Last day of March

I'm hating how fast the dang weekends are going lately. I think I need to review my vacation days again for work and throw a few more in there, LOL. I know I have a couple days coming up the first weekend in May, but that's still 4 1/2 weeks away. 

I got started on sis's tax returns yesterday morning. Then I had a question for her, then she called me and then we ended up chatting on the phone for a long time, so I didn't end up getting much more done with it.

Neither dh or I was very hungry for dinner last night, so we just had sandwiches. For some reason every time I go into the pantry and see the boxes of cornbread mix, it sounds good. I usually only make that with my taco soup or chili, but I haven't made that in a long time due to dh's stomach issues. So, I just made a pan of cornbread to have, just because. 

We ended up being stocked up on enough groceries (first time ever) that we've made it past our normal 3 weeks of needing to get more. Last Thurs was 3 weeks. We were kind of thinking of going in this afternoon or maybe Tues or Wed, but when I asked dh yesterday if he wanted to go in Monday (so I could get the order placed) he said not really....I said me either, LOL. He does want to run into town today to get those couple of boards he needs from the lumber store. I said if I just go with you, we can stop at the grocery store (a block away) and I can get a few things and we'd be good for another week of not having to go to the city ;) So, it sounds like that is what we will do. I just need a gallon of milk, some apples, tomato, onion, and might as well get an extra loaf or two of bread (I still have 3 in the freezer). 

DD and SIL did a fun thing yesterday with one of their cars (her Explorer ST) by doing an autocross thing where a small course was set up with cones and they'd get to drive it and get timed. I think they each got to do it several times. They have a gopro camera, so SIL set it up to show her driving the course and one time set it up inside to watch her while driving and sent us the videos. OMG! Her face in that helmet brought back memories! It was just like I was seeing her 9 year old face all over again. It was so cute! I was smiling the whole time I was watching the video and even got teary eyed. She did well (even beating SIL times) but that's not a surprise. She always was a very smooth racer.

The cute chipmunks are back. When we had our dogs, one of the dogs was just obsessed with watching them and we always called them "chippermonkees", so the name has stuck.

 

 

 

Weekend chores

I managed to get in a normal Saturday of chores and whatnot, without my back bothering me, so that was a relief. Did some laundry, vacuumed downstairs, took a walk to get the mail, paid my bills, etc. Off and on I watched a podcast interview - it was 4 hours long! Holy cow - who has 4 hours to watch one podcast? LOL. I looked at the other interviews and they are all like 3 hours, so not likely I will watch more of those anytime soon.

DH spent most of his day out in the shop - since had had purchased the rest of the lumber to do his second 2 (smaller) drawers, he got those built. It went a lot fast this time, since he know what he was doing. He does need to pick up a couple 2x2 boards from the lumber store now and they aren't open on Sunday's, so he'll have to wait until tomorrow.

My chicken has slowed down on her eggs, after 2 months of a pretty steady 2 days on, one day off. Now I'm only getting an egg every few days it seems. Darn, I was liking her schedule and it was keeping me fairly stocked in eggs. When I go out to give her a treat (either some bread or some scratch and a bit of meal worms) I have a few times found her sitting in the nest box, thinking oh good, she's laying an egg but when I check back later, there's nothing. I did get one on Friday.

I need to do my half-sis's U.S. tax returns for her. Ugh. LOL. She's supposed to file one every year, since she is a citizen. She used to have them done by a CPA in Canada, but it was so expensive for her and at the time she was working and living on her own and just didn't have the extra money. I mean here she was making like $40k a year and having to pay like $2k to an accountant to file her return. So, in 2020, I got her caught up with about 5 years worth......and then I told her it will be easy for me to do each year for you - just keep up on them...which of course she did not. And now that she has U.S. income and a 1099 for last year, she has to file, so now I have 4 years worth to do again. I told her to take a copy of the last one I did for her and write in those amounts for each year and then I'll get them input into current years tax forms for her to send it. She sent me those in an email yesterday, so I'll get started on them this morning. If it was only one year to do, I wouldn't mind, but I'm not looking forward to doing 4 years again. She's never had to pay any U.S. income tax, because she pays Canadian income tax on her CA earnings, but I'm not sure how it will work for 2024, where she now has income earned in the U.S. She may owe the U.S. some, but then I'm guessing she'll get to deduct that from her Canadian taxes owed.

Wasted work day

Friday was a complete waste of a work day. What little I got done, finally, will have to be re-done on Monday. The IT guy was working in my computer all morning and finally got done around 1pm. But pretty much the whole time he was trying to figure it out, I had to stay sitting at my desk, because every so often he was asking me questions in the chat box he set up. The accounting software seemed to be working, for me....but he apparently forgot he also had to get my boss set up on her computer. I sent him back a message that she was leaving for a meeting for a couple hours, but would leave her laptop on, so he could access it. She returned a couple hours later and was able to get in the accounting software now, but she caught that our bank account balances did not look right. Our 2 checking accounts were showing as negative balances! What the hell?! By this time, a completely different guy had taken over. At 4pm she called me and told me to just be done for the day, have a great weekend, LOL. She did message me about a half hour or so later that the guy fixed it (he had to reinstall our last backup copy as of 4:30 the prior day), so the entries I made yesterday afternoon will have to be redone. Thank goodness I didn't do too much. I had recorded a few bills and posted a large deposit. Apparently, the IT guy we had assigned to us for the past several years is no longer with the IT company. That stinks.

I'm just happy it's Saturday and knock on wood, so far so good with my back issues. It's payday as well. Well, technically payday is Monday, but when it falls on a Monday it is always in my bank account on Saturday.

Our new phones have been working fine, so in a couple days I'll get the old phones cleared of data and boxed up to be returned. I even still have the boxes the old phones came in, so I will put them in those (inside the bigger box) so they help to stay secure in the box. They go back UPS, so hopefully we'll have a delivery next week, that we can just give our driver the package to take. If not, we can drop it off somewhere in the city, when we go get groceries. I think Walgreens is a drop off place.

I think dh doesn't have much to do this weekend. All the misc car maintenance parts he's still waiting on, won't be here until Monday or Tuesday. It's been nice that he's been keeping busy with something most every day. It's a cloudy gray day and was barely above freezing when I got up at 7am. With my back feeling ok, my plan today is to vacuum downstairs. That really doesn't bother my back much, as the only carpeted area is our bedroom and vacuuming over the hard floors is easy.

