fossilfreak | Entries tagged with john

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 599

35.1 miles

cloudy, one small rain shower

337 recordings of 27 types, 62 old SVU. 25% clear. (and 216 recordings (this morning) in "keep till I remove.")

Monday (the 2nd) I stopped at the credit union to let them know I was traveling in two weeks, and to check on the status of my loan. Which I'm doing well with... I'm about 40% paid off, and of course as I bring it down, more of the principal and less of the interest are in each payment.

I got the C batteries that were needed for the Cookie Monster toy. I also found a watch, almost the same as Rich's that broke, but in plastic rather than metal. But it works the same way.

I also bought dog food, but couldn't find Staples for an ink cartridge. The place I pictured in my mind was actually a Fed Ex place. So I went to Amazon. (And mistakenly only ordered color, so I still needed black. On Thursday I looked up the address in the new Yellow Pages. They failed me, and it was Harbor Freight Tools at the address they posted. This was the second YP failure, the other being the wrong number for the exterminator. So into the recycling it goes.

I was working on trip plans and could SEE the New York Merci Boxcar on Google Earth Street View. I am staying... free... in Syracuse with Choice Hotel points.

And I waited and waited for Vince to call. But it was Monday!!

Tuesday morning there was another rat in the kitchen! It dashed for a hole on the other side of the dishwasher, since the one hole was blocked with bricks. So I guess the noises I heard on Sunday were, indeed, vermin, even though my pets didn't react.

I started clearing out some TV shows I like but don't really need to have recorded while I'm gone, like "How the Universe Works" and "What on Earth" (for two really cheerful shows about how we're all gonna diiiiiiiiiie. Also "Love it or List it", which is great fun but it doesn't matter if I miss a few or a hundred.

There was a Herman game, so I played Fishdom. I had a tuna sandwich for lunch and a slow-cooked stuffed pepper (in the tiny slow cooker, the one for nacho cheese) for dinner, and still have some food in the pantry past the sell-by date.

Fiona from Ngoko Safari had sent on the letter from Kathula's grandfather. Besides the letter (thanking me for supporting his nephew!) there was a picture and a tiny necklace and bracelet set.

My arm really hurt. I apparently strained it, possibly by picking up the dog food.

Vince called (about time, right?) and we are agreed that we both miss St. Philomene's Easter Vigil (done right, before the new priest and the different musicians.)

Wednesday was my day with the kids. At Wee Wednesday, Padreic was very busy putting big soft blocks into the "shack" and was really upset when Arthur went into the shack. I went over to tell him that Arthur could go in the shack too, there's room for two. Then I told Arthur that Padreic was putting the blocks in, and Arthur's mother came over to suggest Arthur could help. Then we left them alone, and they put all the blocks in, and played in the shack, then threw them all out, and (this was the exciting part) they cooperated on a different project involving lining up the blocks under the shack. No grownups involved!

I finished reading The Land of Oz to the kids. I told them next week it would be short stories so I wouldn't start a long book and leave them hanging (though now it looks like they'll be gone in June so I'll have to really work to read all of Charlotte's Web to them before they leave. Of course, I can read some to them when we go to Gilroy.) Anyway, Joanna suggested I should FaceTime them and read to them. This was a nice comment, proving that I'm right, they do enjoy it.

Apparently I just ordered colored ink, not a double package with black, for the printer, so I decided I had to go to Staples. I finally, on Thursday, ended up at Office Max.

Thursday was the rat guy. It was Cody again. He plugged the new outside holes and trimmed back the oleander, and really surrounded the dishwasher with copper wool and black gunk. At first it was really hard to open the dishwasher and I pushed the lid down Very Carefully, but today the lid just falls down. This is worrying, since the plug's wearing out. We put bait up in the attic. Thursday night, though, the rats apparently brought along elephants to protest with them. It was a lot of noise. The dog keeps checking, but I think they're gone... except Wednesday morning I pushed at the dishwasher and there were noises back behind the sink. DIE, already! The heavy heavy rain on Friday should have erased their trails outside so I should be OK for awhile.

