zestfive | Reading

I got a face full of dog when they decided that I should get up. Gracie needed to pee but used the litter box in there. That works.

Well crap. The return label for the laptop isn’t printing. I just ordered new ink. Maybe I should stop at Staples today and also get more and return it tomorrow.

Gracie has figured out how to go upstairs! But she hasn’t figured out how to get downstairs, so I had to carry her downstairs. She and Bella swapped food again. Oh hell, she went upstairs again. I think that I’ll wait until after my shower to bring her down because Bella scratched my legs when I brought her down. But wait, I was going to wear shorts. Hmm. I threw some jeans in the wash. Oliver stuck his claw in my leg, so I removed him.

Whenever I go to South Carolina, I’d also like to go to Asheville in North Carolina. I found a senior living place that I’d like to check out.

Nap time. Woke up a little before my alarm. Gracie figured out how to get downstairs.

My massage was very nice (hot stone this time, which helps unlock my muscles). Whatever part she hadn’t rubbed yet felt tense. I was good and relaxed when she was done. She invited me to use the new sauna, but I said that I had errands to run. I forgot that it was 1.5 hours, so I didn’t make it to the UPS store. Plus, I was very hungry. I’ll go tomorrow. Stopped at Steak and Shake for a bite to eat. Got printer’s ink at Best Buy. Bought two more lamb toys at PetSmart so that Bella and Gracie each can have one (although I could see Bella trying to take them both). I also bought cat ball toys that probably will get stepped on. Went to Prairie Gardens and bought a Boston Fern for my porch, two enormous spider plants for the kitchen, and two more coneflowers. All were on sale.

Bella and Gracie were thrilled that I came home. Gracie is now taking the stairs upstairs and downstairs like a champ.

Fed us all. I have the shakes. Placed a grocery order for tomorrow.

Oh hell. I didn’t get the mail, which has Bella and Gracie’s new collars, but I don’t want to go back out in the heat.

I’m thinking of going to bed REALLY early to get up in the cool morning. I really want to weed and plant tomorrow. And drop my returns off in the afternoon. And maybe go to the other garden shop.

I don't know why Semagic keeps saying that my DW password is invalid.

susandennis

Volleyball was fine. Elbow coffee was fine. And now the rest of the day is mine which is VERY fine.

Dick and Jan (the new peops) were at elbow coffee this morning. They actually, officially, move in on Monday. The California king bed that they have slept on for years will not fit into their new bedroom so they are bed shopping. They said that the bad new is their bed won't fit but the good news is that Dick has now shrunken in his old age and he fits on a regular king which does fit! So win. They are a cute couple.

I got an email from Microsoft that they wanted $20 for another year of One Drive. Nope. After the password debacle, I'm over you, Microsoft. Plus, I pay for storage on my web site host so I'll just pop important stuff there. Mail is already copied so all I really need is the stuff on my Google Drive. Which is 23 4GB zip files. I was going to download them all and then upload them all but why? cheaper and easier just to plop them onto an external drive that I already have. So that's the plan.

I also figured out how to get Apple TV without fighting Apple. Somehow my Apple TV account got hosed and Apple won't let me back in. NFW am I going to call them which is my only option. BUT! Prime Video let's me subscribe through them AND they are having a sale. Win win.

Where there's a will...

My foot is far less purple and not nearly as hurty today. I did not even think about it while playing volleyball. And neither one of my feet or ankles are even remotely swollen. Nice.

There is stuff around here (Timber Ridge) that bugs me. Food stuff, services, stuff, options stuff. Having Scott and Julie around to point out all the marvelous thing here, has led me to rethink. I agree with them both that this place is lovely and impressive and comfortable and caring and a great place for me to live. But, I forget all of that when they replace french fries at lunch with fucking tater tots. Or they change the package receiving system so that I can't get my packages in a timely fashion. And then I tend to focus solely on the bits that are annoying.

I have two packages, neither of which is critical and one is a jacket I can't even wear til fall. I have a photo of the package being received so I'm fairly certain it won't get lost in the waiting. I have a lot of french fries in the freezer.

