Ugh, I’m 46

Why does 46 feel so much older than 45?

In any case, we didn’t do much for my birthday because it was so cold outside! I believe it was around 12 degrees on my actual birthday (Friday, 01/07). Joe was at work but surprised me by coming home early with flowers and dark chocolate covered graham crackers from Starbucks.

I’ve been hinting for years I’d like some either in my Christmas stocking or my birthday and he remembered! The kicker is they don’t taste like they used to. Figures! I will eat them, because they are still ok, but I won’t be asking for them again.

We placed a curbside order for Red Robin that night so I could get my free birthday burger. Did you know you can request extra fries for free? Well, I did, and we ended up with waaaay too many fries. I have a whole container of them still in the fridge! They reheat pretty nicely in the air fryer, so I heat up a few here and there but I don’t think I will be doing that again. Not very healthy!

I opened my gifts which were the Sofi Tukker t-shirt I’ve been wanting and some Brooklyn Nine-Nine stickers Joe thought I would like (which I do).

I’m going to make some of the stickers into magnets for the fridge.

As for the t-shirt, I am pretty disappointed in the quality for the price. It’s 100% cotton so it’s not exactly soft. Reminds me of the old school concert tees from the 90’s. Nowadays the best shirts are a poly-cotton blend and are much more comfortable. Considering I recently got such a shirt with a custom print on it for $27 (which includes shipping), the $40 plus shipping SF charges is ridiculous. I wonder if there’s a way to contact them and suggest they change t-shirt providers. If a small YouTuber can do it, I’m sure they can.

Speaking of, here’s the $27 t-shirt in question:

It’s so comfy! I had to get it after becoming addicted to Little Debbie Christmas Tree cakes last year. The YouTuber I watch created the shirt for her merch shop and I’m very happy with it.

I did layer a long-sleeved white shirt under the Sofi Tukker one so I could wear it, and that helped. The only other issue is how wide the sleeves are so they look a little silly with the long sleeves underneath. *sigh*

Saturday (01/08) we did a late lunch with a pickup from a local place called Anyway’s and shared their meatloaf and pot roast along with an order of their amazing Italian Beef eggrolls. We had plenty leftover for a second lunch the following day.

Saturday night we played Sorry! Sliders and Yahtzee with A Night At The Roxbury and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back playing in the background. I forgot how fun Sorry can be, even with just two players.

Sunday (01/09) we went out briefly to get groceries from Aldi and then stopped at Dunkin so I could try their new Brown Sugar Oat Iced Latte since I had a free birthday drink in my account.

It’s actually pretty good, but I’m perplexed why they added whipped cream on top. Not only is that not what the drink looks like in the app, but it doesn’t make sense to add a dairy product on a non-dairy drink (it’s made with oatmilk). I swear, no one at Dunkin knows how to make drinks properly anymore. The drink would have been nearly $7 without my coupon so at least there’s that. I scooped off the whipped cream when I got home but damn, they really aren’t doing anything to change my mind about boycotting them. $7 is a lot to pay for a drink that isn’t made correctly.

New Years Day 2022

Despite waking up late and not wanting to do anything, we hauled our butts over to Kohl’s this morning since they are notorious for being dead on New Year’s Day. Snow was due later in the day so putting off a trip would have been unwise. I had two blankets to return and Joe returned two of my Christmas presents via their Amazon return desk (the box for the letterboard letters was too small and the tray for my Crosstrek, while very nice, actually made it harder to organize the middle console).

I wasn’t expecting to spend an hour there, but my return yielded $15 in Kohl’s Cash and Joe’s got $5, so we walked around the store looking for something worthwhile to spend the free $20 on. Let me tell you, it’s crazy how long it took to find something!

I finally found a grey Tek Gear pull-over hoodie and grabbed some Godiva chocolate near the register.

I used a 20% off coupon and was surprised that we still had to pay $1.37 since the hoodie was $14 and the chocolate was $4. Even with tax it should have been under $20, but I noticed on the receipt the cashier rang up the Kohl’s Cash before the discount. Now, I don’t know if that is how they are supposed to do it, so I wasn’t about to argue over a process I’m not familiar with. I don’t shop at Kohl’s very often, and I rarely use the Kohl’s Cash when I do. Bottom line: I got two nice things for less than $2 so I consider it a win.

We’ve spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing and I’m sure tomorrow will be more of the same.