August 2026 Recap

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08/02 (Sun)
We attended the annual charity dog show in Carol Stream. I like seeing all the dogs but it does make me a little sad since we are currently dog-less and might be until next year the way things are going right now.

08/04 (Tue)
We attended National Night Out.

08/07 (Fri)
Joe’s daughter and her partner came over for dinner and games. I made a cheeseburger casserole I hadn’t made in years and completely forgot about until K suggested it after I asked if she had any requests. Wow, it was better than I remember! Or maybe I’m just a better cook now, I don’t know.

We played the new UNO K gifted us, UNO POP.

We also played Mantis since we all love that game.

08/08 (Sat)
We decided to visit the Schaumburg library for the first time in many years. It’s massive and laid out so nicely. It has a huge snack area, the kids section has a playroom, the DVD and CD area look like a store, and their selection of magazines is awesome. There were so many cars in the parking lot but it didn’t feel crowded inside at all because of the size and how spread out everyone was. I wish it was our library! They have a huge magazine section with multiple titles I’d like to read.

We decided we’ll hang out there one of the days soon, probably when it’s cold outside with not much else to do.

08/11 (Tue)
More intense storms in the area. It’s been really scary this summer. Illinois is leading the country with the most tornados but luckily we weren’t hit with any on this day.

We hit up Costco when Joe got home from work and I picked up this Bousin cheese.

I had no idea what Boursin really was until last month when it came on a sandwich I ordered while at my friend’s house. It’s very yummy!

08/18 (Tue)
Know what’s a great way to be woken up at 3 am? By a tornado siren! Thought I was hearing things since they faded out just as I became more clear-headed. Luckily it was activated in error which is why it wasn’t going for long.

This Reddit thread about the incident made me laugh with The Simpsons reference.

08/19 (Wed)
I went with Joe to his eye exam in the evening since he was getting his eyes dilated and I would need to drive us home. What is with rude people? We’re sitting there in the little waiting area and his lady was watching TikToks with the sound full on. Then she was walking around while dragging her feet. Both she and her husband had their phone notifications turned up to full tilt. No one wants to listen to that shit!

08/21 (Fri)
I decided to experiment and created a homemade pasta sauce with multi-colored cherry tomatoes.

I’ve also grown to really love zucchini with my pasta, as well as in other dishes.

It came out delicious!

08/22 (Sat)
We ran so many errands, I wrote a separate entry about it.

08/23 (Sun)
We attended the Festival of the Arts at Lake Ellyn. We parked by high school which was nice walk compared to finding street parking. There were many art booths, no real food trucks, but four food booths (popcorn, hot dogs, Mexican food, and gelato). Nothing really floated our boat so afterwards we went home and made sandwiches for lunch.

08/24 (Mon)
I’m so out of touch I didn’t realize that Marc Maron ceased his podcast last year. I listened to the final episode which was none other than Barack Obama.

Have I ever talked about how much I love Barack Obama? His wife too. They’re both so kind, intelligent, funny, and poised. I never get tired of listening to either of them speak. What a contrast to the clown currently in office.

08/27 (Thu)
Spent some time lounging on the patio since the weather was so pleasant and heard an unusual bird chirping. According to Merlin it was a Cape May Warbler!

Too bad I didn’t see it because I haven’t added one to my life list yet.

That made my want to do some birding so we went to Churchill Park when Joe got home from work.

I was reminded why we don’t do too many nature outings this time of the year, though, because the second we got on the wooded trail we ran out of there quickly because of all the mosquitos. We didn’t have bug spray on, but even with it I swear it doesn’t work as well as I’d like. We didn’t even see any birds, just insects.

We stopped at McDonald’s after to grab dinner. I don’t crave their food often and I was reminded why by the chewy bun on my double cheeseburger. Their fries are only good the second you get them too. Wait until you get home and they are already cold and hard. Yuck. And for the price I’d rather get a kid’s meal at Culver’s where you get a burger, fries, drink, and a frozen custard for less than $8.

There was a lunar eclipse and this was my contribution to the massive amount of photos people took.

