I'm as slow as my internet this morning

The first frustrating thing this morning is the internet was slow again. AARGHH! I was so not in the mood, so I just powered through it and about 4 hours later it's working fine again. I figured it would, since whatever it is is so intermittent and obviously their "fix" didn't fix it. Rather than spend and hour or two restarting and unplugging and restarting and being on the phone, I just let it run it's course and now it's back to normal.

Then I got an email from SiriusXM that my 1 year $6/mo promo is ending and my new billing starting in May will be $24/mo. No thank you. I got online to cancel/maybe revise if there was a good offer. I clicked on cancel and it offered me $14/mo. No thank you, so I had to click on "chat to cancel". They immediately offered to extend the $6/mo for another year. Ok, perfect. Plus I didn't have to talk to anyone, LOL. At least they sent an email notifying of it, rather than me forgetting the year was up and then just seeing the increased bill on my cc charge.

I also called and made a vet appointment for Amos's annual check up and vaccine he needs. Next Thursday afternoon, so I will have to take a few hours off work. I must say, that the past few weeks I have been much better about making phone calls. Not sure why. Usually I avoid using the phone, if at all possible (text or email) and if I do have to, I push it out as long as I possibly can. I think every other subscription service I have/had doesn't notify you the promo period is up. I always try to remember to mark my outlook calendar on the date, but apparently I didn't on this one.

I've been having the worst time getting my blog post done in the mornings lately. I need to get on the ball. It's 2pm. I haven't figured out what I am making for dinner tonight.  Maybe french toast and try out my new (huge!) bottle of real maple syrup from Costco. I hope syrup lasts a long time, because that's a lot! LOL

Adjusting for inflation

More rain this morning. Everything sure is green and growing now. 

I got the ice cream made after dinner. It takes about 25-30 minutes. In the 3 times I've used this Cuisinart Soft Ice cream maker, I have yet to actually have it dispense the ice cream out the bottom. This time I did it a couple minutes less time and it still would not come out. I just have to spoon it out of the container. Which is fine. I just wanted some on our plates with the cake and then to put the rest into a freezer container. But, for the "fun" factor of having it dispense like a soft ice cream machine - it disappoints. The ice cream is very good, though and I like that it's just 4 natural ingredients. Whole milk, heavy cream, sugar and vanilla. No extra crap we don't need in our bodies. I haven't figured out how much it costs to make but it's over $5 because just the pint of heavy organic cream I use cost that much. So, I know it's more than say the great value brand vanilla ice cream.

We played another round of pool after lunch. I am so close to getting better, LOL. I'm sure dd and sil will enjoy it when the are here Mother's Day weekend. Did I tell you dh had me order one of those trick cue balls? He wants to use it the first time dd plays, LOL. We tested it out and when you hit it, it curves a little off a different direction. I'm not sure I'll be able to keep a straight face the first time she hits it.

Now I'm hearing coffee prices are supposed to go way up. I think I heard the same about olive oil. Eggs, as well. Well, at least I don't drink a lot of coffee - just one cup per day and it's been forever and a day since I bought a fancy coffee from a coffee house/drive through. I'm still getting sticker shock whenever we go through a drive through like Wendy's or McDonalds. (about once a month). We used to get out of there for about $12-13, now it's $20-21 - and I never even order a drink or a meal, just a sandwich and dh gets a meal combo. 

We haven't been to a restaurant in quite awhile. The once restaurant in our area we liked and went to for years, changed ownership a few years ago. At first the menu kept changing things and the last few times we have been there it is not near as good as it all used to be. Now if we want to go out we have to drive to the city and most of the time we just say nah - we'll just make something at home. It's just too far to drive just to go out to dinner. But, I do miss having somewhere to go out every few months, just to get a break from cooking and a couple hours out of the house once in awhile.

We haven't even gone to the little mom and pop burger drive thru place, in the small town west of us, in a long time. It's crazy expensive, because it's a tourist stop spot for gas, food and gift store. A double burger, single burger, one order of fries and 2 shakes is almost $40 and it seems to go up every time we go there. It's almost as expensive to go there as it is to go to a sit down restaurant. I just make dh double cheeseburgers at home now.

Well, it's Monday - back to work day. I was really on a roll last week, but I'm not feeling it yet this week, haha.

Slow Sunday

Last night I was watching some Instagram videos. Came across a cute one of a little 6 year old boy being shown, by his mom (dad recording), a picture of a ultrasound on her phone, telling him she's going to have a baby. The boy was so cute and funny. At the end he says to her "you're going to be another mother!". One of the comments on the post just had me laughing so hard I had tears rolling down my face. "If you have a boy, they will be brothers from another mother". 

I'm trying to type with a cat sitting on my lap. He's not budging. He's not a very loud purr-er, but he's purring. 

Yesterday, I did some laundry, dusted both upstairs and downstairs, but did not make a cake. Mostly because I didn't get any ice cream mixture made up to chill. It has to chill at least 4 hours. I should probably do that this morning, so I can make some ice cream this afternoon. I feel like I did way more than just laundry and dusting, LOL, but I can't remember what now. 

Well, as I was typing this dh got up. I got some breakfast, made up the ice cream mixture to chill, and took a shower and made the bed. I am going to make a cake - just trying to decide which flavor sounds good. This has to be my slowest post to write ever, LOL. I picked the yellow butter cake with chocolate frosting and the cake is now in the oven. Why did I pick this cake mix over the funfetti? - because it was past the sell by date 😂. I'm sure it will be fine. It will be fine, right?!

Now it's time to make lunch already. Lunch has been the easiest thing for the 39 years we've been married. Lunch meat and cheese sandwich. Every. Single. Day. No thought needs to be put into this.

We had the Costco orange chicken with rice again last night. This time I mixed the rice in with the chicken and orange sauce and was able to get all the rice coated and we liked it better that way. I had some leftover plain rice and was going to throw it out, but then realized the chickens would like it and they are happily pecking and eating all the little rice grains.

My mid back has been hurting all morning, so I guess I'm going to head down to the recliner and rest it a bit and watch something on my ipad.

Watch and see

DAN's listing showed up last night. The lots are not combined, though he is trying to sell them together as one sale. And he's expecting to get $163,000 more than he paid for the 2 lots, LOL. At least this realtor didn't plaster pics of our house all over the listing. The description just says really nice homes on each side of the lots. Hopefully, whoever buys them are like the couple on lot 6 - don't plan on building for 5 years, haha. When the lots were for sale before, because it was summer, dh was often outside doing yardwork when people would drive in to look at the lots, so often they would then stop to ask questions. I told him if he gets a chance to chat with any prospective buyers be sure to just say "if you plan on spending that much for these lots, just make sure you really read the covenants".

My work day was good and I got my 2 projects done. It's nice to finally be caught up enough to work on these things. I really hope my boss does decide to hire a f/t person. I would think, her being the same age as me (a year older), and the fact that she's part owner of the business, she should be thinking a little more long term down the road. Get someone on staff that can learn all this from me (and some of what she does in regards to finances) to eventually take over. They've done this plan for our main owners retiring out, and started working on that like 5 years ago, which has been a good smart move.

Not as rainy today, but the sky looks like it could at any time. Not much sun forecast in the next week. I'm ready for sun and warm, I think. Not hot, but warm, LOL. About another 3-4 weeks and I'll be able to plant all my annuals. DD said their Costco had some hanging baskets of annuals. I can't remember the price, I think around $25. Our area doesn't have all the annuals in yet, but I will have to check their baskets compared to Home Depot. The ones I got at Home Depot last year were a bit larger than I had gotten previous years and they looked really good all summer. I can't remember what I spent for them, though. I think I'll figure out a day to take off work to for us to go get all the flowers - weekends are just too crowded. Maybe I'll take off the Thurs and Fri before Memorial Day weekend and we can go in one of those mornings. DH is now a convert that going into the city in the mornings is much better and more enjoyable.

I've also noticed, this past week on the computer with my new glasses, is better. My eyes are much less tired by afternoon, now. Other than I will have to get the fit adjusted bit next time I'm in the city. 

I don't have much exciting planned for this weekend. I did do a load of my clothes laundry yesterday, so that is out of the way. Then I'll just have to do the sheets today. I really like my new bedding set

Maybe I'll make a cake today. I have a couple of different cake mixes and frostings in the pantry. Or maybe brownies. If I make cake, I'll have to make some ice cream in my ice cream maker, as well, because I don't have any ice cream. I meant to buy some at Costco last weekend and forgot to look for that. I'm sure I must have passed right by it, when I was perusing the frozen section, LOL.

Rainy Friday

Woke up to pouring rain this morning. Looks like rain for today and tomorrow. DH did get the lawn mowed again yesterday. We are starting to see signs of spring and blooming. I see my Lilac is filling up with green buds. Hopefully one day it will be huge and big, but I do see it getting a little bigger each year. I'm also guessing I won't be listening to a chain saw next door today, since it's raining. Someone did show up yesterday around 6pm and loaded up all the firewood from the trees he cut. There is a sign in front of each lot, so they must still be separate lots. I wouldn't have thought he got them combined, as I would assume that would need to go through a lot to get that done, as well as, since it changes the short plat of our subdivision, I would think the other property owners would have had to be notified of the change. DH had gone someone yesterday and also saw the realtor sign out next to the main road, in front of the properties.

