I'm going to start out with a positive attitude about Monday anyway, LOL. No holiday from work for me. We don't get this day off.

Dh got both planter boxes finished. He had just enough of that black sealant goop to coat the insides. I guess this means I'll need more flowers this spring ;) I wish I could just order flats of annuals to be delivered haha. Or maybe I'll try a few veggies in them? Are they too small for that? I'd like to try tomatoes again.

So, he's managed to get rid of extra lumber taking up space in his shop and got to dispose of 3 cans of stain and sealant out. We used up one of the cans of stain (just quart sized) and he used up the sealant stuff. He thought he had 2 cans of the sealant, but the other can was some REALLY old white stuff he had used like 15 or more years ago to seal the top of a car trailer. When he opened it and realized what it was - of course it was no good, so he will dispose. 

While he was out plowing yesterday, I vacuumed the upstairs. Watered my 2 plants. I'm amazed they are still alive. Collected my one egg from the chicken. She's on a schedule, 2 days on, 1 day off. It's working out great for both of us, LOL.

For dinner we used the leftover meatloaf for meatloaf sandwiches and also had a salad. It's nice to be able to use leftovers once in awhile. DH is not much of a leftovers type of person. Usually, if I use up leftovers it's as a lunch for me, or a dinner for me and I'll make him a burger for dinner. I'm hoping once I'm retired, I'll be able to have more time to plan out more meals and utilize leftovers more.  

I see we got a little more snow last night and today is supposed to snow off and on. It's lightly snowing now. We really are getting closer to spring, haha. I remember when we first came over here to look at houses (we weren't planning to buy land/build) and we decided to take a look at this property. It was the 3rd week of February and not a bit of snow on the ground. Also hard to believe that was 9 years ago! Dang!

Snow plow Sunday

Sometime between when I went to bed and came to bed, it started dumping snow. I'm not sure how much is out there, but it's still coming snowing a little. DH will definitely get to keep busy doing some plowing and shoveling today. This "snow advisory" says until Tuesday morning. I'm so glad we went and got our groceries last week, while the roads were bare and dry.

Guess what I did yesterday - if you guessed more wood staining, you'd be right. LOL. DH wanted to use up the last of the boards cut from our trees and he had enough to make 2 more big planter boxes for the patio. He cut the boards up on Friday and I stained yesterday. Boy, we had a hard time figuring out which stain we used on the first 2 (several years ago). We have several different colors of stain, leftovers from projects. Our back patio beams are stained in cedar, but different type of wood and they are a bit more orange toned than the 2 planter boxes. The wood used on the chicken coop is this same wood as the planters and that wasn't quite the same. We had some "red oak", "red chestnut" and "early american", so dh took one of the cut off scraps of this same wood and tried all 3 stains and we took it out the the existing planter boxes to see which matched the closest. None were exact but the "red chestnut" seemed to be the closest. Then after staining and dh put the boxes together, they look way more brown, then the other planter boxes, which do have a bit of orange tone in them. Oh well, not a huge deal, but left us wondering what the heck. Those top pieces are live edge pieces and will be put on the perimeter of the tops. He was trying to find scrap to use for the bottom, rather than spending $100 on a piece of treated plywood that he only needs not even half of (though I think he's wrong on the price, looks like it would be about $60 now). I think he found something to use out in his stuff. Then he coats the inside with this black sealant stuff.

These things are heavy - he's going to have to wait until the snow is off the ground to cart them to the back patio. Also, as soon as weather permits, he is just going to burn what scraps he has left, to get them out of the way. There's nothing he can think of to use them for and we have plenty of firewood, if we want to have a campfire.

Last night I made a meatloaf for dinner. I haven't made one of those in ages. Used to be in our regular dinner meal rotation - going back to when I was a kid, LOL. It was good, and something different for a change. And I do like cold meatloaf sandwiches, with the leftovers. I was thinking about the meals I still make (exact same recipe), that I carried on from my mom making them, and the 2 I can think of are meatloaf and tuna casserole. Do you have meals/recipes you still make, that you had as a child?

Well, that's a bummer - I had received my Costco rewards for the year (just $30) and thought I could use it to do an online purchase, but I guess it's only in-store. So, now we have to stop in there again. But, it does sound like the rewards check is good until Dec 31st, so I could just hang on to it and use it next November, when I get the wreaths for next Christmas. I'm not renewing our membership (expires at the end of March) we won't be just stopping in there, anymore, after that. Maybe next trip in, we can just stop in and use it towards getting dh stocked up on some cases of Mountain Dew.

