Birthday Weekend 2022

Posted on

Saturday (01/07) I wanted to do something for my birthday, so we visited the new location of the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art.

Our first (and only visit) in 2014 was when it was housed in a very small building in Elmhurst. They moved to a new building in Oak Brook in 2019 so we were interested in visiting again. It’s really nice inside and since it had been so long since our last visit, most exhibits felt new even though they haven’t really added much to their collection outside of the special exhibit hall.

Even with taking our time and reading a lot of the placards, we were only there about an hour before we had seen everything. On the drive back we stopped at Disc Replay in Downers Grove. I’m glad I had opened my birthday gifts that morning before leaving because I found a copy of Season 8 of Scrubs at DR and would have gotten it if I hadn’t been given a brand new copy from Brother J. We left empty-handed and then picked up lunch from Egg Harbor in Wheaton (where I got the Door County Melt – my favorite dish on their menu).

I had placed a mobile order and since we arrived prior to pick-up time, we stopped in nearby Mile Long Records, which was surprisingly busy. The store isn’t very big, but they have a decent vinyl collection. They definitely have more new releases than old stuff, though, and the prices can be a bit higher than online, although at least you’re supporting a local business by shopping there. They had re-releases of several Cure albums, including Entreat, which I hemmed and hawed about buying for $35. I finally decided against it, but I know the owner can snag me a copy if I do end up changing my mind.

The rest of the day we just relaxed at home. As previously mentioned, I had opened my gifts earlier that day. Brother J had given me presents on Christmas Eve since he knew he wouldn’t see me for awhile. He got me a McDonald’s gift card, Seasons 5 & 8 of Scrubs to completely my collection, and Fever Pitch on DVD (although it’s the full screen version so I’m trying to find out whether the 3rd party seller on Amazon can exchange it for the widescreen edition).

Here’s what Joe got me.

(Body scrubber, Simple Modern drink tumbler, Cloud-shaped key station, coconut incense, and stretchy cable ties)

These were all on my wish list because he was burnt out trying to come up with ideas so soon after Christmas. That is definitely another drawback to having a birthday two weeks after Christmas. The key holder isn’t going to work how I envisioned, so I’ll be returning that.

Sunday (01/08) we went to Aldi for groceries and then stopped at Kohl’s to look at blankets. My cousin had sent me one last month that I really loved but ultimately returned once I learned it was dry clean only. They gave me merchandise credit which I was going to combine with the $5 Kohl’s cash Joe got for an Amazon return, but I really wasn’t liking the selection or prices. I found a black beanie on clearance for $4.80 so I used the Kohl’s cash on that since it was due to expire. Apparently the item is supposed to be over $5 so I got a talking to by the cashier (lol) but she gave it to me anyway.

We ordered pizza in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day relaxing. Honestly, leaving the house these days is tough. I’m not a fan of the general public and I hate the cold, so winter is the worst. I’m already dreaming about spring and being able to visit all the nature areas. It cannot get here soon enough!

NYE & New Years Day

Posted on

As usual, New Years Eve was super chill. We split two small specialty pizzas we picked up from Aldi and watched Glass Onion on Netflix. I liked it just as much as Knives Out, and rated them both 8/10.

The pizzas weren’t great, although I liked the goat cheese on the one labeled Caprino Verde (the other was called Buffalo Mozzarella and we mistakenly were expecting it to have buffalo sauce on it).

We were both in bed by 10ish but I didn’t actually fall asleep until 1 am partially because I wasn’t tired, but also because people were setting off fireworks from midnight until 1.

New Year’s Day we went over to K’s house to celebrate Christmas and my birthday. We stopped and picked up some munchkins from Dunkin on the way there and arrived around 11 am.

She got me so many awesome things, including a heating pad that can be snapped together to form a pouch for your feet. I love it!

