End of Janaury

About the only thing I accomplished yesterday was getting the chicken coop cleaned out and new bedding put in. Always looks (and smells!) better with fresh bedding in there. Well, it seemed like I was busy most of the morning, doing what I don't know, LOL. Blogging, reading blogs, cleaned the kitchen and turned the dishwasher on. I didn't even take a nap yesterday.

It snowed some last night. Good, something to keep dh busy for at least a couple hours today. Not a ton of snow, but just enough that it needs shoveling and plowing. It just started up, with some light flurries, again.

I was putting some water in my anniversary flowers - that's why I like carnations - they last a long time - and dh says "I didn't tell you this because I thought you might get mad..." and proceeds to tell me that when he went into town to order my anniversary flowers he also bought a bouquet of flowers that were already made up in the flower shop and took them over to the hospital, as a thank you to all the staff who took good care of him when he was there for 10 days. It worked out good, as the girl that came out to see who was in the entry way area was the young lady he had chatted with one day there and turns out she is the daughter of a guy he was friends with all through school and the guys mom was dh's den mother in scouts. Anyway, dh handed her the flowers. She told him that at Thanksgiving she brought him up to her dad and grandma and they both remembered him.

I said oh that's nice. Why would I be mad at that? He said because he spent the money, LOL. I'm like isn't that why you have cash in your wallet - so you can spend it on whatever you want to?

Also, he was out in the garage fiddling around and noticed that my birdbath had cracked. It's kind of a clear glass/plastic material. We probably left it out too long, when winter started and it started to freeze up, is my guess. So, I'll need a new bird bath....or two. I've been wanting to have 2 anyway. Good gift idea for Mother's Day. I think dd got me that one for Mother's Day about 5 years ago.

Ugh, I got a project dumped on my lap 5 minutes after logging into work this morning. I'm sure it's going to take me at least half the day to do. I have to pull and save reports from 4 different manufacturer's for the past year. I've got 2 down, 2 to go.

Can you believe the first month of 2022 is already done?

Looking ahead to spring

I know we're still a long way from Spring weather, LOL, but the lengthening days are getting me anxious for it. I'm sure it will still be awhile before the snow melts and we can see the green lawn again and have the ground thaw out. I've been wondering how soon, when spring weather/thaw permits, we will be seeing the new owner of the 2 lots next to us get started with site work. That day we talked to the couple, just before they purchased it, they made it sound like they were going to have to sell their house out of state first, before they can start building this one. After 4 months on the market, that house has not sold yet. They have not dropped the price, either. Though the guy did say he has some of his own construction equipment, so it's most likely he will be doing the site work himself. He mentioned something about having it all stored somewhere, so I'm guessing it's all going to end up parked on these lots.....whether he's using the equipment or not. 

The other change come spring is Mrs. Neighbor will be retiring in May and home most of the time then. She has been home 2 or 3 weeks now from her surgery and 6 weeks off work, but honestly, I haven't noticed much decline in the normal amount of dog barking that goes on over there. But, it's just the usual, because a delivery truck pulls in or her dh gets home. We're hoping, once she's home/retired, we won't have those occasional days of endless barking, because no one is home to give them attention and tell them to stop barking. One can hope, right? 

As we were heading to the city on Friday and pass our young neighbors place who live at the end of street, dh commented that 2 years of them building their detached garage and another separate large shed has gone on long enough, don't you think? I thought it was last March they started, but after thinking about it it was 2 years ago this March! Getting a bit ridiculous to have to look at unfinished buildings with Tyvek still on them. That's not how this neighborhood, with it's covenants on building, was supposed to look. You are supposed to get your building done in a timely manner and any separate buildings are supposed to match/compliment your house.

Yesterday was a pretty low key uneventful day. Since Monday is payday, the deposits actually show up in our banks on Saturday. So, I paid my mortgage and paid off my credit card balance I had charged for the month (to get the 2% cash back reward). I did some vacuuming and washed a load of clothes. That's about it. Since on occasion dh has been able to eat a fast food cheeseburger, I figured he can handle eating one at home again. I need to use up the meat we have in the freezer, before it's too late/bad. So, for the first time since he went in the hospital in August I made burgers for dinner. We also have quite a few steaks. Later in the week, I'll make that for dinner. They are thin cut steaks, so not large portions. 

DH hasn't really done much of anything the last week or so and of course he starts getting down on himself that he's not being productive. I'm like it's winter  - you are supposed to rest and hibernate, LOL. Again we discussed his hoard in his shop a bit. He will make a comment "I should just get rid of most of the stuff out there - then I'd have this nice open shop". I said (again!) you should get rid of it - if you don't someone else will someday, so why not get rid of it yourself, so you can enjoy your nice big shop like you envisioned it?? Again, it's a mental block thing that I'm sure is the reason all hoarders can't get rid of all the stuff. For whatever reason his brain thinks he needs to have/keep this stuff, even though he hates it all. Weird, huh? He wants one of those nice shops, with the shiny floor (it is shiny floor under all that stuff) but he can't get himself to actually do what needs to be done.  I know this is what he wants it to look like:

Not even close, inside. But, that's his deal and it doesn't do me or him any good to keep pushing him on it. If he brings it up I try to encourage and be logical about it, in hopes that one day it might stick. For a guy who likes everything neat as a pin, it's honestly quite amazing that he can even stand going out into his shop.

Happy Saturday

A Saturday, that feels like a Sunday, since I had yesterday off. DH always says he gets his days mixed up when I take a day or more off work. I told him that's his problem, LOL.

I just turned to look at the cat on the floor. He's just laying there, on his back, back legs spread wide - haha. He's silly, but as soon as I tried to grab my phone to take a pic he moves. He can have his eyes closed and seems to know when I'm about to take a picture of him. 

It was 4 degrees when I got up this morning, but the days sure have been pretty blue skies this week.

I had the call with mom's investment guy Thursday for the quarterly update. Ok, his assistant always gives me the time of that he will call in their time zone and it's an hour later where I am. So, I'm expecting a call at noon my time, 11, his time. He calls at 11 my time. I guess next time I'll have to now clarify with his assistant which time zone she means. Fortunately I wasn't busy then and could go ahead with the call. It's only 10 minutes.

Year in review update, her account earned a very nice 15.4% return, ie a whopping $135,000. In 2020 it was $124,000 gain. I know I sound like a freaking broken record, but in what world was she ever going to run out of money in 8-10 years??!! DD and I were just taking about that again the other day.  

Then he discusses his predictions going forward and he's very optimistic for 2022. He thinks that the inflation we are seeing is because of the supply chain problem and he thinks that problem is going to get better soon. While stocks have dropped a lot this month, it's a good time to buy some more shares of some stock she already has, that has performed well for her, because the stocks are down right now. He feels this is a great buy and they will get back up to where they used to be and she will profit from that. Ok, works for me. I guess we have to approve what he wants to buy and sell. I don't have the time to research any of it, that's what he's getting paid for, so of course we're going to go by his recommendations.

DD kept trying to call my mom off and on after 1pm, figuring she'd be back from lunch. No answer. I told dd, that's how it is all the time now that I try her on her landline, LOL. She's never in her apartment. Finally dd got through to her and they chatted and she mentioned it was my birthday and then of course my mom said she needed to call me. No call, haha. Finally about 20 minutes later I call her up, and she said she was trying to call me but wasn't sure if she had my number. She read off some # from one of her slips of paper that had the area code and 3 more numbers (that aren't anything near my ph#) is all. Nope, that won't work. See my name in big black letters on your phone with a button next to it? Just push that and it's preprogrammed with my number.  Anyway, at least by the time that 15 or 20 minutes had gone by since she talked to dd she did remember she talked to her and remembered to tell me happy birthday.

We are still waiting on our new car to get delivered to the dealer. It sounds like it might show up next week. Road and weather conditions will dictate when we decide to go over and get it. 

So, we have these friends on Facebook, that are a married couple with kids. They are in their 40's, have their own business, seem to be doing well. But, boy they seem to be the most unprepared for life's curve balls as you can get, LOL. First, a couple weeks ago their area got dumped on by more snow then they usually get, but still, not unheard of. It will happen every so often. They were totally unprepared, yet they have all the equipment (and then some) to deal with it, but act like "omg, what are we going to do?!". Now she just posted that both their debit cards got hacked and turned off and their bank isn't open until Monday, so they are stuck all weekend with no debit cards. How about you have a little cash on hand for emergencies. Or a back up credit card to use in an emergency? Someone commented that they sure seem to be getting hit with problems lately and I'm sitting here thinking to myself - you wouldn't if you'd just be a little prepared for things to happen!

Friday off work

Ok, 2 blogs is definitely more time consuming, haha. I got the one post done this morning, but then it was time to leave for the vet appointment, so I didn't get this one done.

I told dh like 4 times the appointment was at 10:45. It usually doesn't take more than 45 minutes to get there. For some reason he kept thinking 10:30. At 9:30 he says are you ready to leave. I'm like NO! I'm not going to sit in the car for a half hour waiting for our appt. time! I said the very earliest I want to leave is 9:45. Geez! Then he tries to tell me, well I don't know how the roads are! I called BS on him -he always knows how the roads are - every single day, even though we go out like once a week, LOL.

Of course we got their 10 minutes early. They came out and got the dog right at 10:45 and had his stitches out in just a few minutes and brought him back out. 

