My mother has been cured of her vertigo. She now has balance issues. She returns to work on Wednesday (her work week is Wednesday to Saturday.) and I recently finished working on a mock-up commercial using a song from a show that matched the quirky nature of the video game.

I currently had a rough session at therapy the other day. It was another "exposed underbelly leading to eating junk" day.

I didn't freeze in the office at all today! See I'm like a lizard if I'm sitting still for too long and I get cold and stiff and bleh, which is why I'm in all the layers when at my desk. We're talking thermal top, another top and then something wooly (plus fingerless gloves when its actually cold outside); and having the thermostat at maximum (and sometimes that doesn't do shit and I really imagine myself toppling over like a frozen sim!) Anyway today we had a window open all day and the thermostat was off and I didnt even have a bad time! (well its work its always technically a bad time, but like not temperature related)

Finally got my period after much concern and I plan on making my famous casserole sometime this week. This time, I am going to add bacon and broccoli to it.

My cramps are just awful. I think I will go sleep off the pain. Besides, I am wiped out.

Now I need a recipe!
https://modthesims.info/showthread....0&goto=lastpost

Although I quit my housekeeping job, I got paid in cash for my deal with dental hygiene last week. (Housekeeping got to the point of having me deal with docked pay. The stress of it all made me quit and think about setting up a shop to sell things through Shopify if I come up with a good enough product for HBC (Health, Beauty and Cosmetics for those not privy to retail.) and can sell it for a tidy sum. I seriously need a real paying job.)

I set my $14 weekly into a couple coupon organizers and in a box I lock up. From there, it gets locked in the lilac steamer trunk with the lock with a maximum timer limit of 1000 hours. I set it for 168 hours (7 days).

With that in mind, I should consider moving payday to a day other than Sunday if I want $1 billnotes.

@simsample

As for that casserole, it's extremely sticky when fresh that it could be used as a humane, non-damaging, environmentally-friendly alternative to spike strips.

EDIT: 2024/04/16

Talked with an old friend who noted I could easily talk about consulting\life coaching for those who need to get back to life's joys. In other words, he felt I should be a motivational speaker, like a TED Talk presenter.


I have quite a bit of experience from just being alive and surviving. I realized that when I read about how others in my generation who had it easy thrived while I was busy surviving and that's why some people have different development timelines.

Today was my first day holding down the fort alone in a long time.

I made my casserole as is as a test run, and I think I may need to figure out how to put the bacon and broccoli in without overloading the casserole dish I have in mind.

I slept most of today. I got my information from the office on the cortisol test. I have to stay up late tonight to conduct it.

In the spare time I had...I started off on self-employment. I am working on my life coaching venture. I am working on an idea an old friend said I was best at.

My mom returned home from work after 2 days back due to lower back issues.

I have been having sleep issues and feeling like crap. Like I got hit by a car and survived, but somehow the pain lingers in a "Everything hurts and I'm dying" feeling.

I am supposed to stay up tonight for a cortisol sample acquisition between 11pm and midnight.

Edit: 2024/4/20

Failed to stay awake. This is getting ridiculous to attempt staying up that late. I am at the age where I get cranky after 9PM.

I don't know what and where the weather stations here are reading, but my pc says it's 8°C and raining, Google says 11°C and raining. Yet I've just finished mowing my lawn in 20°C sunshine.
I'm not that surprised, because the weather predictions for this particular region are almost always innacurate, but wrong by 10 degrees and downpour? My goodness, that's a new one.

I think it depends on how they read the data they get, and your proximity to the weather station it's measuring for, and the area it's forecasting for (big area could mean less accurate for outskirt areas). You can have one area rainy and one area sunny if it's partly cloudy. As for temperature, I wouldn't think it's measured in direct sunlight (air temperature, at least), and it could also be average temps. You can get quite different weather forecasts using the same information, depending on how it's interpreted. It's also not certain they're sourcing weather data information from the same places.

Mom's phone died the other day, and she went all "But I can't check the weather!!!"
So I said to her, "Go look out the window, see if there's any rain, and then check the outdoor thermometers. We've got two " - Maybe not an hour-to-hour prediction, but at least it tells you how to dress, and whether it's a good idea to bring an umbrella.
She sometimes trusts those weather predictions a bit too much, and I do mean she'll trust the hour-by-hour ones... Sure, sometimes they're very accurate, but not every time. I tend to bring an umbrella if I'm unsure, because I've had her go "weather site says it's sunny all day but maybe rain in the evening," and then I get all drippy wet on my way home, several hours before it's supposed to rain...

Are you in the UK by any chance?

I remember one day, working as a peripatetic IT tech, I started at 8am on a bright spring day in my city. Then I travelled around 20 miles, into thick fog at a location near a river. Next stop before lunch was a location on the banks of a different river, it was pouring with rain and windy there. After lunch, crossed the big river on the motorway bridge in hail, and drove to a small village in the hills. It started to snow! By the time I'd finished that job there was just time to make one more stop back in the city where I'd started out that morning, and it was bright and sunny, and very warm once more. I'd travelled no more than 80 miles (130km) in a loop. Crazy microclimates!

Last week, I set a timer on a special padlock to open exactly 7 days later.

Today's the day the lock opens.

At around 3:00PM, the padlock will open.

I have a debt to pay.

Pretty sure the general rule is: always have gloves, a jumper, and a raincoat (cos umbreallas can't be trusted) if you're going out

Someone hung their coat next to mine and contaminated it with some nasty perfume and now its on my coat and neck and the smell won't go away
If i wipe the jacket with rubbing alcohol will the stink go away? news update sometime

Nope, East Frisia. But Crazy microclimates applies here too. It can be clear and dry here, but on the other side of the river it's pouring down.
Any weather warnings for the whole state/country don't apply here. We could watch a hurricane destroy the whole country, and all we'd get is some slightly stronger winds.

Weather predictions for Groningen are usually more accurate to whatever's happening here.

Rivers are crazy weatherborders. I had a similar long travel experience, we started a bit overcast, mild temperatures. Crossed one river and landed in a clear sky, humid and hot area, only to drive into insane downpour after crossing a different river.

Are you near the Wadden Sea? Looks beautiful!

I finally got sleep after spending my night awake at 11PM to Midnight to do a cortisol sample acquisition.

But I am still working on adjusting back to a normal sleep schedule. I am at that point in my 30s where any time beyond 9PM makes me cranky.

Yeah, some 20 min drive. But the bay I'm at mostly offers industrial views which does ruin the vibe, at least for me. It's way better to be on one of the islands and look back at the main land
Or if you're daring enough, take a guided walk to one of them during low tide.

Recently reprogrammed my implant and now my cyborg self is running properly.

Today is therapy teleconference day. Man, I have a ton of stuff to unpack when I get to my appointment time.

I was never going to escape therapy anyway. I don't like how it feels to suck out one's soul. But the burden of the weight of the world is a bit lighter when all is said and done.

I still remember the bathtub scene in "Pretty Woman" where Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are making small talk before going to a classy event. I sometimes dream about it where I take Roberts's part. But over the years, the part Gere played is random based on who has dominance in my Crushosphere. Maybe I am a hopeless romantic.

My mom ended up coming home after a few hours of work and a side trip to a fabric shop before picking up lunch.

Right now, I guess my Crushosphere is dealing with my complex feelings for my vocal coach. We do remote lessons and make correspondence between each other. I worry about being part of an affair, emotional or otherwise.

I really don't want to get involved in someone's love life if collateral damage is a possibility. All I do lately is dream. Then again, I need sleep.

My mom came home again. Must be another lull in sales, which is weird, because Mother's Day in the US is coming up.

My mom wants Grogu and Olaf car decals for her little red sedan.