08/28 (Fri)
Just a few days ago I was bragging to my Facebook friends about how much I love our bee watering station and how I’m not afraid of them anymore. Today it dawned on me that the recent uptick in visits weren’t even from bees but yellowjacket wasps!

Needless to say I took down the watering station. It’s bad enough those wasps won’t leave the hummingbird feeder alone.

08/29 (Sat)
Joe had to work in the early morning but came home shortly after 9 am. I made us breakfast which we ate on the patio. After cleaning up we headed to College of DuPage to check out the Russell R Kirt Prairie nature area.

Once again, the birds were nonexistent (it’s been really quiet the last few weeks), but there were plenty of insects to be seen, mostly dragonflies. If you looked at the sky long enough you’d notice many of them zipping about.

I also explored the dining area in their student services area when I needed to use the restroom. I learned they have cafes with coffee during the week which might be useful in the future when Joe has a day off. We can grab a coffee on the way to the arboretum or nature area nearby.

08/30 (Sun)
We went to the arboretum to attend the Honeybee Festival. It was a little underwhelming, but I enjoyed just chilling on the visitor center veranda while people and animal watching. There are sparrows all over hoping for some food, as well as chipmunks. I could sit there all day.

We stopped at Bath & Body Works on the way home so I could look at the new Nightmare Before Christmas line. Well, what little was left of it. I had no desire to get anything but the hand sanitizer but neither scent (Jack or Sally) smelled good.

Notable media this month:

Mercy – I really didn’t want to enjoy this Chris Pratt movie this much, but it was done quite well and was not a Minority Report remake like the trailer seemed to indicate.

The Running Man – This was way better than the original and kept my attention throughout the entire film.

The Sheep Detectives – When my brother mentioned this movie to me awhile back I pictured the claymation style of Shaun the Sheep which is not my thing, but after hearing people talking about it I looked it up and realized I was completely wrong. It was a very unique and entertaining Who Done It.

The Institute (MGM+) – An MGM+ original series we discovered when looking for something, anything, to watch on this lame streaming service. The first season was good but left us with questions. I would re-subscribe to MGM+ just to watch another season; they better make another one!

How to Make a Killing – This is the second Glen Powell movie we saw this month and I’m not mad about it – he’s fun to watch. The premise was pretty unique – a man starts murdering his relatives to ensure he inherits the family fortune. Sure, it’s short-sighted of a character to think they could get away with such a thing, but that’s part of what made this fun to watch.

Don’t Let Go – A unique time travel / alternate dimensions murder mystery.

The Night Of– A series from ten years ago that I found while browsing HBO Max. It started off a bit boring and the ending left a bit to be desired, but overall it was an interesting tale of how prison changes a person, and their family.

Marc Maron: Panicked – I’ve always found Marc Maron funny but this special in particular knocked it out of the park! Seriously, most standup has been lucky to make me chuckle even once, but this one had me laughing multiple times. Kudos, Marc!

Awkward – This show made me cringe more times than I can count, plus hate Jenna much of the time, but it was a fun re-watch.

Whirlwind Morning of Errands

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Last night I checked the weekend weather forecast and it was showing rain for today so I thought we might as well get my vehicle emissions test done first thing in the morning. They opened a few minutes early so by the time we were done it had just turned 7:30 am.

On the way home we decided to stop at Tony’s Fresh Market which replaced the Valli Produce we used to shop at years ago. It looked much nicer inside even though the basic layout was nearly identical. Testament to what a little updated flooring and lighting can do. We ended up getting $50 worth of food there which included some fresh salsa and deli items.

When we got home Joe checked one of my tires that was making a noise from what he thought might be a rock (I heard it recently as well). Turns out it was a nail, so off to Discount Tire we went, hoping it wouldn’t be busy since they had just opened a half hour early. Wrong! We were told the wait time was 2+ hours so Joe made an appointment to bring it back in a few days to have it patched. The guy noted the tires could use replacing too which we already knew.

We stopped at the library and then decided since we were out we might as well head over to Target so Joe could pick up a prescription.

At the store I was telling him about this Newsweek article – Foreign hackers are actively targeting critical U.S. infrastructure, including water and wastewater systems, using artificial intelligence-powered tools to identify vulnerabilities and gain access to industrial control systems.

