So, we've been here in Hawaii for just over a week, and have 1.5 days left in our vacation. Now, as you would rightly assume, we've had a pretty good time here - nice weather, gorgeous scenery, too much food. Rough life. Yes, a few wrinkles here and there, but overall - not too shabby. ;-)
Except for one thing.
tl;dr - I have spent WAY too much time on hold on the phone during this trip.
So, yes, there have been beaches and a luau and gorgeous scenery and, yes, some grumpy travel issues here and there. But also this huge thing that has dominated almost our entire trip. Not fun. At all.
Sunday: Samsung: Sure you can log in and see what coverage you have. We'll send you a confirmation code to your broken phone, so you can verify it's you.
And, at 1pm, that's where we currently are. Karen has gotten hardly any work done for her job, because she's been stuck trying to juggle all this crap for us, and since she's the official account holder, it has to be her. Will had already taken the day off, but he had stuff he WANTED to get done that isn't happening, and now with this being 50mins away, even if we do manage to get it straightened out before the store closes, there several hours, assuming they even have time for us at all, and I'm just so frustrated and despondent at how this one mistake has ruined everything for everyone, I can't even tell you. Maybe I should just go get a dumbphone.
So, first off, Shana Tova (or, as heidi8 pointed out might be a better phrasing: Shana svira) to all my Jewish friends, as well as my entire maternal family (not that they're reading this, lol). Definitely DEFINITELY hoping for a happier year for EVERYONE. (Except Trump and his sycophants.)
I had planned an update last night, but in the wake of the soul-crushing news about RBG, it didn't seem right. But I'm in a particularly craptastic mood right now and don't give a shit about tact, so ... update it is! :P
(Side note: I wouldn't have found out as quickly as I did about RBG because I was doing some school-related stuff, except that MiniPlu had a zillion updates from her college peers and checked her phone at work while they were closing up for the night, and then texted me, simply, "We screwed without RBG." And that's when I knew. I raced to CNN.com for confirmation, and literally gasped aloud in horror to see it in giant, undeniable headlines. Just ... no words.)
Rob continues to recover, got his 46 staples removed on Fri, but is still mostly spending his time stretched back on the recliner in the family room, as sitting fully upright pulls on his incision. But he's out of sick time, so he's back to work, at least as much as he can, on Monday. Thankfully, his job has always been from home, pre-Covid, so he's fully set up for that.
I handed in my first tech assignment, a multi-step but fairly straightforward trio of simple, table-based webpages, and got a 92%, which pisses me off, given that a) the median was 97% and b) there's really no reason NOT to get 100% on this one (whereas future assignments are going to get more complex). I'm pissed because he took off some points for what I feel were unfair reasons - nowhere do I remember seeing these little bits specified - but there WAS a minor thing I did actually overlook, so then I'm just mad at myself for that. We ARE allowed to fix and resubmit, so hopefully I'll get full credit in the end, but I'm still mad. Grrr.
I substituted twice at the middle school this past week, once on Mon and once on Fri. ( Collapse )
Speaking of books, I finished reading Swordheart, which was a birthday gift from hamsterwoman. In short: I loved it. Adventure, romance and a generous dose of humor, thrown in rather like Douglas Adams or PTerry would do it. I will definitely be interested in reading about the next Sword's story, whenever that comes out. hamsterwoman, did you read the Clockwork Boys books, too? How were they?
My only complaint about Swordheart was that it was printed on high-quality heavy paper, making it hard to hold with just one hand while I was reading/walking the dog, lol.
The veggie garden is mostly done at this point. There's still some straggling tomatoes, and the bell peppers/capsicum took forever to really ripen, so they're still doing ok. I have carrots and potatoes to pull. But otherwise, most things have reached the end of their lifespan, it seems. Well, less work for me to keep up. :P
I'm debating volunteering to work the polls on election day. I've never done it before. But it feels so SO important this year. It involves working from 5:45a to 8:30p (although they imply that partial-day shifts MIGHT be available), and I'm not sure if I can spare that much time. Also, because I live on the edge of my county, there's no guarantee I'd be assigned to work anywhere NEAR where I normally am, which would kind of suck. But I'm still thinking about it.
