metafilter | Member Posts

The pool has been so cold and then, Thursday, cloudy. So when they sent the announcement that it was closing for maintenance, we really didn't think it was going to open any time soon. But it did! and this morning, the water was crystal clear and plenty warm and volleyball was very fun.

Elbow coffee was fine. No big news. Just comforting neighbors comforting. Everyone's really concerned about John. It's kind of like a wait before the wake.

Now I'm home watching the Braves and Marlins game because one of the umpires has a vagina! So far she's doing great. And they gave her a nice, but not overly nice, welcome. Deft.

So I added risers to my couch and that made the chaise piece look funny so I moved it to storage and then I discovered that there was a mess of wires under the table that just looked horrible so I plugged and unplugged and replugged and then eliminated a couple of cables and bundled the rest and it now looks much better. But, really, one thing and then another and then another...

Spacefem has another one of her financial entries up today that has me thinking. She has vastly different goals and needs and financial requirements than I do but her thots on her own finances always get me to rethink mine. Today I'm thinking about my Amazon purchases which I do not track in a lot of detail but want to start (or restart - I used to). I don't know that I'll make many changes, I just want to know for sure, what I'm doing.

And... here's a shocker... I have no Amazon returns!

susandennis

The new coffee table won't be here Monday, it will be here a week from Monday. Fine. I did figure out where the other stuff will go. And how to add electricity and charging ports to it. So I'll be ready.

I went to Daiso and to Goodwill. It's so weird to go that far away. But mission totally accomplished. Daiso has far more things than it did last trip which was more than a year ago. And the prices are higher, of course, but it was fine and fun.

My 1st priority at Goodwill was a tissue box holder for the bedroom. Really. It had to be heavy and dark. I had one but in a mad chase one night about a month ago, Julio knocked it off the nightstand and it broke into more pieces than could be put back together. It's a difficult thing to shop on Amazon for because I wanted the cheapest I could find and heavy and, preferably not breakable. I found exactly that at Goodwill. $5. It's dark, it's kind of heavy like stone and feels like stone. And now my tissue box won't go flying every time I try to pull out one to blow my nose!

I also found some good hair colored sweaters to unravel and, best of all, ran out of steam before I could cause much more financial disaster. Home and lunched now.

I did get a text from Steve that the pool may be reopened today so volleyball could be back on tomorrow. I'm ok with that.

susandennis

Mainly, I'm pretty sad this morning about my brother's wonderful dog. The two are spending their last weekend together and it's just sad. I'm getting used to seeing the old die but it's still mostly sad.

I have a fair number of friends here who are turning 89 this year. 1936 must have been a great year for sex. Several play volleyball. Last night I went down to scoop up some take out dinner from the buffet and ran into Steve (who's only about 85, I think) and Wally (one of the 89 year olds) and his wife, Marilyn. They were getting ready to go into the dining room and asked me to join them so I did. It was lovely. Wally had spent the afternoon watching the very long Mariners game that had just ended - as had I.

After dinner, I picked up my new sofa feet - the 2"ers to replace the 4"ers. Steve offered to come back and help but I said I thought I could do it and I did get them swapped out and, turns out 2" was right. Just enough height to make getting up easy.

Now I'm considering replacing my ottoman and c table with a coffee table that pops up. Actually, I just ordered it. Be here Monday. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the ottoman and c table. Well, the table will fit into storage but the ottoman... It will all work. And look less hodge podge.

Today I'm going to the Goodwill in Bellevue. I have two things I want and I think I can find them there rather than go into Seattle. It's not that much closer but a little easier to deal with maybe. And I might stop at that big Daiso store on my way home.

The shade rehanging was done gratis as it should have been. I swapped notes with the sales guy and thanked him and then revised my previously revised review - back up to 5 stars. All is good.

susandennis

The shades have been rehung. The same guy who hung them originally was back. Nice and efficient. This time I knew what to look for and change before he left. This time he did not clean up his mess but it wasn't a big deal. Hand vac did it. The original installation left scars which he didn't even mention. Like I wouldn't notice. I noticed. But, decided not to worry about it. If it bugs me, I'll fix it OR put it on the list of projects we can do when my brother makes his next visit in January.

