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I Really Need to Block the Hole in the Fence

Woke up a little after 7 AM and fell back asleep until 8:30. The dogs are wrestling on the bed.

“Storms continuing though 3 PM.” Okay, it’s an inside day. While I was out with the dogs, it started raining pretty hard, so I brought them in. They don’t usually do their business in the rain. Here comes a full-blown thunderstorm.

Gracie is upset that Oliver won’t play with her. She’s emitting ear-piercing barks.

I got intrigued with Coldplay due to the kiss-cam brouhaha. I discovered that I like their music. I gather that makes me uncool, but I don’t care. Bought a couple of albums.

The Dynamic Duo are wrestling. I might need to kick one of them out. I bought them some tug-of war ropes and a Kong toy, but they prefer to play tug with random things. Bella has a plastic bottle that she’s ripping apart, and Gracie wants it.

Napped. Woke up after an hour but went back to sleep for another hour.

Someone on Facebook suggested putting affirmations in a digital photo frame. I asked ChatGPT to create some for anxiety and stress, but it put them all in one graphic, which isn’t what I wanted, but I’ll work with them later. I should look for digital photo frames on Mercari (done). I also want one about getting things done for the kitchen.

Oliver wants some food, but I told him that it was too early to feed him. He’s cuddling next to me. Had lunch. I’m going to take another short nap.

More thunderstorms are coming. I might not get out today.

I ordered some more pairs of underwear and socks for my trip. One thing that I need to do after I shower is to try clothes on and pack. I need to make a list of stuff to buy.

Showered. I’m trying to decide what to do. I need to try on clothes and to feed the critters, but it’s not supposed to rain for the next two hours. On the other hand, no rain on Monday.

Tried on clothes. I like the blue striped linen dress and the black striped shirtdress. They were both a little wrinkled, so I put them in the dryer. The blue dress is still wrinkled, so I need to try out my clothes presser. Bought ballet flats to go with them. I also had a Columbia dress that was very cool (temperature-wise), so I looked for another one. One of my Chico's dresses is missing. I know that I got it, so it's here someplace.

Fed us all and took the dogs out. Gracie somehow got her leash off--her collar was still on--and she went through the gap in the fence and took off down the street. I couldn't figure out where she went, but she came back to see Bella, so I ran over and put the leash on her. When I was getting her in the yard, it was Bella's turn to take off. She came back though, and I let her in the yard. Yikes. The collars with AirTags and my phone number can't come too soon.

I checked out goop because Coldplay --> Gwyneth Paltrow --> goop. I was surprised that I found some blush and reef-safe sunscreen that I liked. The prices were similar to those for high-end makeup.

Bought a strapless bra from Underoutfit because some of the dresses have narrow straps. I also bought some "cooling thigh protectors".

My tooth is hurting. I think that I want to go to bed and get up early. I'm feeling cranky. Actually, I should do an hour of work on the kitchen and then go to sleep.

Current Music: Deee-lite

(no subject)

My sister's husband is going to be in town and I'm meeting him for breakfast day after tomorrow. He's super nice and I'm really looking forward to seeing him.

overcast

And cloudy - that's this morning and it's lovely. I'm beginning to notice incremental day shortness. It's still light at 5 am but not like it was last month. It's still light at 9 pm but not like was last month. Progress.

Yesterday was just a lovely day of OMG-I-am-so-lucky-to-live-here. It just slaps me upside the head sometimes in the most wonderful way.

Today I had nothing on the agenda until I got a text from Richard (one of my volleyball buds and husband of Martha) asking if I would be willing to take him to Costco today to get a new battery for his car. Happy to. He says it will take an hour. Richard is one of those guys who has his own way of doing things and that is coupled by his extreme thrift. He spent his life teaching and then managing teachers of special education. In fact, turns out, one of the teachers he managed years ago, was Jan - the woman who just moved into Myrna's apartment!

So I'll meet him out at the elbow at 10. He has exceedingly long legs. It will be fun to watch them fold into the Smart Car.

Last week, when I took Martha to Fred Meyers, we stopped at Krispy Kreme and I took some mini donuts to elbow coffee. Everyone oood and awed at the donuts and I explained that they had Martha to thank and then they oood and awed at Martha "you got to ride in the little car???!!!" It was pretty funny.

We'll be home in time for baseball. The Mariners beat Houston in a walk off long after I was asleep.

Guess I'd better get dressed. And I need to put in a load of laundry and unload the dishwasher.

Current Mood: giddy

Sup, Homefryz!!!

Name: Bizette

Age: 20

I mostly post about: My characters, my art, my life, and just whatever interests me that day.

