This Week

We went to the gym, Sunday, Tuesday, and this morning. Felt good to do that. Planning to do it next week too.

Music Man had a test for an accountant position. He said he thought it went well. It would be for a job in the city west of our mountain so there is that. Could be a good thing.

Mostly we're just glad to be done with everything with his knee and that we finally got our settlement.

I think that was about it, have a great week and I'll update next week.

Where Did I Go?

Well, things have been kind of chaotic.

I took a term break for school.

Music Man was fitted and finally got a brace for his knee and it mostly fits.

My poor cat was in liver failure and we had to put him down. My heart is still broken. I miss him a lot.

Music Man had a job interview in Atascadero so we went to the coast for a couple of days. That was relaxing.

I had jury duty. That was fun. Actually it wasn't too bad, but I was released from the jury panel. I was on a panel for one afternoon and they released me. I'm pretty sure it's cause I said I believe police tend to be more honest than the average citizen and that most of the people I know who smoke weed have lives that are a mess. Honestly I'm glad I didn't have to go back. I went in on a Wednesday and they expected the trial to continue Thursday, Monday, and Tuesday. Fridays the court is closed.

We've reached a settlement agreement with the insurance company, we're just waiting for all the paperwork to be signed and then to receive the check. Hopefully it will get here soon.

I think that's about it. Hopefully two long years of stress are ending and we can get on with our lives.

QME Appointment

Last Friday Music Man, the Grouchy Old Man, and I headed down the mountain so Music Man could go to a doctor appointment.

This was a re-evaluation of his knee by a Qualified Medical Examiner.

The doctor, who we both really like, rents an office for the day for these exams. The office he rented for last Friday was like something out of a zombie video game, complete with ceiling tile that had fallen and water damage. It was both hilarious and a little surreal.

The doctor and his assistant both apologized profusely. The doctor even said if they'd known the office was going to be like that, they'd have postponed but they didn't want to do that since we were driving down the mountain. They left shortly after we did.

The doctor did say his knee is screwed. At least for the next 20 years. Or so. Until they'll let him do a knee replacement. His report will be to the insurance company and our attorney in a few weeks.

That said, yesterday was also the tenth anniversary of my mother's passing. I was distracted and wouldn't have remembered if not for Miss Goofy remarking she'd needed to get out of the house. As soon as I asked her why I knew. I suppose it's a good thing that it didn't hit me as hard as it has in years past. It still hurts but I'm moving on.

Oh and my poor Saturn is probably going to be retired next year. Assuming we can get it to pass smog in the next couple of weeks.

I think that's all that's been happening here. Have a great week!

New Goals

I spent a lot of time talking with Music Man this past weekend, after all we were in the car for a really long time. We discussed some of the things we'd like to accomplish this year.

Some of my goals for the next year include:

1.) OTP - On time posts to my blogs. Yeah, that would be nice.

2.) Daily Chores - I have some routines I'm trying very hard to get in place and keep getting done daily. Simple chores are one of them.

3.) Clean house - Not all of my daily chores are about cleaning the house, but getting my house really clean and keeping it that way is high on my list of goals.

4.) Finances in order - I've done pretty good with keeping up with money the last year. I've had a few surprises thrown at me, but my goal this year, since I now have a pretty good handle on when things are due, is to start really saving money.

These of course aren't all of my goals nor are they all of what Music Man and I discussed. Most of that won't be revealed here, though when I can tell things this is where I'll do it.

Have a great week!

Triggers, Going to Help Friends, Yada, Yada, Yada

So Music Man and I are heading to visit friends this weekend. I'd say it should be fun but, we're helping them move, so, you know, an adventure. :)

I had a pretty major breakthrough this afternoon as well. I think it will help me a lot in trying to lose weight, get through school, and just in general. I'll talk more about it on Monday on my weight loss blog.

Oh, and the clutch in our truck went out again. This time we're going to have to replace it. Unfortunately. We really didn't need that $1200 bill. Oh well.

On the plus side, I've pretty good about making my step count, getting my chores done, and drinking enough water. On the oops side, I have not been as good about studying and writing. Something to work on, right?

Okay, off to accomplish a few things before I leave town. Have a great week!

