Making it Monday...

Have you seen that blogger is changing its interface?  It never bodes well when Blogger starts mucking about changing things.

So I thought I'd post an au revoir in case posting becomes too difficult or frustrating for awhile.  Just when I get back to posting more often too.

I've tried the new interface, and have had trouble finding things...like how to justify the text (left, center, right), how to close a post, even the help link is not where they say it is supposed to be.  Ggggrrrrrr...

And every time they go changing things around, it means I have to start the blog design over from scratch.  So if you come here and it looks like it is under construction, bear with me.  I will get things back to normal (or at least the new normal) when I can.  

Hope the anticipation is worse than the actuality, but that hasn't been the past experience for me.

Has anyone else tried the new interface?  What did you think?

Saturday snail mail...

Here's a varied lot over the past month or so:  

A baby boy card for work.

A retirement card for work.

A hello-friend card for...well...for a friend, of course!

A polka dot wish for my Catiebug's birthday.

A die-cut card CASED from  Dena Rekow.

A card full of summer sunshine travelled across the Atlantic.

A sympathy card for work...

I wasn't sure the sparkles were appropriate.  But someone in the know assured me that Hallmark does sparkly sympathy cards.

And another sympathy card for work.

A watermelon card for my m-i-l who loves watermelon.

I added a little sparkly Wink of Stella to make the watermelon look juicy!

Rather unconventional for a 4th of July card, but okay, I guess.  I put looooong wicks on the candles to make them firecrackers.  :)  Oh, I think this one is also CASEd from Dena Rekow.

This is a birthday card for a July 4th birthday.  I figured someone with a birthday on the 4th has probably gotten an abundance of red, white, and blue cards, so I went another direction.

That's all I have, but that's pretty many.  

Frugal Friday File, week 26...

Successes:
1.  Forgot to pack my meds for trip, which I remembered after we had been on the road for an hour.  Texted s-i-l to see if they had my pharmacy in their town, but no such luck.  Used phone to locate and contact a location for my pharmacy about an hour ahead of us in our trip, told them my dilemma, and requested they get a few days worth of my essential prescriptions ready to pick up in about an hour.  Done.  Ready when we got there, and no turning around, wasting time and gasoline.  And no grumpy husband.  :)

2.  While we were together, I gifted my m-i-l with a lengthy foot rub.  I've been doing this whenever we are together since I thought of it a couple of years ago.  She loves them, it is free, and is a gift that doesn't take up any space in her room at the assisted living facility. 

3.  I had an abundance of spaghetti in the pantry, and I haven't been buying beef lately to make a red sauce for it.  I found some shrimp that had been in the freezer for quite a while and a container of shaved parmesan cheese in the fridge.  With some butter, milk, and sliced garlic, it came together into a delicious improvised Shrimp Alfredo that made Carey happy, and enough left overs to make several single servings to freeze for work meals.

4.  I got a loaf of bread out of the freezer, and it was severely dried out.  Blech.  Very disappointed, because I really wanted a sandwich for lunch.  Oh well.  Toasting it made it edible and saved lunch.

5.  Brewing iced tea.  (Still haven't been to local Sonic, though we did stop at one on our road trip, but made sure it was during the half-price time.) 

What I'm reading Wednesday...

The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding by Jennifer Robson

Started this while on a road trip...seven hours of uninterrupted reading...well, uninterrupted except by a lengthy nap.  :)

This is a novel about the embroiderers in the employ of Norman Hartnell, designer of Princess Elizabeth's wedding dress in 1947. 

Enjoyable.

Monday...

This is my normal view on a Monday through Friday afternoon, but I am not there today.  I took Friday and today off in order to travel to visit Carey's sister and b-i-l about 7 hours away by car.

They recently took Carey's mom home with them from her assisted living facility for a break from the monotony of her facility's lockdown during these pandemic days.  We so enjoyed seeing all of them, but the best part was just getting to hug my mother-in-law.  It has been hard to think of her alone and lonely since this started.  She will have to endure two weeks of quarantine in her room when they return her in a day or so, but she deemed it was worth it.

We came home yesterday, and today we had a WebEx appointment.  The person with whom we were speaking via WebEx has been to my office, and mentioned today that I had the most gorgeous view from my work window of anyone in town.  He's right!  And that reminded me that I had just taken this photo a few days ago, so I thought I would share it here.  It really is gorgeous.  The upper right section of the photo shows part of the golf course that we enjoy having so near.  Some days it is hard not to just sit and enjoy the view.

That is a crepe myrtle blooming outside the window.  This one bloom reaches up to my second story window. 

Today has been very relaxing...reading mostly...but I should go unpack and do a load of laundry to get ready for the rest of the week.

Frugal Friday File, week 25...

Successes:
1.  I have not been back to Sonic, and have been taking my gallon cooler of water to work.  (Not drinking a gallon a day, though.)

2.  I used an old t-shirt and fabric from my stash to make four masks last night.

3.  I'm taking tomorrow off, so I remembered to turn in my time sheet (and with a day of vacation) before I left work today.  No shorted paycheck that has to be rectified later.

4.  Our pest control service hasn't called to make our quarterly visit since the shutdown.  I'm not sure I would want to have someone in the house (who has been from house to house) anyway.  Saved the payment, but have killed several scorpions in the house lately.  Rudy is a good watch dog for scorpions and always alerts us to where they are.  Carey got stung tonight when he was going after one, but it didn't get away.  We had Benadryl on hand, so he took some right away.

