Keep Out!

The gate is up and we are really happy with it. We have about $2000 into it, and that was mostly to the welder guy to make make the metal hinges and supports. Half of that was his labor time. The wood was free (from our trees cut down) and we did purchase the stain. I haven't priced out wood gates, but dh says they are super expensive. We have a gate latch coming and eventually we will add the automatic gate opener. We already have the electricity run out to the gate piers.

 Nice day out, but it was cold, in the low 30's. 

View looking out the gate:

So, nice to have one of our last big projects done and get that out of the garage space, haha! DH is slowly getting more room in there. He does have a little bit of lumber left. He plans to build me an arbor for the yard, but most of what is left is too twisted to be usable, so he's just going to cut up for outside fire pit wood. I think he also emptied another bin or two out in his shop. As he was able to move stuff stored under the work bench up to his new cabinets, he was able to move stuff from the bins to those under shelves.

DH got a great picture of the eagles with his phone, through the telescope the other day.

I imagine she'll be laying eggs soon and we'll see her sitting there for about 12 weeks, like last year. The telescope was worth getting, just to get a daily close up view of them (though usually we only see one at a time up there at their nest).

I think I'll make some banana bread today. DH didn't eat the last group of bananas, so they either need to be thrown out or made into bread. I think I'll try freezing a couple and see how that goes.

We still need to finish our master bedroom closets......

Pedal power

 My sweet bike arrived yesterday and dh got it put together. It's adorable!

I took it for a spin a couple of times. It's been so long since I rode a bike, I can't remember when it last was. DH said it was missing a couple of bolts, but thankfully he had some.

My mom didn't have any side effects from the vaccine, so I'm really relieved about that. Hopefully her place can get back to doing activities at eating in the dining room again, soon.

I have to run into the city and pick up some chicken feed and bedding at the feed store and then my Walmart grocery order.

I hit the nail on the head regarding our neighbors son and family moving over here. Yep, they want to build a house, so you know what that means - a year living with mom and dad, most likely. The good part is the land they want to buy is like 90 miles away. Mr. Neighbors son sent dh an email asking if he had any builder/contractor recommendations.....I told dh well don't recommend our builder - we don't want them living next door for a year and a half! HA! I guess Mr. and Mrs Neighbor drove down today to look at the property they are interested in, to go look at it for them. 40 acres....and 40 acres where they are looking is like half a million dollars......gee - do military guys make that much?!!

I went and picked up my feed store order, then got to Walmart about 5 minutes before the hour. Typically they text me 5-10 minutes before the hour that my order is ready. I sat there and sat there, waiting for a text. 20 minutes goes by. I kept checking my emails too as they usually text and email. Nothing. Then I opened the app and it said my order was ready/check in. About 5 minutes later they brought it out. 20 minutes later I get a text that my order is ready to be picked up LOL.

The driveway entryway gate is getting installed today. It's a 3 man job, they are so heavy, as it's like a timber frame gate. DH seemed to pick the right guy for this job as he's gotten it all done pretty quickly.

I got a full load of groceries and still don't feel like I have anything good to eat. 

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my mortgage refinance loan is now in the underwriting stage.

Since nothing sounds good to eat. I think I'll make some tapioca pudding, since I have a bunch of milk on hand now.

Making the escape and the rent check saga

DH talked on the phone yesterday for awhile with a guy he's known quite a few years. He has also recently made the move out of the *%%#hole the west coast city he lived in has become and moved to Idaho. He's only about an hour from us now and said he's always out and about exploring (like we did the first year we moved) so he will stop by some time. He said by the time he got ready to move, he couldn't afford property in Idaho where he was planning to buy, as the prices had skyrocketed this past year, so he ended up farther "rural" than originally intended, but is loving it. I had just read an article about that, Idaho home and land prices going up quite a bit due to all the people moving there. 

Speaking of *%%#hole west coast cities...my poor side job owners... Almost weekly (I'm not exaggerating) they are having to repair and repaint their building because of all the riots and vandalism. It's getting to be quite the price tag for them. My side job boss lady is just beyond disgusted. But, hey, that's ok right?! She's just a privileged white racist. You know, one of those deplorable people who provides 25 high paying jobs to people in her community. They deserve it.

My mom got her first dose of the vaccine yesterday and all's well, so far. They did say they would have nursing staff on site while giving the shots for any side effects someone might have. But, boy was she confused yesterday afternoon evening about her rent check! Oh my goodness. I have been trying to remind her (to get it set in her brain) almost daily this week that she does not need to write a rent check coming up on the 1st, as that is when her auto withdrawal will start. I called her right after dinner and she brought up that rent is supposedly going up $11 a month (seems strange amount and her rent insurance, included with her rent is $11/mo) and writing a check for her rent and I said no, no more checks for rent, they are taking it out of your checking automatically each month now. Then she was confused how that works. I said just like your other bills, Verizon, health insurance, etc, that come out automatically. She kept being concerned how would they know to do the rent increase? I said the apartment knows how much rent is, so that is the amount they will charge your checking account. I then explained to her I filled out a form with the apartment authorizing them to take the payment out of her checking each month. Then she'd turn around and say "ok, so I need to write a check?"....

Then about an hour later she calls me and says "ok, so I need to write a check for rent?". No....I had to explain it all again. Then she was worried what if they take more than they are supposed to? what if they take like $50 more? I told her they won't do that, they are only authorized to take out what her rent is that is due that month. I told her I will of course be watching her checking account to make sure it's the right amount. "ok, so I write a check then?" No, no more checks!! Then that confused her that she couldn't write checks for anything anymore? No, you can write a check whenever you need to, but you just don't write a check for rent anymore. 

This morning I sent the manager an email telling her my mom will probably bring down a check, so please return it to her :) it will probably take another month for her to get into the new routine.  It's either I go through this with her (hopefully just this month) or go through what I've been going through ever month.....reminding her and reminding her rent is due, asking her if she took a check down, watching her checking account and not seeing the check clear, asking her again, the mgr emailing me they haven't got a rent check, some months her forgetting she took a check down and taking down a second check...I just don't have time for that every single month. I figure after this month the rent check will probably be out of her mind and I won't spend a week every month trying to make sure it got paid.

On Wednesday afternoon I put a message in to my bank, linked from my 2nd mortgage loan asking if they could send me a copy of my latest statement. It shows "read" but no reply. Seriously, how hard it this to either send me or reply back "no, sorry no can do" LOL. I will be calling in a bit, now that they are open for the day, and see if I can obtain it that way.

Woke up this morning to it snowing and about an inch on the ground, though it didn't snow for too long. But, everything is pretty and white for now. It sounds like a snow plow just went by out on the main road, LOL. They are probably bored to death this winter, haha, had to get out and do something.

I will give my mom a call a bit later this morning, make sure she is still feeling ok, from the vaccine.  

TGIF!

Spam

We did end up getting another one of those stupid calls yesterday afternoon. I recognized it as in the same series of phone numbers and told dh to just not answer it (he has a phone also at his desk) but of course he did and of course he either couldn't hear what they were saying or they were saying nothing. He did of course just tell them to stop calling and take us off their list. I really don't get why these kinds of companies do the repeating calls all day long. Do they really think by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 15th time I'm suddenly going to say "oh hi! glad you called! Let me buy what you are selling!". 

Speaking of spam, last couple of times I checked my blogger comments to make sure I hadn't missed any I noticed that blogger had automatically marked a whole bunch of new spam comments as spam. I didn't have to go and mark each one, as usual. That was helpful.\

I see that my mom finally got on her email and saw the email I sent with her list of banking transactions she needs to write down. I'm hoping that made it a bit easier, but my guess is she probably saw the email, told herself, oh, I'll do this later, and then forgot about it again. And then one of these days she'll be calling me up wanting me to help balance her check register. 

As of right now, with my mortgage refinance, the only document I need to still get to them is my most recent 2nd mortgage statement. Ugh. The bank sends me a paper statement for it each month, but I am set up to auto pay, so several months ago I just started throwing it out, and now of course I need it. I sent a message through my bank asking for it, so hopefully that will get done today. They don't have an option to view/print the loan statement online, like they do with the checking account. I'm sure though, I'll end up needing more docs for the re-fi - it's never that easy.

I need to start working on a grocery list, so I can put in an online order to pick up Saturday. We made it 3 weeks since last trip, but are getting pretty low on the stuff we use up fast. I did make one trip to town, in between, for more milk and a couple other things. I also need to stop by the feed store and get more chicken feed and bedding.

There was this reclaimed wood and metal, kind of a cross between a coffee table or could be used to set a tv on, on Facebook Marketplace that dh really liked. I messaged the guy twice over the weekend and he finally messaged me back the other day. He said it was sold, but had a couple other sorta similar for sale, but I didn't like those. I'm not sure what his deal is, a small furniture store or what...but he said his Idaho store has one he can get brought over and be here by Friday. I said great! Let me know when it's in and we'll come and get it. Then he wanted a 25% down payment to get it here from the other store. I said no thanks. We're not interested in prepaying something on Marketplace, so if he gets another one in stock some time, message me. Whatever. Obviously he didn't have any problem selling the one he had advertised and now has another buyer (me), so get another one to your "store" or whatever you have.

