MeFites on DW

I started a chat group for meal reviews. We get new menus every week with different meal choices for lunch and dinner. The new menus start on Mondays. So for dinner and lunch, they will have the same options for a week. (There is a buffet at dinner that is a different menu every night and a cafe that is a different menu every month, so we have lots of options.) Anyway, the idea is if you eat something for lunch or dinner that is particularly good or bad, share it - especially early on in the week. Right now there are only 4 of us but I'm hoping with time, the crowd will grow. Still even with 4, is better than 1.

Last night I had Shoyu Ramen Chasu (pork belly, soupy noodles and a very softly boiled egg). It was fabulous. I will have the rest of it for lunch and have it again for dinner at least once more this week. Martha reported that the grilled ribeye was really thin but tasty. I'll probably give that a go. Oh and all reported the side dishes this week all suck. So I'll get the ribeye to go and have my own sides ready to eat up here.

Biggie is giving in on the treats. This morning, he took one sniff, gave me the WTF side eye and ate them all pretty much right away. He's still peeing and this morning's contribution was a good amount. He has one more antibiotic pill and then it's just up to the Very Expensive food. Julio and Biggie are really going at it this morning. Running, chasing, squealing, hiding. Julio is usually the one who tries to get Biggie to play but today Biggie's leading the charge. They are a pair for sure.

I'm still struggling with how to get some walking, stretching, moving, stamina building, etc, into my life on a regular basis. So far, no scheme I've come up with is sustainable. And, of course, sustainability will be the only way to make it work. My legs are so week and I have no core strength. I can absolutely see the day when I just can no longer move. That alone, should give me what I need to keep up some kind of program but, alas, 76 years of sitting on my ass is a hard habit to break.

My scheme du jour is to walk from here to the lobby at least 4 times a day. I've done one - since the pool is on the other side of the lobby from here, getting there and back counts. It's a hard thing to force myself to do if I don't have a reason to go. But, it's worth a try anyway. I have a package to pick up (that's 2) and dinner to pick up (that's 3) so I'll really only have to invent one other trip.

Plus, shockingly, the car has not yet been vacuumed.

It's house cleaning day. My favorite day of the week.

I keep watching waiting for him to crash and burn, but so far, no dice. He just drank a bunch of water and his still peeing. Both he and Julio are gobbling up the new food. I guess they both have gourmet pallets. The Chewy order I placed on Thursday, arrived last night. I got a notice that it was delivered so I grabbed my cart and high tailed it down to security before they had a chance to do anything with it (such as put it in another part of the complex with the, likely, boatload of other deliveries from the weekend). It was a smart move as the box was right there by the door so I don't have to wait until this afternoon or maybe tomorrow afternoon to have it delivered.

He's still looking for his Temptations. I sprinkled about 6 of the new treats over the carpet and he sniffed every one and then walked away. But, not long after that, I noticed they were gone.

My TV streaming consolidation try is over. I killed YouTube.TV and am going back to paying for individual streams. The idea of using Prime to house cheap subscriptions turned out to be a 'get what you pay for' situation. The Max/HBO shows not only have ads, but tons of ads and sliced into places where ads should not go since most of the programming was designed for no ads. PLUS not all of the catalog is available.

So I'll buy annual plans for those I care about and get that Hulo/HBO/Max bundle monthly because they don't offer it annually. And then, probably, do this whole segregation/desegregation thing again next year.

Today is Costco with Bonny. And laundry. And that's about it for plans for the day. Maybe today would be a good day to vacuum the car...

Picture 6 cat treats sprinkled on the carpet and two cats sniffing and then going to to their naps. That's zero star review of the approved cat treats. Julio ate one yesterday. Biggie did, too. This morning, Biggie did his usual begging for treats so I sprinkled the 6 out on the carpet. He sniffed at them and then gave me the stink eye and wandered off.

He peed a little - a very little this morning but then hopped out of the litter box and spent five minutes actively playing with Julio. He sure does not seem in pain or even uncomfortable. Just annoyed about the treat situation.

Nothing much going on today at least that I know of. I plan to go for a swim after I finish this. And then watch my usual Sunday morning TV and maybe some puzzling.

Volleyball this morning. There were a lot of people and I play on the edge so balls don't get to me frequently which is fine. Today, I spent all of my non-ball time doing various water aerobics. It was great. I did a lot of in place high knee kick marching and twisting and stretching. Made the whole thing more fun.

Elbow coffee was a small crowd. John and Hazel are getting older very quickly. They keep getting locked out of their apartment - forgetting or losing keys. Bonny took them down on Wednesday and they got two new keys. Yesterday morning, when I got back from the pool they were in the hallway waiting for security to let them in because they had forgotten their keys. Today they missed elbow coffee because they had a conference call - their credit union, their son and them. Because they say, the credit union keeps scamming them. The good news is that they are here and not out there on their own.

Biggie does NOT like the new treats. Not one bit. But they both like both the wet food and the dry.

I have a dead wifi spot in my bedroom and I have a wifi extender. I can see that the extender is improving the signal very much but I can't convince my phone to use the extended signal. This will be my project this aft.

