December Recap

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12/01 (Fri) – I woke up at 12:28 am to the faint sound of hooting. Excited, I ran to the bedroom window and opened it. Sure enough, the great horned owl was back! I could see it across the courtyard at the top of the same pine tree as back in mid October.

I ran downstairs to get my camera and got a few photos from the bedroom window. There’s no detail thanks to distance and darkness (although thankfully there was some decent moonlight), but the silhouette is pretty clear.

It also made a squawking sound I’d never heard before, which I was able to capture as well. I later learned it’s likely a female trying to find a mate. I was so excited it took an hour and a half to get back to sleep. I hope it comes back again soon!

12/02 (Sat) – Saw a Cooper’s hawk trying to hunt the neighborhood birds, but unsuccessfully.

Went to K’s birthday party which was even more fun than last year because 1) her extroverted neighbor wasn’t invited (she dominated the conversation) and 2) I felt more comfortable around her family and friends having already met most of them before. I particularly enjoy talking to her brother and his wife. They have similar interests and are so nice! K set me up with her heated blanket too so I was much less cold than last time which helped me stay relaxed. There’s nothing I hate more than being cold.

12/03 (Sun) – Sometime in November I was watching a TikTok where the person was showing how stirrup leggings are back in style. My eyes zeroed in a pair of adorable black leggings with dogs on them, however, and I could tell the person was at Walmart. I immediately went to their site only to learn the leggings were sold out both online and in store. Fast forward to us needing to visit Walmart for specific grocery items. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to look for the leggings anyway, and wouldn’t you know it, there was a single pair all by it’s lonesome, that just happened to be my size! Obviously I was meant to have them. They are so stinkin cute!

They do fit a bit tighter than their other leggings, which is a bummer, but I still love them. They are ridiculously warm too, so they are best worn when lounging.

On the same Walmart trip I picked up two boxes of Christmas Tree cakes, plus two pints of the Christmas Tree Cake ice cream. Yum! Also decided to try these gingerbread ice cream sandwiches, but was not overly impressed.

The flavor was definitely gingerbread, but the size for the price ($5 for a box of four) made them not worth it (and I believe there’s still two in the freezer at the time of this post).

We also received a shipment of Monin Syrups I had ordered.

Verdict – I do not care for the French Vanilla (will be sticking to regular vanilla moving forward) and the Toasted Marshmallow has a weird aftertaste that I do not love. The Pistachio, however, is good, as is the cane sugar, although I might just try liquid sugar from the store once it runs out.

12/05 (Tue) – Had a very frustrating experience with America’s Best in an attempt to get an eye exam. Part of the review I left online is below:

When I first called to confirm whether they accepted my vision insurance, I asked whether I should make my appointment online or with them on the phone. The woman I spoke with said she could do it. I made my appointment for 5:30 pm, and the woman said everything was set up in the system, including my insurance info. Shortly thereafter I received a text confirmation as well as an email. So far, so good.

Fast forward to the day of my appointment and I received two emails – one asking me to confirm my appointment, and another asking me to fill out some paperwork online. I completed both requests in the early morning hours.

Mid morning I received a call from them asking me to confirm my appointment and for my insurance information. I explained how they should already have that because I was told they set up my account during my initial call. The woman claimed there was nothing in their system for me, so I gave them my insurance information again and told her I would be there that evening at my appointment time.

At 4 pm I received another call from them asking if I could come earlier, at 5 pm. I told them I could not and the girl replied, “ok, see you at 5:30 then”.

I arrived at 5:20 and there were three woman at the counter. One asked me if I was using vision insurance, which was quite annoying. Why did they keep asking me this but never take down my answer?!?

Then some other women asked me what kind of exam I was there for. Once again, why did I fill out the form online if they weren’t going to retain that information?

I informed her that I was there for a glasses exam and also needed to have my eyes dilated. This woman SIGHED at me and said they probably won’t have time to do that because it takes an hour.

(Note: I had noticed when I came in the hours posted on the door say they are only open until 6 pm despite the website saying 7 pm).

I got fed up, told them to cancel my appointment, and left.

Honestly, it was difficult enough with Joe’s vision insurance to even find a place who could confirm we had coverage. His medical insurance is awesome, but the vision is total crap because it’s as if none of the chains (which is mostly what it covers) has never heard of it, despite them being listed as being covered in the plan.

We also got an updated tax assessment which means higher taxes next year, ugh!