Then dh decided to go through the car wash. We did the "works" with the coating and undercoating this time. The car really needed a good washing and since the roads were bare and dry it was a good day to do it. Then we filled up with gas and went to the grocery store. I didn't get a ton of stuff, but we left the dog in the car and dh came in. He went down the water and soda aisle and grabbed those things, while I grabbed the cheeses, so that helped get us in and out of there faster, splitting up, some. I haven't had Rice Krispies cereal in forever and that sounded good. NONE, empty on the cereal shelf for that. Their water selection was pretty sad as well as I had to get a different kind of lunch meat than I usually get. Even the shredded cheese was low stock and I ended up having to get an expensive brand. 

It was almost lunch by then so we did Wendy's drive through and headed home. Going to this vet, instead of that one out in the country, saves a total of 40 minutes driving, as well as we can also get other errands done, that we cannot do in that other little town the vet is in. It's just handier all around.

After we got home I made a cake. I guess you can say it's my birthday cake :). Then I took a nap for about an hour. I haven't frosted it yet, but will do that after I'm done with this post.

DD reminded me that the new season 2 of Resident Alien just started, so I'm going to watch that tonight. Hopefully it's as good and funny as season 1.

Since we had a good lunch that filled us up, I think maybe we'll just do sandwiches tonight for dinner. Dh decided to take a nap right when I would normally get dinner started, so he's obviously still not too hungry yet.

Oh my stars!

I continued (as well as dh) to have a bit of a stomach ache most of yesterday, but so far so good today, but I haven't had breakfast yet, just my cup of coffee.

Most nights when I go to bed kitty will follow me in. Pounce and play at my feet for a few minutes then settle in next to my knees and sleep until dh comes to bed (then it's play time again) but for some reason last night he just would not settle. After a half hour, I'd had enough of that and wanted to go to sleep, so I took him up to my office and shut the door. My office is above our master bedroom and boy, he always sounds like he is tearing the room apart up there, playing, but I open the door in the morning and all looks normal. You should see me slowly opening the door...afraid of what I might find broken, haha.

Today's dilemma - when I call my mom to chat....do I mention to her that it's my birthday?? I know she won't remember now, but I feel like if I tell her, she's going to feel bad for forgetting, but if I don't tell her, one day in a few months (she did this last year, haha) she will say did I remember you birthday? did I get you a gift? and then I just fudged and told her oh ya, you did. It's not much of a big deal to me, really. I know I have read on that support page I follow people will sometimes comment how bad they feel because their parent forgot their birthday. It's not her fault. It's the disease now. I know if she didn't have dementia, the person she was before would totally have remembered and celebrated with me. 

One of my work guys is in charge of sending out a group email when it's someone's birthday, wishing them a happy birthday with a cute or funny pic or meme. But, one of the managers (not my boss) she's always first to wish me happy birthday. She starts work at the butt crack of dawn every day and her happy birthday was in our chat program when I got up this morning. I don't even think my boss will remember until she sees the email from the "birthday guy", LOL.

I don't know stars/planets in the sky but boy, there sure was a huge bright star in the southeastern sky this morning. My phone sucks at pictures, especially in the dark, but it was neat to see.

ok, I guess I spoke too soon about my stomach. Good grief - like dh keeps saying "what did you do to us?" LOL. I just went ahead and ate breakfast. If I don't eat, then I get a headache and I guess I'd rather have a stomach ache than a headache.

Today at noon I have the call with mom's investment guy for the quarterly (well, this one will be annual) recap. Usually these calls are only about 10 minutes or so. I'll be glad to get it over with. 1) I hate talking on the phone, and 2) still ticked off at investment guys butting in on her beneficiaries.

Tummy troubles and what not

I ended up not feeling very well yesterday. Stomach issues and a few trips to the bathroom. I mentioned it to dh and he said he was having the same thing. What did we eat last night? I said you had an omelet and I had cereal, so it's not that. I also read somewhere that it's like a 36 hour trip through your stomach, so maybe the pizza? He laughed and said "no, not the pizza!" His favorite, haha. I said, or it's all the peanut butter cookies and chocolates we ate in 2 days. DH forgot he had bought a bag of chocolates to go with the flowers for our anniversary and then saw the bag out in the shop, wherever he hides presents, LOL. So far so good today, but I haven't had breakfast yet.

It's payroll processing day. Enough said about that. I am trying, yet again, to get a simple question how one aspect of our payroll set up works. Every time I've asked, it's been in the context of additional questions and she never answers this one question. I have a feeling the setting is part of our issue. Finally this morning I emailed her with this question and this question only. We'll see. I think it's just that she's new and doesn't know the answer, so that's why she keeps ignoring the question. Other than this she had been a much much better payroll "advisor" then we had before.

DD recommended watching The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime. I think I might give that a try tonight. DH is usually in his den, off the living room area, watching channels of videos on YouTube. The cat is usually either sleeping on the couch or in my lap for the evening. The other evening I realized I hadn't seen him in at least an hour. I first went to the pantry, because sometimes he sneaks in there when we open the door and then we shut it, not realizing he's in there. I looked in our bedroom and under the bed. I went upstairs and looked around and no kitty. I went down into dh's den and said I can't find the cat. He shrugged his shoulders, LOL. I turned around and there was kitty, sleeping on a blanket dh had sitting on top of a bin in the corner of his den.  

Did I mention my one chicken, that hadn't gotten all her feathers back, finally did a few weeks ago? I was so relieved. I think I did mention this. They all look flat and fluffy now, LOL. I'm sure she's much warmer now.

Ok, well I got a half an answer from the payroll person. Pressed again for a full answer and finally go tit. I'm not sure what was so hard to answer this, LOL. Ok, let's see how the rest of it goes........

It snowed

Well, the weather was totally wrong yesterday. We ended up getting like 3 inches of snow, so by late afternoon dh did have to go out and shovel and plow, LOL.  He (as usual) went ahead and plowed down the rest of the street to other neighbors place. That neighbor drove by, coming home from work, while dh was out there plowing (what HE is supposed to plow) and couldn't even be bothered to take 15 seconds to roll down his window and say thank you or a text to say thanks.

Funny, I tried to call mom twice yesterday, but ya know, she's a busy gal and wasn't in her apartment either time, LOL. I don't have her landline set up for voicemail. So, this morning she just gave me a call and said she was thinking she might have missed calls? I said yep, I tried twice yesterday LOL. She said all is good, just keeping busy and thought she would give me a call before she heads downstairs to see what activities she's going to be doing today. Some days she just sounds so "normal". Still no mention of the cell phone....

I texted my half sis yesterday, to let her know I'd be happy to do her US tax return again and to email her 2021 info whenever. She said she is just getting over covid, since last Wednesday, but just about over it now and has just been working from home. Said for her it was mostly like a bad cold. Her BF also got it and not bad either and left for work (he works out of the area a lot) on Monday. I'm glad it wasn't anything serious for her.

I didn't sleep very well last night. Well, I did until dh came to bed - at 3am! He said he fell asleep in his chair watching videos. And when he comes to bed it wakes up the cat, who thinks it's time to play, so then I had to get up and put him upstairs in the crate. And couldn't fall back asleep. I was replaying in my mind all that crap with SB. Maybe starting that blog wasn't a good idea, ha! But, I'm past the background info posts now, so I'll be fine.

Mom's health insurance company sent out 2 more covid testing kits. Well, there are 2 to a box, so 4 in total. I still have the 2 boxes that were sent a month or so ago.

I have to do work tax stuff today. UGH. I really hate tax stuff. Today is due their monthly state business tax return, then by next Monday I have to do 2 city ones. Plus I need to get the 1099's done for both companies. I keep dragging my heals, because I hate doing them, LOL. I think people assume if you are an accountant, you like to do taxes. Nope. Never have. I hated that class, too. Thank goodness both companies use a CPA for the IRS taxes. I never had any desire to be a tax accountant. Too many changes to deal with all the time. In regular financial accounting, it's always the same. Black and white. Nothing much changes at all in how you account for it all.

 

Remembering for Mom

Ok! I finally decided to start that other blog about dealing with my mom's memory issues. Some of you commented to let them know if I do, as they might like to read that one, too.

I can't even believe I got the Blog name and address I first tried for!

Remembering for Mom - www.rememberingformom.blogspot.com

If you visit it, let me know over there what you think. I've only got one post up, with some background history, so far.  We'll see how it goes.

Monday and weekend wrap up

I took some peanut butter cookies with me to the neighbors, and took a bunch of books she no longer wanted to keep. I think I got almost 20. A few I have already read in years past, but they were good ones and worth a read again someday and one's, if I had purchased when I read, I probably would have kept. She had like 3 or 4 boxes of books she is trying to get rid of. I had taken a soft sided bag with handles with me and filled it up and lugged it back home, LOL. Hopefully sometime this year, we get our bookshelves built. If it's not appearing that dh is getting on this project, I will probably at least just buy a bookcase for my office then. I have no bookcases at all! Weird for someone who loves to read! Years ago I used to buy books, but our house was small, filled with 2 kids and all their stuff and toys and books were just making more clutter, so I stopped buying and either borrowed from mom (back when she used to read a lot) or the library. To be honest, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to read any of these - the print is just too small for me the past several years. Another reason I started using my ipad mini, so I could adjust the font to my liking and ease of reading. I find trying now to read an actual book is hard and I end up not reading for very long periods as it's such a strain on my eyes. But, I do love the look of books in bookcases :)

My mom tried to get on her computer again yesterday afternoon. Not connected to her wi-fi again. I have no idea. My last visit there I checked the box in network settings to "stay connected" and I turned her computer on and off 3 times and it stayed connected. I can only guess that because she has no clue anymore what to click on when she turns her computer on (she's supposed to click on the Firefox icon on her screen to access her email) and she is clicking down on the settings icons on the lower right of her task tray and if you click on the network settings, it shows a bunch of different networks, for all the apartments there. And of course she would have no clue what she is clicking on at all, she would just be clicking to see if something looks familiar. 

