susandennis

There's a guy playing for the Mariners today who has spent the last 7 years playing minor league baseball. That's a lotta minor league years. Minor league ball is hard time for players. This kid has a younger brother who is a pitcher for the Phillies.

He found out yesterday that he was finally going to the major leagues. Today, in Oakland, CA he made the third out in the 1st inning (playing 1st base). The broadcaster just said that his parents and his grandparents and a sibling are in the audience having come in from Baton Rouge, LA. Imagine that scramble yesterday. So cool. What a fun Father's Day.

Turns out Alexa and Google do not work together in the car. Oh well.

I've been playing around with crochet rings. And today I made lemonade.

Here's the yarn I started with. It's called a cake.



Here are the rings I made with it. That yellow ball is all that was left over.



Then, today, I found a home for them!!



This is making me happy.



Zoey has a new spot and I haven't found it yet. That trickster.

I did not go swimming today. I decided last night that unless I woke up with an overwhelming desire to hit the pool, I'd take today off. I really don't like waiting until 8 am to get into the pool. It makes for days that are just too short. Here I am now. I've had breakfast, I've had two cups of coffee, I'm all caught up on Twitter, Instagram and LiveJournal and it's not even 9 am yet. Had I gone swimming, I'd still be in the pool with all that yet to do.

It's ridiculous, of course. What do I need more time in the day for? Nothing I want to do today even has a deadline. Why can't I just stay up later?

And why do I all of a sudden demand to crochet everything. I've knitted since I was 6 years old and now I can't bring myself to knit anything. Two needles seems like an unnecessary burden compared to one, simple, crochet hook.

See how relevant my life has become? I crack myself up. Yesterday, I ran into an Amazon delivery guy down in the garage. He had propped open a security door. I told him - with a smile - that it was a good thing I caught him and not half the people in this building who would have torn him a new one. He said "an old couple told me on my first delivery here that I'd get locked in the garage on weekends". I replied "Well, first of all, never trust old people." And then I showed him how to get back out to his car - even better than the way he came in. He was really cute and nice about it.

I recently found a Reddit topic about and by Amazon Flex Drivers (the ones who deliver). It's really fascinating which shows you how invested I am in Amazon deliveries. Also the fact that I netted $35 last month in cash back from my Amazon purchases. They are so lucky to have me.

A local artist who's work I have loved, the other day, posted, on instagram, a not unflattering portrait of Trump that he had done. It carried the has tag. 'nonpolitical'. It bugged me a lot. For many reasons, not the least of which is a random painting of Trump posted on instagram is not nonpolitical. But, now, when I see his work, it represents something it never did before and not in a good way. Plus, I'm annoyed with me that I let something like that color my opinion of his work. I'd like to think I'm a little more open and broadminded than that. But, I guess not.

In other more ridiculous news, I think I have figured out a way to get both Google Assistant and Alexa in my car. I just got the last piece so I'm ready to test. And will today. But, just think of it... A Smart Car with maximum smart speakers for a person who drives fewer than 4,000 miles a year. A Year! (Bought new in 2011, currently has 30,100 miles on it.)

I have a couple of solid projects to do today but first I need to clean up the kitchen from breakfast. Baseball this afternoon.

I slept hard and long last night. It's always a shock to wake up two hours later than usual. Particularly in retirement, it takes me a while to lock in 'it's the weekend'. Not that it matters. The worst thing that would happen if I slept too late is that I would miss a swim. NBD.

After my swim this morning, I dipped into Trader Joes which was packed. I had wanted to wander around but there were really too many kids without parental oversight to make that enjoyable so I got what was on my list and split.

I took the route by my favorite breakfast place (Luna Park Cafe) figuring if there was parking, I'd stop. They always have huge crowds on weekends and they have the tiniest parking lot. All the street spaces are gone while there is road construction so I was hoping that discouraged the crowds and, apparently, I was right! I found a spot in the tiny lot and had a lovely breakfast.

Then home where my new poster arrived and also the frame I ordered for it.



