It's a lot of work

I think I wore myself out yesterday. And still not done decorating. Then I remembered it's been 2 years since I had to do this all myself, as last year dd was here to help, LOL. It goes much faster with 2 people. And I'm 2 years older 😕 The big tree is done and the garland is on the staircase (each side) and those 2 are the hardest jobs. A few years ago dd gave dh this little "tool". I don't think he's ever tried it.....but let me tell ya, it's a Christmas miracle! It has pretty much fixed most of our light problems. One of my sections of prelit garland was out and it fixed that. I have no clue how it works, but it does.

Today I need to fluff out the tree in the dining room and decorate it. I also need to string the lights on the skinny tree in the entryway, but it needs no decor. It's full of pinecones and berries for decor. I also need to get out all my kitchen decor and get the decor put on the fireplace mantel and hearth. Then I should be done.

Our turkey dinner turned out delicious. I think it was the gravy packet with the Jenni-O turkey. Plus the turkey turned out really good. We are enjoying the leftovers for turkey sandwiches and leftover turkey and sides for dinner.

I need to order the gifts we always get for our delivery drivers (UPS and FedEx), mail lady, and garbage man. I've gotten various gifts over the years. Hickory farms, etc. Last year I got Frango chocolates, from Macy's. I do not know what to get this year. Got any suggestions for me??

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! 

My day off yesterday was kept very busy getting started on Christmas decorating. DH got the 4 trees out of storage. I got the bedding on the other guest bedroom and our bed. Then I got all pillows, bed and throw pillows (couch, loveseats, etc) all covered in Christmas pillow covers. Trying to get pillows stuffed into covers is exhausting, LOL. 

Then I got started fluffing out the branches on the first layer of the 12' tree. Last year we had an issue with some of the lights being out in the 2nd layer, but managed to just put that area in back. DH put the second layer on (it lights up when you connect the poles) and now a bunch more lights were out all random branches here and there. We worked on it for over an hour. DH had some replacement bulbs and some little gun type tool dd had given him a few years ago, that tests bulbs and also does something when you insert it onto the bulb holder part and squeeze the trigger. We ran out of replacement bulbs but managed to get most all of that layer working again (looked better than last year). Then he added the 3rd layer (which was never a problem) and now one whole side of that layer was out. By then we were tired and disappointed. It's just too many lights to try to figure out what to replace. It's not like one light goes out (while the others stay on) so you just replace that one. We'd replace one light on a branch and suddenly lights on branches 2 branches away would light back up. 

This 12' tree is hard enough to deal with when everything works - lights no longer working is too much. At this point (this is our 5th Christmas with this tree) we are just going to let it be with the crappy half lit way it will be, and after Christmas after we take it down, dh is going to just cut all the lights out of it and we'll use string lights, I guess. I'm not even sure how hard it will be to get all the lights out of it - I'll have to look closer because I think they are all wrapped around branches and probably not an easy task.

Not sure what to do if trying to get the lights off is too much of a chore. Too damn expensive of a tree to just throw away. Even 12' trees with no lights are very expensive, but I guess that is what we should have bought in the first place. 

It looks like the guy who now owns lot 5 is going to get started right away. Our old "excavator guy" we used for our build, came in yesterday and dropped some excavator of something off next to the lot and it is already been staked out for something to build/dig a foundation. We were told he was building a shop first, so most likely for that. Looks too small of staked out area to be for a house. Still seems strange that this new guy who bought it hasn't even introduced himself to any of us here. Shoot - we knew Mr & Mrs neighbor very well by the time we started building. DH said it's probably because DAN told him we were all a-holes, LOL. Probably. haha.

I never thought to look and see if DAN has purchased some other piece of property in the area, so he can build his 8000 sf warehouse, with 2000' additional covered area extending it. Now that he would have the money from selling these lots, I'm assuming he would find something else to buy. 

Well, time for some breakfast and then get in the shower and dressed, so I can get started on putting the turkey in the oven. I hope all my American readers have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Good news and gifts

I have never been this caught up with work. All thanks to the great job my sis is doing for us. She says she loves this job, so I am so glad. While December will be a short month with my time off, I will be able to stay caught up and then starting in January I should be able to start some new projects we have never had time to get to.

Dh's stomach biopsy results came in the mail yesterday and all is good/normal with that, so that is good news. Now we just wait and see if the MRI next week will show what is going on with the pain and nausea. The doctor had also mentioned if nothing shows up, there is a test he can do to see if he has auto-immune pancreatitis. 

DH got the lights up on the house/garage and those gutters cleaned out yesterday. Today he plans to do the fence and then he is done with lights. He will have to do all the inflatables, but that will be for another day.

I wasn't able to order those jeans for dh from Walmart - the sale yesterday was just for Walmart+ members. But, now this morning, I see everyone can order at the $13 price. He should be set for jeans for the next year. Good grief - I just wanted to order 2 pair of jeans, so I would need to add $9 to my order to get free shipping. You wouldn't think finding something(s) that total $9 would be so hard, LOL. I'm about ready to just get 3 pairs of jeans.

Doing payroll was a breeze yesterday. While I was waiting for my boss to review it (we always have her look it over as a second set of eyes, just to make sure) I got the state business tax return done and submitted. After payroll got submitted, I worked on getting the October financial reports all done. I got them done by the end of the day, but I'm going to look them over this morning, before I send them to my boss. I'm so excited to be so caught up. Plus the added bonus of getting to spend lots of time chatting with my sis on a regular basis.

Ok - I thought of something to add to my Walmart order for the free shipping - some candy to put in dd's stocking. She likes those Fererro Roche candies. With my Target order the other day, I added some beef sticks for sil's stocking. I need to think of more ideas. I know dd always brings their stockings, but I have some with their names, as well that I hang on the fireplace. And I'm going to add a bag of whole bean coffee sil likes, to his stocking.

My goal is to be done with Christmas gift shopping by this weekend.

Two day countdown

I'm ready to get my 2 days of work in this week and be done with it all for a week. I have to do payroll today, as well as submit the monthly state business tax return. By tomorrow, before I'm off, I want to get done with everything October related and have the monthly financials to my boss. Yep! We have never been this caught up. That was my goal, to be able to close out the previous month before the end of the next month. Smart move getting sis on board!

