days_unfolding

It's looking like Florida largely dodged a bullet, though for those who did lose relatives, it still is a tragedy.

The app that the State of Illinois wants me to use wants me to log my weight. Well, my scale is broken so no dice. I ordered a new one from Amazon using my Flexible Spending Account (an account that uses pre-tax dollars for medical expenses) funds. I didn't want one from the FSA store because 1) it's expensive, and 2) that's the one that broke.

It's kind of been a zoo of a day at work. Lots of meetings.

Ran out to drop off my paperwork to join the University gym.

Got some recycling out. (I didn't get it picked up yesterday because I was asleep.)

Did some work that I meant to do last night.

Ow, my neck hurts. I'm feeling the effects of no yoga. I need to do chair yoga.

I canceled my renter's insurance from the old place. I'm going through my automatic payments and canceling a lot of them.

I want to lie down and stretch out my neck. Plus, I'm yawning (although I don't know why because I got a ton of sleep last night).

I had my Italian lesson today. It went well; she taught me some new verb tenses. The listening exercise is still hard. I need to spend time on other listening sites. News in Slow Italian is good. She still loves Mimi and spoke to her in Italian!

Zara is a funny little girl. She led me over to the bedroom to snuggle. I was petting her, but she has rules about petting that changes from day to day. This time it was "don't touch the tail". I told her that I'd snuggle during lunch, but now I have to work. She didn't think that was a good reason.

The university is having their charitable drive. I wanted to give to EarthShare, only to find that I'm already giving to EarthShare and a Bipolar and Depression fund. I'll let that ride.

From a security briefing at work: "In July, an executive at Italian car company Ferrari was contacted by someone claiming to be the company CEO. During a phone call, the voice on the other end sounded just like the CEO, even his accent and intonation. However, the executive became suspicious because the CEO was calling from a different number and asking for an unusual type of transaction. The executive then asked a question that only the real CEO could answer: what book had the CEO recently recommended? The call ended abruptly. This appears to be an incident of voice cloning, an AI-generated deepfake of a real person’s voice." This is getting scary.

I told my dad that I wanted to cruise the Greek islands to see Santorini, but they're unhappy with the number of tourists, especially cruise ships, so maybe I should stay there. There are a LOT of Airbnbs, which drive local people out. I did find a family-run hotel that looks good. But I'm going to go back to Italy first. And Paris.

Zara was happy that she got her snuggles during lunch. Now she's asleep.

I'm wondering in what box the dress that I bought for the Maui trip that I never went on because of the fire is in. The cruise will probably have a dress up night, but I don't really want to buy a dress just for this trip when I have one. I did find a lace dress on Nordstorm Rack that I liked. It might make sense to order it and return it if I find the other one.

Weeded the side yard. I found that one weeder that I bought didn’t work well, but another helped me rip out the weeds in short order. There were some thistles that were dug in, and I had to cut them down. I’ll try to dig them up in the spring. I planted some more daylilies and watered them.

I remembered that I had thawed some (rather good) burgers, and I made them with Brussels sprouts. That was very good. The problem with eating prepackaged food is that it gets boring, so maybe I should consult with a dietitian at the hospital and cook. But my insurance wants me to take an online class first. Sigh. I found some diet recipe books that I want to try.

Got the garbage out.

Spent too much time on Facebook. I’m worried about the hurricane in Florida and might stay up watching CNN tomorrow night, although there won’t be a lot of news before sunrise. I remember watching the news about Hurricane Katrina. Which means that I should go to sleep soon.

Pried myself out of bed a little after 11 AM.

Hmm. I'm feeling a little queasy. The weather forecasters had been predicting rain, but now they're saying rain tomorrow. I guess that I'll eat breakfast and then decide whether to drive to Springfield.

Food has helped, but I'm going to lie down for a little while.

Mimi was looking at a spot on the refrigerator and meowing. I got up and looked, but there was nothing there. Ha ha, made you look!

Napped. Threw myself together.

Hmm. It's clouding up, and the radar is showing a storm west of Springfield. I could drive to Bloomington instead. That's what I'll do.

Dumped my soda all over the place before I left and couldn't find the lid to my glass. Eventually found it and took off like a bat out of hell.

Made it to the bank, where they activated my debit card. Apparently I must have entered the wrong PIN number.

Had an Impossible Whopper at Burger King to try it. It was pretty good. Plant-based "meat " is getting better and better.

Went to Aldi when I got back to Lincoln. Picked up some pesto and some other stuff. Picked up Zara's prescription at Walmart. Picked up soda and other stuff at Dollar Tree. Now I'm toast and need a nap.

New magazines du jour: Fortune and Conde Nast Traveler. Now I need the life to match my magazines.

Just checked whether Walmart does grocery pickup on Sunday. Yes, it does. Good because I want to stay home tomorrow and stay out of the rain. Now they're saying no rain tomorrow. I can't keep up.

Dorian is now a Cat 4 hurricane. Maybe I should rethink this living in Florida business. But Seattle has earthquakes. I think that I'd prefer hurricanes because you at least get some warning. Annapolis has lots of smog advisories.

I lay down, but decided to get up. Decisive, aren't I? I used the blue light of the computer to wake up. I was going to transfer funds to my new checking account to pay bills, only to find that they would transfer it on Wednesday, which is too late for my purposes. I have a transfer set up for next month, and then I'll be able to set up automatic payments. Paid my bills from my deposit account.

Now they're saying rain from Saturday night to Sunday morning. I guess that I'll get my grocery order together tonight, but not submit it, and look at the projected weather in the morning and then decide on a pickup time. I'm sure that I'm making this too complicated :)

Okay, I did my "shopping" on Walmart Grocery and Amazon. Time to go to bed and read.