Things feel chaotic.  While one thing gets checked off five more get added to the list.  I wrapped a ton of the gifts I have here and then my favorite egg brought some he got for the girl child, unwrapped.  C'mon man.  Never mind the gifts that I haven't gotten yet; I'm running out of time.

We did get down to the Canonsburg Old Time Christmas celebration this past weekend; just kiddo and I since I noticed her bestie had already gone the night before.  We also made a cheater batch of peanut butter cookies yesterday -- they'll never make it to Christmas, can I still call them Christmas cookies?

I got the Christmas cards ready too.  I want to take them to the post office and verify that they don't need extra postage - call me paranoid - or they'd already be out the door.  Maybe this is a good excuse to go get fish fry from the Italian Club on Friday and pop into the Muse post office!

I also decorated the half bathroom mirror so it is festive in there - even if it is out of service.  In theory the new flapper will arrive today or tomorrow.  It is absolutely ridiculous how often I have to replace gut parts in toilets in this house.

Today was a holy day.  Our church has reduced the number of masses after one our priests passed away.  The 7am was too awkward of a time w/ the bus etc and the 6pm was out if we're hitting jiu jitsu, so I had to run to the furthest church at 12:15 today - and it was paaaacked.  After I checked off another to do, swinging into the engraving/embroidery place to get kiddo's swim parka embroidered.  Of course, they can't get it done by Christmas, go figure.  How do people who always wait until the last minute get anything done for Christmas?

The container that holds the bulk of the Christmas decorations is still sitting in my kitchen.  I want to pull more stuff out from the wall in the basement and sort/remove things before I take that back down, but dang it, it's in the way.

I needed this pseudo vacation.  4 days went pretty quick. Granted, I worked for a few hours on Thursday morning, but that allowed me to get a few things done that required the focus I can't get on a normal work day with all of the calls and chat messages.  We went to my favorite egg's aunt/uncles for Thanksgiving about an hour away.  There was a bit of black ice etc around the area.  We made it home without incident, but did pass a fresh hot mess of an accident.  My take for this event was a broccoli salad (since his one aunt that normally makes it wasn't coming) and a cheesy crab dip (which turned out really yummy).

Friday I spent the morning working to clean upstairs (bathrooms and vacuum) and in my bedroom.  I gathered a few things to get rid of, sorted through the gifts that I've bought thus far, and wrapped a majority of them.  We then ran out to make the remainder of the payment on Avery's second year of jiu jitsu/muay thai with their seasonal "deals" on pre-pay.  We watched a movie, had some hot cocoa, and just relaxed.

Saturday we relaxed at a local coffee shop in town and then popped into the library to get the girl more reading material.  Today I got busy downstairs pulling everything out at the front of the living room to vacuum and clean before putting up the tree.  Avery picked to put it in the living room this year rather than the entry hall, which I support so I don't have to move my antique table out there.  I also started filling out the envelopes on my Christmas cards.  I need another 4 days to get other things off of my to do lit.

I want to get up to the mall again to visit with Santa, but I am dreading how busy it will be.  We need to make some Christmas cookies too - that is the best to do, with a built in reward.

The end of November already and I'm so not ready for the holidays.  I'll also freely admit that I've been fighting the non-festive feelings that comes with the holidays a bit early this year.  I'm good, don't worry, just saying the bits of sadness exist.

I'm not going to get gifts I want/can use unless I order them myself; I'm struggling to come up with a gift idea that will make the kid light up (my greatest desire), and I really don't want to do the pile of other gift buying/wrapping and going to gathering after gathering.  I miss having the holidays with Mom.  While I enjoy every moment with the girl I already lament that one day she'll move on and who knows what the holidays will be like then.  I remember like a fresh would a super hard holiday season many many years ago--I recognize if things didn't go the way they did I wouldn't have what I have and I would suffer it all again for her.  I miss living somewhere that I had friends, even if it was rare that there was time that worked out to hang out with them.  Even so, sadness.

Some of it I think comes from the moments where you see yourself getting old.  When work announces two meetings for retirement planning, one for people that are new to mid career and one for people that are in late career, it hits you a bit, especially when they confirm---based on age---that you should attend the later.  When the acid reflux continues to linger, the sinus issues that persist for almost a month turn into a cough (again), when the shooting pain starts in your left shoulder again (after you suffered through that shoulder also freezing last year), when you find a cyst-like bump on your elbow (and admit you watch too much Dr. Pimple Popper), when you see your eyelids starting to look like they're viable for hood surgery, when random pains strike in your feet, and don't forget those samples that had to be punched from your flesh, when your sight is still fuzzy when using your not very old bifocals., when you realize you need to think about a timeline where you'll need a house with less stairs someday.

Work has remained quite busy.  I find myself sympathizing with and recognizing the remarkable beauty of Phil's experience in Groundhog's Day.  We get things moving in the morning, I work, we run to swim or jiu jitsu, we eat, we ready for bed, and repeat.  Sprinkle in some time hanging out with the foster cats (yes, all three are still here).  This just means that precious time is slipping through my fingers.

Where did this year go?  Why and how did I allow myself to miss it?

Am I caught up?  I am not.  At least 2/3 deliveries have been achieved at work and I've gotten some fall decorations out in the house.  Along with that later activity I did a bit of cleaning, so that's a win too.

Avery has two half days to end the week, so I'll need to engage with her a bit after she rolls out of bed.  It's welcome, don't get me wrong -- I wish the third item was out the door so I could indulge and drop off early both days.  We will step out tomorrow for parent-teacher conferences.  I don't expect it to be a negative thing, but it's always nice to see and talk with her teachers.

Earlier this week I got new tires for the car and then drove across the street to their sister company for an alignment.  The car is officially old enough that something in there has given way and it isn't something that can be adjusted so something needed attached - toe joints or something?  Either way, that wasn't inexpensive, but it still is cheaper than a few months of a car payment.

I'm still waiting for the siding/trim guys to come.  We were on the schedule for last week but it needed to be pushed out to this week and I'm waiting for the call that they're coming.  That too will be a painful check to write, but it'll do good for the house -- and at least give me something to say I wisely did at the end of the year!  (Yes, I think about my end of year blog post to nudge me to get things done.)

Life remains crazy busy.  Tonight's swim practice was cancelled and kiddo wants to just stay home.  I'm here for it.  I told her we could light the fireplace and have some cocoa.  She doesn't have school tomorrow so she'll get a bit of a mini-vaca out of these little extras.

Me on the other hand, I have to work - all three of my tasks are pressing hard to get things delivered before the end of the month.  I'm fighting a sore back (not sure if I tweaked it or if it's understandable muscle tension) and my sinuses/head are doing the normal pressure change freak out.  At least the cold has come so we can expect a bit of allergy relief soon.  I even gave in and turned on the heat the other day.

I still don't have any Halloween out in the house.  If we get anything out I think I'll stick with the pumpkins and fall leaves so we can rock them through Tgiving.  Maybe a year off will reinvigorate me for the Halloween decorations I have.  Maybe there's something up w/ me because I wasn't even all about the Halloween hunting this year.  I'll blame the abnormally long warm weather.

The emails are screaming that a frost is coming, so I took a few minutes over lunch to go pull the non-volunteer tomato plants.  Gathered a small bowl of non-ripe tomatoes, much less than previous years, but it is much later in the year so some have turned naturally on the vine instead.

There are three volunteer plants out there that I need to bring into the basement, we'll see how far they can get.  Two have bit hefty vine; I'm trying to not be too hopeful.

To my surprise, post butchering back of basil the one is booming again.  I should probably bring her into the kitchen and see how long I can keep her going.

Got one more pumpkin off of the vines that I had put out front and pulled the last of those.  The little tiny pumpkin that was trying to grow didn't make it, but I will put it back into the ground and we'll see if she seeds herself.

Last weekend we went to the Houston Pumpkin Festival and the requisite Halloween parade in the morning.  Later in the weekend we went to Monessen to visit daytime hours at Castle Blood.  It was very nicely appointed and we enjoyed it.  Avery commented that it was fun but boring - meaning, it wasn't scary.  Well kid... careful what you wish for or I'll break you in right proper.

I guess I know what I'm "getting myself" for Christmas - tires.  Whee!  I got my oil changed and they noted that my tires are wearing oddly, in need of replacement, and I'm out of alignment.  I've noticed a bit of a ... feeling? ... when traveling at high speeds, so I shouldn't be overly surprised.  I had considered getting in earlier to get it looked at but put it off because, who wants a $$$ fee levied for taking a look. 

I had also just reached out to someone to get a deep clean at the house and maybe a quote to get back into regular maintenance cleaning.  I am just not keeping up the way I would want to in order to say I am ready to receive guests.  It's embarassing.

I did tackle another overdue clean up by dealing with my laundry room the other day.  The top of the dryer is cleared off - and not surprisingly I found something I had looked for a while back.  I also went through another bag of miscellaneous cables. It allowed me to show Avery some really old cell phones.  I miss phones being this small.  A few are the old Sony Ericsson ones labeled "walkman".  I wonder if they still charge.

I really need to get in gear.  My exterior Halloween is set up reasonably well, but I haven't done a thing inside.  Good thing I have some spooky items out all year long, right?

The weather has cooled, so I used the temps this morning to knock down a few more wasp nests that were forming under the deck.  They've been quite persistent this year, much more than years past and trying to build nests all summer, not just spring.

I was only going to empty 1 or 2 of my potato buckets, but when my haul was incredibly sad I said screw it and harvested all 5.  I barely have one small bucket of potatoes from all of that.  I give up man.  This year really left me feeling like there is no point to having a garden.

