days_unfolding

Ow. My teeth are sore. I took some acetaminophen, but I think that I need to go to bed soon.

Hmm. There probably are a couple of spots in the yard where the puppy could wiggle through the fence. I’ll need to take her out on a leash. Or probably a harness rather than a collar because she’ll be wiggly.

Woke up at 4:30 AM but went back to sleep for an hour.

It’s 8:00 AM, and I’ve got myself together. Now I wait for the tree guy.

The tree guy came right on time. He said that it would cost around $4000 to get the tree down (ouch, but I was expecting something like that) and they can do the work at the end of June or early July. He also will take down the saplings that are growing by the fence, which is nice. I approved their quote.

I found instructions on how to lay stepping stones in grass, and it seems doable. I have big plans for the yard. I want to put ornamental grasses in the shade garden and move the Astilbe, Coral Bells (one of which is blooming!), and ferns farther out. But that will be next year. Hmm. Lowe's is sold out of stepping stones in the color that I want. I might have to wait to place the stones until next year too.

Oh awesome. The housekeeper will come by around 8 AM on Friday to do an estimate, and she can start at 3 if we agree. I've decided that I have to use my old pet sitter because I need the time to clean. I guess that I'll have to endure a week of messages about why I suck.

Got my hair cut. One step closer to being ready to leave next week.

Crazy busy at work. I complained politely to my boss, and she said that we'll get through it. She's canceling out on the conference next week because she doesn't think that she can catch up (she was out last week) and then be out again.

My pet sitter said okay to pet sitting next week. So things are falling into place.

I'm tired. I'd nap tonight, but I have a singing lesson. I guess that I'll go to bed early and get up early (after I get the garbage out).

Bella really wants a nap. If I go near the bedroom, she comes running in.

Oh shit. The box that was sitting outside is the new laptop! Luckily, it wasn’t too hot today. I need to clear off the table so that I can set it up.

I had my singing lesson. I started in the spirit of, “Oh hell, one more thing to do,” but I enjoyed it when I got into it. My singing teacher is so nice and helpful. I want to work hard on sight reading this summer to prepare for choir in the fall. Oh, and my Web cam for piano broke, so I ordered a new one.

Okay. I need to get the garbage out (done). Did dishes (recyclables). Started the dishwasher. I’m taking a break, and then I’ll need to put a clean litter box in Zara’s room.

Oh, I have to bring in an Amazon bag that probably has my new envelopes. I want to mail my ticket request for the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra this weekend before I go.

Oh, I need to fill out the forms for boarding Oliver. Too many moving parts.

I’m going to need to go to Costco on Saturday to get more dog food. They say two-day delivery “if you order by noon,” so that won’t work. There is also a big box that probably is dry food that I didn’t order. I don’t know why I got it.

It occurred to me to look for a tour of Lithuania. After finding a bunch that covered all the Baltic States, I finally found one that covered only Lithuania. (I know the other Baltic states are lovely, but Lithuania is my heritage.) I should look for one in Poland because that's the other half of my heritage. Found one!

I panic scheduled my RSV vaccine because RFK Jr. was confirmed. Who knows what will happen.

Woke up with my alarm. It's a pajama day today.

The check posted, so yay. It's bill-paying day tonight, plus I might order some seeds and plants for my garden. They'll ship them at the right time for my climate zone.

We have a staff "watercooler" over Zoom on Fridays. We wound up talking about politics part of the time because it's on everyone's mind.

I mentioned on sunshine_two's post that I wish that I had an "I hate Trump" flag. I'm going to order a yard sign: "In this house, we know:/Feminism is for everyone/Black lives matter/We are all immigrants/Science is real/Kindness is everything/Love is love" (done). I hope that Bella won't pull it out of the ground. (She might.)

I just ordered a bunch of boxes of Girl Scout Cookies from the daughter of a colleague. I remember being a Girl Scout and selling cookies.

The dental office called me to confirm my appointment on Monday, but I didn't catch them before they left for the weekend, so my appointment might not happen on Monday. Aargh.

Oh ugh. Freezing rain tonight.

Damn, I'm tired. I'm stuck on what I was working on at work, so I'm trying to stay awake. I have another project that I could pick up for a little while.

The freezing rain started. Bella was outside and noped out. I’m less-than-thrilled that she didn’t do her business.