I wanted to buy some bottled water (which we haven’t done in several years) just to be on the safe side in case something does happen. He said Costco would have the best price, so we decided we would go on Monday. Well, that is, until we were leaving Target and saw someone with a lot of water in their cart. Was this the universe telling us to get the water now? We thought so, and Costco had just opened a few minutes before, so we headed over.

Before we went inside we decided to check out their Tire Center since Joe had been planning to replace both my battery and tires soon. Neither have ever been replaced and I’ve had my Crosstrek since October 2017. We ended up getting a battery right then and there since they carry a better brand (Interstate) than the Everstart he had been eying at Walmart, and it was cheaper to boot!

Once we got inside the warehouse I bee-lined over to the AT&T kiosk with the iPhones to get a feel for what the new one will look like. If the predictions are true, the iPhone 18, which comes out next month, is going to be the same size as the iPhone 17. The AT&T rep was really nice and showed me how his personal iPhone 17 Pro compared in size to the iPhone 17 Pro Max by placing it on top of it. There is a very slight difference in width, but the majority of the difference is in how tall the Max is. I personally find no benefit to that, so unless the iPhone 18 Pros differ, I plan to get the base Pro but not the Max version. They both should have the same exact cameras (of which there are three).

Oh and let me talk about that for a bit. I have an iPhone 11 which is going on seven years old. It has two cameras and only has a 2x digital zoom. The iPhone 17 Pro by comparison has a 4x optical zoom. The rep showed me how he could zoom in on a shopper very far away with clarity. I was wowed. Not to mention the latest iPhone camera has 48 megapixels compared to my phone’s measly 12MP. I’m definitely going to be spending money on storage in the new phone with that photo size, but it would be worth it if I could take more nature photos than I do now. I would still need my SLR for birding treks, but I bet the phone would do pretty well for everything else.

I’m getting very excited at the idea of getting a new phone soon. As much as I love my current phone, Apple is dropping support on it with iOS 26 and the battery is to the point it needs replacing, so now is the best time to upgrade even though it’s going to hurt to drop what I’m guessing will be $1500 thanks to the chip shortage. Hopefully I can get another 7 years out of the new phone to make it a more digestible $225 per year. But I digress….

Costco had more water out than usual which made us feel like something might be going on, so we grabbed 3 cases (40 bottles in each) instead of just 1 or 2. I really hope we won’t actually NEED it!

When we got home Joe started working on a late breakfast while I did a little research to find the best place to get new tires of my car. Costco is cheaper than Discount Tire (our usual go-to), especially when you factor in Costco’s free installation. Furthering my research, I learned that Costco rotates their tire sales by brand every 2-3 months, and was able to confirm the Michelin tires we want go on sale this Monday. Therefore, waiting just a few days to place the order will save us another $80. Gotta like that!

Speaking of money saving and stuff, we got a check from State Farm for $105 as part of some cash-back dividend they received.

I’m also getting a credit to my CC for an overpayment on a medical procedure.

Money in. Money out. Repeat until you die.

Update: Leaked information for the iPhone 18 series points to a major main camera upgrade featuring a variable aperture (ranging from f/1.4 to f/2.8) that physically adjusts using moving blades. Reports suggest this advanced hardware might be exclusive to the larger iPhone 18 Pro Max.

Ugh, I hope that’s incorrect because I don’t want the taller phone.

Goodbye T-Mobile, Netflix, and Hulu, Hello Tello

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We’ve been with T-Mobile since January 2018. Over the years the cost has kept creeping up to the point where when they announced in July they’d no longer be giving a $10 kickback to any line not exceeding 2 GB of data, our monthly bill was $168. Ridiculous!

They justify charging so much because of the perks they provide, but Netflix was no longer free like it was at the beginning. As of this writing our portion was $13 even though they added free Hulu a year or so ago. Why they just couldn’t keep Netflix free when the value of Hulu was $13 is beyond me.

In addition, the T-Mobile Tuesday perks were getting worse. Gone were the days you’d get free food outright. First it was spend $2, then it was $5, etc. The value just kept dropping while the price kept increasing. Plus the offerings were becoming less and less appealing overall and only tempted us to eat more fast food than we normally would.

