Athaclena

We are still frozen up here on the plateau in middle Tennessee. I moved my flight to tomorrow - made that decision Friday morning looking at the weather (which means I'm missing out on a day with my co-workers that I never get to see which SUCKS - also leading data sessions which ALSO SUCKS) and I'm hoping that it's late enough in the day to get out safely. It was SUPPOSED to get to 35 today but the revised forecast says NOPE - only 30. Lots of sun which I HOPE helps so that tomorrow's high in the 40's gets our back roads enough to head to the airport by about 1p my time to give us extra time to go SLOW. We'll still take the long way because 2 hair pin turns with a 7 % grade are not a good way to find that it's still too icy (especially since on of those will just slide you into someone's house - granted, that's before about a 100' cliff so there's that I guess). Anywho - I'll be getting my steps in and hopefully eating well and sleeping - but probably won't be checking in here. Y'all stay safe and warm out there!

We have Titles? LOL. Also, I swear CSS is at least as bad at Word for move image one pixel to the right, screw up the entire layout.

Woke up with a frickin' migraine. Meds are on board - I don't have time for this.... Situation is pretty much the same - get to the 80% mark and need to push through to finish up cleaning my desk and shredding old documents and addressing the clothes and such. I haven't slid "back", but not moving forward. I'll take the stalled progress if it doesn't slide back. In other news - dropped the heat down to help "save the grid". I'm thankful my heater can keep up (I know folks are running their heat full on and are lucky to get to 55 or 60 in their house - they're just not built around here to handle single digit temps even though it does happen - just thankfully not for more than a few days typically). Power has been dropping a few minutes about every 15-30. We're pretty sure it's just our "leg" - but it's everyone down our road. I wouldn't be shocked if it's simply more than this leg can handle. Funny that since this area is "planned" for several hundred houses and we only have like 30 up here. At least the snow is pretty and for the most part the folks UP here are smart enough to stay off of them. One lady was bemoaning that she had 2 doctor appointments today and we're all like - telehealth or re-schedule. If it's not a literal emergency - stay off the road. I've seen 2 ATV's go by since all of this started - the roads to GET to the main road is basically 3" of snow on a 1" sheet of ice. You can't drive on that (without special equipment most around here don't have). Everyone else isn't staying off the roads which has caused MASSIVE issues. Last night about 11 the largest towing service basically told everyone that their drivers had been on for 48 hours and they were sending them home to sleep so stay off the roads or go at your own risk. I can't blame them..... Anyway - working on what I need to wash\pack for Chicago next week so I'll just get to stay cold I guess LOL.

Hope kitty is doing better. I have BEEN THERE. Good on you for being able to deal with a crisis and RECOGNIZING that as well. It can be a super power (even if it is sucky you have to use it).

WE GOT SNOW!!!!! We're around 4" so far. Big, fat flakes falling - something we don't see that often this far south. Usually just a dusting. So far not a lot of "ice" on the trees\power lines which is good because power going out when it's hitting single digits tonight (high tomorrow in the teens and perhaps going down to 0F tomorrow night) is no bueno. I suppose we can all bunk on the "sun porch" with the gas heater but I'd really rather not LOL. Update on my boots - swapped to my thin socks and they're a TAD tight, but not crushing tight so they can be broken in. I need to replace the laces because while these won't break, they won't stay tied either. Why do they do stuff like that? I'll also get them a bit longer so I have more "give" to get them on\off without having to take them out of the holes.

Hit my step goal today. Huzzah! Took Mom out to look at some nice manufactured homes to add to her comparison. There are some compromises (for instance you can't "delete" appliances or countertops in the ones we looked at to upgrade to something a bit nicer - but you can replace later of course) but it's all done fairly quickly, they don't have the look\feel of the trailers she remembers (well, you can still get the stupid vinyl walls if you WANT - ew) but she can get a pretty nice home, all in, for her price range so she has some comparison. Also hit Aldi's for a big grocery shop. Spent over $200. At Aldi's. Yes, we stocked up on some stuff LOL. That's a bit more than "normal" but nothing we bought will go to waste (maybe it'll go to waist though LOL). Gonna try to relax the rest of today and tackle cleaning the rest of the office tomorrow.

Steps have been good. I'll tear apart the side of my desk where my computer and stuff is to get a good scrub going and re-do my cable management (which needs to be done). I have made additional headway on the "to be shredded" mail pile and addressed all incoming mail (toss, file or shredded) so I haven't added to that pile either. While I haven't addressed the stack of unfolded shirts - I did do laundry and get it folded put away so I didn't ADD to the stack so I'll take it.

