Back to regularly scheduled programming

My new Dearfoam "sweater slippers" arrived. Much more cushion-y on the bottom and they are cuter than my old slippers.

DH is putting back on some of the weight he lost when he was so active and busy during our house build. And that is bringing back the snoring. I find myself more and more having to tell him to turn over on his side during the night, as he prefers to sleep on his back and that is when he will snore. I tried to get him to roll over last night about 2am, but he mumbled that his back hurt and he had the heating pad on. A few seconds later he was back to snoring like a freight train. (and we have a freight train that goes by right on the other side of the river, haha! it's a low rumble, barely hear it). I got up, grabbed my pillow and went upstairs. Of course, as soon as I stepped away from the bed our yellow lab got down to follow me. He has to sleep wherever I am. I decided to try out the new bed that is the bear log bed. It's super comfy! Kind of soft on top but firm underneath. And the sheets were soft. Those are the sheets I ordered from Kohl's on the Black Friday deal for like $12, regularly $60. Only when I ordered them I didn't realize they are microfiber sheets, or I probably wouldn't have ordered them, but if they are $60 for queen size, I would think they'd be decent! They are fairly thick and very soft. Nothing like the microfiber sheets that came with a comforter set I have. Super thin and can almost see through them.  Sometime later the other dog showed up to join us, so I had a full bed with me, LOL.

I took a 2 hour lunch today (figure I'm owed several hours from earlier this week) and we went into the city and picked up our grocery order from Walmart. We last went 3 weeks ago, so pretty good to make it 3 weeks. I only went into our little town grocery store once for some things we were out of and spent $50 in these last 3 weeks. Today's bill was $292. Ouch. Maybe that is just because I am getting better and buying for 3 weeks, rather than 2 weeks. I hope that is why the increase. Tomorrow is payday. The last shopping trip was on 1/9, so that came out of my 12/31 paycheck budget. The $50 came out of the 1/15 paycheck budget and so did today's, technically.

Other than maybe a trip to town little store (where I usually seem to spend $30-50) in the next 2 weeks, that is all I should have to spend out of tomorrows paycheck budget of $275. I spent about $625 total in January (budgeted $550) but will only spend about $50 of my 1/31 paycheck $275 budget, so over 3 paychecks ($275x3=$825) I'll be ahead about $150 with my food budget.

I bought some yeast and coarse salt to try to make homemade soft pretzels. I haven't made those in years, but always liked them. I also want some bread bowls to put clam chowder in and apparently stores around here do not know what bread bowls are. I have never found any. I found a Pinterest receipe to use Rhodes frozen bread dough. Let it thaw and split a loaf into 3 sections, to make 3 bread bowls. 5 loaves was only $5, so I'll be able to make 15 bread bowls and be able to make then whenever I feel like it. I also bought some ingredients to try making a "sweet cinnamon milk tea". Just writing about all this is making me hungry. Time to close up shop for the day and head downstairs to make dinner. We are just going to have salads and turkey/ham/provolone cheese sandwiches on big croissant rolls.

DD gave me another Netflix gift card (birthday gift from ealier) so I have been watching some shows with new seasons since I last had Netflix (went without almost 2 months). About 4 of the shows I watch released new episodes, so I will be busy for awhile watching stuff.

Hell Week

Gosh, is it really only Wednesday? The past 2 days have been work days from hell and it sure feels like more than 2 days of it. Usually my job is extremely boring and uneventful, LOL. Most of Monday was spent on the phone with IT and accounting software guys, trying to get that condensed filed for our audit year. It finally worked and before we all hung up the tech guy restored the backup so all was working and current.

Only yesterday morning I realize that none of the documents I attached to transactions could open now. Yesterday morning wasn't the time to try to spend a bunch of time on the phone figuring it out, because I was waiting for the call for the meeting with the IRS auditor at our office. I was going to have to wait until that was over. And I waited and waited. No call from my boss. Finally she called at 1pm. She and our CPA had the long meeting and didn't need me (as I figured, when she was trying to get me to fly over for the day on short notice!). Then come to find out, apparently we didn't need to to all that headache the day before trying to get that condensed file for our audit year. According to the auditor, if we give them a complete back up file (of all our years) their program only lets them look at the year in question. He apologized to her and said he should have explained that better in his instructions.

So, yesterday afternoon I put in a ticket with our IT and he tells me to call the accounting software tech support back to figure it out. I got some lady who I really don't think she understood what I was trying to explain we did the day before and she actually messed it up more. (what she did was overwrote my most current back up with the condensed one year file - wrong!) I also kept telling her, I'm sure you need to access our files (she was remoted into my computer) from the server, like they did the day before, but she just kept ignoring me. When she got done the only thing I could open was that condensed year. While it was "processing" she said we didn't need to stay on the phone, it should work (it was end of day) fine. Of course it didn't work. I knew that to fix this our IT would have to get involved because the fixes have to be done on our server and not from my desktop. I called software tech back and tried to get the Joshua who had done all the work the prior day, only I got a different Joshua (sigh...like they didn't have record on the ref# who helped me?). Our IT guy (we use outside company) was available then (I was texting my boss to have her check and see if our IT guy was available to get on this call) and he wasn't going to be available Wednesday until noon, so I didn't want to wait until this afternoon to start working on the fix again.

The tech guy tried a few things that didn't work and just kept telling me "well, unfortunately, I know it's a minor inconvenience, but you're just going to have to re-attach those documents". I said that's not possible. There are years of documents attached - thousands of documents. After he said the same thing again for about the 3rd time (after our IT guy was on the call) and I said NO! it's NOT a minor inconvenience!! Our IT guy understood me. Then the tech guy was out of solutions to try and our IT guy says "can't we just rename this path where the attachments are archived so it works with the new company file name". The tech was was sure it wasn't going to work, but said sure, if you want to try it. Well. it totally worked! Thank God for our IT guy. The only bad part was they could only restore the back up from last Friday (because the previous dumb lady had copied over it with the wrong file), so I lost everything I input Monday and Tuesday. But, like I told them, that is way better than the alternative of losing all of our attached documents. That is our "filing system". We don't do paper files in filing cabinets any more.

By the time all this got done it was after 6pm my time. I had texted DH from my office earlier that dinner was going to have to be a cereal night, as I didn't know how long I was going to still be working. It was a long 11 hour work day for me.

Oh, and to top it off, yesterday was payroll processing day........

Let the fun begin

The IRS auditor (and our CPA) should be at the office now. I'm guessing he'll get a quick tour and then they will start their meeting and I'll get a call soon to join in on that. Plus it's payroll day. I started right on that a couple of hours ago, to try and get most of that out of the way and as I usually end up having to call our payroll advisor to figure out something every payroll, this time was no different. She takes forever to answer emails so I decided to just call. Of course, she wasn't available and the recording asked if I wanted to go into her voicemail. Yes. Only I get like a busy signal. Tried like 3 times. So email it is.

We have had the same CPA since before me and boss started working here (15 years). He used to kind of drive me nuts (though I rarely had any contact with him, it was always my boss) but the more we talk to him the more I am either getting used to his quirks or realizing he's a smart guy. He also said he's had this auditor once or twice before and he's experienced and fairly laid back, so that is good. CPA would have preferred to have the whole audit done from his office, but auditor apparently didn't want to drive that extra distance. But, it kind of sounds like auditor just spends part/most of the day at our office, then takes all the files (on thumb drive) back to his office and spends his time going through it there.


And to top off all the fun my computer sounds like it's going to die. A lot of the time it is loud and whirring, but usually it calms down after a bit. This morning it doesn't want to. I had talked to my boss about getting a new computer and she talked about having IT send me a Surface Pro with a docking station is on the to do list, but she's been busy. I'm going to have to get her to bump it up on the priority list.

Wish me luck.

Monday Funday (NOT!)

What a crazy work day it's been. It's after 1pm and I'm just now getting a bite of lunch and still haven't been able to jump in the shower. Usually I get on my computer about 7:20 am (officially start at 7:30) drink my coffee, get started with work. Then around 8:30 (or whenever seems like a good break point) I run downstairs and jump in the shower and get dressed with a quick 15 minute break, grab some breakfast and take back upstairs to my office.

We (well I) am trying to extract a year (2017) of backup file off of our accounting system. We are being IRS audited (starting tomorrow) so Friday  afternoon I was going to pull this backup file. It's a bit of a process, but I started it at the end of the work day and was just going to let it run, as I figured it would maybe take a couple of hours to condense and extract the data for the file. We don't want to give the IRS auditor our complete back up - that has like 20 years of accounting data on it! He only needs 2017 and that's all he should have access to.

Only Friday afternoon/evening I kept checking back and it was such a slow process. Then around 8:30pm I went to my office to check again and it apparently had frozen during the process and I had an "abort" message on my screen, so I had to abort which closed down the accounting program. I had to reinstall my backup copy to get it working again. By then it was 9pm and I wasn't messing with it anymore that night. Saturday morning I emailed my boss about it, because I figured she'd check her emails. She said to just wait and we'll get our IT on Monday morning.

First thing this morning we contact our IT company for help - for 2 reasons. My boss couldn't restore the company file on log in and also to have them help with this backup file needed for the auditor. We have several IT guys that work on our company, but one "head" guy. It was one of the underlings helping. He was able to get my boss restored but he told me to call our accounting software help desk and see if there was a better/different way to get this data, rather than how I was doing it. A tech guy called me back from the accounting software and he seemed super knowledgeable and helpful. I was doing it the way it was supposed to be done, but not sure why it didn't work so we got on a conference call with our head IT guy and we all literally spent almost 3 hours on the phone while basically those 2 guys worked together (screen sharing) to try to run this process. Again, it seemed to freeze up. UGH. So, I'm finally off the call and our head IT guy is trying to run it from his office on a different/faster server, so we'll see what happens. I guess worse case scenario, we just have to do a normal back up file (that takes minutes to create) and give the auditor everything (ugh, again).

