Cruise savings

I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I found a way to save another $200 on our cruise, that is coming up in September. Back when we booked it last October, I had to put down $500, the balance due mid June. All of our shore excursions and on ship activities we wanted to do have already been booked and fully paid for. When I logged into my cruise account, to pay the remaining balance I saw a spot to enter a gift card or gift certificate code. Hmmm...wonder if I could find a discounted gift card for Royal Caribbean? Well, I found I could get them 10% off through AARP. I had to pay like $9 for a year AARP membership (and I'm also getting a free gift of a foldable truck organizer caddy type thing), but I was able to buy 4 $500 gift cards for $1800.  There was specific instructions (before ordering) on how they worked/would get applied and my situation fit their conditions/terms.

Then it got scary. I started finding these AARP customer comments that said they purchased the gift cards, but Royal Caribbean wouldn't apply them, said they weren't applicable to their cruise . The instructions had said to email copies of the gift cards (I had e-copies received in emails) to a RCC specific email for gift card redemption and you would hear back from them within 12 days. So, I waited, nervous, day after day. But then this week I got an email back saying they received my gift cards and would be applying them within 10 days. This morning I logged into my account and the gift cards were applied to my balance. Whew! I guess saving the additional $200 was worth the stress of the past week or so ;)

We had frost last night, so I'm glad we put the flowers in the garage and covered up the one's we couldn't move. Hopefully we are done with that nonsense! It is June tomorrow, after all.

Timber!

Last evening, after dinner, we suddenly got some super strong winds for just a couple of minutes. I thought I heard something, but just figured it was the wind rattled something. A little later dh was out on the back patio and realized a tree went down! It was near the property line between us and DAN and fell onto his lot. DH got out there this morning and now has it all cut up (took him all of 10 minutes) and is now getting it all moved into our firewood pile.

I guess DH will just have to have a trespasser today, LOL. It was a dead tree, so at least there's that, and glad it fell that way and not towards our house. Also, we had looked into running our side fence all the way to the top of the bank and that tree would have knocked it down, so now glad we didn't end up fencing there. (the fence guy wanted way too much money for a short section of fencing).

I had made dh's dr appt online and a few hours later someone from their office called me that the dr really didn't have that appt. in June available, and the first opening is August (he's semi retired now, I guess), so I took that appt. for him. Also, when I was getting rescheduled to August, I told the girl he also needed to have a lab test ordered. She tried to tell me, well, he can come in for his appointment and if the doctor needs the test he can put in an order. I said, no. He definitely needs this test, based on his previous history and we want to have the results when we see the doctor, that is part of the reason for the visit, in the first place. So, then she had to transfer me to the nurse, who was completely ok with that and will put in the order with the lab at our local hospital. I also got her to call in a refill on his prescription. I just called the pharmacy in town to make sure they got it and they have it ready to pick up, so I will run in there around lunch time to pick it up.

DH's birthday is coming up, so dd and I are going in together to get him a rolling stool for the shop he's been wanting. They are very expensive, so that's why we decided to join funds and it's also her Father's Day gift, LOL. It's definitely not a cheap Harbor Freight stool (though not knocking HF at all, they have a lot of very good stuff for great prices) and should last him forever.

It was supposed to maybe freeze last night, so we ended up bringing in all the flower baskets and pots we could, into the garage and covered the others. I don't think it quite froze, but when I got up it was 37, so we probably didn't need to go to all that trouble, but like dh said - we spent hundreds on these flowers, lets be safe than sorry. It's also supposed to get down to freezing again tonight, so one more night of it. Good grief - it's almost June!

Slogging through today

I'm not having the best morning, so far. First I had trouble sleeping last night. I woke up with stomach issues. Today the upstairs bathroom, which is at the other end of the house from my office, is feeling far away, LOL.

I'm also waiting for a call from our in-house IT help guy to change a setting for me in a program we use. It somehow changed how I can view pdf's and I can't find where the setting is to change it back. I think he's forgotten about me...

The IRS refund check for my mom, that had my last name spelled wrong, got to my bank yesterday (I had mailed it in) and deposited with no issues. Now I am just waiting on her Social Security payment and then other than filing her fed and state tax returns next year, everything will be done that needs to be done, for now.

We tried the chicken melt sandwiches from Costco for dinner last night. They were ok - nothing great. Probably not really filling enough for a dinner, but will work when we just feel like having a really light dinner. The chicken and cheese was good, but I found the pita type bread a bit chewy. I think tonight we'll give the mini chicken taco's a try.

It's pretty windy out today. My wind chimes are really playing lots of musical notes. Very pretty sound. These Corinthian Bells chimes are still one of my favorite things.

I've made dh an appointment to go get his prostate checked again. It's been 18 months. I've been trying to suggest he go back, but of course he listened to a friend and finally decided he needs to do a follow up. At least he listens to someone, LOL. The soonest appointment with his urologist is June 20, but that's only about 3 weeks, so not bad. I thought his urologist had retired, but apparently he's still working part time and still taking appointments.

I'm working on some retirement/Social Security numbers scenario that is showing to be very eye opening. Almost too good to believe. I'll share the info in another post, once I confirm my spreadsheet calculations are correct.

Back in the saddle - late

I overslept this morning. Usually I am up at 7, but dh got up at 7:30 and says aren't you working today? I was zonked out. Last evening my sinus's started feeling like hayfever, stuffed up. I woke up sometime during the night with a bad sinus headache, but after I changed positions, it went away and that must have been when I fell back asleep hard, LOL. I'm still trying to get woken up. I have payroll to do today. I need to wake up. Even Amos doesn't want to wake up all the way. He got up when I did but changed his mind about going outside. Now he's in my lap falling back asleep.

DH got the coiled hoses hooked back up for the season, which lets me get most of the flowers in front watered with those. All the flowers on the back patio still have to be watered with a watering can. We should have put a water connection near the back patio. That would have been smart.

It seems like trying to watch some shows on apple plus tv, where the scenes are at night or in a darker area, it is so hard to see on my ipad. I tried to up the brightness but it's still not enough. I googled the issue and apparently it's a common issue. Something to do with the app. It seems to be the best way to "fix" it is to not use the app itself and just access Apple+tv from a webbrowser on the ipad (or phone, or whatever device). So, I tried that and that helped quite a bit. How stupid for an apple show watched on an apple product and you can barely see the show. 

Yesterday I gave dh a haircut and then got out the vacuum out to clean up his hair on the bathroom floor and then decided to vacuum the whole downstairs while I was at it. I watered all the flowers. Gave the chicken the leftover piece of corn on the cob. She didn't want anything to do with it, LOL. 

Last nights dinner was ham and cheese sliders. Tonight we are going to try the chicken melt sandwiches we got at Costco. My dd said those are good. I asked her if there's anything at Costco they haven't tried?! She replied "tofu" LOL

Last day

DH was busier than me yesterday. He mowed the lawn and then washed 2 vehicles. When he came inside, I was standing in the kitchen, going to get dinner started, and he says "I'm worn out". Before I could say anything Siri pipes up through his phone and says "OK, I'll hold down the fort". What the heck! LOL. I just looked at him and said oh, is she going to make dinner then? 