Also, the water people came through. They dug a hole in front but then dug underground all the way to the back...I didn't know that for sure until I asked on Tuesday. Then the guy took me in back and showed me where they'll connect up the pipe... in 4 to 6 weeks. Oops. I thought it was immediate so I scheduled the pipe replacement May 14 and 15th. The water guy didn't think it would be a problem, in fact it would be easier to hook up to new pipes. So maybe they'll all arrive together! Guess we'll see.

Friday, rain rain rain! I decided to stay home and play games, so I did.

Saturday I went to the WPAC breakfast in the morning and then met Bernadette and the kids for "Jack and the Beanstalk." Padreic did enjoy it and also enjoyed meeting the actors afterwards and getting their autographs. Then they came here so Padreic could play with the Cookie Monster toy now that it had new batteries. They had to leave by 3, though, because Gareth had a play date!

Then, instead of going to the shell ceremony with Sacramento Pilgrims, I decided to stay home. I hadn't called John back, though I did some days later and left a message.

Sunday I had forgotten it was the second Sunday, so almost didn't help with Communion at the nursing home, but I did go and enjoyed it a lot. I did remember to take the baby bottle full of change that I had filled during Lent. It was Divine Mercy Sunday and Father Martin is really excited about it.

I called Helena to find out how her brace was working out, and discovered that the x-rays for the back fracture had uncovered a lump in her lung. It's stage 1 and hasn't spread at all, so next week they're having a treatment conference, her, doctors, and Mark and Diane. (D. via Skype.)

The squirrels, or so I believe, dug up one of the peanuts I planted.

I was watching an olde John Wayne movie and there were cartoons and shorts before it. One was clips of historic film, including the funeral of Edward VII with all the royalty of England there. Fascinating!

Monday the water guys were working across the street. I didn't know they'd finished my yard until the next day, when I asked. The cleaners came, and I had called ahead to ask them to park in my driveway. I also had neighbors parking in the driveway, too. After they left, I went to the commissary, a small trip but almost $100 because I was getting Alicia some breakfast burritos and found some impulse food for myself.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 599

31.4 miles

partly cloudy

305 recordings of 21 types, 65 old CPD. 31% clear.

Tuesday (the 19th) as I was driving home, I decided to stop at Wendy's for a burger. I think this may be the first time I've been at a Wendy's since David died and Rich walked me down to the local one to help me calm down.

Alicia had left the baby gate open so the dog got into the kitty litter. She left the shower leaking. She didn't eat the strawberries and grapes I had out for her, and she had the heater up to 72%. (darn. I was really hoping this month's usage would be down.) However, she was able to come at the last minute and the dog didn't have to stay out in bad weather.

Vince called and they planned A.J.'s birthday party for Saturday. Vince wanted to put together some kits so they could make their own trains.

Wednesday Fishdom came up with an Easter game. While I had most of the things from last year (and put the delighted hedgehog into the Wonderland aquarium) I did want the two fish again (Humpty and Dumpty) so I played.

Bernadette had work this day, so she brought Padreic over in the morning on the way. I decided it was too rainy to go to Wee Wednesday, so we just stayed in the house and I gave him macaroni and cheese for lunch.

He was playing with the Cookie Monster toy and had discovered it would travel across the kitchen floor, so of course the batteries ran down. It was C batteries, and I found a pack of two unused Cs. Then I see they were both corroded. Who knew that not using batteries in many years wasted them? So I need to get new Cs.

I drove directly to the school and went out in the rain with Padreic to go to the office and donate Charlotte's Web. We hung out then for about 10 minutes until we could go wait for the kids on the school grounds. I saw Joanna and told her to go to the crosswalk and then go to my car, which was unlocked, and get into it, and then waited for Gareth. The three of us walked toward the crosswalk, at Padreic's speed, and there was Joanna with the principal holding an umbrella over her. Apparently, she only remembered the first part of the instructions, and I believe this is the second time that's happened, so from now on I'll have her repeat the whole thing.