So we said that’s enough and decided to switch to Tello since I was already familiar with it after setting up my brother on it. Their rates are so reasonable and they use the T-Mobile network too. I switched my phone over in late July to make sure we wouldn’t regret it and when I didn’t notice any difference Joe switched his on August 8th.

I immediately checked our Hulu and Netflix accounts and while Hulu showed as cancelled, Netflix did not. It showed we’d start getting charged directly the following day, so I immediately cancelled the account to make sure that wouldn’t happen.

It feels freeing to have fewer streaming services so we can concentrate on what’s left and extract more value from it.

As it stands, we now have:

HBO MAX – $2.99 per month until December
MGM+ – free until 9/22
Peacock – free as long as we have Xfinity internet

Plus there’s always the Roku Channel and Pluto which surprisingly has a lot to choose from.

Not to mention our own streaming service, Jellyfin, that we watch our DVDs via.

The only thing we need to square away is our last T-Mobile bill. After there were no longer any lines on it, the bill that was issued on July 28th, which showed us pre-paying for service through August 28th, didn’t update to reflect us no longer having service with them. The customer service reps Joe spoke with gave conflicting information about whether in August 28th things would update to reflect the changes, so we removed our payment info from their site so they couldn’t automatically charge us, and decided to not pay that July bill until we see what happens. I’ve heard murmurings that T-Mobile doesn’t issue pro-rated bills, but if they think I’m going to pay them for services not rendered they have another thing coming. I harbor grudges against companies that try to do me dirty, so for their sake I hope they do the right thing adjust the last bill accordingly or we won’t ever consider them for service again in the future. Just ask Best Buy. They screwed with us over $20 and we went from shopping there nearly every weekend to never giving them another dime in over 20 years now. So if T-Mobile decides to screw with us over about $90 they will potentially lose thousands in the long-run. I guess we’ll see what happens, and I will post an update here at the end of the month.

Update (9/2/26)

You guys, you have to laugh at the absurdity of what I’m about to tell you!

Before porting Joe’s number over on August 8th, we went into the account and removed both Netflix and Hulu so nothing would show active. After the port was complete all we could access was the billing section since the account as a whole was cancelled.

I believe it was a few days later when Joe called T-Mobile to ask when the changes would reflect on the billing side and we’d get a final invoice. The agent claimed we owed in full for the latest bill and then we’d get a final one because she said we were billed in arrears. We challenged that assertion, pointing out how the bill clearly states “Charged in advance for bill period Jul 29 – Aug 28. Changes made after Jul 28 will be shown on a future bill.”

The agent then said the system would update and prorate the billing on the next cycle date of August 28th, so we could either pay the bill in full and we’d receive a credit, or wait until the update. We opted for the latter and turned off auto-pay, and boy am I glad we did because not only did the amount due NOT change, but they slapped us with a late fee!

Joe called them again and the agent said a few outrageous things – we never cancelled the account, they don’t prorate, and there was a $40 charge for Netflix. None of that made any sense, but realizing we were getting nowhere with the call center agents, we took to messaging T-Mobile on Facebook.

We explained the issue and T-Mobile decided to just credit everything due so the balance showed as $0. I was rather shocked since we made it clear we were willing to pay for the 11 days of service (July 28th – August 8th) we used, but alls well that ends well, right? Not exactly, because crediting us doesn’t fix the underlying issue of poor employee training and a ridiculous billing system. Just because we got a good outcome doesn’t mean other customers will!

Unbeknownst to us, T-Mobile has a policy that they do not prorate the final billing period which I find completely absurd. It’s not like a streaming service where if you cancel you can continue to watch through the end of the billing period. When you port a number over that’s it, you have no service anymore with the former carrier. The fact that they can legally bill you for services not rendered is asinine. Not only that, but having to go the social media route because these companies don’t want to pay to properly train their call center agents is a terrible way to do business.

I can’t do much about the latter, but with the former I am going to be sharing my story with the FCC. Mobile carriers should have to prorate invoicing for services not rendered. And it’s not like they CAN’T do it, they just WON’T, unless it’s required by law. Otherwise they will continue to take advantage of consumers. Imagine how much money they are raking in from people who don’t challenge this ridiculous billing practice!

