Category: Family

Vaccinated

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As of yesterday we are both considered fully vaccinated! Guess we can go back to licking doorknobs now. ;)

We both got the two shot Pfizer vaccines – Joe got his first shot 8 days ahead of mine and I got my last one on May 6th so we are officially as vaccinated as you can get. We feel lucky that our side effects were mild. We both had sore arms at the injection point, and Joe had a little muscle/joint pain after the first shot, but for the most part that was it. We both had some Body Armor waters (like Gatorade) after our shots and I made a point to work out and keep my arm moving too which I think helped. I was worried it might make my tinnitus worse since I stumbled upon a site where many people claimed theirs worsened shortly after their shot, or tinnitus started when they never had it to begin with, but luckily I haven’t noticed a difference.

I’ve read that many people aren’t going back for their second shots which I think is a mistake. I believe it’s because they had concerning side effects after the first shot. Everything I’ve gathered indicates that people who’ve had COVID in the past have worse side effects after the first shot and those who haven’t have worse ones after the second. It checks out with E, at least, because he had COVID last year and felt really crappy after his first shot.

The CDC recently announced new rules around wearing masks, particularly for those who have been vaccinated, but seeing as how no one is requiring proof of vaccination, this is just open season for the anti-mask anti-vax morons to do whatever they please. Many stores, including Costco, Target, and Menards have already changed their policies giving people the option of whether to wear a mask. Luckily so far everyone in our area is still wearing them, and I personally think the CDC is making a big mistake. Unless of course they WANT the liars to catch COVID and possibly die.

I don’t know why they had to make these changes now. We haven’t even reached a 50% vaccination rate in this country yet. Are we ever going to achieve heard immunity? Not at this rate with so many people acting completely stupid about this virus. I never realized how many idiots were in this country until this past year. I honestly thought people were smarter, and less selfish, than they’ve proven themselves to be. It’s really disheartening.

Belated Easter Saturday

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Yesterday (4/10) morning we grabbed two gift bags from Party City to put the kids’ Easter gifts in. I had them in two very old plastic baskets from when they were kids but had a feeling they wouldn’t want to deal with those. I plan on donating them, in fact.

We headed to K’s apartment, arriving at noon when we ran into her grandparents who were getting ready to go get their covid vaccinations. Her grandma asked me how I was doing since K must have mentioned some of the health issues I was going through. I was touched that she cared enough to ask. Kinda sad, though, that my husband’s ex-wife’s mother cares more than my own parents or siblings (and even some friends) when they know in even greater detail the hell I went through in 2019 and early 2020. But I digress…

E was at K’s place helping her put together some new IKEA furniture. She’s loving living alone (she broke up with her longtime boyfriend ES back in November and to make a long story short he wasn’t nearly as nice of a person he made himself out to look).

We visited inside for about an hour and a half (everyone wearing masks and the windows open for fresh air) and caught up with the kids (E ended up leaving a bit before we did since he had to work).

Luckily the kids liked all their gifts.

Easter Gifts - E

Easter Gifts - K

K remarked I must know her well in response to me warning her she was going to have a duplicate since I spotted one of the same items on her shelf when I came in (the reversible cat plush). E really liked the t-shirt we got him.

After leaving we headed over to the Chinese restaurant Brother #2 introduced us to (which incidentally is the last restaurant we ate inside before COVID). It was closed, but there was a sign on the door stating they moved to their sister restaurant which just so happened to be on the way home anyway, so I ordered a few dishes that we took home for lunch. They were just as good as I remember too!

I also updated the old location on Yelp. Someone marked it as permanently closed, but I changed it to moved so people can still find it.

Home/Life Maintenance

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Just a quick list of things we’ve taken care of in the past month for future reference.

Bought a new Winex air purifier from Costco for the master bedroom.

Reorganized part of the garage.

Switched my car’s floor mats back to the fabric ones for the summer.

Repainted the numbers over the garage.

Purchased vehicle stickers and Wookie’s city tag.

Planted wildflowers in boxes on the patio. Used Dollar Tree ones so who knows what will come of that.

Joe’s dad visited for a few days.

Purchased license plate sticker for Joe’s car.

Had HVAC inspected/cleaned. Unfortunately they couldn’t find source of musty smell I keep noticing. So $90 not necessarily well spent, but I guess after seven years it was due for an inspection anyway. They didn’t think our air ducts were dirty enough to justify a cleaning so $350 saved I guess?

Roller Skating & St. Patrick’s Day

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We had quite the social weekend and I’m mentally exhausted now.

Saturday (03/16) B & R came over and I made dinner for them – grilled chicken breasts with roasted green beans. We then went to the roller rink for 80’s Night. We arrived a little after opening and the place was packed! We should have just left, but we soldiered on. Unfortunately we didn’t get to skate very much because not only was it crowded, but there were very young kids on the rink, as young as 4, which made it very difficult to skate. There were people going super slow and super fast and it felt inevitable we’d fall. Someone fell and broke their arm shortly after we got our skates, in fact; an ambulance came and took them out by stretcher. I only skated to a handful of songs the entire evening. B probably skated the most of all of us. R didn’t skate at all, and Joe threw in the towel around 9 pm. It definitely was the most disappointing skating session we’ve had; even the music was pretty disappointing. I think we’ll need to go back the weekend before Halloween like last year since it was pretty dead.