My Amazon deliveries should be here within the hour.

Aqua yoga was canceled for next Monday. No reason given. This was in the weekly newsletter. BUT then we got an email from Erica, the Fitness Director, that the pool was closed til further notice. This morning we noticed that it was not as clear as usual. Last time they lost control of the clear, the pool was closed for six weeks. But, this time, they caught it much earlier so maybe it won't be so long.

It does mean, however, I need to find a volleyball substitute. :( Probably I'll go get on one of those bikes or the elliptical machine. Which I hate.

susandennis

It's still cloudy and so dark. When I got back from volleyball, just after 8, it was very dark in the living room. I got two wall sconces last Spring for just such dark mornings and, this morning, I fired them up for the first time. Perfect. Just a splash of soft light which is all I need and want first thing. And, they have a 1 hour button so I can just press that and forget about them. I charged up both last night so I'll be interested to see how long a charge lasts at an hour a day.

It's warm in this living room this morning so I opened the door to the terrace which I rarely do. Both cats are fascinated with the smells and sounds.

Amazon is sending my lower risers today. I have a plan for swapping them out. But, Plan B is text to Steve who's ready if Plan A doesn't work.

The shades installer/reinstaller is on tap to be here sometime between noon and 3. He needs to take down and rehang the window shade. There will be holes. I should dig out the paint pot I have for that wall color. But, mainly I want him to be a little tidier this time in how the middle meets and the ends align. We'll see. I do still love the look and the function of these blinds. They are so much better than the ones I had in condo - as far as smartness is concerned. The only problem I have is trying to remember if telling Alexa to raise them to 75% means they will go mostly up or mostly down. Usually, I tell her 50% because that one's easy for both of us.

The checkup light on my car's dashboard came on yesterday. This is how I know it's time for my annual visit to the nicest car fix it place in the world. I called yesterday and they are going to fix me up next Wednesday. They are always so lovely to deal with. After years at the hands of the snotty, rude Mercedes people, these folks are a joy. I don't expect any big issues. It's running fine and does not yet have 40,000 miles on it. It will turn 14 years old next week.

I was working from home using Comcast internet and they had an outage and I couldn't do any work things so I got into my Ford Fiesta and drove to the Smart Car dealership. I'd been thinking about it for a while but had yet to actually go get into one. It was a blistering hot August day and I thought, if the a/c works, I'm buying it. They had several ready to sell and two in excellent colors. I picked the green one. Handed the guy my cash and my Ford keys and drove it home. I love it as much today as I did that day. About six months later, Mercedes bought the brand so I never went back to that dealership.

We had another Comcast outage the next week and my boss asked 'so... what are you buying today? a horse?'

The Mariners are playing a day game today and the Phillies aren't playing at all.

ursamajor

I have found THE WAY to make crispy firm tofu that I will now do forever more (or until I get bored and wander off to my next food obsession): brining it. It takes no longer than pressing it, is less messy, and the results are unbelievably crispy, even still a little crunchy after overnight refrigeration of the leftovers and then microwaving it, neither process designed to encourage that. And far more successful than any baking or cornstarch-dredging that I've tried before; will never go back. Noting here for my memories:

- Bring 4 cups water with 1/4 cup of salt (or, ratiowise, 1T salt for every 1 cup water needed to cover your tofu) to a boil, then turn off the heat
- Plop your cut-up tofu into the brine - the video did sliced planks, I did cubes so I didn't have two separate cutting steps, it came out fine
- Let it sit for 10-15 minutes
- Pan-fry the tofu in a little oil, flipping around the 3-4 minute mark; repeat until tofu is crispy enough to satisfy you.

As for silken tofu, for quick breakfasts/solo dinners, I've been nuking it with butter and soy sauce and a little bit of chili crisp, then topping it with a scallion that I chopped while waiting for the microwave. Maybe grating a little ginger over if I'm feeling fancy, or now that the lemons are slowly starting to come back, squeezing a little lemon over. It's like a hot hiyayakko, and might be more so if I ever remembered to pick up katsuobushi at Yaoya-San, heh.

