May 2023 Recap

Visited Lilacia Park to see the blooming flowers and test my new camera. The lilacs weren’t in full bloom yet, but the tulips certainly were, and I prefer them anyway!

Prior to that we visited Cheap Kiss Records (cute, but not that impressive) and a place called Kuppies Bakery where I had the yummiest banana muffin. There was a small coffee place next door (Funky Java Coffee House) that makes a great latte for a reasonable price too.

Created a time-lapse of the zinnia seedlings we planted in a pot in April as they reach toward the sunlight; then planted them outside the following day.

Zinnia Seeds Timelapse

Went to Murphy’s Farm to get flowers for the patio because they are always a good quality at a great price.

Afterwards we stopped at the Ukrainian church to pick up some pierogis and stuffed cabbage. We’ve only been talking about going there for years and never doing it. The food was good!

Was watching Ted Lasso when I spotted a familiar typeface and paused it to see Trent was wearing a Cure shirt. This was the best you could see as there was never a scene where it was fully visible.

Received the Monin syrups we had ordered.

The white peach syrup is going to be used to re-create the gone, but never forgotten, Chick-fil-A peach tea lemonade I’ve been craving since they so cruelly removed it from their menu years ago.

Got my annual hair cut. Not even joking. I am so bad about getting it cut I usually do it once a year when it starts getting warm outside. It came out very uneven which was disappointing because I like the woman, but I won’t be going back. I think she was in a hurry to get back to her visiting friend (she does hair from her basement; my friend is her cousin). Oh well.

Tried Butter Chicken for the first time. We got it at Costco and loved it!

Sold some undeveloped property that Joe’s mother “gifted us” years ago. We never wanted/asked for this financial burden, but didn’t want to hurt her feelings by selling it when she was alive. Let this be a lesson to everyone – it’s not a gift if it’s going to cost someone time/effort/money (unless they asked for it).

Was sitting on the couch one afternoon when I suddenly realized all the birds were going nuts outside, so I went to take a look. Apparently a sharp-shinned hawk had gotten hold of a bird and they were pissed. I was able to grab my camera and get a clear photo after stepping onto the patio.

My friend and her dog came to visit! We’ve been to her house several times over the past few years, but she hasn’t been to my place since before the pandemic. She usually has dogs she is sitting which is why she doesn’t leave her house often. She got to try our favorite place – Just Kabobs – and loved it, just like I thought she would.

On the way to a park to take some photos we spotted a Cooper’s Hawk less than a block from the house. I scared it when I got out of the car, but was able to get this photo of it in the tree.

We went to my parents’ house the day before Memorial Day to celebrate the holiday. We played badminton in the backyard which was fun.

Visited Lincoln Marsh in Wheaton for the first time. Not only was it a bust, but we got eaten by mosquitos on the way out of the forest area. I’ve never seen that many of them in one place! We will probably go back at some point, but will be applying the bug spray liberally.

Took this cute photo of a female cardinal on my neighbor’s grill.

Almost cracked my Apple Watch on a doorway. Luckily the screen protector saved it.

New Association & Fire Alarm Inspection

Sometime back in October my payment to our association was rejected by the bank with a notice that the PO BOX had been closed. And this was how I learned that we had a new association (that no one ever told us about). Luckily I have a few neighbors’ contact info and was able to get the whole welcome packet digitally from one of them. Apparently it was mailed to everyone, but I spoke to other neighbors who didn’t get the info either. Trying to get an email response or accurate information from this new association didn’t go well either. Very aggravating!

Eventually they created a website and suddenly seemed to magically now have my email address (which was always on my account) in order to send notices and whatnot. One of those was about upcoming fire alarm inspections. The way in which they laid out the information caused confusion, though. Had it not been for the two people on our board who showed up at my house to discuss voting for new board members, I would have thought the inspection for our unit was on a Wednesday, not Friday. I’m guessing the same confusion happened to the neighbors on either side of us too since neither were home the day they showed up. That sucks, because they will be charged for the inspectors to come back out.

