Halloween 2022 Monday--3pm

Good afternoon! 

Grab a cuppa--lots of pictures again today.  I am running on a 2-hour nap this morning (insomnia mode) so not sure how chatty I am going to be.  ;)  Been a back and forth sleeping week as has become usual lately, as you know.  I had insomnia last Monday, then a 13 hour night, 2 more normal nights, insomnia for 2 nights, slept 12 1/2 hours, and then last night--not at all and had a 2-hour nap this morning.  Let's just say that I'm not too functional...but hopefully I will sleep well tonight so I am halfways human when Keanna comes tomorrow afternoon.  :)

Anyways, we've had more normal fall temps.  The usual guests are here several times a day.

I started in on the bathroom bins on Monday and worked off and on all week.  Well, a couple of days I was pretty useless--LOL!  But I did get a lot done overall!  Whoohoo!

Bins and boxes have filled the kitchen table all week.

I had to first do a major sort and just stick all the vitamins and supplements in one bin and all the OTC medications in another.  Set them aside in the hallway to go through when I got done with the rest of them.

We had some really windy days and the tree on the left across the way was stripped.  The middle one is half striped and never had the chance to even turn yellow.

Everyone is fattening up for the winter to come.

Allie is loving all the extra activity!

She loves that I'm putting the seed and mealworms right on the patio now so that the birds are much closer.

I eventually drug down the last of the bins and started replacing the ones I had purged.

Been chaos...but it feels so good to be making progress.

When I'd hit a wall I'd observe our patio company with Allie, set up my bullet for November, washed clothes, worked on letters, and finished watching Annika S1 on PBS Passport, Shetland's last season 7 on BritBox (very satisfying), and then started the next season of My Life Is Murder on Acorn.  The trouble with that last one is Lucy Lawless's character is named Alexa!!  My Alexa keeps trying to figure out what the heck they are saying to her--ROFL!

Lots of overcast days, a few sunny ones...

...and finding old forgotten friends in my bathroom bins.  Velcro rollers!  Been years!

Makeup!  Also been years!

Since I can't chuck them out without experimenting and playing and seeing what I might want to keep...I moved a couple of bins into the bedroom for later.

Now down to the two bins I had in the hallway--filled to the brims with bottles and boxes that I have to completely empty, categorize, and purge.  Number one--waiting for me.

I have several bins already purged and back up on the shelves.

One is actually empty!!  

So that is what I did all week.  I hope to finish the bathroom this coming week here.  I have the medicine cabinet and two small drawers yet, too.  May take a while to go through all the old friends I want to test and play with, but that is fine.  Want to get all the rest done first. 

I don't think I ever posted what I found out from sending my spit to 23 and Me.  I had always been told we were 100% Swedish.  "Not a Norwegian in the haystack", my grandparents used to say.  Well, they didn't lie.  It was a Finn in the haystack--ROFL!

But they were almost correct about the Swedish part.

23 and Me even showed the ten areas of Sweden my ancestors were likely from.  All in southern Sweden.

That was interesting!  Too bad my folks are both gone so I couldn't tell them about the Finlander--LOL!

Leah sent some pictures.  Funny she had this one of my Dagan when he was a little fellow of 2 1/2 on Mother's Day 1977.  (He can still make Mommy's heart melt.)

Hard to believe that that little cutie pie will be 48 years old on the 2nd!  (And they said you wouldn't live to be five!!)

If you click and enlarge this one you will see that Ian has the thin electric hair...and that is why I will be going through all my hair products little by little, too.  LOL!

Have a small basket full of them and I know some worked okay and some didn't.  Time to toss the didn'ts.  ;)

Leah sent pictures of the AC/heater they had installed in the garage...

...and the humidifier on the furnace  in the house...speaking of electric hair--lol!

Pics of Liam...

...and Ian working on coloring pumpkin pictures.

Here they taped together a bunch of empty Zevia (no sugar) pop boxes to try to make a maze for Blink to go through, but she wasn't having it.  Too small.  But a creative idea!

Short video

How do kids fall asleep sitting up--LOL!

And today!!  Pumpkin carving!

Daddy took the day off.

Dagan also stopped by here to drop off some food and he took out my trash and got my mail for me.  They are getting ready to go out trick or treating as I am typing this.