Still no listing for them yet. Probably need pictures. It will be interesting to see how this realtor advertises them. The realtor the previous owner used (this was back in 2020/21) literally had 80 % of the pictures in his listing of our house (and lots of drone pics). Dh called the realtor up and said (sarcastically) are you trying to sell my house?? "well, no...I just wanted to show it was a nice neighborhood". DH said well then you can use one picture that shows the us/neighborhood, but you don't need 13 pictures of our house and property. He took them down.

I've had a pretty productive week, work wise. Even though my assistant has only worked like 3 hours this week, LOL. When my boss had messaged him Wed morning he replied he was taking finals and had his last one Wed morning and would be working in the afternoon. He never did, but he did work yesterday. But, I am managing to get some old stuff cleared up and worked on, which is nice. Today I need to create a list of mfg's we rep and contacts I have in their accounting dept's, so my boss has access to this list, instead of always emailing me to ask who I communicate with, LOL. I should be able to have that done in a couple of hours. I think we rep like 100 mfg's. I've lost count how many it actually is.

We're going to have to replace that big shop door that dh broke :(.  I was looking up our quotes for the doors, when we built, so I'd have the brand name and color. For some reason I also still remembered the name of the guy at the building supply place, who I had emailed back and forth with on the doors. He was always nice and helpful. DH did an online search and turns out he went out on his own several years ago and now runs his own door company, so dh contacted him to do this replacement. We could go the route of replacing like 5 of the 8 panels that are buckled, but due to sun/weather wear on our current doors, the colors won't match and wouldn't look good, so we are just replacing the whole darn door. Not cheap....of course he couldn't have broken one of the smaller garage doors, LOL. 

It's been a week and a half and I don't see that dh has moved anything more back into the garage, LOL. When I asked him again about the bin(s) of old computer equipment he said there was one bin and it was actually in one of the upstairs bedroom closets, which I had forgotten we put in there (It has been in his den, before). So, I looked through it and no ethernet cable, so I just ordered the shortest one I could find at 1.5ft for $2.99 from Amazon. We don't need a long one, it's just going inside that access pane........and as I'm typing this out I just realized my mistake! This cable is needed to go from his computer to the wall outlet in  his den, so I DO need a longer one. I was able to quickly cancel that order and reorder the right size. If I hadn't been typing this out, I would have ended up getting the wrong one! I'm glad it's Friday :)

Yeehaww!

Trigger warning (for those of you, who for whatever reason, read my blog, but don't like what I post, LOL) - this is a post about DAN. It's a quite good and interesting update! 

He's listed the 2 lots for sale!!!!!!!!!!!

Not much other details on it yet. The whole past week doesn't make a whole lot of sense to any of us. Last Thursday he had a sanican delivered. That told us he's back to getting the property ready for a building site. But, we also know his house (he has 2 houses, one in another state and one here, in town, where they live full time now) in the other state still has not sold yet. Sometime Saturday the No Trespassing signs were removed. Tuesday he and wife showed up for about 4 hours and took down a tree, but didn't finish it. They were gone by mid afternoon.

Yesterday morning Mr. Neighbor emails us and the other neighbors with an email titled "yeehaww!" He said the county attorney (who he is good friends with) called and told him the lots are up for sale and have for sale signs. Apparently the current owners are upset they can't build a big shop. DH walked out to our street and yep, there is a for sale sign, with a realty co from the city.

Then later morning DAN and wife showed up again with his equipment in tow and proceeded to take down another tree. They maybe spent 3 hours here. Why? Why go through all that work if you are selling? Very strange. Honestly, what he needs to do is go back to that house he's been trying to sell for 2 1/2 years and put some damn landscaping in! I'm guessing that is a big part of why it is not selling (for the price he expects). This is in a very nice neighborhood of homes on like 1.5 acre lots with water view and his is the only house that has zero landscaping. It's just an acre and a half of gravel with a house sitting on it. He doesn't even have a paved driveway. This community has an HOA. I can't believe that the covenants wouldn't have required him to at least put in a paved driveway.

There is nothing showing up as a listing yet, to see how much he is asking. While I know what the previous owner was asking, due to my property tax appeal, I now also know what DAN paid for each lot (our state does not publish sell prices). My hunch is that he's going to ask for some ridiculous price (as he has for 2 1/2 years with his house for sale). The only thing I can come up with, as to why they would keep taking trees down and doing work on the land, is they are still hoping their house might sell, and then if it does, they can then keep the lots and still build. We're also not sure if he managed to get the 2 lots combined into one lot. That day a year or so ago, when that surveyor knocked on our door (to ask if he could come on our property and measure where our well is to the property line) he told dh this is what DAN was trying to accomplish. The state property website does not indicate this was done, but they don't update super fast. But, you'd think it would be quite the process, as it would change the short plat of this subdivision by having the 2 lots combined into one 4 acre lot.

In other news I also called Social Security to follow up on my mom's final payment. Similar deal, listen to a long recording, go through the prompts and then have to leave a call back number. About half hour later I get a call back. Again, listen to the long recording before it then rings on to the rep, only no rep came on. I kept holding and after about 30 seconds I was then asked to do a satisfaction survey of my call. Good grief! So, I call back again, go through the whole process of leaving my number and wait another 30 minutes for someone to call me. This time I got to talk to someone. He did confirm that they did get my revised/corrected form on 4/4 and it shouldn't take more than 45 days to process, so if I haven't heard anything or gotten the payment by 5/19, to call back.

I'll probably have to file her 2024 tax return next year and still won't have this years IRS refund. 

IRS hell

I finally got time to work on calling the IRS about my mom's tax return yesterday afternoon. It's just the hell I imagined it would be. I call the number and extension that is given on the Where's My Refund page. Go through all the recorded messages and prompts to enter info and it then tells me to call the same number back, but a different extension. Call that number/ext and go through all the same thing and am then told the wait to talk to a representative is 15-30 min and to leave a call back number.

I get a call back in about 15 minutes with a guy who was totally unhelpful. He asked me if I am authorized to discuss her return. I had already explained the situation and that I mailed in the form 1310 back on March 16. I asked how do I get authorized? He then directed me back to form 1310 and said I need to send that in with her death certificate. I said I already sent it in, but I don't recall sending her death certificate with it. I then asked him, can't you just look up her account and see if I have been added? No, the system is down right now and he can't access that data. He told me to call back again and maybe a different representative would have access.

I look up the Form 1310 again, because I'm pretty sure I didn't send her death certificate with it. No, I didn't because it specifically says NOT to mail it in with the form. So, I call back again. Go through the recording and prompts and this time it says all representatives are busy please call back and give me the same phone number and extension and disconnects me. So, I call back AGAIN. Go through it all again and get to leave my callback number. A different lady calls me back and she was much more helpful. She was able to look up my mom's account/return and said it doesn't appear they have processed the Form 1310 yet and I'm not showing as authorized that they can discuss her return with me. She then instructed me to another form. Form 56, in which I state I am the fiduciary for her. She said once I get it filled out and along with a copy of her death certificate, the fastest way would be to call them back and they will give me a fax# to send it in to. So, this morning I called back and am now waiting for a return call. Wish me luck! LOL

My assistant guy has been doing well the past couple of months. He has been messaging me if he either can't work a day or even if he's going to work a different time then his typical 2-4 hour/day schedule he gave us. Well, this week he hasn't worked at all yet, so this morning I messaged my boss about it and she messaged him to ask.

Tuesday tidbits

The delivery guys from Lowes (they need 3 of them?) showed up around 9am yesterday, with the new upright freezer. We've let it get cold overnight and will fill it up today. It really looks nice and big inside - the shelves are so deep. I think I'm really going to like it much better than the chest freezer. 

I'm not getting very far with my post this morning. It's almost noon, already. I was emailing this morning, before work and then it was suddenly time to log into work and I've been busy. And I'm listening to chain sawing. DAN is back at it. Clearing, noise and construction is completely understandable - but all the work that needs to be done to get his site work done - literally should've taken 5 days max. He spent weeks/months at it last year. We annoyed our neighbors clearing our site for building for 2 days. Hired a guy who had the right size equipment to do the job AND knew what he was doing, LOL. I think we got billed for 14 hours. Then when the other guy came in to dig our foundations, same thing, 2-3 days done and gone/noise done. Our neighbors down at the end of the street did it the same way when they built. We thought he had a helper today, no it's his 80 year old wife running the little mini piece of equipment. All I think of is my mom trying to do that 3 years ago (if she didn't have Alzheimers) and nope, I can't picture it, LOL.

My desk is getting messy and cluttery again. Time to straighten up. It is the one area I can never seem to stay on top of. But, I am catching myself with it sooner, so it's not getting as bad now. An improvement, I guess. Ok, that was a quick few minutes and my desk is clean again. A few papers into the garbage, some onto the shred pile (still on top of the shredder to be shredded) and a couple of things filed. I have one little stack of misc mail to go through and make a decision on. Keep or toss...or rather take care of now or toss.

