Well that worked out better

We just saved $1000 by those pavement re-sealers not coming yesterday due to the weather over the weekend. Dh was outside mowing and a guy showed up next door (they weren't home at the time). Well, it was the original guy who paved our driveway (and neighbors), just checking to see if we needed a re-seal..........well....your ex wife and her new business partner were here a week or so ago and gave neighbors and then us a quote and they were supposed to do it yesterday, but it's now delayed from all the rain......they told us and neighbors you weren't sealing anymore. Lies. He said it was also in their divorce agreement that he got the business and until he quit/retired, she could not use his customer base. 

So, he does some measuring and gives us the quote and a 3 year warranty, for $1000 less than the other guys. He handed us the quote, we looked at the total and dh said "when can you do it?". He said it's best to wait until after June 1st as it's hotter out and seals better, so sometime in the next week or two. We did not sign, (nor even get a quote/contract) anything with the other guys to do the work. But, apparently Mr and Mrs did (and his quote is lower for them, too. He left their quote with us since they weren't home). Mr happened to pull in for a few minutes and told the guy to give him a quote and Mr will check with his attorney to make sure if he can tell them he's backing out of them doing it. But, since we didn't sign anything, we have no issues/worries with any of that. Dh will just call them and tell them we won't be needing them to do it now. $1000 is a lot of money, so there was no question whether we'd have this original guy do it nor not.

Friends left this morning, but not after we spent last evening planning taking an Alaskan cruise together sometime next year. Well, now I have $1000 saved towards that, LOL.

Today I'm not doing a whole lot. Did some flower watering and cleaned out the chicken coop. Then the asphalt guy showed up and we chatted with him awhile. My plan is to go see my mom tomorrow and get groceries. Then use Thursday to clean house and get ready for this weekends visitors. They will only be here one night, so it should be pretty easy.  

After 4 nights of not getting to bed until 11:30 or midnight, I am taking a nap this afternoon. Dh is out mowing the lawn. But, first I need to get my grocery order placed online and figure out what time I want to visit mom and pick it up.

Taking it easy today

We've been having a fun time with our friends visiting. All the way from Texas in a cooler with ice, they brought us a Nothing Bundt cake, haha. Two in one month is quite the treat. We stayed up late talking Friday night. Saturday morning we went to the big flea market. I think in the past we have always gone on Sunday, where while it had lots of people there it wasn't too bad. Saturday was so crowded, so we really didn't enjoy it as much. I found nothing to buy, nor did dh. Friend bought a couple of things, so at least it wasn't all for naught. We got out of there just in time before the rain started pouring.

The cat loves these people, LOL. He always has and has no problem sharing his house with them.

After the flea market we went for a late lunch (and early dinner) at a nearby bar restaurant. As we were going to get back on the interstate dh noticed a sign on a little drive up hut on the other side of the road that said "ice cream". Somehow we all managed to also stuff some ice cream into ourselves. Dh had a banana milk shake and is ready to go back for another one. (Sure...it's only like 40 miles haha). We all took a nap after we got home. We are all getting old.

They are used to sleeping in, so yesterday was no real plan but figured we'd eventually get around to going to do something. After lunch the guys decided there was stuff they needed at Harbor Tools in the city, so we headed out but took a bit of a more scenic way to get there and stopped at a historic place we had gone to when dd/sil were here. We didn't go inside to do the museum, just walked around the grounds to see the displays. Then got over to Harbor Freight before they closed. Then it was dinner time so we decided on bbq at Famous Daves, which was good. Of course we've been having cake at home for dessert every night. There is one small piece left.

Today we are supposed to be on "lockdown" for the pavement re-sealing....weather permitting. It's not raining today, but no crew has shown us yet and it's 8:30am and no word on if they are coming or not. You'd think we'd have been let know if they weren't coming?? We are all tired and just happy to stay here and hang out and do nothing today.

Friends are going to take the tv console cabinet I listed on marketplace, that no one wants, so that is great to get rid of that. They have room in the back of their pickup to take it. We brought lots of bbq leftovers (we had gotten the big family meal) so that will be our dinner today, as well as I'll probably make some ham and cheese sliders.

Well, now it's almost 9am and still no crew or word on if they are coming or not. But, I always forget "in the morning" with work crews here typically means 9:30 or 10. Not 8am.

Short and sweet

I think I am ready for our guests. They'll be here sometime today. Usually she will text me to give me an idea what time but I haven't heard anything yet this morning. I never know what to plan for dinners, LOL. Guy friend is so picky and usually we end up eating out almost every day they are here. Sometimes a late lunch/early dinner or sometimes at regular dinner time. I did make him peanut butter cookies last night :) If we don't go out tonight, I'll just make some hamburgers.

Other than the san-i-can sitting between their 2 lots, nothing has started going on there yet. 

Our weather has turned kind of crappy. Cloudy and chilly, chance of rain off and on. Hopefully it's at least not raining while we are at the flea market tomorrow. I can deal with chilly, just won't enjoy it if its raining on us. Usually it's too hot this weekend.

I'm trying to finish up what I can with work before I have next week off.  Bills are paid, $ in account to cover payroll next week, etc. I also needed to make sure my assistant has enough work to keep him busy, so that's not a problem, LOL.

Our friends texted a little bit ago and should be here soon. I probably won't get much time to blog for the next few days :)

 

Well that sucks

The jerk who owns the lots next to us had a san-i-can delivered yesterday. Guess that means he's going to get started now. I thought maybe he'll show up this morning with his equipment, but nothing yet. We are all so NOT excited, as you can imagine. I don't even know if Mr told him about our street not being usable for 24 hours from Monday to Tuesday, LOL, for the re-sealing. I could just see him showing up Monday morning with his equipment and can't get to his property....

I just had a hunch lately that this is the weekend he was going to choose to start - holiday weekend, most residents here have guests, so of course it will be noisy and annoying. 

Our friends arrive some time tomorrow and dh is getting the lawn mowed, so it can last until he can do it again next week. He did some window washing yesterday. I'm doing some cleaning during my lunch break today. I have to work a half day tomorrow, but I think I'll spend a bit of that time straightening up my office a bit, haha.

My dd's vet figured out that her older dog has pancreatitis, so they put him on IV fluids and pain meds and kept him there overnight. Hopefully he'll start feeling better soon and be able to eat again. DH joked with her and said "did they ask you 1,345 times how much alcohol he drinks, like the doctors did with my pancreatitis?"

My mortgage is yet again being sold off to another company. Apparently the transfer date is 6/1, which if course is my payment due date and I don't have any new info yet on my account # or setting up online payments with the new mortgage company. I guess it will get figured out.

Wednesday

 I ordered some cat litter and cat food from Petco online yesterday. It's showing UPS is delivering it today! Geez! I can't believe it's that fast. 

