Wires and weight

It was nice only having to work a half day yesterday. By the time I went to bed, for a minute I felt it was like Saturday, haha. Then I realized, no! I have 3 more days off. Then I only have to work 4 days next week and then off 7 work days.

I spent an hour yesterday trying to set up a wire transfer. My work's bank had added this new feature to our online banking to be able to process wire's ourselves and we got trained on it Tuesday. I had like 3 pages of notes from the training. I had my sis send me her August invoice so, while the training was still somewhat fresh in my mind I could get her set up to send a wire to. It's international, so a bit more involved. I could not figure it out. I thought I had all the info in there, but kept getting an error message on part of it. With setting up international wires, sent in USD, there are usually 2 (sometimes even 3!) banks that have to be set up, just to get the wire through. Her banks wire instructions had 2 banks to process it through. A bank here in the states and then to her bank in Canada. I ended up calling our bank and even the expert was a bit stumped on that one part, so I don't feel so bad, for not getting it all right my first try. Plus, she showed me how to get it set up as a repetitive person/company we will be paying, so next time I need to wire her payment, it's all already in there. While all that was fresh in my mind on how to set up, I went ahead and added our other Canadian vendor we want to start paying via wire. I got that one added all on my own, with no help.

Right as I was getting done working, dh decided to take the truck in to this guy in town. I can't even remember what is wrong with it. Nothing major at all, some sensor part I think, but the guy was able to determine yes, that was the issue and he has to get the part from the city and then can fix it next week, I guess.

While he was gone, I tidied up the kitchen and then took a nap. After I woke up I was having terrible heartburn and then that turned into a bit of a stomach ache, so I didn't have much in the way of dinner. Nothing sounded good. It didn't last too long, at least. I've only been eating the same stuff every day, so not sure what would have caused it.

Still no weight loss. So, I guess I will come home from this cruise, even weighing more, LOL. DH had to drink that small bottle of magnesium citrate before his MRI, spend the night in the bathroom. Gets on the scale that next afternoon and says he lost 7 pounds from that. I'm like are you kidding me? You lose 7 pounds overnight I can't even lose one pound being on less calories and almost zero sugar, after 3 months?! Not fair! I just told him "well, we always knew you were full of shit!"

TGIF

Yesterday's work day was much better. The lag and slowness was gone, which was a huge relief. I tweaked my Outlook setting some more and pretty much got back to my original. Prior to this new remote login (I think the IT guy said it was due to a new server) I could not access One Drive. They never could figure out why (One Drive was a new change about 6 months ago) so I have been having to do a workaround to get to it from a web browser. A few more steps to add files, but I had gotten used to it by now.

But, now my One Drive works and it's so much better. I had been having to open a pdf (say that came in an email, that I wanted to save), save it to my desktop. Then open my browser and go to One Drive and upload it to there. Now that my One Drive is back in my File Explorer folders I just had my email open. The pdf attachment is in my email and I just clicked on it and drug it over to the File Explorer folder I wanted it in. I was happy to have that function back and save some time.

Today our office is closing at noon, so it's only a half day for the 3 day weekend. After this weeks chaos, I am glad. My afternoon plan includes a nap!

I'm a bit confused on the state's property tax rebate. The state's "where's my refund" says it was processed last Friday. So where is it? USPS informed delivery shows no mail coming today. It only takes a day for mail to get from the capitol to here. Dianne - have you received yours yet?

I was going to check with Mrs Neighbor this weekend to see if she could check on the hen - basically jus to get any eggs she lays (about 4 or so per week now). There will be plenty of food and water, but dh had been chatting with Mr and told him we were going on a cruise so she texted me yesterday to ask if I wanted her to take care of the chickens and water the flowers. I told her it's just the one hen now, so not much to do other than to check and get herself some eggs while we're gone. I told her I'm not going to worry about the flowers getting watered, since by the time we get back it's going to be almost the end of the season for them anyway. It takes me almost a half hour to water them all, and I don't want her to have to spend that time doing it every day. Then I remembered we'll have mail in our mailbox, so I asked her to grab that for us. Mr. also offered to come in and feed/check on Amos, but we don't want to leave him here by himself for 10 days, so we'll still be taking him with us to leave with DD while we are gone.

With the busyness of Wednesday, I totally forgot to call Express Scripts back to get dh's prescription sent via 2 day, just to make sure it is here by the end of next week. I called yesterday morning and the guy said it's already been picked up by DHL, with a delivery expected on 9/6. Ugh. It better be here by then, if not, we still have Saturday that it could come (it ends up coming thru the post office). I see the online info did update this morning that it did ship out yesterday, so it should be able to get here by the end of next week.

We were actually able to sit out on the patio last evening. It wasn't too hot and no bugs or bees for a change. When I watered, as I was adding some more water to the bird bath, the birds started trying to come, so after I was done I just stood there, right by the bird bath and recorded.

Enjoy! (even the sound of them all is awesome)

 

 

 

 

 

Let this week be over

By the time I got done working Tuesday (past my normal stop time) I thought that day couldn't get any worse. Oh, but I was wrong! Yesterday's work day was a total shit show.

But, before I even got to start that fun, we had to be in the city by 9am for Dh's prostate MRI. He had to do a prep, similar to colonscopy, where he only had broth and jello at 5pm, then a glass of water at 6pm and then drink a bottle of magnesium citrate at 7pm and then nothing to drink at all after midnight. So, first he was hungry and thirsty. Then of course he spend all night in the bathroom and barely got any sleep (so me either). Total time at the hospital radiology lab was about 75 minutes and we then stopped at our bank to get some cash out for our trip and got back home around 11:40. I had put a sandwich and his precious Mountain Dew and water in a lunch bag, so he could have something to drink and eat, after the procedure.

The results showed up in his MyChart this morning and all is good, so that is really good news. It also said no signs of cancer. 

After getting home, I had to get signed into work - only they had changed our remote desktop connection log in. We had gotten a short email about the change, making it sound like it would be no big deal. Oh, but they were wrong! I get logged in and my windows desktop is basically blank. Where's all MY STUFF?!! The accounting software was on my desktop (that's about all) but I couldn't use it, as there was no drive where the company file is. I was able to get all my documents loaded signing into One Drive, but I completely had to reload Outlook and Teams. My outlook, which of course had all my favorite settings/view set up was back to default. It didn't even have my signature. I messaged my boss about it and she said to ask our IT. Back and forth. Long story short - "this change we just did is like getting a new computer, you have to set everything back up". I said well it would have been nice to know that AHEAD of time...like I would have made sure to grab my browser profile and all my bookmarks, logins and passwords. I have lots I use on a regular basis. The IT guy was able to log back into my old desktop and retrieve those for me, at least. He had to re-load the 2 missing drives I need.

Finally, I was re-loaded enough to get some work done. But, Oh, you would be wrong about that, too! It' was so slow. A total lag in typing and a total lag in opening programs and pages, even just switching from one program to another from my task bar was a delay. But, the typing was driving me nuts. I was trying to message my boss in Teams and it was driving me nuts, with the lag. I finally just started using Teams on my personal desktop.

Another call from the IT guy (this was after my work day was supposed to be done) and he thinks it's just that the system is a bit overloaded right now with everyone trying to get their One Drive's reloaded and it will resolve in a few days. While most people were at the office yesterday, so they weren't logging in remotely to see the issue I was having, there are a few who work 100% remote like me and they apparently didn't have this issue? But the IT guy says they would have. My boss said one lady, if her remote desktop was being slow, she surely would have been complaining. Why just me? No one could answer.

Then my boss messages that she approved an expense report. We use this 3rd party for employees to enter and get paid for their monthly expense reports. I can than import this info into our accounting software with a few clicks. Only nope. That set up was gone, because basically getting my accounting software set up again was like starting over, as well. At that point I was just like F---Me! Getting that app connection added to our accounting software has always been a total pain in the ass. I got it done and signed out for the day. Completely spent.

I still have lots of things to tweak and get back to how I had my desktop set up before, but it's a new day and I guess I don't have a choice, haha.

