Completed Projects (05/25-06/07)

Reorganized the freezer and pantry. I am especially pleased with the freezer because I’ve wanted to make it easier to find and remove things forever but the narrow shelves made that next to impossible. Thanks to TikTok, though, I found the perfectly sized containers at none other than The Container Store.

Organized Freezer

Now I’m just working on finding the best labeling process for the bins. As you can see in the photo, I’m testing a few options.

Label Option 1 Label Option 2

For the bins with several items, I can’t see using a general label as much, as I want to know exactly what’s inside. For the bins that are all chicken or beef, though, I can use the new Dollar Tree sticky labels I found. I think I will use my label maker, however, so they look nicer since I don’t have the best penmanship.

Sorted through and categorized all our paper manuals so everything is easy to find.

Reorganized closet in the former rat room, now Joe’s office.

A month or so ago I used the Discover cash back to buy Groupon bucks and ordered a couple of cabinet shelves as well as a sink organizer. I hate the latter. It is so annoying!

Groupon Sink Organizer

I ended up boxing it up and plan to give it to my step-daughter if she wants it. I am now using this set up instead and prefer it because either way water collects at the bottom of any container I use and it’s easier to pour out of the pot vs. the organizer that has a piece that slides out if you don’t hold it the correct way.

Sink Organization

Plus I prefer the look of the planter better anyway. I would love for Savers to re-open so I could find another planter since I like using this one for fake flowers in the house.

I was cleaning the cold air return in the dining room one day when I realized that while, yes, it was dirty, the paint was also yellowed, so no matter how clean it was it still wouldn’t look like it. I bought a can of white spray paint and quickly remedied that issue. Now it looks brand new. Of course there’s no before photo because I always forget to take one!

The garage in general is more organized that ever, although we still have a lot of stuff. We did free up a couple of “under the bed” organizers that never actually fit under our bed, so were in the garage. I used two of them to store my fake flowers and one to hold party supplies. Because they are so lightweight I can store them at the top of the shelf by the door and not kill myself trying to get them down.

I went through my Cure memorabilia and put all the LPs in the special vinyl box I ordered from The Container Store.

Vinyl Storage

I went through the magazines and clippings and put them in clear plastic pockets in a binder, and moved the t-shirts and cassette tapes elsewhere, thus freeing up a storage tote I can use in the garage for other things. I also came across Cure posters, as well as other posters, in the garage.

Robert Smith Poster The Cure Poster

Yin Yang PosterGlow Poster

I took them out of the tubes they were in and combined them all in one very wide tube that I also put my Cure calendars in.


Cure Calendar (1993)

Cure Calendar (1995)

Cure Calendar (2009)

Because of all the organizing, we are now up to six large boxes in the garage waiting for Savers to open so we can donate them.

Pending Donations

If they don’t open soon we will either donate them to Goodwill or post them on a free site.

Poison Concert

Saturday we went to see Poison live at the venue in Tinley Park (currently called Hollywood Casino Amphitheater). I did my due diligence and checked the website to see what we could bring in and still got screwed when we arrived at the gate because the list posted there was not the same. They said empty refillable water bottles were allowed but they didn’t specify they can’t be aluminum.

After a trip back to the car to leave my bottle, we once again got in line and since the idiot checking bags only looked in the main compartment of my backpack, we were able to sneak in three water bottles even though the sign stated one per person (Joe had the other two). Of course, they made us open both water bottles they knew about and confiscated the caps because they are assholes. Seriously, WTF? They are SO worried about littering that they also don’t give lids or straws with any drinks you order either. So… we had to carry around our bottles of water we weren’t yet ready to drink and make sure not to spill them. God, I hate that place!

Unfortunately we’ll be back there in late July for another concert so I’m going to sneak in bottle caps just because I can. Screw them. Also, there’s going to be littering no matter what they do – someone left a half-empty container of nachos and their drink on the stairs leading up to the lawn area when there’s garbage cans right there. Did anyone working at the venue clean it up? Nope. It was there for a good hour at least. SMH

Anyway, we had purchased seats way in the back so I wasn’t prepared to have my ears nearly blown out by the opening act, Pop Evil. I think I might have enjoyed their music better if I wasn’t worried the tinnitus in my right ear was going to get worse.