Today I have the quarterly update phone call with my mom's investment guy. Boy, these quarters go by fast. It's actually been almost 4 months. I chatted with them (him and his son, who also is working there and will eventually be taking over when he retires) a few days after moving my mom into memory care. It sounds like today's chat will just be with the son, which is totally fine. The elder, while he is very nice, it always comes across as a bit overnice/in-genuine (to me).  The son is more my style, LOL.

A few months ago I signed dh up for a 90 day online subscription to the city newspaper. He wanted to look up some archives and read current stuff while he had the subscription. It was $1 for the 90 days. I thought I canceled it, but apparently you have to call and cancel. That is so annoying, so I got charged $10.99. I am not paying $11 a month for this, (nor does dh want me to), so I called and got it canceled. Just have an option online to cancel! it would make life so much more convenient. Too bad I screwed up and am out the $11.

Hmm..well it's now 10 minutes past when the investment guy was supposed to call. Usually they are right on the button with the time they set up. Oh....wait...I'm off the hour time zone difference, LOL. I wrote down 12pm, but that's their time zone, not mine and usually when I make note of the appointment I change it to my time zone, but I didn't on this note. Ok, I feel better now, haha.

My dd's older dog is not eating the past 2 days. She is so frustrated with their vet. She had the dog in for his annual checkup like 2 months ago and had the senior labwork done. His liver # was high and then the vet wanted to put him on some med and retest in like 2 months. That appointment is next week, but yesterday morning he wouldn't eat (very UNLIKE him). She worked from home and called the vet in the morning when they opened at 8:30. Took her half the day to even get them to call her back for an appt. They told her they do in house labs and 20 minute results, but at her appt they said they would call her back with the results. So she waited and waited and no call. He wouldn't eat dinner nor breakfast this morning. She calls again at 8:30 (worked from home again) and they say the vet isn't in until 9 and will call. No call 2 hours later, so her dh calls and throws a fit with them and finally they call dd back and says his liver was better now, so they are having her drop the dog off this afternoon so they can keep him for awhile and try to figure out what is wrong. Hopefully they can figure it out. Obviously something is wrong with him to not eat. She and her dh were about ready to just take him to an emergency vet (and find a new regular vet).

Good news, bad news and sad news

I'm sad this morning. I just found out one of my long time co-workers was forced to retire (he is 67) due to severe memory issues. I guess it's been going on awhile and he's refusing to accept it, realize he is having issues. My boss said it was one of the hardest things she's had to deal with in letting him go. I'm tearing up just thinking about this for him. So so sad.

In other news, Mr Neighbor emailed (they always email each other) that one of his son's dogs (the big, barking one) had to be put down (he is old). Sad for the old dog, but can't say we are going to miss having him next door for half the year, every year.....then Mr. told dh that son and family will be coming mid June for who knows how long because he's supposed to use up a bunch of vacation time (he's military)....UGH UGH UGH! Why can't they spend their vacation time at their vacation cabin near where they live? LOL

But - the good news is he has to (apparently) use it up because they are getting transferred to another part of the country! That is great news for us - less visits, most likely. They won't be able to just drive over here in 7 hours. And that means their move to their property they bought here in this state has been deferred for the time being.

Mostly I'm just sad for my coworker. It's heartbreaking. He'd been with the company 17 years and was kind of an odd duck, but he was our odd duck.

Busy weeks ahead

After several days of nice and hot weather, we got some thunder and lightning last evening and then rain. It's still raining this morning, but that's ok. Less watering with the watering can LOL And the rain got rid of all the smoke and bad air quality we've been getting from the Alberta fires.

I made a quick trip to the city yesterday morning. I left at 9:30 and decided to stop at the grocery store first for just a few things. I wanted more salmon and dh has been wanting some ruffles chips to go with his cheeseburgers he's been having for dinner. I was in and out of there quick and then got over to my mom's at 10:40. I found her sitting in the lounge area, where she had apparently just had her nails painted a pretty light blue and was sitting there letting them dry. We had a nice visit for about 35 minutes. I had brought some boxes of tissue for her, so at one point I took those to her room. By 11:15 they are starting to head to their dining area for lunch, so I walked her to there and then left. For once she didn't keep asking if I was staying for lunch. But, of course, it was pretty much the same conversations cycle for the 35 minutes. 

I then went to Home Depot. Ugh it was so crowded in the garden center. I'm so glad we got that all done last Thursday evening. But we wanted some saucers to go under 4 pots and then had decided he didn't think the hanging baskets I got for the front porch were colorful enough. (they were yellow and white flowers). He said he likes the ones with the purples and reds, etc. So, as I'm walking into the garden center I see these big hanging baskets of purple petunias (and some other purple flower mixed in) for only $24 ea. For the size these were that is a great price, so I got 4, got the saucers and one more bag of potting soil. I think I was out of there in 15 minutes and headed home. Plus I was getting hungry for lunch.

After I got home Mrs Neighbor sent a text to our neighborhood group that on Memorial day they are having the entrance to our street (where there property is) and their driveway resealed, so the road will be unusable for 24 hours and we can park on their first lot if we need to get in and out. DH then decided if they are sealing the first part of our street, up to our property line, ours needs it too. So he called the guy doing it and he came out a couple hours later to qive us a quote to do the part of the street in front our property and our driveway. So, now we are getting ours done, too. I hadn't budgeted for this, of course, but neighbors said they do it every 4 years, so we will do ours on the same schedule as having the company out here at the same time saves us money. And now I know to start saving for 4 years. 

And of course we will have our guests here memorial weekend, so having it done that day isn't the most convenient, if we wanted to go somewhere, but we'll figure it out. And like Mrs said, when I called her to get some info on what exactly they were having done and by who, is there really any good day to do this?! No, not really LOL. I didn't say to her it wasn't a good day at all, she just said that. I didn't even mention we are having company.

As I'm thinking we are going to be busy when our friends get here next Friday, through Thursday, and then 2 weeks after that DD and SIL are coming over again for a weekend, dh asks me last night if a friend of his and his wife can come the weekend in between. Well, of course, but that will be a busy 3 weeks!

Dh is taking the car to the dealer this afternoon. He's really hoping it can be fixed then and not taken back for another appointment, but I doubt it. He's using a dealer in a smaller town north of us, not the one in the city, so if nothing else it's a very nice drive up there. We used to use the vet in that town, but after the vet retired and sold it, the new vet was only open like 2 days a week, plus if it was something where we needed to leave the pet for a few hours, there was really nothing for us to do there, other than wait 3 or 4 hours. It was an hour home and and hour back, so not worth doing that either. So, I switched back to using a vet in the city, so at least if we had to leave the pet there, we could do shopping/errands, visit mom, etc. Plus it's only 40-45 min to city, not an hour.