New computer working now

Good things happening today :)

1) DH FINALLY got a call from the gunsmith that his rifle is ready to pick up. Gee - only took 5 months! Basically, with the first gusnmith he tried who had it like 6 months, he hasn't had this rifle in almost a year. He's picking it up now (an hour drive away) and hopefully it turned out ok. But, at this point he doesn't care, he just wants it back and was starting to think he wasn't going to get it back as the guy just kept blowing him off. If it wasn't ready by the time we get back from vacation, he was just going to drive up there, tell the guy he wants it back now, whether it's in pieces or what, and if he couldn't get it, he was just going to report it to that county sheriff as stolen. Thankfully, it didn't come to that.

2) The monitor cable I ordered came in the mail and it works. His new computer hooked up and running and 2 monitors. It's a beautiful thing, LOL

He's not back yet, so I was glad to have a few minutes to get it set up, before he gets back. I'm sure something about it will be "different" and he'll have his little tantrum, but new stuff is always updated and changed, just like having to get a new cell phone. That's life. I just got an email from my credit card that he stopped and got gas, LOL, so he should be home in about 10-15 minutes, haha. It was a nice and peaceful 2 1/2 hours while it lasted.

DH got back while I was still typing this out. He's very happy with how the new stain color turned out, but this gunsmith was no better than the first - still didn't clean up all the dirty parts of it! That was the whole point of taking it in, BOTH times. So strange. I guess dh is going to learn how to clean all the parts himself now. Youtube, LOL. At least the guy didn't charge him too much. 

I can't get payroll done today - my boss has literally been unavailable all morning so far. Grrr. Usually she at least will message me what time she can get back to me or will take a break from her meetings for a few minutes to reply to me.

I freeze extra loaves of bread all the time. Not sure why lately we've been having some loaves thaw out and they have hard crusts and don't feel soft. They aren't frozen for more than 3 weeks, usually just a couple of weeks, max 3 weeks, in between shopping trips, when I buy more and we use up the frozen first (and in order of purchase). I don't know if the bags sometimes have a pin hole in the bag? and it's getting like freezer burn? I'll take out another loaf and it will thaw out just fine and seem totally fresh. I guess I might have to start double wrapping all the loaves I freeze.

Bird watching

I was able to log in and see my property tax refund status. It says it already processed last Friday. I think they mail out a check, not direct deposit. If it comes before we go into the city Wednesday morning (for dh's MRI) then I just take it to the bank with me to deposit. I want to stop at the bank anyway, to get some cash out for the cruise, just to have on hand.

For a slow weekend of not doing much, it sure went by fast. DD and SIL had gone out of town for a few days. I think they left last Thursday (with their camper trailer) and got home yesterday, but are also taking today off to go for a hike with a couple of friends, who are also taking the day off. They have gone on hikes with each friend before, but I don't think these 2 friends have met each other yet. One friend is her long time friend from high school, who she played on the tennis team with and last year they went to Scotland with her and her BF.

After I got up from my nap yesterday afternoon, I watched this for awhile. I don't think I had ever seen the birds with the yellow on them before. I got out my handy dandy bird book and figured out they are Evening grosbeaks.

 

The monitor cable I had to order for dh's new computer shipped and is now supposed to get her tomorrow instead of Wednesday. He might have to wait until I'm done with work, LOL. I have payroll to do tomorrow as well a Teams training meeting in the afternoon that is budgeted for an hour. Our bank is showing me and my boss how to use their new "e-wire" platform.

Time to get to work.....

Adjusting plans

We've changed our plan for having DD pick us up when the cruise is over. I was trying to figure out what time to even tell her when I don't even know how long it actually takes to get off the ship. I hadn't mentioned it to friend yet, but figured we'll figure it out later or I can message DD from the cruise with a more definite time a day or two before.

But, friend texted me last night that how about we take the shuttle with them to get their rental car they are going to have for 2 days. We will likely be getting off the ship around 8am or so and they can't get into their hotel until later afternoon anyway, so she said we can ride on the shuttle with them to get their rental car and then they will drive us back to DD's house. That way DD won't have to take time off work to do it, nor mess with figuring out what time. Sounds good to me! I booked us 2 spots on the shuttle service and that will work out much better. Plus give friends something to do all day while they wait for their hotel room to be available. They don't fly home until like 6pm the day after our cruise gets back. She said they saved $600 in flights by going back home on Tuesday, so the one day of hotel was overall a savings.

Plus we can grab some lunch with friends that day, near ddh's house, or if they really want to stay longer hanging out at DD's a bit more, we can all just go out to dinner, and then they can head back to their hotel. I can tell friend and I are going to be good travel buddies. She pays attention to every detail, like I do, LOL. 

Friday I made homemade pizza for dinner. I'm glad I figured out what the issue was with the frozen rolls used for the dough (too long in the freezer) because my last 3 pizzas have been great and the dough is so good. For dinner last night, I made dh his cheeseburger he likes to have often, and I had 2 of the 3 leftover pizza slices for my dinner. I'll have the remaining piece for lunch today. No waste.

I'm not sure what to make for dinner tonight. We haven't had anything with chicken in awhile, so I think I'll get some out of the freezer and figure out what to make. I think spaghetti. Then I can have some leftovers.

I need to vacuum and dust today, since I didn't get anything done house chore wise yesterday. I also need to make up some more hummingbird nectar. Not for much longer though, they start to leave soon. It was 45 degrees first thing this morning. Fall is coming.

My knee still hasn't hurt anymore, thankfully. Fingers crossed it was just a one-off thing and not recurring. I must have done something to aggravate it, I'm just not sure what it was. I remember several years ago my boss kept having her knee hurting and the doctors could find nothing wrong with it. Finally it was figured out it was her hip with the issue, making her walk a bit differently and was putting the pressure/pain on her knee. She had hip surgery and fixed it.

My IT hat is on (crooked)

I'm am frustrated. I've been trying to get dh's new computer set up since yesterday afternoon. I thought I had it all ready to go, after working on it some more this morning. I take it down to his desk to get it all plugged in and it would only recognize one of his monitors. Searches for resolution, multiple trips up and down from my office to his den to see if it worked. Nope.

One of his monitors is set up with a vga adapter that then plugs into a USB port. I cannot get his new computer to recognize it as a monitor. I tried adding a driver for the monitor.  When I was setting up his computer at my desk, I only had one of my monitors plugged in. I hauled it back upstairs to try both my monitors. They worked. They plug in via a display port. My computer only has display ports. Knowing one of dh's monitors (the newer one) plugs in his old computer via the HDMI port, I only added one HDMI port to his new computer set up. I just assumed the other monitor, that uses the USB port would also work. If I had added 2 HDMI ports, I would likely have it working right now.

So, then I hauled the computer back downstairs and tried the nonworking monitor with a hookup using the cable from his other monitor. The monitor then worked - so at least I was able to narrow it down to it's not recognizing the monitor because of the pin to USB set up. So, now I've ordered an HDMI to Display port cable from Amazon and will have to wait until that arrives to finish setting up. At least his old computer is still plugging along and I didn't wait until it crashed completely to get a new computer.

Other things with the transferring of files and programs was confusing me some, as well. A year or two ago I changed from backing up to an external harddrive to a cloud based subscription. Haven't had to use it until now. Before I chose this service, I did some research and it came recommended from some reliable source (like PCMag, I can't remember who exactly now). Well, I remember it literally took days to back up both our computers, then it does it regularly and is quick, because it's only adding new files to backup. Well, it's not very explanatory on how to restore your back up to a new computer. I clicked on restore and it starts but says it's going to take like 50 hours. As it went on the computer hard drive got louder and louder - sounded like it was going to take off from my desk! Then it shut down with a warning message that the computer was overheating! Good grief - I almost broke the computer and he hasn't even gotten to use it yet. I'm going to cancel this service.

I decided against that IDrive restore/backup and this morning I got out the old external hard drive and backed up all dh's files onto that and then copied them back onto the new computer. Took me about an hour. So, other than the monitor plug in issue, I THINK/HOPE/PRAY this new computer is all ready for him to use. 

I'm exhausted. I need a nap.

