No alarms, thank goodness.

The evenings are definitely getting cooler.  I still have a few peppers growing that I'm trying to bring to fruition.  I pulled most of the tomato plants last night as they were done.  I think two remain with numerous green fruit.  The only other things left are the green beans, which blows my mind because they continue to produce, and my few beet plants, but if what I pulled earlier this summer is any indication they'll be long and spindly not bulbs.

Halloween decor outside is good to go but nothing inside yet.  I need another full day working in the basement and I need to get through the bins that were moved to the garage to purge more goodies and put the remaining "away".

The other news is we had three more kitties join us as fosters.  The rescue held off until Mercury and Venus' adoptions were finalized and that just took place.  These three were with one of the group's leaders who also had their mother.  They're fully vetted already, so a bit older than what I typically get and what a mixed bag!  The girl, Leona loves pets and she has a beautiful coat; she is totally ready, I just need to get good photos of her and get to know her more to create a write up.  The first boy, Frankie, needs a bit longer to adjust but is friendly enough and also likely ready to roll.  The second boy, "Mama's Boy" is just that.  I guess he hung tight to his mom and thus didn't socialize as much, he'll need some time to decide I'm cool.  We'll work on it and get him a new name.  I'm thinking Marlon Brando to stick with the Italian vibe and to keep the MB initials.

 After the battery swap the whole house went off one more time as we prepared to climb into bed.  Fortunately, it gave us peace until 5am when one room started to chirp like it had a dead battery.  After church today I made the run to Home Depot.

They also had extra batteries for the new mower for $99 as end of season clearance (vs $329) so I picked up spares.  This was not something you could order online, so I had to go to the store - and figured I'd just get the detectors while there.  Note that online if you buy 6, which I need to do, you get 15% off making it cheaper to buy individual detectors instead of the 4 pack.  They do not honor this in store and customer service couldn't care less when you point out the online discount stating "it depends on the item".  Online customer service told me I should have talked to a manager.  Gee, thanks.  So I overpaid AND ended up with one that already had the batteries activated.  Regardless, we instead used the second carbon monoxide detector from the previous replacement scenario in the basement and I needed the base from the smoke detector to do it.  Whee.

Hopefully those two issues are resolved.  Now I'll just sit here and fight with my tv and internet trying to get it to stop buffering.  I still may lose my mind.  It's already been way too frigging expensive of a weekend.  PBJs for dinner this week.

Last night I mowed part of the lawn but ran out of juice. This morning the fully charged batteries did nothing to start the mower.  eff.  I could have invested in another GreenWorx mower and potentially been able to keep using those batteries and have the existing chargers to help me -- but that would be ordering it online. So I ran to a local place that features Toros.  I ended up coming home with another electric mower, Echo brand.  This time I went with self-propelled to try and help me out a bit on those super hot days on the sloped part of the yard.  It would have been nice if the existing mower could have made it to the end of this mowing season, but here we are.  I guess the old one had an ok run (over 9 years - thanks blog).

Back in June when my fire alarm went off at 3am I vacuumed everything and have had peace ever since.  Today that came to an end.  As I sat at the kitchen table relaxing for a moment it panicked me out of my seat.  Another run through the house proved everything safe and clear.  It turned off within two minutes. Then peace... for a couple of hours.  At that point it started sounding again running for approx 10-60 seconds each time it went off. After about the 5th time I decided to change every friggin battery (even though none of them have beeped to indicate an issue).  I just hope it doesn't terrify me awake tonight.

I guess it if goes off again the next step is replacing all of the sensors.  If you recall I replaced the one that alerts "fire" or "carbon monoxide" and doesn't have a replaceable battery a while back (didn't manage to timestamp this one in my blog).  That for sure had a 10 year life span.

I'm GenX I'm not supposed to give a crap what people think about me.  I wish I didn't.  I more so wish I could not care what people think of my kid, or rather that she not have people dismiss her in any way.  Truly that's the bigger part.  Hate me, I'll dislike it if I didn't do anything to earn it - but I'll deal; please don't treat my kid less than.

There's the group of folks that repeatedly ignore me at work or treat me like crap.  There's the circle of moms and kids at kiddos jiu jitsu that I/we aren't a part of.  There's even neighbors that continue to separate away from us at every given opportunity.