Back at the house, I read to them and watched their homework, though Gareth needs constant prompts. Joanna played with Padreic. When Rob got home he helped set Gareth up to edit his paper (which gets electronically sent to the teacher: wonderful technology) and then went to relax. I stayed around to keep the kids sane (not that it was hard) until R. came out to start dinner and I told him B. was going to bring something. Then I asked if he was prepared to rejoin the world, he was, so I left about 5:45. It was late enough that going up Watt actually was OK and I got home myself about 6:30.

Thursday, rain rain rain. I stayed in. John called. As I suspected, he's found a widow he knew from the past and is beginning to date.

I made the backspout *whoosh* out, very satisfactory. However, I got a hand cramp. The first one I ever had was in Zubiri, Spain, but I'm getting them more often now. Foot cramps I've been having for years.

I uploaded all the pictures from my camera. It's been a couple of months.

There was a shooting over the weekend... it was initially presented as a poor unarmed young dad, but there was a bit more to the story. It's our own Michael Brown incident, though so far the Black Lives Matter people have only blocked off the Kings games. No rioting to date, which is promising.

Friday I did some digging in the garden. I called Brenda to find out how Renee is doing, and she's been removed to a convalescent home. I also called Darlene. She was on her way to St. Augustine.

Then I drove down to the Feickert school Carnival. Bernadette had bought my raffle tickets and a ticket for a cheese pizza slice. (Friday in Lent, no hot dog for me!) I danced the Macarena and Y-M-C-A, but mostly I hung out. Bernadette actually can do the hula hoop! I put my tickets mostly in the bag for the gift cards, and a few in the Kindle Fire bag. And I won nothing. However, Bernadette (and Padreic, who had carefully put the ticket in that bag when she told him to) did win a basket with a really cute bunny. And Joanna was totally thrilled with the bag.

&bsp

I sadly told them goodbye, since this is Joan's turn to have them for Easter.

Saturday I spent a lot of time playing games, then went back to sleep and ended up with 8 hours of sleep. This hardly ever happens.

I went to the store, then later went to evening Mass to avoid the Palm Sunday processions. Ever since Alan left, our Palm Sundays just aren't that exciting any more. I talked to Peter Mithin for a bit.

I adjusted a slow cooker orange chicken recipe for the Instant Pot. It wasn't bad (it's from a diabetes cookbook) though I forgot the grated orange peel which is ridiculous with all the oranges Monica gave me!

Sunday morning the dog wasn't in his bed. I went looking for him and there he was in the kitchen with a RAT! A big one! Eeek!! It scurried off to the hole next to the dishwasher. Sunday morning at 4 AM, I couldn't call the rat people till Monday. That night I tried blocking the hole with a lead weight, but it pushed it over and got into the kitchen again, though this time I didn't see it. Then I put bricks there and that seems to be working to keep it out of the kitchen.

I dug up the garden for peanuts which I planted on Monday. I'm also trying to sprout kumquats. And I have a different kind of avocado pit I hope to grow.

I had a long talk with sister-in-law Carol. Frank will be 75 on April 11th!

Fiona (from Ngoko safari) has posted her trip report. They (she and Benson) will be coming to the US in October, maybe to Seattle!

I printed up the Canadian Geotour passport, and put Doug and Nancy on the GPS.

Monday I had a nosebleed. I spent a lot of time playing games. I am spending too much money on Albion, but it's very addictive.

The cleaners were early so I had to do a quick final pass. Then while I was in the bedroom I kept hearing this "tap tap tap" and wondered what they were doing. Finally, when they tapped on my window I learned they had locked themselves out!!

My tulips are so pretty!

