days_unfolding

Woke up at 6:30 AM. I was out with Bella when I realized that I hadn’t put my clothes in the dryer. Came in and did so, but it’ll take a while, so I’ll have to take my shower at lunchtime. Decided to go back to sleep for a half hour. It's a rainy, dreary day.

The recycling people didn't take my boxes, probably because it was raining. They left a mess, so I'll need to go out and drag the boxes back into the yard. Bah.

Forgot to mention that I bought a book on Medicare that I need to read. And my trust books.

I've got a paper trading account set up on Schwab, although they don't make it easy to find. I'll start following my dad's system next week.

I had an appointment to take Zara to the vet. When I went in her room, Oliver tried to come in and then Oliver and Bella were fighting outside the door. That freaked Zara out, and she retreated to the closet whenever I went near her. I called the vet, and have a new appointment for next Tuesday. Next time, I'll corral Oliver, Lily, and Bella before I try to get Zara.

I read an article in the BBC about the health benefits of saunas, including reducing the severity of tension headaches, which I get a lot. I’m looking for a sauna in the area but am having no luck. The big gym at the university has one, but I just read a comment about how they don’t keep the gym clean, which doesn’t make me want to go there. The YMCA has one. Maybe when my required membership at the university gym is up, I’ll try there. The membership at the uni gym was a minimum of four months, so it should be over soon if not already. I guess that my next step is to check the date and visit the YMCA to see if I want to switch there. Oh! It has a lap pool! And they have swim lessons! And a "gentle yoga" class! And an indoor walking track! And "learn to play pickleball" in the fall! Okay, I want to join the YMCA (joined). I need to cancel my uni gym membership.

I'm thinking of looking for a part-time job at one of the local public libraries when I retire. It would be fun and bring in a little money.

I've been bouncing back and forth from my work area upstairs to the kitchen. I'm processing videos at work, so I set one off for processing, went downstairs and worked on the kitchen, came back up to process videos, etc. I did get some cleaning done on the kitchen. The boxes are flattened.

Cleaned up the boxes outside. I have a video processing. If it's done after I post, I'll move it to the next step. Otherwise, I'll finish up tomorrow. Okay, I got the second video uploaded. I don't have the energy to start video 3. I'll work on it tomorrow.

I went to Guest Services to close out my bill. It turned out that they owned me money. But then the rep started looking at my shore excursions. She’s trying to get mine canceled, which is nice, but no guarantees. So I wound up spending a fair amount of time there.

Woke up at 4 AM. Washed, packed, and breakfasted, and I am running early for my “immigration inspection “.

I was cooling my heels for 45 minutes while the port authority was looking at my documents and checking who knows what. I was finally cleared to leave and got my passport back. Then I almost left my purse in the bathroom. I’m tired.

The cruise rep did get my shore excursions canceled, though. The cruise people have been awesome.

This is the trip of great customer service. I’m at the Courtyard by Marriott near the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica. They found me a room even though I got here at 11 AM.

Crap. Mimi has a brain tumor. I just got the message that her vet left yesterday. I’m trying to reach her vet.

Conveniently, there is a Walmart next to the hotel. I got some soda and some empanadas.

I really want to nap, but I’m waiting for the vet to call.

I had a lengthy conversation with the vet. It's a large tumor near the cerebellum, and could wind up pressing on her brain stem "which would be catastrophic". He offered surgery, radiation treatments, or euthanasia. I said that I was thinking about euthanasia, but that I wanted to be there. He said okay, they will keep her comfortable until I get back.

I napped for five hours. I’m a little worried about getting up on time, although I have the zap alarm with me. No wake-up calls. I’ll take my shower tonight.

I think that I'll post and get ready for bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.

I like this Holland America Japan and China cruise, but I was thinking of 2027 for a Japan cruise, not 2026. I'll have to see if they could cut me a deal because I'm on one of their cruises now. The cruise itself isn't that expensive, but the airfare would be (around $1700).

I’m trying to figure out what’s on the docket for today. I have a massage at 3:30 PM and a facial at 8. I want to give myself a pedicure in case I want to go swimming tomorrow. Maybe I’ll talk to the future cruise person about the Japan-China cruise. I should find out what Vacations to Go’s price would be, though, because they are usually cheaper. Got a speedy quote from them ($3667, not including airfare). Now to see if Holland America would do better.