One tomato plant was completely done, so it was pulled.  I filled yet another garbage can with clippings from the back as I get that area ready for winter.

I also emptied, cleaned, and refilled the hot tub.  At least if I am going to go lazy (not gardening) I'll have somewhere comfortable to do it.

It had my back barking a bit last night.  I was already aching a bit up on my left side near my ribs, but kind of in the side-boob region.  I'm so tender that I expected to see a big bruise there, but nothing.  I have no idea what I did to myself to cause such a feeling.

When family was in I found curtains at At Home for the dining room I thought would work.  I wanted something that wasn't too dark (shocking) but also something that would be dark enough to hide the smudge/ick from a dog that likes to push them aside and look out the window so I wouldn't be washing them weekly.  Solid color "linen" but I would say they are darker than what I'd expect from that name.  They of course only had 1 pair, so I looked on their website.  They had the matching SKU listed as "white" but the photo clearly looked to match (https://www.athome.com/2-pack-cillian-white-light-filtering-grommet-curtain-panel-set-84/124394689.html).

I decided to get enough to also do the windows in the office and a few cabinet organizers to put me over the $150 mark for free shipping.  They're here, they are definitely not white, and they're meh.  I don't hate them, but they also don't do much for me.  I guess I should have gone with the Lush ones I found on Amazon - I still love the curtains in my entry from the same maker.  At least I don't have ripped curtains on my window anymore.

The weather continues to be very pleasant but the cool evenings have crept in.  I started cutting things back and loaded one bin with last week's garbage collection.  It's always a process that takes a good 5-6 weeks here, one bin at a time.  Still pulling tomatoes and haven't harvested my potatoes yet.  I have three volunteer tomato plants that decided to make a run for it.  I don't know that they'll get to fruit in time, but I'll give them every opportunity and bring them in the house when it becomes necessary so they have their best chance.  I cut back the basil a few weeks ago to dry a significant amount and it's been trying to fill back in, to my surprise.  The brussels never got more than 6 inches up from the dirt, but I'll let them keep trying.  My asparagus crowns are still alive!  In theory I'll be able to get a small harvest next year.  I need to think about getting it into the ground.  After babying it for 2 years I'm leery that I could lose it in a transplant to our terrible soil.

I cut the peppers I had and, adding them to the significant pile of peppers I've gotten from the CSA cooked up both a large batch of peppers/onions for fajitas (portioning and freezing them) and a double batch of stuffed peppers.  Last night Avery and I played pepper roulette.  She and I both landed a spicy one that had us grabbing for our water bottles.

It's been a full year without Saffy.  I still miss her, a lot.  I can't believe so much time has passed and yet, it feels like forever since she was physically here.

We were blessed w/ a visit from my Texas sister and my Lock Haven sister last week.  Not only did we get to enjoy their company, but my sister also made me ham pot pie -- one favorite my mother made that I never mastered.  It was delish!

After they departed on Saturday we joined Avery's bestie and his family at Oktoberfest here in town.  Last year I missed this event for a cruise.  While I'd rather be on a cruise, I was glad to get to attend this year.

The weather remains warm, at times overly so, but generally pleasant.  I've been getting tomatoes from my plants, pulled a few peppers, I have more basil to dry, and potatoes yet to be harvested, I guess I best get on top of things before the weather changes.

I also got a quote to fix some siding and trim related issues outside.  I haven't tackled the flooring yet, so I feel guilty spending on this other to do, but frankly, the wind around here feels like those fixes are pressing.

I finished up my work day and one of those random spurts of energy and enthusiasm hit me.  My target?  My downstairs windows! I pulled the curtains from the dining room and office to wash them.  Then I proceeded to clean the windows (top and bottom inside and bottom outside, plus the tops outside where I could reach).  I even took a hand held vacuum to the tracks and sucked the dust and dirt out.

I had been debating if it was time to buy new ones, they're over 10 years old (they were in my dining room at my last house too), but I decided that my want was frivolous and I should just clean them (the dog tends to rub on them and grunge the lower part up a bit).

Unfortunately, the washer thrashed my dining room curtains.  I guess trying to make the right choice has been thwarted.  The good news is you don't see dirty curtains through my clean windows and you can peep in at a few spots.  Time to go shopping I suppose.

I had a decent weekend, rather, my stomach did - but Sunday night made up for the reprieve.  Enough so that I scheduled with my doctor this morning and made my way to his office.  I left there with no surprises given my research, which is good I guess, but it also left with a script for pantoprazole.  I took one right away and I'm feeling okay at the moment, but the real test is bed time.

At least I felt well enough this weekend to partake in Avery's birthday cake!  My baby is 8, how can that be? We visited with her Nonni on Saturday and indulged her simple requests for meals on Sunday.  I also felt well enough on Friday that I was putting things out side for people who could use them to come take.  The weather has cooled significantly, so I really need to keep getting things dealt with in the basement.  Bending over with my weight hasn't been pleasant for my stomach/breathing or my back, but adding in extreme heat and I was so not doing it.

School has started off well.  We have also started with some chores and adding responsibilities (like being in charge of getting everything out of the backpack and putting everything back in.  Simple enough but it's all about the responsibility of it.  She has happily come home the two days this week and kicked off getting her homework out of the way - something I always did too, I'm happy to see her free up the rest of her evening.

Foster kitties poo went out again yesterday, so I'm hoping for word that they have the all clear and I can submit their biographies and we can get on finding them forever families.

It wasn't just a milestone birthday, I think it was my best if used by date.  I've spent the last week feeling "sour".  I'm not someone that tends to get heartburn, I only had it a couple of times while very pregnant even.  My stomach is usually an iron fortress.  That feeling is so unnerving.  Being woken feeling like barf is on the horizon isn't a good time.

Tums don't do anything.  My favorite egg gave me a tablet of what he typically takes claiming it will deal with it immediately and nada.  I hate to admit it, I'm going to have to call the doctor.  I know they'll tell me it's acid reflux and related to my weight.  Should I bother?  Is it a waste of money to go?  I'm not finding anything else it would be.  It's just ridiculous how quickly it started and with fervor.

Zero's mouth looks normal again.  His bodily functions have gone back to normal and he's eating again although with less vigor and insanity, which is prb a good thing.

My little waves of feeling the burn continue.  Last night was burning and burps.  Talk about a neon sign telling you to lose weight.  How do people get much larger than me if I feel as miserable as I do right now?

This past weekend we got to spend some quality time with my sister M, who came fully prepared to celebrate Avery's birthday.  We hit a few of the antique shops here in town, grabbed a delightful bite at one of the local Mexican restaurants, and popped into Marshalls.

While at Marshalls I spotted a beautiful set of spooky sheets, but of course they weren't in the right size.  I've been very calm and focused this spooky season.  I had two items - now this a third - that I'd love to get.  Michaels has been slow rolling some of the other lines and I haven't gotten my eyes on the items I'm digging.

This week we have started to wake earlier each day in preparation.  Two blows hit - the first is that her best gal pal is in the other classroom, the second is that while we have the same bus number it won't be our driver from last year.  Today is meet the teacher, so we will be taking some supplies in.  Avery is a bit like I was - she's excited to pick out her supplies and seems excited to go back in some capacity.  It's going to be a great year!

Zero managed to get stung by something this morning.  He looks like he got "smacked in tha mawth".  1/2 of a benadryl has been deployed.  Poor doofy boy.

You can't make it up.  Zero has been *ahem* lose this afternoon/evening.  C'mon man.

The abnormal amount of splatter today has settled down -- if you don't count me spraying ketchup across my work desk.  Never trust one of the heinz tear and squeeze options on the dipping vessel.

 Yikes, bad start.  Last night I woke shortly after falling asleep - there was a bit of reflux (because I ate too late in the evening coupled with being overweight) and I felt pukey.  So I lost a bit of sleep until I got myself settled and gratefully I didn't lose said dinner.

This morning the dog (as he regularly does) chugged too much water and yacked part of his breakfast back up.  Now Barney threw up (not a regular occurrence).   It's 7:03am.  Slow your roll Friday.

Back again!  Avery and I are back from our second cruise on Symphony out of Bayonne.  Same itinerary as June, but this time we traveled with my sister, her guy, and my long time bestie, her hubs, and their son.  This trip we were assigned a Central Park balcony as I only had a neighborhood guarantee.  We had great placement close to the forward elevators on deck 11.

We stayed onboard in Port Canaveral (again), walked around doing a bit of shopping in Nassau, and took to our typical slides and pool in Cococay.  We had a bit of rain in Cococay, but got lucky as the seas were calm and travel to and from was clear.  It was a nice trip.

This marks the last hurrah before school starts back up.  Just a week and a half of sleeping in and chilling at home before we get back to it.  While we were gone I got the bus schedule.  We're excited to have the same bus number, I'm hoping it comes with the same driver.

Now that we're home and settled back in - I thought for sure the dog had caught the chipmunk, but it turned out that babies rabbits were instead left in our yard.  He got two of them.  When I heard the squeal of the third I managed to move him, but no clue if his Mom will find him.  The foster kittens all grew like crazy in my week away - especially Mercury!

The garden looks pretty sad.  Not much to be had to date, the chipmunk destroyed the rest of my beets, the cukes are wilting.  I pulled the carrots before the chipmunk went for them.  I have some potatoes still to harvest and finally a few pepper plants (from seed) are starting to bloom and grow fruit.  At least my basil is finally going crazy.