I finally got her to close out that screen and click on Firefox (so I could determine if she had a wi-fi connection) and it took me 2 minutes to get her to find the tab for her AOL mail, which when she clicked on it, said server not found. I'm just going to have to have her turn her computer on for me next visit and show me what she is trying to do each time she turns it on. 

She hasn't mentioned her cell phone again now in almost a week........I'm really hoping she forgets all about it! I still wonder where it is, LOL. Tucked away, hidden somewhere good, I'm sure.

This is going to be a 4 day work week for me. I am taking Friday off. I just realized my boss never approved my request and it's still showing as pending, so I just pinged her to remind her. We have to take the dog in to get his stitches out and since it's Friday and since I still have so many days to use up, might as well. I earn almost 2 1/2 days off per month, plus I still have like 240 hours unused. Ok, she got my message and approved it, haha.

We have no snow in the forecast, so now shoveling or plowing for dh looks to be for awhile at least. He's gonna need a new project to keep him occupied. Hope he finds something, haha. He's still piddling around in his shop. Finding things here and there to get rid of. One is an old cheap small upright vacuum cleaner. I had gotten it years ago to use in our motor home. Something that didn't take up much space, but it was pretty cheap and didn't work that well. For some reason he has kept it all these years and he tried to give it to dd years ago and of course she didn't want it. It's really just a piece of junk, still in the box it came in for storage. Finally yesterday he threw it in the garbage. Baby steps, I guess.

Well, it's almost 11 am. I think I'll try to give my mom a call now. She doesn't have exercise on Mondays, so should be in her apartment before she has lunch time.

Email, dogs, cats and books

Apparently I did fix the issue with my mom's computer disconnecting from her wi-fi every time she turns it off. She called me last evening, because she was on her computer and not understanding what she was seeing. I have no idea what she was on. It appears she is clicking down on the little icons on the bottom right.  I got her to just close that window. Then I said you need to click on Firefox. That is how you get to your email. She did and saw the AOL tab. I said ok, that's what you click on to see your email. Then she says "oh ok, I see that. I can just do that in the morning". Ok....LOL. I can see now she has really forgotten completely how to use it. Then she kept trying to read off all this stuff she was seeing "Macy's..." or a headline to some article. I'm like those are just ads and articles they want you to click on and look at. You can ignore those. If she does remember this morning to get on and look at her emails, we'll be back at square one with explaining how to do it. The only emails in her inbox are a weekly newsletter from her investment guys office. And I just the other day deleted weeks of them from her inbox because it's been months since she opened her email and she won't read them anyway.

If you like dogs and need a good laugh every few days, check out Tatum! He is so cute and funny. On Instagram his account is hi.this.is.tatum. On Facebook it's Tatum Talks. What I love about a lot of their videos is the voice is happening while he's filming the dog, not gone back later and voiced over. 

My neighbor (recovering from surgery) texted me last night that she is cleaning out some books from her bookshelves and if I want any stop by today. I will do that. Someday I want those bookcases upstairs and will need books to fill them! I know she has a lot. She has a den just off her entryway that is filled with books. She is the one, when we first moved over here, invited me to join the bookclub she was in (that ended up disbanding) and I know she always bought the books we read. I just make some peanut butter cookies yesterday, so will take over a small  plate with me.

The pb cookies were pretty good! just from a Betty Crocker packaged mix. Add water, oil and an egg. Plus, it didn't make a ton, so I didn't have to spend hours cooking sheets of cookies.

DH got another small project in the shop done, that he's been meaning to do since it was built. Inside his "eletrical/water" closet the box/controls for the water well pump are bolted to a board on the wall. The board was just plain piece of plywood. He removed it all so we could stain the board and look a little more finished. It was supposed to be done right during building but we were in such a hurry to get moved into the shop, because we had to be out of our house, that dh just had them leave as is.

So, all day yesterday kitty seemed like a good little gentleman. Calm and slept a lot. I'm thinking ok, he's past this craziness. Nope! Evening time he got crazy and kept jumping up on the chair, swatting me in the face and grabbing my arm and trying to bite me. I'd yell no and put him down and he's turn right around and do it again. Finally, in a text, dd suggested I get that spray bottle out. Kitty just saw it sitting next to my chair and jumps up and all sweet and lovey as can be, LOL.

Well, I actually slept in until 8 this morning. Now better get in the shower and at least present myself a little more presentable since I'm going over to the neighbors later. Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny blue sky day and got up to 40. So far today seems very overcast and gray.

Jet set and insecurity

With Facebook and social media we now get to see glimpses (or more!) into friends and acquaintances lives that we wouldn't have years past. I most likely wouldn't know that one of my high school friend is in in Hawaii this week, or that so and so just had a baby, etc.

It's interesting to see how different some people's lives are. Most everyone, at least that I know, are fairly similar lives. They work, have some hobbies, do some fun stuff here and there. But one old high school friend is interesting to see how she lives her life. I can't even imagine it, really. Well, if I try, it totally wears me out! She's been with her guy quite a few years, (I think they are engaged now), and he is quite quite wealthy. Made enough money from his business to retire early and live a life of leisure...and boy do they! It is constant travel. It appears they may get home for a few days here and there but not home much. And when they are home, do they relax? Nope! It's all parties and get together's with friends, dinners and meals out. And most pictures include cocktails, glasses of wine, or bottles of beer in them.

The thought of living in constant travel (and drinking!) or even constant activity when home would literally put me in the hospital from exhaustion, I'd bet! Shoot, I'm tired just after a day of shopping or errands in the city, haha!  Two weeks ago, she was at some B&B somewhere, last week she was in Nevada, today she is in Mexico. Next week she will be in Arizona. I'm very happy for her that she is well off and comfortable, but boy, I really do not envy her lifestyle one little bit.

As I said, I don't think she and her guy are married, but have been together quite a few years. She quit work a few years ago, when he sold his business/or retired. I worry about a woman like her, though. Has he provided for her in case he dies and they are not married? I would not want to be my age, or older, and end up with nothing! She didn't have a career type job. She worked in retail, so I doubt she has much of a retirement fund for herself. Nor at our age, to try to go back to work would not be a fun prospect.

Same for my half sister. I worry about her too, in a similar situation. I have never asked her about it. She is still working and does have a small retirement she puts into, but if her guy she's been living with for the past 10-12 years dies and they aren't married, has he left anything to her? their home is his home and property, as well as his business. I highly doubt any of it's in her name. (it's a ranch he's owned or his parents did) What if he dies, say 10 years from now? What would she do/where would she live? Most likely everything goes to his 2 adult daughters. I would not want to be in that position. Too risky and zero security.

Weighing decision

The vet called yesterday at the end of the work day to say that the 2 tumors removed were cancerous, but that the pathology showed clear margins. She (and us) assumed they probably would be cancerous, since he already had that lump on his chest removed last April that was. But, (and there was a lot she explained to me and my scribbling notes as I tried to listen and write aren't very good) there are some concerns with it all.

She said these 2 removed were metastasized from an original primary skin tumor. The unknown is whether or not the original tumor is the one removed last April and she also said the vets notes on the pathology were just notes, not the pathology report itself, so not 100% if it all was clear margins the first time. I said the vet just told me they thought he got it all...She said it's also typical that these 2 she took out would have come from another  primary skin tumor, not a tumor inside him. BUT, usually those would have shown up within a shorter period of time, say 2-3 months. I said well, he so much fur and it's so long, is it likely we could have just not noticed it? (the only way to notice something like that on him is to feel around). She said well, they were pretty small, so they probably haven't been there too long.

She said these were the size of peas. Then I was confused. I said well that one on his side had gotten pretty big? She said well, he did also have some of those fatty cysts (I can't remember the name for those) and I aspirated them. I'm said "oh!! ok! did you do that his first visit a few weeks ago?" yes, she did. I said ok, that explains it! When the vet tech came out to get him she asked me where the tumors were that were being removed and I said well, I'm not exactly sure, I wasn't shown and he had 2 that were to be removed and other(s) that were just the benign cysts. I started to feel around for that big lump (which seemed hard to me everytime I felt it and getting bigger) and could not find it. I couldn't remember which side it was on. Then dh started feeling for it and couldn't find it. We were like what the heck?! how are we missing this big lump?! Well, she had drained it with a needle on his first visit. She may have told me this at that visit, but when you are standing out in the snowing 17 degrees, I could have missed that part.

She also said if it were a tumor elsewhere, like his lung, his lymphnodes would be enlarged and they are not and his blood work they did before the surgery was all good. She said, if we want, we could have more diagnostics done. A chest and abdomen xray that they can do in their office and also an ultrasound, done at a specialist vet and see if they see anything inside that is a tumor. May or may not find anything and if they do, again it's a may or may not be able to do anything about it.

Like she said, these tumors on his skin are TYPICAL of just being metastasized from another skin tumor. Tumors inside don't typically spread to a skin tumor, well they can she said, but it's in very late stages and you'd have known long before they showed up he was sick and had cancer. But, what is the mystery to her is why it took from April to now for them to show up. I know they have been on there at least a couple months. It was a good close to 3 months ago we noticed lumps (but honestly, I think the ones we noticed were the benign ones). End of Nov we had the cat in that other vet and I made the appt to have his lumps checked out and cat neutered for end of Dec.

So, what to do? She said the xray runs about $175 and the ultrasound at one specialist is $275 and at another in the city it's $480. And it's very possible they won't show any problem inside. We could just keep an eye on him and keep checking for any new lumps, but again, if there is, it's because most likely there is some other original SKIN tumor. Well, that's my understanding of everything she explained.