The weather turned cold, but all the rain we've been having went away, so while it's cold enough to snow, now there's no moisture to fall.

Dh did get the lights put up on the shop. He decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone and also clean the gutters while he was up on the ladder. I think today he plans to get the lights up on the house. Then the fence line another day. I did a bit upstairs. One guest bedroom I just put out some framed Christmas pictures (cut out from an old Christmas card and Christmas gift boxes) and a Christmas pillow case over the bear throw pillow. I also swap out brown blanket on the end of the bed for a red one. In the other room (this is the room dd and sil use when they come) I was going to put on the Christmas duvet and pillow cases, but it was really wrinkly, so I decided to wash and dry it to get the wrinkles out easily. Amos decided to start helping me in this room

It looks like some stores are having online early Black Friday sales today. I see Walmart has the Wrangler jeans dh wears for $13, so this is when I usually buy him 2 or 3, since it's a good price. But, I remember not too long ago when they'd put them for $10 on Black Friday. Our brain says, "well, it's only a $3 increase" but it's also a 30% increase, which sounds terrible, doesn't it?

I needed a couple gift ideas for dh (I already gave one to dd) and I got a couple yesterday while I was dusting and vacuuming his den. He really needs a new mousepad, so I'm getting him a personalized one and while dusting his shelves w/books, I remembered some books he said he wanted.

A shopping day

We decided to pick up groceries yesterday instead of today. We left the house about noon and first stop was Costco and they had tons of the wreaths. A guy was bringing in another pallet full as we were getting ours into our cart. We got our 6. They are huge and so much nicer than the ones we got from Lowe's last year and only $20 each.  

We also picked up some wool socks for dh to try and stocked up on some 30 pack cases of Mountain Dew. 

Speaking of Costco, I was messaging with dd before we left, telling her we were stopping at Costco to see if they had the wreaths in. I said I'm just going in with blinders on, so that I'm not tempted by all the other Christmas decor, that I didn't know I need. Her reply: You let Costco tell you what you need. LOL!!

Then we went to Harbor Freight to get a utility cart for yard work (and will store his bags of yard stuff while in the garage), dh wanted. Then I went into the other grocery store to see if they had the salmon we like and they did and on sale, so I got 4 (there's 2 pieces per box). I also grabbed a carton of eggnog. I had checked the price and it was cheaper than Walmart, that I am freezing and saving for Christmas. Otherwise I'd likely drink it all in a few days, LOL. We'll be shopping again before Christmas, so I'll get more then. I was also getting low on grape jam and haven't been able to find it at Walmart and this store has some in their store brand. We like the jam instead of the jelly kind. 

When we got over to Walmart and checked in to pick up our order, there were like 2 or 3 cars there. Apparently none of the 3 different workers wanted to bring out our order. We sat there for almost 20 minutes as other cars pulled in and they brought their stuff right out. Finally, a car near us was getting their groceries and I was waiting for the worker to get done and was going to ask about ours and then someone finally brought it out.

We had brought sandwiches with us, so that we didn't stop at fast food. Even though dh wants a burger, he knows it won't agree with him and his stomach will be in pain after. Plus that saved $20. It rained the whole drive to the city, but wasn't raining there and got nicer as the day went on. I feel like it's never going to stop raining at our house.

I got on a kitchen cleaning kick yesterday morning. I took everything off my counters and wiped them all down. Moved the canisters, bread box, toaster and keurig and all clean underneath and behind now. 

DH's computer has been working fine, thankfully. The OneDrive finally finished up syncing everything to the cloud sometime Thursday night, so now we are back to full internet speed, since it's no longer using half of the bandwidth to sync. I think it will be an ok back up system, now. Well, at least I have until September to decide if I don't want to renew it.

I'm trying my new organic, chemical and mold free coffee right now. It's good, but I think the Folgers Black Silk tastes better. I guess the question is do I want taste or organic? LOL. I did the 16 hour fasting Mon-Sat this past week. Today I only managed 14 hours. The dinner I made last night (chicken/rice/veggies dish) took almost an hour to make, so we didn't eat until 5:45. I just didn't feel like waiting another 2 hour this morning, until almost 10am. I'll get back to it tomorrow. It's easier to wait in the morning when I am busy at my desk with work.

I'm hoping it clears up enough today so dh can get started on the Christmas lights. I'm going to see what inside decorating I can get started on today. I should be able to do the 2 upstairs bedrooms and change our bedding to the Christmas quilt.

Busy days

Yesterday I just got too busy with work to find time to write up a post. This morning started off the same, but now it seems to have calmed down somewhat.

I'm still trying the intermittent fasting. This morning, after I ate breakfast and then got about halfway through my coffee, I started feeling really nauseous for a few minutes. It's subsiding some now, but not completely. I haven't been able to finish my coffee. 

We're sure getting lots of rain. DH has been wanting to get started putting the Christmas lights up outside, but he doesn't want to do it in the rain. Maybe he'll be able to get started on it this weekend. I think I'm going to get started with some of the decorating inside. I can do the bedding and kitchen without having to get all the bins out of the storage closet yet, for everything else. This might not seem such a big job, if I spread it out over more days.

Dh was looking at what people are asking on Marketplace for freezers and it's very little, he said. Like $100. So we are just going to keep it. If we come across someone who is in need of one, then we will just give it to them. My Lowe's order history won't go back that far (stupid!) but I want to say it cost $600-700. DD doesn't need one, they bought a freezer last year. I probably made a post about it back then, with the cost LOL.

I think dd and sil will be coming over the Sunday before Christmas, the 22nd. At least I hope so. She was saying she has to work on the 23rd, so they wouldn't be able to drive over until early that afternoon. I suggested driving over on Sunday and just working from here on Monday (she can work remotely if necessary). Then she wasn't sure what they were doing with SIL's parents, they had not set up the day to spend with them yet, so if they wanted to do it that Sunday, they couldn't drive over here. Yesterday she made it sound like they will probably come over on Sunday. I hope so.

Turkey, anyone?

We now have a heated garage. The guy showed up with a helper and they got it installed in about 2 1/2 hours. It's a propane wall heater, like we have in the shop. We have a smaller one, about half the size, in the shop bathroom, as well.

A big rafter of turkey's just went through the backyard. I didn't get all of them in the picture, but I counted 17 in total.