For dinner I used up the rest of the corn on the cob. It wasn't as good as Friday, but probably not as fresh by yesterday. I have one cooked cob left, so I'm going to give it to the chicken. She'll probably enjoy pecking at it.

I did a few cleaning chores. Cleaned up my desk/office. Cleaned our bathroom. Watered the flowers, which will now pretty much be a daily chore. DH is going to get the long coiled hoses hooked up today, so it will be easier to water and not carry a can around to all of them.

Those eye drops the eye dr recommended to me are really great, but now that the bottle is getting down low, it's getting really hard to squeeze a drop out. The little bottle just squeezes in but nothing wants to come out. A bit frustrating since there's like 1/5th left and this is expensive stuff. I ordered another bottle (it's lasted me about 2 months) but I'm thinking of getting a little eye dropper and getting the top off this bottle (or cutting it off or however I need to) so I can use the remaining drops. Next Amazon order, I'm going to add an eye dropper. 

Plus I need to add some corn cob holders. I was down to 4 left and one broke last night, so I don't even have enough for both of us to have on our corn. I have these cute white ceramic corn shaped dishes to hold corn on the cob, that I got at Bed Bath and Beyond, years ago.

I did also (the day after I got the check) get a letter in the mail from the IRS saying they have resolved the delay and a check is on the way. 

While dh was out washing vehicles I decided to get Apple + tv again for a month. There are actually 4 shows I'm waiting (for like a year or more now, well one of the shows has been over 2 years, for goodness sake) for season 2, but one of them did finally get season 2 started for viewing. It's just a half hour show. I think there's only going to be one more episode of season 2 that airs sometime this week. I also started watching another new show, a sci-fi thriller type that is from a book I read a few years ago. I've watched one episode of that and it was good, though I kept trying to remember exactly what the storyline of the book was, then in started coming back to me. There's also another show that has 4 seasons, that I never watched when I subscribed before, so I'll likely get that one started during this month. After that I'll likely cancel it again, and wait........and wait...for season 2 of the other 3 shows I really liked.

I haven't had anymore slow internet since May 17th. Funny, a month or two ago, when first dealing with this I got a Verizon message on my phone about getting their 5g "home wifi". I looked into it and then it said it wasn't available in my area. I was kind of not surprised, being rural, but we literally have a Verizon cell tower in our view (remember? LOL), seems like we should have the availability. Well, then Saturday in the mail I get a mailer from Verizon saying it's now available in my neighborhood. I just went online with my Verizon account and it does say now available. I looked into the pricing and overall, it would be about $10 cheaper per month then I'm paying now through the phone company. But, supposedly much faster speeds than this slow dsl we have. 

I googled on it some more and came across a review video a guy did after having it for a year now, and he's happy. He said he got it to try and for the first month kept his old internet service before he decided if the Verizon home internet worked out ok or not. That is smart. If I have any more issues or this slow internet keeps happening more and more often, I might give this option a try and see. Our telephone/internet provider is working on fiber optic but it will likely be years before we ever see it out here. I'm going to keep doing some more research on this Verizon home internet and see if I can read more reviews on how happy people are with it. I would think it would be decent - our Verizon phone service is always good.

Very sunny and blue sky today and supposed to be 70. Yay :)

Bad coffee

Of course the days off are going by too fast :) DH jokes "now that you are retired". I'm like it's 5 days! LOL

It rained most of yesterday. This morning is a mix of dark clouds, white clouds and blue sky and some sun. It appears to be a crapshoot of what weather we will get today. I will need to get my hanging baskets and the pots that are just sitting under the eaves overhang and didn't get the rain yesterday, some water today. When we got them - they were very wet, so no need to water them the past couple of days.

DH and I played some pool around lunchtime. We hadn't played since dd and sil were here. Mostly I think because dh has been feeling extra tired. Later I took a nap. I don't know what he was doing, something out in the shop, while I was napping. 

I decided to buy some of the sugar free Torani white chocolate sauce, that I have been loving in my coffee the past couple of month. Nope. It tastes terrible. Doesn't even have the same taste as the regular. And since it's only 30 calories difference and I only have one cup a day, I ordered the regular kind yesterday and will be happy when it gets here. I feel bad that I will now have this big 64oz jug of the sugar free to not use. I will try doing half and half of the sauces and see if that tastes ok and then maybe that will use up the sugar free version.

I got the 2 t-shirts I ordered and do like them pretty well. They are soft and not too tight. I just wish they had more colors. They have lots of colors in their men's, but very limited in what they offer in the women's tees. I will order a couple of the other colors, though. They are having a weekend sale and I found a coupon code for 20% off. I might also order a long sleeve tee. All the choices the site has for their women's tees says "winter colors" - would be nice if they had some summer colors, LOL.

The air purifier I got for dh's den is working well. He said he forgot to turn it on the day we were outside planting flowers. Later he was sitting at his desk and the cat came in his den, did his normal jump up on the desk so dh can pet him, fur flying in the air. Dh said he got it turned back on and within a couple hours the room was clear of cat hair again. It does require replaceable filters, so I'll need to get some more of those ordered. DD said her filters last like 3-4 months.

Amos - thinking he was hiding from me ;)

Enjoy your Sunday!

Quick Saturday post

I'm glad I decided to get all the flowers planted yesterday, while it was fairly nice out. Today is a rainy rainy day. We usually have really nice Memorial Day weekends, weather wise. Often it's in the mid 70's to 80's by now.  I did pretty good getting enough packs of flowers for all the boxes and pots. I could use a few more. Dh had a good idea to move this "watering can" planter to underneath the antique water pump that we have setting on top of a wine barrel.

Dinner last night was hamburgers and corn on the cob. The first corn of the season. Yum. For dessert it was strawberry shortcake, dh's favorite. Tonight I'm making the orange chicken and rice. We haven't had that in like 2 weeks now.

No plans of much today. Even if we had wanted to go to the big flea market today, it's too wet and rainy. We still have tomorrow, if we change our minds about going this year.

I've gotten breakfast over. The dishwasher emptied and a few pots and pans from dinner and breakfast, this morning, cleaned up. I supposed I should go downstairs and get in the shower and get our bed made. 

Big shopping day

We dropped almost $1000 in the city yesterday. That hurts. Almost $600 for flowers and garden supplies.

I got dh up early as I wanted to get to Home Depot fairly early, so we aren't trying to maneuver two big flat carts around 50 other people shopping. I really need to start telling dh 15 minutes earlier than I want to leave. Not that we had an appointment time (thank goodness) but he can never leave on time anymore. Every time we need to be walking out the door, he has to go to the bathroom....again...so there's another 10 minutes gone. I wanted to leave at 8:45am. Finally, at a couple minutes after 9 he's grabbing the keys (as I've been standing there with my purse for over 15 minutes) and says "ready?". Uh...ya....LOL.

