Category: House & Home

April 2026 Recap

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04/02 (Thu)
Took the coins we’ve been collecting for years to US Bank to be deposited into our account. I swear their counting machine is programmed to rip people off because I meticulously counted everything multiple times and came to a total of $163.04 but they claimed I gave them $162.55, thus stealing $.49. It didn’t help that when I handed over the coins, which I had placed into baggies which were inside a plastic container, the doofus lifted the baggie and proceeded to dump coins all over the floor. I wish they weren’t the only place to cash in coins without paying a fee. I will need to make a point of bringing them in more often so I can ensure they aren’t ripping us off.

04/05 (Sun) – Easter

04/09 (Thu)
At the marsh I was putting an old pair of binoculars that used to belong to my late uncle around my neck when I remarked to Joe “I really need to get a more comfortable strap for these already”. Mere seconds later the universe said “I hear you”, the strap broke, and they tumbled to the ground! Luckily they didn’t break and only got a little scuffed up. I knew I had to order a strap ASAP.

Update: I didn’t like anything for sale because most of them are “quick release” and I worry the plastic will break and they’ll get damaged. Then I remembered I had an older Canon Digital SLR camera in storage, so I removed the strap and Joe put it on the binoculars.

Problem solved at zero cost.

04/11-04/12 – Weekend Recap

04/15 (Wed)
Picked up my new glasses from LensCrafters. I opted to have new lenses put into my existing frames with them because they ordered the lenses and then cut them right there when they came in, so I was only without my frames for an hour.

04/17-04/19 – Extended Weekend Recap

04/21 (Tue)
There’s a football some kids were playing with a month or so ago that they left outside. With the high winds it got blown over to our side of the shared courtyard and has sat there ever since. I got sick of looking at it so I moved it to the side of the courtyard where all the kids live since I’m not sure who owns it. I put it in spot where a tree would obscure my sight, or so I thought. I miscalculated the angle so unfortunately I can still see it. (As of May 6th it’s still there).

04/22 (Wed)
Installed I-PASS stickers, which I ordered online and came in the mail, on both our cars. My responder was never mounted to the windshield and after last month’s incident, I was tired of dealing with it. With the stickers we will never have to worry about a missed toll again.

04/23 (Thu)
Tried recycling our dead batteries at Home Depot but they wouldn’t accept them, so we took them to Lowe’s. They wouldn’t take them either! This is despite a website that claimed both would. Very annoying! But we were rewarded for our effort by discovering a Salvadorian food truck in the parking lot of Lowe’s. Their food became our delicious dinner.

04/24 (Fri)
Went to Armstrong Park for the first time this year. Was surprised to see the area across from Klein Creek was completely dry. After all the rain we’ve had not only did I expect to see water there, but it should have been very high. We walked over to Balog Island to see the returning Purple Martins, although I only saw two.

Maybe they were the early arrivals. We saw a few sandpipers by Lake George as well.

We also went across the creek by the library to explore the wooded area since there’s a little through the trees but no birds were seen there at all.

I hate what they did to that park when they removed all the trees along the creek. We used to see much more wildlife over there.

04/25 (Sat)
We picked up our microwave from the repair shop (I’ll need to construct an entry about that whenever the saga ends since it wasn’t fixed even though they had it a month) and stopped at Muirhead Springs on the way home. We saw two sparrows that only grace us with their presence for a limited time every year.

This one is a Savannah Sparrow. I’ve only seen one once before and it was at the same place!

Afterwards we visited Fermilab but despite everyone else seeing cool birds we never do. It’s very frustrating and I low-key hate that place now.

We decided to get some pizza for lunch but decided to stop at Brown’s Chicken first to pickup some breaded mushrooms after reading on Reddit earlier the week how good they are. They did not disappoint! And this is coming from someone who doesn’t love mushrooms, although lately they’ve been growing on me… you could say like a fungus. ;)

04/26 (Sun)
Joe installed two shelves in the office so we can create a little memorial for Wookie on one and place some pop culture stuff on the other.

