Category: Friends

2025 1st Quarter Recap

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01/25 (Sat) – We attended a LEGO train show at the arboretum.

01/27 (Mon) – Deactivated/deleted all my X accounts because F you know who.

01/31 (Fri) – Decided The Pink Stuff is a scam. I’ve owned it for years and I’ve yet to find a single thing it can clean better than the other products I own. In fact, it barely cleans at all. If someone knows what I can use this stuff for, please let me know, because it was a waste of money as far as I’m concerned.

Got a photo of the Rock Dove (aka city pigeon) that started showing up recently. We decided to name him Vinny (and as time would go on, he invited his friends and we’d have up to 8 of them at a time under the feeder).

02/01 (Sat) – Finally found a use for my E.T. TV tray from the 80s – to hold my Sonic order while I eat in the car.

The Philly Cheesesteak at Sonic is pretty good, by the way.

02/02 (Sun) – Put out a new welcome mat. I realized I didn’t have any for that time period between Christmas and spring, and this one suits my sentiments exactly.

02/04 (Tue) – Loving these pretzel twists from Trader Joe’s. Not quite the same as the ones Sonic sells, but still quite good when made in the air fryer.

02/14 (Fri) – Celebrated Valentine’s Day like the romantic couple we are by getting Mexican takeout (ironically from the same place as last year) and finishing the Dexter prequel, Original Sin.

02/15 (Sat) – Went to an ice hockey game at an arena close to home. A longtime friend and her sister are on a team that was playing an exhibition game that night. Joe and I sat by her husband (who happens to also be my ex from the mid-90s haha), his friend, and their two kids. It was nice getting out of the house for an event even though I hate going out at night. It’s also really cold inside the arena so I was so happy to get home and under the covers with my heating pad to warm up my cold feet! It was nice seeing everyone, though. I met my friend, her hubby, and her sister in the 90s on a BBS; and while the friend and her hubby have been to our house for a game night, I hadn’t seen the sister in decades.

02/16 (Sun) – Had to contact Discover to get a new account because someone got ahold of the card # and was making fraudulent charges labeled as Apple.com

02/21 (Fri) – Migraine City! That is what this month has felt like as I’ve had one every week. Typically I get at most two in a month so this is concerning. Not sure if it’s due to tight muscles in my neck, dry eyes, or hormones, but it’s annoying nonetheless especially because over the counter headache medicine isn’t making it go away like in the past, so they last two days.

02/24 (Mon) – Had my longtime ComEd electric account hijacked because someone can’t do their job correctly. Apparently someone in the same town called to put electric in their name and somehow ComEd wasn’t listening properly and changed my account instead of the correct address that has the same number but a totally different street name (that doesn’t even sound like ours so how they made the error I’ll never know). They couldn’t reinstate my old account so I had to get a whole new account # too. So annoying!

02/25 (Tue) – Received my new Discover card and had to go through all my auto-pay accounts to update the payment information. At least it was relatively warm outside (60 degrees) so I could open the windows and listen to the birds.

02/26 (Wed) – Had to contact Amazon a second time about getting a refund for a gift I returned over a month prior. When I spoke to them the day before they assured me they would process the refund, which they did, but they shorted me $4.42 for some reason, so I had to get them to fix the error. They acted like they were doing me a favor which infuriates me. I returned the item. I got confirmation I returned the item. The confirmation also listed what was paid for said item. So why didn’t they refund the full amount in the first place?

02/28 (Fri) – Tried to get Paczki from a local bakery called Hannah’s that everyone on Facebook was raving about, only to arrive and find they had two flavors available and wouldn’t have any others until later. Call me crazy, but as a bakery shouldn’t you have all items available upon opening? We left empty-handed because I didn’t want to give them our business. We got some Paczki from Caputo’s for $2 each and were labeled as also being from a local bakery but they were quite dry and I didn’t care for them.

03/02 (Sun) – Tried a Burger King iced coffee for the first time and wow, it was not good. I asked for a plain iced coffee but I swear it tasted subtly like mocha to me. In any case, for almost $3 I’d rather get an iced coffee from McDonald’s; it tastes much better and is only $1 via the app deals.