I'd been wondering if Roni would ask me for Easter. She finally emailed the family, what fun it would be if everyone came for Easter dinner. (This was a surprise, lately they've been taking Grandma to dinner in a restaurant. Apparently Kathy has become totally anti-social, doesn't want to go out, doesn't want people to visit.) Monica is going to New Orleans, Bernadette is in Oregon, and I said no because I'm on retreat till Easter morning and am going to want to go home with my dog. Poor Roni!

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 595

27.1 miles

rainy, windy

338 recordings of 36 types. 1 old LMS, 69 CPD, 8 LMS. 23% clear. (Friday's statistics. I start this so early and then get too busy to finish.)

Sunday February 18 was great fun. I met my geocaching friend Carol in Folsom. The restaurant I was thinking of turns out to be closed on Sunday mornings. Oops. And she got stuck in terrible traffic so was late, but we finally met up.

Her usual geocaching partner doesn't like walking, and Carol does, so this was perfect. For starters, she'd marked a cache I didn't have listed, so looked for that while I dashed back for my sunglasses. Then off we went, off to the trail. There are no new art works since I was here in December, so no new geocaches. Yet. But there were 4 I was unable to get last time. Carol had found one of those, but not the others. And it was such a pleasant day for a walk. I think she and I should go to the Lafayette reservoir one of these days!

We came back in sore need of a bathroom, and hungry, and stopped at Pizza Classico (where I had a salad. Yay me.) All in all, a very pleasant day!

I was watching a show about the Galapagos and learned that a volcano there erupted in 2015! I must not have been paying attention.

Monday's only event was that I went to the Newcomer's Dinner. I had called to remind John, so he came. He and Bill (a neighbor, on Pounds Lane) had both gone to Grant High School in the 40s, so they had a lot of reminiscences that I found fascinating.

I cleaned out the kitchen pantry (except for the pasta shelf, which I got the next day). SO much vinegar! So much alcohol! I DID have corn starch after all, so now I have far too much! And so much gelatin!!

I've been watching old movies. TMC has a pre-Oscar special, and so many are interesting to me. So I had to cancel S.W.A.T., that I never got into, and cut out a lot of the How the Universe Works segments (all about how the universe is going to kill us... maybe in 5 billion years, or maybe this afternoon.)

Tuesday, my USAA subscriber bonus came, which would cover the deposit for Oberammergau. I found out that it's not refundable, but for $200 I could transfer it to another program, which might be useful, if I do it and then go with Father Giltus.

I actually made it to the breakfast. I like the people but really am not impressed with the restaurant.

Wednesday I had another nosebleed. Sigh. This gets old.

At Wee Wednesday Miss Jill was gone so Miss Michelle was the leader. She did a "criss cross" rhyme and Padreic learned to sit cross-legged. We showed Mommy when we got home. It's a lot better when they sit that way so they dont get in everyone's way. Too bad Arthur doesn't get it, and too bad Arthur's mom and grandmom don't try to get him to behave.

The parking meter acted up, told me I was paid till 11:30, but when we came out at 11:10 it had expired. There was no ticket, but I thought it should be reported. I tried calling the number on the meter but it continually kicked me off. Later, about Monday, I reported online. And yet, the next Wednesday a woman was unable to pay at that meter. She has a smartphone so could do it, anyway.

Back at the house, I was picking up stuff (Bernadette had turfed out Gareth's room and it looked great) and found Joanna's Thanksgiving list. She's thankful for Grandma, but not for me. This little girl manages to hurt my feelings on a regular basis! She is still not doing her writing. I keep asking why and she doesn't know. I asked Joan to tell Joanna she, Grandma, would like her to do her school writing. That might work.

Thursday I was almost late to the Retreat House, swallowed up by Facebook. But I made it. Again, a huge amount to eat!

I got Pharaoh's DNA kit and swabbed his cheeks. I really am curious.

