days_unfolding

Woke up with my alarm and got dishes done before my shower. The power washing guy isn’t here, but it’s supposed to rain today. Okay, now he's here.

Had technical difficulties and was late to a meeting. Oh well.

The roofer guy came (while I was in my meeting with the life coach)! He said that the roof in the front part of the house and the garage needs to be replaced, which is more-or-less what I figured. He's working on an estimate. The power washing is almost done and the house looks great!

The life coach helped me figure out what I need to do for the Hawaii trip plus on the house. She said that I didn't give myself rewards enough, given that I'm getting so much done. I need to think about that.

I tried to nap over lunch, but couldn't sleep. Mimi wanted to lie on me, so we had difficulties. But I still couldn't sleep after she got off.

Talked to my weight-loss coach. She suggested drinking water with Crystal Light, which I'll try. I just submitted a grocery order with Crystal Light in it.

I bought myself a wedding ring! One of my solo travel sites recommended wearing a wedding ring when women travel solo, which is not a bad idea. But I wanted something pretty, so I found a rose gold one that wasn't too horribly expensive.

I've decided what to do right after work. My life coach suggested exercising, but I need some down time after work. I've decided to read after work both as a treat and also for self-improvement. I've loaded up on Kindle books and will read for an hour each day.

I’m setting up the new laptop. It’s small but mighty. I love it. Right now, it’s updating. Once my files are copied and the battery charged, I’m just going to pack the new laptop and continue to use the old one. Windows did not copy my files over, so I'm backing up my files on the old laptop and will port them over.

The Crystal Light is good. Note to self: ask the organizer where the Brita pitcher went. Found it.

I can't find my reef-safe suntan lotion, so I need to order more. Also couldn't find the waterproof housing for the GoPro, so I'm ordering a new one. I had a box of camera stuff that I can't find. I'll have to ask the organizer about it. Losing stuff after we "organize" kind of sucks, but I don't see a way around it.

I think that I have Semagic set up on the new laptop, so I'm going to test it with this post.

Someone (Detroit?) was setting off fireworks. Thankfully, it's stopped. Speaking of fireworks, the local fireworks have been cancelled due to the smoke. Bummer.

I just had the best Ramen ever. It was Nissin RAOH Ramen Noodle Soup, Tonkotsu flavor. I found a pack of it on Amazon and ordered it.

While I was waiting for the junk guys, I was looking at prepackaged diet food and found a couple of possibilities. Maybe I should pause Factor and try them out. I guess that would mean that I'd have to skip dessert though. Hmm.

The junk guys are here. They're talking about sending a second truck out. I'm glad that they have the scope of the work, which is massive. They're cleaning out the basement. They've said that they won't finish today. So why didn't they come earlier? Le sigh. I asked the second crew to work on the area near the sprinkler controls (done!) so that I can get someone out to look at the sprinklers. After they are done, I'll get a TaskRabbit guy to get rid of the dead plants in the basement.

There were two fawns this morning hanging around the yard. The junk guys said that they're still there, and Mama Deer came by to check on them. I'm honored that she feels that this is a safe place for her fawns, but they picked the wrong day with the junk guys running around.

Urgh. I really want a nap, but the guys will be working all day. I'm doing the next best thing and hanging out upstairs. The cats are not happy.

Silence from the new car insurance company and van dealer. Maybe they're taking a long weekend. Hantz (the people adiministering my mom's trust) called, and they want another meeting. And no, they won't do it over the phone. Sigh. I'll be happy when I'm done with them.

I found another local piano place, and they have a used Yamaha that is similar to the one that I liked. But I can't clear the plant room until the handyman rebuilds the shelves in the linen closet so that I can get the glassware out of the plant room. Everything has a dependency.

Zara is camping out on my lap. She's hungry, but the junk guys are making loud noises, so she's not sure what to do. I promised her that I'd feed her as soon as they leave (done).

I'm wondering if I should get a refundable air ticket to Chicago for the train trip in September. I'd rather not spend a ton of money on the ticket. Dad said that it would be okay to postpone the trip again, but I want to go! Oh hmm, I'd have to check luggage and wouldn't have a fallback plan if it goes missing.

On CarMax, I found a Nissan van that I really like (it's black and looks slick!), but do I want to buy it sight unseen? They have a money-back guarantee if there's something wrong with it. Need to sleep on it. It's a smaller cargo van. No, the Ford Transit Connect gets a higher rating. There's one on my list of possibilities although it is a little more expensive. I think that I need to call the DMVs in both Michigan and Illinois to figure out how this would work.

I'm going to try One Second Everyday, starting tomorrow. There probably will be a lot of cat pictures, but I also want to take pictures of interesting things around the house. I also might post pictures in my journal of areas that I'm working on to motivate myself and show progress.

Went to take a nap but couldn't sleep. Lounged a little under the ceiling fan. Saw the perfect house for me in Urbana, sigh. I'm feeling too tired to accomplish anything, so I took my nighttime meds and am planning to go off to bed. I have a lot to do tomorrow.

I returned the equipment from the sleep study this morning. I was able to sleep with it on after all. Now we wait and see what they say.

The salad from Walmart's deli was good. Nice and fresh. I'll have to get it again.

I have a headache however, so I'm going to watch the replay of my webinar this afternoon and power-nap. Well, I overslept my power-nap. At least I'm more well-rested.

Heck. The first disbursement of my aunt's money is going out this week, which is good, but I'll need to deposit the check in person at a PNC branch, which isn't good. I'll need to get up early on Saturday, my birthday, to go deposit the check in Springfield or Bloomington. I guess that I could take a long nap afterward.

