Cute table and trying to be on Teams

The copper table top came and dh got it attached to the cast iron base I got for it. I love it. So pretty.

My kitchen sink is copper, so this is a good accent piece to go with it. Our stair railing, while not actually cast iron, has a cast iron look to it, so this black base also ties in with that. A good spot to sit and drink tea or coffee and see the river flow by.

We use Microsoft Teams at work. I have it open in my RDS (remote desktop server) work desktop and also have the app on my phone. Both my RDS and phone version work fine for messaging back and forth. I've also always had it on my home computer desktop and that is the version I have to use if I am using Teams in a meeting or video/audio call. It won't work very well through the work RDS as there is too much lag/delay. If I try to watch a company meeting on Teams using the RDS version, it always freezes up and is very annoying. But, the one on my home computer desktop has always worked fine - until a couple weeks ago. It signed me out and wouldn't let me sign back in the app on my desktop. I couldn't figure it out, so I just accessed it through the web browser on my computer and that has been working fine the past couple of weeks, until yesterday. Now the web version kept saying it couldn't sign me in.

I tried reinstalling the app on my desktop, but no luck. It was still telling me "no internet connection found". I totally have internet, LOL. Finally, I found a solution someone suggested on a microsoft message board and that seems to have fixed the problem. Funny how usually the solutions that work are given by someone not with Microsoft, haha. Some internet setting in my LAN...whatever all that means, but just glad it's working. I kept ignoring it that past week or so, but I don't want to find myself in the predicament of I suddenly need to be involved in a teams meeting and not have it working properly. At least figuring it out on my own saved me a call with our IT, haha. 

I also really need to figure out how to transfer a call with it, LOL. I know there is a way, but I so seldom even get phone calls, let alone the need to transfer it to another employee, but it does happen and I can't remember how to do it. So, I've googled how to do that and made myself a sticky note here by my computer, so the next time it comes up, I should be able to transfer the call. Well, I hope so. I usually always just answer a teams phone call with my cell phone, but I'm assuming I should be able to transfer the call from someone else from my phone, as well. About the only time I answer a teams call from my computer is when it's my boss or coworker and I know they will want to share their screen with me or I want to share mine with them.

Then yesterday about 4pm, my time, our RDS pretty much crashed or something and no one could use it. I ended up not getting any more work done for my last half hour. I did see not too long after there was a Teams message to all saying it was working again. Hopefully today won't be so many problems. 

It's payday. I need to go pay my mortgage online. I don't know why I don't just set this up as autopay, LOL. I should do that when I log in to pay it.

Decluttering and a good laugh

Yesterday was kind of a quiet day. It snowed a little. Enough that dh shoveled the patios and in front of garage and shop, but not enough to worry about plowing. 

I did a bit of clean up in my "wallets" of Paypal and Amazon, to get rid of expired cards, closed cards, a closed bank account. Plus Amazon had a bunch of different prepaid visa cards with zero balances in my wallet. Much less cluttered now.

I placed another order with Thriftbooks. I had a free book credit and bought books on special, so another 5 hardback books coming (these all from the Patricia Cornwell Scarpetta series) for less than $16 total. DH likes to use cotton handkerchiefs instead of tissues and all his are old and wearing thin/out, so I ordered him a new pack of those. I also ordered myself a new pair of earbuds. I ordered some not too long ago, (as my pair stopped working) and tried a cheap pack of 5 on Amazon, but I don't like the rubbery/silicone material the cords are made of, at all. So, I just ordered a different set that is Amazon basics brand. Still cheap, but only one pair for the price I bought that set. I'll just use those as temporary backups when my good set dies.

The copper bistro table top is coming today. That will give dh another little project to do, though it shouldn't take too long to screw the top to the base I bought. But, we may decide to cut down the tube (cast iron) of the base a little bit, so that the stools are a bit better height with the table, but we'll wait and see once it's set up. I'm excited to see the top, though. Since I bought the base and top separate, nothing comes with the screws, but I'm sure he'll have something out in the shop that will work. He has oodles of that kind of stuff in bolt bins. 

Still nothing on the inherited IRA's getting set up yet, so I texted my uncle yesterday that if I don't hear anything more by the end of this week I will reach out to them for a status update. By the end of this week it will be almost 6 weeks since they got the death certificate. I feel like the investment office did a quick job of getting the new account(s) set up, so no delay there, but now it appears their "estate" dept at the corporate office, who processes the distributions, is being waited on. It's either that or maybe they haven't been able to get all my step siblings accounts set up yet...(I just know my uncle's and mine got set up) and that is causing the hold up. I guess I will find out at the end of this week. I'll be a bit mad if it's one of my step siblings holding things up. How hard is it to give them a little bit of info to set up the account and then docusign for it? For someone to give you a bunch of money! LOL.  It literally took me a 5 minute phone call to give her the info she needed over the phone and a minute to do the docusign email she sent me.

Dh's best friend sent him a video. OMG, I laughed so hard. He drag races bikes, but the video was of him a the dragstrip, helping another drag bike racer get staged. Racer stages his bike up to the light and friend is doing whatever it is they do (LOL) and the pavement is sooo sticky with rubber that as friend tries to walk away, his shoes stick to the pavement, right on each side of the bikes front tire! He had to step out of his shoes and walk off in his socks and then after the bike left, he walked back over and had to unstick his shoes. It was so funny to watch.

 

 

Better light

When I got the light for over the pool table, I didn't realize when ordering it, that it really needed a "shade" inside to diffuse the light. I decided to try some lampshade "paper" that I ordered off Amazon, hopefully to somehow adhere to the inside of the light. It was coming from China, so weeks to get here. Then I got an email saying it appears your order was lost in transit, so I could either cancel or they could resend it, so I had them resend it and it finally came last week.

Dh took a look at it Sunday night. It's kind of a thick, almost plastic like "paper". He went to work figuring how how to install it and came up with a plan, that he worked on yesterday and got it attached with some thin double sided sticky roll of tape he had. It is so much better with the light diffused now! You can look at the lamp and not get blinded, haha. Plus the design shows up much better.

Before:

After:

It looks better in person, than it shows up in the picture. It does make it nicer while playing pool, as if I happen to look across the table at dh (who's head height is up near the light height) I was getting blinded by the light bulbs.

The bigger grounding mat for our bed arrived yesterday. I don't think I've ever been so excited to get something! LOL. Hopefully dh gets as much benefit from it as I have. Now that I have the smaller mat to use and also some "foot" bands came with the bigger mat as a free gift, I'm going to try those during the day, while working at my desk. 

I have canceled out a few credit cards recently. They are one's I got for the rewards and now don't use the cards, so good to have them now closed and not have to check them online every month to make sure no fraud ever gets used on them. Two were kind of a pain to close - they keep trying to talk you out of it. But, Wells Fargo was quick and easy. I'm sure my credit score will take a hit, but I don't plan on needing any credit for the near (and far, haha) future, and it will bounce back quickly.

Up and at 'em Monday

Yesterday was pretty productive. I made blueberry muffins for breakfast. Finished loading up the dishwasher with those dirty dishes and ran the dishwasher. Took a shower, made the bed. Just before lunch I made the peanut butter cookies. After lunch we played pool for awhile. Then dh got my chicken coop cleaning stuff out of the garden shed and I got the coop all cleaned out. I almost put it off, because my back had started hurting in one spot an hour or two earlier, but I wanted to get this done and by the time I was done, my back actually got worked out of the muscle spasm, so that was good. 

About an hour nap from 2:30 to 3:30. Then I started watching a movie on my ipad. Dinner was homemade pizza. While that was baking, I emptied out the dishwasher. Dh spent the rest of the evening messaging with a distant cousin (it would be dh's cousin's son, I don't know what that is called...once removed?)  and I finished the movies I had started.

Dh's dad was one of 12 kids, born on a farm in Minnesota. Dh's dad left when he was 18 to join the Air Force and never returned. I think being the youngest of 12, he felt no place on the farm. (his dad died when he was 7) and the oldest was running the farm. Dh had visited the farm once when we was a kid, with his family. Last August he had Facebook messaged someone he thought now owned the farm (or part of it) and had asked if she was related to the original homesteader, dh's great grandfather. Yes, her husband is dh's 2nd cousin. So, they spent the evening messaging back and forth and dh scanned some old pics he had of his dad on the farm and an old picture with many of the 12 kids sitting around a big table. DH's dad was the youngest, I think, so he had siblings who were grown and married and even a nephew or two older than him.