I have decided not to play the regular levels in Fishdom until they come up with a new aquarium. But I'm OK playing the additional game of Herman (the crab) even if it means (and it did) dropping another league. They add 15 new games every Thursday, and I've been buying the diamonds at a discount, so by mid-March I should have enough to play the 60 or 75 games I'll have before they go to the "chests." Those games don't let you get new decorations or fish. When they do open the Wonderland exhibit I can buy a lot of goodies right away. The fish keep nagging me to go to the store, but I have everything already and the aquaria are stuffed!

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 595

13.9 miles

COLD! (warm most of the week)

354 recordings of 34 types, 1 old SVU (I have to keep repeating "no, don't record that"), 70 CPD, 19 LMS. 21% clear.

This week went by in a flash... I've been playing Fishdom and reading Nero Wolfe, not writing this journal or keeping up with much of anything else. Sunday through Thursday I was watching Safari Live and hoping to win a safari, but sadly a woman from Seattle won.

Monday (the 5th) would have been Rich's 76th birthday. When I changed out the cat box I realized there wasn't enough poop. Later in the week I saw that Pharaoh was sneaking in there WHILE I'M IN THE HOUSE so there's no time I can leave the gate down. He was duly punished but he's apparently too stupid to learn or too obsessed to care.

I watched Marnie.( I'd never seen it before.) I was surprised that it was written by Winston Graham.

I can't stand Adam Schiff. He speaks, he lies. I was happy, later in the week, to find out he got pranked by some Ukrainean DJs, and now I think of him as a buffoon. I think he's lost some credibility (I hope) because of that.

Tuesday my sleep was all messed up and I didn't make it to breakfast. My weight and blood pressure were both down. I dug in the garden a little bit. Turned off the heat and opened windows much of the next few days. (Then it got cold again.)

Pharaoh got into the rawhide I got out for St. Vincent de Paul. He's *impossible* these days.

Wednesday, fun with the kids. At Wee Wednesday Padreic was a little more social, though he was as pushy as Arthur. The hard lesson was "wait your turn." Then he surprised me by not wanting to go to Wing Ding. (He fell asleep on the way home.) More of the "Land of Oz" with Gareth and Joanna. Bernadette can't get on Facebook, so I've been writing her, and of course my communications major never communicates.

I talked to my friend down at the school and she didn't like Father Heart-Throb at all his second time through, so I wasn't the only one.

Thursday was my doctor visit. I'd thought it might be a full checkup but it was just a review of the A1c test. In the 6 months I lost 5.2 pounds. My A1c was 5.9, so much better than it's been all along. It's still in pre-diabetic range but the lowest it's been since they started checking it 3 years ago or so. He wanted to know how hard it was to be good, suggesting Glucophage. I looked it up when I got home and have decided no, especially if I can get the A1c down farther (not this week, though. I celebrated with a pizza Friday through Monday, and also have been enjoying other carbs, hash browns and toast and jelly, that sort of thing. (And gained the weight to prove it. Easy to put on, hard to take off!))

The doctor also recommended a two-part shingles vaccine with a much higher prevention rate than the one I already had. So I went down to the pharmacy for it... and TriCare doesn't cover it! $200! For the first half! Painful two ways.

I worked on the jigsaw, and went out to the WPAC dinner in Citrus Heights. It's the chicken won ton tacos there, quite good. One of the women there had a terrible time on the Hawaii cruise. Makes me think again about the Alaska one in a couple of years. The person airlifted off at Hilo WAS on that ship but not a WPAC person.

Friday I had a nosebleed, and decided to skip the morning session, mostly because I wanted to carry a pillow to deal with those terrible seats. I gave the teacher a Time Travel book I'd found. The movie was "Time Bandits." Silly. During the week I watched "Terminator" and I was wrong, I hadn't seen it before. For one thing, it came out before I met GoE, so I wouldn't have. It must have been a sequel that I didn't like.

