Working on the savings

I received our next electric bill. $109 - and that's a/c in the whole house. Yay! I will be very interested to see how the winter months bills are, but according to our hvac guy, they should be similar.

We got rid of the old couch, finally, for $25. A lady in the next town over wanted it and sent her kids to pick it up. OMG. LOL. 3 of them show up in an old jeep cherokee. How to get the full size couch in? They put the back seats down, shoved it in the back, with 1/4 of it hanging out. They at least had some straps, but then where to put the 3rd person? LOL. Somehow one of the guys crawled in back on top of the couch. At least it is gone and no longer taking up space in our shop and we didn't have to take it to the dump.

The savings on my cell phone bill is going to be $5.25 a month, from the discount with our new payroll company. Better than nothing! When I have time I'm going to search through some of the other discounts offered and see if I can take advantage of anything else.

As soon as we got out of the mountains on the drive home, and got data on our phone back, I posted a few pics of the wedding on Facebook. When we got home DH did, too. We are active on Facebook, mostly with sharing just personal type stuff. Neither of us are much for posting meme's and sharing other stuff (especially political), like some people do. We are Facebook friends with DD's new MIL. She makes numerous posts per day....all political. It's actually quite annoying, to me. Once in a while she'll post something personal. Whether a facebook friend is conservative or liberal, I find the onslaught of a bunch of posts a day, to be highly annoying. I usually just unfollow them.  We have a few friends that do that - it's like they have nothing better to do than share political post after post. Give it a rest. Do you find it odd, that since DD's MIL has been home from the wedding she didn't post one picture or make a post about the wedding, but she shared a picture of one of her dogs? I guess I do find it odd, LOL. I mean, I know her life is pretty consumed with her political agenda, but dang. If you can post all that political crap on Facebook, you can congratulate your son and new DIL, right? I was very surprised she was able to keep her politics to herself all weekend, LOL.  I noticed that whenever she was sitting her leg is constantly bouncing. I glanced around at every one else and they are all relaxed legs.


Anyhow, to each is own, I guess. The newlyweds are enjoying their honeymoon. They've sent some pics via text and are enjoying the scenery and wildlife. I think they are going to a big rodeo later in the week. Our little town fair/rodeo is coming up soon. We'll have to try to go again. We didn't go last summer, since we were getting ready to move to the shop.

The I do's are done

It was a lovely wedding. Very simple, yet she looked so elegant. A sweet, relaxed wedding. There were about 22 or so guests, just family and friends closest to them were invited. The weather was perfect and the setting allowed for being in the shade, since it was about 80 degrees. They were both so happy.

We got there the afternoon before and bride and groom met us at the lady's house where we were picking up the camper trailer and they hauled it to the campsite for us, about 25 miles or so from there. SIL's parents and another couple were there, and the guys got us all set up right away. DH didn't even have to do anything which was nice after the long drive over (about 6 hours). That other couple were cooking for everyone all weekend, so that was very very nice, too. I didn't have to try to pack food, etc, which was good, because we really wouldn't have had room in my car to bring that, too, since we had the dogs, a big suitcase, pillows and a bin of misc stuff. The wife of that couple came over to introduce herself. She had seen we were wearing the same t-shirt, LOL. As soon as she walked up I noticed it too. We got a good laugh out of it. They also had an extra generator they brought, so we could have some power. At the end of the weekend I gave the guy $40 for gas for it. He didn't want to take it, but I convinced him. I said just use it to fill up and share with the next people you let use it.

After a great dinner, we did a little rehearsal of the ceremony.

Saturday morning DD got ready in our camper trailer. The others got the chairs set up, a few decorations, and some balloons set up down the road for those guests that were just coming for the day, along with some food prep.

SIL's uncle performed the ceremony, so that made it special for them. He and his wife were very nice and we enjoyed getting to know them. They didn't have a best man or maid of honor. SIL's sister, who passed away last year, was supposed to be the maid of honor, so they decided not to have that. DH walked me down the aisle to our seats. Then he went back and got DD. We couldn't see her from there, as there was a little rise in the ground and then sloped back down to campsite. As he walked her over that little rise, it was perfect. And dang - I forgot to grab some tissues!

My mom and her bf made it, but it was hard on him, as I guess he had fallen down again that morning at her place. Ugh. They decided not to say for the lunch and cake and we all understood. It was just good that she was able to be there to see DD and watch the ceremony.

The boyfriend of SIL's sister, (who passed away) does photography, so he did the pictures, and his sister also took pics and video. Such nice young people. Their parents were there, too. DD had loaded songs on her phone and bought an outdoor bluetooth speaker, so she could play music and do the dances. They did the bride and groom dance and then she danced with her father. Then groom danced with his mom. I was standing next to dd, with my arm around her. DH on the other side and groom's dad a couple feet on the other side of him. DH just knew he was thinking of his daughter and that he was never going to get to do this with her, so he went over and hugged him and said something and they just stood there hugging while they were saying whatever they were saying to each other. I think everyone was in tears about then. DD and I were doing ok, but then we looked over at the young lady taking pictures of the dances and she just had tears streaming down her face, so then of course we started crying. But, that's why DD just wanted a small, intimate wedding. She knew there would be some crying and a some sadness thinking about her, along with the happy tears we were all feeling for the happy couple. She didn't want a bunch of people there, that wouldn't really have understood what all they were all feeling.

The food wasn't quite ready, so she decided to do the cake (she had 2 small cakes) cutting and we had cake, which was very delicious. We all just sat around in camp chairs and visited, then had a nice lunch of pulled pork and lots of sides. Some of the guests left after that and a few more were staying the night. We had another campfire later that night. The son of the couple that did all the cooking is an astronomy buff, so he had brought a huge telescope he set up and we got to see Jupiter and it's moons. Pretty neat.

Sunday morning, DD and SIL hauled our camper trailer back to the people's house we rented it from and we headed back home for our 6 hour drive. We got home around 4:30pm or so. It was good to be home. Our house was still standing and the river is still flowing, so it's all good :) Our daughter is happy and that is all that matters. They are now enjoying their honeymoon camping and exploring one of the national parks for the week.

Almost wedding time

Last evening was the cutest thing. Our neighbor down at the end of the street was walking with her 2 year old while he "rode" his little bike. He told her he wanted to see Dh and pet the puppies. He's very afraid of dogs, but the little guy sure is trying. I let one of the dogs out, but he got a little scared of him, plus he heard the other neighbors dogs barking, so that scared him. He sure is talking a bunch now - so cute! When they left he said bye to DH by name....not me, I'm just chopped liver to him, LOL.

We are leaving tomorrow morning, for DD's wedding on Saturday. Then coming back home on Sunday. So far my mom and her BF are still coming. I'm really glad I sent him that email. If they can (a couple times a month) go to retiree luncheons, with an hour or more drive, several hours of lunch and a drive back, they can do this little trip. We are trying to take the minimum amount of stuff, but with 2 big dogs and stuff I don't know how we are going to fit this all in my little suv car. The dogs just won't have much room to move.

Our other neighbors just emailed and asked if we need them to do anything while we are gone. That was nice. I told them, nothing I can think of, but......Dh asked if he could put in our yard while we are gone, that would be great. LOL!!!

Well, I'm off and the blog will be quiet for a few days. I'll catch back up on Monday.

Mid week happenings

DH's new buddy, the woodworker guy, called DH yesterday. He has two neighbor ladies who are interested in getting the extra pallets we have. DH had offered them to woodworker guy (he had taken some earlier) but he didn't need anymore, but found out these ladies could use them. He came over and picked them up for them and visited outside with DH quite awhile. Our mason guy took his info and some pictures of our bar and the little coffee table he made. He wants to have a bar countertop made by him, now.  He also really liked the little coffee table, too. Woodworker guy lives on a small fixed social security income, so if he can make extra off his woodworking, that helps him.

