It's Friday - A Very Busy "Day Off"

Yippee! It's Friday. I have the "day off" with a list of things to do that's as long as my arm, but I'm not in the shop, so that's a total win. I will be bouncing from one part of the city to another, though. Between everything, I also need to locate a specific bag that's holding my higher-priced Etsy items. I sold a strand of trade beads yesterday, and want to get that sale finalized and shipped off tomorrow. So I need to find the bag. I have a pretty good idea of exactly where it is, but didn't get a chance to chase it down this morning. 

I had an Etsy order for some Swarovski crystals that 
I sent out yesterday, and got this order through my 
email in the afternoon. The trade beads of this style 
are called "Mali Wedding Beads" because they've 
been used by people of the Mali tribe for ceremonial 
use for decades. It's a very pretty strand and a good 
price. If everything goes smoothly, I'll have them 
in the mail to the purchaser tomorrow morning. 

I also need to pay the 2nd payment of my annual property taxes on the house today. *sigh* That's never a bill I welcome - it's a lot of money, but you can't fight City Hall, or the State Legislature. It's got to be done. The value of the house and property has been increasing since we purchased it in the mid-1980's, and (of course) property taxes keep increasing annually as well. Death and taxes - the only two sure things in the world. LOL

There's actually a video game called "Death and 
Taxes". Who knew? LOL I should look into that one. 

I used my new headphones while on the treadmill this morning. They work OK, I'll certainly manage to live with them even if they're not the brand I prefer. I had an online friend wonder how I could plug headphones into my phone. Well, I use a small dongle (honestly, the words we've invented for our computer age - dongle - LOL). The dongle has the proper connector for the phone on one side and the proper connection for the headphones on the other, and it's about 2-3 inches long (I'm too lazy to go and measure it). Without the dongle, I wouldn't be able to use the headphones with my phone at all, of course. 

Of course, you can't connect a phone directly to a set of 
earbuds, but with this dongle, which is sold on Amazon 
and lots of other places, it's easy. It's a minimal piece 
of essential equipment. 

So, it's going to be a busy day off today. The normal things like making my next batch of "Ogre Juice" as well as a few other errands will fill much of it. It'll be a nice day, though, with temps peaking at about 80F. I can certainly enjoy that last rush of summer. Maybe I'll get a chance to do a bit of gardening and get my massive crop of Habanero peppers harvested and into the dehydrator. It's a goal, right? LOL Have an excellent day and I'll be back to wrap up the week tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Short of Time - A Quick Post Today

Just a very short check-in today because I'm running very late. I'm fighting with computers again *sigh*. I'm trying to get my next audio book moved over to my Open Swim Headphones for swimming, which means I need it loaded before Tuesday morning. It's always a fight now that Audible is owned by Apple. I've got the book (and hundreds of others) already purchased and in my library, it's getting the files converted to MP3 and loaded that makes things a bit more challenging. 

I use Shokz Underwater Audio headphones to listen 
to my books. I absolutely adore them and when my last 
set died, I was at the store buying a new set immediately. 

In that quest, I've purchased three different programs over the years, because none of them are predictable or dependable *sigh*. It's a tremendous loss of funds and time, but I need my audio books to swim, so I continue to fight. I'll pick the fight up again either tonight or tomorrow. 

We sent the heavier items via UPS - they should arrive 
on Wednesday. We sent the lighter items via Priority Mail 
and the USPS, and they'll be there no later than Wednesday 
also. I'll be contacted when they arrive at their destination. 

I've sent two boxes off to the auction house. DH and I decided to auction off items from our collection, we have too much stuff. So, we're giving them a test drive and two boxes were sent off last night. They should receive them no later than Thursday, and I look forward to getting confirmation from Janda. The actual auction dates for this shipment will be in the later part of the summer, and in the meantime, we'll start prepping for the next shipment. As I said, this will be a test run, but it's been an experience already! A good one, in most respects. 

So, I'm off and running (figuratively). I'll be back on Monday morning and I hope you have a great weekend. Slava Ukraini. 

Headphones, Boosters, Healing and Fairy Godmothers - I'm All Over the Place Today

DH had decided he wanted some bone induction headphone for his tablet, similar to what I use. I use the underwater ones because I wear mine in the swimming pool as well as on the treadmill, but he just needed a more standard set. So I purchased a non-submersible version of AfterShokz which arrived at the store on Wednesday. I got it unpacked yesterday and charged it for him this morning. He's set to go as soon as he pairs it up with his phone and tablet. I have a feeling he'll love it as much as Chickie, ChickieMama and the rest of us love our own AfterShokz headsets. 

The AfterShokz Aeropex is quite different than 
the underwater version I have. The buttons are 
much easier and the charging cable is totally 
different - also much easier. Still, I love mine and 
use it every day. I suspect DH will get a lot of 
use from his as well. 

I have to build my schedule around my Covid booster shot this morning. I've got an 11:00 am appointment. I'm not 100% sure why I chose that time - possibly because I wanted to be finished with the grocery shopping and have everything home and in the refrigerator before heading over to the pharmacy. It's not a huge deal, and I probably could still make an earlier appointment, but I'll keep my schedule - go early to the store and then back to the pharmacy. It's tempting to take a brisk walk over to the pharmacy. It'll be sunny but not too hot. I'll think about it. It's only a mile away, so no real issue walking there and back home again. 

Last time I got the Moderna booster, and I'm getting 
a Moderna booster again this time. Hopefully I won't 
have any reaction to it because I still have a lot of 
things I need to get done this afternoon. 

After I'm finally finished with my outside errands, I'll get my next batch of "Ogre Juice" made. I have three portions left, but those are for Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. I could make my next batch on Wednesday, but I prefer to be ahead of things on this one, not backed into an "I must make this today because I need it tomorrow" corner. 

I've been called "unconventional" by many people throughout 
my life, but I'm not sure I want to go autobiographical 
in this tale. I try to stay with fiction as much as possible - 
my private life is kept semi-private. Still, I certainly fit 
the basic definition of the word. 

I'm still whirling away with my story for "Unconventional". I've come up with a lot of very boring things - I'm not fond of boring. I'll continue to think about it, but I really want to get something posted and move on from there. It doesn't make much sense to be a part of this awesome group if I don't push myself a bit. 

Please keep sending those healing thoughts in 
Keiliss' direction. They're doing real good, 
and hopefully will continue to help her heal to 
return home to her family once again. 

And for those of you thinking lots of positive thoughts for my friend Keiliss, she's out of ICU and into the general care ward now, but still has a lot of healing ahead of her. Please keep those positive healing thoughts coming for her - healing thoughts like that can only help and she (and others in hospital) need all of the positive help we can give to them. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers *hugs*. 

There is some truth to this. Cinderella annoyed me in 
many ways.  (Actually, most of the "fairy tales" of
my youth were quite annoying). 

So, I'm out of here. A busy "day off" as usual - LOL. Since I have Sharon's flight schedule in hand, I suppose I should spend much of my afternoon on a preliminary housecleaning. That's ideal, of course, and probably won't happen since I'll be making Ogre Juice, but a girl can dream. Where's a Fairy Godmother when you need one? LOL Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.