Crap. I forgot to check my dad’s “stoplight system” for whether to invest or not. (It’s based on some Wall Street Journal stats.) I don’t want to go back upstairs and log on though. I need to put a note on my computer to do that. Hmm, it just occurred to me to note the stoplight readings on my email calendar. That would be a good way to view trends. I did remember to do it tonight. (It's a yellow light - hold.)

Woke up at 6:30 AM. Discovered that my phone didn’t charge and my Apple Watch needed charging too. Got the good charger. Took Bella out, but it was raining pretty hard, and she noped out. I’m going to go back to sleep for a while. Hmm, the Dynamic Duo (Oliver and Lily) are in here now. Good, they just left. Had a nice nap.

At work now. The Dynamic Duo are being very dynamic and are running around.

ChatGPT can be useful. I want a paragraph in my will stating that my friends can take one personal item each to remember me by, and it gave me a nice paragraph in legalese.

Speaking of my will and my trust, the big question is whether I include the house in the trust or not. I want the proceeds of the sale of the house to go into the trust, which makes me think that it should be included in the trust, but I'll probably sell the house before I pass away to go into a retirement community, which makes me think that it should not be in the trust. Dad said in a roundabout way to put the house in the trust because it keeps someone from suing me and getting the house. He said that if I’m the trustee, I can sell it whenever.

I somehow wound up with not one but two doctor's appointments on Friday afternoon (psychiatrist and eye doctor). My boss said that I could take the afternoon as sick time. Have I mentioned lately that I work with great people?

I forgot to feed the critters this morning. I suck.

I put the YMCA's "Gentle Yoga" class on my calendar, starting next week. That'll give me time to find my yoga clothes, mat, etc. Their Pilates classes are at an inconvenient time. And their Aqua Fit evening classes are at the same time as yoga. (I don't do exercise in the morning. If I get up on time and shower, I'm ahead of the game. Though hmm, the Deep Water Total Body Workout on Wednesday mornings sounds like a good class. Maybe I should try it and see if I can get up. They have the class on Fridays and Mondays too.)

I've been weeding a little while I'm out with Bella. Some weeds are going to need the weeding tool, but I've been able to knock off some easy weeds to pull up. I've got the bed for the tickseed cleared, but need to pull up the landscaping cloth underneath before I plant them. I want to order some begonias for the back of the house, which gets part sun and part shade. Hard to find plants for that exposure that are also dog-safe. Pulled up the landscaping cloth and planted tickseeds. I’m wondering if I should leave the sunflowers in their pots. They would require a big hole to plant them. Now I’m thinking about putting them on the patio. Maybe I could plant Black-Eyed Susans where I was going to plant them. Prairie Gardens has them. I also want to go to another big garden shop in the area this weekend. The ASPCA Web site says that begonias are toxic for dogs. The search continues….

Bella played tug of war with the landscaping cloth that I pulled up. I finally gave up on throwing it out. I’ll have to go outside without her to get it. (I got it when I took out the recycling.)

I read an article on places to retire in if you want to travel, but I think that I'm pretty well located. I can hop on a bus (or train) to Chicago and fly out of O'Hare Airport, which has nonstop flights to a lot of places. But Urbana is cheaper to live in than Chicago.

I've decided to replace the living room furniture (loveseat and chair) with new washable pieces. And I'll put my mom’s white chair, which is in good shape, in the library room and buy a cheap footstool for it. Though actually, I have a rattan footstool, I think. And I found a small trunk table on Wayfair to use as an end table. I can put a throw in it for cozy reading. I’ve thought again about getting a grandfather clock for the library room. The trick is finding a nice used one for not a lot of money and getting it over here.

The Swedish Death Cleaning book was talking about “curating” your stuff. That’s an interesting way to look at it.

I’m resting for a moment before taking out the recycling (done). I can’t rest long because I have Italian homework to do and I need to order some fencing from Lowe’s (done) and groceries.

Woke up at 7 AM. I want to go back to sleep, but I need to take Bella out. Fed us all. It’s gray and gloomy and raining lightly.

I think that I want to go back to Home Depot and get the sunflowers. I have a spot for them. And I found a place online that has pansies. Now I’m thinking of gerber daisies because they’d go better with the sunflowers. Either Home Depot or Lowe’s had peonies, which I want for the front yard, but you couldn’t tell what color they were except when they were blooming. I need to expand the front garden bed for them. Breck’s has some nice ones. Also, one of the places had some dahlias that I liked, but I’d need more pots for them.