Yesterday was another phone meeting with our new payroll/HR company. This time was with the payroll set up person on how we'd be setting up our clocking in, etc. We only have 7 employees who are hourly, so not a huge deal, but they have never had to clock in before. We just do manual timecards, so this will be an adjustment for them. And me. Because for some reason I have always been hourly, which I have never really understood. I mean I get that I don't supervise anyone, so ya, hourly. But we have lots of "professional" type workers (quotes, proj. mgrs, etc, even customer service) that don't supervise anyone and they are salaried. I guess I've never understood the distinction between how they decide who is hourly vs. salary. So, this morning as I'm getting myself ready I'm thinking, ugh, what a pain this is going to be to clock in and out. I work a pretty flexible schedule and sometimes I work more than 40 hours (not much) but I always just put 40 hours on my timesheet. I don't track it that close, and we aren't really supposed to have OT, unless it's pre approved. Then this morning my boss emailed me and said thinking of just changing you to salary, would that be ok with you? I said YES! so much easier, LOL.

Watching the hummingbirds is enjoyable, especially now with the 2nd feeder. It's a hanging feeder, but solid on the base, so I just set it next to the other one on our flat area where the stone surrounds the post on the patio, about 3 ft high. DH will pick it up and stand there with it. Last night he had 4 or 5 buzzing around him and trying to drink from it.  He said one almost landed on his thumb.

I did a price comparison with my grocery store receipt compared to Walmart grocery prices. It was at least $30 higher......but then I realized I forgot to put in my phone# to get all the lower prices for the Just4You deals at the grocery store! Dumb dumb dumb. I have never forgotten to do that before, not sure why I did this time. But, even so, for example the bread was not on sale and it was $2.51 a loaf higher than same bread at Walmart and I had bought 3 loaves. I'm going back to doing the Walmart grocery pick up. Save money and time. It's a no brainer. If they have to substitute for bread, then I'll just not accept it and go to another store for a quick trip inside for bread. Still saving time overall. $40-$60 a month savings is nothing to sneeze at.  DH needs new jeans, all his are worn and getting holes. I said that extra $30 the groceries just cost me could have bought almost 2 pair of jeans! (he wears Wrangler jeans). He got the point. Plus, with me just being able to drive up and pick it all up, he doesn't need to go with me to help. Win for me, too, LOL.  I noticed when I was at Target that they are setting up some parking spaces now for order pick up. They have order pick up, but you have to go inside to the customer service counter to pick up your order. I've done it several times, but having them bring out to you will be nice, too, like Walmart does.

Not much else going on today. I had two more phone meetings for payroll. I'll be glad when these are all done, but still going on for a few more weeks, until we at least get through our first payroll with them. Going to start packing a bit for our trip to DD's wedding. Get our clothes ironed and on hangers..and then cover with a garbage bag, haha. So, they don't get covered in dog hair in the back of the car with the dogs.

Jury duty and enjoyable things

Looks like I'm going to be on jury duty call. DH was on it for a year (or maybe it ended up being 2 years) but never got called in. It's a year long thing here. Hopefully, I won't get called in either. I received the questionnaire form to fill in and mail back. I don't think much at all ever ends up going to a jury trial in this small county. I think they only have court one day a week, so if there is anything, it's most likely a one day at a time thing. Funny, we met the "justice of the court" at a 4th of July BBQ we went to. I would not have guessed him to be a judge, LOL.  When we were looking at places to move over here, DH would look all over online. There was a place for sale in the neighborhood this guy lives in. It's a "loop" road, with lots of pasture land and houses spread out along it, on acreages. DH would do a google map view and check out the surrounding homes. He said nope on that house for sale. A super junky neighbor across the street. We were trying to get away from junky neighbors! At the BBQ we were chatting with him and some others - turns out his is the junky place, LOL. I don't think he and his wife own it. It's like 80 acres, registered to someone else, with 3 homes (all junk) on it and back behind some trees is a huge junkyard of cars. No thank you!

The place for sale was across the street, to the right of this picture, when we were first looking to move here. Then DH looked at the google earth view and said, nope!


Three of my favorite pages on Facebook (and/or Instagram): Mike Rowe's mom Peggy, About my Mother page, UPS Dogs, and Max the Floofy Bear.  Mike Rowe's (from Dirty Jobs, etc) mother is a joy to read her posts. She always makes me smile and laugh. And she's proof you are never too old to follow a dream. She wrote a book in her 80's that became a best seller. UPS Dogs has lots of cute pictures, but the highlight is when UPS Driver Scott, from Newberg, Oregon posts pics and a little story to go with it. He's very creative and a great writer.  And third, Max is an adorable long coat German Shepherd who's owner makes cute videos and captions them in Max's "voice".

In other entertainment avenues, still reading and still watching some shows, when I get time. I've been watching Madam Secretary's latest season on Netflix. I see that on August 1st they will finally have Season 11 of Heartland on. I still have 4 months left on the Netflix giftcard DD gave me. That gets me through to Thanksgiving. Almost to Christmas, when she can give me another giftcard :)

We had quite the lightning show last night around 11pm. It was all happening straight across from the back of our house, so quite the view out all the windows.

Long post Monday

For some reason I thought I had made a post on Saturday, but I guess not.

Saturday morning I went to the city and shopped for groceries. I also stopped in Lowe's and picked up another hummingbird feeder that was only $5. I didn't do the Walmart grocery pick up, this time. DH was fussing about it, because they keep substituting bread (and different each time) and he really didn't like this last bread substitution I accepted last time. So, I just went shopping at the other (nicer) grocery store, that we've been shopping at all the time. Then I was ticked because so many of their prices are so much higher than Walmart! And they didn't have the bread in stock he likes best (honey wheat) either! And the 2nd choice (7 grain) was $5.29 a loaf. Geez! it's *only $4.99 at our little store in town (and I think that is high). I grumbled about it to DH and he said, well, shop there I guess, just don't take the bread substitution unless it's one we already know I like.  Plus, it's so much nicer to just pull up and have the shopping already done for you.

We really like the layout of where we park our car in the garage, next to the laundry room door. DH can just haul groceries through the laundry room and then right into the kitchen and set them down. At our little house we had in town, it was park in the driveway, and then bring the stuff through the front door and to the other side of the house, where the kitchen was. This house has much better flow.

We sold 2 of our items listed on the Facebook page. The big carpet roll for $25 and the mini fridge for $20. Had several messages about the couch, but no sale. DH did some more organizing and unloaded this big wood box w/lid that had a bunch of garden pots and stuff in it. I listed that for free yesterday and someone already came and picked it up this morning. One more thing gone, which is good. Otherwise DH was just going to burn it one of these days. He had gotten it from our neighbor across the street, when we lived in town. Something had been shipped to him in it and he had no need for it. DH did message him yesterday, to ask if by chance he wanted it back, but he never replied, so we figured he didn't want it (since he didn't want it in the first place, LOL). So, I listed it and someone came and picked it up this morning. Then old neighbor texted he'd take it. DH texted back that is was gone and he needed to get up earlier to get on things.....which is funny because this guy already gets up at like 5am, haha.

I also received an email this morning from my side job. They are having their 10 year anniversary party and giving out small bonus's for it. I am getting $250, so that is very nice. I think I'm might put it towards new dining room chairs. I just can't decide which chairs to get. I found 2 on Ashley furniture website I like. Of course the one's I like a little bit better are $135 more, for all 6 chairs, than the other ones. The other ones would cost $324 total, the higher priced ones would be $459. They are both very similar, though.

So far, our wi-fi is working good. I'm thinking that little delay DH experienced shortly after it all got fixed and he got online was just the website being slow. We've been on this fixed wi-fi since last Wednesday now and he hasn't complained any more. The firestick is much faster to get through the menu, but I'm sure it's due to the fact that it's a newer version, because it was very slow, even before the electricians hooked this up and got the wi-fi messed up. Before it was taking me literally several minutes to load the screens and get through the menu to the show we wanted to watch. Now it's much faster. And it hasn't lost wi-fi signal every so often, like it was before (and then another 5 minutes getting back to the show).

