July 2020 – Not Content to Crawl

Wookie’s Sickness

Posted onJuly 24, 2020August 23, 2020

Wookie is on the mend after having diarrhea for a few days.

Below is a screenshot of the timeline I put together for the vet (which we saw on Friday the 17th) since they’re still doing curbside service and you cannot go inside the building with your pet. They made a copy for her chart.

They sent her home with medication and special canned food (which smelled bad because it contained liver; so of course she loved it).

Her poop is still soft, but nothing like before, so I think it’s going to take some time for her to get back to normal even though she’s eating her regular food again.

We still don’t know what caused her to get sick, though. The vet felt the white item was a piece of rawhide. She also said the hostas weren’t dangerous, nor was the new floor cleaner. I’m a bit skeptical about the hostas, since many websites state they’re toxic to dogs, so I chopped the flowering part of them off so they don’t hang over the sidewalk by the front door anymore, and I swept up the remaining flowers.

Updated to add this story I can’t believe I forgot to write about:

At one point during Wookie’s sickness I took her potty pad upstairs to clean it from the runny diarrhea that had gotten on the plastic grates.

I was walking from the kitchen into the dining room when I slipped and fell. Luckily I caught myself and was not injured but my head got dangerously close to the corner where the kitchen and dining room walls meet.

What did I slip on? Dog shit. Apparently Wookie pooped on the carpet in front of the microwave and I stepped right in it. Her potty pad was upstairs drying, although the larger bin was still there with a pad in it but I guess it was too different for her to want to poop there so she chose the carpet. In any case, I had poop on my slippers, pajama pants, and all over the floors and rug. Yay! I threw the clothing into the washer and thanks to the miracle of Woolite pet stain cleaner, plus the Bissell Green Machine, I was able to get the poop out of the rug.

This was runny greasy poop too which made it even worse. Explained why I thought I smelled poop before I slipped though!

In hindsight, it was pretty comical how i slipped and fell, like that scene in Night At The Roxbury where Doug slips (which makes me laugh out loud every time even though I’ve seen it at least 50 times).

Bath & Body Works Shenanigans

Posted onJuly 16, 2020

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Bath & Body Works, as in I love some of their products, but I hate their prices and their practices leave something to be desired.

It’s gotten to the point where I am not interested in their lotions, body wash, or hand soaps, but I do still like the wallflowers and candles. I’m picky about scents, however. For the most part I like vanilla, marshmallow fireside, and a newer one my cousin turned me onto two years ago, heirloom apple. I was too sick last year to care about any of that stuff but now that I’m feeling better, and I’m down to my last wallflower, I went looking for heirloom apple only to be unable to find it. So I contacted B&BW via Facebook Messenger:

I took to the internet to find out whether anyone could point me toward a dupe scent, whether that be from Bath & Body Works or another company. In the meantime, I got this Yankee Candle macintosh votive at Meijer to try out.

It’s ok, but not what I was looking for.

Someone online told me to look for B&BW’s honeycrisp apple scent, but when I checked online it was only available in a one wick candle for $10. No thanks. I don’t mind the occasional candle but I prefer how a wallflower tends to fill the house with scent.

We went out yesterday and I decided to stop in a Bath & Body Works store. I asked about the heirloom apple, or any apple scents, and they only had one and it didn’t smell at all what I was looking for so I quickly left.

I just so happened to be on their website today when I searched for apple again and this time a honeycrisp apple wallflower showed up in the search results.

I looked at the fragrance description and then googled to find out how heirloom apple used to be described. They were identical. Hoorah!

But then it got weirder when I noticed a scent called farmstand apple.

That too has the same description. Interesting…

So basically they retired heirloom apple and replaced it with two different scents that are actually the same as heirloom apple but never bothered to tell any of their employees so they could help someone looking for heirloom apple. Got it.

They annoy the hell out of me as it is by making certain scents only available during particular times of the year. I know it’s a ploy to drive interest and get people in their doors more than once a year, but it’s seriously annoying.

Right now the two scents I want (marshmallow fireside and honeycrisp apple) are only available online and I’m not buying $75+ of product or paying $6 in shipping. They will appear in stores at some point and then I will wait for another sale. Wallflowers are currently 5/$24 but it turns out they can get as low as $3 each so a better sale is due to come around soon.

Home Improvement Shopping Adventures

Posted onJuly 14, 2020

Saturday 06/27 we did a little shopping out in Geneva. Our first stop was At Home to look for patio furniture. We arrived as soon as they opened and while they didn’t have anything we liked, all was not lost – we found a shower curtain, rings, and placemats.

Unfortunately the white shower curtain makes the master bathroom tub look dirty (because it’s off-white), so we ended up getting a grey/cream striped shower curtain from Target instead, and moved the white one to the guest bathroom.

Tuesday 06/30 we made a quick run out to the Walmart in Elk Grove Village to buy this awesome patio rug that I saw online only to learn their website lies and there were none left in stock.

