This and That and Decisions Made (I Think), blah, blah, blah

DH and I had a rather relaxing day yesterday, watching football and just kicking back. He was all tense for the Vikings game in the evening, I was tense because of my breast cancer BS Wednesday morning. All in all, it was a nice day - relaxing at least - but an annoying day at the same time. I'm sure you've all had days like that. When I finally turned out the lights and tried to get some sleep, I was on schedule to get at least 5-6 hours - pretty normal for me. But I ended up waking up around midnight, went down to the computer, and spent an hour researching the procedure that I'll have done on Wednesday. 

Apparently my possible tumor is located in the 
10:00 position LCC. At least, I know it's the 
10:00 position, but it might be the RCC. I have no 
idea. It is the right breast, so maybe it's higher than 
I thought it was. In any case, the people doing the 
sample will know where they need to aim. 

My major conundrum (and how often do you have the opportunity to say or spell that word?) is whether I would take Claire up on her offer to drive me to and fro tomorrow, or would drive myself. I think I have come to the conclusion that I'll probably drive myself. It's a local anesthetic, and even though the procedure might have some discomfort involved, it shouldn't be anything major. I can get myself home within 30 minutes of getting into my car, and I'll just tumble right into bed and go to sleep. Claire lives on the opposite side of town, so it would be a considerable drive back and forth for her. It was fabulous of her to offer, but I think I'll turn her down. 

Although I really appreciated Claire's offer to drive me to and 
fro from my appointment on Wednesday, it's only a 15 minuted 
drive back home, so I think I'll be just fine doing it on my own. 

I was going to hit the treadmill toady, but simply didn't feel up to it with the short sleep I got. So, I did a somewhat longer morning meditation, took my shower, made my cups of tea and settled down to write this before I have breakfast and head off to work. One good thing, though. The missing part from my treadmill has arrived and they contacted me to get installation scheduled. I'm trying for Friday, but I'll phone them today to get that locked in. As it is, Friday will be quite packed - it's the only day I'll have for cooking this week. 

Oy vey! We'll have to put off our chat again this week. 
By the time we can talk again, there will be so much 
to catch up on, we'll be busy doing that for the full hour! 

Also, Aearwen, I'll have to pass on our weekly chat on Wednesday. As it is, this week looks like a wash and I hope I'll be sleeping when I should be chatting with you. LOL I know you'll understand, but we MUST make it next week. We have TOO much to catch up on! 

Have an excellent Monday and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Complaints - Just General Complaints, So Ignore If You Want To - LOL

Every time DH needs to work at the shop, he'll come home at night complaining about this thing that Chickie and I haven't done, or how we're not getting things done fast enough, or this, or that. DH is a ball of complaints. I wonder if he wasn't able to complain enough as a child/young adult, so he had to carry that desire for complaint into his adulthood. Whatever the cause, it's coming through in spades now. *sigh* I'm under strict orders to be at the shop no later than 7:30 am so that he can meet me there and we can weigh out some one-pound packs of bulk craft wire. Apparently Chickie and I don't work on the days when he's not there. Huh! Who knew? 

Sure - Chickie and I spend our days standing 
around and doing nothing. *sigh* Right. He's 
saying we'll never get out of business this 
way, and he's right. But the main millstone is 
HIS business inventory, and that's stuff he could 
(and should) have sold more than 15 years ago. 

I'll be there, of course, because I'm usually there at that general time. But really? Whatever. I agree that getting the wire sectioned and packed is very much a team effort, but it's also possible to weigh one package, then get the footage, and be able to do it by length instead of weight from that point on. It might take a bit longer, but it's very do-able. Still, according to DH, he's the only person who's working hard to get us out of business, and ... oh ... what about that Swarovski sale? 

This Swarovski sale will concentrate on the three most 
popular bead shapes - bicones, rounds and cubes. They're 
always our best sellers, and there's a TON of inventory 
still remaining that I want to sell down. So even though I 
have a lot of other shapes/sizes, I chose these three to 
sell down over a six-day sale period. Now to finalize 
the prep work and get it onto the schedule. 