Our neighbors continue the B&B summer. Now it's their other daughter and a friend, staying almost a week. Next weekend they are hosting a bunch more people for a reunion. We will be gone next weekend, so that is probably good, haha. DH was annoyed yesterday - the evening before all their dogs came running over to say hello (common) when they let them out of their fenced area. DH had the garage door open. He didn't realize they peed on 3 of the 4 corners of the car we have in their that has a car cover on it. So, pee on the garage floor and pee on the car cover. I had to clean all that off yesterday. He loves those dogs, but geez.

Saturday afternoon one of DH's friends stopped by for a visit, so after I visited too, with him a bit, I left them outside and went in and got to cleaning. It was time to mop the flooring again. My new toilet brushes from Kohls (mostly used Kohl's cash) came Friday. I can see why they were quite a bit more money than the cheaper one's I've seen. Very heavy, sturdy bronze metal. We had a later lunch, so just ended up having a very light dinner.

Yesterday, DH worked on organizing stuff that was still outside. I vacuumed the inside. We were sitting on the back patio taking a break, when another friend stopped by for a visit. He said he rang the doorbell (which of course we didn't hear) and thought maybe they are out in the back, so he found us, LOL. Dinner was hamburgers and corn on the cob. 

Our friend from back "home" is still trying to find/buy a place over in this area. Not surprisingly (to us anyway) the low ball offer he made on a place about 90 minutes or so from us, got turned down. They didn't even counter, which isn't surprising. He offered them half what they were asking. I guess he's made 2 higher offers and they keep saying no.

I'm trying to make a list of what we need to pack to go to DD's wedding. Amazing how much crap we need, just for a few days!

Friday's follies

I listed 5 things on our local Facebook page yesterday afternoon. Supposedly, I have the big carpet remnant we used in the shop, being picked up later this morning. Last night we sold the mini fridge ($20) to a young couple. She built a "she-shed" and wanted it for that. She saw the carpet and wanted it (she didn't see it in the ad?) but I told her I had already told another guy, who lives nearby, he could have it. He just messaged me that he's on his way to pick it up, so I'm glad I didn't sell it on him.  I've had a few messages to ask if the sofa is still available. Then they don't reply back. One girl did reply that she wants it, but is trying to find someone with a truck to pick it up for her. No interest in either of the microwaves.

DH managed to score some "free" topsoil. Free, in that the material is free, but we do have to pay for the delivery of it. Better than having to pay for both. They will be hauling in about 10 dump truck loads and started bright and early this morning, so I have been awake since 5:45, when DH wanted to get up and ready for them to be here about 6:15. They are hauling it from just a couple miles away, so not much distance involved to get it here.

I've been having so many phone meetings/trainings I'm having trouble remembering when they are. My boss forgot one, and I had to track her down by text and email. Then I forgot the next one and she had to message me. I have them on my outlook calendar as a reminder, but I think what happened on the one I missed is that right as the reminder was popping up, I was clicking on something else at the same time and it covered that pop up and I didn't see it. I have a meeting this morning in a couple hours and I have remembered, LOL.  We are trying to get everyone to go online and sign up for their benefits. Today is the deadline. There's still almost half the employees who need to get this done. People are annoying, just get it done. It's not that hard or time consuming. We have 3 health plans to choose from. Pick one (all are employer paid, so might as well pick the best one). The vision, dental, life insurance, etc are just one plan. Opt in. Done.

This is my half day of work Friday. I also need to go grocery shopping, but I think I'll just go into the city tomorrow morning. I much prefer shopping in the morning, vs a Friday afternoon. I think I'll use this afternoon to do some house cleaning. The floors need to be mopped and vacuumed.

I put a hummingbird feeder out on the back patio and it's been quite busy. I've been having to fill it up quite often. Apparently, it needed to be filled up already again yesterday. We were sitting in the living room and a hummingbird came right up to one of the big windows and was hovering there, like it was trying to look in. A little while later it did it again. I'm like "Ok ok! I'll get some new food made up!" I boiled the water and added the sugar, but it needed to cool down. I put in in the fridge, so it would cool quicker. Then the couple came to pick up the fridge and we were chatting with them awhile. Went back inside and were watching tv and the hummingbird did it again. "Hey Lady! Where's our food?!!". I jumped up and got the fresh food and got them taken care of.

A fishy tale

DH caught a fish last evening. He was pretty tickled. He's new to fishing, so just learning the ropes, still. He just let it go back, but he was happy. Looked to be a good 12 -14 inches. Supposedly it was a Mountain Whitefish (he texted pic to a local friend). He texted me a pic (I was up inside the house) so I went down to the river. I hadn't been all the way down there yet this summer. I forgot how steep the little game trail is, LOL. One of his fishing friends said these fish have a lot of bones and are really only good smoked....or just let them back in the river, usually, haha.  One of our dogs was fishing with him. Quite attentive the whole time and seemed to love it. He would actually just sit in the water, at the edge, and watch while DH would reel the line back in. I knew he had a fishing pole (DD got it as a gift to him before we moved over here) but I was wondering where he got hooks/bait. I guess the guy we bought our house from in town had left a bin of stuff out in the shop, with some fishing stuff. DH had asked him if he wanted it, but he said no, so DH just saved it, in case he might could use the fishing stuff some day.

While I don't have a fishing license, I did give the fishing pole a try for a few casts. Unless a boat or a floater was going by, there wouldn't be a soul in sight to see me breaking the law, I guess. I had the hang of casting it out there the first few tries, but then I got worse. My carpal tunnel wrist wasn't liking it much. It's really hurting today now. It's actually been bothering me pretty bad the past couple of weeks. I finally broke down and ordered another one of those "gyro balls" to exercise my wrist. A couple years ago I loaned the one I had to a friend and never got it back. It had really worked for me. After using it, only a couple of weeks, I really haven't had any carpal tunnel pain for several years now. Today, I'm actually wearing my wrist brace, it's hurting so bad. Ugh.

We're going to try and get rid of a few things in the shop, on the local town Facebook page. Our old couch. It's used, in fair condition. I don't even know what to ask for it, if anything. Maybe $25. I flipped the cushions, so the corners that are wearing through are now underneath and not showing. We also have the large section of carpet we had while living in there. I think it's about 14x16 and in good shape. A couple of extra microwaves and a small refrigerator (one we had used in our race trailer). Just getting rid of the couch will give DH some more space out in the shop, as he tries to get organized. He's having trouble doing too much out there yet, as we have no shelving for him to start putting the stuff. He wants to get some metal shelving, but right now we are out of money for big extras like that.

Working wi-fi

okie dokie, I think (ok, I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed) the wi-fi is working correctly, again.
I texted the tele co guy this morning to follow up, as I haven't heard back from him since Monday. He called me a bit later and though I ended up on the phone for a good hour or more with him, I think it's fixed. And I didn't have to upgrade our service for more money. I was able to follow his instructions while he told me what to do over the phone. Guess that's faster than waiting weeks for one of their people to do an onsite visit.

I don't know the technical parts of it, but apparently the electricians didn't have the google system set up quite right. Which explained why, when I was in the app, it would show "connected" but also showed that two of the 3 devices weren't really, or had a really weak connection. Something was plugged into the modem/router wrong.  He had me uplug everything and start over setting the network up. Then all 3 came on and connected and the strength on all 3 is showing as Great, where before, it was showing as Weak.

Only time (and DH using it) will tell over the next couple of days if it's all good. I took my phone and DH's phone out to the shop and had no issues with it dropped and switching back to LTE. I was even outside, clear at the other end of the shop, while handing DH his phone back and still on wi-fi.

My legs are tired from going back and forth between the 3 devices a hundred times, while on the phone with him, LOL. The tele co guy seemed pretty sharp. He was also getting some help from one of the other techs, in the background. He said they both use the google wi-fi system in their homes, so that tells me it must be a good system to have.

