days_unfolding

Okay, I put the people with whom I'm meeting on Monday as the executors of my will. I can change it if necessary. So I finished my trust document. I also contacted a local bank to possibly serve as a successor trustee and maybe executor?

Damn, my tooth hurts. I hope that they'll fix it tomorrow.

I got Lily to come upstairs, but then Oliver went down in the basement. It’s a zoo here.

Fed us all. My stomach is upset.

Smoke from Canada has arrived here.

Got up at 6:30 AM. My stomach is upset. I need to get into the shower early because I need to put on my makeup for my dental appointment.

Oliver and Lily are being cranky with each other and are doing whappy paws.

Well, hell. This morning I had a dental appointment to get impressions for my permanent bridge. It wound up being surprisingly painful. They numbed me up, but they kept on pressing on a tooth that still hurt. The good news is that they replaced the missing crown with a temporary one, and that tooth feels fine. But I told work that I was taking 1/2 a sick day and was going to lie down, but that I would be in for a team meeting. Ate a little yogurt. Clio mini greek yogurt bars are pure crack. I love them.

It occurred to me that Munchie Bones are kind of like dog currency. Bella was like, “You expect me to come in FOR FREE??” I went and got a Munchie Bone, and she came in. She saves them for a while too.

Nothing from the bank that does trust work so far. I might have to call them this afternoon because I want a choice of who to pick to handle my estate.

Well, hell. The people whom I wanted as executor cannot serve as executor. They suggested that I try another firm. I'll call the bank first. I set up an appointment with the bank for Wednesday afternoon.

It's freaking hot upstairs. I just remembered that I saw a combo air conditioner/heater at Lowe's that seemed to be small enough for the windows upstairs. I need to measure to make sure. Nope, the window is a smidge too small. Ack! Up to 90F/32 C tomorrow. Shorts weather. Maybe I'll shave my legs tonight because I have Italian tomorrow morning. I ordered an air conditioner from Amazon. I’ll deal with heat in the fall. At least you can put more clothes on when it’s cold.

I got my new “Dog in Yard; Please Close the Gate” signs. They’re copper and a little fancy for my lousy fence, but they will look good when I replace the fence. I need to get wire to attach it to the fence. I also got my NokBox (Next of Kin Box).

My dentist was worried about the temporary bridge and crowns coming off, so I bought some filling repair stuff to take with me on my business trip.

I am not feeling great. I think that I’ll go to bed early. The sore tooth hurt a bit when I ate. Submitted a grocery order for tomorrow morning. We’re low on cat food. I bought cloth napkins and placemats as well as food. Oops, I want microfiber cloths too (done).

I brought the NoxBox supplies upstairs, but it's too damn hot to clear off the top of the filing cabinet for it. I'll go to sleep soon and get up early to do stuff up here. But I do have some packages downstairs to open before I got to bed. The downstairs is quite comfortable. Also, I have some Italian homework, but I'll bring it downstairs to do.

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.

I napped again for an hour and a half. Then I took Bella out and fed the beasts. Now I'm at work. Oliver and Lily have been chasing each other and unplugged the docking station for my work computer. Sigh. They love my mom's wingback chair, so I'm looking for a new one for the library. I found a new one, but I would like to get a used one but have found nothing so far. I found a new one that I like with a footstool, but it's $500. Yikes.

Getting both Oliver and Lily was a great idea though. They keep each other entertained.

It might rain both Saturday AND Sunday. Terrific (NOT!)

I never mentioned that the door to the basement and back door is not shutting, I guess because the wood has swelled. It occurred to me to get a hook and eye for each side to close it to keep the cats out. I ordered them from Lowe's and also ordered a cordless drill because the one that I have doesn't have all the pieces. I received the hook and eye packages, but the drill will get here on Saturday. Now the door is working. I only live here.

My glasses fell off of the table, and I stepped on them. Sigh. I need to order another pair of glasses for around the house that are tight for bending over. My other glasses are more fragile and slip. I tried Glasses USA, thinking that they would be cheaper than Zenni, but not really.

Oliver and Lily have finally settled down.

I attended a Webinar about the relationship between physical activity and the immune system. It's inspiring me to get more exercise. I registered for a yoga class this Saturday and will take Bella for a walk.

Bella, Oliver, and Lily were attending my shower. Lily was trying to take a nap with all the chaos swirling around her. She's tough.