My neighbor came over to tell me they'll be putting a fence in. Darn. I really like it when the dogs see each other and when I can reach over and pet them, especially Patches, the new one. I miss the old days when I could see the neighbors! Oh, well.

That night I went to the Camino Pilgrim's meeting to see the Le Puy presentation. Not much help about the route from Lourdes. John was there. He called the next day to see if I was all right, because I left while he was talking to another woman.

Saturday morning I went to the WPAC breakfast, which was nice. Marty and Jim were there. She got really sick on the cruise, and he was disappointed at the Arizona Memorial.

I took the kids to see "The Secret Garden". And I started looking for maps of Nero Wolfe's house. I settled on Stout's sketch of the office but finally adjusted Baring-Gould's first floor to make the second floor work. (Still can't do the third floor and the orchids, but oh, well.)

Had a nice long talk with John on the telephone.

Sunday it was Mass, Communion at the retirement home, and finishing the Rex Stout Nero Wolfes.

Reading: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Pepys' Diary; Embarrassments by PJ Nel; Shattered, Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes; Little Women, Louisa May Alcott; We Die Standing Up, Dom Hubert van Zeller; A Portrait of a Lady, Henry James, Jr.; and Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-Fifth Street, William S. Baring-Gould.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 595

10.4 miles

sunny, mild

352 recordings of 35 types, 1 old SVU, 71 old CPD, 39 LMS, 23% clear.

I had to leave the retreat early because I had tickets for "Carnival of the Animals" by Circa in Davis. I left here about1:50 and got caught in the usual Sunday traffic jam near IKEA, but arrived at the theater by 2:30 as planned. Then I waited and waited and waited for Bernadette, who was planning to leave the bowling and pizza party the kids were at at 2:00... I began to think I was going to miss it, $135.00 wasted.

Bernadette drove up about 2:50 and got parked and to me by 2:56, so we raced in... to find someone else had our seats. This was a bit confusing (they'd not realized their seats were on the orchestra side) but we were seated and the show started about 10 minutes late or so. Which was our hope, that a kids' show might be a little confused and not that prompt to start.

It was fun, and the kids liked it. Gareth laughed right away, and eventually Joanna started to smile. (The last time we were at the Mondavi she didn't much like the show at all, but that was 3 years ago.)

Bernadette was behind me getting out of the parking lot, but I was a bit surprised when she also followed me on the Reno exit. When she got off at IKEA, I figured it out.

When we went to bed, suddenly Pharaoh upchucked everything he'd had to eat the last 3 days. This was on the tile floor, so while it was an enormous paper towel job, it wasn't too bad. But then he upchucked a small amount on his bed, so I had to rinse that off and then find a quilt for him to sleep on. The next day I properly cleaned his bed and it was dry by bedtime. I guess the dog was anxious about missing me, but next time I bring his own food.

Monday was the cleaners. This time I was ready.

I had two nosebleeds this day!

After the cleaners, I drove out to Citrus Heights, where the other BevMo! is, to the Skechers outlet and I found two nice pair of shoes that DO fit!

Tuesday I didn't feel like going out to breakfast, and in fact I mostly spent the day playing Fishdom!

I also finished the scratch-off map and framed it (though I didn't take the pliofilm off the front of the glass, so will have to do that when (if) I ever scratch off anything else. 17 countries! I also did more on the jigsaw puzzle.

In the afternoon I went to get vitamins, milk, and gas.

My Apple charging card finally broke, after years of abuse. I taped the insulation back on so I can use it till the new one comes. (Which happened Thursday.)

Wednesday was great. The Wee Wednesday program was about the senses and Padreic contributed. The first time was quiet and not really on topic, Miss Jill had said she liked to touch her cat and P. said he had a cat... and Nana has a dog. I was the only person to hear this. Later, though, he answered a question Miss Jill asked him, and to the point. They "planted a garden" and he loved that. Then the exhibit Wing Dings was back, and Padreic didn't want to leave it.