Notable media this month:

Dexter: Resurrection – We’re behind in watching this continuation of Dexter: New Blood; I snagged the DVD from the library and we blew through the entire season quickly. I really enjoyed it compared to New Blood because Harrison wasn’t nearly as annoying, plus Peter Dinklage’s character was perfection. There were quite a few celebrities in the cast too. I cannot wait until season two, even though I’m disappointed that they chose to end Original Sin in favor of this. That too was so good! If I had to rank all iterations of Dexter in order of best to worst, it would look like this:
Dexter
Dexter: Resurrection
Dexter: Original Sin
Dexter: New Blood

Anaconda – Jack Black and Paul Rudd together in a movie? Yes please! Was it the best comedy I’ve seen? No. Was it better than most? Yes! There was one scene in particular closer to the end that had us rolling.

Senseless – Nothing compares to a 90s comedy in my eyes. Even when they aren’t that good, they’re still interesting and funny in parts. This stars Marlon Wayons and David Spade. I don’t remember hearing anything about it back then but we were browsing Roku live channels and this came on. That’s one thing you can’t get with streaming – you never stumble upon something, but have to be intentional with what you watch.

Eternity – When I read the premise of this movie I thought it was interesting:

In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with and her first love, who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.

I wish they had explored the whole reason behind why souls had to pick a very specific eternity without the option to change their mind but overall it was very good, even more so than I was expecting. While they inexplicitly put her far down on the cast list despite being a major character, Da’Vine Joy Randolph was fantastic and so funny. I hope to see her in more films.

Send Help – You’ve never seen Rachel McAdams in a role like this and I was all for it! This was quite entertaining and kept changing direction just when you thought you knew what was going to happen. I made the mistake of reading user reviews on IMDb and woo boy, people really can’t just say “hey, this wasn’t for me”. Oh no, it’s like “this is dumb because they did this or that for mere shock value”. Personally, I think it was a unique thriller and I enjoyed it.

New Microwave

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Thursday I noticed our microwave was humming when not in use. I thought that didn’t seem normal and found out that it was an indication of something failing internally. It’s 23 years old, purchased back in 2002 at Walmart when we were still in our apartment, so it’s the only microwave we’ve ever owned and it has worked flawlessly. It even looks great after more than two decades of use. The idea we’d have to part with it was bumming us out.

Due to its age many parts are unavailable, but a door sensor still is, so we ordered that from Amazon on the off chance it was the culprit. Joe switched it out on Friday and sadly it did not stop the humming. We came to terms with the fact that we’d need to buy a new one and for the past few days have been unplugging it when not in use since it’s something we use daily and was in fact still working fine, but was now a fire risk.

Normally I would have done a ton of research and plugged all the data into Excel to figure out the best model to get, but with the way I’ve been feeling I just didn’t care that much. I was originally thinking of getting another GE, but I read on Reddit that the Panasonic inverter ones were better so I focused on those. Plus GE pissed me off after we bought our refrigerator and learned they designed it so that only their expensive water filter would work and therefore couldn’t buy third party ones for much cheaper, so I didn’t want to give them my business anymore. I found a Panasonic microwave at Costco that I was considering since the price and features were right, but I wasn’t crazy about how it looked.

This morning we went to Target to pick up a prescription and decided to peek at their microwaves and there was one Panasonic left that was the same style as Costco but with a different color scheme (Costco was black around the door with stainless on the control panel whereas the Target one was stainless around the door and black on the control panel which I liked better due to all the fingerprints you’d see on the stainless). Target’s price was $10 more than Costco but we had just gotten a $10 off coupon at the pharmacy for Joe getting his flu shot, so it ended up being a little less with the Target card 5% discount.

It’s similar is size to the old microwave – about an 8th of an inch shorter in width and slightly taller, but capacity wise it’s slightly larger (1.2 vs 1.1 cubic feet) and a little more powerful (1250 watts vs 1100). I don’t love the split color scheme or the reflectiveness of it, but oh well, I will get used to it like I had to do with our refrigerator. Sound wise I find it to be a little deeper, and it was annoying me this morning, but the old microwave was irritating my ears lately too.

Other things I do not like about the new microwave:

— The keypad is so dark yet reflective it’s difficult to read the text on the buttons.