At one point I had to pee, so just put my phone on mute, LOL. After I hung up I ran downstairs and got some lunch. Came back to my office and ate that, then I ran back down, took the quickest shower ever and luckily didn't have any call come in. I feel like I've put in an 8 hour day already.

Sunday stuff

Saturday was a pretty boring/not do much day. I slept in about an extra half hour. It keeps raining, so most of the snow we had covering the ground is almost gone. Seems so strange to see our lawn. usually we don't see that until the end of March around here. One weather app on my phone shows some snow today, another one I have shows rain. The rainy app usually is right and I hope so for today, as I need to make a run into town for a  few groceries today. We are completely out of milk and will be out of bread after lunch today.

For dinner last night I made a tuna casserole, but after getting it started realized I am out of  green onions (I buy them prechopped and freeze). The casserole sure didn't have as good of taste without those green onions, pretty blah.

I'm very close to my goal for MTurks this first month of the year. I'm at about $200 with 5 more days to earn. Hopefully I'll get to my $250 goal. Weekends are hard. I only earned $2.30 yesterday but this morning was much better and I'm at $4.61 while just sitting here drinking my coffee and browsing the web.

I'm not sure what all I'm doing today. If I don't have any brownie mix, I think I'll pick some up when I go to the store. I'm craving some chocolate. Or I'll see if I have the ingredients to make from scratch. Pretty sure I have some cocoa in the pantry. I need to brush our long haired dog. The king of shedding dogs. I don't know if I posted about his ear infection the past week or so, but I ordered some hyrdrortizone type ear drops for dogs and that cleared it up within a few days, so I'm very happy about that. Saved a trip to the city, to the vet, a big vet bill and expensive vet meds. I did get our other dog's nails trimmed yesterday. They are so thick and hard. I hate doing them, but has to be done. For some reason that other dogs nails never need trimming. It's the strangest thing.

I should vacuum, but my leg is hurting still. Friday night our dog (like 85#) that sleeps on the bed jumped up on my side and right onto my leg. Usually he will go over to the empty side (because dh is still up) and jump up.

I'll probably finish up a book I'm reading and just got 2 emails this morning that two books I've been on waiting list with library are ready to borrow. One is the latest Lee Child/Jack Reacher book, so I'm happy about that.

Uber cheapskates

Do you have friends who just seem to be "takers" of everything and everyone? We have this one couple we know who are like this. I guess I'm just not one to take "charity" type of help, when I can afford it! This couple (in their 40's, no kids) we know is constantly trying to get people to do stuff for them or trying to get stuff for free, that should be going to people that need it/can't afford it. Blows my mind.

First off, she as a GREAT job and makes really good money. They just sold their house earlier last year, made a very good profit, moved out of state and bought a much cheaper place because it's such a lower cost of living area. Plus her hubby gets disability pay. They are constantly posting on Facebook looking to get someone to do this or that for them (for free), or needing to borrow this or that, or looking for it for free or super cheap. Ok, all well and good. They don't like to spend their money. But, when they are taking services that other people donated too, in order to help those who can't afford it, I'm not impressed.

They have 2 dogs and a stray founds it's way to their property. They tried to find his owners but no one claimed him, so they decided to keep him. And they just had him neutered. Just found out because she shared the post from their community spay/neuter group. This group - that takes donations, so they can help people, who don't have the money, spay/neuter their pets - paid for this dogs neuter. C'mon....this couple could certainly afford to have this dog neutered, since they decided to keep him! That's going a little too far in the "cheapskateness" in my opinion. And then in the next post her hubby will post a picture of his latest addition to his hobby/collection.

I've got other examples of them doing stuff like this, but this one is the latest and it ranks up there with my GoFundMe pet peeve (I'm not talking about GoFundMe for serious needs)

I like to help people, but not when someone can help themselves first and just use and take advantage of others kindness.

That was a close one

Yikes, I almost had to fly over to my office on Monday or Tuesday morning at the latest. We are being audited by IRS and Tuesday morning is the first meeting with the auditor. When we talked to our CPA earlier he said usually he can do these audits from his office, but this auditor wants to come to our office (it sounds really only because it's closer to the auditor's office than our CPA is!). He also recommended I NOT be there and my boss be minimally available during the time the auditor is there. That way, if he starts asking a bunch of questions or for more documents, they can tell him, I work remote and have him give a list and we'll get that to him. CPA says that's what he always tells auditors that come and work out of his office - he'll have to get that, he'll have to check on that. By the time the day is done, the 15 requests end up getting whittled down to like 5, haha.

But, he also wants the initial meeting, at our office, to go in the fashion that the auditor feels comfortable and confident in how we explain our company and accounting process. He said if he feels like we know what we are doing, then it usually goes smoother. We had decided I'd be in on the initial Tuesday morning meeting via phone conference. Then late this afternoon my boss gets a bee in her bonnet that maybe I should be there in person. UGH!! I am so behind on work (because of this new payroll company hassle) that I really don't have time to take a day off to travel.
Then I remembered Tuesday is payroll processing day. I for sure don't have time to travel or try to do it from a temp desk over there. Whew. I'm staying put.

I have a daily goal of $8 for MTurks. Today I had only done $4.24. Boo. I went downstairs to get dinner started and in the oven. While waiting for the oven to preheat I looked at my emails. One saying I got a $1.80 MTurk bonus. Nice. Then another email saying there was a 10 min follow survey Hit I could do for $3, must be done by midnight. I needed to go back up to my office anyway to finish up some work, so I did that quickly. Now I'm at $9 for today.

Banking and saving

I did hear back from my side job lady about my email regarding getting their savings into something higher paying. I guess one of their concerns is having balances over the $250,000 FDIC insured limit in one account. So, that is mainly why they have all the money split up into 3 different banks. I emailed my regular boss, to ask her what she thought of it, since she has the company money all in one bank, way over the FDIC insured limit, and I wanted her thoughts since she originally came from a banking background.

She's pretty conservative with money, but said she's willing to take the chance on it. She said it's her understanding that the FDIC was put in place way back in the depression era, in order to encourage people to start putting their money back in banks and to her knowledge it's never had to be used by the government. Her feeling is if the economy ever gets to the point that FDIC insurance is needed, we're probably all screwed anyway, LOL. So, she's willing put all the company savings in one bank/account and earn the highest interest possible. I doubt my side job will do that, but at a minimum they should move these savings accounts into higher paying Money Market type accounts and could definitely be earning more than they are currently. And I'm guessing companies/people with many more millions than we have don't split it all up into hundreds of bank accounts to not go over $250k per account, LOL. I am glad of the way my boss handles the money - much simpler to have one bank, that's for sure, not to mention we are earning a good rate on it.

I also still need to find out what that deal is on my mom's "money market" that SB set up with her investment firm account, where it appears she's earning literally pennies on the funds from her house sale and it's costing her $175/year fee to have the account. If I'm correct, then obviously we will want to move it at least just into her regular savings, but I'm kind of thinking just wait 2-3 months until she gets moved over here by me and do it then. She will have to open a bank account here, as there isn't a BofA in our area. Ugh. I was hoping there was a BofA here, but nope. We are so backwards, LOL. I used Chase and she used BofA, neither of which are in this state. Aside from local banks, the only "big" banks in the city seem to be Wells Fargo, US Bank, and First Interstate. 

Speaking of Chase, I still have a checking account with them and just have my MTurks earnings and blog earnings (which is like every 4 months, haha) deposit into it. But, I just received a letter that they have been waiving the service fees on it (for like 3 years now!) and will stop next month. It's a $12 a month fee. Either I need to direct deposit a total of $500 a month into it, to waive the fee or just close it out, because I'm obviously not paying $12 a month. The reason I never had fees all the years I had it was because I had a mortgage with them and my paycheck direct deposited. I haven't yet decided what to do. I kind of like that that extra income is separate from my regular money, yet I'm not sure I want to divert $500 a month from my paycheck to it, just to have to spend time taking it out again. Maybe I can just set up a recurring payment out of it, so it's automatic.

Just this or that

DH is finally getting a little bit started on the shelving for the pantry. About time. Currently I have a small old bookcase in there with foodstuffs on it, and other stuff just on the floor. I'm getting tired of this, to say the least, but I've kept my mouth shut. Life is better when I just let him do stuff on his timeline. We emptied it out and he did some measuring and markings for where to put shelves. That's it. That's all he got done, haha. I guess he's still trying to figure on exactly how to do it all. I think he's also been asking woodworker friend for a few tips/ideas.

DH has been off and on, since about summer, in little bits of communication with his older brother, older by like 7 or 8 years, so he's 63. Mostly it's brother trying to contact him (after nothing from him for 20 years). DH would love a relationship with a "brother" but sadly, neither of his brothers are going to cut it in that regard. People don't usually change much and for sure this brother hasn't. He's still a loser (pot smoking alcoholic, was a TERRIBLE parent to his 3 kids). He lives about an hour from us. Keeps wanting DH to meet in the city for lunch, but DH really doesn't want to. DH just keeps telling him to come here and visit and he makes some excuse about not driving, though if he can drive a half hour to the city, obviously he (or his wife) can drive, LOL. DH really doesn't even like having to go to the city - too many people for him and our trips are usually just quick in and out of there. DH hadn't heard from him in awhile. He will text DH off and on and then Dh got some vague text yesterday "I feel like the ugly stepchild." Rather than text back, DH just called him. I guess brother said something like you've probably come to town 20 times since we last talked. DH just explained to him we usually just come in and pick up pre-ordered groceries and leave, about every 2-3 weeks. I think it's mostly that DH just really doesn't have much desire to spend time with him. He said he's easy to talk to on the phone and they did talk quite awhile yesterday, but I think DH just really doesn't want to waste too much time on brother. He already tried that with his younger brother and it was a big waste of time. I think Dh kind of knows how this will go too - spend a bit of time together, realize they both are the same person as before and lose contact again, LOL. Once they get past the "catching up" there's not going to be much left to have in common. Not worth the effort.