I Knew I Should Have Planned This Post

I failed to make any plans for this post.

I failed to make any plans for what habits I plan to work on this next year.

I failed to get enough sleep.

I failed to not argue with my hubby. (In my defense, it really ticks me off when he says, "I'm not going to argue with you" in that irritated voice of his. Reality check, you already are arguing with me.)

In any event, it's been an exhausting week but I promised myself to update these things, so here's my update.

I'll actually plan something for next week.

The Week I Started Listening to Podcasts Again

It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon...Wait sorry, this is my blog not my favorite podcast.

It has been a quiet week on the mountain though. Quiet and honestly that's a good thing.

Music Man and I went and saw Sing last night at our local theater. I'd feel bad about not taking Miss Goofy with us but she was working and is working again today so she'd have missed out either way.

The movie was cute. I could have done without the obnoxious teenagers behind me but I liked the movie. And if that ever happens again I am definitely going to go get an usher and hopefully either get those teens ejected or make them be quiet. I don't care which but man were they rude.

We're looking forward to the holidays being over. I'm hoping the house will return to normal when it does. Hopefully.

I've been thinking over the last year and I'm currently working on plans for next year. I'm trying to get into some habits so that I can have a more productive year. Or at least keep up on my schoolwork.

I'll make a list of habits I'd like to have next week. At the end of the year, we'll see how I've done.

Until next week, Merry Christmas!

Oh The Month We've Had

So this month got off to an interesting start.  We hired an attorney to deal with all the nightmare of my husband's work-related knee injury. That actually went really well.

The bad part was at either dinner or when we got back to our mountain someone managed to steal my husband's debit card number. I discovered it on a Saturday night. I didn't want to tell him there was a problem with the account since the next day was his birthday.

Sunday it was obvious I had to tell him since I couldn't get into our account and we had to call the company. Sadly we stayed home for his birthday. That part sucked for him.

Monday we called and got the account unlocked, but the account was nearly drained. There was enough to cover our car insurance but not much after that. The rest of our money was now in pending transactions. So lovely.

Tuesday hubby had a job interview down the mountain. On the way, he had no choice but to run over a small piece of tire in the road. There was no way to avoid it. Whatever got to that tire, got ours too. Punctured our tire so by the time we got near the building for his job interview, the tire was flat. I stayed with the truck so no one would mess with it since it's not the greatest part of town. After his interview, Music Man called Triple A. They came and changed the tire for us and w headed to the tire shop we'd used for our other vehicles. Still have no money in our account since everything is tied up in pending transactions, so it went on a credit card.

We got a new tire, put lunch on the credit card, and headed home.

Thursday Miss Goofy had a doctor's appointment and since she was stressed, Music Man was going to drive her while I went to Costco with the Grouchy Old Man. They got to the park entrance and were coming back to the house as we were heading to the park entrance. We laughed and wondered what Music Man or Miss Goofy had forgotten. A couple of minutes later, Music Man sent me a text telling me we lost the clutch on the truck.

Music Man began calling around to learn it would be around $1200 to fix it. We do not have $1200 lying around. I knew we'd be okay but was frustrated none the less. Friday, Music Man was describing what had happened to Grouchy and Grouchy had a thought. He and Music Man went outside for a couple of minutes. Lo and behold, the clutch in the truck is hydraulic and simply needed fluid. That clutch is better now than when we bought it.

This week has been better thankfully, but we're still waiting for $250 to come out of pending transactions. When it does, it'll be like Christmas.

Wait...what?

Pretty Excited for Halloween

I know it sounds like I'm a little kid when I say I'm excited about Halloween but I'm really looking forward decorating, colder weather, and the excitement of the season as we start preparing for Christmas.

We spent earlier this week and part of last week cleaning, and rearranging the living room in preparation for putting out Halloween decor. Then Music Man and I went shopping for decorations on Wednesday, not because we don't have any but because we were looking for a couple of specific things.

I still didn't find a Halloween cookie jar. Target had one a few years ago that I wish I'd bought when I saw it. It was adorable. I've seen some that are similar online this year. The one that looks the most like what I wanted was $349. I decided I didn't want it that bad. I'll just keep looking.