*

In the meantime, our neighbors had been texting us while we were away about the annual plumpocalypse, and we came home to a carpet of purple underneath said plum tree, despite the neighbors coming by and picking up the excess while we were gone. Right now, we have enough to fill our entire dutch oven, with ~~dozens~~ hundreds more dropping daily. I really need to set up some kind of net situation to catch them before they hit the ground, I have made refrigerator jam literally every day for the last week and a half, and we are not keeping up. (Right now, our total jam despite our attempts to chip away at it fills my second-largest glass storage pan - 11 cups!)

But because my method so far looks like:

* sweep plums into a pile
* scoop plums of various softness into our largest kitchen bowl
* fill plum bowl with water and let it sit (

hyounpark says in case there are worms?!)
* sort plums - only the intact ones make it through
* cook plums until just soft enough to pit
* pit
* weigh the puree, add 40% sugar
* cook, skimming off scum, until it passes the spoon test
* cool
* find a storage container to put the jam in in the fridge
* put on yogurt and toast ad nauseum because I have not committed to buying the whole kit for Proper Jam Making that would let the jam last longer than a few weeks in the fridge

At least our neighbors are equally meh about Proper Jamming so I feel less bad about not doing it, LOL. Still, I did take a cup and a half of yesterday's puree and turned it into a plum version of my favorite roasted applesauce cake for yesterday's block party, and it went smashingly; I was barely able to snag a piece for H and I to split!

Between the cake success and the tofu triumph and lovely August tomatoes marinating in a pool of olive oil and mint and salt and their own juices, I'm proud of these recent food feats. Now to figure out what I'm doing with the pork belly (for dinner tonight). Probably something that can get topped with some of the plum jam, heh.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: have some more chicken, have some more pie

susandennis

Last week, I emailed the guy who sold me my couch to ask if I could buy a seat cushion. He replied really fast and said 'sure. let me look up the price and get back to you'. And then he died, apparently. RIP, Todd.

Yesterday I sent him another email and crickets.

Last night I texted to the text number on the Crate and Barrel website. A few back and forths let to my being told I had to use their chat or call the 800 number. This morning I chatted and was told I had to call the store's Spare Parts department.

I didn't call Todd's store because there is one closer so I called it. Spare Parts was busy with a customer could he call me back? ARUGH. Fine. I gave him my name and telephone and told him exactly the item I wanted to buy.

And then figured out a not too satisfactory but very easy Plan B and decided I was done fucking with it.

I had just started this entry when John Spare Parts called me. He had his shit together. He had looked up my original invoice and had all the details. $360. 5-7 weeks. I said book it, John-o. He did say that for some reason he could not fathom it was delivery only. "you do not want to pay those charges, trust me" so I told him I'd pick it up at the store.

Done. Whew. Thanks to my Amazon returns, I had a $250 credit on my credit card so the cushion only cost me $110!! Very reasonable if you think of it in foo foo math terms.

Hazel came in a while ago "I'm only here to update" meaning she did not have a problem she needed me to fix which was cute. She and John now both know this is the end. "They will give him a bunch of pills that might make improvements but also might make it worse." They have asked John to decide his next steps. He has until Monday. Well, that's his next appointment when he tells me pills or no. We chatted for a while. She's in as good a place as she can be.

Then about a half hour later, I ran into the Health Services Director coming up to visit with him. We had a long chat about the two of them and my concern for Hazel. I did ask her how Timber Ridge and Hospice work together and she said great. Some people have Hospice while they are still in their apartments and some when they are in the nursing unit. Works fine either way. This was a relief to me and I don't know why I never thought to ask before.

No need for Hospice for the Phillies even though they did play miserably this morning. They are still on top of their division. OH but in other big baseball news, a female umpire will work the first ever MLB regulation game this weekend. Braves vs. Marlins - a double header on Saturday and then behind the plate on Sunday. Very cool.

gentlyepigrams

We didn't see any shows in July and we don't have any on the schedule for August, which is good because we're busy AF right now and feeling overwhelmed between scheduling for games we're doing in September and preparing for the con we're going to in November.