Had to buy a backup robe so I don't go naked ("laundry today or naked tomorrow") while doing laundry.

Talking about clothes and laundry, I recently donated 2 small, but sizeable bags of unwanted clothes, and they are to go to the drop.

Most of it I didn't wear since I moved back to the town I was born in and that was 8 years or so ago.

Shopping is going to be interesting this month.

Update on my contaminated coat: rubbing alochol did help!

At first.

But then the following morning it smelled awful again, so the filling was totally contaminated by the gross. Very rude. I stuck it into the wash a few days ago but its still not totally dry yet because of course its been cold and rainy again.

My money came in early again.

Wrote a check for rent, utilities, bills, and debts.

I bought some rechargeable electronic gadgets from Japan (very eco-friendly), more dental hygiene gear from Australia, a cheeky unicorn sticker for my steamer trunk, decals for my mom's Mother's Day gift, a tiger stripe print bathrobe with a hood and it is ankle length in my size, a U shaped toothbrush and replacement heads from Pennsylvania, collagen supplements and semi-permanent tattoos (the average time they last is about 1-2 weeks).

I made sure the debts, dues, and subscriptions were paid. I'm likely to receive $10 back from the bank after attending to the supplies for my month, gifts, the robe and dental hygiene stuff.

Either way, I adulted today. It wasn't exactly what I called fun. But there is some fun stuff interlaced in the needs.

Truth be told, I look great in tiger stripes.

Recently, I was getting tired of my bangs getting in my eyes.

I looked like:
A.) Lucy Loud of the Loud House
B.) Cousin It of The Addams Family
C.) A 3 year old Briard (a type of French working dog with long bangs covering its face.)
D.) All of the above

The answer was D! I was so frustrated, I grabbed a thing of water to control the bangs and some scissors to trim.

It wasn't exactly polished, but it wasn't butchered.

I made Cheddar Bay Biscuits for breakfast as I had energy to do so.

Another day, another package.

Tomorrow, I won't receive anything in the mail. But the next day, it may resume.

My parents had a date night and I had a chance to calculate the likelihood of a side hustle writing musings.

Went grocery shopping this week and I also bought 3 trays of veggie sushi from the grocery counter that was "buy 2, get 1 free"

I also had been working on writing for a living, and ever since I quit housekeeping for my parents, I feel much happier...especially since I can get my creativity flowing.

With that in mind, I am up to 4 chapters of musings.

I recently am trying out semi-permanent tattoos (they last several days if properly applied. Currently, my tattoo is starting to darken to a navy blue color. It takes between 24-48 to fully develop in color.)

I had picked up the ingredients for my green veggie pizza. I bought a crown of broccoli, a green bell pepper and a bundle of green onions for the toppings. I bought Kraft brand Mozzarella, Don Pepino's tomato sauce (made with New Jersey tomatoes) and Pillsbury Classic Pizza Crust for the basic parts.

As someone from New Jersey, we take pizza seriously. So yes, Don Pepino's is a go-to for authentic New Jersey homemade pizza.

We aren't afraid of pineapple on pizza, not even reindeer sausage or banana

The social media networks troll people into hating pineapple on pizza. We in New Jersey have dealt with pineapple on pizza for decades. The strangest toppings will never shock us.

What will cause a riot is the fact everyone has a two toppings combo that no one can agree upon.

Personally, I have broccoli and green bell pepper. (Kids everywhere would hate it, so more for me!)

Update: 2024/5/2
I got my tiger robe! It's soft and fluffy. It fits, as well.

Update: 2024/5/4
So tired from yesterday. Looking forward to seeing my aunt Lucinda after her life saving surgery. It's mainly a matter of finding a day off to spend time. I wonder if her neighbor, Oreo the goat still plays "Wake the Neighbor"

I bought a shirt and some linnen trousers cos my old ones are so old they're struggling. I'm not sure how I feel about them (I do like them) but some how I'm more excited about the giant reusable bag I got

*Went to the nephrologist (I'm pretty much stable).
*I got my package from Australia today (Got more toothpaste to try out.)
*My aunt Lucinda is visiting (She's currently describing the operation of her kidney replacement.)

It's a nice day.

Oh!

*Got a 50% discount on the iced tea mix my parents and I use and it was $8.50 for a 12 can case of seltzer but if I bought 3 cases, I would only pay around $10.88 during my evening grocery and pharmacy pickup. (3 case totaling $10.88, to be clear.)

So far, I have saved in cash around $57. However, I didn't get paid this week because my mom was TOWOPed due to lack of work for her. No pay for her, no pay for me.

TOWOP? Time Off W\O Pay.

Either way... I have a plan.

Ah-hah!

After waking from my afternoon nap to see my father check on the mini meatloaves for him and mom, it turned out my parents finally got the money they needed and I was able to deposit the long-awaited check into my account, so everything from last week is squared away.

I am still working on my dental hygiene product reviews. I'm almost done with the mango flavored toothpaste. Eventually a reorder may happen.

I took a nap in the cat's cuddle recliner. But I was left well enough alone after having trouble sleeping last night.

I am waiting on a package today. I am organizing some things, so I'm going to be busy for a while.

Fantastic because tomorrow and friday are holidays which means 4 day weekend
May and December are the 2 best months of the year because they're half assed (depending on which team / department you're in of course).

The raising of the 'Great Pyramids' of Fae Lawns today. By which I mean my runner beans are ready for planting out. Or, rather, it will have been yesterday by the time I finish typing and post this. But it was a good day because it was the first day this year when I could spend the whole day in the garden, without it either pissing with rain, or there being some other demand on my time.

I only have a small vegetable plot, so the two pyramids have to be carefully positioned so I can get at them without trampling on my other stuff. This year I am going to try growing some broad beans, because the ground seems to favour legumes. I've also already some potatoes on the go, because my sister-in-law rather bulled me into it, in spite of my protests that they're too much trouble. I certainly couldn't grow huge great King Edwards in such a small space, but I've planted two varieties of small salad potatoes to see how they get on. The rest of the space will be for my usual crop of carrots, because I can always find a use for them.

With the ground prepared and the pyramids erected, I spent the rest of the time weeding and tidying up. Pulled out all the dead bluebells, and the tulips, which are just snail fodder now that they've finished flowering. I'm still finding the odd white onion weed here and there, but nothing like it was when I started work on this garden, four years ago now. Also the dreaded Herb Robert, which has attractive pink flowers, but it does rather take over if you let it. Also it has a rather musty, unpleasant smell that I don't like.

Was so busy I lost track of time and next thing you know it was six o'clock and time for food. All I had in the house were some sausages, eggs and a tin of baked beans. But I've no objection to combing those three, once in a while.

Had therapy via telehealth audio method.

I am so wiped and I fell back asleep. Man, my bed was that kind of fluffy and soft that I fell asleep until my mother came home.

Earlier today, my father fell asleep with the cat sitting on him and I end up pulling his dinner that he shares with mother out of the oven before more than the tips of the green beans were burnt. He thanked me for saving dinner. I was able to wake him after the food had a bit of time to sit on the range and he was able to go to work.

At least I could become a chef without a little rat turning me into a marionette ƪ⁠(⁠˘⁠⌣⁠˘⁠)⁠ʃ (small victory dance)

Little one had her first taste of cake (not the biggest reaction - seemed to like it and at one point faceplanted into the muffin, probably to get a proper taste of the cream). Also walked several (wobbly) steps (she's been standing, walking aided by a person or item, and walking one or two steps for a little while now - I think she even stood before she crawled - but this is the furthest she's ventured out on her own. Probably not long before she's running around...

(Took so many pictures, even a couple videos of the steps - Proud auntie )

Finally, I unboxed every doll I got at Christmukkah last year. I was able to get all the dolls on my red BILLY bookcase (it was a limited edition from IKEA) and with that, my collection is completed.