She also got me a keychain that says “Guess Who’s Got Anxiety?” (haha), a pair of socks with flames on it because I’m always telling her to set it on fire when she doesn’t like something, some soft socks with reindeer on them, a Bath & Body Works gift card, and a few things from my wish list – a pair of slippers, a bluetooth remote for my phone (I intend to use it for TikTok scrolling), and the recently released Robert Smith Funko Pop. My friend also gave Wookie a Chewbacca dog toy “from” her dog, and Joe a Dunkin gift card.

I also bought her “dog person” mug I found at Target the day before, which she loved. I loved it too, so much so that I went back to Target yesterday and got myself one.

My gifts to her:

A pair of socks with dog bones on it, a eyeglass holder for her nightstand (which is just like one I got a few months ago and love – luckily when she looked at the listing she mentioned which pattern she liked), a box of mug cakes, a single serve blender, and a pan of cherry pie bars which I had made the day before. I joked that I’m her sugar dealer. I was worried whether she’d like the blender, but luckily she loved it, and the color I picked out too. Yay!

I made sure to have Joe take some photo of K & I together since we don’t have any after all these years and still need to look through them. I hate pictures of myself, but I wanted to have some of us together since she’s like a sister to me.

We ordered lunch from a local Thai place and shared a Crumbl cookie for dessert. (She had given me the coupon she got for her birthday so I picked out one on Saturday called Galaxy Brownie which was pretty good).

It was a nice day, other than Wookie constantly pestering us to leave. She was a real pain on this visit in general. First off, the second she came through the door she immediately starting eating my friend’s dog’s food which she’s never done before. She acts like we starve her even though I’m feeding her the recommended amount of food daily. She also peed on the floor right in front of us, and then pooped down the hallway despite us making sure she went to the bathroom before we left and Joe taking her out frequently. Luckily my friend is understanding as her dog often goes where he isn’t supposed to, as do many of the dogs she looks after when she dog sits, but it was still embarrassing.

Usually Wookie will just chill by us but this visit she kept going to the door and whining. She really didn’t want to be there to the point I’m not sure I’d bring her with us the next time we visit unless it’s nice weather and we’re outside in the yard. She still gets restless, but it’s not as bad.

We ended up leaving around 3:30 so we got home just as it was getting dark outside. We watched Road Trip for the umpteenth time since we had been discussing it with my friend, plus we wanted to destress and not have to pay close attention to anything.

Christmas

Posted on

Christmas Day was a relaxing quiet one. We had opened the majority of our gifts the day before, but after breakfast we opened the remaining ones.

Joe got me a non-picture disc vinyl copy of Seventeen Seconds by The Cure, a paper cutter from my wish list, a phone & watch charging stand for my nightstand, and of course, the Apple Watch.

He also got me a pair of earbuds (same type, different color than the ones I got him below) because he thought they would be great with my new Apple Watch (since you can only listen to music and podcasts directly from the watch with earbuds). He totally spaced on the fact that I avoid earbuds now with my ear issues. He had forgotten about them because I haven’t been talking about my ears lately (still have tinnitus but it’s calmed down and the sensitivity in my ear is much better lately). Needless to say, those will be returned.

What’s missing is a cute t-shirt that looks like this:

The postal service said it was delivered in our mailbox on 12/12 but it never materialized. We thought maybe they put it in a neighbor’s box by mistake, since it’s a shared box with individual slots, so we were waiting to see if they would bring it over. When that didn’t happen, we went to the post office on 12/17 and filled out a form, but haven’t heard squat from them. Joe contacted the Etsy seller but they can only refund us if we can get a letter from the post office stating the package is missing. But they’re not going to do that since according to them it was delivered. Ugh! So we’re out that money now. So help me if I ever see someone in this neighborhood wearing that shirt…

I got Joe a Darth Vader print he had requested, some earbuds from his wish list, candy (two different types of Turtles so we could do a taste comparison – Turtle brand wins if you like caramel, but Fannie May does it you’re not into chocolate – and watermelon Sour Patch Kids since they stopped making the watermelon flavored Twizzlers he loved), a small Star Wars LEGO set, and two bars of Bath & Body Works soap.