My side part of my desk is getting really messy again, so I'm going to work on that right now, while I wait for it to be time for breakfast :)

Friday and pictures

I wish I knew what is going on with my back. The lower back pain is mostly gone, but I was standing at the kitchen counter at lunch yesterday, slicing and apple, and suddenly pain in the middle of my back between my shoulder blades. It's not hurting this morning, thankfully, but geez....I'm getting tired of this.

I got dh's phone all set up. Surprisingly no complaints or questions. I think it's because for the most part this phone really has no changes from his previous model. I took a couple of pictures last night while I was making dinner and sent them to DD. She replied "nice picture quality!" I said it does look better, doesn't it? 

I tried the new to me ready to drink instant breakfast. Tastes fine but the small 8oz carton just doesn't seem like enough to fill me up for breakfast. I know the powdered kind also says to only use 8oz of milk, but I've always put in more, haha. So, I added a little bit of milk to it and liked it better. Not quite so chocolatey. Drinking these should cut way down on how much milk I need to have on hand all the time. Plus I can store most of the cartons in the pantry, since it is shelf stable.

Day 4 and our accounting software is still not working and now (last night) the IT guy deleted our previous version as an option to use, so now we can't get in to work on anything at all.  This is ridiculous - this is like an easy process - happens like every year and should have been taken care of by now. Now I'm kind of sitting here with nothing much I can do, since just about everything I do needs this program.

As an "answer" to our state's property tax problem, the apparent solution (and we knew this was going to be their solution, even though the governor has been denying it for 3 years now) is to implement a state sales tax (which has been voted down by the voters like 4x in the past). We already have a state income tax. So now we are supposed to be taxed on our earnings by the state and then taxed again when we spend it. At least when we lived in our previous state, while yes we had high sales tax rates, we did not have a state income tax on top of that. Or like the bordering state - they have an income tax, but no sales tax (like we do now). The legislators want to put it to a vote of the people again...promising this money collected from sales tax will only be used to lower property taxes......unless.....they decide they want to put it in the general fund with a 75% vote of the legislators. Of course. You know eventually that's where the money will end up. How is lowering my property tax, but making me pay a sales tax going to save me any money whatsoever? Are people really this stupid?

I'm glad it's Friday and am hoping I can have a pain free weekend. We need to figure out which day we want to go in and get groceries. It's now been a bit over 3 weeks, but we are still good with food until like next Tues or Wed. I'm kind of thinking maybe just go in tomorrow afternoon and get it done with.

 

 

Bumps in the road

Yesterday every delivery service brought something 🙄.  The mail brought some spark plugs dh ordered. The Amazon driver brought dh more car parts and my ready to drink Carnation Instant Breakfast to try and see if I like it. Fed Ex brought him some gasket seal, and UPS brought some oil lubricant. Good grief, LOL. 

Since I got payroll done before lunch, I took a lunch break and took a short nap. I didn't get enough sleep Tuesday night. I drank some green tea with honey before bed and then, for some reason, felt nauseous for the first 90 minutes or so, after I went to bed. It was around 11pm when I finally went to sleep. Then I got up at 4:30 to go to the bathroom. Annoyingly, when I got back in bed, dh turned over and leaned up right against my back. I hate that, but what's worse is his hand is twitching/moving about every 15 to 20 seconds, either bumping up against my back or my pillow. Finally, after 20 minutes of it, I woke him up and told him to move over. That woke the cat up and he spent the next 15 minutes wandering around the house meowing, so I had to get up and shut our bedroom door. I think I finally got back to sleep at 5:30, only to have to get up at 7. Last night was normal, good sleep, so I'm back to regular energy levels.  

I have dh's old and new phones sitting in front of me this morning, going through the transfer process. Already his is going to take longer, LOL. His new phone popped up that an ios update needed to be done and says estimated time 23 minutes. My new phone did not do that. I've been using my new phone about a day and half and don't really notice much difference at all. Our new cases got delivered, so once I got that one my phone I felt better. I did realize that the charging cable on this new phone is different than my old phone. I guess they had to change something to make it worth it? LOL. The new phone uses a USB-C cable instead of the lightning cable. I realized that last evening, when I was going to charge it. Oh crap - I don't have a charging block for USB-C. Then I remember I had ordered a set of 2 charging blocks awhile back (I think it was for my ipad) and accidentally ordered the wrong kind. I went and got them out of the drawer and they are the USB-C that I need, so I was happy about that. DH usually charges his phone from his computer and I think his new computer has a USB-C port in the front of it. 

It was such a nice day yesterday with the temp getting up to 74. Now we are back to clouds and rain. Nothing new going on with the lots next to us yet. I've been very surprised no one has showed up with equipment to start moving dirt. Maybe I'll get one more spring (later spring) with the pretty yellow wildflowers that cover the lot next to us.

OMG - why does dh's new phone (same exact old and new phone as mine) have to have issues?? It finally finished the software update. I thought it was now moving forward with the transfer but now seems to be stuck on "Quick Start - looking for nearby devices". The old phone is right next to it! It wouldn't let me go back to a previous screen, so I had to turn the phone off and restart it. Now it says it's transferring the data from the old phone to the new phone. I'm not holding my breath that it will work. I can't figure out why everything related to dh has to be 10x harder! It's the same damn phones as mine. Wish me luck!

Now I'm logged into work and still dealing (day 3 is it now?) with the accounting software update with the new IT guy.... 

Starting out to be a good day

Yesterday dh ran back into the city to pick up the radiator he dropped off last Friday. I think it was just so they could flush/clean it out (?). He didn't want to leave the vehicle with them, so he pulled the radiator out and just took that in. What he got back looked like someone found it in a junk yard. He said he even asked the guy this is my radiator? When he got home with it, he was a bit upset at the condition of it. He knew he'd have to repaint it, but I guess wasn't expecting how it looked. Then he talked on the phone with his buddy in TX and he told him that's how they end up looking after going through the cleaning machine (or however they do it), and told him what to do and dh told him he is also going to repaint it black and friend said don't use regular black spray paint, they make a paint specifically for radiators, so he ordered that from Amazon.

Poor sis - the meeting that her responsible and reasonable step brother called to get the 2 fighting brothers to knock the BS off, apparently has not done any good with the step brother who is co-executor with her. He texted her yesterday he found some paperwork to something their dad owned (that has been kept someplace else). He literally texted to her - lets just keep this to ourselves and sell it! OMG. She replied back no, she is NOT doing that. It belongs to the estate, etc....then he replies back with some wierd/vague reply like he's agreeing with her and blaming the brother he keeps fighting with. So bizarre. She's got a long road ahead of her probating all this.