Very much so. I have family\friends all over the South and as seen, have lived in different states. Each has little phrases that is used more often in their neck of the woods. Back when I sold computers at CompUSA in Atlanta, a lady came in with an accent so unique, she a bit taken aback that I not only knew she was from Charleston, I knew she was from DOWNTOWN Charleston, asked if she went to Ashley Hall (the upper crust private school anyone who was anyone sent their kids to that could afford it) and asked her if she wanted me to guess which street LOL. She proceeded to drop quite a bit on a new Mac system while we were chatting about the uniqueness of growing up in\around the upper crust of Charleston (to be clear - I'm adjacent because my branch of the family didn't have $$ but trust me our families know\knew each other).

It is a broadly Southern thing. I am a Native of SC, spent 25+ years in Atlanta, GA and now live in rural TN. Be thankful it's not more colorful. Just out of curiosity, is it across both men and women or mainly women (or have you noticed). Women are..... encouraged.... to temper anything that might be an opinion. I fly right in the face of that but I know I did it for a long time before I realized it and pretty much nixed it out of my speech patterns unless I really mean it and it's appropriate and not a statement of fact. I either have the data or I don't - there's no "so to speak" about it. I'd only add it if I'm giving a scenario and it's nebulous to begin with.

Stood up to take my lunch dishes to the kitchen and GFDI. THAT'S why I've felt like crap and been more snippy. At least when I stood up and realized I needed to change my frickin' clothes it was BEFORE I put the last load in the wash. FFS Menopause can start ANY TIME NOW.

Got my steps in. Made it through meetings, meetings and more meetings. Started today with meetings (quick break between, but not much). Rosie has been sent on her tasks after I picked up hacked up hair balls, I have a stack of stuff to shred set aside and I'm gonna try to do some laundry after my next meeting.

Boots - 1/2 size up isn't available so throwing caution to the wind, getting 1 size up (Hello Amazon Try Before You Buy). Hopefully I can either get a pair that fit or abandon this brand before I get stuck with a pair I can't try on because it shows up while I'm in Chicago *sigh*. Half of my desk has been scrubbed. I have to move lots of technology to clean the other half. That may have to wait until tomorrow. I have a tone of meetings today - including a meeting for side gig to finalize us doing a long term event like we did last year with Team Rooms and multiple tournaments where we monitor. I don't think client is going to like our price changes - but he's not the only client, there are conflicts for some of the event dates so I have to send the most appropriate resources so he can't just "lean on his friend" to give him a good price. We're trying to run a business. He also isn't giving us all of the GD information timely so we may go separate ways . There are others in the space (typically more expensive to do the same level) feel free to get multiple quotes and we'll compete, but we aren't going to race to the bottom of the pile where we can't actually grow the business. I pay my people what they're worth. Period. If you want to pay unskilled labor prices - stick with your duct tape and a prayer solution and we'll stick with clients that want their events to run smoothly. We have an opportunity to showcase with a Vendor that does corporate meetings (they're managing the largest event) and THAT can be a good relationship to have because we can literally pay for ourselves in savings for Internet Drops from the Conference Center (multiple drops are EXTREMELY expensive, we can pay a lower cost for a single drop with more bandwidth - the savings pays for us and the equipment and gives a better experience). OK - enough work rants. I also got in steps and laundry will be later this week.....

Boots don't fit - GAH - so returning for the next 1/2 size up and crossing my fingers. I'd LOVE to be able to feel like I can hike again....

The mounds of paperwork on my desk has been gone through. I have a box of "to be shredded" and a pile of "needs to be filed or reviewed a bit further" and everything else is in the appropriate file\bin or trash. After I rest up a bit I can now go through and actually dust\clean the desk and setup appropriate bins for incoming paperwork in hopes that I actually use a system to keep up with it and don't have to go through this again next year.....

Post weekend update. Got in all of my steps both days Made solid progress on my desk Managed to run Rosie Broke down the 3 whole Pork Loins into Pork Chops + diced pork for fried rice night Had a bread baking lesson with Mom so she will hopefully be able to take over sandwich bread making duties (and not just bake cookies - which are amazing but no one in this house needs to eat that many cookies - the guys might disagree LOL). Made some progress in the pantry Made progress in making sure Rosie can run through the main portions of the house every day with minimal interference from me I'm going to TRY to address at least some of the laundry folding backlog today. My back has been giving me fits, but I need to do laundry so if I can just do that and put it away and maybe a few extra shirts from the backlog - that'd be great.

