nipperkin

We play volleyball with a beach ball. Under ordinary circumstances, we blow up a new one and can play with it for weeks or more before it starts losing air or gets a puncture. BUT we have one player who has long, pointed, hard fingernails. Sylvia used to routinely puncture balls. Then she didn't play for a year+ while she recovered from cancer. Now she's back and it's costing us a ball a game. We played with one ball for 6 weeks. She's been back now for 5 games and we've gone through 6 balls. The cost of the balls is not that big a deal but the stopping of the game to go get a new one is annoying and particularly for Steve who is the person in charge of the balls.

This will be a drama/dilemma for a while, I think. Stay tuned.

I have a perfectly good cart for hauling shit. Packages from the lockers, groceries to and from the car, puzzles down to the puzzle closet... It had double wheels which enable it to roll oh so easily. It folds up and lives in my closet. Sure it's old and battered but still works like a charm. I've had it for years and been perfectly happy with it until legalmoose rained on my parade this morning with talk of a Clax Cart. Which of course is now on sale. It does not have the double wheels but it does have the easily removable box. And 'dolly' like function. But, I think I can resist.

I do have a solid plan now for the storage room/closet rearrangement. I know what I want and I think it's doable with some Bro help. And it would mean that I would not need the Closet Reorganizer. I think Christian does not want to do it so is just 'being too busy'. Which is fine. If I'm wrong and I decide I want a professional, there are several closet places that have done work here at Timber Ridge and I'll just call one of them. BUT it would be lovely to skip that step.

I had a great idea/place to put one of those pull out shoe organizer cabinets. I had one all picked out and ready to order when I decided to burrow into the comments a little farther and discovered that probably my feet are too big. Most all of the ones I had my eyes on, said somewhere in the comments that it was great for kids shoes but anything bigger than an adult 7.5 was going to be too big to get the pull out to go back in. I wear a 9. Oh well. I couldn't even find one for big feet. Saved some money there!

Today they are doing a buffet for Thanksgiving dinner. It's from 11 to 1. Last year's power outage led them to a buffet scheme that works pretty well for the staff and for us. Easy to serve and really no waiting at all - even when they are serving everyone like today. As usual, I have extra meal money so I might just get two meals. One for eating and one for leftovers.

I remember once years and years ago when I was living on my own in Charlotte, NC, one of the nicer hotels had this marvelous scheme for Thanksgiving. It was buffet style and had all the usual Thanksgiving stuff plus a lot of nice, fancy extras but their main selling point was that the deal included a box of leftovers to take home! It was such a cool scheme. I had a group of friends and one year we all pitched in and got a room at the hotel overlooking the main street. We had cocktails in our room and then went down for dinner and then had dessert in our room while we watched the Christmas parade. And we all took home leftovers. It was a very grand Thanksgiving.

If there is a show you want to see on a network you don't have access to, now is the time to check their rates.

Hulu used to offer up a $2 a month for a year deal but this year they've tagged on Disney and raised the rates.

I found the best deals on Prime Video. I'm not a fan of going through their app but, I am a fan of their deals. I was going to get Apple+ for a couple of months but the app won't let me - I think Apple may have heard me talk shit about them and now they have blocked my account. NO problem. I just got their 6 months for $6 per month deal. I probably won't keep it 6 months but it's nice to have the option. I also picked up AMC+ because their are a couple of shows I want to see on it. $3 for 2 months. The best one, though, is HBO/Max at $3 a month for a year. Again, they all carry the baggage of the Prime app but I'll just suffer.

And in other spending of $$. I finally scored all the tickets we need for next June's weekend at the ballpark. I have us reserved seats for all three games. Whew. I got the best available seats which are mediocre by my high standards but at least we got 'em and I can quit worrying about it,

The World Cup ends on Friday. The Boston Games are on Saturday - 1 afternoon and 1 evening - leave the stadium and come back - not doubleheader. And on Sunday. Afternoon.

There is a big Red Sox contingent in Seattle so the games are always full. Plus Saturday night. Plus it's a fireworks night. All of those add up to a ticket freenzy. I still can't buy tickets from the Mariners yet and am not sure why but am losing interest fast.

I did find 3 semi decent seats for Saturday night's game on Seat Geek. And I bought 'em. I'll get the Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon games later. Worst comes to worst... we at least have one game with no easy way to get there.

Next Parking. NIGHTMARE. There are a gillion options for reserve parking. The only ones even remotely close to the stadium are from dodgy resale places and at a price that is half of what I paid for the total of 3 tickets. The Mariners fucked up the ride share situation a few years ago. The ride share lot is a VERY VERY long walk from the closest stadium exit. I noodled around a bunch of options - none good - including the light rail and buses.

