Done, Done, and Done Again

I didn't have very high hopes for the latest place I visited bright and early this morning to get my inspection done, but this one turned out to be a winner. In the time it took us to buy new windshield wiper fluid and a drink in the adjoining convenience store, the inspection was all done! And I was back home in plenty of time to log on to work. With my car worries allayed, I decided to finally book our train tickets to Philly, and that went smoothly as well. Lastly, even though I was kind of beat by the end of the day, I decided to make a stir-fry and use a couple things for the first time: a cast-iron pan to get the tofu nice and crispy, a wonderful sugar-free teriyaki sauce, and mixing corn starch with rice vinegar to thicken the sauce. Two of those three things worked well. Next time I mix the corn starch with the sugar-free sauce. Now I have leftovers and our fridge is much easier to get into with all those veggies being used up (two kinds of oyster mushroom, a bunch of scallions, lots of baby bok choy, half a mandolined daikon). All in all a great day for accomplishing things. Back to Manhattan tomorrow!

Much-Needed Quiet

As I type this the only music in the vicinity is coming from next door, which is only audible from the home office and should abate soon. I understand that some cultures are loud, I grew up in a noisy Jewish household, but loud and selfish, completely indifferent to and inconsiderate of those who live around you... well, that must be a 21st century artifact. Regardless, today was a good recovery day, provided I leave this room in the next five minutes or so before the unwanted music gets to me.

Incremental Forward Movement

Like a friggin' wristwatch's second hand. I gave myself two major chores to do today: steaming some lighter tops with the summer-like weather on the horizon, and catching up on finances. Both were accomplished, and I even made some headway on my list of Where I Have Money Now, but that felt way too much like work so I'll finish it another time. (Especially after throwing away lots of old maps and timetables made obsolete by yon internet.) Tomorrow we get the laundry done, put away my winter comforter, and get back into the weekday routine.

Easter Consolidated and Cleaned

Lots of really good stuff accomplished today. I cleaned the bathroom a bit, got through all the issues of my local paper, and tackled the surprisingly large task of consolidating all our tax returns and stuffing them into an accordion file that used to hold some returns (not in order), important papers, and immigration stuff. The latter has now been moved to an expanding document portolio that used to hold a lot of my old Rothstein Kass stuff (most of which was thrown and I kept a few things in my "office stuff" under-bed storage), and the accordion file is now in the library with all our tax receipt boxes. Rob's currently shopping for a decent shredder as we really only need to keep the last 7 years' worth of receipts, and we now have to concern ourselves with all the stuff currently in our loft space as we try to downsize our possessions in the next couple of years prior to my retirement. But one thing at a time!

Paper Working

My brother and I spoke this afternoon after Rob and I got home from grocery shopping (finally found Cadbury Creme Eggs the day before Easter, had to get a few just because Wacky Tradition), and I think I have my old pension sorted out, but I need to speak with someone there on Monday because I should have been receiving it starting in 2023! In any case, seeking a copy of our marriage certificate to scan and print out to attach to said pension paperwork led me to realize that I need to redo a few more files, as I found a lot of Rob's immigration paperwork (and all our important papers like birth certificates and such) mixed in with some old tax returns, and we had newer tax returns in a totally different place, so I'm going to do what I do best, consolidation. Meantime, Liverpool is out of the FA Cup (what a miserable score, glad I napped during that game) but both New York baseball teams are winning, so I'll take it!

All the Stuff

Not sure if you've twigged onto this yet, but I'm a task-based person. Even the online games I play are almost all task-based. For some reason it's my happy place. And now that the worry over my eye floater is allayed I could concentrate on other needed tasks, like a haircut and the car's oil change. First we shopped and ate at our favorite sushi place, then I got my spring shearing, we rested at home for about an hour before going out again to have the car serviced. They said two hours, so we walked around our local business district, visited the local gourmet grocery store and marijuana dispensary (um, two separate stores), and waited a lot less time than estimated before getting our peace of mind back. Now I can take various trips outside my own vicinity with fewer worries! All the usual and occasional (earring sorting, wool wash) tasks are done too, leaving tomorrow as a much-needed rest day. Hoorah!

Forward Movement

The non-automatic clocks in the bedroom and kitchen have been moved forward, I stopped by the local farmers market for the first time this year, Robin has officially put away the shovels and salt, there's baseball galore on the TV, and the temperature reached at least 66 degrees today. I'm a happy camper.

The Ides of Rest

Aside from general house organizing (finances, washing up, etc.) it was a deliberate do-nothing day to allow my body to heal more through rest and sleep. I do miss activity but I don't think it's the best thing for me at the moment. I probably should have done more reading, but I tend to read comics in bed in positions that wouldn't be the best for my right arm area...