And I hope this goes without saying, but I understand if someone was financing equipment through their carrier then they absolutely need to pay for that regardless of when they cancel service.

National Night Out

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Last night we went to our neighboring town’s National Night Out event because I saw Pasatiempo BBQ was providing free pulled pork sandwiches at the event. I was super excited because we had them a couple of years back when they gave out the same sandwiches at a local business open house. They were amazing then, and amazing last night too.

National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign held on the first Tuesday in August (or the first Tuesday in October in some southern regions like Texas). It enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while promoting a true sense of community and local crime prevention awareness

We were shocked upon arriving at 5:30ish how packed it was. Even more so than the summer concerts held there which we’ve been attending on some Thursday nights. We had never been to this particular event so we were confused about where to get the food, so we had to ask the woman handing it out and she directed us to the police station’s tent where they give you a ticket.

After grabbing our food tickets we walked around the grounds to see what else was going on. There were booths from several local businesses including a rescue I’m familiar with. One of the women was holding the cutest little Yorkie whose name was Charlie. He immediately licked my hand when I approached. She explained how their fostering worked and that you could foster to adopt which is something I’m really interested in doing; I’m just not sure when.

They had four huge inflatable obstacle courses and bounce houses set up for the kids and a band playing music which switched to a DJ temporarily while the band members got something to eat. The weather, while hot, wasn’t bad, especially in the shade.

In addition to the pulled pork, they were giving out free hot dogs, pizza slices, water, and soda (I saw Signature Select cola and root beer). We grabbed a root beer, pulled pork sandwiches, and Cape Cod potato chips, then made our way over to a park bench in the shade to enjoy our meal. I had thought about bringing plates but decided they would probably provide those. Wrong! Technically there were some in the back of the car, but neither of us felt like walking back to get them so we balanced the foil-wrapped sandwiches on our laps. There wasn’t any sauce on the sandwiches, so Joe set out to find some. Apparently we had completely missed the condiment station! They didn’t have containers, so he got a slice of pizza since it came with a plate and then poured sauce on the plate for us to dip our sandwiches in.

This photo of the sandwich (prior to adding BBQ sauce) does not do it justice.

It was so incredibly flavorful, I wish I could share that taste with everyone.

A view from the less crowded area of the park we chose to sit down and enjoy our food.

As were were eating we started discussing the times the other towns around us were doing the same event. The one we were attending was from 5-9, our actual town’s was only 6-8, and another close by town was 5-8 at a park we’ve visited often.

So we came up with a funny idea – next year act like influencers and do a National Night Out challenge and hit up as many towns as possible to get free stuff (in addition to the free food and drinks they were also giving out little tchotchkes like chip clips, bracelets, keyrings, etc).

Oh, and for some reason they had someone flying an actual helicopter pass over the event twice rather low and turn on police sirens. Who knew the helicopters even had sirens? That was quite the sight, ahem, sound.

July 2026 Recap

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07/03-07/06 – 4th of July extended weekend recap

07/08 (Wed)
Our new neighbors to the east moved in. They were confused by the placement of the water hose. This happens every time someone moves in because the placement of the faucets is dumb and ours is right next to the neighbor’s patio door. They texted the property manager who in turn texted me for clarification. I answered quickly and also told the property manager they could feel free to share my number with the new neighbors in case they had any further questions. I’m perturbed by the fact that she never acknowledged my reply. Did she pass along my number? Who knows. She could have at least said thank you or even sent a thumbs up. Every day I am just amazed by how self-involved everyone is.

I also was thinking about the cartoon, O’Grady, we watched years ago and how much I miss it.

I’ve been searching online for a copy for years since it’s not available on DVD (which I’d happily pay for). I came across a Reddit post and learned it’s now on the Internet Archive for all. I promptly downloaded it. It’s making me so happy to be able to watch it again! It was really funny and deserved a longer run. H. Jon Benjamin (Bob of Bob’s Burgers) voices Kevin, one of the main characters.