It got really cold last night, around 25 degrees, but no snow, like was predicted.

We're going to need to get some more groceries in the next week. I had thought, with picking up some extra milk, bread, etc when we stopped at Walmart last week to get the turkeys, I would have plenty to get me through and we could go do a pickup order after Thanksgiving. DH is going through more bread than usual. And eggs. And I seem to be going through more milk than usual. So, now I am trying to decide if I want to go pick up an order this weekend, or wait and go in next Wednesday, when I have the day off. Not that we will be going inside the store, but I feel like everything in the city is going to be hectic/traffic the day before Thanksgiving. 

I also want to get into Costco whenever they get their big live Christmas wreath's in stock. I wonder if they will have them out before Thanksgiving? Last year we saw them in Costco a day or two after Thanksgiving. I guess worse comes to worse, we can stop in and get them on Dec 4th, when we have to go into the city for dh's MRI. That's the whole reason I decided to get a Costco membership this year LOL. Well, I did it for eye exams and glasses, too.

I think we're going to try to sell our chest freezer. I just need to look up what we paid for it, so I can get an idea of how much we should ask. I got it at Home Depot, but don't remember what it cost. I remember using some of our Covid stimulus to buy it.

More heat

The propane guy showed up. 10am and minutes after I had to listen to dh rant about if he's going to show up or not this time. Apparently we're going to be able to submit this for a $200 energy rebate, so that is good to help offset a little of the cost.

We've been getting deer in our yard in the evenings. It's right at dusk, so a bit too dark to try to get a good picture of them. For sure we saw a momma and her 2 young ones. 

I've made it through day 2 of intermittent fasting. I think waiting to eat this morning seemed harder than yesterday. I've been having my cup of coffee after I eat breakfast now and boy it sure tastes good! The 8 hour window I can eat seems to go by super fast. The hours between dinner and bed aren't too bad, but the 2 hours in the morning until I can eat seem to be the hardest part, so far. I do start drinking water when I get up (and in the evenings). I just have to keep reminding myself that in order to get my normal calories, I need to eat my evening snack in the afternoon, LOL.

We live in a very small community - there's only about 4000 people in the whole county, with 3 small towns. Apparently in the last month there have been 2 drug overdoses, resulting in death, in one of the small towns (pop about 500). Sad. Probably fentanyl. Dh said he had just read an article that one of the large cities in our state recently had like 6 fentanyl OD's in one weekend. Like one of our friends said - what is the suppliers end game here? Doesn't seem good business sense to kill off your customers.......

Monday

Back to Monday. I'm counting the days until next Tuesday LOL. After that I have a week off :) 

We got back to playing pool this weekend. Since before our cruise we had only played once. After we got home from the cruise we were sick with Covid, then the lingering exhaustion for weeks. Then dh got sick with his stomach issue. He can be a poor looser 😆

I finished the book I was reading yesterday morning. The other e-book that was ready to borrow is about intermittent fasting, so not as fun to read, haha. One thing I got out the the book, kind of unrelated to fasting, is most coffee sold has chemicals and mold in it. I did not know that. While I only drink one cup a day, the thought of putting chemicals and mold into my body isn't very appetizing. I've decided to order a bag of chemical/toxin and mold free coffee to give a try. It's expensive, but since I only drink one cup a day, I think it would be worth the bit of extra cost per day.

DAN finally came and took away his little excavator from lot 5. It's all a mystery LOL. I'm not sure if he also took down the realtor's big for sale sign on a tree, but maybe his sale for this lot was on a delayed closing for some reason. The state's property website still shows him as the owner of this lot, while he supposedly sold both lots at the same time last July, the other lot shows in the new owners names, for the past few months. His out of state house is still not sold....he's into his 4th year of trying to sell it now. Just crazy. This insane length of time on the market for a nice home has to have people who see the listing wonder what the heck is wrong with it, that it has been on the market over 3 years now. The only reasons I can guess why it has not sold is it's still way too high priced and zero landscaping in a nice subdivision of homes on an acre with some water view. Next spring should be interesting around here, if we have 3 homes being built. The couple that owns lot 6 (for the past 5 years) are also supposed to start building next year.

I sure hope the propane guy shows up tomorrow to install the garage heater, like he says he will. I'm not holding my breath, though. Obviously now that it's cold out, emergency calls to fix people's heating takes priority, but at least message us if you aren't coming!

Ready for weekend relaxing time

DH's computer showed up around noon yesterday. I took a lunch break to take it up to my office and check it out. There was a paper with it saying they replaced the processor and heatsink and had to reinstall the operating system. So, I basically had to set it up from scratch again, but did (or rather thought I did) have the back up copy on OneDrive now. Some of it had backed up to OneDrive from before I sent it back, but I ended up just transferring the backup (that had everything) from the external hard drive. The hour or so I had it at my desk, getting it set up again, it was super quiet - not a peep out of the fan, like before. So, hopefully it is really fixed now! And hopefully I don't have to buy dh a new computer for a LONG time........

I do still need to learn more about how OneDrive works because I am still confused by how it all works and how it works with file explorer. I paid $70 for a OneDrive one year subscription to back up, but if I don't end up figuring it out (by next Sept LOL) I may cancel it and just go back to backing up via an external drive. When I first started it (just before I sent the computer back) it was taking forever to sync all his files (like 12,000 pictures is most of it!) and using up ALL of our our internet bandwith. So, I now remember I just turned it off after we figured out it was using all our bandwidth and I was going to work on figuring it out and then a few days later ended up sending the computer back. I have a feeling our internet speed is just going to be too slow to use this OneDrive. There is a setting where I can limit the bandwidth it uses, so while it's syncing (and taking forever, it's only like 10% done) it's now *only* using up half our bandwidth.

DH did message that propane guy yesterday and now he says he'll be here next Tuesday. Let's hope so, so we can get this done.

I was walking across our living room yesterday, after work, and suddenly had this sharp nerve type pain in the ball of my left foot. Every time I stepped on my foot there was pain there. It seems better this morning, but very weird. I hope it doesn't come back. That was very painful to walk on and it's probably not a good long term solution to try to walk without putting weight on the ball of my foot! Lately I seem to get these aches and pains out of nowhere, that last 2-3 days, and then they go away.