Oh, you mean the sale that I've got 85% ready to go? Well, that is something I can probably finalize today. I'm done with the basic inventory (which will NEVER truly be up-to-date since it's still an active product and we're still selling it almost daily). I've worked out a method for our customers to easily tell us what products they want, and for us to easily find what they're looking for. I even have the clear transparency sheets over at the shop waiting for me to put them into the copier for the master lists. So .. yeah. I think I'm almost ready to go with the next major sale. I have to say, however, Delica beads were a hell of a lot easier to put on sale than Swarovski crystals. *sigh* 

There are just some times when nothing expresses 
my feelings better than Yiddish. This is one of 
those times *sigh*. 

So I'll be at the shop no later than 7:30 am (which is normal for me in any case) and I'll help weigh and coil wire for an hour or two. It'll get one more thing off his to-do list and one more product out on the sales floor instead of moldering in the depths of the warehouse. Now, if we can just stop snipping at each other? Nah! Not going to happen. But I can swim first, so that's an excellent thing. Have a great Thursday, I'll be back tomorrow. And please, if you haven't voted for my story in the current batch, I'd very much appreciate your vote if you think the tale merits it. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Always Something - The Never-Ending "Joys" of Home Ownership

The saying goes, "It never rains but it pours", and that's exactly what seems to be happening in our lives right now. We're sending the final payment to the fence company this week, so one major task is complete. But ... wait for it ... project two intruded into our lives early Sunday morning. 

It never rains but it pours - something else can always 
happen that's even worse or that rubs salt into the 
wound. We got splashed on - the mud hit and we are 
now wet and muddy and - well *sigh*, it's always 
something - LOL. 

DH was closing his window - he always has a window open when he's sleeping unless it's very cold outside. Me? I like indoor comfort and will be happy to see and hear the birds after I've had my morning coffee. He? He likes the feel of open air. He can't hear the birds, so they don't play a part in his morning desires. 

The pane on the right is the pane that fell 
out. DH's bed is less than four feet away from 
that window. Because of the design of our 
house, this is the upper level, but fortunately, 
it's on the side of the house where the ground 
level is much higher than at the basement level. 

So, he cranked the window closed - something he's done for many years since we've lived in this house for almost 40 years now. The final inch or two had a weird sound accompanying it, something I heard but DH didn't. I said something about "That was a weird sound," then turned over and went back to sleep. He went down and had his coffee, took his shower, and then settled down at his computer to play "Lord of the Rings Online" (which we've been playing for 17+ years). 

I did my usual morning routine for a Sunday - sleeping in until 7-8, then settling in for a nice, lone meditation, finally getting out of bed, ready to take my shower and face the day. We had a leisurely breakfast, and then he went out to check on the garden while I cleaned up the dishes. He came back in, telling me he found out why I thought there had been a "weird sound" when he closed the window. As it turned out, the outer pane of glass on the window had separated from the frame, fallen to the ground, and smashed into multitudes of shards. Oy! 

So, the glass was shattered into pieces across 
the ground. It just missed hitting my 
zucchini plants, and I was still finding little 
pieces late that afternoon when we were 
installing the board to protect the window 
and buy us some needed time for gathering 
funds and making window upgrade decisions. 

At the end of the day, after talking about this or that, we decided to put a board up to protect the rest of the window. We simply can't afford to take on a second expensive home repair at this time, and windows are VERY expensive. So, we now have a home with a board in the window - it's well cut and well mounted, but it's a board. *sigh* I don't have a photo of the end result because we finished putting that up too late at night for a photo, but I'll try to remember to take one today sometime and post it later this week. As he says, this will buy us up to a year to make up our minds on style. We know we want Anderson Windows for the job, but we haven't agreed on type of window yet, although we look every year at the State Fair. *sigh* How was your weekend? Anything exciting - LOL? 

