I drove into Alexandria to get my computer fixed from this CloudStrike update – they had an entire floor dedicated to fixing the problem full of IT folks. I showed up 30 minutes before my appointment, and they were able to fix my problem in 20 minutes. I was out of there in a flash. There were also donuts. Sound like the in-person fixing is going quickly, it’s just folks that are outside the 50 mile radius that need virtual fixing that are lagging. I bumped into two coworkers I hadn’t seen in a decade and it was a nice reunion.
We met with a financial advisor for the first time and it was a great experience. I feel like now that college expenses are over, we needed someone to look over our investments and insurances and streamline things for the next 10-20 years. The rules are constantly changing and it’s hard for just me to keep up with them. Lots of good, solid advice and recommendations with an eye towards retirement as well as building a home for Edda.
Quiet weekend. No chance for me to log in to work – I often work between 2-5 hours each day on the weekend because I tend to flex my schedule during the week, but there was no chance to log in and so, a true weekend for me. I love the flexibility my job provides, but there is always a feeling of I could log in and work. I read and I gardened.
Jeremy spent a lot of time this weekend training for a big hill climb race-thing in August. Some time at home watching the Tour de France.
And some time doing hill repeats.
He’s spent a lot of time messing with his bike to make sure it has super low gears.
My office job was taken down by the global Microsoft challenges everyone faced yesterday. I called the IT help desk every few hours and listened to the queue grow in size from 250 to 300 to 500 to over 500 and then by the end of the day, the IT folks gave up taking calls and finally said – please leave your name and phone number and your availability over the weekend and we’ll call you back.
Over 7,000 people affected. I might go into the office (aka the mother ship) on Monday to see an IT person in real life. Does that even happen anymore?
My handsome husband rode his bike into DC yesterday to have a full day of meetings. Five hours on the bike, coming home by 7:30 pm. It has been a full week here, I went to Alexandria on Wed to have lunch with a pal who is retiring from the office – Tues, I went with a friend to a rough doctor’s appt and then we went to have ice cream after dinner.
You know, there are so many things that I want to do that take 20 minutes – reading! guitar playing! walking! decluttering! exercising! crafting! talking to friends! planning and logistics! and there are more things things that it’s really impossible to do them everyday. Hmmm.. I guess I should do a staggered schedule. (And shhhh…. there needs to be like an hour a day where I do nothing. Like when I change tasks or when I come back from a social or physical thing, I need space to decompress and zone out and just lie in bed. It’s anathema to all the productivity gurus. lol).
Jeremy’s view on his bike rides.
Because Jeremy went on a five hour bike ride, he went to get ice cream. They’ve been out of pup pops for a few weeks now, poor Elka. He asked me if I wanted ice cream and I declined because I did not ride five hours and also because – gasp! I’m counting my MACROS. There was a meeting of tricked out Mazda owners in the parking lot. Lots of fun.
We had a nice summer outing last night at Main Street’s Summerfest at Lone Oak Brewery (the lone oak, majestic, fell down in a wind storm a few years ago). Who knew that these are our people, really? I’ve always wanted to party to Gangnam Style at 6:30 pm and have pizza and then the party is over at 7:30! Edda had a nice time, Ginny and her folks had a nice time. I had a nice time. I almost got my leg squished by a backing up car, but I did not, so no harm, no foul. I still have my leg and it works, praise the lord.
We met some familiar faces!
It was so so hot during the day, and then when the party started, it was pouring, but by the end, it had stopped raining and it was clear and cooler and full of summer fun.
We are enjoying our airfryer. It makes lots of stuff and it’s fun. I’m sure it would make an amazing hot pocket, but I have not tried.
Despite being down 5 gas burners, we are eating fine. We have: an induction hot plate, two full sized ovens, an air fryer, a toaster oven, a microwave and an insta-pot. Who needs a cooktop? Like no one. hahaha. This is what we are working with, we need to remove the gas line and the electrical boxes in order to tuck the vent into the space.
Today I learned that I’m supposed to run a tub cleaning cycle on my front loading washing machine monthly! OMG, that front loading washer is so gross and yucky even though I leave the door open. You know how lots of things don’t bother you until you see it with a new person’s’ eyes? Well, our tenant has been doing lots of laundry (which is fine), but I cringed every time I heard her use it because I thought it was too gross for anyone outside the family to see it. So I started cleaning out the drainage holes with tweezers and clearing out the clogs and then I tried to clean it with bleach and then I went on the internet and found out that I’m suppose to run the tub clean cycle monthly with special tub cleaning solution. I’ve never done that in the 20 years I’ve owned front loading washers. So I’m trying that today. We’ll see. I also remember my neighbor who had the most pristine tub ever. And lawn. And deck. And they did it all themselves with small children. Sometimes, people are just better at things than you.