For now, I am working on the 50/30/20 method for my June 2024 budget. (50% needs, 30% wants and 20% savings was the method brought to my attention.)

I am currently taking a break from my first 10,000 words typed in my book of musings. May need a day off to write off ideas to write about.

Went shopping last night online for 2 new pairs of underpants. It was time to replace them as they couldn't be sewn up again at the seams.

Went shopping at Walmart today and bought bright red hair dye to go with the bleach for my hair.

Went to the podiatrist and had an ingrown toenail treated and my callouses filed down. It was yet another doctor visit on a weekend with my parents (they work 9-10 hours days for 4 days a week).

I am worn out and anxious. Tomorrow is looking okay, but I ran out of money in my savings...life happened as per usual.

After over a month of caring for others, I took care of myself and had a long, hot shower.

As I am preparing for my hair bleach and dye session, I needed to wash excess oil out. Long story short, my body is freaking crazy when it comes to nerve issues.

Edit: still dreaming about people I wish to meet. Ever since I was isolated during the pandemic...I felt kind of lost.

Had to take care of my dad today, as he's not feeling well.

Last week, Steve Buscemi got sucker punched. I thought New Yorkers being 25 times more likely to bite anyone than sharks was one thing, but the sucker punching is a new thing.

Normally, it's a violent "game" against passersby on phones, but Rick Moranis was one of the first in celebrity sucker punchings and now Steve.

Note that "game" is in quotes because it's a serious issue. I am not much of a joker.

This week, they found who attacked Steve. Definitely avoiding NYC until the madness halts, especially if it's violent in nature.

Then again, I don't have money to travel.

Just a heads up for those heading to NYC.

Also, I am extremely stiff from the past few days of writing non-stop. That and finally playing with my island of villagers in Animal Crossing New Horizons.

Omg is this aging? I slept weird and now my whole body feels wrong.

I'm going to enjoy a lazy day today since everything hurts and the weather is pretty gross

With Grant Rodiek leaving midway through The Sims 5 (Project Rene), I am not surprised that life simulation sandbox games are now the big deals like around 25 years ago. The Sims series has gone pretty much uncontested for that long and we all knew a shake up was in order.

I guess I lately have been feeling like the gaming industry as a whole has been overhauling itself to attract more customers again. About time.

As for me, I plan on buying a $62 handcart for when I order that fancy water again. (A pint's a pound the world around.)

Today, I just feel worn out... Friday is tomorrow, right?

Look, I'm 36, prematurely graying, suffer from abnormalities in my periods, threw my back out twice on the toilet and even fell off the toilet. And lest we forget when I hear pop music from my youth, I feel like screaming "You kids, get off my lawn before I get the hose."

Today is mostly rainy. I too, am staying in. I also have to tend to my father's mystery ailment. We suspect long COVID.

I started going to the gym again. This time, I had my cousin join me and we go together. All of a sudden, it's much less depressing to go there.

I asked her what she wanted to do, because it was her first time going ever. She said she wanted to do a leg day and work her ass off, literally. So, we used the leg press and a bunch of butt machines.

Two days later I still feel my butt being overworked. It's the good pain because I only feel it when I get up or just about to sit down. Definitely a better pain than when my abs or biceps hurt.

She got knee pain now though, so unless she consults with her doctor, it will be the last leg day she'll be having in a while...

I cleaned up my medicine cabinet and neatened up my bottles of supplement pills and medical supplies.

I am going to be building a special medicine bag to keep the different types of medicines, supplements and supplies sorted.

Besides, I really should be using my money to get my act together.

My period came today and it was a surprise. Mainly because it arrived a couple days early. Either way, I still have to check with Dr. DB about getting a supplement that treats PCOS symptoms. My mustache and monobrow were getting pretty dark as well as my beauty mark getting out of control.

Today was surprising because the mail order for underpants came earlier than I expected. It said the 20th-24th range but it came today. They are comfortable and everything promised.

Tomorrow, we head to Walmart. Grocery and supply run.

Today, we have chores to attend to.

I also have to buy my groceries. I should check my package's progress.

I'm like 300% sure I'd need the equivalent of an angry retired army man yelling constantly at me to get moving for me to successfully go to a gym. Or maybe I'd need to face financial consequences to be guilted into going too?
Good luck with your workouts (and your cousin's knee?)!

Didn't go to Walmart today.

So wiped out from my body.

I have a little over 31 000 pictures in my WhatsApp folder. That's just the pictures; I still haven't checked how many videos and GIFs there are. It's time I sorted through them all, since Google now counts the WhatsApp backups towards my storage quota. My plan is simple: since there's lots of pictures that I haven't synced to my personal photo library on Google Photos, I'm going to do just that, while tagging and deleting low quality pictures in the process. There's quite a lot of junk to go through – pictures of just waiting in traffic, ancient memes dating back to 2018, blurry photos of somebody else's dog that I don't know or remember. But there's a ton of memories from what I'd only call "my past life," given that so much has changed since the very first pictures in that folder.

I've been sorting through the folder for the past hour, and I've only gone through the first 2 000 photos. I had no idea that there's going to be so much to do...

Tomorrow, I plan to bleach and color my hair after a long time of very little shake up.

My old semi-permanent tattoo of a rising phoenix on my right forearm is fading, so I applied a new one to the left one.

I still have my faux piercing jewelry. I could easily look like the badass that I make myself out to be among others.

I was much wilder when I was younger, and for some reason, I guess I will admit I am in need of a change of pace, just not too wild with my health.

Edit at 5/21/2024, 7:38PM: The hair appointment between me and dad will be postponed until tomorrow morning. Due to his fatigue issues, he's going to be playing the morning by ear. So my summer mermaid hair goal will be postponed until my father can help without passing out in the cat's cuddle recliner.

Edit at 5/22/2024, 11:22AM: The appointment will be postponed until Memorial Day weekend.

Recently signed up and subscribed for Thrive Market and since I have money to spend on food, I am currently working on stocking up for a while.

The prices are decent considering what you pay per month or year for the fees like safety of the workers and the minimums for free shipping, and since I am strapped for cash, I decided to work on upgrading to a yearly subscription when I get my check.

I paid the monthly $12.80 but I plan to upgrade to the $60 yearly, which is a 58% savings and any time I find a bargain for something with coupons, discount clubs cards, or anything that get me savings, I take full advantage of it.

We lost power for about 30 hours. My town got hammered by an EF0 storm and the power went out. Came back at 11:45AM today. The house is still standing, but the trees in the yards, front and back are broken in various ways and some big branches fell.

We're going to have to call an insurance agent and maybe a tree removal service.

Oh dear @PANDAQUEEN I hope everyone is okay and not too much material damage! RIP tree.

Pretty decent. Got cake, ice cream, strawberries, and just been chilling all day (more or less what I expected of the day).

Been way too hot for a few days now, but not too bad today. Mostly cloudy, and slightly chillier. Still, I've been indoors. I've had enough outdoor days lately...

Slight annoyance at the neighbor who keeps over-watering a tree, which seems to be causing our lawn to go muddier (it was already a bit iffy, but 2-3 days of constant watering for 2-3 hours in the exact same spot by leaving the hose there probably isn't helping, especially in a downhill slope...)

The house is intact, but the tree in the front yard is leaning on the house right now and last checked, we may be in for another storm on Monday...I did check just now and it should be a minor storm compared to that EF0. Yes, we were in the eye of a storm and it wasn't calm.

As far as everyone...Me, my parents, and Gemini, our cat, were safe inside (Mom works at a warehouse in Easton, PA, which was part of the path.)

