January 1, 2025 - I will begin my new year complaining about commercials on TV. I hope you all investigate anything you may see on TV in a commercial that interests you. Example - HomeAglow. No one in any world in this universe or any parallel universe would do that without a catch, and HomeAglow has many 'catches' - it sounds too good to be true and it is. I will beg all humans to research ANYTHING they plan on doing - or to investigate any human you may hire or service you may employee. Big Mom sigh. That goes for the Rocket Money app. Are the younger people in America so stupid that they don't keep track of their money? If I had a ton of subscriptions open that took tons of money out of my bank account every month, I WOULD KNOW. Don't you humans check your bank accounts? Do you know there is a fee to use Rocket Money? Sigh. Ok, I'm done now...

January 4, 2025 - Geez, I started my New Year by complaining about commercials? What is next - shaking my fist at squirrels that come in to my yard? Maybe I will start to write letters full of complaints to the government. Who knows. Get off my lawn...

My boys will be over tomorrow to have Spaghetti pie and hot fudge cake for my youngest son's 32 Birthday. That is always his meal of choice. Oh, and garlic cheese biscuits too. I forgot to pick up the hamburger for the pie, so I will have to make a run in to town today. Duh on my part. We've had some snow and it is nice and cold here. When I woke up and checked the weather, it said it "felt like 0 degrees" with the wind chill. Now it is up to 6 degrees! Already a heat wave.

My BFF called last night and it was a hoot. We started talking about life, the universe, and everything in a serious manner then meandered over to the concept of the Universe and how big it is and how small we are, then it got to the point where we were laughing hysterically (which we always end up doing) and I peed myself a little (ok, a lot). When we get to laughing like hyenas it doesn't matter what she says or I say, it just makes it all funnier. She and I could NEVER work together EVER as we'd be thrown out of the building by noon. There is a lot of history with us two, and we've both evolved as humans over the decades - sometimes for the good - sometimes for the bad. Nonetheless, we've kept open minds the last decade or so and have learned more things than ever before. It was a successfully fun Friday night.

My grandson Irving - oh my! My daughter sent me a video of him eating spaghetti with some cheese, and she got him to say CHEESE and he said it so proudly and with gusto. His face was covered with sauce and cheese but you could tell he liked what he was eating. I have watched that video a mere 50 times, I swear. He recovered from his illness finally and is back to being a very curious 1 year old. She sent another pic last week of him barricaded in his play area so she could work and another pic of him with a bowl of Cheerios and you could see the trail of Cheerios behind him. It is such fun watching him grow. I have said it 600 times, but geez - I wish they lived closer. I do so enjoy the times she calls and I have "Dinner with Irving" via video. I told her he eats like a starving Viking warrior.

Knock on Wood, my heat pump/split units are still working. I didn't want to say it, because of all the trouble I've had with them since they installed them...I have perhaps jinxed myself but the gentle heat in waves is nice.

Norman is still sleeping - once I got up he took my warm bed. He is not a fan of this cold weather, so his urge to go out and have zoomies and play ball and be all stupid are not as high as in the spring and summer. Oh, he still has them, mind you. He zooms around the yard when I take out the Herby Curby and when I bring it back up. I keep the garbage can in a position to protect me in the event he judges the drive by gallops incorrectly. This morning when I sat down at my desk, I found a hardened string of Norman slobber hanging from my desk shelf. It was rather fascinating to me. Hahahahaha. Then it dawned on me - where is there NOT a hardened blob of his goo in my house? They are everywhere.

Off I go I suppose to do something productive. Back to full time work next week. Ugh. That is always hard after having two weeks with time off in the middle of the week. We kick in doing deep dives in the new software too. Another UGH. Que Sera, Sera I suppose...

January 8, 2025 - Soooooooo, funny story. Besides just baking a spinach mushroom pizza ON the cardboard just now and wondering why it was so hard to cut (until I figured out the cardboard and was thankful I did not attempt to eat said cardboard) I had said last time I posted that my heat pump was still working. Well, I did indeed jinks myself! Ugh.

Last night, all night,  and all day today it was 55 degrees in the house. The thing stopped working. Again. There have been many "Agains"... When I first noticed it was getting chilly in the house last night, I reset the breaker to see if that would help, but it did not. I sent a service message on the website of the people that installed it for me expressing my feeling up being irate and frustrated. It was pointless to call the emergency line since they couldn't have seen at night to fix anything. The owner saw that email and emailed me back. He stated he could not express how sorry he was for all these issues. He was going to send someone out as soon it was daylight. I emailed him back to state it was 55 in the house and I was cold, so I appreciate him sending someone out.

I was still cold. Norman was confused and cold. He woke me up at four a.m. whining. Dogs don't understand technical issues. I got out my huge 'bear' housecoat and put it on. I covered him up with blankets on the couch. He went back to sleep. I just started work since I was up anyway.

So, if you want to say something that you think may jinx yourself, don't say it. Trust me on this one. "And Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart..."  I will do that next time for sure.

January 12, 2025 - Last night I fell asleep on the toilet AGAIN. That does just one thing - causes your legs to go to sleep - cuts off circulation from your butt to your feet. At one point I felt myself tipping forward and abruptly woke up and attempted to stand up. That wasn't working because I couldn't feel my legs, so I sort of fell towards the sink. I caught myself, swearing at myself the whole time, and pushed myself back. I fell back on the toilet. I grabbed the bars we put up for my husband when he was so bad off and slowly stood up. I moved my legs until I could feel them again. I have to find a way NOT to fall asleep on that damned toilet. Maybe I need to turn on the light when I do night pee runs, huh? That would keep me awake I think. Duh. Living alone is going to kill me, I am pretty sure.