Surprise! It's the Fence Guys! - The Saga Continues LOL

Yesterday was my "day off" and was filled with plans - all of which got totally trashed around mid-day. The day started out as usual - laundry washing, swimming, and grocery shopping. I came home, put the groceries away, put the first load into the dryer and started washing load #2. I made the upstairs bed, put DH's clothes into the washer and was hungry. I had fruit on the kitchen counter ready to wash, cut and bake for my breakfasts for the next week plus, and I was hungry, so I had a quick early bowl of vegetable soup. Making sure I was as caught up as possible, I was once again contemplating the fruit when ... 

We're getting this style of fence. Of course, now all we have 
are the posts - nothing between them. We're totally open to 
Laura and Fakhri's yard. It's a good thing they are neighbors 
that we like. The previous owners hadn't said "Boo" to us 
in more than 20 years. 

The front doorbell was ringing. This is rare, and Mama Robin wasn't appreciative, I'm quite sure. Looking out, I noticed a guy dressed like my fence people. Hmmm - they weren't due until Thursday, were they? But I opened the door, and it was indeed the fence guy. He said the scheduler had decided to put us on the Wednesday schedule, instead of the Thursday he had thought. Oops! OK then. We went into the back yard to look at the fence, and I explained exactly what they were supposed to do, and I phoned DH at the shop. 

We now have a row of fence posts set into 
concrete. The posts are 6x6 wood, eight feet tall. 
The old posts, which look pretty knarly, are stacked 
upright next to my patio door. Hopefully DH will 
do something about those today, but if not, I'll bug him 
about it over the weekend. I DON'T want those there. 
If he feels the need to keep them, he can stack them 
behind the shed. 

After FINALLY getting DH on the phone, I told him to get his ass home NOW. Leave Chickie alone for a half-hour or so (usually not a problem), and come and deal with the fence people. I left the fence guys to eat an early lunch in their huge truck, flipped laundry to the dryer and started the third load, put things away in the kitchen, and gathered my laptop. I put everything into Minnion and backed out of the garage so that DH could just pull right in, and since the trash had been collected, I was able to put the bins back into the garage too. It was also my turn to cancel our weekly chat with Aearwen. *sigh* Hopefully next week will be uneventful and we'll just have a LOT to catch up on - LOL. 

These little birds are a bit older than the ones we've got 
in our nest. I'm grateful that the eggs hatched, however. 
More often than not, the squirrels get to the nest before 
the birds have hatched. But, Mama Robin now has 
several VERY hungry nestlings to feed. She's plenty 
busy pulling earthworms and finding juicy bugs for 
them. 

I did ask the guys to be kind to our dear Mama Robin and use the Western gate to go in and out of the backyard instead of the eastern slope. They agreed - (apparently they loved birds also - LOL). After a short while, DH pulled in with his truck, I told him what was what, and left as he was greeting the fence guys. 

When I finally got home from the shop, all of our fence posts have now been set into newly poured domed concrete posts. DH says he might add more concrete later (why, I have no idea. It looked quite well done to me). The rest of my evening was spent finishing up all of the tasks I had left in limbo = taking out load #2 from the dryer and putting load #3 into it, feeding my hummingbirds, and putting the fruit into a bowl since I won't get a chance to cut and cook it until Friday. So, it was an eventful day. Now, I'm off to the pool for my final swim of the week, then I'll head to the shop. DH would have worked for me today, but both Chickie and I hate working just with him. He's not nearly as helpful as he thinks he is when it comes to helping on the sales floor. So DH can have today off, to look at the concrete work and think he could have done better. (He couldn't have - he's not really all that good with concrete.) Still, we're now one step closer to getting a fence back up. Thank goodness! I'll be back tomorrow, so have a great Thursday! Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Progress Marches On - Despite the Faint Trumpets

One of the annoying things about operating a business is that progress continues on, despite desires and bank accounts. Last week's sale was successful - at least I think so. I never did get final numbers from DH, and may have to look into the books to see the totals. But I think it was a good week. Which is lucky, because mid-week I had received notice from our credit card processing company that our terminal had to be updated within two weeks or we would no longer be able to process credit card transactions. 