Although now that I’ve found the perfect products, I’d rather just make iced coffee at home.

03/03 (Mon) – Had a new hot water installed. You can read about that debacle here.

03/15 (Sat) – Visited my parents for the first time in nearly a year. It was actually a pleasant experience without Brother #2 there (which is why we chose a non-holiday timeframe). We worked on everyone’s computer (what else is new haha), got some food from the local Burger King (the location of my first job in the 90s), enjoyed some of my mom’s food as well, and played a game called What’s Your Like?

03/17 (Mon) – Made corned beef and cabbage in the crockpot for St. Patrick’s Day. We splurged this year by getting Vienna from Woodman’s which was $27.79 but it was the most tender cut of meat with almost no fatty pieces.

It was a bit on the saltier, side, though, so if we get it again next year I might rinse off some of the spices (the meat was marinated in it instead of having a spice packet).

03/21 (Fri) – What the hell happened to McDonald’s Shamrock shakes? They are awful now! We usually get one every year, but missed out last year, so I’m not sure when they changed the formula but I will not ever get one again – it tasted medicinal.

03/24 (Mon) – Learned our association hired a new landscaping company. I really hope they actually stick to a schedule and not show up on random days multiple times a week making noise with their leaf blowers like the last company.

03/29 (Sat) – Joe’s son, E, and his girlfriend, A, paid us an early afternoon visit. I made chicken salad sandwiches for lunch which they really seemed to like. So much so, A wanted the recipe (apparently neither one had ever had chicken salad before).

03/30 (Sun) – Paid a visit to West Branch Forest Preserve to get some fresh air where I was finally able to photograph a Brown Creeper!

We timed our visit perfectly – it had rained in the early morning and started to drizzle as we made our way back to the car. We stopped and picked up Bibibop on our way home.

The next morning someone posted about a loose dog they saw about four miles from the preserve. The dog looked a lot like the dog we saw that afternoon. The lady with it didn’t have a leash on the dog, so now I’m wondering if it just got ahead of her and lost, or something happened to her. I had been tempted at the time to tell this lady to leash her dog, but I don’t think it would have made a difference.

Notable series this quarter:

Shrinking (Apple TV) – We finished season two which I thought was even better than the first season. We binged it hardcode during Apple’s free preview weekend.

Dexter: Original Sin (Showtime)

I wasn’t expecting to like this prequel but Patrick Gibson really picked up on Dexter’s mannerisms beautifully. The actors playing a young LaGuerta, Batista, and Masuka looked a lot like their older counterparts as well. We were hooked and had to stop ourselves from binging it too quickly. Once we were finished we were inspired to watch the original Dexter series which we fell in love with all over again. There was so much we had completely forgotten in the two decades since the series originally aired. And while seasons 5-8 weren’t as good as 1-4, overall it’s still an 8/10 for me.

Extended Weekend Recap (10/04-10/06)

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Joe took Friday (10/04) off so we could join a bird walk at St. James Farm but it was raining when we woke up. We drove out that way in case the rain let up, but it was still drizzling at the start time, so we decided to go to the arboretum instead. They didn’t cancel the bird walk since the rain was light, but we don’t own rain jackets and I didn’t want to chance getting my camera wet, so it didn’t make sense to go on the walk. As for the arboretum, we decided to stop at every parking area along the roads and just wait to see what wildlife might make an appearance. We ended up seeing a lot of squirrels and five hawks!

The rain eventually stopped so we decided to head to nearby Hidden Lake to see if we could find the Sage Thrasher again. Sure enough, it was there, in almost the same spot as before.

This bird is not shy at all, so I got even more photos of it. It has a growth on its toe I noticed when editing the photos, so I contacted an organization to go take a look and capture it if it needs medical attention.

Saturday (10/05) we attended a guided bird walk at Trailside Museum in River Forest with John, the same guide we had last time. The first half of the walk was pretty uneventful other than spotting a yellow-bellied sapsucker (a type of woodpecker) in the distance, but on the latter half of the walk we saw Yellow-rumped Warblers and a Northern Waterthrush which is also a type of warbler.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

After our walk, which ran over the allotted time, just like last time, we headed to K’s house to hang out with her and the dogs she was dog sitting, and J joined us too. I’m sure Joe loved listening to us all afternoon!