DH decided to try some driftwood logs and pieces along the other side of our street, to keep the idiots from driving through our grass to get back out to the main road, like one or two did last summer. He had found a few small ones, but needed more. Well, the other day he was down at the end of our street talking to the neighbor down there and noticed on the vacant lot next to them 2 big piles of trunks and logs. The owner of this lot have not built yet. They are nice and not the jerk with the 2 lots in between us. DH called him up to ask if he was doing anything with those piles and could he take some of the pieces, if not. He said take any of it, he just plans to burn it eventually. So dh took his pick up down there and loaded up a couple of times and lined the other side of the road with logs and driftwood type pieces. If that doesn't keep the idiots from driving through, nothing will. It's not fishing season yet, but once the river is down, it will start up soon and the boat launch will be full and people trying to find somewhere to turn around a truck with a boat trailer. Last year we also put a sign at the entrance to our private, dead end street, that says Private Road No Outlet.

 

 

Lots of color

Yesterday was flower planting day, along with a couple of replacement shrubs we got. I haven't gotten any pictures yet. I had m garden gloves on and they were dirty and wet, so I didn't use my phone. I did take one picture on Friday, of all the wild flowers on the lot next door. And you can see the phlox blooming in one of our whiskey barrels.

We have 2 half whiskey/wine barrels at the front door I fill with flowers. It's all the bending over planting that kills my back. We did take a break to eat lunch on the back patio and then went to plant the 2 boxwoods and 2 daylilies. We had the last daylily to plant when our retired friend stopped by for a visit, so then we ended up sitting on our front porch with him for an hour LOL. 

We bought 4 big pots to go in front of the garage and shop but decided we need some of the plastic saucers to go underneath, since we have stained concrete. I had decided to to see my mom on Sunday, since I won't have time next weekend, with our friends here. I will swing in Home Depot and pick those up this morning. Dh is staying home this trip, so finally I get a break to myself, LOL.

I then took a nap to rest my back, which always helps to relax it back to normal. A later afternoon walk around the yard and I saw one of my iris's bloomed, one flower so far. I'll bet more will bloom in today's sun.

A picture I posted 2 or 3 years ago and tagged my mom in, one of her old neighbor friends just commented on it to say she hasn't heard from my mom in a long time and was wondering how she is doing. I sent her a PM letting her know about moving her here and the Alzheimer's. She said give my mom an extra hug from her and I said I will definitely do that when I see her today.

Tomorrow dh is taking the car to the dealer to get the issue checked out. It sounds like they just want to diagnose it tomorrow and then we have to bring it back for the fix. But, I guess they said if it's an easy fix they'll do it then, while dh waits. So, for at least tomorrow's trip, he's just taking it up there by himself. If we have to return and leave it there, I'll take it back and he'll follow me in his truck.

I'll get some flower pictures this afternoon, when I get back.

Ready to plant

Ok - we have flowers! I'll be busy on Saturday :)

It doesn't look like as much because you can't see all the packs and packs of petunia's and some lobelia that are down flat behind whatever that thing is called that goes across. We also got 4 extra big pre planted pots to set in front of garage and shop, that we've never put any flowers there before. The pots are pretty cute, so next year I will just try to replant and hopefully it will be cheaper. 

We went to Lowe's, but also ended up having to go to Home Depot. I think we had to do that last year, too, so next year I am just going to try to remember just go to Home Depot for it all. For some dumb reason Lowe's doesn't have daylilies or trailing lobelia and they didn't last year either, but I forgot that. Last year we added a bunch of daylilies out along the front fence and one of the plants didn't make it, so I just needed one to replace.

First we stopped at the bank to get some cash out for Memorial weekend, when our friends will be visiting and we'll go to the big annual flea market. I want to have cash just in case there is something we want to buy. I was just happy that I actually remembered to stop and do this ahead of time, LOL.

Then we went to Walmart and picked up our load of groceries (all loaded in the back seat of the truck) and then we were starving, as it was almost 7pm. We decided to give Chick-fil-a a try, since Wendy's discontinued their grilled chicken sandwich. I must say I don't know what all the hubbub is about. I found Wendy's grilled chicken to be much better. This one was ok, but we didn't realize it comes with no sauce or something on it - very dry. The waffle fries were good, though.

We didn't get home until 8pm and then another 20 minutes putting the groceries away. By the time I got to sit down it was almost time for bed. But, I'm glad we went in the evening, instead of Saturday. Not near as crowded trying to buy the flowers and the Walmart pickup was quicker as it was a slow time for them, too. We really didn't have time to stop in and see my mom this trip. I think I may go in and see her on Sunday. I won't have time during our friends visit the next weekend, while they are here for 5 days.

My assistant got lots done yesterday - imagine that! Just proves he was totally slacking for a week and a half. My boss said that during their meeting he mentioned he was going to go spend the weekend at his grandparents, but he could take his laptop and work some. She told him that unless he's using his laptop AND the second monitor she supplied him, then he wouldn't not be working efficiently to get the work done, so that is a no. It's very slow to try to do this work with one monitor.

Our friends arrive some time next Friday, usually it's afternoon. I have the following week off work (as originally they thought they may come for the whole week) but then was thinking maybe I need to add Friday, but I see that my office is closing at noon on Friday, so I don't need to take it off. I can work the morning as I'm sure they won't be here until afternoon. And I guess if by chance they do show up in the morning, then I'll just take it off. Anyway, it will be nice having a week off, even though our friends are only staying until Tuesday. Then I'll have some time the rest of the week to go see my mom again.

I am so glad it's Friday. It's been a stressful week, dealing with the assistant issues.

Carry on

My assistant is one lucky guy....he still has a job for now. Grrr.  My boss met with him for like 2 hours yesterday afternoon. I guess this is his last chance. He basically did say he wasn't working to his full capacity this past week and a half, but also said that adding the invoices was really slowing him down. He insisted to her that he did message with the inside IT guy. My boss said she didn't think to say "ok, show me your chat with him (he had his work laptop with him). She also said she will double check with that inside IT guy - because he is your stereotypical IT guy...extremely "literal" and she asked him if he had "talked" to our assistant on Friday - not did he "message" with him, and he is so literal in thinking that maybe he really did message with him.

I'm not buying that the adding invoices slowed him way down at all, as I can tell from system time stamps that he can go along and add invoices and each one only takes him a minute or two. He'll enter like 20 minutes and then stops for an hour or more and then nothing is getting done, etc.

I was in on the meeting for a short period and then talked to my boss on the phone after she was done talking with him (I guess she talked to him for like 2 hours). I then took another report (later month) from the same mfg, same 1 1/2 pages length, # of invoices to add. and I figured out (learned something new and neat!) how to record my computer screens while I worked through adding the invoices from the report. I just did the first page, it had 20 invoices listed on it. I did it in 5 minutes! I sent the video to my boss and said obviously we can't expect him to work at the speed that I can, but even if he was 5x slower than me he still should have had these entered in a 1/2 hour......not hours and hours.

Ugh - anyway, that's where it's at, so it's what I have to work with. Boss said this morning that she is writing him up and any other issues he will just be let go. 