Eliana took Edda to a lake yesterday and snapped this gorgeous photo of Edda. Sometimes, ever so briefly, I can see the person she would have been without her disability. It’s not something I dream of or think of regularly these days, there is no Edda without her disability, really, so it’s not good to think about it too much.
I volunteered at Main Street yesterday at their Boba and Books events. A trip to get Boba tea and to the library. I’m trying to read more, mainly because I want to improve my attention span which is now hovering at flea-level. I just want to be entertained by short videos of cute dogs. I ran into J who I haven’t seen in months, so it was nice to catch up with her.
Ordering boba is complicated, but I managed to make this purchase with my watch! I did not have to take my wallet out of my purse.
We dismantled our kitchen yesterday afternoon to install our new induction stovetop. It did not go perfectly – going perfectly is like pitching a no-hitter or getting a grand slam, so a rare occurrence. I’m OK with that. Turns out we need to move some gas and electrical things which I’m not willing to do, so we’ll need to call our friends out again. I think we won’t need to cut or replace the granite countertop. I was having dinner with some tasteful friends a few months ago and they redid their house so beautifully 20 years ago, with handmade tiles and custom woodwork and now there are some needed repairs that will have to go through all that beautiful stuff and my friend was like – we shouldn’t have had all that nice work done because I’m going to have to destroy it to fix some leaking pipes and I won’t be able to put it back. Honestly, tons of stuff is broken in our kitchen, but it’s 85% fine. Are we going to just landfill the 85% that works? Anyways, his statement makes me OK with having subway tile everywhere. It goes back to my theory of – I just want the Honda Accord of things. Well built, not custom, but easily fixable. Essentially very, very boring. So boring. We are boring people.
Of course, Jeremy and I are learning to work together – this is a weak spot in our marriage, home repairs. But it’s going OK. My motto is to turn towards Jeremy when he wants to float ideas (so many ideas! So many) and then be relentlessly cheerful. Even when I think we’ll be without a stovetop for 2-3 weeks? I might as well think 2-3 months and then I should be good with the estimate.
We went to Friday Vibes at Main Street last night. We haven’t been in about a month because of all the crazy travel/sickness that we’ve endured and so we were extra happy to be back. It was karaoke night which is so FUN. They encourage you to buy food at the attached little cafe, but we’ve eaten there many times, so Jeremy wanted to get food elsewhere and so we had Potbelly’s sandwiches. Jeremy somehow ordered the extra small sandwiches for us, so modest! And so we were happy to have chips for us and cheese puffs for Edda. She really likes those.
We are doing a ever so slightly shady thing in that we bring Elka and slap her dog park harness on her which kind of makes her Edda’s support dog. I KNOW. I KNOW. We are bad people. Anyways, she’s always on leash and everyone who wants can come over and pet her – she’s not always 100% support-dog-like, but she’s pretty close and loves to be there. But also, we forgot to feed her dinner before we went, so she was very hungry by the end.
Here’s our friend Joab who sang his heart out. He didn’t want to go at first because he was like – what’s Potbelly’s and where is this place we are going to? But by the end, he was like – I love this place and I love everyone here. Haha, it is a lot of fun.
It’s that time of year where I want to take a shower every 4 hours. I take a shower to go to bed and then I wake up and I want to take another shower. I have been not sleeping well for weeks now – usually waking up at 3:30 am and then not being able to fall asleep for an hour or so, but always sleepy for an afternoon nap. Anyways, I’ve been off my usual daily running routine for a few weeks now, and I’m just getting back into my rhythm and I’m happy to report that I’m sleeping better now, so I hope that continues.
I’m determined to learn to pay for things with my watch now. Nothing makes me feel older than using my credit card and the chip reader. I instinctively do that as a reflex, and I’ve been trying to change to the tap reader (which I forget to do 75% of the time) and then the other day I saw a stylish young woman pay with her watch and thought I need to learn to do that too. So hopefully I can get that set up and never need to bring my wallet with me ever again. Lol.
Elka de-squeaked her stuffy. And then she starts crying and whining and carrying the squeaker around like she just accidentally disemboweled her best friend. Poor thing. I picked up the squeaker and it said in raised plastic letters – game over! your dog wins!
We visited Baby Leon! Who arrived auspiciously on Father’s Day. It’s nice to hold a baby. They are so tiny at 3 months old! Yes, we had to do the bounce bounce to calm the little one down. How it all comes back. Bounce bounce bounce and cooing and telling Leon – you are OK! you are OK! See? We are bouncing! More bouncing! Hahaha. And then we give the baby back.
Jeremy has been tirelessly (haha, there is a pun there) working on his bike. He had a very specific problem (which he did spend many minutes talking to me about) and posted about it on Reddit and REDDIT CAME THROUGH and answered his question. Ahhh, sometimes the internet is great.
