Apparently Zane did not want any sort of service or memorial. He's going to be buried in the Lithuanian National Cemetery in Chicago. So I guess that's that.
Had a nice conversation with Zara. She got mad when I ran my hand along her back. She hissed and smacked me. Just trying to say "Hello," Zara.
I need to get to bed early because I have to get up at the crack of dawn for my class tomorrow.
Zara came into the kitchen to see if it was breakfast time yet. I sang "Anticipation" to her. Now they're eating and happy.
Snow this morning. Though now it's raining on top of the snow.
Ran to pick up my meds during my dinner hour before the snow started. I'm glad that I was able to eat dinner at home without slippery roads.
The snowstorm thus far has been a bust. It's sticking a little to the grass, but the pavement is clear. Excellent.
Finally made my chicken salad. It wasn't too hard to make; I don't know why I was procrastinating on making it. And yay, chicken salad sandwiches for lunch.
Apparently my Dad's cousin Zane passed away on Saturday, although we didn't hear about it until today. He passed away listening to his favorite opera, which is not a bad way to go. I'm sad but not really upset.
I had some problems falling asleep last night. I finally got up and ate some oatmeal, and that did the trick.
Yesterday and today, I kept checking my email for news about Zane, but so far, nothing.
Crazy tired today. Propping my eyes open.
I think that the savings account that pays off in frequent flyer points will be very motivating to save. Challenge accepted :)
Hmm, Mom said to allow time to explore Tuscany as well as Florence. Tours are expensive though. I'd need to get familiar with the public transportation instead. I know where I'd want to go: Siena, Pisa, and Lucca. And Cinque Terre.
I feed Zara on my desk chair because she likes to eat off of the floor. I was coming in to use the computer, and took her partially empty dish off of the chair and put it on the floor. Zara: "Mommy, I want to eat that RIGHT NOW!" So I put it back and went to do the dishes.
Still exhausted. Time to crash.
I looked at Swagbucks to see if they had deals on anything that I needed anyway, and they had a deal on TurboTax, which I normally use for taxes. I don't have the tax forms from the college yet though.
I dug out my Kindle and am trying to charge it, but I'm not sure if it's charging. I think that I need a new charger for it.
I had a nice nap with Mimi. I got confused when my alarm went off. I was wondering why it was going off when I can sleep in today. It's because I was taking a nap, not getting up in the morning!
Got the soup in the slow cooker.
I was going to call my dad's cousin Zane today, but he's doing worse today and is going into care.
I got the car partially cleaned out. One of the neighborhood cats was supervising. Tomorrow, I need to drop some stuff at storage, work, and plastic bags at Walmart.
The soup smells good.
Talked to Mom. She's busy getting her house together because a friend might be coming in from out of town. We talked about Florence, but I didn't tell her that I hoped that she would come with me because who knows what might happen between now and then.
OMG, is that soup good! Delicious! I think that it might need more tortellini than in the recipe, but I didn't make all that I had. And I watched a travelogue about Florence while I ate. Perfect.
I'm going to go to sleep and get up early to clean.
My dad's cousin Ed is talking to my dad's cousin Zane today, so I'm glad that I don't have plans to talk to either one of them.
I had a nice nap with Mimi. Zara has found a new spot to hide, and I don't know where she is. We'll see where she appears at dinner time. Found her. She was on a bookshelf in the office.
It was announced today that a former colleague of mine is the new director of the public library. Cool beans.
I was feeling low energy after lunch and thought about another nap, but then I decided to work on Italian flashcards and get the benefit of the computer's blue light. At least that will be accomplishing something.
I just realized that I can get DVDs from the public library now that I fixed the DVD player, and I'm trying to figure out what to request.
Talked to Mom. She sounded okay, but she said that she's feeling worn down.
Apparently doctors did some genetic testing on the tumor that my aunt had, and she has fewer genes than she's supposed to have to fight off illness in her colon, so she's probably going to get a colonoscopy every year? I wonder if we have the same genes? And my aunt wants to get her knees replaced, but my mom had a thing where the bones grow back, and my aunt is having a hard time finding a doctor who will do radiation to keep the bones from growing. My aunt's hemoglobin is low, so she's wondering if she has multiple myeloma like my mom.
Mom is going to send the Harry Potter movies this week, so I don't need to check out any movies right now.
Made the tuna casserole. It was pretty good.
I started unraveling the mysteries of Italian pronunciation while the casserole baked. I'm taking it in bite-sized chunks because it overwhelmed me in the lesson.
I have a bit of a headache, so I'm going to do dishes and crash.
My dad's cousin Ed told me another of my dad's cousins (Izolda) died five years ago. I had no idea. She wasn't someone that I was particularly close to (in fact, I barely knew her), but still shocking. I'm going to have a Skype call with Ed and catch up. He so totally sounds like himself in messages and e-mail.
My dad's cousin Zane is out of the hospital, but not up to talking to anyone. I'm going to send him a card and letter this weekend.
(My great-grandmother had a large family, most of whom--but not all--moved to the US. My dad's generation was smaller. My generation is smaller still. That's why I don't have any direct cousins.)
It's cold today--23 F when I went into work. If I knew that, I wouldn't have left with wet hair, but it was okay. Work was quiet, except when someone called me, my pet sitter came by to drop off my key, and I stepped outside for a moment all at the same time.
I found a company that will handle the paperwork for getting a Lithuanian passport for a fee. I might use them sometime. It beats trying to dig through records in a foreign language in a foreign country.
The Google Home Mini worked really well as an alarm. I'm going to save it, though, for times when I have an early appointment so that I don't get used to it. It also has a sleep function with nature sounds, but I found that annoying.
I almost forgot to feed the girls last night. I was in bed last night with the lights off when I started to wonder if I fed them. Sure enough, I hadn't. They need to tell me to get with the program.
Well, hell. The permanent crown isn't back yet. The dental office said that they tried to call me, but I missed the call. (It turned out that they called my work number. I just called them and gave them my cell number.) I went and got Zara's meds, frozen tortellini, and cherry turnovers from the discount rack. I couldn't remember if I needed milk, so I got some, only to find that I had plenty. So I'm freezing it. I'm going to go back to sleep for a while.
My dad e-mailed me that his cousin has terminal cancer and is going into hospice. I'm kind of shaken up by that. I don't know why because he's in his mid-80s, but he was one of my favorite relatives when I was a kid. I told my boss that if there will be a memorial service in Chicago, that I'd want to go. (Zane lives in Palm Springs, but he's from Chicago like the rest of us.) Dad said that I should call Zane, but I really haven't talked to him much for years and mostly remember him from when I was a kid. Called Mom and told her about Zane. She agreed that a phone call might be awkward, so I'm going to write a letter with some memories of him (some of them funny).
I'm exhausted. I'm going to go to bed early and get up early to work on the letter.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sforzindatimeasmymeasure