12/08 (Fri) – When Joe got home from work we went to Cosley Zoo to see their Christmas lights. They were about as meh as always, unfortunately. Then we went to the decorated park by the Wheaton library. It was cute and mostly peaceful besides one screaming kid. We also drove to a nearby house that always puts on a good light show for Christmas. We just haven’t felt like driving too far to see Christmas lights this year, so it was a relatively short outing that ended with us picking up food from the Mexican place near our local library. We recently discovered they make some really delicious chicken fajitas at a reasonable price and can’t get enough of them.

12/10 (Sun) – Decided I was fed up with T-Vision streaming device in the bedroom, so we got a Roku from Target.

We installed it in the living room and then put the older Roku in the bedroom. Unfortunately, the new Roku remote was having issues, so we ended up exchanging it for a new one a few days later. Other than that, I love it! The new Roku remote has the ability to control the TV power and volume which makes it even more convenient than the older one.

Joe put up the Christmas tree and added lights.

12/13 (Wed) – Found out Andre Braugher passed away from lung cancer at 61.

This one was a gut punch. Celebrity deaths don’t usually make me cry, but this one did. I’ve been obsessively watching Brooklyn Nine Nine recently and it’s sad to think there will never be a reunion. There probably wouldn’t have been one anyway, but now it’s certain, because it’s not B99 without Captain Holt, one of the best comedic characters EVER, and definitely my favorite character on the show (followed closely by Andy Samberg’s Jake Peralta).

12/14 (Thu) – I finally got around to decorating the Christmas tree. In a stroke of good timing, I received a package from my cousin of a custom ornament featuring our late grandparents on their wedding day. Such a thoughtful gift! I immediately added it to the tree.

We also received two gift baskets from my parents which is not something they typically send. One was all Ghirardelli chocolate and the other a combination of things. My mom later asked me to review them and I was honest that I think they’re overpriced for what you get, particularly when the chocolate one is mostly milk chocolate and I prefer dark.

12/23 (Sat) – Placed a mobile order with Bibibop and ended up with entirely different ingredients than we asked for. I don’t know what was going on with that, but apparently I need to check the entire bowl moving forward, and not just glance at the part you can see through the lid since the proteins were the only things they got correct. They did end up issuing me a full refund when I complained, but that didn’t change the fact that my lunch that day, and the next day (they give you enough food for two meals) was ruined. I can’t wait until they open up a closer location so it’s not an hour round-trip.

12/24 (Sun) – We went to my parents for Christmas Eve. Brother #2 (B) didn’t come, so it was just me, Joe, my parents, and Brother #1 (J). We had a good time, even played a round of Aggravation before leaving at 8:45 pm.

12/25 (Mon) – A Cooper’s hawk visited us in the morning.

We exchanged gifts and then enjoyed leftovers from my parents (and into the following day). Joe got me a Cure t-shirt (A Forest), a monocular, some candy, and a few items from my Amazon wish list (screen cleaner, the Pink Stuff, and a protective wrap for my camera). I got him a Star Wars poster, LED gloves, and some candy. Lame, I know. He’s very hard to buy for and luckily doesn’t really want anything, so he wasn’t bothered by the gift inequality, but I still felt bad.

12/26 (Tue) – Headed to Target to see what after Christmas sales we could take advantage of. Sad to say they had nothing in terms of reasonably priced Christmas cards, which we needed, so we found ourselves at Meijer where everything was marked down 50% and the selection was great. Got three boxes of Christmas cards and some gift bags, so we’re set for years to come.

We also went to Bath & Body Works to check out the semi-annual sale where everything is 75% off. It was crazy crowded and we didn’t see anything worthwhile, so we left empty-handed. Other than the foaming hand soaps, I don’t really love BBW like I used to, and I have enough soaps to last me awhile.

12/31 (Sun) – Received an email from Nintendo about a sale on a game I haven’t thought about in years – Lumines.

I used to play it on the PS2. Since it was only $4.50, I decided to buy the digital copy of the Switch version. I immediately lost two hours playing it. Just as addictive as I remember! I love puzzle games.

New Years Eve isn’t really exciting, so we went to bed before 11 pm. Of course all the fireworks going off had us awake again at midnight. Bah!

Enjoyed the following movies and series in December:

Violent Night – This was on my watch list since last year because I heard about it after Christmas, and I just can’t watch Christmas movies once Christmas is over. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting – it was better. Fun movie!