Wow, seems lame when laid out, right? But the Apple Watch for me was a last minute decision. We don’t typically buy each other big gifts since we like picking out expensive things ourselves as needed. Although last year he got me a new computer monitor which I didn’t like so he uses it instead. That’s just how things go sometimes when you’ve been together almost 21 years.

We watched Die Hard & Scrooged and had planned to have a steak dinner but weren’t hungry enough after lunch (which was homemade baked mac & cheese) so we had it the following day with green bean casserole, crescent rolls, and some of the sweet potato casserole I had frozen from Thanksgiving. Dessert over the entire week has been the pistachio cake I made, although on Monday I made the pumpkin pie we originally intended to have on Thanksgiving but didn’t, so Joe had that (I don’t care for pumpkin pie).

Apple Watch

Posted on

It probably comes as no surprise that I ended up getting an Apple Watch.

Friday (12/16) Joe came home work and told me he had gotten some American Express gift cards, and between that and finally selling the coffee table he had restored over a year ago, it would cover the watch and I should get it. He wanted to surprise me, but he knew I wasn’t sure which one I wanted (SE or Series 8), nor what color/size case.

He mentioned Target had them on sale through Saturday the 17th which put me into a bit of a panic since I needed to make a decision quickly. Needless to say, I spent the entire evening looking at options and using the Apple Store app on my phone to compare the watch case to the Amazfit Bip 3 to get an idea of how it would look on my wrist.

I finally settled on this one:

Apple Watch Series 8 GPS 41mm Silver Aluminum Case with White Sport Band – S/M

Initially, I thought I wanted a black one, but I didn’t care for the fact that the midnight case isn’t truly black, but instead a very deep blue. I briefly considered the Starlight color, but I tend to wear cool tones, so silver seemed to match better and would be more versatile with different color bands.

As for size, I felt the 45mm one was a bit too large for me and would be heavier than the watch I was currently wearing. The 41mm one is 1 gram lighter. I excitedly ordered the watch and then had to painstakingly wait until Wednesday (12/21) for UPS to deliver it.

It arrived with a nearly dead battery so the first thing I did after letting it come to room temperature was charge it. Luckily, I was aware of the absence of a power brick, so I had ordered one from Amazon which, in a stroke of perfect timing, arrived a half hour after the watch did.

Small rant: I think it’s shitty of Apple to not include everything you need to actually charge the watch. Imagine buying the watch as a gift for someone and not knowing this. Here’s something you can’t use until you buy something else. It’s pretty presumptuous of them to think someone getting a watch already has the appropriate plug when they recently changed from lighting to USB-C. I owned exactly zero USB-C compatible plugs until now.

First Impressions

The silver case is even nicer looking than I pictured, as is the white sport band. White is not a color I ever really wear so I was kinda bummed I couldn’t get a black band, but I’m actually really digging the white after all.

It’s heavier than the Amazfit and hurt my arm at first. This is because the band has more heft to it. It also takes getting used to with the way it fastens and then loops back into the side of the band against your arm. Initially I really didn’t like that, but now that I’m used to how it feels it’s not bad, and the bonus is the band cannot not get caught on anything since there’s no exposed excess.

The screen quality is stunning and even though I chose the smaller case, I can see everything quite well even with my bad eyes (I need progressive lenses ASAP).

Pros

I love how easy it is to customize watch faces and switch between them on the fly. You can store a bunch of them in memory.

Watch faces are interactive & offer at least one, but usually many, Complications (Apple’s term for small interface elements that users place on the clock face). For instance, if you add a weather complication that shows the temperature, tapping on it with your finger will bring you to more detailed weather data.

Notifications are intelligent – if your iPhone is locked, notifications will only make noise/vibrate on your watch. If you’re actively using your phone, they won’t bother you on the watch since you’d see them there immediately.

You can make/answer calls from the watch.

You can control media from the watch such as Spotify, podcasts, YouTube, etc. although you cannot actually listen to that media directly from the watch’s speaker.

