days_unfolding

I ordered a martingale collar (recommended by the dog training folks) and a double-handled leash for Bella.

Woke up at 7:30 AM. Ordered groceries for delivery.

shadowcat said that A Complete Unknown is now on Hulu, so I want to make time to see it. Also, I want to see A Real Pain. Maybe on Sunday? Or maybe one of them tonight? I used to have a Friday night ritual where I watched movies. I liked it. Or maybe after raking on Saturday. I'll be too tired to do more stuff around here. No, the Mozart Requiem concert is on Saturday. I need to figure out what to wear.

Bella cracks me up when I feed the cats. She comes to me for petting as a distraction because otherwise, she might lose control and eat the cats' food. LOL.

The groceries were delivered earlier than I expected, so they sat out for a while. But now I have soda and food.

It’s warm out, and Bella didn’t want to come in, but she did so grudgingly.

Overslept my nap. I'm tired.

I'm definitely going to go to the Hands Off! rally on Saturday, 4/5, but there's also one for trans rights on Monday, 3/31. It's two hours during lunchtime, and I'll be working, so I'm not sure how that would work. I couldn't work late because I have choir. I need to get some poster board and markers. At Dollar Tree? Actually, Hands Off! has printable signs. The problem is that I agree with most of them. Hard to make a decision. Oh, there's one with everything. I think that I found my sign.

The cats knocked down my trackball and the ball part is missing. What did they do with it? I'm glad that Oliver is happy but sad that it took Mimi dying to make him happy. He just stole my pen!

Oh, it occurred to me the other day that I'll have to get someone to let Bella out at lunchtime on the days that I have my in-person staff meeting at the end of April. I'll look on Wag first.

Goofball Bella was rolling on her back outside. She clearly loves the weather.

I'm actually feeling warm with my hoodie upstairs, so I took it off.

Oh man, am I stiff. I definitely need to go to yoga tomorrow.

Lily's stomach clock is good. I feed the dog and cats after I take Bella out after work at 5:30 PM. Lily was on my lap, purring and head-butting me at 4:45. Lily has gotten so big that I do a doubletake, thinking that she's Mimi (although she still is smaller than Mimi).

Speaking of Mimi, I haven't gotten a call about her ashes. I'll need to call on Monday and find out what's going on.

I really want to learn Forex trading (don't worry; I won't risk money for a long time after paper trading), so I made a list of books to get. I asked ChatGPT how to learn it and it gave me some recommendations. I also asked about Web site building, but that might wait until retirement.

Hmm. Daily OM has an event that kind of interests me and it isn't too expensive: Expert-Led Fascia Stretches to Eliminate Sitting Damage

Hey! I can get a Senior Membership to the Urbana pool and gym. They have free Folk [Music] in the Park, and a beginner’s Pickleball League! And I think that choir will be over for the summer, so I will have more nights free. They have a rail trail ride if I get back up to speed on bicycling.

I think that I’m going to go to bed early to get up early and rake. I have yoga and the concert tomorrow too, so I need to get up really early. Crap, now they're saying rain tomorrow. I'm still getting up early.

I checked Costco and Vacations to Go on the price for the Cunard Panama Canal cruise. Vacations to Go has the better price, but it's awfully expensive. I should look at other cruise lines. Oceania is a little more expensive. Maybe I should put up with Celebrity for a Panama Canal cruise. Yeah, it's a lot cheaper. Actually, Azamara has a good price on Vacations to Go for a Panama Canal cruise. Its reviews are pretty good. And it's a small ship, which I'd like to try (500-600 guests).

I’m looking for some sort of stick vacuum for my floors. It needs to pick up cat litter. The Dyson is the best but is megabucks. I checked Mercari and eBay and can’t save much over Amazon’s current price. I need to think about it. (I'm going to wait until I have the house organized to get a robot vacuum. Maybe I'll wait until Black Friday next year to see if they'll have a sale.)

I overslept but made it to my Italian lesson. She thinks that I need to make up sentences to practice. She gave me a bunch of homework :)

I asked Mimi if she wanted some cheese with her whine. ("Mommy, I'm not on your lap! This is bad!") Finally, she went to take a nap on the guest futon.

I figured out how to have the alarm wake me up: put the mechanical alarm in bed with me. It shakes the bed when it goes off. I also ordered a "Sonic Boom" alarm with a bed shaker for times when I absolutely have to wake up.

Got the Christmas items for the children's home. I can't drop them off tomorrow because I have a ton of meetings, including before and after a short lunch. I'll drop them off at lunchtime on Friday.

I went to book a massage, but Massage Envy is booked up until January 24! I'll have to look elsewhere. Another place is booked too. Hmm. I'm taking NOT being booked up as an indication that I don't want to go there. Meanwhile, my neck, shoulders, and back hurt. Yoga should help when I start going again. Crud, yoga for January isn't listed yet. I hope that it isn't canceled. I found another possibility at a local yoga studio, but I really like the teacher for the Urbana Park District. Though hmm, if there is no yoga on Tuesdays, I could do Pilates.