So what remains is training myself to NOT focus on the annoying bits. I think I can do that and that's today's project. I was going to do laundry but that will be tomorrow. In my fridge, for lunch I have fixin's for BLT's and two fried chicken thighs and one whole hot dog with chopped onions and potato salad. I'm not going to be hurting for meals anytime soon.

I having knitting to do and baseball to watch. And I might even watch some Wimbledon.

In 1985, I got to go to Wimbledon with my mother. My father gave her the trip for Christmas and then, at the last minute, could not go (union problems at work) and she asked me if I wanted to. ER.... yes!! We had a great time but it was, that year, the hottest Wimbledon on record. We fried our asses just sitting there moving our heads back and forth. I understand they are celebrating this 20th anniversary with even hotter weather. But, alas, without us.

I will be here in the cool, apartment remembering.

bill_schubert

There's a music group by that name. Texas Flood. True Texas rock and roll.

But today it is where we are rather than someone playing guitar. The floods down south have worked their way up here. We are perfectly safe. The summer after we moved into this house it rained like this and flooded all around so I know we are not in a dangerous place. But not so much for new houses down the valley from us. I tried to get a picture this morning of the South Fork of the San Gabriel river. It has, as they say, spilled its banks.

About 15 years ago it rained like it is now. It was June and It just kept coming. I used to ride my bike on the back roads around here and frequented one that cut across the river in a couple of places, low water crossings. After the rains the Georgetown lake backed up 15 miles or so and the water that I was riding across when it was dribbling slowly over the crossing was now at a high water mark of 20 or so feet up the trees on it's bank. The whole valley below us was flooded. It was pretty amazing to see and note after it had receeded by the remnants on the trees.

I don't think we're going to be near that now but it is trying hard. A couple of more days with rain like this morning would do it. Our back yard is typically dry but we are downhill from the rest of the houses on our street and next to a storm drain that has, apparently, backed up.

I'm listening to a pretty serious rumble of thunder that is rolling down the valley just like the river so we might not be done yet.

Earlier I drove down to get some bagels and crossed over the San Gabriel. I've been watching for the past year or so as they built a development on the banks of the river remembering, as I do, that the water had flooded up those very banks not so long ago. It has not reached the lower houses yet but I suspect the people in them are reviewing their flood insurance or, more likely, their lack of it.

I was going to write more but this computer is too slow and stops when I start to type at times so rather than do something with it I'll regret, I'll stop.

fflo

author_by_night

The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.

I posted about this on tumblr, but I've said in the past that I don't really care about romantic storylines. Except I've come to realize, that's not true at all. There have been a lot of pairings I've loved, both in canon and in fanfiction. (Sometimes more in one than the other.)

Since this is meant to be a positive entry, I'll focus on what I love in my romantic pairings. I love seeing two people working together - perhaps in the sense that they're coworkers or have intersecting jobs, perhaps in the sense that they have a common mission, be it something major or minor. I love when the story is less about whether or not they'll be together, and more about what happens once they are. I love seeing them connect with one another's friends and family. I love seeing them help each other be their best selves. I love when conflict isn't about whether or not they "truly" love each other, but how new information or a miscommunication has - temporarily - rocked the boat. I love physicality. The way they hug and kiss, the way they move together, in a natural tandem.

Don't get me wrong - I'm here for some UST and other things you often see. I love a little drama. :P I just prefer all of that as the starting point, and I lose interest if it drags out for too long. I love even more when none of that happens, and the couple just... comes into being.

days_unfolding

Some idiot was setting off loud fireworks at midnight. The dogs took it surprisingly calmly. They were barking at something though.

Woke up at 7 AM. I stayed up late reading a book about The Big Bang Theory.

Hmm. It’s supposed to be really hot today. Not sure what to do. Sunday, it’ll be cooler but it’s going to rain.

Nap time. Gracie is barking at nothing in particular. The dog waste people are here. Bella, Gracie, and Oliver are all snoozing.

Had a nice nap and then ate lunch. Shower time. I’m getting a headache though, so maybe I need to lie down? Bella and Gracie were wrestling, so I escorted Gracie out.