Liam drew out the pumpkin face he wanted and Mama carved it for him.

Another short video.

Ian's pumpkin was based on this Slime character from a video game.

Here's the pumpkins for this year.  They will have the rotating colored lights in them.

And finally--Leah added a picture of Blink--who seems to have some white threads by her eye--LOL!

I sure hope Blink and Allie will get along.

Whew!  Lots of pictures.  Dagan was here while we were chatting and I am still done before 5pm!  Mostly photos and less chatting this week--lol!  Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it.  Till next week, my friends!  :)

October 24, 2022 Monday--2am

 Hello in the middle of the night.  Since I am wide awake I figured I would start the blog, at least, and see how far I get.  Last I heard Leah and the boys are all doing well.  :) :)  Me--I've been about the same as I was last week...not great, but hanging in there.

Monday

Discovered another dead bunny.  This time right on my patio.  The girl from the office came down to get it.  She said we've had three birds hit the big glass doors and die in the last week, too.  Goodness!

If I had a dead rabbit on my patio I expected it to be this almost grown one.  It's been around the past week or so looking so terribly scruffy, hops stiffy, and has a huge goiter-like thing on its neck on the other side.  (You really don't want to see it.)  Poor thing.

I've never seen so many dead or sick bunnies in one summer/fall.  You may recall we did have an adult arctic hare a few years back that Dagan and I put in a bag and brought to the dumpster--died in the yard nearby.  And there was that other arctic hare with a broken leg several years ago that I am sure died someplace.  We know the baby partridges were somebody's meals.  Out of eight babies for two years in a row only one out of the sixteen lived to adulthood.  I haven't seen the small hawk for a couple of years, but it had nabbed some small birds here and there.  One right off my patio that was hiding under a chair.  It truly is Wild Kingdom out there.  

And right now it is looking pretty bare.

I'm still putting out water for the birds.

The waters were frozen every morning and the discs of ice remained out there on the grass for days in the beginning of the week.  It did warm up though.  Was 12 degrees for a low on Monday and we had 30s for highs--but then it was 76 on Sunday!

Do you think they wanted us to come to the tenant meeting--LOL!  We've never gotten a notice in such huge bold print.  Only put them outside the doors on Monday for the Tuesday meeting.  Maybe they think us old folk can't remember very long--ROFL!

Tuesday

I didn't go because I had Keanna here to clean at that time.  If there was anything important they discussed I'm sure I will hear about it.

Back to insomnia--only slept 2 3/4 hours.  Did laundry, started slowly switching the summer and winter clothes, and did some baking.

Wednesday

Up all night again and slept 2 1/2 hours in the morning.  Kept puttering with switching the clothes.  Bottom rack out and packed away.

Summer stuff.

Winter stuff.

I never did get a picture when of all six of them were packed and ready for the garage but I was done on Thursday.

The partridges are now used to having to come up on the patio for seed.  Definitely one covey of eight are regulars several times a day.

Allie loves to watch them.

Talk about a comfy, sunny CatTVspot, eh?

Friday

I did sleep from 9:15pm till 3:15am but was up three times and then couldn't get back to sleep at all.  Leah came over early and we took the clothes bins to the garage before we left for my infusion.  I decided not to get my covid booster yet since I wasn't seeing a doctor or getting lab work.  I'll ask next time when I will see Brittani to see if I can get a Pfizer booster instead of a Moderna.  It's always possible maybe the Pfizer one won't effect me so badly.  Sure it could be just as bad, but it might be worth a try.  (I was in no hurry to feel even more miserable, to be honest.)  

It seemed so weird after nearly a year to not have blood drawn for labwork.  Even threw them off at the infusion center.  They wondered if it would be like that now--every other time no lab or doctor?  Could be.  She didn't say.  She didn't even tell us she was changing things for that visit so we had double checked at the desk.  Brittani barely speaks.

Anyways, it went quickly.  On the way to drop me off Leah picked up Aaron.  They were making a trip to Costco and Target.  When they dropped me off--quite a few people were in the hallways.  This sweet lady from the end of the hall who always chats with me if we run into each other was coming down the hall so we caught up for a while.  She has been so sick, poor thing!  Has had a heart attack and possible stroke now, too...survived and is better except for her right hand not working correctly so she's going to physical therapy still for that.  And she's right handed of course.  Anyways, I finally found out why there were so many people out and about with bags--Hornbacher's grocery store (local) dropped off free frozen meat.  People were going down to the community room to get some.  