Today is a better day, plus it's Friday :)

I received another shipping update last night on dh's new computer. It's shipped overnight and supposed to deliver today. I check tracking this morning and I'll be surprised if it shows up. It got to a city about 3 1/2 hours drive from our nearest city's FedEx hub, at 6am this morning. Why would it go there (from Texas), 3 1/2 hours north of the city nearest us? So, I'm highly doubting it's going to get out to us today, by the time it gets on the road back down to the FedEx distribution at our city and then loaded on a truck and out to us. We'll see, I guess.

My knee is feeling much better today, so far. I've made it up (twice) and down (once) the stairs with no pain. But, I'm still trying to be very careful and not aggravate it. I need to go up and down our stairs too many times a day to have my knee hurting. Not to mention I wouldn't want to have to deal with that on our cruise. I told myself yesterday, if it's not better as the cruise gets closer, I will go in and see if they would give me a cortisone shot. I've had that in my back before (after my car accident) and while the first shot didn't help, the doctor then gave me a 2nd shot and it worked wonders. That constant pain went away and never returned.

While I was writing all this out (and then went downstairs to make breakfast real quick) I came back to my desk with an email that the computer is actually out for delivery on the truck. I guess I was wrong! I think when it comes, I will bring it up to my desk, just hook it up to one of my monitors and get it set up from my desk. That will go much smoother than me trying to sit at his desk (plus I hate his chair, LOL) and he can continue to use his current computer until I have this new one ready to go and just plug in and go. I am hoping that the web browser he uses, I can transfer all his favorites and it will also save his logins and passwords. I think Edge will at least let me import his saved websites, I just need to figure out how to do it.

Bad knee

I got an email this morning that dh's new computer was shipped out via overnight and it's supposed to be here tomorrow. Yay! It's also coming via FedEx and they are usually here by noon, whereas UPS can often be way into the evening. Then I get the fun of getting it set up and everything from his old computer transferred over. 

My right knee started hurting yesterday and I have no idea why. Just under my kneecap and mostly using the stairs or if I'm putting weight on my leg and just twist a bit, like standing at the kitchen sink and turning just slightly, say to set something on the counter next to it. Or it wasn't hurting and I went out into the garage to get a loaf of bread out of the freezer a little while ago. We have a very small step up from the garage floor into the laundry room and when I stepped up and put the weight on my leg, my knee pain stabbed. What the heck! I don't need this going on right now. I'm trying very hard to limit my trips up and down the stairs today.

Nothing much else new or going on today. It's only 1:30 and I feel like I need a nap.  I hear dh downstairs on his phone calling to ask about the bill for the added sprinkler system. Good grief. So, since the first 2 tries were to the company owner and the 3rd try was an email to their office, dh called their head foreman guy (who came out with the crew) and he laughed and said the owner hates to do paperwork so it might end up being January before we get a bill for it. I said to dh - isn't that why he has his wife and daughter working in the office? to do the paperwork? Wow. LOL.

I'm sitting here watching the bottle of water on my desk moving in vibration. It's crazy how a train going by, clear on the other side of the river makes the ground vibrate all the way over here. And this was such a quiet train that I couldn't even hear it, but kept watching and finally saw a bit of a train going by in between the trees (we can barely see it going by, but usually can hear it).

DD shared a funny story

DD has been having lots of changes with her job the last year or so. First her dept. group split off into 2 groups. With the split she got different suppliers to handle/learn. Now they are moving the office to another nearby facility. Then just before that happened she found out they now wanted her to change groups again. And they wanted her to do this change because a lady in the other group is driving everyone and her manager nuts, so they are moving her somewhere else. 

In the meantime, ever since her original group split in two, her 2 co workers she liked best and who went with the other group, are always emailing her that they really miss working with her. Well, turns out because she is going to take the position of the lady they are transferring, she gets to be back with these 2 from her original group. One found out about it yesterday, but the other lady didn't know about it yet. DD was moving over this morning to her new desk at the other

 facility. They decided to surprise the one lady. First, the lady who knows, put up a few signs taped to her desk area "Dreams really do come true" "It's going to be a great day!", etc. The lady who doesn't know what is going on, walked in (they get there really early, like 5am, dd not until 6am) and was like what is this about?! Dreams don't come true - I didn't win the lottery and I'm still here! LOL. 

About an hour later dd walks in with her box of stuff and says to the friend, can I sit here (at the empty desk next to her) and she says oh sure, that lady got transferred so the desk is free for now (thinking that DD was just going to use it temporarily, due to this moving out of the other office). DD says "can I sit her forever?!"  The friend was like "WHAT?!! are you kidding me?!"  She was happy and spent the rest of the morning walking around saying "it IS the best day!".

About a half hour before my bedtime, I started watching a good movie on Hulu last night, called Joyride. It's an Irish film from 2023, I think. So far it's really good and I will finish it up this evening.

Still trying to decide what to have for dinner tonight. I think I might do some pancakes and bacon. I think I have some bacon in the freezer that I can thaw out quickly.  Last night I just had a salad and some sliced ham. The night before I had 2 of the leftover slider sandwiches. I still haven't lost a pound, LOL. I have completely lost my sugar cravings, so that's good.

Still wondering what is going on

It's been about 2 months since the lots next to us sold. Still no big updates. It's strange, though, because while the son of the owners of the lot right next to us said his parents closed early July (zillow listing says 7/2), we're not quite sure if the other lot has closed the sale or not. The listing was originally for the 2 lots combined. The listing then got changed to one lot and this listing is marked as sold. The other lot is not showing as sold (but it was never technically it's own listing). The realtor still has a huge "land for sale" sign up on a tree, but there is no active listing open, or nothing that says something like "pending, taking backup offers"). The sign appears to be in between the 2 lots. Also DAN still has his equipment still parked there all this time that appears to be on the lot next to us (the one we know for sure sold). 

We had been told the name of the person that bought the other lot, but it's just all strange. The couple (from Texas, that we don't know their name yet) that bought the lot next to us hasn't even seen it yet. If the other lot has actually sold/closed, the guy that bought it hasn't been out since. I guess that's good - the longer everyone waits to build is ok, haha.  

No offense to older folk, but I'm still a bit in awe that someone who is 80 years old (turns out he's  facebook friends with our rich/millionaire friend, and his facebook profile actually shows his birthdate is next week and he will turn 80) would buy rural property to build a custom home on. By the time it's all done and ready to move into (that's if they start moving dirt next spring) it will be 2 years from this summer. When I am 80, I picture us selling/downsizing, certainly not building another house! It's such a huge process that takes so much energy, mentally as well as physically. I can't count how many times we had to go somewhere that had to do with building the house - builder meetings, meeting with subs at the property, a couple of meeting inspectors (septic and electrical) at the site, trips to every supplier (often 2 or 3 times) to pick out what we wanted from cabinets, doors, windows, siding, stone, fireplace, lighting, granite, paint and stain, etc. Not to mention all the phone calls, emails and keeping track of what is being spent. It wears me out just thinking about it.

And then just the upkeep of a home like this has to be hard when you are in your 80's. The yard maintenance and snow plowing are huge jobs. Where we are so rural, it's not like living in town or in the bigger city, where it's easy to hire someone to do it for you. Maybe this guy just plans to make this a summer home, as well, and stay in the city (where he currently lives) in the winters. Whatever he does, more power to him!

The son of the lot owners next to us said they are coming up in September to finally see their land. It'll probably end up being when we are gone on our cruise and we won't get to meet them. But, maybe they will come over Labor Day weekend and we'll be here then.

The job training is going very well with my sis. She is doing a lot on her own now, with questions here and there, so not as much training time going on. So much more work getting done! AND even more importantly, done correctly. I was asking her how her other part time job is going (she started it a couple of months before my job). She is getting totally screwed for hours worked! There is no way I'd keep doing that job. It's for a bookkeeping firm (that does her bf's returns). They do books for various small companies, so like the last work she was given was an envelope full of some guys receipts and bank statements for a year and she's supposed to get it all recorded and matched up. But the bookkeeping business doesn't consistently use the same software for each customer. So, sis is having to learn that, learn their "system", so obviously like last month she was still learning and not as fast as she will likely get. She said she worked 50 hours for the month to get it all done and when she turned it into the bookkeeping company owner (who hired her) she told her "oh no, that's too many hours, I can only bill the customer for like 25 hours" so that's all she paid sis for. I said NO WAY! that would be like my company telling her we're not paying her for her training hours. I also told her that what the bookkeeping owner is charging her client per hour is likely much less than she's paying sis per hour and she should just be paying sis for the hours she's working, out of her "profit" until sis gets up to speed. There's no way I'd be putting in that many hours of work and not getting paid for it. Sis isn't happy about it, but says she gets no backbone when it comes to sticking up for herself in situations like this.

