November 10, 2026 Tuesday

Greetings on this new Blog Day!

I have lots of pictures today!  Oldest ones are from Halloween.  The boys carving pumpkins.

They have hung glow sticks for the kids for a few years so that they can all go together for trick or treating.  Nice for me as I don't have to answer the door.  Lots of kids in this neighborhood--LOL!

A couple friends came with them, too.  Ian is on the left and Liam next to him.

I finally did one of those things I just never got around to for a couple of years but had nagged me every time I made my pour-over coffee.  

I've had this pot for six years and love it...but the filter it came with has not held up very well, to say the least.  Got the pot on Amazon and the company doesn't even sell replacement filters.  Looked that up a long time ago.

I finally spent the time to measure and comparison shop to find something that was a good guess as a replacement.  

All stainless steel and no plastic.  Should have done this years ago--lol!  I swear my coffee tastes better, too!  Ah!  The little things in life, eh?

"Yes, things that make no sense to me excite my human."

From the human..."cats will make you laugh when they notice their shadows".

Ian came down a week ago to show me his viola and play me a couple short tunes (like Mary Had a Little Lamb).  I don't know what little brother, Liam, was whispering to Ian...

...but I believe the suggestion was rejected--lol!

Ian was excited to show Gramma because they had a concert the following night and it was going to be his first time participating with the other sixth graders in this school concert.

Don't ever tell a grandchild who is learning viola that my entire grade school was tested when I was maybe Liam's age...listening to two separate notes and having to write down if the second note was higher or lower.  I don't know what the testing was called but it was to find kids who would be good for band.  I don't think they do that anymore, do they?  Did you ever have that testing in school?  Anyways, out of the entire school there was one boy and myself who were told we had perfect pitch.  I had no idea what that was but it explained how some people singing or playing instruments hit notes that sound like chalk on a blackboard to me and make me cringe,  Naturally, Ian started on a series of "like this?...or like this?" viola notes that made the boys laugh and laugh.  Even with my bad hearing I had to cover my ears--lol!

Anyways, the boys ended up staying and watching Beaver until right before bedtime.  It has been quite a while since we caught some more Beaver episodes.  Was fun!

Meanwhile, I was hoping Dagan and Leah could help me go through the dozen big bins in the corner of the laundry room on the weekend.  What a mess, eh?  

I could use a couple empty big bins...and needed to find my extra toothpaste and toothbrushes.  Hadn't touched any of these since I moved in!

You may recall I had decided to use my old black metal paper racks so I started to empty the office paper racks.  I had thought I might keep one of them, right?

Well, it's hard to tell from the picture but I noticed the bottom one had vertical walls that were buckling.  The top one looked like it had decent walls so I thought I would keep that one and get rid of the bottom one.

[Note: I got the big metal paper racks back in.  And I discovered I really do love them as much as when I first got them decades ago and am delighted they will not warp or bend.]  

Got everything out of the buckling bottom one...went to move the other one and found out both the top and bottom were disconnected...came right off.  

So that was the end of the cheap office paper racks from Facebook Marketplace adventure--LOL!  I wouldn't feel right about even giving them away for free.  The backs were detaching also--lol!  Remember how the boys had fun smashing up the pieces of bookcase that didn't fit and we couldn't return?  Well, that became the plan for the office paper shelves.  The boys thought that was a fantastic plan--lol!

We had five days I think of dark and/or drizzly days...but finally had the sun again end of the week.

The only waste of money were all the small red trays that went in the growing donation pile.  I did change my mind and keep half a dozen of them...just because they are so cute.

Even donated quite a bit of paper.  But have the rest of this to put away.

Got ready for the weekend.  Even got the shelf ready for Dagan and Leah to put in the bookcase.

On the first Saturday of the month they always go to the Home Depot Kids Craft Day.  Ian and...

Liam brought down the bug magnets they had worked on.

Liam was sure to have me take a picture of all of his.  Don't ask me what bugs the brown blobs are, but the black thing with the red eyes is a black widow spider and he made a few worms.

Ian was moving too fast for me to get all his together, but I think Mama even made the ladybug and Daddy made the bee?  Anyways, I was surprised they were making magnet bugs specifically for Gramma's frig!  :)

Sunday the boys smashed up the office paper racks so they would fit in the trash bins.  Dagan and Leah carried away all the donations and the air purifier (now that we got one installed in the furnace/AC Leah will take it to work again).  We went through the bins.  Three are on the kitchen table for me to go through.

I have three empties under the center table in the studio!  Needed these!

The other six remained in the corner of the laundry room and are fine there for now.

They got the dusty shelf installed.

No more pile of donations outside the bathroom and studio doors!  For now.

Liam snuck and drew a picture on the bulletin board outside my door.  The green is the grass, he said.  The yellow is the sand with a red and white beach umbrella.  The blue is the water with a boat on it.  I had hoped they'd leave me little surprises on the blackboard once in a while.  Sweet!  :)

It was such a week!  I am still just so happy and proud of the people of these United States!  Been a long time since I have felt some genuine pride in being an American.  Lots of work ahead, but I am hoping our future will be changed and much brighter.  Democracy has a chance.  We can't blow this!  Consequences!!!  New legislation!!!  My heartfelt, tears-of-joy opinion.

What do you know?!  Sometimes you can sneak up on a sleeping cat.

I am feeling gradually better.  Only have had the really bad coughing jags that won't stop once or twice in the last couple weeks!  Still ache all over worse than usual and am tired, but that's normal because I have been working on organizing the apartment.  Still coughing quite a lot, but it's not where it won't stop (usually--knock on wood).  No one else has gotten pink eye and Leah is fine again.  Have new McFamily bug magnets on the frig and Liam artwork on the little magnetic blackboard.  Am getting caught up on correspondence.  Making progress little by little on the final settling in.  Found a new-to-me show called Tracker I am enjoying.  Life is good!!

From fall till New Years is my very favorite time of year!  

Just feeling so grateful for so much.

Till next Tuesday, my friends.  *love and hugs from Fargo*