Going through a box of memories...

I went through a storage tub as I worked to combine them into 1 in order to make room and be able to store the tub somewhere else. I found a few items.

- a Netspend prepaid Mastercard I got prior to 2014 which I did not sign up for and never activated.

- Photos of friends at Christmas and my 1st niece's graduation photo collage thingy.

- Scholastic book about pandas which I somehow still have.

And then a sheet of paper I wrote on:

STUFF I FOUND OUT ABOUT MOM IN THE 3 DAYS AFTER OCTOBER 15TH

- Paying for a Jackie Lawson website membership - waste of money!

- Paying $15 a month to a Magazine Publisher - Claimed she "didn't know" where Woman's Day was coming from, TV Guide was NOT free

- Paying for a Senior People Meet membership - another waste of money!

- POGO

- Irregular payments to a Chase credit card which had been maxed out & shouldn't have had anyway. This developed from a Paypal Credit Card - I kept wondering why she kept getting Paypal statments.

Recipe for BBQ Potato, Bacon, & Corn Salad

1/3 cup ranch dressing (I intend to use Blue Cheese)

1/3 cup BBQ sauce

2 tablespoons Dijon Mustard 

3 pounds small red potatoes, quartered & cooked (I prefer to chop into small cubes)

1 can no salt added whole kernel corn, drained

1/2 cup sliced celery

1/2 cup chopped red or green pepper

1/2 cup chopped red onion

6 slices of crumbled crispy bacon (or equivalent)

Mix dressing, BBQ sauce, & Dijon mustard in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients except bacon & mix lightly. Sprinkle bacon on top, refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Paying rent for the month, hope the van is okay

Today's tasks mostly went off as well as I could expect them to. I wanted to get out by 8:30 a.m. to beat the heatup, but managed to get out around 9 a.m. anyway. I was however rewarded for my earliness with free foodstuffs left on the donation table. Seems like I got here early & nobody knows this is here. I grabbed what I was interested in - a shame the head of cabbage got claimed but it's good to see it was. I'd have liked to made okonomiyaki or use my aged bottle of Aldi slaw dressing made with Balsamic vinegar. I had 2 and had opened 1 & it was sweet & delicious for cole slaw! At least now I have 2 pounds of lentils & a bag of raisins again.

Got my garbage deposited, parked where I prefer at the credit union & didn't have to wait in a line, then got to Disney Drug Fart and my red chariot was plugged in & waiting!

Asked about passport photos & they still do them. Got that photo taken (I forgot to shave & it looks like hell), deposited my refill request, shopped a bit, then got payments, stamps, & both lotteries. It was when I was doing my rent payment I noticed I forgot the cable envelope, but since I got something else to mail out when I get back, I decided to do it then & not panic.

It pays to look around. Was going to buy a certain pack of Fiora TP then found a slightly disturbed mega pack on the closeout shelf for $3.49 so I grabbed that, & then saw the distressed boxes of cereal. OKAY. Poofball's preferred Paté turkey or salmon were sold out so I had to get 8 cans of other cat food he will eat like Indoor Chicken & greens, chicken & liver, and Poultry Platter. He does not like anything with white fish. He might like shrimp, tuna he will eat. He might eat anything but I give him paté because it's easy to portion.

There wasn't a whole lot of shopping for things I needed. Finally remembered the rubber drain plug for the bathroom sink. Things were okay for driving back but as I got closer to Alliance, I felt a disturbance in the van. I wonder if it could be the heat, so I turned off Cruise Control since it drives the transmission harder than I would, & turned off Max Air on the air conditioning & it seemed to help. I really need to get it serviced, an oil change for sure. Perhaps a tire check.

I just hope it doesn't repeat the process of me having a vehicle try to take a dump before going to a friend's memorial service as I was forced to miss Randy Geis' service when the Blue Bumb took a dump & nobody else had time to go.

Got back before 12 noon, paid rent, saw if there was anything else to claim (applesauce is nice), and managed to get in & rest. Got my milk in the fridge, 2 loaves of bread in the freezer.

I'm going to spend the rest of the day in air conditioning and recovering. 

Been busting my ass for this

SO unfortunately, the cleanliness inseption is for TOMORROW instead of Wednesday like I had hoped. I am basically Not Allowed to cook anything tonight because then the reflector pan of the burner on the stove I normally use will turn brown as it did from what was cooked on it yesterday, and then it would look uncleaned, and while I would like to line it with aluminum foil to prevent this & make it easier to clean, some info says "That could catch fire..." And then there would be the dirty dishes in the sink. I basically live in a museum of Nonfunctional items. Except sitting surfaces. I'm allowed to sit.

