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Library Status Update #2: Packing, Part 1

While there are still a few weeks before we actually begin construction work, I’m having to relocate my existing bookcases – some will be repurposed and some will be given away (probably to ReStore).

The first step is to pack up all the books. It’s like moving, and I hate moving.

( Photos, Below This Cut )

Current Music: Silence is golden.

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We ate at: Hugo's (Tasting Collective), Liberty Burger, Intrinsic Brewing, and Gemma

Gathering up some thoughts about places we ate recently:

Hugo's is the hot new seafood place in Bishop Arts. It has 28 seats and for the most part doesn't take reservations, so it's exactly the sort of place I wouldn't have tried without Tasting Collective. We had five courses: three seafood, one braised short rib, and a mango key lime pie. The scallop starter was nice; the lobster bisque was fantastic, and the red fish fillet was lovely. The braised short rib was also really nice but was the kind of thing my foodie friends said they could make easily at home. I was a bit worried about the key lime pie because mangos and I don't always get along, but the mango was mostly on top and the pie itself was quite nice, with a good citrus tang. If we could get reservations or had a chance to drop in when we were already down there, I'd love to try Hugo's regular menu.

Liberty Burger is a local chain that serves really good burgers. My father-in-law introduced it to us a while back and it's become one of our favorite places, along with Rodeo Goat, when the burger cravings hit. In addition to a really nice beef mix in their regular patty, they also serve bison, lamb, turkey, tuna, and house-made veggie patties. This time I had their western bacon cheeseburger, with lovely bacon and a nice BBQ sauce. This month's specialty burger, which I noticed when I was reminding myself what was on the menu, has brisket on top of the patty. Clearly I'll have to check that out.

We went to Gemma for the first time last year with a visiting friend, who's a duck person, because they have duck frites on their regular menu. She ended up having another duck dish and I went with the duck frites. This time the duck was still delicious, crispy, capery, and fat, as were the duck fat tater tots, which are more like croquettes in my opinion. Spouse had the moules frites, which I didn't like quite as well: they were only very good. Bonus: Gemma makes mocktails of everything on their cocktail menu. The atmosphere on Tuesday night was perfect: quiet and not too crowded. We definitely need to put Gemma in our regular nice-restaurant rotation so we can try something besides the duck.

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home,
living

Library Status Update #1: A Chronology

Library / Kitchen Floor Plan, Proposed
Extracted from my requirements / vision proposal

At the start of 2025 I vowed to finally restart the home library remodel that got put on hold when the pandemic began in 2020. The interior designer I had selected had moved from Portland to California, and I basically had to start over.

Instead of describing everything in detail, I’m simply listing the chronology of events. Excluded is all the email correspondence I’ve had with my designer, Hannah Lichtenthaler at Allison Smith Design. Also, for now, I’m skipping over all the design decisions. In short, here’s how I got to where we are today:

Library Remodel, Chronology of Events

Manual labor

Before I even moved in here, one of the things highest on my list was a built in ironing board. We found a couple that just weren't right and we never found a place to put it and I gave up. I tried living with a little one that you sit on the counter but it was a fail. Then I bought a small apartment sized one and last week, one of the cats knocked it over and mayhem ensued.

Turns out what I really wanted was an always available ironing situation. In the condo, I had an ironing station always at the ready. I hate to iron so just walking up and turning on the iron, doing the deed and walking away was perfect and what I wanted here.

After the flying ironing board incident, I spied an option. My closet is huge by Closets I Have Had In The Past standards but it's also pretty full but there was a spot...

So I ordered this.

It arrived today. The instructions were not too specific and the bits were not totally labeled and so the project was a bit bigger than I expected but I managed it. (Thank you, me, for that more powerful cordless drill you finally bought not long ago. You rock.)

And now it has a home.

It came with a door but I thought that was unnecessary. I already ironed a shirt that got wadded up in the last laundry. Turned on the iron, rolled out the board, did the deed, rolled it back. Done. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

And I'm quite delighted.

one legged volleyball

Turns out my foot hurts far less than yesterday UNLESS I'm bouncing on it in the pool. And then, OMG! So I played with one leg and the ouchy foot tucked behind the good leg's knee. That was an experience. It's really hard and after 2 hours I think my back is going to be pissed tomorrow. But I was really surprised when I got out and started walking - it didn't really hurt at all. The 48 hours of pain expire in 4 hours. I'm counting.