My headache is gone and I want to get up, but Oliver is sleeping in the crook of my legs. Now he’s awake.

I ordered some Blue Sage and purple Coneflowers. I need to remember to pick them up on campus on Wednesday.

I started cleaning off my old laptop by copying files to a hard drive. Salt and Light refurbishes old computers and gives them to people in need, so I’ll donate this one.

Showered. I have Lily on my lap. I explained to her that it’s too early to eat, and she left.

Ugh. 92F/33C, feels like 97F/36C. No. I need to get to bed early (no reading!) and get outside early tomorrow and Sunday. Though I was going to go to the Unitarian church on Sunday. Took the dogs out and yes, it’s hot.

Got my new cool sheets on the bed, with a lot of hassle from two dogs and a cat. I lost my temper a little bit. But the duvet cover has beige stripes rather than gray ones, so I want to exchange it for one that matches the sheets. Contacted them.

My new laptop is updating. However, I accidentally bought two of them, so I'm returning the other one. I need to package it up tonight to drop at the UPS store tomorrow.

What now. I need to feed the critters and myself (done). Watered the garden.

Bella chewed up my external hard drive. I love that dog, but damn. I ordered a new one. Meanwhile, I'm recovering my files and downloading them.

I have Semagic installed on the new computer, but I'm having problems getting it to work with DW. I'm going to give up for tonight. I'm tired.

fflo

susandennis

Years and years and years ago, the Vietnamese War killed my patriotism. I was in college. My friends were being drafted to go over and get killed. Then, an hour from my college, the National Guard fired guns at the students at Kent State. And that was the final blow.

I could have - maybe should have - left but never even seriously considered it. I got a little hopeful when Obama was elected but, of course, that's been squashed.

So celebrating the birth of this ugly political pit is not something I gravitate to. Red White and Blue represents stupid old white guys who make ridiculous decisions.

Yes, I have enjoyed the fruits of those stupid white guy decisions and I get the irony but I still hate all patriotic holidays and the crap that goes with them. So... today will be a Friday for me.

New menu day and the last week of my meal month so I need to eat up whatever they are serving. Scott and Julie helped this month so it's not so much of a scramble.

My foot is a little better. It's no longer bruised looking from the shot so there's that. I still have another shot to go but that's not til August. I've been watching my ankles and they are weird. One day they are huge and the next they are back down to normal, lather rinse repeat. I'm now taking an embarrassing number of pills each day. 1 for cholesterol, 2 for high blood pressure, COQ 10, vitamin D, AREDS2, now an allergy pill and one for my feet. That's 8 every morning and another AREDS2 at night. AND I'm healthy! (Oh and the allergy pills are working again so whew!)

Baseball starts at 10 today. And I might do some laundry or not. My little UPS shop is closed but I have nothing to return today anyway.

days_unfolding

Well, this was a quick walk. Bella wanted to play but Gracie didn’t, so she decided to come inside.

Turned the dryer on but forgot it was on the dewrinkle setting, so I’m going to take my shower at lunch after the clothes are dry. Napped a little.

Bella and Gracie swapped food again. Clearly the other one is getting the better food.

Napped over lunch. I had to remove Gracie because she and Bella were squabbling over the lamb toy. (Bella is more restful to sleep with.)

We were let out of work early for the holiday weekend. Popped into the shower.

My therapist wants me to ask my psychiatrist about my feeling lethargic. And she wants me to talk to my primary physician about a CPAP. (I had gotten one, but that was right when my mom died, and I couldn't deal with it.) We also talked about my going to the Unitarian Church, and she said that I just needed to ask a few questions and let people talk. We commiserated about the time of the church service though--10:30 on Sunday. My therapist said that she isn't dressed before noon, and I agreed with that statement. She also said to look for evening events held by the church.

I fell down a rabbit hole trying to find out when I created my Gmail account. I finally found the answer through trial and error.

Fed us all. Bella was trying to "forget" that she’s not supposed to eat the cats’ food. I told her that nothing had changed even though we now have Gracie.

Hmm. I’m wondering if I should get a “dog backpack” so that Bella could carry her own food when we camp.