Spirited

I forgot how good this movie is (saw it for the first time last year). It’s too bad it’s only available via Apple TV because a lot of people are missing out on the fun. Do I like musicals now? Because I love this movie and there is a lot of singing! Who can resist charismatic Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds though? I would buy this on DVD if it was available.

Obituary

Turn Dexter into a woman and take away his meticulous research and planning, and the need to dispose of the body, and you’ve got this show. It’s so good! I am sad we blew through the first season as quickly as we did but am looking forward to a second one.

Everything Increases Except Wages

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Time for a little rant!

Our home assessment went up so you know what that means – higher taxes next year! Yay, can’t wait!

Joe’s most recent paycheck was less than usual because Medicare and Social Security deductions increased. Great. Will we even benefit from that by the time we’re ready to retire??? Doubtful.

Amazon Prime is currently $140 annually (kinda shocked me when I checked since last I looked it was $120) and they had the audacity to notify users they’ll be putting ads in their Prime content starting next month unless you’re willing to fork over an additional $3 monthly. Yea, I don’t think so. Not only will I not be doing that, I will be cancelling Prime altogether before it renews in late January. We will save money in the long run if it isn’t so easy to order from them anyway.

Besides, there isn’t a single show on any streaming service that is worth paying for these days. I can live without it all, and if it’s good enough it will show up at our local library eventually anyway. I’m not the type of person who has to watch a movie or series the second it gets released.

Sadly, cancelling Amazon Prime won’t even make up the loss on Joe’s paychecks so we’ll still be paying more for less. Ain’t that the American way?

Everything continues to increase in price but it doesn’t feel like there’s an increased value to justify it. You’ve got shrinkflation for groceries, increased subscription prices for less content, nickel and diming people (you’re charged extra to add ingredients to a burger, but aren’t given a discount when you remove something that comes standard). Even McDonald’s prices are getting out of hand, not that I care about their awful tasting burgers anyway! I only like the iced coffee. But you get my drift. It’s really getting out of hand.

These companies have the gall to report record profits while at the same time telling people they “have” to raise costs to cover paying people a livable wage. Give me a break. Unfortunately there are people who believe that gaslighting bullshit and direct their anger toward people just trying to make ends meet. This society is so messed up.

I’m just so tired of seeing our money get spent so incredibly quickly on basic life stuff you can’t opt out of.

Bye Bye Evernote, Hello Joplin

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I logged into Evernote the other day only to find I could no longer create new notes. I got this message when I tried.

They’ve been pestering me to upgrade to a paid account for months now, but there was never prior warning that there would be restrictions put in place if I didn’t comply. Pretty shady, if you ask me.

I guess they think it’s fine to just change things and let people know abruptly via the app AFTER said changes took affect. Pretty shitty way to treat people you’re hoping to turn into paying customers. It’s not exactly extortion, since the data is still accessible, but it’s also not the best way to entice people to get on board with a paid subscription either.

And of course the price is higher now than when they first started pestering me. Maybe if back then they’d have said “hey, if you do not upgrade, we’re going to lock your account down and you won’t be able to create any new notes if you already have over 50, or move existing notes around”, people might have paid more attention. I know I would have. But if they think I’m paying them $130 annually to use their service, they have another thing coming.

I immediately tried a new service called AnyType, but I didn’t care for it. Then GoogleKeep. Ditto. I already pay for Microsoft 360 so I thought I’d give OneNote another try even though it used to corrupt my notes almost daily many years ago when I used it at work. Doesn’t matter, though, because they changed the look of it and I hate that too.

In comes Notion. Very feature rich, free without note limitations, similar layout to Evernote. Great. Even has a way to pull your Evernote data into it. Well, that’s what they claim anyway. That process failed and after some investigation apparently there are certain notes in Evernote, namely those that contain tables, that cause issues, and for some reason this has been an issue for years with Notion without any resolution. Great. And since I couldn’t move those notes from one Notebook to another, since Evernote locked me out of that option, I was kinda stuck.

After trying for hours to figure out a way to get my Evernote data into Notion, I gave up. I found an app called Joplin that didn’t have issues with the import process. Sure, I still had to export my Evernote data for each notebook individually, then import into Joplin, but at least it worked!

Joplin is free, I use Dropbox as my database server, and there’s desktop and mobile versions of the app. It’s not quite as pretty as Evernote, nor have I yet found a way to mark certain notes as shortcuts in order to access them quickly, but my data is safe and I’m able to manipulate it how I want… for free.

Don’t get me wrong – I would have paid Evernote a reasonable price, but $10.83 per month is not reasonable for a note-taking app. I pay that for Photoshop and Lightroom!