 

 

The pantry is restocked

TGIF. How about you? Glad it's Friday? I'm super glad we went and got our groceries yesterday afternoon. Now I have my weekend free. Plus it's supposed to snow some over the next few days. But, for some reason, taking off a bit early from work yesterday made it seem like it should've been Friday, haha. Now I still have today to work :/

It was about 10 degrees colder in the city and only 10 degrees out. I had on a hat and gloves while loading the cold food into our coolers (dh gets all the dry stuff put in the truck and organized) and I should have thought to wear some long underwear. Even though I was only out about 5 min it was cold! The 2 guys who brought out our order were super nice. But, it's just way easier to just have them hand over the bags, rather then let them try to load it. We have a system. We have 2 coolers at the tailgate of the pickup (with a canopy) and I have them set the bins of cold next to me and I load. Our pickup has a large backseat area where dh has the seat folded down and some collapsible bins he has set up to put the bags in and also get big items placed like cases of water and soda and ensure none of the bread gets smashed. LOL. 

First stop was at our HVAC's little office/warehouse to pick up furnace filters. There's 5 in a case and I think dh replaces them every quarter, so we shouldn't need more for 15 months. They are not cheap filters and dh could probably change them a little less often, but whatever. He's got his quarterly and semi annual system of house maintenance and that's how he wants it.

After our grocery pick up dh wanted to stop at Harbor Freight to see if they had the dust collector shp vac thing he wants. According to online you had to order it in store and then pick up when it comes. Well, they had some of those little tickets (for big items that are in back) that you take up to the register, so we thought oh, they must have some in stock (there were like 3 tickets left). Apparently we got the new guy, who didn't know anything, he rang it up and called in back for someone to bring one out. Well turns out the ones they had in back were all pre-ordered for pickup. So, another employee had to figure out what the deal was and ended up having to void the sale and re-ring it up as a "pre-sale", they will order it and call us when it's ready for pick up - like in a month. At least we did have a $50 gift card, that dh got for Christmas, to put towards the purchase.

It was dinner time after that so we stopped at Wendy's drive thru. That was a disappointment - it's usually really good and their buns are always so fresh. But, not this time, for some reason. We got home around 5:20, so not bad - a 2 1/4 hour trip with 4 stops ;)

OMG - Amos is being extremely annoying this morning. Keeps meowing. I keep trying to distract him by playing with him, giving him a new catnip mouse, letting him outside (but of course he doesn't want to stay out, it's too cold). He's been fed. He's had treats. Usually by now he's ready for a morning nap. 

It's payday, so at least today also has that going for it. I got a couple bills paid, that aren't on auto pay, so that's all done, first thing this morning. And it's now snowing.  Finally, I think Amos went to take a nap. Nope...I see him sitting right outside my office door - like he's waiting for me to try to come out and attack me! LOL.

Yesterday I had to try out a AI headshot generator program, for work. They are looking to add professional looking photos of employees to our company website, so my boss wanted me to try it (after one of the other owner/managers tried it, and hers looked really good).  It was kind of scary LOL. I had to upload 10 pics (ugh) and then wait about 90 minutes for the 40 headshots to generate. They looked ok (I mean, who much likes pictures of themselves) but the weird ones were the ones that made my hair shorter. And the funny part is the one that turned out to be my favorite has me in a turtleneck and in real life you'd never find me in one - I can't stand anything touching the front of my neck LOL. It will also be kind of odd having everyone looking all "business like" haha - as we are a very casual company, dress code wise. It's mostly a jeans and tshirts kind of place.

Savings here and there

I did a check this morning, while I still had a couple of hours to make additions/changes to my Walmart pickup order and now they do have some eggs available, so I added a dozen. We'll see if I get them.

DH sent me the link the other day to order the drawer slides (3 sets) he wants and said it would be free shipping. When I got them in the cart, shipping was going to be $92! I couldn't see anything on their website that said free shipping, so I asked him and he showed me a screenshot where he had searched for it in google and within the link's description on google it said free shipping. Hmm. I also, of course, searched for any coupon codes (because they had a spot for that in the cart) but only saw sign up for their newsletter and sometimes offers. I did that, but no instant email. I closed out of the cart and was going to wait a day or two and see if they sent any newsletter email. Within an hour or so I did get an email - saying "you left something in your cart - if you have any questions let us know", so I replied to the email asking if they offered free shipping.