I need to clean up my office. It's a mess of too many papers and empty boxes, a dead monitor and cables that didn't work.

Wednesday what not

My mom's senior living place will be giving the first round of Covid-19 vaccinations tomorrow. I guess they were asking the residents to bring down to the office their insurance cards, so they could make a copy, for insurance billing. She called me 3 times yesterday morning asking me what she needs to take down. Your BCBS insurance card in your wallet........apparently she has some AllianceRX paperwork sent in the mail and she's thinking that has something to do with what she needs to show them. I said no, that's just paperwork they mail you every time they refill your prescriptions, you can just throw those away. Somewhere in her mail has got to be something from her investment company with the dang pin# I requested. She never throws any mail away (I always do it when I go there and she's in the bathroom, LOL) so it's most likely arrived in the last week, but buried.

My uncle said he had the first shot a week or so ago and just a sore arm for about a day or two. I'm hoping that's all she has for effects. I guess the good part with short term memory loss is if she gets herself worrying she'll have effects, she'll forget about it shortly.

She has apparently forgotten all about writing her recent transactions in her checking register, LOL. The email I sent listing them is still unread.

We haven't received anymore of those annoying calls to our landline, so hopefully my blocking those numbers they were calling from did the trick. If it starts up again, I think I will just have the landline forwarded to my cell phone awhile, until they give up. That way we (ie dh) aren't hearing the dang phone ring all day.

DH has been wanting this nice pocketknife, so we ordered him one yesterday. It has a pretty walnut handle and the blade is even engraved. I always remember my grandpa carried a pocket knife. Came in handy, LOL. I also remember, as a little kid, him teaching me to play "mumbly peg" with it. The good old days...you know, when we drove around with no car seats and rode in the back of pickups and played with pocket knives, haha. 

Linda wanted to see a picture of the hall trees dd is making and selling:

This is the one she first made, for herself and she made the bench a little narrower than most she is making, as she doesn't have a lot of room as you walk in her front door.

My new bike is supposed to be here tomorrow. It will give dh something else to put together, haha.

The monitor cable I ordered so dh can use one of these extra monitors I have came last night, but I haven't hooked him up yet. UPS hasn't been coming until like 8pm and I didn't feel like messing with it by then. My office floor looks like an IT places mess. 2 big empty boxes from my new monitors, 2 old monitors, old cables. I still have the big box from my vacuum. Was holding on to it for awhile to make sure the vacuum works ok. We have sooo many boxes to get rid of all the time. Ugh. There is no recycling service here. 

DH is annoying me today. I guess awhile back he was looking online for a latch for the new front fence gate, but of course, he never bookmarks anything and then when he searches for it again, he can't find it. So, he's getting frustrated. He keeps thinking he found something like he wants, calls me downstairs to show me and then I'm standing there forever while he's trying to either navigate through a poor website or realizes he's looking at some guys Etsy page for metal gate latches, who ships from Ukraine. Then he's worried that won't get here or take too long I said well, the guy has 5 stars and 428 sales. I think if he had gotten a bunch of complaints Etsy would close his store down?  How hard is it to just bookmark something so you can find it later? I have been downstairs like 4 times and each time he's not ready to order yet. Finally, he just decided to go with the Etsy seller in Ukraine. All his reviews are good. 

Well, too much work today, so back at it.

Banging my head on a wall

I sure have been dealing with a lot of computer issues lately. It's getting old. Yesterday morning I start to work on doing the 1099 tax forms that I need to do for both companies I work for. I use the same process/program for both. It should have been maybe an hour process for each, at the most. First off I find out that the IRS has now changed and added a new 1099 form called 1099-NEC, which will be used for most, in place of the 1099-M. And usually I just click on "process 1099's" in my accounting software and it shows a report of who needs a 1099 for the previous year. For both companies it was coming up blank. Huh? Finally, I got a report to work. Then I have to transfer the data to this online tax form website. I already have an app installed in my accounting software to do this. Been using it for years. I go to do the quick transfer and get an error message. Then switched over to my regular job and tried to transfer the data and same error message. I tried to google it, but couldn't find anything.

Then in the middle of all this I realize for my regular job I am back to where I can't print/save as pdf or email a form. OMG! give me a break! In messaging with my boss about it and that I will have to put in a ticket with our IT company, she tells me our main IT guy no longer works there :(.  I'm like what?! no way! She said she is bummed and honestly now worried about our service level going forward. Then I asked her if she still ever heard from our old IT guy we had for years, who was actually a company employee. He left the same time I moved, so he and his wife could travel in a camper for a year. He was in his early 30's. She said she hasn't heard from him in awhile, but last she did he was now divorced and working/living back in the area. That made me sad to hear.

So, back to 1099's. Since I can't directly import the data I did realize I could just manually enter the info. Since I have used this same service previous years most all the info for each company or person needing a 1099 is already there, so it was just a matter of putting in the dollar amount. I decided that was faster than me spending another hour or two trying to figure out how to upload it. It still took me awhile, as for my regular job we had several new vendors I needed to pay and add all their addresses and tax ID# info.

And in between all that we start getting a spam call on our landline here at home. I have to say we never get those calls. The first one no one answered. The second one they asked for me but the connection was so awful, I told them to call back. It shows calling from an in state #. They didn't call back. Then around dinner time they did and they asked for me. Again an awful connection where I could hear about 2 or 3 words but something to do with I've been pre-approved for a home refinance (nothing to do with who I am currently working with, they have my cell#). I said no, I'm not interested. They called back just before 9pm and then just before 8am this morning. Our phone company here isn't very advanced, so it's not like when I used to have Comcast and could go online and add in #s to block. But I called the phone co and she said I can add #'s to block via my telephone. So far they have used 3 different #'s so I put in those 3. Hopefully that will work.  

And in between all that my mom decides she needs to update her checkbook register. But, as I was going to start to help her, her lunch came, so I told her I'd call her back later. So, just before I'm done working for the day and to head downstairs, I give her a call. UGH! I'm trying as gently as I can to suggest I just start doing this for her. Every time she doesn't know/have her log in info and then when she tries she doesn't enter it right. Then she says "well, you can see it from your computer, right?" Yes, so I ask her if she wrote down the deposit from 1/6 where I transferred $ from her retirement account to her checking. No, she did not. I was sure she hadn't, as I told her the day I did it, but she just said oh ok, I'll get that written down, then of course forgets. She hadn't written down her social security deposit on 1/13. The only things she had of course are any checks she wrote (rent and dd). 

So, just to get her to write down the $15k deposit is a good 5 minutes of back and forth. Then we move on to the next transaction she needs to write down and again it's another 5 minutes of back and forth and then realize she never wrote down the $15k deposit we spent 5 minutes talking about, so then it's back to that one for another 5 minutes. Plus, somehow I still need to get her to write down her cell phone and internet charges. I start to mention those and she's seeing the one's she wrote down for December and thinking she already did it, and I'm like no, these are January that you still need to write down and before I can get her to do that, she's back to the $15k. I said to her I don't mind doing this for you, it's easy for me, since I can see your bank account online.....she always comes back with she knows she should be able to do this but since I'm doing some of it now she's getting out of practice. Finally I just said I'm going to email you a list of the transactions you need to put in your register and tell you what the ending balance should be. So, I did, after dinner, and of course she's probably forgotten, as she still hasn't opened the email.

I get off work, tired, making dinner, and realize I forgot to submit the monthly state business tax report and payment due for my company. It has to be done by end of day or big penalty. So, while eating my dinner I went back upstairs and got that done and submitted. I'm just relieved I remembered it!

I'm hoping today goes better.........oh, who am I kidding....it's payroll day, LOL.

Oh, and now dd has another order for her hall tree (1 sold, 5 being made) LOL.

Sunday accomplishments

DH got his new shop cabinets all filled up and organized. He was able to empty 2 full bins, move some things from his below shelving to the cabinets and also clear off most everything from the top of one tool chest. He put a strip of wood on the wall underneath a cabinet and attached all is power tool batteries there to charge and be easily accessible.

While he did that I made a chocolate cake. I finished a book I was reading. I did help him off an on. I stained the little board to attach the batteries. Ooohed and awwed over his filled cabinets, LOL. I also go the chicken coop cleaned out and fresh bedding put in. I really don't mind that chore. It doesn't take me very long and it always feels satisfying to have fresh bedding in there.