My hobbies are: Making art, HTML, anime and manga, video games, writing, listening to music, talking with friends, cycling, reading comics, daydreaming and baking.

My fandoms are: None tbh, but I guess I'm part of the glamfur and sparkledog scenes :P

I'm looking to meet people who: Chill folk who can handle my cheesiness, fellow glamfur/sparkledog or even animecore artists who like RPing, other lesbians and gays, and mature individuals who can engage in good faith.

My posting schedule tends to be: Daily and weekly for the most part due to not having a life, lol

When I add people, my dealbreakers are: Fandom/flavour-of-the-month/fanfiction posting, constant politics talk or arguing about politics, YouTube spam, homophobes and lesbophobes, bigots of all stripes, bad grammar and spelling, inactive accounts/blank journals, Twitter/TikTok types, white saviour types, religious weirdos, gooners/porn addicts, AI "art" bros, and wannabe edgy lords/mean girls (this ain't 4Chan, blud!).

Before adding me, you should know: I'm a black woman with ADHD and Dyslexia; so please be patient with me and try not to be randomly racist lmao. I do post vents, but only when I feel it's appropriate. I'm basically always free to chat; so feel free to message me :D, I do have an edgy sense of humour, but I'm smart enough to tone it down if needed, I'm based in the UK - so I might not see your message immediately if you're in a different timezone, and please avoid labelling me a furry :/

Entry tags:

scotland

Scotland, Day 4

We had tickets for a tour at Talisker Distillery for 11:00, so we had to get out of the house before 10. We made a quick stop along the way to get some photos, and made it there with a few minutes to spare.

( see more )

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Diddly-Squat Day

I read sunshine_two's post in which she mentioned an estate sale, so I got on a local estate sale list. There is one tomorrow morning, but only until noon, but I kind of would like to pick up some wine glasses. That led me to Facebook Marketplace, and someone had some dining chairs that are very similar to the ones that I saw on Wayfair, but these are painted white (and cheaper). My kitchen is mostly white, so that probably would go. I'll sleep on it.

I subscribed to Prismatext, which takes a book in English and inserts words in your target language in it. I found a book that I want to read, so I thought that I’d give it a try. Which reminds me, I need to study traveler’s Italian before my trip.

Okay, I stayed up late, so no buying wine glasses tomorrow. It’s supposed to rain anyway. And major thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Got up at 7:30 AM. Gracie slipped her slip-knot collar, so I’m not taking her back outside until I get her new collar.

I found someone on Facebook Marketplace who is selling wine glasses. I’ll look into it.

Fed us all. Nap time. I’m thinking about the day. If I spend the day cleaning, I can watch Will and Harper on Netflix tonight. The rain might stop mid-afternoon, so I’d like to get outside then.

Here comes a storm. Napped.

I got Gracie’s new collars and put one on her. I also got the chicken wire to fix the fence but need some time without rain.

I’m going to take another short nap and then launch into things. It’s sunny out now, so I’m going to shower and go outside.

Got my BistroMD meals in. It occurred to me that I‘ll need wire cutters for the chicken wire, so ordered some from Home Depot plus some wire if the staples don’t work.

I got diddly-squat done today, but that's fairly typical for a Saturday. I was going to clean off the kitchen table, but I think that I just want to go to bed.

Note to self: look for USBA cords

Old

Volleyball was very good today. An excellent number of people and no assholes. Elbow Coffee was pretty good, too. Last night I hit on the idea of using it to unravel sweaters. So I took my sweaters and my vacuum (cause unraveling makes a huge mess of little yarn bits) and unraveled while we coffeed. I thought one or two might want to join in but they did not which was fine. They enjoyed watching me and it was good conversation.

Last night I watched my first Mariner game of the season and it really was fun. When the broadcasters started saying stupid shit, I just hit mute until after the commercial and then turned the sound back on. It worked fine, plus I had closed captioning on anyway. At bedtime, I watched more on my tablet while listening to my book in bed. Glad I spent the $25.

My neighbor across the hall - the Jim who moved in a month after I did - is declining pretty fast. Physically he's fine. Mentally, he's melting. His doctor has told him he cannot drive any more. And he's apparently going to take the advice. He asked me this morning if I'd help him sell his car. He has a Tesla. I just 'chatted' with the local Ford dealership and they will buy it. Yes, I know there are many more ways and he could get lots more money with some of the other ways but... the point is to make the car belong to someone else. That is the only point. So I'm going to suggest the way that is easiest. I may have to end up driving it myself.

Living with old people is a constantly changing environment, that is for absolute sure.