And in other good volleyball news, the asshole is gone for a month. It was so lovely this morning without him. I'm going to enjoy July.

2025 is half done today.

AND today is the day I brought Biggie and The Smalls home from the shelter in 2019.

I got an interesting email from Gmail today. It said it was getting ready to close out an old email address of mine for lack of activity. So I thought I'd see if I could resurrect it. I have a giant fear of Google blocking my account. It happened once. I don't remember why. It was years ago and I finally managed to snag the helpful eye of a googler on Twitter who got me back on track. But, since then, I've lived with the fear. That first time, I was unable to come up with a former password or the date I opened the account which were two bits they wanted to prove I was me. Once I got back in, I captured that data and put it into an Outlook email account.

This morning I was interested in pulling the thread on this 'new' email account and seeing if I could get back in. It did ask for a former password and I typed one in that it did not reject. Then it wanted the email address I was using for backup. That took 2 tries. Then it wanted a phone number to text. But, once I got that far, it let me reset the password and BOOM I was in. Cool. Turned out I opened the account in 2005 and looks like I last touched it in 2006. And, shockingly, there were only 300 junk emails. So that now you can easily run multiple Gmail addresses in chrome, I think I'm going to start using it for storing misc bits.

So then I remembered I had not backed up the database that holds my notes. So I did that - which goes to email so then I decided to check and make sure it went to my backup email. All of the mail that comes into my main Gmail account automatically also gets sent to my backup account. So I went to Outlook and could not get in!! It let me reset my password but still would not let me in! so I noodled around a little and found a reddit thread about VPN which I do not use but it did lead me to try turning off wifi and using my cell data on my phone with a hot link to my Chromebook and BOOM! Microsoft is happy again. What a PIA. THEN I discovered remembered that because Microsoft is such a PIA, I had moved my backup email to me@susandennis.com which is over on my website hoster. So I go over there, log in and BOOM! There's all my email safely waiting for me and not connected to Google or Microsoft.

An interesting thread pulling for sure. But I do like that I finally got in everywhere and my stuff is safe.

All that thread pulling was time consuming. It's now 9:30 and I'm still in my robe from the pool. I need to make my daily run to UPS. I'd better get dressed first.

Current Music: Whining kitties.

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Weekly media report - two weeks ending 2025 07 02

Books
The Starving Saints, by Caitlin Starling. Medieval fantastic horror in which three women (a knight, a heretical nun, and the daughter of an executed noble) are locked in a besieged castle with supernatural forces that come as the face of their goddess and her saints. Really good with vibes and twists. I only picked this up because of the medieval connection; I don't normally read horror.
The Case of the Missing Maid, by Rob Osler. Series starter with a novice woman private detective in Progressive era Chicago; she has to find a missing woman in the Polish community in a case that hinges on, among other things, exploration of her lesbianism. The second book isn't out yet but I'll be interested in seeing where this series goes.

Short Stories
Why We Sing, by C.C. Finlay. Paywalled. The story of how mermaids came to be, with a twist.
Welcome 2 the Freedom Galaxy, by Maurice Broaddus. Paywalled. Interstellar funk wars. I love the Prince-inflected musician our protagonist follows.
Banded Iron, by T. K. Rex. Paywalled. What happens when it's your turn to go back to Earth to fight the interstellar kaiju?
The Green Glass Paperweight, by Sarah Monette. (Reprint from 2004) Hard to talk about this one without breaking the twist but it's worth it. What does the hated godson select as his bequest?
All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt, by Marissa Lingen. The gift shop manager convention on a space station takes an unlikely turn.

Music
MARINA, Princess of Power. We listened to this in the car and my husband thinks it's a post-divorce album. It's retro in a fun way, really girl power, and I'm going to be listening to it again and again. I never really got into her last two albums as much as the first three, but this one hit the sweet spot again.

Drive bys

It is rare that I complain about cold - especially in Summer but... Our Safeway thinks it's in the center of the Arizona desert at noon. Holy fuck. I have heard enough TV weather people explain what happens when cold air hits hot to wonder why it's not pour rain at the Safeway door.

Turned in two shoe returns at UPS. Picked up a new pair from the Amazon lockers. They are too short. So my daily trips to UPS continue.