My mom did go to the grocery store on the shuttle bus trip and said it was good to get out.  She doesn't remember how she paid though, but it must have been cash because her online banking shows no charge on her credit card or a check written. When I was there last she had a whole bunch of one's in her wallet (from a yard sale who knows how long ago she had at her old house, last spring, I think) so maybe she used those up. Or I know she had received a couple of refund checks from canceling services from her old house/insurance, etc and I'm thinking she had just cashed those rather than depositing. I had just looked at her bank (as I do every day to make sure it looks ok) and hadn't noticed a charge for groceries, so I was wondering if she ended up going. Then I remembered this grocery store they went to is strange...they don't take credit cards, just cash, checks, and debit cards and you have to bag your own groceries. She always uses her credit card, so I'm guessing she probably tried to use it and then had to pay with cash.

My new bath towels I ordered from Kohl's arrived already. I chose a camel brown color (my others are a taupe color) so we can keep DH's towels and mine separate, haha, since he likes to use older, more worn out towels. He's washing them up for me now. I think the color goes well with the wood and wood tile in our bathroom.

I did get an email back from my side job owner (well, she is the wife of one of the owners and she is their money controller for the business) about getting their business savings into something making much more interest. She agrees she needs to do that and just hasn't looked into it. The guy they had for their "personal banker" got moved to another branch last year and for some reason she was told he couldn't be their banker anymore, so that is partially why they ended up opening 2 other bank accounts (and still keeping this one for a little use). She asked who my company uses and what rate. I told her and that it is 1.8% interest. I also explained to her that we have always banked at smaller/local type banks and have never had a branch that is close/convenient to the office, so we've always just mailed in deposits for many years and then the past 4-5 years have been using mobile deposits, with a bank supplied scanner. LOVE it. No more filling out deposit slips and no worrying about mailing. For some reason this side job owner likes to do banking the old way - filling out deposit slips and actually making trips the bank. I don't know why - she has so much stuff on her plate, why not make life easier?

I need a reset

For goodness sake! My work bank just upgraded to a new online banking "platform". Trying to get logged into it is like trying to get into Fort Knox! First off, the instructions they sent us is 4 pages long. Requires 2 app store downloads to your phone (just so I can view from my desktop, and what if I didn't have an iphone?). Plus, each 4 page letter that was supposed to go to each user, with an ID # specific to them, got swapped between me and my boss, so that created confusion, of course. Neither of us can still even get past the final page of instructions, which is supposed to actually get us logged into our bank account from our desktop computers.  Apparently a banking lady is stopping by the office and should be there now, to help my boss figure it out and also give me a call to help me figure it out. So, I'm sitting here waiting for the call as she was supposed to be at the office almost a half hour ago.

I think I just need to start the day over. I can't even enter an email address correctly. I received a call from one of our manufacturer's asking for our w-9. He gave me the email address and I wrote it down. Acctpay@..... My first attempt I typed it out as accountspay@......my second attempt I typed out accountpay@.....third time was the charm (insert eye roll)

It warmed up enough yesterday and last evening we were getting freezing rain.  Then this morning a dusting of snow on top of that. When the dogs went out the laundry room door, it was slip and slide and one dog even fell down trotting out to the yard to do his business. I see it's very lightly snowing right now.

My DD had tried MTurks very very minimally quite awhile back, I think way back when I first started it. But, since she only has evenings it's a bit harder. She asked me the other day if I'm still doing it and I told her yes, with much better success the past few months now that I've learned some "tricks". I emailed her the info. She was able to earn about $3 last evening pretty quickly. She wants to save for a dyson vacuum, which cost about $500 for the one she wants. She did just sell some things on marketplace and got $150 to put towards her savings goal.

Hoping for a better rest of the day LOL

Tuesday this and that

Of course, I didn't get quite as much done on my side job as I had thought I would yesterday, but I at least got all their bank accounts reconciled for December. I don't know why, but they felt the need to open 3 checking and savings at 3 different banks, last yaer. And the owner will write checks out of all of them. It's certainly not how I would do things. Too confusing and no need for it at all. And so weird that they will not put their excess money in a higher paying Money Market account. I have suggested it numerous times over the years. When you have over a million dollars in savings, it's really dumb to only be earning like $100 a month on it. My main company has a little over that in a money market account and we earn like $2000 a month in interest. It's been awhile since I mentioned it, and with all the recent additions of bank accounts, I just emailed to ask her why they aren't putting it in something better. Seems really dumb to just be letting that kind of interest go. You know the banks they have it in, are earning on it, paying out so little in interest.

I decided to place an Amazon subscribe and save order yesterday, mostly dog food/supplies, except for one item. I have an Amazon Prime account I share with DD (under her name) and then also just a regular Amazon account under my name. I put the items in my cart on my account and they came to $53, with the coupons (most items had a 40% off coupon). Shipping was sometime to arrive between 27th and 30th. Then I decided to put them in the cart under the Prime account. Weird. The total came to almost $59, though shipping was quicker. I decided I can wait until next week for these items and chose the cheaper cart. We should have enough dog food through like the 2nd of Feb, but I decided to go ahead and order my Chewy autoship order one more time. That usually takes 4-5 days to get here and should be here by next Monday at the latest. I've been wanting to have an extra bag of dog food (at least!) on hand again, anyway. When we lived in the house in town I had 1-2 extra bags. When we moved into the shop and since we've been in the house, I haven't done that. Just been relying on the monthly shipment, usually getting it about a week to 10 days before I run out.

It was a really good deal on that first Amazon Subscribe and save order to get all that for $53. 40# Bag of dog food, 7 lb box of milk bones, bag of brushing chews, 30 day supply of Cosequin for dog and a 6 pack of the Crystal Light tea to go, DH drinks in his water. It all would have been $90.

I just spent $10 on some clearance Dearform bootie slippers at Kohl's online. They were on clearance, plus the 30% off and free shipping codes. My slippers (similar style) are so old. It's time for a new pair.

My accounting software with work froze up and then I couldn't open it. ARGH! I don't need this today. But, the IT guy called right back and fixed it quickly, which doesn't usually happen. Usually it takes them an hour or two to call back and another hour to fix it.  Maybe because rather than email, I did a "ticket" through the system and marked it "high importance" haha. I'll have to remember that.

I do have to update all my auto pay bills with the new credit card info. While the card # is the same, the expiration date changed.  I've changed 2 so far, but need to go over my budget list and see which are auto and still need to be changed. I don't need to get a notice after the fact that my payment didn't go through. I think the only other auto pay is Dh's health insurance. Everything else that I have on auto pay comes out of my checking account, not charged on card.

Now, that I'm up and running with my software, back to work it is.

A working holiday

I have today off work, but I'm not really taking the day off. I have a bunch to get done with my side job, so I'm just going to spend most of the day in my office, doing that. I didn't even tell DH I have the day off, LOL. Not that we would have planned to do anything, but he'd just probably interrupt me more (and then I'd get annoyed, haha).

In between working (at a more relaxed pace today) I'm really going to work on MTurks and see if I can have a really good day. I'm at $8 so far today.  I did manage to earn approximately $70 last week, so I did make my daily goal.

DH and I decided to treat ourselves to dinner out last night - figured we deserved it for putting up with each other for 35 years :) Usually I order the grilled salmon, but I decided to try the special of teriyaki peppercorn steak. It was good, but a bit too "peppery" for me, so I just cut off the edges a bit.

I use a Paypal credit card, to earn 2% cash back on purchases. I highlight the items in my bi-monthly budget that go on the card and then on payday, make a payment in that amount that I will be charging for that pay period. I earn about $30/mo in cash back from it. For some reason I got a new card in the mail the other day. My current one doesn't expire until 2021. I have no idea why a new card was issued and was at first annoyed, because now I'm going to have to change all my auto pays...but it's the same card #, just a different 3-digit # on the back. At least I don't have to change all my auto pays and places I have this card set up as a payment option (like Amazon).

Earlier this month I received $10 Kohls Rewards. I looked for a free shipping code but no luck and really didn't have anything in mind to buy anyway. Then yesterday, while doing laundry, DH mentioned we could use some new towels. He actually likes using the old, thin, worn out towels, LOL, but even those are now getting too bad for him. I have some fairly new/good towels that only I use, that are still in really good shape. He said order some new ones and he'll start using mine as "his" towels. I decided this would probably be something good to put the Kohl's $10 towards, plus I have a 30% off coupon and I was really happy to now find a free shipping code. I decided to get 4, of a different color  than the ones I currently, use, so we wouldn't get them mixed up. I got 4 towels, reg. $14 each for $3.84 each plus I earned 10% cash back from Rakuten/Ebates.

I just talked to my mom this morning. She was getting ready to go on the shuttle bus trip to a nearby grocery store. Her first time. So, good for her. I didn't call her yesterday. I had talked to her Saturday evening and didn't really have much to call about Sunday morning. I took a little nap yesterday afternoon and then we went out to dinner. I figured she was good until this morning. And she was. And she probably wouldn't specifically remember if I called yesterday or not. I think that is like only the 3rd time I have not called her every day.  It was cute talking to her today, she was saying how she really thinks she'll like living close to me and I said yes, we can see each other so much more often and she said "and talk on the phone more often". LOL. Apparently every day doesn't cut it. HAHA!

