katiemarie

Once more I failed to get up at 10:00. I finally made it out of bed by 12:00. I had breakfast and coffee, and then showered and dressed,

I took the ag of laundry that I got together yesterday down to the laundromat, I am happy to report that although there is still a lot of snow, the street and sidewalks were clear.

Dropped off the laundry and came back home. Worked on the story I've been wrking on, largely editing what I already had, but did some writing and am now around 3,330 words.

Last night in bed I went to PetSmart on my phone. I've always gotten pet products online from either Amazon or Petco. But someone had said PetSmart was better than Petco, so I decided to try it out in my eternal search for a pump to empty out the turtle tank. And I found something that I hope will work! I ordered it right then, paid for it by Paypal so I didn't even have to get my credit card out of my purse.

And got overnight delivery, to be delivered by DoorDash between 3:00 and 6:00. So I was waiting for that while I wrote. It came around 5:00, and I looked it over, looks like just what I want.

Didn't have time to try it out today, and won't tomorrow, but on Friday I will. Hopefully I'll be able to drain the tank and fill it up again.

mashfanficchick called and we made plans for tomorrow.

So that's the news of the day. Then at 7:00 I Teamed the FWiB. The Teams worked well, so I was hopeful that the Discord would work for my game, but there were problems with it. I had to switch out to my phone at two points. But I was able to take part in most of the game, and had a good time.

After the game finished, I fed the pets and had my dinner, then started here.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Got my laundry down.

3. No problem with uncleared sidewalks.

4. Got a pump that looks like it'll work.

5. My gaming group.

6. My phone.

Current Mood: satisfied

My swim was luxurious this morning until the last 5 minutes when the sun came out and blinded me. I had thought about lowering the shades before I got in but it was so cloudy. Lesson learned. I just quit 5 minutes early. Then I got back here and Biggie would not let me at the computer. But now he's otherwise occupied and here I are.

I spent a fair amount of time yesterday organizing my now totally dirt simple finances. It was mostly moving inactive accounts out of sight and setting up some targets for the others. I do not track every penny, but I do want to be able to look at a glance and see where my money is going. Mostly I want to ensure I know where the truly discretionary hot spots are in case I need to trim back for some reason.

Yo, Biggie, so far you are not discretionary but keep up that annoying behavior like this morning and that could change!

I've got nothing on the agenda for today and I'm not feeling very people-y. I have the second half of yesterday's lunch for today and enough for dinner so I might not even leave here again today. Oh wait, I need to take the trash out.

I did watch the new Dick Wolfe show CIA last night. I'm giving it one more episode. It sucked but maybe that was just the groundlaying. His stuff is usually so painless and easy to watch while knitting.

And that's it. That's my action packed, fun filled, crazy old lady life. It may not suit everyone but it's really nice for me.

I actually got up with the alarm today at 10:00, and made it out of bed pretty quickly. I had breakfast and coffee, and started to write again.

The story is going pretty well. It's now 2,850 words, and has more to go. I'll work on it tomorrow too.

Once again, that's pretty much all I did today.

mashfanficchick called me to tell me ze has zer plane tickets for zer next Ohio trip, and we talked a bit, that's all.

Oh one thing I did was get a bag of laundry together to take down tomorrow.

Anyway, at 7:00 I Teamed the FWiB, the Team worked well so I had hopes for my Al-anon meeting Zoom working. But it was only semi-working, it kept blanking out audio. Fortunately there was only me and M there.

After the meeting I had dinner, and went to the bedroom to lay down.

Facebook reminds me that today would have been Aunt Helen's 97th birthday. I miss her, a lot.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. The writing is going well.

3. My meetings and the people there.

4. Memories of Aunt Helen.

5.

mashfanficchick

6. The Teams worked well and the Zoom was at least usable.

Current Mood: nostalgic

This time it's a Mediterranean restaurant called Oasis Fresh, where I got a vegetarian platter. Basmati rice with dolmas on top, side salad, hummus, and pita. Simple and very good. The rice was much better than that place I got the boiled unflavored rice from (Assyrian...something) with no hummus. I added it to the "good" restaurant list and I'll remember it for the future, though I'm just bringing my lunch tomorrow.