Dozed lightly. The dogs are crashed out.

I’m thinking that I should get ready for bed and go to sleep early. I want to get outside to weed in the morning. Do I want to go to the fireworks show in Champaign tomorrow? Parking will be a bitch. No, I should stay home with the dogs and cats because they won't like the noise.

Got my ReMarkable tablet set up and planner pages loaded. I think that it will be a help.

Bella knocked into my laptop and the track ball went who-knows-where. I went into Zara's room to grab the trackball there. She seems to be feeling much better, is staying visible, and was loving me up. Good to see.

I should feed the beasts and go to sleep.

bill_schubert

I buy coffee from a company by the name of Fara. It is an Austin roaster that gets the coffee I like from Nicarauga. For the past few years I've been waiting until they have a sale of 20% and buying 10 pounds of beans at a time. Costs about $80. Free shipping.   If Amazon carries it (and now always) it costs $100 for 10 pounds and free shipping.

This is the one area that I can say the tarrifs have screwed us. Coffee has gotten more expensive and they no longer offer 20% off. And today it is not even available on Amazon.

But maybe it is getting a bit better. They had a 15% off offer to celebrate the 4th. Good a reason as any. I bought my usual 10 pounds and was happy to have the choice.

Meanwhile, even as I write this, I'm wondering if I need something different. I don't mind the Chrome but the graphics of this mini are so slow there is a very discernable and annoying lag in loading pages. Enough that I'd rather use my phone for some things. I think the combination of having only 4GB of RAM and running a Celeron means things just run slowly. I opened the diag app and it shows most of my RAM being used and about half of my CPU and I'm not doing much.

Five days until Amazon Prime Days so I'll likely just spend the time looking at choices. I think the Asus is what I want but I need more RAM and a faster processor. The price is a couple of hundred bucks more but will be worth it. We'll see what the prices look like when the sale starts.

Dana had her CT this morning. So nice that things moved fast. The results are already in and she does not seem to have any infection but has some pockets of fluid that might be three different things. They have to aspirate to find out. Pro: No major infection noted. Con: they need to aspirate. And we're still not certain. But it is progress. The doc put in a referral to 'interventional radiology' so they can do the aspiration. And we have a prescription for some high falutin antibiotics. All good and all moving forward.

And ALL BEFORE the long weekend. Typically Dana has some major thing on a Friday late or over the weekend on a long weekend. So this is a plus to have things moving before the weekend.

We have a wonderful doc who finally got, I think, fed up with the emails going back and forth and decided to jump in. So nice.

susandennis

Before I even moved in here, one of the things highest on my list was a built in ironing board. We found a couple that just weren't right and we never found a place to put it and I gave up. I tried living with a little one that you sit on the counter but it was a fail. Then I bought a small apartment sized one and last week, one of the cats knocked it over and mayhem ensued.

Turns out what I really wanted was an always available ironing situation. In the condo, I had an ironing station always at the ready. I hate to iron so just walking up and turning on the iron, doing the deed and walking away was perfect and what I wanted here.

After the flying ironing board incident, I spied an option. My closet is huge by Closets I Have Had In The Past standards but it's also pretty full but there was a spot...

So I ordered this.

It arrived today. The instructions were not too specific and the bits were not totally labeled and so the project was a bit bigger than I expected but I managed it. (Thank you, me, for that more powerful cordless drill you finally bought not long ago. You rock.)

And now it has a home.

It came with a door but I thought that was unnecessary. I already ironed a shirt that got wadded up in the last laundry. Turned on the iron, rolled out the board, did the deed, rolled it back. Done. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

And I'm quite delighted.

fflo

susandennis

Turns out my foot hurts far less than yesterday UNLESS I'm bouncing on it in the pool. And then, OMG! So I played with one leg and the ouchy foot tucked behind the good leg's knee. That was an experience. It's really hard and after 2 hours I think my back is going to be pissed tomorrow. But I was really surprised when I got out and started walking - it didn't really hurt at all. The 48 hours of pain expire in 4 hours. I'm counting.