After they left the stage we decided to move to the lawn area (we brought a blanket just in case) where the sound for the next act, Cheap Trick, was much better even if I only recognized one of the songs they played.

It wasn’t until after 9 pm before Poison took the stage. They were good, though, and I knew more than one song which was nice. I had just returned to a trip to the furthest away bathroom (because the one closest to the seating had a ridiculous line all evening) when they had just started Unskinny Bop which we were hoping they’d play. By that point it was after 10 pm so I decided to google their previous set lists for the tour to see if we could gauge how much longer they’d be playing. From what I could tell after the guitar and drum solos they were only going to play Every Rose Has It’s Thorn so we decided to leave. We patted ourselves on the back for beating everyone to the lot and being able to exit without a long wait.

Now when I check the set list I see we missed the one song we had hoped they play – Nothin But A Good Time. Son of a!!! Plus they played a two-song encore after that! Kinda pissed about that, but what can you do? I’ll need to do my research ahead of time or just suck it up and stay til the end and deal with waiting out all the people to leave.

We were pretty exhausted Sunday so all we did was watch My Name Is Earl ALL DAY LONG. Seriously, we pretty much watched the entire 1st season. I forgot how good that show is!

After my doctor visit Friday (2/10), I did a little shopping. One of my stops included Party City where I snagged this cute bunny cutout for 99 cents and this St. Patrick’s Day sign for $1.99. Both are for the front door.

Easter Bunny

St Patricks Day sign

I wanted to get a nicer Easter sign but they all had glitter on them which looks nice at first but makes a mess in the storage bins, not to mention eventually wears off.

I made a few other stops to grab some stuff for Joe for Valentine’s Day as well.

Friday night we watched Neighbors 2 which I thought was better than the first one.

Saturday morning we went to the arboretum for their Chocolate Expo and spent about $30 on goodies.

Flat Bottom Pretzels Chocolates

Marmie's Chocolates

1st photo: jalapeño chocolate covered Slim Jims, a mint Oreo, cherry bombs, pretzels, chocolate covered Bullseyes.

2nd photo: dark chocolate toffee and an oversized turtle.

We tried everything so far except the pretzels and the turtle. The toffee is always good, the bullseyes were just ok, the mint Oreo was awesome, as were the Slim Jims. I think Joe really liked the cherry bombs too but I didn’t just because I’m not a fan of twizzlers.

We stopped at Chipotle for lunch and then went home to pick up Wookie to take her to Petsmart for their special Puppy Love event. She met some dogs and people and seemed to react better than last time. She also got some free treats!

Petsmart Swag

In addition, I bought her an Easter toy. I love that the free Greenie’s she got are worth $10! We won’t be giving those to her until she’s 6 months old, however.

We signed her up for their 6-week puppy training course which starts next Saturday. I think she’s going pretty great with her training overall, but she could definitely use more socialization and it will be interesting to learn what we are and aren’t doing right with her too.

Sunday we did some grocery shopping super early in the morning. I couldn’t sleep so we found ourselves at Meijer just after 7 am.

We went to an 11 am showing of The LEGO Batman Movie which was, as expected, awesome! I can’t get enough of how cute and clever the LEGO movies are, and even though I’m not into the series, after seeing the preview I’m really looking forward to The LEGO NINJAGO Movie as well.

We made a stop at home to feed Wookie and then went to Beef Shack for lunch and then to Fermilab for their open house. However, once we got there and learned it was just science experiments set up for kids in this one building we’ve already visited before, we left. I thought we would be able to see the offices/labs in Wilson Hall so that was disappointing. I think it was a bit misleading to call it a open house vs a special event.