Visited Laila in the hospital yesterday.

sashagee told me before I got there that Laila was energetic and chatty earlier in the day, but by the time I got there she was listless and half-asleep. I waited around for an hour but she never got any more energy, but this morning right when I was finishing my breakfast, I got a FaceTime and Laila excitedly showed me Ariel and told me about the wires coming out of her head, so she had more energy at least earlier today. We'll see if she has more energy when I go see her after work today--I saw some pictures that Poppa and Nana took when they visited and she was more subdued then. We'll see.

I've been slowly reading a book that's much more interesting than my slow pace would indicate, called The Son and Heir. The book starts with the author finding an SS uniform hat in their attic and then expands to the story of his family--Dutch in Latvia and owners of a business empire, the clashes between his father and his grandfather over heritage (his grandfather was very proud of being Dutch and his father wanted nothing to do with the Netherlands), the way his father ran away to enlist in the German army to fight the Russians... I'm halfway through the book and the author is three years old, but his father has already divorced his mother, been put on trial for being an SS members and gotten off after only ten months in jail, avoided being sent to South America, and married another (already-married) woman. The book is only half-over. Now that the setup is all over I wonder when we're going to get the author's reaction to all of this?

Computer is still working. It's been over a month now without a single crash and the only thing I changed is plugging some things into the USB ports. Maybe it really was a faulty USB connector. Well, it saved me $2000, so I won't complain. Of course, now

sashagee is asking for a gaming laptop so she can play Stardew Valley with mods, and Clair Obscur with the "disgustingly easy" parry mod. I've been looking around but I have no idea what a "mid-range" gaming laptop should look like so it's slow going. I'll gladly take any suggestions if anyone has any.

Current Mood: pensive
Current Music: Eastward - Silent Mist

I knew/hoped I was over paying my estimated taxes last year. With the selling of the house, particularly, and the semi flaky CPA I had to work with - who didn't even give me the estimated tax amount until I had to ask twice, I was in a better safe than sorry situation.

Last night I got an email from a different CPA at the firm (I haven't had to deal with flaky at all this year), asking how I wanted to handle my $5000 refund!! Whoa. The email explained that it is enough to cover estimated takes for this year with a $1,300 overage - did I want to just pay up and then get the overage into my checking account?? FUCK yeah!!!! So. Taxes paid for this year's return. Taxes paid for next year's return. Enough cash to pay the CPA and still some left over? At least enough to pay for a couple of Biggie's vet visits. Yafuckinghooooo! What a load off. No details yet. I expect they will come today but that is a big relief. And from here on own my tax situation will be totally simple Simon. Nice.

Tuesday, house cleaning day. Yeah.

I've been rewatching Season 1 of The Pitt, before I watch Season 2. I'm still reading Dark Ride by Lou Benney and it's a great read. It has not gone where I thought it would which makes it even better. I'm a little more than half way through and already thinking I want to slow down the read to make it last longer.

The Mariner game is on TV today which will be fun.

I am so relieved about those damn taxes. I didn't even realize how stressed I was.

Ramadan has just started and my Signal group is having trouble finding enough protectors to fill evening slots. My Food Communists are talking about a $40,000 shortfall that may end their ability to feed people in hiding. March 1 is looming for people who haven't been able to pay rent and are facing evictions. Yet, local politicians are declaring victory and telling people it's time to "go shopping."

Meanwhile, ICE is still being tracked throughout Saint Paul (and presumably Minneapolis, but I don't have access to those Rapid Response groups). Reports that I've seen seem to indicate that the majority of the activity has moved out to the less well organized smaller towns and suburbs. Though the "sexy" part of the resistance--the gas in the streets, the violent confrontations--has dried up, the danger to our immigrant communities is far from over. There is zero sense that ICE is actually leaving. They have switched to quieter, more subtle tactics. They've gone further afield. But make no mistake, they are very much still here.

Last night I went to a Singing Resistance meeting for an action that took place this morning. I managed to miss this morning's action because my GPS decided that it wanted to autocorrect Street to Avenue! VERY DIFFERENT, GPS! In fact, a very important distinction!!! So, I ended up getting lost in downtown Minneapolis long enough to miss the gathering time. But, what was interesting to me is that these Singing Actions have, in the past, brought thousands of people into the streets. Famously, they sang songs encouraging ICE agents to defect outside of some of the hotels hosting them. The action today was for rent relief and trying to get the city officials to consider a temporary rent moritorium, something they were very willing to do during COVID, but which they seem less willing to do for Black and brown folks (shocking, I know!) At any rate, I went to the pre-planning/song rehersal last night with

rachelmanija who is visiting right now and... it wasn't an empty church, but it also wasn't standing room only. The organizers kept saying, "I think more people will join us tomorrow." Well, I wasn't able to. I sure hope other people did. Otherwise, it's going to be pretty sparse. They will not fill City Hall, like they hoped.