So I went down.  There was one lady who lives here who was working on a jigsaw puzzle...otherwise nobody around.  She told me she was there in the morning when they brought in four boxes of frozen meats out of the blue--no warning.  There was a sign saying you could take two packages.  I got a couple steaks and a pound of hamburger.  She told me I should come back later and see if there was anything left because they were just going to thaw out in the frig there and go bad.  She said it sounded like they might randomly bring more food--meat or other foods--at some point.  Odd that there was no warning or anything.  Just was people telling each other--word of mouth--all day long.  Weird.  They have never done that before.

Later Leah and Aaron brought my groceries in for me.  I was so tired from hardly any sleep for three days...they even put my groceries away!  Aaron met Allie...and she LOVED all the attention, of course.  Was sad to see them go and was all wound up for a while--LOL!  Oh!  And Leah and Aaron went down and got me a couple more packages of hamburger.  Nice!  

I was so tired I could hardly move so I just kept watching replays of the free Wanderlust Live sessions (Friday-Monday).  Kind of an advertisement/meet some of the teachers for Wanderlust 2023 (which I have already signed up for).  I am usually asleep within 2-3 hours of getting home from my infusions--but I did FINALLY crash!!  Slept from 10:30pm till 10:15am!!  

Saturday

Barely functional--watched some more art sessions--and still slept again from 9-11:15am.  This is what has been happening--swinging back and forth between insomnia where I am so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open but can't sleep for love or money and then swing to sleeping like crazy...and then the insomnia comes back...and so on.  Really annoying.  I haven't had insomnia since menopause--ROFL!

Oh, I did finish watching 1883...was really good.  You don't need to have watched any of the Yellowstone series at all.  If you like stories about the pioneers you would like this 10-part mini-series.  They went out of their way to make sure everything was authentic...from guns to hand sewn clothing to saddles to wagons to the types of horses and cattle...everything they could possibly get or replicate that was authentic.  They also had representatives from each of the tribes involved so that all their things were genuine and factual.  Most realistic I've seen, I think.  Wasn't glamorous or idealized.  I've always thought the pioneers were brave, crazy, or both.  Desperate really.  Talk about survival of the fittest combined with pure random luck.  If you had any ancestors that were pioneers they were tough...just like the first settlers from Europe were also.  Anyways, if any of you have seen it I'm curious--did you like it?  Do you like stories about the pioneers--or the early settlers?  I have always found them intriguing.

Well, I finished and it's only 3:45am.  I will probably try to sleep again before morning.  I'm trying to think of anything I missed.  A tired brain is a foggy brain.  Oh--the two taller dressers for my living room came back in stock.  There were only three of them in stock and so Leah got ahold of her sister quickly when she got the notice.  I believe they are now in Ariel's garage.  Whoohoo!!  Piece by piece my living room is being stored down in Minneapolis.  I am soooo grateful!!  

We can't order anything for the studio until we have exact measurements, but the living room choices will fit.  Still have two bookcases and two shorter dressers left to go in the living room/kitchen area.  Leah said they are close to having the basement emptied.  Ten years of storage to purge takes some time--lol!  The first thing they have to do when they get started is to re-do the wall under the stairs in the maintenance room for where the washer and dryer will go.  After that is done then they can have the floor done...and be able to have the floor done under where the washer and dryer will go.

My body is exhausted but my brain is wide awake.  Guess I'll watch some more of Shakespeare & Hathaway--and try to get some sleep before the sun comes up.  Supposed to be 62 today and then around 50ish for several days...more normal for this time of year.  Nice!  Well, have a great week!  Till next time...smile, laugh, and make sure your bootstraps are high.  ;) 

October 17, 2022 Monday--10am

Good morning!

I am finding out more about Allie as she is more comfortable, I guess.  She's a toilet cat.  I haven't had one fascinated with the flushing toilet for a long, long time.