I was texting with my half sister. She wanted to know the kind of dried mealworms I give my chickens. She mentioned her oldest (she has 2 older half sisters from her mom) sister (who is about 59 years old) has been driving her crazy. This woman is bi-polar, so she is all over the place. Right now she has been having some online relationship with a man who is an architect, who supposedly lives in her area, but is working in the Mediterranean......ya........right.......It kind of sounds like she sent him money ("he said he loves me!) but I guess she is figuring out he's not who he says (ya think?). Anyhow, my sis says she has been texting her at like 5 am every morning. It's annoying her and pissing off her boyfriend. And she said she will start the text with "good morning, sweet sister". My sis tried her best to be supportive, but there is only so much she can do (and they live far apart). As we were ending our texting, I said have a good afternoon and don't ever text me at 5am - sweet sister. She got a huge laugh over that one.

DD currently has orders for 4 hall trees! LOL. I told her she might have to take her ad down for a week or two to get caught up, haha.

DH came across some metal art he liked, some eagle/American flag type stuff, so he used $48 of that $73 left on the gift card to purchase that. I guess one will go in his shop and the other is more outside type.

I started working on doing the 1099-M forms for both companies. UGH. I guess something has changed and now there is a new form called 1099-NEC that I will need to use, but nothing seems to be working in the accounting software to generate this. It's usually a pretty easy process. Yay for Monday.......

More paperwork

I'm still loving my Shark vacuum. It's so much better. I got the Dyson out of the closet to vacuum the dog hair off the blanket in the back of the car yesterday. It weighs a ton compared to the Shark, LOL.

The cabinet hanging brackets arrived in the later afternoon, so dh spent a couple hours getting the 4 cabinets put up. He did a bit of stocking the insides with his stuff, but is now out in the shop this morning getting everything organized and put in the cabinets. Mostly all his various cleaning supplies, cans of this or that. 

I started the process to refinance my mortgage at 2.5%, down from 4.375% rate I got in 2019. My boss recommended Ally Bank, so that is who I have started the paperwork process with online. They sure do seem to have it all streamlined and user friendly, that's for sure. It asked for a $550 appraisal deposit, then later in the process it popped up a message that said, due the the information we have on your address, an appraisal will probably not be needed and you will be refunded this at closing. Well, I would think that should speed up the process, not having to wait for an appraiser to get out here. It will save me over $550 a month on my payments and also pay off that 2nd mortgage I have that is 6.29%. I think it's a smart move all around. Just a pain having to do all the paperwork. It said my credit score is 794. Nice and good :).  I still have a couple of documents I need to find - my statement for the 2nd mortgage. The bank just sends this one page thing each month, even though I pay online auto pay each month. I started just throwing them away, but now I realize there isn't a copy available online (this bank is a bit small), so I'll probably have to call and get. The next copy isn't coming for about 2 weeks. I also need to dig out my homeowners insurance policy to send a copy.

We are getting close to needing to replace my 11 year old car, so this will give me a bunch of breathing room to do that, when the time comes. 

I'm thinking about making a cake today. I also need to clean out the chicken coop, but am kind of waiting until it at least gets up to 30 degrees, haha. It was like 17 when I got up.

People who sell (and buy) on Facebook Marketplace are such flakes. DH saw this reclaimed wood table thing he liked, so I messaged the guy at noon yesterday. Sometime in the next couple hours it shows he saw the message. Almost 24 hours later and still no reply. DD said she listed something for sale. A girl said she would stop by at 2pm and pick it up, on her way home from work. At 5 she still hadn't shown up, so dd messaged her and she said she spaced out and forgot, she's on her way, be there in 10 minutes. Never showed up, so the next morning dd messaged another person who had wanted to buy it and they came and got it. 

Well, I'd better get back to getting all my loan documents found/sent. At least my 2020 W-2 was available online. I need to do my 1099 for my side job, then I can upload that. I'll do that in the morning when I log into my side job. I have to upload it via our accounting software to generate the form.

Heck ya!

I'm happily typing to you looking at my new monitors.  Finally! The cables I ordered were correct and these sure are nice wide and big monitors. And bright. Heck ya!

Dh had mentioned the other day about going to look at a gun store in a neighboring town. As I'm walking down the stairs, work completed for the day yesterday, I said where is a gun store in that town? (It's small town, of course, and I didn't recall seeing a gun store) and he said it's new, inside the new little "gift" store. I said oh ya, I remember now, my mom and I went in there last summer just as they were getting open.

As I start to get things out to make dinner he yells out from his den "wait! the gun store is open until 6:30 AND we can get a burger for dinner at the drive through burger place!" Heck ya! LOL.........(see what I did there?!)

The credit to dh's visa gift card showed up this morning, so I went back online to order the bike, only now the price on Amazon had gone up a few dollars. And the "other sellers" who were all at $200 yesterday or the day before are now at $220 (and none of them had a lot of positive reviews, they were all at like 50%). Screw that! So, I started searching online. Found it from a reputable eBay seller, brand new, for $152, plus eBay is having some 15% off cyber week discount, so in the cart it was $129, including shipping. Heck ya!

Now there is still $73 left on the Visa gift card. Heck ya!

The hanging kit so dh can install the cabinets in the shop are supposed to be delivered today. I think. Tracking shows it's on truck for delivery today,  Sat 1/23 (fed ex delivers here on Saturday) but at the top of the page it still say delivery on Monday. I have a feeling it will come today. I hope, as it will then keep dh busy, at least all day, if not tomorrow (filling the cabinets). Heck ya!

Ok, I'm done with that. (Heck ya!)

Ending the week

After making and selling her first hall tree last weekend, she now has orders for 3 more. She got the 2nd order last Saturday (but the guy doesn't want it until his wife's birthday at the end of the month), then she got an order yesterday and another one this morning.

The metal for our gate was taken to the powder coat place, but they told the welder it will be about 2 weeks before they get to them. We aren't in any hurry and the powder coating cost ended up being half what dh thought it would be. Good, because the welding part is more hours than dh thought, haha. Whatever, I always add 1/3 to what ever dh estimates, LOL. I really like this welder guy. He's right on the ball with it all and very good about communicating with dh where he's at in the process.

Last night I made french dip sandwiches for dinner. We haven't had those in probably 3 years, haha. Dh had two. I just buy roast beef sliced from the deli and usually over estimate how much to get, so he will also be able to have some roast beef on his ham and turkey lunch sandwich today.

The monitor cables I ordered on Wednesday are actually showing out for delivery today. That's the fastest anything has gotten here for a long time. I'll believe it when I see it, haha. Just keeping my fingers crossed I managed to order the right thing. And you'd think with all the cables I have around here now (including old style ones we already had) that one of them would work to hook dh up a 2nd monitor, but nope. Need something different again for that. (have I mentioned how dumb that is?!)

My mom called about dinner time last night (I had already talked to her just after lunch). She seemed a bit more forgetful. She thought she was having trouble with her phone, but I said well, I called you earlier and you answered and you just called me so it must be working ok. Then she had a knock on her door and her dinner was being delivered. She told me she just put it in her fridge until we were done talking. Apparently it was something cold? (usually their big "dinner" meal is at lunch time). We chatted a few more minutes and then she said well, I'd better go - my dinner will probably be here soon. I had to remind her it just got delivered and she put it in her fridge! Yikes.

Her investment account manager was supposed to have a Pin# mailed to her (I think it gets sent from their corporate office) and she said it usually takes a couple of weeks. I keep asking my mom if she's gotten any mail yet from them, but apparently not yet. The good part, I guess, is if she did get it and buried it, it's not going anywhere. She doesn't throw out her mail, even if she has asked me about something and I tell her it's junk mail. So next time I'm at her apartment (they have no visitor policy in place again due to covid positive in workers) I'll go through all her papers/mail again and most likely find it.

People are funny. This decor page I've been following on Facebook....if someone asks for suggestions or opinion I at least try to read through the replies. This lady posted a pic of her washer and dryer in a hallway closet that her hubby never put the bifold door back up for and she's tired of looking at it open. Any suggestions? Barn door barn door barn door. She quickly replied she doesn't have the wall space for a barn door. Barn door barn door barn door. Then I commented If she couldn't get a bi-fold door put back up, I highly doubt she's going to get him to put up a barn door. She replied "exactly!" More comments: barn door barn door barn door. LOL. 

TGIF to the week that felt like a 5 day work week.

Price differences

Well, if I had placed a bet, I won it. Of course the monitor cables that finally arrived last night, a week late, also won't work. Why do they have so many different cable connections?! Would make everyone's life a whole lot easier to have one connection on monitors and one on computers, all the same. Wow - what a concept.

I need the monitor end of the cable to be HDMI and the computer end to be DisplayPort. I found (I hope!) this on Amazon and ordered 2 last night. Saying it would arrive by Friday (ya, righhhggttt). Tracking this morning is saying Monday. Honestly, I'm just hoping for Monday at this point. Best Buy in the city had this cable but they were $40 each (vs. $14 ea on Amazon) so I'll just tough it out a few more days. Plus it's supposed to snow today and we don't want to be driving 50 miles each way in that if it's not absolutely necessary.