But, this seems to be part of a trend. I'd noticed the day after it was announced that ICE was pulling out, my Food Communists was almost ghostly. Plenty of bags of groceries still needed filling, but the number of volunteers that showed up to do the work was less than half of the normal amount. More people have showed up since, but we are nowhere near our previous number. It seems to be the regulars and the die-hards again--although thankfully the Veterans for Peace are still guarding the doors for us.

I ran into some neighbors yesterday when I was walking home from the Communists and they were returning from a daily protest. They also noticed a significant lack of bodies. People were still there, but the crowd was thinner. It's worrying because we are all still very much holding our breaths.

I guess people are buying into the idea that we won and that it's all over. I mean, I would very much like that to be true? I'm just not sure it is and it's disheartening to see that the energy could not, in fact, be maintained. Maybe people are just taking a breather. I hope that's the case.

Woke up with the alarm at 10:00, then dozed on and off til 12:00. Finally got up, and had breakfast and coffee.

Then I started writing on the story I started yesterday. I made significant progress, up to over 1500 words now.

And that was really all I did today. I contacted Funko again about my Stephen Colbert Pop, they essentially said be patient.

At 5:00 I stopped writing and went to the bedroom til 6:30. Then I came out and started trying to get Teams working to Team the FWiB. We both had issues, but eventually we got though and talked til a bit after 830, when we were interrupted by his brother calling him.

I had dinner then, and went back to the bedroom. I called

mashfanficchick and we talked about various things including Middle Brother's birthday. I had texted RK last night about him taking us out for that, he says he doesn't know yet and will have to see. If he can't, not sure what I'll do but probably a combination of the LIRR and Uber, which will be expensive, but necessary.

Anyway, I fed the pets, and now here I am, and that was the day.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Story coming along.

3. Friends.

4. Warm apartment.

5. Came through the blizzard without problems.

6. Heard back from Funko.

Current Mood: accomplished

Sidestepping the whole debate about what to call it[1], we went to the Lunar New Year parade and celebration on Argyle Street yesterday:

2026-02-21 - Argyle Lunar New Year Parade

We left later than I wanted to--we didn't get out of the house until 11:45 a.m. and didn't get down to Argyle until 12:15 p.m. We put in our name at Immm Rice, but when it was only twenty-five minutes or so to the parade we decided that even if we did get in we wouldn't be able to eat in time, so we tried stopping in at a bakery for some buns. The first one we went to had a cash-only sign that had been hidden by the long line, so we had to duck our and search the rest of the street.

sashagee spotted one on the way back run by an old Vietnamese man and got a couple buns for Laila and herself, and they ate them while we settled onto the side of the street to wait.

I wasn't expecting too many people to show up since it was -5°C with a biting wind, but the streets were still lined when the parade stepped off at 1:05 p.m. Laila had been complaining and wanting to go home for quite a while, but once the parade started all that fell away. She watched the lion dancers and the dragon puppets, watched the floats going on, and was very excited when one of the parade-walkers gave her a lollipop! She didn't complain once as we stood out in the cold, but we left a couple floats early so we could get into a restaurant. And a good thing too--we walked in, were immediately seated, and within ten minutes or so there was a giant line waiting for a seat. We ate--with a brief detour while Laila and I walked around outside because she was getting rowdy--and by the time we were done basically all the festivities had ended, so we just went home.

Next weekend is the parade in Chinatown, but we won't be able to go.

[1]: A few years ago there was a push to call it Lunar New Year instead of Chinese New Year, since more cultures than just China celebrate it. Of course now the problem is that e.g. the Islamic and Jewish calendars also have lunar new years since both calendars begin months on the new moon, so "Lunar New Year" is ambiguous.

Current Mood: cold
Current Music: Genshin Impact - Lantern Rite (2021)

I had the best swim this morning. I woke up ready to go and just enjoyed the heck out of it. Funny how some days are don't wanna and some are Move Over Katie!