It basically sounds like what's throwing her "off" on it all is that these 2 small tumors she just removed came so many months after the tumor he had removed last April 27th with the other vet. She also said that the pathology on both of these she removed have clean margins, so that is also good.

We don't know what to do. He will be 10 years old in July. If they are able to find a "source" of the skin tumors and it can be removed, are we really going to extend his life span at this point? Ugh.

Thursday this and that

After the busyness of this week, today's post seems pretty anticlimactic. LOL. Not much going on or to write about. Maybe stuff will come to me to chat about as I start typing (which happens often). I was just downstairs making dh an egg sandwich and wrapping it in foil...and thought to myself "I swear I ordered a new roll of foil with my grocery order yesterday" but no foil. I need to check my order to make sure I wasn't charged for it. Maybe it was one of the items out to begin with and I didn't catch it. If so, then I still need to find 3 things Walmart was out of: mayo (only Best Foods or Hellman's if you live east, LOL), canned sliced pears, and foil.

Weird, I just got on my Walmart account to look at my order yesterday and it shows not picked up yet (though I got a text right after I picked up that it was). I was getting low on baking powder. I didn't realize the can I ordered was huge! It was only $2.72 so I guess I just assumed it was the normal size I've always gotten, that last me a long time. This huge 22 oz can will last me forever.

This cat! OMG! he's just nuts now. He spent most of the evening sleeping in my lap and I'm thinking oh good, he's calming down now. Then he woke up and again, wouldn't stop terrorizing the dog, who bless his sweet heart, just kept getting up and moving to a new spot to sleep. At one point I looked over to the side of me (I was sitting in the recliner) and kitty was laying up next to the patio door (after just pouncing on pup, who got up and moved) and while kitty looked all calm and relaxed, just the tip of his tail was moving and as I'm thinking to myself (and go to turn my face away from looking) - "that can't be a good sign" kitty launches 3-4 feet to my chair and swats me and runs off. He's nuts.

Mom's medication dispenser does have one annoying aspect to it. It constantly sends reminders (on her screen) and to the app I have that a med is running low. It's not! Geez Louise, I just 3 weeks ago filled 4 of the 5 meds with 90 day supply of pills. Then Monday I filled the last one up (that still have 14 pills in in the cup). Now I'm getting notifications that one of the ones I put 90 in 3 weeks ago is low and it's not. And apparently there is no way to turn these notifications off. Of course my mom sees the notification on the screen on the dispenser so has to ask me all the time, because she doesn't remember.

I ordered the dog some more of the Cosequin DS I give him. I had to change to Chewy and didn't realize what I was ordering was actual pills, not the chewables. Of course he spits them right out. GrRR. I'll try getting them in a hot dog piece, but with the size of them, he will still spit them out - and still eat the piece of hot dog.

It's supposed to be snowing all day today, but as usual the weather is rarely what they say it's going to be. I had to chuckle about a FB post a friend shared (where they don't get too cold or much snow) from a Pet shelter she follows "it's cold out - be careful of freezing ears and paws when you let your pets out to pee". oh good grief - they are not going to freeze their ears or paws to go outside for a few minutes to pee. If that were the case our dog(s) and neighbors dogs would be frozen popsicles! Neighbors dogs have their outdoor run from their doggy door and they are outside all the time. And it hasn't been above freezing for weeks.

Ok, I guess I found a bunch of nothing to chat about here in this post. Back to work. oh...I just looked out the window and now it is snowing, LOL.

Wait and watch

We had our visit with the urologist this morning to discuss dh's treatment options for the prostate cancer. Last night I wasn't even sure if we were going to be able to go. Dh said it was a sheet of ice outside and if the roads were icy in the morning (like what caused the road closing wreck yesterday morning) he wasn't taking a chance. We have so many wrecks on the interstate near us from the ice. But he got up at 6am and got in the shower, so I figured it must be a go. 

DH's doctor said he is considered in the "very low risk" category. Of all the samples from the biopsy only one showed cancerous cells and that was like 5% of the sample. He said dh is a very good candidate for the "watch and re-test" approach, as most likely this will be extremely slow growing, as most prostate cancer is. He went over the other 2 options - radiation and surgery to remove the prostate, along with the likely side effects/changes from those 2 options he would then have to deal with going forward. The main one being incontinence. Dh decided to do the wait and watch. He will need to have the blood test for the PSA twice a year, an exam once a year and shouldn't need another biopsy for 2 more years. The dr. also said there is a "gene test" they can do on the samples they already have. It can give a good indication of what category he falls into on how aggressive the cancer may or may not be. We are going to have that done too. The more info to make decisions with, the better. He also explained that if you chose the radiation option and then later need to have your prostate removed, that causes other issues. He cited a statistic that of all the autopsies done of men over 80 years old that died of other causes, 80% also had prostate cancer and either didn't even know it or if they did it was still limited to the prostate and not what they died from. Basically his doctor recommended that due to the small amount of cancer, the very slowness of prostate cancer, and if you are the type of person that can know you have a cancer inside you and be ok with it just kind of staying stagnant, then go with the wait and watch program.

We got over to Walmart at 9:15, so only 15 minutes past my time slot. There was only one other car there, and they pulled in right after we did. Groceries brought right out and no problem, so that was a relief, too. I needed some groceries! and was very glad it didn't get canceled. There were only 2 substitutions and nothing out of stock. Though when I was placing the order they were out of the mayo I like. I'll probably have to order some online from Walmart. I'm not paying $6.68 for it at our town store.

It's only 12:30 and I'm already tired from having to get up early again this week. I didn't take today off work, so no break there to take a nap. 

Kitty has been a total little brat. I hope he gets back to normal soon. He's also been driving me nuts the past few weeks with his litter box liner. I use those plastic liners, which makes it easy when it's time to dump the whole litter out. But, for some reason he has started pulling the sides of the liner over the litter. I keep folding it back over, but sometimes, like last night, he pulled it over and got his poop all over the edge of the plastic liner, so I had to replace the whole thing, before I was ready. Or he scratches so many holes into the liner, pulling it over, that when time comes to remove the liner, I've got sand coming out the holes. So, I just tried pouring the litter in the litter box without the liner and see how that goes. I'm sure I won't like it come time to dump out the whole litter to replace with new. 

That's all I know for today. I think it was the best of possible bad outcomes, at least. Dh seems ok with it.

Back to normal Tuesday

It was an uneventful night with the animals, so that was good. Though this morning kitty is being a total terror. It's like when we first got him. I thought neutering was to calm him down, LOL.

Tomorrow morning is dh's consultation appointment with his urologist to discuss his prostate cancer and options. I planned to do a Walmart grocery pick up order to schedule for pickup in hour after his appointment. His appt is at 8:30. I'm guessing it won't be more than an hour, if that. I was going to schedule p/u during the 9-10 hour. Only it's same as last time I tried to order. The only hours they are showing available is 8-9 and then not until 2pm. I highly doubt they are busy on a weekday morning. I have been there many times at that time of week/day and half the time there might be one other car there picking up. My guess is they do not have the staff available. So, I went ahead and just did the 8-9 am slot. Just try to get there as soon as possible after 9am. My guess is we'd be able to be there by 9:30 at the latest. The doctors office is less than 5 minutes from Walmart. I guess if we get there after 9am and they can't load us up and have to cancel it on me, then I guess that's what happens. I can't imagine the dr appt really lasting much longer than 30 minutes. We're there for the dr to say ok here's your options, here's what I recommend, think about it.........

After I got up this morning I started having this little spasming pain in my back between my shoulder blade and spine. It's annoying me! I didn't feel it when I was in bed. I took some advil earlier, but no help. It's not constant, but almost.  

One of the things I picked up at my mom, mixed in with all the notes and papers she doesn't throw out is her year end social security form for tax purposes. She had opened it, but obviously not something she even registers anymore what it is for. She at least used to either call me and tell me it came in the mail (even if she wasn't quite sure what to do with it) or she would set it aside. I just need her interest/earnings forms from her investment account and her savings & CD at a credit union and then I can do her taxes. I think I now have her investment one to just send me via email, rather than mailing to her, so that should come soon, too.  Her tax return is always pretty quick and easy to do. 

The roads were so good yesterday and so terrible today. Icy and a blocking accident out on the east bound interstate this morning. DH said cars were going by all morning, being detoured. I said we need to run to town sometime today and pick up your prescription at the pharmacy. So, we go do that about 11am. The first 2-3 miles to town there are quite a few cars and pickups passing us. The interstate is usually mostly semi's. I said , just an innocent question, "where are all the semi's?" Dh snaps off "they've been going by all morning". Hmm. ok I thought to myself, just strange we've been driving and not seen a one passing us on their detour route, since usually there are more semi's then cars. Then we turn the bend, where from here on, for the next 4 miles or so you can see the interstate.....it's miles and miles of semi trucks stopped, one after the other. I just said "oh, there's all the semi's". Never did see a semi pass by on the road we were on.

We've paid the first $2.42 towards his medical deductible for this year, haha. Only $6, 997 more to go!

My back has stopped hurting. The day is getting better.

Missing lumps and bumps

The vet called me at 9:30, 2 hours after we dropped them off, and all was done and good and they could be picked up any time after 1pm. I had the blood panel done on the dog, just because of his age and she said it was all good. DH had gone straight back to bed after we got home. I tried (to sleep upstairs) but then the call came. And then about half hour later I figured I'd better call my mom and remind her I'm coming and let her know what time.