And it snowed in the morning, in the city. We get to Home Depot and everything outside (where most of the flowers I want are) is all covered up in tarps. I found the petunias that I could get to, so started with those, but really couldn't see what the hanging baskets looked like with the tarps there. I went to ask the lady who worked there (she was super nice) where I could find the lobelia and those were inside, so easy to get to. She and another girl started getting the tarps down outside. I needed 4 big hanging baskets and 3 small ones. Plus we got a perennial to try out where we planted in memory of our dogs. The plants always die. I got a couple of geraniums for the middle of the whiskey barrels on each side of our door (and the rest will be petunia and lobelia) and we got a couple big bags of miracle gro potting soil. Oh, and we were the only 2 shopping there the whole time, so that was really perfect. $373. 

Then it was time to pick up our grocery order at Walmart, only I realized I didn't get the text it was ready to pick up. It was almost 10:30, so it should have been ready at 10. I look at my emails and don't see it. Then I opened my Walmart app on my phone and it showed ready. $226.

Since Home Depot didn't have anything I liked for the pots of flowers we like to set in front of our garage and shop, between the doors, we then stopped at Lowe's (where I had gotten them last year) and I decided to cut down to 4, instead of 5, as they are so expensive. $201.

Then we went to Costco - 11am on a Thursday. Parking lot a zoo. Store packed. So far, I have not found any time to go there that isn't packed. I had a few things on my list to get, mainly the orange chicken on sale. While perusing the freezer aisles looking for the orange chicken (they moved it to an end freezer, I guess because on sale) I let dh pick out some things that sounded good to him. He chose some mini chicken tacos, some chicken pot pies, and some chicken melt sandwiches. We also got a bag of dog treats, as he likes to give them to the neighbor dogs. I saw a big box of Kraft sliced cheese was on sale, so I also grabbed that. We also got some snacks. I got the 3 limit of the orange chicken. These items will feed us meals for quite awhile now (we get 4 meals out of each box of orange chicken). Some new stuff to try and all will be quick and easy dinner meals to make (yay!). We should not need to go to Costco for at least a couple of months now. $165.

I am making a promise to myself that I will keep these hanging baskets and pots for the front of the shop and garage and refill them on my own next year, rather than just buying new hanging baskets and pots. It has to be a lot cheaper, I would think. $400 just in 4 hanging baskets and 4 pots is too much to spend. Though it sure is much easier to just hang them or set them out and be done, LOL.

Plus the baskets are super cute! I want to use them again. They look like a beehive. They are super full and big. When I try to make them myself they never ever look this good. This first picture, this basket wasn't quite as full as the other 3 (one seen in second picture), but you can see the basket better in the first picture

Today looks to be blue sky and sun, so I will get the rest of the annuals planted in my half barrels and other pots and boxes. I also see that some of my iris (all over our landscaping) have started to bloom. They are so pretty, I wish they lasted longer.

I think my mom's tax refund check is finally here! At least according to what my USPS informed delivery picture is showing. It from the US Treas. Dept, and you can see pay to the order next to my name. Below my name is has my mom's name and "deceased" after. Only.....they spelled my last name wrong! Hopefully it's not an issue to deposit (can you imagine how long it will take to get that issue fixed and a new check issued, if it is????!!!) since it's only missing one letter, has my address to identify me, and also has my mom's name. I plan to put this into the joint checking I shared with her, so I don't think it should be a problem. I'll be running out to get the mail as soon as it's here, LOL.

Off to start day 2 of my "vacation". :)

Saving money for the employers

Yesterday I spent some time on my side job. The advisor who was supposed to call me back yesterday afternoon, so that we can start to move forward with the accounting software downgrade, did not call, so I will call them again later this morning. The other issue has been with their account with Intuit/Quickbooks
(QB for ease of typing). When the QB was purchased years ago, their office manager set it up with her as the "primary manager". Well, of course she isn't with the company owners now, in their new "company". I, nor the owner can do anything with the account. Can't even change the payment method. I am an authorized user and can log in and view, but not do anything. 

I called to ask how to change it to me as the primary manager. OMG. What hoops to go through! I have to fill out an online form and upload my drivers license, as well as the owner's drivers license, a letter from the owner giving permission to change it, and a copy of their articles of incorporation. Then a lightbulb went off and I texted my side job boss/owner back and said does K work for the new owner? yes. Can you contact her and see if she still has her login and password for Intuit? My thinking is, if I could get signed in as her, the primary, I could then change it over to me, without going through all the hoops. K did still have it, it worked and I was able to sign in and woohoo! I am now set up as the primary manager. So, at least that is finally taken care of.

Then, another light bulb moment. My side job and my regular job both use the same version of QB. Why does my side job's annual subscription plan cost $2200 and my regular job's cost $4800?? As near as I can tell it due to how many users. The side job is set up as one user. My regular job is set up as 5. We have 2 users. I remember years ago, when we upgraded to this version and from what I recall we could either purchase a one user plan or a 5 user (or more, for more money) so we had to go with the 5 user. Well, I clicked on "change plan" just to see what it showed and it has options for 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 users, with different plan pricing. We can save over $2000 a year by switching it down to the 2 user plan. I messaged my boss about this yesterday afternoon, and I'm sure she will agree, when she has time to get back to me on it. I figured I earned my keep on both jobs this week, LOL.

In between the crappy weather, dh managed to get the lawn mowed yesterday afternoon, as it stayed dry long enough and some wind had helped dry out the grass to mow. Today is rain again. All this gray and no sun is getting gloomy.

I did manage to get the firestick remote paired back up with the tv. I could reach the cord that plugs in the back of the firestick and unplugged that for a few seconds and then was able to follow the steps to get it to work again.

My assistant hasn't worked in a week now. The only day he's let us know, was he messaged me yesterday morning that he was going to work in the afternoon, but he didn't, LOL. Last week he only worked like 4 hours total. At this point I don't even care one way or the other. I'm guessing he'll be done with spring quarter soon and probably work a lot more this summer, like he did last summer.

Around noon yesterday I started getting a headache. Later afternoon I took some ibuprofen. By evening it was a pounding headache and I had to go lay down and tried tylenol, which didn't help any. It finally went away not too long after I went to bed. 

I am ready for the work day to be done (and it hasn't even started, LOL) so I can be off for the next 5 days.

Still no money coming

I got nowhere with Social Security. After being put on hold for a good bit, the lady came back on and said the form I had submitted to request it be paid to me is still showing being processed. I asked how much longer it was estimated to take and she said she didn't know, try back again in a couple of weeks. So now 6 weeks has turned into at least 8 (from when they got the corrected form).

The other call I had to make was more productive. Looking into the options for getting a cheaper accounting software with Quickbooks for my side job. I was surprised to learn that they said they are able to downgrade the file. The person I spoke with had me access some data from the Quickbooks company that told her it's a relatively small file and within their parameters to be able to convert it to a lesser QB version, so that was good news. Otherwise it would have cost my side job an additional $500 to have a 3rd party do the conversion. Getting a different/cheaper version of Quickbooks will save my side job company about $1800 per year.