Not doing Monday very well, so far

I think I need 3 days weekends, LOL. Back when I had to commute (an hour to 2 hours each way, depending on traffic) there would have been no way I could have worked 4/10's. Working from home, I could do it, but our company isn't really set up for that type of schedule, so it's never been a consideration. Dh has a friend who works 4/10's, but it's only offered to him in the summer months, for some reason.

We had a friend and his 2 kids stop by last evening for a visit. Dh has been telling him "stop by - I have otterpops!" LOL. He texted last night asking if dh still had otterpops. They only live a few minutes away, so they showed up not long after. One of the boys is his nephew he is raising. Great kids. Very polite and very funny and engaging. We first tried to sit out on the back patio, but between the otter pops and the cans of iced tea the kids had with them, the bees were too much, so we went inside. They didn't leave until about 8:30 and by then I didn't feel like watering my flowers, so I will have to take some time out this morning, to get it done.

I cut my hair yesterday. I think I went a bit shorter than I wanted to, LOL. Whatever, it grows fast :) It usually takes me a couple tries to get the layers back in, but I think I did pretty good in the first try this time.  

I've been using this online cloud backup (called iDrive) I pay for each year to back up our computers regularly. I guess having to get dh's old computer files onto his new computer will be a good test of how good this works. I'm hoping it will be an easy process. Speaking of backing up....apparently our little county atttorney's office had their server crash and they lost over a months worth of documents. I said WHAT?! don't they back up?? Yes, but only monthly. What the hell? That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Just proves even more how incompetent just about everyone working in our county office are. How the heck hard would it be to just have your system backing up every night? Just dumb. 

The next time dh subscribes to an online newspaper subscription I am going to let him have it! This is like the 3rd one he's done (just to read some article he wants to read) and they make it so hard to cancel. You can never do it online, always have to call and it's always in India (no matter which newspaper). I politely say I want to cancel the subscription. They try to offer an extension at a cheaper price. No thank you, just cancel please. They he wants to know why I want to cancel and I politely say we aren't using it. Then he says he needs a detail on why. I said I just gave you the detail, we aren't using it. I repeat for the 4th time, just cancel please. Then he says again, he needs more detail on why I want to cancel. Then I got mad. I said I don't know what to tell you - there is no more detail other than we aren't using it. Then he tried again. I said I want to cancel, I am not spending another 5 minutes with you to try to talk me into keeping it. Cancel the subscription please. Finally, he did. 

So, that got me really annoyed. Then I went to pour some cat food into his bowl (it's in my office) and spilled the cup of food all over the carpeted floor. Now I'm even more annoyed, LOL.

computers and medical receipts

Once I got done figuring out what specifications I wanted on dh's new computer, it ended up being over $1100. When ordering they give you lots of choices to add or change, but I for sure wanted this pc to have a wifi card in it and for some reason every time I chose that option it would then downgrade the memory to 8 gb and I wanted 16. So, I ended up clicking on "customize" and then was able to get it how I wanted it and I also added a HDMI port and a card reader (like a $3 add on). 

When I figured out how his current 2 monitors are plugged in, one is using a USB adapter and the other is plugged into an HDMI port. Same issue with trying to get one configured with an HDMI port - the option with an HDMI port had the lesser memory. I didn't want to mess around with having to get different cords to plug the monitors in. I also have a couple different ones, still in packages that I did check first. One came with my monitors (from work and they didn't work on my computer) and the other I bought thinking it would work on my computer and it didn't. Neither would work in this new computer for dh, so I just added the HDMI port. I can't remember how much that added to the cost - like $16 I think.

Customizing it added to the shipping time, so instead of a computer getting here in 3 days, it says it will be delivered on the 27th, but another thing on my orders says expected between the 23rd and 28th. As long as it gets here before we go on our cruise. And hopefully dh's computer doesn't crash before then. It worked ok yesterday. If it does, we still have my mom's old "all in one" computer he can use to get by with. I also decided I'm going to put a piece of tape on the back of this new computer with the date purchased, so next time we need a new computer I can easily see how long it's been. The fact that he got 5 years (I though it was more like 3) out of this cheap one is really pretty dang good. Usually his computers only last 3-4 years.

The next time I need a new computer for work I think I'm finally going to try the laptop setup. That's what everyone else in the company uses, LOL. I could still have my keyboard and mouse (I cannot type on a laptop and using that for the work I do would be very annoying) plus with a laptop I'd have that screen to use as well as the 2 monitors I have. I've been noticing that an extra screen would be nice. I often have 2 screens I'm working on and it would be nice to have a 3rd that I could just leave my email open in or Teams open. My boss offered to send me another monitor, but I really don't have the deskspace for a 3rd large monitor, but a laptop screen wouldn't take up as much space and could be closed up and out of the way when I'm not working. Plus, I laptop I could take downstairs with me to use on my lap, in the evening. 

The store deli pizza was ok, but not near as good as my homemade. But, it was nice not to have to make dinner for a change. Tonight I'm going to make ham and cheese sliders. For this recipe I switched out the dijon mustard for honey mustard awhile back (I was out of dijon) and we both liked the honey mustard flavor better, so I'm sticking with that from now on. I have another recipe that calls for dijon and used the honey mustard and it tastes just as good, as well. Plus, I always have the honey mustard on hand.

I've been really good about remembering to get HSA receipts saved to pdf and added to my "expense vault" in my HSA account. I haven't taken anything out (not since 2021 when dh had all the medical expenses for the hospital stay) and now have a little over $2000 "banked". It's easy to forget all the little OTC purchases, but I've been doing well to save the receipt as soon as I have it. It all adds up. Yesterday's Walmart order had some Tylenol (generic) and magnesium citrate dh will need for his upcoming MRI. I also got an email that I owed $10.41 that was for the labwork I had done in June, so I paid that and went to my insurance log in to get the EOB to copy and see there was just another claim processed where my dr had another provider look at my bloodwork closer. That says I will owe $69 (deductible) so I added that receipt as well. 

DH's MRI is Wed the 28th at 9am. I'm trying to decide if I just want to take the whole day off or get back home around 11am and start working. I think I might just take the whole day off. Why not.....LOL

New computer time

The past week or so dh has been getting the blue screen of death on his computer and then it restarts. Ugh. Time for a new one. I can't remember when we got him this one but I'm pretty dang sure it's longer ago than I thought. The last one I remember buying him (and he remembers this, as well), was at Staples, in the city. When I need to try to remember when something was...well, I try to search back through my blog posts because most likely I wrote about it! LOL. I put in some key search words and it came back to 2019. So, I guess if this cheap computer (the post also says I only spent less than $400 for the tower unit) lasted 5 years, he did pretty well with it. 

It's time to get him something of higher quality. My computers that work sends me, when I need one, (and that isn't very often) are Dells. I never have issues with them (well, until they are very old and die), so I'm spec'ing out a Dell Optiplex, as similar to mine. I know what my company paid for mine, back in 2020 (because I had just actually looked up the invoice when we were trying to determine why mine didn't have wifi card, LOL) and it was just under $1000. The one I've spec'd out for him, very similar, is just under $900 now. This is ordering direct from Dell and looks like it could be here in a few days. The Optiplex series is more for business/commercial sales. They don't sell this series, like at Best Buy or Staples. I looked up to find out what is the difference between their other 2 series, like Inspirion, with Optiplex and the Optiplex is made for more longevity and durability. Because business's typically buy this model series, it said Dell also commits to having replacement parts available for 5 years. Basically, it's a workhorse type of computer, I guess, and as much as dh is on his computer, that's what he needs.