I just had a super nice chat with the accountant for our IT company we use. I have emailed with her numerous times over the years, and we have gotten to know each other a little bit that way, but we've never actually talked on the phone. She is sooo nice. I just enjoyed chatting with her so much.

I need to get all my annual flowers and rather than go in this weekend and deal with a crowded Lowe's or Home Depot, we are going to go in this evening, after I get off work. I'm hoping that's a slow time at the garden center (we should get there around 5:15) and we can get all our stuff. Then we'll go to Walmart and pick up the order I placed and grab some fast food drive thru dinner on the way home. Then I can plant them all this weekend and not have to spend half a day Saturday or Sunday trying to buy it all then.

More just wow

The "just wow" was even worse yesterday. My assistant clocked in for 3 hours of work....and did NOTHING at all. About halfway into that 3 hours my boss tried to call him to see if he could come into the office today (Wed) for a meeting with her. He didn't answer, so she left him a message. He's coming to see her at 1pm today.

He logged in at 9am this morning to start work, but my system shows he did not actually start doing anything until 9:29. Then over the next 7 minutes he added 4 invoices until 9:36. Then he didn't do anything else until 9:58 and for the next 5 minutes added 6 more invoices. This is about how long it takes to add the invoices to our system. It's just adding an invoice#, date, and total amount. So what did he do the first half hour and what did he do for 22 minutes between adding invoices? Nothing. Like I told my boss - it's not like he's trying to field emails in between (he gets no emails to deal with).

She said she's about 90% ready to fire him. But, she's also a softy and being face to face with him, who knows how it will end up. But like she said when we talked on the phone this morning - we are not going to babysit an employee. I said, well maybe if he wants to keep the job he needs to work in the office, rather than remote.

Mostly I'm just astounded that he thinks we don't notice nothing is getting done. Oh and of course there is the huge matter of him lying about his computer connection issues on Friday and getting help from our inside IT guy. He was doing well and productive up until last week. This morning I went through what he got done last week. He got paid for 32 hours....I told my boss he got done 7 hours worth of work (and that's me being generous with time). Monday this week was similar and then 3 hours of absolutely nothing yesterday.

I have a feeling she's going to be giving him another chance.

Just wow

Well, I don't think my new assistant is going to be employed much longer. Along with the total slacking last week, he outright lied yesterday.  Friday I was off for the day, but left him plenty of work and also instructions of what to work on. He worked 8 hours on Friday. Yesterday morning I checked to see how much he got done...hardly anything. What he got done should have taken maybe an hour. So, after he was logged in to work yesterday morning and we said our hello's I just asked "so, how did it go on Friday?" His reply was that the system was really slow and kept disconnecting him and that he contacted IT and they were able to figure it out.  I'm thinking oh, ok, I guess that explains why he didn't get much done.

I told my boss about it and she said ask him who in IT helped him. 95% of our IT issues are handled by our outside IT company, which he wouldn't even know about, let alone how to contact. We have an inside guy who does a very little bit of IT(not his main job with us), he was the one who gave him his laptop and showed him how to log in remotely, etc. He told me it was our inside guy. So, my boss contacted him to ask if he helped resolve our assistants issue on Friday. He said nope. He has not had any contact with him since his first day, when he gave him the laptop! 

Well, I think that pretty much did it for my boss. She just told me she was going to tell him she needs him to come in in person to the office for a meeting. Plus, yesterday he worked from 8:30 to 2:45 and got very little done. He worked pretty slow until about 1p. I could see by looking in our system what he had done and then could see that he was entering some invoices (each takes a minute or two to enter). Between 12:45 and 1pm he entered 5. Then nothing until 2:15, when he then entered the next invoice on the report he was working on. He then only entered 5 invoices for the next 30 minutes, and then he signed out for the day. What was he doing between 1 and 2:15? Not working, obviously. Totally unacceptable and I'm ready to be done with him. I'm not working with someone who needs to be babysat and watched over, let alone lies to us. I'm also not getting paid to be a supervisor........

The fun weekend

It was a fun weekend. DH and I decided we are getting old, LOL. We were both exhausted after they left yesterday. I said can you imagine doing all that if we had grandkid(s) too? haha. I don't know how our neighbors (she's 72 and he's 67) do it with 4 young grandkids visiting and for like a week! I'd be so worn out, haha.

Mornings weren't a rush, which was nice. But they are both also used to getting up early, so I think they were up by 8 or 8:30. They brought their 2 dogs, who are good for the most part. Their older dog is a corgi and he is pretty grumpy and also has anxiety so he can suddenly just start barking because he heard something. Plus when he's grumbling he sounds exactly like the Tasmanian Devil from the old cartoon. 

Friday we packed a lunch and took a drive of about an hour and a half or so and visited an old, pretty intact, ghost town. That was fun. We all enjoy history type stuff and we got quite a bit of walking in for that. We got back into the city at dinner time, so we stopped at our new favorite steakhouse. The food is excellent. My only complaint is it is a very noisy place and kind of hard to talk. Apparently....one of the times were were there before, when dh tried a bite of my cheesecake, for the first time ever in his life, he liked it. When it came time for dessert I said, well if we didn't have cake at home to eat, I'd get cheesecake. He said "what?! I want cheesecake too!". So we got a cheesecake with caramel and dd and sil took a different dessert and we had them packed up to go, so we could eat them later. I had tried for 40 years to get dh to try cheesecake and he would never try it. I had to split the small slice with him and said man....I should never have gotten you to try it - now you eat my cheesecake!

Saturday morning we left around 11:30 go to visit my mom. We made some sandwiches to go and ate on the way to the city. First we stopped at the grocery store and dd got her some flowers and I got her some chocolate. We also picked up a small bouquet for dh's mom's cemetery marker. We got to my mom's around 12:45. She was doing well, but she always looks a bit more tired now. I really don't think she had a clue who dd was anymore. But, she enjoyed our visit and we stayed about an hour. I could tell she was getting tired near the end of our visit because every 30 seconds her question was "now where are you guys staying tonight?" I would say we are driving back home to stay and then she'd ask "how far away do you live?". Then she wanted to write me a check to pay for our gas, LOL.

Then we went to the Veteran's cemetery where dh's parents cremated remains are and left the flowers. DH has 2 brothers who live in the city. We leave flowers there, usually a couple times a year, but have never seen any other flowers, so obviously his brothers never do.  

We were near a historic place to do a tour and since we'd never been there we decided to go to that. Again, good history and lots of walking. When we got done it was near dinner time so we just ended up doing McDonalds drive through. Then dh decided to take a back road home. Well goodness, it really was a back road - it took us 2 1/2 hours to get home instead of 45 minutes, LOL. 

Saturday evening we just visited and watched a little tv. Sunday we just relaxed until they left around 1:30 in the afternoon. We made blueberry muffins for breakfast. For Mother's Day I got some nice gifts: coffee, chocolate, a nice wicker wastebasket for my closet and some new hummingbird feeders. It was so funny as we were sitting there at the dining room table a hummingbird came up to one of the dining room windows. Ok ok! I'll get the feeders out!