Now I need to go find a remote. I have this wall clock that needs the time changed and taking it down would probably involve wall repair so I need to find the damn remote. It's not in the obvious places so I need to start on the non obvious places. Sigh.

Current Mood: weird
Current Music: Sheryl Crow

(no subject)

The dentist appointment went well yesterday, all I needed was a cleaning. Nothing going on here now.

(no subject)

Name: Patch
Age: 34

I mostly post about:
Quiet living, books with margin notes, tea blends, visible mending, soft rituals, and the small things that anchor a day — light through curtains, a sentence that stays with you, a note Rae once wrote.

My hobbies are:
Reading (especially secondhand or annotated books), mending clothes by hand, brewing tea like it’s a spell, walking in the woods, archiving, journalling, and noticing the in-between moments.

My fandoms are:
Discworld (especially the witches), gentle fantasy, soft folklore, The Last Unicorn, Stardew Valley, and anything that feels like wool and wonder.

I'm looking to meet people who:
Love longform blogging, notice quiet details, have soft rituals of their own, and enjoy the kind of friendship that builds slowly and kindly over time.

My posting schedule tends to be:
Weekly-ish — sometimes more if I’m feeling thoughtful or tea-drowsy.

When I add people, my dealbreakers are:
Cruelty masked as “honesty,” bigotry, mockery, or a lack of care for the softer parts of others.

Before adding me, you should know:
I’m quiet and sentimental, I tag generously, and I write as if I’m tucking things away in a drawer. Rae (she/her) appears often in my posts — she’s someone I love, even if I rarely say it aloud. If you like slow friendships and soft mornings, I’d be glad to meet you.

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Day 5

( Boat rides, gardens, Timmy? )

Entry tags:

Escape Artist

The doggos pulled the sheets off of the bed. Also, there’s a small hole in them. Sigh. This is why we can’t have nice things.

Overslept my alarm to 6:30 AM. I don’t have food for lunch. Maybe I could make some soup (done).

I decided to go back to sleep for an hour after taking the dogs out. I set up my new alarm clock, so maybe that will help get me up? It did.

I emailed my therapist because there is someone at work with they/them pronouns, whom I accidentally referred to as "her". (Not to their face, thank goodness!) I asked for tips on how to remember their pronouns, although I put a post-it note on my computer. She said that she thought that the post-it note was a good idea, but that I probably will slip up, apologize, and use the right pronoun.

I've decided not to make the Basil Tomato Corn Bake. I have pizza for dinner, so I just need something for lunch tomorrow (my BistroMD order should come tomorrow), so I'll pop over to the local grocery store and pick up a Lean Cuisine.

I joined an online Web site called BookBrowse. They offer reviews of the best fiction and non-fiction books. I found a non-fiction book about a writer and a cat that I bought.

It's almost the end of work and that means feeding time at the zoo. (And it is a zoo!) Oliver got into my face: "Hi! Remember me! I'm hungry!" I promised to feed him. They’re going to get fed late though because I want to make and eat my pizza first. (I eat first because I take the dogs out after I feed them.)

I read an article in the New York Times about a plus-size influencer who founded a company called MegaBabe. She sells anti-chafing thigh cream and boob powder (and a bunch of other stuff). I thought that they would be good for Sardinia, so I ordered them.

Someone chewed Gracie’s supposedly chew-proof collar. Bella had a piece of it, but I don’t know if she chewed it off. Sigh. So I ordered a new one. Actually, I should order two. I have a spare collar though. No, I don’t see it. I need to get the pet junk drawer better organized. I ordered some drawer organizers. We’ll see how they work. Expensive though.

The pizza was good: California Pizza Kitchen Margherita pizza. I love Margherita pizza. And there are leftovers for tomorrow. Now I’ve started the pet feeding process.

Well, Gracie can indeed get out of the yard. She pulled her leash out of my hand and ran over to some people across the street. Bella got out when I was trying to get Gracie back in, but she at least came back in. My heart is racing. I ordered chicken wire, a staple gun, and staples from Home Depot for delivery tomorrow.

I looked into electronics recycling because I have an old monitor and TV to get rid of. They are having a recycling day in September. I need to remember to register. They also will take lawn mower batteries, so I can get rid of the old ones that don’t work.

I got my stoneware from Costco. The ones from Macy’s supposedly was delivered on last Friday, but I don’t see it anywhere. Did someone take it? Hell. No, okay, the ones that I got today are the Macy’s ones. I got the Costco silverware. The Costco stoneware is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. Whew. I’ve never had a problem with porch pirates, but it could have been the first time.