I got a reply back that yes, over $150 is free shipping if you set up an account with them (free) and he gave me the link to set it up. They had to finish setting it up on their end, and I got an email this morning that was done. I was then able to sign in, order his stuff, and now it was free shipping. I'm so glad I waited and didn't just spend the $92 in shipping!

A few months ago, when I switched from Carnation instant breakfast to protein powder, I tried a few different brands, in chocolate, my usual flavor. Premier was good, but pricey. I tried Walmart brand and it was ok. Then I decided to try vanilla and that was Target brand and I really liked that. I also got vanilla in Walmart brand and it was yuck. So, I have almost a full container of that. I started using some of it in dh's smoothies, but then he decided to not have them for awhile (of course....). Yesterday I was down to the last bit in my first container of vanilla from Target (I had purchased 2) and there's wasn't quite enough for a full scoop, only about 2/3rds left. I decided to just add some of the Walmart vanilla to make up the remaining 1/3 scoop. For some reason the combo of the 2 is even better! So, that's what I will do to use up the Walmart canister and make the Target brand canister last longer.

While in the city this afternoon, we're also going to swing by our HVAC place and pick up some more furnace filters. DH used the last of the case we bought. We could probably get them a bit cheaper online, but dh likes to give them the business and whenever we have needed to contact them about anything, they are always very quick to respond or get out here to check on something, if needed.

Still no eggs?

I'm getting a Walmart order placed online, for pickup tomorrow afternoon. Do you really think they are still completely out of eggs? (same 3 weeks ago). If I went inside the store, would I find eggs? I can't believe they have none, still, while I can go into the grocery store down the street and they have plenty of eggs.....I just don't want to take the time to walk into the store and get back to where the eggs are in back and find there really are none. But, it sure would be nice to not have to stop at the other grocery store. Maybe I'll call and ask. I might be able to get by now without purchasing any this trip. I currently have 25 eggs - No, make that 26. I just went out to check on my chicken and give her some bread and there was an egg in the nest box. I need about 30-34 for a 3 week period and my hen is now giving me about 4 per week (if she keeps at it).

Negative 12 degrees when I got up this morning. BRRR! A couple more days of this and then it's supposed to warm up a bit. When I just went out to the hen house, it's now positive 12 degrees, so 24 degrees warmer LOL. These are the days he's glad we now have a little heat in our garage.

DH is keeping busy with little projects. Well, I don't think the drawers he wants to build for underneath his big work table is really a little project, but he's in the planning stages of that one. Another project is fixing/replacing the lighting up above our kitchen cabinets. It's all gone out. Kind of surprising, since it's LED and I would have thought would have lasted longer than 5 year (part of it went out a year ago). I've got the stuff ordered to fix it, now. He also has enough of the scrap pieces left from our trees cut down and it just going to use that up to build 2 more big planter boxes for the back patio. 

Also, now that he has his big wood/saw table where it's going to stay, in the shop, and is working out good, he also wants to buy some vacuum thing that collects the dust from sawing. Apparently that's going to be a Harbor Freight purchase.

I seem to have slowed way down on needing anything (ie decor-wise) for the house now, so that's good. I have a few areas I'd still like to add something/finish, but not much. I want more books for the bookcases upstairs. When we finished the hallway "library" area, I moved an old cedar hope chest into the loft sitting area. It needs some "stuff" on it. During Christmas I had moved the stuff on area under the windows to sit on the chest, while the Christmas village was there and it looked good having some stuff on it. I think when we go on our little weekend trip with DD/SIL in May, while dd and I are antique/gift store browsing, I'll see if I can find a few things to put on there.

Well, the day is more than half over and I've been working on this post long enough LOL.

Pictures of pictures

Reader/commenter JJ commented we should put some of dh's pictures he's taken, on the walls, and we do have several I thought I'd share with you. They are canvas prints he had made up.

The other 2 are one on each side of one of the dormer, next to the seating area in the bonus room (Linda - the big comfy chairs Amos has no interest in LOL) 

They are all photos of our house he took at night during the winter, several years ago.

