I did a thing yesterday. I'd played around with painting in the past, but hadn't touched the stuff in a good long time. Yesterday, I did a Paint 'n' Sip with a few other ladies, something that had looked like fun, but I'd never done.

Seven of us plus our able instructor got together to create "a fall scene" in acryllic paint. The event was deemed a fundraiser for my PEO chapter, but was mainly an excuse to get together and goof around. Both purposes were served.

I brought my result home, and there it sits in the corner of my "office", between the dry erase markers and kleenex, for lack of any place else.

Maybe I'll touch it up and name it "Children of the Corn"

Speaking of evils, how did everyone fare with the amazon web service outage of Monday?

It's a bit concerning how dependent many of us are on our apps and cloud services, eh?

For me, it was a full-on first world problem as I had a haircut appointment on Monday, and found that my Pinterest wouldn't load. Pinterest held my hair reference photos! What to do?

Sigh of relief when the issue was corrected in time, but it was touch and go there, I tellya!

Also this week, I took in another bicycle. These things are wrecking my minimalist image. I have the lovely Violet, which I mainly take for relatively long joyrides, like this morning's beautiful fall ride. Then there's Daisy, my trusty single speed commuter. I also have Lily, the buxom mountain bike. 

Well, now I have the yet-to-be-named newbie-to-me. We bought her 10 plus years ago for Meego. He rode it through high school and then college, but hasn't ridden it much in recent years. 

With the temperatures getting cooler and days getting shorter, I was thinking it would be nice to have a little softer ride on the cooler, darker commutes. Violet and Daisy both have skinny tires and zero suspension. I rattle with every bump and crack. For grins, I asked Meego if he used that old bike much, and if not, could I buy it from him. 

Well, he brought it over, free of charge he says. I gave it a little spa treatment and have been enjoying her cushiness this past week.

That's her in her yet-to-be-named orangeness, parked alongside the zippy Daisy who takes a well deserved respite. And no, I won't name it Donald or Trump. 

Or will I?

 A good declutter, how I love thee.

One of this week's highlights: we went to the dump. We had a few items that we'd gathered over the years that needed the heave-ho. They weren't useful to donate and were too big for the weekly trash bin. It was time.

The last time we'd been to the dump was probably about 5 years ago after we'd lived here for a few months. Back then, the fee was 9 or 10 dollars. The current fee is $35, so the price has increased, but it's still bargained-priced therapy if you ask me!

We backed the truck up to the designated spot and tossed that garbage with reckless abandon. Afterwards, I felt like Nicole Kidman in that famously supposed "divorce photo" after her divorce from Tom Cruise.

On a side note, I learned that Ex Mrs. Tom Cruise denies the photo is her celebrating the divorce, but I didn't care enough to dig further. 

Speaking of Nicole Kidman, we've been watching the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers. Anyone else? 

I gotta say, it's not doing much for me. We watched the first season, which was okay, but pretty forgetable - as I realized I'd mostly forgotten it. But so far, I'm finding the second season almost embarrassingly bad. A f&cebook friend says it gets better after episode 4. Well, we watched episode 5 last night, and it's still not doing much for me.

Heading into the week ahead, there are only 3 weeks remaining for summer classes. It's a densely packed timeline, and the tutees are feeling it. Hopefully, they'll all be celebrating like Nicole soon.

 Congratulations, we made it to March, even with an extra February day.

It seemed like a good day for cheesy puns?

I had today off of work and got a few things checked off the to-do list. I typically have Fridays off, but this was the last one for a while. Coworker Star is leaving on a longish vacation, visiting family around the world, and I'll be covering her Fridays for the next few weeks. 

Around here, our March came in like a lamb, so should we be bracing for how it will end? We had sunny skies and temperatures in the 60's. I ran some errands and took my puttster car for a wash.

Ain't she pretty? Now for sure, we'll have a blizzard

Thanksgiving week is upon us. At this time of abundance, I'm doing all the prompts from Mama Kat:

1. Tell us about a current interest.

I've been following the Kaitlin-Armstrong-killed-Mo-Wilson sentencing and trial recaps. Sheesh, what a bizarre case. 