Steroid shots make my foot feel instantly better for a couple of days and then there are about 3 days of back to ouch before it starts working for good. Then in about a week, it will turn black and blue and stay that way for about a month. We are back to the ouchy part. But I was able to walk to the pool and back so, not horrible.

When I redid all my mp3's, I dumped them into folders - 30 files in each folder. Zero curation. I think Karen Carpenter had a beautiful voice but the current batch I'm listening to is about 25 Karen Carpenter songs and that's really more than anyone needs in a row. So I'm now swapping out for the next folder of 30. This batch has no clues. The files are named 1.mp3 and 2.mp3 so no telling what the fuck is on them. Come Wednesday - the next lap swim day - I'll probably be begging for more Karen Carpenter.

spacefem solved my Hazelnut coffee problem. Syrup! Amazon is bringing me a small assortment of small bottles of sugar free coffee syrup - Hazelnut, Carmel and Vanilla. I put the Hazelnut k-cups out in the elbow with a sign that says FREE. They were gone before I got back from my swim.

I have a plastic shoebox full of batteries. I have a few C's. a few D's. A fuckload of AA's. Some buttons - various sizes. A couple of really weird ones and 1 AAA. What do I need right now? 2 AAA's, of course. Sigh.

Another Paramount+ treat. One of my all time favorite sit coms. No one watched it but me, I think so it only lasted 2 seasons but now both seasons are on Paramount+. Superior Donuts. Good cast - phenomenal writing. Still very fun. I'm treating myself to an episode a day.

I've never put together a Lego set. I've thought about it but resisted knowing that it's likely a rabbit hole for me. Plus now I have bunnies to make 3 a day and I'm on track so far. And then I have to sew pockets onto my swim robes. I have projects. I don't need more. Plus, there are all those hours that

spifikins stole from me when she introduced me to that fucking arrow app.

The Kid called me last night at 12:50-something just to check on me, how I was prepared for the coming blizzard. Why did she call that late? "You don't work". *sigh* We had a nice talk though.

Woke up with the alarm at 10:00, dozed off and on til 11:30, finally got out of bed. Had breakfast and coffee, and went to the Starsky and Hutch Creative Work session.

I actually did some writing in something that I know more-or-less where it's going and therefore can actually finish. The Zoom worked perfectly, btw.

Anyway, we chatted til a little after 6:00. At 7:00 I Teamed the FWiB and that worked perfectly too, except that every now and then the video and audio would freeze up for a few seconds and he'd have to repeat something he said.

At 8:30 I called Middle Brother. He's fine, nothing new. We're starting to talk about his birthday.

The FWiB and I talked a few more minutes after I got off the phone with Middle Brother, then we got off and I had dinner.

After dinner I went to the bedroom and called

mashfanficchick and we had talked for awhile. Then I got online on my phone and ordered two books for Middle Brother's birthday from Thriftbooks, one on New York City and one on weather, which is what he asked for, as well as Niagara Falls. He also want a cd named Low Riders, but there's to many things with that name. I'll have to try and get more info from him.

The snow was falling pretty hard the last time I looked, and the city has implemented a ban on driving except for emergencies.

That's pretty much all.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. I don't have to go out in the blizzard.

3. The Starsky and Hutch fandom.

4. Middle Brother is fine.

5. Thrift Books.

6. New story in the works,

Current Mood: good

My foot still hurts but it hurts WAY less and is on the mend. It's always surprising to me, the absence after something has hurt for so long. It's like a little gift. Or a big gift, if you are my foot.

I love a little Hazelnut flavor in my coffee now and again. The other day, at Safeway, I picked up a small box of Hazelnut flavored coffee pods. I brewed one yesterday for elbow coffee. I think I knew this but had forgotten. Those Hazelnut pods are HAZELNUT!!!! I wanted a hint and they are like a tsunami. BUT I drink my coffee black so, honestly, only wash my mug once in a great while so this morning's coffee had the perfect hint of Hazelnut. Win?

This morning I got up and put the comforter and pillow cases into the washing machine and changed the sheet with the help of Biggie which made it, of course, way more of a chore but it is done. And the comforter will be done in another hour. My washer has this lovely heavy bedding function. It probably does nothing special but I love having it.