Considering this is the third power outage in 8 years and the longest one on record since moving here, we may need to spring for a generator...providing the neighborhood regulations allow for it.

Edit: My bathroom's water needed to be shut off today after the tub\shower faucet failed. Yet another casualty of time spent living in my house. So until there are any repairs, I am to not use the shower, toilet, or sinks in that bathroom.

We going to need a few more repairs beyond any tree damage, it seems.

I was worried about waking my father. Reminds me of a bear waking up from being poked. He was grumpy regardless, so now I have that and the renovations.

So far, in terms of sweat equity...
We painted the hearth room.
We replaced the water closet's doorknob.
We replaced the water heater after it died.

Keep in mind that the house is a little over 12 years old and was rushed near the end due to my grandmother's passing being imminent. It meets the bare minimum of building codes and Grandpa personally oversaw the construction of the house as he bought the land a long while back.

I cannot fault my grandfather's needing to be with my grandmother during the end. They were married for 57 years before my Grandma Virginia finally passed with a kiss goodbye after checking to see if my youngest uncle, John, who struggled in life, was okay.

Update: With the the plumbing and HVAC, the tree leaning on the house is the third thing that screams "THE HOUSE IS FALLING APART!". To remove the tree in the front yard will cost $6,000 alone.

Found 4 super cool books in 3 different street libraries! Did I need those books? No because I have 12 in my room that are just living on my desk unread! But I took em anyway because they're older than me and its less stressful than all the choices at a real library. When I read through them I'll either return them or put in some of my own (or dad's!) books :D

Well, today's forecast calls for another storm.

I can only hope in positivity that it's a 2 out of 3 chance that it won't try to rip up our area, especially after last Thursday.

I really can't afford to let my food rot in the freezer when the power company doesn't get it fixed to be considered a blip like yesterday.

I lost a bag of Alaskan Pollock Filets and Potstickers dumplings in the freezer and milk in the fridge from the Thursday storm.

Either way, I will attempt keeping you guys posted. They were right about summer being hot and stormy.

I don't know if this will be useful to anybody, but if it saves a person a couple of hours of headache, then it will be worth it.

My POS, off-the-shelf, Dell laptop I bought 5 or so years ago is crapping out. It died on me three times this morning. These issues have been going on for 6 or so months, so I decided to replace it with the cash I've been saving via doing a no spend month and the penny challenge I've been doing.

This morning we went to Best Buy for a new laptop. I didn't buy anything expensive as I don't use my laptop for much. I use it to watch Youtube, check the weather if for whatever reason we don't have power, ect. If and when I play my game, I play it on a desktop. I found what I wanted, paid, laughed at the dude trying to get me to sign up for a Best Buy credit card and left.

It took about a half hour for the laptop to update. After that I thought I was good. It would have been another hour to install Waterfox, the extensions I wanted, blah, blah, blah then go about my day. I spent 2 hours trying to get the stupid thing out of S-Mode. I tried every tutorial I could find as this is a well-known problem with Windoze 11. I stopped short of playing around with the registry. I just bought the f-ing thing a couple hours prior, why should I have to mess around with the registry. Then I called Best Buy. I got stuck talking to somebody that spoke broken English who put me on hold for technical support. Yeah, no. I packed up the laptop in the box it came out of and brought it back to Best Buy.

Long story short: They've been busy all day re-installing Windows 11 on various systems that have been purchased recently because of this bug that Microsoft has yet to fix. Geek Squad is known for poking around in people's computers, but since there is nothing to poke around in as there is nothing on it sans that crap it came installed with, they can have fun trying to find anything interesting. Whatever this new bug is has happened not all that long ago. I haven't had this problem with other Windoze 11 or Windoze 10 systems.

If anyone buys a off-shelf Windoze 11 system and can't shut off S-Mode, bring it back to wherever it came from. I don't know what the advice would be for anybody that has a system shipped. I don't trust Fed Ex, UPS and so on with anything these days, so trusting them with a computer wouldn't be something I'd be okay with.

EDIT: The new Windoze 11 install worked. However, when I turned the laptop on this morning, I got a warning that I was out of space. I installed Waterfox, FireFox, Revo Uninstaller and Bleach Bit ( I use this to clean out the junk files left behind) none of which use 86 gigs of RAM / space.

Geek Squad did the install, but didn't remove all the files left behind from the factory install of Windoze. All of those are now removed, then I spent over a hour trying to figure out how to delete or permanently shut off widgets a those act like a vampire for RAM usage. After trying several things which failed, I ended up downloading a tool / file that took care of that.

Another vampire of space is One Drive which was also removed along with any other bloatware I came across. I understand Microsoft tries to make their systems idiot proof, but ugh. Locking people out of completely disabling widgets because they are a resource hog is ridiculous IMO. Windoze 10 is nothing to write home about, but Windoze 11 is the worst. The only good thing I can say is the system didn't come with apps for games ridden with micotransactions, ect...

Moral of the edit: If you bring a system in because of S-Mode and have Windoze 11 re-installed via Geek Squad, be prepared to do some clean up. I went from having no space to bringing the system down to using 30 gigs which isn't great, but I cut the RAM usage by more than half, so I'll take it.

I'm tutoring a friend in a computer science class. For some reason, my Visual Studio Code can't run the debugger without bugging me (heh) to place a random string of text somewhere to make it happy - I can't bother.

I installed CLion which is free if you're a student. Wanted to see if I had WSL version 1 or 2 installed, for performance reasons... - the Windows Terminal app doesn't start. Just crashes straight away. Well, half an hour went into figuring out that I just had to uninstall Windows Terminal because it has this bug related to self-elevation? Whatever.

Back to CLion - as soon as I started it and opened my friend's code - the program highlighted the (quite convoluted) logical mistake in the code. What a relief!

The tree is suspected to have hit the roof. Where my room is. So I have to inspect my room for possible water damage tonight.

My house is falling apart due to outside forces.

Fan-frigging-tastic...

Lucky that my grandfather can set up an insurance agent for this emergency.

A day filled with a LOT of waiting and a LOT of nagging. For the most part both simultaneously....
Last hour of waiting more or less saved my sanity, though (no nagging).

We didn't have a storm in my town last night, but going North, they got the brunt of it. We got that from the repair people from what happened yesterday in an emergency call.

Only half the job is done repairing the house.

The tree is gone and roof has a temporary patch so the roofer can get a better estimate to my family.

The plumbing and HVAC are still in need. They didn't show up today, unfortunately. I guess I will be using my parents' bathroom at night and have to be careful not to overheat until further notice and update.

So, my allowance came early, spent it mostly if not the majority of it on food, drinks and healthcare.

I also did scheduling of two doctor appointments and received a bike from United Way, whom I have been seeing since I came back to New Jersey about 8 years ago.

I have placed my orders, got the prescription refill processing started and received my bike after much time had passed since I became eligible.

I should see my emails for any shipping updates.

MAIL BAG DAY! YAY!

So, one of my shipments was accidentally routed to Ohio. I know, right? Anyway, I got my first package of the shipment of chips, gummies and the soda last night. (Low calorie, low sugar, low sodium versions of the big names.)

Today, Amazon should be sending me my organizers (I go by the mantra "organization will set me free!") a box set with Australian cartoons with 103 shorts and alternate versions, and a hand truck dolly cart (expecting something heavy in the mail later on in the month.)

Either way...The delivery is rather expected to be a great one.

Got my organizers (one for cards and a set of colorful binder pencil cases for my cash and coin), my shorts (it's a sweet little series with a universal theme of family and childhood memories made daily while dealing with life in an easy to understand way) and the hand truck dolly cart (it was light to pick up)

Companies have the balls of a brass monkey sometimes. I don't know if this is just a US thing or if it's universal.

