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Home > Archive: August, 2020

Archive for August, 2020

Meetings Meetings Meetings

August 27th, 2020 at 12:36 am

The start of the semester meetings used to be fun. We'd bring in food, chat with folks we hadn't seen in a while, maybe go for coffee later. Instead today we had four hours of various zooms with the bad budget news tacked on to the end.

No new spending, leftovers eaten for lunch and dinner, and another meeting to plan tonight for delivery tomorrow.

I've added some $$ from SB and MyPoints to the 100K fund, but am sad to see my interest rate has now dropped to .6%. Ick.

Yesterday DD put in her notice at work, filed for her absentee ballot, and now we just wait for her passport.
It's gonna be a wild month for spending with airline tickets, housing, tuition, etc. Trying to be lean where and when we can.

Lots of Good News!

August 25th, 2020 at 04:46 am

Oh, what a good day! Her Majesty's Passport Office has cleared, printed, and sent DD's UK passport. We'll be able to avoid the visa process with its $500 fee and skip the NHS fees too. Now just waiting on its arrival.

In other good news, we took my car to the garage to investigate the annoying squeak. We were both sure it was shocks or struts. The mechanics all heard it too, but when they got it on the lift, they could see nothing amiss. And now the squeak is gone!

There's lots of bad news near us as you've perhaps heard. Wishing,hoping, praying and working for peace and justice.

Every Little Bit

August 24th, 2020 at 03:36 am

Quiet weekend with household chores punctuated by an unfortunate run-in with yellow jackets. Friday we got fed up with them as they've found their way into my DH's basement office, so the bee man came out and sprayed.

We also found a DIY solution that knocked off another couple dozen of them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FhifTGKtUQ&feature=youtu.be
They are yellow jackets--not bees or we would have chosen a more gentle solution.

In a bit of financial news, I sold four books and made $12. Every little bit helps!

Keeping On Keeping On

August 20th, 2020 at 01:30 am

We're still waiting on Edinburgh news and trying to keep busy while we wait. They've had two webinar/town halls--one of which guaranteed we'd have her necessary details to apply for her visa by the end of the month. And finally--eight days late, her passport documents have arrived in the UK. Trying to keep our eyes on the prize here.

I was delighted to see the news on record earnings at Target; I bought a lot of Target stock years ago, and have held it. It's one of the few individual stocks I own, and man, it's done well.

Besides a few quick purchases, that's all the news here. I ran into Costco this morning just for some salad mix, fizzy water, and a rotisserie chicken.

Eager to get out of the holding pattern and back to school. Someone please remind me of that when I start whinging about it.

Grocery Pick-Up Success!

August 15th, 2020 at 10:30 pm

Our infection rates are up around here, so I'm trying not to go out much. I did grocery pick-up today for the first time. Last spring we stuck to Instacart, then I ventured our for almost everything, but thought I'd give pickup a try. It worked out really well. I ordered online, and when I went to pick up they even took my paper coupons. I've been doing most of my big grocery shops at Costco, but have been spending too much--and that combined with efforts to donate a bag of food a week for our local food shelf has put a little too much of a dent in the food budget.

After that success I cancelled the Instacart subscription. With some forward planning we can handle the bulk of the shopping with pickup, an occasional Costco trip and maybe some fill-in fruit. Our CSA will run into October, and we have lots of veggies from them.

My DD is a little sad; still no concrete word from Edinburgh. None of the foreign students have received the required data for their visas yet. They're all in the same boat, but her local friends are all planning for college now--one left today.

And here's my rant today about the lack of USPS funding: Documents we mailed to the UK ten days ago have STILL not arrived. They were held in Chicago, 100 miles from our house for FIVE days. I'm madder than heck at the kind of shenanigans that pulls money out of this kind of essential service.

Happy Belated Blogoversary to Me!

August 12th, 2020 at 07:43 pm

I cannot believe it's been that long, but apparently yesterday was my lucky 13th Blogoversary. What? No card? No flowers?

Because I'm pretty sentimental I thought about all the folks who have traveled through this blogosphere like that lady from Atlanta, Retire at 50, the guy who was living in his car for a while, and another really funny one. Someone help me remember some of the others!

I've been determined not to go to the grocery store for another few days so we've had some slightly unusual meals. Last night's burgers were accompanied by kohlrabi fries. I just need to figure out what to do with the huge cabbage in the fridge. Maybe I'll try that eggroll in a bowl again. Or resort to store cupboard enchiladas for dinner.

In other mundane but satisfying news, my DD voted for the first time yesterday. I voted absentee, but am a dedicated voter, and hope she emulates that behavior. She was proud of her "I voted" sticker. And I cashed $35 out of SB and MyPoints to add to my big goal

I also did a usage test on some crackers, sampling three kinds they sent. For that I gained a $10 Amazon card that went for a wallet for DD. No other news--hard at work prepping for classes!

Lovely Evening

August 7th, 2020 at 10:27 pm

We had a friend over for dinner last night--socially distanced and on the patio. She lives alone, her law practice is suffering, and she's lonesome.

I initially thought I didn't have "nice" enough food for a company dinner but we had pesto farfalle with green beans, French potato salad, grilled zucchini and pineapple and pork tenderloin. I think we finally got grilled pork tenderloin right--it was delicious. I also made Julia Child's blueberry clafouti in a cast iron skillet, and I hate to brag, but it was wonderful.

Our guest is also a Brit, so we talked a long time about whether/how long we'll stay here or go. Her daughter lives in London and although her elderly parents are local now, she's thinking a lot about moving. It was a good talk. And I'm tickled not to have spent extra on groceries yet come up with a good dinner. The CSA veggies are the stars of most of our meals these days.

Lots of meetings today, and if it's hot tomorrow and DD is at work, I'll spend the day structuring my class web sites. I've done another session on accessibility readers and formatting, so much to think about.

No sign of the passport or CAS number for DD yet. We still wait on all that.

I've updated the sidebar with our big goal number. The increase is due solely to a couple of surveys and discussions. I'd sure like to see that at $10,000 by the year's end, but lots of expenses coming up.

Loads of Learning

August 6th, 2020 at 12:51 am

I'm spending every morning this week and next in sessions for improving online learning. I've taught online occasionally for more than a decade, but there's a lot of new technology and all sorts of tips and tricks to learn.

I had to laugh at myself today as I was somewhat astounded how many students access so much of their course material through their phones rather than laptops. "Who could use their phone as a primary learning device?" I asked my DH at lunch. He just stared at me and reminded me I access Duo Lingo every day on my phone for my language lessons.

Although I'd much prefer to be in the classroom, I'm looking forward to video commenting on papers, and some of the fancier parts of our learning management systems.

Today was a NS day. We ate up lots of leftovers for lunch, and although my DH was convinced there was nothing for dinner, I made a very good veggie-filled mac and cheese using up the last bits of leftover cream cheese, some questionable Brie, and subbing evaporated milk for the heavy cream. There is something so satisfying up using things up.

DD and I took our usual 40-minute walk today and for over five minutes we were accompanied by 5 turkeys. They followed us down the street and got a little too close for my comfort. But it was very funny. Another small joy for the day!