So, from 10:30 to almost 1pm (literally a block from her apartment, LOL) I tried to call her and no answer. I figured she'd be back from wii bowling (9:30) by then and no exercise on Monday. Who knows where she was all that time. She doesn't remember, LOL. When she finally did answer she had just gotten upstairs from lunch. And try as I might (I really did try!) I could not find her lost cell phone. I also noticed the thumb tack in the wall where her last years calendar was. Hey, you should hang up the calendar I got you for Christmas! That's missing too, and of course someone must have taken it. She never throws any piece of paper or mail away, but I guess she threw that out, haha.

I planned to get to the vets at 1:30 but even though it's only a 5 minute drive from my mom's by the time I left her place, chatted with the lady that works there, and drove over to the vet, it was 1:45. It was like 2:15 by the time I left. Had to pay, get instructions. Then they brought the pets out, with instructions. Then I realized they didn't give me/charge me for the adequan I asked for refill on. Another 5 or so minutes for that and pay for that. The total bill (not including the adequan) was quite a bit less than I was anticipating. I was guessing $850 and it was $687. That included $225 cost to send the lumps into pathology.

Pooch seemed more "with it" this time than his last lump removal last April, but probably because he had more time to recover at the vets before I picked him up. Kitty meowed most of the way home. Nice little meows. Until I'd turn around to look at him and then he'd see me and give me Satan's meow! LOL.

After an easy dinner of hot dogs (I had stopped and picked some up because I assumed pooch would have some pills to take, but he did not) I crashed on the couch and finally kitty wound down and crashed with me on the blanket and I didn't wake up until 7pm.

The instructions say to let them try some food after 8. Kitty just ate a little bit now. I figured 15 minutes wasn't going to make a difference. At least I hope not. When the vet tech handed me him in his carrier she said here's Amos - he's nutless now :)

One trip today down

We were up at 5:45 and left a little after 6:30 to make sure we got to the vets at 7:30. We got there about 7:20 and could see people inside, so I called and they came out and got the pets and we headed back home and with a stop at McD's for some egg mcmuffins we were back home by 8:30. The roads were very clear and dry, so unless dh objects for some stupid reason (like it's a macho thing) I'm going to just drive myself back in this afternoon to get the pets. I need to first stop at my mom's and check in on her, refill one of the meds in her machine, and (maybe, LOL) find her cell phone. The vet had said maybe around 3pm ready to pick up, so I'll probably head back around 1:30, get to mom's at 2:15 and just hang out there until the vet calls. As long as they are picked up by 5pm, I can get them anytime they are ready. While it's cold out this morning (it was 17 on the drive in) it's supposed to be sunny and warm up to 45 this afternoon. 

No one can seem to pronounce my kitty's name, LOL. Even my dd had trouble at first, until she heard us say it. Amos - "A (long A sound) -mus".  Not A (short A sound) mose (long o sound). LOL. Like Famous Amos cookies, LOL. The vet phone receptionist couldn't say it right and the vet tech couldn't say it right.

It's hard for dh to get up that early and be ready to go in a short time period. His body just doesn't get working for a good hour or more. I'm hoping he'll be more than happy to stay home this afternoon and let me go pick them up. It's quiet here with no pets.

At least today is a work holiday, too. I can relax now until I have to go back in about 4 1/2 hours. My luck they will call at noon and say they are ready, while I'm still here at home. Oh well, like I said I have until 5 to get them, she said, so I won't need to rush to pick them up. I would just prefer to get back home before 5, before it starts getting dark, of course.

I just had a piece of toast before we left this morning. No coffee, no instant breakfast drink....cuz I would have to go to the bathroom before we got back home! DH, who due to his prostate has to pee literally every 20 minutes, finally listened to me and drank nothing this morning and didn't take anything with him to drink on the drive as he always does. What do ya know - he actually made it round trip without having to stop somewhere. Sometimes I am right.

I got home and had my coffee. It didn't wake me up. I think I could fall asleep easily right now.The vet tech said they would also call after the procedures were done, to let us know the animals are ok, and then call later when they are out of anesthesia and can be picked up.

Received gifts

Lucy, over at A Dime at a Time was just discussing gift giving between adult relatives. My birthday is later this month and dd had told me last week she was ordering a couple gifts and if I didn't mind she'd just have them shipped direct to me. I said of course, most likely what she will order will be free shipping, so no sense in her having additional cost just to mail it herself. It's expensive to mail packages.

They arrived yesterday, early - because she was worried it would be slow, like Christmas deliveries were and wanted to make sure I got them in time. One thing I has asked for - a cute hammered copper spoon rest. The other gift she thought on her own, remembering something I had mentioned quite awhile back. That when ever get our bonus room done like we want, we want an old time popcorn maker. She got me a cute smaller "replica" type. It will be perfect and not take up too much room.

Next birthday we have to deal with is my mom's, haha, in May. She typically gets combined with a Mother's Day gift most years, as did my grandma, since both their birthdays fell near Mother's Day. Every 7 years or so my grandma's would fall on the same day as Mother's Day. 

Yesterday morning I cleaned, mostly upstairs. Did the vacuuming. It is really nice now having a vacuum cleaner for just upstairs. Just before lunch our retired friend stopped by for a short visit. He had some oil jugs he had emptied for dh and brought the empties back. By about 1:30 my energy was zapped, so I took a nap and it ended up being a long one. 

I was going to make a hashbrown/cheesy type casserole dish for dinner and then realized I didn't have the bacon pieces it needs. (or any bacon in the freezer to thaw and cook up). I ended up making a pre-made pasta/chicken skillet meal. In looking in the freezer out in the garage I realized I have a box of taquitos that we like. I didn't know there was a box out there. When we were last in the little store in town I picked up a box of what they had. Some brand name never heard of and heated up some the other night for dinner. YUUUCKKK! It was like a mashed chicken (?) paste inside the rolled tortilla. I didn't see anything resembling cheese. I thought they were totally disgusting. DH did eat his. But anyway, glad to see there are some good ones in the freezer, haha!

Tomorrow morning we have to take the pets in for their procedures and have to drop them off at 7:30. They called to confirm on Friday and I asked about how long until we can pick them up. Not until like 3pm. Ugh. We might as well drive back home and wait, then. I could find something to do for 4 or 5 hours, but not 8. Oh well, just glad they are both being done on the same day and we don't have to do this twice, right?

Speaking of kitty, he's been really annoying the past several nights and mornings. In the mornings, after I get up and feed him, he just walks around and meows. I don't know what he wants. At night he will go to bed with me and around 11pm (dh is still up) he will suddenly start going back and forth from the windows on each side of our bed. There must be some animal outside he is seeing? but I can't see anything out there. Finally, I end up taking him upstairs and shutting him in my office (where his crate/food/litter box is) for the rest of the night. The previous vet had said getting neutered will calm him down, so hoping it will. And eventually, he'll start going outside when the weather warms up, so that should keep him busier. 

Today I need to vacuum downstairs. I was kind of in a baking mood yesterday to make some sort of dessert, but by afternoon I wasn't in the mood. Maybe today I will. Brownies sound kind of good - and easy.

New wheels

One thing I'm very experienced with is that plans rarely get to go according to your plans! Last year we started saving for a new vehicle. Our every day car (not that we drive it every day anymore) is now 11 years old and 150,000 miles on it. At the time we started saving, we weren't quite sure when exactly we were going to get a new car, but probably within a year or so, with the goal to save as much for the cost as possible, with only having to finance a small amount, if any at all.

As I now drive it more often, with more trips to the city to take care of/see my mom, we are also putting more miles on it than before, not to mention starting to feel like it's certainly due to start having mechanical issues with it's age. And dh is always worrying I'm going to get 50 miles (city distance) from home and break down, because you know it will happen at the worst time. It now has absolutely no power to go up any small hill or try to speed up to merge onto the freeway. It's wearing out. I have been lucky in that I have not needed it these past 2 years to drive back to my work for meetings, at least once a year. (thanks Covid). That has allowed us to put less miles on it, but we are both still not feeling like we currently have a very reliable car going forward.

So, we were going along, continuing to save, just trying to make this car last as long as possible and August came and we were hit over the next few months nearly $30,000 in medical bills for dh. (this years max will *only* be $7,000, thank goodness). Well, there went all the new vehicle savings! 

As these past months have progressed we, of course, are getting less and less confident in having a car going into it's 12 year of service and with this many miles on it. It's just not something we feel comfortable with, especially with the distances we have to drive it to get anywhere. I also do not feel comfortable now taking it on a long trip, say to see dd, which we need to start doing again. I haven't been to her house in over 2 years now! We also do not want to start putting money into repairs on this old of car. Then add in the month's that dh's old pickup was down with the blown transmission and we were down to one 11 year old car with lots of miles on it. So, we decided it's time to figure out what kind of new vehicle we want and get one. Dh wanted another truck. I did not really want a truck. They feel too big to me to drive (I have ridden in dd's F-150). Then dh says we'll get a single cab one. No, that doesn't work when we want to take the dog with us, or take my mom (well, I guess we could all 3 sit in front, squished) with us somewhere. And when dd and SIL visit we all can't go somewhere in a single cab truck. Finally, dh got more practical and we decided on like a mid sized SUV type. What we have now is a smaller SUV/crossover type. We thought the Kia Telluride looked nice. I stopped into the dealer in the city to take a look in person at one. Nope. They have none on the lot and to order one takes a year to get it. Well, not getting one of those then!

Then dd and SIL said they are getting a new Ford Explorer. Dh started looking at those online and we both decided we really liked that. Lots of room. Sturdy enough that if we happen to hit a deer (it's going to happen at some point, living here) it's much sturdier (for our safety) than what we have now. While I have managed to save $11,000 towards it and we'll sell our car and put that $ towards it, it's not what I had hoped in terms of paying for one and having a small, if any, car payment. But, we need to get a new car, so we ordered one at the same time as dd did, from the same dealer, where they live.