We had to go out this morning to get oatmeal, laundry detergent, ect... Those non-exciting things in life. Before going to the store, we stopped by the bank and pulled out cash as one of the stores we had to go to was the store where our credit card was ripped off a couple of weeks ago.

The store was quiet, we got everything we needed. Because it is a big box store that requires a membership, a person needs to have their membership card scanned before a purchase can be made. The card was scanned, then a message popped up on the credit card machine. The message stated something along the lines that the card holder would accept any and all charges placed on their card. Then there was a "agree" or "disagree" button. Said message wasn't there this past Wednesday, so this is new thing. The nonsense was greeted with a "Hell No!" and the disagree button being mashed.

The cashier was a tad confused by my reaction. I mentioned that our card had already been ripped off once so there was no way I'm going to agree to further fraud and that we're on a cash only basis now. We paid for our stuff and left.

I'm sure there will be plenty of people that will "agree" to the above nonsense; I wish them the best of luck with that.

@Gargoyle Cat

Yeah, I don't think anyone likes getting ripped off.

But still, I admit, from experience, the way life is, it's probably not your first and may not be your last when it comes to major inconveniencing events.

Then again, people are not immune to such fates.

I learned a few things, but I think the most important thing in an inconvenience is to be persistent in getting to the person\people who can help you.

You're right Panda, this isn't the first time I've dealt with credit card fraud. However, that doesn't make what they are trying to do okay, nor was it acceptable how they handled the situation. When a customer calls a company and complains about their credit card being used illegally, the wrong answer is "We'll get back to you in a week." With a few keystrokes it was easily proven that I did not make said purchase. Since we're members, they have our entire purchase history.

It is similar situation to the last time I used my debit card online.

I was with a different bank at the time. Somebody decided to spend $100.00 at the Apple store on my debit card. I've never had a account with the Apple store and my spending history would have shown that. When I went to the bank about it, they told me I would have to wait a month to get my money back. I made a stink, managed to get my money back a few days later, then promptly closed all accounts with said bank and paid bills with money orders until I found a new bank. In this situation, the person I spoke with didn't feel like filling out the fraudulent charges paperwork. It needs to be noted here that under US law, any debit card that has a Visa or Mastercard logo has the same protection as a regular Visa or Mastercard.

5 or so years later, that bank is no longer in business. Perhaps they should have been doing their job rather than thumbing their noses at the 'inconvenience' they were causing their customers.

I've haven't used my debit card online ( or anywhere else for that matter) since then even though my current bank is really good about staying on top of things. I don't keep more than $100.00 in my checking account, nor is any savings accounts linked to my checking. When I pay bills, I log into my account and move money around.

I've discovered that the more time you think you have at the start of the day, the less time you have at the end of the day (especially workdays). Workday started calm and "I'm not even sure what to do because there's hardly anything to do now", and ended "too many things going on at once". But at least it's a bit less than what I'm used to (maybe 2 things happening at a time, and manageable within a decent timeframe - instead of at least 4-5 things demanding rapid attention, at least 2 of which are of the type "should've been dealt with 3+ hours ago, but preferably yesterday before there was even a demand for it" ).

Received my organizers, cartoon shorts, handcart and my two missing bags of chips (craving salt lately.)

(Note to self: No shopping while under the influence of a craving. Just as bad as shopping while hungry.)

My water will be here between the 5th and the 10th.

My dental care products will be here as soon as they finish passing through customs in Jamaica, New York (I am aware of that particular office).

As for today, I have put away about 20% of my amiibo card collection into a smaller, compact binder.

I probably could sell my vinyl page protector sheets (I have some strange purchase that leave me speechless because I now wonder why I first bought them.) I am still cleaning up my mess of a bedroom.

I think the weirdest thing is that some schools allowed for Pokémon cards to be used in a classroom setting, possibly math\linguistics

(haven't really stay in touch with the franchise beyond games, animation and financial data, which Pokémon brings in nearly $1 trillion annually for worldwide sales (there a slight margin of inflation for the materials and licensing fees will vary) so I may be out of the loop).

When I was in school, the teachers would confiscate them and not return them, even if there was any appeal.

I may consider selling anything I no longer have a use for to finance my future.

If I should hold a garage sale, I probably would sell my Pokémon cards for pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters or a dollar per card, depending on publication factors (this, coming from an intern at a publications office) and\or by rarity levels.

I still have tons of things to toss, recycle, donate or sell. What I keep is what I deem important.

As for asking prices, every little bit counts, and I am being reasonable. I just want them out of my room and life because I need to keep my room clear and easy to maneuver.

I don't plan on scalping or gouging the cards. Penny for common ones to a dollar for legendary rare status cards is more than fair enough when I see it...

Looking at the boring stuff of politics and financial data is why I don't like being the only functioning adult in the house, especially on weekdays.

But lately, I am keeping an eye out for toothpaste that has a mint chocolate chip ice cream flavor. The toothpaste I recently unboxed is flying off shelves in Australia, but it's a coincidence.

I'm awake, listening to Moldovan saxophonist (Sunstroke Project) Sergey Stepanov's jazzy riffs mixed with a backbeat by Cruzo of Sweden and I am in something of a meditative thought.

I may have been an adult legally half my life, but I wish I could relax. Lately, I have started to, in my mannerisms, become one of those elders who reads newspapers and does early bird specials at shopping centers and restaurants.

Maybe I am too hard on myself since the plumber didn't come yesterday due to someone else having an emergency. I am stinky, flakey and just unhappy I let myself go with my appearance while helping with the technical supervision of the house repairs after that EF0 storm. Gaw!... I really want to get cleaned up. I also had laundry done yesterday. But I don't know if I flipped the load from washer to dryer.

Got workout done. The time flies by when listening to music instead of a audio book.

Walked dogs before thunderstorms roll in.

Stuffing my face with massive salad while listening my favorite hoarder. I have no clue what she's talking about. It started with being chatty about how Alexa is her boyfriend, then it was on to a meltdown over nail glue, something about blood pathogens, making adult 'beverages'... blah, blah, blah. None of this has anything to do with her Temu order, but ya know.

I'm learning to stop paying too close attention because...

Still waiting on a package lately. Just something I ordered to test out.

Of course, today, I have been resting because I haven't been feeling good. I feel like I got run over.

Had ice cream while sitting on bench in the sun looking at the sea

Went grocery shopping and got nearly all frozen food. It was a day that required me to head out in the heat.

Mom just bought a new dryer. The old one we had was a very durable dryer: we've had it since 2005 I think, and not once did it require repairing. All we did was clean the condenser regularly. The only thing that has aged would probably be the moisture sensors. It was a pretty simple dryer: modes were cotton, synthetics or timed dry. Cotton options were high-temperature, while synthetics and timed were low-temperature. You could set it to extra dry, storage dry, mildly damp, iron damp, machine iron damp. (The sensors, as I said, did age, so anything not set to "extra dry" felt too damp to even consider taking out of the machine, while the extra dry was sometimes overdried.)

It seems that the thermostat or the heater went out, and mom gave it a thought and realized that it's best to invest in a new one than to try to find a repairman who knows where to find the spare parts for this one. She bought a €350 Gorenje one (the old one was Gorenje too) and while the towels feel so fluffy and not fried, it's maybe as loud – if not louder – than the old one. For some reason the noise part really surprised us, as we were convinced that the newer dryers are much quieter than the first-ever models on the European market... turns out, not by much. Well, at least the clearance ones aren't.

We're headed into the middle of the month. My no-spend June is blowing chunks. I'm not even buying anything good, it's stupid stuff. I ran out of shampoo, so I got some. Jingle has developed allergies to pollen, so she gets half of a Benedryl every day. Because she's such a pain in the ass about taking it and I'm afraid I'm going to hurt her jaw, I got her some Pill Pockets.