My cortisone foot is hard to walk on. I need it volleyball ready tomorrow. But, actually, I could play volleyball on one foot so no big deal.

My brother told me to watch Dept Q on Netflix. It was very good instruction. Great acting, great plot, good visuals and, honestly, I'm wallowing in this delicious Scottish accent.

I'm working on a test ghost to go with my pumpkin head guy for Halloween shelf giveaways.

Ouch!

My foot (the shot one) was fine until I stepped on it wrong this morning and now it is very ouchy BUT Dr. Google says this is totally normal and to be expected and should fade away in 48 hours. Meanwhile I should avoid strenuous exercise. Since I have approximately 76 years experience in avoiding strenuous exercise, I'm feeling that won't be an issue.

The laundry is laundrying.

When I finish this, I'm off to UPS to return two pairs of shoes. And then to Safeway for sour cream. And that is my entire to-do list for the day! Retirement rocks.

All my life I've had a large trash bin in the kitchen. So when I moved in here, I got a cheap plastic one and tucked it into a cabinet in the island. Last week, I realized I was running out of bags and thot, hmmm, is this the best solution? The trash shoot is less than 20 steps down the hall. Do I need to keep a dumpster in here? In internetted the shit out of the situation and decided to try a new scheme. I found a 2.5 gallon thing that clips over the cupboard door. (I found lots that clipped over the cupboard door but they were all tiny.) I took the gynormous one out and clipped on the littler one and I love it!!! It's so easy. And now everything goes in first off instead of accumulating on the island like it had been. Glorious little solutions.

The window shade guy says he needs to order new valence pieces and then his installer will come out and fix. No discussion about who pays. I think I know the answer but I'll be interested to hear if his guess is as good as mine. At least it will get fixed and better this time. Just this morning I looked up and saw this:

Not a huge deal but sloppy and easily seen from this table.

My mysterious Amazon package yesterday was drugs. I'd forgotten that I ordered refills. My toe drug arrives tomorrow but today I have new shoes coming.

I would be happy if rain would not wash out my baseball today. And percentages say it won't.

Ok. Time to hit the road (not vigorously - see paragraph above).

Current Music: Silence is golden.

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Gig list - July 2025

I've been off the wagon for writing these for a while so I'm jumping back on the wagon. I've missed a lot of things but have gone to others, none since the beginning of June. I don't think we have anything on the schedule for July either.

( Under the cut to protect your flist )

Tickets we have bought recently: I have a season ticket for Dallas Chamber Music again; we're seeing David Byrne at Fair Park in November; we have tickets to MARINA at Southside Ballroom, which is SRO and I will need to bring a stool or arrange to have a chair. Also we have memberships to Ambercon Northwest, so that's happening. Next month we should have more of an idea of what our fall looks like as we will probably go to one of the 80s reunion concerts.

What I've been reading

So, stuff I've read in the last few months:
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
All Systems Red and the rest of the Murderbot books by Martha Wells
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
(rereads):
The Curse of Chalion & Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Current Mood: silly

Entry tags:

(no subject)

When

belladonna shares a tweet that got screencapped and put up on Insta:

@ madisontayt_: imagining a vegan who won't drink nyc's tap water because of the microscopic shrimp
@ TheWappleHouse: The what now

and I was like "Yeah! There was this whole thing about NYC's tap water possibly being not kosher because of copepods in the water supply a few years back. Which might've meant that NYC bagels, whose lauded taste and texture were credited to the tap water used to boil them, were potentially treyf. But then other rabbis weighed in and said as long as the proportion of these microscopic crustaceans was less than 1/60th of the total volume, it was okay by the principle of בטל בשישים (bitul b'shishim/beteil beshishim), thank you Shabot6000."

... and then I realized "a few years back" was 21 years ago.

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anime

Atsumi Tanezaki

Today I Learned... that Atsumi Tanezaki is amazing! (Also: Her Wikipedia Entry.) I confess I’ve been doing a poor job of keeping up with star seiyuu in recent years. (I used to know all the greats from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s.) I did not know that this one actress is responsible for the voices of Chise in The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Frieren in Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Anya Forger in Spy x Family, Uo-chan in Fruits Basket, Murasaki in Grisaia: Phantom Trigger, Tinasha in Unnamed Memory, and Vivy in Vivy - Fluorite Eye’s Song – among dozens and dozens of other notable roles.