In my attempts to try more store brands and see where I can save, I have found some decent savings in the black forest ham lunch meat dh has in his sandwich, every day. I already knew the Great Value brand was ok for us, but I mostly buy the Land O' Frost brand, kind of mid priced at $5.83/lb. I prefer the packaging over the plastic tubs. I already have enough of those saved for leftovers, that I just throw them away. Then in searching more I saw they offer a 2 lb pack of the ham, sliced, in a zip sealed bag. It's a $2.12 per pound cheaper. That's a lot. The slices are thicker, so I just use one slice of the ham now and 2 slices of the thin turkey. I usually buy the oven roasted turkey breast and they don't carry that kind in the GV 2 lb package. But, saving $2 per pound on the ham is a great deal, since he eats it daily.

We had the loudest thunder crack I think I've ever heard last evening. It sounded so close. Then it rained and that was the only thunder. 

I don't know what I did to mess up my firestick remote last night, but I had to watch my show from my ipad. Somehow I think I got the remote unpaired from the tv and the instructions I found on how to fix that involves unplugging the firestick, which is in the back of the tv, up above the fireplace mantel and hard to reach. Maybe one of these days I'll fix it, LOL. The show is over with tonight anyway and not likely I'll even be watching anything from it anyway.

One lone remaining chicken seems happy enough. She's even laying eggs more often then she was. I had a feeling the eggs I was getting (even with 3 hens!) were almost all from her and they were. 

Time to get logged into work. Two more days :)

Managing Monday

Another cold night and cloudy drizzly day on tap. Also on tap is another phone call to Social Security, as my mom's payment was not made in the 45 days they told me to wait. I wonder what the vague excuse will be this time. I have 2 more weeks to wait to call the IRS back. They told me to wait 6 weeks for the form I submitted, just so they can talk to me about it! With my new notebook system of taking notes I could flip back to get the date I talked to both agencies last.

Yesterday morning I made a batch of tapioca pudding. I've always wondered why they call it "Minute" tapioca. It sure doesn't take a minute to make, LOL. You have to stand there and stir for like 20 minutes and don't stop stirring. I made it with whole organic milk and monkfruit in place of the sugar. It's delicious and sugar free (well, other than the natural sugar in milk).

Then I vacuumed downstairs. Hopefully vacuumed up the last of "grandpup's" fur that's been showing up everywhere. The neighbor dogs were good all weekend, with their dog sitter. Mr and Mrs return home today. I think the dogs were actually quieter with the sitter than Mr and Mrs LOL. 

DD has used the grounding mat she got on their bed since last Tuesday. Like with my dh, she has noticed a definite reduction in his snoring, so she's happy. She said she didn't hear him snore at all last night. My dh is still 99% snore free. It's wonderful. I'm still pain free while sleeping and also still don't need the heating pad on my back in the recliner anymore.

I found a couple of t-shirts to try out and ordered them. They are about twice what I usually spend on a tee, but they look to be good quality and I liked the colors they offer. I got a dusty wedgewood blue and a dusty purple color to try. If I like them, I'll likely order a couple more of other colors. 

We still have not seen anyone come and look at the lots for sale next door. The sanican is still there, so he must still be planning on doing some work on the lots, though he hasn't been out here again, for about a week. 

It's a 3 day work week for me, so I'm happy about that. 

Well, wish me luck with my call to Social Security.

Chilly morning

I slept in a whole half hour yesterday and it messed up my morning routine, LOL. By the time I was ready to start writing a blog post dh was getting up, so it was time to make some breakfast. Then I got busy with my chores I wanted to get done for the day. I did a few load of laundry and changed the sheets on our bed and the guest bed dd and sil slept in. A few dishes left in the sink into the dishwasher and that ran, and a couple of pots and pans hand washed. 

I used the Thriftbooks giftcard dd gave me and ordered some book. 5 or 6, I can't remember now, but from my previous purchases I also had a free book to pick out. One of these days my bookcases will be filled up :)

For dinner I made some chicken quesadillas. We haven't had those in awhile. I was reading an article last night on my ipad about the current Costco deals and one of the items is a chicken burger that looks good. I messaged a screen shot to dd and asked if they've ever tried them and she said yes, they are good and her dh loves them. So, I'm going to get some of those to try when I stock up on the orange chicken on sale. 

The neighbor dogs are being really good while their humans are away. The dog sitter was gone part of the day yesterday, but she was back by mid afternoon and then spends the night. But, the pooches sure do look like 3 sad sacks sitting out in their kennel. Dh goes over and give them treats.

I need to vacuum downstairs today. I'm finding leftover remnants of dd's dog, LOL. He's quite a shedder. 

There's a small ranch about 4 or 5 miles down the road. I don't think it's been a working ranch since we've lived here and from the looks of the barns and outbuildings, not for a long time. The couple is quite old. We just heard the husband passed away a few days ago. That is sad. I hope their property gets to stay as it is, or maybe gets bought by their neighbors to keep it like it is and incorporate the land into their ranch. It doesn't sound like the wife is very well, either. 

I remember a couple years ago, when the husband of one of the other ranches in that area passed away (they actually have cattle on it) and good old DAN commented to dh (literally days after his death) that he was going to buy that up!. Dh didn't know the owner of that ranch (we do now) but knew enough to know that it has been in their family for many generations and wasn't likely it would be sold or subdivided up. To DAN he just said "oh... yeah?". Well, of course it was not sold. The wife is still there and now her son and his wife are there running the ranch. The wife is only in her early 60's and healthy, so she's not going anywhere. She was literally born there.

It's rainy-ish and cold today. I almost need some heat on in the house. Not sounding good for the long weekend weather next weekend.

I can't find t-shirts I like

Two of my new t-shirts I ordered came yesterday. I guess Hanes brand isn't it, either. While I like the colors and the cotton weight, they are just too tight - all the way from the shoulders down to the hips. All my tees are medium and fit fine, and most a little loose, at least at the waist, where they tend to widen out a bit. These tees are completely straight and narrow. They'll probably end up shrinking, too. So, I guess back to looking for some to buy, again. GRRR.

Our neighbors are out of town until Monday and said a girl is staying at their house to dog sit. But, it's probably going to be that she's just there enough to feed the dogs (and stay overnight) and there's going to be a whole lot of barking going on all weekend. When their peeps are gone, it stresses the dogs out, of course.

When we had our company meeting, at the end of the first quarter, they gave our sales/earnings goal in order to get a bonus mid year. There's 2 parts to it and I see we've met our goal now, for the first part and it's looking promising for the second part, as well. If we make the second goal, I will for sure get 5% of my salary. The other bonus is "discretionary", meaning there is a bucket of funds and the managers decide how to distribute, more based on performance. I've always gotten that discretionary bonus, so it's likely I would again. 6 more weeks - keeping fingers crossed we'll make it. We should make it. 