The new Amazon Fire Tv stick arrived, so while DH was outside busy doing something, I decided to get that set up, so it's all ready to go when he wants to watch tv after dinner. It wouldn't work at first. Helps to put the batteries in the remote control the right direction. It does seem like it responds and loads faster.....now, that could be the new and improved wi-fi or it could be the new firestick. I guess I won't really know now, haha. The pain is that I have to reload every app I was using on the old one. For now, I just did the 3 we use the most and will get the rest added back on, as I go. I haven't tried the Alexa voice remote yet. But, I do like that this remote control turns the tv on/off and volume and mute with just the one remote.

So, while I'm sitting here all happy and thinking this is all working great now...I'm sure within the next 24 hours I'm going to probably hear DH "it's not working!!" again. It's always too good to be true, right? But, in the meantime, I'm going to stay optimistic.

Good news day

Surprise good news yesterday. We are getting our mid year bonus! I guess I was actually more surprised a couple weeks ago when my boss told me they were not going to pay it out. As I mentioned before, earlier in the year, after the yearly sales goals were already set, the owners made a huge change to our product line. So, really there was no way we were going to hit that level of gross sales (though might come closer in commission revenue on those gross sales). Didn't really seem fair to me, but I'm not the decision maker. So, now they have decided we will get the bonus, which seems more in line with what they should do. We are making the sales goal of the new product line, it's just a lower volume (but higher commission % rate) than the other product line. It's a nice relief to know we are getting the bonus now, especially when the owners can give themselves and the 4 minority owners (upper mgmt) bonus's. Just the two owner bonus's are almost as much as the whole employees bonus combined. Not to mention, the new product company is giving us a guarantee for this first year, almost at what we were getting from the old product company, so we aren't losing anything.

With our new payroll company there are some discounts we can get through them. One supposedly being a discount with cell phone companies. It looks like I might be getting a 15% discount on my cell phone bill, though I'm probably not understanding the fine print very well. I can't quite figure out if it's 15% on the whole bill or just the access charge part, or if it includes the data part of the bill. I registered my account on it. We'll see. Looks like it could be between $6 and $11 a month discount, based on my bill/plan.

DH got another little project done. He finally found his rusted logging type chain packed away in a bin....because he doesn't throw away much. So, we decided to use them as rain chains on the front porch. That's exactly what I wanted and best of all, didn't cost us anything. He thinks they were chain his dad had given him, years ago.

I joked that now we needed some rain to see them work. About an hour later it just started dumping rain, for about 10 minutes. They work, but DH does need to do a bit of tweaking somehow, up at the top. There's a  little short spout coming out from the gutter and he hooked the chain up into that, but part of the water falls out in a stream next to the chain, part of it runs down the chain, like it's supposed to. He's not sure yet how/if he can adjust it any. A friend of ours commented - they will look neat in the spring, when icicles form down them.

DH isn't feeling too well today. I'm not feeling exactly right myself. I woke up during the night feeling nauseous. And since I've been up, I keep feeling off balance, like maybe that vertigo is going to hit me again (it's been since last November that I had that episode with it). I hope not.

at least I have cake now

I could just kill DH right now. He just bleeds me money. The electrician had sent a billing for the google wi-fi system. Remember - he said he wouldn't charge us labor. He wrote the bill up as $550 for labor, then a credit for labor and then the charge for the google system and some cables, $268.

Well, while the electrician's guys were here Thursday they brought up that the company that put in our gas fireplace billed them $250 for the trip they had to make out here, when it was tripping the breaker or something wrong.  Before the fireplace guy came out, the electrician had told him, if it's an electrical problem just bill us for the trip out. So, it was apparently thought to be an electrical problem, though, after the fact, the electricians don't think it was and they are trying to resolve with the fireplace guys. DH decided to get in the middle. He called the fireplace guy...then  he called the electrician (the owner guy). In the meantime, DH explained to the electrician what going on with our internet still now working right and that I am now working with the phone/internet company on it. Then he tells the electrician owner that he wants us to pay for the labor.....so now I have to pay the $550 thanks to DH's big mouth! And then in a few days or week, DH is going to be complaining because I don't have money for something he needs for the house/yard. You watch...

I did buy one thing from Amazon Prime Day. A new tv Firestick for $14.99 (reg. $39.99). I looked back in my order history and we've had this one now for 4 1/2 years, which means it's a first generation one. It's slow and always needing to be restarted. I'm hoping a new one will be a little faster............and if not? well, for $15, we'll have an extra one, I can use on our other tv (that is still in a box) or for when we put a tv up in the bonus room, someday. This new one also has Alexa voice remote. 


Our neighbors are having round 2 (or is it 3) of their summer B&B/boat storage, etc. Other than a few days last week, where no one was visiting, it's been non-stop for 4 weeks now. Now it is their 2 adult children and their families. DH, being DH has to complain (to me) about every thing. He was annoyed that they were riding Mr.'s quad around. DH is like - there is a 2 mile dirt road on county/state land across the road they could go ride on (where no one will really have to listen) and there is over 20 acres of state land on the other side of them to ride on, but they chose to ride in their driveway and up and down our little street, LOL. And one of the guys with storing the boat is back, or maybe it's a completely new one. I didn't recognize this pick up that brought it.

And then while they were "annoying" us, Mrs. comes over to ask a favor. HAHA! They were all going to be gone today, but she was having someone from an HVAC company (same one we used) come at noon, to look at their furnace - could DH let him in and show him where it is downstairs? Here's the funny - when we are telling people where we live, or directions to our house we usually just end up saying "you know where Mr lives? (which of course most people do). We are next door to them". But, I guess she was trying to tell the hvac guy where they live and give directions and he said "oh, you live next door to Mr One?" Haha! He was out here several times getting our hvac set up, so we got to know him. Then DH went out into the shop or outside for something and was gone for awhile. I look out one of our windows and see him over at neighbors, standing in their garage, talking to everyone. Later, when I asked him, he says that the teenager-ish age girl was riding the quad really careful, etc. I said, ya and knowing you, after you complain to me about the noise annoying you, then you turned around and offered them to use our quad too! He laughed and said he thought about it......

I'm still waiting to hear back from the phone company guy. Wonder how many attempts this will take to resolve.  Well, off to get in the shower and take on the day.  Wonder what DH will manage to complain about today. Seriously, that's about all he does now. He's realizing it, too, but then just says "I'm in pain, that's why". 

I finally made a cake yesterday, during my lunch break. Had cake and ice cream for dessert last night.

The waiting game

First thing on my agenda for this morning was a call to our telephone/internet company's tech help line. They are still working on it, but so far the guy seems pretty knowledgeable. And...it sound like it might be some settings they can change on their end, remotely, to fix the issue. He is also familiar with this Google Mesh wi-fi system the electricians installed, as he has it, too. He logged into our modem/router and said he can see that it is still basically on and trying to compete for an IP address with the google system, which is what is most likely causing our issues. I told him that the google wi-fi system app I now have on my phone also shows a system message that I have a problem: it looks like there is another device on your network acting as a DCHP server. This may impact the ability of your devices to connect to the internet.  He said, yes, that would be the modem, with settings still turned on that need to be changed.

He had me text him a picture of our media panel "box" (where the electricians moved their modem/router to, as well as put one of the google devices (he calls them "pucks").

He's going to call me back (he needs some input from another tech) with some instructions to walk me through changing something on my end, so I am waiting for that call.  I did ask him if he sees a problem with that modem/router being inside that little media panel and he said no, because basically part of it (I'm not sure if its the modem part or the router part) is turned off and not functioning anymore (because the google devices are doing the job in place of it) so it can be inside there, no problem.  I also explained to him that wi-fi out to the shop is still spotty. It will sometimes work for a bit and then switch our phones back to LTE. He said that is most likely also being caused by the google system competing with an IP address with their modem/router, so once he fixes the settings, that should also fix the wi-fi connectivity issue out there.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I texted him the photo over an hour ago now....grrrr! He probably moved on to another "ticket" to work on, while he was waiting for the other tech he needed help from to get off of his call. I guess I'll give him a bit more time and then text him back to follow up, make sure he received the picture I texted.

