Keeping Pace

So today after breakfast I grabbed the large envelope I'd bought at Target, and put all the papers and such from the last trip to Bangkok in it.A few unrelated items on the floor somehow snuck in as well. The envelope was thickly lined with bubble wrap, which made it a challenge. Also picked up a lot of mangled card stock which was somehow on the floor, and some other trash. So now the guest room floor is no longer a huge mess by the door, and things belonging in the bottom shelf of the first bookcase are there.

Lots more to do in the guest bedroom, later.

Used Velcro to attach the whiteboard to the wall in the front room.

Kind bar for lunch, then off to the cardiologist. Arrived half an hour early, waited in the main lobby until 15 minutes before. Checked in, the pacemaker tech showed up a little before 1, and we went back into her office where she downloaded data and ran some exercises on my heart. She said all is well, and made an appointment for a year from now. And she will ask Boston Scientific to transfer their records to her. She is a very pleasant and skilled tech, and her office walls bear many of her children's early art work. The kids are almost grown now.

Next stop, Home Depot. There apparently is no such thing anymore as an electric screwdriver with a removable, rechargeable battery. On to Lowe's, same thing. I bought one which charges on USB but I think it's going back. DeWalt makes one, it's hideously expensive and the Lowe's web site says it's in stock but they lie.

Home just in time for the RPCV Zoom happy hour. Nibbled on pastrami. I stayed an hour, wanted to check on storm chasers. Three of them were out, one found a hailstorm.

The whiteboard fell off the wall. Velcro did not stick to the wall. I'll have to use picture hangers with those tiny nails, I guess. I have some in the guest room closet.

Tivo, NFL Live has a serious tech problem. Lots of transmission errors. I thought it might be the Tivo, but TMZ played fine. It still might be the Tivo, I am tempted to swap it out for the Cox "Contour" box which comes with my account. It's on a shelf in the shed. The newer Tivo boxes are a FAIL, I've tried the Bolt twice. And expensive both to buy and to subscribe. I have a lifetime subscription on the one I have, but they don't offer that anymore. Oh wait, they do. $600. So $1k for the box & unlimited subscription. $150 a year otherwise. $600 = 4 years.

I think I'll try the Cox box first.

Filled all the SodaStream bottles. Two diet ginger ale, two diet cola, one pina colada, three plain soda water. I can't believe I drank all that in a few days.

Mac & cheese for dinner. No meat. Also need to buy some spices. I was so used to picking them from my garden. Thyme especially. I have some oregano, need to grind some pepper, I have a little dill seed. No basil. Do I have minced garlic? I don't remember. Nope. Somehow my pepper mill is missing and my little jar of red pepper flakes.

Streamed for an hour, two active chatters.

Delivered: cat treats, shed lights, Ester C. They didn't ring the bell.

Plans for tomorrow:
Dump the two open boxes on the guest room floor and redistribute the contents. Many equipment boxes to flatten and recycle. A couple with things in them to go to Goodwill? Or recycle.
Masked Singer 
Install the lights in the shed
Try to install the bike lights
Check into getting a car charger installed

Spices, storm chasers, boxes, nails, Spook's new friend

Slipped down the rabbit hole again this morning but was out of bed by 9:30. Google turns out all the lights at 9:15 otherwise I would have stayed on the tablet longer.

Email and FB taken care of, nobody on Twitch, but somehow I didn't get into the car till about 12:30.** Albertson's. First thing on my shopping list was a comb. Not as easy to find as it should have been. Albertson's keeps all the beauty equipment in a special section of the store with the booze and the OTC drugs. You have to pay for what you get at the exit to the section. Since I was there I also got a bottle of cheap sherry (for cooking).

Then to the produce dept, got some packages of sort of fresh oregano, thyme and dill weed. Then to the other end of the store for bottled spices: oregano, thyme, dill and flaked red pepper. And Thai basil. Maybe also sweet basil but maybe not - it was expensive. Sadly they had no basil plants. Bananas, since they had green ones, marinated artichoke hearts (I'm down to my second to last jar), pickle spears, then back to produce and found the minced garlic under the fresh garlic. Also got a red onion and a yellow onion.

Checkout was slow because the woman two people ahead of me couldn't find her food stamp card, or maybe couldn't find the card to pay for what food stamps don't cover. The man ahead of me also had green bananas and minced garlic.

Home, it was only about 89° outside. Inside it was 80, the aircon was too loud and expensive so I set the thermostat for 82. Trying to get acclimated. Spook spends a lot of time at floor level. She's in front of the front screen door right now, it's down to 78 outside. Somehow a small newt snuck inside, she played with it until I figured out what it was and put it outside.

Took out the box cutter and opened all the remaining boxes in the guest room. Did not find either the Sonos speaker or the electric screwdriver. Most of the boxes were, as expected, books and photo albums which will go on the bookcase. One box was from the top of the bookcases. I did not dump the two boxes of boxes. Maybe tomorrow.

Two storm chasers were in Louisiana, one found a storm the other got delayed waaaay behind a double fatality accident which turned one car to a twisted ball of metal.

Ran two dishwasher loads. The bread pudding pans came out spotless. So did the popcorn bowl.

Lunch was a salad followed by a can of sardines. I do not remember liking those as much as I now do. Good thing I have a whole stack of cans.

Watched NFL Live, the Tivo reboot may have helped, minimal glitches. Andy Cohen had my heart throb Kristen Chenoweth and one of the prettier Real Housewives. Turns out Kristen is a Bravo fangirl. Her new young BF has serial killer eyes. Summer House is a 3-hour finale special which is paused after the first hour, so I did not get to Masked Singer.

Dinner was a salad, I had sliced a red onion on the mandolin, this time it came out the right thickness. Last time it was so thin it was almost liquid. And a sweet & sour chicken steamer bowl. Lamyay for dessert. I bought a lot more than I thought.

Wanted to make hard sauce for the bread pudding, but don't have enough powdered sugar. Kicking myself because they had plenty at the supermarket.

The Governor said it was okay for nail salons and barber shops to open tomorrow, and there's a nice looking nail place next to Albertson's with a pretty web page, taking online appointment requests. They called back this evening and I have a date for tomorrow 12:30. I can pick up powdered sugar after.

Oh, now I remember. Before going to the store, I called an electrical company and talked to them about a home car charger. Bottom line is I have to buy one, they will install it. So I ordered one on Amazon for $600, the installation will be another $600. Charger due in a week, will call when it gets here to arrange installation.

Did not install the lights in the shed.

Delivered were the path lights from Home depot (they rang the bell) and 1/3 of the soda stream order (no bell ringing).

Plans for tomorrow:
Nail appointment
Powdered sugar
Shed lights?
Dump the big boxes?