I Was A Busy Bee Yesterday - Housecleaning and Voting and Range Extenders

I had a really busy day yesterday, not just shopping at Whole Foods and my local grocery store (still ended up forgetting one item - oh well...), but then I dove into housecleaning. I straightened up Sharon's Room, moving a few boxes into the Library until she's returned home, and doing a general clean-up, ending with a thorough vacuum of the carpeting. I haven't pulled out and made the bed yet, that will come closer to when she arrives. Then I moved on to the hallway. 

I have a lot of nooks and crannies I need to go through, 
and a lot of corners that need to be cleaned out. For some 
reason, things seems to accumulate in corners. I have no 
idea why. Do you? 

The hallway held several boxes of outdated software that I also moved into the Library, and after it was all cleared, I vacuumed that as well. I didn't bother with the main bedroom - I'll catch that at a later date. 

I purchased four of these ExtendTech WiFi boosters 
and they arrived late last week. I took an hour off 
from housecleaning and other tasks to get them installed 
and set up. I couldn't put the one in Sharon's room quite 
where I wanted it. I judged it was too close to the heat 
vent and would be too hot in the winter months when the 
heat is almost always on. So I had to pick a secondary 
location. Hopefully it will be a good one. I also put 
one in the den and one in the kitchen. They seem to 
be up and operating, and I think I got DH's phone set 
to work with them after he got home last night. At 
least that's the hope. He has a Samsung phone, and that's 
set up totally differently than my Google phone. 

Moving down a level, I took a break and got my latest set of WiFi Extenders installed. I hope they are installed correctly - LOL. Although I got four of them, I really don't have a good place for the fourth at this time. I'll probably put it into the craft room at some point, but that particular device was also giving me some problems, so I left it with the three - Sharon's Room, the kitchen and the Den. All of them are merrily sporting four green lights now, so they seem to be properly installed. I have no idea, to be honest. I've always been a bit flummoxed by WiFi extenders over the years. 

Sharon arrives on the 1st of September, so I have all of 
August to get my house cleaned and ready. That's not 
bad, and I got a really good start on things yesterday. But 
I have some deep cleaning that I'd like to do, and really, 
I only have Wednesday and Friday to clean, so I'll end 
up needing every one of those days. It would be nice 
if I could keep it going after her visit, but that's 
usually when I shift over to designing and making my 
holiday cards. 

After my "break", I vacuumed the living room completely. My goal is to carpet clean it next week, although I might switch to carpet cleaning the Den instead - it needs it a lot more. I'll see what happens and what seems most important. I want to get to dusting and the finer points of cleaning next week - that always takes time. Also, I might be able to fix some of my dragons, now that I have the correct glue. That would make me very happy indeed. I've got the rest of August to achieve a clean house. It's far from impossible. 

One other thing I did was pick up my latest cleaned garment of my Mom's collection from the cleaners, and drop off the next one. The staff is totally loving these gowns - and they are exceptional. They're cleaning up very well. Each gown is unique and absolutely stunning in its' own way. So, all in all, it was a very busy but quite successful Friday off, and I feel like I might be on top of things for a change. I'm sure that will change, I still have to tackle the computer room, after all, and that room is a disaster! LOL 

Voting cuts off tonight, so please, if you haven't voted, 
do so. There are some rather amazing stories that I'm 
going up against this time. If you're looking for a great 
read, I highly recommend SwirlsofPurple's story this 
week. Take a look and think hard about what she's 
pointing out here. 
https://swirlsofpurple.dreamwidth.org/7324.html

Have an excellent weekend. If you haven't voted for my story, you have until 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time to get your vote in. I'm lagging, but I suspect a lot of that is because other people have more friends that are voting for their stories. Technically, mine is on par with most of them, so I'm holding my head high even though my vote count is low. Enjoy your weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

Huzzah! It's Saturday - Headphones, Range Extenders and LJ Idol

Huzzah! It's Saturday and we've all made it to the end of another week. Well done! I'm trying to continue cooling off from my run this morning - in our summer humidity, that can take a very long time. I've already had a cold shower, a morning munch of fresh strawberries, and made two cups of tea - both of which will be finished before I leave for the shop in less than two hours. 

I'm actually not at all sad that DH returned my bone 
induction headset to me. It allows me to have my 
backup in place once again, so that if my primary breaks 
for any reason, I won't be without my books while 
I exercise. 

DH returned the AfterShokz to me saying they were only for MP3, so he couldn't use them. He kept the HUB ear buds, though. I'm quite happy to have my AfterShokz back, it's my backup set for swimming and since I really can't swim without sound - preferably audio books - it's good to have a backup available. I've put it back into the drawer where I got it from so that it's ready when needed. 

I'm not super happy with my range extenders 
right now. I'll work on them a bit more on 
Wednesday, hopefully with their customer 
service department, but if I'm still not happy, 
I'm going to return them and get something 
else. 