This is a short post today. I've got to get payroll processed today. Oh fun!

Weekend to-do's and done's

Yesterday we were up early (well, dh was up early, I was up at my normal time, LOL) and out of the house by 8am yesterday. We pulled in Sportmans Warehouse parking, wanting to see what discount we could get with their "balloon pop" event. The line outside waiting to get in when then opened in about 7 minutes was long and around the corner of the building, but I'd say only about 75 people (they said the first 300 customers). DH wasn't interested in waiting in line, so we went to Walmart and got our order picked up and stopped back at Sportsman's at 9:10. Line all gone, LOL. So, we went inside, but it wasn't how I read the event to be. You didn't get a balloon to see what your discount is until you are checking out. Oh well, dh wanted a couple boxes of ammo anyway, so we decided to see if we'd get lucky with a high discount, but only got the 5%.

Then we went over to the grocery store that I get the frozen hamburger patties and salmon at. They are usually in the same frozen case, near the fresh meats, but they moved them, so it took me awhile to find them, now both in different places. But, at least they had what I wanted in stock, and on sale. I saved $14.

We were back home by around 10:30 and nice to still pretty much have the rest of the day. Dh usually doesn't ever want to go that early, as he doesn't even usually get up until 8:30 (goes to bed very late) and then it always takes him a couple hours to get moving well, but he did say I was right - being in the city early to get the shopping done is much less traffic and people to deal with. And was very fast to get the Walmart order. There was only one other car getting their order when we pulled in.

I got the groceries put away and got the bedsheets in the wash. Had lunch, then we played some pool. Then I made the bed. And then took a nap on top with the throw blanket, LOL. Dh decided to go outside and wash the truck, since it's pretty dirty and the weather was almost 50 degrees. Today they are predicting snow.

I watch random videos in like Facebook videos or youtube. A couple are finance/debt advising videos that come through my video feed. One guy is kind of funny. Young and pretty blunt with the people he has on his "show". But what just amazes me is the interest rate these people are paying on credit card debt. Like 30%! Holy cow. I thought it was bad enough when we were in debt (not much cc debt though) and the couple of cc's we had were like 18%. Honestly, it should be illegal for these cc companies to charge people that much, but it obviously isn't a deterrent to not use them. Or they have car loans with 15-20% rates. I'm sure this is a huge reason why so many can't make it anymore. How could you when so much of your income is going to interest payments? And the student loans....just insane. Why why why would someone take out $120,000 in student loan debt to get a job making $35k a year?? Or someone will call into a show and say between them and their spouse they have $300k in student loan debt and then when asked what their annual salaries are, they will say something stupid like "between the 2 of us we make about $85,000....". I get that an 18 -22 year old, most don't have a clue, when they are taking out these loans, but dang. There really needs to be someone saying, "look if you take out $120,000 in loans, it will take you X amount of years to pay this off, just making the minimum payments." Or "you will need to get a job making X in order to make this amount of loan reasonable to take out". 

For dinner last night I made chicken and bacon wraps. I've made them once before and very tasty, but this time I bought the larger burrito sized tortillas and all the ingredients fit much better. The chicken breasts are cooked in the bacon grease (and then sliced into strips) and sure makes a good flavor.  I think tonight I'll make a pizza. I haven't made pizza in a long time.

I want to make something for dessert, but haven't decided what. I find that I need to get it made before  or just after lunch, otherwise I'm too tired by afternoon to feel like making it. Maybe this time I'll do up some peanut butter cookies. I just make those from the Betty Crocker pouch mixes and they are quick and easy to make. I think when dh gets up this morning I'll make us some blueberry muffins. When I was going through my pantry the other day (and tossing out a few old things) I see I have 3 boxes of muffin mix. I always substitute applesauce for the vegetable oil and can tell no difference.

I'm also going to get the chicken coop cleaned out today. It's been nice getting an egg every day again. I wasn't even getting one a day last summer/fall. I only had to buy a dozen with my grocery order, this time. 

Quick Friday update

I've got my Friday workday over half over. It's a bit quieter, email wise, as my boss has the day off, LOL. Another week gone by and still nothing new on the "when is uncle going to get his inheritance" news. Ya, I'd like to know, too,  LOL, but it'll get done when it gets done. Though, I had to say when the girl told me it would be about a 3 week process, I figured it would be completed by now.

The copper bistro table top I ordered finally shipped out today, so that made me happy. The larger grounding mat for our bed also shipped yesterday. I am most anxious for that to get here and get dh started on sleeping on it. 

We're going into the city in the morning to get our grocery order picked up. We made it a day over 3 weeks since the last trip. I'm trying to get a little more milk with this order and see if that gets me through 3 weeks. When my cart showed almost $400 I kind of freaked out, but then when I realize it is for 3 weeks, that still keeps me way in my budget for food and supplies for a month. I budget $600 a month, so $400 for 3 weeks works out to about $533 for a month. This almost $400 order for tomorrow also includes stocking up on some pantry items that will last much longer than 3 weeks and won't need to be purchased for awhile again.

But, first we are going to stop in at Sportsman's Warehouse when they open up at 9am. I saw via an email they are having a customer balloon discount giveaway to the first 300 customers, with discounts inside the balloons up to 100% off - off of a max of $5000! Might as well try to stop in and see if we can each get a balloon and maybe get lucky. The minimum discount is 5%. Dh needs a couple boxes of ammo, so at a minimum we'll at least save 5% on it. If by chance we won the 100% off coupon, I have no idea what we'd buy, LOL. He'd probably buy guns and we'd stock up on some clothes and shoes.

I have no idea what to make for dinner tonight. Maybe we'll just have some grilled cheese sandwiches. Depends on how hungry dh is, I guess. Nothing much sounds good to me, today. Or maybe I'll defrost a bit of chicken breast to make some chicken quesadillas. I don't have any of the pico de gallo to add, but it would still taste ok.

DH put his old gun safe on Marketplace last night. No interest yet, but maybe we'll get it sold and put a bit of money back in our pocket. Would be nice if it sold, for the money and the space it would free.

That's about all I have for today.

Breadwinners and sticky popcorn

This week is going by fast, it seems. My dd is so funny. She makes a bit more money then her dh (though they both make VERY good money) and it's their company's annual merit raise time. He got notified by his boss yesterday morning of what his new salary will be. DD messages me about it and says "He's the breadwinner again.....for now - haha!". She hadn't heard yet what her raise would be. About an hour or 2 later she messages me again and says "welp, I'm back to being the breadwinner! LOL". Not by much, but between the 2 of them...I just said "Dang!" Combined they are making $225k a year, plus an annual bonus. Other than the cars they have, they live very modestly and put the max they can into their 401k's. While there is a cafe at their office, they almost always take their own breakfast (they start at like 6am) and always pack a lunch. Usually they will premake something on Sunday to last the week and take for lunches. They go out to eat dinner once in awhile, but typically they either have friends over for dinner or go to their houses for dinner.

They recently bought some snow shoes and poles and went out on a hike (is it called a hike in snow shoeing?" in the snow and really enjoyed it. They hike a lot in summer, so this is a good way for them to still get out there in the mountains and she said there were no people out there in winter, LOL

After seeing how not sleeping on my grounding mat for just one night affected me, I ordered the larger bed mat yesterday, so that it will go all the way across our bed and both of us can sleep on it. DH had been teasing me quite a bit and basically saying I'm a kook, but then last night he said "I do want to keep trying the grounding mat, but I don't want you to not have it and start hurting again..." and before he could finish I told him I ordered the bigger bed mat and he said ok, you take your little mat back and I can wait until the other one comes, to start using it regularly and see if it helps.

It was almost 50 degrees yesterday. Such a mild winter we have had.

I see that the cloud computer back up service I have did revise my account to the $10/year plan. I need to check, but I think this will only cover one computer, so I may need to actually purchase another of the same plan to cover both computers, but $20 a year is still much better than $100 a year. 

I found another use for the white chocolate syrup. I made some popcorn for us last night and in my bowl, I drizzled some of the syrup over the popcorn. Very yummy, though a bit sticky on the fingers, LOL.