I started reading one of the ebooks I borrowed from the library. Really good so far (Matt Haig, The Life Impossible) so that kept me busy last night. More than likely I'll finish it this weekend. I've liked his other books I've read.

We might get some snow tonight, but kind of sounds like it might still be more up in the mountains and on the pass. DH needs some snow! He needs to get off the internet and do something that relaxes him, like plowing snow. We've been getting quite a bit of rain this past week, but the temps are just a little too high to make it snow.

Computer returning

The fit I threw with the Dell customer care manager on Wednesday morning must have done some good because yesterday afternoon I got an email that my computer was repaired and being shipped back overnight. Tracking shows it will be here sometime today (but it's FedEx, so who knows). But, honestly, I have my doubts if it even got fixed. Or if it was the processor that got replaced, if it's even the same one it's supposed to be. If it's not fixed, it certainly won't be going back there. I'll find some place in the city to work on it.

We still have not heard back from the propane guy to install our garage heater. DH had said he was going to message him yesterday, but of course he didn't. I don't know why he can't follow up with people when they aren't doing what they said they would do. How hard is it to just send a text asking the guy for an update? He acts like the world is going to end if he has to "bother" someone about something. But, then I have to hear him constantly complaining about the situation. It's a freaking business transaction, it's not like he's asking a friend to do a favor or something for him! It's very annoying.

My boss kept me hopping all day yesterday, starting first thing yesterday morning, so I didn't get time to write up a blog post. Plus my sis was working and has questions off and on, so we hop on Teams a lot. I'm hoping for a quieter Friday. She's not working and hopefully my boss got what she needed from me for her project.

We need to order some new flags for our big flag pole out front. They are getting a little ratty. I was going to just order from the company we bought the pole and US flag from (the state flag was a gift from dd), but saw their price had gone up from $53 to $70. DH still had the box the flag came in, so we had the brand/part# and lots of online places sell it - for under $50, even Amazon, so that's where I'm getting the flags from now. 

I had a some ebooks reserved from the library to borrow and finally 2 of them are ready to borrow, so it will be nice to have something to read again. I haven't read anything since before we went on the cruise. I seem to flip flop between finding a show to watch a bunch of seasons and reading. Now I can take a break from watching shows and get back to reading for a bit.

DH is feeling pretty down and grumpy with his ongoing stomach/pancreas issue. I'm sure it is getting very old feeling nauseous all the time. I sure hope the MRI next month will show something and hoping he can get some relief if they can figure out what is going on.  Just wish he didn't have to wait this long for the MRI appointment.

Still waiting

Nothing much new since yesterday. I got a nice picture of the sunrise this morning

I spent part of my morning on the phone with Dell again, after they have now delayed my estimated date of repair out another few days. I ended up requesting to talk to a customer service manager. Still not getting anywhere other than "we'll escalate your case" I said I was already told by 2 people that was done 2 weeks ago. He said he couldn't find where it was done. I asked for confirmation that it gets done. He did say the more detail I can't see online is that the part they are waiting for is a new processor - so that is a major part that is causing the issue, not just a faulty fan. The first person I talked to said becaue it's been so long now, I can get a replacement and he had to transfer me. Then the person he transferred me to said no, I can't because I didn't report the issue until 32 days and warranty for replacement or refund is 30 days. That's when I asked to talk to her manager. He said he can put it for a replacement, but it might be a refurbished used one. I said NO! I paid for a brand new computer I barely got to use. Regardless, it's all going to take weeks to request that, if that's what I want. I'm going to wait the 5 more days they now say it will take. Then I will be calling my credit card company to see if they can help with a dispute on it. But, now I'm reading that most credit card companies you can dispute within 60 days of the charge going on your account and it's now been over 60 days. It's all just infuriating.

 

 

 

Done for the day

We were up at 5:30 (ugh) and out the door by 6:15. It usually takes a little less than an hour to get there, but there was notice that a part of the freeway was going to have some road construction where we'd have to stop and wait for a pilot car. Well turns out that didn't start until 7am, so we sailed right through haha. But, dh wanted to be there a little early anyway, to use the bathroom beforehand.

We were there 2 hours for a 10 minute procedure, LOL. Literally - they wheeled him out of the room and 10 minutes later were rolling him back in and waking him up. The doctor said nothing was found to cause his issues going on. She did see a couple of stomach polyps, but those are usually totally benign and a little bit of erosion in his pre-pyloric region. She removed the polyps and did a biopsy in the erosion area and those will go to pathology, just as a matter of routine. She said she sees the erosion in that area all the time. 

So, now we wait until he can get the MRI done, to see if they can tell anything more from his pancreas, what is going on. They can't get him in for that until Dec 4th.

He was starving by the time we got home a little after 10:30 since he hadn't had anything to eat in about 15 hours. Then he went back to bed for a nap. About an hour later, I joined him and took about a 90 minute nap. 5:30 is too early for me ;)

I probably could have just worked the rest of today, only missing a couple of hours, but might was well use up some of my 300+ hours of PTO. I'm just grateful we got this procedure and the MRI to be done next month, in before the end of the year and it will all be covered 100%.

Weekend wrap up

We had our company come for a few hours yesterday afternoon. A family of 3 generations, so 3 kids included, haha. It was nice to sit around the table visiting. Eventually dh remembered - hey we have a pinball machine up in the bonus room and we didn't see the kids again, after that, LOL. The older one (16) came back downstairs a little later and very politely asked if he could play pool and that he would be very careful with it.

I only ended up making like half of the chocolate chip cookies. It made plenty for yesterday (plus I had the Christmas crack, as well) and dh and I don't need to eat a bunch more. I'm going to freeze the remaining dough for another time. Even though flat (of course) they did taste really good. I used sea salt this time, instead of regular table salt. I bought it awhile back for some other recipe, so I might as well start using it in other stuff. I also have some kosher salt, bought for a recipe, that rarely gets used. I see I'm getting a bit low on table salt, but I'm just going to try to use up these other salts first.

I watched a movie on Netflix last night, that dd said was pretty funny. It was good, for a Netflix made type movie, called Red Notice with Ryan Reynolds and Duane Johnson. I don't see it being a box office type of hit. It has some funny parts. I could see how they left it off at the end, there will likely be a sequel.