I got the frame from Amazon and it is a shockingly high quality frame for the money. I'm now considering reframing a couple of pieces I have hanging now.

I'm reading two really good books right now.

On my Kindle is The Gown by Jennifer Robson. I am not a fan of reading history and particularly not fictionalized history but this is a clear exception. I'm enjoying it very much.

My current audio book is Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner. It's just a good story. At least so far.

Now I need to go put away the TJ's. And hang up my wet swimsuit. And clean up the cat barf that Zoey left me last night. And then I think I'm going to take off this top and make the sleeves bigger.

After that, no particular plans for the rest of the day. Stayin' in and stayin' cool.

Today's big excitement was the Twitter study. A researcher from the University of Washington interviewed me about my use of Twitter and Instagram. She was very nice and the whole thing as pretty interesting. We did it at a coffee shop a couple of blocks from here. And I get a $30 Amazon card for participating. Not bad for a nice hour's chat.

It really is beautifully cloudy and cool. I think I may take advantage and go out for a couple of errands. They did not have any gay cupcakes at the cupcake shop yesterday and they kind of pissed me off. So I think maybe I'll go to another location and see if I can get cupcakes and also renew my love of the operation.

Also I need to stop at Walgreens. And, if I get ambitious, maybe TraderJoe's.

It's so lovely to have the blinds up and the door open.

I'm not very motivated to do much today. The house is clean. The kitchen is clean. The sewing room is tidy. The laundry is done.

Errands it is, then!

Just saw this on Twitter from the Seattle Weather Blog:

🌬The winds of change are brewing!

Cool, damp ocean air is lurking at our doorstep, poised to flood into the region overnight. Expect a gray & chilly start to the day tomorrow.

👏 Praise be! 👏

Lovely news. I love my air conditioner but even more, I love not having to use it.

In other news, I'm totally over the Amazon shutting down restaurant delivery. A little internetting has revealed that precious few restaurants in this town eschew delivery. They all use one service or another and some use many. So now I can get delivery from any restaurant, not just the ones Amazon has. Ha! Freedom! I still probably won't but I'm glad to know I can. I have my eye on some Kung Pao Beef from Shanghai Gardens here sometime soon!

It is so lovely to sew in the cleaned up sewing room. The swimsuit cover up I made a week or so ago needed some tweaks. All fixed now.

Time now to get back to Bosch.

Today is supposed to be cooler which is good because I have errands. I have a return to drop off at Amazon. I need salad from Grocery Outlet and I want a dozen Gay Cupcakes (4 would be fine and I may end up only getting 6 but they are only available in June and they donate a portion of the proceeds and they are so pretty. I have room in the freezer so maybe even a dozen. Maybe.)

Today's baseball game starts at 10.I want to get out and back before it heats up anyway. But the cupcake place doesn't open til 8 and Amazon and GO don't open til 9 and it's not quite 7:30 yet. So waiting...

Also I have laundry going. Just one load but I told the researcher that I'm meeting tomorrow in the coffee shop that I'd be wearing a purple Pride Ally t-shirt. Said shirt, however, was at the bottom of the dirty clothes bin. Fixing that now. Also found another Proud to be an Ally shirt at Amazon so ordered that up. June is too long a month for one shirt plus, there are all the other months.

I am spending money like The Tree That I Hate is growing it. My plan to make my spending public isn't working that well. Also bills due. I just paid my car registration $199. When you live in a state with no state income tax, you get to pay that income tax in the form of higher sales taxes, outrageous taxes on restaurant dining, car rentals, hotels and booze as well as car registrations.

The pool was nicely populated again today. I don't mind swimming alone but it's more fun with other people around. I swim faster. Plus, like today, when I get big splashy swimmers on both sides, I expend way more energy keeping on top of the waves. More bang for my swim buck.

This week it was announced that Amazon Restaurants is ending. This is disappointing. It is the only food delivery service I use. I really really like it. I don't order food often - maybe once a month - but I always used Amazon when I did. I can't bring myself to use Uber anything. They seem to be the deliverer of choice around here for restaurants so I guess I'll be ordering in even less. Bummer.