We are low on groceries and out of milk, so are planning to go in Saturday and get stocked back up. I'm using my shelf stable milk right now. Good to have on hand and needs to be used/rotated through within 6 months anyway. But, at least having this shelf milk is now letting me make it the rest of the week, until we go to Walmart again. 

One of the stocks in my mom's IRA portfolio (still not processed by their estate dept yet) is Nvidia. I can't remember when it got purchased, around 3 years ago. 100 shares for $126 per share. Today they are worth $778 a share (and climbing). That was a good purchase decision by her investment guy. Actually, I think it was his son, who is being groomed to fully take over, who recommended that purchase a few years ago. It sure will be nice to see all this in MY inherited IRA, if they ever get it transferred over, LOL. (I say this tongue in cheek, à la uncle)

Accounts closed and revised

The check I deposited into my Chase checking has finally cleared and I just did an electronic transfer to move it to my regular checking, which usually takes 1 day. Then I called and closed the account.

I have this annual subscription to a cloud computer back up service to back up our computers. I've had it 2 years, It was a special offer the first year of only $7.95. Then last year was regular annual price of $79.50. This covers backing up both our computers. Now I just got an email that it's going up to $99.50 per year. Ya.....I don't think so.  It's for 5 TB and between the 2 of us we are only using like 3% of that! I see on their website they have "mini" plans that fall into the amount we back up for only $10/mo, but when I got into my account online, there were only options to upgrade, not downgrade. So,  I got into a chat screen and now it's being downgraded to $10 a year. I logged back in after we finished chatting and it's still showing the higher priced plan, so I will have to keep an eye on it, before it renews on March 7th to make sure the change took effect.

I moved the grounding mat over to dh's side of the bed last night for him to give a try for awhile. Well....now I'm even more convinced it works. Because around 2am my right leg started aching again (as it used to do every night) and it didn't hurt the whole time I was using the mat. I didn't sleep very good at all. I want my mat back!! LOL. I've been up over 2 hours and my leg is still aching. He's not up yet this morning, so no report yet on him. But, even if it helps him, I have a feeling he's not going to admit it.  After he got up I went downstairs and brought the mat up to put under my desk and sit with my feet on it awhile and see if my leg ache goes away.

Oh - and guess who texted me again yesterday about his inheritance.........this was his text:

And I got a whole bunch of stuff from Charles Schwab doesn't make any sense to me so let me know when you know something for me okay thanks I read all the pages didn't help LOL

My reply:

I haven't received anything more yet and nothings been updated on my account online they set up. Still at zero. They won't be updating me on you or the other beneficiaries, as these inherited accounts are each beneficiaries private accounts now. I did look at my calendar this morning and it's only been a little over 3 weeks since they got the death certificate and started the process. I'm sure it takes time. If I get any more mail or emails from them I'll let you know

I do see in my informed delivery I have another something in the mail from the investment company, probably what he got yesterday and doesn't know what it is. I seem to be a day or two behind him on getting mail on this stuff. So far it's just a lot of account disclosure type stuff. His not understanding what this stuff is is giving me flashbacks to a few years ago with my mom. (after moving her here and already knew she was starting to have memory problems) and she would get stuff like this in the mail and not know what it was and would call and ask me about it. Or she'd get an insurance explanation of benefits paid on her prescriptons in the mail, you know where 3 of the 4 pages is just legal fine print stuff, and I'd have to explain to her every time what it was and that she didn't need to keep it.

Mini struggles/headaches

For a Monday, yesterday wasn't too bad. I still can't get logged into my side job (again!) and last Thursday requested my side job boss to put in an IT help request. It's all convoluted how their remaining "business" works now, after their relative bought out their business a little over a year ago. But, for tracking the bookkeeping of what they still have going on (very little) they are being allowed to use the server of their old company. Anyway, when there are IT issues, it's now through the IT company the new owner uses and the request for help needs to come from my side job boss. She's mostly on retirement mode now, so it's always days before she gets around to doing it. 

It had been over 2 weeks since I ordered that copper table top and since I got their email saying it was in stock and they would be shipping soon and send me tracking. So, I emailed back yesterday to ask for a ship date. It's still in their shipping queue/process, but should go out this week. Put the dang thing in a box and ship it, LOL. It's only 20 inches in diameter, haha.

Tomorrow is supposed to be when that check hold in my 44 year old checking account is finally released. I will be calling to close it first thing tomorrow. After I do that, I also need to remember to go into my payroll account and remove the $250 direct deposit to this account.

I just got an email from Chase asking them to rate my experience with my call into customer service. I gave them a 1, LOL and typed out in the explanation box a short reply as to why.

Weekend wrap up

The weekends always go by so fast, even when I'm really not doing much. Saturday I vacuumed the downstairs. I made a pan of brownies. Now I can't remember what else I did. Saturday evening, just before it got dark, we had at least 11 deer out in front of our property. We've never seen that many that close to the house. We were watching them out the window with our binoculars for a couple minutes and then our neighbor who lives down at the end pulled into our street and that scared them all off :(

I've gotten 5 1/4 eggs the past 6 days. How did I get a 1/4 of an egg, you may wonder? The egg yesterday was one of those "fairy" eggs, LOL. 

I spent quite a bit of time, over the weekend, playing around with all the numbers in the spreadsheet I made to figure out distributions of my inherited IRA over the next 10 years, as well as how each distribution would affect my taxes, when I can have the house paid off and when I can retire. Just trying to play around with different scenarios. Is it weird that I almost feel guilty to take my first distribution, when it becomes available? LOL. I'm sure I'll get past that feeling when I can see $$ in my account, haha.

In some ways it is a good thing this is in an IRA and still taxable monies. Then I am not just getting this huge lump sum at once (that apparently the average person squanders away). I mean, sure I could just take it all at once and pay the tax bill on it, but I'm not stupid enough to pay 37% taxes on it. I'll spread it out over the 10 years and keep most of it in the 22% tax bracket. If I retire at 67 and still have 3 years left to take the distributions, those would mostly then put me down in the 12% tax bracket.

Another thing I am trying to do more research on is Medicare and also having a Medicare supplement plan (I think that's what they are called) vs. a Medicare Advantage plan. We have 5 years before dh can go on Medicare and most likely I won't be going on it until I retire, at 67, as I will still have work insurance. But, I'm sure medicare and supplement for dh, at 65, will be cheaper than having him on my work insurance plan.

Yesterday I gave dh another haircut with the clippers. He did laundry. We played pool in the afternoon. Then I took a short nap. We've been trying to just have really light dinners once in awhile, so last night was just grilled cheese sandwiches and a brownie for dessert. I saved copies of my recent receipts for OTC medication purchases and one for dh's prescription and got those added to my HSA "vault". I now have almost $1000 built up in expenses I can reimburse myself for someday.

DH has run into town last Friday and stopped in the lumber store. He wants/needs to build some stairs to make it easier to get up to the loft in his shop. He had an idea, but in talking with one of the guys that work there, he gave dh a better plan. DH isn't ready quite yet to build it, but now at least knows how he will do it and what he'll need. 

He's still trying to decide what car lift to get. The one he wanted to get ended up being an extra $1600 for installation. He's like, even if it's 2 guys, there's no way it would take them more than 8 hours/1 day to install it. He's not paying $200/hour for labor. Then just recently he watched a youtube video of one being installed in someone's shop and it wasn't on time lapse or anything and took 2 guys just 2 hours. He said one guy did most of the work and the other guy was just there to basically help hold things while the other guy did the work. So, that made him even more convinced he's not paying $1600 for an installation fee.

Patience is a virtue

My plan to text my uncle yesterday, later morning, that I still don't know anything about his money, got derailed by work and then sure enough, my phone rang with you know who asking if there's an update. OMG! Like my half sis said "he's gone his whole life with out that money - he can't wait a month or two? Geez!"  Can you imagine if the inheritance had to go through a will probate that would likely take 6-18 months?? I probably would have had to block his number LOL! If he asks me again, I'm just going to tell him to call the investment company and ask them, because at this point I am just a beneficiary like him and my step siblings are and I don't know anymore than him or them what is going on with it and how long it will take. And like my daughter said - he's called more times since my mom died then he's called in the last 4 years to check on her!