Best Birthday Ever

Today I turned 68 years old. Aside from the kick I always get to see around 200 Facebook friends from all my Venn diagrams (Firesign, comics, Rutgers frat, online gaming) wishing me a happy birthday, as well as my work colleagues who gave me two desserts I should definitely NOT eat as well as treating me to a group lunch order eaten in our fancy dining area, I got the best gift of all, a birthday call from Mom. My brother held the phone as she coherently spoke. For someone I'd been convinced was at death's door a few days ago, this was near miraculous. I'm now told she's due to be released back to her long-term care facility on Friday, the infection and sepsis are all gone, and the only stumbling block remains her food intake, which is difficult when you can no longer swallow properly and you don't care for food anyway. But she's not in pain and she's not suffering so, at 94+, she's totally beaten the odds again! Every reason to celebrate! Which we did with a delivered sushi dinner. I refrained from the third birthday dessert of the day included with our order, a bunch of cookie-like Japanese treats in a box which looks lovely on our holiday table. On to year #69!

Productive Pre-Birthdays

As my 68th birthday is on Tuesday, and Robin's is next Saturday, we have already pre-ordered our gifts for each other. My new AirPods are waiting to be charged then paired with my phone and work computer (with any luck the noise cancellation feature will work well enough for me to leave the headphones at home), and his new Huion Kanvas art tablet arrived today, which he integrated pretty quickly into his home office setup in place of his old Wacom which doesn't play well with any of the newer software. We shopped at H Mart (the Asian grocery) and our regular supermarket, and I plan on making a stir fry tomorrow to take us through the worst of the cold weather to come. Meanwhile, Mom's situation has gotten worse, so I'm more grateful than ever that I visited her on Wednesday.

Monitored No Longer

I finally reached Inbox Zero again by the end of today's workday, and about an hour ago Robin removed my heart monitor allowing me to actually take a regular shower again. Meanwhile his new UK passport came (the first one to reference HIS Majesty) so we can now take it to the Yonkers DMV and get his non-driver NYS ID done. Once again I'm feeling forward momentum at the Riggs Residence, lurching into the Thanksgiving break. All ready to hit the office again on Monday and Tuesday, but first we do our Thanksgiving shopping tomorrow and possibly at the farmers market on Sunday. Looking forward to the weekend, and perhaps sleeping through much of it!

Whipping Up

The wind continues to blow a November gale, but as we got our errands done this morning (the farmers market as I'd forgotten to get mint for my Greek salad, then visiting my uncle at the extremely nearby rehab center) and had no further plans to go out, I'm fine with that. I finally talked with our downstairs neighbor's kid/friend/whatever about smoking weed in the laundry room, as the smoke (but alas, not the weed smell) travels up the stairs and into our apartment and even the air purifier inside and the two charcoal odor absorbers in the stairwell can't get rid of it. Today the purifier was nice and green-means-go, so that pleased me. The Greek salad was quite tasty, I finally caught up on finances just as a few big bills hit (credit card and medical bills paid, waiting on car insurance bill until next week), and I did my first Amazon same-day order of one of my supplements (and refills of the shampoo and conditioner that actually seem to be thickening my hair, so I packed up the other hair products I'm no longer using in the hopes I can donate them). Didn't get to the clothes steaming but I can probably do a bit of that tomorrow. All in all a day of much accomplishment!

Minor Glitches

So the USB connections on either my monitor or docking station are a bit kablooey, and Robin and I will have to figure those out sometime over the weekend so I can use my keyboard and monitor camera properly come Monday. Good incentive to clean around the monitor area, where I keep lots of desk tchatchkes. I'm actually in something of a cleaning jag; tomorrow I attempt to wipe down the microwave which has started looking grungier than I'd like, and I have a Swiffer mop all ready to go on the bathroom floor when I have the energy. And probably after I catch up on finances, most of which I've finally printed out along with my pay stub this afternoon. Credit card bill auto-paid as well, and tomorrow I take care of medical bills. With food shopping and needed rest coming up tomorrow, I doubt I'll get to too much of this, but at least it's a list, and lists make me happy!

And On The Second Day...

... I rested. I really needed to. We didn't even take out all the full trash bags (recyclable and otherwise), just stayed put watching English football in the morning, American football in the afternoon, and cooking and baking shows in between. We tried to make it through the latest Jurassic Park movie yesterday but it just didn't hold our interest, and nobody besides Scarlott Johansson even appeared to be trying to act. I made my new favorite salad (tomatoes, onions, cheddar cheese and arugula, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar), a photo of which seemed to be a hit on Facebook, for what that's worth. And now it's time to read comics in bed with vet shows on in the background. A perfect day!