I continue to fight the chipmunk.  He's knocked off most of my roma tomatoes the second they start to ripen, and I just found a very green one.  I read somewhere that they're thirsty in this heat.  Ok ya little crap.  If I give you water will you knock it off?

To my surprise my mint is growing again.  If you've ever had mint you are assuredly saying "to your surprise?  Really?  You can't kill that stuff."  Well, the bucket I had sat outside all winter and made it to the end of July before it started to grow again, so I am surprised that it's growing, I truly thought it died off.

I've pulled some beets and onions.  I see another beautiful cuke on there that I'll probably pull tomorrow (back off chippy).  The brussels are behaving like my attempts at regular cabbage always did - it looks like they want to start to form, but that's where they're stalled out.  My peppers are finally making good progress and look like they're ready to blossom.  Hopefully there is time to get some fruit.

I found an amazing recipe for zucchini - although my first attempt was a bit garlicky (and for me to say that means a lot).  I ate the leftovers today and I want more!

This week Avery is at our church's VBS.  Hopefully she has a blast.  It doesn't sound like they have a ton of kids going/signed up.

I enjoyed some of Ozzy's music.  I enjoyed some Black Sabbath.  I was not a mega-fan by any stretch.  It is still a moment when you hear that Ozzy passed away.  When other big names passed away (e.g., Michael Jackson or Prince) I had a moment being bummed that I never saw them perform.  I can at least say I saw Ozzy (and Black Sabbath) at Ozzfest back in 1997 and I think 1999.  I know for sure 1997 because Type O was there and I attended with my fresh/still healing bright green O tattoo.  Even back then it was odd to see Ozzy on stage, he seemed to wander a bit lost -- but it was still a pretty cool thing to see.

It's been interesting the past few weeks, I suppose because of his last concert I was seeing some related things pop in my youtube feed.  I enjoyed watching Ozzy, Sharon, Jack, and Kelly watch the first episode of the Osbournes.  It's remarkable how Jack and Kelly have "turned out".  Can you imagine 1).  being Ozzy's kid?  2).  being a teen and put on that show for the world to see?

One thing I've grown to realize across the years is that there is something I really like/appreciate about Sharon.  While I have no doubt that she loved Ozzy (and I still don't understand what the deal was with their divorce -- or not -- maybe another mandela effect), I have to give her credit for remaking his career and bringing us Ozzfest.  I appreciate her sense of humor and admire her for not being a victim to all of the bull with her parents -- she just seems genuine.  Not to ignore the accusations over the years of her being an ass -- and I'm very glad she got the hell away from the crazy-ass View.  I put her on my list with the likes of Betty White of people that I can't help but find interesting.

The other day I confirmed it is a chipmunk stealing my tomatoes.  I saw him.  We locked eyes.  He was hiding in the small wood pile under the table down on the concrete pad.  That explains why Zero has wanted to lay under the table lately.  I'm not going to lie, I am cheering for Zero.  Steal my veggies.  hrmph.

I had also noticed that the little drainage spot was dug out a bit on the end of the retaining wall too.  I assumed guilt of the aforementioned critter on this too, so I tossed a brick right at the opening.  Imagine my surprise when I went down to scoop poop and decided to move the brick and I see it's pushed out a bit... by the body of a snake.  I'm cool w/ snakes as long as I know they aren't going to hurt me or my kid and I'm pretty sure we're ok regardless of what type of black snake it is (I didn't see pattern to indicate it was a rattlesnake).  Now I am cheering for the snake, but I'd still be very happy if he decided to move out after he tends to our chipmunk.

Then I went to open the gate on the fence.  As you can imagine, I'm a little gunshy -- and with good cause.  Those buggers have decided to climb down inside the fence post.  So I got the pleasure of hosing the door to their house down with wasp spray.

I also saw my first full-grown lanternfly, but I was too slow to squish it.  Game on friends, time to see how many I can kill each day.

I pulled a nicely sized cuke today!  I swear I saw little tiny starting cukes just a few days ago and this thing appeared out of nowhere.  Glad I spotted it before it started to go yellow.

I have been busy with the produce from the CSA too.  I gave away the swiss chard because let's be honest... no thanks.  I did blanch the first batch of kale and put it into two bags before putting it into the freezer.  The two eggplants were cooked in a skillet and put into a casserole.  The corn was consumed as is and it was very sweet.  Most of their cukes were put into vinegar/mayo/sugar.

Why does Starbucks do me dirty every birthday drink and frequently when I cash in points for a free drink?  It's stupid but it really bums me out.  My free drink is _the_ birthday gift I don't have to _buy_ for myself.

I used a sting relief pad on my arm where I was stung.  The next day it was red, warm, dried out, and firm to the touch.  Seems to be acute dermatitis, but from what I read lidocaine rarely causes issues and the only other ingredient in the wipe was alcohol.  Regardless, I'm rocking some cream and hoping it settles down lest I need to get it looked at.

This week Avery had her final, multiple-team swim meet and today she is wrapping up the second/last week at Camp Splash.  She's definitely tired and will enjoy the days completely off next week.

This week's CSA bag came with pickling cukes, eggplants, giant red potatoes, fresh (and tasty - I already had one for lunch) corn, kale, and green tomatoes.  I never thought I'd be happy to see kale, but it's a good chance to make some of the tuscan chicken recipe we all fell in love with.  I'm also excited to make a small eggplant parm.  I will never understand the appeal of green tomatoes though.  Help me out here people, otherwise they'll just sit on the counter with the hopes they ripen.

As to my garden, I've pulled a few onions as the tops completely died off; they were rather small.  We gave pulled a couple more tomatoes, but not even enough to keep Avery satiated.  The basil is really kicking up, I'll need to start pinching it off and will use some of it with my eggplant.  The cukes and peppers seem to be hitting their growth strides as well.

Finally, the pumpkin plant out front has two pumpkins growing quickly.  I'm so excited!  I had a pumpkin from last year's CSA that sat on my counter most of the winter and never started to get soft.  I decided to break it in half an plant those halves out front in the mulch beds to see what came of it.  If you recall, I've tried pumpkin seeds out back; I've even stuck my finger in those blossoms to try and get them to fertilize without luck.

As to my weekend?  I've prepared an image of Sally O'Malley to embrace the insanity.  I'm also picking up the chocolate raspberry cheesecake I won from the school auction later today.  If one has to buy a birthday cake for themselves, do they have any obligation to share it?  Asking for a friend.

Something stung me and didn't have the little wasp-gonads to stick around and face my wrath.  I was opening the fence to take some clippings to the front and bang, right on my forearm.  You best believe I'll be looking for more little hives starting homie, I'm going to take out your little black and yellow gang members.

Aside:  Thank goodness I only needed to scoop poop and clipped some of the growth that hangs down over my fence because I am already dripping with sweat.  Thanking God for people who are willing to mow.

Aside:  I pulled the first tomatoes tonight while watering the garden.  5 sweet 100s and a larger orb was plucked from the ground - not sure what type of tomato that one was, but I know a squirrel or some other enemy of the state had ahold of it.

While my giant pork roast cooked in the instant pot I got busy today.

I cooked the beets (and some eggs) to pickle.  Then I went at the cabbage, which resulted in a side of cole slaw for our pork sammies, a batch of haluski, some baked garlic parm slices, and some cut up to use in a soup in the next day or two.  This left me with nearly half of the cabbage still intact.

When I get after so many things at the same time I long for a big beautiful kitchen with 2 or 3x the counter space I currently have.  I guess we always want more, don't we?

The way too hot to be outside heat continues -- as do the storms.  Avery is to go back to Camp Splash this coming week, but it looks like there will be lightning storms all week.  Fingers crossed they get a few hours at the pool a few of the days.

I look back when I was working on my Masters confused as to how I did it, where I found the time to get it all done, to breathe, to sleep.

These years running for a kiddo are hectic.  I am tired.  I am wishing for more hours in the day but not complaining.  I know at some point, which probably will be in a blink of an eye, I will again wonder how -- in addition to wishing for this time to have lasted longer.

Up at 6, except wed when I had to get Venus to the vet for her spay surgery, which was a 530 wake.

Visit and feed kittens.  Put dog out.  Make coffee.  Work until girl got up at 730 and get her a quick breakfast, then back to work until running her to VBS at 9.  Back to work.  Pick her up at 1215.

Quickly pull together lunch for her (I have been making larger batch items on the weekend and nursing leftovers all week), walk out back with Zero for 5 min to breathe and tend to plants (water etc), visit with kittens for a few. Back to work.  Cheer her through some worksheets in the afternoon and to get dressed for swimming so we could leave at 430 for swimming practice (or meet on Wed - when I also had to run and pick Venus back up and get back in time).  Back from practice and figure out food. Visit with kittens again while girl showers.  Get her tucked in and get my own shower.  Crash.

At some point this week I also managed to schedule two routine appts for myself, vacuumed downstairs, did a load of laundry (oh yeah, that is sitting on her bed to be folded), and signed myself up to bake a few things for an event for the rescue.

Tonight she went back a 7pm for the finale VBS event.  Fortunately I threw one set of brownies in over lunch and another in before evening VBS program.  I got those cut up and bagged after and made no bakes.  I am typing this as they cool and I should be reviewing the recipe for the hot cocoa puppy chow recipe.

I could prb make that in the morning if I get up promptly.  We have jiu jitsu at 10am and need to have the goods at the event around 2.