We were up and out of the house by 8am to pick up groceries in the city. After Walmart I stopped at the other grocery store....and what did I do? I forgot the thing I always go there for! The frozen hamburger patties! Sigh....I had a few other items I was trying to remember (like getting the salmon this time) and totally forgot about the patties. I still have about a bag and a half left from our last trip, so I guess that will have to do. I also picked up a pizza from the deli for dinner tonight. I want pizza, but don't feel like making my own, as I usually do. This will suffice, with a salad to go with it.

I also got some more greek yogurt, this time with my Walmart order and very good dates. Not until like Oct 8. And I got a bunch more sugar free pudding flavors, to go with. OMG - the white chocolate with the plain yogurt is so good. I also like to put a little bit of sugar free cool whip on top. Yum!

Walmart wanted to substitute a bag of pink lady apples for honeycrisp - again. They substituted pink lady last time and I didn't care for them as much as honeycrisp or gala, so I turned down the substitution and got some gala apples while at the other grocery store (another reason I was distracted and forgot the patties).  

I need to take a look at dh's currrent computer and how his monitors plug in, so I can make sure what I order for him has the right plug ins, so it all works from the get-go.

Feisty Friday

We still don't have an invoice for that sprinkler system addition. No reply to my email from Wednesday, which is odd. I will try to call them on Monday, I guess. I just thought it odd that dh's text, first asking about it, wasn't replied to (they guy who owns the company is an old childhood friend of dh's and even texts him about friend type stuff, regularly) and then no reply to my email (his wife and daughter run the office side of it) asking about it. 

I got my Walmart order for pickup entered yesterday and finalized this morning, for pickup tomorrow morning. I wanted to get some more of that chocolate flavored whey protein powder (it only makes 18 servings) but of course...they are now out of it, even for shipping. 

DH was chatting at the fence yesterday with Mr. Neighbor. He said they are planning to put their oldest dog down in a couple of weeks. She's getting pretty old and having trouble getting her hind legs to work anymore :(  I'm sure they will end up getting another dog, they've always had 3 dogs since we've known them (2 of the original ones have passed). The last dog they put down (due to old age) was the one that hurt me the most. She was the sweetest chocolate lab, so so mellow and would just come over to hang out with us, even in the house, LOL. I think she just liked to get away from the chaos of the other dogs ;)

Well, I am glad it's Friday again. One week closer to our cruise! 24 more days. I hope the weather is somewhat decent. I think our friends said when they went before it was in August. We decided on September in hopes that there will be less kids on the cruise, being back in school, haha!

I'm being a little extra annoyed with work people today (not my company, but with the mfg's we work with). One company sends us an electronic payment twice a month. They send the amount based on a detailed report they have.....yet every single payment I have to email them and ask for their report, so that I can reconcile what they are paying on my end. Would it be so hard to just send the report to me at the same time you are processing the payment on your end? Good grief. I don't know how many other reps they have in the country (a lot) but I'm sure each and every one has the same issue I am having.  Or the vendor who emailed me 3 months ago asking about payment on the attached invoice....from 2021. It's the same inv# as we received from them (and PAID) back in 2021, but this invoice she is now asking payment for has zero detail as to what it is for and it's for a higher amount. I asked her for an explanation. Never got one and honestly forgot about her email. Then this morning I get another email (in the same email chain) from her asking again about the payment status. Um....you never answered me on my question from the prior email....So, I went over my issue with it again...

We sent you a Purchase Order for $2320. You invoiced us (with the same detail of what was on our PO) for $2320. I paid it right away (payment cleared). Now 3 years later you are showing me a different document with the same invoice#, with zero detail of what you are invoicing us for, and it's for $2533. Explain, please! (except I said it in more professional wording LOL.) No reply back. If you can't explain to me why you are invoicing me an additional $2533 I ain't payin' it.

Oh, and then I get transferred some call from "Quickbooks" - some Indian guy telling me there is a Quickbooks issue that they need to update for us. Sure there is. I just laughed and told him we've got it figured out and hung up on him. Quickbooks doesn't call customers when there is a software update, LOL. They just push out the update to be done automatically. Right - cuz I can see that they would actually call millions of customers to let them know, haha.

I noticed another change, since I started using this grounding mat on our bed. Prior to that I was occasionally (about the last year) having times where something would just slip out of my hand - a carton of milk or a glass. I was starting to make sure I was very careful to have a good grip! I was also starting to wake up with very swollen and sore fingers (arthritis probably?) to the point my rings were super tight. I just realized yesterday that nothing has slipped out of my hand since I started grounding (and I don't make a conscious effort to have a good grip anymore) and noticed when I wake up now my fingers, while just tad swollen (but that's always been a pretty normal thing) but no more pain in them. The only thing different is using the grounding mat.

Wildlife

I watched some chipmunk cuteness yesterday afternoon out my office window. We were wondering why we'd sometimes see petunia stems laying on the ground, LOL. Watch to the end for maximum cuteness

I was awake at 6am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up at 6:30. I pretty much just wasted the extra time web browsing.  I did answer an email from my side job, which needed a little research to answer, but it only ended up taking me a few minutes to confirm my answer.

I'm hearing both the bald eagles and osprey nearby this morning. We don't know where the eagles rebuilt their nest (after it blew down) but they must still be close by. The other day I saw 2 of them flying together right low over the river and then they landed somewhere across the river in the trees. I couldn't see for sure where, as they swooped by and then headed towards the other side, trees on my side were blocking my view as to exactly where they landed. They like to build their nests in old snags. There is a huge osprey nest about a mile down river, on top of the old one lane bridge that goes over the river. I'm not sure if the osprey we sometimes hear near our house are these same 2 out looking for food.

We also apparently have another skunk hanging out at night. DH is seeing the signs - we have landscape type rock/gravel near the shop door, where are garbage cans are, and the rocks are dug up in the mornings, LOL. He may have to get out his live trap and do like he did last time. Catch it and then go back up into the woods a ways and let it go.

Where's the bill?

Thanks for all the blog suggestions yesterday. I will get started reading and hopefully find some new blogs I will enjoy following.

And while we're at it - feel free to share any YouTube channel's you enjoy following that has consistent content (it doesn't have to be money related). One I have been following several months now (in the vein of retiring) is called Buzz's Retirement Garage. I find him to be very likable and his content easy to listen to and he's just a typical average person, who recently retired and is seeing if he and his wife can live off of their monthly social security income. He also has some content about retiring that isn't budget related.

In other, slightly annoying, stuff going on - we still haven't received a bill for that extra sprinkler system we had installed last month. I keep checking my emails and the spam folder, in case it ends up there. DH even texted the guy last week, asking about it, but no reply. I was kind of figuring his office did their billing at the end of the month, maybe and we'd get an invoice after Aug 1st. Dh, of course, never thinks to ask before he had them do the work, how much it would be, so I have no idea. I'm sure it will end up being 2x what I'm guessing (everything is!) so I'd like to know what to reserve in my budget for it. I just sent their office an email about it, so we should now have this resolved soon, I'm sure.

I guess this coming weekend is time to go into the city again, for another grocery order pickup. It will have been 3 weeks, since we last went. Sure doesn't seem like it will have been 3 weeks.  

My boss's week off has been quiet for me, so far. I think that now the newer hires, in the last year or two, have gotten things figured out, so they aren't needing to email or call with questions they can't figure out. They are all up to speed now, so that's a good thing. 

I realized last night that I didn't finish watching the latest season of Bosch:Legacy. In fact, I only got through part of the 2nd episode. Stopped for some reason and didn't get back to it. So, now I am getting that watched. I think I did the same thing with the most recent season of The Lincoln Lawyer, when it came out, and didn't finish it. 

Yesterday, during my lunch break, I got the chicken coop cleaned out and fresh bedding added. Then I dropped my dirty chicken dust clothes in the laundry room and went and took a shower and got dressed for the day, LOL. I'm not going to worry about the hen while we are gone. With just 1 hen, the food dispenser holds more than enough for the 10 days we will be gone. I think the water container does, as well (I need to track that) but I also have another smaller plastic water dispenser I will also put in her coop. I will let Mrs. Neighbor know that she's welcome to go check for eggs while we are gone and should expect to get about 4-6 while we are gone. She doesn't need to check every day, as she doesn't lay every day, but if she wants to check every 2-3 days, that should be good. I'll clean out the coop again, just before we leave.