I sent dd this funny instagram video of "boomers" texting their kids and said "oh, gosh, I hope I'm not that bad and all the comments are hilarious". She replied NO, I am good! LOL, but she said she and her dh have seen this lady's videos before, teasing about boomer parents and every time say to each other that is sil's mom, LOL.  

No plans this weekend. Just looking forward to a 3 day work week, next week. I will probably get online tomorrow and use up the Thriftbooks giftcard dd got me for Mother's Day. My friend we are going on the cruise with texted me that one of the shore excursions we want to do, is now available to book. It's a bear exhibit in Sitka. I had forgotten we still wanted to book that. We've both got it booked now. I think we've now booked and paid all our activities. 115 days.

What a dark gray day it is outside. The wind is starting to kick up, as well. Very gloomy outside.

Tricks and treats

I forgot to tell the funny about dh doing a "switcheroo" on dd while playing pool. She played me first, all good. Then her and dh went to play and he swapped the cue ball when she wasn't looking. We had bought a trick cue ball because dh wanted to pull the joke on her. OMG! The look on her face! The first time it just moved a bit and she didn't notice it. Then the next time she got this funny look on her face like she wasn't sure she saw what she thought she saw. Then the next time it totally curved and the look on her face! I was trying not to laugh, sitting there watching, but I couldn't help it. I just burst out laughing. She looks at her dad and says what did you do? He's like I don't know what did you do to the ball? The whole rest of the game she was like "what is going on?!" Dh and I were laughing so hard. Finally he told her it's a trick cue ball. SIL was over in the corner playing pinball so he wasn't watching it, LOL.

I see Costco has the Orange Chicken for $4.70 off per box, limit 3. Gotta get me some more of that stuff and stock up before the sale is over! We used up the last of it while dd/sil were here. They hadn't tried it before and really liked it too. I will say it doesn't reheat well, at all. We had a little bit leftover, so I had that for lunch after they left on Monday and it was kind of "soggy" .(I know, I know - I should get an air fryer! LOL)

So, now we have a mystery if the raven has left dh a present or not. LOL. Dh found a big old rusted bolt with a washer on it out in the driveway, near the edge where he's been leaving peanuts. Now, over the weekend dh and sil had the old car parked out there for some pics, so it is possible it fell off that, but that was Sunday and dh said in between then and yesterday he had walked out there numerous times - to leave peanuts and daily walks to get the mail, he thinks he would have noticed a bolt laying there. He also tried to look under the car, to see if it's missing, but can't tell anything. I guess if we start getting more things left there, then we'll know it's the raven. I said he could have picked something like that up anywhere. There's a house about mile from us full of junky cars and such.

This, that and the other

DD had made some strawberry/rhubarb jam, so she brought me a jar and I've been enjoying that on english muffins. 

My internet was so annoying yesterday. And it wasn't making sense. While it was slow, it was at least somewhat usable. But, when I'd run a speedtest using my google home app, it was showing internet speed at a higher speed than doing a speed test online from my computer. It has never done that before - they have always been around the same. The computer speedtest (I tried the one from our phone companies website and another one) were showing the speed barely functioning at 1-2mbps. The google home app would show it at 10-12. That makes no sense. Also the speeds never really seemed as slow at the 1-2 mbps speed results I was getting. 

Then I get done working for the day (and totally frustrated and crabby) and the internet suddenly starts working normally again. This morning it's still good, thankfully. At least I don't have to call today. I want to call when it's doing it, so they can see from their end as well.

Sunday evening my uncle texted me that he still hasn't gotten his inherited IRA transferred to his bank. He texted like at 9:30 (he's an hour earlier) so I didn't reply until yesterday morning. I asked him if they are telling him what the hold up is? He just said they just keep making mistakes on the amount of the check going to the bank.....none of it makes much sense. I emailed him yesterday and told him if he hasn't, he should call the head guy/owner of the investment office and put the ph#. He replied back that the lady at the office told him today the check has been processed and he should have it in 12 days. Let's hope it's figured out.

I was trying to sign in with the cruise website to see how many days until our cruise, but I can't get signed in. I have trouble every time. Every time I try to sign in it tells me my password is wrong and I have to reset it/create a new password. Now it just won't let me in, period. Every so often I text my friend to tell her how many days, LOL. The past 2 Memorial day weeks they have come to stay, but we will miss them this year. Her hubby had shoulder surgery recently and is recovering and doing PT for that.

Well, on to a normal internet work day. Whew!

 

 

A lovely weekend

I took a few days off from blogging to enjoy the weekend with dd and sil. It was really nice to have them here. They got here just after noon on Saturday (they left their house at like 5am) and left around 2pm yesterday. The weather was sunny and warm all weekend. I received my first Mother's Day gift as they got their bags out of the car - a pot of annual flowers.

Saturday afternoon we enjoyed the bonus room with the pool table and pinball machine. For dinner I baked that chicken/pasta/alfredo from Costco and that was very good. We all liked it. Then we were back up in the bonus room for the evening. Both of them agreed the 2 big chairs I got for up there are super comfortable to sit in.

Sunday was the day to spread my mom's ashes into the river. I'm thankful the weather was so nice for it.  Of course when we got down there, there was a fishing boat with 2 guys going by, so we had to/wanted to wait until they got down around the bend. I had bought some pink roses and dd had brought some pink carnations.We dropped those into the river to follow her ashes. As we stood there watching them floating away, we said oh, we should have taken a picture of the flowers! This is the best we got from far away

Our little game trail down to the river is steep and going back up I usually have to stop at least 2 times to catch my breath and let my heart slow a bit (a lot due to the heart med I take), but this time I only had to stop once. I was very surprised, since I've also gained a good 8 pounds or more since the last time I hiked back up it. 

Then we went into the city and took some of the roses to leave for dh's mom at the cemetery. On the way back I wanted to swing into Costco just to see if they had any hanging baskets, but they did not. Then I said for Mother's Day I want a Dairy Queen peanut buster parfait. We decided to go inside and eat some lunch and then got the ice cream. I don't think I've ever eaten DQ food and it's wasn't too bad.

Since it was a bit of a later lunch, no one was much hungry for dinner. We decided to just do some leftovers and munch on other stuff I had. DH and SIL were outside with sil taking some pictures with his good camera and dd and I played some cribbage. We had hoped to see the northern lights on Saturday night, but got to see nothing, which was disappointing since the news made it sound like we should see it again on Saturday.

They got me 2 books and a gift card to thriftbooks so I can order some more books for my bookcases.

It was nice having work off yesterday and it felt like it was Sunday yesterday. Our internet is still intermittantly being slow. Yesterday morning was the worst of it, for a couple hours, then it got up to half speed and then normal. This morning it's at half speed again. I'm going to wait until it's really bad again and call them when it's super slow so they can also see that from their end.