I guess that's all for today. 

Saturday/Sunday

Kind of a lazy Sunday. Early Saturday evening, as I was glancing out the side living room window, walking to the recliner, I noticed hey! The No Trespassing sign is gone. The stake is still there, but the sign is gone. DH went and looked out at the front corner of the property, where he had one pointing to the street and it was gone, as well (he said they were there on Friday when he mowed and he's pretty sure they were there early Saturday afternoon, when he sprayed along the fenceline). We told Amos now he won't be a trespasser anymore, LOL.

Saturday early afternoon I did the bit of yardwork, cleaning up the old daylilies and then I cleaned out the chicken coop. Both chickens seem to be doing fine. 

I had a couple of overripe bananas, so yesterday morning I made some banana bread. Then our retired friend, who we hadn't seen in quite awhile (unlike him) stopped by. But, I had told dh last week to text him and make sure he's ok (he is mid 70's). He's just been busy being "retired" - driving the school bus to sports and activities in other towns, like 3 days a week (and often on Saturday). For the kids to go play "away", against other small schools, it can be a several hours drive. Friend did seem a bit tired, though. His black lab puppy is very grown now and so sweet.

We are up at 6:30 this morning because the new upright freezer from Lowe's is supposed to be delivered some time between 7 and 11am. Well, of course since we got up (and at 'em!) in time, they won't show up until 11am. They are supposed to install/set it up, as well. It's a cold 33 degrees out this morning, but the sky is blue and sunshine is coming over the mountain tops.

Today, at work, I need to finish submitting my annual benefits enrollment. I've had dh on my work insurance plan for 2-3 years now. At the time I signed him up the cost of the premium through my work was similar to that of a marketplace bronze plan, but it was much lower deductible, out of pocket, etc. Just to compare, before I keep him on my plan, I decided to check the price of a marketplace plan. OMG - just a bronze plan is now almost $1000 a month. Having him on my work plan (which just had a 8% increase in premiums) is $620 and that is like a Gold plan coverage. Obviously I'll be keeping him in my insurance. ("Affordable" Care Act, my ass). My employer covers the employees 100%, plus, since I'm on an HSA plan, they also contribute $75 a month to my HSA. Also, the premium withheld from my pachcheck for dh's insurance, is pre-tax.

Well, it's almost time to log in to work. I guess I'd better get ready for the week ahead.

Saturday up and at 'em

When I was a little kid my mom used to wake me up and say "up and at 'em". I always thought she was saying "Up and Adam", LOL. 

While not super warm out yesterday, it was very sunny and the lawn needs mowed already. Mr. Neighbor had done his the day or two before, so dh got out there in the afternoon and mowed. He tried a bit different tactic this time. There are spots he can't get the riding mower to, so he has to use the push mower. He's always done the push mower first, then the riding. He realized he's probably been doing more area with the push mower than he really needs to be, so this time he did the riding mower first, got a little more area covered and then had less to do with the push mower.

Last night for dinner we tried the orange chicken we had bought from the frozen section at Costco. It was delicious. I made rice to go with it and we both really liked it. The box has 2 bags of chicken (and 2 packages of sauce), but a half a bag was plenty for the 2 of us, so we will get 4 meals out of the box that cost $16.49. I took the other half of the opened bag of sauce and stored it in a little glass container in the fridge. I'm sure we will have it again soon.  

So, far so good with the internet and hopefully we will not be having anymore issues anytime soon. 

I tried to get this post finished before I wanted to leave for Costco, but that didn't happen. Costco at 9:30 was not as crowded as last Saturday at the same time. After picking up my new glasses I took some more time to shop/look around and oops there goes another $100 LOL. At least this time I remember to use my $40 certificate towards it. I didn't even have to wait in line to pay, but there were lots of people coming in when I was going out and coming in the parking lot, it was pretty full by then. 

I got a few new foods to try. The rotisserie chicken, some chicken penna pasta (fresh), shrimp, and some ramen bowls with chicken and veggies (dd recommended to try). I even got gas at Costco, as I left. Look at me all a Costco fan now, LOL.

DH is out spraying some grass killer along the fence line. I'm heading out to pull out the dried old leaves from all the daylilies. The new green is coming up and last years dead leaves are really easy to pull out now. I just need to find where I put my garden gloves.

Trying again today

Well, the new modem and router was a big flop. I'm not exactly sure why. Our internet "stuff" is out in an access panel in the garage. The new set up is a separate modem and router. I was on the phone standing in from of the access panel with the stuff, while dh was doing the plugging in as instructed by the tech guy on the phone. We get the 2 devices plugged in and the tech is saying it looks improved already - the signal strength is now showing 12 (they like it to be at least 10) and before it was 9. something. Then suddenly he says oh, now it's not working very well. He puts me on hold a minute. Comes back and says he's going to have to have a field tech come out and work on it/fix it.  So, now a guy is coming like 8:15 or 8:30 this morning to work on it. Keeping my fingers crossed. If it's the same tech guy we've had out here when were were first building and setting up (first to use internet in the shop while living there and then the house, when it got done) I won't be impressed. He seemed like a flake and we'd be like this is what we need/want, but you could tell he was telling us it couldn't be set up that way, just because he didn't want to take the time to actually do it that way. We'll see. It's been a good 4 years since he was out here, maybe it's someone else working there in that job, by now. But around here, people tend to stay in their jobs.

I finally got the notification yesterday afternoon that my glasses are in. I'm going to go into Costco tomorrow morning when they open. Last time we were there and bought some stuff, I totally forgot I had that $40 Costco shop certificate I got for signing up for membership. I do need milk, for sure. DH has been having cereal a lot this week, so the milk is going much faster than usual. I might grab one of their rotisserie chickens to try. We've also about eaten our bag of Reeses dipped animal crackers, might need to pick up another one of those, LOL.

It looks like DAN will be back again, puttering with his equipment on his land. He had a sanican delivered again yesterday. Oh fun.

Well, the technician should be here soon. I'll likely add an update to this once I have internet back up and running.

UPDATE: Well, that internet issue was a pretty fast and easy fix. After all that, it turns out it was a fuse out at the phone company's equipment, like out on the street. The new modem and router is hooked up and so far everything is working fine. It was the field tech guy, as always, LOL. But, this time it was me talking/working with him on our set up, not dh, so of course it was fine, haha. I have no idea why dh would have been the one to talk with him before when he was here (like 4 or 5 years ago) - dh knows zero about computer tech stuff, so of course he wasn't impressed with the guy. Now, I'm just waiting on the ethernet switch I ordered, so we can hardwire dh's den computer, instead of running off wifi. The tech guy also took the time to figure out one of my questions with the old router/modem set up. I said I know where this and this cord is coming from, but I have no idea what this one is. It was blue. He wasn't sure either. Then I said, in our entryway closet is a blue cord coming out of the wall above the shelf. I think originally the electricians were going to put our modem/router there, but then changed it to this access panel in the garage. So, he tested it, and sure enough the stupid blue cable that was plugged into the back of the router/modem was coming from that closet, doing absolutely nothing.

A day in the life of a hoarder

In the life of a hoarder, I'm sure this would be considered progress. I guess in some ways, it's progress. But, is it really considered progress if nothing is still gotten rid of? LOL.

As I have mentioned dh is not a hoarder inside the house, at all. Never has been. Maybe because he's always at least had a garage to stuff/keep all his stuff. Since building this house and shop, of course he's had much more room for all his stuff (and to accumulate more). Basically he's had his shop completely stuffed and almost half of our 3 car garage stuffed. Our 3 car garage has been a 2 car garage and barely that, with things stacked and stored close to the 2 vehicles that got to squeeze in there.

Over the weekend he had to completely clear out the garage in order to have the floor coated on Monday. It looked SO nice all empty LOL. He was really struggling with the side of him that loves things neat and orderly and the other side of him that needs to keep all his stuff. The floor turned out great - 

While getting prepared to have this done (and then 2 days after) he had moved the 2 vehicles to park outside, as well as this huge tarped "frame" to an old Kenworth truck (see below pic). That had been in bay 3 of this garage, along with a huge wood work bench...and bins...and....(you get the picture)

Of course his logical brain can tell him he's NEVER EVER going to rebuild this truck, but his hoarder brain cannot part with it, still. As he was preparing to get everything moved back into the garage (everything but the huge wood work bench - he moved things around his shop last week and permanently moved it to there) he kept saying how great the garage looked with less stuff, but..but...he mentioned how his original plan in designing our house/garage was his old pickup was supposed to park in bay 3. It's never even been inside this garage. I said why can't you put this old truck frame in the shop, where the old blue F-350 is parked and park your truck in the garage? He said he didn't know why he never thought of that. I told him it's because his brain is overloaded with all his stuff. Don't ask me how we got this moved into the shop last night! LOL but at least it is on tires that move. Mostly it got pushed with our snow plow haha. It almost led to a huge fight, as he was being a total ass to me (how the hell do I know how to operate and push with a snow plow?!). He started to walk back to this huge pile of junk and said "you're zero help". I leaned out the snow plow cab and said excuse me? I can absolutely be ZERO help. I don't NEED to be doing any of this shit. That shut him up quick and he was fine and nice after that.