Sunday (03/17) our friends K & E came by for dinner. We made corned beef and cabbage in the crockpot. When we had dinner with them last time E had mentioned how much he loved it and was planning on getting some from the restaurant we were at (the one I didn’t like), so I had to step in and invite them over. No way was I going to let him eat their disappointing food. He really enjoyed dinner so I definitely made the right call. We also sent him home with leftovers. K doesn’t care for corned beef and cabbage so she brought her own tortilla-less chicken fajitas. I offered to make her something else but she’s on a limited diet so it was easier for her to bring her own food. They came over around 2 pm and left just after 7. Wookie was a bit annoying, barking at them here and there, but they didn’t seem to mind. I hope so because I want her to be good with visitors. She peed on B’s sock on Saturday because apparently both my brothers get her overly excited. She doesn’t really excitement pee when we come home anymore, but with certain visitors she does. I really wish she’d grow out of it, but it doesn’t seem likely. R told me she has a friend who has a Mastiff who does the same thing so it could be worse; imagine how much pee a Mastiff would leave all over the floor!

Christmas Break

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Friday (12/21) was the first official day of my Christmas vacation, but before I could consider myself truly off work, I had my company’s Christmas luncheon to attend. It was at the local steakhouse they’ve been holding it for years and I sat next to the company owner’s wife whom I really like. The VP of the company, the sales manager, the owner, my boss, and the other girl on our team were also at my table.

They decided to forgo the grab bag this year and instead sold raffle tickets. The winner got half the pot with the other half going toward the charity of their choice. Guess who won? The VP! He got teased a lot because I guess he wins stuff often. He also seemed embarrassed to have won and assured us his winnings would go toward some nice lunches for us in the office. HR told me he didn’t want the money – he just wanted to participate to be a good sport. I think that’s great, but in that case I think it would have been better if he hadn’t put his name on the raffle tickets. It’s just not a good look when a higher up wins something – one of the workers could use that money more (and more than a free lunch or two since I believe it was over $100).

I ended up with an overcooked steak because I forgot to specify how I wanted it cooked and the waitress didn’t prompt me, so that part kinda sucked, but it still tasted good, if a little dry. I decided to try and Peachtini and woo boy, did that go straight to my head! Half a glass and I had to stop, eat a roll, and drink some water. It was super strong and I hadn’t eaten at all that day so I only ended up having a single drink instead of two. By the time I was ready for the second one the party was wrapping up.

I almost forgot – every year they give out chocolate bars to everyone (Wonka bars they’re called, which are really Hershey bars (or in past years, Russell Stover) with an additional wrap over the original wrapping) and in three bars is a golden ticket that gives the winner an extra day off with pay. This year I won one! First time in the past five years. I am sure some people weren’t thrilled since I’m part time and only work three days a week as it is, lol.

Edited to add: My boss gave us $25 gift cards to Amazon, but they were late being delivered so we didn’t get them until we returned to the office after the holiday.

I can’t even remember at this point what we did on Saturday or Sunday so it must have not been terribly exciting.

Monday (12/24) (Christmas Eve) I did some cleaning and prepared some cheesy grits casserole and cranberry sauce to take to my parents’ house. We arrived there just around 6 pm and stayed until 10 pm. Despite that, we never got around to playing any games. We did Secret Santa and apparently by triple wrapping one of J’s gifts I had him convinced the present was from B, despite the fact that it was a bag of peanut snacks from Trader Joe’s that he had snacked on when he was visiting me here in November. He even told me he’d like some for Christmas!

B’s girlfriend pulled my name and she gave me a candle trimmer, lemongrass essential oil, and the game 5 Second Rule – all of which was on my list of ideas. I felt bad all Joe got her was a Dollar Tree gift card but B only wrote gift cards on her list of ideas (she wasn’t present when we pulled names). My dad (really my mom) got Joe a gift card for Binny’s and a bunch of sprinkles to be funny because Joe loves ice cream with sprinkles. Too bad we have so many unused sprinkles already at home! I seriously don’t know what to do with them all since when he eats ice cream at home he doesn’t use sprinkles. He only gets them from Culvers or an ice cream shop.

Tuesday (12/25) (Christmas) we went to an early morning matinee of Holmes & Watson which, unfortunately, was not good. It tried to be funny but really wasn’t. That’s the second time we’ve seen a Will Ferrell movie on Christmas Day – the first being Anchorman 2 in 2013 – that has sucked. I really thought since he and John C Reilly were so good together in Talladega Nights and Step Brothers that this movie would be hilarious as well but it was a huge disappointment.

After the movie we had Wookie open her presents and we exchanged stocking stuffers. I got some candy, salt and vinegar chips, makeup/hair stuff, a clip for my purse, microfiber cleaning cloths for my electronic devices, and these awesome crystal nail files.

I felt bad I only got Joe a few things when he got me a lot of little stuff, although I think he got more for me because I didn’t end up getting my iPhone as originally planned whereas he got the new laptop. I got him a box of Pot of Gold, a package of beef jerky, and a portable battery to charge his phone and tablet when he’s traveling.

We ate leftovers from my parents’ for lunch and made a steak to share for dinner. We just mostly hung around the house being lazy inbetween meals. I got my DS out and charged it and played Dr. Mario and Planet Puzzle League. Ever since I saw that you can download Dr. Mario to play on the new Nintendo Switch I’ve been wanting to play it again. I wish Dr. Mario was available in the app store. Why Nintendo isn’t interested in that market is beyond me; they could make a lot of money!

Earlier today (12/26) we ran to a few stores to see what was available on clearance. I wanted to get a candle holder from Bath & Body Works but they were all sold out and there was a crazy long line so we left. I did get this cute Christmas dress for Wookie at Petco, though. Gotta love 75% off after Christmas discounts!

As long as I refer to it as her jacket, she doesn’t want to tear me from limb to limb when I put it on or take it off.

After our little shopping trip I made a peanut butter cup pie while Joe re-caulked the master bathroom tub. He also re-caulked the kitchen sink which looks nice.

I’ve got work tomorrow, but then I’ll be off again until next Wednesday. We have the kids coming over for Christmas on Friday so we’re looking forward to that.