Here's an interesting coincidence. As we are taking that back road out of the city we pass this place that is a dog kennel/training place. We realized from the name it was the place that our neighbor told us about for fostering the service dog. A couple weeks ago dh had tried to call the owner to get more info, but he got a recording and didn't leave a message and then kind of decided he probably didn't want to do it, so he didn't call back. 

Back when I first met dh (40 year ago) he had a German shepherd dog and had her bred for puppies. Only 2 made it and he sold one and kept one. The puppy was only a couple months old when we met. I don't remember what happened to the mom dog, but I know she stayed with dh's parents. Dh had the puppy at his duplex apartment. He moved home for about a year to save money when we were engaged. After we got married we took the puppy (now not a puppy) to live with us. Anyway.......dh just woke up this morning and remembered that this momma German shepherd he had came from this same dog kennel/breeder! 40+ years ago! 

We were both tired after they left yesterday. I took a nap and the cat was happy to have his house back to himself and took a nap with me :) My mom called in the afternoon and while she sounded good she had no idea it was Mother's Day and did not at all remember we had just been there the day before.

Quick Friday morning update

 DD and SIL arrived in record time, 6 1/2 hours LOL. Must be that Mustang, haha. They brought me a "Nothing Bundt Cake". My favorite! Have you ever had one of those? Yum Yum Yum. We all had a piece of cake at 10:30 at night ;)

No one is up yet this morning. Apparently the cat decided his "mousie on a stick" was not safe up in my office, with "those dogs" here, and when I got up this morning I found it in my closet. 

I logged into work real quick to do a bank transfer to cover payroll funds that will be coming out and then took care of one email. Then my boss messages me "STOP WORKING!". We have a wide range of emoji's to use in Teams so I did a "rock on" smiley face and said I'm done, LOL.

It looks like it's going to be a nice sunny day. Might run into town later and pick up a few grocery items. I haven't even figured out what we are having for dinner yet. Maybe we'll just go out to eat. I know we will eat out tomorrow while we are in the city, so maybe I'll just get stuff to make hamburgers today.

I usually go to bed around 9 or 9:30 so I took a nap last night while waiting for them to get here, so I could stay up. Make it to midnight. Then of course wake up my normal time.

Slacking

Today is my Friday, since I now have tomorrow off. Yesterday morning dh's monitors were acting up again to the point neither was working, but if he unplugged the old one, his newer monitor would work. I told him later, when I had a break from work, I'd bring down one of my monitors to test. I wanted to know if it was his monitor going bad or if it was the cable adapter going bad. If my monitor would not work, then I would know it was just the $15 adapter that went bad. But, my monitor worked fine, so it's the monitor that went bad. Dang it! Now I'm out $120 instead of $15, but I have ordered the new monitor. This morning I got an email it has shipped, so it should be here early next week.

Our retired friend picked up a new puppy, from a breeder, that is going to be flown up to his daughter in Alaska, but he stopped by with it yesterday. OMG - such cuteness! It's a black schnoodle puppy. To heck with work and doing payroll, I just held the puppy for awhile, haha. 

Well, this week we seem to be having an issue with my new hire kid not doing much. We are right now trying to see if we can see for sure how much he's done this week. He's worked about 20 hours but it appears very little done that I can tell. Part of it is hard to see because I gave him some misc stuff to work on, when he wanted a break from the regular stuff, but told him the reg stuff is still the priority. What got me concerned yesterday is he had clocked in to work yet his Teams status was showing "yellow" as away for quite awhile. I then sent him a message via Teams, saying hi, just checking in to see how it's going and no reply for over an hour and 15 min.......at an hour I messaged my boss that I'm a bit concerned that he's not working. She is seeing if our IT guy has a way to see how much time he's spent working. I guess he tried to do that for her yesterday and it crashed IT guy while trying to do that. I can sort of have a way to see what he's done and on some of it, even what time he completed it. I'm seeing VERY little. Like I gave him a report on Monday to enter all the invoices into the system. Even going super slow, he should have gotten the report done in a couple of days. It appears he has entered like 10-15 invoices each day, Mon-Wed. I'm only seeing the14 entered yesterday, all showing a time stamp of like between 3 and 3:40, which ya...that's about how long it would take to enter them...but what did he do the 2 1/2 hours before that and the hour after that?????  Ugh. Boss is frustrated too and right now she is back with IT guy to see what he can confirm. We're not paying someone $23/hr to not work....it will be interesting to see if there are any IT logs that can show what he's doing.

A good week so far

The forklift was a success, and as I figured, he would have it all done in just a few hours, not 2 days, LOL. The guy who dropped it off told dh that if he got done early and called it in that he was done we'd get a credit, so by not not needing it today and calling it in before they closed yesterday we will get a credit back of $230. Not sure when they are going to pick it back up. When he dropped it off he even said it might be Friday instead of Thursday. Now it could even be today, they didn't say when I called. DH was going to use the forklift after he was done to help Mr. Neighbor with something at his house, but it was pouring rain, so they had to cancel that idea.

We got the new cabinet that matches dh's desk unboxed and put in his den. The top does come seperate and has to be screwed on from underneath, but other than that it is assembled when shipped. But, it's missing one of the rubber "feet" that screw in the bottom corners. DH had a bit of small square piece of rubber to help make it level, but I got online with a customer service chat this morning and they are sending me out another of the "leveling" feet.

The old cabinet in there was our old tv cabinet and I'm going to put that one the local for sale marketplace. I tried a couple/few years ago, but I think I was asking way too much and got no interest in it. Now I'm thinking maybe $50.....or free....it's a nice wood cabinet with 2 glass front doors and shelves inside.

In good news - I get to take Friday off now. Why? Because dd and sil are coming over Thursday instead of Friday! Yay! SIL is working from home Thursday (so will dd) and then they are leaving about 1:30 in the afternoon. They will get here around 10pm, but that's better than them leaving their house early Friday morning and not getting here until Friday afternoon. They are also driving over one of their Mustangs and dh now has space for them to park inside the shop, LOL.

We don't really have an specific plans for the weekend, other than we will go see my mom on Saturday, rather than Sunday/Mother's day as they will be going home mid day Sunday. Also, while we are in the city on Saturday, dh wants to stop at the cemetery and leave some flowers for his mom.

I have payroll to do today, but I think it's going to be a smooth one. So far it's going good and no hiccups, other than waiting on my boss to answer a question about an employee who is on the calendar to have time off, but it has not been requested/recorded in the payroll system. 