I guess this is what our new terminal will 
look like - quite different than what we've been 
using for the past 10+ years. I'm crossing my 
fingers that it will work with our set-up. 

No credit cards? That's the "Gong of Doom" to any business these days. With all of the customers paying via actual card or telephone payment systems such as "Apple Pay", electronic transactions are an operational necessity. And yes, our terminal was old - but it was reliable and we owned it, so it was doing just fine. *sigh* I phoned our credit card processors on Tuesday to arrange for a new terminal. 

We accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover cards, 
but not American Express. Although AMEX may 
have changed their policies over the past ten+ years, 
they used to be too expensive for a small store like 
ours to accept because they held onto your funds for 
up to 30 days before releasing them into your bank 
account. As a small business, that wasn't feasible. 

One of the major difficulties for us is that we don't offer Wi-Fi at all. We don't have Wi-Fi available at the shop. We were hard-wired for our transactions, and they transmitted through a telephone line that was/is shared with our Fax machine (operational, but hardly ever used any more). We needed a terminal that would work with our type of system. 

There are a lot of credit card machines out there, but 
most of them rely on wireless to do their transactions. 
We run a wired system - it's old fashioned, but it's 
actually more secure in many aspects. I'll have to 
have our new machine hooked up and operational 
within two weeks. Just one more thing, right? *sigh*

After a long conversation with a very nice young woman, she came up with a terminal that will work for us, so I ordered it and it should arrive today. It's setting us back almost $450 dollars, and there will be a monthly "Network Access" fee of $25 that we'll be paying the processing company for the types of transactions we'll be doing. *sigh*. That's business - we bring in extra funds through a sale, and those funds immediately pull right back out because of operational expenses. 

Remember the old "knuckle buster" machines for credit 
cards? I'm sure I still have one of these in my storage 
cabinet for emergencies. When I first opened the business, this 
was how we did credit card transactions. The credit card 
processor sent a booklet every week of CC numbers that 
weren't valid, and you had to look up each credit card in 
that booklet before imprinting the charge slip and 
getting the card holder's signature. Slow, clunky, and 
not always accurate. Lots of problems with this type of 
system. Electronic was a BIG step forward, and we moved 
into that with the Mall of America store. 

At least yesterday's errands and cooks were successful. I now have eight individual stuffed peppers packed and ready for my dinners, and nine containers of baked pears ready for my breakfasts. I'm set for more than a week. I'm not remembering exactly what DH has me making for Super Bowl Sunday's meal, but it's easy, so no concerns there. I still have Friday to catch up in the kitchen, and I desperately want to wash the floor in the kitchen and do some dusting in the living room. The house just isn't super clean right now and it's driving me a bit crazy. LOL 

Our current credit card terminal has lasted 
for almost 20 years. It's been very flexible, 
even accepting contactless and "Apple Pay" 
style payments without a problem. Getting 
the software updated from the processor was 
always a challenge, however. That was never 
a smooth transaction. I hope the new machine 
will be better for that. 

So, off to the pool to work off a bit of this frustration. I'll see about getting that credit card terminal installed within the next week, and we'll be "cooking with gas" once again. But it may be a slightly bumpy road for a few days while we get used to the new system. I hope you have a lovely Thursday, I'll be back tomorrow - Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Holiday Card Update - So Here's What's Going to Happen

So, here's the deal. I'm missing 10 holiday cards for this year's batch. I've looked everywhere I can think of (and a few places where they really wouldn't be, but had to check anyway), and they're MIA. Here's what's going to happen. 