What makes someone just never fit in?  Of course I've had my circle of friends my whole life.  I love them and I wouldn't trade them for anything.  But why do some people just seem to be who everyone wants to be around and others are cast off to the side feeling out of place?

7th grade was 40 friggin years ago, why didn't it end?

No new (or former) foster babies yet.  I spent my Labor day holiday laboring in the basement.  I made great progress sorting canned goods so I'm not hunting for things and unsure of what I have left.  I should be able to send the kid or the guy down to grab something for me too without it being a thing where only I know where things are.  I also tossed some snacks that have gone out of date since kiddo got her braces and can't eat them.  There were also things put aside, perhaps for the rescue's garage sales?

Other than that the weekend was pretty uneventful, but that's ok.  With the rain we've had lately I could do with uneventful.  While working in the basement I dumped the container I put under the pipe where the water comes into the house - it was full, so it's no longer a one-time thing and I'm glad I left the container there.

Happy spooky season!  It's time to load Steve our friendly skelly into the car and to start decorating.  Hopefully I'll be more into it than I was last year.

My doctor visits all went well last week, and we're trying something.  We'll see how it goes.  In the mean time, I was reminded in the middle of the night with a terrible leg cramp what a beotch all of this is.

I am waiting to get final word - I heard that one of the former fosters was getting returned (for a second time) due to kids with allergies but they had also slated to bring me three kittens this week.  Either way, I will be adding a bit more mayhem to my days.

We've settled in to the new school year routine.  Frankly, I hate it.  I don't want to share a bus stop, I want it to still be just us two.  I'm now officially embarrassing her when I want to give her a hug and a kiss goodbye.  It's happening.  Make it stop.

If I didn't 100% know better I'd think I had PMS.  Today was rough.  It was all little things, not big things, but it all _felt_ rough, amplified, chaotic, and frustrating -- and it should have been a good day.

I'm feeling 95% better, a bit of a cough still and I had a moment of woozy today, but I'm good. So tell me why when I got up today I had lost all memory of the correct mass times at which church.  In my mind, we should NOT head to the church closer to the house because there is no longer mass there at the time we liked (except that is the Sat eve mass), so I headed to the main church in the parish to walk in as communion is starting.  I look up times and misread it and was half way to the 3rd church before I realized eff, that's the church I thought we shouldn't be going to and had to turn around - either way I'm destined now to be late for the 8:30 mass.

We get there just in time, but mentally I'm a wreck.  Did they change the times while we were away on vaca for ONE WEEK?  Surely not, they always give warning.  What is going on?  This doesn't jive with my brain at all and it leaves me in tears - the whole mass, crying, can't stop, whilst we stand at the back because we were riiiight on time to catch the blessing.  In my addled brain this is assuredly another sign in my deteriorating memory that I am headed for early onset dementia.  That at any point is always a fear after living with a senile great aunt in our house when I was a teenager.

I leave there and head home, we have my sister and her hubs coming to celebrate kiddo's bday with us, lunch and some ice cream.  My frustration with myself lingers and I can't shake it all day plus my eyes hurt, they are dry and itchy to the point that I can't see right even with my glasses.

After our day together has ended my favorite egg goes about replacing the garbage disposal - have I posted that that started to leak water a while back, stopped, and decided to start again the day before vacation?  Oh yeah, good times.  So yesterday I went and spent the money on that after the new stove was finally delivered two months later (and well after the cutoff for the submission of the rebate).  Oh - and I noticed the bottom drawer doesn't sit straight on the stove, so that's great.  Anyhow he seemed to get the disposal in without a hitch and then the dishwasher wouldn't run (glad I wanted to start it before he left).  Turns out the easiest troubleshooting is the solution and he hadn't removed a plug - dishwasher is now running.  This is all after he arrives today with my fixed expensive hairdryer in tow that pulled apart at the plug when I went to unplug it.

