Category: Family

Father’s Day

Posted on

A couple of weeks ago K reached out to me about coming over for Father’s Day. I thought it was a great idea, and we decided I would handle the food and she could make a dessert for Joe. She and E arrived around 1 (side note: I LOVED that she texted me when they left the house and also when they were five minutes away) and stayed until just after 6.

We ordered pizza, boneless, wings, and stuffed mushrooms and I made some toasted ravioli (side note: why did Aldi stop selling toasted ravioli? It was so much better than the stuff we got from Walmart). The kids brought some alcoholic drinks for Joe (Crown Royal Washington Apple Whisky Cocktail & Not Your Father’s Root Beer) and we made a new mixed drink that K and I had – Simply Limeade mixed with whipped cream vodka which tastes like key lime pie.

Key Lime Pie Drink

So good I had two drinks yesterday and a small glass of it this morning… don’t judge!

We had cupcakes K made – yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles – all of Joe’s favorite things.

After eating we played 5 games of Aggravation before moving on to video games where we played Mario Kart and Bomberman. I wanted to play Penguin Wars too but the game wouldn’t load. It’s a digitally downloaded one so I’m not sure how to fix that.

The kids were so generous – not only did they get Joe a $50 Starbucks gift card, but they bought Wookie two toys.

Wookies Gifts

E surprised me with a picture disc of Faith by The Cure from Record Store Day and a magazine with Robert Smith on the cover and a bonus CD cover version of Why Can’t I Be You. I was so touched!

Cure Gifts

I don’t actually own Faith on vinyl so it’s a great addition to my collection (and such a great album).

The evening ended with us attempting to go to bed early but the weather had other ideas. A little after 11 pm it started storming. The rain was coming down so hard it was deafening and unsettling. Then I heard an eerie whistling noise which scared the crap out of me because I couldn’t identify what it was. I later figured out it was a tornado siren a town over which is why it was so faint. Luckily we weren’t hit by any tornados but other towns in the area weren’t so fortunate.

Vaccinated

Posted on

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

Posted on

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

Posted on

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

Posted on

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!