— Because the door is stainless steel, fingerprints quickly accumulate. We will have to adjust how we handle the door, but using the bottom or top so as to not leave marks. I’m glad we didn’t get the Costco version where the stainless steel was on the buttons (although at least those can be read easier).

— The cooling fan is so powerful you get a cold breeze on you if you’re standing in front of the unit while it’s running. Unlike the old microwave where the vents were on the left side but toward the back of the unit, this one is closer to the front. There must also be fans on the bottom of it because the breeze seems to be coming from the left bottom half of the unit. It’s quite weird. I don’t recall ever feeling any air on me when the old unit was running.

— The unit is very lightweight compare to the old microwave so every time you use it, it shifts on the stand.

— The inside is dark which makes it feel less inviting.

— The bulb is a white-light LED which makes that cold and uninviting feeling more noticeable.

— The running time on the display is shown as a decimal instead of a colon. The colon only appears for the clock.

— After pressing the 30 second button, you still have to press start (old unit would start after a brief delay (to make sure you weren’t going to press the button to add more time)).

— After cooking is complete, a zero remains on the display for a minute before going back to the clock even if you’ve opened the door to remove the food. No one thought to program it to reset once the door has been opened.

It does heat up things more evenly than the old unit, though, so there’s that. I just wish more thought was put into the design. Everyone is trying to make appliances look sleek yet forget about the user experience.

We are slowly going from all white appliances in the kitchen to stainless steel. Personally, I don’t care for stainless due to how easily it is to see fingerprints and other marks on it, but there are more options in stainless appliances than in white these days. In fact, I couldn’t find a Panasonic white microwave with an inverter or I would have considered it.

Oh and in case you weren’t aware – “inverter microwaves offer continuous, graduated power for more even cooking, better preservation of food texture and nutrients, and improved energy efficiency compared to traditional microwaves, which use a full-power, on-and-off cycling system”.

Hot Water Heater Installation

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We had our water heater replaced yesterday. Unlike last time, we planned it. While it hadn’t failed, it was 14 years old, so it was just a matter of time. We chose ABT since they have good prices and employees. And while I liked our installers (D and R), once again I’m reminded why I get so anxious about such events.

Things started off poorly when I was informed by the head guy, D, that the wall cabinet had to come down for them to do the work. I was rather dumbfounded, because that wall cabinet was there in 2007 when the last water heater was installed and I don’t think the plumber touched it, and he was working by himself! Now, I could be wrong, but if he did, he certainly treated it better than these guys did (more on that in a bit).

Shortly thereafter, I was also informed that due to the existence of a check valve on the line, ABT was required by code to install a thermal expansion tank (I believe the check valve was installed a few years ago when the village put in a smart water meter). However, ABT didn’t have one with them and would have to come back to install that part at a later date for cost ($50). When I told Joe, he asked if he could swing by Home Depot to buy one and have them install it and they said yes and showed us what to get (which just so happened to be what Joe was looking at). Within a half hour he dropped it off (one of the perks of working so close to home). We saved $20, but more importantly, having to empty the laundry room a second time (although I confirmed the cabinet would be able to stay put on the second visit).

After the old heater was removed, the head guy asked if I wanted to clean the area so I used the Shark handheld to get rid of 14 years of cobwebs and dirt. The water was off by then so I couldn’t mop the area, but I did have a spray bottle of just water that I used to wet some paper towels and do a quick wipe of the floor. It was by no means perfect, but you can’t really see anything back there once the new heater is in place anyway.

As for the cabinet, I did not realize that the way Joe put it up originally, using something called Molly Bolts, hindered the guys’ ability to reinstall it the same way because they didn’t say anything to me. Apparently, once disconnected, the bolts fall into the wall so you have to use new ones. I’m guessing either they didn’t have any, didn’t want to do it that way, or felt it would be better to use screws into the studs. Regardless, I wish they would have at least ASKED me! Because I would have told them to leave it alone and Joe could have put it back up later. Now it sits a bit to the right and higher than before. I’m short enough, so I don’t like that. Not to mention the wall looks bad around it, and they left a misplaced screw in the wall which also looks bad. Oh and the bins I had sitting on top of the cabinet barely fit and scrape the ceiling. UGH!