He leaves, I sit down and now my roku remote doesn't work.  New batteries didn't fix it, restarting things didn't fix it... as I type this the tv et al crashed and rebooted and now it's working again. The universe needs to slow its roll, I'm not hear for it right now.  With the medical appointments lined up for this week, I don't need this pace to continue.  It will encourage me to discuss my overall menopausal changes with my female care doctors - namely memory among others.

Alaska!  We left on the 9th to Seattle.  I wasn't expecting Seattle to be as clean and safe feeling as it was.  We had an easy direct flight and success using the light rail and buses to get to our hotel to drop off luggage.  The hotel was a two bedroom suite since we had my favorite egg's parents with us and it worked out quite well.  There were several eateries nearby but we returned to the one (Queen Anne Beer Hall).  We walked to the space needle, which I was at when I was maybe 6 or 7?  It is definitely not what I remember inside, but it remained pretty cool.  Then we took the bus to Pike's Place market for a bit of a stroll.  Didn't see some of the cliche sites on my list, but it was nice to walk around and relax a bit after a long day of travel.

The next morning we were up and headed to the cruise port to meet Anthem of the Seas.  When I tell you I didn't know how to pack I mean it.  It's supposed to be colder (50-60) this time of year, especially on a moving ship but I'm always warm.  I tried to have a nice balance so I could layer.  I didn't need too much of the layers or my waterproof jacket - the weather was amazing with the exception of our second day at sea, which was very foggy, but then I got to hear the horn every minute or two as a result.  We saw blue skies and the tops of mountains.  There was so much sun we could barely see the Mendenhall glacer when the ship spun around in the channel to give us a view.

One day at sea at the start allowed us to adjust to the time change further, then we were in Sitka where we took the free shuttle into town and we walked adventuring on our own.  We went to the Totem Trail and it was a beautiful forest to walk.  A quick stop at a local grocery store, and then a local frequented place for some of the best (and most expensive) fish and chips I've ever had.

At the end of the day I had a voice mail, our tour for the next day in Skagway was being cut short due to a landslide:  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/mudslide-south-klondike-closed-aug-11-9.7229001 fortunately it didn't happen while we were on the other side of it and instead of a full day tour we had a half day tour.  We road the railway up the mountain and bused back through Chilkoot Charters - and it was beautiful and peaceful.  Not much for wildlife - you needed binoculars to prove the one spot on the hill was a goat.  The shorter tour gave us time to walk the local area here too and I had a lesser fish meal and a drink at the Skagway Brewing Company.

The next day was Juneau, but in the early morning we cruised in the channel and saw the mendenhall glacier.  As mentioned it was hard to see from the ship, so I was really glad we had planned to shuttle to the area where we could then walk a trail to Nugget Falls.  It was all stunning.  On the way back we got a quick treat at a local coffee place and I didn't stop to get king crab at Tracy's but I probably should have.

Finally, Victoria BC which was also easily walkable - we meandered to some of the local sites like a government building and the Empress Hotel then to a park before we stopped at a local place and had the most delightful rootbeer with ingredients that don't aim to kill you:  https://phillipssoda.com/soda/captain-electro/

As mentioned there was then a day at sea and a return to Seattle where we headed to the airport and after only a small delay in our flight we were on our way (pretty smooth).

It happened, I may have gotten sick while traveling... at first I thought it was just my sinuses being ridiculous because I was back in PA and mowing my lawn multiple nights in a row but last night I was trying to get liquid to flow with the neti pot, having minor aches in my legs, and feeling off.  No fever at the moment at least.

This morning is the first day of third grade - and with our transition to public school the bus was an hour later than it was in years past.  I desperately needed that extra window of time attempting to sleep and the couch continues to call me.  Regardless, girl is on the bus without a hitch.  She's trying breakfast and lunch at school today - they have choices each day, it blows my mind.  As to me with this switch there are hitches.  I still can get into the powerschool account after needing to call to get student ID numbers and them giving me some other kid's number.  When they removed that kid it locked me out of my account, so that's fun.

I'm grateful for vacation, but the lead up and the come back are rough.  I always try to clean and get a lot out of the way so when I come back I'm not already behind.  When I come back there are the several loads of laundry, the lawn that got an abundance of water in my absence, running for the dog and groceries - and this time a quick ortho visit before school starts back up.