I’m sweaty and beat. But I’m wide awake. I need to cool off. I guess that I’ll clean off the kitchen table. I want to order new chairs for the kitchen table (I put my knee through one of the cane ones), but I want to wait until the kitchen is clean. I can look though. Okay, I found chairs that I like. I didn’t want upholstered chairs because cats. But I found some nice wooden ones on Wayfair.

I ordered Lean Cuisine from Walmart because I also needed soda. I paid for express delivery tonight (received).

I ordered a Doggie Lawn, which is a patch of real grass that you can put indoors to help potty train Gracie.

I'm looking at glassware on Costco because I broke a few glasses. (Well, I left some out and Bella broke them. I'm lucky that she didn't cut herself.) But I think that I should wait until I see what stoneware I decide to keep.

I'm going to start the nighttime feeding process and go to bed soon. I'd like to get up at a decent hour to get outside. Though they're saying scattered thunderstorms tomorrow, so I'll have to play it by ear.

It was a great idea, but...

When Scott and Julie were here, we were studying the map - the route they were about to take. I noticed that they were skirting Iowa near the teensy little town where my nephew lives. So I said, wouldn't it be fun if you were to pop into his town and deliver him something from me!

Mistake 1 was not studying the map carefully enough. It was three hours out of their way and a very boring three hours. But, once the idea came out of my mouth, they were determined. And nothing I could say would dissuade them.

My brother gave me two wonderful, meaningful jigsaw puzzles. He had them made especially for me. I had solved them both so sending them was perfect. When I need them back, to solve again, I know right where to find them. So into a Chico bag I had on hand and into their car and off to Iowa.

My nephew bought a house a few months ago and moved. I had new new address but, since Google has contact info in about 15 places, I didn't get the change in the right place and gave Scott and Julie the wrong address. They delivered with pictorial proof.

So I sent my nephew a text with the photo and told him he needs to clean up that crap off his porch.

This is how I found out I'd fucked up the address. ARUGH. His response was, 'no prob, I'll pop over and pick it up now!' followed quickly by 'oh shit, I forgot that I walked to work.' He called the people who live in his old house and they secured it and he picked it up after work.

He liked the puzzles a lot and was delighted at the creativity. And then nothing. I waited as long as I could stand it and finally said

"no questions about how the package got there?????????????????"

"Oh yeah, come to think of it... how?" OMG

He was impressed but he did want to make sure I told them the mess on the porch wasn't his.

kind of a fun goat rodeo.

Current Music: George Harrison

(no subject)

Still don't trust the people running this bldg to not fuck things up regarding the power change especially since I found out at least one of them really doesn't give a crap about any tenant who didn't poop out any kids.
I have to go to the dentist later this afternoon.

Current Mood: relieved

Entry tags:

diary,
rabbi

Not in Israel

It's been a full and emotional couple of months, friends. The main thing to report is that I was supposed to be in Israel as of a week ago, but Israel bombed Iran and Iran retaliated and the go/no-go date for my summer programme was right in the middle of the 11 days when Israel was in full lockdown due to lots of missile attacks, so they really had to cancel it. I have a whoooooole lot of emotions and thoughts about this, and I also have an unexpected summer month with almost no commitments.

( rab student life in interesting times )

I will fully admit that I'm glad I didn't end up getting on a flight two days later. Intellectually it goes without saying that I would far rather Israel was in fact safe enough for me to be there, and that it had been consistently obvious it would be over the past couple of months. But personally, I am absolutely delighted to be at home. And have a chance to see my family and do fun summer things like go to concerts and have picnic dates and sort out practical things that I've let slip with the intensity of everything since Mum got sick. I even managed to overlap in London with

redbird and her partners this week, which was an unexpected and wonderful bonus. Among many chill, non-urgent summer plans I am hoping to be a bit more present here.

Not Wednesday

Today I have nothing. No volleyball so I could sleep in. Nothing on the calendar. No promises to anybody. Luxury. And baseball starts again. Double bonus.

Last night's picnic was fine. The fried chicken company did not bring the ordered potato salad or coleslaw and the woman in charge of ordering it all was flummoxed. After most everyone was served the chicken and beans they did have, she came over to me and wanted me to order potato salad and coleslaw from them and have it delivered by Uber Eats. The place is a good 20 minutes away and it was still rush hour. I assured her that it would not get here until after everyone had gone home. Plus, who cared. She got on the mic and asked and turned out, no one cared. It was fine.