The Ford dealer is a close family friend of SIL's and he has bought all his cars/trucks from him. DH did have our local Ford dealer price one for us, but SIL's dealer friend was cheaper. He gave us both a good deal at a flat markup over his cost. Plus, it was so easy. DH and SIL spec'd out what we all want on it. DD and SIL went in to their dealer friend a couple months ago and ordered theirs and ours (we were on a conference call). They are not in stock and said would be about 4 months wait for production. Even more time to save some more money to put towards it. Production did end up getting bumped up almost a month sooner.

Why new?? Well, it's going to be another vehicle that we keep and drive at least 12 years like we have this one. We do not want something used and that most likely has issues (usually why people sell). Also, used cars are way overpriced right now! Good, for when we sell our car, I suppose, but not worth paying so much extra for a used car, just because the market for them is nuts. With the potential that I have to drive 400 miles each way a couple times a year, we want something new and reliable, not something that already had used up all those miles on it.

I'm not thrilled about having a car payment (been a very long time since I had one of those) but it is what it is. Of course my goal will be to pay it off asap. We had managed to save $25k this past year towards one, we'll save it up again and pay it off, hopefully within 2 years is my plan.

DD and I will have twin cars, LOL, except mine will be black and hers a dark green. We just got notifications that the cars are done in production and should be at the dealer in about 3 more weeks. The next issue was it's still winter and 3 passes to drive over to get the new car. Two issues. We'd of course have to drive over in our current car (dh wants to sell on our own, not trade in) and each of of drive one car back. I DO NOT drive over snowy passes (plus they've been really bad this winter with lots of snow). And second, OCD dh doesn't want to drive a brand new car over dirty, wet, snowy, de-icer crap covered roads, haha. Plus both he and SIL have bought some aftermarket inter-cooler thing to install on them. 

I asked the dealer yesterday if there is any way I can just sign the purchase documents electronically and dd/sil can pick up the car and store it at their house until the roads are better for us to drive over and get it. He said yes, no problem, or he can even store it there at the lot for us. Whew. That's a big relief. As soon as the roads clear up some, we'll get it over here. A few/several weeks more wait isn't going to hurt anything - we weren't originally planning to see it until then, anyway.

I am excited to have a brand new car. It's actually been since 2004, almost 20 years, since we last bought a brand new car. This car I have now we got in early 2011 and while it was almost brand new, it still had 4700 miles on it. It was a salvage from a rental car company. Someone apparently pulled up over a curb and ripped the front valance off. Very very minor damage, but I guess when a rental car has an accident, they have to total it. Some guy bought it at an auction, put a brand new front valance back on it and we bought it for half new price. It was like brand new. Still had the plastic on the floor mats. It has been a great car and served us well these past 11 years.

New sneakers and odd conversations

My new sneakers I ordered with my Kohl's gift card arrived yesterday.  They are a Skechers with memory foam. At first I'm like boy, these are hard and stiff! Don't feel cushion-y! Then I realized they were basically frozen, LOL. Once they got to room temperature they were much more comfortable and cushion-y. So.....I really now need to throw out my gross yucky pair.....and make my other pair the ones to wear for outside type stuff. They are still pretty new looking. They are supposedly the same exact kind as my yucky worn out pair, but they have never felt as comfortable and so I don't wear them too often. I pretty much only wear them when I am going out in public. I think these new ones will be comfortable to wear every day around the house. I don't like walking around in socks or bare feet. No support.

I see the package that went to Alaska is making it's way into our mailbox today. I can't even remember what it is. Something I'm sure I ordered for dh and his repairs/projects. The other missing package says it was shipped from NC on 12/30. I don't even remember what I ordered over 2 weeks ago, haha. The only thing I remember around that date was the OTC supplies I ordered from my mom's medicare advantage plan benefit and that box arrived a couple days ago. I actually think that package is the one they are showing still not delivered. The dates match and USPS doesn't show delivering a package earlier this week and they did.

My cat swallowed a feather part off one of his toys yesterday! OMG! I was on the phone chatting with my mom and looked down to see him playing with one of the feather parts he had awhile back chewed off the toy and then chewed the feathers apart some more. It was a smaller piece and he had it in his mouth and I reached down to get it from him and poof - it was gone! He seems fine. Silly cat. I'm probably going to see orange poop! He is one weird cat. He hears the shower turn on and comes running and sits outside the shower (walk in, no door) and then when I am done and turn off the water, he comes in and sits there, on the wet floor, and watches the wet walls, LOL. 

I don't talk to my uncle too often - maybe every month or so and usually fairly quick calls (he does call my mom regularly for quick chats). I think he is like me, doesn't really like to talk on the phone much. In between calls might be a text or two. Last time we chatted for any length was when he called me a couple of times about his will he was having re-done. Last conversation about was him calling me back and saying "you will be in my will, I don't know what I was thinking" (after telling me a few days earlier he decided to not leave anything to me, since I was going to inherit from my mom). 

So he calls me last night, and as usual, another strange conversation with him. And of course the story is never the same 2 times in a row with him, LOL. He said he was asking, to learn more about what's best to put savings into and wanted to know how most of my mom's money is "kept". I said about 90% of it is in her retirements funds account, with an investment company. I told him my step dad got with this investment guy 30 years ago and that's where the money has been (and earned very well) ever since. I explained it's like a 401k type of retirement savings account and she has to take a minimum required distribution each year. Then he says "I think I told you this, but I had my will re done and since you are going to be inheriting a bunch from you mom, I took you off my will and am leaving it to your 2 kids". I didn't say, no, last call you told me I was in your will! LOL. Like I told dd - I take everything he ever says with a grain of salt.

Another thing he often brings up, when we chat, is that with my mom having over $1 million dollars and not having to spend down any of it, because what she earns on it and her soc sec each year far exceeds what she spends, her money just keeps growing. He keeps commenting "you're the one going to inherit the majority of it - if you and your dh need some of it now, you should just spend some of it, she's got more than enough to last her life's expenses". I always say I know she does, but I just don't feel right doing that. He's like "I'm serious, she can't take all that with her when she dies and it's going to you anyway - use some of it now, while you may need it". I'm not sure why he often brings this up. Maybe it's something as simple as he's speaking from the perspective of an older person (he's 78) and realizes you should have some of the money to use/enjoy while you are younger and not wait until you are too old to be able to use it. I did say, ya, I had always wished, after my step dad died, that mom would have spent some of that money on herself to enjoy, traveling and such. I know she had wanted to, but then she started seeing that boyfriend and he wouldn't go to anything at all, so she never got to travel and enjoy some things like that while she was still able to enjoy it. Now she can't do it.

But, as always with my uncle, I'm always a bit suspicious of the what and why he is asking and talking about things, LOL. I'm not going to lie - it sure would be nice to just take a $15,000 "gift" (the amount per year you can gift someone without taxes on it) and finish up the 3 things we need to do to our house, but that's just not my way. But then again, I could inherit all this money in 10 years and be too old/infirm to enjoy it much myself by then. 

My mom is often saying the same thing to me: "if you guys need some money for something, just take some. You might as well use some of it now". Maybe that is where uncle is getting it from - maybe she is saying to him that I should do that, when they chat. 

The other thing he said was he plans to leave an old pick up truck, worth some money, to my dh in his will. I said oh, dh would love that. But again, I take everything he says with a grain of salt. He also said he and a friend are thinking of coming over for a visit - if Covid dies down. They'd like to take the train. I told him they are more then welcome to stay with us, we have 2 nice guest rooms. I doubt he will ever do it, though. Plus, as I thought and just verified - there is no passenger train service to our part of the state, it's all up north several hours away.

Quiet day, taxes, and temperatures

Yesterday was quiet. Probably because dh knew I was pissed off and he kept his distance. My mom did call, again still worried about her money. I'm not sure what is going on with her computer. She rarely even gets on it (I can see she hasn't checked her emails in a good 3 months now), but whenever she tries it appears to be disconnected from wi-fi. The last 2 times I was at her apartment I turned on her computer (she doesn't leave it on) to see what was going on and both times it was not connected to wi-fi. I highly doubt it is anything she is doing - she wouldn't know how to access that on her computer, so I'm not sure what would be causing it to keep disconnecting. There must be some setting that disconnects it when she turns off her computer and doesn't auto reconnect.

She wanted to get on to look at her bank account, but she said it was showing "server not available". Then I also realized she was trying to access her old bank. I'm not sure how she did that, as I actually thought I had deleted that bank from her "favorites" tabs across the top of her browser. I told her that is her old bank, but also that it looks like her computer isn't connected to the internet and I can't fix that until I'm there again. I told her we don't use Bank of America now, she has a local bank account. She said she doesn't remember doing that. But, that's not surprising since she doesn't have her checks, doesn't see statements, etc.

I need to take something down to the mailbox. It warmed up yesterday, but then froze again overnight but the driveway and street looks very icy right now. The outside temp says 30. Our mail used to come like 9 or 9:30 so I've always gotten it out there first thing in the morning, but I've noticed the past few months it's quite a bit later, usually 11-11:30 (new carrier). I can see these times looking on our informed delivery online and it shows the time packages are left in our box. The earliest in the past month or so has been 10am. I think I'm going to wait an hour or so and see if it warms up any to melt the ice on the street. I don't need to slip and fall, that's for sure. It's supposed to get to mid 40's today, but by the time that will happen the mail will have already been picked up, LOL.

We are expecting 2 packages that seem to have stopped tracking and just say "in transit, arriving late". One of them went from the east coast, where it shipped from, to Alaska. Ha! Wrong cold state.