 

I have a few more things in the other room to do things with. I really should have gotten a vacuum cleaner with an edging tool for crevices. OH WAIT - I DID! BUT YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THAT.

 

Oh and somehow a phone call at 4 p.m. from the boss lady says I overpaid rent by $18. The ledger says I did. I don't know how - maybe something from when the 1st time the elevator went out & they said they'd give us a break on rent the next month after it was fixed & I never got that? I pay exactly what I've been told & when it goes up. I wrote it down (and posting here) as proof that's what I was told. I can take $18 off next month's rent.

 

I apologize to my body - I did too much today

I had an appointment with a nutritionist at the local hospital today and because of that, I actually got in the bathtub & took a decent shower. Washed my hair, got the sprayer all around my problem areas, figured out how to get in & out of the tub... Get dried off, choose clean clothes...

Then with bad directions on finding the place, wandered far too much to get to the right place, had to ask 3 people... Thankfully 2 of my best friends were along (I asked for help getting to the hospital front door) and I had to stop a few times to catch my breath because there was so much walking. Which I will report to my cardiologist. But it wasn't so much my breath but pain which made me stop.

Got in, saw the lady, got info, and afterwards, we went to Walmart so I could finish some shopping -  we all had stuff to get. But I chose to stay in the vehicle at the next 2 stores - mainly because I was spent. I took 2 more Acetaminophen before leaving the hospital (why don't they have caffeine free pop in the machines??) but that comes on only so fast. Thankfully electric carts were ready & available once I walked in.... using a cart...

I will be unavailable for anything in the next 3 days. I need to recover. I bought a 5 pound weight and have info from the nutritionist to help me change my eating habits. And with that, some working with a weight to get muscle back. I hope.

Depression makes you do funny things, and you get used to them.  

They laugh at you if you screw up a money order

Wednesday was a busy day of accomplishments and 1 big screw up. I was wasted tired afterwards, and because I got done early, was able to nap and then Phone a Friend who did so much to counteract my screwup.

I made it my goal to get out earlier than I usually am, mainly because the credit union closes early. So 10:30 a.m., I was out the front door. First small do, throw away the small bags of trash & freezer waste after getting to the bench. Refill my spoons, get to my vehicle. 2nd small do, perfectly apply my vehicle registration renewal sticker. Which was perfectly applied!

Got to the credit union, nobody in the parking lot. I tried to do the turn around & back into place (because the driver's door is closer to the building) but ended up double parked... But since nobody immediately arrived, I was able to do my thing without bothering anyone.

Get to Disney Drug Mart... There's a guy collecting for Ohio Veterans (I felt awkward) but the green cart is there. I ain't using it. Sit & wait for a lady to bring the red cart out... who totally ignores me waiting for the cart, so I patiently wait & watch her move the red cart into place, plug it in, and collect her crap and leave. I ascend the seat and go inside. Thankfully the charge in the cart is still good for my use. Drop off refills, and there's a slow line for the service window which I need next, so instead I shop.

They managed to have Friskies Turkey paté in cans in stock!! This never happens! Got a pack of treats and decide to get the cat sand when I'm ready to leave. There's several on the shelf so it's not selling out soon.

Get my name called for refills (they're done - I had only 2)... Proceed for payments & etc. Which goes fine. Then I fill out the money orders.... and I screw up badly. I fill out the money order meant for my cable bill payable to my apartment building. CRAP AND DOUBLE CRAP. I try to see if the service window can help me - there's been a shift change & this new lady is aggressively unhelpful. I get told a solid "Nope!" (aka you're screwed - hahahaha call the number about a refund) Not worth my time. Maybe I can pay the bill with a credit card... At this point my day is totally fucked. I can barely shop for other stuff I can or want to get there. I wanted to get mayo but there was 2 people gossiping there and I don't have time to wait. I wanted to look for breakfast sausage patties... and I didn't get a bag of apples.

I mean there was so much else I wanted to get but my mind is worrying about that damn money order.

Which is why when I get back, take a nap, & wake up when I need to use the toilet - I FORGOT TO BUY TOILET PAPER. I'M TOTALLY OUT. Like I grabbed the last roll THIS MORNING. I remember the cat sand but not the TP!!!

Thankfully I had gotten back early to have napped, have it just after 4 p.m. when I woke up, saw what I failed to do, & phoned a friend - and Jean happened to be home! Thankfully she was able to help me with this whole problem in 1 go. I TRULY APPRECIATE YOU DOING THAT! Toilet paper, money order, and as a bonus, a pack of A&W bottles and 2 Simply Strawberry! So glad I included extra funds for it all.