Our new phones arrived just at dinner time. After dinner I went back up to my desk to set my new phone up. It went smoothly, just took time for all the apps to update/load. Almost everything stayed signed in, other than a couple of apps. I think dh might be able to handle a new phone without too much fussing LOL. Other than an added button on the right side for quick camera access (which seems nice) and the button on the left side to silence the phone (which he never uses anyway) changed from a slide type button to a push button, everything else seems the same. It does take better pictures, though. Zooms in way farther than my iphone 11 does, so he'll appreciate that change. I am still going to use my new phone, at least for today, before I set his up. Just in case I come across anything different that he may throw a fit about, I'll have it figured out, haha.

I got online last night and ordered 2 new phone cases, that surprisingly are supposed to be delivered today via an Amazon driver. I don't think I've ever had anything delivered next day, living here! I'm excited if something manages to get here in 2 days. DD lives near an Amazon distribution warehouse and she can get some things same day.

Payroll went super smooth and quick this morning. That doesn't happen very often, so I am happy when it does. "Payroll day" (2x a month) is also the day dh knows to leave me alone and not bug me with all his usual stuff. Do you think I am going to tell him I'm already done? Hell no! LOL. I'll take the quiet when I can, for as long as I can ;)

It's sunny and going to be almost 70 today 🌞

 

Tuesday this and that

Ugh, not getting very far with work yet this morning. Our accounting software needed an update, which has to be done from our server by our IT group. They have always had to shut our server down for a short time to do these updates, so they have always scheduled it for after hours and yesterday's update was supposed to be done at 6pm yesterday. Right before I was done for the day I get a call from one of the IT techs (we use an oustide IT company), who I have never heard of/dealt with before, wanting to do the update now for the program on my computer. I was so confused, I said don't you have to shut down the server? He said no, this update didn't require the server to be shut down. Ok.....and quess what....neither my boss nor I can access our accounting program now. Where's our normal guy?! LOL. I hate it when they try to get one of their new techs to handle our issues. My boss is a little miffed about it, I can tell.

DH kept very busy all day and evening yesterday. It sounds like today (once he's up, LOL) will be more of the same.  

There's a bird outside making what sounds like a machine gun noise, is the best way I can describe it. Not sure what kind of bird makes this noise. It's kind of an angry sound. 

Half sis had the meeting with all the 4 stepbrothers. The one (co-exeuctor) who has taken all belongings from the apartment their dad had been living in, says he'll return it (after lots of arguing and the other brothers calling BS on him), but then once sis gets back home, he sends her a text that "the will doesn't say anything about the stuff in his apartment.....". Oh FFS.....the will says "personal belongings" - whether that's the stuff in his apartment or in his storage sheds on his property, that's what the will means. I told her, sure he "agreed" at the meeting, then got home, got an earful from his wife, and of course is backpedaling now.  This is one of the most stupidest feuds I have heard. Their dad already gave the 4 (bio) sons the land he owns, prior to death. That's their "inheritance". The summer before last, he sold/auctioned off all his farm equipment. All's that is left of personal belongings probably totals $10,000-$15,000 and that, according to the will, is supposed to be split between 7 them! 

Her step brothers land inheritance is actually more of a burden then an inheritance. They can only sell their share to another family member and if one of them dies, it has to go to their family heir, or if there isn't one, it goes back to the remaining brothers shares. So basically, the 4 of them have to spend money every year to upkeep this land, property taxes, etc. Sis said originally her dad wanted to include her and her 2 sisters (his step children) in inheriting this land, so 7 of them would have owned it. Sis made herself sick over it (literally, she got shingles from the stress) and finally told her step dad, please don't leave her any share of the land. She lives too far away to help with any of the upkeep (it's like a quarter section of land) and she doesn't have the means to pay for the property taxes and any other costs that would come up, nor the time. She already lives on a ranch she has to help manage.

It's warming up here. 43 degrees when I got up this morning and into the 60's today. Our lawn looks like straw. We need some warm sunny days for it to come out of winter dormancy and start to get green again.

Almost 2 hours and still can't get into our accounting program. This is ridiculous. I have work to do!

I'll pass on the offer

While I was sitting and reading yesterday, dh says you should come sit out in the shop (he has an old recliner out there) while I work on stuff. I said no thank you LOL - that place gives me anxiety to spend time out there. He was like what? why?! I said because it's stuffed with stuff! It's claustrophobic to me. He laughed. Later he put a funny comment of our little conversation on Facebook. One of his friends (who has never seen his shop inside) says something to the effect of that's how our shops are and then put a picture of about half of his.....showing a car sitting there with TONS of space all around it, nothing on the walls. Then a motorcycle several feet away, again nothing around it. I commented "What is that SPACE around your stuff? Is that a floor?!". If dh's shop space even looked half as good as that guys, it would be an improvement, LOL. I've given up on dh ever getting rid of his hoard, but I'm sure not going to spend my free time out there sitting, when I have this beautiful (non cluttered) house I can sit in.

My back is a little better, but still bothering me. Annoying! At least it doesn't hurt when I am sleeping.

DH should keep busy this week. He's got some auto maintenance to do, as well as build the smaller drawers for his wood work bench. He'll have to run back to the city in the next day or two, to pick up a radiator he dropped off at a repair shop. He's feeling a little better, at least, in that he's not needed an anti-nausea pill in a couple of weeks. We also changed when he was taking his omeprazole, so that it was just before he is eating breakfast, instead of him getting up and taking it like a couple hours before he eats, then going back to bed....I'm guessing the med was trying to work and nothing in his stomach, so likely that causing a lot of his nausea when he was getting up every morning. 

Our new iPhones are supposed to come tomorrow, so I'm excited about that. Tomorrow I will read the instructions for backing up our phones and setting up the new ones. I've done it a few times before, with no issues, so it shouldn't be a problem. I have to send in our old phones as trade-in, in my own packaging and I have the perfect sized box. Something came in the small box recently and I was like "this is a good box, I'll hang on to it" LOL.