Picked up my first bag from the CSA this year on the way back from VBS drop off.  The cabbage is larger than the watermelon I already had on the counter.  I shoved the swiss chard and garlic scapes in the fridge and cut the greens off of the beets.  Put the potatoes away and stashed the zucchini in the fridge.  Still need to deal with the leeks.  I am excited for the fresh goods.  I need a hot minute to plan for/with it.

I pulled all of the turnips and one bucket of potatoes today, despite the heat.  I didn't get a lot of potatoes, but at the greens had completely died off, so I needed to harvest what I had.  I also had a couple of potatoes starting to sprout, so I decided to replant - we'll see what else I can get by the end of September.  The one bucket of beans have also gone brown and the last handful I harvested don't look very tasty, so they may just become next year's seeds.  There is also one tomato starting to turn red.  Finally the basil is well underway -- but still no lettuce happening despite at least 4 attempts to seed.  The cukes are starting to climb and blossoming.  I'm hoping to get larger cukes than the variety I had last year. I want to pull some of the larger beets soon and perhaps put a few more seeds in the pot in their place, maybe later this week.

Today I cooked a turkey breast in the instant pot for the first time - it turned out quite well, as did the gravy that I had a sample mix of to try. These leftovers, coupled with leftover ham and bean soup I made yesterday, will be used to get us through the week.  I have officially become my leftover generating mother, but I get it now.  The thought of the week ahead makes me tired. 

Aside:  The new toilet seat wiggles around.  I might lose my mind.

Happy 4th of July!  While I second guess my desire to go sweat it out for a few hours at the parade every year, I am always glad we went.  I have to admit, it didn't seem as crowded this year.  Maybe I'm getting used to it?  We got to enjoy the parade w/ Avery's bestie again and saw several of her other friends.

The rest of the day I was wiped and was half asleep on the couch, but we pulled ourselves together to go watch the fireworks from our church parking lot too.

I truly love our town.  And I truly love our country.  It hit me today that next year we celebrate 250 years.  I was little when we celebrated 200, it's very likely that will be the only milestone birthday of our country I will see/remember.  God, bless the USA.  USA, please... praise the Lord for all we have, that His hand may remain over us and that He might heal our land..

Of all the dumb things to need to repeatedly replace... toilet seats.  I replaced the garbo plastic ones about a year ago with wooden seats.  A while back the one in my bathroom ended up snapping at the back making the seat loose - so I replaced it (again), this time with a slow close.  Now the one in the downstairs bathroom broke - right in the middle of the one side - snapped the whole way across.  Thank GOD I was not the one using it at the time or my personal insult and embarrassment would be unbearable.  Let's be honest, I'm not tiny, but I don't think I'm break a toilet seat every six months fat.  That said, what brand do really really big people buy, because hook me up.  At $30-60 a pop this is ridiculous.  I will also note that in all of my years adulting I've never had an issue with toilet seats before; none have ever broken at the mount point, in the middle of an 'arm', and none have even wiggled loose.

A quick update on all things garden:

I have pulled two good sized fist fulls of pea pods from my garden so far.  They're crisp, tasty, and a great snack.  The tomato plants have all started to form fruit (I love how cute the little romas look).  Finally some basil took from seed and is starting to grow - still no lettuce to speak of, I guess I need to try again on that.  The potatoes are a bit of a mixed bag from pot to pot.  I guess we'll see how they turn out.  The beets and carrots are looking good.  The radishes have lots of green growing.  The brussels sprouts look like they've stalled out -- which is what tends to happen w/ anything cabbage or brocolli/cauli-related I try to grow.  I never did buy pepper plants - I guess I still could, I do have a few buckets that either didn't take or never got something planted in them.

I was irritated w/ my local Starbucks and their shenanigans (more on that in the last paragraph if you care) and started hitting the one in South Fayette before Avery's Saturday jiu jitsu classes instead.  They still do the bags of used grounds for free -- so I have snagged two bags and distributed them to many plants including my hydrangeas, so I am hoping for a nice pop of blue tones.

I guess we'll see how we weather this extreme heat.  I couldn't keep enough water drained off of the catch barrel for weeks on end, but I am pretty sure it is going to dry up quickly now.

Starbucks.  The local one plays the game where they disable their order ahead way too often for my liking.  It irritates me because they're essentially making the wait in the drive through even longer because no one can order ahead, right?  At least this case shows up in the app and you know, so you can chose to not order.  The other bull crap game they play is that sometimes they just slap a sign on the door saying the 'dining area' or whatever they call it is closed - drive through only.  THIS is not something you see on the app until you get there, which means I can't just run in and quickly grab my drink (which I've already paid for) -- and the drive through is usually wrapped and a nice 15 minute wait, which I don't sometimes have to spare.

It is remarkable how much longer taking a half day on Friday can make your weekend feel.  I'm in the use or lose time frame for vacation hours.  I've tried to use all year, but every time I have time scheduled off I use a smaller amount due to longer hours on the days leading to it.

Friday we made a late lunch and then headed to the town park pool.  I haven't been there since 2023, but I sure do appreciate it.  I had the joy of watching the girl go off the diving board, rope swing, and slide in the deep end with confidence.  While she may not be fast yet, she's officially a capable swimmer.

We did a bit of running yesterday, which included buying some school clothes for the upcoming year and snagging goodies at Trader Joe's.  Today was relaxing, including some time on the couch with Church on my lap -- those are the best naps.

Foster kittens are queued up for spay/neuter in a week and a half.  They are doing great and I have officially gotten purrs from all three.

Avery and I were away on the first cruise of the summer for a bit over a week.  While we were gone the kittens have gotten so big!  Venus is trim and has long lanky legs.  All three have made great progress, and as I suspected before I went away, they are now ready for freedom in the foster room.  This gives them a lot more to explore and play with, but also some space to romp and wrestle.  Two of the three are of weight so it's time to reach out and start getting their shots and spay/neuters lined up.  I'm hoping to get them through the process quickly as that makes them available for adoption - and heaven knows when they still look like kittens it is even easier to gain interest.

As to our cruise, we were on Symphony out of Bayonne.  A day at sea, Port Canaveral (we stayed on), Nassau (we stayed on), Cococay, and two more days at sea.  This is the same itinerary/ship we will take later this summer.  The ship is Oasis class, so there is plenty to do.  Avery barely made the cut on height at 4'4" (52") and was able to ride the flowrider!  She enjoyed it when it wasn't split during busy times.  As always she was loving the rock wall.  This time our neighbors were onboard, so she had someone to ride slides and get in the pool with.  She's treading water and swimming quite well, so it's also the first time where she could get in the pool w/o me hovering (the pools are too deep for her to stand (fun fact about cruise ship pools).

Cococay was delightful as always.  Girl wasn't as interested in the free slides as she has been in the past, and wanted to focus more time on the Oasis pool where she swam back and forth and we worked on her stroke and breathing.  I'm very excited for another week of swim team practice and her first swim meet as a result!  It will be nice to have an official first time on the 25 free (which is likely to be her only event).

Food was ok.  That's something that has been going downhill for years.  Specialty dining - this is the first time I've done a 3 night package.  Chops was quite good.  Hooked disappointed me compared to having it on Icon, everything here was so bland.  Izumi was yummy again.  I also had credit for Playmakers from booking this package - which surprised me, making my last day snack free.  I do like their garlic fries, and now I've learned how good their pork sliders are too!

Back to work this week - and a bit of business between swim practice/meet, Church and Zero's vet appointments, a massage appointment, and now a hair appointment.  I realized right before we left for vacation that Avery's hair is knotting easily and causing her trouble to properly tend to on her own.

I had to kick the heat on the other day to take the chill off of the house.  Today it's 85 out there.  Summer is definitely here.  The girl started a summer swim team on Monday.  So far so good.  It's a bit odd as parents can only go watch on Mondays.  I'm trying to create a habit of walking the building during that time to get some exercise in. I wish I had a summer off with sleeping late, swim teams, and VBS.

The kittens are doing well and we're finally past the daily medicine doses.  Saturn is slowly realizing that my hand is acceptable in small doses.  Mercury will let you hold him a bit longer than everyone else, unless there is an opportunity to play.  Venus was straight up purring this morning and she gets elevator butt when you scritch her.

I always feel a little bad for the kittens as there is often medication involved (dewormers, etc).  I guess on one hand it gets them used to being picked up/held.  On the other hand - quite literally on my hands - ouch.  They don't mean to as everyone needs their first nail trim but my hands are a bit tender at the moment.  One little guy has been getting medication since his vet visit last Wednesday, 2x a day icky liquid and for the first few days a booty soak and wash with topical ointment.  All three were due for a second dose of dewormer on Saturday and now all three have to take another medication since the one's poo indicated a protozoal infection.

The other good news is that these needs force me to weigh them a little more religiously (time gets away from me otherwise) and I can see how quickly they're gaining weight.  The guy that went to the vet last week was 1#6oz and he was up to 2#2oz yesterday.  It's mind blowing.  The other male is the same size and our girl is a bit more petite weighing in at 1#11oz yesterday.

Hopefully they will all be at a weight and ready for spay/neuter when I return from vacation.

On another topic, who ordered more cold/rainy weather?  How was it so warm over a month ago and now we're cold and considering turning the heat back on.

Who needs a drink?

I  just wrote the check for more summer camp activities.  I already sent the one at our church.  This one for 2 weeks at Camp Splash is another $380 out the door.  Admittedly, these things are not necessary expenses and I'm just feeling sensitive to the check-writing.  I'm blessed, we can do it, she loves it -- all the things, but I need somewhere to complain for a hot moment.