Sunday

We haven't had any more snow the past couple of days and it's warming up to the 40's during the day starting today. The snow shoveling and plowing was good activity for DH, so we need more, haha!

I reminded my mom about her jewelry, that when DD and I spent the weekend with her she and DD went through all her jewelry, DD took a bunch, a bunch went to Goodwill and she just kept a little bit in one small jewelry box. Then she sort of remembered and thanked me for letting her know. She starting to realize more how forgetful she is getting. I also reminded her we have her diamond wedding ring in DD's safe, for safekeeping. She's like, you should just sell it, LOL.

DH was doing some google map exploring online yesterday. He was trying to find my grandparents old ranch. I was only ever there maybe 5 or 6 times, between ages 10-22. He said do you think your half sister remembers the address? I laughed and said there are no addresses out there! LOL. But, I had a few bits of info to add to his search - the road name out to their place and that it was 26 miles from their town. Then I drew out a little layout of their house, barn etc. and how the creek (pronounced "crick" haha) ran by their house. He then was able to find it. Of course no one lives there anymore. My biological dad had sold it all to a neighbor rancher about 30 years ago. But, it all gave DH something to do for a few hours. He's good at research like that. DH and I will have to take a trip over there sometime. It would be about a 6 1/2 - 7 hour drive.

I was trying to find my childhood photo album to show DH a few ranch pictures, but it must be still packed with his photo albums in a bin out in the shop. Instead in the dresser drawer (with some older photo albums my mom had made when I was little, before I started taking my own pics) I came across something I thought I didn't have anymore. I thought I had given it to my half sister, but apparently not. It's an old sketch book with loose sketches in it that our dad had drawn. Pencil and ink sketches, mostly of ranch life, animals and landscape. He was really good. I think I'll frame a couple to put in my house. My half sister wants me to scan copies to her. He was also a good guitar player. Neither of us inherited a lick of his artistic or musical talent, unfortunately. But, on a good note, neither of us inherited his alcoholism and irresponsibility, either.

Neighbor dogs and dog guests have been fairly quiet - mostly because the people are home with them, rather than being out doing stuff. Mr. and his son went hunting, I guess, but Mrs, DIL and kids are staying home.

Long weekend ahead

Rather than maybe end up confusing my mom already more than my uncle seems to have confused her, I texted him first to see if he was able to resolve what he needed her to do.  He found a buyer for her car. Now, originally he said he wanted the car, so he'd have a better daily driver than his old pickup. My mom just decided to give it to him as a gift. I honestly never really believed that he would keep the car for one minute. Uncle is constantly buying/selling cars, his whole life. When he picked up the car, DS also got the title from my mom, so I'm assuming they had her sign it.

So, in this week or so he's had the car, he of course didn't transfer it to his name, so it's still in her name. To sell it, he needs her to sign a bill of sale. Well, I guess that has been an ordeal the past day or so, because she can't remember details or 100% understand what he needs her to do. So, it sounds like he ended up having to make numerous calls to her Wednesday to try to work through this, which of course, she got overwhelmed and then couldn't do much of anything. He was trying to get her to sign it and then have DS pick it up, but DS couldn't that evening, so he was trying to get her to  mail it to him, but she was apparently even confused how to do that, or even if she had any stamps. Then uncle was just going to try again have DS stop by her place and pick it up and have him mail it, but apparently DS started a new job and hasn't had time. I can imagine exactly what uncle probably went through trying to talk her her Wednesday. He'd talk to her, think she understood and half hour later she'd probably call him, saying "now what exactly did you need me to do?".

Now, I know she has stamps, I remember seeing them in one of her desk drawers (when I was searching for her password list she misplaced). A sheet of 20 stamps just laying right on top in the drawer. Rather than call her about it, I first texted uncle and asked him if DS managed to get over there last night to pick it up for him and he texted back that she was able to borrow a stamp from a neighbor and is supposed to put it in the mail this morning, so he said he's going to call her at 10am to make sure she did. I would guess by this morning she's totally forgotten about it. She couldn't even remember to take down her rent check a couple of weeks ago! He should have just made it as easy on her as possible and just made the 2 hour drive to her place and picked it up himself from her. Or knowing he was going to sell it, he should have just had her sign a blank "bill of sale" when DS got the title from her, so he'd have that to use when he did sell it. I called her right after lunch yesterday and had her look in that drawer, but no stamps (I know she hasn't used them up, she rarely has anything to mail). What does she do with this stuff?! I told her that I would order her some stamps online and they will be mailed to her in a few days, so she'll have some on hand. I'll just have to have her tell me where she puts them.

She also made a comment about "all my jewelry is missing, so I hope it's just that I hid it in a good place". When DD and I were visiting that weekend, she and grandma went through all her jewelry (they were getting things ready to take to goodwill). She set aside a bunch of costume stuff to go to Goowill. DD too several things, I took a pair of earrings. She was left with a little bit in a small jewelry box and what she was wearing. Apparently she's forgotten. So sad. Her diamond wedding ring is in DD's safe. We did that when she moved, so it wouldn't get lost.

Here's a picture of my new duvet cover. Even though I washed and dried it first, it's still got some wrinkles in it, but I wasn't in the mood at 8:30pm to iron it. Maybe next time it's off and washed, LOL.

I apparently scratched my eyeball a few days ago. Ouch. I've done that once before and had gone to the eye dr. where they gave me some eyedrops to use for a few days. I remember the dr. saying to make sure to put some in before bed, as the eye dries out and when you open your eyes it irritates the scratch. Yep, it sure does. The prior 2 nights I had opened my eyes to look at the time and ouch and  my eye ached the rest of the night. Last night I put drops in (and had a couple of times during the day) and had no problems last night and it's feeling better this morning.

I just have to work a half day today and then we also get Monday off, so yay for a nice extended weekend.  Oh and guess what? Neighbor Mr. texted Dh last night to ask how the dogs did yesterday. He said he was gone for a few hours in the morning and had taken 2 of the dogs (one being the barker) with him. When he left again that afternoon for another few hours he said he put bark collars on 2 of the dogs. Weird, because DH had gone outside and walked over to their fenced kennel to say hi to the dogs and give them treats. He came back in and said "weird, they only put a bark collar on M, but not the problem dog". M rarely barks, LOL. So, Mr. says he put bark collars on both and DH only saw a bark collar on one. Who knows, DH didn't say anything to him about it. Then he texts that they will be back to 6 dogs for the long weekend. Son and family are visiting again and they are worried his big dog and their problem dog will get in a fight again (like they did last visit and had to take dog to emergency vet). Oh geez. How about either just telling them to leave their dogs home or at least keeping the dogs separate while they are here? But, I'm sure it's going to be noisy chaos to listen to again, with 6 dogs for the next 4 days. Sigh.........

Trying to understand

I spent a good half hour or more yesterday figuring out how propane billing works. I thought I had figured it out 3 years ago, when we started our account with the local propane company. Apparently, I'm still confused. I knew we were on "auto-fill" type of account, which 3 years ago the lady in their billing dept had explained that was the best/cheapest way to go. I had also filled out a credit app with them. That the driver would check on it every so often and we'd be filled up when it got down to like 30% (or she might have said 25%). We have a 1000 gallon propane tank. It was filled up back in June at $1.15/gallon. DH also apparently "reads" the tank % based on the 1000 gallons and not based on 800 gallons (as the propane company does), so he's been reading it the past couple of weeks at 50%. Still plenty. I guess the propane guy was here at 6pm last night (we didn't hear) to fill up neighbors (they only have 500 gallon tank) so since ours was at 40% (based on 800 gallons) they filled it up and left a bill for $1.74/gallon.

So, I called to get it explained to me again how our account works. She transferred me to the main office guy, here in town, who DH got to know quite well during our build. The "auto fill" is .10 cheaper than whatever the going rate is at the time. Apparently there is a 3rd type of way to do the account, that was never explained (or at least I surely  have no recollection of it) is that every August we can "prepay" our winter propane at a contracted rate. I guess this past August it was $1.48/gallon. This would probably be our best way to go, as both last January and this January we needed it filled. If we don't end up using as much as we pre-paid, then it would go as a credit towards our next fill, which is usually when prices are cheapest. He ended up crediting me $.26/gallon on yesterdays fill, to give us the August contract rate and I told him then next August that is what we will start doing - prepaying for the better winter rate. Ugh. So confusing to me, but at least the call resulted in a credit of $113. I wasn't looking for that. I was just trying to make sure I understood how their billing worked and what is the best way to do it to save the most. I guess the best way, if rates are cheapest say in June, is to try to get most of your propane filled then (like the $1.15/g last June) and then in August prepay for winter, at a rate that seems to be somewhere in between summer and winter rates. Do I have this figured out?

That being all said, we are surprised we are still using that much propane this winter. The shop is heated by propane and we were living in the shop last winter, keeping it pretty warm to be comfortable. This winter, DH has in minimally heated. While in the shop our hot water (showers and washing machine) used propane, and now we use propane for our house showers (though washing machine is on electric hot water heater). We had hoped that 800 gallons filled up in June would last a year, once we weren't having to heat the shop so much, but I guess not. Again, good to know for my budgeting purposes, at least.

And remember that duvet cover I ordered last week. It came yesterday. I guess I just do not understand king sized duvets either! Good grief. It makes no sense to me how they size them. Isn't the opening part to insert the comforter into usually on the bottom end?