DH did end up requesting a refund on the gift that never arrived. He had emailed requesting status on it and they emailed back that they have processed a refund. So, now we are watching the Visa gift card for the credit. He just decided to tell me what the gift is, as then he started second guessing himself if I'd like it or not. It's a retro style classic Huffy bike and it's adorable! Will be a sweet little ride to the mailbox or to deliver eggs to the neighbors, LOL. 

But, now it was showing as $235 and he paid $200 (that's all that was left on his card, LOL). He sent me the link so I could shop around. I go to my computer and log into my Amazon (PRIME) account and it shows as $240 - $5 more than it was showing on his computer, under his non-Prime account. What the heck?! What a scam! Guess I'll have to watch out for that, too now when making purchases. Always something.

I need to go downstairs and take some sandwich rolls out of the freezer. We are having french dip sandwiches for dinner. I picked up some sliced roast beef from our grocery stores little deli dept yesterday. I tried to make ham and cheese omelet's last night. I have only made omelets a couple of times and it's been years. I think I need more practice LOL. Scrambled eggs are easier.

Pretty flowers

The anniversary flowers from dh arrived mid afternoon. Very pretty and I really like how she did this arrangement. They are much more bunched together. Usually they are all kind of spread out, so I don't think as pretty as they could be. And I like this shorter style vase.

We talked briefly about going out to dinner, as we usually do, but honestly, neither of us was in the mood to sit at a table with masks on, while we waited for our food, so we had leftovers LOL.

I can't remember if I mentioned but dd and her dh got that hall tree order done and just before the lady came to pick it up she got another order! The lady loved the hall tree and even sent dd a picture of it set up in her home. Then this morning she got another inquiry about having one made. 

I guess there is one more Christmas present dh ordered for me on Amazon. I don't quite understand what his thinking on this is! It never arrived. According to tracking info (FedEx) it only shows that a label was created, it has no tracking that it was ever picked up. I keep telling him then just request the refund! Obviously they never shipped it and have had his money for over a month now. Obviously there was some error on the sellers part and they think they shipped it, but didn't. He says "it says my options are to request a refund or re order" I said well at least request the refund. If you want to reorder, give it a try. Then he says "well, I don't want to get in line again and wait for them to ship it". huh? Whatever.....other than it was the last thing he ordered using his Visa gift card I got him and I know it was $200, so he better get it figured out!

We are going to run into town at lunch today. I need milk and a few things. DH wants to drop the aluminum cans off at the house that recycles them. I also need to cash in my big $5 scratch off tickets, haha. 

The monitor  cables are supposed to come today, which typically means tonight. I'm guessing its a 50/50 chance they are what I need. If they are not I think I will see if Best Buy in the city has what I need and take a long lunch and go get them tomorrow. I'm tired of waiting and trying to work with this tiny 2nd monitor. I also think I figured out what dh will need to use one of these monitors I will have extra now, as a 2nd monitor on his computer.

Tuesday this that and reads

I was pretty dang lazy yesterday on my day off. The welder guy was here ALL day (from 9am to 7pm) so that kept Dh pretty much out in the garage ALL day. LOL. But, he got all the welding and fabricating part done. He will take it to have powder coat (flat black) tomorrow and they said it will be done in about a week. Then it just needs to be screwed onto the gate and the attached to the gate posts and it will be complete.

Sick dog is back to normal, thankfully. He enjoyed his chicken and rice and for his dinner meal yesterday I did both his kibble and the chicken and rice on top. He did his normal sleep on the floor next to my side of the bed and up and full of his usual energy when I got up this morning. This morning there was no turning down any of his food, his "vitamin" or his brushing chew. He did the gallop (him, not me) upstairs with me, to get the half of milkbone I split and give them from the jar at my desk.

Today is our 36th anniversary! We are getting so old, haha.  DH has every year had delivered a bouquet of red and white carnations, one for each year, so I'm sure this year will be no different. 

The replacement lantern lamp for the guest bedroom arrived yesterday, so one more thing completed with decor.

Now tracking is showing on my monitor cables to arrive tomorrow, instead of Thursday. 

I've had a few books downloaded from the library and didn't quite get to them all in time, so I have had 2 recently I started, but didn't finish in the time left, so I had to re-resesrve them. While I was waiting for one, I was trying to finish the other book in the time left and the first book just became available, so I've been working on that one the past couple of days, and the 2nd one became available quickly again, so now that one is in my queue again. I should be able to finish both up in the next week or so. Plenty of time now that I'm more than halfway through both of them. There were 2 others I didn't get finished in time, either, but I don't think I'm going to bother reserving those again. One just had too many story lines going and the other started out really good (a sci-fi genre) but then just kinda fizzled out just going on and on with "technical" space details, rather than the actual story about the characters.

The book I'm trying to finish currently is called The Searcher, by Tana French. Set in modern day Ireland, about an ex Chicago cop who retires to a quite town, but ends up doing some detective work.

The other book is Network Effect, by Martha Wells, the 5th in a sci-fi series called The Murderbot diaries, that I have found enjoyable and a bit on the funny side. The AI "bot" has become quite humanish and quite the sarcastic humor.

My dd just sent a group message wishing dh and I a happy anniversary. I'm like she'll remember....she remembers dates of everything - she even knows the date my grandma passed away. I don't even remember the date. July something and the only way I know the year was I know she was 95 and was born in 1918.

Day off stuff

Yesterday was the sick dog throwing up every few hours. About mid day he did a nice throw up on my area rug. Yay. LOL. Then he seemed to figure out to tell me he needed to go out to throw up and I would take him out a few times. By then it was just a little bile coming up as nothing left in his poor tummy. He had no energy either. I hate when they are sick. Finally early evening he drank a bunch of water and held it down and then he drank some more later. He made it through the night ok.

This morning he still did not want his food. He drank some water, but just turned away from his food (I just put a little in his bowl). So, I quickly boiled some chicken and made white rice, let it cool and gave him part of it. He scarfed it right down, though he mostly wanted just the chicken part and left quite a bit of the rice. Mr Piggy (ie the other dog) came by and finished that rice right up, LOL.

I have today off work and am very happy for that. Yesterday I swept and then mopped the floors. It's a lot of floor, LOL. Today I plan to dust, vacuum and probably do some of my laundry. That welder guy dh hired to do our gate hinges just showed up this morning (he has the day off work too) to do the final welding part. I guess then the pieces need to go to the powder coater to be made black. Once they are done there, we can put the gates up! Dh is just ready to lock the world out, LOL.

The monitor cables, you know the ones shipped on the 12th 2nd day air? Now not showing up until Thursday of this week. 

Our masterbath shower is huge. Like 6' x 6'. It's pain to clean the floor with a small sponge or sos pad. I had an idea the other day. I told dh I need one of your old wash brushes, but I don't want the handle that long. He went out to the shop and came back with this

The perfect length handle. When we bought our house it town the previous owner left a bunch of crap in the shop. This handle was one of the things and dh, being dh, thought, well, it might be of use some day so he didn't take it to the dump with the other stuff. I had that floor clean in 5 minutes :)  and it works on the walls, too, especially since the tile goes all the way up to the ceiling and I can't reach it.

We are enjoying looking through the telescope set up to view the bald eagles nest. Quite often there is one sitting on a branch that extends out from the nest. Sometimes, the other one is sitting on a branch up above it. Usually we can look out our window and see the white head, so we know one is there, but after it snowed Saturday you couldn't tell unless you looked through the telescope, so it was like "oh, you are there". haha.

At least dh is busy for part of the day (I have no idea how long it takes for the welding to get done, but I can't imagine too long) and out of my hair. I never feel like I can get stuff done when he's not doing anything. When he went out yesterday morning to shovel the snow I grabbed the mop and got started. Then he and the dogs aren't under foot with a wet floor and I don't have to work around him in his den.

Frames and preparing

I've been trying to find a nice frame to purchase online for the picture DH had made into a print for framing. It's large: 40x22. Frames are expensive, no way around it. Plus, this is going in our living room, above the tv and will be a focal point, so it needs to be nice. So, I've spent hours looking. It's hard because I'll see one I like, but then look closer at the details and it's only like 1.5" frame width. It needs to be something bigger, for the size of the picture. At least 2.5 inches, preferably about 3. Then I found one I liked, but it was 4.25 inches, which seems too wide to me. Ugh.

Finally, I find one I really like. Of course it's one of their most expensive ones, but ok, that's the frame. I go to put it in my cart and it says "$95.50 oversized carrier shipping fee". What?! Geez. Well, ok....I did use a 20% off coupon code, so that will cover quite a bit of the shipping. Then as I go further into the ordering process I realize that isn't the shipping fee. There's an additional $56 to ship it ground! C'mom!! I"m not spending over $150 to have it shipped!! That's just insane. 