I'm not feeling in a work mood this morning. Plus now I have to do payroll today, since I'll be off again tomorrow. At least with having tomorrow off, it should make the week go by fast. The endoscopy side of their office is supposed to call today to let us know for sure what time to get there. The scheduler started to say 7:30am, but then she ended up saying, she's not sure exactly what time they want us there, they will call us on Monday. She had given us 2 choices, 7:30am or 2pm. With the later one, we'd probably end up with me having to drive us home in the dark, so we opted for the early time. I also need to call the pharmacy again, later this morning, to see if they got the prescription now.

Now the update on dh's computer repair says 11/14 (was 11/9). I sent a message through the work ticket that just said, now another week to wait - just send my computer back, I will get it fixed locally. No response yet. Did I tell you I also mailed a letter about it to Dell headquarters in Texas, about a week ago? I'm sure it will be fruitless, but there really is no way, apparently to get a hold of anyone in the states about it. I had found the phone number for their Texas headquarters but again, their system just routes the call to customer service in India. Trying to call again, will probably be on my to do list tomorrow afternoon, after we get home. 

Well, I'd better get to my work day.

Recipe link and whatnot

Itsy Bitsy Living requested the recipe for the "Christmas Crack". Here is the link to the recipe I used. I think it will be a good one to add to my Christmas cookies I share with neighbors. I also want to try a recipe that has peanut butter in it. I have a feeling we'll like that one even better.

We are having some company over this afternoon, so dh requested I make some chocolate chip cookies to eat while we are all visiting. I told him they always turn out flat but he said that's the way he likes them, he likes them chewy and flat (where I like them thick and soft). Ok, I'll make them.

Yesterday I did a couple loads of laundry (dh does the bulk of the laundry each week), including changing the bed sheets. DH did a little bit of window washing - at least those he could reach without having to use a ladder. He'll save that for another day. Last nights dinner was spaghetti. Enough leftovers for me to have for a couple dinners during the next several days, while dh is eating his scrambled eggs most nights.

I had a check coming in the mail for my latest side job. It was mailed out on Tuesday and when it didn't show up Friday I thought for sure it would be here yesterday, but yesterday morning my informed delivery was not showing it. Thankfully it was there in the mail, so now I don't have to worry about it being lost. Seems kind of ridiculous that it takes mail 5 days to go 500 miles. This little side job is very minimal and I waited until I had at least a few hours to bill out. It appears most months will be about an hour of bookkeeping, with October being the busiest month, as I had to create a bunch of invoices to go out. I'll probably just invoice them 2-3 times a year, or at least when I've built up 3 hours, LOL.

Working on cleaning and organizing my office a little this morning. What do I file this under? "C" for cat?

This and that

Yesterday was finally our consult with the GI doctor. Because dh is still having some of the nausea and pain (just not to the level it was when we went to ER), especially when he eats, they are going to do an endoscopy w/ultrasound next Tuesday. And also get an MRI. That was the bit of confusing part. He made it sound like he wanted to have the MRI done first and then if it shows anything, do the endoscopy, but he was going to get both on the schedule so he wasn't waiting any longer.

Then they put us in the scheduler's office. The MRI is done at the hospital - call this number, but wait until Monday morning, because they won't have it in their system for a few hours. Then for the endoscopy she said they had a cancellation and had an opening on Tuesday...then I said can you clarify which procedure is done first, because the doctor made it sound like the MRI was to be scheduled first? She went and asked him, came back and said it's ok to do the endoscopy first. Ok then...just seemed odd because both dh and I heard it that way, when the dr was talking to us. Maybe he changed his mind when she asked him, since there was an opening so soon for the endoscopy.

The want to see if the inflammation has gone done (compared to his CATscan) and also with the endoscopy they will be able to see if the inflammation is covering up something like a mass, that they couldn't see with the CATscan. So, good that this is getting done quickly. Also good for insurance purposes! This will all go towards this year and after $680 more in charges, he will have met his out of pocket max, as well. I'm sure yesterday's visit will probably be at least half of that $680, likely more.

We didn't have to leave for the appointment until 11:45am, so I decided to try making that "Christmas Crack" with my new jelly roll pan. Very easy and very tasty! I used chopped pecan nuts for the topping and it reminded me a lot the Almond Roca candy. Years ago, dh's mom used to buy me Almond Roca during Christmas, as she knew I really liked it.

After the appointment we went over to Walmart, so I could pick up the turkeys. They didn't have a lot out yet, but I was able to get 2 Jennie-O turkeys for .88/lb. I would have wished for one a bit smaller and one a bit larger than my choices were, but they were close. The larger one, for Christmas, when the kids are here, will be plenty big enough for dinner, but probably won't be as much leftover for sandwiches and a leftover turkey dinner meal the next night, but the smaller turkey for just the 2 of us on Thanksgiving will be more than enough leftover, so I will probably be able to just freeze some of the leftover meat and add it towards sandwiches/meals at Christmas.

I had not been inside shopping at Walmart in ages. While the parking lot was completely packed, the grocery section wasn't too bad. The only bad aisle was the bread aisle, which had a traffic jam for a couple of minutes. Most of the congested areas was all caused by stockers carts, getting more food stocked. I only had to wait behind one person in the check out lane and the lady checking me out was very nice and friendly. I also picked up more eggs, bread and milk, so now instead of needing to go back for our 3 week trip in 2 weeks (we went last weekend) I'll be able to now make it another 3 weeks and we can go in AFTER Thanksgiving. I have the Monday and Tuesday off after Thanksgiving, so that can be one of our days to go in to pick up groceries and also stop at Costco and get all the big outdoor live wreaths. Those are really the reason I got a Costco membership, haha! (plus so we could get eye exams and glasses).

The doctor had also agreed dh could get another prescription for the Zofran and they would call/fax it in to our little town pharmacy. As we were leaving the nurse said she called it in. We get to the pharmacy in our town a couple hours later, and they had received no prescription. GRRRR!! It was like 3:45. I tried to call the dr office, but of course, got their recording and had to leave a message for the doctor's "team" and no one called back. Our pharmacy isn't open on Saturdays, so now we have to wait until Monday to get it, and another trip back to town. Doctor also told him no more cheeseburgers until after the endoscopy and MRI, which bummed dh out, LOL, as he was planning to stop and get one as we were leaving the city. 