I've emailed the guy who has DH's external hard drive twice now, to ask for an update. No reply. He's had it over a month now, and had told me 2-3 weeks. Not in a big hurry for it, but he could at least respond to my email with an updated ETA. I guess I'll have to call him....not today, though. I'm at my limit of talking on the phone, today, already, LOL.

Saturday stuff

Welp, the new google wi-fi system has just made our internet worse, overall. DH's computer is so slow. It's still on wi-fi, as they weren't able to hardwire it, like they did my computer. Sometimes he can browse fine, half the time he will click on one of his "favorites" and nothing happens, it's not even thinking/trying to load. Click one or two more times and it finally loads. Click on a link to another page or website and same thing. He's so frustrated. At least with our old set up, his computer worked fine on wi-fi. Internet out in the shop is still off and on. I walked out there one time, to get my clothes out of the dryer and noticed the google device light was red, meaning it's not working. I opened the app I now have on my phone for the system, and it said the whole wi-fi system was down. A minute later it all came back on.  It did it again, for a minute, later on, I noticed.

I really hate spending $250 for something that isn't working! I guess on Monday I'm going to call our phone company and tell them they need to help me figure out how to get working, stable internet again. It worked fine the whole time we lived in the shop. I'm guessing we will need to upgrade to one of their faster/more bandwidth plans. Looking online at their bundle offerings, the plan I am on works best with like 4 devices on it. While in the shop we had 4-5 (dh rarely had his ipad mini on). Now, in the house, the hvac system in on wi-fi, as well as the Amazon Firestick for the tv. I'm not sure if the 3 google devices now count as devices, too. I'm hoping that is really all the issue is.

We also think that putting the telephone co's router/modem inside the media panel box (in the wall) in the garage is a bad idea. First off, the box is running, generates heat and has vents. It needs space around it to keep cooled down (and this I also read on a "what not to do with your router" found in a google search). I'm sure when the phone co get out here (which will probably be weeks) they will say that's a no.

The weather was crazy all day yesterday. Woke up to thunder and lighting. Then it would be nice and sunny. Then back to thunder. Then rain. We were planning to go outside in the morning (while it was still cool) and pull weeds, but had to wait until noon. We got it done, though. We're trying to get to our big pile of topsoil on the side of our property (from when they moved all the dirt during site work). It was covered in weeds and tall grasses. After we got most of the weeds pulled out (and from around the dirt pile) DH weedwacked the tall grass growing on it all down. At least it looks better. DH is estimating probably 75 yards of topsoil is there....but it needs to be screened. Not sure how we are going to do that, yet. He did order a used tow hitch off ebay for the quad (a 1995, so I guess can't by new for it) and the plan is to borrow a friends drag to hook onto it and drag the areas we want to grass seed and try to get as much of the rocks out as we can. It's just too much to rake all by hand.

Dinner was steak and some corn on the cob. I love corn on the cob and that's the first we've had this summer. Then DH watched Nascar and I sat there and read.

Stinky dogs and what not

I need to buy a couple toilet brushes/holders. I had seen some at Ross last month that were what I was looking for, but I didn't buy them. I think they were like $10. Well, Target's cheapest similar are $20. I just earned $30 in Kohl's cash, from buying DH some new duds to wear to dd's wedding, so thought I'd get 2 from there. Well, not at $30 each! When I was at Ross last week, I decided to get them and then of course, they didn't have any left in stock. I want the bronze colored ones. So, I just checked Amazon and of course, much cheaper through there. I can get a 2 pack one for $18. These are just for the 2 bathrooms that won't get used much, so I don't need anything really super-duty.

M-Turks has been a real struggle to find hits the past couple of weeks. Then I took off Thurs, Friday and Monday. My balance is looking pathetic. I'll have to try to find some this weekend, to help make up for it.

My boss and I are going through the transition to the new payroll company. So far, it's been a good experience. The company is very organized and they are making it a smooth process. Right now we are working on benefits, as this was also our annual enrollment time with our old company, so we need to get everyone signed up with the new benefits in the next couple of weeks. Then we will doing our first payroll with them in mid August. The few people we have that are hourly will "clock in" via their computers now, so that should save them time filling out our manual timecard, we've always done, and me not having to collect/add up hours to enter.

Well, that was just a fun "break" I just had to take. The long haired black dog rolled in poop - over every inch he could manage to get it. Smelled like horse or cow poop (though there aren't any nearby), so DH sprayed him off as much of it as possible outside with the hose and then I brought him into the doggy wash and got the rest. Ugh. Then DH realized the other dog rolled in it around his neck, so he got a bath, too. Our mason guy is here finishing up the rock work on the gate piers, he says it's bear poop. Which has to mean a bear went through here pretty close to home, as our dogs never go any farther than the 2 properties on each side of us. Could have been worse I guess, could have gotten sprayed by a skunk, LOL.

I'm still on the fence about the "new" internet network. It is a little better out in the shop, but you can be standing in the bathroom/laundry room and all working fine and it will suddenly switch over to LTE on the phone. Or it's working fine and you walk out the bathroom and around the corner, literally 3 feet from the router device and it switches to LTE. At least it's switching to LTE.......I guess. Before DH's phone wouldn't switch - just tried to stay on wi-fi and not work.  I'm not sure it was worth $263 (for the google system and some cabling) to change from what we had. My computer is hardwired into the router/modem now, but this morning it still froze up on me, like it's been doing 2-3 times a day, which I thought maybe was a wi-fi issue. We may have to consider going to the upgraded internet package with our phone company. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on our phone data usage, to make sure we're not going over, if DH's phone is using LTE out there more than not.

It kind of doesn't make sense to me. When we had our telephone company router/modem in the shop (same spot) everything worked fine. This little google device is hardwired directly to the modem/router (now in the house garage next door), so you'd think it would be the same situation, but I guess it must lose some of it's signal strength. I tried to read up some on having these google wi-fi devices hardwired, but some of it's a bit techy for me.

DH just went for a drive with the woodworker guy. That'll be good for him. Something relaxing for him to do for a couple hours or so.

DD and her fiance went shopping the other night in search of a white button down shirt and a brown vest for fiance. They weren't having much luck. Men's Warehouse said they had them, but the small store nearest them was more like a little rental shop, so no luck there.  The place wanted $120 for a plain white shirt! They drove almost an hour to the next one and got lucky. The vest was regularly $95 on clearance for $30. I think she picked up a white shirt at Kohl's for reasonable price.

Wi-fi, yes no maybe

The electrician guys came back today to get our internet all "fixed". Took them probably 4 hours. DH and I are both wondering if they had wired it how it was supposed to be in the first place, since they had to take of the plate covers on both the telephone/Ethernet plug ins and do some work. They brought a Google Wi-Fi 3 pack system. The moved our router/modem (telephone/internet co. equipment) out to the "media panel" in the garage and plugged it into the phone company's wiring, there. They hooked up the computers in den and office directly hardwired to modem. Then put one of the google wi-fi devices in the closet where the modem had been. They thought they could just use 2 of the 3 devices and put the second one in the shop, but it wasn't working, so they had to install the 3rd one, in between. But, to install the 3rd one there wasn't another port in the modem/router, so we had to put DH's computer back on wi-fi (which is fine), so the 3rd google device could plug into the modem/router. Then, we tried out DH's phone out in the shop and it was doing the same thing as before - loosing internet, but at least this time it would at least switch to LTE. Then one of the guys thought it was still in the process of "connecting" that 3rd unit, because then it all kept working. I haven't gone back out and tested again, but I have this bad feeling, it's still going to keep having issues. Supposedly these google wi-fi devices are supposed to work really good and have strong signals. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I am going to email the owner (these guy's boss) and tell him to bill me for the wi-fi system. I don't expect him to pay for that, but I will take their labor at no charge. Looking online it this 3 pack system is around $250. We may need to look at increasing our internet speed package with our phone company. There is one higher plan, at about $20 more per month. Though, the electricians said, as I also suspected, that doesn't help with distance (ie getting it to stay on in the shop) but helps with speed and how many devices you can use on it, which we are getting quite a few....2 phones, 2 ipads (thought not usually used at same time), one computer, tv, and HVAC system.

