Today Isn't Starting Out Very Well - We'll Have to See How it Ends

Yesterday I took a quick drive over to Harbor Freight to get a new drive belt for my tumbler. It's suddenly not able to turn a standard load, and that's usually a drive belt issue. There are other things it might be too, but one step at a time. Unfortunately, Harbor Freight changed their store contents over the past year and the drive belt, although still carried by them, is available as a mail order only. Certainly that wasn't very helpful when I need the tumbler to work today. *sigh* 

Harbor Freight is one of those places where I can browse 
for hours. But I only needed one thing, and they didn't have 
it, so I was in and out of there within 10 minutes and 
didn't buy anything! That's very rare for me and any tool 
shop. LOL

So I returned to the shop and reassembled the tumbler, made sure everything was working as well as could be, and determined that the problem might be the drive belt, but it also could be the support rod not turning freely. I'll have to take another look today and then see what, if anything, can be done to make it turn a bit better. Given that we keep the tumbler in the basement area, which (since I pulled the jewelry making items out a few years ago) isn't super clean, it could easily be a problem with dust buildup on the rods. Maybe. I'm starting to run out of ideas about why my tumbler won't tumble, and might also look into what they cost these days. I remember them as being quite inexpensive, and we need one that actually works and works well. 

I have a small, single barrel tumbler similar to this 
one at the shop. It's not this brand, and there are a 
few differences, but basically, they're identical. 
Suddenly mine isn't tumbling properly. I need to 
figure out what's going on. *sigh*

To continue my problems with modern technology a step farther, when I got onto the treadmill this morning, only one of my two earbuds were actually conducting sound. *sigh* Time to drop by Target for a new set of Skull Candy earbuds on my way to work. I don't work out on the treadmill again until Friday, but I need my tunes and my virtual scenery to actually stay on the treadmill for the time I need/want without being bored to tears. 

I prefer Skullcandy ear buds. They work well for me, 
and are inexpensive. I'll try and get a new set on my 
way to work at the Target I pass on my way to the 
shop. If they don't have any there, I'll get some on 
Wednesday at the larger Target near my YMCA. 

So, today just isn't starting very well. Of course, it's also a Monday, which means it's DH and I working together while Chickie has a day off. Of course she deserves a day off, and I'm sure she has a million things on her "to do" list, most of which won't get done. She's human just like the rest of us. But, she'll be back tomorrow, hopefully I'll have a drive-belt coming in mail order this week, and I'll take a close look at the support bars to see if I can figure out why they're not moving my barrel, when they move just fine without the barrel in place. Mysteries. *sigh* Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Our First Single-Digit Day Since Last Winter - COLD

I am running SUPER late today and need to get to the swimming pool. It's damned COLD outside - our first day when I'm waking up to single digit temperatures, and I'm NOT happy about it. I also needed to get my price tags copied, but my printer isn't recognizing that I want full paper size, not an envelope size. I have turned it off to contemplate it's mistakes, but it's going to really mess me up both in terms of time and in terms of the specialized paper that I use for our price tags. *sigh*

Oh yeah - I can totally relate to this today. 
Hopefully your day will start a bit smoother 
than mine did. I'm hoping mine settles 
down soon, because I don't need a day of 
"OMG", but rather a day of accomplishment. 

So, since I'm running super late and my printer isn't being cooperative and I'm cold and my phone is almost out of power, I'm going to just leave today's post right here. I think today might be a day of running into walls, and that won't be very welcoming this close to Christmas. I'll figure it all out, but I'm really grumpy right now. 

We're cold today, and I'll be using most/all 
of these items to help keep me warm. My parka 
is ankle length, but I have the boots, socks, 
mittens, scarf and hat as a norm in the winter. 
The actual clothing - turtleneck and leggings 
are often a choice too. 