She was brought to my attention as she has a medical issue which is causing her to Cut Back on Work. She seems irreplaceable for numerous shows.

Well, that was interesting...

So. The foot guy was pretty hilarious. ZERO warm and friendly bedside manner. He was all about the solution and he got on it fast.

My left foot has gross thick toenails and peeling skin. Terbenafine. Take it for 90 days. The skin will clear up after 30. The nails will be better after 90 and back to their original shape and texture in six months. 85% chance it will clear everything up.

My right foot gets a sharp pain irregularly, across the toes and cramps up a lot. He had me point where the pain starts and then he put his thumb near the spot and pressed. HOLY FUCK! Ouch. Then he pressed a couple more places. Not quite as ouch. Pinched nerve. Two cortisone shots. One now and one in August cause he's going on a motorcycle tour of the southwest for the rest of July. 75% chance it will make the pain go away completely. (I've had this pain for years and years and if this actually does fix it, I'm going to apply for some of those years to be returned to me.)

Wild. I assumed he was going to tell me to change shoes, wear inserts. Never go barefoot. Always do this, never do that. But, nope. I did take all my shoes with me. He barely looked at them and would not at all had I not asked him. He gave me the names and model numbers of 3 kinds of shoes to get if I wanted to be comfortable walking. And he told me that the inserts I'm wearing in my shoes right now are the best and the only ones I should ever use.

And that was it. The end. of him until August.

I had to go down and give blood to get a liver test which he assumed would not point out any issues so he went ahead and sent the prescription to the pharmacy. Including the blood test, I was on the road back home at 1:24. My appointment was 1.

I feel like I got more than my $30 (co pay) worth.

I had ordered 3 pair of shoes but all 3 now get returned. One, however, is a keeper but I need a longer size. I did all the online return bit. They all go to the same place - UPS. I'll take them in the morning.

It is hotter than a fire cracker out there. I'm in the elbow now waiting for my house cleaner to finish. It's pretty warm in here but she's about done and I can go home where it is very cool.

Lots of stuff

Yesterday, I was on my way down to pick up a package. When I went by Myrna's apartment, the door was open and Dick and Jan were moving in!! I don't know if they slept there last night but they sure got all their shit delivered. It was so good to see them. They were in a tussle about where to put what furniture and so I got the heck out of there.

Marketing usually gives us (neighbors) a few days notice and information about the new neighbor but, apparently, this time, they just dropped the ball. My friend, Martha, who has lots of new neighbors says they pretty much have lost the ball entirely. Marketing was never high on my Timber Ridge list of Things That Are Good anyway.

I picked up the letter from the HOA management group and, yep, they want another month of dues. Fuck you, strong letter to follow. They were to have submitted a final bill to the title company. The title company then weaves it into my closing. The closing shows I paid for 1 day and I'm not even sure how that happened, as I had paid the dues for May already. The letter says to sign on to my account for details. And, of course, they have closed my account. So I sent an email this morning saying that my records show I owe $0. I no longer own the condo. If they want the $832.19, they are going to need to send me a lot more detail about my account activity, why they want the money, what it is for and why they billed the title company incorrectly.

[OOOh. Just got a reply Please disregard the letter received. It was processed as our office was waiting to receive the closing documentation for the sales transaction. Nothing additional is required on your part. Coolio!]

And... last night, I removed 3 stars from my review of the window shade company and added a bit about their lack of response when there was a problem they caused (or didn't see). This morning, I got an email from them. Surprise! It sounds like, after a bit of hassle, they are going to come rehang the shade. Maybe. I'm not changing the review yet, maybe or ever.

I have a UPS package coming today from Amazon but it's not anything I can find an order for... hmmmm

Oh dear. I just got a call from Joan (next door). She is have massive mobility issues and back problems and is confined to her apartment 'and going crazy'. I am sorry, because of all of us she needs to be around people more than anyone. I honestly do not have any sense of the line between offering a little neighborly help and being the designated caregiver. So I'm erring on the side of the line that does as little as possible. She is the official card - welcome, happy birthday, sorry you are sick, etc. person and usually makes a welcome poster for new people when marketing tells us the new person is moving in. But since marketing did not... Jan, yesterday, said it would be great to have a list of the residents here on the hall with photos so I made her one and left a note for Joan that I had done that. She called to thank me and to passive aggressively get my assistance with everything else. I thought about texting Bonny about Joan but, the line... I don't want to trip.