Oy Vey! I know I made 10 more cards, the original count 
is always 50. But I only have 40 completed cards in my card 
box, so I'm totally missing 10. I've searched everywhere 
without success. Oy vey iz mir! 

Ten people on my list - my domestic list of addresses - will be getting a store-bought card which I will buy on  Wednesday. You'll get the same insert as everyone else, but the card will be different. I'll keep a record of who got the secondary cards, and when/if I find the missing ones, I'll send it along to you, no matter the season or date. If I find them in a year or two, you'll be getting a card (very late) in a year or two - LOL. 

I do lists for a lot of things, but this one is an 
important one. If I send you a replacement card 
(a commercially made card) I'll keep a list and 
when (if) I find the missing 10 cards, you'll 
be getting a replacement card, even if it's in 
the middle of summer. 

I'll be working on the insert for the cards today, and tomorrow will be the initial assembly day, with a quick trip to the Post Office to purchase appropriate postage for all of them. I want them out by Friday, so I have a lot of work still to do to make that reality. I'm apologizing in advance for this snafu. I've been sending out my hand-made cards every year for decades and this is the first time I can recall having totally mislaid a portion of the cards. Of course, with the way this year's design has morphed from A to B to C to D ... nothing surprises me. 

If nothing else, this year's holiday card has taught me 
once again about flexibility for scheduling and for 
the finished product. It's gone through so many changes 
and shifts, it's a bit of a miracle that it's going out 
at all! LOL

So I'm off to the pool to swim off some of this stress. I'm very disappointed, and I know some of you will also be disappointed. I'm sending abject apologies, and I hope that I do come across the missing cards at some point and will be able to actually send them to the homes they were destined for. I hope you have a great Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Today is a Merry-Go-Round of Errands and Appointments

This time I managed to kill a new watch within a week of receipt. *sigh* I'm really good at killing watches. Fortunately this one wasn't super expensive, but I guess I'll have to look at getting one that is, to get the functions I need in something that I actually can operate. The inexpensive one I had before this current watch was pretty good, but I found getting it set was almost impossible. I need something that's made for old people - LOL. I probably need a FitBit, and they're not inexpensive. 

Several friends who also swim have recommended 
FitBit watches to me. I've always been hesitant 
because of the cost, but if it would last a year, 
I could live with it. Meg's Fitbit has lasted for almost 
five years and is still working. She swims several 
times a week and is very active. 

Today is a merry-go-round of appointments, starting with a 7:40 am mammogram, and progressing to an 8:30 am appointment with my Orthodontist to get the lower band removed. At noon, I see my dentist to get the loose crown reapplied, and then at 1:00 pm I'm back at the Orthodontist to get the lower band reapplied. Then I'll actually have a couple of hours to go to my co-op to take advantage of a specific once-a-month sale they have on my collagen, and the grocery store for tonight's dinner and other sundries. I should be home in time to phone Aearwen for our weekly chat, and then, after dinner, I can collapse - maybe - LOL. 

By the time I get to the grocery store later this 
afternoon, I'll probably feel like a limp noodle! 

I'm postponing my usual Wednesday laundry until Friday. I simply won't have the time to deal with that today at all. Fortunately that's not an essential - I won't run out of clothes, and the beds can manage without new sheets for a couple more days. I did cancel my 11:00 am COVID booster appointment. Those appointments are never timely and always take far more time to get in and out than they should. I'll get that rescheduled for next week (which will be the 2nd time I've had to cancel and reschedule. Maybe my COVID booster shot is a doomed task). 

So, I'm off and running. Have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Maybe a bit exhausted from today's errands, but ready to start anew. Slava Ukraini and prayers for Israel. 

Today's Schedule is Hit or Miss - I'm Hoping for More Hit than Miss

I found myself chasing my own tail with DH's website yesterday. Tasks I had easily accomplished on Wednesday just weren't working on Thursday. I'll set up again today and give it another go, but I also know I'll be interrupted today and have to run into the shop quickly, so my schedule is a mess anyway. 