I read the beginning of "The Land of Oz" to the kids, leaving them at a cliffhanger place. Heh.

Then yesterday I went to Mass at the Retreat House. I talked to a fairly new widow and found out her daughter and granddaughter don't talk to her. Just awful. I also saw another woman and we talked, but I cannot remember her name... she knows mine.

At home I finally noticed John had called. Since he called on Wednesday and I didn't call back, he was worried he was bothering me. No, I enjoy talking to him.

I actually opened the windows in the house and aired it out. I noted there was mud on the outside of one, so I took it out of the frame and washed it! (This is a first, and this is one of the old ones!)

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.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 595

5.1 miles

sunny (but cold)

351 recordings of 40 types. 1 old SVU, 74 CPD, 51 LMS. 24% clear.

Tuesday the 16th I went to breakfast with the widows and we had a great time discussing funerals and laughing and laughing.

Then in the afternoon John came over and I showed him pictures and told him about the Camino for two and a half hours. I had a great time.... that was a lot of fun!

Vince called and apart from a time when his microphone went out, this week it all worked.

And then I got to looking at the geocaches in Canada, and before I knew it, it was nearly midnight.

On Wednesday I went to pick up Padreic for Wee Wednesday. Rob was home, celebrating his birthday with two weeks off. Padreic was OK with leaving today and he was happy to check out the play room and the tot room. He had a little difficulty sharing. I was spelling his name out with the blocks, and of course the C was missing... then he lined all the blocks up in no particular order, and then went to play with something else, but when another kid came to play with the blocks he was possessive... "MINE!" No, you have to share. Tears, real tears, and loud crying. If you keep that up, we're going home. Immediate quiet. Then when a little girl came over, she wanted to have him play with her... "you can help me put some blocks on." He didn't understand that, so while she built a tower (and kept offering to let him help) he built a triangle wall. The girl was ahead socially, but he was an engineer.

The story was about "happy" and "sad" and then we went up to look at pictures. Then the idea was to show how we could make happy and sad faces. Hey, Padreic was real good down in the tot room with sad when he had to share. But he really didn't have a clue. Then they were given an oval and lots of shapes to glue on to make a face. Again, he just liked gluing shapes on. He was very very proud of his collage. I saw the black square needed more glue and took it to do that and he clouded up, but he listened when I explained and I gave his creation right back after it was mended. He carefully took it home to give to Mommy to display. (They have a dresser in front of most of the refrigerator display space, but Bernadette found room.) Then I gave him a Cars sticker book.

After awhile they were having Alexa play songs. Padreic was dancing and spinning and got really over-excited so had a major breakdown just before I left to pick up the kids at school. Needed some cuddle time with Mommy. "Raining Tacos" is a really silly song.

Joanna had a good behavior slip this time, with only one "oops" and again, it was about writing. It's kind of scary that her birthday present, a Boxcar Children themed camp, is going to have writing, but I hope that the different setting will help her, and hey, if she doesn't want to do it, it really won't matter.

I read more of Betsy and Tacy go over the Big Hill, just one day left of this, which will also include the real story.

My name tag wasn't in the raincoat after all, so I wasn't hallucinating putting it somewhere last Friday. But I thought it was in the car and I have turned that inside out, so I have no idea where it is.

I had thought I would go to Yuba City for the geocaching event, but I was really too tired.

My Instant Pot came, and I've got a bit (a lot?) of buyer's remorse. It's too big (if I'd bought one off the shelf, I'd have gotten a smaller one), I managed to scald myself during the "this is how to use it" program, and the kicker is the rice cooker feature, one I really wanted it for, was a disaster. I was hoping to replace my Mom's 40+ year old rice cooker. But I followed the "multigrain" instructions, and about half of the rice stuck to the pan and needed to be scrubbed off. I do have a big, shallow, pan that I've used for rice before on the big burner on my stove, and it works well, so I still have a plan for rice. Certainly not this Instant Pot. I've also looked at the recipes, and there's a lot of prep for each meal. When they say "10 minutes" they don't count the time to soak beans or cut up meat, for instance.