Apparently, this is a "peak" surcharge UPS is adding to shippers who ship over a certain number of packages a week and extra per package for oversized. I also read an article about it that said this surcharge is supposed to end today 1/16. So, I will check back next week and see if this online framing company is still charging the fee. Otherwise, I guess I'll keep looking.

I stayed up past my bedtime to watch a movie with DH. Around 10pm one of the dogs threw up. At least on the hard floor and not carpet. After I went to bed he threw up 2 more time (though nothing really came out of him). Now this morning he doesn't want to eat his food. Poor guy. I hate when they don't eat. Hopefully whatever is wrong will pass soon. Most likely he ate deer poop again. Of course it's always my fault (rolling eyes).

We spent the afternoon yesterday looking through some of our emergency supplies and making sure they all get put in one area, so we have them easily accessible and know where everything is. We want to get a larger first aid kit. We have quite a few things. A fire starter kit and a water purification kit, a solar phone charger, etc. I think I will also order a 4 pack of MRE's. DH wants a small bag of these items to leave in the car. 

Like I told dh, living where we do, it's unlikely we'd need to "bug out". More we need to prepare to "bug in". I said we have the gas grill I can cook on, but what do we do for a propane supply? buy more of the tanks? His eyes lit up and he said "remember that like 4 foot tall propane tank from years ago, when I tried to use it to heat the garage? Well, I still have it and it's full of propane and I've been wondering all these years what I should do with it. Now I know. We can keep it to use for the grill, if necessary".

We always try to keep our car gas tank filled up, rarely do we even go below half. If we are in town, we top it off, no matter what. Plus, dh has a few 5 gallon jugs full, for the lawn mowers, so if we couldn't get gas at a station, at least we could fill up for one tankful after we ran out of our current tank.

Remember the friend I tried to text a week before Christmas and she never replied? Well, out of the blue I get a text from her last night. They got a new puppy. I guess their little dog passed away on Christmas day. I didn't realize she was 10 years old already. I thought she was a pup when they got her a few years ago, but apparently not. We texted back and forth a bit. Then I asked a follow up question to what we were talking about and no reply. So strange, LOL.

Preparing and refinancing

With our recent power outage for 6 hours, I was getting together candles in case it lasted after sunset. Thankfully it didn't and thankfully we rarely have power outages, but it got me to thinking. Why don't we just have at least one of those battery powered lantern type things? Safer and brighter than candles, for sure. I used to have a box of emergency candles in my closet. Since we've moved twice, I have no idea what even happened to that box now! Probably still in a bin in the shop, somewhere. I did manage to find about 4 pillar candles and a box of tealights. We do have several flashlights.

So, dh did a bit of quick online research and the Vont lanterns had really good reviews. The battery life lasts about 10 hours and only needs 3 AA batteries. A 4 pack of these LED lanterns is $28. (plus they come with batteries). Done and ordered. 

I got the tracking on my monitor cables. Story of my life, LOL. These shipped 4 days ago........via UPS 2nd day Air. Now there have been no updates on where it is, since the 2nd day. I need these to use my new monitors...so frustrating.

I'm going to look into refinancing our mortgage. I'm looking at my current lender (the bank sold it to another lender) and they show quite a bit of detail on what they offer and current rates. I've never had a mortgage with "points". Pro's/cons? 

I'm also probably going to contact the lady who did the mortgage on the house we bought in town when we first moved here. She was really good and the only reason I didn't use her for this house is they didn't do construction loans. With the conforming loan limit higher than when we got our mortgage in 2019 and the interest rate quite a bit lower, I can combine the two and get rid of that second mortgage with the bank that is like 6%. 

Our emergency satellite messenger phones arrived yesterday to us and dd. We are still figuring them out, but did manage to send a few test messages to each other. Hopefully we'll never need to use them, but if we ever do we'll be very glad we got them.

We finally got some snow yesterday afternoon. DH shoveled the patio and in front of garage and shop. Then he came in and we had homemade pizza for dinner. Then he went back out and plowed the driveway. Then he came back in and had another piece of pizza, LOL.

It's a 3 day weekend for me. I kind of forgot it was coming up, so I didn't plan ahead to take off yesterday or Tuesday to make it a longer weekend. Oh well, just coming off almost 2 weeks off I'm still good.

Deliveries here and on the way

Two of my three computer issues yesterday were resolved quickly by the IT guy, though it appears one of the fixes is just a patch they keep having to do, so we're probably going to keep having the issue pop up. The other issue took us awhile to figure out, but he/we (cuz I did have some suggestions, LOL) finally got it. It was pretty funny, as he was on my computer doing his stuff, while we were on the phone with each other. I had left my "chat" screen open on one monitor and my boss sent a message saying "it works now? I just got signed in to it". IT guy types in a reply "yes, this awesome guy named M just fixed it". Next line: now he's working on the next problem. Next line: He's a dreamboat.  My boss typed back: yes, you are awesome. Hi M!" haha.

My new monitors arrived in the evening (dang we are back on UPS guy's end of route again) but the separate box of the monitor cables has not arrived yet. I was so hoping that maybe the cables that came with the monitors would plug into the back of my computer, but of course not. Wouldn't you think a Dell monitor should be made to plug into a Dell computer?! I am really hoping the cables my boss was told I would need are really the right ones. And I'm hoping they show up today. Tracking said it was out for delivery yesterday, but now it's not showing updated. 

Speaking of delayed deliveries those refurbished batteries dh has been waiting to get back since before Christmas finally updated on usps and they are getting closer. I'm guessing they will show up tomorrow or Monday.

I guess there is also one more Christmas gift dh ordered for me that has never shown up. It is supposed to come FedEx and a couple weeks ago he said tracking showed it was out for delivery but never showed up. Every time he checks it just says in transit. This was ordered/shipped like a week or so before Christmas. He ordered it through his Amazon account and yesterday when he checked on it again, his account had a message with it that if it doesn't show up in 2 more days he can just request a refund.

Back to the monitors...they are going to be so nice! They are really wide screens, 23" monitors.  I still need to get dh's computer figured out on how to add a second monitor. It appears he only has standard usb ports. I think I keep hoping some little elf will say "here's what you need!" LOL.

It's payday and the start of my new plan to get the small second mortgage paid off in 5 years or less. I also upped my 401k contribution a bit.

DH got the 4 cabinets for his shop put together. Now he's just waiting on the hanging kit we ordered with it. I emailed the company and they said that is shipped by a different supplier and isn't scheduled to go out until the end of next week, so I guess we're waiting awhile longer.

Still no call from the cabinet lady or her area rep on why they can't get back to me so I can order a dang cabinet! What in the hell.....?! Guess they have so much business they just don't care. Must be nice. I will call the manufacturer back again, on Monday. If I still can't get a reply then I guess I go to some other cabinet store in our area and see what they can do to get something as close as possible to what we have in the laundry room to match the style and color. Geez! Maybe I'll call today.....just thinking about it is making me snippy and crabby. 

Weird - I have my electric bill set up for auto pay on the 14th, it's not showing as paid yet.

I follow on Facebook a couple of home decor pages. DD follows one of them, too. We sometimes laugh over how a poster will ask for some advice and flat out say something like "I can't paint the cabinets, this is a rental home" and half the people commenting will say "paint the cabinets".  (Readers are leaders...). Anyhow, yesterday I posted a pic of my loft area and said I'm working on furnishing and decorating this small loft area - should I get a second chair and if so, a matching chair? 80% of the replies didn't even have anything to do with whether I should get a second chair LOL. Several told me to get different furniture, haha. One told me to get a sectional (sure...in a small loft area). I replied back sorry - I just literally got these 3 pieces of furniture and I'm not buying something new. 

People are funny.

Gremlins

The universe is trying to tell me something this past week and a half. What, I'm not sure, but it sure wants to keep throwing wrenches into my work day, that's for sure. 

Since coming back from the nice holiday break, my email spent over a week crashing. Last Friday my monitor died. My boss and I keep both having issues with our accounting software either not working or not wanting to work if we are both logged in. Tuesday I couldn't print, save or email documents via our accounting software. Yesterday at 10:30 the power went out and didn't come back on until 4:15pm. 

And today I go to run the app we have added to our accounting software, where I transfer over employees expense reports to cut them checks and it's missing, as well as the app I have for doing 1099 forms each year. I got the tax app added back on no problem, but can't get the expense app added (it's always a pain to add). Then I realized our accounting program is back to having it's issues it's been having the past month where it won't switch over to multi-user mode so my boss and I can both use it at same time. GRRRR!! I give up!

Last June the app disappeared and the IT guy and I were on the phone trying and trying to get it to add back. Finally a couple hours after we gave up, I had an idea that I tried and it worked. Well, now I can't for the life of me remember what I did. That memory has apparently gone into the black hole.........