A king sized mattress is 76" wide x 80" long. A typical mattress is 10" in height (that is what mine is, I don't have one of the deep mattresses).  Ok, so in order to have the duvet/comforter hang over the sides of the mattress and cover the 10" sides you would need the duvet to be at least 96" wide. In order to have it cover the bottom end of the mattress height, you'd need the length of the duvet to be at least 90" long. (because it doesn't need to hang over the top end of the mattress).  So, a king sized duvet should be wider than it is longer, in my calculations.

I unfold my new duvet, just laying it on top of the bed. This is shown in description as 102x90. I put the zippered part at the end. It doesn't hang over the sides of the mattress. WTH?! Do I just not understand these things?! Thankfully, it's kind of a hidden zipper and not buttons. I ended up turning is sideways and now the zipper is on the side of the mattress. It works, but if it had been button type, that sure would have looked dumb.

I do really like the duvet. The color is just what I was hoping it looked like in photo. Kind of a light pine green. It's also reversible with a grey color on the other side, but in my bedroom lighting it almost looks like it has a bit of purple/eggplant color in it, which I actually like, too. It's a nice soft material. So, for $43 bucks I am happy with it.  I think I may end up getting a new down alternative comforter at some point, though. I think I'd like something that looks a little fuller and fluffier. This old one is pretty thin and flat.

Now, to call mom....because apparently she told my uncle she doesn't know how to mail him something because she doesn't think she has any stamps (that are in her desk drawer).

To complain or not to complain

We are still dealing with neighbor dog(s) barking. This is mainly due to their newest dog (a 3 yr old lab), they got several months ago. If you may recall, when we bought our property they had 3 dogs (all big). They have a very large fenced in area attached to a door on the side of their house (facing our property) with a doggy door. The dogs can go in and out 24/7. Then they got another dog (a puppy, same breed as one of their other dogs) At one point, that first summer they had 6 dogs, because they were caring for their son's 2 dogs. Then the son's dogs went home and one of their dogs passed away, so back to 3 dogs. This was before we started building. Then the first summer we started building they had their son's 2 dogs again for several months. Last summer/fall they had their son's dogs again (because this time they were putting in a yard and didn't want their dogs on it). Finally last fall they got back to 3 dogs and everything calmed way down. Then shortly after that they decide to take this trouble lab some lady wanted to get rid of.  We've been listening to it ever since they got it. During the time they had 5 dogs last summer, and it got bad again, we asked if they would use the bark collars they said they had. That took care of it pretty well. (not to mention our covenants for these 7 lots state 2 dogs are allowed)

Finally, a month and a half or so ago I asked if they could try using the bark collar, with this new dog. They did (they actually put them on new dog and one that rarely barks, LOL) and quickly seemed to take care of the problem - when they use it. Obviously this week they haven't been using it. A little while back DH and Mr exchanged cell ph#'s and sometimes Mr. will text Dh to ask how the dogs were doing (when they were trying out the bark collar on the new dog) while he was gone. DH would tell him all good, when the collar is on, not good when it's not. But, Mr. hasn't asked for a week or two.

We are SO tired of complaining to them about the dogs. Mostly it's just the new dog, but after awhile of barking, he gets one of the other one's riled up, so he joins in. They are both gone most of the day. She works and is gone like 10-11 hours and he's got part time jobs here and there and is usually gone a good part of all day. So, the dog barks. Not for hours and hours at a time (though he has done that a few times), but enough that it sure is annoying. They always act like they will fix the problem and use the bark collar but then if when we bring it up again...because guess what? he's barking and has no bark collar on...the excuse is "Mr. forgot to put it on before he left". Again, we are just tired of having to constantly bring it up with them. They don't have to listen to the barking, so obviously no big deal to them. When one of them is home, the dogs are usually fine when they are outside and if they do start barking (which they do sometimes) then one of them comes right outside and tells them to stop. (I'm assuming because they don't like to listen to it either) Do they think they don't bark when they aren't home? We get that Mrs doesn't like the bark collars, we don't either, but then figure out another way to fix the issue.  Of course we realize there will always be some barking - that is just normal for dogs, when their people come home, or when someone pulls into our neighborhood, that kind of thing. But this constant barking for no reason (other than he's bored and misses his humans) has got to stop.

We don't have an outside kennel for our dogs, but if we did and we were going to be gone, we wouldn't leave them outside if we knew they barked. If we leave for a few hours they stay in the house. I suppose if they weren't that trustworthy we'd just keep them in the laundry room, out of the rest of the house (but they are fine to be left alone once in awhile). I would never subject others to my dogs being a nuisance. It drives me nuts when our older dog barks when someone comes here. While he stops soon after he gets his hello's out of his system, it still drives me nuts. If I know in advance the person will be here soon, I will shut them in a bedroom until the person gets inside. Then I will let them out, old barker gets allowed to have his quick hello barks and he's done. But if for some reason he's keeping it up (rarely) I will make him go in the bedroom again, with the door shut. I don't want him annoying people, even in my own home.

Since we've been dog owners while being home with them during the day and been dog owners when we worked outside the home, I can tell you it's a big difference in the behavior of the dogs. I follow a dog rescue place on Facebook and I can see why when they adopt their rescues out, they make sure the owner or one of the owners, if a couple, either works from home or is retired. They will not adopt out if someone is gone all day. Our dogs get the attention (and discipline) they need, they get the exercise and mental stimulation they need, by us being home with them during the day. We also own 2 big dogs, one of them high energy, one medium energy level (though lower energy now that he's 11). Neighbors have 2 of a high energy breed, 1 medium and 1 low (only because she's very old now). Those dogs do not get the attention or exercise/activity level they need with Mr & Mrs. - at all. Mr and Mrs get up at like 3:30 each morning. It's too dark out still for hours to do anything with the dogs and Mrs leaves for work before light anyway. Mr sometimes does have to leave before light. She gets home between 5:30 and 6:10pm. Mr. varies, but usually home by early afternoon. They literally go to bed like 7pm.


But again, neither DH or I like to be complaining to them about it AT ALL. It's stressful to listen to and it's stressful to us to have to keep bringing up to them. DH and I were just sitting here in my office discussing what to do about it. We aren't going to keep complaining. DH isn't going to go out there and keep trying to give the dog attention (like he has tried most days), we aren't going to keep living with it. We have this absolutely amazing lovely home, in a lovely little "neighborhood" (Seven 2 acre lots), with the next nearest neighbors a mile away (and that will never change as the rest is state/fed land). We aren't going to spend our days in this lovely home/property listening to dogs bark all the time. We spent too much money on this place to live like this.

We decided I'd try talking to neighbors, one more time, this evening after she gets home from work (sometimes we call, but often it's a quick text or email about it) on the phone. DH said I should be the one. His tone comes across bad, he thinks. I'm usually sweeter and nicer (unless it's email, LOL). I will ask them what they think is reasonable for the situation and what amount of barking they think is reasonable, so that we know where we stand, we don't have to keep complaining, and we can make a decision on what we will do. If daily (because they are gone quite bit on weekends too) barking is what we will have to be dealing with then we can make a decision if this is where will stay living.

DH walks back downstairs and gets a text, from Mr. Wow, that was coincidental timing! He says, he's been gone all day, they've been leaving the bark collars off, how is dog doing? DH said "well, let's just say we can tell the bark collar is not on, it's been pretty miserable". He replied back that when he has to leave for part of the day, he's been taking dog with him (I guess just leaving him in his car? brrrr!), but today he had to be gone all day, so they left him, and thought he'd be ok without the bark collar. DH also then said one of the other dogs has been joining in, too. He replied back "I'm so sorry! The bark collars will be back on!".  So, at least we didn't have to be the one's to bring it up again and it was at least good that he asked how it's going. I know they mean well, and they are both so nice, which is another reason why we hate to be the complainers. But, honestly I know they wouldn't like to listen to it all day!

So, I guess for now we'll see how the next round of "we'll keep the bark collar on" will go.......

Plugging along with the usual

I've been watching my mom's checking account and watching to see/make sure her January rent payment got made/cleared. Every day, no check cleared yet. I was going to ask her about it today, but this morning I see it cleared. But, it's not dated until 1/11.....which tells me she must have forgot and they had to remind her. They do have auto pay now, but if she's only going to be there a few more months I'm not going to the trouble. I'll just make sure to remind her at the end of January.

I also got one of her prescriptions refilled, that was showing "no refills" left. Rather than even tell her it's showing "no refills" I just decided to try for "refill" with her online account and assumed it would work like most do - with no refills left they would contact her dr and see if refill would get approved and it did. She was just in his office in August, with a med review, but that one had originally been refilled the January prior.

Well, now that it's January, the tax return should be able to be filed for DH's dad's estate and get that finished. Supposedly, that's the only thing they are waiting on, but I'm sure there will be some other reason it keeps getting delayed. DH's sister (the executor) is busy being grandma and flying back and forth out of state to see her new grandbaby and another daughter has #2 due soon. Funny, how she complained and threw a fit that she kept having to take off so much time from work, that she supposedly didn't have, to take care of her parents, but literally every month she is either off on a vacation somewhere or flying to see her daughter. LOL.

A few more inches of snow last night. Enough that it got DH out shoveling and plowing with the quad again this morning. Yay, LOL. It does him good to get out and do something, rather than just sit on his computer all day. He ran into town yesterday and filled up the gas jugs, so he has more gas for the quad, to plow when needed.

I had a decent MTurks day yesterday at just over $12. So far, I've made about $110 this month. I'm already at $11 for today and still have all afternoon to try and get more. It's really nice to be back on track with those extra earnings.

