Random stuff in my boring life.

Protests, graduations, COVID - they all got together and decimated our volleyball turnout. But four of us lamely tried for an hour. It was ok. It would have been more fun had not the asshole been one of the four and he decided to leave after 30 minutes. Four worked. Three didn't. We gave up.

Elbow coffee is still an hour away.

The other day when I was at Trader Joes, I got some heirloom tomatoes, an onion and some Persian cukes and yesterday I chopped them all up into biggish pieces, added salt and pepper and a little balsamic dressing and popped it into the fridge. Dinner from the buffet was turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes and I added my chopped concoction and OMG was it all delicious. PLUS there is enough left of everything for another entire meal and then some.

But it won't be tonight. I got a text from Ethel asking me if I could join her and Gary and Jan and Dick for dinner tonight! YOU BETCHA!! They are all the best friends of Myrna. Gary plays volleyball with us (and was one of the four this morning) and Ethel is his wife and they are both delightful. Jan and Dick are the couple planning to move into Myrna's apartment. All four of them have been so kind to me and are just fun, nice, people. I'm delighted to be their fifth wheel. Plus, I want an update of the moving situation. And they are early birds so dinner will be at 4:45 which suits me just perfectly.

Periodically, I check on my cousin's house in Oklahoma City. BUT Google hasn't updated the street view since before he died. And, of course, the real estate sites have no info. I'm sure the people who bought it will tear it down or already have. So I keep checking. This morning I got the bright idea to check Reddit. Yep, there is an OKC sub so I posted an ask for someone who's driving by to snap a photo. I already got a response from some who who says they work very near there and can do it! Very cool.

My New Zealand friends sent me a video this morning of a bear and two cubs crossing the road in front of them on their way west to Whistler. I do love that they saw them. Love that she was fast enough to whip out her phone and capture the video but most of all I am so grateful to live in a time when that is not only possible, it's normal!! (the video not the bears)

Ok, now I need to get dressed. Ingrid may go to elbow coffee in her nightgown and robe but not me.

My morning started with Ingrid screaming from her balcony. She was dressed in a lovely short see thru nightgown howling down at the workers below (who probably don't speak English) "It's 6:30 in the morning!!! Why are you working??? Who do you work for?? I'm going to tell the director right now. Be Quiet."

I am sure that the director got an email from Ingrid. I'm pretty sure she gets one every day from from her.

My finance guy's assistant sent me some extra docs. He, so rightly, assumed I wanted Transfer of Beneficiaries (TOD) and how I wanted it set up. Then he also assumed I wanted my brother to have full access to the new accounts so he had that all ready to sign. I'd actually forgotten about both these things so I was delighted. BUT, no DocuSign. ARUGH.

I printed out the page I needed and then the printer and internet severed their connection (no clue who said what to whom). I had to sign and then scan to send back to the assistant and on to my brother. But, when it came time to scan, all I got was sad faces everywhere. If you complete all 37 steps in the right order with your mouth set just so, hooking the printer to the internet is a breeze. Miss one step or move your gaze elsewhere and you are fucked and you have to start from the beginning. Oh, and one part of the process is restarting the router which, of course, takes for frickin' ever to come back.

After buckets of blood, sweat and tears, I finally got it going again. One was 9 pages. I figured the only thing he needed was the first page. Soooooo wrong. So I had to do it all over again. THEN I had to find someone to witness my signature.

I considered ringing Ingrid's doorbell "since you are up anyway..." but figured my dying before the documents were done would be silly. So I went down to the front desk where the receptionist was happy to do it. Then I scanned all the pages in and sent them off. Whew. Done.

When I went to my doctor last January, I bitched about my runny nose. She told me Flonase or irrigation. I tried Flonaise (I have no idea how to spell it and don't care) for a month - nothing. Irrigation is to clear up stuffed up noses, so I went with an allergy pill which worked fine for six months then a couple of weeks ago, it just said 'nope, i'm done' and my nose started running away again. Dr. Google and Amazon list remedies and solutions for 'stop runny nose' that are for clearing out stuffed noses. WTF? So first I did the irrigation. I hate doing it. The first 2 seconds are really uncomfortable. The rest isn't but it's so messy. But, damn, if it didn't work! So then I ordered up some spray that is supposed to help between irrigations. It comes today.

I'm going to be shocked to learn that my doctor, Dr. Google and Amazon are all right and I was wrong. But I checked the filter on my gizmo and ordered a new one. I don't fancy a brain worm. (I've been watching so much Clarkson's Farm, and listening to Peter Grainger novels, that I now have a British accent - at least in my fingertips.)

Today's agenda includes cat food. These two are eating me out of house and home. Amazon is bringing new wet and dry food on Tuesday but their current supply of dry food ain't going to make it. At least the sun isn't out.

Then it will be the usual knitting and farming and baseball later.

Just got word that Aqua Yoga resumes on July 7! Turns out, I really miss it so I'm delighted. Volleyball was good this morning so the pool hiatus is now well and truly over. Whew.

I've now made 26 Pride Monsters. There are two out on the shelf but they won't be there long. I have yarn for probably 20 more and then I'll go back to curly headed dolls. I do want to come up with a Halloween offering and I have two potentials in mind. I need to make them up and then run them by the final arbitrator: Martha.



I learned to knit when I was 6 so I've been fiddling with yarn for 70 years and last week, I came across the most genius tip ever. I've always rolled balls of yarn and tucked the ends into the last few windings. This kind of works except sometimes it does not and always, finding the ends is a bitch.