DD finally ordered the grounding mat for their bed and it got delivered to their house yesterday, so I'm excited to see if they notice any benefits. I know she's sure hoping it helps with her dh's snoring, LOL. My dh is still basically snore free now. Just a little light snoring if he lays on his back.

I see it's time to log into work. At least it's a 4 day week and then next week I have a 3 day week and the week after that is 4 days. Sounds good to me!

Sleepy kitty

I didn't even get to make my bed yesterday. Poor Amos was feeling the effects of the vaccine and stayed sleeping on my bed all the way until I was done with work at 4:30. I didn't have the heart to make him get off the bed, so I could make it. Then he finally perked up and has been ok. He's going to be annoyed in a few hours when that annoying doggo comes to stay the weekend, LOL. Right now he's planted himself in my lap as I sit typing this. He's hard to budge when he decides he's sitting here.

I took a lunch break yesterday and vacuumed the upstairs and cleaned the toilet. I also cleaned all the square panes of glass in the french doors into the bonus room. It was full of kitty foot prints! HAHA! Sometimes at night, he will get the zoomies and race down the hall and do a karate kick at the door and you can see the evidence of his foot prints. Often he will actually push the door open, too. After dinner, dh went outside to spread the lawn fertilizer so I decided to get the downstairs vacuuming done. Now I'll have less to do today. Just mop the kitchen and laundry and do some dusting.

I'm sure dd and sil are on their way, they always leave early, since they are so used to being up super early every day for work. DD usually drives the first half, so I'll get a message from her when sil takes over the driving the rest of the way.

I was already asleep when dh woke me up and told me about the aurora borealis going on. He said he couldn't see it as much because we are in such a little narrow area, surrounded by mountains, it was blocking. I didn't get up, but he got a few good pics. I see it should be viewable again tonight, so I will for sure stay up or get up to see it. I guess he even got in his truck and drove down to the valley area near us, to see it better. That's probably where the 4 of us will head tonight to see it best. My sil has a phone that takes great pics, so I'm sure he'll get some good ones.

We see DAN has finally reduced the price of his house that has been for sale for over 2 1/2 years. He had reduced it to this price back in July 2022 (and then made it higher again, every time he relisted it with a new agent) and didn't sell it then....He was out again yesterday morning for a few hours and appeared to have taken down the last 2 trees that were dead. He hauled his equipment out with him this time, so he must be done now. 

Sunny and blue skies! It got to 78 yesterday. Woo! We should be seeing hummingbirds pretty soon.

Chickens and cats

Yesterday turned into a sad day. Just before we were leaving to take the cat to the vet, I went out to the chicken coop to give them some scratch. The hen who had been sick and recovered was dead :(. She had been doing so well and no signs that she was sick again. Now it's just Gladys by herself. I don't know if it helps or hurts, but we have an old mirror and we set it up against a wall in the coop. Maybe she will think she has company. I know when we had parakeets they liked mirrors.

Amos's vet appointment literally took like 5 minutes. The vet tech and the vet came into the room together and the visit and vaccine was done quickly. $98. When I got home I looked up the feline leukemia vaccine, what causes it and what makes a cat at risk for it. It sounds like it comes from other cats, so Amos would be very low/no risk for this as there are no other cats around. Our neighbors do not have cats and the next nearest neighbors are a mile away. On his billing it says this is an annual vaccine, so I think I will ask about it next year, when they send me the reminder he's due for his annual visit/vaccine, I will ask them if it's really necessary. Then as long as he's well and healthy, I don't seem much point in him going in every year. While it's nice to be established with a vet, as we found with our 2 dogs as they got older, the appointments ended up being emergency appointments and we had to go to an emergency vet, so didn't even get to see our regular vet.

Our groceries were ready to be picked up, but first I stopped at the other store that I get the frozen hamburger patties at. I usually get 2 bags, but they had 3 left, so I got all 3. Maybe that extra will save a stop there next time. I also got a dozen pink roses. Dh wants to take some to the cemetery for his mom on Sunday and I wanted some to go with my mom's ashes in the river. The cemetery where dh's mom's ashes are has these very tiny little flower holders, so we can never put very much in there, so we can split up this bouquet between the 2 of them. I might keep a few stems to put in a vase. I am hoping the last until Sunday. They weren't open much yet and I put them in the fridge, so I am hoping that helps make them last until Sunday

After we picked up our groceries at Walmart, it was getting close to 3pm, so we decided to go through Wendy's drive through and have an early dinner. Gotta love a night I don't have to cook. We were back home a little after 3:30. It always takes a good 15-20 minutes to get everything put away. Then I went back to my desk and answered a few emails and processed some expense reports to finish out the day.

Amos threw up just as I was getting ready for bed, but at least it was on the hard floor and an easy clean up. Probably from the vaccine. He was good the rest of the night and no meowing and he slept in between dh and I all night. 

Another beautiful day is on tap today. I'm sure dh will be mowing again. It needs it and he won't have time this weekend, with dd and sil here. I have to get payroll done today. But, am looking forward to a long weekend, as I have Monday off. The kids won't be here until early afternoon tomorrow, so I'll have the morning do get some cleaning done.

Still nothing on either my mom's tax refund or her final social security payment. Another week gone by.

One more sleep and dd will be here :)

Too much to do Thursday

Since I'm taking off early today, I got logged into work as soon as I sat down at my desk this morning, at a little after 7am. I see out my window lots of white clouds and some blue sky, but the clouds are supposed to clear out soon. I've got a different happy bird chirping this morning. DH now has a raven following him around, LOL. It even showed up for a few seconds on our back patio. Our yellow lab HATED those black birds, LOL. After he died and we put some of his ashes, along with a plant, out in our driveway island, there was a raven hanging out there. haha. DH has now named this Raven Max, after our dog.

I just made one last addition to my Walmart order for this afternoon. Well, I hope it's the last thing. I have almost 2 hours left to make changes/additions. I also found a few tee shirts to order online from Walmart. I just could not find colors I liked at other stores, but I found some Hanes brand in a few colors I liked. I prefer the more muted, dusty colors and also earth tones.  Most of the tees I was finding like on Kohl's, JCP, etc were all white, blue, red, green, yellow. Or patterned, which I don't care for. White is never good - I always end up with a stain, LOL. I'm also in search of a brown lighter weight cardigan sweater. The one I usually wear (because I'm usually cold with just a short sleeved shirt on) is so old now, it's getting a hole in the elbow (no, I'm not going to try to fix or patch it). I've had this sweater for years. Time for a replacement. I have lots of cardigans in my closet, but they are either very thick sweaters or very thin. This was is just the perfect weight/thickness. It's hard to tell looking online at pictures, for a replacement, but they look to be either too thick or too thin. I hate clothes shopping. And I still haven't found anything that appears to be the socks I want, either. Where the heck did I get these? LOL. Again, these ones wearing holes now, are just the right thickness, but I only have 2 pair left. I have other socks, but these are my daily faves.