( Under the cut to protect your flist )

There's a lot of stuff that has recently come up that we're considering that will either be on the list next month or not. The only thing on the current list that is a major maybe is the PMJ in December, and that may depend on my eye surgery.

Current Music: Silence is golden.

gentlyepigrams

A short report this week because I was busy with other things and I'm slowly reading medical stuff.

Books
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. A very cute cozy novella about robots opening a noodle joint in future San Francisco. It also deals with things like bigotry against robots and military trauma.

Music
Sierra Hull: Tiny Desk Concert. I put this on because she played the mandolin but I found I really enjoyed the bluegrass vibes, especially the song about her grandmother (Spitfire).

Current Music: Washing machine

susandennis

I really do not like being hot. Really. So Summer is not my favorite time of year. Of all the country, I live in the one area that is rarely hot and still, too hot for me. I also don't like the sun. I like light but direct sunlight hurts my eyes and makes me hot. For two+ months out of the year are days are so long that it's light out when I go to sleep and the sun is shining brightly when I wake up. And I really don't like any of this.

My ideal would be days with highs in the 60's maybe 70's once in a while. Dark by 5 and light by maybe 7/8ish. In other words, The Pacific Northwest - 6 months out of the year.

BUT this morning, I woke up at 6 and it was really overcast outside. Inside, I had to turn a light on to feed the cats - haven't had to do that since DST started. It's now 7:30 and still cozy in and cloudy out with a little rain! Actually, more of a random spitting but, hey, beats the fucking sun!!

It's also coming into a crowded part of the year. Dick is very into puzzles and we are working on a rhythm. Yesterday morning, he actually called me to say he had his puzzle ready but they were going out (he and Jan take long, involved walks every morning). I told him I was going out myself but would be ready to start when I got back. "Well I'll put it on the shelf, I don't want anyone to start it but you."??? Ok. So I felt compelled to go get it started yesterday afternoon. And I also had two baseball games.

Today is the same. The Phillies game is at 9:30 so I can get it over with and have puzzling time this afternoon before the Mariners game tonight.

I am very very very glad that Dick is so into it. Myrna and I spent hours and hours out there working on the puzzles. Other neighbors would come out and chat and it was such an easy way to people. Dick is stepping right into that role and I'm delighted.

My neighbors on the hall are all nice people with one exception who, happily, rarely leaves her apartment. The others are fine but just not people I want to spend concentrated time with. So seeing them randomly out there in the elbow is perfect. I can catch up. They can see me. Everyone feels in the know. Plus, yesterday, Bonny came out and brought me some delicious tangerines.

This morning before the baseball, I need to go back to UPS. I bought some shoes from Orthofeet that I have tried to wear several times. Fortunately, around here, you can wear shoes for days and many steps without ever going outside. Great place for shoe trials. I really really wanted these shoes to work. But, alas, they are a fail and were more than $100. BUT they are one of those Happy Returns, so while it will likely take a while, they go to the same UPS store as my Amazon returns. My buds.

But we're not friends enough that I should be showing up in my nightgown so I'd better go get dressed first.

lovelyangel

New Manga, August 2025

Another installment of the too good for a layover in the tsundoku stack saga. Previously: Tsundoku ja nai #6.

( The Story of Four Volumes, Below This Cut )

susandennis

Volleyball was good this morning. I had the oddest thought right in the middle. If this is the last volleyball game I play, I will be ending on a high note. Nice.

Then home for coffee and internetting and then off again. I decided to do my Amazon returns on the way to the doctor. I had four of them and they were kind of complicated so it took me a while. (UPS has this very excellent system. It's a kiosk. You scan and get a label and then get the receipt via text. It's really efficient and you don't have to deal with a people!) I got out of UPS and looked at my watch and saw that it was nearly 9:25 and my appointment was at 9:40. And I'm supposed to get there 10 minutes early! YIKES.