Stupid back

I pretty much ended up doing nothing yesterday. As I was sitting at my desk yesterday morning, doing my normal - drinking my coffee, reading blogs, writing my blog, etc. my lower back started hurting. All across my lower back, almost into my hips. I have absolutely no idea why. The rest of the morning, when I changed the sheets on the bed, did a load of wash for the sheets, remade the bed, it hurt every move or step I made. I made myself walk to go get the mail, hoping it would help stretch it out. I spent the rest of the later afternoon and evening (after making dinner) sitting on the heating pad. Nothing is helping and it's still the same this morning. I can't imagine what I did to cause it. I'm sure it'll be fine tomorrow - just in time for work, but long enough to ruin my weekend 😒

DH drove into town and picked up another piece of quality type plywood (dang, that stuff is expensive!) to do his 3rd, smaller drawer, for his wood work bench and also make some kind of partial open "drawer" that the dust collector will sit on, so it can slide in and out from under the table (to clean it out). He also stopped in the auto parts store and ordered some oil. They never have what he needs in stock (for anything! LOL) and always have to order it to come in the next day or two with their daily delivery. 

I really want to make the banana bread, so regardless of how I feel, it's getting made today, LOL.  I think I may have one of those heat patches you can stick on your back, so I'll put that on, if I have one.

My half sis got through her step dads funeral last week, which she said turned out nice. She said her daughter put together a really nice slide show. It sounds like yesterday was the "come to Jesus" meeting that the one step brother called, including her (since she's a co-executor) to get this BS between 2 of the brothers, and the one brother (who is co-executor) to stop taking all the stuff from their dad's place (and his wife selling it on marketplace!). I'm sure I'll get the full scoop of how it all went down, when we chat tomorrow. But, it kind of sounds like, depending on how it goes, will decide for her if she's going to follow through with being "co" executor (I say "co" because she knows she will be the one doing ALL the work) or just decline and let the one step brother be executor and let the 4 of them battle this out on their own. She also said part of the reason for the meeting and where it's being held, is so she can then take an inventory of what hasn't gotten taken and so that then the one brother and his wife, will know everything that's now left will be part of the estate and the auction. When he or is wife have been questioned, so far, on the things taken, they are of course lying. Saying their dad "sold" them the stuff just before he died, or that he gave it to them, for helping. When asked where the payment is for the stuff they "bought" the brother then said "well, dad tore up the check I gave him". If this were me, I'd just turn around and walk the hell away and be done with it, haha. 

Saturday morning

I logged into my Bank of America checking and see that they have now deposited the $300 bonus. In a couple weeks I will set up the Citibank checking and change my direct deposit to there, so that I can earn their $325 bonus. These are the only 2 offers that I know about right now.

Still nothing on my mom's social security payment.

I watched Wicked, with my new free Peacock 3 month subscription. It was good, but nothing spectacular.  I found myself fast forwarding through most of the singing, which I know, defeats the whole purpose of it being a musical, LOL. Maybe it's just that I don't know the songs because older musicals like the original Wizard of Oz, and other movies I can think of, like The Sound of Music, etc, I don't mind watching all the songs. Then later I watched the 3rd My Big Fat Greek Wedding movie. I found it funny and enjoyed it as much as the first two. 

The weather app on my phone says it's snowing, but it's pouring rain this morning.

DH reads our little weekly local newspaper online. There's always a "Police Blotter" section that will show calls they went to or a traffic stop (no specific details). DH has been wondering why there are suddenly 30-40 calls a week at our towns local business's....how is that even possible in a town of only 800 people and a handful of businesses (like we have 3 gas stations, 2 restaurants, 1 little grocery store)? He asks Mr (who writes the weekly report haha) and he said ya...he actually asked about that recently because he was wondering the same thing. Turns out now every time a sheriff's deputy stops to get gas, stops at the store to get a snack or lunch from the deli in the store, etc, they are reporting it as an "incident". Are you freaking kidding me? We have the worst sheriff and does he think we all are too stupid to see through his manipulation? He's always in the county council meetings saying he needs more money, so I'm sure this is just a way to obscenely pad his "crime data". What a joke. 

I see I have some very ripe bananas, so time to make some banana bread. Of course dh didn't stay drinking smoothies for too long, so now I have this brand new blender....LOL. Last time we were at Costco I did buy a bag of smoothie mix for me to try (it has fruit and greens in it) and I haven't even tried it yet. I keep forgetting it's out in the freezer. 

Phones, TV, and Prime

I went back through my Verizon billings and figured out that we got our current iphones almost 3 1/2 years ago, so (of course LOL) longer than I thought we've had them. I was thinking it was probably 2 1/2 years. And I paid $550 each for them! So, getting these new phones, free, is at least an $1100 savings to me. Normally, when we need new phones I get the oldest model available, to save money. But, now I see that we are getting the newest models out. That's a first time ever, haha. It looks like they run over $1000 each, but like I said, I would never have paid that.....but I would have likely had to pay at least $550 each, next time we needed new phones.

I did have to pay the $35 activation fee per phone, but that is always the case when getting new phones. It looks like I will also need to get new cases, but I think I will wait until I get the phones, to make sure I am ordering the right cases. I forgot to mention when I posted about the deal yesterday, that when we got done with our chat the Verizon guy said "I have to be honest, you are the most polite customer I have had"  Awww. LOL.

My free 90 days of AppleTV+ expires in a couple of weeks. It worked out great that I got to watch the whole season of Severance (the finale was last night), along with a couple of other show seasons. I will want to subscribe again, at some point, when they come out with the new Murderbot show, based on the books by Martha Wells. I LOVE those books and am excited to see if the show does the books justice. 

Now I see Target Circle is offering PeacockTV for free for 90 days, so I signed up for that. I see that starting today they are streaming Wicked for free. I would like to watch that movie and see if it lives up to all the hype. Of course, the original Wizard of Oz movie has been one of my favorites, since I was a child.

If you have an Amazon Prime account - be on the watch for items and shipping on items being higher priced than purchasing through a non-Prime account! This has happened to me twice now. I use DD's prime account (and pay her half the annual fee) when I want free and/or fast shipping. If not, I then typically use my non-prime account. The first one I came across was I was ordering truck mirrors for dh and the price on my non-Prime account was $15 less for the item then it was under DD's Prime account. The second item was yesterday. Dh had sent me a link to a set of sparkplugs, that were not a Prime item. I put them in my cart. They were free shipping, but estimated arrival date was 2 weeks out. I decided to put it in DD's Prime cart and see if maybe the date would be a little sooner. Not only was it not sooner, it was $6 for shipping! So, on both instances, being a Prime member was costing more for the items! That's not right!!

