susandennis

I love a new gadget and a new phone is the best new gadget. My new phone is on the FedEx (ground) truck for delivery today!!

Fortunately I got a box from FedEx (ground) yesterday so I know not to start the Where Is That Damn Truck??? stressing until about 4:30-4:45. It's going to be a long day. But, also, it looks like the two wireless stands I ordered will also be arriving. Strangely, when I first got tracking info for the two stands it was FedEx Smartpost which is where they hand over the package to USPS for the 'last mile'. But between yesterday and today, the tracking went from Smartpost to On FedEx Truck for Delivery. I've never seen that switch before. I'm totally ok with it.

I made a new swimsuit yesterday and it's the best one I've ever made. I've finally perfected the process. A very satisfying accomplishment. I wish I hadn't laid out the pattern upside down so that now the little palm trees and sailboats falling from the sky for everyone but me.



When I went to my swimsuit fabric drawer, I found some lining fabric that I'd never used before and have no clue where I got. Which is sad because, turns out, it's fabulous and now I have no idea where to get more. Oh well.

I have several errands I could run today and none of them are critical. So, probably, I won't go anywhere.

I ordered thread to use in making my raincoat and the supplier (on Amazon but not Amazon) is taking the pony express method of delivery. I'm still a day away from even getting a delivery date but it is coming from California so I should have it by the beginning of the week, I hope. Meanwhile we don't have any rain the forecast so no biggie.

Guess I'll quit click around and get up and get my day actually, really started.

I had the pool mostly to myself this morning. I wondered where all those swimmers at my old pool - the one that was trashed by the RV - were swimming today. That pool had 6 lanes and most were shared so a dozen swimmers every morning from 5-6. That gym's website yesterday said they are going to take the time now to resurface the pool (it really needed it) and redo the lighting as well as fix the Giant Gaping Hole. So those folks are going to be in dry dock for months.

I am on this Google deal where I let them follow my browsing in return for $. Every 5 weeks I get $10. And every single time, the email from Google telling me about the reward for allowing Google to follow my Google Chrome browsing, gets trapped in Gmail and comes in to me with a massive red banner suggesting that the email is harmful. It cracks me up, every single time.

My brother got a new Pixel phone, too. He got the big one and his arrives today. He's never had a made-by-google phone before plus his last Samsung broke about a month ago so he's been using an aged piece of shit. I'm quite excited for him to get his today and for me to get mine tomorrow.

One of my remote control shades has been acting up. Yesterday I spent some quality time with it and, as one of the troubleshooting steps, I swapped out the batteries. My old shades, the original remote shades, were fashioned in such a way that changing out the batteries was the world's worst experience ever. Turns out, with these new ones, they have fixed that. This time it was a piece of cake yesterday and fixed the shade immediately. Now that I know how easy it is, I will, be swapping out the others at the first sign of trouble.

I want to get some fleece fabric and joanne's is having a sale and their store at SouthCenter has every fleece fabric imaginable and they are having a sale right now. I have nothing going on today. I could easily go, but, I'm too lazy.

So I think I'll make today just a piddling - do this and that day. But I have been neglecting my walks so there will be at least one of those.

I can have a bit of a sharp tongue. When I'm tired or already frustrated I can tend to take it out on whoever happens by me. This is never good but it's particularly odious when it's someone who's just not personally equipped to handle any kind of complicated interaction.

Our building manager is such a person. And I snipped at him today. Yes, he said something stupid and yes, he responded to my question with an answer that made no sense but in any run - long or short - the matter under discussion is inconsequential.

What is consequential is that I was mean to him. Under no circumstances is that acceptable at all. And my apologizing would make it worse for him.

I'm very pissed at me.

My grandfather had two brothers. One had macular degeneration which he picked up at an early age and spent his later years in darkness. My grandfather suffered horribly from glaucoma back when the only treatment was a pat on the head. He hurt so much for so many years plus he couldn't see shit. Their brother was a nationally prominent opthamologist. Karmic humor? Not that funny, actually.

The older I get, the more I fear big fat eye bombs. Maybe that's why I hate going to the eye doctor. But I have great eyes. I saw everything I ever wanted easily until the age of 45ish. Then I used reading glasses and mono vision contacts for a while. Then I got cataracts and had them removed and replaced with mono vision lenses and it's been gravy ever since. I use a magnifying glass sometimes to rip out stitches when the thread and the fabric are the same color. Otherwise, my eyes work great unassisted.

And, still, every time I have to go to the eye doctor, I know he's going to tell me, I'm looking at the last days/weeks/months of seeing.

But... not today!!!! No signs of diabetes, macular degeneration, glaucoma or anything else. Have a nice day.

He does want to do some kind of mapping for glaucoma because of grandpa but in six months. But, for now, I'm good as good. Whew and yeah!!!