Music Man's knee is still a problem. He's more than likely going to need another surgery, hopefully before the end of the year. Hopefully not the week of Christmas.

Miss Goofy is still working at the Discount Mart, got moved to the Service Desk even. She's pretty proud of that. When I worked at the same company, moving to the Service Desk was a promotion. It does technically make her a supervisor, which she's enjoying. She's really good at her job and works hard.

Not much else is happening around here. Just getting ready for the holiday.

The Day That Just Won't End

This morning started out with Music Man taking our poor beat up truck to the shop. Yep, it was breaking down again. When he spoke to them yesterday they said it sounded like the starter. So he'd bought a starter, they were going to squeeze him in. It was going to be fine.

Meanwhile I had a doctor's appointment and Miss Goofy had to go to work. So the Cranky Old Man agreed to be our chauffeur for the morning. Oh and he was going to pick up Music Man from the shop.

Music Man texted me and told me, it's not the starter, its the key. This truck is barely old enough to have a key with a chip in it, but it is old enough. So he was heading down the mountain, to the east this time, to a dealership to get a new key. No problem.

Miss Goofy, the Cranky Old Man, and I head out. They drop me off at the doctor's office, Miss Goofy goes to work and Cranky heads home to wait for anyone who might need a ride.

I got to have a "Well Woman Exam", which means a breast exam, a pap smear, and oh my Bob, I'm still hurting from the pap smear. I've done well with those. I also learned that I'm anemic, which I've been before so it wasn't a huge shock and my triglycerides are high, which they've been high before so I'm not surprised. Otherwise everything looks good. No infections, no other issues.

That said, my doctor was concerned about the anemia, since it's iron deficiency anemia. So, I get to have an upper GI done. Which works out well, cause I also need to have a colonoscopy to screen for colon cancer cause my dad died very young of colon cancer. Thank you to the military for all that Agent Orange poisoning.

So I called Music Man figuring he should be home, but no he's still at the dealership, waiting on the new key. Okay, no problem. I call Cranky. Who comes and picks me up and we head home. I wasn't home long when Music Man calls to tell me the dealership is saying the starter on the truck is bad. Very long story short, Cranky and I fly down the mountain to find out what the smurf the dealership is trying to pull cause Music Man was too upset to articulate it in a coherent fashion.

Somehow, the truck's starter, which was fine just a few hours earlier, went from fine to needing to be replaced. Not in the time it took to drive it from the shop to the dealership, cause it was fine when he got to the dealership. It started when they moved it into the dealership's shop. Not it died after they programmed the new key. Which the guy swore to me, programmed correctly.

We think they screwed up the anti-theft system. So, we'll try to fix it on Monday. But for the weekend, we have no vehicle. So much fun.

We finally get Music Man, Cranky, and myself back up our mountain and go have lunch, cause at this point it's 2 in the afternoon. I haven't eaten all day, Music Man hasn't eaten all day, I think Cranky had breakfast but it had been quite a while. We talked over lunch about what to do, eventually deciding to sleep on it and decide on Monday.

Cranky went and picked up Miss Goofy from work. She got home, walked in the door, looked at me and said, "The store manager got fired this afternoon."

So we talked over dinner about what that means and what she should do to maintain her job.

It's been a long day and that's why I haven't updated until now at nearly 11 at night. It was the first chance I had. I'm going to go to bed now. I'm exhausted but hopeful tomorrow will be better.

So This Week It Was My Turn

I got to have a slightly annoying medical test done this past week. I make it sound like a treat, don't I? In any event, on Tuesday night I had a sleep study done. I'd post a really scary picture of what I looked like all hooked up to the electrodes but no. I looked in the mirror and decided I didn't want to see that ever again. So no pics.

On the plus side I was actually able to go to sleep which was a huge thing for me. I don't like sleeping in strange places, and going to sleep when people I don't know are around is not something I'm usually able to do. That said, I felt very comfortable with the nice woman from the sleep study place and was able to get a little bit of rest.

Then Music Man came and got me. I was so happy to see him. We went to the hotel room we'd rented for the rest of the morning. Yes, at a sleep study, it starts very early in the evening and ends somewhere between 3 and 4.