I was wondering why I didn’t get a reminder for a haircut. Apparently, I didn’t make an appointment (now done).

I ordered dog and cat food from Costco. Fed us all.

Napped and slept until midnight. Bella is eating her dinner.

Brought Mimi's fountain downstairs to charge and clean. Paid bills. Scheduled singing and piano lessons. I want to order seeds and plants, but I want to measure my garden to get a better idea of how much to order. I think that the sunny-side garden will be sunflowers with coneflowers in one part and zinnias in another. Wildflowers along the fence. Donated to the ACLU, Amnesty International, and Per Scholas, which trains blue-collar workers to be tech workers.

My iPhone has an alarm set for 7:30 AM that I can’t reset. It woke me up this morning even though I wanted to sleep later. Oh well, I’ll take a nap.

In swimming, we deconstructed my crawl stroke and put it back together. She said that my arms were good now. My legs still need work. I told her that my legs are weak, but I'm having issues building them up because I broke my toe. She was horrified about my toe and asked if it hurt in the pool, and I said that it didn't. (True.)

Showered after swimming. I don’t think that the pool has chlorine because it doesn’t smell like it, but whatever chemicals they have in there are probably not good for my hair.

Stopped at the library to pick up some books. Had lunch when I got home. Now I really want a nap, but I have stuff to do outside. And I need to bring in the dahlias and rosemary because they’re expecting a freeze this week. The freeze won’t be tonight though so I think that I’ll nap after feeding the girls. Well, I’ve got the rosemary inside. For the dahlias, I need to cut them down and wrap the tubers in Saran Wrap.

Apparently you can grow dahlias in Italy :)

The hosta from my mom’s house is resurrecting itself. It seems to like the spot that it’s in, so I’ll leave it there.

Took a nap. Ran out to get diet root beer and some odds and ends. It’s getting chilly at night.

Fed the cats and myself. Zara had to sniff my food. I’m feeling tired, so I’m going to go to bed.

I better renew my driver's license in October to have it for my flight to San Juan. Speaking of which, I might book it myself instead of going through the travel agent because it'll be cheaper. There's a United flight that I like, but I'd have to go down on the Thursday before the cruise departure on Saturday to have time touring San Juan on Friday. I found some hotels that look promising and probably would be cheaper than what I'd get from the travel agent.

I stayed up late playing with flights to and hotels in San Juan. I got up at 11 after a dream about my mom. She never is happy in my dreams. I wonder why.

I dropped a pill in the kitchen, so I swept the floor looking for it so that the cats don’t get it. I still didn’t find it, but the floor is swept. I need to wash it on my hands and knees because it’s too dirty to mop only. I’ll wash it tonight.

I’ve been stuck on a weight plateau, but I have lost inches. I’m acquiring a waist! Yay!

Yes!!!!! I finally figured out how to turn on the outside water (and turn it off in the winter)! Now I can have the grass reseeded. I need a longer hose though. I think that I’ll hook up the hose that I bought and water my garden! I booked the weed treatment and aeration and overseeding for the lawn.

I put a dual-voltage curling iron on my wish list for my next Italy trip. I should add a dual-voltage hair dryer too; I found one for curly hair that looks good. I found both on eBay, but I don't want to spend money on them right now. I did get them for much less than retail and put them on a credit card.

I just fell in love with a medium-sized poodle on Petfinder, but I'm not really ready for a dog right now.

Got rid of the boxes in my bedroom, except for the box containing my nightstand. I put two feet on it with two more to go, but my back hurt, so I went upstairs to post my Pacsafe backpack on eBay.

I kind of want to go to bed. I'll put the other feet on the nightstand and get it out of the box. I'll take a picture of it to post tomorrow. And then I'll go to sleep. Hmm, I need to study Italian first though.

I made a list of things to get done before I go back to Italy. It's stuff that I would want to do anyway, but seeing Mimmo adds some incentive. Well, I'm also thinking of growing my hair a bit longer, which I hadn't thought of before. Something like this.

What do you think? It's similar to my current haircut, only longer. I'll bring the picture to my hair stylist to discuss. (Basically, I want to knock the sexy Italian guys dead :))

Speaking of dead, I bought an end-of-life planner. I had wished that my mom had had one, so I had been thinking about it. What got me about this one is the title: “Fuck, I’m Dead!” It should give someone a laugh.