And in other good volleyball news, the asshole is gone for a month. It was so lovely this morning without him. I'm going to enjoy July.

2025 is half done today.

AND today is the day I brought Biggie and The Smalls home from the shelter in 2019.

I got an interesting email from Gmail today. It said it was getting ready to close out an old email address of mine for lack of activity. So I thought I'd see if I could resurrect it. I have a giant fear of Google blocking my account. It happened once. I don't remember why. It was years ago and I finally managed to snag the helpful eye of a googler on Twitter who got me back on track. But, since then, I've lived with the fear. That first time, I was unable to come up with a former password or the date I opened the account which were two bits they wanted to prove I was me. Once I got back in, I captured that data and put it into an Outlook email account.

This morning I was interested in pulling the thread on this 'new' email account and seeing if I could get back in. It did ask for a former password and I typed one in that it did not reject. Then it wanted the email address I was using for backup. That took 2 tries. Then it wanted a phone number to text. But, once I got that far, it let me reset the password and BOOM I was in. Cool. Turned out I opened the account in 2005 and looks like I last touched it in 2006. And, shockingly, there were only 300 junk emails. So that now you can easily run multiple Gmail addresses in chrome, I think I'm going to start using it for storing misc bits.

So then I remembered I had not backed up the database that holds my notes. So I did that - which goes to email so then I decided to check and make sure it went to my backup email. All of the mail that comes into my main Gmail account automatically also gets sent to my backup account. So I went to Outlook and could not get in!! It let me reset my password but still would not let me in! so I noodled around a little and found a reddit thread about VPN which I do not use but it did lead me to try turning off wifi and using my cell data on my phone with a hot link to my Chromebook and BOOM! Microsoft is happy again. What a PIA. THEN I discovered remembered that because Microsoft is such a PIA, I had moved my backup email to me@susandennis.com which is over on my website hoster. So I go over there, log in and BOOM! There's all my email safely waiting for me and not connected to Google or Microsoft.

An interesting thread pulling for sure. But I do like that I finally got in everywhere and my stuff is safe.

All that thread pulling was time consuming. It's now 9:30 and I'm still in my robe from the pool. I need to make my daily run to UPS. I'd better get dressed first.

days_unfolding

Gracie, beauty consultant to the stars, is giving me the coveted dog-saliva facial. Ask your consultant about it today!

Woke up at 6 AM. My stomach is upset. I think that I’ll skip the dog training class tonight.

I'm feeling like crying for no good reason. I need to go downstairs to take my meds. I had a dream about how I was going to lose my job, but it was a different job. Honestly, I'm feeling at the end of my rope.

Okay, I got more caught up at work and feel a little better.

Gracie's spay is going to cost a lot. Oh well.

Oh, my antibiotic was delivered. So I just need to run out tonight and get the yogurt. Gracie was thrilled when I took her out to get the mail. so I need to take her for a walk. They seem to be getting a lot of exercise wrestling though! Bella is a tired pup! I placed an order for the yogurt (and some cat food).

I introduced Gracie to the neighbor. Gracie was barking, and I told her to stop, and he said that it was okay, dogs bark. He thought that she was a nice pup.

Oops, I missed a meeting at work.

I got my tablet. I have a lot that I want to get done this weekend, so maybe I should set it up tonight. I also need to set up the new laptop.

I got the estimate for the garage. It was around what I expected (around $25,000). So I think that I'll call him back on Monday and say "okay".

I found an antitheft purse on Magellan's site in which the tablet will probably fit. I need to measure it to be sure. I found a travel bag with pockets for a water bottle AND an umbrella, so I’ll probably get that instead.

Fed us all. Got the recycling out. I’ve got the ReMarkable Paper Pro charging. I’m not sure what to do now. I guess that I’ll post. I need to stay up until my grocery order comes a little after 9 PM.

bill_schubert

The little Chrome mini Asus is not the same as my PC. But I got a near top of the line workstation when I got my Lenovo and then added ram and a faster solid state drive. Alas the security architecture was not up to Win 11 standards.