He also left some of the stuff from the garage in the shop. Hopefully it will stay that way, but right now he is loving the garage and how it looks. I feel kind of like it's a step in the right direction, but hard to say, because now his shop is even worse, if that makes sense. It's so stuffed even more now, that the little bit of floor area he at least had under the loft, where he had started putting up the ceiling and lights...well, now you can't even get under the loft, on the floor now, so I'm pretty sure this is going to delay him getting the ceiling and lights under the loft finished, because he can't even get to it now. Sigh....

But, in the meantime, I guess at least, we have gone down from 2 hoarded spaces to one hoarded space. I hope the garage stays like it is, but I'm not holding my breath. He will slowing start moving things back in, I'm sure. That's what he has to spend most of his time doing - just having to keep reorganizing his hoard.

I took a picture of it, so I can know it was nice for a day at least, haha.

Better than the alternative

Whew - the side effects of the shingles vaccine kicked my butt around noon yesterday. I was sooo tired, Then I got the chills and a little bit of a headache. I had to take break from work and lay down with a big warm blanket over me. I ended up going to bed at 8:30 last night. I feel ok this morning, other than my arm still hurts as much. Again, it's better than getting shingles.

We just had a good inch of snow fall in the last half hour. I'm sure it will all be melted by afternoon.

I see from my USPS informed delivery that the modem mailed out yesterday (from the nearby city) is arriving today, already, so I will have to call to get help setting it up. Not that I don't know how to set up a modem, but with also having our google wifi system, he recommended I call to make sure he can help me and he gets the modem settings right. It will be interesting to see if this fixes my issue or not. The first guy I talked to last week, when I questioned the at least 7 year old modem, he made it sound like "oh, it should be ok, we're still providing these modems" (or something to that effect) and I said well, I would prefer to make sure it's not your modem/router, before I have to go spend $400 on an updated/new google wifi system. Then the guy I talked to yesterday said, yes, this modem is pretty old and we don't even use these kind anymore....we'll send you a new one, at no charge. Plus, I think when the first guy, by the end, of the call on Friday, realized he was seeing the modem being "unstable" off and on, that convinced them it needs replaced.

My uncle called yesterday afternoon. He needed my mom's middle name (or rather to confirm it was what he remembered it was). Apparently he has been trying to transfer this inherited IRA to his regular bank and for whatever reason, is having lots of problems getting this done. He said he's been to his bank like 3 times, thought they had it figured out and said then he gets home to an email saying they still missing information. Why would they even need my mom's middle name? She only ever used her middle initial on her account/docs. Then he said he'd call me back if he needed more info, but he didn't call back, so I guess he got what he needed. My guess is he's trying to transfer it to an inherited IRA account with his bank. If he was just cashing it out, he could have had that done over a month ago, when the funds became available. I'll give him a call at the end of the week and check in with him on it.

Nothing else much new to report on. Monday it was 70 degrees, today it's snowing LOL

More tech Tuesday

I forgot to mention I also stopped in at Target yesterday to pick up 2 king sized pillows. I need them for the shams that came with my new comforter set. I wanted something kind of firm, to hold the shape of the sham, since they are just for decoration on the bed. (we use standard sized pillows to sleep). They were pretty reasonable priced at $15 each. I was in and out of there pretty quickly. I had tried to look at pillows online, but I couldn't tell if they were firm, like I wanted, so I wanted to see them in person before buying.

My left arm is still really sore this morning, from the shingles shot. This shot's (Shingrix) info says it's 97% effective in healthy adults, aged 50-69. And insurance covers it, as well.

A tech from our phone/internet company called yesterday, but it went to voicemail. I couldn't do anything on it yesterday anyway, as if he needed me to get to our modem/router, I couldn't, due to our garage floor being coated and sealed. I can get back on it today, so I will call. His voicemail did say that they see my modem, from them, is really old, so they'd like to try to replace that. Duh! I will call back later this morning on it.

I think today I will be attempting to call the IRS and see what the heck is going on with my mom's tax return/refund. It's now been a month since I mailed the form 1310, along with a copy of her tax return. It's been 3 months since I filed her tax return. How about some sort of letter/notice letting me know what the issue is? I'm still waiting on the SS payment, as well, but that's only been about 3 weeks since I mailed that corrected form in. That one asked for a bank account to direct deposit it to, so I keep hoping it will show up every time I log into my bank online.

Spring is definitely here. Still nothing going on with any sort of building prep next door. I'm honestly very surprised he hasn't at least got the well dug and put in, after 2 1/2 years. Or get his building site prepped, especially since it sounded like (and with is equipment he has) he would be doing this part himself. He hasn't come and burned his big brush pile either, that he left there at the end of fall, last year. This is the time every one around here does their burning, because before we know it, you won't be able to burn like that, due to hotter weather/fire hazard. 

Now, I guess there is another $284 from my mom's IRA to distribute, LOL. I got a statement on her account and there were 2 dividends paid like a week after the account was distributed. I'll have to check my account to see if they've transferred my share of it. I'm sure this will confuse uncle. I don't know if he ended up keeping his money in that account, or cashed/transferred it out. I would assume that any of the other beneficiaries who already cashed theirs out, they would then just send a check for the remaining small amount they are owed. It's under $15 each.

I got distracted from getting this posted, when I called the internet tech back. Different guy, but they are always so nice and helpful. He said this modem is old, so is sending out a new one today and to call him when I get it in 2-3 days and he will walk me through setting it up. It sounds like he's already putting the settings I need on it, before he mails it out. Hopefully this fixes this intermittent issue of very very slow internet. 

Carry on!

Doctor day

I didn't get time to get a blog post off this morning, before I had to leave for my mammogram and dr appt in the city. Nice day for a drive. It was nice yesterday - until it wasn't! After dinner it started getting dark sky, then thunder and lightning and a downpour of rain. We were up in the bonus room, playing pool, and it was quite loud and just pouring rain outside.

I got to the city and first stopped at my bank, across the street from my dr office. Then I went over to the dr office and told the lady at the desk I have 2 appointments to check in for. First for the mammogram and 10:30 and then my dr appt at 11:20. She told me she'd check me in for the mammogram and when I was done to come back up to the desk to check in for the dr. appt.  I wait a little bit to be called back for the mammogram and then when I'm done go back up to check in for the next appointment. With the same girl (they were not busy there) and she asks me the same questions...do you still live at....? I said yes, same address as 25 minutes ago! LOL.

At my dr appointment I finally got the singles vax taken care of. I've been meaning to do that for several years and just never took the time to get to a pharmacy to get it done, but she said they do it there now. I do have to go back for a nurses visit in 6 weeks, for the 2nd shot for it. Then I had to wait a few minutes to get into the lab and have that done. I'm hoping my mammogram comes back normal this time and don't have to go back for more, like last year (and the subsequent cyst aspiration).

Then I went to the grocery store that has the frozen hamburger patties dh likes. I also picked him up some cereal he asked for, that I forgot to put on the Walmart order. When I got back to my car I called Costco to see if my glasses got in. Nope. On the way leaving that store I had to pass by the entrance into Costco. I thought maybe I'll swing in anyway and continue to look around. It's Monday - it can't be too crowded. Wrong! It was more crowded than both the Saturday we were there. I told myself never mind, I still have to go back at some point when my glasses are in. I'll try again then. Maybe an evening, after dinner?

I had taken a half of a pbj sandwich with me, that I ate after the dr appts, so that held me over and kept me from buying a candy bar at the store. I took a nap for about an hour, awhile after I got home. My arm where I got the shingles shot is really sore. But, I'll be glad to never get the shingles. Both my boss and half sister had that in recent years and it sounded miserable.

When I was napping dh heated up a corndog in the microwave (he already had lunch earlier) so I'm hoping maybe this will be another night of a light, easy dinner, since he won't be very hungry now.

Saturday shopping

You Costco shoppers need to explain this one to me, LOL. They supposedly opened at 9:30 on Saturday. My goal was to get there at 9:30, but well, of course dh is never ready to go on time anymore, so we got there at 9:36am. The parking lot was packed. People were already coming out of the store with their purchases. In being opened only 6 minutes? How? Still too crowded for me. We picked up our 3 out of 4 pair of glasses and then attempted to walk around and see what they have. Too many people to weave in and out of/carts. We, of course, found several items to put in our cart and of course the checkout was just over $100. I think I've heard that it's impossible to leave Costco without spending $100 LOL. I will say that the store brand "miralax", that dh uses, is half the price of the generic brand I buy from Amazon or Walmart, so that was a deal. They don't carry the bread or toilet paper brands we use. With the short amount of time we spent there, I was able to see somewhat what they had. I don't see myself shopping there a whole bunch, but it will be good for some bulk things. 

When annual flowers start being sold around here, I will check and see what they may have for hanging baskets. I'm guessing I could get some nice big ones (if they have those seasonally) for what I pay at Home Depot or Lowes. I also know I will be going back for sure at Christmas time for all the big outdoor wreaths I want.