On the way to her house we took Harlem Ave and was surprised by how many Starbucks and Taco Burrito King restaurants we passed. We also passed a very large cemetery and one of the street names that ended at said cemetery was Farewell Ave which made my eyes go wide.

We were going to attend a kite glow that evening but by the time we got home we were too tired to go back out so we made ourselves home on the couch and watched Scream instead.

We were unable to visit the Itasca bird sanctuary on Sunday (10/06) because they are doing construction on the baseball diamonds near it and had everything gated so you could not get to the path. We thought maybe we could cut through the big dog park, but the gate on the end where the bird sanctuary is was locked. Bummer!

So we ended up going to Springbrook Nature Center which is also in the same town. We were there about an hour and got to look inside the actual nature center (which we usually can’t since we typically visit much earlier in in the morning before they open). They have some turtles, toads, etc in cages there.

The highlight, however, was adding another bird to my life list – the ruby crowned kinglet! Look at that little red stripe on top of it’s cute little head!

When we were ready to leave we saw an identical Subaru Crosstrek parked next to ours. The owner said “nice car” and started chatting with us about how much he loves Subarus; his Crosstrek was the 5th Subaru he has owned. He asked what year ours was and when we told him 2018 he was impressed with how good it looked. That’s because I rarely drive it! I think it has 8000 miles on it. His was model year 2019 though so they basically look the same.

When we got home we put up the outdoor Halloween decor.

Update: The person I spoke to about the Sage Thrasher went to observe it but didn’t feel the toe growth was affecting it enough to attempt to capture and treat it.

August Recap

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08/04 (Sun) – We attended Carol Stream’s annual charity dog show. I was disappointed that our vet and former groomer didn’t have booths this year as it would have been nice to see them. We watched a few events but it was quite hot out without much shade so we didn’t last longer than about an hour.

That evening at 11:30 pm I was in bed when I heard what I thought was hooting. I thought I was hearing things since I’ve never heard an owl in the summer before, but sure enough, it turned out to be a Great Horned Owl in the pine tree behind our house. I sure hope it makes this area part of its territory and has babies.

08/07 (Wed) – I started feeling frustrated with the guy who was temporarily staying with our neighbor in order to attend said neighbor’s son’s wedding. In fact, he got married on the 3rd but the guy was still there. The problem – he would sit out on their patio all day smoking, effectively ruining my ability to relax out on my own patio because the smoke smell is disgusting. He’d be in and out all day long. Just when I though it was safe to go out there, he’d be back lighting up another cigarette.

One day I was already out there and had to leave when he lit up. I feel like if you see someone sitting that close you should go somewhere else to smoke, but I guess not everyone thinks about or cares how their actions affect others.

08/09 (Fri) – I noticed a distinct size difference between the cherry tomatoes growing on the plant in the planter (left) vs the cherry tomato plant we planted in the ground (right).

The in ground plant is smaller and took longer to produce tomatoes, but they’re much larger. They’re both the same exact plant too. Very interesting.

08/10-08/11 – Weekend recap

08/12 (Mon) – Joe replaced all 4 dampening straps in our washing machine. This is the second time this year they’ve needed to be replaced and the frequency is only increasing. I told him we need to bite the bullet and get a new one – the current one is 14 years old now.

08/13 (Tue) – I made Mexican cornbread casserole for the first time since spring of 2019. My weird health issues began one night after eating some leftovers of the dish so I couldn’t stomach making it again for years. Luckily I was able to eat it with no ill effects.

We found some unique canned coffees at Dollar Tree, like this Twinkie flavored one, that are actually really good (although it just tastes like vanilla, not a twinkie) and have some respectable ingredients which was surprising.

We also tried a Snickers flavored one which actually does taste like a Snickers. I’d buy them again.

08/14 (Wed) – I finally set up the RAID system on the NAS Joe bought last month and tested it by transferring over some files. It’s going to be a big project to get everything on there but luckily I started a spreadsheet a few months ago to track where certain files are stored and backed up, plus I cleaned up a lot of folders on my hard drives as well as Google Drive and Dropbox, so it could be worse. I think I will relegate that project to late fall when it’s too cold to be going outside much.