This Celeron mini is not the same. I think it is mostly in the graphics which would make sense. Without looking I'm sure it has a graphics chip that is OK by normal standards but is not quick by my PC standards so there is a lag when I open something. I'll get used to it. Not like I need speed for any reason. And nearly everything I need is the same as I was already using so no real function change.

My IT friend gave me a monitor he had sitting around but the plug is display port and the mini only has one display port available currently in use. So I need an adapter HDMI to display port. I got one from Amazon same day and, of course, it was male to female rather than the other way round. I'm out of practice so I didn't notice. New one ordered will be here tomorrow. Then I'll be back going with two monitors and will be much happier. Once I have that I'll pull everything apart and assemble it neatly and run the wires right and make it pretty. Then I'll be even happier.

Dana's infection looks a bit worse today but we now have a plan. Her normal care physician called us this afternoon and we mulled over the options. She created a referral for a CT scan so we can see that there is or is not infection and if so it is 1 - surface and skin and muscle or 2 - progressed to the bone. That latter one is a possibility that we're not going to deal with at the moment. If the former then we're starting, tomorrow, an antibiotic that should fix the problem. I think it is possible that she's had the infection now since her original surgery and it is just hanging on. She had a reaction to the antibiotic they were giving her and they just stopped rather than try something else. She is sensitive to a lot of the antibiotic choices so it is hard to find one that doesn't cause a problem.

I feel like we at least have a plan and some momentum.

Meanwhile she's moving pretty well. She cleaned out the flower beds today and was proud of herself. She'll be iced and hurting tomorrow but it was good for her to accomplish something physical without too much pain.

I played pickleball and will take a couple of days off again this week. Probably will bike around some tomorrow but mostly rest and enjoy Wimbledon.

susandennis

It is rare that I complain about cold - especially in Summer but... Our Safeway thinks it's in the center of the Arizona desert at noon. Holy fuck. I have heard enough TV weather people explain what happens when cold air hits hot to wonder why it's not pour rain at the Safeway door.

Turned in two shoe returns at UPS. Picked up a new pair from the Amazon lockers. They are too short. So my daily trips to UPS continue.

My cortisone foot is hard to walk on. I need it volleyball ready tomorrow. But, actually, I could play volleyball on one foot so no big deal.

My brother told me to watch Dept Q on Netflix. It was very good instruction. Great acting, great plot, good visuals and, honestly, I'm wallowing in this delicious Scottish accent.

I'm working on a test ghost to go with my pumpkin head guy for Halloween shelf giveaways.

susandennis

My foot (the shot one) was fine until I stepped on it wrong this morning and now it is very ouchy BUT Dr. Google says this is totally normal and to be expected and should fade away in 48 hours. Meanwhile I should avoid strenuous exercise. Since I have approximately 76 years experience in avoiding strenuous exercise, I'm feeling that won't be an issue.

The laundry is laundrying.

When I finish this, I'm off to UPS to return two pairs of shoes. And then to Safeway for sour cream. And that is my entire to-do list for the day! Retirement rocks.

All my life I've had a large trash bin in the kitchen. So when I moved in here, I got a cheap plastic one and tucked it into a cabinet in the island. Last week, I realized I was running out of bags and thot, hmmm, is this the best solution? The trash shoot is less than 20 steps down the hall. Do I need to keep a dumpster in here? In internetted the shit out of the situation and decided to try a new scheme. I found a 2.5 gallon thing that clips over the cupboard door. (I found lots that clipped over the cupboard door but they were all tiny.) I took the gynormous one out and clipped on the littler one and I love it!!! It's so easy. And now everything goes in first off instead of accumulating on the island like it had been. Glorious little solutions.

The window shade guy says he needs to order new valence pieces and then his installer will come out and fix. No discussion about who pays. I think I know the answer but I'll be interested to hear if his guess is as good as mine. At least it will get fixed and better this time. Just this morning I looked up and saw this:

Not a huge deal but sloppy and easily seen from this table.

My mysterious Amazon package yesterday was drugs. I'd forgotten that I ordered refills. My toe drug arrives tomorrow but today I have new shoes coming.

I would be happy if rain would not wash out my baseball today. And percentages say it won't.