Allie also loves to lick water off the walls after you get out of the shower.  I have had cats like that before...but not one that tries to climb into the shower while you are still in it! LOL!  I have had cats who are so snoopy they have to watch as you transfer clothes into the dryer...but not one who has jumped right into the damp clothes!  Silly girl!  I tossed some on top of her and she changed her mind about how interesting a spot that was--hehe!

Leah and the boys popped in briefly a couple times on Monday.  Once to drop off a bag of Origin cat food from the Natural Pet Store and again to bring Leah's crock pot back over.

My big project for the week was to pull all the plants from the planter boxes.  

The cold caused them to start dying en masse...and we were expecting more frost.  [And we actually did have snow 2 or 3 times at the end of the week that didn't accumulate on the ground...just flakes in the air.  One time was almost like sleet.]

Took me a while with a back screaming at me for breaks...

...but I got them all cleaned out.

I only seem to manage one bigger project (or a good chunk of a project) a week these days.  That and laundry were the bigger ones this past week.

The trees across the way are changing color right to left, as usual.

Dagan came over after work on Thursday.  He hauled all the trash to the dumpster, brought the patio furniture & hose to the garage...

....brought in some more bird seed for me from the garage, and even swept all the dead coleus leaves off the patio  for me.

 

Then he stayed for a while.  They had gotten a company out that day to put in the heat & AC unit in the garage and add the humidity thingie to the furnace!  Nice!  

Dagan is as enthusiastic about the move as Leah is!  He was measuring furniture and taking notes on his phone.  He thought I should have something with better storage under the living room window than the little four-cube bookcase I got from Target.  Something matching the rest of the living room from IKEA...but then I needed to know how high the window is off the floor.  

It was really fun doing this with Dagan, too.  I was looking up the furniture I wanted from IKEA and he was taking notes as to the width of everything.  When he got home he and Leah made measurements downstairs now that it is almost empty.  Still are just approximate because there are no walls up...but Leah then made a sketch she sent me...

...and also how far the window is off the floor.

And I did find another IKEA dresser that will fit under that big window!  Nice!

Meanwhile, I was scheduled for my annual checkup with Dr. Kessler on Friday--but Leah and the boys were all sick.  ;(  Sore throats & bad colds & generally miserable.  Ian had it first, then Leah, and now Liam was the latest.  Starts with a fever, too, so Liam had a fever.

  Seems to kind of rebound and linger a bit.  Don't think it was covid but not sure.  Dagan and I haven't gotten it.  Liam's temp broke yesterday.

Anyways, I cancelled my appointment and got it rescheduled.  I knew it would be a while as she is quite popular and busy.  January 6th.

Myself--I didn't have a great week--but I didn't have what they had.  With me it is various Keytruda stuff: diarrhea, insomnia or sleeping a lot, head really stuffed up (has been for months), eye light shows...and aching all over--but that could be fibro and/or arthritis.  All the stuff I live with all the time but a bit worse a few days.  So I was happy to get the patio done!  :)

Since I have not been as busy the past couple years I decided to try a change with my bullet journal.  I ordered a regular monthly/weekly planner insert.

Spent ages on Amazon finding a simple one with a layout I thought might work for me. 

Monthly...

...and weekly.

The only things I still needed were my monthly tracker and my correspondence list.  So I asked Leah if she thought she could adapt the forms she made that we've been using for several years to make a single page I can insert into the planner with a tracker on one side and correspondence list on the other?  Yes, she thought she could.  

So now (if this works and doesn't drive me bonkers) we only have to print off 12 pages for the entire year!  Yes, I will have to put it right smack in-between the page spread for the first week of the month (and that is what I am wondering if my OCD side will go bonkers dealing with--LOL!), but it would save both of us soooo much time!  Until I feel a lot better and need more space to write things down because I can do more...this might work okay.  

I even splurged on a new binder cover, too.    

Been using the same red one for 2 or 3 years.  Wanted to try something with a firm cover.  Anyways, we think it will work.  Leah will come over one day (before December hopefully) to work on the inserts--easy peasy.  :)

We've had some pretty days...

...but too cold to have the patio door open more than a crack for a little while--which I do for Allie mostly so she can stick her nose up to the screen.  

She has decided she really likes that memory foam bed on the chair.  I can't push the chair under the table anymore--LOL!