Still, please have a great day. Hopefully you'll be warm - if not outside, then with friends and family to warm your heart. Do a kindness for yourself today - pet a dog or cat, take a walk if weather permits, listen to a bird who has down feathers, so it's probably a lot warmer than I am right now. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Friday Was a Good Day Off - Adventures With Food

My intention yesterday, amidst many other things, was to donate to Ukraine by renting an Air B&B rental location for a day or several days. I actually had chosen a place in Irkusk, and way almost finished finishing the paperwork when Air B&B required photo identification - passport, driver's license, or one other item which I'm not remembering. I stopped there, cancelled the reservation, and I'll find a different way to donate to Ukraine. I have no faith or desire to put my personal identification into cyber space. I guess I'm too cynical to have faith, and I just don't want my identification documents in the aether. 

Although I can understand Air B&B wanting photo ID 
for reservations, I'm not going there. I'm not quite that 
trusting. I do need to get a new ID started, I finally have 
all of the documentation needed for one of the fancier 
ID cards that will allow me to fly. Right now, mine is 
good for a few more months, but that's all. 

Etsy did respond to me, and I'll be trying to get some work done on that today between other things at the shop. I really want to get this going, and it's just not clicking into place. I'm sure, if I was just an individual artist wanting to put my goods for sale onto Etsy, it wouldn't be as difficult. But I'm part of a corporation that has a bit of a convoluted corporate structure, and I suspect that's what's tripping things up. 

I'm quite happy with my new mouse, and I love 
the color. Of course, the most important thing is that 
it works, and it seems to work just fine. I was using 
my laptop for most of the day yesterday, and it 
performed well. For $20, it was a worthwhile purchase. 

I bought a new mouse (which works perfectly and is a lovely red color), and I dropped my two boxes of books off at Half-Price Books, receiving $2 for this batch. Huzzah! LOL I got my groceries for my salmon dish and looked at corned beef choices for St Patrick's Day. I'll probably head over to the store tomorrow and buy one - it would be nice to have corned beef on Thursday, I could make it on Wednesday (or maybe DH could make it on Thursday). I'm not doing potatoes, I don't eat them, but the meat would be nice and certainly won't be a problem. 

The salmon was so easy. On aluminum 
foil sprayed with non-stick spray, lay 
several fronds of fresh rosemary and 
slices of lemon. Put the salmon on 
top, with fresh minced garlic on it 
(I forgot the garlic so added minced 
garlic spice half-way through the 
bake). Bake at 375-400 for 15 
minutes or so. Then open up, and put 
under the broiler for an additional 3-4 
minutes. Really excellent! 

The salmon turned out AMAZING and so easy to make. I made enough for two meals and had the second half sitting on the stove while I ate. DH picked at it and tasted a little bit. He declared it "really good. I'd eat this if you made it again," which shocked me since he's not a fan of salmon. And yeah - I'm definitely making it again. I paired it with roasted Brussels sprouts and multi-colored heirloom carrots. It was delightful. I have the leftovers for tonight, and I'm already looking forward to dinner. 

I think I'm going to get a corned beef brisket for St 
Patrick's Day dinner. I won't eat or make the potatoes, 
that'll be up to DH if he wants them. but I have no 
problem with the meat itself. It should be a nice meal. 

So, that's all today - nothing really exciting happened yesterday, but I did get a lot accomplished. I'm looking forward to a productive day at the shop today, and a comfortable Sunday. We'll see - it doesn't take much to ruffle the waters of my life. I hope you have a fabulous weekend and I'll be back on Monday for Pi Day. LOL Peace! 

Dragon Fruit - I wasn't Let Down By the Dragon

I started my day out with some fruit, a usual start with my nutrition program, and I indulged in a type I've never had before - yellow dragon fruit. It was really delicious - very sweet with a little crunch because of the seeds scattered throughout the meat. I'll definitely get another one of these. I'm impressed and want more. 

Dragon fruit comes in three different varieties, yellow 
and two types of red. I had a yellow for my breakfast 
today, apparently the sweetest of the three. It was 
delicious and I'd get it again. Want to know more about 
this fruit? Follow the LINK to an informative short 
description of each of the three varieties. 

I have a mango almost ripe and ready to cut up, and I'll look for more fun fruit when I go back to the store tomorrow. I still have plenty of grapes, blueberries, bananas, oranges, apples and pears, but I'm loving the fact that I'm looking for new flavors and varieties. I love fruit, so having it first thing in the morning isn't a burden to me at all. 