I'm feeling like crying for no good reason. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I think that I'm having a delayed reaction over how the trip worked out. Plus I have a dental appointment this afternoon, and I almost forgot about it.

I'm using my new Holland America glass for soda. Now I can wash the other one!

Note to self: check supply of 9-volt batteries

The dental appointment went well. I got two fillings and a CT scan of my mouth. They were very efficient. I'm hungry but I'm waiting for the numbness to wear off. I’m taking advantage of the wait by making pizza.

I have been bringing out recycling when I take Bella out, so all I have to do is roll the bin and flatten cardboard boxes and take the boxes out (done).

The pizza is knocking me out, so I'm going to go to bed and get up early to walk Bella.

Crud, it's predicted to go down to 6F/-14C. I need to set the faucets to dripping. Ugh, there’s a wind chill right now of -2F.

Lily was a little snotty. She stayed down in the basement until she heard me feeding Oliver, and then she wanted to come up.

Got up at 7:30 AM (overslept). My dental appointment did get canceled, but they rescheduled me for 4 PM tomorrow, which is actually better for me.

The uni sent information about what you retain in retirement, which includes an email address, Office 365 on the Web, and access to the university libraries. Not bad. One thing that I want to do in retirement is add tags to my older journal entries.

I mixed up something at work, and I'm hating on my brain.

Apparently the shelter sent a screen capture of Bella's shot records, and I missed it, so I made an appointment for her at the vet on Wednesday. And I made a follow-up appointment for Mimi next week. Things are cooking. I have to get the harness adjusted for her. Though PetSmart has a collar with a handle on it, which might be useful. But I have piano tomorrow night. I'd have it delivered, but I need to look at the sizes. Actually, I found the sizes so I'll order it for delivery.

I got my Costco order. I keep forgetting that when you order dry food from them, you’re ordering a 25-pound bag! So I have 25 pounds of food for Oliver and Lily.

Lily still seems to be okay though, even though she ate pizza sauce. I hope that we dodged a bullet.

I begged off of choir. I’m feeling achy and sinus headachey and it’s cold and there’s ice by my car. And apparently “occasional snow”?

I need to check whether I renewed my membership in AARP. I thought that I had?

I found a Road Scholar trip that I want to take when I retire. It’s a trip to Australia and New Zealand, and it’s a month long. But it would save the airfare for two separate trips.

I want to take a nap. I have Oliver, Bella, and a munchie bone in the bed with me. Life with pets :) Aww. Oliver gave me a little kiss. Bella was bugging Oliver, so I put her out. Oliver let me sleep for quite a while, but woke me up around 11 PM biting.

I ordered the collar for Bella.

Paid my sewer bill. Now I think that I'm completely caught up.

I need to finish feeding the cats and scoop the litter boxes, and then I'll go back to bed.

I forgot to mention that I’m trying putting some water in the cats’ wet food as susandennis suggested, and they’re licking the bowls clean! Good because I have two elderly cats.

Well, I kept on hitting snooze. And my cleaner said this morning that she needed to come at 8 today, so we agreed that she would start at 8 on Friday. I want to call the appliance repair people to look at my garbage disposal unit. I'm also thinking of cleaning the refrigerator before Friday.

I'm thinking about my internal clock. When I get a thing to do at work, my internal clock says to hurry, and I need to slow down. I'm not sure what I think will happen if I go slower.

The appliance person is coming out Friday afternoon to look at my garbage disposal. Yay.

I think that the box that I just got is the new-to-me vacuum cleaner. I’ll need to try it out on the kitchen floor. No, it's two doughnut-shaped cat caves that I bought the cats. I need to buy them more toys, but given that they have no concept of Christmas, it doesn't matter when.

Hmm. Someone is selling a nice wall clock with a pendulum. I might get it for the library. The only thing is that I'll have to wind it. Though actually, would the chimes bug me and any fish that I get? Actually, I found one without a pendulum and chimes on eBay that I like. It has roman numerals and is see though. There's also a similar one on Amazon.

Yay. Major accomplishment. I found and made an appointment with a psychiatrist. I have to go to Danville (app. 30 minutes away) for the first appointment, but then I should be able to see her (?) in Urbana.

Now I need to make a dental appointment. Done! The earliest that they could get me in is in February (but that's a good sign).