Then I went to the pool and had a wonderful swim.

I have nothing on the calendar this week at all. There are baseball games every afternoon on the radio. Yesterday, they had a 'new' announcer for a few innings. I thought we had all of the worst baseball announcers already but wait, there's more! This guy was, apparently, a Mariner pitcher for a minute just before the pandemic. He talks way too fast and says absolutely nothing interesting. It hurt my ears. He said that he would be on the TV broadcasts for some games this year. Fine by me since I mute those anyway. Geesh.

I have 20 more bunnies to make before Saturday. Shouldn't be a problem. There are 2.95 done already.

I have my good book to read and tons of stuff on TV. There is a new (to me) Dawn French comedy on Paramount+ called "Can You Keep A Secret". I have two more episodes to watch. It's kind of hilarious in a very Dawn French way. She gets me.

When my brother was here, we got rid of a lot of shit and shifted and organized the rest. I could not have done it without him and it's still reaping such rewards. It's just a joy to be able to find stuff, to easily put stuff away and to have it all look so nice. My utility room went from a claustrophobic mess to a joy and the storage room... perfection. Yesterday, I shifted some stuff around so easily. I do love this apartment. But even more so now.

When the closet got redone, I took down the cat cam since I moved their beds but now Biggie has a new spot so I think I need to put it back. EASY to do since it's just on the shelf in the storage unit with the correct cable and wall wart. Soooooooo organized am I.

Just a little though. It was the Flushing Lunar New Year Parade today, and I knew that would make getting to my meeting harder, so I got up 15 minutes early.

I had breakfast and coffee, showered and dressed, and went to look for where my 28 bus wuol be rerouted to. I went to the regular stop, even when it was obvious it wasn't there, in the hopes there would be a sign saying where it was. Ha!

No sign, but a police officer directing traffic who knew, so I was able to find it. I got the bus to my meeting and got there just on time.

The meeting was very good. Afterward as usual I went to the diner, driven by S. Today was a soup day, I just felt like a bowl of cream of turkey soup. I also got an order of onion rings, which I should not have done, but they were very good. And a cup of tea.

Then I took the bus home as usual. The 12 also was rerouted for the parade, but my stop was only a little bit moved. I got home and tried to get to the Starsky and Hutch chat.

I got in with the Zoom, but then I made the mistake of clicking on something in the chat, and it froze up. I had to restart the computer finally to get back in, and I used my phone for awhile while I was working on the computer. But after that it worked OK.

We ended a bit after 6:00 and at 7:00 I tried to team the FWiB.once again there were technical difficulties caused apparently by the app, as both of our computers had problems with it. He [honed and we talked while he worked on his computer. Eventually he Teamed on his iPad instead. Then, when we were saying goodbye, the teams just crashed for both of us.

After that i had dinner, and went to the bedroom to play solitaire.

The Kid FINALLY texted me to say she was alive, just busy. *sigh*

I fed the pets, and now am here.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. My meetings and the people there.

3. My pets.

4. Sunny weather before the blizzard expected this weekend.

5. Soup.

6. The Starsky and Hutch fandom.

Current Mood: okay

My friend, Martha, has always been a staunch supporter of my dolls and creatures. She has a bunch and has given away 5 times a bunch or more. When she saw this year's bunnies, she said they needed cotton tails and bows. I said fine, if she wanted to add them, that would be great. I made 40 and she picked them up yesterday. Turns out adding the butts and bows was far easier than she expected. She texted me the results. She has about 25 butts left so I'll make more this week and then put them out til they are gone.

The butts:

The bows:

The pool blinds are well and truly fixed. They go up and down 'like butta', it's such a relief.

I got brave this morning and tried that extra creamy oat milk with cherrios. FAIL. It does not taste like milk and it does not look like milk. Guess it's an oatmeal only situation which is fine. Better than nothing.

I have now fallen into another very odd for me book that is really turning into a great read. In this case, it may be the reader who 'sells' it but the story is compelling. Dark Ride by Lou Berney. Read by Johnathan McClain. His spot on portrayal of all of the characters is amazing. I don't understand how one person can read in such a way that you actually believe he's a 20 something male stoner, a 40 something black female temptress and a 20 something goth girl plus dozens of other bit players. He is now my new favorite reader ever but also, this book is fun.