08/16 (Fri) – After much research and frustration, I ordered a new GE washing machine from ABT. I didn’t want another GE appliance, but they were the only top-loading machine (front loaders don’t work in our space) that could comfortably fit in the space we have and still offer the features I wanted (most notably, being able to choose the water height instead of relying strictly on auto-sensing). Most manufacturers have increased the physical size of their machines while keeping the capacity inside the same. They also have made them so tall that most don’t clear the wall cabinets when you open the door, so GE was our only option. That being said, it’s actually bigger inside than our old machine and has a lot more features, but didn’t break the bank ($500 after price match, Rakuten rebate, and manufacturer rebate), so hopefully it lives at least as long as the last one. I considered a Speed Queen but the price was more than double and the capacity was actually smaller than what we had so that killed that idea.

08/17-08/18 – Weekend recap

08/20 (Tue) – My friend C came over and we were able to enjoy the patio without any smokers (that guy finally went home) or landscapers (who lately just show up on any random day they please instead of the days they are supposed to be here) interfering. The hummingbirds were quite active, putting on a show of quarreling and even buzzing around us in curiosity. The weather was perfect too! I just feel awful that my friend is having a lot of cognitive issues. She’s in her late seventies and has been having severe memory issues to the point where she had to stop driving, so her husband drove her to my house and we drove her back home later once Joe got off work. She forgets what she’s saying mid sentence and gets understandably frustrated. It’s scary to witness because the same thing happens to me and I’m like 31 years younger than she!

08/21 (Wed) – At the end of July I ordered $300 worth of swimwear from Kohl’s because they barely carry anything in store. Out of the nine things I ordered, two worked out – a pair of swim shorts and a top that looks like a sports bra – which will replace my swim skirt that annoyingly floats up and my bikini top that was murdering my neck having to tie it tight enough to keep things in place. Now I have to return $220 worth of the rejects to the store and I’m not looking forward to it. I would much rather try things on in store and walk out with only what I need. Crazy concept, I know!

08/22 (Thu) – As soon as Joe got home from work we headed to the grand opening of the new Bibibop.

Luckily at 4:20 pm the line wasn’t too long. Outside there was a booth with a Plinko type game with prizes; I won a bubble pop fidget bracelet/keychain. Once we got to the front of the line outside, we each got scratchers and won a free cookie and a drink and then were ushered inside. They were also giving away free Bibibop for a year, which two people won while we were there, but we weren’t so lucky.

Everyone was really nice and the whole event was very well organized. I was impressed! You could tell they were prepared, and we only waited about a half hour total.

08/24-08/25 – Weekend recap

08/30-08/31 – Labor Day Weekend recap

July Recap

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We didn’t do too much this month thanks to the crazy hot weather most of the time, but the things we did do were pretty significant:

07/11 (Thu) – Saw Strangelove, The Depeche Mode Experience at Addison’s free concert in the park.

We sat as far back from the stage as possible and even then I felt my ears were being blasted. My phone’s decibel meter was registering the sound as being in ear-damaging territory. I was getting ready to suggest to Joe that we leave when I suddenly remembered putting high fidelity concert earplugs in my fanny pack about a week before. Not even sure why I did it. I believe at the time I was thinking it probably would be a good idea to always have some ear protection easily accessible because of my sensitive ears.

I bought them back in April 2019 but got sick shortly thereafter so never had an opportunity to use them. They felt weird at first, but were pretty comfortable after awhile. I could still hear the music perfectly fine and no extra tinnitus after the concert. I consider that a win! I don’t think I’d risk attending an indoor concert, though, but would feel ok outdoors with these ear plugs. Wish I had been aware of them years ago and maybe my ears wouldn’t be damaged now. I haven’t attend many concerts compared to a lot of people, but I do remember having tinnitus after them which didn’t go away until I went to sleep.