My schedule for today is totally messed up, which 
isn't creating much joy for me right now. I need to 
be semi-available at quick notice to run to the 
shop, and it's hard to do Ogre Juice and bake 
some chicken thighs when I need to drop 
everything on a phone call. *sigh*

I have an out-of-town customer who used to live in our area and be a regular shopper. "B" moved to California, and is traveling through on business. She placed a "pick-up" order with us on Wednesday and Chickie and I worked on it yesterday, getting it put together and ready to go. It's a LOT of beads, and I know she'll be picking out others while she's in the shop. "B"'s still got her tax ID number on file with us, and she'll qualify for a quantity discount. She's hoping for an additional discount, but I'm not sure I can go that far. Chickie will call me when "B" arrives in the shop, and I'll put aside whatever I'm working on and head over to assist and to ring her out. We'll see where things go from there, but her main order is packed and ready to be sold. 

I'm pretty good with time management, but sometimes 
things just don't work out well. Not knowing when "B" 
will show up at the shop is really messing with my 
schedule today. 

One of our last customers of the day was obnoxious and I know stole a spool of thread from us, and there wasn't really anything I could do about it, although we certainly called her on it. The customer expressed an interest in seed beads, and seriously stripped our sample boards. We called a halt to the random sweep and gather after one bucket had been filled, and Chickie discussed needles and threads with her while I finished up with another customer, a sweet, elderly woman buying a few things to fix some jewelry she had broken. 

She didn't steal the big spools, but the small one "somehow" 
found it's way into the front pocket of her cut-off jeans. 
We could see it, the empty baggie was on the counter, 
and we called her on it, but she huffed and puffed and I 
wasn't in the mood to lock her in and call the cops on 
a $5 theft, so I let it ride ... this time. I know her now. 
This won't happen again. 

Although Chickie and I could quite clearly see the outline of the spool of thread in her cut-off's pocket, she claimed it was a roll of coins. We know it was BS, but it wasn't worth the effort. I'll remember her - if she hadn't made such a big fuss and mess, we would have caught her earlier. I didn't want to get into a fight for a spool of thread that costs less than $5, so I let it ride ... THIS time. *sigh* Most of our customers are fantastic people, but there are exceptions to that, unfortunately. 

My life would be easier if I didn't have to develop DH's 
website in between the other things on my plate, but I 
do. Yesterday I was cruising along, and it was going well, 
but I had to help a customer and what I was working on 
disappeared. I couldn't bring it back, and couldn't find 
the graphic I had been working on, so I called it quits for 
the day. I'll tackle it again today. *sigh*

Still, it was a good day, and I have hopes that my issues with the website design will be resolved today. I'll find out in a few hours. I have a lot to do, and running to the shop to help "B" is also going to cut into my day. What a mess. I have things I have to roast in the oven, and I don't dare start that until I'm finished with "B". I hope she comes in quite early - I'd like to get her out of the way so that I can actually accomplish what I need to today. On that note, I'm out of here. Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Second Verse, Same As the First - Just Different Words

A few weeks ago a person from our City dropped by in the afternoon. His job was to switch out the battery on our gas meter. The battery set-up which was initiated more than a decade ago, allows the meters to be read remotely without a person having to take physical readings at each property (the bad old days - LOL). He said it wouldn't take long - about five minutes - and he was only warning me that he would be in the backyard for a short time. So ... great. Make it happen. 

We have an older gas meter similar to this one, 
 (which is sensible since the house dates from 1960). 
Xcel needs to replace it with a newer version, and 
I'm happy to let them do it. Hopefully it will go 
easily (nothing in this house EVER goes easily, 
so I'm not holding my breath). 

I thought it happened. It was fast, as he had said, and I assumed it had gone through. Then I heard from our local power company - Xcel Energy. Apparently our meter is old enough that it can't accept a new battery, but needs to be replaced. That's what Xcel will be doing this morning. 