I love mango, it's a firm and tasty fruit. I bought 
some already cut up from my store, as well as 
a whole one which will be ready to cut up 
tomorrow. It's a lovely fruit and a treat to eat. 

I was banished to the bedroom last night to watch my baking show on the upstairs TV while DH worked on his computer in the computer room with the other TV. I grabbed Voodoo and got some work done while waiting for my show to come on. I'm really happy with how Voodoo is working out. I'm using it every day and it's performing like a champ in almost every instance. There are a few exceptions I'll have to chase down - I'm sure it's a setting that's causing the glitch and I have to find it and change it. Still, Voodoo is proving to have been an excellent decision all-around, and I'm quite happy with it. 

This isn't far off from DH when he's crabby. He won't 
listen to anything you say and he's throwing a fit, 
walking away in mid-sentence. Just like a five-year-old. 
I guess I expected more of someone I've spent almost 
45 years with. Just sayin'......

DH is still not talking to me. It's been since late Friday, when I first texted him I had been chosen for the vaccine lottery and was scheduled to get my Covid vaccination on Sunday afternoon. I have no idea why he's not talking to me, but as long as he stays out of my way, I suppose I can live with sharing his air while he gets over his latest BS temper tantrum. I gotta tell you, though. This is NOT what I signed up for when I married him more than 40 years ago. He's like a five-year-old and it's tiring, exhausting and exasperating. 

Oh well, enough bitching. Bitching really doesn't accomplish much of anything. I'll wrap this up and wish all of you a wonderful day. Please be kind, stay safe and wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

ARGH - It's Enough To Make Me Want to Wallow in Self Pity! That's Just NOT Me!

One of the things the bank needed from us for our PPP Loan Forgiveness were copies of our bank statements. I had taken them home mid-week last week and scanned them in - three months for one account, six for another. I scanned them in and saved them to my hard drive. I thought I had included them in the documents I sent to my banker on Sunday. She emailed me yesterday, and no. They weren't part of the multitude of images I sent along to her. So I was going to send them again. They are nowhere to be found on my hard drive. I've looked in every location I can think of under every name, and searched by dates too, and nowhere! So, today I get to find the damned things again and scan them in once again and send them out again. It's extremely frustrating. 

I have looked everywhere. It would be nice if I found the files 
after re-scanning one of the statements, but who knows. It's 
annoying and quite frustrating. 

The hardest part of getting those documents to the bank is finding the darned bank statements. DH squirrels these things away (probably wise, but it makes things difficult) and he's not at the shop on Tuesdays. I'll have time to take a serious hunt, but it's just one more step of frustration. Maybe I'll be lucky and it'll actually be someplace reasonable - like in a folder or something. But it probably won't be that easy. 

My Discover Card is my personal card. I use it for 
my own expenses and sundries. It's what I use for my 
books and e-books, and for things like my computer 
because I have a very nice credit line built up with 
them over 20+ years of use. 

I received an updated Discover card yesterday for touchless charging. I encourage my customers to use touchless whenever they can, and I'm very pleased to have received the card, but of course it's a new card number and I have charges pending on the old card which have to go through before I can activate the new one. Therefore, it will have to sit for a week or two until all of my pending items (including my new laptop) have cleared. Then I can go ahead and cancel the old and activate the new. I have to be careful to catch all of the automatic places where I have the card registered too. It's not a lot, but they're important. Just one more hoop to jump through. 

Enough of my wallowing in self pity. Isn't the word 
"wallowing" such an unusual word? I might have 
to look up the origin of the word - curiosity ... one 
of the best tools against self pity. LOL

On that rather frustrating note, I think I'm through complaining for the day LOL. Time to be more optimistic and pro-active. I can only wallow in growls for so long. All things considered, my problems are fairly minimal and certainly something that can be overcome with relative ease. And, my dental appointment was excellent - a clear slate including X-rays. Next checkup in June. Huzzah! I'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, please be kind, stay safe and wear your mask. 

I'm Behind and It's Only January 4th!