I need carpet cleaning. I have zero interest in the kind where you move all your furniture out of the room and then don't walk on it for a day but I sure could use a giants sucking/scrubbing machine in the major pathways. Our last building manager had the HOA buy a carpet cleaner for the hallways. Our current building manager can't be bothered so hires a service. I just sent a note to the president asking if we still have the machine and may I please borrow it. I'm sure this plan will not work but figure it's worth a shot.

When it fails I may just abandon the project and leave it for those who handle the rest of all this after I die.

I did get the sewing room cleaned up and organized better than it has been in a while. Now I need to get in there and make something - aka mess it up again.

But not today. The sewing room is farthest from the air conditioner so ... not today.

The baseball game is at 5. I've got a new book going on Kindle - The Gown by Jennifer Robson. It's a library book, so short life. I think I'll give it some attention.

Zoey is napping right here next to my leg on this chair. Hottest day of the year and she has to snuggle. It's not going to last long, I'm nearly out of coffee and will be getting up soon.

But I really am hot day ready. The air conditioner is conditioning beautifully. I have the blinds drawn to keep out any heat building sun. I have no where I have to go. So the plan is to say cool right here. This particular heat spell looks like it might be mercifully short.

Oh! look what just popped up on Twitter. A great photo of a sea gull that includes my condo! Look all the way to the back on the right. Now count up four floors from the street. Just to the right of the lamp post is a unit that is half obscured by a tree. That's ME!!! And that's The Tree That I Hate!



The Echo Auto performed fine this morning. It's not quite a zippy as the Google Assistant Roav but the content is way better. Testing continues.

So for two weeks now, the pool has been mostly empty. Just me. My friend, Matt, finally came back this morning and while we were waiting for the gym to open, I told him that all the regulars had abandoned me and it had been lonely. So, then, of course, this morning it was packed! We had quite the chuckle over "Matt's support team".

So. One November years and years ago, I got a package one day in the mail from my mother. It was a smoke detector (this was when they were just on the market and nobody had them yet). It came with a note in her handwriting that said "love, me". WTF??? So as soon as the long distance rates went down that day (yes, that was a thing - old people will remember), I called her and basically asked WTF? She laughed and explained that she had gotten smoke detectors for me and my brother and my sister for Christmas and then, when she was going to sleep that night had the horrible thought ... what if one of us had a fire and burned up between now and Christmas!! So she wrapped 'em up and sent them out the next day.

I thought of that this morning when I decided to take those stupid Tile fobs off my key chain. I bought a package of the trackers one day when they were really cheap. I have two key chains (one car/one no car) and have one on each. Plus one in my purse and one in my swim bag. Only one time in the six months or so that I've had them, did I need them to locate something and it could not. But, I don't take them off because I know as soon as I do, I'll lose the keys, my purse, something. But, fuck that. I hate extra crap on my keys. And I keep hitting it and making it squawk. And I'm done. Sorry, Mom. Hope the house doesn't burn down.

When I was last at my regular doctor, he told me to quit taking the aspirin he'd had me take every day for years. I did. And, it dawned on me this week what a difference it has made. Yes, my nose bled but the first time, only for a tiny little bit and while the second time was worse, it could have been way worse and, previous nose bleeds lasted way longer. And the senile purura ... These are the blood bruises you see on old people's hands and arms. They are gross looking. I used to get them constantly. It was horrible. Then the lung doctor took me off the steroid inhaler and they really cleared up. But, still, all I have to do is get the back of my hand near a sharp edge and an ugly red purple bruise grows all over the skin and stays for two weeks or more. Except, yesterday I hit one hand and then the other and instantly saw signs of the bruising starting but it never got bad at all. There is, today, a very small dime sized area on both hands that is a little darker in color than the rest of my hand. WAY WAY WAY better than those awful bruises. Fuck that aspirin shit. Of course, now I'll probably get a blood clot that will kill me but at least I won't look like I was beaten with a mallet when they find my body!!