This cat is not one I am going to be able to keep off the counters and tables.  She and Blink are a lot alike!

Dagan dropped off some premade food on Saturday and took Leah's cookbooks back.  Leah popped in to pick up my Cuisinart (sold!) on Sunday.  The week went by so fast!

Now that it is properly cold the birds are here almost constantly all day long.  Like right now--it is 29 degrees at 11:30am.  I am putting seed on the patio now--Allie is thrilled because she can see the birds even closer.  Next spring will be the last time I will be shoveling away sunflower seed shells--LOL!  

There are at least three, maybe four of us on the backside of this building who feed them.  They won't starve without me.  But they (and the bunnies) will miss the planter boxes, I think, to hide behind from the wind.

Leah gets more information because she is on facebook--and she texted Dagan and I this week that they had a false shooter scare in multiple places up here!  We are so glad Leah is homeschooling!!  They had lockdowns in Grand Forks, Bismark, Jamestown, Fargo, and West Fargo!  They made calls acting like they were inside the buildings and even singling out certain classrooms.  Some people are just crazy.

All the students have been doing practices and drills so they were prepared as they could be.  The police reacted quickly, it said.  I remember us hiding under our desks in a ball for nuclear bomb drills in the 50s.  Even as a kid I knew that was really stupid and wouldn't save us--but also it felt totally unreal.  The tornado drills, on the other hand, were very real.

The shooter drills must feel all too real.  They could happen!  By last Friday we had 531 mass shootings in this country.  It could happen here.  It could happen anywhere in the US these days--malls, churches, grocery stores, bars, at work...anywhere.  The vast majority of the people want laws changed and something done...but the government fights over it and in the end money stops them from doing anything significant about it. 

Upsetting.  I will vote.  Got my mail-in ballot to fill out.  Will anything change?

So depressing.

Well, on another subject...as far as whether to stay on Keytruda for another year...one of the options I have always had in the back of my mind is to go to Sanford for a second opinion and possibly switch over to their system.  I would lose Dr. Kessler as my doctor and osteopath--but Sanford is well known for its Roger Maris Cancer Center.  I go to the Essentia system.  Essentia has 5 people listed under oncology: 2 MDs (one full-time and one part-time I know from going there), 2 nurses, and one Physician's Assistant (that's Brittani I am seeing now).  Sanford has 44 people listed under oncology and 29 of them are MDs.  Most of them specialize in certain cancers...but that's a lot of oncologists!  Full or part-time! 

Anyways, that is an option for me--to see what Sanford cancer center has to say.  (I honestly wouldn't expect a different opinion, though, if that is what the Keytruda company suggests.)  Just thought I'd let you know I am thinking about options.  :)

This week---Keanna comes to clean on Tuesday and I have my first infusion without any bloodwork on Friday.  I am debating about going to get my covid booster shot after my infusion since I am at the clinic and don't have anything planned for the following week.  I do dread it--as I get so very sick from them...but I might want to get it over with.  If I do and get very sick it is possible I won't blog next Monday--just so you know.  I would pop in to let you know, though.

Meanwhile--we have had some sunny crisp days.  Winter is in the air, for sure.  I am hoping to tackle another bigger project this week--or at least a good chunk of one.  ;)  I've been watching Netflix DVDs of 1883 with Sam Elliott (still a hunk at 78 years old!).  Have the last DVD of season one to come in the mail this week.  I have always been fascinated about the pioneer days and this has been getting better as it goes along so far.

Also watched season two of Only Murders In The Building on Hulu.  Reminds me of a lot of British murder mysteries--both mystery and humor.  Speaking of--I'm on season three of Shakespeare and Hathaway on BritBox and on season two of My Life Is Murder on Acorn.  I do like having cozy mysteries going.  

I do have a darker mystery series going on Netflix streaming.  Icelandic with dubbing.  I watched Trapped and now this follow-up is called Entrapped.  Kind of strange because it has episodes and continues with the same main characters/actors but it wasn't called Trapped season two, you know?  Maybe it's an Icelandic thing?  

Allie has decided it is time for me to quit typing and give her some neck and chin scratches.  I guess I'll proofread this quickly and send it off to you.  Have a week of accomplishments and recharging!!  Till next time...