I could order it from Amazon if I was willing to pay $62, but I’m just not. I wish you could order it from Walmart to be shipped but it’s not an option. I keep looking elsewhere for rugs but am not having any luck. Maybe I’ll get lucky and it will drop in price on Amazon. Or we’ll find something even better. I feel like (most) things happen for a reason.

We did come across this adorable welcome mat while at Walmart.

I’ve been keeping my eye out for a hefty welcome mat for years and this one is not going to be blowing away, I will tell you that! Only $12.

Friday 07/03 we decided to visit IKEA. Since they didn’t open until 10 am, we stopped at Dollar Tree first. The one we visited (in Villa Park) is the biggest DT we’ve ever been to which make social distancing easy. They were listed as having an expanded craft section but it didn’t really feel that much larger than the DT’s near the house. I did appreciate the wider/shorter aisles to avoid other people, though.

IKEA ended up being a bust. There was a line around the corner from the entrance and they were just letting everyone in at once (unlike Trader Joe’s when we visited – they would stagger people entering the store). We left without even going inside. Our fault for not realizing that just like Joe, many people were off work for the 4th of July holiday. Couple that with their late opening (10 am) and it’s not too surprising how busy they were.

Thursday 07/09 we went to Goodwill to look for a mantel clock and a container to keep the dishwand in by the sink. Struck out on those things, but found this beautiful white vase for $3.

We also went to Dollar Tree and I got this woof sign that I used command picture-hanging strips to put above the wall decals that were already there.

We ended up going back yesterday (07/14) and it was much less crowded. Ironically enough, we didn’t get the main item we were there to get because it was out of stock (despite saying otherwise on the website). I did get this cute planter for my succulent, though, so all was not lost.

In addition, we got a new light for the dining room.

We have been wanting to replace our foyer light since we moved in (16 years ago) but have put it off because it requires obtaining scaffolding to reach the ridiculously high ceilings. We decided we’re going to do it very soon, however. The problem is we haven’t been able to find a light we liked. The other night it occurred to me that we could find an inexpensive light for the dining room and move the light that’s there now to the foyer.

Current dining room light (to be replaced by the IKEA light discussed above)

We just need to buy a longer chain. We rarely use the dining room light anyway because we dislike over-head lighting. Not only does making the switch make sense, it saved us money. We’re also planning on replacing the ceiling fan in the living room so we bought a new one from Lowes yesterday for $95 (they sent me a $5 off coupon).

I’ll include photos of the entire before and after once the work is complete.

Valli Produce Is On My Sh*t List

Posted onJuly 4, 2020

I had to email one of our local grocery stores (Valli Produce) this morning to let them know how their employees were acting. I only had 200 characters on the form to do it, though, so it doesn’t seem like they really care about feedback to begin with. Therefore I will be surprised if I hear back from anyone.

Basically, only two registers were open and they were directly next to one another. That alone is stupid when they have 10+ lanes to work with. That plexiglass doesn’t protect a cashier if someone standing in the lane right behind them is too close.

In addition, the cashier at the other register, who was literally a foot away from where Joe was standing while trying to pay, was wearing her mask around her neck while talking to the bagger for her lane who was wearing his under his nose, basically spewing her germs all over Joe.

We purposely went early to avoid the public only to be put at risk by their own employees.

Needless to say we won’t be shopping there anytime soon, if ever again. It’s too bad because I prefer their produce to the grocery store closer to us or Aldi, but I’m not giving my business to a place that have such cavalier employees. Also, last time we shopped there one of the cashiers was so unfriendly toward us. I said hello to him and he literally ignored me. I guess upon further thought it’s no big loss.

Neighbors

Posted onJuly 4, 2020

I’m happy that both of our immediate neighbors are quiet and considerate. It wasn’t always this way but it’s been really good the last two years. The neighbors around the corner and down the block, though? Not so much. The more I see them, the more I dislike them.

It started when they moved in and let their fire alarm beep for days on end with their windows open before I had to ask them to change the battery because I could hear it across the courtyard and no doubt everyone else could as well. They didn’t care because at the time they weren’t moved in yet. Why leave the windows open the entire night if you’re not even home? That’s insane to me.

Then last week they were walking around the neighborhood while their kids rode their bikes … all over everyone’s grass. The sidewalk is plenty wide enough.

The other day their kids were bouncing a basketball off their neighbor’s garage door. Talk about rude!

This morning we saw Jolly Ranger wrappers all over the grass around their unit, plus their garbage cans are sitting outside when the deadline to put them away was 7 am yesterday.

I’m just happy that for the most part I only have to deal with them when I take Wookie on walks. If they lived next to me we’d have issues. That being said, I am tempted to create a new email address so I can report them to the association anonymously. Can’t let on who I am since they will probably find something else to take issue with at our place. Ugh!

I don’t know why I even bother, though. There are some small trees near the pool that some kids broke the branches on. The landscapers removed the broken branch that was hanging from one of the trees but didn’t cut off the extremely sharp tip that a kid could easily impale themselves on. I reported it a week and a half ago. Do you think when the landscapers came back they fixed it? That would be a big no.