New phones

How is it that my cup of coffee does not taste the same this morning? LOL. I made it the same as I always do. Same cup and everything, haha. I've been having a cup of green tea everyday and adding about a tablespoon from the big jug of local honey we were given. Get the health benefits of both and a good way to use up all that honey. 

I just got an email from Verizon about getting a new iphone16 free with trading in your (working/non damaged) old phone and no plan upgrade required. This got my attention. We both have iphone 11's that we've had about 3 years now, I think. I've never seen an offer like this, it's always a free phone, but you have to upgrade to a higher plan, which I don't want to do. We are on their lowest data plan (because we are always home and not needing much data at all) and I don't want to spend more for a higher plan. I logged into my account and saw a banner with the offer, but when I clicked on it, it kept taking me to an offer for a free phone, but had to upgrade my plan because apparently "you have more than one phone on your plan". Well, dumb - why send me the offer if my account is not eligible?

So, I hopped on a chat to ask and the guy said he can get the offer set up for me on both phones being traded in and getting new iphone 16's at no extra cost. He was asking what color phones we wanted for each line and then I said "to clarify - I do not have to upgrade my plan?" he said no, you can keep your plan, no change. Done! So, in a few days we will have new phones. Whenever we've needed to upgrade (most always by necessity) our phones, I always end up choosing the oldest model iphones they have, since that is usually the cheapest, but even these last phones we got,  they cost me like $360 each. So, getting free new phones is great, and helps offset the $15/mo plan increase they just added this month. The order confirmation stuff he emailed me also confirms there will be no change to my monthly bill and no charge for these new phones.

DH used up a scrap piece of plywood and made some covers for the 4 big wood planter boxes we have on the back patio. When they are not full of flowers, Amos thinks they are litterboxes all winter, so we've been covering them with plastic. Now they are covered and don't look so tacky LOL.

It's snowing again.  

No blog title today

Good morning. As it's gradually getting lighter out, I can see it's going to be a blue sky sunny day. We're still not out of the winter woods yet. It's only 21 degrees right now and some snow possibly tomorrow through Saturday. But, looking ahead on the weather, I see mid 60's are coming mid week next week. Nice!

I've been having the worst time trying to think of blog titles. I think I've just plumb run out of ideas. 

I went to bed last night and realized I had not chatted with my DD yesterday. I can't remember the last time we missed a day, haha. She's already messaged me this morning ;) I could probably count on one hand the number of days we've gone without communicating since she left for college.

Right when I was finishing up with work yesterday, a friend of dh's who's mom has been having a leak in her waterline issues, messaged dh. She had a contractor guy, who's been trying to find/fix the leak for awhile. Asked if dh might have some leftover waterline pipe. He does. Contractor was supposed to be on his way over to pick it up, so dh opened the gate, got it ready. And waited and waited. I kept holding off making dinner. Finally at 6pm dh said, just make dinner. He texted friend and I guess he didn't realize the guy never came and got it, he had figured out something else and fixed her issue, LOL. So, dinner ended up being quick and easy tomato soup and sandwiches.

I need to go drop something in the mailbox and I've been putting it off all week, LOL. Too rainy, too frozen/icy, too snowy, too cold. LOL. I'm supposed to mail back that little bottle of eye drops. They sent me a replacement, along with some samples of the individual use drops, but also sent a little padded envelope to mail the one I have back. I'm going to do it this morning! Get this little envelope off my desk and off my to do list.

Ok - trip to mailbox is done. That was a brisk cold walk in 22 degree temps. But sunny and beautiful out. And neighbors must be home this morning - haha - because the dogs weren't out in their kennel run barking at me as I walked past the front of their driveway. Like Mr was saying to dh the other day - the dang dogs know that neighbor kid gets off the school bus every day at 4:30 and every day they bark at him LOL.

Still winter

Woke up to snow again, but we're warm enough during the day that it just keeps melting off.

Guess what? I don't have any more staining to do! DH has done the painting and staining on his wood work table himself. He came in last night and said he just stained the whole table himself. Ok! Works for me haha :)  This is one of the drawers he made that pulls out and there's one on the other side of the table, too. He also plans to make a smaller drawer next to it. Nothing fancy at all - but very sturdy and functional. He just painted it black because he had some old paint to use up, LOL. He was going to stain them, but the fancy plywood veneer was already peeling off, so he just decided to use paint. He was a bit miffed that he spent good money for that good plywood and it was like that. We had used that when he built our closets out and the plywood didn't do that and it stained nicely.

One of our friends lives in Missouri and was without power a bit from the tornadoes that went through. Luckily it came back on Sunday night for her, but it made her aware she is not very prepared, at all. She didn't even have a way to charge her phone, since she didn't have a car charger. She was able to borrow an extra one from a friend to keep her phone charged over the weekend, but she said she has now ordered herself one, as well as one of the solar charging kind. She also has ordered a small tabletop Blackstone grill, so she can cook herself some food.

Other than just getting a whole house generator (maybe one day) I think we are fairly well prepared when the power goes out. We do have an old propane bbq grill and it also has a side burner, which is handy for like heating a pan of soup or can use a small frying pan on it. We have 3 big coolers (one is a Yeti) that we can move food into, to try to keep cold. We have car phone chargers as well as a solar one. We have these little LED lanterns that pop up and emit a ton of light and keep them in several spots throughout the house. One little lantern can light up a room pretty well. We have about half a dozen 5 gallon jugs of water stored out in the shop (we lose water when our power goes out) - mostly to just be able to flush the toilet. Thankfully we don't have to deal with tornadoes and hurricanes here. 

And honestly, a whole house generator (ours would run on propane) would not be very efficient if the power was out for days. Apparently they use 2-3 gallons of propane per hour, so our 1000 gallon propane tank, which can really only hold 800 gallons, wouldn't last too long and that would be an expensive week! Just don't really think it's worth the cost of a generator, when I think the longest we've ever been without power is like 12 hours and most times it's just a few hours.

DD and SIL are getting their land ready to build. The trees that needed to come down (a lot! because the whole 5 acres is trees) are cut and taken away (some will be used for building things) and last Friday the equipment showed up to start dozing and excavating. So exciting :)  

New week

Happy St. Patrick's Day. I used to think there was a little Irish in me, but after doing Ancestry, I never found any LOL. All Scottish and English (and Danish and English from my mom's side). DH has a bunch of Irish in him. His mom was Irish. DD is also married into Irish now and has an Irish last name :)

I finished reading The Women about an hour before my bedtime last night. It was really good. I've got another one of her books on reserve, but I can't remember now which one it is. With these library e-books borrowed, I always "return early" when I am finished, as I know there are others waiting for their turn and I'm always happy when I get a notification that one I've been waiting for is ready to borrow, finally.