When I got the refund check for the prorated memory care (the check was made out to me). I was going to mobile deposit it in my checking, but the limit is $2500. I could have mailed it to my bank the next day, but I really hate doing that (plus I didn't want to walk on ice all the way down to our mailbox) so I mobile deposited it into my other checking account with Chase. I have had this checking account since I was 16 years old and got my first job. 44 years now! They put a hold on the check for almost 2 weeks. Good grief. I called on Thursday to ask if they could release the hold and got transferred to someone on their "hold dept". She apparently had to try to call the maker of the check to verify it's legit, but got a voicemail. She said I could call back another time and they could try again. I said no thanks. I've been a customer for 44 years. If you can't remove a hold on a $2800 check then I'll just wait until it's available and I'll be calling back to close out my account. After we moved here, I had to open a checking with a different bank, because Chase isn't in this state, but I kept the Chase account open just for sentimental reasons. I've had this same checking account # all these years. I have it set up so $250 per paycheck gets auto deposited in the account, so that I keep it open and no fees. But, I usually don't keep much in there, as I then usually either use the money in my monthly budget or transfer it to my savings where I earn interest. I had just wanted to keep this open since I had it so long, but if they have no loyalty to me, there is no reason I need to have any loyalty to their business. Besides.......they aren't the bank that called and wished me a happy birthday!! LOL!

And since I was in a phone calling mood, I then made calls to cancel 2 credit cards I never use anymore and don't need. The first one was AmEx and I was on hold longer than I talked to the customer service rep, but after I declined a couple of times to keep the card open, he finally closed it. The second card was a Target credit card. This guy was way more annoying and kept asking the reason and I just kept saying I don't shop there anymore, so I don't need the card. Finally, it's now closed. Not to mention about every 6 months they send me a letter saying due to the inactivity on my account, if I don't use it by such and such date they will close it, and they never do. I have one other one I want to close, too, but by then I was no longer in the mood to be on the phone, LOL. The AmEx was one I opened 4 years ago, for a rewards they had offered at the time. The Target was first a store card, but a few years ago they changed it to a regular Mastercard, good anywhere. I never use it, because I use cards that offer rewards.

I'll let my credit score take the temporary hit (I guess I will drop down from excellent to good, LOL) as I have no plans in the near future to buy anything on new credit.

A link and fabulous Friday

Someone asked for a link to the grounding mat. This is where I got mine from Earthing.com.  A friend has ordered some for her and her husband and I'm anxious to get her feedback on it.

The blinds I ordered for the bonus room 2 windows arrived, so dh got those installed. We are often up there at night, with the lights on, playing pool, so it will be nice to be able to pull the blind down with the window that is facing the main road out front, if we want. Next up for that room will be some seating, for 4, for in front of the tv. I'll probably figure out something on that in another month or so. It is something I want to get with some of my inheritance money and I'm guessing it should be available in a month or so? Who knows!

The money for the inherited IRA's still has not processed. The estate dept is at the corporate office, not the "local" office that set up the accounts and handles the investing/personal side of it all. The small office has done what they can do, for their part, now they just have to wait for corporate to get through the estate dept process. They don't have any control over when that happens. I'm sure my uncle is having fits and will be calling me again about it. I'll probably just preempt him today with a quick text that just says they are still being processed, I don't have a date.

We finally got a decent amount of snow last night. Not a lot, but enough that dh will shovel and likely plow. I think he's expecting a friend to stop by today, so unless it warms up to melt, which it's not supposed to, he'll probably get the driveway and street plowed. The temps are supposed to get down into the teens the next 2 nights.

I got another egg yesterday. Woo! LOL. I was laughing, saying they must have liked the spaghetti noodles I gave them. I gave them some and the next day got 2 eggs. Forgot to give them the rest the next day and no egg and then remembered Wednesday and then got an egg yesterday. Maybe I just need to make a batch of spaghetti noodles for them, haha. When I'm giving the noodles to them I say "here's your spaghetti worms!".

For some reason it's seemed like a long week, so I'm glad it's Friday. I just opened my last carton of milk this morning. We were going to try to make it 3 weeks before having to get groceries again, but might have to be 2 1/2 weeks, haha. I do have some of the shelf stable milk I want to use up some, since it's only supposed to be good for 6 months, I'll need to rotate it in and use it every so often anyway.

Grounded

This post is just my experience, so take it for what it's worth, but I thought it worthwhile to share.

A couple months ago I came across something I hadn't heard of before: Grounding. Also called earthing. Just me being curious, I read about it (or maybe it was a video). I was very skeptical and didn't think much more on it. Then of course, due to the "magic" of the internet, my facebook feed and news article feeds with google were filled with grounding testimonials and products for sale. I looked into it a little more. Interested in the claims of better sleep and less pain. Grounding reduces inflammation in the body, which is the cause of most health issues.

I won't go into the science of it - I can't explain it, LOL, and it sounds hokey anyway. (look it up) But, the gist is the earth/ground has properties to react with our skin/bodies, but it has be be direct contact. Not with shoes (which now most everyone wears rubber soled shoes), but with bare feet/skin. Well, I can't go try to stand outside on the grass for a half hour a day - it's 30 degrees and there was snow.

I kept reading all the reviews and comments and it was one after the other of how it works and has helped with sleep and pain. Not reviews on websites, where those can be faked, but real people with real Facebook profiles commenting. Hundreds of them, even a couple thousand of them. It was piquing my interest. I watched some more videos and went to earthing.com to look at the products. This was just before Christmas and the "mat" was for $49. I figured let's order it and give it a try. If it's a total hoax, I am only out $50.

While I usually sleep pretty well, I do experience many aches and pains, especially while sleeping. I tend to sleep on my right side, facing the edge of the bed.

I have (for years) always pretty much experienced my right leg aching halfway through the night/early morning hours. Likely from laying on that side for too long of period and my other leg laying on top of the leg, creating pressure. I then turn over to relieve it, but it will take a long time to stop aching. Around November my right shoulder started hurting me. It was hurting every day, anytime I'd use my arm in certain motions, like stirring a pot of soup. Not to mention my back and neck always hurting some, off an on (from the car accident years ago). My other issue, the past several months (or longer with my right foot) is my feet hurting when I first get up in the morning, the first several steps. Then they feel ok the rest of the day. (I'm assuming plantar fasciitis. It's been my right foot for a year or two, but the past several months also my left foot started doing it, as well. The other issue I have had for at least a year or more, is when I am sitting in my recliner in the evenings, every time I go to get up out of it, my back is a bit stuck in the bent position and it's painful to get straightened back up. Every time.

The grounding mat came Monday Jan 8th. I plugged it in to try on my bed, under my cotton fitted sheet (apparently it will work ok through thin cotton). It also needs to be to skin, not through clothes. I sleep with bare legs and feet, so no problem there. There is nothing you can really feel while touching it. I put it down where my feet and lower legs would contact it, during the night. I would say, just before I fell asleep, that first night, I felt just a bit like a very light vibration going through my body, but I certainly could have imagined it. Later I read that this is common feeling when you first use it, as your body is adjusting to it.

Then during this first night of trying it was when I got the call at 3:50am that my mom had passed, so this mat and it's effects were the last thing on my mind for a few days.

The first thing I noticed the next evening, though,when getting up from the recliner, was that there was no pain! It must just be a fluke. Or maybe there are some times I get up and no pain and just don't remember (no, there was always stiffness and pain).  Sometime during the 2nd or the 3rd night I must have kicked off where the cord snaps into the top of the mat, so it wasn't plugged in for a night or two, and I didn't realize it.

I then took it up to my desk, to try under bare feet, while sitting at my desk. I'm not sure this was too helpful, as I apparently don't sit very still! I also tend to sit with my feet back towards the rolling base of my chair, kind of on my toes. Plus I am up and down out of my chair a lot. And my feet got cold. I tried this for several days, but wasn't feeling anything noticeable in regards to my aches and pains. Plus, I wasn't working the rest of that week, due to taking time off for my mom's death, so I wasn't at my desk for long periods.  I then read a Facebook comment saying to give it a couple of weeks. I then decided to try on my bed again and turned it sideways under my bottom sheet, so that where the cord snaps into the mat was hanging over the side of the mattress and no chance of kicking it off. 