Except my eyes are still dilated and that's a bit disconcerting.

I got a shipping notice for my new phone. It will be here Friday. Nice.

This time last year, my pool got icky. They just weren't maintaining it so I went pool shopping and joined a different gym with a fabulous pool. I swam there for November and December before the chemical mix in the pool had a big old fight with my lungs and I had to quit which was fine because my old/current pool got their shit together and it was no longer icky.

This little jaunt through history is because I just read that around midnight last night, an RV ran into the gym, on the pool side, and caught fire. BFD. Pool closed for probably a good while while they repair the structural damage. The gym is surrounded by RVs that people live in. It's a homeless camp on wheels. The gym owners and members have been bitching about it for several years now. Another one of those RVs crashed into the non-pool side of the building a couple of months ago. The owner/driver of last night's RV disappeared immediately upon impact.

If I was still swimming there, I would have arrived this morning about 4:45 to that mess and be without a pool for godknowshowlong. I sent a sympthy note to my friend, Barrie, who swims there and suggested we get together for breakfast or lunch since she now has extra free time.

Today I have errands. I need potatoes and tortillas from Grocery Outlet. I need to return a package at Amazon so while I'm in the area, I think I'll treat myself to a bagel/lox/the works sandwich at the bagel place.

And I may start on a new swimsuit. Two of my favorites are losing their will to live. So I'm easing them out of the rotation for now. I have the goods - fabric/lining/elastic - on hand to make new ones and I might just get going on that today. Or work on my crocheted socks which are coming along nicely.

My swim this morning was better than it has been in days or weeks even. I felt like I could go on forever. No arm soreness or breathing issues or boredom. Just swim swim swim. Yeah!!

I have now hit the last time I'll ever sell anything on eBay. The buyer for my cups turned out to be pissy. The entry said - in a couple of different ways - that the sale was final with absolutely no returns or refunds of any kind under any circumstances and that I would pack with care but not be responsible for breakage. Of course, she says, most were broken. (She did include photos.) She also threatened to write a bad review and asked for a refund of some of the money. I don't take kindly to threats. So I responded that I don't like threats and reiterated the warnings in my listing. BUT, I also explained that I was done with eBay so she could leave any kind of review she wanted. I couldn't figure out how to refund her money and told her so but also told her that if she sent me her email address, I'd send her half of her money back.

This morning I got an email saying that she was going to leave me a bad review. I replied that I was fine with that and would still send her the $13 if she let me know where to send it. Fuck it. I don't mind shopping on eBay now and again but no more selling attempts. I knew it wasn't worth it and should have followed my gut. Oh well. Hopefully she'll get some satisfaction out of blistering my hide with her horrible review. It's the least I can do.

My basic cable has no true cable channels and I find I miss it more than I thought I would - TBS, HGTV, Bravo. BUT I am discovering more and more fun programming on CBUT - Canadian TV from Vancouver! Sadly the channel is not a high definition channel but still. I used to watch House Hunters a lot. Now I watch Escape to the Country. Which is actually far more interesting and well done. Last night while I was watching, at the commercial break, they touted another one of their shows - Baroness von Sketch Show. I LOVE this show. I used to get it on Bravo, I think. It's a gem that nobody knows about but me and I love it. I'm so jazzed to get it back.

Nothing exciting going on here today which is fine. I think maybe I'll do some laundry. And some sewing. And the rest of the usual.

I'm excited to start work on my rain coat but want to hold off until I have everything. I'm waiting now for cone thread. Lime green. Due in, hopefully, by the end of the week.

This day is working out much better than it started. I feel better.

I have two yarn projects going but both are big and heavy and make my arm sore if I work on them for more than 30-45 minutes at a time. I was thinking I needed a small project. Crochet squares always work. But... then, on Instagram this morning I saw a sock pattern for socks that are crocheted and worked from the toe up. Ohhhhhh can I do it? Well, let's see! So started a sock on a crochet hook.

Then I did some sewing - an embellishment idea that I also got from Instagram this morning. It worked out particularly well.

Then the second of my wall coat hooks arrived so I put them up. That was a fucking nightmare. I should have waited until my brother comes in January. I know it isn't hard. I had all the right everything I needed, I just did it wrong - several times. Stuff like that always makes me feel like an idiot and when it's done I don't get enough satisfaction out of having done it to make it worthwhile. When my brother does it, I don't watch and love the result and he did it.

BUT it is done. This replaces what was basically a gynormous pile of coats and jackets and hats and bags with a poll sticking up the pile's butt. And the whole thing sticking out in the hallway. Way much better and that 95% of the time I do not have that light on so it's rather a dark corner and no one can the the flaws I created in the wall.



Now I think I'll wash my hands and get to crocheting.

Years and years ago, a colleague of mine either made up or revived a very little know but exceedingly useful word.

Festuche.