My job was Gail. I had to go over to the nursing wing and check her out. She was all ready but a bit confused about where we were going and why. But, she was up for it so we went. Turned out she was the perfect dinner companion. We sat with a table of not very obnoxious people and then after the eating was done, we just sat and watched everyone. I asked her a couple of times if she was ready to go back and she said she would love to stay if I didn't mind.

She's very bright and with it in the moment. She kept saying 'have I told you this before?' which she had not and it was fun. We were over at the edge and so could see everyone (and her eyesight and hearing are great) so we talked about outfits and who was married to whom and what they were doing. We had lots of good laughs. It was way better than trying to make smalltalk with some of those randos. Plus, it meant I didn't have to do any of the prep or any of the clean up. So win win win. When we got back to her area, the nightly movie had just started and she was excited to watch it so I signed her back in and came home.

There's a winter 3rd floor social but I dodged that last year - can't remember how - and plan to this year, too.

The guy is coming to unhang and rehang the shade next Thursday. No clue who's going to pay for it but I have a sneaking suspicion I will get the bill.

Yesterday I was downstairs at lunch time picking up a package and when I got home, I put the cart into the closet. About mid afternoon, I was aware of Julio making constant meowing noises. And then I heard Biggie. And I figured they were having a conversation. But, it did not stop so finally I got up to look and Julio was laid out next to the closet door telling me that Biggie was in the closet. Sure, enough, I opened the door and the two of them went off to commiserate. Well done, Julio!

Entry tags:

Day 4

( Now with puffins )

Entry tags:

Stephen Colbert

CBS is canceling Stephen Colbert's The Late Show. Fuck. And they say that "it's purely a financial decision". Yeah, right. Trump must have leaned on them.

Entry tags:

Cohousing

The Guardian had an article about cohousing developments, developments that have separate units but also a communal house. Many of them are intentionally multigenerational. That intrigues me. Madison has a few of them. So does Asheville. Portland (Oregon) and Seattle seem to be the nexus of them (not surprised). There is one in Bloomington, IL.

Facebook has its uses. I read a post about Grazia Deledda, a writer from Sardinia who won the Nobel Prize for literature. I’ll read her books on my trip.

Woke up at 7 AM. It’s a dark and rainy day, so I decided to go back to sleep for a little while and take my shower at lunchtime. I overslept work by a half-hour, sigh.

I'm caught up on my project for work. So, yay.

Bella and Gracie were cracking me up. I let Gracie run around the back yard with her leash trailing behind her so that I can grab her if she moves into the front yard, where there's a gap in the fence. She and Bella were playing tug-of-war with the leash. I need to get another leash to use when I actually take her somewhere because this one is getting grotty.

Had my therapy appointment. My therapist was glad that I’m going to take better care of myself. I vented about work to her. She said that I was doing everything that I could do to manage the work situation.

I’m feeling exhausted and am having digestive issues. I think that I’ll go to bed early (really, Adrienne, do so) and get up early to go to the store.

Fed us all and took the dogs out. My joints are aching. I'm going to bed. And it's still light out!

Current Music: Thelonious Monk

(no subject)

Last night I did something thanks to L. I've never done before, I rode in a Maserati! it was so fun!!

dizzy lizzy is in a tizzy

I’m not afraid to admit it but I am a Language Nazi. I don’t like to use that word but I tried Language Freedom Fighter but that sounded kind of stupid. I let it slide with satellite people all the time. You know people you come in contact with that aren’t really friends. Cashiers, salesman etc. but if you’re part of my inner circle I expect a lot more. That doesn’t mean I don’t like slang or colloquialisms...that means I hate poor use of the language. Down here in the Dirty South the phrase 'a whole nother' is popular. So is 'you might could'. That shit drives me absolutely batty. So does the cell phone commercial where the guy says 'where you at'? I don’t expect people to speak like the queen but my God, don’t say shit like that around me.

Which brings us to my urologist visit last Friday (New Pee Bag Day!) The customer service rep asks me “is your contact phone number still XXX-CCC-Oh-six-six-Zero” I confirmed it but then I had to ask why she said it like that. "The number contains two zeros. Why did you refer to one as OH and the other as ZERO? It’s the same number but you gave it 2 different identifiers." She apologized "I’m sorry I meant 0h-six-six-Oh” I asked if she was aware that it zero is a number and not a letter. She gave me the stink eye in a big way and he told me to go wait in the waiting area.

Welcome to my tortured life. It’s a goddamn zero. Refer to it as a goddamn zero. It’s not an OH. Why do people often replace a perfectly functioning zero with an O. I’ve never heard anyone do it the other way. I’ve never seen anyone say room is spelled r-zero-zero-m.

I think zero needs to hire better PR people.