That next morning (or maybe it was the morning after) I realized that I slept all through the night with no pain in my right leg, as I get every night. Then the next night I had no leg pain. I have not had leg pain during the night since (and have been sleeping more on my right side, since I don't wake up in pain and need to turn over or stretch my leg out). A couple days later I realized my right shoulder wasn't hurting much anymore either. Maybe just a very slight ache, some days.

The weekend before last, I got up and my right foot was hardly any pain, though my left foot was still about the same. A couple/few more nights and my right foot is still pretty much pain free and my left foot pain has subsided quite a bit. 

Another surprising pain gone is I can now sleep on my stomach again, with no neck nerve pinching. I have always been a stomach sleeper, that is until my car accident. I can rarely sleep on my stomach for the past 14 years, because turning my head to either side that far always pinches a nerve. I can now sleep on my stomach if I want to. Amazing.

The last difference I have noticed, just in the past couple of weeks is I now have vivid dreams that I am remembering every morning when I wake up. I hardly ever remember my dreams. After I started experiencing this, I also came across a few other users comments that said the same thing.

I am now 100% convinced this works. To be able to sleep with no aches and pains is amazing. I definitely want dh to try it out to see if it helps him. He has so much trouble sleeping and so much pain going on. There are different products, but I'm thinking I might try the bigger sized sheet mat, that can go across the width of the mattress.

Just another day

I was busy with a work project yesterday, so jumped right into it when I got up yesterday, rather than taking my half hour or so, before I logged into work to get a blog post started. I was hoping to finish the project yesterday, but still have a bit to do this morning, but it shouldn't take me too long.

DH is happy - Google maps/earth is finally showing the satellite view of our house, LOL. He's only been waiting for almost 5 years, haha. Street view is still showing the same, from after we were done building, but before the landscaping was in. Why did this make him so happy? Because he was able to measure stuff! He now knows how many sq feet of lawn and asphalt we have. I guess that is important, haha.

As I have aged my hair has gotten curly. It always had a wave in it, but my white hair is much curlier. Some of it I like ok, but I don't like the back, where it just kind of ripples down. I also don't like the curls in that my hair always looks too poofy and a little frizzed out, but I haven't got myself to wanting really short hair yet. I've had short hair once in my life and while I liked it (I think I was around 19 years old), it also required getting it cut every month and I have no desire (nor am I close to a hairdresser) to do that. Most days I just let it dry and pull it back into a pony tail. Once in a blue moon I will use the curling iron on it to make it more wavy/beach type curls. Most days I don't have any ambition or need, haha. A while back I bought this brush that dries and straightens hair. It's just too big of brush and makes it awkward to use. And it must be my age showing, but listening to a hair dryer for 5 or 10 minutes annoys me. I just bought this brush straightener that you use on dry hair. The brush is more normal size and I tried it out yesterday after my hair was dry. It worked fairly quickly and did a good job, especially to get the ripples out of the back. It was only like $20. Seeing it straight again made me realize it's getting long and in need of a cut again.

I haven't gotten any eggs for weeks and I think a grand total of 2 eggs so far this winter, so imagine my surprise to find 2 eggs in the nest yesterday. I felt like I hit the jackpot. I hope it's a sign of at least a few eggs starting to come on a more regular basis each week.

Our neighbor down at the end of the street - with the 1st grader....well, she got into a bit of a panic yesterday afternoon, when he wasn't home from school. The bus comes around 4:30 (gosh that seems so late to me!) and is down at the entrance to our street. They live down at the other end. Well, she rarely makes it down there in time to meet him when he gets of the bus. Usually he's just walking down our street by himself and sometimes she's on her way down the street when the bus drops him off. Yesterday she texts us and the other neighbors to ask if any of us saw the bus go by (this was at 4:47) as he wasn't home yet. I did not see the text (and I don't think the other neighbors were home) until 5pm and then about 5 minutes or so later had she texted back she thinks he's been found. I guess he thought he had wrestling practice and didn't get on the bus. I gotta say, if she would be there to meet his bus every day before it would arrive, she'd at least have known he wasn't on the bus and that it wasn't the bus that was late. There is no way, even living here, that I'd let a 6 year old off a bus by himself. When my son was that age, the bus dropped them off at the entrance to our private street(s) and I was always down there in plenty of time and stood there and waited for the bus and even when it was both him and dd (4 years apart) together, I went to the bus stop. 

I've never been a Valentine's Day fan. I always joke with dh "Happy stupid love day". So, he's off the hook from having to ever buy me something. Not to mention we just had our anniversary and my birthday last month.

Hooray!

Last week I had sent my boss the form to increase my 401k contributions, so I could max out what they will match, instead of leaving $900 a year on the table. As I was finishing up payroll this morning and running the reports, I took a look at my net pay, to see what it is now, with the extra being taken out, pre-tax. My net take home was more! Well, I got a raise! So, that was a happy surprise and even nicer to get one without having to ask for it. 

So, yep, the call from my uncle on Saturday (that I returned yesterday morning) was again to ask, in a roundabout way, when he may get his money. On Saturday I got a packet in the mail from the investment company with a cover letter saying "we've opened your new account" and the rest was legal disclosure stuff. Uncle got the same thing in the mail and called to ask me what it was  - is his account open yet? I again (for what is like the 4th time now?) explained that they have to open an inherited IRA account for a beneficiary, so that's what this is. BUT, so far, from what I was told last week, while the accounts are now set up and ready, the actual funds have not been transferred over into these inherited IRA accounts yet, as their "estate dept" is still getting it all processed. She originally told me she thought it might take 3 weeks, so it's only been 2 weeks so far since they got the death certificate and got started on the process. "Oh ok - I'm not in any hurry...just curious". uh huh...LOL. Then he asked again how he goes about getting the money - do they send him a check? So, I again told him he will be able to request a full distribution via either a check or electronic funds transfer to his bank account. At this point I'm starting to suspect with his age, he's starting to get a little bit forgetful. I will be so happy when they get this all finished and I told him I would be sure to update him as soon as I know any more.

I'm still trying to work out, via spreadsheet, what is the best plan for me to withdraw my inherited IRA over the next 10 years, with the #1 goal of paying off my mortgage and the #2 goal of retiring no later than 7 years away, at age 67 and #3 minimize the tax hit of it all. The best plan is to spread it all out pretty evenly over the next 10 years, but if I retire in 7 years, then the last 3 years my income will be lower and I could shift more of the distributions to be in those last 3 years, since I won't be in as high of tax bracket. Also, once this stock portfolio gets transferred to my account, I'll set up a phone call with the investment advisor to get his feedback on it all. Oh, and there is a #4 goal - enjoy some of the money as well! My thought is some of the growth/earnings that it earns each year can be used for "fun money".

Saturday/Sunday

I started this post yesterday and never got back to finishing and posting it. The refund check from my mom's memory care did come Friday and a bit more than I expected, as they also prorated a refund of $132 on her "personal care products" (ie Depends). Mrs Neighbor came over yesterday with a nice little miniature rose plant. She said she's had it for awhile, meaning to give me in condolence for my mom, and just didn't get over right away. It was nice of her. She's always been thoughtful like that.

The tv wall mount delivered yesterday, so we got the tv put up in the bonus room. Dh felt it is a really good mount and came with everything you could possibly need to install it, depending on what tv you may have. It even has a level built in it for installing. I was helping dh hold it up (just a bit above my eye height) and he starts screwing it in the wall and I'm like "don't you need your level?" (because he's always very particular to make sure stuff is level) and he shows me there was one built in the middle of the top of the mount, that I couldn't see from my height. It was just under $50 and I'm glad I didn't spend $130 on the Samsung one on their website.

I did make a "funfetti" cake from the box. I did substitute butter for the oil and it gave the cake a good flavor. Later in the afternoon, we had a guy stop by for a couple of hours visit. He was interesting - very intelligent. He has quite a bit of insight into what is going on in our little county and surrounding areas. Much more knowledge than the average person would know/see. The kind of stuff my dh has always had an intuition, or 6th sense, about and this guy confirmed a lot of what dh thought he was seeing.

We ended up having a late quick and easy dinner and saved room for cake and ice cream, which we took up to the bonus room and played some pool. With the tv now hooked up (it is a smart tv) we signed into dh's Youtube account and put on some music. I think I need to figure out the color settings on the tv. It was playing various music videos and the color looks off and when I remember seeing the tv on at my mom's it was always a very good picture.