Ok, Amos has been out twice this morning and now he's back in until we leave for the vet. Not taking any chances he won't come back in time. He's been so annoying the past several nights. He is perfectly content all evening (usually in lap) but as soon as I go to bed he starts meowing, in and out of the bedroom, up on the bed, down from the bed, up in the window ledge, down, back out in the rest of the house meowing. Most of the time he will stop this after about a half hour, but the past few nights he won't, so I've just had to take him upstairs and put him in the office, so I can get to sleep. I'm sure part of it is he wants outside, but we won't let him out at night.

I'm having frustrations with a spreadsheet this morning. Somethings not adding up right. Probably best that I move over to this screen and finish up this blog post and take a break from that spreadsheet for a few minutes. That did the trick - I found my error and good to go now. Now I can move forward with closing up February financial reports.

The lots next to us have been up for sale for 2 weeks now. We still haven't seen anyone come in and look at them, which is kind of a surprise. It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to sell. I'm sure they will likely sell sometime by next fall.

Chirpy Tuesday - I mean Wednesday!

I don't know what day it is this week! There has been a bird out near my office window that is just too freaking happy this morning, LOL. It has not stopped chirping. 

Today is supposed to be the last of the rainy days. Full sunshine starting tomorrow and warming up to the 70's starting Friday. Good weather for when dd and sil will be here. I was getting my order with Walmart entered and trying to figure out what to make for dinner the 2 nights they are here. That tray of chicken pesto pasta I got at Costco was pretty large, so I just froze and and am saving it for one of the nights. Looks like it would feed 4 pretty well. I'll add some salad and garlic bread. I wasn't sure what to make the 2nd night, so I asked dd for an idea and she suggested the enchiladas, so that is easy and good.

I don't know how long it's been since we've had good old tomato soup for dinner. Months and months. Used to be a staple, once or twice a month - for like 40 years! and then suddenly every time I tried to make it, the milk would separate. Standing in my pantry yesterday trying to decide what to make for dinner and I'm thinking, boy good old tomato soup sure sounds good on this cloudy cold day. So, this is what I tried - I put a little bit of cornstarch mixed with water and added that to the can. I have always used milk, rather than water, as the liquid. Never ever an issue. This time I added about 3/4 can of whole milk and the rest water. Usually I've always used 2% in the soup, but in trying to fix the milk separating issue, I've tried like 3 different kinds of milk. 

Then I heated it very slow (which I always did in the past, as well) and success! We finally got to have some tomato soup for dinner. Hopefully, now we can start having it again, every so often, and it wasn't just a fluke it turned out ok.

Tomorrow is kitty's vet appointment. I need to get the cat carrier out from storage. It was also recommended I bring a poop sample, preferably from the same day. Well, I'll try, LOL.

The air purifier I ordered for dh's den just arrived. I'll update in a week or two how it seems to be working/if he sees a difference.

I'm still LOVING my Torani white chocolate sauce in my daily cup of coffee. I decided to order the sugar free version and it just arrived. I'm sure it will likely taste the same. It still has calories but not as much and especially the no sugar is the better way to go.

Rants and ravens

My uncle called yesterday afternoon. He was at his bank, again, and said he's still trying to get his account transferred to his bank. He said he wasn't asking me to do anything, he just wanted someone to rant to. I did manage to get out of him that he is trying to transfer this to an IRA account with his bank (vs. just cashing it out and have the money transferred to his checking). He said he has been to his bank 5 times and every time they think it's resolved and then it's not. I have no idea what could be the issue. It's hard, because he rarely will stay on the phone more than 30 seconds, LOL.

I did email the gal at our investment office to ask if there is anything I can do or help explain to him what is causing the issue (though why his bank can't take care of this, I have no idea). I pretty much got the reply I expected. She can't discuss his account with me, but as far as she knows it got resolved yesterday. I texted my uncle this morning to let him know I tried and I hoped his bank got it figured out. He said he'll be going back over to his bank again today to check on it. I can't imagine why this is such a hassle to transfer. But, my guess is, if the investment company currently holding it, is as slow at doing the transfer to another company, as they were just getting it transferred from my mom to the beneficiaries accounts (within the same company), then that's probably the reason why. I am still 100% baffled by why they would need my mom's middle name to do this transfer? I mean it's out of her name and put in his name, so it's his account now, to do with what he wanted. Maybe because transferring it, the new company still has to set it up as an "Inherited IRA" and they still need the info on who it's inherited from, including her date of death, because that's when his 10 year clock to withdraw it all starts.

So far, 2 months in to me now having my account with the inherited IRA, the investments are doing well. 

We have ravens around all the time. I was telling dh that I was reading that one of the things they like are peanuts and also it's common, if you start leaving them treats in a spot, they will start leaving you "presents" back - things they find: feathers, rocks, coins, shiny objects. Dh said a few days ago he started leaving peanuts in 3 spots out front and they've disappeared, but he wasn't sure if it was the ravens or chipmunks taking them. Today he walked out to get the mail and there was a raven out there. Dh said he flew around and cawwed at dh the whole time, which they haven't done before. Dh came back in and got some peanuts and went back out there to leave in the 3 spots and then watched out the window as the raven came back to take some, take back across the street, and then back to pick up more. I told dh to start watching for presents in return! Wouldn't that be something?!

More Monday

Good morning. Monday, again. Raining again, LOL. Usually this time of year the river is very high and very brown. It looks more like "summer river". Low and green. That's the result of hardly any snow this past winter, so very little melt off coming down from the mountains. Likely going to also make for a bad fire season, this year.

Yesterday I made some peanut butter cookies. Didn't do much else. Ordered a few needed things on line, as well as a small air purifier to use in dh's den. He's hoping it will help with the cat fur. I was looking into them and then looking on Amazon, but was logged in through my shared Prime account with dd. I was looking at one in particular and see it said "you purchased this in 2021" LOL. It was dd's purchase so I asked her about it and she said they use it in their bedroom (where there 2 (formerly 3) pets sleep with them at night and it has worked well for them, so I ordered one.

I also need some new tee's and socks, but started looking at tee's, where I normally get them (usually Kohls or Target) and just not seeing any colors I wanted, so I gave up looking. But, I really do need some new tee's. Most of mine now either have holes (how? LOL) or stains. And most of my white ankle socks have gotten holes, so I'm down to 2 pair of those. I have some colored pairs, but they aren't my favorite, as they are just a bit too thin and too low. I don't even recall where I got these white socks from. Maybe Walmart. I'll have to search my order history and see if I can find where I bought them.

Still nothing on my mom's tax return or social security payment. Both just stuck in the bureaucracy, I guess. I suppose we all are always having to deal with something, at all time, it seems.

I've managed to get most of this post written before I need to log into work. Let's hope this week is better, haha. 

I see the towels I ordered (Friday?) are being delivered today, already. Now, I will pass on my current towels to dh to use (he likes his towels less soft, LOL) and he can relegate his old, wearing out towels, to the shop for rag use.