The next day I tried to modify a slow cooker meal for the pressure cooker. Turns out, I don't have corn starch, so I couldn't thicken the gravy, but oh my goodness, the beef cubes were delicious! So my Buyer's Remorse is still to be decided. I ordered some yogurt cups, and will try making yogurt in it.

Thursday I made a commissary run. As I was putting the food away I noted a case of diced tomato cans, and they're from 2008! (I don't remember getting anything like this while Rich was alive, since I avoided the commissary like the plague.) They seem OK. I keep buying diced tomatoes because I use them a lot, so I'll probably be able to get rid of these fairly soon.

I called for Joanna's camp and paid for it all right now. I looked at the map, and it does look like fun. I'll print the page up for her because the information probably won't come until May.

Friday I didn't do much, just stayed home all day, got a call from Food for the Poor so they now have my new credit card number. I worked on the jigsaw, pretty much finishing the blue sky. I also scratched off the countries in South America for my map, and the flags on that side of the map. (Which I hate, though I've discovered that my thumbnails work better than the idiot guitar pick they gave me.)

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 585

4.3 miles

rain

343 recordings of 42 types. 1 old SVU, 71 CPD, 49 LMS. 25% clear.

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday, I found treasure! I had left too early for the Crocker and arrived with about 25 minutes to wait until it opened, so I took Padreic over to look at the utility box that looks like a little house. Then we walked back through the park, and I spied two halves of a disco ball which had been thrown out. Bernadette was equally pleased and plans to put them together. Treasure!

Since I had no luck at Bed Bath and Beyond, I ordered an Instant Pot from Amazon. Then, when I was at the senior care center to help with Communion, I learned the nearby WalMart was closing. So afterwards I stopped by just to see. The lines just to get IN at Sam's Club were amazing, but it wasn't that bad at WalMart. They had one Instant Pot there for a lot less than I'd paid from Amazon... I considered having someone get the box, and then the lines to check out, and the fact I'm reluctant to use the credit card at WalMart, and the fun of either cancelling or returning the pot at Amazon, and I chose the lazy way.

I stood in front of the TVs for quite a while. It's really tempting just to buy one that actually has everything I want instead of this constant fight with the white elephant Bernadette and Rob gave me. But then I had the bright idea to have Pagan help me the next time he's here.

Reading my Nero Wolfe, I suddenly got to a page where all the capital Os were blacked in. It was just like my Mom was saying "hi."

On the way to church I had a bit of dizziness. I wondered if I was going to be like the man last week. Fortunately, no. Gerrie wasn't there, so I couldn't trade books with her.

I don't like the toothbrush, guess I will buy an Oralcare one. Too bad I can't find that 20% coupon from Bed Bath and Beyond. I suppose I'll get it from the dentist.

I got my tickets to Pittsburgh and reserved a car. I also filled out a reservation form for the Crater Lake boat, but it's 2017 and I had to put all the credit card info out there... sort of worrying. I had to call the Bard's Inn because they're no longer with Best Western and their online reservation system is being revamped. That's a relief, I was afraid they were sold out. I got a room on the first floor of the building I like. It's going to be pricy, but worth it. So I pretty well have August and April set. (Still need motel reservations for the Ottawa trip.) I tried to get Joanna's camp set up online but will have to call it in.

Yesterday, Monday, I got a call from John (a friend of Jackey's) who is planning to go on the Camino. I talked to him and since it was the third Monday, I invited him to the Newcomer's dinner. We met and he'll be coming over today to see my pictures (well, about 5% of them.)

I had wondered if the cleaners were coming yesterday, as it was a holiday. They sure did, at 8:30, and I really wasn't ready. Oh, well.

I got a lot of the sky done on the jigsaw puzzle. It's coming along nicely.

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fossilfreak

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