The power out was an "oh well" type of day. Our house stayed at about 64, so it wasn't too bad. At 3:30 or so the welding guy showed up to do a little work on the fence gate with dh and I decided to turn on the gas fireplace at least get a little heat going. I had it on high and then tried to sit there on the hearth reading a book, but it was too hot, LOL. Then I decided I'd better get out all the candles as it would be getting darker soon. Well, of course as soon as I got all those set out on the counter the power came back on..

Oh - then FedEx delivered a box of some items I ordered from Target. It was a leaking mess. In the box were 4 cans of Progresso beef stew/soup. One can had somehow leaked (how does that happen?!) and made a mess on the other 3 cans and a bit on my boxes of granola bars. The package the scissors I ordered was soaked with stew. Ugh. I got it all cleaned out/up. Threw out the leaking can. At the time, though, I couldn't clean off anything because we had no water. I just set the box in the sink until the power came on. Once I had running water I cleaned off the 3 cans and took the yucky labels off. I'll just write in sharpie what it is. I put the granola bars in the almost empty box I already had in the pantry and threw away the wet boxes. I also requested a refund from Target for the can.

On a good note, my new monitors are supposed to deliver today. We got the 4 cabinets we ordered for dh's shop, but not the hanging kit we also ordered at the same time from same company. I have an email in to check on status, as I can't see any way to tell if it shipped or what. 

And now I just realized one of my drives on my work computer, which boss and I share and save documents in various folders with each other is missing. 

I can't think of a title today

Every day is computer issues in one form or another. My email finally was fixed and stopped crashing and then yesterday I could not print, save as pdf or email through our accounting program.  That was really annoying is I use the pdf and email functions with it all day long. I didn't contact IT right away because I had to get payroll done first. Then the IT guy called me and got it working again and we did a test email and pdf. Right after we hung up I went to send a real email with it and got the error message again. I sent him an email back. While waiting for him to call it suddenly started working again, just as he called me back. He joked "if you miss talking to me that much, all's you have to do is call" LOL.

Then I get up this morning bright and cheery (really!) and just as I'm turning on my coffee maker the power goes out. Really? C'mon!! Thankfully it only lasted about 5 minutes and came back on. But about 15 minutes later we started getting a huge wind storm that hasn't let up much so far.  

The overhead cabinets we ordered for the shop are supposed to arrive today. Good, give dh something new to work on. I guess he did work a bit in the shop yesterday getting to a few more bins and said he actually threw away a few things, miracle of miracles.

In my last post T'Pol asked to see some pictures of my new decor/artwork/furniture. This is the metal art we put in the "bear bedroom" and the new vintage wood duck decoy I got from Ebay

The wall to the right of the bear still needs something on it and I'm still looking.

She's a cutie duck, I like how her head is turned. Most are looking straight ahead. I have 3 ducks in my "collection" now.

This is the little round coffee table I got for the bonus room. The wood grain reminded me of the bar wood dh used.

 

I want to get a berber type carpet for the rest of the flooring in the bonus room. I'm estimating, with installation, it's going to cost around $2000, so that is still down the road a bit. First we have a gate to finish and (maybe?) a laundry room cabinet to order. I've yet to get a call from the area rep or the cabinet lady.

Still so much to do/get it sometimes seems a bit overwhelming, but I just keep plugging away at it, while trying to find it as frugally as possible. I guess that bar couldn't have been more frugal! It's all from lumber from our trees cut down and leftover stain.  

A bit later this morning I'm going to call my mom and hopefully get her to update her checking register without too much back and forth. Her SS deposited this morning......or maybe I will just wait a few more days - then her cell phone and internet bills will be posted and I can kill 3 birds with one stone.

Whew, all of a sudden this morning I feel really tired. I usually don't get the sleepies until mid afternoon. Ugh. Too much work to do to need this now.

Just life

I forgot to mention I made homemade eggnog on Sunday. DELICIOUS!!! It's not as strong tasting as store bought, so I haven't really needed to cut it down with milk, though I did for one glass, just to make it last longer, LOL. It tastes good either way. I poured myself a small glass yesterday and asked dh if he wanted a taste test....he drank the whole glass! It was also a great way to use up a bunch of eggs. It was easy to make, the hard part was waiting the recommended 4 hours for it to chill. I used organic whole milk and organic heavy cream. Saturday our retired friend stopped in (I wasn't home) to drop off a couple of egg cartons, so dh gave him another dozen I had extra in the fridge. Dh said I hope that was ok. I said it's great. Now I'm down to a more manageable amount.

The welder guy working on our gate hinges seems to be on the ball. He already called dh at lunch yesterday to talk about it. He works a full time job in the city and it sounds like he was using his lunch break to go pick out the metal for this project. Then he stopped by on his way home to go over some more details with dh.

My work email just keeps crashing and crashing. The IT guy working on it had to boot me off a couple of times for 15-20 minutes so he can try different solutions. Then he finally ended up deleting my whole profile from the server and reinstalled it. This will also apparently affect my web browser saved passwords. I'm going to have to input them all again. Ugh. I sure didn't accomplish much yesterday, but once he reinstalled me everything seems to be working so far so good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I discovered something about dh's telescope. I wear glasses and I'm pretty much blind for seeing distance and I was looking through it at the eagle's nest and then I took my glasses off and looked through it - expecting it to be all blurry and I could see perfectly. I was so surprised. I always thought I had to wear my glasses to use it. I guess it must refract the view enough that it's like having my glasses on?

And I had the most bizarre phone call Sunday afternoon. It showed my mom was calling. When I answered, the manager of where she lives replied and identified herself and then said I have a gentleman who wishes to speak to you, Bud. I'm like ok??.....then this older gentleman gets on and starts rambling on about the phone won't work.  I'm like oh, ok....this is my mom M's phone, is something not working with it? (thinking maybe she asked him to help?) Then he's going on about he got this new phone that he can't get to work and he paid $400 for it and can't get it to work. I'm still like "ok...um...I'm a bit confused...is M there? Then he's like "how have you been?" I just kept going along with him and finally we said goodbye. A minute later I called my mom back and she answered laughing and said are you confused? I said yes! LOL. Apparently she was down on the common area and this guy couldn't get his phone to make a call so my mom said here, you can use mine. So, he pressed my name to dial. Not sure if he knew someone by that name and thought he was chatting with her or what, LOL. 

Monday morning I called the cabinet manufacturer. I explained we had their cabinets installed in our house we built 1.5 years ago and would like to get another cabinet made for our laundry room, but I can't get a hold of our local dealer, so I need to know if there is another dealer or how I can go about getting another cabinet made. She took down my name, number and city/area and said she would have the area rep check into it and either get back to me or have our cabinet lady get back to me. Haven't heard back anything yet on it.

A couple of things I ordered for the house came yesterday. A cute metal art of a bear in the woods. It was hard to decide where to put it. It looked super cute in just about anywhere I tried it, LOL. My original intent was one of the 2 blank walls still in the bear bedroom, but in the end dh had a good idea and we put in on the blank wall that the sliding barn closet door is on. (next to another blank wall, but that section is kind of indented farther in a bit, for the closet). Of course the door is closed 99% of the time but if opening it can't slide into anything and this sits pretty flush against the wall so the door still slides by no problem.

The other item is a small round wood coffee table for the bonus room. We have big dormers on each side of the room and this will go on one side, eventually with 2 club type chairs. It's made by the same company as that entryway table and the wood grain look on the top of it is really similar to the rustic wood dh did on the bar front. I'm still looking for a dining room type table for the other side. Something we can use to do puzzles, etc. Mostly I've been watching Marketplace for something to catch my eye that is cheap.

Another USPS package delayed/in transit. They shipped it to us on 12/23. It has been showing in my informed delivery with this status, 12/27 being the last update. Yesterday it was gone completely. Oh great. These are some snap on tool batteries dh sent in to get them refurbished. If they are lost he'd have to buy new ones. I hadn't written down the tracking#, so I emailed the guy who sent it back and he gave me the tracking#. It's still showing in transit/delayed. I'm praying it gets here at some point. I don't want to have to spend hundred on new batteries! I'm really sick and tired of usps, that's for sure.

We are really getting gypped out of snow this winter, that's for sure. Today it's supposed to rain...rain! In January! LOL. Usually it's in the teens or below zero temps. Oh well. 

More weekend update

The weekend was pretty relaxing, though I did go into the city Saturday. I first stopped at Ross to see what they might have and as most often, nothing. Then I went to Michael's. Before I even got in the door they had some small Christmas pointsettia's for $3 ea, so I got 2 more to add to the 2 I bought before Christmas. Then I browsed their Christmas clearance aisle and found a few things I ended up buying. A wood Santa, a small flocked tree and some wrapping paper. All spent was $18 as it was all 80% off.

Then I really had to go to the bathroom, so I went over to Target (at least there wasn't a line to get in this time) and went back to see if they had any Christmas clearance left, but nothing. Then my Walmart grocery order was ready so I went and picked that up and on my way out of the city I stopped at Home Depot to get that big storage bin for dh.....I should have picked that up first LOL. I ended up having to take out some of the groceries, then get the big bin in and then put those groceries in the bin, ha!