Tomorrow some friends are stopping by to visit, so I guess today will be a cleaning day. Not that I have much to do, but I did just remember I have some Fall/Thanksgiving decor I can put out. I put some fall pillow covers on the pillows on my church pew, along with some fake pumpkins and I also put some little fake pumpkins and fall leaves on my dining table.

A sort of Friday

Still trying to adjust myself to the time change. I keep waking up at 5:30 or so. Hard to get back to sleep until 6:45. By evening (actually later afternoon) I'm dragging. Hopefully by next week I'll be running on the new time. I'm sure the weekend will help me adjust. I'm such a creature of habit, it's hard to change.

Still no word from the propane guy. DH always takes these sorts of things personally. Like it's some sort of personal slight against him. His mom was always the same way. How do you schedule someone and then not show up, not call and tell them you aren't coming, and worse yet, don't even follow up with them to reschedule? Plus, dh keeps getting up early, just in case he's going to call first thing and say he's on his way. And that's annoying!LOL. It's 7am and dh is already up and interrupting my quiet time with my cup of coffee and Amos sitting in my lap while I type this.

Today is my Friday, since I don't have to work tomorrow. This year, for the first time, I did manage to take all but 2 of my earned vacation days off. I still have over 300 hours on the books though. It was hard enough to get myself to take 25 days off this year, not sure how I'm going to ever get into using those banked hours, LOL. I need to sit down with the calendar again, at the first of the year and get some days/weeks figured out for next year to make sure I use them up again. 

It's nice to have the mail and my phone back to normal and our mailbox not stuffed with political flyers and my phone not filled with text and calls. I can easily leave the tv and news off (as I've been doing since the 2020 election), so it should be a lot quieter now. 

I had my quarterly chat with my investment guy. He's optimistic for the balance of this year and into next year. I should go go back to my notes I take from his past "predictions" and see how often he is right, LOL. He said the Fed should cut interest rates by 1/4% today and by another 1% during 2025. He predicts that by the end of 2025 the Feds interest rate will be down to 3.4%. 

He also want to keep my portfolio at 60/40 and with the earnings my stocks have been getting, I was up to 68% in stocks, so he wants to use the gains I'm getting to move that money into stable earnings, so sold some shares and bought another 3 year CD (at 4%).

Ok good, after chatting a couple minutes, dh decided to go back to bed. I don't know what time he went to bed last night, but probably around 1-2am is his usual. 

With the snow stakes dh puts out, he also puts them along the edge of our lawn outside the fence, along our street, so when plowing he stays off the lawn and knows where the edge is. Now he just has to keep straightening and making sure the stakes are solidly in the ground, because little neighbor boy thinks it's fun to walk home after getting off the school bus and hold his arm out and hit the stakes as he's walking along. Kids....LOL

Another day, another dollar

The propane heater installer never showed up yesterday. Not even a call or text. Companies and service people around here are such a joke. I don't even know why we are surprised by this LOL. This is being installed by our propane company, not some independent self employed guy.

I'm glad we are past the election. It all just gets to be too much. Like I told dh this morning. It really doesn't matter who is in office. The sun is going to come up each day and I still have to go to work each day to survive, no matter who it is or what is going on. The river is going to keep flowing past my house, just like it has for the last 20,000 years. Whether Trump was in office while we were building our house, or Biden is in office now - we still can't get anyone to show up and do any work around here 😜

It's a pretty day outside. Lots of blue sky with some puffy white clouds and a little snow on the mountain tops. The larch in fall color, makes for a pretty pop of color amongst all the green trees. The view out my window today

I still haven't tried making the "Christmas crack" candy in my new jelly roll pan. Maybe I'll wait until Friday morning. I have the day off and we don't have to leave for dh's dr appointment until just before noon.

I just checked the new weekly ad for the other grocery store we shop at for some things. No turkey's on sale this week, so while we are in town on Friday I will be getting my turkeys at Walmart. 

Yesterday afternoon, within seconds of each other I get an email from a friend that she is back in the hospital again and a text from my sis that she slid into a ditch, driving in the snow, and wrecked her car. She's a bit sore, but otherwise ok and will have to get her car fixed, of course. I'm hoping friend makes a quick recovery. She's been thru the wringer with her health this past year :(

Not much else is new. DD and two of her co-workers are dealing with another co-worker, who is causing lots of ridiculous drama and she's a victim. She's in her 50's for goodness sake! DD said they are in a no win situation with this lady. If they include her in their general conversations, she's offended by something they say. If they don't include her, she's offended they aren't including her. DD said they were talking about vacationing in specific areas of Hawaii and this lady commented that that's where retired people like to go and dd said "sounds right up my alley, because I'm like an old lady, LOL". This lady actually told their boss she was offended by this remark! Just insane. It sounds like their boss is just as annoyed with this lady as the others are. I told dd that she isn't required to communicate with this lady about anything other than work related stuff, and if she doesn't like it, tough shit. She created the atmosphere herself.

The big Tuesday

The jelly roll pan arrived yesterday. I think I will give the recipe a try after dinner tonight. I had also ordered some Christmas cards. For $10 for 20 cards, they are really nice! A nice quality card stock with nice envelopes and some stickers, as well. They came packaged nicely as well. I don't send out a lot of cards, but I'll have to work on these a little at a time. I actually have beautiful handwriting - as long as I don't write for very long, LOL. Carpal tunnel took care of being able to write nice for an extended period. I used to do calligraphy and even hand addressed all our wedding invitations way back when. Most days now, I have pretty crappy writing. So, I figure if I do one or two cards at a time, I should be able to manage to have the writing look nice.

Back when cursive writing was taught in school, even a bit before it was taught in my grade (3rd?) my mom taught me how to practice so that my writing would look nice. I can remember covering lined pages with loops and circles and similar, in order to get smooth at cursive. It sure worked. She had nice cursive writing as well.

Aren't you all glad election day is finally here and it will soon be over with, one way or the other, and we'll get a break (haha, ya right) for a few more years? 

We are getting our garage heater (propane) installed today, so that is good it's finally getting done. Dh puts out snow stakes along our driveway, so that when he's plowing snow he knows where the edge of the driveway is. He got those all put in the ground again, yesterday.