I had do download some google wi-fi app to my phone to help them get this all set up. It's all so techy - that if anything goes wrong with it, I'm going to have no idea what to do! DH acts (to them) like oh, it's no big deal, he doesn't really care about internet and tv, but when it's not working I'm the one who has to listen to him throwing a big fit!
 
I don't think our neighbors are too annoyed that we asked them to put the bark collars on the dogs. He emailed last night, asking how the rest of the day went and I said they were great. Then Mrs. emailed today, from work, asking if DH would help her with something when she gets home from work. One of their guests pulled out a kitchen cabinet or something and she needs help getting it back on the track (since Mr. is out of town). I said of course he will help her with it.

We went over there after she got home from work. She has a kitchen cupboard that is kind of like a pull out pantry, that came off the slider thing on top. DH fixed it up and adjusted it a bit, so hopefully next time someone pulls it out to hard/fast it will stay on. Then she joked about him putting together a toy electric motorcycle for her grandson. She knows it would take her DH hours to put it together, LOL, plus he's not home. DH happily took it back home with him and had it put together in probably less than an hour.

I didn't get a bunch of work done today, as I was either without internet, or when it was hooked back, we were setting up all the wi-fi devices, etc.


 

More tv and wedding details

I use my mom's Xfinity account log in, for when I want to view a live tv show, or some on demand shows. The only channel I've noticed I can't seem to watch live, is CBS. But, I can only watch this on my ipad or on my desktop computer, not the tv. There is supposedly a backdoor way, but when I tried it it didn't work for me. But, I did discover that we can load the FoxNews app on the Firestick, and then log into the xfinity account through that app.

Over the weekend I figured out I can do a few more channels, that way, too. NBC, Discovery and Fox (the regular channel for tv shows, not news) all have apps on Firestick and then log in with the Xfinity account.. We were able to watch the Nascar race live Sunday on NBC, so that made DH happy. Now, that I know I have access to watching these channels, we should be fine, without needing a subscription for live tv, like to Hulu.

We came up with a new plan on where to stay for our DD's wedding. It's about a 5 hour drive, from us, where she is having the small ceremony, in the mountains area. They are camping there, as well as her in-laws and another couple they are good friends with. The others are either staying in lodging in the area (there isn't much) or just driving the 2-ish hours back and forth.

We weren't sure what to do with our dogs, if we went and stayed in lodging. I probably would have had to take the dogs to a boarding place in the city. The nearest town with all the motels, is really not the nicest area to stay. Big druggie town. (that is actually where they say a majority of the drugs coming into this state are originating from - that town). So, we had just kind of decided to drive over there in the morning, (the ceremony is at 11am), do the ceremony and stay for the afternoon (lunch and cake at their campsite), and then drive back home the same day. But DH had a good idea. We have now rented a camper trailer for the weekend, (outdoorsy.com) from someone who lives very near where they are camping. This way we can spend the weekend with them and bring our dogs with us. Win win for all.

Then my mom said she wasn't going to be able to go to the ceremony because her BF didn't want to do the drive (DD and BF are also having a reception/BBQ next month, near where my mom lives, that she will attend). None of us want her to drive herself 2 hours, to some place she's not familiar with, but we assumed her BF would go with her. Afterall, they've made several trips even farther than that together (going to visit friends on other side of the state, several times the past few years), in fact they recently made that 2 days each way, driving trip, when they stopped by our house on the way back. We figured they could handle the 2 hours drive together to where DD is getting married. DD and I tried to find someone she could ride with, but with only about 20 guests total, the only people coming from her area, were also staying overnight/camping.

So, in my recent email to her BF (responding to his email about her dr. appt), I mentioned the wedding. I kind of had a feeling that even if she was giving him the info about where and how long it's supposed to last, she most likely was confused and forgetting half of the details. So, I just said to him, I know her wedding isn't in the most convenient place, but it is just about a 2 hour drive from mom's house and the campsite/ceremony area is literally just a hundred yards off the highway. It will be a short ceremony at 11am, followed by a lunch and cake at the campsite, if they wanted to drive back home that afternoon. (it's not an all day event they would need to be there for). I said I just wanted to make sure she had relayed the details to him correctly, and if they can make it, it would mean a lot to DD to have them there, but we understood if he just doesn't feel well enough to attend. They both drive about 40 minutes each way just to visit each other, as well as a couple times a month they go to retirement luncheons, usually held over an hours drive away from them. I think they could do a 2 hour drive.

Well, then my mom called yesterday and said she doesn't know what changed his mind (LOL) but it sounds now like they will be trying to come, as long as he's feeling ok to drive/ride. She can drive, no problem (so can he) but not that far by herself.  She said he said told her he didn't realize it was only about a 2 hours drive, and they drove much farther then that each day, on their recent trip.

All quiet on the western front

The neighbors kindly emailed back last night that they will get the bark collars on the dogs. So, far this morning it's been totally quiet, though that could also be because Mr. is working from home today. We can't always tell if he is home or not. I know he said he'll be gone for 3 days starting tomorrow, so that will be the real test.

And finally, it seems those pesky birds trying to build a nest (or more) up in the patio beams have given up. We're still seeing a few of them, but they aren't a couple dozen swarming and circling like they were for 2-3 weeks. DH just kept using the leaf blower to blow down their nesting material, about once a day or so. Thank goodness, one less thing for DH to have to deal with and worry about.

DH kept busy until about Sunday. Needed to rest and not do anything, but then when he doesn't do anything he gets cranky and turns into a total complainer, about every little thing. And then he reached his limit on the neighbor dogs barking at the slightest thing yesterday.

The electrician (who is always good to his word) emailed yesterday and will be out on Thursday to get our internet set up how it's supposed to be.

While we had high hopes around last Christmas, when we finally talked to DS, after all that time (he had called a couple times when DH's mom passed away on Christmas Eve), we have not heard from him since. He didn't respond to DH's voicemail or text when DH's dad died, almost 3 months ago now. We did see (in his girlfriend tagging him in Facebook posts) that she is expecting a baby in October (she must have announced it when she was like a month pregnant). The only thing that went through my mind, was well, this probably won't last until she has the baby. And now his Facebook is showing him as single and her's doesn't say she's in a relationship with him any more. I'm not one bit surprised. I don't know her or really anything about her (other than she's 39 and already has 2 kids, by, it appears, two other guys) but anyone who is her age (or any age) and thinks it's a good idea to get pregnant by a guy you've only known a few months, let alone a guy who doesn't have his own act together......well, not a recipe for success, that's for sure. Just very sad for the baby.

My friend, the one who's husband cheated on her and moved out/in with GF, after she found out, a year ago....nothing has changed in that story. But, she tags DH on Facebook posts constantly. It's driving him nuts. Sometimes it's several times a day. She seems to tag her daughter and daughter's boyfriend all the time, too. DH finally changed his settings, so she at least can't post stuff directly on his wall, but I guess there's no way to stop her from tagging him on something she posts on her wall, since they are friends. For now, he's just trying to ignore them, hoping she'll get the hint. Like DH said, if one of our guy friends was constantly tagging me, every day, sometimes several times a day, he'd think that was weird.......I know she's just totally bored and lonely, but give it a break. My only other thought of why she is doing it so much, is she knows DH is friends with her lying/cheating spouse and she's just trying to get his attention through it.