We landed at midnight last night, got home at 1, I greeted kitties, emptied suitcases, and showered to be in bed by 2:30.  Gave myself a bit of grace and had an alarm set for 7am.  Then it was on with all the things.  While I had a bit of a boost from an airplane nap and time zone changes in my favor I'm wiped.

Many tomatoes turned and rotted out back in my week away.  I picked what I could and got the other yellow pepper which ripened to perfection.  I got the front and side lawn mowed while dinner cooked - mind you the mower REALLY didn't want to start this time (it's been acting up and sounding unhappy all summer), grabbed cupcakes for an early birthday sing before kiddo's Nonni left (they spent the night after and we went to the ortho appointment (kid is now rocking school colors on her teeth.) followed by brunch since the fridge was pretty bare), brought the doggo home, and still got 7.5 hours in today.  Huzzah.

I have a lot to say about vaca, but I'll save it for another day when my fingers are cooperating with my brain.  Time to move the last load of laundry to the dryer and get in the shower.  Goodnight moon.

I am overdue to empty a couple of potato bins and I finally have peppers trying to change color.  The tomatoes - oh buddy are they treating me well this year.  The asparagus that was put into the ground is green and lush, she's taken to the crappy soil.  I hope she can stand the winter.

Kiddo's recommended next step for swim is AG 2, which is great.  She's interested in doing the next session, I'm trying to weigh how that lands with jiu jitsu which remains a priority to me for her to continue.  This week was her last summer camp (camp splash week #2) and it's all downhill from here until back to school (and birthday!)

We've been going through clothes and purging things she has outgrown.  This also gives me a good assessment of what she has for school, which is different this year without the uniforms.  We don't get bus or teacher assignment information for another week and a half - and I can't even sign up for the cafeteria stuff w/o a student ID that I haven't yet been provided.  The wait until the last minute mentality breaks my very soul.  At least this year we don't have a supply list to fulfill.

It's been a pensive week.  My close friend's mother passed and we attended her funeral yesterday.  Much like my mother, she had her ailments but was relatively well. It wasn't 100% abrupt, but her illness was brief (a blessing).

After returning from that funeral I learned another friend's husband passed away last night.  She had just retired earlier this year.  They weren't old enough to be leaving one another yet.

My heart hurts for them all so much.  My own birthday came and went without too much gnashing of teeth, but I would be lying if I didn't reflect and simply say momento mori.

Last week's swim meet updates!  Avery's 100 free relay came in 6th out of 14 with 1:32.84, again no individual splits were available.  Her 100 medley relay also came in 6th out of 9 with 1:51.65.  She snagged 4th in the 25 fly out of 6 girls with 26.31 (the week prior was 26.74, so she bettered herself which is huge).  They also had her swim 25 breast, which she wasn't thrilled about but she again took 4th out of 6 and we got a seed time for next go round of 33.57.  She seemed pleased with the results and was happy to get ribbons for places she hasn't won previously.

Today is finals and our mini-season is over.  They have her in one relay and swimming 25 free.  With finals since they can only sign up 3 swimmers for each event she barely got edged out on seed time on butterfly.

This week we are free from another activity, which is good, I'm getting tired of running.  We're back to it next week.

Other news, it looks like our two foster babies are coming back after it having been announced that the adoption was finalized - I'm bummed for them but this also complicates things here.  Saying a prayer that we might have another foster step up even if just temporarily.

Tomatoes are starting to ripen and they're beautiful this year!  I also have several peppers growing well out back.  I've pulled onions - while they're not huge they're bigger than I've managed to harvest in the past.  I also have more beans coming in.  The beets are looking like my nothing-burger this year.  Two of the potato pots have died off and I should check them - but I don't anticipate much there; the other couple pots are still growing strong.  I also have some beautiful lettuce happening which I'm pleased with since last year I couldn't get it to start to save my life.

The CSA started up last Friday so I have kale, lettuce, beans, and cukes from them to use up.  I only did a quarter basket this year, I think it was the right move.  I'm bummed we didn't get scapes this year in the first week.  With the kale I made a batch of tuscan chicken - yum.  I never thought I'd find a way to make kale an enjoyable part of a meal, but all three of us give this dish good ratings.