August 31, 2025 Sunday

Greetings!

Well, this ended up being a really quiet week because I got sick with a head cold, fever, slight cough, and exhaustion.  Not as bad sick as Dagan got but I am keeping a close watch just in case I picked it up from him.  So far, so good.  Not any worse, anyways.  Not much better, either--lol!

How has Allie taken me being sick in my chair all day?  Quite well.

Now that her things are out of the bathroom and not in the scary room she has settled in quite a bit.  Don't tell her but I have been using some cat psychology on her--lol!  Been keeping the maintenance/laundry room door closed.  Cats are always wanting to see what's behind a shut door.  Then, when I am in there for something I leave the door open quite a while...and she started sticking her head inside the door.  Of course, this is when nothing is running in there and it is quiet.

When I did laundry, though...well, she's used to snooping around my other laundry room that was in the bathroom so she got curious enough to venture in.  Recognized the clothes basket.  Used to laundry machine noises...

...she gingerly went in a little further (doesn't she look confident--lol!)...

...and a little further...but then the AC/furnace right next to her kicked on and she bolted out so quickly couldn't get a picture--lol!  

Oh...before I forget...

To all of you who do snail mail--I do have forwarding for six months.  And surprise!  I had to pay for it!  I've never had to pay for forwarding before, have you?  Cost me $24.50 for six months and there were higher prices for one year and for eighteen months.  Plus there was a verification fee of $1.25.  Never heard about this so it was quite unexpected.  Something brand new?  Had any of you heard of this?

Then--to those of you who thought maybe there wasn't insulation here...well, there's a lot of insulation.  They insulated the ceiling and the walls between all the rooms--including the maintenance/laundry room.  In fact, there's so much insulation that that is why it stays at around 64 degrees day and night no matter if it is a sweltering 85 degrees outside--lol!  The noise is nothing new to people who have basements and when I shut the door it truly muffles the sound a lot.  Doesn't bother me at all.

The heavy footsteps and clomping about upstairs...I've lived in apartments most of my adult life and it is part of it I don't pay much attention to.  (Loud parties and fights are another story.)  But even when I was a teenager I had a bedroom in the basement--so I was used to a lot more maintenance noise and besides clomping feet I could sometimes even hear what people were saying because there was no insulation in my bedroom walls or the ceiling back then.  I've lived in some apartments where you could just about tell what TV show the neighbors were watching...or what they were arguing about...or when they were making up--lol!  

AND--it just so happens that the lady above me in the senior building had 2-3 grandkids--(or maybe even great-grands as they were young)--over regularly on weekends and then for long stretches of time in the summer.  Freaked Allie out at first when I got her--the clomping-running-moving chairs across the floor-and dropping things sounding like someone fumbled a bowling ball.  Oh, and you can often hear vacuum cleaners being run--which, of course, Allie is afraid of.  But she got so used to the noise upstairs that the boys clomping about here doesn't even get her ears to flinch.  Took months for her to get used to upstairs noises over there, but that gives me hope she may eventually get used to the maintenance room sounds.  Maybe not.  After three years she still runs away from trash bags crinkling and being shook out.  Time will tell.  ;) 

The 64 degree temp felt great when I was coming over for a short visit when it was 85 degrees outside...but full time it was just too chilly for me...especially while I was sick and running hot and cold.  Leah said she had a space heater in the garage somewhere...and they brought it down!  Did a very gradual slow increase in temperature.

TaDa!  Having it be more around 68...perfect!  Even though the cement floor is cold as ice--lol!  Luckily I am a person who in my old age rarely ever goes without socks--even in the summertime.  I was barefoot all the time when I was younger.  But this old lady has an excess of socks and soft slippers, so I am good to go.  :) 

One problem did come up...Allie's stainless-steel litterbox...

...completely fills the hiding-bench with only a very few inches to spare.  Allie could never get into it because that one quite literally blocks the entrance.

So, I went on a search for a cheap smaller litterbox that would fit.  

Wasn't going to get a better one since one never knows how a cat will react to a change in their litter box--lol!  If she adapts okay--then I can get her a nice one with higher sides later on.  

Also, Allie and Blink haven't even met yet.  I planned to just leave the door open while I got into unpacking and see what happens...but I've been sick and no unpacking to speak of has materialized as of yet.  Blink has often been right outside the front door...speaking of cats and closed doors--ROFL!  