My podiatrist appointment is at 1 and it's housecleaning day. I think I'll strip the bed this morning and maybe do a load of laundry.

Entry tags:

New Bread, Old Friends

Last Tuesday evening I prepared to bake bread for the Wednesday gathering, and I discovered that I had not evenly divided the dough in half, and the half batch of dough remaining was much smaller than it should be. I baked the bread anyway, but the loaf was too small. I happened to weigh the first loaf, and it was 21 oz. The second loaf was only 11 oz. If I had divided the dough evenly, I would have had one pound loaves.

Anyway, this wouldn’t do. So I made another batch of dough, let it rise, and then refrigerated the dough. I had to get up very early Wednesday to prepare the loaf, bake the bread, and make sure it cooled for three hours before our lunch. I forgot to weigh the loaf, but this time when I divided the dough, I bisected the dough in bowl with a bread knife – so it definitely was evenly divided.

The dough was a little bit wetter/stickier than the previous batch, and I probably needed to let the loaf rise longer and bake longer. Instead, I used the same times I did for loaf #2, and loaf #3 didn’t rise as much as it should have in the oven. I guess it was OK, though, as my friends liked the bread very much.

The event was an annual gathering of old co-workers. Kris was my boss, who hired me, and Bill was my teammate. We were joined by Bill’s partner, Anita. We noted that I started at the company in 1986 – a little shy of 39 years ago. It’s sort of amazing that we’ve known each other for that long – and that we stay in contact. Kris was one of my favorite bosses, though, so I’d be sad if we didn’t stay in touch. Bill and Anita hosted a fine lunch in their home, and we all had a delightful conversation. I’m glad we were able to meet up.

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Tsundoku June

Tsundoku Stack, June 30, 2025

There’s been not much progress on my tsundoku stack since Last Month. I decided I should dispatch the local guides to Portland books, since it’s summer, and this is a good time to be out and about, exploring the city. I did achieve that goal – as well as consume some late entrants not actually in the tsundoku stack.

For the remainder of the summer, work on the stack is in jeopardy, as I am diving into the library remodel – which effectively requires a move/vacating of the entire room – a major undertaking. I don’t think I’m going to get much reading done for a while.

( The Books I Read in June, Below This Cut )

Monday

Bonny popped in yesterday. She had some spam email she wanted to check but mainly she was bored and she was killing time til 5 pm when she could have her cocktail. Bonny is an odd duck but a nice, odd duck. I had been out in the elbow working on the puzzle and met 'new girl' Jackie's son. He's large but his hands are massive. He reached out to shake mine and I just wanted to hold and study his - never seen anything like it. Also Hazel and John came out to chat. So I got all my neighborness done with very little effort on my part which is how I like it.

Today I have nothing. Next Monday, aqua yoga starts up again. But, today is free. USPS sent me an email of my coming postal mail and there is a letter/bill/something from the company that manages the condo. Maybe it's a refund check - hahahaha. I will need to go down and see when the mail comes.

I quit taking the allergy pills because they quit working but that was a month ago and I am so tired of my nose running so I started up again today. Fingers are crossed but I did add more Kleenex to my subscribe and save order. My ankles are being weird. They are fine right now but this weekend they were very swollen. Not my feet. Not my legs. Just my ankles. They looked like they had a tractor tire around each one. Dr. Google was baffled. Even Dr. AI was scratching his silicone on that one.

I haven't used my feet like I did last week and they are grateful. And they do not hurt. And I am happy about that. I am taking them to the podiatrist tomorrow. Along with all my shoes.

I spent way way way too much money last week. Last month. So July is going to see some cutbacks. I have the money but I don't need any more shit. I really don't and I don't have any place to put it. Even groceries. I'm working hard on eating out of the freezer this week. I'm nearly out of bread and eggs. Maybe a grocery run tomorrow after the podiatrist.

Entry tags:

Ultimate Madoka

Framed Madoka Ukiyo-e After Materials Upgrade

I’ve been having custom picture framing done since the 1990s, when I began collecting and occasionally displaying anime cels.