And, finally, here's a meme, which I stole from spiffikins:
MHC just called it: no students on campus this fall.
(Smith College called it on Wed, and UMass Amherst called it on Thurs night; both colleges are part of the 5-college consortium with MHC. And this is after students were being reassured during a ResLife zoom meeting last night that they were proceeding as planned.)
So, I am disgracefully late in sharing the absolutely AWESOME Harry Potter-themed birthday card hamsterwoman and family sent me. It deserves a photo, it's just so cool:
Please note that it's not only super-adorable, but the ENVELOPE has a lightning-bolt scar motif all over the inside. Definitely one of the best cards I've ever seen.
She also gave me two books, one paper and one Kindle format: Swordheart by T. Kingfisher and False Value (RoL #8). Looking forward to reading them both! She also lent me the RoL graphic novel I hadn't seen yet, Water Weed. (Conveniently, our birthdays are spaced so that I was able to return it to her when I sent her her present last week. :D)
(Oh, speaking of books, I forgot to mention that I recently read Creating Chaos by Lacey Dailey, a brain-candy feel-good m/m YA story. It was cute and fluffy but it also dropped a LOT of potentially interesting plot points along the way, which annoyed me. Not my favorite of the genre.)
Update on my attempt to register for classes: ( Collapse )
Update on our district's plans: imminent. We'll find out on Thursday what those are. Two's schedule is supposed to be released soon, too.
Hurricane/Tropical Storm Isaias was supposed to clobber us but moved further west than initially expected, so we got a couple of hours of rain and wind, but nothing too serious. Lost a branch off one of our rosebushes, and a neighbor lost a tree but it didn't fall on anything but lawn, thank goodness. On the other hand, my TKD master (in PA) had to close one of the branch schools today because nobody could get to it through flooded roads - they got all the rain that NJ was supposed to have received. Instead, by mid afternoon the sun was shining and the wind was dropping.
But I had anticipated lousy weather so I decided to push my usual Tuesday weekly grocery run to Wed. Instead, I spent the morning and early afternoon in the kitchen, making homemade tomato soup with garden tomatoes, pepper and herbs, my best friend's warm corn salad with garden corn, pepper and herbs, plus our favorite oatmeal bread and blueraccoon's PB sandies. Oh, and I made another round of pesto with our surplus of basil - that'll get used in tomorrow's dinner. Of course, I'm sure the tomato plants have been busy replenishing all the ones I just used up today :-P.
Gah - how the heck did it get to be midnight already? I'm off to bed.
It occurs to me I haven't done a proper update in awhile. So.
My birthday was last Thurs (2 Jul). My family was kind - Two made me waffles at my request, and I got presents and cards, talked to my mom and later had a Zoom with both her and my aunt/uncle. But it was otherwise pretty quiet. I had scheduled a blood donation but failed the iron test (after three successful donations in a row, this was a blow) and it kind of took the wind out of my birthday sails for awhile. And it was a bit depressing to have nowhere else to go or anything special to do. But I made homemade pizza for dinner, and we had my chocolate cake after, so at least food was tasty, even if I had to make it myself. Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes and e-cards. <3
Spent the morning of July 4th weeding the veggie garden with Two, whom I was paying to help me but I had also FORCED him to help me (hey, the kid needs a summer job, so...), and he spent a lot of time complaining. Deducted money for said complaining. :P As with my birthday, the day itself was pretty quiet, but we grilled dinner and neighbors set off (illegal) fireworks we enjoyed seeing from our yard, and we had (legal) sparklers that MiniPlu and I enjoyed (Two declined).
MiniPlu and I spent the day on Monday, 6 Jul ( Collapse )
I've spent a lot of this week working on Karen's birthday quilt, getting borders on the front, assembling the back and starting the border work on that, as well. Which meant today has been about catching up online - stuff for Rutgers, emails, LJ/DW, etc etc. It's been ungodly humid and hot most of the week, so I haven't ventured out much, and I haven't looked in the garden in a week - yikes! God only knows what giant zucchini have erupted in that time.
Two took the written driver's permit test on Tuesday. As anticipated, he failed, although he didn't do as badly as I'd feared he might, given his "I don't give a shit" attitude (this being his attitude for pretty much anything that's required of him). You have to wait a week between tests, so he's scheduled to try again next Thurs. He was allowed to look at the answer key, though, so he knows what he got wrong, and they only give one version of the test at this facility (four exist) so hopefully he'll pass next time.