07/11-07/12 – Weekend recap

07/15 (Wed)
I was watering our plants in the early morning when a mourning dove kept flying in, walking toward the water dish I keep out for the wildlife, and getting too spooked by my presence to take a drink. It even circled the nearby bush thinking surely she won’t be on both sides! At one point it got super close to me but changed its mind at the last second even though I was standing very still. The SECOND I went inside, it swooped in to get a drink. I could hear the familiar whistling of its wings before the door was even closed.

07/17 (Fri)
Sofi Tukker had a live stream on Twitch to celebrate the release of their latest single, Barthelona, which I am loving so much. The high energy nature of this song makes me happy every time I hear it.

My only complaint? It isn’t long enough. I need an extended remix, stat!

In the middle of preparing dinner our rice cooker decided to stop working so I had to finish cooking the rice on the stove. I was pretty perturbed until I realized we bought it in 2009, which makes it 17 years old. So the question now is do we replace it, and if so, with another rice cooker or one that doubles as a slow cooker? I can prepare the rice on the stove in the meantime so that we don’t rush into a decision. Plus if we can wait until the holidays they’ll likely be good deals on one.

07/18 (Sat)
Decided to go to Burlington and TJ Maxx in search of some new cookware. Well, the former didn’t even have a section for it anymore, and the latter didn’t have anything we liked. We also stopped by Barn Owl to look for something I could use as a bee watering station and struck out once more.

07/21 (Tue)
I did a little shopping on my own after getting some blood drawn. I browsed a cute store called Daiso and ended up picking up some Christmas gifts for the kids and making a mental note of some things I could get Joe as well. I liked a lot of the things I saw but didn’t really feel compelled to buy anything.

07/22 (Wed)
Spent a little time relaxing on the patio which I love to do when the weather permits. I saw baby bunny, as I like to call him. I also had a hummingbird come over and hover in front of my face twice within a short time. I always always assumed when they do that that they are either inspecting me or saying thank you for keeping the feeder filled. I googled it just now and that’s actually the consensus.

In the evening I kept hearing loud peeping noises when we were watching TV. I went over to the dining room to look outside and two newly fledged robins were standing by the patio door looking inside. Then one hopped closer to the edge of the patio and the other to the neighbor’s patio. They both were looking around and chirping. I assume waiting for mom to bring food.

07/23 (Thu)
The two Robin fledglings were back this morning, hopping behind mom while chirping at her incessantly while she hunted for food. They followed her all over the courtyard until disappearing out of earshot.

They came back later to take a bath and get a drink.

I made what is becoming one of my favorite dinners – Harvest Grain bowls.

It’s wild rice topped with sweet potatos and zucchini seasoned with garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper (cooked in the air fryer) with some dried cranberries and feta cheese crumbles added at the end.

We attended a concert in the park and enjoyed it much better than last time now that we know a better place to sit.

07/24 (Fri)
We decided to take advantage of the cooler weather and visit the arboretum in the evening. We grabbed dinner from Jimmy Johns and ate it on the arboretum’s veranda. Joe fed a sparrow a bit of his bread. I brought my Canon point and shoot camera and got a few photos around the gardens by the visitor center.

Before leaving the Visitor Center, I went inside to claim my free chip clip and listened to the lady at the member desk explain membership perks to someone who was joining. She mentioned how busy it had been that day with people asking for the chip clip almost in a manner like she thought it was ridiculous. Then the lady joining asked if she could have one and she told her no because you had to receive the text the day prior to claiming one. Wow, talk about strict.

After that conversion I was next in line and said “well, I’m here for the chip clip” and the girl behind me said “me too!” LOL

This is what it looks like.

We have the same style of chip clips from when Joe used to work for Xfinity. In fact, we still use them and not a single one has broken because they are a better quality than the long plastic ones. They also have a magnet on the other side so they can live on the side of the refrigerator when not in use.

I got this quick shot of the trail by turtle pond before running back to the car to get away from the mosquitos.

They are the only thing I can’t stand about summer. Well, them and ticks, but the mosquitos are a bigger menace.

07/25 (Sat)
Two mourning dove fledglings decided to take up residence by the water hose so I was not able to water my flowers before we went out.