I got started a bit on entering stuff for my tax return. Usually I owe some, due to my side job taxes, but was curious this year, due to our huge medical bills, how much I might owe. So far, putting in what I know and a couple of estimates on one of my mortgage interest docs (I had re-fi'd in March, so I have the original mtg co, the new one, who sold in one month, so one from them, and also one from the current mtg co) and looks like I'll still owe some on federal but getting back more in state, so at this point it's almost a wash, with a little bit extra to me. The other thing I want to make sure I figure out (Turbo Tax) is if I am getting credited the 4 months of paying for the new health insurance, where I was supposed to be getting approx $200/mo subsidy that I wasn't aware of, so hadn't applied for. My understanding is it's supposed to adjust for it/credit me when I do my tax return. I have a feeling it's not, because it has me put in the total spent, which I'm thinking it's going to assume was for the whole year, so it's not going to calculate it was for 4 months and I was only supposed to pay $440 a month  and was paying $640. If there is $800 I'm supposed to get and am not seeing it, I may have to pay for extra tax expert help. It appears there is a separate form to fill out and file to claim a premium credit and you show the months you had the ACA insurance. Ok, good! Well, then I might be getting around a $1000 back in taxes then, between my fed and state returns combined.

I belong to this decor page on Facebook (one of several, but this is the one most active). Boy, people just cannot read! Someone will post a specific question and people start answering other things. For example, I made a post (like only my 2nd) asking to see people's floor lamps they have in their homes. A few posted pics, but I'll bet a good majority of them told me what store(s) to try to buy them in...Ya, I know where to look/shop, I didn't ask for that. I asked to see the lamps they have in their homes! One lady just posted a picture of antique type secretaries desk with a few knicknacks on top. Above it was a large clock on the wall. She asked about her knicknacks on top and specifically said "the clock is staying where it is" and half the people responded about the clock. The OP even kept commenting under their comments "I didn't ask about the mirror". Another one just asked "show me your home exteriors with brick and stone. We had hardiboard and stone before, but dh doesn't want to use siding." First pic commented? someone's home with siding and stone. 2nd comment - same thing. Is it really that hard to read?? She just said she didn't want to use siding! I'm starting to get annoyed with it all, so like SAM, I don't know why I keep following it, LOL. 

Welp, it's probably about as warmed up as it's going to get outside before the mail carrier picks up, so out I got, hoping to to slip and slide too much!

Update: it was a total sheet of ice on our walkway and then driveway. I said nope, not gonna do it. Too far of walk all the way down the driveway and then all the way down the street to take a chance.

Stressful day

So much for thinking payroll might be an easy (-er) one yesterday, haha. Then, as I'm waiting for a reply from our payroll advisor to tell me she fixed the error message issue on a terminated employee, I decide to go downstairs and take out the kitty litter trash and give my chickens some scratch. As I'm reaching in the bin for the scratch my mom calls. Her credit card is missing. Someone took it. Here we go again. I said most likely you hid it somewhere, that's what you did a couple of weeks ago and we spent an hour looking around your apartment and found them in another spot in your wallet. Of course she has no memory of this. I asked her if there were any cards in her wallet? She says her ID is still there (it slide into a slot with a clear cover) and right then I have a call coming in for work/payroll issue so I have to hang up quick with mom and take this call.

When I called her back 10-15 minutes later I say "ok, are there any cards in your wallet?" No, none. (she has a credit card, ID card, insurance card, and a card from her apartment with her name on it - (for what use I don't know) "You just told me 10 minutes ago your ID card was still in there". She says well let me look around, I thought I had it, too. She found all the cards, including the credit card on the table next to her chair. Good, because I was so not in the mood to have to deal with that yesterday. Before I called her back I sat and took a bunch of deep breaths and told myself if she can't find the card I'm just fibbing and telling her I'll put a hold on it so no one can use it and I'll find it next time I visit. I wasn't going to spend a bunch of time trying to get her to look for it or trying to convince her no one took it. It's interesting how sometimes she knows how to call me using that landline and other times she acts like she doesn't have a clue it's even there on her desk.

The payroll tax tables must have adjusted a little bit. My federal income tax went down $5 for the paycheck. Wooo! LOL.

I don't know why dh's mechanic friend, who comes over here fairly regularly to work on his cabin, that is about 90 minutes past us, why he always calls dh to see what the pass and roads are like... dh is like I don't know - we don't need to go anywhere to have to drive on them! How would dh know? And when dh does need to know, he looks up the road condition on the state's DOT website, he doesn't call someone else to ask. Look on the DOT website, they have conditions described and cameras so you can see what the roads look like.

I was so annoyed with DH yesterday. It was just one thing after another. Then top it off with a loud yell in my ear at 4am that I was snoring! Well...excuuuuse me! He doesn't snore as bad now (lost weight helped that) but boy he used to snore awful almost every night for years and throws a fit when he has to listen to me snore every once in a blue moon. He acts like I do it on purpose. He yelled my name and jolted me out of a sound sleep and yells "you're snoring - you weren't snoring when I got up! (I'm assuming to go to the bathroom)". I sat up, so startled out of my deep sleep, said "Well {insert curse word}, I'm sorry! Just give me a nudge and tell me to roll over". That's what I do to him (usually a couple times a weekm because he will roll onto his back and always snores if he sleeps on his back). I grabbed my pillow and went and slept the rest of the night upstairs. First off, I didn't know he got up, secondly, I didn't suddenly decide "oh hey, he got up, so I'm going to start snoring!". So stupid. Whenever he gets up, gets in bed, or turns over, it's always this huge disruption to the bed and the covers, so ya, even if I don't wake up from it, I'm sure it jostles me from whatever position I was in (not snoring) and partially wakes me up to shift to a different position that made me snore. And it's not like this is a nightly occurrence - I snore like once a month, if that, for whatever reason.

So, it wasn't a good start to the day, nor a good end. Hoping today is better!

Early rise

I'm up bright and early this morning, thanks to kitty. While he's doing so much better sleeping with us all night, this morning he was awake an hour earlier than I get up. He did move up and snuggle up to my chest, purring very loudly the whole time, for about a half hour. Then he got restless, which was making the dog, laying on the floor next to my side of the bed restless. So, I got up and now have an extra half hour before I start work. Of course now kitty is laying on my desk, sleeping

Below my extra monitor is a stack of various papers - mail I need to do something on soon, my folder with lottery tickets dh insists we buy, etc. The little box with the $100 Visa gift card from my boss was sitting on top of it. I was looking for the paper for when I prepaid my propane for the winter and there was a gift card mixed in. I thought the one my boss gave me was still in the box. What's this one? something old I didn't throw out? I looked on the back to see what website to check balance. The first try gave me an error message and try again. Second try showed it zero balance. ok...it must be an old card I never tossed....

Then I opened the box from boss and it was empty, so ok, this is the gift card she gave me (It does say $100 on it). But zero balance and showed no transactions? I swear I hadn't spent it on anything yet. Did I and forget? But then why wouldn't it show the transaction on the card info online? I entered the card info a 3rd time and then it worked. Showed the $100 balance available. Whew!

I finally just cancelled my Amazon Subscribe and Save. You need 5 items and half of them (dog stuff) hasn't been in stock to ship in like almost 6 months. I'm just going to switch back to Chewy. They have the dog food, the Cosequin for him, and the big 40lb box of cat litter I use. Everywhere else I can get this dog food always has it in stock, not sure what Amazon's problem has been with it. But, it's not very "set it and forget it" when I have to keep finding it elsewhere.

DH was trying to rest a bit yesterday and then decided to be a little productive, but about all's he did was waste time, LOL. He parks the quad/plow in the garage. Once he's done plowing and parks it, it drips a terrible mess all over the floor. He tried using a big old leftover piece of our carpeting, but it got too wet and soggy. Then he was researching some kind of rubber liner/tray type thing, but they are stupid expensive. He decided to take the big indoor/outdoor floor mat that is in the garage when you walk in the regular door and move it under the quad to collect the water and move the piece of carpet to the door. Then he decided to move the freezer where the boot bench is. Then wasn't sure what to do with the boot bench. Got everything moved around and then decided to move it all back, LOL. But, he is hoping the indoor outdoor rug will work better under the quad. Plus, when dirt in the snow is left on it he can either let it dry and vacuum it up or even spray wash it all off easily.

Then he spent the evening watching some racing online. It's a week long event, so yay - he'll be kept busy every evening this week, haha :) I discovered the "channel" he subscribes to watch it on has an app for tv and offered he could watch it on the big tv, but he declined. Likes to sit at his computer and watch on one screen and do his internet surfing on his other screen. 

A girl we've known since she was a kid, who is now 30, just had her first baby. OMG, she is the cutest little baby. I don't think I'm going to be a grandma. I don't think dd and SIL plan to have kids. When asked she is usually kind of vague, but says "I don't think so". They want to build a house in the near future and showed us the floor plan they were looking at. It's a ranch style home, with basically 2 master suites and the 3rd room is an office, so no bedrooms for kids. She always says their 3 pets is enough for them. 

SIL is interviewing for a new position within the company they work for. He's been in his current position for like 5 years now and for some reason his supervisor will not bump him up to the next "level", which means more pay. When he got the position he asked about that level (this is a HUGE company, so they have lots of "levels") and was told he was 6 months shy of the required " time of experience". Well dang, like he says - he's WAY past that amount of job experience now. Plus, half the time he fills in for the "lead", but doesn't get the job title or pay. So, he put in for a different job in a different dept and has an interview this week for it. It would also be a mostly work from home position, which is appealing now. DD is still working from home. Not sure she will ever have to go back to the office. Her job is all computer work and can obviously be done from home. 