All day yesterday I kept thinking it was Sunday for some reason. It's not like I had Friday off, so I have no idea why. At one point, later in the morning I was even wondering to myself "why isn't dh doing the laundry" (that he does on Sundays) and kept realizing it's Saturday. Then last evening dh said he kept thinking it was Sunday all day, too.

And while we were upstairs playing pool and I had left my phone downstairs and when we came back downstairs I see my uncle called and left a message asking me to call him at my convenience......well, my convenience wasn't last night, haha. I wasn't in the mood to have to answer again when I think he might get his inheritance. I'll call him later this morning

It's sunny out this morning, but a cold 25 degrees. Looks like we're in for a bit colder weather the next week or so, but the sun is a nice change from the cloudy days we were having.

I have a few ripe bananas that never got eaten so I think I'll make up some banana bread today. That's always good to have with my morning cup of coffee or a snack. I will also get back to the vacuuming, LOL. I decided to try something new, in hopes that my back wouldn't start hurting while vacuuming. I did the bonus room and then stopped, before my back would hurt. Waited awhile and then did the hallway and half of the loft area. Then stopped. So far so good. Then it was time for lunch, then we were putting up the tv mount, then the visitor was coming over and I never got to finish the other half of the upstairs. But, I do think my stopping and resting before my back would start aching worked.

I'm also reading a good science fiction book, so I will read on that some more today and likely finish it this evening or tomorrow. Something good to do, in between my vacuuming, haha.

 

TGIF, as always :)

It now sounds like, while the beneficiaries inherited IRA accounts got set up, no monies/stocks have transferred into them yet. I got 2 identical notifications in the mail saying my account contact information has been updated and to log in to review, with a partial account ending in the last 4 numbers. I also got a statement on my mom's account for January. So, I emailed the girl at the office and she then initiated an email that lets me activate my account for online, but I needed my full account number to do that, which I don't have yet. So, a phone call with her, I got the account number and she said when I log in it will still be showing a $0 balance because the estate dept hasn't processed the estate paperwork yet. So, I'm guessing uncle is still waiting on his money, too. LOL. Poor guy.

My mail informed delivery for today is showing an envelope from the memory care, so I'm hoping that is the prorated refund on the rest of her January rent/care. 

I finished the book I was reading and started a new book yesterday. I'm trying to get back into reading again. I got busy for a few months watching tv shows in the evening and haven't been reading. 

Almost the weekend. I'm ready for it. I think I will make a cake and also make some of the soft ice cream, since I bought a couple extra cartons of heavy cream last week. I'm not ready to try chocolate chip cookies again, haha.

A little bit snowing today, but nothing major predicted. And now most of it has already melted off.

What are your weekend plans?

Waiting on the mail

We keep getting a little dusting of snow each night and then it melts off during the day. When I went to walk down to the mailbox yesterday morning, there was one little icy spot on our driveway that I almost slipped on. I could just see myself falling and getting hurt - all to mail this little $33 check for my mom's insurance.

The investment office does this weekly newsletter via email that has always gone to my mom's email. I must be closer to getting my account set up as the newsletter went to my email this morning. In my informed delivery, for today, I also see there are quite a few envelopes coming in today's mail from the investment company, either address to my moms IRA or addressed to me. I'm guessing one is a final statement of some sort on my mom's account. Hopefully the rest is my account is now set up. My mom's state income tax refund got put into her(our/my) checking this morning. One more item checked off my list. As far as I know, the remaining items are her federal refund, her refund from memory care and a repayment of her final social security payment, which appears will come in my name, via the mail, at some point.

I was trying to login into my 401k to take a look at my balance and the web address is coming up bad, even on 2 different browsers, so I just messaged my boss to ask if maybe it got changed and I just missed that notice. Apparently it did. I know I logged into it in December, but the link to it must have changed last month and I missed that with all that was going on. I'm also upping my contribution to my 401k per paycheck.

Not much else new going on. I'm making my way through eating my apple pie, LOL. Sometimes with a bit of vanilla ice cream, sometimes not. 

Almost there

Yesterday was uneventful - which was a nice change from lately. No calls to deal with, no emails to deal with, no mail to deal with. It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday and got up to 43 degrees. It's funny, when we were driving around the city on our errands on Friday, we passed a school with the kids out playing at recess. Temp was like 40...maybe, LOL and I said you can tell these are Montana kids - just all in sweatshirts. One kid had shorts on. We never wear heavy winter coats when we are out and about. We get too warm. I never did end up buying a heavy winter coat, like I thought I'd need after moving here. I just wear a lighter weight lined rain type jacket.

I just ordered the tv wall mount apparatus, so we can hang the tv (mom's old tv) on the wall in the bonus room. When we built the house we had them put the plug ins behind hanging a tv on the wall, so there will be no cords to hide. I also just got the blinds ordered for the 2 dormer windows. I was kind of waiting to see if they'd have a better sale going on, but it's been the same sale/discount % the past month or two. I was just going to re-order the same cellular blinds that are in the upstairs bedrooms (same size windows, as well) but when I went to re order they no longer offered the same color "Sandy Beige C5810". It's so hard to tell the colors for sure online (I had ordered several samples before) and I really didn't want to mess with that again) so I just searched the C5810 on their website and found it with their "Deluxe" blinds and not their "Premium" blinds. Both are the same price, so I'm not really sure what the difference is. Plus they changed the name of the color to "Warm bread" (weird name, LOL).

One of DD's and my favorite shows has a new season starting on the 14th - Resident Alien. The trailer for the new season looks good and funny. She said she spent the weekend re-watching the first 2 seasons, LOL.

I've been reading the latest book in the Longmire series. Just a library e-book version. I do have several of the books in my new library and am going to work on getting all of them. It's one of my favorite series (and I loved the tv show). The last of the books I ordered to complete Sue Grafton's Alphabet mysteries arrived yesterday. My bookcases are slowly getting filled up. But I'm still only at like 25% full. A long way to go, haha. At least dd will be able to keep giving me Thriftbooks gift cards as gifts for a long time ;)

Eventually, I plan to get some type of seating (for 4 people) in front of the bonus room tv. I just don't know what yet and so far the theater type seating sure is expensive. Plus, I really want to actually sit in some try it out first and we would have to have some sort of delivery where it gets installed/delivered to the room. There would be no way the 2 of us could do that. We barely got the chairs up, LOL. So, I'm not in any real hurry on this. Plus, it's something that would come out of some of my inheritance.

Speaking of inheritance, my uncle just called me this morning and got another email - this time saying thank you for opening your account with us and sign up for paperless. I advised him to call the lady handling the account set up at the investment office and ask her how he goes about just getting it as a distribution and told him if he's still confused after talking to her let me know and I will help figure it out. So, the good news is his account has been set up! Wooo!. I haven't gotten this email yet, but I'm guessing it's because his (and step siblings) account was set up with the cash mom had in her account and mine is going to get set up with all the stocks she had, which likely takes longer to get transferred over. But, I'm glad to hear his account is set up and hopefully he'll have his money soon.

More annoyance

I think my uncle is going to drive me nuts, LOL. So, the investment office is working with their corporate office estate dept to get our inherited IRA's set up. Yesterday morning I got another document emailed to sign via docusign. It was normal stuff,  an "advisory agreement" stating I am allowing them to oversee the account, make trades, etc and the fee. 

A few hours later I get another call from my uncle and let it go to voicemail. He says he's at his neighbors with his laptop and he's helping him, can I talk him back? ok...(I'm thinking they want help on how to do the docusign) and I call him back a couple minutes later and he says just a sec, I need to walk back to the neighbors. He puts me on speaker phone and the neighbor says "ya, he's just wondering if you have a date on when he'll get the inheritance". Seriously?!! I just said well, I don't really know a date, but last week they said it usually takes about 3 weeks to get the process done. Then in the background my uncle says "I don't care how long it takes"....Then I say that I got another email today with a document to sign, did you get that email? And the neighbor says yes, he got that and I helped him submit that and we got the confirmation email. I just said ok, that's really all I know, is that they are working on it and it just takes a bit of time.