I think that I want to nap for another hour while my meds kick in.

I’m thinking that I want to stay home and plant things. I can go to the garden shops tomorrow (although I don’t know if Prairie Gardens will be open for the holiday?) Or maybe I’ll go to Home Depot and Lowe’s. I need to wake up so that I can shower. Maybe I’ll read about wills for a little while.

I didn’t get an answer whether Prairie Gardens is open tomorrow, but probably, given that they were open on New Year’s Day. Lowe’s and Home Depot will be open. Bella thinks that I shouldn’t read but do something useful like petting her!

I’m trying to figure out what I want for estate planning. I think that I’ll have a local lawyer draw up the paperwork after I do my research. I want a revocable living trust. I need a trustee to step in if I’m incapacitated, and I can get one from Schwab. I want my money to go to charity when I pass away, so I need to look back into that. My dad has someone who will pay the bills if he’s incapacitated, and I want that, so I need to ask him who he got and what their role is.

The good news: I found a rubber mallet to put together my new strawberry pot. The bad news: Oliver and Lily went down in the basement.

I still feel like going back to sleep, probably because it’s gloomy out, but I’m afraid that I won’t be able to sleep tonight if I take a nap.

Planted my dill and Japanese Spirea. Ordered pots for the two hibiscuses I bought. (The first one died. Apparently there was standing water in the container.) Planted petunias in my small strawberry pot. Planted ferns. Bella had a great time playing with the pots that they came in. While I was planting ferns, Bella was following along digging them up and destroying them. That earned her a trip indoors. Planted the remaining ferns. Weeded one of the iris beds, planted two new irises, and put up the fence. We’ll see how Bella interacts with it. Watered the plants.

The mower guy is planning to come tomorrow.

Bella completely ignored the garden bed with the fence. Exactly what I want her to do. If she keeps ignoring it, I'll buy more fencing.

Fed us all. I'm really tired. I'm going to email my dad, scoop cat boxes, and then go to bed.

Woke up at 6:30 AM.

I had an online seminar at work given by a committee for which I'm a liaison, so that took up at lot of my day. Otherwise, I've been discussing retirement with my dad. (I asked him how he decided when to retire.) My dad also thinks that I should "paper trade" his investment system until I get the money from the trust. I need to write the trust about wanting the money, but I've been dreading the explosion.

I was discussing with my dad things that I want to do in retirement, and learn photography is one of them. I ran across a photography tour of Yosemite, which would check two things off of my list---photography and seeing Yosemite.

My list: Mostly learning things. I wanted to learn how to do Web programming, but the classes at the U of I were too fast-paced, so I want to work on it at my pace, and maybe volunteer to do Web site work for non-profits. Also, work on programming for mobile devices. Learn more about economics. Work on my languages (Italian and French). The big thing that I want to do is spend a year studying Italian in Italy (and possibly French as well). Learn singing (I belong to a chorus), piano, and guitar. Garden. I don't have a plan for a part-time job but am open to one. Basically doing stuff that I'm already doing but with more time to do it. Oh, and start writing again (a mix of non-fiction and poetry). And I want to learn to write songs. I want to write humorous songs about getting older and post them on YouTube. And learn photography. I have a lot of resources about it, but haven't had the time to put into it.

My therapist said that Obamacare gets more expensive as you get older, and COBRA is expensive, so I should wait until I'm eligible for Medicare to retire (2.5 years). I need to learn more about it. I think that Fidelity has a webinar about Medicare that I'll look for.

Got the recycling out, including a ton of plant boxes that were on the porch. I have more boxes inside, but I’ll get them out next week. I strained my knee in taking out the recycling, sigh. I need replacement parts :)

I forgot to mention that I received more plants. The ferns for my shade garden look like happy little plants.

Oliver is asleep on top of the fish tank.

Fed us all and took Bella out for the last call of the night. She had a perfect day for doing her business outside. Yay. She’s currently zonked out on the bed.

Home Depot has a basil plant and a dill plant, so I need to stop by. They’re open only until 8 PM though.

I need to copy my dad’s investment emails into a Word document to which I can refer (done).

Woke up a little before my alarm at 6:30 AM.

I want to plant annuals in a bed that has a pipe in it. If someone needs to fix the pipe, well, they’re just annuals, so I wouldn’t be too upset if they were trampled on. I should go to Prairie Gardens this coming weekend.

I'm feeling like crying for no good reason again. I had been feeling better though. Maybe it's because of a dental appointment that I'm not happy about.