I think that I'm too wiped out to go to Dial-A-Carol. I checked, and there are a bunch of other people signed up though. I need to get the recycling and garbage out and go to bed early.

Hmm, I need to mail my dad and his wife's Christmas card, so I think that I'll get up early and run to the post office before work. It'll probably still be late, but I tried.

Got the recycling out for pickup tomorrow. I also need to get garbage out, but I missed the pickup, so I’ll do that tomorrow.

I've been looking at Jacuzzi tubs for the warm bathroom, although that is low on my priority list, but it probably would help my back and shoulders. (Something has to happen to the tub because it's the ugliest tub ever. It's orange with bleached out parts of it. And it's shallow.) The one that I would like costs around $2500 plus installation. I'd also need a basement sink to wash litter boxes in because right now, I use the tub.

I'm seriously thinking of going to bed before 8 PM.

I got my Hong Kong books and are flipping through them. There's a lot of cool sights in Hong Kong! I hope that I can take the trip sometime!

I made an appointment to board the cats at the vet. I want to try Soft Claws on Zara to see if she will tolerate them, and they said that they'd put them on if I buy them. So I will.

I also made an appointment at the dentist, but the only time that they had available was at 2 on the day that I'm leaving for Mom's house. I'll still go that day, but I probably will have to stop for the night in Ohio en route.

I have a boatload of stuff to get done tonight (make up time for work, clean litter boxes, homework, tidying, and clear the mudroom). And I'm wondering when I'll be able to do my taxes. It's all online, so maybe I can do it from Mom's house.

I did Plan B--took a nap and slept for four hours. Got up and cleaned a litter box and texted my mom's friend Kate with a question. Had dinner. I'm feeling tired, so I looked at my homework assignment to let it percolate. Made a note on my calendar to check about the free Hong Kong fare in May. Bought Soft Claws and cat food. Contacted an insurance company to talk about long-term care insurance for me because it's on my mind. Now I'm going back to bed to get up early.

I went to the dentist to get my partial fixed. They need to send it out, which I figured, but they said two or three weeks, and I yelped. So they're using a local lab that will do it faster (for more money, of course, but it wasn't too bad). It should arrive Monday or Tuesday.

I'm heating up some frozen Sweet and Sour Chicken. I looked for a recipe to make it from scratch, and found one for the slow cooker! Excellent! I found some more Chinese food recipes, including one for Empress Chicken, which I love.

Napped and slept through until 10:00 PM. Aargh. I have studying to do. Finally found a position for my phone that shows the computer screens and my face. And set up Canvas on my phone to provide the Zoom link for my class.

I'm in the middle of studying, but taking a break. It's going well.

Woke up around 6:30 AM. Got going close to 7:30.

More excessive heat warnings today, and I have to go to the dentist.

Zara was blocking Mimi's path, so she went under my chair to get around Zara. Mimi's off for a snooze in the TV room, now that she's had her breakfast. And Zara went off to snooze in the bedroom. (They sleep at opposite ends of the house.) And I'm off to get ready for work. It's not fair :)

I've been attending free guided meditation sessions offered by the Smithsonian Institution. I find that I relax more listening to a guided meditation than by meditating on my own. Good to know. I need to look for a guided meditation on Insight Timer on my days off of the Smithsonian one.

Mom called. Her car is still being fixed. She's getting a ride to chemo tomorrow, but if it runs late, she'll need me to order an Uber for her. And she'll need me to order an Uber for her on Friday to go get the car. And she also wanted to know if the cats were okay in the heat before the a/c was fixed. (She figured that I would be okay. You can see how I rate!)

The dentist appointment went okay. I didn't tell them that I was moving because I'm not sure when I'm moving. There was some sort of kerfuffle when I was leaving. It looked like a neighbor was being evicted? Their furniture is in their driveway. They just moved in a little while ago though. It looks like someone is still there, so it looks like someone who lived there moved out. Don't know why the police were involved.

The paneer order that I canceled arrived, so I gather that they didn't cancel it. I guess that I'm going to make homemade Palak Paneer. I need to see what I need from the grocery store. But I might make a frozen pizza first, just for a change of pace. I made the list, but I think that I want to go on Friday because I'm buying fresh ingredients, and want to get them close to the time that I use them.

I got the cilantro plant from eBay yesterday. I planted it tonight and gave it a good drink. Nice, healthy plant.