Furthermore, I do not want to give my money to an underhanded company who pulled what they did. That company, Bending Spoons, has the appropriate initials – BS. Because that’s what they are full of, and they can go to hell for treating their users this way. And the Evernote bootlickers on Reddit calling us all whiny freeloaders for complaining can all go to hell as well.

Update 12/28/23 – Joplin is already driving me crazy due to how it stores & syncs data using Dropbox. I’m constantly getting notices from Dropbox’s desktop program about files being added/deleted (these are temporary files created by Joplin). I am probably going to subscribe to UpNote. I have been using the free version for a few days and it looks more like Evernote, plus has pinned notes which I like. It’s also affordable – $1 monthly or $30 for a lifetime subscription that they claim will be honored even if they move to a different subscription type in the future. It’s been around since 2017 so I think my data will be safe (plus I create weekly backups of this blog, my bookmarks, and my notes because I’m paranoid about losing stuff).

November Recap

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11/01 (Wed) – Started the month off strong by getting our flu shots at the CVS in Target.

11/03 (Fri) – Joe’s daughter made us dinner (stuffed pepper soup), which we ate at his son’s apartment.

11/04 (Sat) – Visited my bestie, K, and brought Wookie along since she tolerates K’s dog, Teddy.

11/05 (Sun) – Woke up to a layer of fog which is always cool to see.

Visited the marsh and saw the great horned owl again.

Joe put up the new white cellular blinds in the living room. We had purchased them at IKEA in late September but left the paper black ones up in October for Halloween.

11/06 (Mon) – Saw an Eastern Chipmunk for the first time ever by our house!

11/07 (Tue) – Enjoyed some avocado toast for breakfast. I was never a fan but I recently cracked the code, at least for me – Ezekiel bread (from Trader Joe’s), salt added to the avocado, and Aldi’s asiago cheese everything but the bagel seasoning sprinkled on top.

Donated clothing to a place I found called Repeat Boutique. I like them because they allow people in need to “shop” for clothing for free, unlike Goodwill or Savers who keep raising their prices and seem to attract resellers more than anything.

We also saw a new gastroenterologist as we’re both overdue for colonoscopies. We really liked him and scheduled our procedures.

11/11 (Sat) – Had our first chickadee visitor to the feeder!

My dad messaged me online requesting help as their landline was down (and no one has a cellphone) so I put in a repair ticket with AT&T.

I found out there was a new update for my Apple Watch, but when I went to install it, I was told I need to update to the latest iOS (iOS 17) on my phone first. There’s a bit of an issue, though, and I’m so happy I thought to look into it before it was too late – the reminder app I use multiple times a day isn’t compatible with the iOS 17. In fact, the app hasn’t been updated in 8 years, so I guess we’re all lucky it’s worked this long. The developer doesn’t have a way to contact them (although I did @ them on Twitter recently and they kinda blew me off) and doesn’t seem interested in keeping the app going. So I guess I need to now find a good reminder app before I even think about updating, because everyone is saying it crashes and won’t let them edit reminders, etc, and I have reminders well into the future I do not want to lose (stuff like when to cancel a free trial and whatnot). UGH!

11/12 (Sun) – Another marsh visit and another owl sighting. It usually hangs out in one particular tree, down to the same exact branch, but this time we spotted it in a different tree altogether, and even saw it flying around because blue jays and a kingfisher were chasing it.

Before this, I did something dumb. We had purchased some Thanksgiving items at Aldi before going out in search of the owl and to the arboretum, including a 3 lb Butterball boneless turkey breast. I placed it on the counter while filling my water bottle, then promptly forgot about it. Didn’t think about it again until hours later when we were driving through the arboretum when it dawned on me I hadn’t remembered putting it in the freezer. Pulled up the security camera in the kitchen and sure enough, it was still sitting on the counter. What a waste of $12, not to mention food. Someone said it might have been ok (it was left out about 4 hours), but I wasn’t going to risk giving people food poisoning. Joe said at least it wasn’t TWO turkeys (which we almost got), so there’s that!

11/16 (Thu) – Saw two chickadees at once! I think they are a couple (a Google search revealed they often mate for life).

11/18 (Sat) – Did a little grocery shopping at Target and managed to procure two packages of the best Milanos Pepperidge Farm makes – the limited edition amaretto hot cocoa flavor.