But, my most favorite one is the one hanging above our fireplace. He took it with his drone, out over the river from our house, looking up river, one winter. It captures the beauty we are surrounded by. It took me forever to pick out a frame to buy (and was like $300!) but I think the frame turned out nice and I like that it matches our fireplace mantel (cut from trees we had to cut down to build),

Here is the actual photo

DH was busy yesterday with a couple of little projects. He had gotten me one of those towel warmers for Christmas. While very nice, there isn't really a good spot to plug it in and have it close to the shower. He was able to add an outlet to a nearby wall and put it down low, so the cord isn't going up the wall. This electrical project went much smoother than the one out in the shop the other day LOL. Then I wanted to change a towel holder I had hanging over the door in the guest bathroom. He didn't like that it hangs on the door, pulling on the door.....he decided to use a scrap piece of trim and mount the towel hanger on that and put it on the wall behind the door 

His new project in the shop is going to be building some pull out drawers for his big wood work/saw table. Then he can get a bunch of tools related to using that inside the drawers. He's now trying to find/figure out what he needs for the sliding part. Those metal sliding mechanisms aren't cheap - like $200 a a set and he wants to put in 3 drawers.

It's time to get to work and get payroll processed today. Here's hoping for a rare easy payroll day LOL.

Short and sweet (and then more)

I am bummed the weekend is already over and I have to be back at work again. It feels like it's going to be a long week. How come the weekends never feel long? LOL.

I started a book yesterday and got about 2/3rds of it finished. It's not a long book, so I'm sure I'll finish it up tonight.  It's called The Other Valley. Kind of a time travel type of story. I have another one in my borrowed library to get finished, after this one, but not sure if I have enough days left to get it done.

But, before I started reading yesterday I got vacuuming, dusting, and cleaning our bathroom done. Saturday we hung up the poster type billiard pictures dh had gotten me for Christmas. They look nice and were a good idea by him. 

I put these pictures in and now can't seem to type normal below them. Guess that's a sign I am done for today, LOL

Oh- well now that I added this 3rd picture it's letting me type below it....weird. The snow in the bottom 1/3 of the window view is the roof to our shed/chicken coop, that is behind the garage.

I had wanted to add a picture dh took last night at midnight - just from the moon's light, with his phone. Crazy!

Returns, gifts and big heads

This morning I see my mom's state tax return is now in the "Payment being processed" stage, so that's good news. If I can ever get her SS payment, then I can finally get her checking account closed up. One less thing to monitor/track.

Yesterday afternoon dh went ahead and stained the various pieces of the board he cut up. Yay! Not that it would have taken me very long, but so glad it's all done now. He's just waiting on some outlet covers he ordered. And then he can shove all his crap back in that corner, again, LOL. 

I got woken up early by neighbors barking dog(s). Finally I just got up. They must not be home, as usually when I am heading into my kitchen I can see their dining room light on from my dining room window and it was dark. Then dh got up at 8. Way early for him. He couldn't sleep because of the dogs. He said they've been barking off and on since last night. 

We finally got to give our FedEx delivery driver her Christmas gift! FedEx is the least of the deliveries we get, but we still get deliveries from FedEx off and on all year. She's been our driver for a few years but it just never worked out in December that FedEx delivered anything to us. Yesterday dh was walking out of the shop and saw her pull into our neighbors. He hollered over to her to not leave yet and he ran inside and got the big box of chocolates to give her. Thank goodness - I was getting tired of seeing that big box sitting on my kitchen bar countertop! Dh said she looked at the package and said "One wrapped this, didn't she?" LOL.

When we stopped at the lumber store yesterday, one of the customers had this big dog with him. Not sure what breed, but it sure had a huge head. And it was so friendly, it just wanted to follow me. I told dh I don't know what his name is, but I'm naming him Big Head Fred. LOL.

I'm happy for the weekend to be here. No work and no schedule for 2 days.  I guess I should wrap up this post and get myself some breakfast.

Snow and Severance

It continues to snow. DH is on round 5 of plowing this week, LOL. He was out on the plow, about to pull out of our gate onto our street, when the lady down at the end came bombing past - she had to slam on her brakes to not run into him. And you guessed it - not even a nod of thanks for plowing the 18 inches of snow off the street that is their responsibility.

I finally got started on watching season 2 of Severance on AppleTV+ last night. Still as bizarre and suspenseful as the first season. I probably should have rewatched season 1 first, just to remember all the little details (and there are so many), since it's been a few years since that season aired. It's an intriguing show. I think it's genre is suspenseful thriller. Has anyone else watched this show? What do you think of it?