On Monday, when DH and I got home from work, we noticed a large, fluorescent orange sign hanging from our front door. It told us that we needed to contact Xcel at a number supplied on the card to arrange for a new meter to be installed and it stated things in terms that we knew we didn't have any choices in this. So I called the number the next day, spoke to a very nice man, and set up an appointment for first thing in the morning (8:00 am) today. He said the meter will be changed over, but then they will need to get into the house to activate the gas flow and relight the furnace and water heater, etc. He said it will take approximately 30 minutes. 

I have NO idea whether the meter on the left is similar 
to what we'll be getting, but we're getting something 
newer than our old one. As far as I'm concerned, it 
was working fine, but they're doing it for their own 
reasons, and if it works, all is good. 

Given that it's my house, where nothing goes easily, I estimate it will be closer to 45-60 minutes, but I'll be here, and DH will be here, so it should go smoothly. DH actually cleaned up a bit, and vacuumed the short hallways where people will be walking. SHOCK! I removed the few handing clothes I had in the laundry room which is where we have the furnace and water heater, so I think we're as ready as we can be. Now to have them show up on time - LOL. Good news, of course, is that there is no charge to us for any of this. Huzzah. 

So, I'm off and running once again. Many things to do, and little time in which to do it. 

Soaked Sheets and a Lap Counter - Yesterday Was Quite the Day

DH was feeling a bit better yesterday, but he's still not anywhere close to 100%. He decided to go back to bed and get more sleep yesterday around noon, then texted me that his sheets were all wet, and then texted again that the mattress pad was soaked too. Apparently he had sweated the sickness away overnight, but like a stupid little boy, hadn't told me. I could easily have stripped the bed, put a new set of sheets on, and put everything into the washer before leaving for the shop yesterday morning. But no. Instead, he used a hair dryer to partial effect. The sheets were apparently still slightly damp when he went to bed last night. MEN! Oy vey! 

There are some times when only "Oy vey!" is the only 
proper response. DH's not telling me he had soaked 
through his bedding and drying it with a hair dryer 
because he didn't want to go through the work of 
putting the bedding into the dryer comes under 
that heading. "Oy Vey!" indeed! 

I'll be pulling the bed apart today and washing those sheets. He can feel miserable at work - he's not as sick as yesterday or the day before, so he'll do fine. I'll have everything back together for him before he returns home tonight. 

My new lap counter and timer fits around my first 
finger and is operated by that lower button. It's 
pretty simple, although I'll be reading through 
the directions for several times before I've got 
it nailed. It's like a pedometer for the pool, but 
it also works above water for triathletes.  

I have a new toy - another gadget. This time something lovely and small and that I've wanted for years, but couldn't find. Maybe it just wasn't made before, or maybe I only searched on terms that didn't bring up the proper solution. It's the SC Sportcount LapCounter and Timer. It fits around my first finger and counts my laps for me. When I turn it off, it holds my total, speed and analysis easily for more than an hour, allowing me to get back home before I take a careful look. My problem has always been my vision - I can't see well enough with goggles to read the digital displays of my watch or other items. With this, I don't have to try to focus, it'll hold the data for me until I return home. 

I've been using my new paper cutter and it's wonderful. 
I got the extra blades and cutting pads in yesterday's 
delivery and just in time. I'll need to use one of 
those fancy blades for the next stage. I need to 
think about what needs to be done in what order 
first, so I've got some decisions to make today. I'll 
be contemplating my cards on and off throughout 
the day. This next stage will be crucial. 

I have a busy day ahead of me. I finally got the correct size of slipcover for my couch, so I'll be moving furniture and getting that onto the couch. I'll be swimming, of course, because it's Friday, I'll be stripping, washing, and remaking DH's bed, and I'm quite sure there are other errands on my list, I'm just not remembering them at 4:00 am. I think it'll be a good day, though. I hope your day is stellar and I'll be back tomorrow.