I'm lucky to have two cats who are BFFs (Oliver and Lily). I'm so glad that I adopted Lily.

Ow, my mouth hurts. The dentist did a good job though, making the temporary teeth look good. I have an appointment in two weeks to order the permanent teeth. Ow. Fuck. Ow. I'm wondering if I should go plant shopping tonight to take my mind off of it. But I'm tired, so I'm thinking of a nap. (I didn't get my lunchtime nap.) Walmart's Garden Center is open until 11, so maybe I can do both.

The Italian school in Sardinia responded to me. So yay.

My first set of linen tank top, pants, and blazer has arrived, but I haven't tried it on yet.

Overslept my nap. Crud, and I need to do Italian homework.

I was cutting up a donut so that I could eat it, and Bella grabbed it. Sigh.

I’m going to tell my Italian teacher that my mouth hurts (true—I had an extraction, although the tooth that they drilled the fuck out of hurts more), and that I need to skip this lesson.

I wonder if the hotel that we’ll be at for the conference does laundry. Probably. I want to wear my linen clothes the first day of the conference, when I’m moderating.

I wonder if I can order plants from Walmart. Maybe I want to pick them out though. I want to get pansies.

Paid my property taxes. The first installment wasn't due until June, but I might as well get it all over with.

Woke up at 7 AM. Took Bella out and took her for a short walk as sunshine_two recommended. She still pooped inside around ten minutes after we came in. I'll try taking her out for an hour tomorrow and see what happens. At least, it'll be the weekend.

I shaved my furry legs and have shorts on. They're very comfortable, although the heat won't hit until later in the day. "Thunderstorms possible" late in the afternoon.

I'm trying to figure out where I want to plant blueberry bushes. Maybe in the front once I get rid of the daylilies overgrowing the garden? Yeah, I think that I’m going to grow blueberries and thornless raspberries in the front “sunny-side” garden bed. And strawberries in the back! I'll get some fruit in me! That answers my question of how many coneflowers to order. I'll order a bunch of plants tonight :)

I enrolled in legal benefits through work because I need to write a will.

Hmm. I started an online class through my health insurance about dealing with depression. It recommended doing new things to try to break through the depression and also getting people on my team to help. That suggests that I should join the Unitarian Church sooner rather than later. (This Sunday won't work though because of my flower arranging class.) And I'm looking into volunteer work. I'd enjoy volunteering at the Humane Society, but I'm worried that I would wind up with another cat. I could volunteer at the library, but I'm already a librarian. Maybe the Forest Preserve? I seem to remember a prairie conservation group? Yes. Being a "bat monitor" sounds interesting. And so does their plant sale.

It's humid as hell. And here comes the storm. There also was an emergency alert about dust storms. I'm glad that I'm staying home.

The summer session of the Dog Training Club will start right after I get back from my business trip in June and end right before I go to Italy. Perfect.

Bella took off with one of my strawberry plants. I finally got it away from her. And I’m giving away my tomato plants because I’m afraid that Bella will eat them. Oh well. I’m waiting for a DoorDash of Italian beef.

The critters were highly interested in my Italian beef. Bella grabbed some and Lily was a little out of control. Bella also grabbed a french fry out of my hand. I ate too much.

I bought plants. I'm thinking of going to bed early and getting up early. Oops, I need to submit a Walmart order first.

A guy from my hometown whom I know on Facebook wants to meet with me. I don’t want to go. I’m going to tell him that my mower guy is coming by tonight to mow and give me an estimate on cleaning my gutters (true). Oh okay, he's asking about the 21st.

Arthritis is bothering me. It's not excruciating, just mildly annoying. My concern is more about my fingers instead of my toes because that could impact working on the computer and piano.

I'm falling asleep at my desk. Crashed hard at lunch and overslept my nap.

I'm looking into BistroMD again. I got tired of their food, but I did lose weight on it.

83F/28C. It's hot upstairs. It feels like 10 degrees cooler downstairs, so I won't turn on the a/c yet. You can feel the heat as you walk upstairs. I'm wondering if I should get an air conditioner or bite the bullet and buy a heat pump for upstairs. I spend a lot of time in my home office upstairs. I'm running a fan by my desk. It's hotter in Urbana than it is in Miami. And a lot hotter than Chicago.

It's kind of giving me the creeps that people with whom I worked at the beginning of my tech writing career have passed away. But they were a lot older than me, so it shouldn't be surprising.

I got the strawberry pot. And the Japanese Spirea.