I finally caught up on the several days of backlogged messages and wonderful "Happy New Year" e-cards sent to me by many friends across the world. Of course, catching up on those things means I'm running behind on today's post. All of the great plans I had, well, they are already running behind. Snowflake? I'm behind. Art challenge? Yeah - behind again. 

A friend joined this challenge and I decided it would be fun.
Today's challenge is puppets, and I'm not fond of those, so I'm
skipping today. I might catch up with two days ago - create a
piece of art in ten minutes that you leave for someone else to find.
Interested in the challenge? Here's a link. 

Tonight's "empty" schedule will be filled with cooking meatballs ... but perhaps I can push that off until tomorrow, since we won't need to be at my nephew's house for the annual family get-together until 3:00 pm. I've actually got all of the ingredients to do crock-pot sweet and sour meatballs, so I'm probably going to push it off until morning and do it really quickly then. Or not. Are you getting an idea why I'm already behind schedule and it's only the 4th of January? 

I was only going to make one pound of meatballs, but
DH told me to double the recipe because it is for a lot
of people. So, I'll do that. I bought the extra ingredients
on my way home from the gym yesterday, so I'm set. 

At the shop, I had all good intentions of de-Christmasing the store. Although that's probably not an official word, it basically means pulling down all of the holiday garlands and decorations, stripping the tree of any remaining ornaments (which I'll put on 50% off savings), and taking the tree back downstairs. I'm not really sure why I'm holding onto the tree right now, but we'll see. Plans are to be closed in late summer/early fall, but I've learned over the years that plans can change. 

It's time to turn off the holiday lights. I'm going to be on a ladder pulling
down the tinsel garland and the fake evergreen garland, I've already
pulled the wreaths from the door and front cabinet. I want my store back
to normal once again. 

I think I might be caught up with most of my emails pending and my various "real" things I had to do like renewing website licenses, etc. The beginning of a new year is always rather exhausting. I need to evaluate whether or not to renew the store's website. I wanted to let it die last year - I can't update it (software is outdated) and it's basically an expensive placeholder right now. Yet another decision to be made. 

I'm running just to catch up and it's only the 4th of January! Oy! Maybe
I'll catch up a little bit today ... or not LOL. 

But, it's only the 4th of January and I have a little bit of breathing space. I'm going to take that opportunity and take a few deep breaths. Have a wonderful Saturday and a great weekend. I'll be back on Monday. 

Second Verse - Same As The First

Are any of you old enough to remember a song that went: 

  I'm Henry the 8th, I am
  Henry the 8th, I am, I am
  I got married to the widow next door
  She's been married seven times before
  and every one was a Henry   ...
  
Well, you get the idea. That rotating sameness, that revolving door, that seems to be my life lately. I really want to break out of it. 

When it comes to dealing with government, and especially the
SSA, it's a revolving door to hell. Actually, maybe Satan
actually invented revolving doors and collects a small
royalty every time one of these is used. 

Here's the rub for me. I have been going onto the Social Security website every few days to see when my account would be unlocked and available for me to progress on the road to Medicare. More than three weeks ago I sent the final form out to them, and I keep expecting results. (Insert sound of crickets here. Yeah - no results.) Yesterday, frustrated, I phoned SSA and spoke to Miguel in Texas about the problem. After a lot of dithering, it came down to "I have no idea why it isn't complete, but there's nothing I can do." So, I asked, "How about if I take every piece of paper I've ever had to the SSA Office in person and try to expedite things that way?" 

I'll be taking every document I can think of (and
probably some they won't need) to the SSA
this morning. I've got to get this moving along! 

The verdict - that might work. So, my Manager is covering for me at opening today while I head back out to the far suburbs to stand in line and talk to an agent about getting things resolved and working once again. My clock is ticking and time is running down. It's almost the end of March and I have to have everything nailed within a month. At the glacial pace that the SSA is coming along with this, it's just not happening. Time to light a fire and burn the forest down. Eliminating the dross might actually be successful. At least I'm certainly hoping so. 

Happy Birthday to Shirebound - a friend for many years and one
of those amazingly optimistic people who have a loving heart
and always room for one more. Celebrate madly, love deeply,
and enjoy your Very Special Day! 