I reset and moved all three of the range extenders for our WiFi yesterday, but I'm really not happy with the system in general and will possibly return them. I'll work with them again on Wednesday with their customer service department (I assume they have one), but if I can't get a consistent internet boost after that, I'll pull them, return them, and try a different system. I would need to upgrade at the end of the year in any case, when our WiFi switches from 4G to 5G so I might as well get something that can take the change. I'm worried that this one may take a bit more doing to return since I didn't buy it through Amazon, instead I purchased directly. The only reason I use Amazon is easy returns, this one may have me doing gymnastics or throwing my hands up in the air and saying curse words while moaning about the waste of money. But ... I'll get it figured out. Initially the set-up was really easy, it just didn't stay that way once I needed to shift the location of two of the units. 

It started out really well and installed easily. But 
now that I've had to change the locations of two 
of the three, it's not installing well at all. I tried 
a factory re-set and re-did all three units, but I'm 
still not happy. I'll probably end up returning them 
and getting a different system. 

I did get to spend a half-hour or so in the garden yesterday afternoon. That was delightful. And I had a hummingbird at my feeder for a good, long drink. It was actually perched on the feeder, and it seemed quite happy and as if it felt very safe. I was delighted. I would have taken a photo, but I didn't want to move and spook it, so I just have the memory, not the pic. 

This is not my feeder, although mine's almost identical, 
but this is very much like what my own hummer 
looked like yesterday. It settled down on the perch, 
and had a nice, long drink. It had to have been there 
for at least two minutes! 

Voting for my dark story of rebirth ends tomorrow evening. If you feel the story merits your vote and you haven't done so yet, I'd certainly appreciate it if you voted for it. These next 24 hours are rather crucial, and even though I'm holding up OK right now, positioning can shift quickly from being in the top tier to being in the bottom. Once again, I'll reiterate that my story could be a trigger for some people. But, if you are triggered by it, that means I wrote it well, so please consider voting for me anyway - *hugs*. Once again, the link is: https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1123027.html .

As always, I appreciate your votes. I'm in the thick of 
it this week - I think a few people were surprised by how 
I approached the topic, but I saw my character in my head 
and walked the path that she showed me. 

I'm wrapping this up, moving on to my second cup of tea, and getting ready to start my day. Sharon's birthday is at the end of the month, and I need to find the PERFECT thing for my long-time best friend and sister. It probably won't arrive on time, but it'll be on it's way, so I'll count that as a win. I should probably adjust my calendar to warn me two weeks ahead, instead of just one - LOL. Have an excellent day and weekend, I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

Extended Thoughts - WiFi, the Garden and My Current Writing Challenge

The new range extenders are doing well, but DH suggested moving two of them to different locations. Trying one late yesterday didn't go as well, so I'll redo them on Friday when I'll have some time to deal with resetting and re-calibrating them. It'll go fine, jut be a little more involved than I felt like dealing with last night. 

DH suggested moving two of the units to different 
outlets, so I tried one last night. It worked, but it 
was quite fussy. I'll work on the full system on 
Friday when I have the time to devote to it. 

But as exhausted as I was by the time I went to bed, I couldn't get to sleep. It was just too hot and uncomfortable, even with my portable air cooler. I resorted to trying one of my favorite sleep hypnosis tracks, and even that didn't work. But I finally did manage to get about 3-4 hours of sleep. I suspect I'll be dragging tonight, but I'll manage. I just hope I don't make any computer errors at the shop today since I'll be working on Etsy things on my laptop as well as doing things for the store computer's inventory updates. 

The Datura plant has a single blossom at 
a time. It's quite nice - purple and white, 
double layered and deep. It reminds me 
of Victorian skirts I've seen in that coloring 
and pattern. It never lasts for long, usually 
falling off within 24-36 hours. The plant 
itself is extremely poisonous, we use gloves 
when dealing with it. 

We spent most of the afternoon on the patio, enjoying a lovely, if hot day. We relaxed, and looked at our various plants. The garden hasn't been a great success this year - we've had bugs eating the leaves of our violets, and sawflies that decimated my columbines and other flowers. One plant that has been doing well, but that DH says he won't plant again, are our two Datura plants. I think they're really fun - very poisonous, but really interesting. They produce a single blossom at a time, and the western one was blooming yesterday. The blossoms last for 24-36 hours, then fall away. DH is disappointed that the flowers don't last for a longer time period, but I think they're quite wonderful. 

I've never had a golden cherry tomato plant 
before and it's quite nice to look at. I harvested 
my first tomatoes from it yesterday and will 
see if I picked ripe ones, or if they should have 
stayed on the plant for a day or two longer. 

I am harvesting cherry tomatoes almost every day now, just got my first ones from the golden cherry tomato plant yesterday and I'll eat those on tonight's salad. I'm very used to the exact degree of red I need for a ripe cherry tomato, but the goldens are new to me and it will take me a little time to get used to the exact look I need for a truly ripe one. I'll have plenty of opportunity to practice over the next couple of weeks - LOL. 

The topic for the current writing challenge is kingsugi - the 
Japanese technique of "precious scars". In this technique, 
the potter fills in the cracks with gold to make something 
broken into something precious. I have too many ideas 
floating around in my head, and the deadline is 
Wednesday late afternoon. 