I had made beef and noodles earlier this week and have had that every night for supper since, even with giving a bunch away to my neighbor. It was good, mind you, but after four days - THAT IS ENOUGH. Tonight I fixed myself some shrimp with Linguine noodles and garlic and broccoli.That was a nice change of pace.

This afternoon I was feeling lonely and worthless, so I decided to take out the recycling and the garbage. Then I decided to sweep the floor. I used my old vacuum. (I got myself a newer one because the one I had just wasn't sucking well.) The old one has a longer hose to reach under things, so I did my sweeping while Norm attacked it constantly. I decided I would clean out the bagless tank. It was dirty! I cleaned that out and on top of the tank was a switch I had never noticed before, so I flipped it. FILTERS!? I DIDN'T KNOW THAT THING HAD FILTERS!! I washed/cleaned those out too. They were beyond dirty. Must have been a half a pound of dirt in the one! Cripes. Maybe I didn't need a new vacuum after all. I will see how the old one works once everything is all dried out. What ever you do, Sandy - don't read the manual....duh.

Next week we go full tilt into 'Phase Two' of the implementation. If you don't hear from me in weeks, I'm either drowning in work (or I am dead on the bathroom floor. Half a dozen of one...) I have stopped working ungodly hours because I was burning out. Now I will work my 9 hours or so and stop. I can only do so much. Our whole team can only do so much. We're doing our normal jobs on top of learning a whole new system. It's been frustrating and draining. I know a year from now we will look back on this and laugh, but right now no one feels much like laughing.

Norman had every toy he owns out in the middle of the floor today. I was not paying him enough attention apparently. He doesn't much like the snow, so him playing outside will have to wait. He wants to chase his ball so badly, but it gets packed with snow and he won't pick it up. Poor Norman. I did throw all those toys for him this afternoon and he would fetch on one for a while, then switch out. He is like having a toddler, I swear. He turned 5 this month! Can you believe that! It's been five years. Time is zipping by so fast!! The snow plow man came today and did my driveway, and Norman didn't stop barking the whole time he was here. Defending Mom from the snow plow, he was. I texted the gentleman before he left and told him THANK YOU and he wrote back that "he was late, but he would never forget me..." and "I have two Great Danes of my own. Love those guys..." so it was obvious he saw Norman slobbering up the front window while he plowed. Hahaha.

I ordered myself two space heaters in case (the thing that shall not be named) stops working again. It is supposed to get quite cold this week then start warming up for the weekend. I don't want to get as cold as I did the other day. Neither does Norman! I also ordered myself a new floor lamp for next to my desk and my reading chair. That will be nice to have better lighting.

Have a marvelous week!

January 17, 2025 - A hawk just swooped in to a very busy bird feeder area of mine, and everyone flew off in a panic. One sparrow hit my kitchen window and went down. The hawk was very interested of course, and everyone has to eat, but I went out to check on the wee one and the hawk flew off. I petted the sparrows head for a bit. It got up, hopped around, looking up at me like, "What the hell just happened?" Poor little dude. I stood out with the wee until it was able to fly away on its own. He won't be dinner tonight. My apologies to Mr. Hawk. Speaking of my birdies - I had my neighbor scavenge me a piece of plywood (4 x 5) for the end of the dog pen. In the winter I put the bird feeders in the dog pen else the deer eat all the seed up... This way now they have a wind break from westerly winds. (Thank you, Justin!) Norman barked at it for 10 minutes when he saw it and he wouldn't go near it. It is comforting to know that I am protected from random pieces of plywood that might show up to attack me. I ended up having to bungie cord it to the fence since the wind kept knocking it over.

What a FRICKEN WEEK!! My brain is all used up. I am grateful for a weekend re-charge. I should work tonight and this weekend but I doubt I will bring myself to...I need time away from it. We'll see how I feel after a night's sleep. Maybe I will work a little, maybe I won't. I'm at the point where I have so much to do that I don't know where to start. Sigh. Spinning in circles - PFFFTT.

Twice this week someone ran a stop sign when I was attempting to turn left (and they had a stop sign too...) ARGH. I am grateful my breaks work so well, but mad that people are in a mental coma when driving that they don't realize what they are doing. My cousin had the same thing happen to him. Going out is getting more dangerous.

I have Ford coming to get my car (a 2023 Escape) and fix it. The thing keeps going into battery saver mode so you can't use the remote start. (What is the point of remote start in the winter if you can't start the car remotely!?!?) Plus my front passenger side tire has had a slow leak for two or three months and I'm getting sick of putting air in to it. I believe all that is still under some form of warranty. This battery thing happened in November of 2023 right after I got it, too. I googled the issue and it seems many cars have this issue. Faulty workmanship? Anyway - someone is going to fix it or give me a bigger damned battery. This is dumb.

After work last night I fell asleep in my lazy boy and slept hard until my daughter called me. Thank goodness she did! I did NOT want to fall asleep so early and not do my night chores. After I had 'dinner with Irving' via the video call, I got up and did my dishes and folded laundry and picked things up. (Then I couldn't get back to sleep until 10 p.m.) Having dinner with Irving is always a treat. He still eats like a starving Viking but interacts with me on the video. He attempts to give me food he doesn't want which is adorable, and when I don't take it, he throws it on the floor. Kinda darned cute. He sees Norman in the call, and will say "DOAWWWWG' which cracks me up. He is saying more and more words, too. (At least trying to!)

I am off to do my night chores and go back to reading the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (stuff he had written and his son put it together after he passed away). I am at the part of the book where he is explaining how all the rivers flow and it's killing me, since it way too much info on rivers as far as I'm concerned, but I will continue forth.