We visited K and her friend J came by too so we could all chat and have lunch together. We stopped at McDonald’s first to get some warm chocolate chip cookies which we do almost every time we visit.

Before J came by I gave K an early Christmas present so she could use it during Halloween season:

You can never have too many towels with dogs on them!

07/26 (Sun)
We hit up Dairy Queen to redeem a T-Mobile Tuesday offer. I got a Dilly Bar (still as good as I remember, albeit smaller) and a mini Biscoff Cookie Blizzard. The latter was good, but not quite as good as I remember.

07/27 (Mon)
I set up an insect watering station on the patio using a ceramic sunflower plate I remembered I had in the garage.

I’ve also been trying all the different Bubbl’r sparkling water flavors to see if any of them are as good as the Twisted Elix’r and finally hit the jackpot.

The Orange Dream Freez’r tastes like a bubbly melted orange creamsicle which kinda sounds gross but isn’t. I definitely plan to get more of that flavor in the future.

Later that morning we had one of the strongest, scariest storms in recent history. Between the high winds and golf ball sized hail, I was pretty scared. I hid in the downstairs bathroom with my bike helmet on when the tornado sirens started going off. When the hail was coming down it was so loud I messaged Joe (who was at work) that it sounded like it was putting holes in the roof. For a short time it sounded to me like the roof was going to cave in.

A panel of siding on the front of our unit was pulled up and there were roof shingles and tree branches littering the streets afterwards. We only lost power briefly during the storm (just long enough to reset the microwave clock), which was much better than others in our area. Some homes in our subdivision just mere blocks away ended up losing power for days.

Our internet did go down the following day for a good part of the day, but that was the worst of it for us. Even the patio umbrella and bee water station stayed put which was amazing to me because I peeked outside at different times and the trees were practically bending over from the wind. In the building perpendicular to ours someone’s very large grill was knocked over, as was someone’s patio furniture.

I later learned there was a tornado in a nearby town, but our town got something called straight line winds which can be just as powerful as a small tornado.

Our patio area after the storm:

07/30 (Thu)
Joe took off from work early to accompany me to my breast ultrasound. No issues, just a precaution. Afterwards we got Burger King for dinner but it wasn’t as good as last time. If I had to guess, I don’t think our local restaurant followed the “off the broiler” directions we selected because the burgers didn’t feel as hot as last time. We then attended another concert in the park.

07/31 (Fri)
Watched several acts at Lollapalooza via Hulu. Yungblud sounded good but The Smashing Pumpkins sounded distorted much of the time.

Notable media this month:

Over Your Dead Body – After watching and enjoying the film I went on IMDb to read the trivia like I enjoy doing only to learn it was a remake. Even worse, we watched the original, The Trip, less than five years ago and yet this premise didn’t ring a bell to me while watching. Is that normal to not remember such things?

Michael
I watched this while Joe was at work and I was eating a yummy Trader Joe’s Beef and Queso bowel.

I admit, I had my doubts about Michael Jackson’s intentions when he was hanging out with all those kids back in Neverland. But between Instagram Reels re-educating me, and this movie, which focuses on his life from childhood until he separated from his father musically, I feel we were all duped by the media who sought to paint him in such a horrible light. He was truly a kind, innocent soul who never fully grew up. Between showing how he was treated to just listening to the great music he wrote, I was brought to tears multiple times by this movie. I just feel so awful for him and what he went through and how his father ultimately is the reason he’s no longer with us. I’m sorry for thinking ill of him for so long. This is a lesson not to believe everything we’re told, especially by an industry who only cares about someone until they stop being profitable.

Running Point
This series completely flew under the radar until recently and luckily we found it, and binged it, before cancelling our Netflix subscription (more on that next month). Once again, something Mindy Kaling has touched has turned to gold. At this point I’m just going to stalk her IMDb profile and watch whatever she’s involved in since I always love it.

Scream 7 – Even though I thought “ANOTHER Scream movie, really?” I still put myself on the hold list at the library. This was one of the better ones, IMHO, and somehow Neve Campbell was a little less Neve Campbell (IYKYK) than usual. It didn’t hurt that the focus was more on her daughter and friends too.