2. Write about something you gave a negative review.

This week I bought some cajun flavored sesame sticks from Natural Grocers. After eating a couple, I realized they were not cajun flavored but garlic flavored and mislabeled. And I was all, "gross", because I quite dislike garlic. But thankfully, no one here is allergic. But what if someone was allergic? That could be bad. 

I let the store know about it via their online contact page. Who knows if anyone reads the submissions? Not necessarily a negative review, but mislabeled food products could land them in hot water.

3. Tell us about something you are looking forward to.

I'm looking forward to a slowed week at work coming up. The test center is open through Wednesday, but students are on break all week, so it should be fairly calm and quiet. 🤞

4. Book review! Share a recent favorite (or least favorite) read.

I'm currently reading Happy Place by Emily Henry. I'm about halfway through it, and apparently it's a popular book. For me, I dunno, it's kinda... bad. It might end up a DNF for me.

5. Write a blog post in exactly 7 lines.

My fritzed foot is still not 100%.

But it feels better with each passing day.

I feel I could go for a short run.

But Dr. Internet says not to run for 4 to 6 weeks. 

So, no Thanksgiving race for me this year.

Boo hoo. 

Still very thankful for lots of stuff.

6. Write a blog post inspired by the word: over

We caught a cheater at work this week. Really, it's a rare occurrence. I've worked there for 2.5 years, and can remember just 4 cheaters, all of them college students.

But this guy, he hid a cell phone in the crotch of his pants, then began using the phone during his test. A coworker busted Cheater and took the phone. When going over the video footage, we also learned that Cheater was chewing tobacco and spitting in his testing room.

Party Girl had a justified cow when wiping down the workstation after Cheater finished, at which point he denied doing any spitting/ mess making.

He knew we have cameras, now he knows that they don't just watch, they record.

Game over?

 Aah, spring. Time for... wet, sloppy snow.

We got hit sometime in the overnight into the morning with a surprisingly large amount of snow. I looked out at around 5:30 this morning and saw a good 8 to 10 inches on our back deck, although the forecast said 3 to 6 inches by noon.

I was scheduled to work at 8am. No notification from the college, so figured travel must be fine. HA! Maybe the snow was just a fluffy 8 to 10 inches? But... March is not the time of year for fluffy.

And no, it was the sloppy heavy spring snow. Thank goodness for the transit bus, I thought. Staff shortages had cancelled the bus that goes to the college last fall, but the route was recently restarted. Although I'm a little less than two miles from campus, this was not a day to walk or bike or even drive my teeny-tired Toyota if I didn't have to.

I trudged to the bus stop. While there, a diehard runner when loping by, high-kneeing it through the thick mass. It wasn't particularly cold out - about 25 F - nice for morning run if you like loping.

Anyways, I made it to campus a few minutes early for my shift since I'd ridden the bus. Maintenance crews were busy plowing, shoveling, salting... Parking lot was still pretty empty.

I got into the testing center, shook off the snow, removed the outerwear, fridged the lunch, then headed to the ladies room. That's when the announcement came over the PA that the campus was closing for the day.

Whaaaaat? Announce the closure at 7:40am when classes and other facilities start at 8am? People were already out fighting the weather traffic wars trying to get in, or, like me, had already arrived. 

Okay fine. Another day of inefficiency to go along with Friday's inefficiency. I headed back to the testing center to redon the outwear, grab the lunch, etc. 

*Locked*

Yeah, once campus closes, all the doors - inner and outer - are automatically locked by security. Badge access means nothing. So I had to go to security and have them let me back in.

Then I realized, the bus to take me back home was due to arrive in about 10 minutes. I needed to hightail it off campus and cross a busy road to get to the stop. Throw the outerwear back on, grab the lunch, zip up and go!

Made it with about one minute to spare. I figured, if I missed the bus, I could Donner Party it back  home if I needed, but the sidewalks were a mess - covered in road vomit thrown up from the plows.

Despite the plows, the roads weren't a whole lot better. The bus arrived, and I was all glad I'd booked it to the stop. Then... the bus got stuck. Of course it did!

Bus driver spinning the wheels, back up, go forward, spin the wheels, back up, go forward, spin... We'd get it going just enough, but then the flow of traffic wouldn't give space, so we'd have to stop and be stuck again. 

I was almost ready to get out and push. A transit bus. Just for at least the illusion of productivity. Then I realized I was glad I'd stopped in the restroom before leaving campus.