Then I opened the mail box. Your gal forgot that my car insurance comes in June.  OUCH!  At least it didn't go flying up in price.  I'm trying to be content with that fact.  At least my insurance does a three month split w/o charging a fee to do so.  That helps reduce the immediate  impact - but that will take me to when the payment for school and my school taxes are due.

I shouldn't be feeling this way having paid off the house. What the literal heck?

How do people with lower incomes (and more kids) do it?

 I woke up to a notification that my internet bill went through (over $100) and my email saying that I'll get two bills in the mail, one of which is medical (also over $100).  C'mon.

I gave up Church's appt to get the foster baby in, so Church will go in a few weeks.  We have a plan and meds.  Tonight I intentionally put a cat into water and it went surprisingly well.  Thank goodness he is only 1.6#.

Zero's bordatella needs another dose in 3 weeks - when did this become a thing?  That mat cause me some challenges but they are saying he didn't get it last year and it didn't create a problem... so?

Obvi a vet trip adds up with shots and hw preventative.  Garage door, landscaping, hotel booking, vet... oh and the kid even lost another tooth (at least that's a minor expense).  This has been one heck of an expensive week and it is only Wednesday.  Can I stay in bed tomorrow and Friday to prevent other expenditures?

Aaaaand ants - the little ones in the kitchen are gone.  The stray carpenter here and there in the house every couple of days continues.  Today we found larger black ants that found Avery's lollis.  When the landscaping was done he did the perimeter.  I have now deployed liquid to that cabinet.  I really don't want to need pest control bills too.

My room finally assigned for our first cruise- that is a win.  We got a hump cabin, so a larger balcony - score!

I am happy to report that the garage repair guy called later on Monday and was back with the fix for my garage door, so we're back in working order.

On Tuesday my favorite egg's Dad, aka my favorite landscaper, made his yearly visit.  There is nothing like a yard with fresh crisp mulch.  There are new plants and split plants everywhere.  With the salvia in full bloom (note they were even growing throughout the yard) the front of the house looks quite spiffy.  He also gave me an ant treatment which seems very necessary.  As an added bonus it was raining overnight, reducing my work tending to the new plantings a wee bit.

I am also proud of myself as I finally made a decision and booked a hotel for the night before our upcoming cruise.  I typically stay near the Newark airport and it is stressful every time.  My thoughts this time were, if I stay a bit further "away" from Bayonne, but right on the routes I would be taking on the way there I would still have a 40 minute drive to get to the pier in the morning, but hopefully w/ less twists, turns, and NJ headed toward NY exits.  There isn't an area anywhere near that comes up on crime and safety maps w/ "green" but this place isn't bad.  Hopefully I'll come out of this with a keeper.

On the foster kittie front, they are playing and eating, and most of them are pooing.  I do need to call the vet for the one little boy who has had a very sore rear since arriving.  He's now straining to go.  He'll look at me and cry - he defn wants some help.  Hopefully the vet can get him in with Zero and Church today, who have their yearly visits scheduled.

As you can guess from this post it has been a rather expensive week so far.  This year so far has been financial adjustments.  I felt like I was going to be able to pack money away faster than I am thanks to finishing the mortgage, but having a milestone birthday this year and wanting to contribute the max possible into retirement has me about in the same place as I was before the mortgage ended.  I mean, my deductions did jump $1500 each check from Dec, $700 when compared to earlier in 2024 (since I try to get it done early so I have a built in Christmas fund), so that more than makes sense.  All that to say I haven't leapt on the flooring at all.  I'm starting to think I might go for the carpet first.  Advice was to address that other flooring first -- was that to install it or just to pick it, hence allowing me to make a matching carpet selection?

Garage door guy rolled up right at noon - took him longer to walk through the house and into the garage than it did to look up and say "yeeeep".

He's going to see if he has the part and let me know or will get it ordered.  The good news is -- it theoretically can be in and handled this week.

Meow!  We have three new foster babies here (as of Friday afternoon), and I mean babies - younger than I have ever had - eyes still blue.  They are very reminiscent of the last set:  an all black boy that is super unsure of me, a tabby male, and  tabby female with a sassy little look on her face.

No names just yet - standby!

Dang it.  This afternoon we decided to head out for a walk/bike ride.  On the way out we put the garage door down and from across the street we could hear a loud BANG-TWANG noise.  Yep, that'd be one of the springs.  The good news is I did have a great experience w/ the garage door company I previously used to replace my opener to one with a battery backup.

I knew things in the 10-11 year old house would start to go, but I wasn't guessing garage door.

I earnestly tried to drink water yesterday.  I got 60 out of the 118.9 fl oz the app was telling me I should have daily.  I also had to step away from meetings repeatedly and got up 3 times overnight to use the facilities.  I might need diapers to achieve my goal.

This year's blood work shows that I'm getting to some of the upper limits on "normal" on a few items.  This is definitely the final warning to start to make some changes.  This morning I reactivated a few apps.  First goals are to start getting more water and get going with intermittent fasting.  I am hoping that both of these, in their own way will help cut back on my intake - but yes, I also activated my app to track what I eat and how much I exercise.

With vacations coming up I'm being realistic - I will be eating onboard.  That can be dangerous, but I usually come back not wanting to eat or cook for a while.  I can also try to use that as a 'goal', making improvements right now a small step leading up to that goal.

I also realized that when school ends I won't have as much rush in the morning.  I really should reclaim that time for me.  A younger me would have wanted the extra sleep.  I still do, but I know that my eyes will just open, so why not take that time and go for a walk?

I need these test results to be my trigger.

Another evening deferring the things on my to do list.  Tonight we had plans w/ Avery's bestie to go see the Washington Wild Things!  I've never been and it was kind of nice (even though Baseball isn't my go to sport) -- it makes me want to make the drive to Wheeling next hockey season, it's only 45 minutes away.

I also want to note that I ordered a replacement cable modem tonight.  Pray that it's an easy switch.  I tried to upgrade years back and ended up returning it as it just didn't function for me.  May as well try to get more of what I'm paying for since my current modem doesn't even support those speeds - and I gotta admit, the current one, when I look back, was purchased in 2015.  Don't judge me.

The month is getting away from me.  When someone commented that Avery only had 13 days of school left that hit hard. I still didn't book a pre-cruise hotel.  I didn't get her signed up for Camp Splash yet either.  The first weekend of swim lessons went well - she even swam the full 25independantly (w/ a few flip overs to breathe), which opens up the option for her to sign up for Kraken swim team if we wanted to.

I also had some turmoil with lawn mowing services that I think is resolved at this point.  I hope so, because needing to charge the batteries and taking a lunch hour every week to go mow isn't on my to do list.  It's hard enough to get away for a quick bite to eat much less for sweaty manual labor tasks.

Our local hardware store got the Sweet 100s in, so I planted 4 of those and 4 romas.  My main gap right now are pepper plants, which I may need to go back for.  The potatoes are looking good, same with the onions -- including two I planted from a pantry onion that decided to get growing.  I hurriedly filled several other pots with seeds the other night as late as I am with things.  The lettuce, basil and chives didn't start from my last attempt, so I tried to start more lettuce and basil.  The deeply discounted basil plants I got from the grocery store were too far gone and didn't make it.  I also tossed in some turnip, more beets and beans. I should prb start another container of carrots.

I had bought flowers earlier this month in order to send a flower in per suggestions for teacher appreciation week.  From that I filled the three hanging baskets out back, which are starting to fill out already and a pot on the deck.  I had also snagged some lavender and poppies to put in the small decorative area at the bottom of the deck stairs.  They too look pretty good and I'm hoping they'll do well there.  Out front I made a feeble attempt to add a few snapdragons.  Hopefully when the mulch gets added next week I can reinforce the need to not kill those off.  I would love to see them take hold -- they're definitely a fond memory from my childhood home.

I also managed to squeeze a little time to start readying the spare bedroom for new foster kitties.  It's the first time I've rearranged a bit in there, so it was nice to get to vacuum behind the moved larger pieces of furniture.  It also helped to open up a bit more of the footprint to interact with kitties.

The storms just keep rolling through, but that one last week that I posted about was bad.  There are still people w/o power and some roads are still a bit of a mess.  There are broken trees everywhere.  We were blessed.

We are staying busy around here running to Jiu Jitsu/Muay Thai, and now another round of swim lessons (likely her last), homework/spelling words, and trying to find spots of nice weather and free time to hang out with our neighbor friends.  Life is pretty good, but it's going too fast.

I still haven't leapt with regard to the flooring.  If one place had what I want and did all the things (e.g., didn't mean I had to buy/stain trim etc) I may have gotten the non-carpeting done at this point.  I need to get someone back in here to help me keep up with cleaning but I hate the thought of spending that money when I should be doing it my darned self.

I'm coming up on a very much needed vacation (cruise).  I'm so far behind through that I haven't booked a hotel for the night before yet.  Fortunately, I didn't find good deals on a flight either (I can drive to NJ), as I hear there is some chaos at Newark airport w/ air traffic control causing major delays and cancellations, and more than that - whistleblowers saying it isn't safe to fly into Newark.  While I don't look forward to that long drive, the goal is worth it.

Whew buddy that was a heck of a storm.  I got the severe weather alert as we were heading out for Muay Thai tonight.  Along the highway the rain and wind came - significant enough to slow traffic to under 40.  When I got off the exit all of the stop lights were out, a tree was along the road we go up, and signage for commercial buildings was toppled.

As we sat in the parking lot waiting for the rain to slow, lightning struck relatively close -- and it lit up the center console on the turned off car -- which is super weird.  When things slowed down I heard the fire whistles going and we made a run for the building.  I figured if there was more coming we were safer there.