The yellow wild spring flowers (Arrowleaf balsamroot) are in bloom. They cover most of the lot next door and are one of my favorite things for a couple weeks each spring. I had expected not to see it last spring (they bought the property in fall of 2021), then I for sure thought last spring would be the last I'd get to see of them, but since they haven't started anything on the property, I'm getting one more spring to enjoy them :)

Forklift Tuesday

The delivery of the rental forklift is late, by an hour so far. They were supposed to be here at 10:30 and then supposed to pick it up Thursday at 10:30, so hopefully they are then late picking it up, so that dh gets the full rental time, especially since it's so expensive. I could see being 15 or 20 minutes late, but not an hour - that means they didn't even leave until they were supposed to be here. And by the time they get here the rain expected this afternoon will probably have started. And yep, he just pulled up and it started raining, LOL. Hopefully he can get in unloaded and dh can get it in the shop before it's raining too hard.

Did I mention my dd got another promotion and raise? Because of her getting her masters degree they bumped her up to a level 4 in her job.

Well, the rental place just called for directions and said he's about 10 miles away. Dh isn't too happy, of course. He had plans to get a certain amount done today. We did get the cabinet I ordered for his den delivered first thing this morning, so at least that is now here and was even a couple hours earlier then they said. We haven't unboxed it yet because he was expecting the forklift to get here.

My cat no longer needs to be carried upstairs and shut in my office at night anymore, LOL. And he's finally not making a fuss for an hour after I go to bed. His new sleeping spot the past week or two is in the rocking chair in our bedroom. Though he often gets up around 5:30 and you can hear him doing zoomies upstairs, LOL. Then he comes back and goes to sleep in the chair. He will not sleep on the bed, but if it's during the day and I'm taking a nap, he is right there so sleep next to me. Weird cat. He was just laying on the window ledge for a bit. Got up, walked across my desk, knocked my pen off the desk and went on his way.

Another week started

I'm am not ready for it to be Monday this week. Oh well, what ya gonna do?! It is what it is. I think this week is going to go by fast, too, though. DH will be busy for a couple days, starting tomorrow. He is having a rented forklift delivered in the morning and will have it to use until they come back and pick it up later Thursday morning. This part of the "project"will really make a difference in how his shop looks and his available floor space. He "says" he will then start going through bins and stuff and start selling stuff off he doesn't need anymore.....sure he will.......he's been saying that for 7 years, LOL andthen always another excuse as to why he doesn't.

Tomorrow we are also supposed to get the delivery of the matching cabinet (matches his desk) I ordered from Pottery Barn. That delivery company was at least good enough to tell him it would be mid to late morning when they deliver. From that purchase I have $90 in rewards credit to use at Pottery Barn or (I think, I need to double check) one of their affiliate stores. I have no idea what to get! I'm thinking if I can use it at Williams and Sonoma I'm going to get something kitchen related, like new frying pan(s). I really like the 2 Calphalon pans I got awhile back, at TJ Maxx. One is a big deep skillet with a lid and the other is a small frying pan. I really need a 10 in fry pan and even a regular sauce pot, like for soup, would be nice. I have a cheap set of pots.

And of course I made no bread yesterday, either, LOL. I ended up going out to the shop and staining that last box of 24 wood hangers. So now I am all done with that. I did make some dinner rolls, though. I made 7 (they are frozen rolls you have to thaw and let rise) and ate one, but will use the remaining 6 to reaheat and use with dinner tonight. DH was working out in the shop so he didn't come in for dinner until like 6:45pm, so I just made some eggs and toast and saved the rolls to use tonight.

I had ordered several t-shirts and some socks from Kohl's last week and those arrived today. I'm good now for shirts and can relegate a few old ones to rags now. I got my new tennis shoes last week....and while they are cute I didn't realize they have the "fake" laces, which never work for me. I have narrow feet and need laces so I can get the shoe to fit a bit better. I decided to keep them and ordered some tan colored laces, so I'm hoping those will work. I'll just cut out the fake ones. At least I hope that will work.

Ok, I guess that's all I know new for now.

Waste of time

Good grief - that was a wasted hour this morning I'll never get back. I was just trying to do a backup on dh's computer (while he's sleeping and I'm not interrupting his computer time) and then do a restart as general maintenance. His second monitor would not display. I messed around with it for an hour trying to figure it out. It is the older of his 2 monitors and he has had this issue before, but mostly it's just that is seems to take way longer for it to finally display after a restart then his other monitor, but I couldn't get it to do anything, other than the power button on the front was just flashing. I have no idea what I did to fix it, other than restart the computer again and then it came right on, along with the other monitor. I guess 3rd time was the charm. Ugh. I suppose he will need a new monitor.

Then I went to cancel dh's electronic subscription to a newspaper. He had gotten 3 months for $1, but wasn't planning to keep the subscription after that. I went online to cancel it and it's one of those annoying ones where they have a link to click on "cancel" and then pops up "contact our customer service to cancel". I recently went to cancel our AAA membership and got the same thing. Same with Siruis XM. It's sooo annoying to me. No, I do not want to talk to one of your customer service reps. I just want to cancel. It's so annoying it makes me not want to ever subscribe again. If they'd just make it easy to cancel, like say Netflix does, I'm more than happy to re-subscribe another time, which I do.

I did get a banana cream pie made yesterday. Yum! Did some vacuuming downstairs (upstairs today) and cleaned the main bathroom. Got farther along into the book I'm reading and it got better as I got into it. I should be able to finish it up today.  I stillllll need to try making bread again in my bread machine, now that I bought bread flour. Maybe today will be the day LOL.

Yesterday morning our retired friend stopped by. I was in the shower and getting dressed to I missed the first half of his visit. I love him, but he is so hard to talk to. You can really only listen. As soon as you start to say something he interrupts with his story or comment. Every time. It seems to be getting worse, but he is also now in mid 70's so could be age, too. Sometimes dh wants to say something (and my dh loves to talk to) and literally just has to keep talking when friend interrupts or he will never get to say what he wants to say. And even if you do get to say what you want to say, it's almost like he didn't really even hear you, because he's so busy thinking/wanting to say what he wants to say next. I'm getting so I just don't say much when he's here, now.

Now dh just got up and after I was done, of course his monitors went into sleep mode after while, well he gets on his computer and the one monitor works and the other is still trying to again. He said it does that all the time and will eventually just start working. His computer didn't have more than one monitor hook up so we had to use an adapter for that monitor, so it could be the adaptor that is going bad and not the monitor. Those are pretty cheap - it might be worth it to just get another one of those to try before replacing the whole monitor.

Time for shower and then upstairs cleaning.

Short Friday post

I don't know where this week went. I supposed having Tuesday off made it go by quicker. 

DH needs to rent a forklift for a couple of days so he can get his pallets and other heavy stuff up onto the loft in the shop. He called and got that scheduled and the soonest they can bring it out is next Tuesday, so he will be busy doing that Tuesday and Wednesday. The daily rental fee is about what I expected, but the delivery fee, since we are out of the area, is quite a bit. For a short period we had an equipment rental business in our small town, but it didn't stay in business too long. Too bad, that probably would have been much cheaper. At least once he gets the stuff up there (or at least this is the plan) he will have a wide walkway in between 2 rows, where he can get a bin off a stack or pallet and set it down and go through it, etc. It will be great to see how much better and less crowded it feels in his shop once that stuff gets moved up. 