Leaving the city was around 11am so we decided to grab lunch at Wendy's drive thru. Then dh asked if I wanted a Peanut Buster parfait from Dairy Queen (to make up for eating my donut the other day, LOL).  said sure. We pull in to the drive thru, dh says the order and the guy says "I'm sorry sir, but we are out of ice cream". DH laughs and says DQ...is out of ice cream?! haha!". So, no PB Parfait for me :(

We had purchased a couple of frozen items at Costco - big boxes, of course. As we were putting those and our other frozen stuff in my chest freezer, dh said this freezer is kind of a pain, isn't it? I said yes, I now wish I would have gotten an upright instead. So, we talked a bit and decided we are going to get an upright and probably just try to sell the chest freezer. 

Then dh totally ruined his big shop door yesterday. He doesn't even really know how, but it wasn't working right, he was trying to fix it and had a 2x4 board he was trying to use to hold it up some while he worked on it. Then he laid the 2x4 down, but it was under the doorway area. The door (this door is HUGE and heavy and like 22 ft high) and came slamming down and the 2x4 was in the way and the bottom of the door is all bent up and it actually bent several of the panels all the way up to the windows. So, now we either have to see if that can be fixed or have to replace the whole dang door. gRRR! He's lucky he didn't get hurt.

It was a beautiful warm day yesterday and we get that again today. DH might even have to mow for the first time. The lawn has really grown and all green already. I'm sure after today's sunshine and 72 degrees, it's almost time. My chicken continues to do well and seems ok, other than, while she does go up into the roosting part at night, she still isn't getting up on the roosting bar, with the other hen. But other than that she seems good. She greets me at the door when I go out to see them or take a treat.

I plan to make a banana cream pie today. Yum. I haven't made one of those in awhile and they are dh's favorite pie. 

One of my store brand purchases was some chocolate cupcakes. DH eats the hostess cupcakes so I added a box of the store brand to try. He hasn't tried yet, but I tried one yesterday. Yuck. I can totally tell the difference and I know for sure he would. I can't quite describe the taste but it's that same taste as those Christmas cookies I made from the refrigerated cookie dough. I can't even describe the taste - but it's the same. 

I have tomorrow off work for my dr appointments. I hope my glasses get in and I can pick those up, as well. They seem to do their notifications at 3:25pm, but I won't be there that late, so the lady said to just call and check to see if they came in.

Stupid internet

What a totally frustrating day yesterday, with the internet issue. After doing all the restarts, unplugging the modem/router, unplugging the google wifi pucks, everything, it would not speed up. I barely had internet at all. I couldn't even get connected to work, due to it being so slow. I then called our telephone company, which provides the internet. I called at 10:30am and spent 40 minutes on the phone with a tech guy. At the end of the call, what he was seeing from the diagnostics on his end, is that my modem/router was being unstable. It would work then not work, so he had to escalate my ticket and am now waiting for a call back from a different tech person. In the meantime, about an hour and a half after I got off the phone with him, the internet just started working fine again. For no reason. And worked fine, with no issues the rest of the day and is fine this morning.

I was thinking it was maybe the google wifi system that needs replaced, but I am not spending $400 (twice what it cost me 5 years ago) if that isn't the true problem. Not to mention this router/modem supplied by the telephone company is at least 7 years old. We brought it with us from our house in town. You'd think that would need upgrading/replaced at some point. I feel like they should try replacing that, before I spend $400 and then not fix the problem.

I was exhausted by the time I got off the phone with the guy. Our modem/router is out in the garage, in an electrical type panel in the wall. My computer is the only device hardwired to it, all the other devices run off wifi. So, he was asking me a question on something I'd have to check on my computer upstairs in my office, then ask me a question where I had to go back down to the garage to look at the modem/router. Up and down, up and down. 

I also realized, awhile back, that my computer (supplied by work) does not have a wifi card in it! It has to be hardwired to a modem. That's dumb. You'd think nowadays it would be a common feature in every computer. I know our IT ordered and set up this computer for me. I have had it like 4 years now, but when it comes time for a new one, I will make sure to tell them I also want wifi capability, as well. With the crappy internet I experienced yesterday, I could have set up a hotspot with my phone and at least worked off that until the issue was fixed. 

I called Costco again to check on my glasses and she said they are still not in. I asked if she had an idea of when they might get in, as it's been 2 weeks now. Turns out the lab had an issue with their machine that does anti-reflective coating and that is holding up. She said they didn't ship out yet, so it won't be Saturday(today) either. 

GRRR - we need groceries, so I decided we'll go in this morning. Stop at Costco first and get the 3 pair that are in. At least dh will have his new glasses and then go to walmart and pick up our order. I have to go back on Monday morning for my mammogram and annual dr visit, so maybe my glasses will be in by then and I can get them. 

So, dh is up and we are getting ready to get to Costco when they open at 9:30. I am really hoping it's not crowded so we can have a bit of time to look around after getting our glasses. Hey, at least I'll have sunglasses to wear/try out!

A slow day

My internet is slow again this morning. It happened a few days ago, but not quite as bad and didn't last too long. Now again this morning. So far it's been a 1/2 hour of it. And each time it's been in the morning. It's getting annoying. I did do a reset of the wifi, but no change. Hopefully by the time I log into work, it will be back to normal speed.

I woke up to rain. No rain in the forecast, LOL. Amos tried to go outside, but wanted right back in.  My 2nd pair of glasses are still not in. I should have known hoping to get in to pick them all up this week, along with a grocery order was too much to expect. Here it is Friday. My other pair (and dh's) came in last Friday. Now I keep getting texts and recorded calls reminding me to pick them up. Not sure why dh's notifications are texts (to my phone, because we just put my #) and the notification for my glasses is a recorded call and not a text. 

The chicken continued to improve yesterday. She seemed pretty much normal all day. I was at the back door just before 8:30 watching out the window to see when the other hen would go up into the roost and to see if she would follow. Gladys went up. Rather than use the ramp to go in the small door, she just flaps her wings and hops up in through the bigger door. Then a few seconds later the sick one tried to flap her wings but she didn't get too far off the ground. Still not enough energy/strength for that, so I walked out and lifted her up. But at least it was a good sign she wanted to go up in there, compared to the previous nights. I still can't believe she has made it, so far, and the white hen just got sick just as fast and was gone in 24 hours.

I ended up spending probably a total of 3 hours with someone from our IT group working on my computer. I really don't think he has a clue what he is doing. At the end of yesterday, he said he'll contact me again today to keep working on it. I'm about to tell him I don't have time to be down that long today. I'm off on Monday. If he's still trying to fix it at the end of today and needs Monday as well, I'm hoping he has a way on his end to just log in and work on it. I may ask him that today - if he can just wait until Monday and work on it, without me sitting there for hours. He occasionally will message me a question, so that's why I have to sit there. 

Well, this very slow internet speed is very annoying and I guess mostly annoying because I don't know why and when I called our provider that first time, they had no idea why, either, until finally it just started working right again. 

I'm posting this and then trying a reset again, before I log into work.

More of the same

The brown hen was definitely better yesterday, not 100%, but much better. Later morning I gave her a another warm soak. Around noon we ran into town so I picked up some epsom salt and gave her a soak in that after dinner. When I set her down in the coop she did walk over to the food and ate a few pellets. I was really hoping she'd follow the other hen up into the coop when it got dark, but no, she went back under, in the corner, so I had to scooch her out gently with the end of an old broom and I put her up inside the roosting area. I just went out and peeked inside and they are both ok. It's still a bit early for them to come out. I also ordered some stuff from Amazon called Recover 911, for chickens. I guess add it to their water and supposed to help relieve stress, rehydrate, etc. It's supposed to be here today w/2 days shipping. Most of our Amazon stuff comes via the US mail now, so at least I know it will be here later morning and not late afternoon/eve, like with UPS.

Then Amos was worrying me all night. He was still outside when I went to bed. As the weather has gotten warmer and the days longer, he has started doing this more often. Dh is good about checking to see if he's at the door to come in. This cat always sleeps next to me, for at least part of the night. And he ALWAYS is doing his best to wake me up starting anywhere from 6-6:30am. At some point after I went to bed and fell asleep, I did wake up and hear dh on the phone and I thought I heard him let the cat in and a meow. Then I woke up again around 11:45 with no cat next to me. At a minimum he would have come in, sat next to me for 2 minutes and left. I got up to ask dh if the cat came in and he said ya, he's in the chair in my den. Then I woke up at 6:45 this morning and still no Amos. Where/what is this cat doing? I got up for the day and about the time I'm to the kitchen he comes walking out of the laundry room. Stopping and stretching, like he just got up. Weird, LOL.

My eyeglasses still have not come in. I got a recorded call from Costco yesterday afternoon and was like yes! this is a call for these glasses, but no it was just another "reminder" that my first pair of my 2 pair order is in, ready to be picked up. Disappointing. I really want/need to go and get groceries by the end of this week and hoped to combine the trips. I do have to go in Monday for 2 appointments - mammogram and annual well check visit, but didn't want to have to add on a Costco visit and getting groceries, all in the same trip. Makes for a long day in the city and then a 45 min drive home.