An update on the 2 store brand items I tried out last shopping trip. The Great Value potato chips were a hit and 1/3 less in price. The cupcakes that were supposed to be like Hostess were disgusting, so those were a bust. I will also be trying the bbq chips in the store brand.

Nothing much

Half of the weekend is over. I just did some cleaning up yesterday. Around 9am I drove into town to the little grocery store. It's little, so even if there aren't very many shoppers in there, it feels crowded and if 2 or 3 people go in around the same time, everyone has to head to the right and into the deli and produce small area. Well, I walked in behind a couple, that the lady was slower than a turtle (and not due to age). First I stood there...and stood there while she got a shopping cart. Just pull one out and move! They are all the same (and brand new, which was nice to see) LOL. Then I spent the next several minutes stuck behind her and her husband while she stood and looked at the first section of stuff. I couldn't go around her on the other side because a family of 4 was blocking the way. Four people shopping all together do not fit in that tiny store, LOL. Finally I was able to go around her (while she's still standing at the first section), grab some bananas from the middle display, grab some bread from the wall, then get to the other side for some other produce. 

And there were no good donuts left! Boo! Once I got out of that bottlenecked area of shoppers the rest of the store was pretty empty and I got the rest of my stuff and checked out, no line. Now we have enough to get by until I take Amos to the vet on Thursday and can pick up an order at Walmart after I'm done with his appointment. 

Speaking of the cat. He was acting flighty all day. Dh is like "he's gonna puke, I just know it". Well, he waited until we were sleeping last night. I got up to my office this morning to find the mess. I'm kind of thinking of buying a carpet shampooer. These carpets probably need a shampooing clean - it's been 5 years. Yikes. I know when we moved into the house we had in town, I rented one from the grocery store (like 7 years ago). I can't remember what it cost. Like $30. DD has one, I'll have to ask her what she has. I'm not sure if it's steam cleaner type or a shampoo type. Which is better?

I started watching a movie on Netflix last night, The Judge, but I didn't get to finish it, so I will do that today. It was a nice day yesterday, but this morning looks like rain clouds.

So, those crescent roll apple pie desserts. They are really only good on day one. I had one yesterday and the crescent roll part was pretty soggy, so they didn't taste as good. But they were super delicious warm out of the oven and even a cooled one later that same evening. 

DH's little game/trail camera had the batteries explode in it yesterday. Weird. We've had it 5 or 6 years. I guess I'll be buying a new one. It wasn't an expensive one, I think dd got it for him as a gift for like $40 or $50. 

I see that DAN's listing now has the location pin fixed on the Zillow listing, so I'm sure we'll start seeing people driving in to look at the properties.

New dessert

I came across a little recipe and thought Oh! I have these 3 ingredients! Crescent rolls, apple pie filling, and caramel sauce. They literally took me 5 minutes to put together and 13 minutes to bake.

And sooo good! I just ate two. 😋  I just sent a pic to dd and she said for me to make these when they are here next weekend.

Good to be Friday, again. At least we're seeing some sunshine today. Since the lots for sale next door have been listed the past week, we have not seen anyone come and look at them. The listing on zillow doesn't have the "pin" on the map in the right place (it's like 15 miles away) and since the lots don't have an assigned address yet, and their listing has no directions, anyone wanting to come look at the property would have to call their realtor. I'm guessing this might have been done on purpose, so they get a better idea of how many people might be looking at it. If it had the right spot on the map, I think most people would just come look on their own. I know we did, when looking at land. The street name on the listing isn't even our street - it's the main road we access our street (which has it's own name) from.

Last night I started back up watching a couple episodes on Hulu of the Mary Tyler Moore show. Passes the time a bit, in between dh always coming out from his computer in the den to tell me this or that, LOL. He's constantly interrupting my tv/video watching, haha. 

Dh didn't get the lawn mowed yesterday. A friend called after lunch and they talked a long while and by the time he got off it was getting really dark out and looked to rain. He was going to mow today and then an old childhood friend messaged him he's doing a job in the town next to us and told dh to come over and visit with him a bit, so he's been gone doing that.

Happy Birthday

I was wanting to add this video to my post yesterday, but when dh tried to send it to me, via Facebook messenger, it took 6 hours! Once I finally got it, I decided to edit it and shorten it just a little, hoping that when I upload it here, it won't take forever.

Slow mo snow :)

My goal this morning is to get my post done before I have to start work, haha. Excuse me while I get all the cat fur off my face. Just sitting here trying to type and Amos walked back and forth on my desk, rubbing across my face, LOL. Dh just let him back inside and he always has to come and tell me he's back.

I will need more groceries by this weekend, but I also have to go to the city next Thursday for the vet appointment, but can't wait until then for at least some extra stuff. Rather than 100 miles round trip this weekend to pick up a grocery order and then back again Thursday, I'm just going to run into town (20 miles round trip) Saturday morning to the little grocery store and get what I need to tide us over until I can get a full amount after the vet appointment. And if I get there early enough, on Saturday morning, there should be donuts! Mostly I just need milk, bread, lunch meat and some produce. I'll spend way more at this store's prices, but I'll also save that in gas, so it's probably even.

Dh will probably have to mow that lawn again today - I think it's been a week, or maybe it was last  Friday that he mowed. No rain (or snow!) expected today.

Today would have been my mom's 83rd birthday. Happy Birthday Mom 💖

Just a little bit of Wednesday going on

I'm trying again to get at least most of this post completed before I start work. It's not happening, LOL. I slept in an extra 10 minutes, to start. Then 20 minutes later dh got up for the day, so I went back downstairs and made him up his egg muffin breakfast sandwich. Now I see there are 7 minutes until it's Go time with work. 

I need to get some new bath towels. We have a system, because dh doesn't really like them all fluffy and soft (weirdo, haha), so when his set of older towels gets too bad, then I pass on my now fairly used, and not so fluffy and soft anymore, set of towels, and I get a new set. In our master bath we each have a linen cabinet next to our sinks, so we keep our towels separate. The last set I bought was like 5 or 6 years ago, from MyPillow and they were really nice and soft, but I see they still sell towels but only have like 2 colors and not what I want. I think I'm going to try some from Target that I read about in a towel review article online. I think I'll just get 2 to try and if I like them, I'll get 2 more. Plus one of the colors they haveI really like, and they are only $12. I just like the regular size bath towels, I don't need the huge sheet size.

The internet is working fine this morning, so should be good for the day, since it only seems to happen in the morning, when it does. Well, maybe I'm speaking too soon. While it doesn't seem too slow, I just did 2 speed tests and it's half of what it should be. But, at least it's workable. It's about the speed we had, before I did the upgrade about 5 months ago. I just checked the speed again and now it's up to normal.

I was going to try to share a little video dh took yesterday of it snowing, in slow motion, and he tried to send it to me, but apparently it's too big of file and for some reason we can never get airdrop to work for us. Oh well.

DD was given some rhubarb by her neighbor so she is going to try to make some strawberry rhubarb jam. I told her to bring me a jar! Yum!.