Hit my steps yesterday. Downloaded\installed my 2023 Tax Software - so progress! Plans this weekend include addressing my desk, making progress on the unfolded laundry and starting on the pantry organization now that the bins are together. We'll see how far this batch of 15 goes and whether I need more (and how many). Bonus points if I get out the 1099's for side gig. I have also been more consistent about running Rosie (my Robot vacuum). I've set a "cleaning" order so it'll go do the back laundry room/pantry first as it's where the litter boxes are and have been doing that + Pantry\Kitchen + dining room + living room + entry hall daily with a few runs through the master bedroom\bath. I'm working on being able to also include my office and hubby's on a more consistent basis for a better "general" clean in the house.

One of the things we've been working on is replacing the "mish mash" of various bins in the pantry into a single organization bin system. After lots and lots of hemming and hawing, since we buy grains and such in bulk I wanted something that was actually air tight. Let me tell you how few things there are on the market for that...... So I decided that food grade buckets with gamma lids would be the best option - but the 2 gallon ones since Mom is 75 and I, at 51, am not getting any younger and this will keep the weight at something reasonable we can move around and it's small enough to just bring the whole thing from the pantry for recipes then put back rather than having 1-2 gallon "bins" I refill from a big 5 gallon bucket. We'll just fill them and rotate the stock and have a stack of "empties" to be refilled the next time we buy a 50# of flour or whatever. So.... you buy the gamma seals separately and have to hammer on the lip that accepts the lid. I just finished the 10 that I hadn't gotten to yet. I'm officially DONE with today, I'm glad I have bolognese sauce going in the slow cooker and I decided for curb side delivery tomorrow because I'm gonna be sore. Those things are not easy to hammer on - even with a 2# rubber mallet. But it's done, I can mark it off the list and we can start the process of moving to the new "system". These are the lids and here are the buckets. You can also get them from Uline I believe but I was getting some other stuff from Azure Standard. These are not affiliate links.

Steps - yes Organizing - babysteps - still can't see a dent but I know I made progress A little is still more than zero. We think the server room A/C is toast. Luckily side biz is doing well enough to replace it without me kicking in $$ since we're not remotely ready to re-do HVAC in the office and it would be mucho $$ and we'd have to redo stuff if we tried to do it now. So we're gonna spend a bet to get us through another 2 years before we re-do everything.....

Yesterday (Wednesday) - Steps achieved and not that you can tell, worked a bit on my office desk and did some tax prep organizing. I'm going to switch modes slightly to go through all of the paperwork on my desk and sort into "shred, tax, just file it, just trash it" so I'm not slowing down tax prep because I have to stop and basically do that because I haven't finished going through my desk. That is probably on deck today. Work is still slow but looking at next week, that's gonna change real quick.....

Swinging through for a beverage. Lots to do!

Oh - and as an aside - I've ordered vanilla beans for my 3rd batch of Vanilla Extract. Just cracked open part of batch #2 which has gone for 6 months. I spoon off the top and let it keep going so it'll continue to extract and get better. My GOAL is to make batch #2 last the year so batch #3 will have an entire year before I crack it open. We just use a lot. I basically have 2 quarts that just "finished" and about to start another 2 quarts. Mom bakes a lot and we really go through it, but making it myself with good quality beans is much better and a lot less expensive than buying (well, here in the US where alcohol is cheap - my jaw hit the floor when I found out in other areas of the world a 1L bottle of Barcardi Silver is like $70). I get my beans through "group buys" from a place that buys out entire harvests from the farmers (at a fair value) so it's basically wholesale at less than half what I see retail and I trust the quality. They have a retail side too, but I wait for the group buys. So I'm stoked for that fragrant package to hit my mailbox

1) Steps. Hit >3500 Sunday and Monday, not quite on Tuesday. Need to move more which I know will help my aching back - but my back is bugging me so I don't want to walk. *sigh* I've been breaking down and taking an Aleve at night to try to up the relaxation at night - I probably need a 2 hour hot stone massage..... 2) Nothing yet 3) I should have added that I need to finish folding all of the clean clothes I've dumping ON said bins and put them away first - so I'll try to work on that this week and tackle the bins then.