Here's the thing, I got the call on like Thursday to schedule. Normally that would have made me push it off for several days, but when she said she had an opening for Tuesday, I took it. No hesitation, no putting it off. Just let's do this. It's something new I'm trying. And yes, that was a horrible pun.

Oh and then on Wednesday night, we got to take our truck to have the U-joint replaced. Both of them. That was awesome. Definitely an expense we needed.

So, I'm just about ready for an exam for school on Sunday, followed by a doctor's appointment for on Friday. It's my well-woman exam, so that's something to look forward to.

But possibly the best part is that the manager of our mobile home park and or the owner of the park have lost their minds and decided that trash pick is going to be done by the park, taken to the back to be compacted and then the disposal people can come pick up the compacted stuff. So, yeah, that's happening too.

I'm thinking Ventura sounds really good. I'll just go live on the beach and drink something fruity and alcoholic all day.

I'm off to live in a fantasy world, have a great week!

Ants, Doctors, and Blistering Heat, Oh What a Fun Couple of Weeks

Music Man had two doctors appointments around our anniversary. We chose to go to the coast for the day of our anniversary, since we had a rental car, stay the night, and then go to his first appointment.

Let me start with the coast. It was so heavenly. It was only 80. That was refreshing after near 100 on our mountain. Which is hot anywhere but on our mountain that's really hot. So the coast was wonderful. We went to our favorite pizza place. We laughed. We teased each other about the tacky 70's style hotel room. We went to the dollhouse store. It was a great break in the middle of a long and exhausting term in school not to mention the stress from Music Man's injury.

On to the doctor, the day after our anniversary. He was kind of, well, I don't want to say a jerk and I don't want to call him incompetent, but he didn't look at my husband's file and he did mention the state of another patient calling her Miss _________ and then showed us her x-rays. Now, it is possible that's a fake name and phony x-rays showing a condition much worse than my husband's but I'm pretty sure it's still a HIPAA violation.

In any event, Music Man got a cortisone shot, I did not faint at the sight of the needle sticking in his knee, I did want to vomit but managed to contain myself, and for about a week he had almost no pain. He's back to having some but it's much better than it was.

We came home through the big town at the base of our mountain and decided to go to the movies and dinner. We saw Central Intelligence and it was hilarious. We enjoyed ourselves a lot.

The next day he had another doctor appointment. This one was an initial health assessment as required by our new insurance. I'm sad to say that the incredibly sweet LVN from my appointment was yelled at that morning. Not by a patient. By the Nurse Practitioner. For writing down too much information in patient charts. Apparently, it's supposed to be the Nurse Practitioner's job to get the medical history. But like I told our sweet nurse, I'd rather something I say in passing that she thinks might be important get written down. I'm not a medical professional and don't know what's important to tell the doctor or nurse but something I may say offhand, could help them with whatever I'm being seen for. So, I will be writing a letter to the doctor of the facility and the insurance company and expressing my displeasure.

In addition, the Nurse Practitioner was abrupt, rude, and loud. She wore a hearing aid and I doubt she could tell how loud she was but I was concerned other patients and staff could hear her speaking. Where is the privacy in that? We will not be scheduling when she's on again.

One day last week as Music Man was letting me know dinner was about ready, I happened to move the keyboard for my computer and discover ants under it. They were under the monitor too. So I sprayed the crud out of my desk, and hopefully took care of it. I saw a few after dinner so we sprayed some more. Music Man was very helpful and sprayed where I couldn't reach. They seem to be gone now. I hope. Although the Grumpy Old Man had a ton of them in his room the other night and didn't spray cause he didn't want to do it while the a/c was on. Something about it going all over the house. Frankly I don't care if it does, I just want the ants gone.

We've had a couple of days where it has only gotten up to the low 80's which has been very helpful to the electric bill. And to my sense of hearing. The fans going all day and the house closed up winds up hurting my ears after a while.

Well, that's all the news from the mountain. Ours isn't the one on fire right now. I'm sure it will be at some point this summer though. There's a lot of brush and a lot of stupid people.

Remember, California is in a drought, everything is ready to burn. Be careful out there.

