days_unfolding

Overslept but made it to Italian. My Italian is definitely rusty. (We missed a couple of lessons.) I told her about the vet visits, and she felt sorry for the cats.

I'd like a Pilea Chinese Money Plant. They're safe for cats. I should wait until I get back to order it though. And it might be too late to mail it?

Mimi is picking at her wet food but ate the dry food. I guess that's okay. I'm going to try her on the Hills dry food for senior cats because she doesn't need to lose weight.

Got my Jenny Craig food and put it away.

The real estate guy for Mom's house is waiting on some signatures to list Mom's house for sale. He showed me a preview of the listing, and it looks good. I suggested mentioning the built-in lawn sprinklers though.

I got on the waitlist for Prolific, which bill_schubert mentioned. It might help pay for my Amazon addiction. Oh! I'm off the waitlist! Speaking of Amazon, I was looking at a cookbook holder because I have a bunch of diet cookbooks that I want. I was going to buy spiral-bound when available, but they are very expensive, and I could get cheaper versions of the cookbooks with a holder.

I was looking at some essential oils made by a company affiliated with Disney. (I'm subscribed to a Disney group on Facebook.) The company has a way expensive diffuser, so I was looking at some cheaper options on eBay. I like how the house smells when the cleaner is here.

Booked my drinks and WiFi packages for the cruise. Dang, they're expensive. They must make their money on the packages and extras. I checked in to the cruise. I'll be boarding at 3:30 PM, so I guess that I'll go to the cruise terminal and have lunch and kill a couple of hours. Looked at the cruise schedule. Wow, there's a lot to do aboard ship, though a lot of them are selling something. Do I want to do Karaoke? I’ve been exploring their app and found out when breakfast is. Because I’m doing shore excursions, I’ll mostly be having breakfasts and dinners. You also can get a complementary Continental Breakfast in your room.

Hmm. Celebrity has a Japan cruise that looks interesting. And it’s not horribly expensive, although airfare will add a lot.

Fed the catlings. They’re sort of eating and sort of picking at the food. I’m keeping an eye on them. I don’t really want to go back to the vet yet again. Got the garbage out.

Went to Walmart. They didn't have any mums. I bought a “Happy Halloween” window cling, the word “Spooky” to put in a window, and some crime scene tape with skulls on it. And candy, which I had to sample :) That’s it for this year. I might get more ambitious next year.

Tried on the evening gowns. The one that was smaller fit me (yay!), but it's not terribly flattering.

I'm looking at another dress online. I also tried on the Land's End long underwear and snow pants and they fit (the smaller long underwear and larger snow pants). Now I just need to get some alpaca socks.

I need to check whether I have sunscreen and go to bed. I need to get up early to practice piano. It's been a quite a week.

Yesterday, my mom left for Chicago. I hated to see her go, but also was glad to get a little time for myself (and Harlee is very pleased to get "her" futon back). I finally finished assembling the spinner rack for my rock CDs. Allelula. I also clipped some more coupons while watching part 1 of a set of DVDs on the Appalachian Trail.

Today, I finally got my blood test done, so it will get my doctor off my case. There's a lab just down the street from me, which was convenient. However, I got there when it was closed for lunch, so I killed some time in the local garden shop, and found a downright scary overgrown striped spider plant that I liked. However, I didn't get it because I didn't want it to fry in the car. When I went back to the lab, it took a while to draw my blood because they were confused by my doctor's orders, but when they did draw my blood, they got it on the first try (which unfortunately is unusual--it often takes multiple tries). I told the woman drawing my blood that I was impressed that she got it on the first try, and she was very pleased to hear that.

Then I ate blackberry stuffed french toast at Wild Berries, which was very good, but almost too rich. I felt a little queasy, so I went home without buying the spider plant. I tried to take a nap, but couldn't fall asleep.

I drafted my first blog post for my gardening blog. I want to work on developing content that isn't time-sensitive now, but I'll wait to promote the site until after the first seed catalogs are published next year. I also need to set up the Web site for the blog. I also am looking at garden-related things on Clickbank that I could promote. I'm intrigued about plans to build a waist-high planter; those sell for hundreds of dollars in garden supply places. I might try building one and making a video of its construction. I also am intrigued by plans for vertical gardens. But that's putting the cart before the horse; first, I need to create content for the blog.

My plan for tonight is to do my research on what's on sale at Meijer and sort through my coupons, make a grocery list, and then go to Meijer. I also am planning to go hiking tomorrow, so I need to print out directions and get organized.