I need some good news, please. Every time I check the news outlets, all I see is the virus being out of control, the President and his cronies and followers being even more of a jackass than usual, the Seoul mayor's death, Glee actress's presumed drowning, the economy in the tank, cancel culture, impossible lines at the just-reopened DMV, much of the rest of the world doing SO much better than we are; plus, our house is a disastrous mess, and there's always too much that needs doing, and not enough manpower or time to get it done. Also, I'm already feeling totally over my head for school, and I haven't even started yet! Anyone have anything happy or cheery to report, either from your own life or from local-to-you news?
Age: 48 Bed size: Queen Cat names: Gem, Dessa, Nick and Sophie ( Collapse )
The one positive thing on the horizon: I know I'm getting a new phone for Mother's Day (Samsung S20). I'm looking forward to not having to recharge my phone multiple times a day. We'll see if the Swype typing is any smarter than on this phone, as well.
So it looks like I haven't posted any actual content for a couple of weeks. I feel like my life has been pretty boring, tbh. I've been full up on sub jobs, just about every day and while I certainly don't mind the money (so to speak - the pay rate isn't fantastic; MiniPlu earns more per hour at her Levi's job than I do as a sub), I intended this to be a p/t job, not a f/t job. I could say "no" more often, but I know how desperate they often are, and I feel bad for leaving them in the lurch if I don't have to.
So, been busy with jobs - some I've liked better than others :-P - taking my FIL to his twice-weekly cardiac rehab appointments (it's 3x/weekly, but Will takes him to one, and I do the other two), the usual chores, errands, cooking, arguing with Two, occasionally helping MiniPlu (who has been absolutely drowning in work this term), exercising at 5:30a, going to TKD, and trying to keep to my resolution to have the lights out by 11pm on weeknights. (Not usually succeeding, but I'm at least managing it before 11:15p.)
Meanwhile, MiniPlu is having her ass handed to her by her honors English class. ( Collapse )
Meanwhile, Two is learning the hard realities of life. ( Collapse )
And speaking of work – I think I may have permanently lost my ID badge (for the school district), ( Collapse )
On a more cheerful note, I finished reading Loving Our Cats, a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" collection of cat-lover stories, taken from a number of previous CSftS books. The librarian gave it to me for Christmas, knowing we had five cats, and forgetting that I generally prefer dogs. ;-) But I have definitely developed a soft spot for most of our cats, and it was a very sweet book, full of feel-good stories and some amusing tales as well. If you're a cat-lover, it's a nice light read.
Today I also finished reading Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater, the first Ronan-centric book from the Raven Cycle series. I say "Ronan-centric" but it's really more "dreamer-centric." ( Collapse )
I realize there’s some quibbling in my review, but, honestly, I did like the book. Not every single second, but I’m sufficiently intrigued that I plan to read the next one, whenever that is. Thank you, hamsterwoman, for the book!
Cost of Two's school portraits (one 5x7", four 3x5" and 4 "wallets") when ordered via Shutterfly (apparently, the package we usually get comes with this digital option after the fact, for reprints): $2, plus a couple bucks for shipping. (We could forego the shipping and pick up the prints at the drugstore, but I'm not always thrilled with the color balance of the drugstore machines.)
Cost of Two's original school portrait package, which entirely disappeared after we'd only taken ONE picture out of the envelope: $29 + $5-ish for shipping/processing/whatever. (Which is why we're having to reorder almost the entire package, minus one 5x7 and 4 unnecessary wallets; you can see it's not like those would have added much on to the cost of digital reprinting via Shutterfly.)
Cost of two 5x7"s of MiniPlu's fancy-schmancy senior pics: $60 PLUS $10 shipping for a single freakin' sheet of photo paper. And the only reason we were going to do this is because MiniPlu and Two have photo frames for their K-12 school pictures (kind of like this but different style). And we thought it would be nice to have her "official" senior portrait for that, rather than the informal ones our neighbor took for us in August. But SEVENTY FREAKIN' DOLLARS for two (TWO!) modestly-sized photos?
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