Anyway, the venue was way more crowded than we were expecting, but I’m glad we decided to check it out anyway because the band sounded just like Depeche Mode and played many of our favorite songs. This one family sitting in front of us was annoying, though, letting their kids run around everywhere which was rather distracting, but overall it was still a nice night out. Weather was perfect too. We don’t really go out like that much so it was a nice experience.

What’s funny is if it hadn’t been for us trying to find the second location of this little seasonal garden called Murphy’s Farm a week beforehand, we wouldn’t have even known about the concert. We went to the farm’s usual location and it was empty, so we decided to try and find their main location which we had never visited. It was closed too (apparently they only operate in the spring), but there were signs on the main street nearby advertising the free concert.

07/13 (Sat) – Adopted a dog – a Schnoodle named Olive

This is her sleeping on my lap.

Spoiler alert – it didn’t work out thanks to my broken right ear. :(

07/21 (Sun) After more than a month of eating through the food in the freezer, it was finally empty enough for a big Trader Joe’s trip. Look at all that yummy food!

07/24 (Wed) – Found this bat wreath at Home Goods. I didn’t need another Halloween decoration, but it was too cool to pass up.

07/26 (Fri) – Joe took the day off work so we went to Peck Farm Park to visit their butterfly tent. Afterwards we went to another park to walk around, then stopped for a little snack at Andy’s Custard. Joe had seen an advertisement for a key lime pie custard mixer, so we shared a medium which was delicious, but pricey (nearly $9). We grabbed some lunch on the way home and then decided to go swimming in our complex’s pool. It’s literally been years since we were last there, but we arrived shortly after they opened so it was pretty empty and peaceful. We spent about an hour there. I was a little concerned about getting burned, which would be ironic, since we just had our annual skin checks at the dermatologist the day before, because the sunscreen we have for the pool expired years ago. Luckily it still worked, but I did buy some new sunscreen a few days later.

07/27 (Sat) – Went to a shelter to meet a dog named Penelope we were interested in. She was being fostered, so we had to arrange a time for the foster to meet us at the shelter. She was listed as a Yorkie, but we quickly found out from the foster mom she was part Dachshund, which the shelter should have listed since they themselves had rescued this dog’s mom too! So they knew what she was mixed with and still didn’t disclose it. Had we known, we wouldn’t have wasted anyone’s time. As soon as I put the dog on my lap there was white fur all over my pants. So aggravating! We are specifically looking for a small non-shedding dog similar to Wookie, but these places often don’t list enough information for us to determine if they are a good fit before having to meet with them which is such a waste of time and effort for everyone involved.

This shelter does some pretty annoying things in general –

1) They neglect to post any photos of some of the dogs even after being asked to do so. Everyone has a phone with a camera these days so there’s no excuse for not being able to a single photo of a dog, if not several.

2) They put a general message about coming to the shelter to meet the dog even when the dog is being fostered and isn’t at the actual shelter. If you don’t notice the small section that lists the location as Foster Home, you will end up visiting the shelter for nothing.

3) They don’t disclose any information about the temperament of the dog even when it’s been with them or in a foster home for weeks. At that point they should have information about it. Why not post what they know to help people decide ahead of time if they even want to meet the dog? When I’m on Petfinder and Adopt-A-Pet I will often see a dog that is listed as having separation anxiety, for example, so I know to skip past them. It saves everyone time, not to mention reduces the chance of someone having to bring a dog back, so I don’t get why this shelter doesn’t care about giving out as much information as possible. People should have an idea of what they are getting into when adopting a dog. Do people just go blindly into a shelter, pick a dog based on looks, and take it home? That seems like a recipe for disaster.

If it wasn’t for the fact that they seem to get more of the breeds we’re looking for than the other rescues in the area, I wouldn’t bother with them anymore. It sucks to have to drive a half hour to the shelter just to quickly learn something about the dog that, had they listed it, we wouldn’t have pursued. They currently have another dog on their site listed as a Yorkie but no photos or a description even though it’s been posted for weeks. It’s so aggravating!

07/28 (Sun) – Visited my friend, K. She was dog-sitting two Schnauzers who were cuter and had softer fur than other Schnauzers I’ve seen. Apparently the owners get all their dogs from the same breeder so they have good genes. Surprisingly, their high pitch barks didn’t bother my ear, which I was expecting after our experience with Olive (who was half Schnauzer, which I was told is a breed with a very high-pitched bark).