I spent most of yesterday with a pinched nerve in my neck. It actually started on Saturday evening, but when I got up yesterday it seemed better. Then I started vacuuming and the moving my arm back and forth, the pinched nerve pain started right back up. Finally, by late evening it felt better, and so far this morning it's good. I only ended up vacuuming my office, the guest room next to it and half of the loft sitting area. Maybe I'll get to the rest of it during a lunch break.

We've been seeing a momma and her 2 baby deer quite often the past couple of weeks. Amos gave them a stare down the other evening LOL. He was sitting out on the back patio just focused on something and then we realized the deer were in the back yard.  

DH managed to just take it easy yesterday and only did laundry. He said he started to go out to the shop and do something, but then remembered he should just rest. I see that the hinges and drawer pulls we ordered are coming in today's mail, so I'm sure he'll work on getting those attached today. 

Last night I made an old standby for dinner - tuna casserole. It's the same recipe my mom used to make us, when I was a kid. Easy and a good comfort type food. I was "good" and only had one dinner roll, instead of two ;)

OMG - I was just chatting with my half sis. So, apparently to help her boyfriend out on his taxes, since they are considered "common law", his CPA has them claim that way, so he has to pay less taxes. Well, apparently (and I know nothing about CA taxes) because she is the lower income earner she gets the CA carbon tax rebate/credit on her return. Get this - he makes her pay HIM back the $300 credit, because he's pissed she gets it and not him! OMG. I just can't with this guy. I said to her - does he realize he's already getting a tax break by claiming you as his common law wife, compared to if he didn't?  But, on the bright side (maybe?) she has proof they are common law, if something ever happens to him, and hopefully can have ownership, somehow of their house (even though she doesn't own the property it sits on) and everything he's gotten since they've been together.

Read, watch, and gratitude

We're getting a bit more snow this weekend. What we got overnight Friday, melted off and this morning we have a couple more inches or so. It's very wet and not sticking the the driveway or patio, so no plowing will be needed. But, it sure is pretty out.  Yesterday Dh took down his snow stakes that line the the driveway and where he plows out on our street.  Then he kept busy the rest of the afternoon piddling around out in the shop.

I started reading The Women, by Kristin Hannah. A really good book, so far. I also like how it grabbed my attention from the first few pages. I'm looking forward to reading a bunch more of it today. Before I got started reading, I got caught up watching a couple of episodes of that new Reba show "Happy's Place". It's an enjoyable laugh. I'm also liking the Young Sheldon spin-off with Georgie and Mandy. Meemaw's the best, they need her on more often. 

We noticed someone was at the property next door yesterday, adding some more marker flags. So, it looks like we will see some building start over there in the near future. The guy who has the lot on the other side of them was also out the week before, one day. It's gonna get busy here, I think! And then in September the couple who have lot 6 plan to get started. We will likely be a full street by next year, this time. As long as everyone follows the CC&R's in place for our neighborhood (like the 3 of us already here have), we've got no problem with having neighbors.

Dh saw in his Facebook memories it was 9 years ago today that we first stepped foot on this property. Six and a half months later we were moved over here. Now I get to wake up every day and see all this beautiful scenery outside my windows. If someone would have told me 10 years ago I'd have this, I would have laughed at them.

 

Milk talk

Happy Friday and happy payday to me. Plus it's with my new salary amount :)  A couple weeks ago I opened that Bank of American checking, online, in order to earn the $300 bonus. I had to have $2000 direct deposited, so that has now been taken care of, and I will watch the account for the $300. The next checking bonus offer I am going to take advantage of is Citibank. They are offering $325 with $3000 in direct deposits.

DH got the 2 big drawers he built installed underneath the wood work bench/table and filled up with his stuff. Some of the stuff he was able to move off the shelves of his long "general" work table he has set up along the wall as you come into his shop door. In the other big drawer he was able to empty out one of his big storage bins, he has up in his loft. He has one more small drawer to make for it. For this smaller drawer he will have to go buy some plywood, as he doesn't have any scrap pieces left to use.

I had tried those protein powders (chocolate and vanilla) to replace my daily breakfast of the Carnation instant breakfast powder (when it got so expensive there for a bit, it's come back to regular price now). I had also read that too much protein can result in your body just turning it into fat......I'm guessing maybe that's why I'm still (slowly) gaining weight?! I tried to increase my protein intake for a few months, there. But, in doing more research I'm likely already getting enough protein per day (especially since I don't work out). Gosh, it's sooo frustrating. I am very happy with my reduction in added sugars, so at least I've managed to conquer that addiction. I do have the occasional sweet treat, but on a regular daily basis, I have none.

So, anyway, now that the Carnation stuff is back to a regular price I've decided to go back to that. I was looking to order some more and saw the kind they make that is liquid form in the bottles. Of course, I've seen that before, but I've always just ordered the powdered kind and added my own milk. That's why I go through so much milk a week. I had a thought this morning. I'm going to try ordering a 6 pack of the pre-made liquid kind and see if I like it. It would actually be a little cheaper that way for me. When I mix the powder with milk I am mixing in a large glass and I actually use about 14oz of milk (not the 8 oz on the directions), so between the cost of the packet of powder and 14 oz of (organic) milk, the premade drink option is cheaper per day (but it is only 8 oz, but I'm sure that will be fine). 

The main reason I want to try having this breakfast drink, is then I will not need to buy so much milk! Milk is one of the main reasons we even have to go shopping every 3 weeks, haha! I only have enough room in our fridge for so much at a time, and I'm always getting very low or running out. I also use a cup of milk when I make my "yogurt pudding" every 2-3 days. I've tried having the shelf milk (like Parmalat) as a back up, but I just do not like the odd taste it has. I also do not really like freezing milk. It takes days to thaw out and I just find it annoying to deal with.

I just got an email at work from someone that has this quote in their signature line:   “ It is not Joy that makes us Grateful. It is Gratitude that makes us Joyful."---Anonymous.  I like it!