And it's payroll processing day.....typical problems, as usual. Somehow there is Holiday pay in the system for 1/1, which is a Saturday and we don't work weekends, so that shouldn't be there. And I have asked a question for clarification from our payroll advisor like 3 times now and still she gives me answer and information on everything but my question. I'm not sure why - she's usually really good about answering my questions. Have I mentioned that when I have had to talk to her on the phone she sounds EXACTLY like Jennifer Lopez? LOL. I mean exactly (and apparently she's from the same area, haha).

We've let 2 employees go this past week due to poor performance. One just started last Sept and I'll be she has worked not more than a month out of the 4 she was employed. Not sure what took so long to get rid of her, but I'm sure it's tricky firing people. The other one is getting let go today with a weeks severance, so now I have to figure out how to add that. I've only done it once before and can't recall how it was done/which code to use.

I see my 401k did 10.11 % rate of return for last year. Better than it usually seems to get and much better now that I have it in the right "earnings group" for a bit more aggressive earnings that it unknowingly got put into when we switched 401k companies.

I'm doing a better job making sure my phone is charged at all times. I've also been trying to plug it in at my desk, where I have a charger plugged into a USB on my computer. But, I swear every time I plug it in I have to unplug it to use my phone for something, or I need to go downstairs for something (dh is always calling me to ask something or get help with something) so I take my phone with, in case I get a work call or message. 

The other thing I have been doing the past couple of evenings is getting my cup of coffee ready to brew for the next morning. I have a Keurig and I use my own coffee grounds in an adapter cup (much cheaper). I have a couple of adapters that I clean out and always have a clean one ready. The first thing I do when I get up is let the dog out the laundry room door. Then fill up his bowl and let him back in to eat. Then I stumble into the kitchen and fill the little k-cup with coffee and half the time spill it over the edge in my not awake yet fumbling. So, now I've been filling the k-cup with the ground and setting it in the keurig. Putting my coffee cup underneath with the 2 teaspoons of sugar in the bottom of the cup. Now I just turn it on to brew and dispense. Give it a stir and add my creamer. Saves time in the morning too, haha.

Spending gift cards

I probably spent close to 2 hours searching on Kohl's online for something to buy. I finally messaged dd and said just pick something out for me, LOL. I'd come up with a couple ideas. Like I want a new everyday table runner, but they hardly had any, like less than a page of them, and nothing I liked. Ok how about a spoon rest. Nope. Ok, how about a new throw blanket for the back of the sofa that is more summery, to use during warmer months. The one I have I love, but it's very "wintery". Looked through ALL of them. The only one I liked turns out was more like a quilt material and not good reviews. Not spending $80 (even if it is gift money) on that. Finally, I decided to try a new pair of tennis shoes that have memory foam in them and 2 serving spoons. Every holiday meal I wish I had a couple more serving sized spoons. Now I still have $2.02 left on the $50 gift card.

And I think I have decided what to get with my $100 (or use part of it) Visa gift card from my boss. I'm going to get a steam mop. Every time I mop our floors (wood laminate in most and LVT in baths and laundry) I am frustrated and think to myself this would clean better if the water/solution was heated. Between dog drool spots and kitchen spill spots, if I want them gone I have to really scrub with the pad on the mop back and forth with lots of pressure, which just makes my back hurt quicker. I have found several online, with good reviews and under $100. In fact the Shark one is about $50. And no cleaning solution needed - just heats up water to mop. That will save money from having to buy the Bona cleaning solution to put in my Bona mop. I'm just trying to decide which one to get. Some also clean tile and are better to get into corners and this might also be a better way to clean our large shower tile floor. If anyone has a steam mop they like, tell me about it!

We took a quick trip to town yesterday afternoon to pick up a few groceries. On the way, as the road follows along with the river, we saw 5 or 6 deer standing on the ice on the other side of the river. Yikes. hope it was thick enough. DH was like either they are dumb or they know something we don't about the ice, LOL. We weren't at a good spot in the road to just stop and take a picture, though I wish we could have.  Of course they were gone when we went by coming home. I had planned to get chicken from the deli, only the deli was all closed up. Poo! Maybe they don't have it open on Sundays. But, over in their cooler case, they did have some cold chicken in containers, so I got that instead. Still better than having to make dinner, haha.

The carpenter guy just got here to pick up the free supplies dh was giving him. That's good - I figured it would be something like weeks or more, as most people seem to be around here. But, then I remembered he's from where we used to live - haha - we get right on things and don't wait. He also took some scrap wood dh had. The guy he offered the free tire chains to (like several hundred dollars worth!) never has picked them up. That was month's ago. I told dh I would just send him one more text about them and then try to sell them or something.

No snow in the near forecast and actually to warm up to high 30's and mid 40's this week.  

When I called my mom on Friday her cell went straight to voicemail so I called her on landline and didn't mention the cell phone either battery dead or turned off. I didn't call Saturday. I called Sunday morning and cell straight to voicmail, then called landline and it went straight to voicemail (which isn't set up, the message just says something about the party cannot be reached and doesn't have voicemail). WTH? I waited a half hour or so and tried the landline again. Same thing. Then I tried her cell and she answered it. She was on her way to the common area to sit and visit with other residents so I wasn't able to ask her to see if her landline was off the hook or something. At least I knew she was ok yesterday morning, because the app had told me she took her meds at 8:30, LOL.

Well, my boss is feeling lots better and back to work this morning and getting herself caught up, which means I'm getting tons of email and messages ;)  Back to work!

Sunday morning coffee chat

The hired carpenter guy got the 4 access panels cut in installed into the ceiling of the garage. They look nice and better than dh would have done, LOL. DH would have just cut the openings in the drywall and then framed that piece of drywall back as the cover. This guy bought some nicer looking sanded plywood and the whole cover is wood (which will be stained) with a wood frame. He's a nice guy - mid 30's, I'd say. His parents live up on the mountainside across us. They are all also from where we used to live and moved here shortly before we did and built their home up there. A flat out spectacular amazing view....but in the winter....right now there's 40" of snow up there and it's a very long dirt road up there. Almost impossible to get in and out in this weather. He said they both retired this past year and right now are down south traveling because they are tired of the snow and trying to get in and out of their place, LOL. Son said he told them, then why'd you build on top of a mountain?? LOL. 

Son lives down in the valley, near town. He had a little flyer where his son, in elementary school, is selling candy for his music class, so I ordered a couple different ones. DH had brought the folder inside to show me to order and I took it upstairs to look at and where my checkbook is. As I'm filling out my name and address and what I am ordering, I realize the papers smell like cigarette smoke. It brought back memories of my in-laws, who both smoked. Every single thing that came from their house smelled like smoke. Blech! LOL. When we used to spend any length of time at their house we'd get home and take showers just to wash the smell from our hair and change our clothes. While both lived pretty long lives (she was 85 and he 80) with all the smoking, needless to say, she spent the last 5 or 6 years of her live with one lung and on oxygen. He had a couple heart/artery surgeries.

I was able to get my snickerdoodles made and done by 1:30, which is good because by then I was out of zip. I have decided to give up trying to make cookies anymore. No matter what kind they always turn out flat. They taste great - just all flat. I remember I used to make these cookies a lot in high school and the were not flat - and they crinkled on top. I guess I just need to stick to brownies, cakes, and banana bread, which I'm good at. I also texted young neighbor down the street for her recipe of the "Toffee Butter Crunch" that was so good. Looks a bit more difficult then the white chocolate bark I made, but it was so good, I'll have to give it a try. This recipe needs a candy thermometer or do the cold water test, neither of which I have ever done, haha. DD also wanted the recipe, so maybe I'll let her try it first and let her tell me how hard it is, LOL.

Plus, I think I ate too much cookie dough and cookies while baking. Ended up the rest of the afternoon and evening not feeling so good.  

We are considering having this carpenter guy put in the bookshelves I want upstairs along the wall in the walkway between the rooms and the bonus room. He said he loves doing bookshelves. I don't need anything fancy, I just want a long (very long) bookcase built in on the wall and dh just keeps pushing off doing it himself because he really doesn't know how to do much woodwork type stuff. I have tried to find some to just buy, but it's a weird height there, as the wall is short and the ceiling is low on the sides, as basically everything upstairs is really just attic space. In dh's re-organizing in garage and shop he also got together a bunch of the leftover building supplies, about 2 bins worth, together and is going to give to this carpenter guy. Boxes of nails and what not. At the time we were building dh figured, hey, we paid for this stuff, I'm going to keep it, rather than just letting the builder take. We did use some of it in our projects, but mostly we are done now, so have no need for what's left. The carpenter guy didn't have room for it in his truck, so he will come back another time and pick up. DH said he seemed really appreciative that dh would just give him this stuff for free.

After dh cleaned up all the mess in the garage from the construction, dinner was just some clam chowder soup, a ham and cheese sandwich and some pears. I just had the soup, as my stomach was already full of cookies, haha.

I read some more of a long book I'm reading. Then watched a couple episodes of Who's Line is it Anyway. Not sure if this show is still going on or these are just old reruns, but always enjoyed this show for laughs.

I don't know what I'm doing today. I got my laundry done yesterday, too. I might see if dh wants to go into town to the grocery store. We are out of bananas and almost out of milk. Maybe we'll go later afternoon and then can pick up some of their baked chicken from the deli to have for dinner. Their chicken has always been good, but I'm noticing with the new owners, they are getting even more food offered in their deli, which is nice. Baked chicken is a newer addition. 

I've been checking back online with Kohl's to see if they are offering any free shipping to use up my gift card and $10 Kohl's cash and I see this morning they are offering with $35 purchase, so now is the time to figure out what to buy. I guess that is what I am doing today - as Lord knows, it will take me all day to figure out what to buy!