I talked to my mom yesterday. She said she has reduced the paxil medication by half, per her doctor, and then will go back in a month and see how that is going. From her BF's email, he made it sound like he (BF) didn't want her to reduce it, until they went back in a month and the dr. could really review and discuss with them all the meds she is on. I don't know, but if she's cut it in half, the past 8 days, she seems fine, so far. No bad effects from changing dosage. Maybe dr. can wean her off of those. I get that when she first went on them, she was in a situation(s) overwhelming her (taking care of both my dad and grandma) but that wasn't a permanent crisis. And my dad has been passed for 10 years now and my grandma for 6 years. Not to mention she's always had 2 pretty annoying side effects from them - big weight gain and hyperhydrosis, both bad enough, that if it were me, I'd have been trying to get off them a long time ago. She basically had almost a 30% weight gain, after she went on Paxil and Xanax! From about 140 pounds (at 5'4") to at least 175 pounds. Not good for her petite body frame, at all. I just hope reducing/eliminating those meds helps with her memory!

Where'd the peace and quiet go?

It's been so nice not having any contractors here any more. We aren't quite sure what the normally quiet neighbors have going on this summer. It kind of seems like maybe everyone is taking advantage of their good nature and hospitality. Did I mention they will now have their son's 2 dogs for another several months? They mentioned a few weeks ago (when we signed for their big wine delivery) that they were going to be hosting a niece's wedding reception and would have people coming and going, for what sounded like, at most, a couple weeks. Last week was the 2nd week of it, so we thought maybe the reception was this weekend, but it wasn't. Then I re-read a recent email from neighbor and it's at least another week away and another week after that of comings and goings (almost 4 weeks total, then). Right now they have someone camping next to their house, until tomorrow, and then he said "round 2" will be arriving Friday.

So, I'm kind of thinking this can't all be wedding reception related. Who travels from out of the area to a wedding, 2-3 weeks before? haha. I think this is mostly just different summer travelers using their place as a stop for a couple/few days, in addition to those that will come for the wedding. I think the guy with the fishing boat parked it there last summer, for like 2 days. I'm guessing this year he thought he could just extend it...and camp... and and tell another friend with a boat.....until neighbors told him sorry, no more.

Basically, it appears they are a guest house/camping spot/boat parking spot, this summer. I asked DH if they had this going on last summer, because he was here everyday while the shop was being built, and he said no, they just had that guy with the boat for like 2 days, is all.

Which, all this comings and going (while neighbors continue to go to work weekdays), is stressing out their 5 dogs, so they are back to barking a whole bunch. Not enjoying that at 5:30am. Most of the time they bark after they leave for work, or leave somewhere on the weekends (which is often), then add in the guests coming and going (plus the one's here, are coming and going, while they are staying), which adds to the barkfest. Plus, neighbor has to go out of town on another business trip for 3 days this week, so that always upsets the dogs and adds to their stress/barking. And then add in that the river is starting to see it's normal activity of fishing boats and floaters going by every so often, and their son's dog has to start barking at that, which gets their other dogs barking. Then 2 joggers just ran by on the main road out front....gotta bark at that.  Their guests (who also bring dogs!) gotta take their dog for a walk, so they bark at them coming and going. LOL. Then another fishing boat rowing by, gotta bark at them. Meanwhile, our 2 dogs just hang out, not uttering a peep at all this same stuff going on.

Like DH said to me, WE are the ones basically living with their dogs. They aren't here 12 hours a day and usually off doing stuff, most weekend days, too. They aren't here and having to listen to it go on all day long. When DH was chatting with them the other evening, neighbor lady asked DH like 2 times if all the contractors were done here. After she asked the second time, DH was kind of like ya, the mason was the last guy and he finished up like 3 weeks ago....DH knows that her husband does not like it at all that the dogs bark (and he now works from home some of the time, so he's hearing it more than she does) and we have a feeling she was trying to blame their dogs barking and upset-ness on contractors being over here. The mason guy was done on June 12th, almost a month now....

I emailed them this morning asking if it would be possible for them to try their bark collars again, while all this is going on. They've used them in the past, with success. I hate being like that, but dang. We sure wouldn't expect neighbors to listen to that, all the time. That is why we decided not to even put in a dog door. Because if our dogs were barking while we were gone, we'd feel too bad.

Our two mutts, just chilling and relaxing on the back patio today (take from my office window)

Weekend catch up

Where has this weekend gone? The 4th was quiet, though we did hear a little bit of fireworks from somewhere nearby. We finished getting some closet shelves up in the entryway coat closet and the two upstairs bedroom closets. DH just used plywood and then  trimmed the front with leftover alder trim and stained it all. (this was woodworker guys suggestion) Looks nice.

Friday morning I went to Walmart and picked up my grocery order. Target was having a good sale on soda. Spend $15, get a $5 gift card and there was a Target Carthweel offer for 25% off. Did you know you can now use Cartwheel offers with online orders that you pick up at the store? And with the 5% off using my Red card, it came to $2.30 a 12 pack. I bought 4 (to get to the $15 threshold), picked them up and put in my car. Went back inside the store, to buy more. They were having a in-store price, even cheaper (than their order pickup price) by $1 ea. I bought 4 more. These one's came to $1.60 each. After I got my car washed and picked up my Walmart order, I got an email with my $5 giftcard from the order pick up. Plus I had the $5 one from the in-store purchase. I decided this price was too good and best to stock up, since DH drinks so much. I stopped back in, bought 4 more and used my $10 in gift cards towards it. Paying $3.24 out of pocket and getting another $5 gift card. I'm hoping I don't have to buy soda until their next big sale.

While I was at Target I also picked up a couple of t-shirts for me. They were on sale for $5 each and I really need some new shirts. These kind of had a print to them, v-neck and extra long and a bit loose, which I like.

After getting the shelves done DH was looking at this old mirror I have had since as long as I can remember. It's not framed and has a beveled edge, but there is a chip out of one corner. Not something we wanted to use anymore. He improvised and made it into this! Love it.

Yesterday morning the appraiser came and got that done. DH took a nap while I made my 4 cheese and bacon mac and cheese to take to a potluck bbq we were going to in the afternoon. Just as we were getting ready to leave our neighbor who live about a mile down the road called DH. They are out of town, their son is at work all day and the person they had lined up to let their dogs outside for a break bailed on them. Could we run over and let them out for a few minutes? The keys in the bin by the shop door, LOL. We let them out, played fetch and let them get their energy out for a bit.

The BBQ was fun and good food. Ribs, salmon and pulled pork, along with sides everyone brought. I knew a few people there, DH knew a few more, mostly guys from when he got the rock for our rockery. So, I got to meet them and their wives.

My mom's boyfriend emailed about her doctor visit. Of course she didn't remember to tell me about the main take-away from the visit! Doctor wants to reduce her dosage of Paxil by half. Her BF is concerned that the doctor really needs to do a complete review all her medicines she takes, especially the two for anxiety/depression, which can possibly have cognitive side effects in elderly, and the effects of reducing, before she actually reduces it, right away, so that is the visit in a month. He's also thinking the meds may be why she has days she doesn't feel well. She describes those days (usually mornings) to me as she just doesn't feel very good. In his email her BF described it as she just seems lethargic and tired, which he thinks might be from the meds. I'm glad he's going with her. He sees her regularly, so he will be able to give the doctor better feedback than I could on how she is. I'm also guessing that it's possible she doesn't feel well some days, because she is getting more forgetful and that is probably confusing. I'm sure that would lead one to feel out of sorts. Whether it's the medicines causing that, is what I think they need to figure out. But, getting off one (or both) of the anxiety meds, probably isn't easy, since she's been on them for almost 10 years.

We are having a quiet day today. So far, DH is just taking it easy. He went back to bed, to rest some more. Our neighbors have been having various guests all week. We thought they said they were hosting a family member's wedding reception, but we haven't seen a "party" there yet, which I assumed would have been yesterday. DH was outside last night and talked to them a bit when they were out moving some sprinklers. Several days last week two different guys were storing their fishing boats in their driveway. They'd come and pick them up (different times), bring them back. Sometimes twice a day. Neighbors told DH that's ended. Some friends of the neighbor guy, who thought they were going to get to park their boats here all summer and apparently also camp whenever they wanted. Neighbors told them nope, sorry.