Every light was, of course, red. I got there, parked and hustled my butt inside to see that the easy 2nd floor reception (where Dr. Foot is) was closed but the queue on the first floor was short. It came my turn and she looked me up and said "oh, thank you for being early!" hahahaha Ok.

The doctor had gained a little bedside repartee on his vacation and was as nice as he could be. Of course, the first shot worked wonders so he was riding on a win. "One more shot should finish it." He told me to make an appointment BUT if all was fine, to cancel it. "Love to see you again but no need if all is fine."

Then on to Dollar Store which is always so lovely before noon. I got everything I needed and the cashier was in a good mood. It's getting warm out so I was glad to get home.

Dick has a new puzzle out AND the edges are already separated out. Whew. Kick start.

Lunch is ordered for pickup at 11:30. Housecleaner comes at 1:30. Phillies at 3:45 and Mariners at 7:10. Buzzzzy day!

lovelyangel

Right off the bat, I’ll say that I don’t know Michael Lopp personally, so we’re not friends. However, Michael’s blog, Rands in Repose is an old friend from way back. And I’m sure if I dug through boxes, I’d find a first edition copy of Managing Humans.

I don’t remember what happened, but at some point (well before the pandemic, which is sort of a time marker in my head) I stopped reading Rands in Repose. I don’t know if the content wasn’t useful or the posts too intermittent or if a link simply broke. Whatever happened, the blog link was removed from high visibility. Out of sight, out of mind. I hardly miss things when I’m innundated with information every day.

Recently at Daring Fireball (another very old friend), John Gruber has been posting a series about Substack, starting with The Substack Branding and Faux Prestige Trap and continuing with follow-on posts. In the latest post, John linked to a Rands in Repose post on how/why Rands Left Substack. And, of course, that was the rabbit hole for rediscovering a long-absent (to me) but much loved blog.

One particularly timely post is The Cleanse, where Rands describes cutting back from news and social media, in a mode labeled as turtling. And turtling is what I’ve been doing. (I also canceled my Washington Post subscription before the election, after Bezos’s hinky meddling in the newsroom.) I’ve backed off on political news other than noting at a high level the stories of the day. Instead of fighting the tsunami of stupidity and graft, I’ve moved to high ground and watch from a distance, knowing I’m generally powerless.

I am empowered to act locally and on a small scale. Whatever change I’ll bring to the world will be tiny, positive ones. My days of activism are behind me. I am a small, slow turtle. But mostly I just keep to myself.

Rands moved from Substack to Ghost for his newsletters. But I’m not subscribing to his newsletter, even though I love his blog. I actually need to do a newsletter cleanse – because I don’t handle the daily flood of newsletters, as useful as they might be. Sure, if I had infinite time, I’d read each newsleter every day. More often than not, newsletters pile up unread in a news folder dedicated to important issues. What a waste. There are some awesome sources there (The Hartmann Report, The American Prospect, Erin in The Morning, Matt Stoller, Noahpinion...). Too much, actually. And, don’t bother me – I’m turtling. Adding Rands’ newsletter would just grow the pile of unread things. Not surprisingly, most of the newsletters come from Substack.

After catching up on recent posts, I re-added Rands in Repose to my hidden Links Page. It’s on me to peek in periodically to read updates – like I have to do with all the links on my Links Page. It’s slow. It’s irregular. It’s Turtling.

susandennis

According to my bed, I managed near perfection last night.

Fitbit begs to differ but, sorry Fitbit, we're going with Tempur on this one.

Could have been because my muscles were exhausted. Yesterday I decided to proceed with my plan to de-chaise the couch. Even though, I still don't even have a price for the needed sofa cushion and it will be maybe two months before it gets here. But, the seed, once planted...

The massive cushion was not easy to wrangle and I had to prop up the bed frame to get it under but I did it! Then I set the base up on its side in the hallway figuring I'd wrangle someone into helping me get into storage. That lasted about an hour and I said, fuck it, and did it myself. Now my storage area is officially a mess. I need to take everything out, get rid of the scooter and arrange everything back in nicely. This will happen NOT ANYTIME SOON.

