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.