The hot weather has cooled and we are having thunder and lightning this afternoon. I hope we don't lose our power, at least until I'm done working for the day.

Weekend plans: just cleaning house, getting ready for guests the following weekend (dd/sil). Tomorrow I will make another banana cream pie for dessert. I bought the ingredients and need to make it while the bananas are still good.  

I'm being so slow to get my posts written the past few days! I start, get a paragraph or two, then the rest of the day I add a few sentences off and on. I'm annoyed with myself! Maybe tomorrow will be better.

I did call my mom and hey - at least her phone still works and she was in her room. She was apparently a bit upset (nothing major) about something to do with eating or getting a snack. Then I said well, dinner is pretty soon, at least and she said "well, I don't know about that with what's going on around here! but I did get something to eat at least".  

Getting rid of junk

It doesn't feel like it should be Thursday already this week. I had to run into town to pick up a prescription during my lunch break. I was only gone a half hour, so for the rest of my break I worked on getting another bag of old papers from one of the bins in nearby upstairs closet thrown out. It's a closet in the guest bedroom next to my office (my office doesn't have any closets) and I put 2 big bins in there to get out of my office and I've slowly been going through them to try to get rid of what I can. It's mostly papers from years ago. Lots of reports and such from my side job, back before I had 2 monitors, and had to print out reports to use. My goal is to get down to one bin in the closet. It's kind of a long narrow walk in closet, but looks like a complete mess right now. Then I went into the other guest bedroom closet (also a large closet), where while it's all neat in there, there are still 3 bins in there. One has all our old dvds and vhs tapes. Now that the bonus room is carpeted and we won't have to move the tv cabinet around anymore, I took all the movies and put them underneath/inside the tv cabinet and now that bin can be put out in the shop with the other stacked empty bins. Also in there were 3 books that are dh's, so I gave them to him to add to his new den bookcase. I still need to go through the other 2 bins in that closet and see what I can get rid of. I opened the lid on one and on top was a crocheted afghan. I think my mom made it years ago, but could have been my grandma. They both crocheted. It's a cream color and I think I'll take it and put it across the back of the sofa I have in my office. It looks like half of it is sewing/craft stuff.

ok, I just went and got the afghan - it's not what I thought it was - it was something I had started knitting years ago, just before we decided to move and never got it completed. It was when I was trying to learn to knit. It's not very good, LOL and maybe 2/3 finished. Now I have to try to figure out what to do with it.....Also in the bin is this rolled up black construction paper thing. I figured it must be something dh wanted to keep that dd made for school or something. So I just brought it into my office to cut the tape holding it rolled up and it's nothing! Just black rolled up poster/construction board, LOL. I'm sure it was something, during packing that dh just couldn't throw away.....I certainly would not have packed that to move, LOL. I will get it put into the garbage when he's not looking. Otherwise it will be a 10 minute conversation to get it thrown away! I have to do that all the time, just get rid of old stuff like that and get it into the garbage sack with other stuff I am throwing out so I don't have to deal with him, LOL. Even throwing away MY old work papers would end up being a discussion if I told him I was throwing them out. When I am emptying all our little waste baskets from bathrooms and bedrooms I also take a second white kitchen garbage bag with the papers and stuff I am throwing out and put it underneath the regular one when I throw it out in the big garbage can. Just something I've learned over the years to cut down on dealing with him never wanting to throw anything out or having to go through a whole discussion just to get something thrown out, where I have to explain what it is and why I'm throwing it away.

Last night I watched new episodes of 2 shows I am watching on Apple+tv and read a few pages of a book I'm trying to get into.

I thought I had finished and posted this earlier today, but I guess not. Got interrupted too many times, I guess.

We have an issue that needs to be fixed on our car (under warranty). Dh called today to make an appointment for it to get done. Good grief. First it's 3 weeks before we can get the diagnostic appointment for car so they can see what the issue is, then we can take it back at another appointment to have the work done. He also told the service dept that if they get a cancellation feel free to call him and and he can come in any time.

Birthday celebration

It was a good time at memory care yesterday, celebrating my mom's birthday. Of course she had no idea it was her birthday and had to be reminded several times. When we got there she was sitting in her recliner in her room. She had on a sleeveless nightgown over her clothes. Okie dokie, LOL. I brought her a new top in a birthday gift bag which she opened, so I suggested she try it on (so I could get the nightgown off her, haha). So, she gets the nightgown off and then her top underneath off..........and her bra......is on backwards.....I'll just give ya'll a minute to let that visual sink in!........... OMG! We then decide to take the cupcakes and go out into the common area and I realize her jeans (elastic waist kind) are also on backwards. 

Quite a few of the residents and a staff member or two had just come in from out in their enclosed patio area (I think it was too hot, so they brought them back in) so I had just put all the cupcakes out on the bar countertop and we were sitting with mom at a table to eat ours, so the staff helped some of them get cupcakes. It was like a 5 year old's birthday party, LOL. The cupcakes were a hit and everyone seemed happy. A lady was there visiting her dad (in a wheelchair) and she stopped at the table to say hi and it sounds like she is there a lot and knew my mom and wished her a happy birthday and told us my mom is the sweetest lady.  We chatted with her for awhile, which was nice. Then one of the staff walked up with this resident who was just giggling and laughing. They stopped near our table and said it's my mom's birthday, would she like a cupcake. She thought the staff said it was their birthday so she says "happy birthday" and laughs...then they said no, it's S's birthday...then someone else asked the laughing lady if it was her birthday? and she laughed and said "I don't know!" and laughed some more. We all got a good laugh. She ended up with more of the cupcake on the table and in her lap, then in her mouth I think, LOL

Another gentleman kept stopping people and asking them if he could ask them a question? "do you know where Walmart is?". We answered this a a couple of times, as well as staff and others did too. The head nurse told me he just moved in a week ago, so he's still adjusting, but he wants to take a bus to Walmart. I said yes, the first week or so is tough and the nurse said yes, I remember your mom kept wanting to call her parents to let them know where she was. I was impressed that 3 months later she remembered this and specifically which resident it was. I think overall the staff seems really good with the residents. Most of the time they all seem very happy and content, which I think has a lot to do with how the staff acts with them.

After we left we got our groceries picked up and stopped at the farm supply store and got our lawn fertilizer for the year. Then we decided to go through Dairy Queen drive in and get peanut buster parfaits. Yum. All in all a good day.

I had plugged her phone back in when I got there - she had unplugged the modem adapter from the wall, even though it had tape over it. Later afternoon, just before dinner dd tried to call her.......it was back unplugged! Dang! But then dd tried again about an hour later and it was ringing, but my mom was still at dinner, so she tried again around 5:30 and got to talk to her. Someone must have noticed her phone unplugged and got it plugged back in. She told dd that "family came to see her today", so at least she remembered that we were there. I'm still laughing about the bra. When we got out to the truck I was laughing so hard I was crying.