Yesterday was so filled with crap that I didn't get a chance to read and comment on anyone's B2MeM stories. I apologize. I always try to read and comment because I think it's important to acknowledge the efforts of others and because I love to read the varied takes on the prompts. I'll try to get caught up over the next day or two. As for today's prompt for me? I'll be working on it while waiting for the doors to be unlocked at SSA. *sigh* Have a great Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Another Credit Issue - This Is Getting Old

After a rather strange phone call from a large financial institution yesterday, I spent more than an hour working with the LifeLock and Experian accounts I had set up after our financial identity scare of early April. I had set things up to be notified in case people were snooping around our financial information, and LifeLock notified me via phone and emails that we had people sniffing around. Experian, although they were also supposed to notify me, did nothing. 

LifeLock came through - phoning and emailing me when
they found out someone was nosing around our credit. 

So yesterday I strengthened the boundaries and locks around our data with Experian and broadened the reach of our LifeLock, and today we'll have to deal with the phone call from the large financial institution. I suspect someone was trying to set up a credit card under DH's name. I think I got it nipped in the bud quickly, but I'll have to do some more stuff later today, and there's one credit card company that can only be notified by mail - Ick! 

I wasn't as happy with Experian, who didn't notify
us even though they were supposed to. I strengthened
our file boundaries there and spent more than an hour
going through everything I could access on
their website. I hope I caught this on time. 

I think I caught this in time, and I also think this was only tendrils of slight touches to see how far things could go. It's harsh, though, and DH is quite upset by the whole thing. I couldn't run interference for him on the phone call yesterday, because the large financial institution insisted that they had to speak with him directly. DH will phone them today, and possibly/probably tell them that I'm authorized to take care of all of this for him. We'll find out, at any rate. If he doesn't get anywhere with them today, he'll come to the shop tomorrow and we'll call from there because there we can both be on the phone together at the same time. 

Like most days, yesterday was a day of ups and
downs. This financial stuff - a definite roller
coaster. 

So, a definite downer in my day yesterday, although I also had a positive upper by getting an opportunity to chat with Aearwen for more than an hour yesterday afternoon. That was unexpected, since her original schedule had caused her to cancel our weekly chat. Her circumstances changed, and we were able to catch up after all. It's always a high point to my week, so I was delighted to discuss everything under the sun with one of my good friends. 

It's always a joy to get to chat with Aearwen on my
Wednesdays. We've been chatting weekly for
years now and never seem to run out of things
to say or conversational avenues to walk down. 

And that brings me to the end of another blog post. Funny how quickly time goes by when I just sit down and start writing in the morning. I hope each of you has a wonderful Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Also, don't forget - the Royal Wedding is EARLY Saturday morning, so plan your schedule. I'll have to make sure I'm up in time to have it on in the background, I want to see Meghan's dress! 

Instafreebie - I'm Probably Missing Something Obvious

I'm a bit frustrated. OK, I'll be honest here, I'm a LOT frustrated. One of my favorite authors put out a new book in a series I loved but hadn't read in some time. So I began reading the previous books once again to get more familiar with the characters and settings. That's been going great - I'm into book 3 of the five now. The problem comes with a smaller free book that she has available on Instafreebie. 

I know I need to get to this page in the app, to access
my book. But I can't seem to get to this page in the
app at all. It's frustrating. I'm sure it's really easy, but
I can't seem to figure it out. 

Instafreebie is a no-charge e-book app and repository. I found the book, jumped through all kinds of hoops to get an account set up, and supposedly downloaded a PDF of the book that I could read on my Nook App. Except that I can't find the download to be able to actually click on the book and read it. I could jump through all of the hoops once again and get re-authorized for another download, but I'm not so sure that would accomplish anything. 

It should be really easy. I downloaded the instafreebie app
and it opens fine. They sent me an email with the book
attached as a PDF as I had requested, but I can't find
the book to be able to open it and read it. 

So my question for all of you today is ... do you have Instafreebie? How do you go about downloading your books and where the heck do you find the efiles of your books for access? I'd like to read this smaller collection of short stories before I've put the full series to bed once more. Any/all help or suggestions you may have would be appreciated. 