Ok. Time to hit the road (not vigorously - see paragraph above).

keplers_angels

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

days_unfolding

I went back to sleep this morning. So tired.

I think that Gracie is teaching Bella to bark. She’s small but feisty. I think that she’s the "top dog" of the pack despite her size!

I’m having the antibiotic delivered. I just need to buy some probiotic yogurt.

Gracie had her first vet appointment. She was pronounced healthy and "stinking cute". They think that she might be part beagle; in which case, she might not get much larger than she is now. They think that she's six-to-eight months old because her adult teeth are in. We have an appointment to get her spayed in two weeks. Bella had to give Gracie the once-over :)

I'm wondering if I should get a reMARKable tablet and electronic planner. It would be great to store notes there. It would be great for trips. Maybe I'll check it out at Best Buy tonight. Well, no I'm not going to return the shoes tonight. I'm going to practice dog training stuff with Bella. But Amazon has it on sale with a leather cover for the same price as it's at Best Buy without one, so I'll probably get it. Now I’m looking for a purse that will hold the tablet.

Took a short nap. The dogs are flaked out.

Work is being a pain. Some of my files are now read-only, and I needed to edit them. Sigh. Then Access was being temperamental. I hate Annual Stats time. And people were bugging me about getting things done even though I had computer issues. I was posting my status! Leave me alone!

Bella had a roll of toilet paper that she’s shredding, and Gracie is trying to get it away from her. I don’t approve of shredded toilet paper, but the tug-of-war is kind of funny. Oh, and Bella stole Gracie’s lamb toy.

Hmm. I’m thinking of getting up early to work with Bella on dog training stuff. I’m tired and cranky right now and need my patience. I guess that I’ll feed everyone now (done), get the garbage out (done), and post my data to the Web.

Hmm. The Gracie Project might be backfiring. Bella is trying to play with Oliver as if he was Gracie, and he doesn’t like it.

I’m looking into farm stands here. There’s a place that sells different types of cheeses, and I’m looking at a fresh baguette, cheese, and honey combo. And you can volunteer to feed baby goats! Oh! They have a CSA where you can get fresh bread and cheese weekly! I’m so there! There also is a farmers’ market nearby on Saturdays and a little farther away on Tuesdays. I should stop by.

I ordered a ceiling fan for the bedroom. Oh, and I got the new cool bedding, but I might wait until tomorrow to put it on.

I’m crazy tired, so I’m going to post and go to bed. I should have time on the morning to post my data as well as work with Bella.

fauxklore

1. Do you have any piercings? When did you get them? I have no piercings. Nor do I have any interest in getting any.

2. What is the longest you've had a "borrowed" item but not been able to return it? Why not? No idea. I may have kept some item of jewelry I borrowed from my mother until after her death.

3. Consider some of the parents others had growing up. What type of person would you be if you had those situations? I think my parents were, in general, less strict than many of the other adults in our neighborhood. I think if I’d had some of our neighbors as parents, I wouldn’t have been able to go into the city alone as a teenager, for example. And I suspect I wouldn’t have been able to read some of the books that my parents had out openly on their shelves.

4. What about a goal makes you most likely to procrastinate? I’m most likely to procrastinate on things I’m not sure I can actually accomplish. There’s a thin line between fear of failure and fear or success.

5. What tempted me today? I don’t know what tempted you. But I was tempted to go back to sleep.

6. If you could learn any new language, which one would you choose and why? I’ve started doing Korean on Duolingo, with the aim of being able to read local signs in Hangul. Korean syntax is very confusing to me.

7. What’s one place that you would like to visit but never will? Why will you never go there? I wouldn’t say never, but I think it’s unlikely that I will ever make it to North Korea.

8. If you could be a color what would it be? Why? I am rather partial to teal.

9. Describe a babysitting experience you have had. I didn’t babysit frequently. There was one boy on our block who pretty much every girl babysat for once. Exactly once, because he was a total brat.

10. Have you actively changed your habits and behaviors to help the environment? What kinds of things do you do? The most obvious thing here is that I’ve gotten quite good about bringing my own bags when I go grocery shopping.

