Needful Things and Other Curiosities

It’s Sunday! I slept in a few hours, got up and enjoyed some coffee and toast and a bowl of Frosted Flakes, did some cleaning and packing, and now I’m here typing this blog post while Grimm season one plays in the background. It’s much too warm outside, so come on and and find a seat. I’ll pour some drinks and we’ll get caught up on the week that was! 

Before we start, it seems some of my social media shares weren’t going through, and maybe you missed last week’s post: Summer Fades (?).

Okay so one of the big things that happened this week was that after years of my phone being my only internet-capable device, I finally broke down and bought a chromebook. Now I didn’t need anything fancy so I found one that’s been refurbished and is guaranteed to update until 2031 and still has a decent battery (though I don’t care if I need to stay plugged in) and spent a grand total of $51.00. 

I plan to use it for playing D&D via Discord and doing some writing via Google Docs and blogs like this. And now that I think about it, I can finally take a crack at my media files and rename photos to what they actually are rather than just the string of numbers generated at creation. 

That will be so very beneficial. 

In fact, thanks to the magic of being able to work on certain documents offline, I’m writing this now why also running a merge game on my phone. 

Huzzah. 

I’ve already started to decorate it, and I’m super pleased that the Pusheen iPad case I was gifted some years ago by a colleague fits the chromebook perfectly. 

Huzzah. Again. 

Earlier this week we went over to Krystal’s parents and enjoyed some chicken pot pie and watched videos of folks using scrap metal to make gliders, many of which did not go according to plan. It was hilarious. 

I finished up or made significant progress on several important projects at work, including maling some cardboard risers for my stuffed Pusheens so they are now all back where they belong: looking over me to bring me joy and happiness in the workplace. 

I’ve also identified at least four hummingbirds making routine visists to the feeder.
I know this because I’ve seen four in the air at the same time, though never more than one at the feeder at a time. 

I’m worried about leaving them without food for a couple days next week, but I’m not willing to risk having the sugar water go bad and causing them to get sick. They’ve become my buddies even if I can’t really tell them apart except for the one that has a longer beak than the other three. 

That’s right: I’m finally taking some time off – three days to be exact – and going to Washigton, DC. Unlike last time, I’m not going to be visiting any of the musuems or historic sites; instead, I’ll be going to the Nationals’ staudium to see MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE IN CONCERT! 

It’s finally, finally happening and I’ve been positively vibrating since Friday.

Am I all packed up and ready to go?  

You bet I am! And here’s the oufit I’ve got: 

On Monday I drove an hour and a half each way for a three hour appointment, and on the way back I stopped at two Hot Topics looking for shorts. The first one didn’t have any, but the second one had many – and they were on a BOGO sale! That particular Hot Topic hasn’t had a fitting room for about a year (I think they converted it to storage?) so there I was testing shorts using the “neck test” method because a Social Distortion 7 means nothing to me. 

It turns out that in Social Distortion sizes, I’m an 11. 

I’m kinda proud of picking out my entire outfit from designing the shirt to picking out the shorts and I’ll be doing my own makeup, too. That Urban Decacy GASH purchase some months ago is gonna come in clutch. 

Our D&D nights have switched from Wednesday to Tuesdays and this week will be the first Tuesday session. I’ll be bummed to miss it, but that’s also when the concert is, so . . . 

Well, this last Tuesday I tried to do laundry.

For a time, I was only partially successful.

When I went to change the loads form the washers to the driers, I discovered one of the machines in the laundry room still had 26 minutes remaining (of a 35 minute cycle). I waited an additional thirteen minutes and then it started to drain and the numbers ticked down rapidly. Unfortunately, the machine didn’t drain properly and eventually the digital display read “NO H2O” – – and then refused to stop agitating.

I finally had to unplug it to make it stop, at which point my first thought was “I’m not going to have the property manager claim I damaged the apartment complex’s washing machine,” and so called after-hours maintenance.

There are two options when you call: typical maintenance or urgent maintenance. I opted for urgent because given this could be both electrical and plumbing I wasn’t going to take any chances.

They called me back within fifteen minutes and told me it wasn’t an emergency, thanked me for calling and said they’d made a note of everything, and told me someone would look at it tomorrow.

I kinda felt guilty for wasting their time, but in the grand scheme of things I suppose I made the right call.

Pun intended.

Also on this last Friday I made plate tacos:

I had to go to Walmart to pick up some necessities for the trip, and they’re doing some huge remodel which made it hard to find anything. It was just my luck that I needed socks and razor blades and underwear all at the same time too, and I came out spending more than I would like to but it was all necessary – even the two boxes of Swedish Fish for the trip. 

Sadly, with all the moving about, I couldn’t find any Combos – and road trips need Combos. 

Hey, I don’t make the rules. 

Well, I suppose in this case I do. 

Last night we went out for pizza; I had a vegetarian delight and it was, true to its name, delightful. 

I even have leftovers for today! 

How about you?

What have you been up to?