Just before I left home a guy had shown up to discuss some welding dh needs done. He's a local guy who does welding on the side and dh had gotten his number from a friend and called him Friday. He came over on Saturday to see what dh needed done. It's for our gates, to weld the hinges onto the gate piers. Not sure how long it will all take him, but he will do the job for us. Seemed like a really nice guy.

We are well stocked up on food again, which always feels comforting. Plus then it's not so hard to figure out "what should I make for dinner?" LOL.

Last week DD had decided to try putting an ad on marketplace for her wood hall tree. Apparently she can see how many people looked at the ad and how many saved it. All week she kept getting more and more views and saves. I told her rather than sit and watch/wait for an order, act like you already have one! I suggested she get one made up and ready but she said she doesn't really have the room to store it. I said well, at least go get the wood and get it all cut up, sanded and stained - then you will get an order! 

Yesterday afternoon she messaged me that she went and bought the lumber. 3 hours later she messaged me she has her first order! She thinks I'm a wizard now, haha. The profit she will make on the one hall tree will pay for the new coffee table she wants to get :)  On Thursday she had shown me this area rug she wanted to get for their family room (where they spend all their time) that was $100. The very next day she was looking at Marketplace and someone was selling the exact same one for $60 - brand new. They bought it, it was too small and they didn't want to try to ship it back. She got it :)

Well, Monday morning and welcome to computer problems at work. A program isn't working and my mail is still crashing.

Peace of mind

Our country is quickly changing. I posted and shared something on my Facebook page yesterday and said when/if this pops up in my "memories" a year from now, I sincerely wonder what we will still be able to say and do a year from now.

We did our research and have purchased 2 "satellite messenger phones". One for us and one for dd/sil. If there is ever a time when cell service and internet are down, we should still be able to communicate with these via satellite. They are not phones you can talk into, they are just like texting. At first I was finding them for $249 at all stores that carry them. And those of you who read here regularly know I price shop! This morning I just found them from a pilot supply store on sale for $199, so I saved $100 total. That savings almost pay for the first year of service for one messenger device.

DH has been talking quite a bit with our neighbor, who shares the same concerns, so I emailed him the link to them last night and emailed a bit with him about them. The basic monthly service plan is $12 a month. Like Mr. neighbor said -  a very reasonable price to pay for some piece of mind! We agree.

I just ordered 2 of them. One to ship to us and one to ship directly to dd. I have a feeling neighbors will also be getting these. Their 3 children all live out of state, too....though it sounds like the son and his family (the one who always leaves their dogs every summer) are planning to move back home here to raise their 4 boys.

And dd said they will also appreciate having the satellite messenger as they like to go camping and hiking and sometimes are out of cell phone range, so this would be nice to have in case of an emergency (they have a GPS/SOS function).

I'm praying for our country. We are first all Americans before we are a political party and everyone seems to have forgotten that.

Well that's a fine way to start a Friday!

I work with 2 monitors. Yesterday afternoon my "main" monitor was kind of flashing a little bit. This morning it was still doing it. I was logged into my side job and the time on that remote computer desktop was showing 4am for some reason (it was 7am their time). I was messaging with dd and told her and she said "go back to bed! LOL". Then shortly after my monitor went black. Crap! Since it was my "main" monitor I couldn't even see to log out remotely or get any of that stuff over to the other monitor. I told her I should have taken her advice and gone back to bed!

We have a second spare monitor that dh recently found when he was organizing/unpacking bins, so I asked him to get that out for me and I hooked it up. I'm back in business, but it's a much smaller monitor so isn't really going to work for the long run. I figured my office probably has spares, so I messaged my boss to see, but she said all the spares got scavenged for everyone to set up home offices, but she said she would order me a new one (or two), no problem. I said 2 would be really nice, so the screens are the same size, plus now that I have this smaller/spare monitor plugged in, the screen on it is nice and bright and I now realize how dark my other monitor is! and I have it set on it's brightest setting. So, time for new ones. She is getting me 2 23" monitors ordered for me through Amazon. Nice.

I really need to figure out how to get a 2nd monitor hooked up 2 dh's computer. I can't for the life of me figure it out. His computer isn't very old but for some stupid reason there is only 1 monitor plug in (the kind with the pins). Seems like most people nowadays use 2 monitors, and seems like computers should be set up that way. My year old computer that work got for me also only has one pin type monitor plug in, but then there are 2 usb type plug ins (though bigger than usb), that they sent me cables for, that plug into back of computer and then go into these 2 usb type plug ins in the computer. I checked the back of dh's computer again, but only see one monitor plug in and regular usb size plug ins. There must be a way or an adapter I can order that plugs to the monitor and has a regular usb on the other end. I know he'd really like to have 2 monitors again and after I get my new ones we'll have 2 extra monitors, now. Might as well use one of them. I'll have to do some research for some kind of adapter cable.

My mom is all confused. She couldn't remember that I had picked up 2 gift cards to send to DD/SIL for Christmas gifts from her. Then a few days after she was home from Christmas she said she had talked to dd on the phone and was sending her a check for Christmas. I told her she already got them the gift cards and paid me back, so then she says "oh, well, they can have a little extra, I guess". So, on Monday dd gets the check in the mail. Then last night dd messages me "I just got another check in the mail from grandma!". She obviously forgot she had just mailed one a few days before she mailed that one. This second check was for a lesser amount, LOL. 

So, what do we do? If I tell my mom, she'll just end up saying oh, ok. well she can just cash that too. And like dd said, if we tell her she'll just get confused and stressed and probably won't get it subtracted out of her register anyway, if we tell her dd isn't cashing it. The other strange thing is she dated the check correctly on 1/2/21, but then wrote a note to dd in with it and dated the note 2/28/20....... I told dd to just cash it and we'll not say anything to grandma about it. (it's not like she can't afford it LOL) The other mystery is the check # is 1012. The last check I know she wrote and cleared was on 1/1 for her rent and it was check 1009....what did she do with 1010 and 1011? nothing has cleared yet with those numbers. Maybe she just messed up writing them trying to write the second check to dd. If I find out that all that happened I'm not going to worry too much, but if she ended up writing these checks and mailing for who knows what, then I will have to end up taking over it completely from her.  Right now her place is in quarantine because of the positive covid test, so I can't go visit her again.

Well, here's hoping for a more uneventful rest of the day :)

Thursday this and that

We have this employee who has been with us quite awhile now. Maybe close to 10 years. I do not think he has ever NOT had a garnishment on his wages, sometimes 2! The latest notice we just got for another garnishment is for the power company.What in the world?! He makes $120k a year plus he gets $9000 auto allowance per year. His wife works and is an RN, so she has to make pretty decent money (especially in the metro area they live/work in). Just stupid. I'd be completely embarrassed to constantly have my employer being notified of garnishments all the time. Between the 2 of them they probably make at least $200k a year. They have a nice house, from their Facebook pages, they take nice vacation (you know, just like everyone, their life looks peachy perfect, LOL).  How do you earn $16k (combined) a month and not pay your electric bill? a regular monthly bill you know you are going to have to budget for each month. Good grief. I could easily see maybe having a couple/few years having some problems, but this has been going on for 10 years now. What a stressful way to live for so long.

I'm out of eggnog (non alcohol kind, of course) and craving it! I guess I'll have to learn how to make it from scratch. I have enough eggs! DH saw all the eggs cartons in the fridge, even after I gave friend 1.5 dozen on Sunday, so he said let's have scrambled eggs for dinner. Good, easy, and used up some eggs.

It's pretty out today. A little snow, a little foggy, a little sun. Makes for pretty colors.

Yesterday I see my mom's investment account lady got her new bank account set up and the money I requested be transferred to her new checking done. I still want to get a PIN# for the account so I can just do the transfers myself, rather than having to contact/wait for them to do it. If I had the pin# I could have had it transferred last week, when I wanted it there. Apparently my mom was sent a pin# a couple years ago, but who knows what happened to it (probably step brother kept it). In order to get a new pin# she has to call their 800 phone number and request it. I tried, but they said it had to be her, even though I'm authorized on the account. So, I'll have to do it next time I can be at her apartment and call for her and have her talk to them.

I just called my mom to tell her to update her check register for the deposit. I have a feeling she must have been napping in her chair as it took her a few rings to answer and then she just acted like "ok, I'll update that".......which we all know she will forget and I'll be talking with her again about it.

And of course, no return call from the cabinet lady from the voicemail I left her earlier this week. Just sooo ridiculous. I don't even know how she stays in business, if that is her normal MO. Boy, if that's all you have to do to have a nice business and make money, sign me up, LOL.