This went on for maybe 10 minutes until a bus employee with a bright vest came out and blocked one of the lanes of traffic so the bus could reenter. Back home. I WILL do something productive.

tldr: snow day!

No news that it's still muy caliente around here (mucho hot).  There are clouds in today's forecast that I'm so looking forward to.  Even the pets are over it.

I think Merlin's going for maximum exposed surface area for heat dissipation up there on the futon.

For my recent old job, one of the primary factors I took it was that it involved such a short commute - a little less than two miles.  My new job, while the commute wasn't as big of a factor, is also relatively close - win!  It's about two and a half miles by bicycle.  

I try to make it there without working up too much of  a sweat, and I also change my shirt from riding to working.  I take a longer, more scenic route to go home.  

One of my coworkers gifted each of us with a large chunk of homemade fudge on Tuesday.  Great!  Get it home in the heat on a bicycle?  Hmmm.

I envisioned opening my backpack at home to find a chocolate blob of melt.  This was clearly an urgent matter.

And I'm happy to report that my strategy worked.  I stuck my chunk o' fudge in the break room freezer to get good and froze by the end of the day.  I took it out at the last possible second, put it in a ziploc bag and headed out into the furnace.  Got home, and

the fudge lives!  

Maybe Penny and the Napolion the cat can fit in our freezer?  Merlin's on his own.

Looking back on the week.  What did I do? 

• Celebrated Meego's 21st birthday a couple of weeks after the fact.  He was doing celebratory things with some friends for the actual birthday.  Can't imagine what those kids would do for a 21st birthday...
• Started the new job and I'm really liking it. I'm still going to work a couple more shifts at the old job as they're very short staffed, but then it's, "buh bye!"
• Got a horrible haircut, then went to a different stylist to fix it.  Happy now.

I'm having a bit of a fashion crisis/ dilemma.  Isn't the need for corrective lenses a b*tch?

I'm nearsighted.  Fine.  I've needed vision correction since my mid-20's. Years ago, I wore contacts, but eventually decided to do away with the cleaning and storing, and I've just worn eyeglasses ever since. A couple of years ago, I joined team bifocal.



The dilemma arises when riding my bicycle in cold temperatures - say, anything below about 35F.  Riding in the cold makes my eyes water, which decreases my vision as well as being annoying.  Way back when I first got on the bicycle commuter bandwagon, I forked over for a pair of nice face-hugging prescription glasses that performed nicely.

Well, those specs died of old age about a year ago or so, and I've just been doing without, not necessarily in a rush to fork over again for a replacement pair of Rx specs.

And I'm crying again.

And trying alternatives.




Alternative 1:
Ski goggles seem to be the general eyewear of choice among other commuters.  On the pro side, they cover  up a good portion of face so are warmer in addition to preventing the crying.

As far as cons, they can be a bit uncomfortable because of their face-hugging quality acts to smoosh the eyeglasses into the nose bridge, etc.  Plus, the bug look...




Alternative 2:
Over-the-eyeglasses safety goggles seem to fall a distant second for the visually challenged cold weather commuters.  On the plus side, they are more comfortable, as far as face-smooshing goes, than the ski goggles.  They also provide better peripheral vision.
On the minus side, true, they're not as bug-like as the ski goggles, but rather geeky looking.  See?



Alternative 3 would be to just get another pair of prescription cycling glasses.  But then what would I do with the bug-like ski goggles and the geeky safety goggles?

Alternative 4:  Ride blind.  Not happening.

Alternative 5:  wear contacts again plus non-prescription no-cry glasses.  How do contacts work if I currently wear bifocals?

Alternative 6:  Do nothing.  Keep crying.


Have you ever happily sacrificed fashion for functionality?

Onward to the documents!  *yeesh*

You know I'm a declutterer, a tidier, a Kondophile.  I've been sorta when I'm not too lazy, more or less meticulously clearing out clutter for the past several months. I'm not alone when I say that one of the worst tidying jobs is going through documents.

I'm very grateful for the digital age, but we have leftover piles from the paper age - user manuals, financial investment information, medical records, billing receipts, educational transcripts and certifications...  I'd actually gone through quite a bit of that stuff, and in so doing, I unearthed our trust documents, a.k.a. our "death" documents.