Speaking of pet-related things, I had to buy a baby gate. Sterling and Chica have a toxic relationship.

Sterling is protective of her cage, at least as far as the dogs are concerned. Chica being a Boston Terrier doesn't like the idea that there is a rodent in the house. Chica starts sniffing around Sterling's cage, Sterling gets mad. She bounces to the bottom level of her cage, gets into her sand / bath box ( a small litterbox) and starts kicking sand at Chica to make her go away. Chica starts barking, Sterling kicks more sand. Rinse, wash, repeat until a human declares enough is enough.

What does this have to do with a baby gate? The gate is to force Chica to keep her distance from Sterling's cage. It doesn't keep her from barking and Sterling still gets into her bath box in preparation for creating a sand storm, but at least there is no longer chinchilla bath sand all over my office.

I love all of my pets, but sometimes I do wonder what I was thinking when I decided to be a multi-pet household.

Older electronics usually lasted a whole lot longer than newer electronics tend to do.

My phone from the early 2010s still works (in airplane mode). I had to replace it because of network issues, and it's a bit slow/has some minor "error bugs" when loading in stuff, but it still works fine as an alarm clock (I prefer the music I already had on it, and I'm too lazy to shift it over to the new phone). It's also very durable, and only has a few minor scrapes (fallen onto asphalt a few times, screen-down. Could potentially withstand getting run over by a car, but I haven't tested the theory... the thing has some proper early Nokia energy, despite not being one...)

Our dishwasher probably lasted at least 20+ years. In the end the tubes started leaking, and I'm not even sure the model name existed any longer, so we replaced it. The new one seems to have less space (the spacers have wider areas between the "sticks", so there's less room for stuff, and every time finding space for everything is like playing tetris)

We had to replace an oven a while back. A door broke once, and one of the heating elements (or fans) broke at least a couple times, but after repairing it was fine. It lasted us a good long while. Fast forward to the next oven, I don't think it took more than 2 years before the heating element (or fan or whatever it was) broke. And since the shop didn't do repairs any longer (after the repairman probably retired or some such) plus within the guarantee time, they sent us a new oven. I'd preferred repairs. It's wild that they can just throw away an oven that likely would've worked fine if it had gotten some new parts.

Back when I studied, our landlord kept having to replace the washing machine and dryer. I have a feeling it's because the new ones were either used or dirt cheap/low quality, but still... Oh, and because several of the ones I lived with at the time had no idea how to wash clothes properly (I swear, the things I sometimes saw, like those who kept putting powdered detergent in the space for (liquid) fabric softener so it formed a yucky sludge - no wonder the machines eventually gave up )

We've been though at least 5 washing machines since buying the house. The biggest problem is our well water was causing the mechanisms in the machines to corrode. The same thing happened to all the copper piping that was installed when the house was built. Since having the house re-plumbed and having a water conditioner installed, the corrosion problem has stopped, but that didn't keep other things breaking after a couple of years of use.

The old adage of things are not made like they use to be holds true for other stuff as well.

I love my Instant Pot. I've been through 3 of them with regular, normal use in 2 years.

I've had to buy a couple of keyboards as they wear out in a year or so. So far the Corsair I bought last year is holding up.

I've lost count of how many fish tank filters I've had to replace. Every time there is a power surge, at least one filter dies even though they are on a surge protector. I suppose it is reasonable to think the surge protector is also broken. We're down to one fish. He's going on 9 or 10 years old. Once he's gone, I'm done with the fish keeping hobby. Lugging around 5 gallon buckets of water on water change days is not fun.

2 years ago we bought new window air conditioners. Even though I clean them regularly when in use and before storing them for the winter, one is on it's way out. The fan of one of them sounds like a airplane preparing for take off.

Around the same time, we bought new air purifiers. The sensor on of them died within a few months so using auto mode is useless because according to the sensor, the air is never cleaned even though it has a new filter. I know it is doing it's job as I check the filter regularly.

We've had to replace 3 refrigerators. The last one we had started pissing water everywhere. I don't know where the water was coming from as the ice maker wasn't attached to the water line.

Constantly having to replace stuff is so much fun. Nope!

I'm actually surprised how our appliances last this long with all the minerals in our water. We have to configure our dishwasher to the highest setting of salt usage before starting it, otherwise the dishes are all musty after a few washes. But the internal components somehow have made it. The only thing that got broken in our dishwasher was, well, the heater as well. The reason we bought a new one instead of repairing the heater is because the racks got completely rusty and degenerated up to the point where the rust would transfer onto the dishes (and for some reason, finding racks for this model costs as much as getting a new dishwasher).

Though, our previous washing machine failed because the bearings got used up. The new one, which has extended warranty of like, 6 years or so total, also had its bearings fail around 2 years in (which is the standard warranty; you usually get an additional 2-4 years if you register your device with the manufacturer online). Luckily, that got repaired successfully and at no cost.

Today, I relaxed.

I bought Katamari Damacy REROLL on Sunday evening through the Nintendo eShop for $8 (it was on sale and I felt it was a decent price for a revamped and ported version) and practiced making a few stars in the sky on the Switch.

I also met a random villager character in the campsite of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It was Snooty the Anteater. It was a weird day talking to Snooty and Cyrano, two anteaters. I even got a summer shell.

I had some delicious French fries from McDonald's. For what it's worth, the food at McDonald's may be bad for your bodily health, but it certainly feeds the soul (provided you didn't sell yours in desperation.)

The fries will vary between each burger and chicken joint. Sometimes they're balanced in blistering, oilyness, saltiness, fluffiness that you can't seem to stop. And the fact that potatoes, like most starches, taste best with your preference of toppings.

I also got my last package from that giant shipment I started when I got my money in.

I slept in today, but after my mother is done with her errands, she'll help me with groceries as I am running low on certain foods and I promised to replace my parents' food.

It's more like "I'm sorry for what I ate while I was hungry". I have been just craving like crazy all kinds of foods. I still have to go over to Target (which is right across the highway from Walmart and for some reason, I always find the weirdest rivals being separated by highways.)

When it came to Microsoft and Nintendo, they definitely had a HUMONGOUS highway splitting the rival corporate headquarters.

Today isn't going the way I thought it would.

Contractors that the electric company hires refuse to stay off my property, so I spent part of the day at 'war' with them. This road has been traveled before.

A mason for a different job decided that it was okay to trespass and fill the water tank on the back of his truck with my well water. Electric company said "sorry" and sent a gift card. They owe me more than a gift card this time. I've been told about 10 times today that they'll do anything to "fix" the damage. A simple phone call or email would have prevented the whole problem, but no. I'm not in with the electric company other than a paying customer, so I am POS. The only reason they're willing to do anything is so we don't sue them for property damage. Also, I just told both project managers, in person, a couple of weeks ago to keep their contractors off my property. I got a head nod and a "uh-huh". In one ear, out the other.

The weeping cherry tree in the front yard is looking sickly. I called a company to come out look it at. No problem except the person that came out isn't a arborist. The only thing he could do is give me a estimate to take the tree down. While he was here, we had a conversation about a cluster of scrub pine trees which are small now, but can grow up to a 100 feet tall. Scrub pine trees are terrible. They're a "weak" species of tree that are problematic in times of things like hurricanes and strong Nor-Easters. Unlike oak, the wood of these trees is really soft, so they snap in half / the tops of them fall off / they fall over if winds are too strong for too long.

I'm not interested in having three scrub pines fall on my house in the future, so they'll be coming down. The jury is out on the weeping cherry tree. I like it and all, but if it's sickly with no chance of making a come back, then it needs to go. We can plant a new tree, not a big deal. As I was writing this, a tree company that has aborists on board called. We have a appointment with them in a couple weeks.