Oh, and dh ate my donut yesterday! How rude! LOL. When I ran into the store, I always check to see if they have any maple bars. They did not (it was noon, after all) but they did have a few chocolate covered bars left and he will eat that, too, and that is what I like, so I got 2. If there are maple bars I will get him 2, but since it was just the chocolate kind, I just got one for each of us. We get home and I set the bag on the counter and run upstairs to take care of an email real quick and come back down and the donuts are gone. He ate both. He said oh! well, you usually get me 2, so I thought you already took yours and these 2 were mine. Man, I was bummed, LOL. I was really looking forward to that donut, haha. I think I was mad at him the rest of the day, haha.

At least yesterday and the rest of this week will be a bit quieter work-wise. My boss is on vacation, LOL. Much less emails! I am ready for the week to be over, that's for sure.

Crazy night and morning

I guess having chickens isn't for the faint of heart. I'm not sure I'm cut out for this part of it. My white hen, who started acting sick right at bedtime Monday night, was quickly going downhill yesterday. She died just before I was going to bed last night :(. The cinnamon queen (Queenie) who started a couple days earlier, is still standing up in the roosting area of the coop, when I went out to check on her when I got up. She's now on day 4. I honestly can't believe she's still alive. Yesterday morning she seemed a little bit better. Then around 11am I gave her a warm soak in a plastic bin (I gave the white hen a soak, after her). She seemed to like that and when I got her dried off and set back down in the coop, she was walking around some for about an hour. After that she just wanted to stand in one place. I eventually moved her up to the roosting area (with the other sick one) so that Gladys (gray one) wouldn't keep bothering her. So, far Gladys does not seem to be affected by it. I guess we'll see what today brings.

I was hoping the last pair of eye glasses we ordered would have come in yesterday (the other 3 came in last Friday and Saturday), so I could get my Walmart order placed and we figured out a time to go in to get the glasses and groceries. Hopefully today. My vision insurance didn't pay what I thought they would - I thought when I looked up what doctors are in the network, it said Costco, so that's why I chose them. But apparently out of network and I had to submit the claims myself. But, out of our $120 (each) eye exams, I am only getting refunded $45 each. Next time I will make sure that I am using an eye doctor that is for sure in network, so that we only have a $10 copay for the exam.

The eye dr we saw at Costco Optical said he also recently started his own practice (and gave me a card) and said the bank was making him work 2 days a week at Costco, until he can show his own practice is going well, LOL. So, I just looked up (again) what dr's are "in network" and it's showing his private practice. Since we really liked him, we will just go to his private practice next time we get eye exams and then can still get our glasses through Costco.

It's payroll processing day and I already have it done. I knew my boss was going to be on vacation starting today, so I did some of the pre-work on it yesterday, so she could answer any questions I had. Plus, the rest of it just went smoothly this morning, which isn't typically the case.

It looks like it will be a nice sunny day out. After the morning fog burned off, I am seeing blue sky and it's supposed to get up to 53. It was 30 when I got up. Brrr.

ok, this is crazy. I just went back out to the coop. If the hen was still standing up in the roosting area, I was going to bring her down onto the ground in the coop, next to food and water. I had some noodles with me for the other hen. I drop a few on the ground for her and Queenie pokes her head out and starts eating some noodles. Then she walks down the ramp, and starts eating and pecking the ground, acting all fine! 

 

Inflation and store brands

In continuing with the friend that said the price of sugar is so expensive.... Since I last purchased a couple bags of sugar, it was last October. I thought well, maybe the price has gone way up since then? Nope, it's exactly the same. But, then I went back one more purchase, a year ago, I bought a 10# bag and it was almost 60% less than a 10# is now! So, I guess she is spot on. A couple of her friends commented. One gave her a link to a 25# bag on Amazon - for $35.....acting like this is a great deal. I commented she can get a 25# bag of sugar at Walmart for less than $20. Inflation creep. I can't imagine how people on a tight budget, who live paycheck to paycheck, are doing trying to feed their families on most likely, the same income they had before the inflation keeps creeping in.

I was watching a podcast type show recently where one of the hosts had several food items in both name brand and store brand and had the other host try out each and say which one he liked better. For all but one, he picked the store brands. She even had him try Lays potato chips and store brand and he thought the store brand tasted better. Of course the store brand was much cheaper. I've never tried store brand chips before. It got me to thinking, when I am doing my grocery order online, I need to give more store brands a try. I do use some. So, at least on this order, I'm going to give the Great Value regular potato chips and try and see how dh likes them (or if he even notices). They are 30% cheaper.

I'm going to try a few other things in Great Value brand. DH eats Hostess cupcakes with his lunch. I will order an extra box in GV brand, just to try. If he won't eat them, I will LOL. If he does like them, well that's .50 savings per box.

I need cool whip for a banana cream pie I want to make. I have bought store brand often, and will buy that again. $1.98 vs $1.07. Almost double the price. Once we try the new store brands items, I'll update on how we liked them. 

I have no idea what is going on with my chickens. During the day the sick one seemed a bit better, but by the time I went out there again at 4:30 (I checked on her many times during the day) she seemed worse. Evening I picked her up and set her in the roosting area. Then when it got dark my white hen didn't want to go into the roosting area. We got up her in there and just set her on the floor next to the sick one. The gray hen was already up on the roosting bar.

This morning now the white hen seems sick and just laying on the ground. Now the brown (sick) hen seems a bit perkier...maybe? Every time I picked her up the past 2 days she made no sounds or movement, but this morning, when I picked her up to set her down on the ground in the coop, she started making noises and even flapped her wings a bit. I set her next to the water and food and she just stood here. I went out again just now and when I went inside the coop she started making some bawking noises at me. White hen is still just laying on the ground. I did take some bread out and she took a couple pieces I set on the ground next to her. The brown sick hen wouldn't take any from me. My half sis suggested a warm bath, so I am going to see what I can find to use as a little tub and try that.

Good morning Monday

It was lightly snowing when I got up this morning. Just a bit stuck to the roof. Winter lingers on, but there are a couple signs of spring. The grass is getting green and my iris bulbs have some green sprouts.

I didn't do a whole lot yesterday. I did use my newish steam mop to clean our shower. I couldn't find the cup that came with it to pour the water into the small hole. I can't figure out where I would have put it! I found something else to use to get the water in it. I also discovered I've been using it wrong, LOL. I've always noticed when I'm pushing back and forth on the floor, with the pad on, it's not a smooth motion. Well, I had this outside plastic "ring" that attaches around the edge of the mop part and in reading the directions yesterday it says that is a "carpet glide". OH! LOL. So, next time I will try it without that on and see if it's better. I also used a couple of the attachments and steamed the grout and corners and edges of the shower floor. 

About the only other thing I did was make some tapioca pudding I had just enough tapioca left to make some, so I put a box of that on my grocery list. For dinner I made spaghetti, which we hadn't had in awhile. I'm guessing that will be leftover dinner for tonight, or at least for me it will. 

One of my chickens didn't seem to be doing so well yesterday. When I went out there in the morning to give them some leftover bread ends, she was sitting on the ground in the coop. She didn't seem interested in the treat, which is unusual. Every time I went out to check on her she was sitting on the ground (but had moved to different places each time). The 3rd time she was sitting with a bunch of her feathers around her. After dinner I took out some noodles, which they love and that time she was on her feet and ate some noodles, so I was feeling better about her. When it was getting dark, I wanted to make sure she would go up into the nesting part. She, and her buddy, the white hen, were back on the ground, back underneath where the nesting part hangs out over the ground. She was laying down and the white hen was kind of over her, protecting her. They never did go up into the nesting area. I thought for sure she would be gone this morning, but I went out there as soon as it was light and when I opened the door to the coop the white hen came out from that underneath area. I bent down and looked back under there and the other hen was standing there. Still alive and at least she was up on her feet? I guess we'll see how she's doing today.I did read that her breed (cinnamon queen) has a bit of a shorter lifespan, due to being a hybrid - 3-8 years and she is now 4 years old.

Well, right of the bat of logging into work this morning, I had to email a help ticket to our IT group. Grrr. Another update is needed, is the message I'm getting popped up. This time with our accounting software.

DH is up and about already. He wants to run into town to the auto parts store. I'm sure he'll come home grumbling, as he always does from there, LOL. They rarely ever have what he needs in stock and they have to order it and then he has to make another trip back the next day to pick it up. I always tell him to just call first, but he rarely does.

Has the cost of sugar gone way up? A facebook friend mentioned it on a post she made about hummingbirds are back in here area (south) but sugar is too expensive now. I hadn't noticed it was. Plus since sugar is in just about every food in the grocery store, you'd think all food would be way up, then? Plus, it's hard to say with her and her dh. There's being frugal and being cheap and they are very cheap, LOL.

