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Home > Archive: June, 2022

Archive for June, 2022

Take My Husband to the Grocery Store Day

June 26th, 2022 at 02:45 am

My DH and I had a load of errands to do today, and our local "fancy" grocer was on the way.  They had some great specials this week, so we stopped in.  A little history:  DH will eat anything pretty gratefully.  He does like an occasional Saturday night steak dinner, but he's not a fussy eater.  He rarely--and I mean every other month or so--goes to the grocery store.  He's busy, and I often stop on my way home from the university.

He's heard me rattle on about grocery prices, and listens to the news, but nothing like seeing it first hand.  So we bought a few things, mostly on special, pork tenderloins for the freezer, his steak for tonight, assorted other items.  This happens to also be the store where our DD has her part-time job and gets a 10% discount on everything not on sale.  I wasn't paying much attention to the totals, but knew with the meat purchases it would be pretty high.  So when we got to the register and the total came up as $82.XX, he blanched, and just looked at me.  We paid, and off we went.

When we got to the car, he said, "Was that right?" and examined the register receipt.  Nothing like a little first-hand experience. It was a revelation for him. 

That brings us to another stop for today--the local Menards to look at replacement shutters for our damaged exterior shutters.  I somehow thought they'd run us about $100-200 for a pair of wooden shutters.  Much to our surprise, they have be ordered, and would run about $1000.   Between that price and poor DH's sticker shock at the grocery store, we're going to try to repair them outselves next weekend with the help of a YouTube video or two!

But we were successful at taking two loads of old paint, paint thinners, and various other nasty chemicals to the Hazardous Waste drop-off site this morning.  Such an exciting Saturday...

 

Dejunking and Retirement Seminars

June 22nd, 2022 at 05:55 am

I spent two hours tonight at a zoomed state retirment seminar.  Ugh, I'm so zoomed out.  Zoom meetings, zoom with students, now zoom HR sessions.  I'm not sure I learned anything new but it was pretty well done.  I need to have another meeting with the benefits people at my university as they have other parts of the plan under their control.  I'm hoping for an in-person meeting there.

I walked my usual route before 7 this morning to avoid the heat as it hit 100 here today.  My class went pretty well, though the not-so-swell students are lagging while the good ones are almost done. In the afternoon I decided to take advantage of the cool basement and ready a box for the hazardous waste disposal scheduled for Saturday.  We have lots of old paint cans and dried up ends of solvents that I'd love to get out of the basement.  And during the boring bits of the zoom seminar, I sorted through files and tossed a lot of copies and excess junk.  Not exciting, but satisfying.

I've been reading the Slough House novels by the British writer, Mick Herron.  They're spy novels, which I sometimes like, but he's an excellent, very literary writer.  If you like that sort of thing, they're a good sumer read--and all from my frugal friend, the public library.

 

Cooler by the Lake

June 17th, 2022 at 05:14 pm

Yeah, that's what we always say here in Beertown.  In fact "Cooler by the Lake" used to be the Summerfest motto.

I was happy to turn off the a/c last night and open things up.  I still have the east-facing blinds drawn, but it looks like a great weekend.  Despite the gorgeous weather, or maybe because of it, I'm getting a little stir-crazy.  I've spent far too many hours grading online papers and updating content.  One week until the class itself is done, but with residual grading, of course.  Four, or maybe five of my 25 students have not logged in this week.  I do think the accelerated summer pacing is hard for them, and who knows what kind of other issues they face.

I've been throwing away rafts of teaching materials and finding miscellaneous things to sell on FB.  I think most of my serious canning days are over and sold 12 jars this morning, awaiting pick-up.

Our DD is now in Prague after lovely days in Vienna.  She'll be home in 12 days.

No big weekend plans--more grading, some gardening and more decluttering.  I need to pick up a Father's Day gift from DD to DH.,DH and I worked on a project when he got his Master's degree about local soldiers killed in WW1.  We still have some things to explore on that topic and have decided to spend some time over the weekend on it.  We both love it, so it could be quite fun.

I'm hoping some of the online banks will soon raise their savings account rates.  I'd like to make a bit more on the emergency fund.

Happy Friday!