Ramble ramble. Outside of staying in the house near the air conditioner, I don't have much planned for today. I think I'll go back and tidy up the sewing room. And maybe get a new project started. Zoey's new collar is good and I found a bigger bell that I can actually hear. Maybe no more sneaking up on me!



It's elastic and not as loose as the other one so maybe it will take longer to get groddy. It takes about 15 minutes to make one from scratch so no big deal either way.

Yesterday, after blowing my nose all day, I had a small nose bleed. It rarely happens and this one lasted about 3 tissues worth. Tiny. Cut to today.

I was on Amazon clicking for a return. It's a 'free' return but they were telling me I had to mail it and they would then send me $3.50 for postage. The cheapest mailing was $8. WTF? So I decided to get onto chat and ask if I couldn't just drop it off at the usual place.

Zoey was wandering around and decided to walk across the keyboard while I was setting the chat up. And then I started coughing and coughing and coughing and just as I finally got the damn cat off the keyboard, the chat guy came on and I'm coughing and typing my request and all of a sudden my nose starts gushing blood and Zoey decides she's not done yet - back and forth across the keyboard - and I'm still coughing and bleeding and grabbing tissues as fast as I could. I was trying to find the hands to tell the chat guy that I had an emergency when he typed 'hold on while I check on that for you'.

Seriously, I hope someone was on the Nest cam to see that. What a 3 ring circus. Finally, the coughing just stopped which was weird. And Zoey gave up and left and then the chat guy did just what I wanted about the time the nose quit bleeding.

Whew. My blouse is now soaking in cold water. Thankfully, I didn't bleed on the furniture. Zoey got some treats and all is now fine. But it was a wild ass few minutes there.

This is mainly for jocosa who asked...

It finally got here at 2. Geesh. Dear Amazon delivery map, I wish I could quit you. But, I can't.

And, sadly, I'm afraid that I will not be able to take this hardware and sling it back into Amazon's face as punishment for making me wait so long for one of their stupid invitations to buy. First test says I'll be keeping and enjoying it.

The Roav Bolt (a similar gizmo that cost twice as much and uses Google Assistant instead of Alexa) was easy to install and worked great. The problem with it is Google Assistant. It could be, in fairness, that I'm just not Google Assistant friendly. But, it's always hated me and still does.

I want to get in the car to go to the pool and say Good Morning and have it give me the weather, the traffic report and then the news. (Google's list of news sources is impossible. And has only one from the Pacific Northwest and that's the Tacoma paper.) It mostly always starts right up with the weather and the traffic and then I get 'from the Tacoma News Tribune ' and then nothing. If I then give it the preferred command 'listen to the news', I get OK Here's the News. From the Tacoma News Tribune and that's all. About once every 20 tries I get the full news.

The Echo Auto is cute. And is small enough to sit nicely in my car which is kind of a miracle in itself. I don't have that many places for shit to sit. (The Roav is just the cigarette lighter plug.)

It was dirt simple to install. I mean really a little anti climatic. I set up my Good Morning routine and tried it out. (Alexa has far better news sources.) and it ran through them fine and dandy. Although the Seattle Times is read by a robot and sounds pretty hilarious. How, does Alexa know where I 'work'?? I know how Google knows. But, did it tell Alexa? hmmmm

It also serves as the bluetooth receiver for everything so I can use it for Google maps and Google music and anything else on my phone in addition to all the Alexa tricks. I am just so much more comfortable with Alexa and how she operates and she really does like me lots. She never doesn't listen and always does what I want and nicely. Google Assistant could take lessons.

Both of them, by the way, require that your car radio stay in AUX mode. So, you can't listen to the radio and ask Alexa anything. She will ignore you. People on Reddit think this is a problem. I don't. One of the reasons I want this is so that I do not have to listen to the radio any more.

So... jocosa check in with me along about Friday to make sure, but I think you might have to break that box open after all.