Sorted!

White Rabbits! After we got back from our weekly grocery shopping I took a trip down job-memory lane, not only preparing my new lightweight backpack for the must-have things I need to take with me to and from the new office where there's no storage space, but going through and organizing everything from this job and at least the two previous ones which are stored in the storage ottoman I keep in our home office. The backpack bit took a few minutes, the rest of it over an hour or so, but I'm very pleased that everything is done and dusted. Organization is, if you haven't already guessed, my happy place. Alas, another happy place, Toronto, has lost Game 7 of the most compelling World Series contest I've seen in quite awhile. So glad the Yankees weren't involved, my fellow New Yorkers (and Bronxites) would have been unbearable. Oh, and Liverpool finally won a Premier League game, by what I consider The Perfect Score (2-0). And I made 12 minutes working my way back up on the bike, finally figuring out how to work the timer on the app that Apple Watch just upgraded with features nobody needed or desired. A great day all in all, and as a reward I think I'm just taking tomorrow off and doing nothing.

Worldly Serious

As I type this Addison Barger of the Toronto Blue Jays has just hit a grand slam home run, followed by a 2-run homer from Alejandro Kirk, and the Jays have taken the lead in Game 1 of this year's World-Actually-Only-North-America Series (at least there are two different countries in it!) and I'm pretty pleased. I have no horse in this race but there's just something about the Blue Jays... maybe their homeland, which seems like paradise compared to the current state of ours. Anyway, I'm starting to find a bit of energy here and there, and have finally put away the rest of the laundry done on Monday, organized my work emails into one archived place, made sure five out of the six partners I'm involuntarily giving up as I ease into my new role are happy with my successor (who is facing a nasty hurricane heading towards Jamaica so my thoughts are with him and my other colleagues there), did the washing up of the dishes and myself, figured out my voting plan when I do my early civic duty tomorrow morning, and started getting into a pre-colonoscopy mindset. Can anywhere truly achieve that, though? Back to baseball!

Balmy

This morning we hit two farmers markets in the neighborhood, now that the more southerly one has moved to two blocks away from the local bus. By the time we got home from the second one it was a good deal warmer than when we'd started out, and as soon as I got home I doffed the sweatshirt and we flung open the windows. Good thing too, it got rid of that awful cigarette smoke pretty quickly; when the downstairs neighbors toke up in the laundry room we don't get a contact high, just smoke traveling up our hallway stairs and making it impossible to breathe by the apartment entrance. Even the poor air purifier didn't stand a chance, so the cross-ventilation took care of things, particularly when the wind got up. Miraculously it was also quiet for most of the day, which meant I could finally catch up on finances and grab an afternoon nap. And the leaves are finally beginning to turn! The only negative was a pitiful Liverpool loss, so I'm back to my standby "as long as they finish eighth place or better I'm happy" stance...

Beaned

The bean salad for Saturday is made! I've caught up on finances! I've made very good progress on all the quarterly meetings I schedule, and had a decent year-end review with my supervisor so I guess the firm wants to keep me around for the next year. All good things, except a few aches and pains here and there because I'm an Old. Yankees are winning (Judge hit his 50th, hoorah), Mets are losing. Back to baseball!

More Exhausting Do-Age

Today was another very productive one for me, as we shopped (both at the grocery store and the farmers market), I made another humongous salad and started the shopping list for next week (when I buy my bean salad ingredients), did some finance stuff, and steamed about a half dozen shirts since I'm going to be in Manhattan three days this coming week. I probably pushed myself a bit too much, but Having Done feels so good!

Of Costume Jewelry and Sushi

My earrings, which I usually only wear as part of my work ensembles, have a tendency to pile up in front of my two acrylic earring holders until I bite the bullet and re-hang them. This morning, after doing my usual Saturday morning stuff (shopping list, comics ordering, pill organizing for the coming week), I decided to tackle said earrings, with a twist. I made up my mind to get rid of all the ones I have no intention of nor desire to wear again. All the chunky ones, many of the heavier post earrings (I much prefer danglies), even the Batman hoops I used to wear during my convention-going days, all tied up in a green jewelry pouch and ready to... well, I don't know exactly. I hate throwing things out but I'm not sure putting these in my local Buy Nothing group is even worth it. In any case, I wanted to reward myself for a work week and earring job well done, and my Kura coupons expired today, so off we went for a lovely sushi lunch, followed by a relaxing afternoon. My hallux hardly hurts (Hereford Hartford and Hampshire) at present, which is a good thing as I carefully worked on lessening the callous last night. Hoping tonight's shower helps as well. And I managed to get on the bike again after a few days off, so that's good as well!