A day off

Yesterday I got a call from the memory care coordinator. She just did a quarterly re-evaluation of my mom and wanted to let me know she's at her same level of care, so no changes. That's good and her cost will stay the same for at least another 3 months. She asked if I had any questions and I just asked how she's doing there overall and she said she's doing really good. She said she's very independent, but also said she's the most easy going resident they have there. She said mom also like to help out with things there, which sounds just like my mom. I asked how showering was going and she said fine. She says she doesn't ask her either, just catches her in the bathroom and gets it all started and mom is cooperative. 

A couple hours later I thought of another question regarding the adult briefs (see...I had to just stop and think ei or ie LOL). With her move in paperwork I has signed up to use their TENA program and the cost would be added to her monthly billing. She had a pack or so of depends left when she moved in, so of course we had those moved with her, so she could use those up first. But, boy, I would have thought they got used up by now, so I sent the coordinator an email asking about it. 

I sent my side job boss an email about some questions I had and also told her I have about 6 checks left from their bank account, so was going to cut myself a check for $280 for April, if that's ok with her. I had kept track of my time and felt that was fair. My previous pay worked out to about $80/hr so that's what I used. Well, she just emailed back that she thinks they are kind of demanding (LOL) and I should just do a minimum of $500/mo while we are finishing out this job with them. Ok! don't have to twist my arm! Just a flat monthly rate (like before, only less) is easy for me, then I don't have to try to keep track of how much time I spent each month. It probably really is more than what I will work, but hey, if they want to pay me that, I'm sure not going to argue with them. Not to mention when they do need me for something I'm always available and quick to respond.

How come on my days off I wake up early and on work days I struggle to get awake? It's annoying. I could have slept in some, or at least until my normal up time, but no, I'm awake a half hour early, haha. I'm going to sit here and drink my coffee and read blogs, etc for another half hour and then get the cupcakes made so they can get cooled down for frosting later this morning. I'm trying to figure out how to take all the cupcakes to my mom's place. I have this old tupperware cake thing with a tall lid (well, I think I still have it....now that I'm thinking about it, I don't recall seeing it for a long time/since we moved. I also have a sheet cake pan with a lid that will hold some, so I thought I'd fit the 2 dozen cupcakes in those 2 things and then also bring some paper plates with me to set the cupcakes out on and then I can bring home my containers. In the memory care dining area they have like a bar countertop off to one side, so I think I'll just leave the cupcakes out there.

Last night for dinner I made tuna casserole, which we haven't had in quite awhile. I also reheated those dinner rolls I made the night before. They were really good and dh liked them too, so I will probably make those again, though I have to plan ahead to make sure I get them out of the freezer a few hours before needing to put them in the oven, so they have time to thaw and rise.

I didn't finish getting this post done earlier, so now the cupcakes are made and cooling, waiting to frost. I must have taken that tupperware cake thing with lid to goodwill way back when we moved as it's not around anywhere and I honestly can't remember seeing it in years. But, I have 2 large containers with lids that should hold all the cupcakes I ca

Spelling

I cannot get awake yet this morning. I didn't oversleep at all, but just still feel groggy and tired, even with half a cup of coffee down. I feel like I need to go take a cold washcloth to my face and eyes to wake up. Plus, I left my grocery list I was adding to the past several days downstairs in the kitchen, so maybe going back down to retrieve that will wake me up.

Fun fact: I almost always mistype my "ie" or "ei"'s. No matter what my brain does not want to remember the correct spelling. Even though I am an excellent speller, LOL. But every time I have to correct my ie, ei in typing I am reminded that I failed the spelling bee because of that! Let's go back to 6th grade. Always 100% on my spelling tests. We had a class spelling bee and I won.  Then we had a school spelling bee and I won. Then I was told I could go to the district spelling bee and another 6th grade teacher wanted to help me practice for that. I think this was the first I realized about the national spelling bee contest. Ok, let's do it. Yikes. This guy was serious! We'd meet after school and spell and spell. He'd send me home with these books to practice and learn to spell obscure words I'd never heard of. I practiced and practiced. Then the big district spelling bee came and I got to like 2 or 3 people left (I think it was me and another) and I missed.....on "niece" (I still misspelled it just now and had to retype). It was a bummer. 

Then the next year was 7th grade in junior high. We had the class spelling bee. I won. We had the school spelling bee. I won. I know I went to district again, but I don't really remember that one or what I lost on. I was disqualified mid pack or so. I was not that disappointed. Then 8th grade came and it was time for the class spelling bee. Oh no! I wasn't doing that again! It was too much work and I was so not interested in doing that again, so I had to make myself purposely miss an easy word to get out of it, haha.

I did not end up making bread yesterday. I decided to take out some of the frozen dinner roll dough I use for pizza and just make rolls to have with dinner. But then just as I was going to put them in the oven dh said he wanted to go get burgers, so of course I didn't argue with that. Burgers, onion rings and vanilla shake. When we got home I did bake the rolls since they were ready, and I'll just save them to reheat with dinner tonight.

It was almost 90 degrees out yesterday. I did get the rest of the outside plants trimmed up from old dead prior year stuff still on some of them. I see the lilac bush now has green sprouts all over. DH will probably have to mow today. DH got weed killer applied all along the fence line. Then he finally did a project he's been wanting to do for at least 6 months. Ever since we had our hvac guy put in that air exchanger system. He was lazy and just put the switch for it down in the crawl space. At first dh didn't think anything of that, until he realized everytime he wants to adjust the setting (it has 3 settings, plus an off mode) he has to go down into the crawl space! He's like this is so stupid! Why would he think I want to do this every time?! So about 6 months ago he ordered the wiring needed and finally decided yesterday to get it done and he wired up the switch on the wall just below our thermostat. I had to help some, while he fed the wire up into the wall from down below.

I feel like I did more yesterday, but I guess not. I can't think of anything else, other than a bit of inside window cleaning where you can see kitty prints all over. 

I have tomorrow off so I can go see my mom for her birthday. 82 this year. We also need groceries badly, it's been over 3 weeks since we last got a big order from Walmart. I'm going to make cupcakes tonight to take to her. Today I'm going to call where she lives and ask if it's ok if I bring the whole batch of cupcakes to leave there for others to eat. I'm sure it's ok, but I want to make sure. We also need to stop at the farm feed store and get our annual lawn fertilizer that needs to be applied early May. So, for all this we will need to take the truck. Since we are taking the truck I'm not going to take my mom out to lunch. It's just too hard now for her to get up and down into/out of it, even with help. I'll just take the cupcakes and a gift I have for her and we'll spend an hour or so with her there, after she is done with lunch. With taking the pickup we will put the fertilizer in the back bed and we put our groceries up in the cab, where the back seat folds up and leaves a big area. That way we won't have bags of fertilizer near our food, haha.