Power was out, so the few that showed up for class ran about in the emergency lighting and had a bit of fun.  Fortunately the storm had passed by the end of our class window.  So much mess on the roads on the way home.  Power was defn out here while we were gone.  Grateful to say that the house is safe and sound.  The one rose bush out front didn't fair as well.  More than half of her broke off right near the bottom.  I'm not sure how to try and save her, but I'm trying to do my research.

That didn't last long... two weeks ago I noted that the referred lawn service folks came.  Last week I'm told they were in the neighborhood on Friday while we were out, but given that they said they were going to come on Saturdays I hadn't scooped nor unlocked the gate, so I wasn't mowed.

Today I texted before leaving the house asking that their team mow to the right of the fence if they were still coming today despite the recent rain.  Well the reply was "I apologize for the confusion but we will no longer be cutting grass."  Would they have messaged me if I hadn't texted?  Prb not, right?  Then asked me to send a check for 2 weeks of mowing.  No sir, I paid in cash for week 1 and you weren't here last Saturday.  This has potential to piss me off.  Hopefully the kid that mows for the neighbors is interested in taking on more lawns.

I got a charge on the batteries for the mower and got the front and sides done this evening before dark.  The back is thick and high right now... so that'll be fun tomorrow (if it doesn't rain more).  The batteries are charging back up.  Wish me luck.

Our neighbor came in clutch on Tuesday with that great last day of spring break idea, inviting us to go swimming with them at a nearby place where they are members.  Needless to say Avery loved getting to swim, especially with one of the neighbor friends that she plays with often.

The rest of the week went fast. I ended up only taking 1.5 hours off earlier this week once everything totaled up for the week, so I'm going to need to take more time off before the end of June.  I wish I thought I could plan ahead and somehow pick a day I will be motivated.  Today was one of those days.  When I took a small lunch break I started pulling things from one of the kitchen cabinets.  Clutter just builds to the point of insanity for me.  Add a little here, add a little there.  Eventually the cabinet is embarrassing and you can't find anything.

After work I started putting things back into that cabinet and throwing away some things that were past date or likely to not get eaten.  I wanted to rearrange a bit, moving some things to the lower shelf so Avery can reach them.  This spurred me to pull two more shelves from another cabinet and then that spread to the one lower cabinet where I had previously set up some snacks that Avery could get out for herself.

While I now have three cabinets that are cleared out and tidy I also have a couple of bags of things to go back to the basement shelves -- the basement is a whole other level of chaos that needs some attention.  Heck how many other spaces here need that level of attention, who am I kidding?

Here we are, Avery's last day of Easter/Spring break.  It's the final stretch to end 1st grade, which is crazy.  I've encouraged her to sleep in yesterday and today before we get back to the typical grind.  She was definitely ready for a break and is soaking up some time on the couch.

Break started with the resurrection party at her school and I got to go help with that.  It was fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it.  It's always good to get another glimpse at the kids and to see how each behaves.  It's kind of funny that I knew who some were just by things they said or did.  This gave me half a day off of work.  I chose to take half of the next day (Thursday) off and all of Friday.  I am so proud that I didn't even boot the computer on Friday.

On Thursday we tried to go to the basketball clinic that Avery has been participating in but only a few of us pulled up and no one came to unlock the school.  I guess we didn't get the memo?  If you say 9 weeks, start this date and end this date and that counts out to 9 weeks I assume it's happening.  This was a bummer as we would have done something else that evening had I known.

Instead we got up early and went to a 9am showing of King of Kings on Good Friday.  It was excellent.  Engaging and entertaining for me as an adult, but also full of stories from Jesus' life and a well done depiction of his death for children, which is a tough thing to try and present.  We repeated a little craft we did when Avery was much younger, creating bunnies out of a tracing of her hand - and boy have those bunnies grown.

Saturday we had a bit of running to do but then made our way to the Canonsburg Easter Egg hunt.  It's always a good time and the girl left with lots of goodies.  Then we stuck around to hang out at the park a while with her bestie.  The weather was fantastic.

Sunday after hunting her eggs here and going to church we prepared some goodies to take with us for Easter dinner.  It was at the near Aunt/Uncle's place, so that saved travel time.  A neighbor had gifted us two very large containers of cherry tomatoes.  We put them to use roasting them with olive oil and garlic and then mixing them up with mozz.  I also had a burr about banana pudding and ended up making a way too large batch of that to take with us (and eat for the next week apparently).

Yesterday and today I am back at work in the mornings.  It being our final hurrah I need to come up with something good to do this afternoon.  As a bus just went by it looks like the other neighborhood kids returned to school today.  Hopefully the weather holds so we can go enjoy it.

I hope you had a blessed Easter.  He is Risen!

We have had so much rain.  The grass is green, lush, and TALL.  Unfortunately, it's too much rain to actually mow.  But I had to get things in order for our neighborhood Easter egg hunt tomorrow.  It's a lot easier to ensure the poops are scooped if the grass is trimmed, so out came the weed eater.  I needed to pull out the leaf blower to get everything that accumulated below the deck cleared away anyhow.  So my quick "I'll just go scoop poop" turned into a couple of hours of work outside.  I am feeling accomplished with something that is long over due.

While out there I realized the robins have been busy - and there is already a nest built under my deck!  No eggs yet.  This reminds me that the time to put hummingbird food out is nearing, but the weather is still calling for some rather cold moments in the next week.

Update:  as I am typing this the new lawn care guys came.  I knew they had intended to start mowing in April, but hadn't heard more from them.  I'm glad I was here (to open the gate and pay them).  I'm glad I had already scooped poop.  But I guess some of my effort this morning was a bit of a waste.  It's ok, I could use the exercise.

Cats.  Why are they obsessed with hiding so I accidentally trap them in my bedroom in the morning?  One might also ask why I am so inattentive that I don't notice for a few hours.  In my defense I gotta get the kid off to school and then the calls and meetings start.

It's most noticeable when Church is trapped because he isn't waltzing between me and my keyboard around 10am.  This is what triggered me to notice his absence earlier this week. I left him out and he promptly went to get the breakfast he missed to find an empty bowl (oh Barney, you little piglet).  Today it was Barnabas that didn't come running when it was treat time.  I left him out and went to check the food bowls presuming I would need to hook him up with some kibble.  My charming Church didn't touch Barnabas' food until that very moment when he decided "wait, I gotta try and eat this up so he doesn't get it".

Last night Barnabas was kind (?) enough to point out to me that the present from the dog mentioned in my previous post still offends him.  He was jumping over the spot and trying to cover it with the rest of the carpet.  Roger that Barney, I'll pull out the rug scrubber and try again.

* GROSSNESS WARNING *

 

Barf. Oh yeah, that's why I stopped giving bones etc to my dogs a long time ago.  Silly me, I gave Zero a bone on the deck yesterday to keep him happy and quiet while we had company here.  Today we have vomit.  Noxious, make you gag strong vomit.  Soupy, hard to clean up vomit.  The first huge puddle was ejected in the living room, because of course it was.  Several more pools formed outside on the concrete while I attempted to rinse the bulk of it from my cleaning rags before putting them in the washing machine.  The house smells like a cesspool despite cleaning to the best of my ability.

This level of gross happened out of the blue once before in my dining room a few months back and I had not provided anything of the sort to him.  As I am trying to replace flooring in the near term, please don't allow this to be a routine thing.  I just can't.

We had a beautiful weekend.  My sister, S, came in with her bf.  On Friday we ate dinner and made a Sarris ice cream parlor run then on Saturday we took a walk around Peter's lake, made a three stop cruise between local breweries, and finished up with dinner.  It's been a while since I've gotten to see her, so it was a highlight.

The temps have cooled back off but I did get a few more seeds in pots (basil, beans, cukes, peppers) and I sprinkled some chive in a little area beside the wall out back with the hopes they will proliferate.

I also got a few Easter decorations up inside and switched out my kitchen curtain for the birds instead of the snowflakes.  Welcome spring and summer!  I've been gathering goodies for Easter, but I need to inventory to see what gaps I have.  In addition to helping the Easter bunny out, our neighbors are repeating last year's Easter egg hunt, so I am trying to get the right things pulled together for that squad, with something special for each kid - this isn't as easy as I thought given we have from 1 yo to 14 yo to account for.

This morning I realized I should have returned Avery's switch game to the library so I guess I need to run out today -- and pay a fine.  The last tax bill check cleared, so I'm done with all of that until September.

I took a moment to step out today and dropped one container of carrot seeds, one container of beet seeds, and one small container of lettuce seeds.  I also watered the pepper and asparagus plants that are sitting in the basement waiting to go back outside.  It looks like everything in the basement is dead, but I have persisted and I'm glad I have as today I spotted a little scrawny asparagus in the pot!  I didn't cut back the fronds last fall as I was afraid I would do "too much", but I will do so as soon as I can get that pot outside.

The drips at the hot water tank are from the drain release.  It isn't a large amount of water, so that's a relief.

Not to be out done, and perhaps a curse of me speaking it into the universe that many items in this house are probably creeping towards end of life, the keurig, the dryer, and the fridge all gave me a moment in the past week.  The pump on the keurig wasn't stopping after the water was exhausted to brew the cup of coffee.  Fortunately, after descaling and giving it a bit of time this resolved itself (for now).  The dryer threw a code when steam sanitizing an item that indicated there was an exhaust flow issue.  After last year's shenanigans with the vent cleaning tool breaking off I call bull.  It has since been running without complaint. Then I pulled a bottle off of the door where the ice maker is and found about a quarter cup of water in the tray.  I sopped it up and reseated the door that opens to tend to the ice maker and it took hasn't provided angst since.  I'm not going to remain this lucky for long, I'm not stupid.