Gathered up my remaining recycling. I’ll just pop it outside tonight or tomorrow morning. I have a crashing headache. I took some acetaminophen and hope that it will go away before I go to the concert tonight. Hmm, the headache is not going away. It feels like a sinus headache. Ugh. I’m wondering if I should skip the concert and lie down. Having music beating at my aching head does not sound pleasant. (This is an orchestral concert along with a choir.) Yeah, I’m lying down. Zara is warming my feet. Had a nice nap and my headache is gone.

I bought the Dyson stick vacuum cleaner. I found a "like new" one on eBay for a really good price.

I think that I’m going to go back to bed and get up early to get the recycling out and clean the kitchen.

The cats want fooood. NOW! Mimi is complaining.

My headache came back. Sigh.

I booked a massage for Saturday after singing at the memorial service. Now I need to post, do dishes, scoop litter boxes, and go back to sleep.

Mimi has been lying just outside my bedroom. I thought, “How sweet. She’s waiting for me.” She might have been doing so, but she also was getting the benefit of the heat vent :)

I set my usual sleep schedule into Apple, and it has an alarm that goes off at 7:30 AM each day. It woke me up. The cats want food and are restless.

People on Facebook say yes, I should join Costco.

The check hasn’t cleared yet (although it was a cashier’s check). That’s okay. I have some money yet.

Zara ate most of her food! Yay!

Napped.

Hmm. I really don't want to go out today. I was looking into the time for the concert tomorrow, and I could run errands afterward. But that got me wondering how I could get to the concert. An Uber back and forth would cost a lot of money. I could take the bus, but I'll have to do a fair amount of walking. Oh! Parking! They have free parking! Excellent. (I'm used to there being no parking on campus.)

Okay. Printed off the recipe for the smoothie. Well, I know the "dump everything into the blender and blend" part, but I needed the amounts of things.

I just remembered to schedule my singing lesson. With the concerts that I'm going to, choir, and my piano lesson, it was tough to find a time that worked. I finally scheduled for a week from tomorrow.

I had to add an extra cup of soy milk to the smoothie to make it liquid. But it’s really good. The Ninja blender works really well.

Notre Dame in Paris is open again. That’s quite an achievement. I remember feeling heartache when the fire happened. I gave some money for the restoration. (The New York Times said that Americans were the largest group of donators after the French.)

Well, I’ve got my "catch up on my sleep" part of the day done. The last time that I lay down, I called Zara, and she came and jumped on me after a delay. Aww.

I’m trying to gather the energy to get the recycling out. I was thinking that I didn’t want to go out in the cold, but it’s 40 F/4C. Not bad at all. Mimi is telling me how tough it is, being a cat. That wasn’t just general-purpose complaining; she wants food. She’s right. It’s feeding time at the zoo.

I’m thinking of going to bed really early. Took my nighttime meds. I think that I’ll just go through some paper in the kitchen and do dishes (done). I went through an enormous pile of paper in the kitchen. One step closer to having it organized. Posted a wallet on Buy Nothing.

I'm now upstairs to post. Mimi is on my lap and is happy.

One upcoming concert by Music of the Baroque has music by Purcell. I adore his "Music for a While" choral work. I had the music for it but who knows what box it's in. Sheet Music Plus has it for download though (for a fee, of course). Maybe I could ask my voice teacher to let me sing it when I need a break from Italian. (Which might be soon. My teacher picked a long song with lots of sixteenth notes and high Fs. I'm battling with it, and it's winning :)) Zara came by to check out the piano. We almost had a "kitty on the keys" piece.

I think that I need an accordion file to separate my voice, piano, and guitar music. Ordered.

The problem with practicing before I go to bed is that it gets me all energetic and buzzy. Oops.

Hmm. Andrea Bocelli will be singing in Saint Louis in October. Tickets are not cheap, but I'm sure that it would be a memorable concert.

The guitar instructor had the J&J COVID shot yesterday and is having side effects, so she canceled class. Oh well. I can nap then.

My mom called and told me to call my aunt to wish her well tomorrow for her surgery. She said, "After all, you'd call me." I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "But I like you." Yes, I'll call later.

I found some really nifty cruises by Windstar. Expensive though because it's a small ship. But a Greek islands cruise is on my bucket list. And they also have a cruise around the Tahitian islands. That would be awesome. Hmm, I found a Greek Islands cruise by another carrier for around $1300 single occupancy. That doesn't include airfare and shore excursions, but it's in the realm of possibility. Airfare is around $800 booking separately.

Took a nap. Woke up with a sore throat. Then I called my aunt. She's anxious to get the hip surgery over with.

I'm trying to figure out the rest of the day. Walmart is open until 11PM. I need to get the garbage out, although the garbage people might have a holiday tomorrow. I need to practice and do math. And decluttering. And get to sleep at a decent hour.

Threw myself together. Got the garbage out. Ran to the store. Came back with food and garbage bags.

Need to get cracking on night-time tasks.

Logged on to check my work calendar and found a reminder to turn on a library's interlibrary loan service tonight. I'm thanking myself for the reminder.