Well, I need to get back downstairs and wake dh up, so that he can get ready for the heater installer guy to get here this morning.

Sucessful Sunday

Yesterday was a little productive for both of us. I got a loaf of banana bread made. DH got his desk cleaned out a bit. Found me a red ink pen, LOL. I had ordered a box of red pens from Amazon but they have never shipped (3rd party sell) yet, so I cancelled the order. DH also found 2 papers printed out from when I got him online Visa gift cards so he could Christmas shop for me, without me knowing where he shopped. I checked them both and one had $5.11 and the other $11.77 left on it. So, I just used the small balance to purchase Amazon gift cards to add to my Amazon gift card balance. Found money is always satisfying, isn't it?

When dh asked what was for dinner and I told him the chicken/rice/veggies dish he kind of wrinkled his nose. I said oh well, that's what I'm making. We hadn't had that in quite awhile and it really is always good. I had some of the leftover Hawaiian rolls, so I heated them up and added some applesauce on the side. After he was done eating, he said that was a very good dinner. I should make it more often. It is easy to make. I like that other than the can of condensed cream of chicken soup, there's no processed foods used. One of these days I may try making my own cream of chicken soup! But not today, LOL. Well, I guess the rolls are processed food, but my goal one of these days is to learn to start making my own rolls and bread. There is enough of the chicken/rice dinner for me to have for dinner tonight, and I'll just make him some scrambled eggs, now that I have eggs again.

I got a personalized puzzle ordered to ship to dd for her birthday. I picked out one of her recent photos from a hike they did. Hopefully the picture will turn out good on the puzzle. It looks difficult too! haha.

Now she is starting to plan some snow shoe hikes for them to do and sounds like some friends want to join in, too.

I was up a little earlier this morning, still adjusting to the time change, of course. At least the last 2 nights/mornings Amos has settled back down and is not being annoying, like he was most of last week. I wish they would just do away with DST. Winter is just less daylight hours, no matter which end of the dark/light is adjusted to. And honestly, being in bed at 10pm in the summer and it's still light out is also annoying. But, I just really hate having to adjust my internal clock 2 times a year. It's annoying. I should move to Hawaii or Arizona, LOL.

The jelly roll pan I ordered is coming today, along with some other stuff I ordered, including some Christmas cards and new socks for dh. I came across another recipe I will want to try using the jelly roll pan. This is one is using ritz crackers, peanut butter, caramel, and chocolate. Yum.

I'm trying to get logged into work and it's not working. So far, no one else has commented with this issue in our Teams chat. Yep - it's Monday alright!

A successful trip

It was a rainy drive into the city yesterday. They had predicted it would be snowing, but it was still way too warm for that. Almost 50 degrees when we left our house. I think we made record time there and back, haha! 2 hours. We got to Walmart in 45 minutes. The last few orders they have been texting me 15 minutes before the hour and right as we were about to turn into Walmart at 3:45 I got the text it was ready. Going in an hour earlier than the last 2 trips was also better. That way we got home at 5 and I was done getting all the groceries put away by 5:30.

Our extra big cooler, along with the regular size one worked great and it really helped to just leave them both in the back of the pickup. While I'm sure Walmart had eggs inside the store, I decided we'd swing in the other grocery store for them. I also wanted to get the salmon we like. I got the eggs, but unfortunately they were out of the salmon.

And just for comparison - a frozen Butterball whole turkey at Walmart is $1.04/lb. At the other large grocery store a Butterball whole turkey is $2.19/lb. Before we go into the city next Friday, I will be watching prices again, just to see if the other grocery store has put them on sale. 

This past week Amos has been super annoying both at night, after I go to bed, and early morning. He starts waking me up at 6am (I prefer to get up around 6:50) so I thought for sure, with the clocks set back an hour, he'd be waking me up at 5am. Thankfully, he finally decided to be good last night and even this morning I got to sleep until 6:45 (new time).

DH did opt for the full double cheeseburger. I knew he would! I tried to say just get a single. He did decide to hardly eat any of the fries. He said he felt pretty good when he went to bed last night. I guess we'll see how today goes.  

Walmart was having a deal on the fabric softener, buy 2 get $5 Walmart cash back. Well, then they said they were only able to fill my order for one. If you are going to offer a special for buying 2, then you should have made sure to have plenty in stock, LOL. After a couple of adjustments to my order, my total ended up being $370. The 2 pack of 18 eggs at the other store ended up a little over $10. The non-food items in my order (laundry detergent, TP, store brand pepto bismol, and some hand sanitizer wipes) came to $60.82. Other than the TP (dh goes thru a lot), the other items I do not buy each trip, so they will last quite a while before needing to purchase again. 

I also got some ingredients to try making some "Christmas crack" using saltine crackers. I don't have a jelly roll pan, so I tried to order one with my Walmart order, but they said they were out of stock, so I ended up ordering one from Amazon that should be here Tuesday. I was hoping to try making it today, but oh well. I also have 2 very ripe bananas so I will just make some banana bread today. If this "Christmas crack" turns out good, I will make it for my neighbor sharing Christmas treats. It seems super easy to make. This batch I am topping with chopped pecans, but there are other toppings that work well. Green and red sprinkles or mini m&m's make it look festive, too. I got two kind of chocolate chips, One bag of the more expensive Ghiradelli chips, which I will use first, and another bag of Walmart brand chips (which I have bought many times) and will try those the 2nd batch and see if I notice any difference.

DD gave me the yearly message to stay out of looking at order history on our shared Prime account, LOL. Well, I ordered the jelly roll pan from our shared account, so I will have to ask her to look at tracking for it, haha. Then she says "or, I could just do my Christmas gift ordering from my dh's amazon account." I said he pays for a prime account and you pay?! (split with me) and she said yes - isn't that so dumb?! Very dumb!

While it rained down here, I can look out my office window at the mountain top across from us and see there's now snow up there. Winter is here.

I know one thing I am getting dd for her upcoming birthday, but I see I need to order it now in order for her to get it around her birthday. She loves to do puzzles and so I'm going to have one made from all the pictures she shares of one of their hikes. Now I just need to go through her pictures and pick one.