About a decade ago the Mariners helped create and then took over Root Sports NW which was a regional sports network. It was available on cable, and then later, on various streaming services. It pretty much sucked but was the only game in town. They killed it dead at the end of last season. The Mariners this year have a full season deal with MLB.TV which I don't love BUT after one game, I can absolutely say is about 20 times better than Root ever tried to be. Whew. Even for a spring training game, it all worked. Closed captions - easy to snap on and off - nothing out of sync - no lags. No mess. Just baseball. Of course the announcers still suck, but, hey...

There's another game on today (they only televise a little less than half the spring training games, which is fine... viewers need to ease into the season like players.

Yesterday, I cleaned out some cupboards in the kitchen. I moved the dishes I use rarely or never into storage so now I can get to the shit I want more easily and emptying the dishwasher is way easier. So I think I'll go do that before I get dressed for elbow coffee.

Which may have been because I slept til 2:00 pm, if you recall. But anyway, I slept badly in the night, woke up several times. was awake for a long time and as a result of all of this am now rather tired.

But

mashfanficchick and I both got up around 1:00ish and puttered around, then had cereal for brunch somewhat after 2:00.

Then we watched another episode of MacGyver, which continues to be silly but fun. When that was over I went and showered and dressed, and by the time I finished it was almost 5:00 and time for me to go to the Bronx for my Al-anon meeting.

I took the subway to Flushing and the 50 bus from there and got to the Bronx by 6:15, so I had time to get my traditional pizza for dinner.

The meeting was small, just me and L, and we cancelled the second meeting so I got to the bus just before 8:00.

Got home before 9:00, and Teamed the FWiB. I had an awful lot of trouble getting Teams to log in on the computer, so we used the phone until I did and then we switched to that, and it worked OK.

That's about all, we talked til a bit after 10:00, and then I started catching up on the internet.

One thing I did was check my Funko order status. It now says the package was lost. Nothing about sending a new one. I will contact them tomorrow.

I also called the Kid, she didn't pick up of course so I texted. Hopefully she'll either call or text back.

I made Facebook contact with Liz M, the very old friend I sent a Christmas card to! She accepted my friend request, haven't heard anything from her yet though.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Fun TV.

3. Found Liz M without even looking, she just popped up on my "you may know" thing.

4. My meetings and the people there.

5. Got back home and everything was OK.

6. Bed soon.

Current Mood: cheerful

My appointment with my foot guy was at 8. I checked in and then sat down and opened up my game on my phone and before I could put finger to the screen, I heard "Susan?". I was in - shot, chit chat, - out and at Safeway by 8. He said 'make an appointment for 3 and if fine, cancel!' So I did. Very efficient. It takes 2-7 days for the steroids to start work BUT the psychosomatic results are immediate.

I walked all over Safeway with only a hint of pain. Except I couldn't find anything to eat. I walked up and down every aisle looking for inspiration. None. I did manage to spend $90 because I got coffee and other high end stuff. The oatmilk I like for my oatmeal comes in a gynormous container so I went looking for something in a smaller one - maybe something shelf stable? And, whaddya know? There's my stuff! Smaller container and shelf stable. Nice.

We get new menus today for next week. This past week has been a loser. At the first of the year, I changed my meal plan to $300 from $600. So the pressure is off to spend money on food I don't want. I think $300 is a workable amount as long as the menus aren't losers!

I have a load of laundry laundrying and I did order an Italian wrap from the dining room for lunch to be picked up at 11:30 to enable me to get back here for the first baseball game.

Was woken up early by the sound of the work they were doing on the building front entrance, but after they finished, went back to sleep for quite a few hours. Woke up again around 2:00.

Had breakfast, well, brunch really, with

mashfanficchick. We had gluten free sourdough bread with cream cheese and lox. Very delicious.

mashfanficchick, having had melatonin the night before, which affected zer very strongly, went back to bed, but I stayed up and puttered on my phone and played solitaire and basically killed time til 7:00 when I Teamed the FWiB on my phone. Teams was working correctly today so that's good.

We talked til almost 8:30, when we got off, and I called Middle Brother, who is fine, but hasn't done anything of note recently.

Then

mashfanficchick got up and we had some snacks, and watched this week's episode of Will Trent. That was highly enjoyable.