11. Who is a friend you haven't seen for a long time but would like to see. I just mentioned to another friend recently that it’s been ages since I’ve seen Frances.

12. What is your favorite month? Why? September, because that’s when my birthday is. And the weather is usually nice in most places.

13. What would happen if animals could talk? What are some of the questions you would like to ask animals? It depends on what kind of animal we’re considering. Cats are intelligent, but I doubt they’d converse about much other than food. I think that bears might have deep thoughts. The most tedious animals to talk with would obviously be elephants.

14. What does self-care mean to you? What are you fav ways to practice self care? How are these activities fulfilling to you? How can you prioritize self care more? Self-care means finding ways to find soothing and satisfaction without depending on other people for those. Reading and listening to music are high up on my self-care activities.

15. Do you have any food intolerances or allergies? I’m lactose intolerance, but not severely and, with the help of lact-aid, can handle reasonable amounts of gelato.

16. What in life gets you really excited? Traveling and crafts projects.

17. How would things change if you were okay disappointing others? I generally don’t really worry about disappointing other people. However, I try to avoid disappointing myself.

18. Whenever you order from a certain restaurant, do you have a specific thing you order each time? Do you always order something new? It’s somewhere in between. There’s a Thai restaurant I go to somewhat regularly and I tend to get the same appetizer all the time, but order different entrees.

19. What age would you consider the prime of life? Why? I have particularly good memories of my early 40’s.

20. Something new you’d like to try? I’ve seen a couple of interesting crochet stitches I’d like to try, e.g. cat stitch.

21. Milk chocolate or dark chocolate? Dark chocolate is my usual preference.

22. Have you ever played ice hockey? Do you know how to ice skate? I have no interest in playing ice hockey. Having had to play field hockey in elementary school was bad enough. I went ice skating a few times in elementary school, but I was never any good at it.

23. How did you meet your first boyfriend or girlfriend? It depends on how you define “first boyfriend.” The first boy who kissed me was someone I met at summer camp. But the person I consider my first real boyfriend, a categorization based largely on our level of sexual experimentation, I met as a teenager (10th grade if I recall correctly) at the Saturday science program I went to at Columbia University.

24. If you could build a car customized just for you, what would it contain? I am really boring when it comes to cars. I do admit that I like the idea of heated seats in the winter.

25. What was the first thing that you did when you got your driver's license? Rent a car on a trip to Los Angeles.

26. What is your strongest memory, as a child, of your parents and what were you all doing at the time? There are a lot of things I could choose, but I think the most interesting one was the family music nights we used to have. We’d all gather around Dad’s reel-to-reel tape recorder and sing and play instruments. Both my brother and I played the piano and I was the designated accompanist for my grandfather when he sang Yiddish songs. My mother was learning to play folk guitar from a program on PBS and we all sang along with her. Dad used to say that we had a very musical family and what he played was the hi-fi. Sadly, those old tapes were lost to eternity many years ago.

27. What music makes you want to get up and dance? Ther’s lots of music that falls into this category, but no single song encapsulates it as much as “Johnie Can’t Dance” by Wayne Toups and Zydecajun. Other possibilities include “L’Oranguta” by Pepe and the Bottle Blondes, “”Desi Girl” (from the Bollywood movie “Dostana,”), "La Bamba" by Richie Valens, and “I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar” by Jonathan Richman. Oh, and let’s not forget “Rock Lobster” by the B-52’s.

28. How has your upbringing, education, and environment affected your beliefs about money and wealth? I always understood that what is important is how you use your money to support what is most important to you. For example, my father sat down with me to help me make a budget when I started college.

29. What gives you confidence and why? It’s hard to say this without sounding arrogant, but I love getting positive feedback. There’s nothing quite like being told I’m really good at something.

30. Tell about a cultural clash/experience you have had with a culture other than your own. There are a lot of these since I’m part of a minority culture. One recent example that comes to mind is that I had a discussion with somebody who was complaining about not having been invited to a wedding rehearsal, which is something completely alien to me because it isn’t something Jewish people do.

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Life is an adventure

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