Then a few minutes later my uncle texts me that sorry, he doesn't care how long it will take - he just needs his neighbor to help with the emails/docusign, because he doesn't know how to do it himself. So, when I called him back and he was already back at his house, why didn't he just ask me (again) if I knew how long it was going to take because he's using his neighbor for help? Why walk back next door and have your neighbor ask me how long it's going to take? So weird! Like I said, he's got this money already spent and is doing his best to try to find out when. Well, then ask the dang investment office yourself. Geez. Of course I didn't say that in the text reply back. I just said no worries. I'm guessing this should be available in the next couple of weeks.

And OMG - I just wanted to pay my mom's last $33 insurance bill over the phone! I called and tried their over the phone automated service and again, it says the zip code I am entering is wrong, I call back and finally get through to a live person and explain and ask can I pay over the phone? Yes, let me transfer you to that dept. And.....I get the recording to use the automated service again. Dumb me calls back and again finally gets through to a live person. Yes, she can take my payment over the phone. What's the zip code? Well, apparently she was using the same system the automated uses and it's not accepting the zip code. Is there another zipcode? No, just this one, LOL. Then she gets another dept on the line and that is the zip code they have for the account. Neither could figure out what is going on. Finally, they figure it must be because her account is closed, so I have to mail a check in. I should have just written a check in the first place. I was on hold and on the phone for a half hour. I should have just given up, but by then I was vested in this LOL! 

Then in yesterdays mail was something from social security saying their records show my mom is deceased and due a payment and a form to fill out to claim it and 5 days to mail it in. So.....why did they take back her January SS payment out of her checking then? I'm so confused, LOL. Well, at least I have 2 things to mail this morning. I'll wait until it gets light out, but need it out there by 9am at the latest.

I also see that the state has processed my mom's state tax refund, so that is great. It's not in the bank account yet, but should be by tomorrow. The IRS says that return is being processed. I'm also still waiting on a refund on the prorated amount from memory care.

I got an email after I placed the order for the copper table top that they have it in stock and I won't have to wait 6-8 weeks. Yay!

The group of 6 deer that started coming to our yard every night had 2 smaller/younger deer. The past couple of weeks it has just been the 2 smaller deer coming by themselves. We haven't seen the rest. Mr Neighbor said they had seen the older ones trying to paw and push the 2 younger ones away. DH thought it was one of these 2 younger deer (that he had dubbed "the twins") that got hit by the car, but right around dinner time yesterday the twins showed up again. While it's so sad that a deer got hit and killed by a car, it was a relief to see it wasn't one of the twins.

Apple pie

Yesterday was a nice relaxing day. I started reading a book. Then dh wanted to play some pool. I did better at it this time, haha. I'm not very good when it's my turn to break though - just not enough force, like dh can do to get the balls to break up more. I still can't figure out why I am a left handed pool player, LOL. I am right handed, but it just feels weird to try to use my right hand with the cue stick.

After that I made an apple pie. Easiest pie. Just dump the premade pie filling into pie pan, cover with the top crust and bake for 45 minutes. It turned out good.

 

Add some vanilla ice cream and it was a nice dessert last evening. Dh doesn't care for apple pie (weirdo!). Who doesn't like apples (which he does) and pie crust? LOL

I got my copper pub/bistro table top ordered. I decided on the 20". I have a clock on a wall that is 24" and I'm like ok, that's a bit big. I was headed out to the garage (with a tape measure) to see if dh had some leftover cardboard, as he wasn't able to get all the cardboard from the 2 chair boxes in our can last week, and noticed the round garbage can lid....measured it at 20.5 inches and decided that is a fine size for a table top. Plus I saved $100 not getting the 24" size.

Here is the "process" I went through on this table when I first had the idea for copper. I googled copper pub bistro table. The cheapest I found was $890 on houzz. Plus this was for 30" and I realized that is way too big. I tried to search some more for a minute but was thinking welp, those are too dang expensive. A few days later I tried to do another search and found a 24" table for $780 and I was also seeing just tops for sale between $339 and $399. On the website for the $780 table I also realized they sold the bases and tops separately, but they wanted $650 for the top (and the smallest available was 24"). The cast iron base was reasonable at $130.

Then I looked at one of the websites selling the tops for $339. $339 plus the $130 base from the other website would make the table cost $469. Still more than I would like to spend, but now I had my heart set on a copper table and $469 sure was better than $890. Then I noticed the $339 table top also came in smaller sizes and that's how I got to the 20" top for $239. Shipping was $42, but when I put the top in my cart it popped up with a 15% off code if you enter your email, so of course I did. This pretty much covered the shipping. The site with the base had a 10% off code and that covers 2/3rds of their shipping cost. Total copper pub table: $380. The only bummer part is these copper tops are made to order and I'm going to have to wait like 6-8 weeks to get it. 

Today it's back to work. I also need to call my mom's medicare advantage insurance plan. I think she owe's something for January. I had changed her plan (but with some company) starting in January and it was supposed to auto pay, as it always had before, the first of January and it never did. I got a bill for it a week or so ago, but when I try to call the # to pay over the phone it's won't let me, nor will it let me access her account anymore. I'm lazy and would just rather pay it over the phone, rather than walk down to my mailbox at 8am and 30 degrees, LOL. 

One of the deer that has been in our yard every night got hit by a car out on the main road. So sad. It must have been just this morning, dh thought he heard something as he was getting up. He called our neighbor to see if he wanted to harvest it, but he didn't, so dh just went out and got it pulled off the road and over to the trees on the other side of the road.

Vanilla

I used to use imitation vanilla extract because I was too cheap (and poor) to spend for real vanilla extract and I guess I had never really tried real vanilla to know the difference. Then several years ago I made some homemade vanilla extract bottles to give as gifts and kept one for myself, but I've used that up. (well, I added some more vodka to the beans, but the bottle needs to sit for another 6 months or so, now). I recently bought a tiny 1 oz bottle of real vanilla extract at our town store for over $6 (I was in a pinch, so had to spend their high price). With my last shopping order I decided to get some more vanilla as I figured Walmart will be much cheaper. Even the Great Value brand is $3 an ounce. I looked on Amazon and came across this Mexican vanilla and it's good reviews

And the price is so cheap. Walmart carries it, too, so I got a bottle with my order to try. It smells really good and I used some in chocolate chip cookies yesterday. I found it a great vanilla and even better - it's only .19 cents per ounce. The whole 8.4 oz bottle only cost $1.58! What?! It says it's made from real vanilla and vanillin. I suppose expert bakers wouldn't use this, but for my baking it's 100% ok and will be my go to vanilla from now on. I'm also going to give it a try in my homemade vanilla coffee creamer.

Ok, we ate on the cookie dough a bit and then I made cookies. Of course they turned out flat flat flat. I first tried on one of my cookie sheets with the silicone mat. The next group I tried with chilled dough and the 3rd group I tried with a different cookie sheet. Same result. 

So, today I'm making an apple pie, so I have some dessert to snack on. Dh likes the flat, crunchy cookies, so he can have them. 

I want to order the copper table top for the pub/bistro table, but I just cannot decide on the size. They offer 20" and 24" (and other sizes that are too small or too big) and I just cannot decide which size I want there at that window. I think 20" will be big enough and it's $100 cheaper, but I'm worried it will end up being too small. I guess I need to find old cardboard and make some circles those sizes and see if that helps me decide. I want to get this on order, because it takes like 6-8 weeks to get the table top. 

The weather cooled down some and the rain turned into a bit of snow this morning. Pretty white outside, again.

A good deal

We got a lot accomplished yesterday. First stop was Sportsman's Warehouse to look at a gun safe. When we moved into our little house in town we needed a gun safe, but not really any room much to have one, so he bought a smaller one that fit in our walk in closet. When we built our house we put a closet in his den and then eventually got the hidden bookcase door. The safe is in that closet. He's been out of room with this safe for awhile, so has been looking at getting a bigger safe. (we also, of course, have our important papers stored in it).