This morning - quite literally. Nothing like starting the first work day of the new year with a failed windows update that tried to self install because I didn't hit snooze as I avoided really doing anything on my computer over the long weekend. But 2 reboots did it (after a brief panic where it couldn't find a boot partition - ANYWAY - welcome to my life where I have all the luck - and it's bad luck LOL). For those new - please feel free to read the intro linked below in my signature. The main difference is that I have finally moved to the mountain (ok, giant plateau) in middle Tennessee, I no longer travel extensively (just a couple of trips a year rather than a month), Mom moved in last February and we currently ALSO have 2 roommates so we cook for 5 adults almost every night 'round here. I'm not a chef but I'm a Darn Good Cook (tm). Mom being around helps to make sure I eat my dang vegetables - and she really helps me out so it's a good thing . She also bakes which is awesome, but not for the waste (edit - ffs WAIST) line LOL. Anywho..... I've been doing lots of minor tweaks to make big changes. I've made solid progress over the years - with lots of adjustments so we're just going to keep rolling with what I want to focus on these few weeks with the ultimate goal of being healthier and trying not to kill myself with stress to get things done with the property, the side biz and life in general. So to start of this New Year I'd like to work on some stuff that has been lingering and move around more. 1) Hit 3500 steps a day - whether that's just running around this ginormous house or (preferably) getting out and walking, weather permitting. If I'm hitting that consistently over a week, gradually up that to 5k - but don't sweat it if I don't. 2) Spend some time working on cleaning off my desk - again. This is important because I probably have some vitally important docs mixed into this mess that I need for tax season. By the end of the challenge my desk needs to be sorted (and hopefully 1065 done for side biz to get a jump on that - 1099's need to go out no later than next week by golly). 3) I have several bins of clothes in the master bedroom that have been packed since we left Atlanta in 2020. I would like to get through a bin per week to be sorted, washed and either put away or donated.

Oh - and a Teal'c update (kitty that has seizures). I was poking around the Honest Paws site (where I get the CBD oil I use to coat some treats which HAS reduced the frequency and length of his seizures) and found that they finally now have a soft chew treat dosed for kitties AND it's all chicken protein based so I can give it to Teal'c. I've always had trouble finding treats he would eat - but he loves these. So now he gets one CBD chew and a couple of dental treats (that I was previously trying to coat with the CBD oil) and he eats them up. So far, we are 20 days w\o a seizure and I feel he's getting a more consistent dose so HUZZAH! He's actually a bit more active now - I think it's a bit higher dose of CBD so it's probably also helping his joints (he IS 15 but you'd never know it). Fingers crossed this takes the seizures as close to 0 as possible....

Checking in. In a bit better headspace (I think) - still not walking. Definitely eating better which helps and I've also decided to go back to eating breakfast more rather than a coffee based protein shake. Did some other adulting. Namely finally got the SiriusXM cancelled we haven't used in a hot minute and I'd always forget was still in place until they pulled the yearly amount. They make it so f'ing difficult to cancel (which is why they're being sued). Took over 20 minutes over chat - would have taken longer, but when the rep started down the "let's see if there's a less expensive way to get the channels you listen to" I shortcut that with "I know you're doing what you're told for your job, but this is why Sirius is being sued. I do not use your service any more, haven't in months if not years, please cancel" - and finally got it cancelled effective immediately AND a refund. So there's that. It's not a BAD service, we just don't use it any more.... Also spent an hour on the phone trying to figure out why my home insurance is going up 1200 per year and you guys, they had raised my Dwelling replacement to 1.06 MILLION. And wouldn't lower it below 950k. I'm like..... you're out of your GD mind. I don't live in a dump, but I do NOT live in a $million house. That kind of scratch - for a HOME - would mean at least twice the size, trayed\coffered ceilings, solid stone\surface counters EVERYWHERE, high end tile, millwork out the ying yang, etc. We have simple crown moulding, terrible tile counters in the kitchen, standard big box cabinets in the bathrooms, ffs this is not a $million home. The reason the house up the road sold for $1m is because it was twice the size AND a brow lot. The other one for sale is banking on the view and 30 acres (one of the largest lots available in the area). Rebuilding this home like it is, including removal if there was a catastrophic fire, 400k TOPS for the structure. I was talking to hubby who was like "well once you add in appliances and stuff" and I'm like - honey - that's separate, 500k and I pay extra for full replacement. So.... since I'm pissed about how they handled my auto earlier this year (basically making me either add a roommate or exclude him entirely if he ever drives one of our vehicles and has an accident - and occasionally if we're all out he will drive us home) - I am done and now looking for new insurance. Which I HATE. I don't mind being a bit over insured - but holy shit that is a bit much.