Monday blessings

My mom finally joined in an activity at her senior living place! She joined in a card game of hand and foot. She and my dad used to play that with friends years ago and enjoyed it. She said she and her partner even won! I was so glad to hear she finally did something fun. Hopefully this will be the start of it and she'll join in more.

We finally got a decent amount of snow

Enough to keep DH busy shoveling and plowing for a couple hours this morning.  I've already made the walk down the road to the mailboxes to mail something for work. It was coming down still. It was a nice walk with the dogs. Our 11 year old lab loves to run in the snow. Our neighbor must have plowed his driveway super early, so his wife could get out for her drive to work. I didn't hear him, while I was sleeping, so that is good. Not that it would have bothered me, but just noticing I didn't hear anything.

Can you see the wind chimes hanging near the post? If you ever want an amazing set of wind chimes, these are the best! They are called "Corinthian Bells" and sound so beautiful. You can google them and listen. Our chimes are one of the larger sized ones. They are pricey (they were a gift to us) but so worth the price, if you like wind chimes.

Enjoy your Monday. I'm so glad I got payroll done on Friday and not having to deal with it first thing this morning, so at least there is that going for a Monday.

Bedding

I have about $110 left on my $500 Visa gift card (purchased some more Roman shades window treatments, with some of it). I decided I'm going to buy a new duvet insert and cover. The cover I have has a tear in it and for all the years I've had it I HATE it - it's too small and barely goes over the sides of my mattress. Neither the down alternative comforter (insert) or the duvet cover were expensive. The comforter was a good deal from Kohl's and it's been a great comforter, very warm. The duvet cover was from Ikea, also a good price. Just an off-white color. But, in addition to the size, I've always hated the opening to insert the comforter. It's super small and narrow. Just dumb.

A king sized mattress is 76" wide. My mattress is about 10" tall. So I need at least a comforter and duvet cover to be at least 96" wide to cover the sides of the mattress.

So, I was searching online for "oversized" king duvets to see what I could find. In the meantime, my current bedding is being washed and dried. As I'm remaking my bed. I looked at the tag on the bottom of my comforter. It says it's 90x102. Well, geez - 102 should be plenty wide enough. I spread it out and it actually does go down just to the bottom of my mattress, on each side. Then I got the duvet cover out of the dryer and laid it down on top of the comforter. It's way smaller! No wonder it's never fit my bed! How I have gone all these years without figuring out it was just the duvet cover that is the issue, I have no idea.

So, now I do not need to also buy a new comforter, just a new duvet cover! I'm not spending a ton on this one either. But, I think I'm going to try a green one - kind of a dusty pine green, if the color is correct in the ad. I found one that is reversible - green on one side and grey on other, so I ordered it from Amazon for $43. It will be nice to have one with color, for a change. And I still have $65 on my gift card.

A touch more snow early this morning. Supposed to get 1-3" today. I'm hoping so. The little bit we had yesterday got DH outside for an hour or two. While I was inside cleaning I noticed what I thought were geese down in the river on the other side. I got out the binoculars and it was 6 of them, busy swimming and diving down in a shallow area of the river, where it's less current. In the blink of an eye something swooped down into my binocular view and I'm guessing maybe tried to grab a fish the geese had. I'm not sure, it happened so fast. If it was on of the bald eagles, I doubt they were trying to get one of the geese, but wouldn't be surprised if it was trying to steal the fish.

Then later one of the dogs and I were walking down the stairs and he barked and noticed something outside the dining room windows. It was a group of 11 wild turkeys, moseying their way between our and neighbors house, across their driveway and then their front lawn and out the other side, LOL.

So glad I'm done with Friday

Awhile back I bought DH this floor squeegee thing, for the shop and garage floor. He said it works great and he really likes having it. He sprayed off our car outside (actually I think he washed it after we got back the other day, just brought out a 5 gallon bucket with hot water and soap). The inside where we park was dirty from the wet/muddy tires (from other days of driving) so he sprayed the floor with the hose and then used his squeegee to push it all out the door and said it really takes the water right off the floor and almost dries it.

Does anyone use Amazon subscribe and save program? I'm trying to see if there is a way to save a little on things I buy regularly, though often Walmart seems to be the best price. It appears with Amazon subscribe and save you have to buy 5 items shipped monthly, but it does appear you can change the items whenever, but I'm not certain. I know there are 4 items that I buy monthly and are about a 30 day supply - 3 of the 4 items are for the dogs, which I typically order from Chewy.com auto ship. I would save on Amazon's prices for some of it, but the dog food is about $1.75 cheaper with Chewy. But, for my first time order of the dog food on Amazon subscribe and save there is a 40% off coupon, saving me almost $15. I'm just trying to figure out a 5th item that I go through on about a monthly basis. Some of my stuff I just buy when needed and have never really paid close attention to how often I purchase it. Some items every shopping trip, some not. I suppose I can change items, but that seems like a lot of work to keep track of what I am ordering. I think I'd only like this method of buying if I could "set it and forget it" (pretty much like I currently do with the dog food order from Chewy.com). I really wouldn't want to have to be changing items.

I am so tired of dealing with our new payroll processing. Every stinking payroll (twice a month) it's something different causing an issue. This time I go to create my payroll batch and it's got an error message that payroll is not "projected" for this time cycle. We process our payroll with the last 4 paydays of the pay period are estimated (or projected, in their terms). Well, I'm guessing that since it's the new year they must have to set something up again, to add in our projected dates. We are supposed to have a dedicated payroll person, who oversees all this stuff, but for the most part, it seems like it's all on us to know their system and what to expect, which of course we don't. It's been 5 months now of payroll hassles. It's all related to stuff "behind the scenes" on how their intricate programming works. I think I've had one that wasn't a hassle. And trying to get a hold of our payroll person with the payroll company is always fun. She is so slow to respond and usually with payroll, stuff is more urgent. Finally, at 5pm I was able to get payroll finished. I should have been done at 11am!

We did get a couple more inches of snow overnight. Depending on which weather forecast I look at we're either getting hardly anymore this weekend or getting like 12 inches, LOL. Honestly, I just hope it is some, so it gives DH something to do outside, plowing and shoveling. He's about on my last nerve. He's in his feel sorry for himself moods and no one can say or do anything that doesn't offend him in some way. Hopefully a little snow, fresh air and exercise will fix that, for a little while anyway.

Well, I need to take a walk out in it - have something to mail out for my side job and I should try to get it out in todays mail and our mailcarrier comes pretty early.

Now that's a tree!

Well, that was a close one to get our new Christmas tree in the back of my car......AND all our groceries! We knew the tree box would be fairly large, but we didn't think it would be that big. If the box had been any longer it wouldn't have fit and as it was the width took up half the space of my small suv type car. The groceries got stuffed in, half of the bags set on top of the box where there was just enough space between the box and the ceiling.

But, it's all done now and we have some food again, at least for a couple of weeks or so. Thursday, mid day seem to be a good day to go to the city. Lots less traffic and people in the stores than Fri afternoons. Might have to consider that for future trips and just take a long long those days. We were gone about 1 3/4 hours (I had estimated 1 1/2) but we were both hungry and DH needed to pee, so we stopped at Wendy's, went inside, used the restrooms and got our order to go, otherwise we'd have been pretty close to only being gone an hour and a half. If we only had Walmart to go to, we could easily do in under an hour and a half round trip. And for about the first time in a long time, DH managed to do the drive without complaining about every little thing.

Since we had a fast food lunch, dinner was just salads.

We decided to unbox the tree, to make sure nothing was damaged and the lights work. OMG! it's HUGE!! I don't even think the picture shows how big it is. And this isn't even with all the branches "fluffed" out to fullness.

Other than the sections being pretty heavy, it was easy for DH to put together. As you connect each section it "plugs in" automatically for the wiring, so no extra plug ins to do, (like with my other fake pre-lit tree). The bottom plug in has a foot button to turn off and on, so you can leave it plugged into the wall. For $275, I'm super happy with it. It looks like it will last many years and is a perfect fit for that corner of the room and height.

I wish Target and Walmart were close and convenient, I'd be shopping for after Xmas clearance on ornaments, haha! They don't sell that clearance xmas stuff online. Gonna need more, I can tell. And a tree skirt. I'm going to look online at Kohls and see if they have a tree skirt. I have like $8 in Kohl's cash I just got recently - anniversary Kohl's cash or something like that.

sometimes you just gotta laugh at it

I had to mail that escrow refund check I received, into my bank, since it was over my $2000 mobile deposit limit. I mailed it Tuesday and around here it usually takes 1 day to get to the city and shows up in my account later that next afternoon. I have mailed a few deposits before and usually by the end of the next day, it gets recorded to my account, after they get their mail. As of this morning, it's still not showing. Of course, now I am a bit worried it's gotten lost. Hopefully, it's just a mail delay or a delay in them getting mail deposits posted yesterday and not lost.

Yesterday my boss had emailed me to ask when I am processing the 1/15 payroll/deadline to get it in. I told her it's Friday. I'm assuming because she needed to get some salary changes input for the first payroll of this year. I see that the owners and the upper management all got their nice increases for the first payroll of this year - as usual! LOL. It will be interesting to see if and when the rest get done.
She discovered the other day an error made by our previous payroll company (another reason we needed to leave them). She had put in a raise of $5k a year for an employee last April. It went through that next payroll, but that is the only payroll it got added to, the rest of his paychecks all were back at the old pay rate. He makes good money, but how in the world do you not realize you didn't get paid what you should be? I would assume he was told he was getting a raise. I don't get how people just do not pay attention to their money.