Today is also dental appointments day for DH and me. Mine is as early as I can get it so that I can get to work on time, DH's is later in the day. I phoned the dental office yesterday and offered them the option of rescheduling DH's appointment since he's coughing, but they said as long as he's not running a temperature, they would be able to cope. So it's their choice. 

Of course my mind was whirling so much around my crazy schedule today that I woke at 2:45 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Oh well, at least I'm starting my day ahead of myself. That won't last long - LOL. Have a wonderful Tuesday, and don't forget to message me, email me or just post a reply if you have any suggestions on how to get my book from Instafreebie. I'm going a bit crazy here! 

Gate Guardians, Lifeguards and Gargoyles

So, will the fourth time be the charm? Why would I be asking such a thing? Well, it's been a frustrating few days at the gym. Here's the crazy. 

I often call the Gate Guardians gargoyles. I realize that
gargoyles were not actually guarding the front doors, but the
attitude of some of the front desk people is closer to that of a
gargoyle than a friendly face in the morning. 

It takes two things to swim (not counting the swimmer's individual ability to stay in the water and propel him/her/itself from one end of the pool to the other without drowning). It requires a Gate Guardian and a Lifeguard. On Saturday we were missing the more unusual of the two - the Lifeguard, Beth, was there, but our Gate Guardian was missing. The YMCA was locked up tight. Beth started making phone calls, but as the time passed I just went ahead and left. No swim on Saturday. I later heard that the doors weren't opened until 6:35 am - more than half an hour late. 

I am quite fond of gargoyles on buildings, but when they are in charge
of opening the gym and they don't perform their job, they fall a ways
down on my "favorites" list. 

On Sunday I took the day to be with DH, and we had a delightful day at the Renaissance Festival, even though we had an unseasonable heat wave and it was HOT. Still, I didn't have to worry about swimming on Sunday since it's my day off from the gym. 

On Monday I went to my secondary location because I had a 6:30 am bi-weekly appointment with my Chiropractor. Although the Lifeguard wasn't there when I arrived, Aimee assured me that Greg was one of their more reliable guards and that he'd be there. EXCEPT, it turned out he overslept. We were allowed onto the pool deck, but couldn't actually get into the water until he had arrived, almost 30 minutes late. Because I had an appointment, I only got 15 minutes of swim in - far short of my usual mile. Argh! 

This lovely heron gargoyle is ascribed to be from Notre Dame
Cathedral. I didn't have the chance to drill down and find out
if that's its' true location, but it is quite a lovely and rather
unusual gargoyle. 

So, Tuesday arrived and I was looking forward to returning to a regular schedule. We have a new Gate Guardian on Tuesdays, and she takes offence at being told how to do her job. The fact that the people telling her have been there daily for 20 years or more and probably know her job much better than she does, doesn't seem to make a difference. The Lifeguard hadn't shown up yet, so when she unlocked the door, we asked her if she had called and when one would be there. She said she was there to unlock the door, that she hadn't called at all. WRONG ANSWER! If there's no guard by 10 minutes to the hour, she's supposed to get on that phone and get him/her/it moving. I blew off Tuesday. If she hadn't even called, it would be 30-45 minutes at best until we had a pool in which to swim. Even Rosemary turned around and left, snorting in disgust! 

This lovely array of gargoyles is from Amiens, France. I'd say this
cathedral is certainly protected and that water will be properly
removed from the structure when it rains.  

So today is Day Four. I'm really hoping that I'll have a pool to use today with a Lifeguard and a Gate Guardian who actually knows what they are doing. It would be nice to get back to my usual schedule, but it's going to be a hard workout after this many days off. ARGH! 

Enjoy your Wednesday. I have a ton of stuff to do, just catching up from having to work the last eleven of twelve days. I'll get it done, but it's going to be hectic. Still, at least I finally have a "day off" to do my laundry, grocery shopping, etc. and I really need that. Yippee! 

Running Through Honey - Monday Couldn't End Soon Enough

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing quite clicked? A day where everything started turned to dust and plans hit ruts, spinning aimlessly in air? Monday was like that and it was more than frustrating. I'm hoping Tuesday will be better, but at this rate, I'm not guaranteeing it.