Bonny's out of vodka so 'you want to make a Costco run on Monday?' Sure, says I. I'm very low on coffee.

And that's about it for the hot news here. We are, today, a dry day between rains. Still really grateful to live on a hill.

Timber Ridge - the place where I live - is in a small kind of bedroom community of Seattle called Issaquah. Issaquah has a population of about 40,000. It's been raining here in the Pacific Northwest. A lot. But, Timber Ridge is on a hill. And, yesterday, I went to the vet's and back and only saw large puddles.

But, last night, I was watching the national news on ABC when all of a sudden they were showing a national news guy standing in water reporting that Issaquah Creek (which runs through the town) had overflowed its banks and folks downtown had been asked to evacuate! Then I saw several photos of places very nearby that I know well that had replaced their parking lots with deep rushing water.

So wild to be so close and so surprised. I do feel isolated here in the cult but I thought that was my imagination. Turns out, nope.

Thinking back yesterday, the vet did ask me if I had had trouble getting there and I just kind of brushed it off as weird. Sorry, Dr. Vet.

So now I'm high and dry as usual but also way grateful.

Biggie seems fine. Normal. Yesterday morning when I got up, I gave him gabapentin which the vet techs really appreciate as he is not very fond of stuff they do to him. Usually, it just makes him a giant stuffy after about 2 hours and he stays that way for the rest of the day. Yesterday, he never really settled down. He was staggering when he walked so I know he had it in his system but he was feisty as ever and the tech did report he was not happy with their working on him. Last night all he wanted was to sit on my lap which is not handy or usual but fine. This morning he seems back to usual. And is still peeing just fine. And eating fine and now waiting for his morning Temptations. Sorry, buddy.

Chewy is being a little slow to fill the order for his new food and it's beginning to piss me off. They need approval from the vet which they got yesterday. And I uploaded again this morning. And still the order says 'pending approval'. Even if they ship it today and it arrives this weekend, it will still be Monday or Tuesday before it gets up here. Maybe I'll go back to the vets and buy some there to tide over. The problem is they only sell 7 lb bags of the kibble. I don't want to store that much. Plus I have 4 pounds being delivered from Chewy. Ok. am in chat with Chewy now...

Hazel stopped by last night. She had somehow gotten her tablet into safe mode. Easy fix. She plays solitaire on it a lot. It's one of the few things left that she can see enough to do. Then she asked me if I'd come help John with his computer. I used to do this quite a bit BUT then their son took over and I was happy to relinquish. I do not know where son is now but Hazel said they had gotten scammed by BECU and gotten it all fixed but then it happened again yesterday. The way she was saying it did not make sense but that's Hazel for you. I told her that no, I would not be able to help. I learned my lesson with Myrna's computer and Myrna's son. She assured me that this was different. But, touching someone's banking on a computer leads to nothing good. I told her to contact Brandon or Michael (our two IT guys) and they would help him. She was ok with that and I was so relieved.

Someone (son?, Timber Ridge?) tried to talk Hazel to moving into Assisted Living. John is still living in the nursing wing. She refused. But she really needs it. She keeps locking herself out of her apartment - multiple times a day. Now they apparently are having banking issues.

While I have sympathy, their problems are not mine to fix. And my trying will only make things worse. I learned my lesson the hard way. But, at least I learned it.

Ok Chewy was able to remove the 4 lb bag from my order so I'll go to the vet's today and buy some there.

But, after I swim. My leg does not hurt today so I need to get back to walking. Walking to the pool counts.

My legs and my back are very whiny these days. There are three things causing this. 1. I'm old. 2. I'm fat. and 3. I'm lazy. The first one is absolutely not fixable. The second one is fixable but the sacrifice is not worth the fix to me. I'm not at all interested in changing the way I eat or what I eat.

But, there's a slim chance I could make inroads on the third one. Godknows I have the resources right here at my finger tips. My swimming laps is not really worth that much. I don't use my legs much at all and I don't swim fast enough or tight enough to even move the needle on the cardio scale. It's better than sitting on the couch but only marginally. I need to walk and stretch and walk and stretch. There are miles of weather controlled, flat walking trails literally outside my door. There is an entire gym of fancy equipment a short walk away.

Yesterday, I conscientiously walked away more than usual. I made extra trips downstairs to the lobby area and went the long way round on a few of them. I clocked maybe a third more steps than usual. Today the plan is to spend 30 minutes in the gym. 15 on the elliptical and 15 on one of the bikes (which are more chairs with pedals). I'm convinced I have the motivation to do this today. Tomorrow it may be gone but today, I'm going to do it.

This afternoon is the employee Christmas party. As is the Timber Ridge tradition, the employees gather in the back dining room by department groups. The residents line up on either side of the hallway between that dining room and the large meeting room. Then the employees parade through the cheering residents. It sounds cheesy and it is but also a big crowd pleaser with employees and with residents. Of course the employees get the afternoon off, a big party with music and dancing, a box of homemade Christmas cookies and... a cash bonus. So they are looking forward to it the most.

I woke up at 2 and had a bit of a problem getting back to sleep but then did and slept right through to 7 which is way late for me so now it's 9 and I have yet to even get out of my PJs. So I'm going to do that now!