Hum. I'm wondering if I should go to bed really early and get up early to work on the upstairs. It's too hot to work on it during the evening unless I stay up really late.

Oliver went over to see what Lily was doing. She was flat out because of the heat, and swatted at him. He walked away to lie down on the floor too.

Mower guy said that the lawn was too wet to mow. It was foggy this morning.

For my guest room, I was looking at the 8-drawer Van Gogh dresser that susandennis bought. But eight drawers is really more than I need. I found a 3-drawer version. If someone has more clothes, they can put them in the closet. Though if I got the 8-drawer one, I could keep colored pencils and such in some of the drawers. And some travel stuff.

Speaking of travel stuff, I looked at the linen outfit that I wanted to wear on the plane, and the color that I wanted is sold out. I could do a black-and-white top and white pants and a white blazer. I bought a “flax” top and pants and a “driftwood” blazer. That should look okay with my brown shoes.

Done with work. I have a cat (Oliver) in my face and a dog being manic. Fed us all. I was going to take a nap, but it’s late enough that I should probably go to bed for the night.

I started reading a new biography of Jennie Churchill. It’s interesting.

I’m feeling kind of dizzy.

Bella is out cold on her bed. She got up when I did though.

Bella is being obnoxious again. She was going after one of the irises, after leaving them alone up to now. I hussled her back inside the house.

I didn’t get to bed early. I was mucking around on the Internet. I think that Bella wants me to go to bed, so okay. The girl loves her sleep.

I bought an external hard drive to clean off my home laptop. (Yes, I have a smaller one just for traveling.) I don’t need 1TB storage but there are few smaller ones. I bought an ultra portable one so that I can pull files off of both laptops. And store pictures on it.

Woke up at 7 AM. Yay. I was out with Bella for an hour but she finally pooped outside. I told her that she was a good girl.

It’s going to be hot today.

Aargh. Bella ate Lily’s food. She is fast! And Oliver snatched a little of Zara’s food. Well, we’re all (mostly) fed. Nap time. I’m sharing my bed with a Munchie Bone.

Had a nice nap. Bella is still asleep. Now she’s up. Put clothes in the dryer, but I have clothes to wear outside. Made an emergency Walmart order because we’re almost out of cat food. They said that the cat food might be low in stock. I want to go there to get a rosemary plant, so I’ll pick up some extra individual cans. And I placed a backup Chewy order.

Had lunch. Bella, Oliver, and Lily wanted my food. Nice to be the center of attention.

I really want to go back to sleep, but I need to shower and take Bella out. Bella clearly wants to nap—she slept during my shower—so I’m not going to argue.

I added a rosemary plant and individual cans of cat food to my Walmart order.

Napped an extra hour than I had planned. Fed us all. I had a dilemma because Bella clearly needed to go outside, but I didn’t want her out when the Walmart order got here. So I hussled her out and in. Texting the driver to close the gate is working well. I just got the signs but no way to hang them on the gate. I’ll have to drill holes in them.

The rosemary plant that they gave me kind of looks pathetic, but it’ll bounce back. I just watered it.

I’m not feeling like starting the kitchen now. Maybe I’ll just go to bed. I guess that I'll transfer stuff to my new purse and crash.

Woke up a little before 7 AM. Bella kept us out a long time before doing her business.

My neck is really stiff. I need to book a massage.

I'm trying to decide whether to take the train when I see my dad next year or fly. Probably fly so that it will take less time.

Made an appointment for Zara’s checkup at the vet.

I found a tall grow light on Amazon for wintering over the hibiscus, rosemary, and thyme. I might have to put the rosemary and thyme on buckets to get them close to the light.

I asked ChatGPT for a list of college towns near water to retire in. It mentioned Athens, GA, which intrigued me, but I didn't see any water on the map. In that case, I might as well stay in Urbana. It does have a senior living place that interests me.

None of my food sounds good to me.

A guy is coming over to do an estimate for mowing at 6:30 PM. He came and we did a walkthrough. His price was reasonable. The only thing is that he’ll be here on Monday, which is later than I had hoped.

My recycled paper products arrived.

I’m trying to get up the energy to get the recycling out (done, and my back hurts ).

I’m looking into getting my gutters cleaned. They need it badly.

Napped, and slept until a little after 1 AM.

Got the letter ready to send about my student loans. I need to get up early and mail it.

Woke up at 6:15 AM. Because I need to mail the letter, I decided to get up. I think that I want to go back to sleep though. I’ll mail the letter tonight.

One of my coral bells is missing? WTF?