Somehow managed to get the same nasty Dollar Tree cashier I wrote about in the October Recap, even though it was a different DT location! I immediately recognized her and was sad we’d have to deal with her. She was nicer to everyone before and after us than she was toward us. Perhaps it’s paranoia, but maybe it had to do with the fact that we were the only ones wearing masks? I know some people treat masked people poorly. As if trying to protect my health is a bad thing.

We also visited a store called Wild Birds Unlimited that sells, you guessed it, nothing but bird supplies. It was really fun to look around, but ultimately we left empty-handed. I would like to support a small business such as that, but it doesn’t make sense to pay twice as much for everything either. Perhaps if I was rich I wouldn’t care as much. They clearly aren’t hurting though, as they were quite busy.

11/19 (Sun) – Another trip to the marsh to see the owl (obsessed much?) where we also saw a large flock of sandhill cranes overhead.

11/23 (Thu) – The kids came over for Thanksgiving and K brought her SO. They introduced us to a new card game called Mantis, which we loved. So much so that I ordered it from Target for pickup.

Bonus – it was 50% off for Black Friday, so only $10.

11/24 (Fri) – Joe ran to the grocery store for a few items and came back with a surprise for me – Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes! Apparently they also make them in chocolate (psst, those aren’t great, I recommend sticking to the original flavor).

I also learned I can use the Canon app on my phone as a wireless remote for my camera.

This would have been helpful on Thanksgiving when taking a group family photo.

Enjoyed Thanksgiving leftovers, which are truly the MVP of the holiday.

11/25 (Sat) – Received our new bird feeder, which was discounted on Black Friday.

Who needs a new TV when you can get a bird feeder instead? ;)

11/26 (Sun) – It snowed enough to stick. Yuck. I did get some cute photos of the birds and squirrels in the snow, though.

11/28 (Tue) – Joe had his colonoscopy. I didn’t like how I wasn’t allowed to be with him until the actual procedure and needed to stay in the waiting room until he was in recovery, especially because they were running late and he didn’t go in for over a half hour past his scheduled time. They found and removed some very small polyps so he will need to go back in three years. We’re not really sure how many total polyps there actually were, though, because the doctor told him 6, there were only 4 documented on the illustration they included in his aftercare paperwork, and the biopsy report stated there were 5.

11/29 (Wed) – The chickadee couple, who disappeared for nearly a week, came back!

Also viewed my Spotify Wrapped results. These will come at no shock to anyone who knows me. Even the timing was on point – I listened to The Cure most in the winter months because, you know, melancholy, and Sofi Tukker in the summer because of happiness and positive energy.

I do wish you could exclude comedy albums from their analysis, though, because I start an album, fall asleep, and have to listen again over the course of a few nights to finish. I’m not obsessed with these comedians or anything.

11/30 (Thu) – We had our dryer vent cleaned. I chose a company recommended by the association which is different than who we used last year. There were two guys – one who went up on the roof, and one who did things to the dryer, including checking the hose in back and the lint trap, plus checking for gas leaks before and after doing the service. He also made sure the dryer was still heating up before they left. The last company just did work on the roof, sucking up the lint (which was really loud compared to this place) and didn’t check the dryer at all. I think we’ll stick with this newer company as they seemed more thorough (and the price was literally only $1 more at $90).

Black-Capped Chickadees & Chipmunks

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Black-capped chickadees are one of my favorite birds because they are just adorable. While I’ve heard them frequently throughout the years in forest preserves and even our neighborhood, I’ve rarely ever seen one. Not only are they pretty tiny (4-6 inches), but they are very fast. Now that we have a feeder, they’ve recently started visiting us. We had our first visitor on Saturday, in fact, and I was able to snag this really nice photo of it.

This morning I spotted two chickadees at the feeder which made me so happy! Since then they’ve been coming by every hour or so. They like the suet I put up, but will also grab the black oil sunflower seeds and fly off to crack them open in a tree. Unlike the sparrows, finches, and mourning doves, they will not eat at the feeder. I guess they prefer their privacy.

Besides how cute they are, I love their distinctive little chirps, because I know they’re there before I even see them. Wookie, however, doesn’t like their vocalizations for some reason, and she gets huffy when she hears them. I told her to leave my little bird buddies alone.

Another creature we’ve never seen, not even once in this neighborhood, is the Eastern chipmunk, so imagine my delight when I spotted one under the feeder on November 6th.

I’ve not seen one since, but I think I heard one further away from the house when walking Wookie earlier today. They retreat to underground burrows for the winter, so I suspect it was gathering sustenance and we might not see another one until spring.