It's grocery day

Plans for today are going to pick up a grocery order at Walmart this afternoon. It's been 3 weeks already since our last trip. My fridge is showing it, haha. Very little to be had in there. I opted for an hour earlier pickup then the last 2 times we went on a Saturday afternoon. I wasn't planning on us needing to stop anywhere else this time, but dang - Walmart keeps showing ALL eggs out of stock. How can they be out of stock of every brand of eggs? I was hoping that when I checked again this morning, while there is still time to add to my order, the issue would have been fixed. So, now I either need to go inside Walmart and see if they really do have eggs I can buy, or stop at at different store.

We have to go into the city again next Friday, for dh's doctor appointment, that is at 1pm. Since I have the day off work, I'll be in no rush to get right back home to work, so I plan to have us stop (probably Walmart as they typically have the best price) for frozen turkeys. And since I'll be at a store, I'm going to buy a couple more milks and bread and another gallon or two of the Milos sugar free sweet tea dh likes to drink. 

Speaking of turkeys. Over the years I have tried the cheaper store brand type frozen turkeys (usually because they were free with a min purchase) and I have also tried Butterball and Jenni-O, which I have been buying the last several years now. I'm not sure I'm noticing/remembering any difference from these higher priced turkeys and the store brand. Anyone with experience with that? I do remember last year (Thanksgiving I think) dh said the turkey was a little dry (it was a Jenni-O turkey). So, which is better or does it even make much difference?

Last night for dinner I ended up making some ham, turkey and cheese sliders. This time I only did half the amount of rolls and saved the other half of the Hawaiian rolls. We usually have half left, with the whole 12 pack and try to eat the rest as leftovers, but don't usually eat all of them. So, half will be how I make them from now on. When I buy the 12 pack of rolls, going forward I'll separate them in half to freeze. I have found the Walmart bakery 12 pack of Hawaiian rolls to be much better than the King's Hawaiian brand. They are much fresher and almost $1.50 cheaper.

I still plan to make the rice, chicken and veggies dish next but probably not until tomorrow night. We probably won't get back home until around 5 today, so once I find eggs (LOL) I'll likely be making scrambled eggs for dinner. I know it's going to be VERY hard for dh to not stop at Wendy's and get a burger....my guess is if he's feeling anything close to ok, he'll end up stopping. And then end up regretting it. He's been craving a burger for weeks now.

We've pretty much got a system down for loading up our Walmart order (because it's always large since we only go about every 3 weeks). We don't let the helper help, LOL. Our cooler isn't quite big enough, so dh has also been bringing this other (even smaller cooler). Well yesterday he decided let's try our much bigger cooler and the one we normally take. He has this bar thing going across the back of his pickup bed (covered with a canopy) and the 2 coolers fit right at the end, between the bar and the tailgate, so they won't slide around back there, coming home. Plus he was always putting both cooler back up in the back seat area, with all the other groceries, and just too crowded. Now he won't need to try to fit the coolers I filled up, while he was loading all the non-cold stuff, in the backseat anymore. This new plan should work better and I won't have to put as much stuff in cooler bags.

Once I add the cost of eggs, my grocery total will be $386. Usually at some point between our 3 week trips I have to get a few other things from town, totaling about $50 (mostly because the little store is so expensive to shop at). That puts us at about $625 a month for food, cleaning, paper and laundry products. I could reduce it, but in trying to eat healthier, better quality foods, some things I am willing to pay more on. I buy expensive milk and eggs. I typically buy organic produce. This order also includes 2 jugs of fabric softener, because there was $5 cashback on 2. These will last quite a long time.

This month will be extra due to buying 2 turkeys next week, but the turkey dinner will be lots of leftover meals, so I'm guessing my next order 3 weeks from now, will be more like $300.

Well, I need to get down to our mailbox. I wrote a nasty letter to Dell's corporate headquarters. I'm sure it's futile, but maybe someone there will read it and get a piece of my mind.

Friday and November

It's Friday again, and November, already. I've been sitting here at my computer for about 45 minutes and suddenly realized I'm cold. I forgot to turn the heat up upstairs! Usually, I do it (from my phone) when I am making my coffee. First I had a little bit of research to do for my side job. I found the info (an old account number) they are looking for, in one of my saved files on my computer.

Still having to make bland meals for dh. This is hard. We had gone grocery shopping just before he got sick and stocked up on all our usual food, which almost all of it hasn't gotten eaten. We had even gone to Costco and a few things for the freezer, that have gone untouched. I don't know how bland it was, but I used up some chicken/pasta/broccoli stuff that comes frozen in a bag. There was enough left for one meal, so got that used up. Mostly I've been making him scrambled eggs for dinner. But, as of yesterday, I'm down to 2 eggs (he likes 3 scrambled) so I used one egg and made pancakes for dinner last night. I also made up pancakes with the rest of the batter and froze them. I'll give them a try, reheating in the microwave, one of these days.

I don't know what I'm making for dinner tonight. Tomorrow we are going to pick up an order at Walmart. I'm making sure to get lots of eggs (my one lone hen isn't laying now anymore, shorter days of sunlight, I guess). I need to come up with some other "bland" type meals, but I really have no ideas. I tried just baking some chicken (seasoned with a little olive oil and salt and pepper) but he didn't seem to like that much. I thought it was really good. I do have an old recipe I haven't made in awhile, with chicken, rice and mixed veggies, just a casserole style dish. If I can remember to take out some chicken to thaw when I go downstairs next, that would be good for dinner tonight.

All dh's ER visit bills have now been processed by insurance (and now just co-insurance owing). I'll need more detail (they haven't posted the actual EOB yet) as I'm trying to figure out what radiology he had twice...he's got 2 identical bills from an imaging company and the hospital charges are showing 2 large bills for radiology. He only had the one cat scan, as far as I know. I'm sure it's all correct, but I will go over it all to make sure, when I can see all the details. I'm sure the radiology charges are related to the one cat scan but they just break it up into separate charges for whatever was done.

It was snowing a little when I got up yesterday morning and we had deer in the back

My boss talked me into also just taking the Monday off before Christmas. Of course she did, LOL. So, between Thanksgiving and New Years I will end up with a total of 3 weeks off work (though almost half of it will be paid holidays, as my company is generous with the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas eve and the day after Christmas, and also adds in New Years eve as a paid holiday, along with the 3 main days of holidays.