( My History of Frame Shops Below This Cut )

( A New Project Below This Cut )

The new art piece has to be compatible with the Ukiyo-e Madoka, so I brought the framed Madoka Ukiyo-e in so that the framer could see nuances in the Akihabara Premium frame. Tony said it was a good thing that I did as the photos I showed were insufficient.

As we had wrapped up discussion, Tony noted that the framed Madoka had a plexiglas front. I tapped the clear panel, and, yes, it was plastic. I hadn’t even noticed. (I don’t normally touch glass in frames.) I asked if he could replace the plexiglas with Museum Glass. He said, sure, no problem. I don’t remember what led us to do this, but Tony then removed the back panel – and we both were surprised to find a thick block of styrofoam. That’s bad, commented Tony. He didn’t have to tell me twice. This was not archival quality work. Tony offered to add an acid-free foam core sheet behind the print to protect the print. He wrote up a ticket for the glass and the foam core – and it came to $117. Cheap yet important protection. This was a no brainer.

At 11:00 am the next day (Friday) I got a call from Tony saying the work was done and that I could pick up Madoka. Awesome! In less than a day my Ukiyo-e framed print received a pro archival upgrade. At the store, Tony said that with the new glass and the foam core, the original styrofoam block no longer fit. He had extra foam core that he used to pad the thickness, and we scrapped the styrofoam. I said I’d pay extra, but he waved me off.

Madoka is now back home on the wall. The Museum Glass is super clear (and more importantly, UV resistant). This is now truly an Ultimate Madoka!

Entry tags:

(no subject)

We watched the Car-Go-Fast: The Movie today (F1 movie) and it was fun.

As a note to future self, bigger theater the front row of the back section is too far forward, and at the smaller theater the back row of the back section is too far back.

I appreciate how much they did as practical. They just had used the existing races and plugged in a fake team for a season. They worked out moments where they could get their cars on track in the inbetweens, and sometimes they had teeny little cameras on cars on the track so they could pretend that was their driver and just CGI the livery.

It was interesting to watch them blend movie with reality. Because they used existing races I had seen those races! Also because all the other drivers were real drivers it led to weird moments of wanting to cheer on the actual F1 driver I knew over this new person, or running into actual F1 driver knowledge vs Hollywood script. I kinda want to go back and watch the races to see which shots they used and who they 'took over' for some of the other shots (Pretty sure they called George Russel's car Lewis Hamilton's in the final race, for example)

It did have the annoying woman has to sleep with male lead, but was otherwise entertaining. Will probably rewatch when it comes out on streaming.

Next theater movie is going to be Superman!

Sunday

Baseball starts at 10:30 this morning with the Phillies game. The Mariners game is about 11:30. Yesterday, the Mariners game was on Fox with Fox broadcasters so it was the first time I have gotten to see a Mariners game all season. They lost. But, I enjoyed it.

The guy who sold me the blinds has now had plenty of time to respond to my email even if only to say there's nothing he can do. So far, I have heard crickets. He requested a review and I gave him a glowing one just after installation. Dude, I can edit that sucker. And will. I'll give him until Tuesday. The reality is, if you had told me at the first decision point that I could have these shades but I'll never be able to open my window OR I can live without shades, I would have picked what I have now. BUT I would have sure liked that discussion. Plenty of people here have shades and can open windows. Of course, I've never seen any I like as well as these but still...

It's a hot, sunny morning and I'm thanking those very shades.

Scott and Julie were very surprised that they were going to sleep in daylight and waking up in daylight. They've been to Alaska so it's not a totally foreign concept but they had not experienced it here in the lower 48.

At elbow coffee yesterday, we learned that David (Noelle's husband) is not doing well and John (Hazel's husband) has issues that sound like heart related. Joan is also, I think, deteriorating pretty quickly. She is still mentally sharp but her 93 year old body seems to be checking out. I suspect that this time next year, my neighborhood will look very different.

My friend, Martha, said she ran into Dick and Jen, who are moving into Myrna's apartment. They were actually moving some stuff in! They said they had tried to find me but I wasn't home. This was last week when we were out boosting the economy.

Today will be baseball and knitting and a great appreciation of my life. There's nothing like having people you know and trust come and see what you have and how you live and be so admiring of it all to nail down your gratitude for everything. It's the greatest thing.

I think I'll put some clothes on now and go get yesterday's mail before anyone else gets awake.