We don't know if Allie will ever use the cat tunnel to under the stairs where Blink's litterbox is.  We had thought they could both have boxes under the stairs.  Best laid plans, right?  We're playing everything by ear right now...plan B, plan C, etc.  Humans make plans...cats laugh.

Allies food and water are next to the studio door for now.  I really have little clue as to where everything will actually end up--lol!

I did temporarily move her carrier into the living room behind the chairs...

...and she spends a lot of time in there or on the red chair.  I purposely didn't vacuum that cat bed inside there so it smelled like home.

So...been a week of nose blowing, mouth breathing, sinus headaches, dozing off, and just plain feeling cruddy, you know.  But, regardless, it has been a good week.  Even if we had to try to stay away from each other so I didn't pass anything on to them...and we still are doing that since I have still been running low temps.  Things will settle down.  I will feel better.  Unpacking will start in earnest.  And I am much happier when it is 68 degrees--lol!  ;)

Leah sent me some pictures from when they all went down to Minneapolis for Dagan's check up.  I'll show you a few.  They went to a Twins game.

The Mega Mall (Mall of America) is always a highlight.  They always make a visit to the aquarium.

Fun to walk that tunnel where you are underneath the fish.

Can touch some of the fish and critters.  Not sure that is a great idea.  

Although when Dagan was about 12 we went to Florida and his grandparents brought us to Sea World I think it was where he could pet little rays as they floated by like they were flying underwater.  They loved Dagan and would swim right to his hand.  I wonder if he remembers that?  He was always very patient with animals and learned at a young age to let them come to you.  When he was two I taught him to hold his hand out a crack of the patio door with his hand full of seeds or peanuts and wait till this little chipmunk would finally come and eat out of his hand.  Took a couple of weeks.  I doubt he would remember that far back.  But he has always loved animals like his mom does.  Not enamored of the cleaning of cages, litterboxes, and smelly aquariums that he had helped me with over the years.  He said he never wanted to clean another bird cage or aquarium ever again!  So far he has kept that promise to himself.  Although he is the litterbox cleaner for their cats--lol!

I digress.

They even went on an escape room adventure!  The guy took of picture of them before they started.

This mirror maze place looks like it was a lot of fun.  Maybe new?  Like the escape room place I had never heard of before, either?  :)

They went to the glow in the dark mini-golf.

In the center of the mall is a huge area with rides...like a little carnival going on indoors!  Always has been there--even if it has changed names since they opened and have different rides.

They went on several rides.

Daddy joined in, too--lol!

Had to visit the Lego store.  I thought Liam looked pretty tired.

All that fun can be exhausting--lol!  

It was so busy at the Rainforest Cafe--they had to wait for a table in some tall stools.  Leah said Laim got so quiet...and he had fallen asleep in the chair!  But when their table was open he perked up and was good to go, she said.  

I took Dagan to the Rainforest Cafe when Mall of America opened in 1992 when he was 17 or 18.  We went to the Rainforest Cafe to eat every time we went there...and it was fun to go just to people watch!  I normally don't like crowded places, but the Mega Mall was fun to visit.  I used to travel across town at least once a year  Sometimes twice.  They had a pen store (Colorado Pen Co?), a big stationery store, and three stores I loved to shop that had crystals and new age music cassettes for when I volunteered to do energy work at a couple of churches...but right now I cannot for the life of me remember the names of those stores.  Back then there were throngs of Japanese shoppers who flew in just to go to the Mega Mall (that's what us locals call it) and fly home!  They do have so many different types of things to do and shops to browse.  As you can see there is plenty for families to do there.  Good memories.  And I really don't even like crowds--lol!  ;)

Last but not least...

...a covey of partridges in the field off their backyard Leah took before they went to Minneapolis.  Looks like young ones, too.  Could be a big family or two.  Made me soooo happy to see them.  Could even be some of the same ones I fed every winter as I was only about a mile away from here.  So glad Leah got some pictures for me!

Well, that's about it from here.  I had best be feeling better soon.  I have lots and lots to do!  I haven't been able to make it to the lab yet, so I need to go this week if I can.  I have watched some good shows, though.  This TV is so big I feel like I'm at the movie theater!  :)  

Right now, I wish nothing more than for everybody to be able to breathe through their noses--ROFL!  It's the little things you miss when they disappear--LOL!  Till next time...love and hugs from West Fargo!