Lions and friends

Yesterday afternoon dh heard a mountain lion from across the road. We kept Amos inside the rest of the day. I did let him out this morning. 1) because when he first goes out he never goes farther than the doorstep LOL and by the time I'm done making my coffee, he realizes it's too cold/too wet/too "too", and wants right back in and 2) because it was pouring rain and I knew he wouldn't go past sitting next to the door under the overhang. LOL. I was right. It's just the ritual we go through every morning for me to prove I was right - he really doesn't want to go outside haha. Now he's curled up in the corner spot in my office, that is his new favorite napping spot.

A friend, who lives nearby, stopped by for a visit after dinner last night. That was nice and a good way to pass the evening, rather than sitting, scrolling social media or watching a show. She's a widow (her husband died almost 3 years ago) and is also trying to get back to enjoying life. She's a couple years older than us. Her husband was a little bit older than her, but still passed way too young, in his mid-60's (cancer). She's had a lot of loss the past few years and she's a strong woman. I admire her, a lot.

I'm still doing great now at tracking what I spend money on, each month. Apparently, it just took finding myself the right "system". It involves a notebook I leave next to my computer, just to write down expenses in (a page for each month), and then I enter them in a Quickbooks program I have and check off (in red pen) in my notebook that it's been entered. I also like the days with no expenses, LOL. I'm still trying to tweak my categories a bit - mostly with stuff dh's buys. He's the one who spends the most (of course!) and while I try to keep things he is buying separate as much as possible, like yard maintenance and house maintenance, some things I'm not sure where I want to put them. Like yesterday he had me order some hinges and drawer pulls for the drawers he is building for his big wood work bench.....so far I'm just putting the expense like that in a category called "DH-Misc" haha. As I get more used to tracking, I may start doing sub categories for his little projects - then I'll have exact numbers on what he spent on each project.

Speaking of projects - yesterday he told me me did some of the staining of the big wood working bench, himself! Yay!! That was great news to me, LOL. 

Pizza Pizza!

I've been craving pizza, but lately dh has said it's not sounding good (with his stomach issues). Since half the time I have something different than he now eats for dinner anyway, I told him I'm craving pizza, so I'm just going to take out half of the frozen dinner rolls for the crust and just make a small pizza....unless he wants some pizza? (I ask, because as soon as I would be there eating my small pizza, he'd want some!) and he said he'll have pizza, too. LOL, So, I got pizza for dinner last night. Yum. There's enough left for me to have for dinner tonight, while he has whatever sounds good to him.

DD and SIL (we have a group messenger chat) always message us and dd was sending some pics of where they had taken a day trip to last Saturday. DH had asked which route they went to get there (by boat or drive the long way). She said they took the long route and when they got home saw the round trip miles for the day were 432. SIL said "we could have driven to your house!" LOL. 

I had an easy payroll day, yesterday, for a change. Always makes for a good rest of the day when that happens. My boss did finally tell me she gave me a raise ;) 

I think I mentioned that 2 of half-sis's step brothers (there are 4 of them) are making her step dad's passing and will difficult already (and one of them is supposed to be the co-executor with her). She's been considering just declining to be co-executor. I know myself and her boyfriend are telling her to do this. Well, she had a phone consult with the estate attorney yesterday and said she chickened out about asking how to go about declining it. Sigh....I had also asked her if this step brother is is co-executor is actually going to share in any of the work to probate the will? Nope, she will end up taking care of it all. I think part of why she decided not to inquire about how to decline is because she had a long talk with the "good" step brother (who lives in the states). He is on his way back up there and said he will have a meeting with them, including her, and tell them to knock this shit off, so I think she is hoping that's going to work. 

We are in the process of changing banks at work, so my boss has been emailing all the companies who send us ACH payments, to let them know of the bank change. Half of them are either calling or emailing me to verify this is legit, because I am the one they always deal with, not her, LOL (who is this lady? LOL). But, that's good they are being cautious and double checking.

Dh is still working on building the big drawers for underneath his big wood work bench. He was able to use some more of his scrap lumber (that he hasn't burned yet LOL) on it, so that's good. He originally didn't think the scrap pieces would be the right length, so that's why he put them in the burn stack, but then realized they would work out ok. 

Tuesday ramblings

It took the SSA about 2 hours to call me back yesterday morning, but the call did come through this time, after I turned my Verizon spam blocker off (and turned it back on after the call). The lady helping me kept saying "I'm looking it up" "I'm still looking, bear with me". Then she asked if I knew what the dollar amount I was expecting, so I told her. Wait some more. Finally she said I show that payment was returned in January (which would have been 2024, when they reversed the ACH payment when they did pay the payment that was due) and now paid in March. I said March of 2025? She said yes, but it doesn't show what day it was this month, but you should be seeing payment soon. If you don't get it by the end of this month call back. Ok.....I'm still pretty skeptical it got processed, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised here soon and it will finally show up in the checking account. It's not there this morning.

One of our friends texted dh yesterday morning and said "check your mailbox, I dropped something in it." Apparently he had been to town, because he dropped off 2 fresh maple bars from the town grocery store. Dh's favorite! I'm sure he likely meant one was for me, haha, but maple bars are about the only donut I don't like and dh was happy to eat both.

My internal alarm clock didn't wake me up until 7:25 this morning. Where's that annoying cat when you need him? ;)  When I got up I found him in our bathroom. He likes to sit up in the window looking out and you can see his tail hanging below the bottom of the curtain, or when it's light enough out and I haven't turned the light on yet, you can see his outline behind the curtain.

DH did see the new owner of the lot DAN sold, that is farthest from us, there for a bit one day last week. We haven't heard any more on the plans of the owners from the lot right next to us. But, now would/should be the time to get started, if you want to take advantage of the building season around here as long as possible. Both lots need wells dug and septic systems put in. It's sounding like if the tariff's go through it will raise lumber prices, which could have a big impact on the cost of building a home right now. When dh was at our town lumber store last time, someone had ordered their house lumber package now, even though they aren't ready to start building yet. He said he was worried they weren't going to be able to afford it, if they wait to buy it later. Between that possibility and the high mortgage interest rates, I'm sure glad we got built when we did. And I'm glad a year after we got done building, I was able to take advantage of interest rates and refinance our mortgage down to 2.5%.