My uncle called the other night - he's still confused on if his inherited IRA is taxable or not. Sounds like a friend (again) is telling him inheritances aren't taxed. I've explained it several times and I'm sure his banker explained it (and the 10 year rule) when he transferred the inherited IRA to his bank. I told him that mom's retirement account was a "tax deferred IRA", so any withdrawals/distributions are going to be taxed, even for those of us that inherited it. He will be 81 in a couple of months, so he's getting up there in age, too.

We ran into town today, so dh could pick up the one more board he needs and also pick up his nausea prescription from the pharmacy. They have a phone system to do refills....that apparently doesn't work because even though the recording told me the refill has been received and is being processed, when I got there 45 minutes later, the system had not notified them to fill it. But, they were super quick about it and I only had to wait a few minutes. It's a pretty drive into town

Subscriptions and....snow (LOL)

DD is on a mission to get some of their subscriptions cancelled. Boy, do they have a LOT of them. First up was last month, she got her dh to cancel his Amazon Prime - there was no sense in them each having a Prime membership! (plus I pay for half her Prime and we share it).

Next up was SiriusXM. OMG - they had it, at full price, on 3 vehicles! And they carpool! LOL. She cancelled it on the 2 cars and during canceling it on the 3rd car (the pickup that they mostly drive) they offered it down to $5/mo, so they decided to keep it on that vehicle. She went from a total of $828 per year to $60. 

Then she worked on getting some others cancelled. Some $200/yr subscription so they get wi-fi in dd's car, that they never use. A $21/mo subscription they are each paying for some virtual workout site for the treadmill and bikes. They are now just going to share one subscription. She also got online with Comcast to see if they would lower her bill, they did a little bit. So far she's cut out $1600 a year. I'm sure they could do more...they have several streaming services, OnX, Playstation, Furbo, etc LOL

I see a couple more inches of snow fell over night. The plowing piles are getting high!

DH decided to plow down to the end of our street. Tuesday night when he was out he could hear a machine running down at the neighbors at the end but it was not sounding good - squealing like a belt was bad or something. Yesterday morning none of it had been plowed and the guy didn't go to work (I doubt he'd get his pickup through 18 inches of snow). Thursday mornings are our garbage can pick up, so dh decided if we expect the garbage truck to come to our house, we should provide him a place to get turned around (which is the small culdesac at the end of our street). His big new plow sure makes easy work of it, compared to when he used to try to do it (every time, for several years) on his little quad/plow. DH stopped plowing all the way down a couple years ago. He was wearing his equipment out 2x as fast and the couple couldn't even offer a wave or text a thanks. Mr Neighbor, who owns the first house on our street, is always really good about getting his driveway and the road out front/entrance to our street plowed. Never have to worry about him not keeping up with it. He will get out there at 5am getting it cleared off.

The large poster sized frame I ordered came yesterday via USPS. I like the frame - very rustic, barn wood looking, so it will go great in our bonus room. Our pool table is very rustic looking. The other 4 8x10 frames were supposed to come yesterday via an Amazon driver, but I wasn't surprised to see it got delayed due to all the snow. Maybe today. 

I had to return a call to my IRA investment office yesterday and the gal that I always talked to when I was handling it for my mom answered. I hadn't talked to her as often the past year-ish, because they hired some extra help and the new girl has now been the one calling to set up appts for the quarterly calls. So, we caught up, haha. She and her husband are moving over here and will be fellow Montanan's soon. Albeit 4 hours from me, LOL, but she sounds very excited for the move and the house they will be building. She also has a son that lives here, so they will be near him, as well.

SSA and snow!

I did get a call back from SSA (3 hours later). At first she tried to tell me they didn't get the corrected form to claim the payment that I sent back last March. I said that when I called last April 10th and again May 20th, I was told the corrected form was received on April 4th. She said let me look again. She came back on the line and said yes, she found it, but it had been saved in an odd folder in my mom's account and that is why it probably never got sent on to their processing dept! She told me she has now forwarded it to processing and they have 30 days to process it and get the payment sent out. Fingers crossed it will finally get paid. But, I'm not holding my breath because last May was kind of the same story - yes we have your corrected form, it's been sent for processing....wait 45 days....This time though, I will call again in 30 days, and every 30 days, if it's not paid out.

It continued to snow, starting back up around noon yesterday. ALL DAY and at least some during last night because I see dh will have to plow again. This is him trying to keep up with it last night LOL. It's about time we got a good snow. 

 

I see my garbage bill has gone up again, another $4 per month. When we first moved here it was $40/mo, now it's up to $65.