Then, last week, I saw this on Bluesky. I cannot even find the post now. I'd dearly love to thank the author. These clips are perfect. They do not snag the yarn, they mold to the curve of the ball exactly. They do not let go of the yarn and you always know where the end is. I'm a little bit pissed that I didn't know about it years ago but I'm delighted with it now.



Today the sun is behind clouds and oh the relief of having it hidden! I'm going to celebrate by going out and doing my Amazon returns and maybe stopping at Trader Joes. Or Safeway.

Just below my window, for the past two mornings, guys have been working on some project. They are starting about 7 am. There is noise and conversation. Fine by me BUT... they are also just below Ingrid's window. And Ingrid does not believe anyone should make any noise that she can hear before oh, I don't know, 10 or 11 am. Plus, Ingrid lives to bitch to management. I'm guessing the emails are flying already.

This morning, my finance guy is going to call to discuss options for investing my money. It's a dance we do. He recommends and I say fine but first he has to defend his recommendation. I do not need the defense. But, apparently he does. I'm used to it by now - all finance guys are the same this way. As long as he does not try to explain dollar cost averaging, I'm fine. "that sounds fine. I totally agree. that sounds like an excellent plan, thank you. yes, that's perfect. ok. sure." Then we're good for at least a year probably. He and his assistant are VERY good about emails but some things, apparently, need voice consent. It might have to do with crossing state lines. Missouri. He keeps meaningless chit chat to a bare minimum and responds immediately to anything I ask. I inherited him from my cousin and I'm very grateful.

That's really my only agenda item today. It's baseball getaway day. The Phillies play at 10 and the Mariners at noon. Both teams were leading their divisions for a good while but now can't seem to quit losing. At least last night's game featured lots of the Phanatic which was fun.

Julio turns 3 tomorrow.

Ok, so the finance call happened early! He had said 9 or 10 but turns out he meant that in his time, not mine. which is fine and dandy. I'm happy to have it over with. All decisions are made. Docusigns are coming in now. Yeah for electronic signing!

And while I'm waiting for the last doc to sign, I even went into my Google IMPORTANT stuff folder and updated my doc of details. My father kept this for years. Typed out on his typewriter. A list of where his money was, his and mom's and all his children's and grandchildren's addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers and a few other important bits of info. When he died, it was my Bible. My original copy was in shattered bits by the time his estate was settled. I tried to keep my Daddy's List plain and simple and up to date. And, now it is.

And my last doc is signed. Woot! I think I'll go down to the mail room and clean out my mailbox of all the letters from Neptune and the brochures from cruise lines. Also, so oddly, postcards from gutter replacement outfits.

Then it will be time for the first pitch.

Volleyball was good this morning. I appreciate the interaction. None of the people I play with are people I would want to spend a whole lot of time with but all of them are delightful to see 3 times a week and play volleyball with and when I don't get that, I miss them. We do have lots of laughs.

Today is house cleaning day. Yesterday, I changed the bed linens and did all the laundry. So after the house cleaner leaves, we'll have a whole new start.

Yesterday afternoon, I found Clarkson's Farm on Prime Video and, of course, as I am wont to do, I am now obsessed. I watched the first few episodes before it finally dawned on me that this dude, Jeremy Clarkson is somebody. Google tells me that he is a British TV guy who does car show and other stuff. So my British friends, particularly, will get a giggle that I figured he was just some dude with few farm clues and lots of $$. The show is great, tho. I know less about farming than Clarkson did when he started. Still, hooked am I.

For at least a few, maybe a dozen, years, my left ankle has been way larger than my right. My left one looks like an old lady's bloated ankle and my right one looks normal. Last week my right one decided to join the fat parade. Now I have two old lady bloated ankles. For some reason this just bugs the crap out of me. Isn't it better to have two ankles that match? Who the fuck every looks at my ankles anyway?? Etc. Anyway, this morning, my right ankle is now down to normal and the left one is the same fatty he's always been. Soooo weird.

And that's the thrilling news from overheated Issaquah, WA. For this morning anyway.

[ooops this is yesterday's entry but someone forgot to post! thank you Draft Saver!!] I moved here 19 months ago. Without a single regret. Until I sold the condo. Maybe it was the finality of it. But, in the past few days, I've found myself thinking about things I'll never do again, never get to see out that front window, missing familiar places I used to go... Not really regret more wistful. It will hit me now and again without warning. Weird.

One of the few reservations I had about moving here was the homogeneity of the whole situation. This is a really white community. We have some residents who are of Asian decent but mostly it's all European white. The community is green. Nearly perfectly green year round. Beautiful trees and plants - so many that it's hard to see the shops. The zoning around here is iron fisted. It's very very pretty everywhere. No road cracks. No butt cracks. No tents. Hardly a soda can on the side of the road. Very Stepford in many ways.

It's actually pretty much the antithesis of downtown Seattle. In all the good ways and all the bad ways. Interesting thoughts.

I had ordered, from Amazon, two storage bins to set on the washer and catch the extra stuff. Then, yesterday, I went out to do my returns and, on a whim, popped into to Target and found an even better solution for cheaper. So for the second time recently, I stood in a retail store and canceled an Amazon order and made brick and mortar purchase. Now, that's something I never did in Seattle.

I have now spent a whole lot of time in the tiny room that is my utility room but I think it's finally hit max functionality. I have new hooks and mounted the hand vac, and fixed the tools situation and moved this and tossed that. This apartment is such an easy place to live. Everything is somewhere and I know where that where is. I can get to it and reach it and find it and put it back with ease. It is less than half the size of the condo but feels so much bigger.