Weekend whatnot

I received an odd email this morning, from the phone company I had my mom's phone with. It said thanks for your payment. Your auto pay payment was received October 18, 2023. Ok....? LOL. I'll just take it as one of those signs mom is thinking about me up in heaven ;)

I've gotten notifications that 3 of the 4 eye glasses we ordered are in. The pair that is not in yet is my pair of regular glasses. So, both dh's regular and sunglasses are in and my sunglasses are in. It would have been convenient to be able to run in and get them all today. Oh well. Also strange that the notification that my sunglasses order was in came via a phone call recording and dh's came to my cell phone as a text. 

Yesterday I did 3 loads of laundry. I also made some of the quick, from the package, snickerdoodle cookies. Needed something sweet to snack on. For dinner I made a pizza. For some reason the past several times I have made it, it's not tasting the same or as good as it has for years. The dough seems off. I use the Rhodes frozen dinner rolls. That out 12 and then combine to flatten out for pizza dough. I've been making this for years. Now the dough doesn't seem to want to rise much as it gets thawed. I used to always take out the 12 rolls to thaw on a plate, covered in saran wrap, around 2pm and it would be perfectly ready around 5pm. Now they are thawed, but hardly risen. The cooked dough is not near as good anymore. It's disappointing as dh has always said this is the best pizza.

Our internet was super slow again when I got up this morning. Rather than spend any of my time trying to "fix" it, like I did for 2 hours last time. I just ignored it, LOL. Not too long after dh got up, it's back to working fine. I did do a reset, but at the time it didn't seem to make a difference.

I was really trying to make it until Monday, the 15th, when I have to go into the city for my mammogram and dr appointment (and figured to pick up our glasses then, as well), to also get a grocery order, but I don't think we're going to make it another 8 days. That would be a month in between grocery trips. While I did pick up a few things after our eye exams last weekend, I am going to be out of other things by the end of this week. I guess we'll have to make a run in one day this week, sometime. Either do a long lunch or go in later afternoon. 

It's a cloudy day, but I do see some blue sky in between the clouds, so it's an improvement and it hasn't rained since yesterday morning. So many worms, LOL

I'm slow getting going this morning. I think I had too many snickerdoodles yesterday. Too much sugar in my system and then I didn't sleep very well/took me awhile to fall asleep. I'll try to be better today, but they are so good. I'm going to finish getting my grocery list written out, so it can be ready when I decide to place the order for pickup.

Short and sweet Saturday

I ended up having a headache pretty much all day yesterday. I tried tylenol, then Advil. Neither helped. After dinner I took a nap and that didn't help. It didn't help that someone from our IT group called me to do an update for Windows on my computer. At first I was ok, good. It's an hour before I finish up my day, I can take it easy and not need to put too much thought into work now. This process ended up taking 2 hours, so it was 5:30 by the time it got done. It would have been nice if they had told us this, to begin with, when the email went out about scheduling our computers for this update.

This morning it seems to be gone. If it comes back, I'm going to try a sinus headache pill, as when regular tylenol or advil do not work, it's a sinus headache I have.

It's trying to snow right now, a mixed snow and rain. It's been so dark and cloudy the past few days. We have not seen the sun at all. Looking at the weather forecast it doesn't look like we will be seeing the sun for another whole week. Ugh.

I've been following this cleaning lady on instagram and am going to try a method she used to clean a glass stove top. We'll see if it really gets it all clean and not still see smears. That's my project today, LOL. I'm not holding my breath, though. With the exception of the Dawn Purple degreaser, the rest of the supplies were inexpensive. But, I just realized one of the supplies has not even arrived yet and says not until Monday the 15th! Good grief. I'm going to see if I can just cancel that one. It was thru Walmart and hasn't even shipped yet. I placed the order on 3/31.

With the nice spring weather we did have for a few days, it reminded me that it's just about tick season, so I just ordered a 3 pack of flea & tick drops for the cat. That usually gets me through tick season, which usually ends around mid July, due to the hot temps.

Part of what I am using some of my inheritance for is to finish out a few things we have never finished with our house and shop. For the garage, dh has wanted the floor coated and a heating unit added. We are going to get the floor coated a week from Monday. A lady came out last week to give us a quote and it was a bit too much. We told her we'd think on it. Then I emailed her and told her we were still thinking on this, due to the price being so much higher than anticipated. She then did offer 10% off of that quoted price, so we are going to get it done. So, ya, even though I hate to haggle prices with people, it pays to at least ask. The heater we won't need to get installed until just before next winter, so no rush on that right now. We already have our HVAC guy for that, so that will be easy.

That's all I have for right now. I'm hungry and need some breakfast.

Rainy Friday

I got slammed with work emails yesterday morning, all requests for me to create invoices for work our service dept had done. On top of that my boss was also emailing invoice requests on old orders that appeared to have gotten missed (only one missed by me, the rest I never even got the request). I joked in a message to her "wow - this must be "send One all your invoice requests day". She replied with a laugh and said why, yes it is! They had a meeting yesterday and she said they were all told to get these done -we are losing money when they don't!

Now that dh (and I) aren't so tired from doing all that work on the loft ceiling and lighting, we got back into playing pool the last couple of nights. I am just totally sucking at it! I keep joking wait until I can get my new glasses and can see better! haha.

I see it's Friday again. Still raining. When it rains we end up with tons of big worms all over the driveway, LOL. So, yesterday dh scooped a bunch up onto a shovel and we tossed them into the chicken coop. Gross. LOL. They didn't last long :)

My auto insurance is due, so I need to get online today and get that paid. It for the 6 months. I was remembering the days, like back when I first started blogging, where I had to do the monthly, more costly payment plan, because I didn't have the full amount at once. And putting the full 6 months bill on a cc, with high interest wouldn't have saved anything either. I'm am glad I am not in that position any more. Plus, I'll get at least 2% cashback, since I use my Paypal cc. I think I'm going to get back 3%, though since my auto insurance had a paypal link to pay and usually when I got that route (vs just entering my cc#) I get 3% instead of 2%.

I have been putting all my cash backs, my little bit of blogging income, into my paypal "Cruise" savings fund and now have $537. I really have no idea how much extra I'll need/want for the cruise, but of course we will end up with an extra bill when it's all said and done. I'm just going to keep socking the money in there until the cruise in Sept and if I have some left over, then great. If not, well at least I saved for it ahead of time.

It looks like it's time for me to do a mini desk clean up. The right side of my l-shaped desk is getting cluttered with papers again. I'm about half using my stenopad and half my half sheets of scrap paper. Still not 100% with just the steno pad. I had so many just random bits of numbers (like PO#'s) to jot down, that I still tend to grab a piece of scrap paper. I'm getting there, though. Once I get my auto insurance paid, that is a couple pieces of paper than can get off my desk and into the garbage can.

Time for me to run back downstairs and get my breakfast. I keep hearing this faint thumping noise, kind of sounds like when you hear bass music that is far away. Wonder what it is from. 

Rain and coffee

Good morning. It's rainy again here today. Maybe snow on Saturday. These new eye drops I am using are great. I put some in at bedtime and then just put some in when I got up this morning.  Someone asked in a comment yesterday what kind and I replied, but thought others may want to know the name. It's Optase Dry Eye Intense. Kind of pricey at $24, but has 300 drops in a bottle, so it should last me several months, using 2x a day. Plus, I can claim it on my HSA. I'm used that price, with the Muro 128 ointment I've been using the past several years now.

I always turn up the heat upstairs when I get up, but I guess I forgot this morning and I've been sitting here at my desk for awhile, wondering why I am still cold, LOL. I can adjust it from my phone, which is handy.

I did end up making chicken quesadilla's for dinner last night. Quick and easy. I think tonight will be breakfast for dinner and make french toast. I was looking around in my pantry and realized I still had a half full large can of the coffee I was using before I tried Folgers Black Silk. Well, I guess I should at least try to use some of this up. Plus I hadn't tried it since I started using the yummy from heaven white chocolate sauce. It was good as well, so I will try to get this coffee used up and then go back to using the Black Silk coffee. 

Speaking of coffee - with the cat going outside a lot now, he seems to want to do his business at the base of a shrub we have just outside the laundry room door/front of our house. DH has noticed the dirt getting dug up around it. While it's been really nice that he's hardly using his litterbox inside at all, dh doesn't like him digging up around this plant. I was looking online to see if there is some sort of cat repellent spray (there is) but also read, among several things, they don't like the smell of coffee grounds, so I've been saving my little bit of grounds and sprinkling around the dirt there. DH said he saw him walk up to the area yesterday and then leave, so maybe that will work.

Warning: I'm about to mention property taxes again. A whole lot of property owners in our state just got an additional property tax bill. Ours is an extra $192 to pay. Back when the taxes were being assessed and counties doing their budgets, a bunch of the counties decided to "protest" to the state and reduced the state school mills tax they are required to remit to the state. The governor sued the counties and won. There sure must be a lot of people who don't pay attention to what is going on, because even with all the news about it and the letters going out with this new bill, people are like "what is this?!".  We have an election this year for governor and it will be interesting to see if Gianforte wins again. I am a conservative Republican, but cannot stand this guy. I think I would honestly vote for the Democrat candidate before I'd vote for him again. But, I've gotten to the point where I think all politicians are scum, so.........