I'm obsessively tracking the package with my new swimsuit in it because I want to go swimming on Friday. But I could sleep in on Friday and go on Saturday. Go, postal workers, go! I just realized that I didn't have chlorine-removal shampoo. Just ordered some from Amazon, and it will get here on Saturday. So that settles that.

I checked cruises on the Purchasing Power site, and you have to have a minimum of two passengers. Oh well.

I looked for the credit card, doing some cleanup. It's not in my purse; I cleaned it out. It's not on the table; I cleaned it off. What the bleepity bleep did I do with it? I'll keep looking over the weekend, and, if I can't find it, I guess I'll tell Capital One that it's lost.

I went looking for a whole wheat sandwich bread recipe, inspired by bill_schubert. I found one by Budget Bytes that I like. I have a loaf left, though, so I'll wait to make it.

Ack! It's gotten late. I need to wend my way towards sleep because I can't nap at lunchtime because my mom might call.

Pried myself out of bed early. The water did not freeze.

I'm getting an error looking at the LJ app.

Zara clearly wanted me to feed her on my desk, but I told her that she had to jump down onto the floor. I can see why that she wanted to eat on the desk; Mimi promptly came in there. I chased Mimi away. Le sigh.

I've decided not to take a shower this morning because I took one last night, so I can lie down for a little while.

For some reason, I was thinking that my appointment at the dentist was for 11:45 rather than 11:30. I wound up having to jam when I threw myself together. I barely made it, but now I have my permanent crown in.

I had initially planned to run errands, but I'm not thrilled with leaving the faucets on while I'm gone.

Looked at trips on TravelZoo. They have one in Apulia, where Lecce is. I need to save up money.

I stumped the Google Nest Hub by asking when it would become above freezing. (Answer: Wednesday.) We're going to have more "wintry mix" later in the week. I'd rather have snow.

Ran errands. I now have the ingredients to make raisin bread, plus oatmeal and some other odds and ends. I also got sidewalk salt because the plumber left the outdoor faucet on, and it spewed water all over the place, and it's now a very slick coat of ice. I slipped on it when I left, and apparently my balance was good enough to keep me vertical. But I'm envisioning someone going flying.

Now I'm sitting still for a moment. I want to eat the French bread pizza that I bought, but I also need to make tuna casserole. I think that I'll assemble the casserole and put it in the fridge to bake tomorrow.

I asked Google how cold that it needed to be for pipes to freeze, and it said 20F. It's going to dip lower than that, so I have the water back on.

Mimi is on my lap. Zara came running out to jump on my lap and slammed on the brakes when she saw Mimi. She then went back in the office.

I was going to lie down for a while, but it's late, so I'm just going to go to bed. I'll read a little of my Italy book. It raves about Rome, so now I'm thinking that I would like to check out Rome after all.

I tried my new plum-colored sweats last night, and they fit well. I'm all set for cold, although it's staying relatively warm this week (30s-40s F).

Woke up at 10:30 and realized that I could sleep another hour because my appointment was at 2 PM, so I did.

Got my temporary crown put in and a filling put in. I'm done with the work (except for putting the permanent crown in) except for cleanings. Far out.

Went and got the folding table and a Cat 5 cable to attach my computer to the new cable modem/router.

Went to Goodwill. Got some sheets to use for my pillowcase sewing project, a trench coat, and a cheap bread machine. Oh, and a DVD to use to test if my other DVD player plays in color hooked up to my TV. (The DVD/VCR player that I have does not, and I don't know if the problem is the TV or the DVD player. They also had some DVD players at Goodwill if I need one.)

Got soda. Got a bunch of things at Aldi. I'm keeping an eye on a folding exercise bike that they have in case it goes on sale. Forgot the cheddar. Realized that when I was packing up my groceries and went back to get it. The people in front of me picked up the cost of the cheddar, which was very nice.

All I need at Walmart are the fat quarters for the napkins, but I'll go after the movie or tomorrow.

Now I'm going to eat and take a short nap.

A Facebook friend shared a tour company for solo travelers. They have some nice trips.

Went to see Star Wars. It started off slow, but ended pretty well. Still kind of missing something though. I have lots to discuss with the guys at work.

It was snowing/sleeting when I got out of the movie. Winter is back.

I'm tired.