In addition, the linoleum tile was scratched to shit in some places and one tile in particular has a very dull spot on it now. Whether Joe did that when moving the washer and dryer, or the installers did, I’m not certain, but this is why I hate having work done. It’s like no one is careful with the surrounding finishes! I’ve made notes for any future work in that room since people cannot be trusted to be careful in other people’s homes.

Oh, and the new water heater is louder that the old one because of course it is. All appliances seem to be louder these days because they’re made with cheaper parts and less insulation to equal more profit for companies and less contentment for consumers.

October Recap

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10/02 (Wed) – Discovered the deliciousness of pork schnitzel.

10/04-10/06 – Extended Weekend Recap

10/06 (Sun) – The first dark-eyed juncos of the year were spotted behind our house.

10/08 (Tue) – Started using eBird checklists which can be fun, if not a bit frustrating when entering species into the app. I like being able to add my photos to the checklist later on, though. I’m very much into documenting things, so I’m not sure why I didn’t get into birding checklists sooner. It’s like Pokemon Go, but with birds!

Finally saw the Northern Lights, aka Aurora Borealis.

10/09 (Wed) – Updated my iPhone to iOS 18. Liking the new photos app in particular. I think it’ll be time for a new phone next year as I heard this is the last iOS that will be available for the iPhone 11. I haven’t had any issues with this phone, but I am looking forward to getting one with better cameras.

10/10 (Thu) – Pulled out my newest Halloween decor purchases. The ghost solar light (Dollar Tree) ended up being a cool white LED which I didn’t care for, so no more were purchased. The towel (also Dollar Tree) was hung from the oven handle, and the bat (from Old Time Pottery) was hung from the left side of the fireplace mantel.

Shared a photo on Facebook of the orange mums from Meijer still looking good, with an owl I added to the hanging basket.

Took another stab at photographing the Northern Lights with my phone.

10/11 (Fri) – Decorated for Halloween inside.

Went to Mallard Lake after Joe got off work and spotted this beautiful juvenile bald eagle.

The sky was also pretty at the end of our walk as the sun was getting closer to setting.

10/12-10/13 – Weekend Recap

10/15 (Tue) – Got a halfway decent photo of the comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS.

10/16 (Wed) – Lincoln Marsh

10/19-10/20 – Weekend Recap

10/20 (Sun) – Started practicing standing on one leg to see how long I could do it since reading it’s good for one’s mental and physical health. Proud to report I was able to go a full minute on each leg and only 40 seconds was needed in my age group.

Also saw my first ever Blue Jay behind the house. It was eating some of the bird seed I had put by the tree. I could not grab my camera quickly enough to get photographic evidence.

Went to Aldi, only to find they rearranged the majority of the aisles. Nothing makes sense anymore!

10/21 (Mon) – Got our first male downy woodpecker at the suet feeder. He has a spicy attitude and will peck at any sparrow trying to access the feeder, so we named him Loki. Our talkative female downy is named Lulu, so we are doing L names I guess. We haven’t yet named what we think is a second female downy.

10/22 (Tue) – We had a hawk sneaking around out back looking for a meal.

10/23-10/27 – Anniversary Extended Weekend

10/28 (Mon) – Spent a lot of time sitting out on the patio knowing the last nice day was coming soon. I don’t know how I’m going to make it through winter.

10/29 – Air Fryer review

10/31 – Halloween

New Food & Beverage Recommendations

7-UP Shirley Temple.

I’m not sure what it’s supposed to taste like, but I liked the flavor, so I plan to get more.

Trader Joe’s Sesame Honey Cashews

A little pricey at $8, but very yummy! We only eat a small handful at a time.

Notable movies this month:

We watched 1-2 horror movies every night in October, and these are the ones we had never seen before which I thought were the best.

Don’t Hang Up – I had some issues with the killer’s motive, not to mention a few plot holes, and I wasn’t scared by this, but it was interesting enough to keep me off my phone so that’s a successful movie in my book.

Gonjiam Haunted Aslym – Actually creepy, if not predictible.

Late Night With The Devil – Very unique premise that kept us glued to the TV trying to figure out where it was going on.

Tucker & Dale vs Evil – Horror comedy that kept us entertained.

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