One thing that I like about the staterooms is that they have clotheslines in the bathrooms. I have some shorts and a t-shirt soaking in the sink.

I burned the roof of my mouth on hot pizza in Miami, and it still hurts when I eat.

I think that it’s nap time.

The toilet in my room isn't working. Called, and they said that they were having "a tech problem".

I left my purse at breakfast. As I was leaving the room, a guy working on the ship said for me to go to Guest Services. It was there and everything was in it. Bless the honesty of my fellow passengers and the crew.

I looked at the cruise-line branded stuff and am trying to decide what I want. They have a coffee mug that I like, but I’m afraid that it would break. A water bottle? I forgot mine. They have a nice zip-up hoodie, but do I need another hoodie? I could wear it on the plane flight from California though.

Yeah, I think that I like this cruise. It feels less crowded than the other one, and the Aging Frat Boy Quotient seems lower. I go on a cruise to relax, not party, although there are some folks drinking their breakfast. Cruises are very relaxing, and the sights come to us (or so it seems).

Took a bunch of debit and credit cards out of my wallet and put them in the safe in my room. I don't need them here.

Well, hell. Went to take off the old nail polish off of my toes, only to find that the nail polish wipes that I bought don't have nail polish remover on them. I have no choice but to get a pedicure now.

I went down to the future cruises desk. It wasn’t open. It will be open later in the cruise. I gather that I can get a shipboard credit if I book with them, but I’m dubious about the price.

I’m at the spa now. I made an appointment for tomorrow for a manicure and pedicure. It’s at 5PM, which is later than I would like, but that’s what I get booking at the last minute.

My pet sitter is very worried about Mimi. And she can’t find Lily. She wants me to come back, but I explained that I’m on a cruise ship. I’ll look into ways to get back, but I’m not hopeful. There is a flight from Cartagena, Columbia in two days. But I want to talk to the vet first. I don’t know what to do.

(She also managed to blame me and the dog (?) for Mimi being sick. Never mind that I took Mimi to the vet a couple of weeks ago.)

Had my massage. My brain was whirring, so I wasn’t in a receptive mood. But she upsold me to a hot stone massage. I guess that it helped my tight muscles. She said that it did. She also asked me what I did for my tight muscles between massages, and I said ”…nothing?” She thinks that I should get one of those massaging shower heads, which is do-able. (I really should start up yoga again.) And she sold me some body oil because my skin is dry (it is) and some foot cream. My neck does feel loose now.

Okay, I found a reputable service to get me from the cruise terminal to the airport in Columbia. Now I see how things play out.

I think that facials are largely the placebo effect, but the glop that she was putting on my skin must have hydrated it some. I got a new moisturizer to try. And she told me to drink more water.

I was thinking that I needed to have laundry done if I take the flight from Cartagena. But they want 24 hours, which is cutting it a little close. But I have some clean jeans. I could wear jeans, a t-shirt, and buy the Holland America hoodie and be presentable enough. It’s no worse than what other people wear on planes. If I wind up staying, then I will have laundry done.

I want some late-night nosh.

Overslept a little, but had time for my shower. Got a fecal sample for Bella, who is easy, but nothing from Oliver yet. Lily snuck upstairs, and Mimi freaked out, so I put Lily outside the gate.

The cleaner for Friday or Saturday didn't work out, so I'm trying another service for Monday.

Emailed the trust about my mom's safety deposit box and tax forms. I wish that they'd do stuff when I asked them the first time.

Overslept my nap. Sheesh, I'm tired.

Took Bella and Oliver to the other vet for their checkup before boarding. Bella seemed to like the place better; she had to check out every person who was there. Bella peed again. They manually took a fecal sample from Oliver, which must have been fun. The vet thought that Bella's eyes were red (I noticed that) because of allergies. And he cleaned some gunk out of Oliver's ears. They're going to check the fecal samples before finalizing the boarding. Oh, Bella looked like she was going to give the vet a kiss, and he said, "I have a boyfriend!" LOL.

My plan of record is to feed the hordes, bring in a recycling bin, take a short nap, and do the recycling.

I just contacted a pet waste cleanup person to clean up the yard. Yay, they'll do it, probably on Friday. Now I just need a house cleaner, and I’ll be in good shape.

Got us all fed. Nap time. Slept until 6 AM. I’m feeling dizzy.

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.

I need to look for the waterproof pouch for my cell phone and order a new one if I can't find it.

