Mid-March

Mar. 23rd, 2018 03:15 pm
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 595
31.3 miles
sunny, mild!
 

320 recordings of 23 types, 67 old SVU. 28% clear.
 

Monday the 11th I realized that it was going to be cold and windy over the weekend so I called Alicia, and yes, she could come house-sit while I went to San Jose. Hooray!
 

My feet got cold and I remembered the toe socks. Sure enough, that helped. Later, the house got up to 69, this without the heater.
 

The cleaners came.
 

It rained that night and overnight it only got down to 67 in the house. I've been trying to keep the heater off as much as possible. The cold snaps recently made my gas consumption go up even so. (The previous Saturday it got down to 62.)
 

Tuesday I went to the ladies' breakfast. There were only three of us there, so I'm glad I went.

Then I went to get my taxes done. I hadn't brought the 1099 for the one thing that is not taxable anyway. And I found out that it will probably not benefit me to itemize deductions next year. This year it gives me $1200 but next year the standard deduction will be $1300. And I had my aha! moment why Rich didn't itemize... there were two of us, it wasn't worth it. But I didn't because he didn't in 2013, and then the light dawned that it might be worth it, and sure enough, it has been.
 

Claire went to get her Africa pictures so we compared notes afterwards. She also has a "rub my tummy" picture of a lion!
 

I got to the WPAC office for my name badge, (and then lost it again, for about a day, till I got it off the car floor), and to the AAA office for maps and tour books for Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario. (I'm beginning to get excited.)
 

I had canned tamales for dinner. I don't think I've had this since I lived with my Mom on Ord Street. (I'm fairly sure my granddaddy would not have been happy with this dinner!)
 

Wednesday it was so rainy I didn't want to drive the freeway with Padreic, so instead of going to Wee Wednesday I just stayed at the house with them and read the Faith Ringgold books to him and played with him.
 
The Neighborhood Signpost Faith Ringgold Book and Quilt at Wee Wednesday
The neigborhood signpost and Wee Wednesday on the 7th.
 

Bernadette has both Siri and Alexa, so they can fight it out.
 

As it was still raining, Bernadette went to get the kids and I read to them. I especially enjoy Gareth's reaction, as he seems to be really enjoying the story and listening well. Joanna hadn't had her meds in the morning and was definitely wiggly.
 

I accidentally got TWO copies of Charlotte's Web, so decided to donate the extra to the kids' school library.
 

Thursday
I went to the Retreat House, where I volunteered to help with the June 3 picnic. Then I went to the commissary. This was a medium expedition. I had a big shopping thing to really load up the freezer and pantries in September, and then have been going about once a month with fairly small ones since. There was quite a bit to get today. I had been looking for falafel mix, and this time I found it. (But not tahine sauce, so I'll try that somewhere else.) I made falafel the next night. Yum. I also picked up meat, though there is still quite a bit in the freezer. And I got stovetop cleaner, then discovered I already had two bottles of it!
 

Also, in Fishdom (am I opening my data up to the Russians? Maybe not, since I don't use the iPad with any money accounts (except, of course, iTunes and Amazon)) I played a side game. They finally opened the Wonderland aquarium on the next day and I had a grand time playing and stocking it up. Then I have to wait until the next Thursday when they'll load up 15 more games. Their Easter stuff is all the same as last year, so I only moved the hedgehog playing with the egg to Wonderland. I'll play to get enough eggs to get the two fish, Humpty and Dumpty. (I have "Alice", "Chessie", and two clown fish, "Tweedledee" and "Tweedledum." One day as they were swimming, one of the Tweedles hoped I would buy a clown fish, "they're a lot of fun." Heh.)
 

The Russians keep giving me Oz decorations, Dorothy's house with a cyclone, ruby slippers, and a tin man. Apparently they don't know the difference. I've stashed all of those decorations.
 

There was a terrible bridge collapse in Miami.
 

Before the commissary I tried to renew my Air Museum membership but they weren't open when I was there.
 

And I put down my deposit for Oberammergau. They want the rest April 19... I sure hope Father Giltus has sorted it out by then so I can cancel and only lose the deposit. Otherwise, I'll either go with Road Scholar or transfer the $$ to a Japan trip.
 

Friday I woke at 3 to the pouring rain and decided not to go to Renaissance, and then it had cleared up by the time I got up... but I chose not to go anyway and had a jammie day! The only thing I really missed was the forum with Sacramento's new police chief. The Time Travel movie was "Back to the Future."
 

Fiona from Ngoko safaris was visiting the school and wanted a letter from me to the kid I'm sponsoring, Kuthula. I thought I'd missed my chance but was able to send one for Monday, with the elephant-ride picture.
 

I'm watchng olde Oscar-winning movies, and enjoyed Liz and Dick in "Taming of the Shrew." (I wonder if this is the one I saw at Renaissance).
 
I booked my hotel in Haliburton, Ontario. It's too early to get Syracuse. (I hope to use my stay points for it.)
 

Saturday, I did quite a bit, emptied the compost jar, poured out the garden cart, policed the yard, moved the car... then got a haircut, stopped at Lazy-Boy for a grill set for looking around, found a farmer's market, which wasn't much good for me since I got lots of veggies at the commissary, got money, then wine to share with Helena.
 