I spoke to the guys who did the inspection and was told that our system really needs replacing but it would be very difficult to do so. Who knows what that means for the future. They were required under their contract to replace two heat detectors in each building and chose our unit for both, so they replaced the one in the laundry room and the other in the garage. Not sure why they didn’t replace one in another unit, though. Kinda seems unfair we got two (of the four in our unit) replaced, but whatever. I’m just happy that is over, for this year at least. They choose the dates and you have to be home or you get fined. It’s really shitty, if you ask me.

Master Bedroom Window

Over the past few months I’ve noticed the master bedroom has been draftier than usual and it seemed like I could hear the wind whipping around at night more. Plus I could hear the relentless beeping from the big post office across the street. I chalked it up to the fact that our windows aren’t that insulated and asked Joe if he could install a window insulation kit since it’s been so cold in there lately.

Sunday was the day and in order to do it we had to remove the blinds first. So glad we did as that’s when we discovered that the glass had slipped, leaving a small gap where all the air can come in.

Everything makes much more sense now!

Unfortunately Joe couldn’t get the glass to budge no matter what he did and he was worried he’d break it if he used too much force so he put some insulation foam in the gap and caulked the hell out of it to temporarily seal it.

The windows are 30 years old so we decided we’ll be replacing them next year. It sucks, because it isn’t going to be cheap, but I’m really looking forward to having windows that are easier to open. Plus I’ve wanted a new patio door for years.

I’m going to start doing some research so we choose a company carefully. I also plan on speaking to our neighbors to the west as they had all their windows and patio door replaced last year and they look nice.

Refrigerator Organization

I wanted our new refrigerator to be more organized than the last one and just so happened to come across two perfect items at Costco back in late September.

It took a little convincing to get Joe on board with the egg holders, but now that we’ve been using them for awhile he really likes them. I like how they, along with our fresh fruit and yogurt, are all contained in one space giving more room for other things.

I liked our old fruit containers but they were too large and didn’t stack well. The Rubbermaid containers solved that issue and I haven’t noticed any difference in how long before the fruit spoils.

Our fridge is now laid out as follows:

Top shelf – pre-packaged items for future meals, such as soups or meal kits
Second shelf – leftovers
Third shelf – eggs, yogurt, cream cheese, and fruit
Fourth shelf – milk, creamer, juice
Produce Drawer – fruits & veggies, plus extra butter (we buy in bulk)
Meat Drawer – tortillas, sour cream, and cheeses (block, shredded, and cottage)

Refrigerator Saga

Sunday (09/18) Joe said he thought there might be something wrong with the refrigerator and I might want to start looking at new ones in case it died and sure enough, it died the next day (Monday 09/19). We ordered a few replacement parts off Amazon, but the more research Joe did, the more he was worried there could be too many possible culprits. Not only that, but the fridge is original to the home so it was 31 years old. Reluctantly, we agreed it was time to replace it.

In the meantime we were able to store some food in our friends’ spare fridge in her garage. That saved us from losing a lot of expensive meats in the freezer. Our fridge was quite large (25 cubit feet) and we kept it well stocked. Even with our friend’s help we had to throw out some food, although we did our best to eat whatever we could.

After dropping our food off, we went to Menards, Home Depot, and Lowes looking at refrigerators. We settled on a Frigidaire side-by-side in white ($1200) from Lowes and were able to secure a delivery date for that Wednesday.

Tuesday (09/20) night we got an automated call letting us know our delivery window was 3-7 the following day.

Wednesday (09/21) morning I got a call from a person saying they’d actually be by between 2 and 2:30. I relayed this info to Joe as he planned on working until noon and then coming home so we could move furniture around and he could disconnect the water line from the old fridge and take the front door off the hinges (the fridges are too large to fit through the back door even though that’s closer to the kitchen).

Well, at 9:30 am I got a call from the delivery guy saying he’d be there in an hour. Joe had to leave work immediately and scramble to prepare for the delivery. The water shut-off to our sink and fridge would not actually shut off and water was getting all over the floor. Joe ended up having to shut off the main water to the house. Also, the delivery guys didn’t actually show up until 45 minutes past the time they said they would.

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