 

 

 

Birthday Food

June 14th, 2022 at 03:55 am

It was my DH's birthday on Friday, and we decided to keep it pretty low key.  I bought him some summer shirts on sale at Old Navy with their Old Navy promo cash, and we went out for Mexican food.  It got a little chattier than I anticipated as a former student was seated next to us.  I had her in one of my adjunct literature classes years ago, and I'm a bit embarassed to say I hardly remembered her.  But she remembered the class, introduced me to her whole family and we had a nice talk.

But as usual with me and DH, we ate so much chips and salsa, that we each had half a plate of food left.  So that was Saturday lunch.  But there was still a lot of beans and rice left today, so into a tortilla it went for lunch.  Our fabulous next-door neighbors brought over a strawberry pie for DH too.  I'm eyeing up the last piece for tomorrow's breakfast.  Hey--it's full of fruit, right?

My summer class is still chugging away.  Nine more days of it.  I tried not to look at the stock market again today. I may take another break from the all-too-depressing news for a few days--and eat strawberry pie!

 

 

Welcome Sunshine

June 9th, 2022 at 06:51 pm

After almost 3" of rain yesterday, I'm happy to see the sunshine.  My garden was looking a little tired of the wet too.

I have some errands, including a birthday gift for DH and plenty of grading to do.  Online classes-bleah.  Summer online classes-double bleah. but only a bit over two weeks to go.  I'm eager to get into serious decluttering and planning, but too much grading hovering over my head.  Soon!

DD is in Rome now, and they've had a great time.  She and her BF have alternated picking the places to stay, and I they've had quite the variety including great hostels in Spain and London.  The one in Venice also looks fantastic, a far cry from the shabby hostels of my long-gone youth.

Hope your June days are beautiful too!

Cool and Cloudy

June 6th, 2022 at 10:11 pm

Is it really summer?  I'm bundled up in a sweatshirt, jeans and warm socks. 

We had a low-key weekend, which was fine with me.  My Friday pineapple upside down cake came out fine, and my friend's kids LOVED it.  I was so pleased.  The cauliflower soup was also a hit which makes me feel good. 

I spent some time Saturday scanning medical receipts to submit to my FLEX account and organizing papers.  This impending retirement thing is starting to feel real, so we need to take a closer look at DH's company health insurance. I can escrow my unused sick leave from the university to buy health insurance later, so that's our plan for now. But DD's allergies and xolair shot could be an issue.     I also listened to a Suze Orman webinar on retirement during these (ugh) challenging times.  We seem to be doing everything ok-ish, but I am thinking about moving some of DD's 529 account money into I bonds for her fourth year of school.  Because we paid half of her tuition out of pocket, there's some squoosh room if we withdraw it now. 

But the Suze Orman webinar made me a little uncomfortable.  I know it's challenging now for a lot of people, but I need to find a way to keep that in mind without worrying too much.  I can become a little too wound-up about things (to say the least). 

Food seems easy this week.  Black bean and rice stuffed peppers, chicken soup, and hopefully some decent grilling weather.  Friday is DH's birthday, so we'll go somewhere for Mexican. He's easily entertained!  DD is currently in Spain, and we're loving her pictures.

We had AT&T come out and install faster internet this morning.  The tech was super!  She told me her story of being in her late 40s and returning to AT&T after being away for seven years.  She was lured back by their offer of 100% retirement vesting, including her prior years there.  Props to her for scrambling up ladders in the rain.  What a smart woman.   But annoyingly, for her first 20 minutes here, they also sent out a salesperson who tried VERY hard to sell us AT&T TV and cell service.    Their new rate saves us $10/month on internet, but I practically had to shoo the salesperson out of the house. 

But $10/month savings is good news!

 

Going Retro

June 2nd, 2022 at 06:54 pm

My DH has to take something to share at his choir social tonight.  I almost bought something yesterday but decided to scour the cupboads.   We're going retro as I have a pineapple upside cake mix that , while still in date, needs to be used. I honestly don't remember buying it.  Wish me luck getting it out of the pan!

It's day three of my summer class, and so far, it's been quiet. Their first assignment is due tonight so tomorrow will be a grading and prep day.  Great zoom call today with US and UK friends about the queeen's jubilee. Our UK friends live in Windsor, so whiel it's crowded in town, they enjoyed the Red Arrow flyover today. 

No other real news--back to decluttering!