I never got the second estimate on flooring that I was waiting for, but they did leave a message.  I need to stop back up there and clarify my want for the estimate w/ my current selection.  I had a third place come and measure just for the non-carpet flooring.  That came in at the same price as the place I expected to be pricy (where I picked an acceptable, but not love it option)... but they have a laundry list of things they don't do.  For example, I would need to go buy and stain/paint replacement quarter round and I would need to have the plumber to reconnect the toilet and the fridge's water supply.  (sigh) This whole thing is frustrating.

There was some water under the hot water tank earlier this afternoon - of course there was, right?

With the brief nice temps I tucked all of the sprouting potatoes into pots.  I also had a tomato that had seeds trying to grow.  When I sliced away that portion I also put those i to a bit of dirt to see what comes of it.  Tonight I should prb cover them all.

If you've ever watched Office Space you understand when I say TPS reports.  Well, you're aware, even if you don't fully understand... but if you understand, you understand.  My present TPS report is people copied on emails.

I got an email forwarded to me that I needed to take action on.  The guidance was explicitly to reply to everyone on that email.  Ok, no problem.  I send one message and get a call from a subcon saying this other email needs to be on all communications and sounding a bit like I slighted someone.  Ok, fine.  Subsequent emails on this discussion include said email address.  Now I got an email from someone else from the original email asking me to include another email address on all of these communications.  Why weren't either of these emails on the original request?  Why do I feel like I somehow made a mistake?  It's hard to keep track of now 11 recipients.  If someone drops one of them off of an email, do I need to readd them?

Meh.  So much time is lost to ridiculousness in business.  Why do we have to include every friggin person on a team for every meeting -- but then restrict to a subset of people that are on certain conversations which result in confusion and questions later from the people left off?

On a brighter note, today was "decade day", so we geared Avery up for the 80s at school.  She's got the oversized Atari shirt with the sleeves rolled, silver parachute-style pants, fluorescent shoes and bracelets, the side pony with a bit of blue color, and blue eyeshadow.  She is the very definition of Totally Awesome.

aaaand it's snowing again.  At least we had a nice weekend, mostly.  There were some pretty wicked wind and storms that came through,  While I didn't get an alert on my phone we did head to the basement briefly when it started to hail yesterday.

On Saturday I swung into yet another flooring place since I have yet to get an estimate from the one that has been here twice.  They had choices I hadn't seen before, but again, none of them landed in the "I love it" category, even after bringing three samples home.

What is it about me that allows some folks to take advantage of my willingness to offer a bit of grace?  Here are two cases that stand out to me - let me know if I am the ahole.  I will note that both people are super pleasant folks that I really like.  They weren't mean, but it was death by 1000 cuts.

The first ended over a year ago.  I had someone offering a routine/repeat service here at the house.  We would schedule and even confirm within the week before every month or so.  Then within a day or so of the scheduled time I would get the text "can I shift from morning to afternoon or afternoon to morning", "can I move you to this day instead" etc.  No big deal 99% of the time and the answer was always "no problem".  Peppered in here was always a "are you healthy" message or two before appointments, which I get to an extent, but it annoyed me - and I would totally message you and say "we're sick" if I needed to and I assured them of this.

Over time my eyes would roll a bit when the text came in because of course it did.  Then there was that 1% of the time when I was depending on the service occurring on that scheduled date before having guests here at the house.  On this occasion it was a "can we reschedule, I'm afraid of getting sick".  We weren't sick mind you.  Yes, it was during flu season, but that's several months of the year and this service does necessitate you entering people's homes.  This left me in a bind and in a rush to take care of things on my own leading up to the holidays and company.

When they messaged the next month they expressed feeling really bad about not coming etc.  But I simply indicated that it's still flu season and we will just bow out.  A month later they messaged again and asked if I wanted said service.  I repeated that we would wait until flu season ended.  By late spring I got used to not spending the money and sucking up and doing this activity myself, so I never bothered to start things back up.  I'd like to get someone back in for this service, but I've put it off, and damnit -- I don't want set up for the same cycle again.  Am I the ahole?

The second scenario is playing out right now.  It involves a weekly lesson for kiddo.  Scheduled late summer 2024 and agreed upon a date and time each week.  We ended up going less than 50% of the time, and it wasn't me cancelling... but ok.  Girl never developed a routine and never grew interested (probably because of the irregularity).  Each time there was a cancel there was an offer for a different day of the week.  I always replied indicating "no thanks", "we'll see you next week", and often noting when the offered time conflicted with other commitments.

Now their schedule has changed completely.  The first message was a spam to several 'students' indicating this changed schedule and noting that lessons could not start before X time, let me know available times.  Well, good news, our time was exactly X time -- we should be good.  Today I get a text offering us the X+1 hour time slot and I replied indicating "I must have misread.  If you are still able to start at 530 we'd rather keep our set time."

I admit, the reply pissed me off because it indicated the person with the X-1 hour time slot wanted our time and already picked it.  That they were "going first come first serve".  Pretty sure August-September 2024 comes before March 2025.  The next text reiterates the X+1 hour time and times on another day of the week.  At this point I feel jerked around, despite being obscenely accommodating for the past 5 months.  Am I the ahole if I'm just out at this point?  Why should I change both my and my kid's schedule around in order to accommodate another student that wanted to take our slot?

We are getting small tastes of nice weather again and I'm so here for it.  As much as I loathe changing the clocks and it makes me rather grumpy when the alarm goes off for a few days the later sunlight time is welcome.

The other little thing bringing me joy is that I bought the green onions I needed to make the corn dip I took to holiday gatherings again.  It's so good!  I will be using some of my little lunch break to mix it up.

I feel stuck.  Having home owners insurance and two tax bills arrive, I haven't seen my slush fund incrementing as I would have anticipated in the past two months.  The good news is that I did get a bit of a tax refund to offset some of it, or it wouldn't have just been stagnant growth it would have been negative.

My brain is twirling with smaller improvement ideas, but I have to keep them at bay and put my eyes on the prize.  I wish I was passionately excited about one of my flooring options.  I did have the second provider return, and he disagrees that a glue-down would be required.  While this opens more options in flooring selection it also makes even more doubts and second guessing swirl.

One perk of having been sick is that my appetite was way down.  I've decided to try and embrace this as a leaping off point, not allowing myself to return to post-ick consumption.  The scale is responding, for now - I know losing weight this way is short lived; I am hoping it serves as motivation.  I definitely saw my first robin w/o his friends earlier this week.  I am hoping nicer weather will inspire me too.  Of course, this just reminds me that I'm behind as I haven't put a single seed into dirt yet.

I purchased some snow crab legs for dinner tonight - I haven't bought those in many years but thought "what the heck" when I spotted them on sale.  It'll be fun to see what Avery thinks.  She does like a california roll, so this should be better, right?

I didn't escape the cooties.  I have spent a few days feeling very cold but without a fever along with a general lethargy and very heavy/tired eyes.  Last night I was literally crawling into bed at 7:30 and I enjoyed every minute of sleep.

The most annoying part is that there is crud draining which has my cough /sore throat firing up again.  While most of my cough went away at the start of February (after torturing me for the full month of January) I periodically had a hack.  I guess I'm to the point where I should consider a trip to the doctor for the cough, but I see the sinus drainage correlation, so maybe it isn't worth it.  It also isn't in my lungs, it's truly in my throat, but I do worry about any type of lung issues.

I've been trying to power through two shows on Netflix.  It's been a while since I found something there worth watching - go figure my favorite egg plans on canceling his subscription the second I find things to watch  The first, Resident Alien, came recommended from one of my Starbucks friends.  The second is Six Feet Under which I found my happenstance.  They aren't earth shattering, but I'm enjoying them.

Girl seemed to be doing well mid-day yesterday but then her eyes started to tear again and looked red.  Looking online for guidance I pulled out the lubricating eye drops I had in our emergency medical supplies and gave her a warm compress.  I called her pediatrician late in the afternoon to see if I should take her in somewhere (concerned about pink eye) and learned that this is basically what has been going around and that it is likely to come and go in waves.  I also learned that I took the right action on the eyes, so that's reassuring.  They also advocated for ibuprofen rather than acetaminophen (tylenol), which was fortunately available via the nearest Walgreens.  I guess since the fever was low enough I needed to let it ride.  I also snagged some ear drops as I noticed this gap in my emergency supplies after a neighbor highlighted this symptom as an issue she was having in her household.

I post all of this to spread the word in some capacity.  Either way, she was 110% herself at bed time last night and seemed a-ok this morning, so off to school she went.  I'm hoping we don't ride the roller coaster the pediatrician's office warned me of, but I guess we'll see.

As for me, I have a dentist appointment today.  Wish me luck.

This is a first - kiddo stayed home from school today.  She just wasn't herself all day yesterday.  Then she became very tired late in the afternoon and was reading a fever.  She went to bed super early (at her request).  This also means she was up super early today.  I came down (about 15 minutes before her alarm was set for) to find her fully dressed for school and watching TV.  Given the fever late in the day yesterday, I had her stay home.  Hopefully this is just a quick thing and I don't get this gift.  I've heard so many people going back and forth with the sick that's been going around - I admit, I'm a bit nervous.  I guess that's my reminder to go give her more vitamins and emergen-c.