Now that my mom was looking at her emails again, she calls me up late yesterday afternoon. Some email about her Paypal account being charged and she didn't buy or order anything. I got into her email and see it's an email IN her SPAM folder. I told her it's just spam. I told her she doesn't have a paypal account and it's just spam, that's why AOL automatically put in directly to her spam folder. I keep telling her to just ignore the spam folder, don't even open it. Can't convince her. I've only been daily clearing out spam that makes it through to her inbox, not deleting her spam folder, but I see I'll have to start doing that too, since she can't understand how it all works and wants to keep looking at the emails in her spam folder. Wish there was a way to have the spam folder hidden from her view, but still working in the background, LOL. At least it is catching most of it.

She has been starting to look at the links I sent her for the 4 senior living places near me. One of them is independent living only, so any assistance would need to be brought in by a 3rd party. Of course she is liking that place because of the price, but she seemed to have a hard time understanding that's because there is no assistance included and that when the time came for assistance she'll either need to hire it to come in and help or move to a place that offers it. She said, well, thankfully right now I don't need any assistance, so I don't see the point of paying all that extra for it. She has a very good point (as the other places are $1200-$2000 MORE a month, for basic level one assistance). I said well, I agree that she doesn't need any major assistance, BUT I do feel she needs assistance making sure she's taking her medications every day and getting them in her pill box weekly. She kind of says "hmm...well, I think we could figure something out for that....YOU could call me every day. I'd rather pay you to help me than pay that much". HAHA! that's what I've been trying to do! Oh boy. I said yes, that's what I've been trying to do with my calls to her but sometimes I still worry she's not for sure getting her meds taken. Plus, if she was close to me I would be in to see her probably weekly, so I could make sure her pill box is filled, rather than paying someone. We'll see after we look at all the options down the road. I just thought it was cute that she thought the solution was me calling to remind her every day, when that's what I have been doing for 2 months, LOL.

I'm taking a longer lunch break today, by probably an extra half hour, today so we can run into the city and pick up my Christmas tree at Home Depot and also pick up a grocery order at Walmart. We shouldn't be there for more than about 30 minutes. Home Depot and Walmart are only about a half mile apart. Hopefully we can fit however big the Christmas tree box is and our groceries! We are supposed to be getting a bunch of snow starting tomorrow, so that is why we are going in today. But, so far all the snow predictions have been pretty much totally wrong, but at least we'll be prepared and have a full pantry and refrigerator again. My fridge freezer is almost empty as it's been like 3 weeks since we did full grocery shopping.

Update just before I post this: I just checked online again with my bank and the deposit is now posted. Whew. I feel better :)

I need a nap today

Our electrician was here most of the morning trying to figure out why our lights flicker and why every 9 minutes. Well, sounds like he figured it out. DH has 2 things plugged in down in our crawl space (on this same wiring circuit as living room): a dehumidifier and a pump that pumps the water out. Electrician thinks its the pump. Or it was that he rewired the dimmer switch. He's not for sure what fixed it, because after he changed out the dimmer switch he didn't wait to see if it would do it again or not, then he went down and unplugged the stuff down there. He kept trying to blame it on the power company and we keep saying then why isn't the whole house doing it? Whatever was causing it seems to have gotten resolved now, so that is the main thing. He's just not sure what resolved it.

I've spent the morning figuring out a really really messy customer remittance. They had a large credit balance from a big CM we issued and we mutually agreed to apply to outstanding invoices owed at the time, leaving still a $15k credit balance, so I sent them a refund check for the remaining credit balance. Now, 3 months later they send a remittance check, where they show applying that CM to all those invoices and then took that $15k remaining credit balance and applied it to some newer invoices that have been added to their account in the last 3 months. Um...you can't do that. LOL. We already refunded you the credit balance. But, it was such a messy deal that it took me half the morning to figure out what in the heck they did.


Before Christmas my mom realized she was out of checks, so I ordered some through her bank online and  they were delivered the Saturday after Christmas. She knew she was waiting on checks to write her Jan rent check. Now I'm wondering if she remembered to write it....it hasn't cleared her bank yet and I would think it would by now. Last month was actually her first rent payment (She had 2 months free) and it cleared by the 6th of the month. I guess I'm going to need to ask her about that to make sure. Though I would think the manager would check back in with her if they didn't get the check. When I visited her last time they had given her a paper that offered auto payment but we had kind of decided to just hold off and have her keep paying with a check, if she was only going to stay there a few more months.

It was about a half hour ordeal yesterday afternoon figuring out her AOL password situation. She apparently didn't write down what she changed it to on Sunday (nor did she even actually remember changing it). So, we had to have her change it again, so that I could know what it is. Trying to get her to figure out how to type in a new one was so hard. Plus, she was upset with herself for not writing it down before, and/or loosing the password list in the first place. She said "see, this is what is starting to happen to me and I don't like it". I said I know, it must be really hard, but we'll do our best between the 2 of us to keep track of you! I told DD later, well, the good thing, I guess, about her memory is she'll soon forget she was upset with herself.  I just talked to her today and she sounded very good. I think she kind of likes now being able to do things on her own timeline (like taking a shower, haha)- I'm sure before she was probably doing whatever BF felt her schedule should be.

She does seem to know that I do call all the time/regularly as she will almost always say "I sure do appreciate you calling me every day".

I made my Mturks goal again yesterday and today (with 2 hours left in my sit at my desk work day) I am .50 away from the goal, so I'll probably make it.  I am really feeling tired this afternoon. I don't think I slept very well and I usually don't have a hard time waking up (I don't need an alarm) but I hard a hard time waking up this morning.

We just had a little snow blizzard for like 10 minutes and now it's stopped and the sun is shining. Crazy weather.

I keep trying

Well, as I expected, my mom didn't go on the little grocery shopping trip with her place. She said the weather isn't very good and the only thing she really needs right now is milk and she can go downstairs to the dining room and ask for a glass of milk to take back to her apartment, if she wants. LOL. Goodness, I'm never going to get her to do anything there! It's really kind of surprising, because she was always such a busy gal and never liked just sitting around. The whole reason her doctor suggested, due to her memory issues, moving to a place like this was so that she was around socialization and not all by herself so much. Part of the reason they picked this place (they, meaning her, her BF and SB and her dr agreed) was because since BF lived there she was already very familiar with it and already knew some of the people there, making the transition easier. I will just keep trying to encourage her.

Makes me wonder how time feels like it's going by for a person with short term memory problems. Do the days seem longer or shorter? I guess it would seem like maybe they would feel shorter to them, since they keep forgetting a lot from the same day and suddenly it's afternoon or evening. So, maybe that is why she seems fine now not doing much each day.

I did finally get the pricing info on the last place I was researching near where I lived. It was priced about midpoint between the other places. The lady from there called me and was really nice. She asked quite a few questions about mom and her current situation and asked if she was getting involved in the activities where she lives now. She said that is one of the things they do there (as part of the assistance) is really encourage them to do some activities.

I've started reading a good, interesting book. A memoir, true story called Educated, about a girl growing up in a survivalist Mormon family in Idaho with no public schooling and very little home schooling. So far it has been really good.

Our electrician is supposed to come out tomorrow to try and figure out our flicking lights issue. We also had to call our gas company who put in our propane tank and lines  - we have a leak again. We had a small one last winter, but in a different spot. Frustrating. DH looks at the propane level every so often and it really went down fast all of a sudden. The guy came out yesterday afternoon and fixed that. We had the same thing happen with the hook up to the shop last winter. It appears a valve they were using wasn't quite up to the job, because he replaced it with what DH said is a better quality one. DH enjoyed visiting with the guy - DH got to know him during our pre-build because at that time he had worked for the excavation guy. We also have our insulation guy coming back out again sometime. DH is noticing an area in the roof and soffits he doesn't like what he sees going on.  He was also supposed to come back out weeks ago....(contractors....enough said)

I received a nice check in the mail yesterday from my mortgage escrow - for almost $2600! I figured a refund would be coming at some point, I just had no idea when so had kind of put it out of my mind. Our property taxes here are done on a 2 year valuation. So, for our mortgage they estimated at paying it on what it should be valued at with the house done, but it was last valued just before the build started, (for the upcoming 2 years) so we have another year of really cheap property taxes before it goes up. But, they didn't adjust my payment down (darn!) as it appears they are still estimating it high for the upcoming year. So, I should be getting another check refund at some point. I don't know if they do it annually, but guessing so. I think at this point, until I get my tax return done, I'm going to set the $ aside to see what I owe for taxes. Due to my side job, I usually owe some, though this past year I increased my w/h from my regular job and also, this last bonus check we got, they withheld at the high 25% tax rate, so that should decrease what I end up owing, too.

MTurks income seems to be picking back up this week, so that is good. I did almost $12 yesterday and this morning I'm already at $5. Hoping for another decent day.

Jumping into the week

We finally got some snow. Not a bunch, but a few inches, enough to cover everything and make the trees pretty. Hopefully that will put DH in a better mood. He's been complaining about everything, including that it's January and we can see our lawn, LOL.

Our electrician finally called DH this morning about our flicking lights problem that I contacted them almost a month ago on. I had to send the guy a reminder email last Friday.

Usually I call my mom, but once in awhile she will call me, which is good. She called yesterday afternoon and sounded really good,  though said she really hadn't been doing much of anything all day. I told her I emailed her the links to the assisted living places and she said she had remembered she asked me to send them and was planning to get on her computer after our call. She also said she checked on her auto insurance policy and there was still like 2 months left of the years she prepaid, so she was going to cancel and hopefully get a partial refund. I said they should prorate out what is left and send her a check. Good that she thought of that on her own.