A couple of geocaching friends came by for the stuff we had that they might be able to make geocaches with, and we stood outside and talked. I missed some of the Gonzaga game but we won anyway.
 

I watched, again, "Gone Girl." Scary stuff.
 
 
Biggest Leprechaun Ever
Biggest leprechaun I've ever seen.

Week Four

Jan. 26th, 2018 02:22 pm
 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 595
8.4 miles
cold and cloudy
 

352 recordngs of 38 types, 1 old SVU, 74 CPD, 50 LMS. 24% clear.
 
 

Heh. Schumer had to surrender. Guess he miscalculated. 
 

Monday was fairly laid back. I drove my neighbor to her massage appointment. We had a nice chat. I really need to see more of her, because it's always fun to talk to her.
 

I did more work on the puzzle and got Europe off the scratch map. Only Africa and some flags to do. It is driving me crazy... the guitar pick is a terrible scratch off tool. I can hardly wait to be done and frame it, and then maybe never travel anywhere else interesting.
 

Monday night I somehow lost my red-framed glasses (I finally found them on the floor Wednesday morning, so they must have been in the bedclothes somewhere.)
 

Tuesday
I woke up to a HUGE spider in the bathtub. Usually in the middle of the night I ignore them till morning, but this one was big enough to get out of the bathtub immediately and had to go out right then. I remembered to unlock the front door... if I'd locked myself out I couldn't get in the back because it was still locked and the dog was asleep, and stumbling around in the cold and the dark looking for the spare key would have been very difficult.
 

AAA called me because they didn't have the credit card number. I figured they would. I also got my information pack from Road Scholar. They wanted Joanna's contact information, so I called on Wednesday to tell them I didn't want to give it to them. It might spoil the surprise.  
 

I went to the Widow's Breakfast, and then stopped to get milk to try to make yogurt. This almost worked... the problem was I didn't mix in the starter well enough. However, there was a little actual yogurt under the milk in the cups. I will try this again sometime next week.
 

In the evening I went down to the Camino Pilgrim's meeting. They had 5 people give quick talks about their Caminos, with slides. I enjoyed it. John came there, too. When I got home I noticed a hole in my porch! Where did that come from?
 

Wednesday I took a birthday card to Rob. It began to dawn on me on the drive down that I had the wrong year, and sure enough, he's 42, not 40. How embarrassing.
 

Padreic was really good at Wee Wednesday this time. There were lots of people at the Crocker today and we had to park at the side (where he could reach the coin slot without the step stool.) The meter swallowed a dollar coin. Then I stuck in my credit card and woke it up, so finished the job with quarters. I noted it was off again when we got back, but no ticket... just need to be sure they didn't charge my card, too.
 

Anyway, the lesson was about toucans. Miss Jill handed out feathers and P. was so excited about his I thought he might be reluctant to return it, but he was very good. Then we made toucan masks. He decorated it beautifully but there was no way he was going to wear it. Not gonna happen. 
 

Back at the house, I demonstrated that Alexa is not a Patriots fan. I said that to Bernadette and the robot popped up "I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear that." (You know, we're actually putting wiretaps on ourselves, who needs the NSA? It might be instructive to start talking about stuff to buy in front of it and see what comes up on the computer in ads.) So I asked "Alexa, who will win the Super Bowl?" and got a screed on how wonderful the Eagles are.
 

I picked up the kids. Gareth, again, was slow to leave. His teacher says he's very bright, but not organized. No kidding. After about 10 minutes he was done and packed up and started out, walking right past his teacher and I pointed and he turned and said "bye."
 
 
Joanna sold me Girl Scout cookies. She'd wrapped up a present for Daddy, who came out to open it when I was reading to them, so I stopped. It was 4 little dishes. Padreic also had a present that Joanna had wrapped, 5 pennies. He burst into tears when Rob pocketed them, so of course Rob gave them back.
 

Yesterday ... well, let me copy my Facebook post: I wanted to move the African nativity set to the display case, which meant I had to clear the shelf that had my Mom's special things on it, which meant I wanted to move them to the shelves over the piano, which meant the onyx bud vases had to go, which meant I wanted to find the box they came in so they could go to the thrift shop in style, which meant I went through the bedroom closet where I thought that box was... no.. but it meant I found a whole bunch of stuff and even threw some out, and eventually just moved the bud vases to the shelves in my bedroom till I find that box or give up, and then the Nana stuff to the ornamental shelves, and the nativity set to the display case, which means I'm tired. The other project of today is re-filing bills and suchlike from the amorphous pile to actual files, mostly because I'm looking for last year's car license for the tax paperwork. (I haven't found it in past years, but this year I was determined to keep it, but of course it isn't in the tax folder.)
 
So. Much. Stuff.
 

I got so engrossed in the filing (and didn't get the registration form) that I almost was late for dinner at Appleby's. Small crowd (a lot of them are on the Hawaiian cruise) and really good. Chicken wonton tacos, total $4.02 so with the tip, I spent $5 for dinner.

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