Later in the afternoon we were invited to visit K’s brother’s house. They recently got a new puppy – a Maltese Shih Tzu mix. She is adorable! K’s parents were there with their poodle too, who we hadn’t met before but came right up to us and was friendly. K said she’s never like that, so that made me feel special. In fact, K said she is a lot like Wookie was – very standoffish with other people and dogs. She still was that way with the puppy but I’m sure will warm up to her with more exposure. We were invited to stay for dinner but decided not to accept, then regretted that later. Oh well, hopefully we’ll have another opportunity soon. I love K’s family, whom we’ve met before at K’s birthday parties. They are warm and welcoming. I wish they were my family!

Anyway, that was July. I don’t know why the universe is hating on me right now when it comes to finding a dog, but it sucks. I miss Wookie so damn much and I don’t expect a new dog to ever replace her, but I do think it will heal my heart a little.

Notable movies and series this month:

The Beekeeper starring Jason Statham (DVD) – Borrowed this from the library. Was pretty entertaining, and had some funny parts, but I feel like they had some bee-related missed opportunities.

Mike & Molly (Max) – Back when this series first aired I was in my Melissa McCarthy hater era, but I’ve since gotten over that. Glad I did, because this show is good!

Young Sheldon (Max) – I never had a single desire to watch this show, but we just finished re-watching The Big Bang Theory, so we decided it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try, and we both like it much more than we anticipated. Every character is interesting, and I didn’t realize the actress who plays Sheldon’s mom is the real-life daughter of the actress who plays his mom in TBBT. How cool is that?

January Recap

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01/02 (Tue) – Purchased the lifetime subscription to UpNote and moved all my notes over.

01/03 (Wed) – Made some delicious homemade chicken noodle soup. For years this was Joe’s specialty, but when he got COVID the first time I decided to take his recipe and tweak it. Now we can’t go back to the original because my version, while more time consuming, is so much more flavorful.

01/06 (Sat) – My friend came over for us to celebrate Christmas and my birthday.

01/07 (Sun) – Visited Morton Arboretum

01/09 (Tue) – Finally got around to trying this spiced chai (tea) we got at Trader Joe’s last year. It’s very good! One of the best teas I’ve had, in fact.

01/10 (Wed) – Nearly got run over in two separate parking lots while shopping.

First at Costco was an old lady backing out right as we were walking behind her car. Joe had to punch her trunk to get her attention. Luckily she wasn’t going very fast.

But the scarier incident was merely ten minutes later at Aldi when a lady in a giant SUV literally started peeling out of her spot, almost turning right into us as we were walking alongside her vehicle. She must have stomped on that gas hard because when she heard us yelling she ended up skidding in the spot trying to stop.

What the hell is wrong with people?

01/12 (Fri) – Did a major paper declutter/filing which was overdue (when isn’t it?)

01/13 (Sat) – Purchased Nintendo Online membership for the year so I could play some of the old Nintendo and Super Nintendo games. Namely, F-Zero and the Japanese version of Planet Puzzle League. What can I say, I like simple games.

Also installed a new Apple Watch screen protector after realizing mine had disappeared from my watch without me noticing right away.

01/14 (Sun) – Joe installed the new corner shower caddy, which we got from Costco for $60, in the upstairs guest bathroom.

I like that the shelves cannot slide down the pole like the old one that was using a rubber ring to keep it in place. It also looks nicer, and hopefully will not rust like the previous one. The thing I don’t like, however, is how the lowest shelf cannot be installed all the way at the bottom so that it sits on the corner of the tub. It holds the heaviest products, which makes it sag a bit, so all the bottles want to slide to the front. I find that irritating, and didn’t realize it would work that way until everything was put together. When Joe renovates the master bathroom, he’s going to put a large cutout in the shower so no caddy will be necessary.

01/17 (Wed) – Recycled and donated multiple items and did some shopping.