Flooring update - I'm exasperated.  I had a second location measure.  They indicated that I would need to do glue-down (due to spotting a bowing in the floor in my hallway).  This, of course, reduces the options I have significantly.  It wiped out all but one flooring option I had liked the look of at that location.  The one that remains?  Yep, it's one of their most expensive flooring options.  While I didn't have an idea of a $ amount, I am in complete sticker shock.  It would wipe out my entire slush fund and a bit more.  They offer 0% financing, but I was really hoping to not need to go in such directions.

The first place that measured didn't notice any issue with the floor.  Because I haven't picked something they haven't given me any pricing, which is a bit frustrating.  I've been back and forth from there bringing home samples to look at.  I am just not finding something I like that looks ok (in my opinion) with both my cabinets and counter tops.  Too gray, too beige, too busy, too plain.  I am officially the flooring Goldilocks.

I've been in this house for 8 years (and four days).  Time really flies.  I had this epiphany last night right before bed -- because I realized I hadn't gotten a bill for my home owners insurance (which should have needed to be re-issued on Feb 8).  Now, I did pay off the house, so you're probably thinking "well, you didn't contact them" to which I'll note that I got the pre-bill mailing that says "THIS IS NOT A BILL.  A SEPARATE BILL WILL FOLLOW." -- but it didn't.

Needless to say this stressed me out a bit, but I did manage to leave a message so my insurance office would call me this morning and allowed it to roll off my back enough that I slept ok.  Today they called and noted that a bill wasn't sent out yet and it isn't due until early March (which is odd since my mortgage paid it in February last year, but ok).  They made sure records indicated the bill needed to come to me.  Crisis averted.  Premiums are up yet another $100 this year.  I can't believe I'm going to phrase this in a positive light, but I've heard of people having premiums double, so I'll take it.

I found adapter plugs that eliminate my previous frustration.  Let's be honest, for $4, even w/ a working arm I might have taken this lazy route.  Those should arrive on Thursday, but the replacement detector won't be here until the 20th or so.  I bought a two-pack thinking that I should also swap out the basic smoke detector in the basement (near the furnace) for smoke/carbon monoxide.  In theory it should all work, and if it doesn't or causes too many false positives I can always swap it back out.

Friday I got my registration for the car.  They've raised that price too.  2023 $39.00, 2024 $39.50, 2025 $45.00 - seriously you email me something I have to print myself.  How does that cost another $5.00?  Based on the stories swirling about perhaps it will slush a legal fund for our Governor.

I also had the first individual here to measure as I prepare to replace flooring.  Of course I didn't get any numbers and I need to go back up to their store when I can spend more time looking through the options.  The kick in the nards there is that they don't move certain things -- like adjustable beds (which I have) -- and they have to be fully vacated.  Um... I can barely move that thing to clean behind it.  That might be a deal breaker.

The last of the body tenderness is finally leaving.  I have 10 days until my next massage.  Hopefully we can deal with any lingering tightness then.  There is major flu floating around (several variants).  I'm really hoping my house can escape that mess - I put in my time throughout January.  Reminder to take your vitamins.

I thought I had won my own personal lottery.  The smoke/carbon monoxide detector started beeping a week and a half ago -- but not at 2am.  It was a relatively reasonable hour with the exception that it was the only day I get to lay in bed longer.  By the time I had the dog out and came back upstairs to figure out which one it was it had stopped.  A couple of days later it started again -- this time at 9am on a work day, even better.  I changed out the batteries, counted my blessings that it wasn't beeping in the middle of the night and went about my day.

Here we are on Friday after this started and it's beeping again.  The batteries are good, I know it.  So I look it up.  Every 30 seconds beep means that it is nearing end of life (rather than 1 beep every 60 seconds).  Lesson learned.  But in the mean time, it won't stop beeping - and while I keep plenty of batteries here to avoid this annoyance I do not keep extra smoke detectors.

I certainly hope that the same brand still uses the same connectors and should be an easy swap, but until I see it I'm not going to expect it.  My first thought was, should one just replace all of them at once?  I mean they're all 10 years old.  Then I saw the price of one.  Ouch.  It's discontinued hence the high price.  The replacement they point you to?  It has a different connection, so I'd need to swap out the connector to the hardwires.  Keep in mind I still have one arm that doesn't go up, hence I haven't change the light fixture over the sink in the basement yet.  Good times.

95%.  Still just a wee bit.  My whole chest cavity remains sore, the feeling like after you had an extreme workout when out of shape.  I'm pulling out the massager today to try and loosen things up.

Since my last post I have stopped in to several more flooring places including another that seems on the 'higher' end, the place that did my upstairs bathrooms/laundry room a year ago, and home depot to review what they carry.  I'm still not blown away by anything.  There really is very little variety out there in carpet colors, just gradients or beige or gray, or beige and gray.

I feel like I'm doomed to pick something that "will do" rather than finding something that I immediately fall in love with if I want to do this relatively near term.  Heck, the quotes may come in so outrageous that doing this near term isn't even an option -- and that's based in part on my guestimates.  Here's my guess based on some of the numbers I've seen - carpet w/ the upgraded padding 8-9k; lvp 6-7k or ceramic around 10k.  If that's where things start to land that definitely doesn't leave me wanting to do everything all at once and it nixes some of the other upgrades that I'd want to do at the same time.  Dear lottery (or wealthy benefactors on their deathbed that I am not aware of), a girl could use a hand.  Thanks.

I'm at 90% - periodic coughs, particularly when I over extend myself.  I'll take it.  I truly lost the whole month of January.  Yesterday I finally took the really large bin of Christmas stuff back to the basement and only suffered a minor coughing fit.

Saturday was brisk but the sun was out, so Avery and I spent most of the day outside with her neighbor friends.  I needed the fresh air and companionship.  I came in a bit windburned and frozen to the core which had me taking a super hot shower and sitting on the couch in layers of clothes and blankets.  Maybe that's what dislodged the last bit of ick?  I'm left with just a little bit of rib cage soreness.

Friday I popped into one flooring store that I expect to be a bit overpriced.  They didn't quite have what I'm looking for instore, and didn't have some of the options I saw on the website.  While the lady that helped me mentally took me back to my youth, and not for a good reason, I still have her coming to measure and give me general estimates.  I figure it will give me the higher number so I can start to figure out my path forward.

I say take me back to my youth because... when I started looking at one section of carpet she tried to nudge me away from it to the other side of the store and basically told me that carpet was the very expensive/high end stuff.  Granted, I went in there dressed a bit like a bum... but even I learned when I was 16 waiting tables to not take a look at someone and make a financial assessment.  I remember this happening to me distinctly once when I was younger and it was a running joke w/ the ex and I.  I went to ?Market Basket in Johnstown, we had friends coming (one of which I know reads this blog).  I wanted to buy filet mignon and asked to have 4 cut to whatever thickness (I don't remember).  The butcher said "you know this is X $ a lb, right?"  The ex had bought me jewelry periodically.  He was good like that.  Looking as he (we) did, he would go into a store and he (we) would get ignored.  The place could have been empty and they would ignore the young 20-somethings in the dark clothes.  Eventually he found the gal that was our go to for jewelry shopping because she treated him like anyone else.  I'm sure her coworkers were pretty pissed about the commissions they lost.

In past visits to the doctor for a cough I've been told both that it was sinus related and that it was reflux related.  I want to note that I have only ever had a brief issue with heartburn when I was very pregnant, so I've always been skeptical of that diagnosis.  Here recently with this cough I've found myself (gross warning) tasting what I last ate a bit more often (still no burning), so I figured I should give this a little more consideration - especially given how overweight I am at the moment, which could cause or exacerbate this issue too.  I've taken a few antacids in the past few days and I even slept on the couch the past two nights, hoping the more upright posture would prevent reflux-related issues.  Last night I also pulled out the neti-pot, even though my head/sinuses have been remarkably clear ever since the allergy fit on New Years day.  May as well tackle both suspect concerns.

Sitting still I feel ok and start to think maybe I'm doing better - but when I have to move around too much, do the stairs, or head out into the brisk air the cough takes over.  Nothing like loosing all of January to this.

In a desperate attempt to do some of the things I am behind on (read:  cleaning) last night I dusted the cat room (prb not great for a cough) and scrubbed down my bathroom sink (chemicals also prb not great).  So at least I ran the netipot after doing those things.

I look around at my mess and can't fathom how on earth I can have someone come here to replace floors, there is too much crap - where do you put it and how do you move it from room to room fast enough as they complete each space?

I'm seriously considering a very dark colored carpet upstairs.  I had a near black carpet in the bedroom at my old place - it wasn't as awful w/ fur as you might expect.  The bigger worry right now might be reducing the visibility of two black cats at night.  I also love the look of slate for downstairs - but hate the thought of that maintenance.  There are vinyl options, but I wish they would come up with a better name as vinyl instantly makes me think cheap.  Tile maybe?  I really need to get out and look at things, but I have to admit there are some really nice looking items on Home Depot's website.  I do need to do more research to make sure I am checking my boxes (scratch resistant and water proof, low maintenance).  At least I have a nice long window to do the research while I gather funds.

I've gotten my first tax bills post mortgage - ouch and ouch - and I'm waiting for the home owners insurance bill to come too.  It would be really nice to think I had a tax refund coming to cover those things, but knowing it's dumb to give the govt an interest free loan I have tried to cut those numbers tighter in recent years.  I guess the lottery is the only other option.  Last week I did get a fortune cookie last Thursday that told me "A financial breakthrough awaits you this Wednesday"... so lemme see it universe.