It's not like we have much of an "estate", but it's a good idea to get such ducks in a row.  Of course, after paying the attorneys, there's even less of an "estate" to line up...  But, there it was, in all of it's heavy bound up glory, taking up pages and pages of legalese.  Not to mention, it's laden with all kinds of identity thief treasure.



All of it exists in "the cloud", and a small pocket in front of one of the heavy dusty binders contained a tiny usb drive, which also contains everything.  All that pretty paper and toner was not sparking any joy.  No, Marie, it was not.






It was time for the paper purge.  We have a document shredder, but this job calls for industrial strength.  I found a place nearby that will shred documents for a dollar/pound.  I figured I'd scoot up there on my trusty bicycle.  Here's the pile next to my cycling backpack, and the pooches are volunteering to just eat all of it.

Have you seen them?  The Resolutionists? 


It happens every year at the beginning.  All these new faces "out there" - running, going to the gym, power walking...  But, strangely, I didn't notice ANYone.  I'd even avoided the gym the first few days of the year, assuming it would be teeming with newbies for a while.  Then one day during that first week, I forgot and went on in.


And it was... less crowded than usual?  Plenty of room to move around, plenty of available equipment, what was up?  I thought maybe it was the time of day I was there - late afternoon - which isn't peak hours.






But I asked Wolfgang, who goes in the evenings which are peak hours, and he said the same thing.  Not only was it not crowded, it was actually less crowded than usual.  We were flummoxed.

HOWEVER, it seems they are just late.  This week has brought a noticeable increase in unfamiliar faces, both at the gym and on the walking/running paths.  Better late than never, I suppose.  But every year, the same thing happens. The increase in traffic lasts a couple of weeks, and afterwards, it's like it never happened.  Will that be the case again this year? 

More power to 'em, I say.  For the people who decide to take up running or walking or bicycling or some other outdoor activities, this is actually the worst time of year to start in North America.  Maybe that's a reason why the numbers drop off so quickly. 

I didn't make any resolutions - well, other than the one I make every year to cook better - as in healthy and balanced - meals. I'm doing okay.  We'll see where I am in a couple of weeks.  Frozen pizza, anyone?

Yesterday I thought I might draw something.  Or blog something.  Or both. Then an online learning site I use enticed me to play over there for a while.  And I thought, okay, just for a little bit.  PFFFT.

I camped out over in my left-side brain for too long.  My drawing/blogging right side brain went to mush.  Does that happen to anyone else?  It's hard to strike a balance.  Is that how my kids can play computer games for so long? And then are unable to clean up their own messes?

Maybe I should set a timer or something



In the end, I guess it was a good thing.  I went to PEO and was recruited to act as treasurer since the official treasurer was absent.  Yay!  I am somebody!  I have a purpose!   I can do numbers!

Thus my excitement of yesterday.

Another project on the to-do list is to refurb my fish aquarium.  Except the evil fish are still living in there.  Recall how they took over and totally wiped out the tank civilization?  They have continued to thrive, but I can't bring any other tankmates in, lest they become murder victims.  Remember Jansen the plecostomus?  How he totally vanished overnight?  Never found any trace of him.  I don't dare buy another pleco, it just seems cruel.

My only consolation has been that the plants have flourished under this post-apocalypse regime.  Well, that all went out the window over the weekend.

See, I didn't do anything special for the evil fish when we shuffled off to Comic Con.  I made sure they were fed before I left, we'd be gone for two days, they could scrounge the tank.  I think I was secretly hoping they'd eat each other.

They didn't.  They ate the plants instead.

My previously lush tank flora has been reduced to a few scraggly leafless stems.  Like a few skinny grass noodles and nothingness.  However, the algae continues to prosper because there is no resident plecostomus, may he Rest In Peace.

I've quietly contemplated serving the evil fish up as a treat for Reese the snake.

But they'd probably find a way to kill him too.
.

The weather's been so nice, I'm thinking I might make the big jump and change out the tires on the van.  Well, no, not by mySELF.  But take it to the guys at the shop and have them change her shoes.  OFF with the snowboots!


We got our rockin' van back around 2005, I think it was.  She is a full-size Econoline 150 V8 beautiful big girl.  I wanted it for road trips and camping trips.  Plus, I figured if things go all zombie apocalypse, we could always live in it while fighting off the herds.  Not so with the Subaru.