Monday was one of those days that lived up
to its reputation. Ick! 

Fortunately the early morning activities of swimming and breakfast were fine and on schedule. Also fortunately DH awakened before his wake-up call of 8:00 am and phoned me to let me know he was awake. This was important because of the remainder of things that went wrong. Starting here ...

Sometimes communication can be so delayed and
frustrating, it's like going back to the old days of
telephone operators and individual plug-ins. 

We had that huge storm last week - the one that required us to sandbag our back door and question the drainage system for our castle walls. Our land line went out during that storm and even though I phoned it in promptly, CenturyLink couldn't get to our line for repair until yesterday. Thus, we had no land line for me to phone DH on for his wake-up call, and he turns off his mobile phone at nights while he recharges. At least he remembered to awaken and phoned me.

Apparently we need a new cable. Probably not this large or
pretty, but it would be nice if it actually worked....just saying. 

However, our phone repair scheduled for between 9:15 am and 1:15 pm had still not happened when I finally arrived home at 6:45 pm. A long (more than 15 minutes on hold) call to the phone company resulted in my being told that it was rescheduled and should be no later than 7:45 pm. Sure enough, I finally got a call on my cell phone at 8:00 pm telling me that they need to replace a cable and that I still won't have a land line until today, sometime in the afternoon. *sigh* Efficient? NOT!

It's pretty stone, and it will be beautiful when the project
is completed, but we need to get the stone from the
manufacturer in south Minneapolis to us in north St Paul.
It shouldn't be this hard, but it's turning out to be. 

Then, remember the five palettes of stone we ordered on Saturday night? I spoke to the Materials Management guy at our home supply store and it turns out that the manufacturer is no longer drop shipping to customer's homes. Now they are trying to figure out a way for us to get our five palettes, but it won't be today - nope - we needed them today but it won't happen.

I suppose I could always make a book sculpture like this one
by Marcos Saboya and Gualter Pupo (follow the link
to see this in full - it's quite spectacular). 

Meanwhile I'm dreaming or having nightmares about tomorrow's tasks and already hating the fact that I'll be stuck at Half-Price Books for up to three hours while they go through our books and hand me a ridiculously small check. Still, as I keep telling myself, it's better getting something than just tossing the books into recycling. I'll just sit in a corner and read an e-book.

The sign wasn't this elegant - handwritten telling that
their exhaust fans weren't working and they had to
be closed for the day. But the result was the same -
no Chicken Pad Thai for dinner. 

Oh, and dinner last night? I wanted to drop by our local Thai restaurant and pick up some food, but I got there and there was a handwritten sign on the door telling customers that they were closed because of a problem with their exhaust fan system and would be open again Tuesday. That was the final nail in a really stumbly day. So ... how was your Monday? Better than mine? It wouldn't take much, to be honest. Hopefully today will be better.  Happy Tuesday to all!

Prejudice and Backlash - I Thought We Were More Grown Up

Are we reverting back to the 1950's? Or maybe even earlier than that, into the turn of last century or even the time of the American Civil War? I'm flabbergasted, because I thought as a nation we had moved beyond senseless hatred and the inability to look beyond racial stereotypes. I guess I was seriously mistaken and I'm stunned.

I liked this ad and thought the couple looked like a great
family unit in it. I fail to see why there should be such
controversy about it, but I know people around the world
would be upset with an interracial marriage. 

Old Navy is a clothing store for casual clothing at low prices (i.e., they're not good quality and won't last for a long time, but they're affordable, especially when kids grow out of clothes faster than budgets allow). They recently ran an advertising campaign featuring the couple and child in the photo above. The implication, of course, is that it was an interracial family, and it comes across as a loving family unit. The backlash the company received on social media because of this photo was ridiculous.

Here's a protest occurring in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1970. Have we
 really not moved past this point? It seems that protests today are
saying the same or quite similar things and protesting for the
same rights. Have we wasted the past 40+ years on nothing? 

When I was in high school I fully admit that people were a lot more uptight about interracial unions. But that was in the late 1960's and early 1970's and I thought we have grown beyond that outdated attitude. When I was in high school, one of my school acquaintances fell in love with a black man and a few years later, while I was in college, she married him. Her family disowned her and, to the best of my knowledge, they never reconciled. Her marriage was happy and she never regretted her choice of partner.