You know what's weird? Supermarket shelves. Actually, lots of stuff is weird, but I dont wanna derail my post

I was in the biscuit aisle today and noticed that if I wanted chocolate chip cookies then I had 3 options to choose from: LU, Mcvities, and store brand. Now I already knew that the store brand was not longer what it used to be, it's now overly sweet, smells weird, and also has a metallic after taste. Disgusting. Mcvities chocolate chip cookies are new to the shelves, and LU biscuits are generally cursed. See, LU biscuits are intensely metallic, like licking iron filings or drinking lead paint. Fairly certain is an ingredient or factory related. But then again, that time I was in France for a while I did notice all their supermarket biscuits tasted metallic. And since LU is French it's probably French manugacturing regulations?

Anyway, imagine my shock, my surprise, my astonishment when the LU brand chocolate chip cookies were good?!

Published a book through Kindle direct.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be since I attempted quite a few times, I even got $5 in royalties for a sale for a prior book.

Still, I am currently working on more content under pseudonyms because, let's face it, I can be a bit much for some to handle.

Been oddly quiet today. Today is my father's 60th birthday. We got him a brownie filled with ganache and a card.

I talked with my therapist and I felt terrible afterwards that I had to eat. I wanted potato chips and dip, but evidently, I eat while asleep and I had no chips leftover.

Either way, I have to buy embarrassing items this upcoming month along with something I had my eye on in electronics. I am currently working on a video project. I have an enormous amount of backlog and commentary to work through.

I even have a protein shake powder. I might consider working on things for July.

It's my birthday today, too! Aside from going out for coffee, my celebration has been limited to a party thrown by my Animal Crossing villagers, lol. I was looking forward to a relaxing time, but my three most excitable villagers were in attendance, impatient for me to blow out the candles and break the piñata. It was almost as stressful as a real party.

My dad sent me birthday money earlier this month, as he's done since I was a child, and I bought books and dolls, as I've done since I was a child.

One of the books is Dick York's autobiography. It came with a sweet handwritten note from the publisher, thanking me for caring about his story. You know how you can hold some books and immediately feel how special they are, even before reading them? That's how this one feels. I began reading it this afternoon and I'm already enjoying it immensely. It's such a privilege to be allowed into someone's life. It feels like a great start to the coming year.

Happy birthday @chamelea !

That Dick Yorke autobiog sounds great, where did you buy it from? He was lovely.

Thanks so much, @simsample !!

I bought it from the publisher's Amazon store - here's a link. He really was lovely. Rather than physically write the book, he recorded himself speaking about his life, so it truly feels like a conversation with him. If you read it, I hope you enjoy it just as much!

Thank you @chamelea , the copies available in my country are around £75 ($96) so a bit expensive for me, but I'll keep looking to see if I can find an affordable used copy somewhere.

Today, I decided to get back to my Pokémon "Living Pokédex Project"

By definition, a living Pokédex is basically a Pokédex of every Pokémon from Bulbasaur to Terapagos in the Box System as of the Generation 9 DLC Expansion, as they grew tired of making separate secondary versions after Generation 7 and made Generations 8 and 9 ones where you have buy expansions for that version, which was somewhat more expensive that there is talk they may revert back to the old business model of a secondary game.

It gets pretty damned expensive to purchase two expansions with the same content.

(The price of the expansions is $35, making it $70 before any other fees and the price for the Pokémon games is $60 per version, so it's a rat's nest for the basic math requirements to remain feasible for anyone to complete these games as of Generation 8)

An overhaul on such affairs might just be in order to keep customers.

But that's my frugal side talking. $10 is $10. Easily could buy a tray of kappa maki sushi from the Japanese cuisine counter at my local supermarket\pharmacy.

My daughter had her 5th birthday party today. Crazy how time flies. Both kids are still awake, an hour after bedtime and are wildly overstimulated... As are me and husband.

It has been a long week. I'm finding new ways to deal with the electric company and their BS.

I don't know if this is a universal thing or not, but electricians and others in the electric-related field are cocky AF in my area. I've been told one more than one occasion about the good ol' boys club within our electric company, people spending their time proverbially smacking each other over the head with job titles, ect... I believe it. I had a electric company employee rambling at me about all of his previous job titles during the week. They act like somehow a job title matters to the average person. I suppose there could be people that are wow'd by such things, I give zero fugs. I expect them to handle issues (whether they caused them or not) in a professional manner as opposed to what I'm actually getting which is adults acting like they are 12.

Getting a break from all of that 'noise' today, I've been window shopping for new guinea pig cages. It is said that guinea pigs should never live by themselves, but my boys fight, so they have to live in separate spaces. Both of their cages have solid bases to prevent broken toes and feet, but the wire top of one of them is starting to rust. We bought said cage a little more than a year ago; it wasn't cheap. Upon looking for a link to it, Pet Smart doesn't sell it any more. If that isn't a red flag, I don't know what is.

I'm going small business this time, I've had enough.

Mom was glad I got what she called "her lazy ass" off the couch and we went grocery and supply shopping.

I got that fancy Mac and cheese from Santa Cruz, California. It's a more complicated but taste and flavor variety is wider.

I then got groceries, even stuff to replace for my mom's snacks and I got sweet juice drinks for my Miralax for the fact that nausea and constipation were part of my stomach issues 😔 but I hate getting older.

(my gastroenterologist makes me take it twice a day and even if the bottle says it's unflavored, if you can taste the off flavor in the drink, it's not really worth it to swallow down something nasty to begin with and end with, but it the process itself.)

Getting old sucks because you are subject to medicine and I happen to be part of a large enough percentage of Millennials living with a number of chronic conditions and is a "cyborg" which my parents and I joke about.

I look like a teenager with a gray or two but I turn 37 in October.

I guess today, I feel like still have trouble getting along with Chronos and Gaia (Father Time and Mother Nature).

It was a tough pill to swallow (no pun intended) that I was off to start taking blood pressure medication each and every morning until the rest of my life. I was 25 when I first got it prescribed.

Oh dear, I hated my blood pressure tablets as they gave me adverse side-effects! They tried me on several different types. Luckily, I don't need to take them now, since changing my diet drastically. Not that easy for many though.

I've never really given it much thought whether I'm experiencing any side-effects, but I do feel lazier and more sluggish sometimes. It could be that it's all in my head, though. Right now I'm in no place to start changing my diet despite desperately needing to do that, because I'm still at uni and managing my student job at the side. Meal prep and cooking cannot fit my schedule no more than it already does (at most twice a week I'd say, but there are weeks where I don't do it at all), and the selection of food on-the-go is as it is... ham and cheese sandwiches from local (savory) bakeries or an I'm Lovin' It. This year I still have the right for discounted food at student cafeterias; I regularly eat there, but they offer more junk food than not (fried chicken cannot be that good for you, with an eventual veggie paddy Thursday). But the next year I won't be having that anymore, as I'm going over the time limit spent on my studies to be getting the said discounts. Weird logic, because I'm enrolling in a Master program in two years, and I'll have the discounts back once I do that. Not sure how one intermediate year in my studying is going to do anything in regards to... whatever the reason I won't be getting the discounts, but hey, there's a law just for these student food discounts and we gotta follow it I guess.

I had better.

After hearing about the fallout from the Life By You cancellation and subsequent shuttering of its Berkeley, California studio, I am dealing with the hangover of such melancholy from getting hopes up. I really wanted to try it out.

Yesterday, I had to take care of my mom who had stomach issues, I worked on an archival project, I transferred part of my amiibo card collection to a more efficient binder as my makeshift one was heavy, bulky, and not exactly neat.