Crap. I overslept, and missed a webinar, but there probably will be a recording of it. A lot of people are off work today because of the holiday tomorrow.

The Italian teacher got back to me, and I think that we have a time. Yay.

I think that I'm getting used to the heat. It's currently 81F/27C, but it feels okay upstairs, and I don't have the fan on. Today is going to be a day spent in pajamas though.

They're letting us leave early for the holiday, but I need to make up the time that I overslept this morning.

I received my Italian keyboard, so I need to test it out tonight.

I just realized that I have tai chi tonight, so I need to take a shower and get dressed.

I’m thinking of getting a ceiling fan for my bedroom this weekend. I wonder where my ladder is.

Went to tai chi. I think that I like yoga better than tai chi, which wasn’t what I expected. Somehow I missed that they want us to have a pair of gym shoes only for Tai Chi, so I ordered some “open box” Skechers on eBay. (I looked at Kizik shoes, which I live in, but they would cost $120 for shoes that I will wear twice a week. No.)

I forgot to put out the trash last night. Drat.

People have started shooting off fireworks. Sigh. Here comes the noise.

Facebook has been showing clips from the Golden Girls. Damn, that show was good. I’m tempted to watch it on Amazon Prime. I bought the first season and watched the first episode.

Jenny Craig was having a big sale, so I decided to try it (ordered). My map of Italy got trashed in the move, so I ordered a new one.

Studied Italian. I enjoy checking off verbs that I know. I'd like a white board to list the ones that I know to motivate me. Bought a small one.

It's too late to start anything else (even though I don't need to get up early tomorrow), so I'm going to go to bed.

I watched the first episode of Glee (Apple TV didn't have it but Amazon did). It's very good.

Well crud. The salon that I went to in Urbana is closing. I need to find another place to go. Soon because I want my hair cut before the Italy trip.

Got up at 8 AM. Mimi: Mooooom, foooood!

I booked a hair appointment at a new salon and a brow appointment at Ulta. Yay. I’ll look cute for Italy! I love places that allow you to book appointments online.

I’m going to take my morning nap. I’m hoping that the lawn is drying out while I wait.

Zara got up when I did and wants food. At least, she’s polite and just stares at me. Mimi meows loudly.

Lunched. Showered.

Oh! I got 89/100 on the second programming test! I’m shocked. I thought that I bombed it.

Well, hell. The batteries run dead on the mower quickly. I still have a lot to go. Now I’m wondering if I need a larger lawn mower. I’m taking a break and will go out and plant stuff.

Planted the dahlias. Planted one of my spireas, but ran out of dirt. Weeded the garden bed and planted irises. My neighbor gave me some Siberian irises, which was nice. I’m boiling.

Here's the spirea that is planted in one of my mom's pots. The other one is going in a matching pot.

Had my meeting with the group for one of my classes. Got the data for my chart, but had some questions. Lay down for a nap and slept until 3AM. Tried to go back to sleep until 5, but I guess that I’m up and have homework. Plus I need to wash out Zara’s carrier because I’m taking her to the vet today. The cats want food. It's storming out, so I wonder if I'll be able to mow more today.

I contacted some moving companies for a quote.

My back feels better this morning. Got a load of laundry started. Painting guy is here and is making lots of noise. The cats disapprove. Got my big bag of laundry downstairs. Now my back is hurting again. Sigh.

Oops. I’m wearing a pair of jeans that I want to take to Hawaii. I need to remember to throw them in the wash.

I noticed that the scale that I had been using was out of whack and added five pounds. I figured out how to get my digital scale back on pounds (I stopped using it because it reset to kg), and it says that I’m a few ounces over 190 pounds. Good.

Now I have a headache. I'm a mess.

Tons of meetings today, and the handyman talked to me between meetings. He thinks that both the front and back garage doors need to be replaced. Sigh. I told a colleague that this should be a reality TV show called The Money Pit. Oh, and all the movers are calling me. I didn’t think this through.

I just freaked Mimi out by tripping over some boxes and kicking one towards her. She can sure move fast for a chunky cat. Now she won’t go near me.

I looked at retirement places in Portland, OR, and found a place that I liked but have no idea what it costs. Okay, I found the prices, and holy cow, it's expensive. That's another reason to wait. Ideally, I should get a place where I could move into memory care when and if I need it. If my plan is to move to a retirement place, I’ll probably live in Urbana in early retirement and then move. Also, I plan to live in Europe for a year and maybe two as a language learner, so I’d want to keep the Urbana house then. (Now I’m thinking a year in Italy and a year in France.)