Since we ended up getting that first lawn mower maint. kit, dh is just going to keep the 2nd one on the way when it gets here. He can just use it next fall/winter, when he does the next maintenance on it. I do need to check to see if I ever got credited for it and if so, make sure they re-charge me, since I did get it. 

I really need some new jeans. The ones I love and were just inexpensive Lee jeans I got from Walmart a few years ago are apparently not being made in that style anymore. I tried buying the new equivalent several months ago, but do not like them. They do not fit soft and comfortable. So, I keep wearing these old jeans, with paint stain on them, LOL. I don't like jeans that dig into my waist, but I also don't like other one comfy old pair (different brand that I've had for years) I have that are too big, so slip down when I'm walking around. I should see if I can find another pair in this other brand (Calvin Klein) in the next smaller size. I have several pair of "nice" jeans that I wear when necessary (ie public or company coming, haha) but they are not comfortable at all.

I goofed and thought I ordered this broken lamp from a lamp online store, (the bird lamp was from there) but the broken lamp was through Amazon. So, I reported it broken and requested a replacement. I do have to send back the broken one, so it is now boxed up and shipping label on it, and we can give it to the UPS guy next time he is here. 

I haven't been doing any MTurks for extra income the past 2-3 months. I just got too busy with jobs and then I got those 2 nice bonus's, so I decided to take a break for awhile. I may give it a try again next month. This month is still too busy, getting the books ready for year end to go to the CPA's.

Slowly but surely getting decor added

The loveseat for the upstairs open loft area arrived this morning. A bit "off" on the automated texts I was getting as to when, haha. I got a text yesterday saying they would come between 8 and noon. Then I got a text at 8:30 saying they'd be here in approximately 3 hours. Then about 20 minutes later they showed up. DH and I managed to get it upstairs by ourselves. It wasn't super heavy, just big and awkward and a bit hard for me to back up the stairs, but we figured having him on the bottom, where most of the weight was leaning, would be better.

Here it is

Seems nice and comfortable. I will probably get some different pillow covers for the throw pillows and now I think it needs another of the chair, to help balance it all out, but at least it looks much better up here! I'll live with it awhile like this to see if I still think it needs another chair. I think this loveseat is better quality than the couch and loveseat we got from Ashley Furniture in our living room. Even the "legs" to screw on the bottom were wood, not plastic like my downstairs furniture. And so far, no problems with the dogs thinking it's a new place for them to sleep. I just said "leave it" and they are ignoring it. I will probably do a few other "tweaks" to this area. A throw blanket and maybe different pillow covers for the throw pillows. I'm still looking at floor lamps to put by the chair.

I'm still loving this coffee table for this area

The 2 lamps I ordered for the nightstands in the "bear" bedroom also arrived today. I was so excited to get them and could tell right away there was broken glass sound and one of the lamps had broken glass. I'm so bummed. I have put in an email to customer service so hopefully it will get replaced soon. Too expensive of lamps to not really protect during shipping! They are cute lamps though!

Enjoying some good news

I just love getting unexpected money.  In addition the the recent $1200 stimulus deposit (which I never planned on or budgeted for - EVER! Politicians are too flakey, LOL), I just got my annual escrow statement from the mortgage company. Our property taxes only update every 2 years, so, so far we had been paying what they estimated our property taxes to be, when we took the loan. After getting our assessment a few months ago I thought that my mortgage payment was going to go up about $100 a month. I open up the letter and the payment is going down $102 a month and there was a check included for $1519! Wooo! It's like 2 good news's in one :)

When I called my mom yesterday morning she was very chipper and had no problem remembering that they told her due to some Covid positive people (workers, from my understanding) they all have to stay in their apartments. DD called her in the afternoon and said she was still very chipper.

Helping my half sister with Quickbooks has given us a bunch of phone chat time lately, which has been nice. She's not working anymore, so has more free time during days, so I'm going to try to make a point that we actually talk on the phone more often. It's easy for me to take a break from work for a little bit during the day. Did you know you can't herd buffalo?! That's what I learned talking to her yesterday. They have a herd of about 150 bison and it's vaccinating time and it's a long process, because you just can't herd them into the coral like cattle. They won't do it. It's interesting. Her boyfriend has to put their feed in the coral area and not feed them out in the field. Eventually they will come in, but she said they are smart and stubborn and there's still about half of them that need to come in, haha.

The outdoor nativity manger scene I ordered arrived yesterday. I think it will look nice out in our front yard next Christmas. Dh had hoped it might store in this larger old bin he has, but the tallest wise man is just a bit too tall, LOL. I found a large bin at Home Depot that will work, so next time I'm in the city I will swing in and pick one up. Seems to me like it would just be easier to store it in the box (that is kind of flat) it came in, but dh likes things in bins and all the same, so they stack easy and are all uniform.

It's super slippery on the pavement outside this morning. I had to take some mail to go out. I ended up walking on our lawn as much as possible, then slowly crossed our street to the other side and walked down along the gravel to the mailbox.

DD is going to try and see if she can start making/selling some of those hall tree's like her and her dh just made. It cost about $60 to make, plus their time, but she saw someone was selling them for $250. She was thinking $200.

Now that we are fairly done with all our big projects (still have a couple, like carpeting for the bonus room, but not in any big hurry) and not spending all my extra money each month, I'm going to get started this month paying extra on my 2nd mortgage loan. I want to knock that out in 5 years or less. Since our builder kept adding on costs and the insulation ended up costing us 3x more than he estimated, we ended up needing to borrow more than the conforming loan limit, so we did a small 2nd loan through the bank. It's set up with a 20 year term. If I start adding an extra $250/mo to the payment it will be paid in 5 years. As soon as that loan gets paid I'll take that monthly payment and start adding it to the regular mortgage as extra payment.

One of my swag gifts from my employer was an insulated mug, so I tried that with my coffee this morning. Definitely kept it hot the whole time I was drinking it. 

A couple we are friends with, who live in another state, both have come down with Covid. They aren't hospital sick, but definitely fairly sick. I'm not surprised they got it, though, but he has some pretty major health issue going on the past few years and they really seemed to have not taken a lot of precautions, which is really stupid. They go out to eat, spend time with friends, etc. She just traveled the week before Christmas and from her Facebook sounds like she visited a bunch of different friends and family while back at her employer city for her job. He also posted on Facebook the week before Christmas that if there was anyone in their area who didn't have a place to go for Christmas dinner they were invited to their house, so I'm sure they had people there then, too. Hopefully, they will both recover soon (been sick since the day after Christmas).

In our state (not sure what others are doing) places like where my mom live are in the first phase for the vaccine and the email I got about it from her senior living place said when they are available they will be offered/given there at the facility, so hopefully that is soon.

More decor

We had a nice day yesterday. Our "retired" friend stopped by for his monthly visit, in the morning, and stayed an hour and a half or so. We always enjoy his visits and I was able to send some eggs with him, which he likes. He texted dh last night that he made a 4 egg omelet for his dinner and it was delicious. He keeps so busy! It doesn't seem like he and his wife hardly ever spend time together. We've only met her once in 4 years! Both of them are in their 70's and it seems he does his things and she does hers. Half the time they even travel separate to visit their daughter.

Then after lunch we drove over to the big gift shop to look at pictures/artwork. They have a whole section of artwork, all wildlife or nature scenes. DH thought something with a bald eagle would look good, and we lucked out and found something we both really liked and in the size we needed. We also picked up a smaller, not very expensive wood type art with a buffalo on it. Then we went across the street to the big antique shop. I wanted to see if they had an old wooden duck decoy. She had 3 but they were in really rough shape, so I passed. I saw a few on Ebay I liked, so will probably just order one from there.

It all just feels so much more finished now. And strangely, with it now "furnished" the entryway actually seems bigger, but that's also probably because there is a big mirror on the opposite wall. These 3 items on the table most likely won't stay there, I took them from other areas in the house and want to put them back, LOL. 

First thing I did this morning was check mom's bank account to make sure her apartment deducted for her rent. Nope. I had emailed with the mgr several times over the period of an hour back in the beginning of December. She emailed me a form to fill out. I emailed it back. I emailed her again this morning and she emailed right back, saying she didn't get the email with the form.....ya right....she's gotten every other email.....so, she said they'd need a check again for this month. so in order to not confuse my mom anymore than she already is, I just took one of her checks I have here and put it in the mail this morning. Plus, there was an email sent by the mgr to everyone yesterday that several people in contact with their facility have gotten Covid, so for the time being everyone has to stay inside their apartments. Ugh.

I also emailed her retirement account manager, this morning, to make sure she has received the form and voided check we sent on the 26th, to change her banking EFT. Hopefully it was just that she had time off last week and didn't get to it yet and it will get done today.

I'm also going to try to call the cabinet lady in about an hour. I'm sure I'll just get her voicemail, but if she doesn't call me in a couple of days, I'm calling the cabinet mfg'r to see what I can do to get another cabinet.

And my work email keeps shutting down and restarting this morning. Welcome to 2021! LOL.