I had some Mac and Cheese for dinner (glad I did, because I drowned a fly that was bothering us in the dishwater. Don't worry! We'll get to sanitizing the sink of dishes once the dishwasher is unloaded and reloaded.)

It is almost time for my parents and I to start our days. But today is the end of the second third of the month...wow. Last week, we celebrated my father's 60th birthday and let's face it, we certainly enjoy the fact he's happiest when kept busy because he's happy to be of service.

To compare him to folklore beings, he compares himself to a genie, always prepared to help within reason.

In any case, things are fine otherwise. I got my allergy medicine so I am feeling somewhat alleviated.

Currently working on a code that is otherwise uncrackable. Based on Kim Godgul's ColorHoney, ColorTokki and SacGeul constructed scripts, I am currently working on a special font that is color and shape oriented.

(I am a fan of Omniglot.com, a web resource on linguistics through time, space, and dimensions.)

Arborist was here yesterday to look at the Weeping Cherry tree. Good news is that the issues can be solved. The bad news: The problems developed 2 years ago and are just now showing up.

I honestly thought we did something wrong even though we've been doing the same things since the tree was planted, but no. Everybody that has a weeping cherry tree are having the same exact problems. Basically the ground thawed enough during that above mentioned winter, then re-froze which messed up the trees internally. Cells within a tree trunk expand and contract depending how much water is stored, what the temperature is, ect... If this process of thawing then freezing happens too fast, it messes the tree up.

The plan is to have the tree company come back and inject fertilizer around the tree base since it is the growing season. That will help in aiding the recovery process. Then in about a month or so they'll come back again and we'll have the tree trimmed and 'thinned'. Thinning as it is called is the act of removing selective branches and other growth that will allow more sun and air flow through the foliage. Anybody doing this themselves needs to be really careful as taking more than 25% of growth can kill a tree. This rule also applies to houseplants, shrubs and so on.

While he was here, we had a chat about the Japanese Maple. At some point we are going to have to take the maple down as it is getting too big for the spot it is in. Technically it is what is called a Dwarf Japanese Maple, but the dwarf part only means that the tree grows at a much slower rate than a traditional Japanese Maple. For now though, it is happy and exploding with growth. I asked if the problems with the Weeping Cherry could transfer to the Japanese Maple. I was told all trees have their own issues, but no worries about cherry tree problems transferring to the maple.

After the Weeping Cherry tree is dealt with, they'll come back again to trim and thin the Japanese Maple which is in a dire need of a 'hair cut'. The scrub pines will come down in the fall. I don't feel like dealing with that project when it's hot and humid.

Today I had the sudden desire for a gel pen! My go to shop for generic ball points doesnt do gel pens so I was internet time cos these stores don't physically exist here anymore RIP. Prices were so offensive and I wasn't even looking at the fancy schmancy ones. So the prices are definitely unreasonable and they aslo have a thing against multipacks??

After a long day of conversation with the company I wanted to order new pig cages from, I was finally able to order one yesterday. It will look something like this:



Instead of black bases, mine will be silver / gray. Instead of black wire, mine will be white. They will be 'built' the same way (stacked) so I can reclaim some space in my living room. While I love my little, furry boys, it would be nice if they stopped taking over the room.

Because these cages are meant to be customized, people can add ramps. "windows" ( it is a piece of plastic so pigs can see out without wire getting in the way), feeding 'stations' and all kinds of other stuff.

Everything should be in by the end of this coming week. That will give Lincoln time to get settled in before he has his second dental-related surgery in July. He'll be fine, but it is stressing me out. The x-ray that was done a couple of weeks ago gave no indication of what is causing his teeth issues.

Today, I have the duty of preparing rice for tomorrow's dinner of fried rice and I had a bit of trouble locating the pot, but it should be fine, now that I got it under control.

Tomorrow morning, I have grocery shopping to do before the sun comes out and bakes me like a clay pot. (I am on medication that can cause heatstroke)

Did the grocery shopping and today was windy during the trips, a bumblebee was having trouble flying in a straight line. Ended up with some color to my otherwise pale skin.

I may have made a lot more rice than the recipe called for, but in my house, fried rice doesn't go bad because I tend to eat it often as leftovers, as long as it's not left out between 40°F and 140°F aka "The Danger Zone"

3 hours spent (mostly in a waiting room) at the hospital, plus a long bus ride to and from. Good thing I had a book...

Then spent a few hours rushing through shops (thought I'd have better time, but nooooo) to find some stuff. I had no luck at home, and there was a chance I would have to travel back again just to go through the same shops again. At least I found what I was after, but mostly by sheer luck (one of the shops didn't even seem like it had what I was after, but tuned out to be the one I 'struck gold' at.

So now I have an outfit and shoes for an event later this summer (dresses and nice shoes are a pain to get for me - I have short but wide feet, and go somewhere in between 3 different sizes depending on the shoes, so shoes are of course a nightmare. Plus, I hate about 95% of the dress styles this year - looks like they're all resewn old curtains or table cloths and/or uses a great-great-gran's old clothing patterns, and most of the rest either doesn't fit or has the entirely wrong shape. I get that there's a retro vibe going on, but most of the atrocities I saw today should've been left in whichever time period they were inspired from... ).

Also got to try freeze-dried ice cream for the first time. And a couple variants of freeze-dried candy. Fun experience, and it was tasty, but I don't think my teeth loves the hard/sour candy (looks like something similar to skittles and some other chewy candy). A shop chain has started importing candy from various places (I think UK, US and even Japan?) that we don't normally have here in other shops, so it's fun to try some of it out.

My cat did her first stop, flop and roll for me and finally trusts me enough to pet her belly. No more rabbit kicks, just making biscuits. Only took 2,5 years.

Sore all over.

Spent an hour or so yesterday weeding a small part of the garden (a part that currently doesn't have grass, but we're planning to sow at some point). Been a while since the last time, and I swear, it seems like every bit of weed we pulled up last time multiplied by at least 3. Kept going until my legs almost turned into jelly, and there was still some left (could barely bend down any more by then). At least the soil was easy to work with, so most of the roots got pulled up, too.

I hate weeding the garden, but while working on it, it's oddly satisfying. I think it activates my "just keep at it" mode...

Speaking of weeds, today I learned about a thing called a hula hoe. It is also called a stirrup hoe as it is shaped like a stirrup on a horse saddle.



This tool has blades on both sides. It is meant to be used in a push / pull fashion ( I compare this to using a vacuum cleaner) which pulls weeds up from the root or cuts the root just below the surface depending on the weed. From the few videos I've watched, weeds that have shallow roots, the roots come out. For weeds with deeper roots like a dandelion, the tool cuts the root. To keep the weeds from returning, there is a product called Preen which isn't a weed killer, rather it is a weed inhibitor that keeps them from regrowing / coming back.

When the arborist was here last week, he told me that we should remove the grass around the bases of the Weeping Cherry and the Japanese Maple as the trees have to compete with the grass for nutrients. Since that time I've been on the hunt for a sod cutter so the grass removal wouldn't bother any tree roots. I've had zero luck, locally anyway. I know they have them on Amazon, but I'm not giving Amazon any money, so I had to find another way to pull up the grass without spending hours on my knees to get it done.

The hula hoe will remove the surface stuff, then we need to get a flat shovel. The shovel is to cut the 'ring' around the tree, and to clear out all the grass from within the ring which will be around 3 feet in circumference and roughly 2 inches deep. After that, mulch will be put down a couple inches thick ( staying away from the tree trunks) in the ring.

The Weeping Cherry is looking much better. Today the tree company was out to inject fertilizer around it so it should look even better in a week or so. I don't know when they'll be out again to give it a much needed thin and trim. It will be sometime next month.