I finally decided to Scarlet O'Hara that bit. Since there's nothing worth reserving, I've got months to figure it out.

I had a great sleep and woke up kind of earlyish so I had some coffee and did some internetting and then went down and had a lovely swim.

I was going to Dollar store this morning but then remembered there is some kind of protest scheduled for the school across the street and I didn't want to get hung in traffic but when I got back from my swim, it was raining and still early and I figured even if they did go ahead with the protest, it wouldn't be for a while so I hit the road. $18 and everything on my list.

A while back, I bought some hair thickening/styling powder. My hair is getting kind of longish on top so I've started using it again. I have no clue what it is or how it work but damn. It comes in a salt shaker thing and just a teensy bit sprinkled over the top of my hair make me actually look like I have hair! And it lasts and lasts. Such weird stuff. (No link - just plug hair thickening powder into Amazon one.)

I dreamed last night that I lost my wallet and what an idiot I was for not capturing what, exactly was in it. It has a tracker, but if/when I do lose it, it will be the day the tracker's battery dies. It is a tiny thing with barely anything in it but today, I will be documenting that anything. Hmmm I just checked and it seems the tracker already died. It's not in there anyway. Oh well. I'll just make notes of what all is.

My brother is coming to visit in January and I have a project. Yeah, this is a heads up for him :) I want to take everything out of my storage unit, get rid of the scooter, put in shelves, fix the bar for hanging clothes and organize the rest. I need to get in there and measure for shelves. I'm hoping to score a Black Friday deal on some shelves.

And otherwise, I'll be right here in my house. Bonny and some others are going to install a Christmas tree in the elbow. They've been talking about it for weeks. They think they need Jim to do it and he's going on a cruise for a month on Friday. So it's today. But, there's a Seahawks game which fortunately is early. I am not a Christmas tree person and do not want the drama. So my plan is to hole up here until it's a done deal.

Maybe I'll go measure now.

I learned yesterday, quite by accident, of yet another misstep by Timber Ridge marketing. They told me a fair number of things as truths that turned out not to be. Mostly small things, but some big ones, too. Ex. They told me the pool was salt water. It was not and never has been. They told me not to worry about choosing a carpet to mask pet stains as housekeeping would treat for all stains. They do not and this carpet, which was very expensive, has stains all over it. Lots of examples.

But, yesterday, I learned that they did NOT tell me there was a free, secured, internet available to me.

Turns out there are two wifi networks for residents. 1 is open and requires not password. It's the one I've been using for 2 years. But, because my printer and my web cams need a secured network, I've had to do work arounds which have been problematic. My latest one - a $40 a month Xfinity account which requires a modem and a router - has been failing regularly and I've been looking for alternatives. I was almost to the point of giving up my printer and web cams.

And then yesterday, I found out that there is another free wifi network that is secure. Each apartment has their own password. I was supposed to have been given the password by marketing when I moved in. Once I found out about the network, it took 2 mins to get my password. Those marketing fuckers.

So much of yesterday was spent moving everything to this new (to me) network which turned out to be non-trivial. The printer was the most problematic. But, I finally got it done. Then I had 18 other things to move to the network one by one. Interestingly, the hub that runs the shades was the easiest and it took the shades with it. The Echo products were very annoying. But, finally, I got everything moved. And unplugged the modem and the router.

I am in the middle of a call to cancel Xfinity (again) now. Their website does not have a phone number but fortunately Google does. Their website wants you to schedule a call back and the first available they offered was next wednesday at 5 am and then the page errored out. I called the Google number and now I have a person who, I hope, is going to do the job. There is now annoying music so Yeah but when she goes off to do her thing, there is the deadest air. She now says the job is done and she'll send me an email today. I'm not convinced. But, I'm willing to wait and see.

Oh. Ok, their website seems to reflect the change to done. And now I owe them -$32.00. Ok, so nice. They do have the slowest website on the planet.

It is actually lovely and luxurious to just have all the internet I need available without any hardware (and its eccentricities). Even better than electricity, really. I don't even need outlets. Just wifi everywhere. And my printer is WAY happier than it was. I can now print from any device and actually from anywhere in this complex!

I'm glad I got it all moved over yesterday.

Today, I think I'm going to skip swimming this morning. No good reason. I just feel like it. Bonny wants to go to Costco, so steps. I don't really need any Costco but heck that may change when I get there. Plus I can check on my ham and cheese croissants which I'm pretty sure they have discontinued but maybe...

I do need to trot downstairs to pick up the menus for next week. Oh, I may actually get to be on the Food and Beverage Committee next year. I was asked this week if I was still interested and I said YES, Please.