This Week's Post on Evening Coffee...

I woke up this morning and got my desk cleaned up for Music Man. He had a test for school and needed the room and my desk. I kindly got things ready for him.

After his test, I was working on something and realized I forgot to weigh in this morning. I was horrified. How could I update my weight loss blog when I didn't weigh in? I decided I'd weigh in tomorrow and then do the update. Yes, it would be a day late but at least I would have done it.

Yeah, then I looked at my to do list and realized I don't weigh in until Monday and I was updating this blog today, not my weight loss blog. Oops.

Went to Costco with the Cranky Old Man yesterday. You know, he has actually been in fairly good spirits lately. Kind of scary. I  may have to change his name on here.

Anyway Costco was fun. Well, as much fun as buying a ton of meat can be. On the plus side, my freezer is nicely stocked now. And I have a ton of awesome food that can be made into healthy meals for us. Down side, I have a ton of healthy food. Just kidding.

Miss Goofy may revolt and refuse to eat anything we make. At least as soon as she has a more steady, better paying job she may. She has an interview tomorrow morning, so here's hoping she gets it. It would make her really happy if she got it.

That's really everything here. I'm trying to stay away from hot button topic like the elections and the young man from Stanford. I just think it's better to not offer an opinion on either of those topics right now.

Have a great week and remember when someone starts spouting off, they are entitled to their opinion, no matter how wrong they are. ;)

Melting

It went from upper 70's to 90's in the past week on my mountain. I am not happy about it.

I am melting. And so is my computer. Poor thing.

In other news I went down the mountain with the Cranky Old Man earlier this week and we stocked our freezer. We now have enough meat for probably 2 maybe 3 months. That's a huge blessing to me.

He wants to go again next week and I'm all for it. Stock that freezer!

Music Man and I normally do that but we had two freezers die on us this past year, in fact within weeks of each other so we were a little gun shy of that one. But if Cranky Old Man is willing to buy the food and is confident of the freezer we got to replace the other two, okay, I'll shop.

Miss Goofy put a job application in with a hardware store. We'll see how that goes.

Oh, and I'm listening to Weird Al ad nauseam. I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time before Music Man snaps and throws his stapler at me. It's an old Swingline stapler so it's pretty heavy. Must practice ducking.

Oh and Miss Goofy is taking an online class. It's only 3 weeks. We're at the end of week 2. She's complained a lot about not being able to get schoolwork done. I have to laugh at that.

Well, I'm off to do some of my schoolwork. Have a great week!

Update on Music Man's Knee

Or as I like to call it: The Never Ending Quest for Less Ouch

Music Man had a doctor's appointment yesterday. We are no longer seeing the cattle call that was Dr. E's office. We are now seeing a doctor I will call Dr. F.

I'm not really creative about names, I used E, for the first doctor cause his last name starts with an E. I'm using F for the new doctor cause his name starts with an F. Funny enough, Dr. F gave us a referral to go see his colleague, Dr. G, cause his name starts with a G. This is going to get really fun soon. Hoping for a referral to see a Dr. H in the city down my mountain. That would be too awesome.

Anyway, despite Facebook saying he was headed for surgery, he's not. Dr. F wants us to see Dr. G because Dr. G is a specialist in non-surgical treatments. So instead of another surgery, we're looking at some injections. Hopefully they will bring the swelling down and help relieve some of the pain.

On the down side, he will more than likely need at least two additional surgeries. He does have multiple tears in his meniscus on both sides, as well as debris the size of a marble. And some unexplained fluid. More than likely he'll wind up with a knee replacement at some point in time.

For now though, no surgery. Injections that sound painful, and a weight loss plan.

Oh yeah, we're getting serious about this now.

Okay, off to menu plan and look for places to schedule gym time.

Have a great week!

Long Week

Last Saturday morning I awoke to learn my great aunt Nori had passed away the previous night. I was very saddened to hear this. She was such a wonderful woman and I have so many memories of her.

Her funeral was yesterday. I didn't go.