I need some new blogs to read!

I need some new blogs to start reading/following! It appears that, with the exception of Linda's blog Practical Parsimony, all of the other blogs I've been following for a long time now, don't post much anymore, if at all. (was that a run on, terrible sentence structure? I don't care - grammar isn't my strong suit - numbers are)

So! Tell me blogs you like to read, or share your own blog link.

Off to a slow start

Dh got up yesterday and put on his lawn mowing clothes, only by the time he was ready to get out there, the sky turned dark and it rained a little again. It passed through pretty quickly and the sun came back out, to dry it out, and he was able to get out there early afternoon.

While he was outside doing that, I vacuumed downstairs and mopped the kitchen, laundry room, and dh's den. I went back to using the Bona mop and solution. I really liked that steam mop, but I didn't want dh to come into the house and complain it smells weird again. Grrr....Maybe I'll see if dd wants it. I'm not sure if she ordered herself one or not, I know she was thinking about it and had asked for the link to mine.

I have to process payroll this morning, but I found out Friday my boss is off all this week, so I got the "pre" work for it done on Friday, in case I had any questions for her that needed answers (there usually is, in regards to people's time off), so it shouldn't be too big of job this morning, and then back to training mode.

Three more days and we can apply for our state's property tax rebate (don't forget Dianne 🤑). It was a 2 year deal and we'll get back $675 this year, again. It will be direct deposited. I can't remember how long it took last year, but seems like it was only about 2 weeks. Still doesn't make up for the huge increase, though. Next year is our next 2 year appraisal cycle and I'm sure we'll get hit again. 

Dh needs a new pair of sweatpants. He's had MRI's before and I think they always recommend wear loose clothing, so he'll wear sweatpants, and his sweatpants have a hole in them, so time for some new ones. I wanted to get him the same one's, but apparently I had gotten these at Target/Champion brand. (there was a tiny Target tag inside the seam), but I couldn't find that Target carries this brand anymore. I then found them online ranging in price for $27 to $44, so I went with the $27 Amazon price, of course.

I'm also going to need some more of the great eye drops my eye dr had told me about. They are like $24 for a little bottle. I found a new/sealed bottle on Ebay for $15 and free shipping. I have ordered the eye ointment I also use, on Ebay before, and it was sealed and within date, and totally fine and saved $. 

My internet is being slow to load things this morning, but when I do a speed test, it's totally good and where it should be. Maybe I'll do a modem restart anyway, before I get logged into work, to see if that helps any. I still have 25 minutes before I start work for the day.

I got some new pajamas, from Kohl's that I am liking. Similar to the pants I have, but these ones are floral print in yellow, green and blue colors. The top is blue. I can't remember the name of this color of blue, but it almost has a purple tint to it. Maybe the color name is periwinkle, that I'm thinking of. They are comfy AND have pockets. Pockets are a must, LOL. I have a couple pair of flannel pants, that I got out to wear, but realized they have no pockets. The rest of my Kohl's order is supposed to come today, with the jeans I ordered. The tops I ordered online, from some fashion website, are supposed to arrive tomorrow. 3 tops. I hope they are good. If they are, I'll likely be ordering more clothes from them, in the future.

Alright - this internet slowness is getting annoying, so I'm going to get this posted and restart our system and then get logged int work. Enjoy your day!

Downpour Saturday

We had a downpour of rain most of yesterday afternoon. It was nice!

There had been no rain in the forecast and around lunch time it got really dark clouds and we were like it looks like it's going to rain...and boy, did it, along with thunder.

Some of my housecleaning chores got put to the side, as we decided to play some pool. Much more fun than cleaning, any day ;)

Amos watching the rain while we played pool

 

After the hour or so of pool, me and Amos took a nap, while it rained and thundered. I got up after about an hour or so. Amos stayed put taking a nap on the bed for another 4 hours, LOL.

In the morning, before I discovered it was going to rain, I had sprayed the bush the deer love to eat, with deer repellent spray. Obviously, that got all washed off with the rain, so I'll try again today. 

I also spent way too much time trying to figure out where/how to print our cruise luggage tags, LOL. I just could not see the link and then finally, I found it.

Eating less, gaining more

Yesterday was a "me" day - at work! haha! My sis doesn't work for us on Fridays and my boss wasn't too needing of my time and with all the training I've been doing, I needed a day to get caught back up on my regular work. I got quite a bit done, including reconciling our large bank statement for July. That job always takes me at least a couple of hours. My boss is going to be off all next week, so I'm hoping that makes for a more productive week of getting caught up between training. Her last week off, not too long ago, was surprisingly low on the staff needing her for something, so they email or call me, if she's not available. I'm hoping for the same next week.

The training with my sis is going very well. We're already getting to more actual working and less training, as she's picking it all up very quickly. There is one part of the process that I had tried to explain a couple of times to the kid, but he just never got it, so I always had to take time to go back through all his work to do it. I was going through her work and she gets it ;)

I noticed when I saw myself in the bathroom mirror this morning that I'm in need of a hair trim. It's getting really long again. I think I may go a couple more weeks and then chop off a few inches before our cruise. 30 more days until we set sail!

I am still annoyed at the fact that I have not lost one pound in the last month (or is it almost 2 months now?) since I cut WAY down on sugar, cut down on bread, have not had ANY desserts in the house, like the usual weekly cookies, cake, or pie. Even the ice cream, I have not had, when dh has some in the evenings. I've also decreased my dinner meal calories. I drink lots more water. I was out in the shop last evening, getting a couple of batteries, and hopped on the scale. I actually gained a pound since my last check (5-7 days ago) and am actually a half pound over the highest weight I've ever been. What the hell?! Also, it's not like I've decreased my daily activity level, either. It's the same as always. I'm very frustrated. 

I'm starting to make lists getting ready for the cruise. Stuff I still need to buy for it. Stuff to pack. The stuff to buy is just little stuff. Like I'd like to take a shower cap, so I can not wash my hair or get it wet during some showers. Long hair takes awhile to dry and style, so I'll skip that every other day. I also want to take some of the Downy Wrinkle release spray I have, but it's in a huge bottle, so I need to see if I might have a little travel spray bottle, and if not, I'll order one. I also am going to order some CBD oil (or chews) for the cat, when we drive him 6 1/2-7 hours over to dd's so he can stay with her while we are gone. The friend that dh helped change his flat tire the other day, was in the process of moving his mom and her 2 cats to his house over here. He told dh they gave cats CBD and they were calm and quiet the whole trip. I think I'm getting the oil - as my luck he wouldn't eat the chew/treat type. When we took him to the vet awhile back, he wasn't too bad for the almost hour drive, but I'd rather be prepared and not listen to a meowing for 6 hours. 

But, the cat transport kind of depends on which vehicle dh wants to drive over there with. I just assumed we'd take our nice car (with cat in the cat carrier) but the other day he mentioned maybe taking the pickup (not sure if he was joking or not) but, I guess, if we take that, it has a canopy on the back. Instead of the small cat carrier, we could put the larger wire crate/cage we have, and put the cat in the back, inside that. Then he'd have room for his litter box inside that, too and lots more room. Plus, if he's meowing back there, we won't hear it, LOL.

Well, it's Saturday. I didn't water my flowers last night, so I will be doing that this morning. Plus, I want to give a few of the shrubs some miracle grow again. And then I'll be cleaning the downstairs with vacuuming, dusting, etc. Tomorrow can be the upstairs. I still need to get the clean sheets back on the guest bed, LOL.

Table project

Awhile back, last time I was over at DD's, we went to an antique store in her town that back in the corner had a bunch of live edge wood slabs, big and small. Good prices, too. She ended up going back a couple of times to get pieces to make a couple of live edge small console type tables, that turned out really cute.

I asked her to check and see if they having something small, round or square, about 12-14 inches. I want a little side table between my recliner and the end of the couch. When we got our furniture, back when we moved in, we just had this small round folding type stool, with a wood top, that dh put in between and we've been using that ever since, as our little side table for a glass, a book, or whatnot. I want something better looking, LOL. 