Someone (Zara?) polished off the baby food. No, it was Mimi. She’s been eating the baby food. I’m going to assume that she’s okay, just off her feed. Zara won’t eat anything, so I’ll bring her in. I’m mulling what to do on the probably long wait, so I think that I’ll grab an Italian book.

I didn’t find the waterproof pouch, but found my dress sandals. Now I found the waterproof pouch, so I canceled my Amazon order.

I brought both girls to the emergency vet. Zara was way too easy to get into the carrier. Mimi led me on quite a chase, so she can’t be feeling too badly. They’ve been through triage—Zara was her usual fractious self, and Mimi liked the fact that they petted her—and now we wait.

The vet checked them over. They want to run blood tests on the both of them. (I figured that they would.) They said that Zara is “spicy,” and they probably will have to sedate her. Then they said Mimi was hissing, which shocked me because Mimi is usually pretty easy. So they might need to sedate her too. They did an ultrasound and didn’t see anything concerning. They said that it would be another couple of hours. I told them that I hadn’t eaten dinner, so they told me to go home and they’ll call me. So I did.

I got my Land’s End order with the snow pants and long underwear. That was fast. I need to try them on because I bought two different sizes because I didn’t know which would fit.

Filled out my replacement ballot. Brought down the suitcase and started packing for the cruise. I can’t find my white jeans that I want to take with me. I’m going to have to sort my clothes and put them away.

It had been four hours and I hadn’t heard anything from the vet, so I went back. Apparently, the girls’ blood work is done, and they need to just write up their discharge papers. The girls' blood work was good. Mimi's was completely normal, and Zara's was only a little elevated.

I had gotten checked out by a friendly big white dog. The dog was still waiting when I got back. I said , “Hi,” to him or her again. I’d like a dog like that.

We're back home. Mimi promptly chowed down. Zara is looking interested in food. We'll see. I really want to crash. I'm going to skip swimming tomorrow and collapse.

I'm burnt like toast. These two weeks are jam-packed with tasks.

The vet in Urbana keeps contacting me to set up appointments for Zara and Mimi. As soon as I get to Urbana, I’ll do so.

I need to call the movers and junk hauler guys (done) back.

I ran to the bank and deposited checks. I’ll need to get money for the movers next week.

I’m thinking of going to bed early. I need to get the statues and pictures down in the morning so that I can put them in the storage unit. But I’ll need light to do so. And I have a hair appointment at 11 AM. And I’m meeting the guy to bring the boxes from storage at 2. Oh, and I need to get money for the packing guy for tomorrow. And I need to work on packing and homework.

Oh, the junk hauler guys said that leftover paint (Mom has some in the basement) will dry when mixed with kitty litter. Then they can haul it off. So I need to get a big bag of cheap kitty litter. And something to stir the paint with.

I think that I still want angelfish in the downstairs aquarium. And mollies and a couple of catfish. But I’d need a bigger tank, maybe a 75 gallon one.

Now I’m thinking to get wooden coffee tables and end tables instead of the drum ones. They would look better with all the wood.

I bought an electric blanket to keep me warm on the air mattress in the new house.

Hmm. I’m wondering where I could keep gym bags near the front door. Maybe I should get a large wicker chest?

Oh good. Zara and Mimi's shots that were done last year in Urbana are good for three years. So I don't need to make an appointment at the vet up here.

I attended an almost all-day virtual conference on library data. I geeked out on it because Data Science is an interest of mine. But six hours of Zoom presentations (outside of breaks) is pretty rough. I'm burnt.

I took a nap and slept through until midnight. I had a one-point assignment to do and got it handed in. Now I'm going to go back to sleep.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I got the title to Mom's car, and it made me sad because I can now sell it. My colleague/friend at work suggested that I keep it and get rid of my car. I'm considering it. I wish that it had map lights like my car. Now I'm thinking of keeping both cars for now because one will be better for hauling the cats, and the other will be better for hauling the planters and other breakable items. I can get it straightened out in Illinois. Maybe I'll buy a new car when the estate is settled.

My jeans keep trying to fall off of me. They actually did fall off the other day. I'll be happy when I go down a size.

I'm feeling depressed about my dad's memory issues and knowing that I'll probably have 10 years to do what I want in retirement before I'll have issues too. Aging is a bitch.

I'm wearing one of the new tie-dye hoodies and love it. It's very pretty in tones of purple and blue. I'll take a picture of it later.

