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 corrently 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...