And since we are feral tent campers, she could serve as an emergency shelter in the case of nasty weather or nasty bears.



A couple of years ago, after having the tires swapped out, we lost one of the hubcaps during a camping trip.  I rather like the "tough" look it gives to that one tire.  No bear would mess with that van in the woods!

But I don't like the asymmetry.    I want to just remove the other three hubcaps.

Chaco and Wolfgang say doing so would give it the "pedophile van" look.  Might as well paint "FREE  CANDY" on the side.

Flickr.com

Oh come on.  Our van isn't even red, it's purple (or whatever the heck color it is).  

Today I finally got around to getting a spare key made for the Element.  Yes, we've only had Ellie Mae for about 5 months now.  With one key.  Maybe it was Riot Kitty's key-in-the-sewer-grate mishap that spurred me on to finally getting this done.

So now we have a spare Ellie Mae key, and when I got home, I went to put it where I've put the other spare car keys.  Except, I had to think of just where that is.

See, I have various stashes of things I don't want certain people getting into.  It's not that I don't want these certain people having access to the things I've got stashed, it's just that these certain people have a habit of not putting things away (grrrr), however important.  Either that, or the things I have stashed are reserves of things that are readily available.  If I put the entire stash out in the readily available places, they get plundered, I guess because of the illusion of limitless supply!

So I stash things, either because they're important so need to be in a safe place, or because if I make them plentiful, the bounty is wastefully raided.  Stashing works wonders... except, I often forget where the various stashes are.

Today's hunt for spare car keys is the third such forgotten stash in recent days.

When Chaco was home this weekend, he mentioned he needed some new socks.

"Oh, I've got a spare pack of your socks.  Where are they?".  An exhaustive search turned them up.  Truth is, I'd discovered packs of spare socks when I was recently looking for something else.

The next day, Wolfgang wanted some Chapstick and asked if I had some stashed.  "Yep, sure do!"  Heck if I knew where...

Luckily, our house isn't that big.  We found the Chapstick.

Now, I know I'm not getting dementiaed.  These various stashes are all very organized in boxes or other such containers.  But then I take those containers and put them in some out of the way place.  I know that we'll find them EVENTUALLY if we look, so I don't etch their locations in my brain very deeply.

Happy May!

But do you see the problem?  Which is perhaps the reason I keep forgetting where the stash locations are?  For example, Wolfgang wants Chapstick.  I know there's some in the house somewhere.  I offer some suggestions and tell him to go look.  He finds.  Then I must change the now non-secret Chapstick stash location to some other location lest it get plundered.  God forbid our Chapstick stash should get plundered.

It's NOT dementia.  Is it?

So remember, when the zombie apocolypse comes, we've got plenty of provisions.  I'm just not sure where they are.

And on that note, has anyone seen our spring?
.

I gave into peer pressure and am currently reading "The Hunger Games".   Each of the kids has read the series, and with all the hype of the movie being  in theaters now, Magnum checked it out from the library. 

It's a fast read, he finished it in a couple of days, so I started reading it to use up the rest of his loan period.

I don't read that many novels, although I do start a few.  I'm not someone that has to finish a book once I've started reading it.   If I don't like the writing, or if I'm just not getting into it for whatever reason, I can stop.  Maybe part of that is because I never purchase novels, so it's no real loss to not finish one that I start.  Okay, "never" is an extreme word, but I honestly can't remember the last one I bought other than those that the kids need for school.

Plus, we have these wonderful places called libraries. They buy the books, they store the books, if the books get trashed, they replace them... what's not to like? 

Well, for one thing, people who mark up library books.  Lookie this:

for shame

This is a page of a book I recently got from the library.  It is one of the few novels I've actually finished!  It helps that it was short.  I took a gamble and got it off the rack of "Staff Recommendations" for lack of any other inspiration.

See all the pencil marks?  Some previous reader marked up nearly every page of the book with underlinings and circled words and margin notes.  How rude. 

The marks were in pencil, so I occassionally would erase pages when I had my Super Pinky handy.  But sometimes my Super Pinky was, like, way in the next room or *horrors* on a different floor of the house.  I was forced to read the book while trying to ignore the chicken scratchings of that Other Person. 





I felt so violated.

Darn First World Problems.