Now my living room is a lot roomier. I moved the cushions so that the missing one is in the middle now and then moved my knitting stuff into the cushion hole. It actually disguises that fact that there's no actual cushion there.

Oh and I ordered 2" risers to replace the 4" risers. They will be here on Thursday.

As soon as I got my own room growing up - age 6 - every six months or so, I'd totally rearrange the furniture. This feels like that did. Refreshing.

Hazel locked her microwave and her stove yesterday and couldn't figure out how she did it or now to undid it. I didn't even know you could do that but turns out, you can and undo is easy, IF you can see the instructions. She needs a magnifying glass to even read the numbers. Later I saw her going down the hall the other way, I suspect to get Bonny or Noelle's help with something else. At least she knows to ask for help. She said John now has some kind of infection in his arm and it was massively red and swollen. Poor guy.

Today I have aqua yoga. But not until after lunch. I have now 4 Amazon returns BUT I have to go out tomorrow morning to get my foot shot so I think I'll just do them then. I might take them down to the car today, though, because they are bugging me there by the front door. I think I'll get dressed and do that now.

gentlyepigrams

First the artists come, then the Wall Street guys, then you shut it down. Spouse and I felt like this short video was a very Austin story even though the poster is in NYC.
I Didn’t Expect Dr. Gurathin To Be My Favorite Part of Murderbot. The writer of this piece got Murderbot the way I did. I really need to sit down and read the books.
College Admissions Is a Hard Problem. The author is a professor at Union College and has a rising senior child. (I'm e-quainted with him and his wife but I read him because he's interesting, interesting enough to write pop sci books). He's got several approaches you could take to the problem but ultimately he's right: there are too many candidates for too many prestige seats at the top colleges.
The Killer 1911 Heat Wave That Drove People Insane. There's a lot of discussion about how we should do without AC for the sake of the planet. Yes, we should go to better/less polluting power production, but when we don't have AC, humans die of heat: the elderly, the young, and other vulnerable folks.
Self Censorship Is Actually Good. It's nice not to be an asshole in public; it's also not nice to have to censor yourself around MAGA folks who live in an alternate universe.
Why everyone should support WNBA players’ bid to get more money. All I have to say to columnist Mac Engels' piece is "get it, girls!".
The Interview: Robert Reich Thinks the Baby Boomers Blew It. I'd heard the story about the student he admired being killed by the KKK during the Civil Rights era, but some of the other stories were new to me. Reich is a really interesting guy and I always find his posts and threads worth reading.
Is your brand making the same mistake that killed Neiman Marcus?. One of the Neiman family made this short video about what he thinks killed Neiman Marcus. I don't think this was 100% of the problem but I imagine it was a big factor, though.
The Greatest Albums of 1984. Brought to you by a dive into the meme of "which perfect album came out when you were 16?".
Newsletter #185 - Faith No More's "Midlife Crisis" and the Observers Paradox. The observer's paradox piece of this hit me hard.
Our Flag Means Death Creator David Jenkins Is Writing the Pilot for a Booster Gold Series. Spouse and I will be all over this.
Cheese May Actually Fuel Nightmares, Surprising Study Confirms. I'll eat the cheese and risk the nightmares, thanks.
Lab-grown cheese is coming. But would you eat it? I'd try it.
This elephant learned to use a hose as a shower. Then her rival sought revenge. Those are two smart heffalumps. Also I didn't know elephants could be left-trunked!

Current Music: Silence is golden.

susandennis

I am not a memoir reader. But I'm in the middle of a fabulous one right now. Jeff Hiller's Actress of a Certain Age. I'm listening to the audiobook version which is particularly delightful because it's read by him. (And, yes, this breaks a cardinal rule of mine that NO author ever should do their own book narration, BUT he is an actor and he's the perfect reader of his own words which would sound like him even as page words, now that I think about it.)

I'm in the middle and he's just moved from tiny town Texas to New York City and he's describing grocery shopping.