Biggie and Julio are snuggled up together on the couch. Biggie appears to be asleep but Julio is clearly awake and just enjoying the cuddle and happy that Biggie hasn't kicked him off. So cute.

Also a sleep score of 97! I'm thinking anything over that is coma or dead.

This is probably TMI but what the heck... for years now I've leaked. Sneezing or coughing = pee dribble. Sometimes a lot. But for the past few years, it's not been that much. And, lately - like this year, it's been none. I've been wearing underpants made for old ladies who leak. They work great but they are thick and ugly and produce the dreaded VPL*. So I decided to see if I could find some different underpants now that I no longer need bulletproof protection. I figured I'd order some, they wouldn't work, I'd return them and order different, etc. Until I got ones I liked.

They came last night and they are the finest underpants I've ever had in my entire life. My butt has a giant smile on it right now. It's dressed up pretty and with no tugging here or cutting there and no VPL*. (of course *Visible Panty Line.

And if that's not enough delight in new underwear, they came in a pack of 7! The perfect number for underwear.

I love it when things are appropriate. When I was little, once, Sunbeam made round bread for bologna sandwiches. Perfect. But, really, bologna's the one who should have stepped up and gone square.

Today is a very busy day. The facilities department holds a help desk every Wednesday at 11. You can go down and talk to the building people, the IT people, the housekeeping people - ask what you want and request stuff. I am going to request they fix the shades at the pool. They are electronically operated and rarely do it successfully. I just thought I'd go chat with them about it. Plus, they have cookies.

Then at 1:30, there is the monthly Food and Beverage Meeting. Then at 3:30, they asked for volunteers to come fold the newsletter. I may or may not do this. I'm going to decide at 3:29.

Then at 4 pm the buffet opens. The buffet is open every night (ex. Sun) for dinner and has its own menu that changes every day. They generally have 2 different protein dishes, one starch, one veg, one salad, dessert and a drink for $16. It's a good deal except mostly the menu choices are meh at best. But, tonight, the veg is fried okra which they have never had. I am going to go make sure it's at least passable and then get a bunch. If it's good, I'll get a shit load. The stuff freezes beautifully and my air fryer would jump at the chance to heat and crisp okra.

I discovered a very cool YouTube.TV thing. We have four local stations that broadcast news at 5. NONE of them do a decent job but all of them do bits of a decent job on most days. YouTube.TV now has Build Your Own MultiView. So I can have all four of them on my TV at once and bop from one to the other (for sound) with a click of the remote. I'm in love with this.

I've had my swim and I'm all dressed (did I mention I have on new underpants??!!) and ready to go. I think I'll go puzzle a bit before 11.

The Timber Ridge Executive director sent out a letter last week explaining that every few years the parent company, LCS, does a survey of all residents. This was the year. They would be having coffee and donuts this morning at 9 if you wanted to come fill out the survey then. (And ice cream tomorrow afternoon for another session.) I got there at 9:05 and they were like chickens with heads cut off. The Executive Director and the Events Director were there with underlings and they were not ready. All of them were far more interested in overly cheerfully greeting everyone than setting up. Oh look, we're all wearing the same color!! Isn't that fun?? Squee!! was invented here. They did not even seem to have a plan.

So... by the time I got pencil to survey, I was pretty annoyed.

NOTE... if you are going to ask people questions you want positive answers to, don't annoy them first.

Honestly, I have thought about moving to another, different, Continuing Care Retirement Community. I won't but I have thought about it. The problem is, that you can't really judge so many of the good/bads of a place without living there. And it's the little invisible things that kill it.

Or it could just be that I'm having an annoying day.

I did get in a particularly glorious swim so I should focus on that.

I think I'll clean up a few things around here and then go out and puzzle until time to go down and pick up lunch.

We got a puzzle lamp for the elbow! Yesterday Jan and Dick called with a tech emergency. On my way down there, I spied the new puzzle lamp. A long time ago, the floor leader, who is generally, down to her last marble, sent out an email asking if we wanted a puzzle table and lamp for our elbow. I responded, immediately, YES!! Turns out, I was supposed to gather the floor together and take a vote. Whatfucking ever. I like my way better. But, anyway since she's rarely right, I figure it was an exercise in email anyway and would never turn into anything but, now we have a lamp! And it's VERY helpful.

And Jan and Dick's issue was fairly easy to noodle out. People who don't use right clicks miss out on so much in life.

Volleyball was good again this morning. It was a good group of players.

Elbow coffee is next. And then, nothing planned til next week which turns out to be kind of busy. I do kind of have this idea of organizing my yarn but that idea might never see the outside of my head.