I have to work some tonight to run some reports and save the results, but I have French late this afternoon, so no big deal.

French went okay. I'm having issues with verb conjugations, so I need to study them. Italian was at the wrong time this Sunday, so we canceled it until after my trip. I think that I want to take my French and Italian verb tense books to Hawaii with me to study in the airport or on the plane. Or maybe I could just copy some pages from them so that I won’t have to bring the whole books. Despite the long time since I studied French, I still speak it better than Italian. Not surprising though because I studied French from middle school through college. I pull bits of French out of mid-air. I wanted French and Italian flashcards for counting and ordered some, but the Italian ones will get here after I leave. I also got some French verb conjugation and basic vocabulary, and Italian travel phrases and basic vocabulary flash cards.

Mimi came by for dinner long after Zara ate her food :) I said, “You snooze, you lose,” but I gave her some dry food.

I had a ton of cleaning supplies come from Amazon. I just need to order some floor cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, and cleanser from Meijer for tomorrow (done). The cleaner will be here mid-afternoon on Wednesday. I’m getting my brows done at noon, but should be back by then.

I got the garbage and recycling out for pickup. I have a headache and my knees hurt, so I’m going to lie down for a few minutes before going back to work. I couldn’t sleep, but the headache went away.

Mimi wanted something, which turned out for me to lie down and snuggle. So it worked for the both of us. She’s now blissfully asleep. The only thing is that I want to wash the sheets. I guess that I’ll get them in the morning. And the towels and my gym shoes.

Zara is trying to train me to feed her four times a day instead of three and is disappointed that it’s not working.

dadi asked for pictures of my new haircut. This is how it looks when I don't blow-dry it.

I'll try to blow-dry it sometime this week to show how it looks then.

I'm done with work. And I'm getting another flipping headache :( I'm going to change into pajamas and put another load in the wash and go to bed.

Cats: Good, you’re up. Feed us. (Well, feed me. I could care less if you feed the other one.) I heard some hissing before I fed them.

Hmm. The organizer said that the foyer closet was full of photos, but I looked, and there was a bunch of books and maps and stationery. I was going to get a TaskRabbit person to pack the Christmas ornaments and photos, but I don’t have enough to fill her time. Once I get my clothes for Hawaii packed, she could pack my summer clothes. Hmm, she could pack the Buddha and the dragon from the TV room and some bowls. Hmm, what happened to my packing paper. Okay, I found it. She could pack up the clothes from the crawl space too if I get the stuff out from front of it. Or maybe she could do it. I booked her for Sunday.

Did dishes. Scooped litter boxes. Took a picture of the phone number on the dumpster and moved stuff out of the way so that they can pick it up. Called about the dumpster, and they're going to pick it up tomorrow. The real estate agent came by to talk about power washing and cleaning the gutters. Mower guy is here.

It looks like we have Italian on Sunday and French on Monday. That'll work. I don't want them back-to-back because my brain will implode, plus I have music lessons on Sunday.

The photography teacher talked a lot about Adobe Lightroom, so I bought a tutorial on it, and Photoshop for that matter. Oh, she recommended getting an external drive for photos, so I need to look into that (done--I got a pretty blue-purple one). Wow, the cost of storage has gone way down.

I'm trying to figure out when I can get the living room rug cleaned because I want to take it. I should get the rest of them cleaned for that matter.

I lay down at lunch, but couldn't sleep, not surprisingly, given how much sleep I got last night. So I decided to get up and set up the Apple Watch. Well, it required an update to iOS on my phone, and it's churning through it.

I need to check the account balance on Mom's account because we're churning through it with the organizing, dumpsters, landscaping, etc.

I screwed up one of my knees again. Why is it happening now that I've lost some weight?

The Apple Watch is now set up. Damn, you can do a lot on it. I now understand what "closing the rings" means.

I got the invoice for powerwashing and gutter cleaning. I paid it in full because I know that they'll do it. (See: check account balance!)

The mistake that I made at work turned out to be No Big Deal. Good.

DailyLook is sending me a nastygram, so I need to be sure to try the clothes on. And probably cancel it because I don't really need more clothes from them.