Unlike him, he was actually looking at very reasonably priced ones, LOL. They can be very pricey, up in the several thousands. He found a Browning safe model he really liked and Sportsmans had it on sale for $1199. This turned into over an hour long ordeal, haha. Online said they had it in stock. We didn't see it with their safes on display so he asked and there were a few safes up front of the store, it's probably there. We go up with the employee to look at it and at first dh thought it was the same one, and we head back to the back where the gun counter is to get rung up. The guy rings it up and says it's coming up $999...then he realized it wasn't the same safe. We all walked back up to the front again to look and it was a smaller, not as deep safe. Back to the gun counter again. So, they look in their computer again and say ok, we have one in back. DH asks if they can bring it out so he can look inside it and make sure it's the correct one. We wait and wait and wait. Finally a different guy comes out and says well....yes, we found it, but it's one that came to us damaged and we hadn't finished cleaning it up it yet to get on the display floor. DH asks if he could see it anyway and he brings it out. It's the right one, but the inside door stuff has more on it than what was online. It just looks kind of dirty with white spots over a lot of the door. The guy wasn't sure what happened, but it appeared something with the insulation and the white dust was all over it. Dh says that can likely be cleaned up....the guy says we'll sell it to you for $899 and dh says sold! (plus he had $125 in gift cards towards it).

Right after they get that loaded in the back of the pickup I get the notification my Walmart order is ready so we go pick that up. I brought that wrong sized pair of shoes from Kohl's with me so we drove across town to Kohl's and I finally got those returned and credited to me.  We were both hungry for lunch by then, so pulled in McDonalds. Then on our way back across town we stopped at our bank so I could get some cash out for dh to replace in his wallet what he used to pay for that wine barrel cabinet the other day. We were next to Lowe's and dh needed something there, so we ran in there quick. Ended up not being quick because we ran into someone we know and chatted with him awhile.

We get home and dh has been wondering since the night before how he/we were going to get this safe out of the pickup and into the house, LOL. Over 700 pounds (his other safe is like half that weight). The store guys didn't have the box for this safe, but they had taped some cardboard around the back and it pretty easily slid in the truck with that on it. Well, it also slid out onto the tailgate pretty easily. It was pretty heavy getting the bottom of the safe tilted down off the tailgate and onto the ground, but he managed. Then he got it on his hand cart and tied with a strap, just to be safe. He had put some boards at our door threshold so it would hopefully roll over with the cart wheels easily. We got it in the house no problem.

Then somehow I got the task of trying to get it clean! Wait, this is your safe! LOL. His logic was he saved me $300, so I get to clean it. It turns out most of it was just white dust that vacuumed right up/off. A damp towel to the rest and good to go. He was thrilled. Dh was still really curious as to why this safe had a different door set up with the pockets, etc than what was showing online for this safe. It had more to it, so he wasn't complaining, just curious. I said well maybe they used a different door panel inside when they started fixing it?

Well, just a few minutes ago I figured it out. There are apparently 2 different models of this Browning safe. The one he was looking at was just called Browning Yukon Gold 33, but there is another model that is called Browning Yukon Gold 1878-33 and this one has the fancier inside door set up. And it's originally $1750! So, he ended up with this more expensive safe for $899. He's going to be even happier about it, when I get to tell him when he gets up, LOL. All the wait and annoyance of being in the store so long was worth it, in the end. Patience and a little elbow grease paid off.

A day off for errands

I've decided to take today off work. There's nothing urgent going on and we have some errands we'd like to get done today in the city and too many to do it as a long lunch break. And while we are there, might as well get groceries again, tomorrow will be 2 weeks since our last order. I was kind of surprised there was a pick up time between noon and 1pm (or anytime after), so I quickly got an order added this morning, so I could get the time reserved. 

Another call from my uncle yesterday. I can't remember now exactly what he asked me, but something to do with letting his accountant know he's getting this money. I (again) explained to him that this money is in an IRA, so has never been taxed and will be taxed upon distribution, so he may want to talk to his accountant about the tax implications. I told him he has 3 options with this money: take it all at once as a distribution, take it out in smaller amounts, but he has to have it all taken out within 10 years, or if he wants to leave some in the account, he can also chose to move the account to a different investment company. He then asked how much it might be. I told him I don't know the exact amount yet, but it should be around $40,000. He said "oh wow. That's a lot". I can't figure him out, LOL. Then I said I don't know for sure how long it's going to take to get the inherited accounts set up. I asked the girl working on it and she wasn't sure, but thought it shouldn't take more than a few weeks. He then says "oh, I don't care how long it takes". Sure......that's why you are the only one who has been asking me about this money since a week after she died, LOL. I'm hoping these accounts will all get set up next week and then I only have my own account to worry about.

I found the pub/bistro table I want. I have a few choices from who to order it from and pricing. It's a metal base table with a copper top. In my searching I've realized I can purchase the base from one place and get the top for almost half the price, from another place. No matter if I order it all complete from one place or separate, the copper top is considered made to order and either place will take like 7 weeks. So, I might as well save a bunch and order them separate. I think it will tie in good with my kitchen copper sink and all the wood we have going on.

It's February already and February always seems to go by fast. Tomorrow would have been my grandpa's birthday, born in 1917. Our birthdays were a week a part and when I was growing up we always did a family birthday party together and shared a cake. 

Greed

My uncle can be a bit annoying. We never have very long conversations on the phone (when he calls, or I give him a call, it's usually like a minute or less) and when I do try to talk or explain anything you can tell he's not fully listening and saying ok and ending the call before I can get more than a few sentences out. Not that I like to talk on the phone either, but I do like to communicate effectively. A couple of weeks ago he texted me (already!) asking me when he's going to get his share of the inheritance. Seriously. He had some story about his accountant needing to know when because of reporting his income for his veteran's disability. It was like 9:30pm my time when I got this text and I just replied that I would email him in the morning with what info I had at the time. I decided email would be the best way to make sure I was able to explain all this without him trying to end the call before I was done and only half listening.

I then emailed him a very good explanation of how this is going to work. That mom's retirement IRA account is a separate thing from her will/estate and will be distributed per the beneficiaries set up on that and his share is 5% and while I don't know the exact amount it will be, because it's tied to the daily stock market fluctuations, when her account is closed, his share should be around $40,000. I told him I do not have a timeline, but nothing could be started until I get the death certificate to send them, and I didn't know how long that would take, either. I also explained that her will was likely a moot document as since all her money was in her IRA and a little in a joint checking with me on it, there will be no "estate" to distribute as she no longer owns a house, furniture/etc, or car to sell. On her will she had him at 30% (good grief!).

I also explained, that unlike an inheritance through a will, this inherited IRA is taxable upon distribution and that he would have 3 options with it: take the full distribution at once, keep it in the inherited IRA set up and withdraw within 10 years, or move the account to a different investment company of his choosing.

He acknowledged shortly after I sent the email that he got it. Then yesterday the investment office started working on calling the beneficiaries to start working on setting up the inherited IRA accounts for everyone. He calls me and says "I thought I was getting 30%, but the lady told me it's 5%". I said yes, that's correct. I explained all that in that email I sent you about how her IRA beneficiaries distribution is not a part of her will and gets distributed per the percentages she put on that. "Oh ok. I guess you did say that.". I also told him that I verified with her estate attorney the day prior that her will is a non-issue, since she no longer has any assets, like a house or car (the car that he got!) and he did say yes, I got her car.

He'll get the money when he gets it. I have no control over how long it takes. I even mentioned to him that if he was getting money from her will it would likely take at least a year to go through probate. (and the attorney verified this for me during our call).

And veteran's disability?? He is not a disabled vet! Never in my 60 years have I heard of him being a disabled vet from either him, my grandparents, or my mom. He was in the Army for whatever the minimum time was when he was 18 years old. He then got out, went to college for teaching degree and was a teacher his whole life, until retiring. I'm sure it was just one of his fibs so it didn't make it sound like he himself wanted to know when he's getting the money. 

Not to mention all the money my mom has given him over the years (since my stepdad passed). I'd have to go back through her checkbook registers, but it's over $30,000. And I know of at least a couple of those times my mom had told me she loaned him money (to buy a car he was going to fix up and sell) and he was supposed to pay her back and I never found any evidence in her banking that he ever did. The guy is almost 80 years old. He's lucky to be getting any inheritance! As it stands, he's getting a very decent $40,000. I'm sure he has it spent already (or spent what he thought he was getting). I'm pretty sure if I was 80 years old and was getting some inheritance, I'd be saying I don't need that - please give it to the kids or grandkids.

Hopefully the accounts will be set up soon and he'll have his money and I don't have do hear about it/deal with that aspect anymore. Of course I will keep in touch with him and make sure he's doing ok, as I have been since mom was no longer able to. He lives 500 miles away. No wife or kids.