She ran over to the antique store after she got home yesterday and started going through what they had that might work, sending me pictures. The first several were either too small or 2 big. She kept digging and then she found the perfect one! It's the one on the right. Perfect size.

I just ordered some hairpin legs from Amazon to ship to her house. She's excited for the little project and I can get it from her when we go stay with her before/after our cruise. This little table will fit in much better with my decor :)

As yesterday progressed my pinched nerve went away. This morning it is gone, so that's a relief.

Pinched nerve and other Wednesday whatnot

I started getting a pinched nerve in my neck last evening. I was hoping sleep would make it go away, but it's still hurting. I'm glad I don't get this very often, but when I do, it seems to take 2 - 3 days to go away. Ugh. I may have to get my heating pad out, to try to get a little relief from it today.

It's been a good week so far. Nice when nothing annoying is going on, LOL. DH had his urologist appt on Monday afternoon. His dr was happy his PSA is still down like it was last time. He did recommend having an MRI done on his prostate, as he said they can see more that way. Then why not do this 3 years ago? LOL. It's scheduled near the end of this month.  He has to drink something we get OTC before the test, so they are mailing us the instructions and what to buy. She said it's similar to colonoscopy prep, but not as bad.

I'm slow to get this post finished today. Too much work going on. I suppose I should take some Advil - that might help my neck pinched nerve pain a bit.

I am bummed - on Monday, when we were finished with Dh's dr. appt, we went to the grocery store so I could get a few things. I wanted more Greek plain yogurt and sugar free pudding mix. I grabbed 2 large containers of their storebrand organic greek yogurt. My fault for not looking at the dates (I usually do). I get home and notice they are dated July 27th! WTH?! Geez, I could see maybe them being close to date, but they still had these on the shelf over a week past the date! It's not like we live nearby, where I can return them now. Boo!

Earn $575 - What a deal!

Well, that SoFi offer I did was about the easiest $425 earned. I was just telling my DD about it and now  realized it's even better!

SoFi is still offering the $300 bonus, but Rakuten has now doubled their cash back offer to $250!!

It was such an easy account to open and offer to take advantage of. I opened a SoFi savings and checking (I think it automatically sets you up for both) online within minutes. I clicked on the Rakuten (the app is on my computer) offer when it popped up, as well. 

In order to get the $300 bonus you need to have a direct deposit(s) going into your account (savings or checking) totaling at least $5000 within a 25 day period. The 25 day period starts on the first direct deposit. Since my net pay per paycheck isn't over $5000 I had to do it in 2 paychecks. I set up the SoFi account just before my 7/15 payroll and changed my direct deposit to go to SoFi, instead of my regular checking. My 7/15 payroll was deposited and 15 days later (so within the 25 day period) my 7/31 payroll was deposited. I was credited my $300 bonus yesterday. Rakuten has already processed the $125 cash back and I am scheduled to get that with their 8/15 cash back payout.

You do not need to leave the $5000 in the account while you wait for the $300. It just has to record that you made a direct deposit(s) totaling $5000 in the 25 day period. Direct deposits can be from payroll, pension or government payments.

If you take advantage of this offer right now you can earn a total of $575 very easily. $300 bonus from SoFi, $250 cash back from Rakuten and if you use a referral link from me, you would earn an additional $25 from SoFi, so a total of $575. I would earn $75 from you using my referral link :)

If you are interested in my referral link, just shoot me an email at onefamilyoneincome@gmail.com

I don't know how long the Rakuten $250 double offer is for, but I'd snag it while it's still available!

I'm also really liking this SoFi checking and savings, that I'm planning on keeping it to use. My savings is earning 4.6% (my Paypal savings has been earning 4.3%). My direct deposit paychecks show up 2 days before payday, as well. When I transferred some money from it, back into my regular checking (to pay bills! haha) it transferred instantly. Whenever I have needed to transfer money out of my Paypal savings to my regular checking it takes a day or two.

Assistant update

The worthless assistant saga is finally over. My boss met up with him (and had told him to bring the company laptop). Since it's Monday and she works from home (and she wanted to be done with this last week) and where he lives is halfway between her house and the office, she met him at a coffee shop near his place, rather than going into the office.

She started it with telling him how he answers her questions is going to determine how this goes (he was going to be done, either way). He started right off with her first question by lying to her about the first hour worked this morning. Telling her he did work. Hmm..he must have missed the teams company wide notification about our system being down until 8:10. No one was working. Not to mention our time stamp system shows he didn't start adding invoices until 8:12. 

She showed him her spreadsheet of his time worked compared to what he clocked in for, the past 2 weeks. (38.25 hrs vs 13.75), along with the fact that this is considered timesheet fraud. She gave him 2 options: 1) he can resign in writing today, or 2) she can terminate him and will look into pressing charges for time/wages fraud. His choice. He agreed to resign. (Plus with a resignation he won't get unemployment). She also told him if she doesn't have his resignation email by the end of today, she will be moving forward with the termination option. She also told him it will be his responsibility to tell the guy with the mentorship program why he no longer works for us. But, if he lies to him, it's probably not going to end well.

So, he's gone and that sure feels great to finally be done with him. I'm also sure that me getting my sis on board helped push her along to finally get rid of him.

Waiting on the update

My work connection is down this morning and no one can get logged in remotely. It's been an hour. I'm very surprised they haven't fixed it yet. I'm only working until 2pm today, as dh has a doctor appt. this afternoon to check up on his prostate.

DH got a call after dinner yesterday that a friend had a flat tire on the interstate, on the other side of town, and didn't have a jack to change his tire. It took dh about 15 minutes to get to to him, but he got there with the jack and friend was able to get back on down the road.

Right after our work connection got going (about 15 minutes past our normal start time for everyone), we see our assistant is logged and for the past hour and a half I see his has just been working his little butt off! I message my boss and say "wow - he's actually working this morning". Her reply: that's because I messaged him and set up a meeting in person with him at 10:30. LOL.  One more hour and she better be firing him! She likely didn't tip her hand and tell him to bring his laptop to the meeting, so she will have to be getting that back from him....if that proves to be a problem, she could always then threaten to not only charge him with timecard theft/fraud, but theft of company property.......

I did get some banana bread made yesterday. I used the monkfruit instead of regular sugar. Not sure if that caused it, but I have always (for years) baked it for exactly 53 minutes and it comes out perfect and this time it was almost burnt. From the monkfruit? Plus, I do notice a taste difference, but not sure if it's because it's a bit over done or because of the monkfruit. I guess I'll stick with the regular 1/3 cup of sugar the recipe calls for. 1/3 for a whole loaf isn't that bad, I guess.

At least I won't have to make dinner tonight. By the time we get done with dh's dr. appointment and then stop at the store for a few groceries, we can grab Wendy's on the way home. I just have their classic chicken sandwich (I sure do miss their grilled chicken sandwich). I don't get soda or lemonade, ever. I don't drink soda (rarely) and way too much sugar also in the strawberry lemonade. A small has 54 grams of sugar! Oh hell no! I've gotten this to drink on occasion, but it's been a very long time.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully my next blog post will be the update on the end of the assistant saga!

Still the same weight

Meant to add to yesterday's post - I hadn't talked to/called my uncle in awhile, so I gave him a call Friday afternoon to check on him/say hi. I got a whole 28 second conversation with him, LOL. "I'm doing good, it's been hot here, thanks for calling!" LOL. But, he sounded good/fine. Just funny that when he wanted his inheritance money he was calling me all the time ;)

I didn't get banana bread made yesterday (I will today) but did get 4 loads of laundry done. I still need to put the clean sheets back on the guest bed. Last night for dinner I made a tuna casserole. We haven't had that in a long time. Used to be in my regular meal rotation for years (and in my mom's before that, LOL). 

I feel like I have done so well to cut down on sugar, bread and calories and have still not lost a pound. It's discouraging and when I get on the scale (it's out in the shop bathroom, so I don't check it too often) and see that, just makes me feel like why am I going to all this trouble to eat better and less and no change. Reducing the sugar, I have even finally gotten to a point where I don't crave it, which is really good.