Then she called me back to ask if I knew her AOL password......I don't understand why this is always so complicated! I had saved her login and password on her computer, so she wouldn't have to put in her password every time. Just click on sign in. Then she said "I probably have it written down somewhere" and I told her where we put the password list in her desk drawer, but again, (as it was missing when we visited) it's not there. Probably explains why she hasn't looked at her emails for a good 2 weeks. She couldn't log in. I gave her the password and didn't hear back from her, but since I had set up my email as a secondary contact with AOL on her account, I then got an email she changed the password. I'll have to call her this morning and get the new one from her....she probably won't even remember she did that or didn't write it down or can't remember where she wrote it.

The game camera DH got for Christmas is showing several deer come through. We've seen this trio often so not surprised, though last pictures show 4 deer down in our back yard. It takes really good pictures. Better than the security camera system we had set up in our old druggie neighborhood, LOL.

Well, on to work this morning. I see my boss has a crisis with our payroll company. They did a year end W-2 adjustment on our owners and 2 other employees to record some "w-2 taxable income". They were just supposed to add the income to their w-2 for the year and somehow ended up deducting from their paychecks. UGH. Plus, my boss out out with the flu and having to deal with this. Bad start to the week, eh?

I hit post before I was done, haha. Last thing I was going to chat about is one of our dogs. He was acting so strange yesterday afternoon and evening. The dogs had been outside with DH for a bit and came in just a little before their dinner time. He was being so slow to eat. The older dog finished before him. He was acting like he wasn't sure if he should eat or not. I was in the kitchen and looked over into the laundry room at one point and he was just sitting off to the side of the feeding area, with his ears down, like he was scared. It was so strange. Finally he finished. Plus he would follow me around and try to stand in front of me, like he didn't want me to leave his side. A few days ago I had taken off his collar and hadn't put it back on. I had put it back on earlier yesterday. Maybe he was upset about that? I don't know. Weird. We took it off.  Usually when DH is eating both dogs will sit at his feet because they know he'll feed them, but he didn't do that this time. He was kind of acting like he has if he did something wrong (which is rarely). The rest of the evening he went and layed down on our bed and he seemed to sleep fine (on the floor next to my side of the bed, as usual) all night and seems fine this morning. I'm wondering if DH yelled at him when they had been outside, because DH came in complaining that he had walked the dogs out on the vacant area for quite awhile and then they walked back and pooped in the gravel driveway (which DH hates trying to scoop up with rocks). He's very sensitive if he thinks he did something wrong and I'm guessing that may have been it and DH wouldn't fess up.

Sharing info with mom

When I talked to my mom yesterday she asked me to send her the links to the assisted living places in my area, so I did that this morning, with a little bit of the info (mostly on pricing ) I had gotten from contacting these places. There are 3 that offer assisted living (in your own apartment type setting) and a 4th that is just independent living only. One of the assisted living places that was the priciest, the guy I talked to said, it's also an option to choose their independent living apartment (still pricey, LOL) and then hire an outside senior care service to come in and help, if at this time her only assistance is medication management.  I also suppose, down the road, if she needed to be in one of their assisted living apartments, it wouldn't be that hard to move her from one apartment to another, within the same place. She doesn't have that much stuff.

The manager lady I talked to at the independent living only place said many of their residents need some assistance and also hire outside help. She said her mom lives there and she hires a woman who comes in a bit each day to help her a bit and just pays her like $200-$300 per month, so she's saving quite a bit vs. what it costs at an assisted living place.

My only concern with staying at an independent living place is if her memory gets worse, which I'm assuming it will. I think then it would be better if she is in a place that is set up for memory care and those needs.

It will be interesting to see how well my mom navigates through the links I sent her. I'm guessing being able to look through it on her own at her own pace will be better than me sitting there clicking here and there. She also mentioned she is going to call and check on her health insurance and moving out of state. I'm not sure she will be able to handle that by herself as I'm sure 90% of what they tell her she will forget an hour later, so that will have to be something I do (which I was going to do next week anyway).

In talking to her yesterday it sounds like she has gone back to her old way of taking pills....her first thing in the morning pill (before eating) she has put back in her bathroom cabinet, rather than in her pill box. Try as I might to get her to take ALL her morning pills first thing and be done with them, she just can't seem to stay with that plan. So, I'm sure she'll forget to take her later morning pills, or at the very least, she's not taking them at same time each day, because she can't remember them. And I get the feeling that when I'm now calling later mornings and say "did you take your morning pills?" she is just saying yes, whether she has or not.

She mentioned she plans to take the shuttle bus offered to residents to go to the grocery store today, so that is good. It will be interesting to see if she does actually do it. I'm guessing when it comes down to it, she'll say to herself, oh I don't really need anything right now. I'll do it next time". type of thing. She's very good at that! LOL.

New Year and money

In order to make my goal of $3000 in MTurks earnings I will have to average $8.21 per day. It's a slow start already, but I've managed to earn $5.85 yesterday, but only $1.30 total the first 2 days of the month. Hopefully, once the university surveys are back in full swing I'll be picking up more.

Work has been quite a bit more involved lately, it seems. With the addition of the new satellite office, adds more payroll, expenses, etc. Then Quickbooks discontinued it's nice online bill pay service last month, that we have used for several years. Now, in order to pay bills online I have to enter it all through our online banking platform, which requires me to enter it in both Quickbooks and then again online with the bank - for every invoice paid. UGH! I'm not a happy camper. Our banking doesn't offer any integration with Quickbooks and paying bills. I'm trying to see if there is another 3rd party vendor that offers this service and the only one I can seem to find is Bill.com....so I was online looking around their website Thursday trying to get more info. I set up on online phone meeting with one of their "specialists" for yesterday morning but when I tried to join the meeting online and call in, the "specialist" never arrived. So frustrating. So, I'll be spending more time trying to see if this will work. We do not want to go back to printing, signing, stuffing checks in envelopes, that's for sure. And then throw in needing to get ready for our audit at the end of the month. I'm not even finding time to complete my all regular work.

And it's that time of year to wonder about salary raises. It will be interesting to see what it might be. I've had a few years where they were very good, a few years of decent ones and several years of pretty small ones. It's off and on when I actually have to do a formal review (and self review). Some years my boss does it, other years (like last year) she just tells me what my raise is. Usually this is done fairly close to the beginning of each year. It's been a fairly challenging year, with the big change in payroll companies. I'm just going to guess my increase will be like last year, of $1500/yr. They did change our bonus program to only paying out at the end of next year, rather than mid and end of year, so that is kind of a bummer.

And I really should consider asking for an increase in my side job. It's been quite a few years since that went up. But, I don't think asking for say $100 more a month (I make $1000) is out of line. I've been at $1000 for probably at least 4 years now, maybe more. I'd have to look back and see. I really don't think they will have a problem with it, if I ask.

We're supposed to get a big wind storm today. I think I'll have to run into town for a few groceries. We are holding off going into the city for grocery pick up, as I am waiting for the Christmas tree I ordered to pick up at Home Depot to come in, so we only have to make one trip. It's supposed to arrive Monday.




 

Mom and her car

When my uncle called last night, he of course was concerned with her frame of mind, he was noticing yesterday. I would call it one of her "episodes" where she gets very confused and forgetful. Of course he called, when DH was within listening range, so of course he also gets all concerned. I try to tell both of them this happens when she gets feeling overwhelmed and it doesn't happen very often. They act like 'oh, this is it. she's going to be like this from now on". SB had the same reaction when she got all overwhelmed last August (for one day) about that credit card charge she thought was fraud. Then of course SB overreacted and literally within a couple weeks he/she had her home up for sale. (but the very next day he emailed me and said "oh, she was doing fine again, what a difference a day made".)

Like DD and I say - basically she can go to sleep for the night and it's like a "reset" and she'll be fine the next day and I'm sure that's what will happen today, compared to how she was acting with uncle on the phone calls yesterday. If she gets too much to think about it overwhelms her and she can't remember what just happened or was said an hour ago. No reason to panic and get her moved out in the next week! DH was like "she needs to move over here...go get her and she can stay with us". Another reason I've been leaving DH out of this as much as possible. He just overreacts to everything too and I don't need to deal with that, too. She is fine and safe where she is for the time being. DH also has a hard time with how much it costs at these assisted living places. Well, that's why she has the money she has, so she can pay for that, no problem. (and honestly, it's really none of his business, LOL, it's her money and her choice) Plus, with the increased memory issues that she is going to most likely have going forward she needs to live in a place that deals with that. Not in my home, where she wouldn't have any socialization (besides us) and nothing here to do to keep her mind occupied, like an assisted living/memory care place would do for her.

At least, I feel like she wouldn't get enough stimulation living here with us....but then again, she still hasn't done any activities socializing (other than when she goes to eat downstairs) where she's living now, so I guess not much difference. But, it's also  just the fact that she has her own apartment/some independence, compared to if she lived with us.  I'm still really surprised she hasn't done any of the activities offered where she lives (there is stuff going on every day) as she has always been very social and active type of person. I think she got so used to only doing stuff/being with BF the past many years, that she's gotten out of that. After my dad passed, and then she started seeing BF, shortly after, she really hasn't done much. She stopped golfing. She would sometimes go to the casino for a few hours, but he didn't like that, so she eventually stopped even doing that by herself. From what I could tell BF didn't do anything, really and when he moved to this place, I don't think he ever partook in the activities either, so all those weekends she visited him there, before she moved there, I don't think they did any of the activities there either.

She actually just called me this afternoon to say hello (I was about to call her myself, haha) and she sounded good. Said uncle told her he got her car picked up from DS's place. She sounded totally fine with it and seemed very chipper, back to normal self, as I figured she would.