The managers of the house that I want to rent in Urbana still haven't heard from the managers of my complex, so I'm going to go over there and light a fire under them tomorrow.

Ack. My assignment is going to be late because I'm stuck on a problem. Okay, I got myself unstuck, but I'm not quite done. I need to go to sleep now so that I can get myself together to go to the complex office tomorrow morning.

Oh, assuming that I get things straightened out for the move, I'm thinking to bringing my mom to the new place for Christmas. I'll have loads of stuff to do, but she can hang out.

I will respond to comments soon. I've just been swamped.

My getting up at 2 AM confused the cats. You were asleep and now you're awake, so it must be feeding time, right? I told Zara that if she ate now, she won't eat her breakfast, but she is not convinced.

And it's snowing again. It's been so quiet, and I realized that there are no trains or cars.

I got an idea for an article, "What I've learned from studying foreign languages". Now I need to figure out what I've learned!

I priced flights from Chicago to Berlin and Munich to Chicago. Not too expensive. (I'd take the train from Berlin to Munich.)

I got Culture Smart Italy and Culture Smart Germany on Chirp. I also looked at The Plant-Based Solution, but it has recipes, so I bought a print copy used on Amazon.

Still snowing when I woke up. Still really quiet. The cats are curled up in round balls. They do not approve of this weather. I kind of agree.

I know on what I want to write an article in LinkedIn (I typed KinkedIn, which is the alternative site :)) but I need to ask my colleague because it's based on a meeting that she ran. She said okay. Okay, I learned how to write an article on LinkedIn. It's very similar to Medium.

I have another goal: teaching a class on library systems administration (or about library systems) at Library Juice Academy. I don't have enough experience yet, but I'll keep that in mind as a goal.

It just occurred to me that after I get my programming certificate, I could write an inventory tool that works with our library system. The possibilities are endless!

The snow has stopped. Now to wait for my mower guy to dig me out....

I bought a poster map of Germany. I learned a lot of Italy's geography by having a map above my computer. And I requested a trial lesson from the German teacher, eep!

There's a lot of discussion about the future of LJ given its Russian state owners. I'm on Dreamwidth as days_unfolding also. Feel free to add me.

Hmm. I'm running out of steam due to my weird sleep schedule last night. I think that I'll go to bed early tonight, although not quite yet so that I don't wake up at 2 AM again. I should make some Italian flash cards and clean the bathroom. Or do some decluttering.

I did do some decluttering. But I turned the Olympics on to see what was going on and learned that the team men's short program skating was on, so I watched. Nathan Chen turned out an incredible performance. Then I watched mogul(?) skiing, which I've never seen before. Then they had the team ice dancing, which was great fun. (If I could skate, I'd like to do ice dancing, but you probably need to be an extrovert :)) Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue also pulled off an impressive performance. Now they say that there's more skating after the news. So much for getting to sleep early. The news said to stay off of the roads. You think?

Mower guy came and mowed. I wound up running outside in my slippers, shorts, a t-shirt, and no bra to pay him. No doubt adding to my reputation for eccentricity.

I was watering the garden and saw....a zucchini! I guess that the flowers got pollinated. I called Mom and told her about the zucchini. That's exciting! I'm really having a blast with my garden. And pumpkin-zucchini bread, here I come!

I've been reading about hiking the Continental Divide Trail. Too desolate for me. And the Pacific Crest Trail scares me, although it's supposed to be the easiest of the main north-south trails. You have to hike on snow though. I looked into classes on ice axe self-arrest in Illinois, which made myself laugh. Nope. I found a mountaineering class in New Hampshire, which might be worth taking if I plan to hike in the mountains. I might try part of the Appalachian Trail sometime. The part in New Hampshire and Maine scares me because it requires some "bouldering," or dexterity that I don't think that I have.

I should probably take a navigation class, but there aren't any near me either. There's one in Seattle, which would be a fun trip. And one in Colorado. Oh! REI has in-store classes. I could just trek up to Chicago!

I'm coveting a Kelty Night Owl tent. And I'm a night owl, so, it fits. It gets its name from being easy to pitch even after you're up late drinking :) Being the klutz that I am, I could use all the help that I can get.

Looking at the ghost_light friendzy linked to by susandennis. Found some interesting people there.

"White House Now Urges Use of Masks". About. Freaking. Time.

Slept lateish, but made it in a little early. Ran out to have my teeth cleaned at the dentist during the afternoon.

I wanted to run by the vet to get flea meds, but a faculty member is still in the library, and I usually lock up after her. Oh well. She left at 10 to 5 PM, and I'm not going to jam over to the vet.

I'm really craving a roast-beef sandwich. I usually don't eat out, but I think that I will today. I did, and the sandwich was good.

I ordered a bunch of free or $2 subscriptions to magazines, including magazines about Seattle, Portland, Washington DC, and Charlotte. I want to get my hands on one for Orlando, but it looks like I'd have to pay full price, and I don't want to pay full price. It did say there's a way to download an issue into a digital reader, so I'll check that out. I can get it for half-price on an eReader, but I can't enter an e-mail address to set up an account. That sucks. No, I got it working. It's advertising a trip to Michigan to get out of the humidity. LOL.

I was poking around looking at journals of people who have vanished from LJ, and apparently, rillifane passed away three years ago. I'm not sure which is stranger, LJ people passing away or people just vanishing.

Paid a bunch of bills. Submitted my Walmart Grocery order. It's time for bed.