Do I want to take a flower-arranging class? In a couple of weeks, there's one at the place where I picked up the plants yesterday.

It's raining again.

I really want to take a nap.

Found the coral bell. Someone (Bella?) dug it up. I put it in a planter until I can replant it. I want to get more irises for the garden. They should be planted in fall, not spring though. I read an article that says that spring is okay.

I found a podcast from The Atlantic: How to Age Up. It would be good to listen to while I'm cleaning. I also found a senior living place in the area that sounds interesting: ClarkLindsey. I'm also looking at Evanston, my home town. There's a place called The Clare in downtown Chicago that sounds wonderful, but I get the feeling that it costs megabucks.

I bought some investment books. I'm buying used books at ThriftBooks. They have most books at a discount. Bought some irises.

Fed us all. Ran out to mail the letter.

I bought the Roam Luggage at which I had been looking. I wound up with Aspen (light gray with white trim) instead of London (black with tan trim) because I wanted something that would be easy to spot in a baggage claim.

Booked my hotel before the cruise and the flights. I splurged a little and got Economy Plus seats. And I booked the Hilton that's across the street from O'Hare Airport for ease of traveling. (I'll need to come up on Christmas Eve and stay over through my flight on Christmas.) The room has a view of the runway! And I booked a nice hotel in San Diego. I won't book the Sardinia trip until I check the dates with my boss, who is at the conference right now.

Heck. I'm hungry. I'll post and have some oatmeal. Then I'll fill some litter boxes and go to bed.

Great. Bella grabbed my debit card off of the table and ran away with it. Eventually I got it away from her, but there are punctures in it. I’m going to have to go to the bank tomorrow.

Lily got into the napkins and dropped a bunch of them on the floor.

I only live here :)

Woke up at 6:30 AM. They’re predicting rain most of the day. I really want to go back to sleep, but I need to go to the bank to replace my debit card. Maybe I could take a short nap.

One of my irises is blooming. How exciting!

Fed us all. Bella ate Oliver’s food. I told her that she was being annoying.

Time for a short nap. Had a nice nap.

I was looking into whether I could get the bus to O’ Hare on Christmas for my cruise, and the answer is no. I’ll have to go up the day before.

Took Bella out and ran into my neighbors. Bella was very excited.

I got my Paris and Istanbul books and the security cameras. Now I need to find a handyman to put them up. Ordered the batteries for my mower.

Showered and dressed. I’m trying to decide whether to drive to Monticello to pick up my plants today or tomorrow. Rain both days. I’m feeling like sticking close to home and planting the plants that I have.

Went to the bank to get a new debit card. Their machine wasn’t working, so no card. One of the people working at the bank heard what happened and we exchanged “dog talk”. So, I withdrew money because I’m not sure if the payments to my credit cards have posted yet. Got my library books. Got gas for the drive to Monticello, but I’m still thinking of going tomorrow. It’s gloomy today but not raining so far. Bella burst out of the door when I came home, and I told her that’s not good.

Ate lunch with rapt attention from Oliver, Lily, and Bella. Oliver got a hunk of cheese and spinach from my Lean Cuisine pizza. Oliver and Lily ate the cheese, and Bella gobbled up the spinach.

The forecasters say rain in the late afternoon, so I need to get out and get planting. I’ll nap when it starts raining.

Got the plants out of the boxes, and I have coral bells, bee balm, and tickseed. The bee balm will be complicated because I want to pull up the fabric covering the bed, but don’t want to disturb the irises, which are blooming. Planted the coral bells. I need a few more for the side yard. Planted the bee balm. I’m done for the day. I’m pooped, and it’s supposed to start raining.

Napped, but it didn’t rain. Went out and watered the plants.

I’m thinking of going to bed early to get up and clean out the garden bed for the tickseed plants.

I found my missing glasses. Remarkably, they are not broken. They would have been useful when I was bending over planting plants.

Bella was whining, but it was a false alarm. When I was outside, I noticed another box of plants. I won’t order more plants until I know what it is, although I don’t think that it’s coral bells because they came from another company. It was tickseed.

I’m feeling too tired to start cleaning now. I’ll go upstairs and do some things on my computer, and then go to bed.

Ordered some Bonkers dog treats from Amazon. Bella thinks that they are canine crack.

I’m communicating with my dad about a possible trip to see him next year. I think that I’ll do that instead of taking a cruise. He said that late May to early June is the best weather-wise.

Asked for handyman recommendations on NextDoor.

I'll order some coral bells and start wending my way towards bed.