01/18 (Thu) – Joe works across town so we took advantage of that and met up at our village hall to check out a small bimonthly indoor market where we purchased tacos, salsa (verde), egg rolls, and cupcakes. All items ended up being underwhelming except two of the cupcakes.

The flavors from top left to bottom right are vanilla bourbon, whatchamacallit, chocolate malt, and cannoli. We’d only get the first two again.

01/20 (Sat) – Joe did some more work on our dryer. The slides keep deteriorating, so earlier in the month he replaced a piece on the top inside portion of the door that had worn down and put in new slides. The dryer was still squealing a lot, so he replaced the bearing in it as well. They no longer sell dryers like ours so we’ve been really reluctant to replace it as not only would we lose precious space in the laundry room, which is already cramped enough, but most of the dryers we’ve looked at have sloped tops on them. Why, I do not know! Our laundry room is also the entrance into the house from the garage so the dryer is a makeshift table for us and needs to be flat (we have a liner on top to protect the surface).

01/23 (Tue) – I had a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy. One polyp was found and removed, and even though the doctor thought I had issues with my esophagus, the biopsy results indicated otherwise. It’s a bit confusing, and I’m planning on making a follow up appointment with him to discuss everything further.

01/24 (Wed) – Cancelled Amazon Prime. It’s gotten so expensive at $140 annually, we rarely watch shows on Prime, and packages tend to get delayed so you’re not getting them in two days anymore. The breaking point came when they announced they’d be adding commercials to their Prime content unless you paid them $3 more per month for ad-free viewing. WTF? Even though, like I said, we don’t watch much Prime, it’s the principal of the thing. They keep jacking up rates and giving you less in return for your money. I think this will save us even more money in the long term since we won’t be placing orders until we have multiple things we want to buy.

01/27 (Sat) – Went to Woodfield Mall. It had been nearly a year since we’ve been in any malls at all (and the last time was Woodfield too, in fact). We no longer shop out of boredom (or for “fun”) and only when we need something specific.

They added a new anchor store called Primark which is based out of Ireland. I picked up a cheap pair of sneakers for walking on the treadmill since my old ones are literally falling apart. Was crossing my fingers they fit well (spoiler alert, they didn’t); these are the fourth pair of shoes I’ve tried. Not sure what is going on, but finding a comfortable pair of walking shoes has been difficult lately. Even the more expensive ones have been duds (such as the Pumas I got from Costco that I ended up returning). I did learn that I need the shoe to fit snugly (so even though I wear a size 8, I’m better off with a 7 or 7.5) and one that has a shape similar to an hourglass instead of just a wide toe box but narrow everywhere else.

The mall got pretty crowded by noon so we high-tailed it out of there and back to the safety of home, but not before picking up Bibibop. Luckily that location made everything as ordered!

Enjoyed the following movies and series in January:

Leo (Netflix) – An animated movie about a lizard (voiced by Adam Sandler) who talks to school children and helps them with life’s issues. Super cute and funny.

Self Reliance (Hulu) – Starring Jake Johnson and Anna Kendrick, this was a pretty unusual movie that had you guessing what was really going on the whole time. Truthfully, the main draw was Andy Samberg’s cameo, which was a bit disappointing.

Interstellar – I’ve been meaning to watch it for years and after a recent discussion with a friend, who said it was one of their favorite movies, I felt it was time. Was it good? Yes. Would I ever watch it again? Doubtful.

Hijack (Apple TV) – Starring Idris Elba, this drama mini-series had enough intrigue and drama to keep my attention, although I didn’t find his acting in particular all that engaging.

Queenpins (Netflix) – Kirsten Bell is entertaining, which was no exception in this comedy about a pair of women who create a fraudulent coupon empire.

Ted (Peacock) – I wasn’t sure at first how I felt about this limited series, but after two episodes I really got into it. It’s amazing how far we’ve come with CGI these days. Ted looks amazing and blends in seamlessly with the actors. Plus the show is just funny.

School Spirits (Netflix) – What a unique premise – Maddie, a teen stuck in the afterlife, investigates her own disappearance with the help of her fellow dead schoolmates whose souls are also stuck on school grounds. It keeps you guessing until the last episode which still leaves you with questions, hopefully which will be answered in season 2.