For some time now I've been sort of known as the woman who goes to funerals. It's been true if there's a funeral I'm there. To be supportive of the family and loved ones, to mourn, to say good-bye. I've been to somewhere between 10 and 12 funerals since my mother passed away 9 years ago. That's a lot of funerals. That's a lot of mourning. That's a lot of support for my friends and family.

In fairness, several of those funerals were for people close to me. My mother, my great uncle, my grandfather, my grandmother, another great uncle. My mother would say they're dropping like flies. I say this began with my mother's passing but it actually goes back to November of 2005 when my father-in-law passed.

All that said, I just couldn't make myself go to another funeral this time. I loved Nori. She was one of the nicest women I ever knew. She made me feel like I could do anything. I miss her.

It wasn't that long ago that I went to Aunt Nori's husband's funeral. At the time, I remember thinking that it would be weird to go to things and not see Uncle Jack anymore. That I knew how much losing a dad hurt.

Tuesday I knew I couldn't go to the funeral. I just couldn't go and see how much my cousins were hurting. Having lost both my parents, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I know it's never easy losing anyone, but I couldn't go and see the pain on their faces. It was hard enough at Jack's funeral. So I made my apologies to Nori's daughter. She understood.

Yesterday afternoon at thee o'clock, when the funeral was scheduled to begin, I said a little prayer for all of them, Nori, Jack, their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

I hope my cousins pain is overshadowed by their happy memories and the love their parents showered on them.

RIP Aunt Nori. We love you.

Changing My Update Day

After the weekend I never remember what it was I wanted to talk about on here.  Conversely, I change my step count on Mondays so I changed my weigh in day to Monday.

So, I'm changing my update days for these two blogs for consistency sake. And because I can.

Have a great week and I'll be back on Friday!

Visit with Family

First, last week Music Man and I went to Ventura area, specifically Camarillo and Oxnard, for my birthday. It was really nice to have some time alone with him and to relax. I had passed my networks assessment and the down time was really refreshing. We got home late on Thursday and Friday morning we discovered the fuel pump in our truck has gone out. Oh joy. So, we get to fix that. Had to wait until this morning to get a price on a new one cause the shop we were planning to use was closed for the weekend. Hopefully we can get that done this week.

Yesterday, I got to see my sister, Jujubee, and my niece, Princess Chica. Jujubee and Chica came by to pick my up since the truck is on the DL (disabled list). First we went by the cemetery to put flowers on Mom and Grandma's graves. Sorry Grandpa, you get flowers next time.

Then we went to Denny's for lunch. It was really nice. We chatted for several hours. Before we realized how late it had gotten and that we should have been home a long time before that.

Today, my cousins Rainbow Brite, The Chef, and Rainbow's 3 year old son, Little Bear, came by for a few minutes before they all headed out of town. Little Bear was sleeping cause he had taken some Benadryl since he's allergic to dog saliva. Good thing Rainbow Brite gave him Benadryl cause this little guy nearly lost his damn mind over visitors:

I love that picture of Miss Goofy's dog. He's so adorable.

Anyway, looking forward to getting my next two classes done and possibly getting a third one in there. And just enjoying the spring weather. Even if the wind is a lot cold today.

Have a great week and go visit someone!

So Excited!

I know I wasn't going to post anything today but I decided to do it anyway.

Tomorrow is my test for school and I'm feeling like I'm ready for it. So, yay me!

After my test we are going out of town for 2 nights and three days! My wonderful hubby is taking me out of town for my birthday and I am so looking forward to it.

Now if the laundry would finish so I can pack, everything would be awesome.

And the mail. I'm waiting on the mail which is normally here between 10 and 11. It's nearly 4 and still not here. Not sure what to think of that.

Okay, off to accomplish stuff before I leave tomorrow!

Have a great week!

No Post Next Week

I will not be posting next week. My birthday is Wednesday and my present from Music Man is a couple of days away from home. Given our limited space, that's probably the most thoughtful gift he could give me.

Otherwise not much is going on around here. It's been quiet.

Music Man and I have been studying. Miss Goofy has been been working.

We did have a doctor's appointment for Music Man for his knee. The doctor needs an MRI before anything more can be done. So we're in a holding pattern there. Though he did seem concerned by how sore it is.

Well, hopefully I'll have more to post week after next.

Have a great week!