Hmm. I can sell the Sense 2 for $50 for someone else to sell or can try to sell it myself and get more. I'm learning towards the first option to get it out of my hair. I have a lot of stuff to deal with!

I was reading an article about "timeless" items French women over 50 have in their wardrobes, and I bought some used clothes on eBay to match. Except for pumps. I don't do heels. Actually, I found some pumps with a low heel that I might try. Ankle boots were listed too, and I have some. I think that I've figured out my clothes for the Kauai flight: black knit top, black yoga pants, black-and-white tweed blazer that I just bought, black ankle boots, and a black-and-white fake fur coat that I just bought. Hmm, maybe a trench coat would be better than the fake fur coat (done--I bought a wool trench coat). I also have a black and silver sweater that I could wear on one of the plane flights. Maybe I could wear it over a black t-shirt so that I can just take it off when I get to Kauai. I booked a haircut for a week from Sunday.

Yikes, I need to book a shuttle to and from the airport. And the pet sitter.

My Apple Watch told me to get up and walk around, and I did get up and walked up and down the stairs. Checked on Mimi, who was waiting for me to come lie down, but she came downstairs (hoping for food, no doubt).

Fed the girls and myself. Now I’m lying down to stretch my knee out. I brought my camera book because I don’t think that I can sleep. Hmm, I should bring my camera upstairs to look at it. Okay, I understand the camera a lot more. And my knee got a nice rest.

I got the recycling out, and my knee has been complaining. I’ve been walking around going “Fffffff!” I’m taking a break before I get the garbage and rubbing my knee. I got the garbage out.

Tried on my Daily Look clothes. They seem to forget that I'm a petite. But! They had a pink vegan leather blazer that I totally love! I kept a green blazer too. I'm wondering if I should try a box for petites. I'll try them after I get back from Kauai. Or maybe from Kauai.

It's getting late, and I'm trying to get more sleep, plus I want to get to work early because I need to leave early to meet the guy who is taking stuff to and from storage. So I need to go to sleep.

Well, here's a new wrinkle in the "where should I live" question: I just got one of the best haircuts that I've had in my life. The stylist asked lots of questions and gave me what I wanted. And the stylists give you a shoulder and hand massage as well. I'm feeling so relaxed. I just bought a new hair dryer with a diffuser that is supposed to decrease frizz. And I bought the product that my stylist used. I also asked her if I could have highlights if I swim, and she said that they would have to be redone more often (monthly). Hmm. They also have facials and a brow treatment that tames unruly hairs, which is what I need. I might get a deep conditioning treatment for my hair the next time that I'm there.

There also is free Tai Chi in a local park. Urbana does have a lot of amenities.

Had a nice nap over lunch.

I booked the hotel/spa place near Lake Michigan for a room and a massage, facial, and body scrub. I hope that Deanna will watch the cats.

All the tension of the last few months seemed to hit me all at once, and all my muscles were aching pretty badly. So I booked a massage for tomorrow morning also. Two massages in two weeks is pretty decadent, but I think that I need it.

I ran some errands and went and had a beer with some of my classmates. It was fun. Urbana has a nice beer garden too, but it was hard to find my way back. The 1/3 of a beer that I drank seemed to relax me some.

Now I'm thinking of going to sleep early. My massage is at 10 AM tomorrow. My therapy session is at 1 PM.

Oh, and Road Scholar said that I can book the tour now and the airfare for the Italy trip later as long as it's by December. I should know where I've decided to live by then.

Or her ashes are, anyway. I picked up the urn and ashes today. The urn is lovely. Very heavy though; it's made of bronze. I thought that I might be upset, but I'm just a little shaky. I did wind up taking a nap.

Cool, we're officially set at the restaurant. I sent Mom's obituary to the cremation society, and it's up on the Web now.

I went outside to pick up tree branches from the lawn, realized how much work it was going to be, and quit.

Texted a hair salon in Champaign for a hair cut while I'm there for a business trip. We'll see if they have any openings.

Took another nap and slept through until morning.

I wasn't going to watch the coronation in the UK this weekend, mostly because I'm not a fan of King Charles, but articles keep saying how it's the one chance to see a coronation, so I guess that I will. I'll have to have a night of split sleep. CNN's coverage starts at 5 AM with the ceremony at 6, so I'll get a few hours of sleep, watch the coronation, and go back to sleep.