I forgot to choose my BistroMD meals. I now have a reminder set on my phone. And now on my electronic calendar!

Okay. The dumpster people said that they'd pick it up tomorrow.

The sprinkler guys were here, and the fix was easy; the water was not turned on! Now to get the lawn reseeded....

I got my work calendar to sync to my electronic calendar. Excellent. Life at a glance! The calendar can also function as a digital photo frame when you're not using the calendar, so I decided to get the add-on. It would be cool to see some of my trip pictures while I'm working.

Ugh. I just realized that I never submitted Mimi's dental bills to the pet insurance. Too much was going on around then.

Verizon has already sent me a bill. Um, can you wait until I get the new phone activated?

The trust said that they are still in the period where creditors can claim debts on the estate. It'll end mid-October. They said that the house is not a part of the trust, however, and they need the binder with her will. I just found it and said that I would drop it off (done).

I had a free consult with a marketing student from the uni about promoting my travel blog-to-be on social media. She had some good ideas. I joined some Facebook groups for solo female travelers.

Yay. I finally got an estate sale person coming out tomorrow with a lot of misses because the house was out of people's areas. I think that some companies concentrate on the ritzy suburbs north of here.

I figured out that I want to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn when I come back to get the interior of the house painted. It has a refrigerator and a microwave. And I'm sure that their WiFi would be good.

I made an appointment to get COVID, flu, RSV, and shingles vaccines on Saturday. Wow, am I going to be sore.

Through a couple of hours of effort (and help from Sinéad O'Connor), I got my bedroom picked up and more organized. The suitcases are closed (and two are stowed in the closet), and you can walk through the room! Mimi does not approve because it's different.

Bingo. I found a yoga studio in my mom's area that takes drop-ins. Most of the classes are on Zoom, which I might not be able to do because there's no room in my mom's house, but there's an onsite candlelight yoga on Sundays which sounds restorative.

I found a house cleaner. She'll do every two weeks on Wednesdays. She's kind of pricey, but gets great reviews. We'll see how this works. And I found a cleaner to help me clean the old place. Facebook to the rescue.

I've decided that I'll get a chair that converts to a bed for Mom to sleep on when she's here. It might be easier for her than a couch.

Today was the fun task of taking the cats to the new vet in Urbana. Zara noticed that I was hanging around when I fed her, and went "uh no" and ran. I had to chase her a little and drop a towel over her to get her in the carrier. Mimi hid in the bedroom, which was one of the better rooms for her to be in, and I got her. The new vets were fabulous in handling Zara (handling both of them, but Zara is the problem child). They clearly like cats and were very patient. Zara was the calmest that I've seen her at the vet, which isn't very calm, but she wasn't lashing out. I got senior blood tests on the both of them, so the bill was high, but it's worth it if they can handle Zara. I have a dental appointment for Zara after I get back from Michigan and California.

Cool. The Urbana post office is near Walmart. I hope that they have the postage machines that you can use after hours so that I can mail the passport renewal form tomorrow. Now I'm thinking if I don't pull off Hong Kong, I might take my London trip to see the museums in the fall.

Oh bloody hell. Mom called, and she apparently fell the other day and was on the floor for seven hours while her friend Kate was doing some work elsewhere. Kate convinced her to order one of those emergency buttons, which is good. But Mom wants me to figure out how she will get care all the time, and isn't happy that I'm going to California. She finally said that she would see what she could do for respite care, but she wants me to make all the arrangements for her, and I can't. She asked me what I thought that I would do when things got to this point, and I said that I figured that I would move out there and bring the cats. We went back and forth on the cats a little bit. She doesn't like the fact that I'd have to work from there, and I told her that I couldn't afford to take family leave, which is unpaid. She hopes that she'll die soon "and that will solve everyone's problems". Sigh.

I'm wondering when my next therapy appointment is. Next week, I think.

I need to do some homework and get the recycling out, but then I think that I'll nap for a while. Okay, I contacted the pet sitter. Got the recycling out. Did my homework. I need to eat something and then nap time. Exchanged text messages with Mom's friend Kate. She's going to try to get someone to look in on Mom after she leaves.

It's gotten late, so instead of napping, I'm just going to go to bed and get up early. I gave the girls their nighttime treat, which is similar to the treat that I gave them before I took them to the vet, and they both vanished :)