Then, after some thinking about what we should do next,

mashfanficchick suggested we should watch something classic that I had never watched when it was on, that we had discussed some days ago... MacGyver. The original, from 1985, show.

So we watched the pilot episode on Tubi, and although it was sort of silly it was also fun. We had dinner after that, and discussed if we would watch more. I said sure.

So after dinner we watched the second episode on Tubi, which was even sillier than the first, but still a lot of fun.

And then ze decided to go to bed, and I'm borrowing the laptop to do this.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Middle Brother is well.

3. Good TV.

4. TV that is more fun than good.

5. M&Ms, which I've been nibbling on.

6. Days away from home to relax.

Current Mood: lazy

When we got to the pool this morning, we discovered a major miracle. The shades were down!!!! The shades that haven't been down in months, were down!! And now they can go up and down on command. The issue, apparently, was a dead battery. Which, of course, had anyone known, could have easily been fixed months ago. BUT, no matter. It's all fixed now and whew.

Today I break into my first refill of Wegovy. Since I plan on doing this for the rest of my life, these milestones have less significance but I still kind of think about them.

There is nothing else on the calendar today. I picked up the Timer Ridge Timeses on the way back from volleyball and delivered them. I took Martha's bowl back to her with a thank you note. She left us a bowl of tangerines on the credenza in the elbow with a Happy Chinese New Year note and a little placard explaining oranges and new years. It was cute of her and the bowl was very Chinese. (She and Richard both are Chinese. Richard used to be the representative for the whole of the 3rd floor. They live in the other wing. They still come to Saturday Elbow Coffee and still kind of feel like they 'belong' to us.)

I do have an Amazon return but I think I'll just drop it off tomorrow after the foot doctor.

I have discovered one issue with my Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus. It is VERY picky about how it charges. If it does not get a cable and charger it likes, it shows that it's charging but actually, it is just tickling. Yesterday, I took it off the charger to use for taking notes at the committee meeting and didn't notice the battery was so low and very nearly ran out of juice. Just now I hooked it up to a proper charger with a Google cable and the thing has added 15% charge since I started typing this paragraph. Ok. Lesson learned.

I'm still loving the tofu litter so much. It's so much fresher and cleaner and easier to manage. But, it is also so much louder. Biggie is in the little box right now and it sounds like he's digging to China. Of course, I did just scoop it out so he has to fix it back right but still.

Ok, time to quit fiddle farting around and get this day going.

Got up this morning at 11:00 and had breakfast and coffee. Then I showered and dressed, and went into Flushing to get my three prescriptions filled. Nothing of particular interest happened on the trip, the rain had stopped and it was grey and damp.

I got back and put in a Shipt order. I got an Easter basket and some candy, and Easter grass for the basket for Middle Brother. Easter isn't until April though so I'll hold off on anything else til later.

I looked at HP's page but decided not to do anything at the moment. Yes I know I need to investigate the computer warranty but not yet.

mashfanficchick called me and told me about a situation with her building that lead us to the conclusion that it would be sensible for me to go over to zer place tonight after my D&D game and spend two nights until Friday rather than going over Thursday. So that's what we arranged.

At 7:00 I Teamed the FWiB and we had very serious technical issues, but, amazingly, caused by the Teams app, rather than my computer. We know this because the problems were on both our computers, and persisted even when I switched to my phone. Bah humbug. We never had these issues with Skype, why'd they have to go and eliminate it?

Anyway, at 8:00 I went to my D&D game, and, also amazingly, Discord worked fine, though I did keep my camera off so as to not put any more stress on it. We fought orcs and goblins, and got accused of passing counterfeit gold pieces.

Then I fed the pets and gave Oreo a day extra, and then Ubered here. We had dinner, and hung out for awhile and then I borrowed this laptop and started here.

Gratitude List:

1. The FWiB.

2. Got my meds.

3. Shipt.

4. My gaming group.

5. The computer worked for the game.

6. Visit with a friend.

Current Mood: cheerful

That's what we call it during days like this. Right now as I type this, it is 17°C and sunny outside. But also, tomorrow it will be 11°C, overmorrow it will be 6°C, and then it hits freezing soon after accompanied by snow and thunderstorms.

Still, I went on a walk along the river during lunch. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my coat and didn't account for the difference in temperature in the shade, but it was still nice.