On that note, I'm out of here. I have two days to get my next story written, and have thought about and cast aside at least 20 storelines in my head. Maybe I'll get a chance to pull something together tonight, if I'm caught up on my computer work. Have an excellent Monday and Slava Ukraini. 

It's the Beginning of Spring - Insects, Arachnids and Garden Plants

I can tell it's the beginning of Spring. It might be cold outside, but many of the trees are starting to look fluffy again with the start of buds at the ends of their branches. I'm hearing the occasional mouse or squirrel in my chimney (this is a regular, annual thing - annoying but temporary), and I'm seeing the occasional insect crawling or running across my floor. That's usually ended as quickly as I see it, my foot putting an end to the family line. I don't particularly enjoy killing things, but my home is my personal space and I'm not putting out a "For Lease" sign to critters. 

I don't allow critters to live in my house 
alongside DH and myself. I can't always 
catch them all, but if I see one crawling on 
the floor, it's "game on" and death in my 
shoe on top of it. 

We had a quick snow yesterday morning - it actually came down quite heavily for an hour or so. However, by the end of the day it had all melted and temps were in the upper 30's - very comfortable after all of our cringing cold days of January and February. DH is starting to think about what plants he wants to put into the garden this year and how many tomato plants I want. I know I don't want five tomato plants again - that was WAY too many tomatoes. I want to stick with cherry tomatoes, and I think I only want two plants, three at the most. He mentioned that maybe he'll plant green beans behind the woodshed and that would be absolutely fabulous! I'd love fresh green beans for dinner. 

Too much of anything is too much, and having 
four cherry tomato and one standard tomato 
plant last year was just too much overload. 
I can't eat that many tomatoes, and I hated 
wasting part of the harvest, but I had no 
choice. I think two, three maximum, plants 
will be quite sufficient. 

But, it's still a bit too soon to be seriously planning. Although it's 26F already at 4:00 am, it's March - we're not quite ready for true Spring yet. I can look forward to it, though. St Patrick's Day is on Thursday, and we're supposed to have a high close to 50! That will be amazing and so nice for the people in the parades. Both St Paul and Minneapolis have St Patrick's Day parades, with St Paul's being the larger (we have a much larger Irish population base). I remember temps as high as upper 50's, but I also remember temps as low as upper teens, so 40's will be lovely all around. DH picked up sauerkraut and Pumpernickel bread and cheese yesterday so that he can make Reuben sandwiches with the corned beef I'll make on Wednesday. He's really looking forward to them. 

We didn't have a corned beef last year. I told him I'd be 
happy to make one, but he was only focused on what I 
couldn't/wouldn't eat because I was fairly newly on 
WildFit at the time. Now he's "used" to it, and we've 
learned to accommodate my food choices. I'll eat 
the corned beef, and maybe the sauerkraut, but I'll 
skip the bread, the cheese, and the dressing. I'll 
enjoy my meal as much as he'll enjoy his. 

I got an interesting package in the mail yesterday - a Muama Ryoko WiFi Portable Wireless Router. We get horrible signal in parts of our house, and there are times when I want a better signal, and can't get one. This little gizmo can travel along with me and give me a strong wireless signal of my own. I'll crack the box open tomorrow, put in the SIM card and see how it does. I'm rather looking forward to it, it may resolve some issues with my phone and my laptop and open some locations to me that were difficult before. 

I'm looking forward to using my Muama Ryoko Portable 
Wireless Router. I get into many situations where 
wireless is challenging or spotty. This should help a great 
deal in getting a clear signal and keeping my personal 
privacy settings intact. 

I'm out of here. The swimming pool is calling my name. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. And Fuck Putin, Peace for Ukraine. 

Too Much Writing, Too Little Time

I totally immersed myself in my NaNo this morning, thus are running about 20 minutes late for this blog. Let's see if I can do this in record time.

Yippee! I now have WiFi at home, something I've actually wanted
for a couple of years but was hesitant to actually implement. 

The only thing of import that happened (besides getting my word count to more than 11,000 this morning) was the successfully installation and tweaking of my new wireless router/modem. I'm delighted. I now have WiFi in my home for all of our secondary devices and my main computers are still hard-wired to the modem, which is my preference. I named my network STUBBORN because that's how I have to be more often than not. It seems to be working great, so I'm very pleased.

There are still some things I want to do to increase my security on the
WiFi, but I made a very good start on it yesterday. Now to fine-tune it all...

Yesterday was a bit trashed because of the modem installation, though. I had wanted to be up to 10,500 words by the end of the day but was 1000 below that because of two hours getting the modem set up, recognized, authenticated and initialized by Comcast, and then figuring out how to set up the security on the modem so that I had a locked and private network. But I'm proud of myself nonetheless. I even managed to get some good beading done while talking with Aearwen in the afternoon.

Have a Happy Birthday, Chickie!

Today is Chickie's birthday and I'm joining other friends of hers for a birthday dinner at a Minneapolis Mexican restaurant. I'm really looking forward to it. Their food is wonderful. Have a great Thursday, everyone.