I can keep better track of my hydration with the water app I have installed. Spoiler alert – I never drink enough.

The Activity app helps motivate me to move around more during the day and exercise at a higher intensity in order to complete my goals.

Cons

Audible notifications on the watch all sound the same regardless of which app they come from (with the except of phone calls). I wish you could mirror the same sounds as the phone since some notifications are more time sensitive than others.

There’s no Complication for steps as Apple doesn’t think they are as important as how much overall activity you have per day. I really don’t like Apple telling me what to do. I have just gotten into step counting and don’t like I need to install a 3rd party app to see that information at a glance. Apple tracks it, but I have to click on Activity and scroll down to see my steps. That is obnoxious and the 3rd party app wasn’t syncing the data correctly, so I ended up uninstalling it.

Conclusion

Despite some of the frustrations I have, I really love this watch! It’s very functional, and looks great too.

Amazfit Bip 3 Smart Watch

Posted on

About a week before Thanksgiving I was chatting with my bestie and she was telling me about the Fitbit she wanted to get her mother. At that point I realized I had been thinking how I wanted an Apple Watch.

My biggest concern, however, other than the price, was whether I could handle the size/weight of one since I never wear watches, or any jewelry for that matter. Other than the Apple store, you cannot try a watch on before purchasing it which to me is kinda crazy. I remember as a teenager going to Service Merchandise and trying on watches. I bought one that had a face that detached and went on different color bands. It was the coolest thing in my mind. But I digress…

Fast forward to November 30th and I saw through a deal site I frequent that Walmart was selling the Amazfit Bip 3 smart watch for $35 on an extended Black Friday sale (normally $50). I did a little reading up on it and in addition to the fitness stuff, learned it receives phone notifications, weather updates, etc. so I decided to order it. I figured it would be a cheap way to test whether I can handle wearing a watch after all these years.

The wait was difficult as the watch wasn’t due to be delivered until December 12th. Side note: If that delivery time frame was supposed to get me on board to keep my Walmart+ subscription after the free trial, they should think again. It got updated to the 8th but then delayed and was ultimately delivered on the 9th.

First impressions

I really like how they designed the box. Even opening it was easy and didn’t cause any damage to it. Everything was laid out inside nicely.

Amazfit BIP 3 box

Pull tab to open box

Inside the box

The battery was at 42%, so after letting it warm up to room temperature and briefly trying it on, I charged it. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get to 100%.

It was simple to set up. There’s a QR code in the little instruction booklet which when scanned takes you to where you download the app. Then you follow the instructions in the app to pair it to the phone. You can also mess with settings and whatnot.

Now that I’ve been wearing it daily for 12 days, I’ll break down the pros and cons:

Pros

» Lightweight (33gm) & comfortable despite the large 44mm case

» Exceptional battery life. I haven’t had to charge it since the initial charge & the battery is currently at 30%

» Seems to track steps accurately, although it lags behind and doesn’t do it in real time

» Can buy 3rd party bands to customize the look of your watch

» Price is very good for an introductory smart watch, especially for someone who doesn’t need all the bells and whistles

Cons

» Doesn’t seem to track sleep accurately; thinks any time I’m in bed I’m also asleep

» Doesn’t render notifications accurately so sometimes they’re missing pertinent info

» Watch face isn’t interactive, only informative

» You can only have two watch faces stored in the watch at a time, and one of those is a default that cannot be deleted. So basically you cannot easily switch watch faces as it’s a multi-step process in the app where you have to delete the face, then download and install the one you want

» Current weather often stops displaying until you go into the app to re-sync the watch; otherwise it just shows you the predicted high & low for the day

» Allows you to control what’s playing on your phone (such as music or podcasts) but lacks the 15 second skip ahead feature for podcasts (which I use frequently to skip over ads)

Conclusion

Instead of satiating my desire for an Apple Watch, owning this watch has only increased it. Not that it was a total failure – it made me realize I could handle wearing a watch all day (although I do take it off when showering & at night for a break since the sleep tracking sucks anyway).