We wrapped up the weekend by watching The Grammys. I don’t know what the deal was with Beyonce but I couldn’t stand her so-called performance. She acts as if she’s the only woman who has ever been pregnant. It just reeked of self importance and it made me look away. I’ve never been a huge fan but she’s really rubbing me the wrong way lately. In contrast, I did like Lady Gaga performing with Metallica even if James’ mic wasn’t working. My favorite performance, however, was the tribute to the Bee Gees. Growing up my parents had a record player and a limited number of albums, one of them being Saturday Night Fever. We listened to it a lot so along with Creedence Clearwater Rival and the Carpenters, so the Bee Gees hold a special place in my heart even though I don’t really listen to their music very often.

The Cure @ Bestival & My (Sorta) Podcast EP

Now that The Cure’s tour has headed overseas I figured I wouldn’t be able to tune into any shows since the time difference means they’d be playing while I was at work. I forgot about Bestival, however, which was this weekend.

A couple of hours before The Cure was due to go on stage I learned that they were live streaming the show thanks to Red Bull. Not only that, but there was an app for that. And even better? There was a Smart TV app for that! I turned on our TV, went into apps, and for whatever reason it was literally the first app to show up in the list. I installed it and tested the stream (they were streaming Bestival performances all day) and it was full HD. Woo!

Just after 3 pm our time The Cure’s performance began. They played for a little over two hours and it looked fantastic.

20160910_210908000_ios-1

I didn’t think they sounded all that great at first but the sound seemed to improve as their performance went on. They primarily played their hits, although they surprised everyone with a new song for this tour – The Baby Screams. I checked my tracking list and I’ve never seen them perform that song live before so that was a treat even though it didn’t sound quite as good as the album version.

It’s really awesome that we have the technology to watch a live concert another continent away. I ended up telling a new Cure friend of mine, Gavin, who hosts an all-Cure podcast called The Holy Hour about it when they announced the replay later the same evening. He was very grateful for the tip and said I made his night. Which reminds me – I totally forgot to mention that my Cure story is featured in Episode #29 – The Drowning Fans – Post 2016 Tour Blues. How cool is that? You can listen to it below.


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Father’s Day, Periscope, & Finding Dory

Late yesterday afternoon E came by to spend time with Joe for Father’s Day. He got Joe a card which he was thrilled about since it’s the first time he’s gotten one that wasn’t facilitated by me. We went to Bulldog Alehouse for boneless wings, then to the pool for awhile. We also played Uno while I listened to a live stream of The Cure at Madison Square Garden.

I discovered Periscope about two weeks ago and have been following The Cure’s tour through the states which has been fun, even if I have to be careful to start out with 100% battery as the app really burns through it. My phone actually died one of the first times I watched a show because I didn’t realize it was such a battery hog.

I have mixed feelings about Periscoping shows. On one hand I wouldn’t want to be the person standing near these people since the glow from their phone is a distraction, but on the other I love that I can see the shows I’m missing. I guess that makes me a hypocrite. It’s fun to be able to see the band play live and interact with fellow fans in the chat section of the app, though.

I did piss someone off last night, however, because she was talking the entire time she was scoping. Sure, I get that she’s doing the rest of us a favor by even filming at all, but what’s the point if she’s going to talk over the music? She was going on and on about what a big fan she is yet she didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the show. Finally I got fed up and asked if she was going to listen to the music and enjoy herself or something to that nature and she got mad. She didn’t ban me, though, because she was too drunk, lol! That wasn’t my perception – she was telling everyone how drunk she was and that she ran out of money for beer. I just don’t get why someone would pay so much money to attend a show and then do everything but pay attention to it. I’ve tuned into other broadcasts where someone, not necessarily the person scoping, is chatting or laughing the entire time. STFU and enjoy the show! Is that so hard?

This morning we went to a matinee showing of Finding Dory. I hate Disney Pixar movies so much because they never fail to make my bawl my eyes out even during the heartwarming scenes. Needless to say, I loved the movie, maybe even better than Finding Nemo. And the short beforehand, Piper, was ridiculously cute.

We spent a little time this afternoon organizing our stuff for the garage sale we’re finally having this weekend. We only stopped because it’s so hot out we were getting too uncomfortable. We’ll work on it some more tomorrow which is supposed to be cooler.