"The plums, that look like they were delivered by golf club..."

susandennis

This is a lesson you learn from living with the olds. Checking out is not a fast process. Yes, my neighbor, Roger, dropped dead one night - well, he was sitting on the couch so 'drop' is a little exaggeration but, he had started the checking out process months before. Myrna told several people, me included, that this was it as she was carted off to the hospital. That was in November. She never came back and died in February. There are many more examples. Tina, a retired doctor I play volleyball with, had a best friend here who took six months and every day Tina and Denise (her friend) thought this was it. For six fucking months. It's ridiculous and outrageous and mean and cruel. One week should be maximum and it should come with options to shorten it to days or day.

John will not last until Christmas. I hope he can check out way before then. Spending days in and out of the hospital, getting test after test at age 89, is mean and cruel. But, that's what he's got now.

Years and years ago, I started stating loudly and often that if something happened, I wanted NO live saving measures. None. Regardless. I was fine dying of something that maybe could be fixed. Just do not try to fix. Let me go.

Now, after living here almost two years, I have learned that express checkout is the only acceptable option.

Seriously.

But, in other news... I have my second cortisone shot this week. Tuesday. And the shade installer is coming to rehang my window shade. Thursday. And I need to go school supply shopping at, probably, Dollar Store. They have a donate school supplies thing going on here. Our floor needs to donate composition books and rulers. Yawn. But, I told our group I'd get some at Dollar Tree and Bonny said she'd do Target and everyone else will just reimburse us. It would be way more fun if they didn't dictate what they wanted us to buy. But, it's the only one of these donation drives* that I participate in so at least I have an excuse to go to the school supplies sales. Acquiring new school supplies was the only thing I ever liked about school.

*Periodically they have had drives for peanut butter, cereal, rice, etc. I usually just ignore them.

I need a drive for toilet paper. I had a bunch of toilet paper when I moved here and don't really know why. Then Amazon brought me more when I forgot to cancel my subscribe and save and at one point I had an entire bathroom cabinet full to the brim. This morning I realized that I am down to 3 rolls and one of those rolls is my emergency one (one that I hate but don't throw out in case I run out of toilet paper).

On the up side, I now have an entire cabinet in my bathroom that is empty. LUXURIOUS!

I think my higher couch might to too high. I went with 4" and I think 3 or 2 might have been better but I'm in for a dollar now...

My plans for today include baseball watching and puzzle finishing. And maybe laundry.

susandennis

My new high couch is fabulous. But, I'm not finished yet. I had this idea a while ago but it was back when I was on my austerity kick.

Here is my sofa. The chaise side is not a side I even use. It just does not work for me now. And it's completely removable IF I have a spare seat cushion. So I dug out my receipt from the guy at Crate and Barrel and sent him an email. Does he even still work there? dunno but gotta start somewhere.

He does! And he replied immediately. He said it was totally doable to order a seat cushion. It will take 4-6 weeks to get and he's going to get back to me with a price. WOOT!

But, what am I going to do with that long cushion and the base? Well. I have a plan. The cushion can live under my bed and the base can live in the storage area that I cleaned out last week. It's a plan!

Scott and Julie sent me their Waymo video. It's a hoot.

Watch on YouTube

When I got back from volleyball this morning, the door was stuck. When I pushed through and got in, I discovered that the 3.5 bag of cat food had been pulled from the back of the storage shelves and deposited in the front hallway. WTV?????? Happily, I caught the cat burglar on video. It's a long 5 minutes and probably works better if you speed it up (settings>playback speed). But it's pretty hilarious.

Watch on YouTube

I've now fixed it so that he will have to remove a 14 pound box of kitty litter to get to it. I'll keep the camera running but with this cat you never know.

Both my teams play games today that start at 1 pm my time. ARUGH. I hate to be that guy with two sports screens but here we are. Both teams are playing fun baseball. So I got no choice.

Time now to get dressed for Elbow coffee.

susandennis

My ottoman is now the right height!! It's always been too tall, but now it's just right.

My side table is too low. Not horrible but not handy.

But, at least now I can get up without even having to push with my arms!

susandennis

Steve!!!

He came right down and the job was done and checked and tweaked and tested in 5 mins flat!

Woot!!!

I can now sit on my couch. And get up off of it.

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