It's a Wednesday that's like a Friday

In the construction process, we did end up saving a little bit on dump fees. The contractor had originally put in $1000 cost for dump fees. We had him leave it out, because DH has a little dump trailer and we figured we could take care of it ourselves. He made one trip to the dump part way through and then a final trip yesterday. He had full loads both times and total cost for both was $378. We burned a lot of it, when we could, and filled our regular garbage can with excess, when we could. It's sure nice to have that trailer finally emptied out. He's still not ready to sell it yet, but I'm still hoping, once he's done with the landscaping needs of it, he will still sell it, as planned. Then we could buy a riding lawn mower he will need, which is what I will be reminding him of......

The prior evening DH was sitting out on our front porch with the dogs, it was starting to get darker, sun going down. One of our dogs kept "huffing" (as I call it, sort of a bark,under his breath) because he was seeing something that was apparently across the main road in front of our house. On the other side of the main road is lightly wooded area, then a dirt road behind the trees (actually was originally the railroad from many many years ago, like late 1800's). DH figured he must see an animal out there, that he could see. Yesterday morning, when he was leaving to go to the dump, from out of the trees/bushes comes this man and woman, who he said looked like they hadn't seen a bath in forever. He's guessing they camped over there and that's what our dog was "huffing" at. Kinda creepy. This is a pretty remote area. There are the 3 houses on our little road and the next nearest neighbors are like a mile away. Town is 10 miles away. Hopefully, they were just passing through. Our neighbor said he would take his quad over there and go take a look around.

The final appraisal on the house is finally scheduled, for Saturday morning at 10am. He said it's just basically quick final walk through and should only take 15 minutes or so. I think then they usually have a week or two submit to the bank and then we should be getting closer to closing on the end mortgage loan

Well, at least I have something new to watch on Netflix for awhile. Season 5 of Madam Secretary just got added.

My mom had her dr. appt on Monday. From what she told me it sounds like the doctor really did nothing much of anything. No blood work or anything. No change in meds. Wants her to come back in a month. Says she seems to be doing fine. Her boyfriend went with her and he was there while I was talking to her on the phone. He told her he'd email me about it, but I haven't heard from him yet. She just keeps saying I can take care of my banking and I'm driving fine, so I think I'm ok for now. Well, my thing is she's probably not really going to realize when she's not fine anymore. And also, if she's been having several days here and there where she doesn't feel well (and then it passes) don't you think they should do some blood work, at least? or maybe that is just a common thing to have happen when you get elderly, so the the dr. isn't really worried about it. From what she said he told her to lose weight (which I doubt she will do) and keep active/busy. Since she mentioned her banking, I reminded her that I had taken notes of all her info last visit, but if she's changed any passwords, let me know, so I can update (according to her AOL emails she changed her banking password last week) and she said she hasn't changed anything...but half of our conversation yesterday she seemed to forget recent things, so who knows. I am a signer on the account, so if she had an emergency and I needed to get to her banking for her, I can write checks (my name is on the checks, too) and do banking in person, but having the online access would be convenient, too, if needed. I guess I'll just wait and see what her boyfriend thinks about it.

No 4th plans. Fortunately, where we are it will be very quiet. When we lived in the metro area, I got so I really disliked the 4th. It was non-stop fireworks for days and the 4th evenings always sounded like a war zone until like 1 or 2 am. Even when we lived in town the past 2 years, it was pretty darn quiet, though one of our friends, who lives in town, said this year there have been a lot going off already, and his dog was getting nervous. He has some property with a cabin farther out, so he took her out there for awhile.

To tv or not tv

Not having "regular" live tv is still in the testing stages. I'm not sure it's going to work for us. While the majority of what we watch is news in the evenings (which I can get without adding a subscription service), we are finding some times we'd just like to be able to turn on the tv, flip through the channels and see what's on/find something to watch. Plus, I'd like to be able to watch some of the shows on the main networks (abc/nbc/cbs, etc).

The subscription services for live tv are now getting up into the price range of cable and satellite plans. But, they are still cheaper. For $45/mo I could do Hulu Live and get all the local network channels, as well as everything else we like to watch. Still cheaper than the $80+ dollars a month I was spending on satellite before.

I'm going to resist the urge for now. Especially since it's summer and it's all reruns, anyway. I need to find a couple of shows DH would like to watch on Netflix or Amazon and DH and I could start watching season(s) of those to keep us entertained when we don't feel like watching news. Mostly, we don't watch news on the weekend evenings. Or I need to get a list of movies going, that I think he might enjoy and we can watch one of those, rather than us sitting there with me scrolling through Netflix, trying to find us a movie.

We got another wall "art" hung. This was in the guest 1/2 bathroom. I had bought this several months ago. It looked better in the picture from the online store, LOL. But, I like the message

I also put some leftover "greenery" I have, up above the pantry and cupboards

The excavating guys finished around noon yesterday. DH figured he was going to have to pay them for a half day/4hr minimum anyway, so might as well use them! He also had them prepare the back yard (facing the river) a bit, so we can plant grass seed. And he had them do a bit out front, where we will also be putting grass. It all looks much nicer and more finished now.

Then he decided to "rest" the rest of the afternoon and went to see his wood worker friend. He sends me this picture of a view from way up higher in the mountains. I'm like you are not at his house, LOL. No, he went to the guys house, who lives up on the top of the mountain straight over us. Woodworker is there building them a bar and countertop. If they walk out aways, they can look down the cliff and see our house. Nice view! haha! It was nice to have him away from the house for a bit, too and good for him.

Later this morning I have a phone conference/webinar to "attend" for about an hour and a half. To start the implementation process to the new payroll/HR company. 

The house is shaking

Oh my! The excavator guy is here first thing this morning and using the big roller to compact the gravel. The whole house is vibrating, LOL. The neighbor dogs are riled up, too, about it.

The new dehumidifier is doing it's job, thankfully. The humidity in the crawl space is now down in the low 50's. It's also nice that the unit has a setting where it will only run if it gets above a certain limit, otherwise is shuts off. That should make the unit last longer, rather than having it run 24/7. I'm hoping it at least lasts us a few years. Speaking of appliances...I opened the bottom freezer door on my brand new refrigerator yesterday and a little ball bearing fell on the floor. Great. We can't figure out where it came from (the door tracks likely) but the door seems to be working the same. Hopefully, no more fall out.

I made banana bread yesterday afternoon. I really really love having a/c in the house. It was 85 degrees outside, but nice and cool and no problem to bake inside.

I'm glad this is a short work week. We get Friday off, too. Saturday we have a BBQ to go to at the woodworker guys house. The invitation says pulled pork, salmon and............ Bring a side dish and a chair. I'm going to make my 4 cheese and bacon mac and cheese.

I had a phone chat with my boss last week. It sounds like a couple of things that have been in the works are probably going to happen. The first is we are going to change payroll/HR companies, after being with the same one for almost 20 years. They got bought out by another company a couple/few years ago and service quality just hasn't been the same. The only thing that has kept my boss from changing is the lady that does the HR part. She has been our person the whole 20 years and she is very good. It sounds like we might offer her a part time position to be our HR person. She is getting close to retirement, I think, so might be something she would do.  The other project is we are opening a 2nd office in another territory, with about 4 employees to start. This will only be about a 2 hour drive from me. I told my boss if/when she has to go there again (she's working on getting an office lease set up) let me know and I'd drive over to see it and visit with her. She didn't realize I was that close. It will be interesting to see how this new office goes. We've had other offices like this is past years and ended up selling them, because they didn't fare well. One of them is the company I have my side job with. But, they have flourished, so obviously it was just a matter of poor management at the time.