Current Mood: warm
Current Music: Take One Daf Yomi podcast

Almost five! I can still remember when she was so small I would carry her in the crook of my arm while I was walking around the condo. Every parent says that, because it's true.

Laila is expressing more preferences and wants while also being more independent. On mornings when I get up and let

sashagee sleep in, I go out with Laila and give her medicine, and I no longer just make her food and give her what she gets. I now ask her what she wants to eat for breakfast. And sure, the answer is always the same thing: "pickle AND cheese!", by which she means some pickles, a bit of cheese, some fruit (usually blueberries or strawberries), and toast with butter or jam. It's what she always wants, even when she wants something else--a couple times she's said e.g. waffles or eggs, and when I asked her, "You want eggs?" she'll respond with "Just pickles and cheese." Well, I can't blame her, since I have basically the same thing for breakfast every day too.

She's also getting more self-conscious. There's been a few times when she's tripped and fallen while running around the condo and she got so embarrassed that she immediately ran to her room and shut the door afterwards. Emoji Kirby hands in front of face

It's not like we laugh at her or anything! We just ask her if she's okay, but she's grown-up enough to be embarrassed about it. And a few days ago, she had a coughing fit, looked up at me when she recovered, and said, "It's very frustrating!"

You're right, Laila, it is.

She's settled on her new interests and moved on from her old interests. A year ago, she was very into the Cars franchise and loved Lightning McQueen, but she hasn't wanted to watch Cars in months. A few months ago it was all Bluey all the time. Nowadays it's Hello Kitty and Friends whenever we give her the choice of what she wants to watch. She'll spend almost every free moment drawing and painting with the water markers and books we've gotten her, and painting with watercolors if we let her. The other thing she loves to do lately is have us read books to her, which has always been something she likes but it's more of an interest lately. She'll grab books herself and bring them over--her favorites lately are Sammy Spider's First Yom Kippur, Little Owl's Night, Challah for Shabbat Tonight, and You Are My Happy. I got her Sammy Spider's First Shabbat but she hasn't taken to it yet.

Unfortunately, tragedy has struck. When Laila was younger she had a habit of pulling her hair, but we had mostly managed to deter the behavior...until she spent a week in the hospital, which caused her enough anxiety that it started up again.

sashagee saw how thin her hair was getting on one side and was worried she'd do permanent damage to her hair by pulling out too much of it, and so to deter further hair pulling, we gave her a haircut. A significant one:

Laila...doesn't like it. It has, however, helped stop her from pulling her hair--she'll reach for where she usually pulls and it's not there--as have my comments that if she keep pulling it we'll have to cut it even shorter. They're probably going to have to cut some of it for her upcoming surgery anyway, so it's not purely a deterrent measure. And we know that if she did give herself bald spots she'd be really upset about them when she got older, but seeing her look in the mirror and silent tears roll down her cheeks is really upsetting. Emoji comfort

In happier news, she's fully become a fashionista. She no longer waits for us to pick out her clothes in the morning--if we wait too long, she'll go rummage through her drawers until she finds something she likes and change into it, all by herself! The only hurdles are that if she's wearing shorts as part of her pajama set she'll sometimes leave them on under her pants and, the bigger one, if we let her she would wear a half-dozen outfits throughout the day. She'll forget to roll up her sleeves when washing her hands, get the sleeves wet, and then go back to her room to change into a new shirt because she can't stand having wet sleeves. If we didn't stop her, she'd change her clothes a half-dozen times a day and

sashagee would have to go laundry basically every single day.

I also make her carry her own food plate to the table. She may have issues focusing on things sometimes, but when it's her food, she can keep her mind on it. Though she does carry it at a very dangerous angle sometimes.

What other ways will she grow and change?

Current Mood: refreshed
Current Music: BT - Somnambulist (Simply Being Loved)

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December 2016

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Page generated Feb. 26th, 2026 09:01 am

Reading

Took the laundry down

Blocked by Biggie and the Sun

Ignoring the State of the Union Address

Add another one to the good restaurant list

Tax Man

Turning Away

Writing day

Lunar New Year

Monday

Blizzard!

Clicking into place

A little unusual Saturday

Saturday

Slept badly last night

Happy Feet

The first day here

Shot Number 5

Two day visit

Fool's spring

Four years and nine months Laila update

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December 2016

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