5.  I went to get my haircut today.  (Wore a mask as did my stylist.)  I am SO happy that I no longer have a bill for color.  Perfectly happy with my gray.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Apricots and Wolfsbane by K.M. Pohlkamp

Recommendation by a friend that I am finally getting around to reading.  I'm not finding anyone to root for in this one.  The main character, a professional poisoner in Tudor-period England, isn't very likable, nor is her assistant, and definitely not her clients.

It does amuse me that the plant that she is desperate to possess and master its poisonous properties is one that grew almost unmanageably right outside our backdoor when I was a kid.  

Weekends are too darn short...

How do I manage not to get anything accomplished in two days?  I didn't get a bit of sewing done.  I didn't ... well if I go on about what I didn't get done we could be here till next weekend.

I did get laundry done.  And had to do some of that twice.  My light colored clothing often comes out of the dryer smelling rather funky...almost skunky.  It's not the washer, it's not the dark clothes, or towels, or Carey's clothes.  I think it may be a particular blouse that makes everything in the load with it smell off.  Could that be possible?  Could it be possessed?  Could it be something that was sprayed on the cotton while it was growing?

I'm not positive about the blouse.  It could be something else in the load, I just don't know what it is for sure.  And let me just say that it is a lovely, comfy and attractive blouse.  I hate to discard it.  I don't even feel like I can donate it, because that is just passing on the evil smell to some other unsuspecting person.  And what if I get rid of it, but the smell remains caused by something else?

It's like that Seinfeld episode where after Jerry had a valet park his car it had a horrible permanent smell forever after.  Then everything that was in the car--his new expensive jacket, Elaine's hair, etc--were all permanently, overwhelmingly, stinky.  He tried to trade the car in for a new one, but no one would take it.  He left it in a bad neighborhood with the keys in it, and a car thief took it for about a block and then bailed out of it due to the smell.  He had to get rid of the expensive jacket.

But I digress.  That's how I feel about this blouse though.  If I remember as I put the load in, and add washing soda to the load, and put vinegar in the dispenser, it seems to not be as noticeable.  That's what I did in the second washing I put it through today.  I think I will not wear it for awhile, and see if the light loads smell better without it among them.  Oh, and I have had Carey smell it, and he didn't smell anything odd, but I find it to be a constant distraction.

Anybody ever had anything that smelled no matter how many times it had been washed?  Anybody have any suggestions?   

Carnations were her favorite...

Red carnations for love and affection.  Pink carnations for gratitude.  Sending a big virtual bouquet of both to my dear friend on her birthday.  I miss you still.  Save me a seat next to yours.  xo

Eleven random thoughts on the 11th...

1.  Holy guacamole!  It is June 11th, and it's been over a month since I've blogged anything!

2.  Occasionally I make rash decisions that I stubbornly have to follow through on.  My mother called it cutting off your nose to spite your face, and I've long been prone to it.  This time I was dissatisfied with Sonic's app never working, and resentful about paying full price for drinks when you could get them half price if the damn app would work.  So I sent them a dissatisfaction survey and added that I'm was a really good customer but I won't be back, and I cancelled my account.  Yeah.  I miss you, magic ice!

3.  Since #2 will save me some serious change, I felt free to spend some.  I ordered a gallon-size stainless steel, insulated cooler to take to work for ice water, and a pitcher to filter the water before filling the cooler.  Our fridge at work is only large enough for a dozen or so bottles of water which we keep for clients.  I hate all the plastic waste those bottles mean, so I needed another way to have my own cold water.

4.  We've all heard that we should drink 8 (8 ounce) glasses of water a day, but the Mayo Clinic recommends 15.5 (8 ounce glasses) for men and 11.5 (8 ounce glasses) for women.  That seems rather generalized to me.  Other sources say to take your body weight, divide it by 2, and the result would be the number of ounces you should drink per day.  So let's say a person weighs 200 pounds:  200 ÷ 2 = 100 ounces that they should drink per day.  FYI there are 128 ounces in a gallon.

5.  Deer love to have their babies in our yard.  Right now we have a pair of twins here.  Yeah, they're cute and all, but they still drive the dog to distraction!  They are so tiny, and the mother jumps the fence and leaves them.  She always comes back, but in the meantime any activity panics them, and they can't figure out how to go through the open gate to get to her.  Carey was trying to quietly and calmly heard them toward the gate the other day, so they could get to mama, so that he could mow the yard.  Our neighbors took offence (no pun intended) and stopped their car and started yelling at Carey to stop scaring them.  Carey never said a word, just waved them off and continued about his business.  But the car and the loud voices frightened them so much they were jumping headlong into the fence.

6.  We don't really know any of our neighbors well.  I may be paranoid, but I think they gossip about us.  Carey saw a different neighbor outside the other day, and stopped to say hello.  The guy asked Carey why we trap deer in our yard.  Oh, geez.

7.  I seem to be spending a lot lately.  I may have to bring back the Frugal Friday File.

8.  Tomorrow is Friday!  YEA!!!

9.  Weekends are too darn short, and this weekend I have a long list of to-dos.

10.  One thing on the list is to make Rudy a new toy.  His 'baby' is a paw from an old stuffed toy.  Yes, it's played right down to just a paw left.  He still loves it.  :)

That's it between his paws.

11.  I overslept on Tuesday and was quite late to work.  I'd better go to bed.  G'night.