Domestic violence is still prevalent with one in four women
being abused by their spouse in any given year. In some areas
of the world, it is almost an expected part of marriage. To me
that is shocking and something that should never be tolerated, but
I have had co-workers in abusive relationships and I know how
hard it can be to leave them. 

On the other hand, another school friend, Ann, was the perfect Jewish daughter. She was obedient, soft-spoken, very well dressed (her parents had a higher income than most of the rest of us experienced) and did I mention obedient? Yeah. She married the man her parents chose for her - a good Jewish man who married her and took her to Israel. Once there, she was beaten and traumatized, eventually ran away from him and returned home. She divorced the abuser and married a second time into a better situation. But her parents were unforgiving. She had left the man of their choice and they could no longer hold their heads up in Temple. They turned their backs on her for leaving the husband they had chosen.

When are we going to learn that love is the key. We sing about love
all the time, but don't really seem to subscribe to that in our
lives. Posters like this and books showing choices are a good beginning, but that's
all they are - just a beginning. We still, after more than half a century,
have a long way to go. 

My parents, thank goodness, thought both sets of other parents were treating their children poorly for the choices they had made. I'm not sure what my mother would have done if I had expressed the desire to marry a black man, but she knew I was dating one for a while. I had him home for dinner and the folks were great. It just seems to me that getting angry about the people we love is beyond reason. If two people fall in love, marry, and forge a family together, and the marriage is strong and healthy, who really cares if the marriage is interracial, gay, lesbian, or otherwise? What's important are the words strong, healthy for both partners, and loving. Here's to a loving Tuesday for all.

All For 80 Cents

My business website and my computers haven't been talking to each other for almost two years now. The host did an upgrade that has locked me out for product and pricing updates and it's been more than frustrating. But redoing my website from scratch also seems unfeasible - I have thousands of products on the site, each pictured and coded for sale. But, getting back to my story, my updates are stacked to the moon, and no, the prices aren't up-to-date. But that hasn't seemed to matter to the customers ordering from me - until yesterday.

Dark Sapphire is a unique color, never available in large quantity,
and almost completely unavailable nationwide. I'm sold
out of the 3mm and 4mm sizes and get asked for them regularly. 

Among the items I have on the website are Swarovski crystal beads in numerous colors and sizes. The price has changed, yes, it's gone up from $2.75 to $2.95 per package, but I do have a disclaimer that prices are subject to change at any time at the bottom of each page of the website. My customer ordered two packs each of two different colors, so her order was increased by a total of 80 cents. She was lucky to get one of the colors at all - it's no longer made, very rare, and I'm totally sold out of the two smaller sizes and get asked for them at least once a month. But ...

I order on-line all the time and sometimes there are price differences.
for a major difference, I would have raised a complaint too. But
for a 20 cent difference? It seems a bit over the top. 

She sent me a rather snitty e-mail demanding that I honor the website price (not going to happen) or cancel her order. I'm cancelling her order. I'll live without her under $12 order and sell the beads to someone else who won't have a snit over 80 cents. I mean really - 80 CENTS???? You could probably find that in your couch cushions or thrown into your car. But I'll cancel the order, get a refund on the postage from the Post Office, and go on with my life. She, on the other hand, will have difficulty finding that color available anywhere else. I wonder it she'll give up and try ordering from me again, or just change the color palette for her project instead.

I have one of these - bought it at the Bead & Button Show last
year. We finally got the base changed out on it and it's ready to go.
I want to play with my wheels! 

Today is my day off. I'm hoping to get some stone work done amidst the laundry. I also have to get some income tax paperwork completed and finish the final read-through of my SV story so that I can get that posted within a day. It's going to be a busy day, and I'm so ramped up to get going on it, I awakened at 2:50 am just psyched to get my day going. Since my alarm would have gone off within less than 30 minutes, I went ahead and started my day. One step ahead. I'm hoping that continues throughout the day and that I actually accomplish some stuff today. What a concept!

Happy Wednesday to all!