In 2003, I wrote about it here in my journal. I still get comments now and again from IBMers or family members of same because, depending on your Google profile, my name/journal is likely to come up when you google "festuche"

From that entry:

It's pronounced fess-toosch (accent on the second syllable). A festuche is a brohaha or a big deal or a tado. "He forgot to get the approval and pretty soon we had a major festuche." or "She's such a drama queen. She could make any staff meeting into a real festuche."

I'm trying to learn English English via LJ friends and Acorn TV. The slang and idioms common in England always throw me so I often look them up in hopes that I can at least grasp the content.

Today I was reading along when dimity_blue laid a whole new word - not even slang or idiom on me.

Palaver which is basically a festuchie conversation!

I love this so much. So much. I want to have a palaver about it.

Generally, when someone politely asks me how I am - particularly someone like a clerk or wait person - I always answer brightly "Excellent!!". Saturday, the checkout lady at Trader Joes responded "wow. I never hear that. Cool." I usually am excellent! Why wouldn't I be? I have the best life, I have had the best life. I have a beautiful home, health and the means to do and have what I want. What's not to be excellent about?

But, today is just a blah day, I think. I didn't really enjoy half of my swim. The second half was a slog. I would usually focus, naturally, on how easy it was to wake up at 4:30 on a Monday and how great it is to have a nice pool to go to - that costs me nothing! And how lucky I am to enjoy even half a mile of swimming. But today is just blah.

My winter comforter was too wintery for last night. I need the in between one. Yes, I have way too many comforter choices. But today I'll swap.

The mystery packages are mostly no longer a mystery. The fabric company decided to send my two fabrics separately but only send one tracking number. Weird but ok. Another one was the box and packaging for sending my current phone to Google for trade in money. Won't be doing that until the new one gets here which may or may not be this week.

The charge for the phone and the two docking stations that I ordered on the same day last week appeared in my credit card review under pending. This means either the charge has hit the card and is being reviewed OR the vendor is just asking approval for a future charge. If the charge moves from pending to charged, then it's the former. If it moves from pending to disappears, it is the latter.

The Google charges all disappeared. Google charges when it ships. So... it has not shipped yet, sigh - which means, likely, it won't get here this week. blah.

No big plans for today but that's not blah, that's just usual. I do need to get unfunked, tho. Guess I'll go figure out how to do that.

I expected the pool to be empty today. Everyone professes to be rabid Seahawks fans and today they play in England at 10 am our time. So... I figured everyone would be glued to their TV. Turns out, no. The pool was packed. I shared a lane with Will who is not a good lane sharer. Nice guy but he takes his half out of the middle. He usually only swims for 20-25 minutes but today he wouldn't stop and my arms were tired and I decided that I could quit early. On Sundays. If I want. And I did. So at 1000 yards, I bailed.

Yesterday I saw this delicious breakfast on Instagram and decided to go get one. It's not a straight shot from the pool to the restaurant and so rather than noodle out the best route, I asked Google.

Until yesterday, Google had been ignoring me totally or not answering with anything even remotely helpful. But, yesterday I tried it and he gave me a good answer. So today I asked for directions to the restaurant. They popped right up. A reasonable route. IF there had not been construction and closed roads that Google ignored - 2 different places - and turned my 10 minute trip into a 20 minute one.

The restaurant was just opening so plenty of good seats out of direct sunlight and good service. The eggs were poached really well, but the hollandaise was made from powder (and not even good powder). There was some kind of weird some spice in the thing that was just off putting BUT the potatoes were perfection.

Then on to a Safeway nearby. The Safeway used to be fabulous. It was new and shiny and geared to singles and just a lovely place. Ohhhh are those days gone. First there were no carts. Then the shelfs were about half stocked. The police were there about a customer who had attacked a cashier. The produce section was great. The dairy section was a mess. Very few items had future sell by dates. And there were a few people wandering around talking to the various grocery items. It was just a nightmare. I did manage to get all I wanted. Score for making a list before I went, and remembering to check it while I was there!

So now I'm home. Last night I woke up cold several times. Clearly it's time to put the spring/fall comforter away and bring out the big guns. Usually I switch too soon but somehow I missed that this year. I love my winter comforter. So this is all very good. Tonight's sleep will be a snuggly one.

I may make a run over to the fabric store that I hate. It's at least close by and I want to find a better zipper than the one I have on hand for my new rain coat. I may or may not get started on cutting that out today. Maybe.

But first I'd better hang up my wet swimsuit and put the groceries away.

I just Marie Kondo'd my freezer and fridge. The fridge was easy but the freezer. Jeesh. I touched every single thing in there. I deep sixed the elderly and the unknowns and anything that didn't bring me joy.

I found some Popeye's fried chicken!!!

Also Trader Joe's bagels have to be the worst bagels in the entire world.

Off to the dumpster.