I feel so bad for my half sis. She's just really is in a shitty relationship (not married). He could really care less about her and her feelings. Anything she tries to bring up, he just tells her she's the one with the problem, not him. I try not to give my opinion, too often, as I have to realize that mostly it's just her wanting to vent and she likely isn't going to make a change, but it's hard. I did finally ask her yesterday "what do you get out of the relationship?" Her response was "I have a free place to live". She doesn't have to pay him rent or anything towards the (HIS) house/property, but she does cover all her own expenses: her car payment, insurance, cell phone, etc. I said, well it's sad that none of her reply includes her saying she gets a "partner" "companion", "friend" "emotional support" etc...which should also be in the equation for a healthy, happy life - not just a place to live. She said she knows and knows she needs to leave. She said she just dreams of having her own little place, just taking care of herself and her pets and her chickens. I asked her if the inheritance her step dad already gave her, last year, before he got sick, and what she will get now, would be enough to buy herself a small home (or even rent), along with her 2 part time jobs. It wouldn't be enough to buy, but would be enough for a very large down payment and she should be able to swing the payment. She's only 58, so she has some working years ahead of her still. She also works part time for her boyfriends business (doing his books and misc stuff) and she says he complains about paying her the $1500 a month all the time - says she should be doing it for free. So, if she leaves, she will lose that income (but still have 2 p/t jobs income). 

The other issue I asked her about is, if he died next week, what would she have/where would she live? She'd be on her own, since he owns his property and the house. She said she has begged him for years to get a will and and least set up something for her to be protected and he won't do it. He's got lots of property, a couple of business's, lots of assets......and no will. I'm not sure how hold he is, around 60 years old. I'm sure she hit the nail on the head when she said he knows it would all just end up going to his 2 daughters (though it would be a mess with no will) and he'll be dead and not have to deal with it, so what does he care....I said I don't think being on her own can be any worse/more lonely than it is WITH him. With his business, he has to go out of town to work at times and she is so happy when he's gone. That should tell her right there, the relationship is not working. But, I'm going to try to keep my opinions on that to myself, going forward, and just be someone she can vent to, when she needs to, rather than try to offer suggestions/solutions. 

Rainy Monday

This banana cream pie (with sugar free pudding) is much better than the last one I made. I just wait and add some whip cream on top when I cut a slice, then cut up some pieces of fresh banana and put poke them into the whip cream. The crust is staying nice, not soggy on the bottom. One time I made it using vanilla pudding (because that's all I had) and that was good too, as the banana slices give it enough banana flavor.

I slept terrible last night, which is not like me. At first I was just chalking it up to the time change, not being able to fall asleep right away, but then I kept waking up all night. I don't get up with an alarm and did wake up before 7 (my normal time I get up) but due to the disrupted night, I slept another half hour and got up at 7:20. I don't start work until 8 (it's an hour earlier at my office time zone), so I'm up in plenty of time. I just like to have my coffee and hour of me time before I start work for the day. 

The sunny weather has been replaced by rain this morning. It sure was nice here last week. This week looks to be mostly rain, with possibility of some snow mixed in.

I just put my call in to SSA to try again this morning. I turned off the call blocking feature on my phone (thru Verizon) so hopefully this time when they call me back in a couple of hours (says a 70 min wait time, but it's always longer) the call will come through. 

 

 

 

 

 

Watching prices like a hawk

With the cost of things always seeming to go up, I feel like I've been able to get some good deals on several things I purchase regularly, even if it's only once a year. I'm just really trying to watch prices on things and if I see if there's been a price drop, I'm grabbing it.

From April thru June I give our cat some flea and tick drops. We've never noticed fleas on him, but around mid April thru mid July, it's tick season here, and since he's outside some every day, I want to protect him from that. I buy the 3 dose pack and the drops are supposed to be good for 30 days, each dose. So applying thru mid June, gets him thru mid July (when it's then very hot and the ticks die off). I purchase a brand a little cheaper than Frontline, called PetAmor. It seems to work, he's never had fleas or a tick. Usually it's around $7 per monthly dose. I decided to get some ordered to be ready to start again next month, and saw that Chewy had it on sale price for $3.57 per dose! That's a great savings compared to what I normally have to spend, so I got it ordered.

While we were at Costco Friday I totally forgot to pick up some of their Kirkland brand of Miralax dh uses. It's the cheapest per dose, I've found anywhere. Even Amazon's Basic's brand is .41/dose, while Costco is .25/dose. I know they will ship this, so I decided might as well get some more ordered/stock up, while I still have the membership. It's on sale right now $5 off! Woo, even cheaper. That makes it down to .20/dose. I went ahead a bought 2, which should last dh through the rest of this year, for sure. Since dd has a Costco membership, in the future, when we need more, I can have her order online and ship to me, thereby keeping the cost for that at it's lowest. And I'll watch for when it's $5 off and only get it then ;) Costco certainly doesn't have everything we use cheaper compared to Amazon and Walmart. Dishwashwer tabs are about the same price. Omeprazole is more at Costco than Amazon. 

I'm hoping we might be able to make this a one trip grocery order this month. We'll see. The only thing I may run out of is milk, but I bought 4 gallons again, so we'll see if I can make that last 4 weeks. I drink/use a lot of milk. Dh doesn't drink it at all. He will only drink chocolate milk, if I buy it. I have a glass of milk every morning with my protein powder and a very small glass with dinner. If I skipped some of the dinner milk and just drank water, I could probably get the milk to last 4 weeks. This morning I am going to make blueberry muffins, so I will just have a small glass (like half a juice glass amount) instead of a full glass.

We had the orange chicken with rice for dinner last night. It sure is good, but for awhile there we were having it so often, I got tired of it, so I hadn't bought it at Costco in awhile. After dinner, the pre-made pie crust was thawed, so I baked that up, to get cooled down and then made the banana pudding for it. When dh came back in the house later in the evening, and hungry for a snack I said "do you want a piece of banana cream pie?" He says "do you have some?" I said "No, I'm just making it up" (rolling eyes LOL) and he says "where'd you get it?" "I MADE it!" LOL.  

I texted my half sis yesterday morning to ask her how it was going. She said it would take a phone call, so we chatted last night after dinner. Her stupid stepbrothers (men in their 60's) were literally arguing at the hospice place over junk in a shed, at their dads property, while he was literally taking his last breaths and died. She said she is so over dealing with all of them. She is also supposed to be co-execuctor, of the will, with one of the step brothers.  One of them has already told her he is going to contest the will (contest what? it's a legit will LOL). I told her just to decline doing it. Just let the one brother be executor and let him deal with his brothers. Good grief. She's already had 7 months of stress. I don't know how long will's take to probate in Canada, but if it's anything like the U.S. it's going to be 1 to 2 more years of stress dealing with it.

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.