I'm getting so very caught up with work. It's awesome. I sent my boss the December/year end financials yesterday morning. First time ever it was this early. My email included a gif of fireworks going off, LOL. 

My mom's fed tax return is now deposited. Yay. Don't know why the state one is being so slow - usually it's the one that is processed super fast. It still says it's been accepted, but hasn't moved into the processing stage. Now it will probably be the one I have to deal with this time. 

I got another egg yesterday. Two days in a row! Go Gladys!

Time to get logged into work. It's pretty outside my window with all the snow in the trees

Trying SSA again this year

On my to-do list today is to finally call the Social Security office again. It's been since last May that I last checked on my mom's final SS payment. Ridiculous. But, it's $2182, so nothing to sneeze at, and she's owed it. Wish me luck........

I made some banana bread on Sunday, so that's been a nice snack to have. 

DD and SIL, and 2 other couples they are friends with, are renting a mountain cabin this coming weekend. Sounds fun. One couple are the ones they went to Scotland with (dd has been friends with her since high school). The other is a long time friend, who divorced a couple years ago, and now had a new boyfriend. They introduced the couples to each other awhile back and now all 3 couples are really hitting it off. SIL and the other 2 guys are all car nuts, so they have lots in common. DD and the other gals are similar in personalities. They have the cabin from 4pm Friday to noon on Sunday. DD and SIL are taking Friday off work (the other 2 couples are not) so they will head up there earlier in Friday. Maybe do a snowshoe hike on their own, before they check into the cabin. She said each couple picked 2 meals to cook, so dd and sil are doing Friday dinner, since the other 2 couples will have worked all day and then driven the couple of hours to the cabin. She said she's making chili and cornbread. They are also bringing their dogs. I guess they are all also thinking about doing a trip to Germany, together in the future. She said the guys have car things they want to do/see there....she said "us girls will look at castles and eat pretzels" LOL.

We got a few inches of snow last night. DH is out shoveling and plowing right now. Figured he better get what we have cleared off, as they are predicting more later this afternoon/evening. Amos was a good helper this morning getting started with the clearing LOL

He's a goofy cat.

Well, I called SS and am on eternal hold. When I called the times last year they offered a call back service so you don't have to wait on hold but that's not being offered now. So, I guess a 120 minute wait it is. Again, ridiculous. I'm 20 minutes in so far. So annoying. Then just now, at about 25 minutes, the recording offered to call me back when I'm next in line. I hope it worked because it didn't ask me to input my callback number. I guess if I don't hear back in the next 90 min or so, I'll know.

Savings and snow

I use these circles of canadian bacon ham for dh's breakfast egg sandwiches. I recently noticed there is another brand that sells them, much cheaper, so I decided to buy a package to see if dh would notice the difference. Taste wise they taste the same to me. Size wise, they are just a bit smaller and thinner. I have now been using this new ham on his breakfast sandwiches for the past week and he hasn't noticed. I've had to give it that long, before I called it a success, LOL. I did the math and it will save me about $7 a month off our grocery bill. If my hen keeps laying, now, and say I get 2 dozen eggs from her a month, that will be about $14 savings per month, until she slows down/stops again next fall. I've started watching Marketplace to see if anyone has a hen or two they want to get rid of. So far, the closest was 125 miles away LOL, but that's how it is when you live in such a rural area.

I also bought a jug of Great Value sweet tea (sugar free) instead of the Milo's. DH likes to drink this. He had finished up the Milo's early last week but then didn't have any for quite a few days, as he was having the smoothies I've started making. I gave him the new sweet tea yesterday and he didn't comment on any taste difference. I can't tell him I'm trying something different, of course, or he will automatically think he doesn't like it. The GV is .50 less per gallon jug.

I am super happy to log into the IRS where's my refund this morning and see my mom's tax return has been approved and payment is being processed. Yay! Last year was such a hassle and this got done in 10 days. Her state return is still in review mode and last year that one was the one that came within like a week.

We got a bit more snow yesterday, but not much. When I let Amos out yesterday morning, this is what we saw later, once it got light out.

LOL - we weren't sure if maybe he slipped as before it had snowed the concrete was a bit icy. He made this mess and turned around and wanted right back in.

Then yesterday early evening I let him out the back patio and video taped this. So, I think we now have our answer what went on in the morning at the laundry room door, haha 

We are supposed to be getting more snow this week.