I'm warmed up now. And hungry for some breakfast. 

Wednesday almost done already

This morning got busy and I lost my window of time to get my blog post written up. Part of the busyness was a phone chat with my boss about various things. It does kind of sound like she is still leaning towards hiring a f/t accounting person. We keep finding more and more that this position could do. Some new stuff and some to take off my plate.

Then I took an early lunch so dh and I could run into town to take care of some motor vehicle titling stuff. I figured this would be about a 15 minute process. OMG - slow as molasses, LOL. I think we were there like an hour. Then on the way home we got stuck at a train crossing where the train was just sitting there, not moving. OMG again. We waited quite awhile and finally turned around - to get back home another way we had to go like 12 miles out of the way. 7 miles down to the next freeway exit and then 5 miles back to our house.

I get emails from UPS when packages are on the way/delivered. I just got one saying they are delivering something from Home Depot tomorrow. I haven't ordered anything from Home Depot. Did I forget that I ordered something? I looked online w/my Home Depot online ordering log in and no, nothing ordered. I can't imagine what it could be. DH never orders anything himself, usually he just sends me a link if he wants to order something online. I guess I'll find out tomorrow what it is.

I got the new eye drops the eye dr. recommended, delivered this morning, so tried it out. I really like these drops! My eyes felt instantly soothed and the feeling has lasted for hours. He said they have an oil in them that helps keep the eye coated. He wants me to use them when I get up in the morning and when I go to bed. 

I have no idea what to make for dinner tonight. Nothing even sounds good. I guess I'll make chicken quesadillas. And since I didn't take some chicken out of the freezer to thaw, until just now, 2 hours before making dinner, I guess I will be defrosting it.

Huh?

This is how I felt most of yesterday, LOL

My side job boss did put in a ticket for their IT guy to call me. He did and it went straight to my voicemail. What the heck? I called him right back and he said he would work on it and call me back. He called an hour or so later and again, my phone did not ring with his call, went straight to my voicemail. Then I spent a half hour trying to figure out what would be causing this. After his first call I added the number to my contacts, hoping that would let his next call com through. It did not.

Every setting that a google search suggested looking at was set correctly. Then I checked Verizon and saw they were marking it as a spam call with my spam filter. I clicked on "not spam" but it doesn't show it now as not spam and when I clicked on it again and tapped on not spam again I noticed some vague message about this may not update with Verizon. Frustrating. Seems like there should be an easy way (like with emails) to mark a caller as not spam. He will be calling me back tomorrow, so I guess we'll see if it works when he calls next. 

Another "good grief" that happened yesterday was UPS delivered a letter type envelope. It wasn't our normal driver, as he has never ever in his life been here at 11am, LOL. I knew it was coming UPS and saw in my emails that UPS had dropped it off at 10:50am, 10 minutes earlier. It showed a picture of the envelope laying on the gravel, next to our gate. Ok....that is our instructions on where to leave PACKAGES....but this very lightweight envelope with 2 pieces of paper in it could have been picked up by a gust of wind, never to be found again! At least put a rock or two on it, to hold it down. Or walk it in to the dang door, so it can't blow away. Luckily I was checking my emails for something else and saw the UPS email that it had just got delivered. Plus the cardboard like envelope looked like it had been through a lot to get here, LOL. It wasn't completely bent/creased, but part of it was pretty bent up. And the envelope felt damp (it has not rained here in several days and the gravel wasn't wet, at least).

DH got the water filters changed, which I think he does every 6 months. It comes in a pack of 4 filters and I think he uses 3 each time, so I went online to try to remember where I ordered them from before. It was Amazon, but my Rakuten app showed it was cheaper through Walmart with a 6% Rakuten cash back. Plus, using my Walmart cc, I'd get another 5% back, so I got the filters for $35.60 instead of $40.

He also fixed a fender on his car trailer that I think got broken almost 3 years ago, LOL. It needed welding and he finally decided to fix it. He's not a welder by any stretch of the imagination, but he has a small welder and was able to fix it. Then he did his usual - rather than get RID of stuff, he just rearranged it again, to make more room. He did get his big wood table (he made this several years ago) that he uses to saw and cut wood on, over to just inside the large, tall shop door. He also bought some caster wheels to put on it. Then when he wants to do a wood project he can open the big door and roll the wood bench out onto the concrete pad in front of the door. By getting that out of the garage, there is much more room in the garage. Now that it is warmed up, my car is back in its spot in the garage now. He doesn't like to keep it in an unheated garage, when it could be parked in the heated shop during the winter months. 

He did say again last night, that he thinks he will put the rest of the loft ceiling on hold for a bit and his next project needs to be getting the stairs up to the loft built, so that he can get busy starting to get car parts down, to sell. We'll see. I'm likely to have to keep nudging him in that direction, for sure.

I just remembered that today I have a "quarterly" call with what used to be my mom's investment advisor, who I guess is now my investment advisor, LOL. This will be my first, since inheriting the money. Over the past several years the main guy has been training his son to take over, for when he retires and the quarterly calls I did with, then for, my mom were with both of them. Towards the end, the last couple of calls were with the son, only. I have a feeling this might just be with the son now. My guess is this being a smaller (by 75%) account, he will probably handle this one, but I guess I'll see who it is when they call. Plus, it's not an account that is going to grow, per se, since I will have to have it all distributed within 10 years.

The sun is out, the sky is all blue and getting up to 65 today. Even nicer.

Aches and pains Monday

My side job, which is very little work, and I really only need to get online once or twice a month to record the transactions from their bank accounts. Well, I go to sign in this morning, so I can finish up the March bank statement and get the quarterly report done and can't get on - again. It's really getting annoying. I'll text my side job boss again here in a little bit. It's still early for her and most likely they spent the weekend and are still at their beach home, so nothing's going to get fixed today, anyway.

I was trying to submit our claims for the eye exams online yesterday and accidentally uploaded dh's scanned receipt under my name and there was no way to delete it. So, this morning I logged in and figured out how to send a message about the error. I also got online with my HSA account and uploaded copies of our receipts for the frames and lenses, and my Walmart receipt for the new eye drops I ordered. Once I know what my out of pocket will be on the eye exams, I can upload that. I now have over $1400 in saved HSA eligible receipts. It will be interesting to see how much ends up in there by the time I want to start pulling money out of HSA, for retirement purposes. The nice thing is, if I need any of it before I have to start my 401k RMD's at 75, I can pull that amount out first, tax free. I need to look into HSA's and if/when there is an RMD on those.

Yesterday was a tiring day. I spent about 2 hours staining boards. Took a break and then dh needed help installing the 2 lights up in the loft ceiling. Due to the fact that he didn't move his stacked pallet of CRAP out of the way, underneath one of the lights, I had to try to sit/kneel on top of this CRAP while trying to hold up my end of the fixture while we got it fitted in the space and then he had to get some screws in. The reason he couldn't move that stack of CRAP is because he would've had to move 10 other things to make some room to move the stack out of the way. Today my lower back and shoulders are feeling it. It doesn't take long holding my arms above my head before they start burning. Then....the lights wouldn't turn on. I spent a hour standing there while he cussed and tried different things, convinced he had it all connect right. Finally he had to unscrew it all and take the light back down and realized he missed getting one of the wires connected right. I was not a very happy camper, by then. 

I finally remembered to call to see if I can get in for a mammogram (same place as my dr) appointment just before my annual exam with my dr. Thankfully they were able to schedule me in a half hour before my dr. appointment, so I can get that done on the same day and out of the way. This office has regular physicians, an urgent care, and does mammograms M-F.  I usually just call their main # to schedule the mammogram, but I got online with their website to get the number and see under their "services" mammogram is linked so I click on the link and see a 1-800 number to call and schedule the appt, so I dial that instead. OMG. First the recording says we are offering a special today for certain callers. Are you over 50? Press 1 for yes, so I press yes. Then it says I am eligible to receive a free emergency call button device. Press 1 to accept this offer. I did not. Then a woman comes on the line and says "can you hear me ok?" I say yes and she starts in on this spiel for the device. I try to interrupt her to say, no thank you, I just need to make my mammogram appointment and the talking doesn't stop. Obviously it was a recording. I just hung up, found my office's ph# and called direct and quickly got my appointment. Good grief. This is the day I am doing well combining a bunch of errands in one trip to the city. Mammogram, wellness visit and (hopefully) pick up our glasses from Costco.

Last Friday we had our quarterly company meeting. Everyone else remote was not on live, so I didn't bother either, LOL. Again, who wants to sit and stare at faces on a screen watching a meeting for 90 minutes. It was a good meeting, with good news. We are at our sales goal for the quarter and we have more than met our earnings revenue (commissions on these sales) goal, which is the metric, for bonus, mid year and year end. We should most definitely get our mid year bonus's this year, so that is great news. I'm also hoping that if we can meet our goals this year, they will also fund the profit sharing portion of our 401k company "match" again. We haven't received that the last 2 years. Maybe 3 years. I lost track of how long it's been.  

A beautiful blue sky sunny day, temps climbing up to 57. Very nice.