Here's what I eat in a typical day now, with a "normal" dinner thrown in like once a week:

Morning: cup of coffee with stevia and about a T of sugar free vanilla creamer. 20 cal

Breakfast: instant breakfast with milk. 210 cal

Lunch: apple with approx 2 T peanut butter. 300 cal (tastes good and I like the protein from the pb)

Snack: 1 square of dark chocolate. 63 cal

Dinner: dinner varies, but it's almost always (except like last night I made a full dinner) something light, like a salad, a sandwich, or an egg fried. I would say my dinner calories average under 500 most days now. I'm also drinking a lot more water every day.

Until last week, I have not been having any evening snack (nor was I craving anything anymore) but I did start having the yogurt snack. Cal 150

Before, just my morning cup of coffee was 350 cal with the real cream and the amount of white chocolate sauce I was adding. I was also always having some sort of dessert on hand - either cookies to eat throughout the day (and evening) or cake, or pie.  I'm not trying to lose a bunch of weight, but I guess I just assumed that cutting out all this sugar and reducing calories, I would maybe drop 3-5 pounds, at least. At this point, I guess I'm just telling myself at least I am not putting as much sugar into myself anymore, which is a good thing.

We saw neighbors DIL backed into the garage last night, looks to be packing up, so they can leave today. This past weeks visit was the most non-intrusive they have ever been - how having house guests should be! We wouldn't let our houseguests intrude on their lives and they never should have ours. Not that they won't next time, haha, but at least this time was so much better. Two reasons, I think: They have no big barking dog (and then didn't leave him here, like they almost always did before, for months) and it was too hot out for them to be outside much, so they weren't spending their time playing right in front of our gate. Like dh has said - why, when they have this nice long paved driveway and our street in front of all the 7 lots is long (with a culdesac at the end to turn bikes around or walk down to), do they almost always either ride or walk back and forth, turn around, just in front of our place? So annoying.

Well, I hear dh up and about. Time to go downstairs and make him his egg sandwich. Then I'm going to come back up to my desk and finish getting some new jeans ordered from Kohl's. The last 2 pair I got like 9 months ago, I really like. They are getting a bit worn and I see they are on sale for only $13, so I need to snag them (and it's free shipping).

Quiet Saturdy morning time

I think this was the fastest week go by ever. I swear it was just a couple of day ago it was last weekend. We don't have any plans this weekend. One more 100 degree day to get through (ie stay inside) and then it will cool down to more normal days. The river has been pretty "inactive" this summer. I'm guessing it's too hot to bake on float going down the river and the fishers have had time limits put on them due to the heat.

I do need to get a few loads of laundry done today. A load of my clothes and the sheets from our bed, as well as I need to get the sheets on the guest bed washed and remade. I have a couple of overripe bananas so I think I'll make some banana bread, but use monkfruit (not sure if I've made that with monkfruit before or not) and remember to add some applesauce in place of about 1/4 of the banana needed, as that tasted so moist the time I did that when I didn't have quite enough banana.

I found a funny show to watch on Hulu (which I am still subscribed to through November at .99/mo) called Unprisoned. A 30 minute comedy. Two seasons and I just started the 2nd season and am loving the addition of John Stamos, as a life coach type counselor. Very funny.

Yesterday my boss sent me a spreadsheet she had done up on the 2 weeks we tracked the assistants work done/time worked. She wanted me to double check it. Some of his time worked we know because of the time stamps invoices added have. The payments he posted, we just have to estimate for the most part. But example: a check we received paying ONE invoice does not take 5 hours to post! That's all he did one day. It doesn't even take 5 minutes. So, she estimated he worked 13.75 hours out of 48.25 that he clocked in for. Her spreadsheet also had some info on "timesheet fraud", which she researched and wowza! She said she will be showing him this as well, asking him how he plans to have the ethics required of a lawyer/bar association, while stealing wages from an employer? She won't charge him, but wants to just hopefully put some fear into him that this is serious and if we were to charge him, he'd likely get kicked out of law school, at a minimum. (not to mention the possible 5 years in prison this type of conviction can have!). Hopefully, this will all be past us next week and we can move forward with my new assistant (yay sissy!) with no problems.

Small world

Today was supposed to be the day my boss fired the assistant. We tracked his work yesterday again, and she was also able to get a hold of one of our IT people to see what detail they can see on his work/computer use. Since we don't track employees like that, they only thing they could tell her at that particular time, by looking on his computer from the back end, was his computer had been idle for 40 minutes that "session". Regardless, the work done/not done is the proof. Again he clocked in for 5 hours and worked for 30-45 minutes.

My boss and I had a phone chat and she was going to fire him today, but this morning, an hour before his time to start working, he messaged in to her and I that he wasn't going to be able to work today. Dammit! I was so looking forward to this happening today. Yesterday my boss also said after he clocked out for the day yesterday she was going to have our internal IT guy turn off his (company) laptop's access (remotely) to our company. Not sure if that happened for sure or not.

A Facebook message yesterday showed what a small world this is. It was from my cousin's daughter (I probably met once or twice when she was little, like almost 40 years ago, LOL). Her grandma (my aunt) and her aunt (my cousin, LOL) told her I would be the one to contact for some family history about her great and great-great grandfathers. Yes, I can :)

After we got past chatting about that, I asked her where she lived, what she did for work. Welp, turn out she works in Supply Chain Management and up until 2 months ago worked for the same company as my dd works for, who is also in Supply Chain Management! This gal is higher up, was a director, but neither knew of each other (because now I was messaging dd asking her). Different departments, but last year a change was made and dd's dept split into 2 and some went onto one dept and some onto another. One of the depts was the one this 2nd cousin was over. Just kind of a fluke that dd ended up going with the other dept, otherwise this lady would have been like her boss, but like 3 levels up. And they wouldn't have even known they were 2nd cousins! Crazy.

We've been messaging a bit more this morning. I have an old photo album my mom made for me years ago that is kind of a family history of photo's she and my grandma had. I took a picture of several of them with my phone and just messaged them to her. I have one pic of my great grandfather (her great-great) so I sent that, along with several pics of my grand father (her great) throughout the years.

No news, good news, and funny news

Still waiting on the assistant to get fired.......I have been tracking his work almost down to the minute this week, again, to show my boss how much he is taking advantage of us/getting paid for work time he is not putting in. He "worked" 5 hours both Mon and Tues and 3 hours on Wed (he had to stop early as he said he had to take his car in for repairs). Out of this 13 hours clocked in he actually worked 4 hours tops. Probably more around 3 1/2. 

DH's PSA was still good/same as it was last check, so that is great. Originally he was 9. something when it was first discovered back in 2021. Then June 2022 I had him start taking that prostate supplement, Zyflamend, to try. His next biospy showed no more cancer cells and his PSA had gone down to 5.19. This latest PSA was 5.34. While a score of 5 is still considered borderline high for his age, it's much better than a 9 and good it's staying consistent.

DH got a cryptic email from Mr. Neighbor last evening. It just said:

they leave Sunday. Return for Thanksgiving week. No plans of coming,  at this point next summer

DH was like - did he mean to send this to me? They had maybe chatted once since Mr told DH they were coming (if he's even talking about his DIL and grandsons, LOL) and dh never even mentioned them coming for a visit. They've only been here since midnight Sunday, so 3 days of them so far, and so for so good, no complaints coming from us (the only thing we ever complained about to them while they are here, is the non stop barking for hours when they would all leave to go do something). So - we are hoping this means they are only here a week and leave this Sunday, LOL. We can do 4 more days with the screaming kids over there, haha. I think the twins aren't as bad as they were the previous years, with the screaming.

Last evening one of their dogs was outside our laundry room door as dh was going out to go into the shop. He followed dh right into the shop. This dog has never done that before. Of their 3 dogs this one is the least friendly, always keeps his distance. Then he followed dh back to our laundry room door and wanted in, LOL. Amos was having NONE of that nonsense! So, dh gave pup a treat (we still buy dog treats, as dh takes treats over to their kennel fence) and let the dog be. He came inside to tell me and I was like pup was trying to tell you to rescue him from the chaos over there! LOL. "Please let me stay! I can't take it over there anymore!" LOL

Here's a couple of goofy cat pictures

It's almost Friday!