Finally today I was able to relax after all that. 

Thought using the computer would be easier...

First time placing a Walmart order since May 2nd when I left a driver a 2 star rating for not bringing my order to my door, and Walmart gives me a bullsh!t "This PIN is incorrect." Hmm... So I go get my wallet, find my EBT card, call the toll free number, and when I finally get the system to acknowledge the number & enter my PIN, I GOT A BALANCE. So that's not a problem.

 

AND THEN I deleted that card from my payments, re-added it, and then Walmart tells me "Too many incorrect PIN entries, please wait 24 hours." *SIGH* FINE. Delete the EBT card, charge the whole load to my Mastercard because I need stuff. Good thing I didn't try to order everything on my list, only a few items I need now like milk & bread.

 

And then during that whole rigamaroll, my reserved delivery window expired which didn't help things, so now it's reserved for 6 pm. Next time I'm doing this from my LG56VL. I did it with my laptop because I thought it would be easier that way...

 

That time with the R2D2 cake...

So I guess around 1980, for my birthday my mom decides to go get one of those cake pan decorating kits and for me that meant an R2 D2 cake pan & kit. You bake a cake in it, it tells you how to decorate the cake. We took Polaroids of me holding the cake. I can't find the photos at this very moment but a sample picture of how it looked have been searched & one accompanies this blog post. Fine, good, dandy. My birthday we enjoy said cake, don't finish all of it, and there's like more than half left over. Great, I thought, I'll get to eat the rest over the next week. Maybe as breakfast.

And imagine the cake being cut & eaten maybe just up from the bottom to the light blue rows on the left side to the white part. On the right side, exactly past the middle, that was left cut a few inches higher. The right side was cut higher than the left. Eaten, enjoyed. Good.

Remember at this point my bitchass evil older sister still lived with us. She hadn't yet graduated & vanished off to Wittenberg. I had clearly remembered where the cake had been left cut. I go out, do some stuff for like a day or something. Mom was off either attending classes or working, not sure what. I come back to the house. I see my R2 cake is now suddenly shorter. Cut the same way it was before I left the house. The blue square on the left is now gone, right side down the middle mind you is now up to the darker blue region. There's only 1 criminal. Someone filched a cut of the cake, left a pattern similar to what it was before in an attempt to hide the fact someone cut the cake.

I take issue with this with bitchass. I think I also utilized some sort of implement to mete out justice during which she has the complete audacity to start screaming, then runs out of the house & down the street & goes over to the Duley's house to gaslight them about what just happened, how I allegedly "turned violent," etc. I don't do things like this randomly. There's always a trigger. Always a reason.

Pretty sure during this, Mom comes back, bitchass cries to mom about it, and Mom tells her she shouldn't have taken what wasn't hers without asking. WITHOUT ASKING. She's never asked and had she waited & asked, I might have cut a piece.

The Duleys was a family whose mother spoke French & bitchass aspired to be so good at speaking French as they & as I recall she was friends with a daughter? Possibly. I knew the son & had no issues with him but I admit I could have been nicer to him & I apologize for not doing so.

Evil bitchass has always been like this for all my life. She once took a 2 head Norelco shaver I had gotten for Christmas to shave her legs - didn't ask, reasoned I "hadn't been using it" and felt justified in using without asking. I found it missing when I went to go look for it, and her heard using it. I had to fight her mid-use of my shaver to get it back. Which I did. I still had that shaver for years. I think I had to douse the shaving head in alcohol to sterilize it. If she wanted something like that, why not ask someone for one? They were willing to take her to all her band competitions & leave me home, surely someone could buy her a 2 head Norelco for her.

1st incident? She cut the wires out of a kids' Close N Play record player I had gotten for Christmas. She had asked for a record player & was insanely jealous I got the Close N Play. Yes, she got her ass beat for pulling that one.

I am thankful somewhat this whole cycle of abuse ended in 2018 but not before thousands of dollars of important items were stolen from the family & summarily thrown away. I had 2 valuable Rockafire Explosion posters worth thousands which somehow I was unable to save. A record collection gone, computer software, books, electronics. My grandparents' wedding china & old glassware. A lot of stuff I lost which still stings to this day. A birthday cake remains a little post it note to the whole file of crap.

At least she'll never get any of the Swiss Chocolate cake I baked today, and she can buy her own Kinder Bueno ice cream. 

Just say NO to Digital Price tags & "Dynamic Pricing!"

Managed to make plans for today (because Tomorrow is supposed to be cold & rainy & I don't need that) & then actually get out and get them done. Which means shopping for groceries at Walmart. But not before I saw foodstuffs in a box on the donation table! Snagged 4 pounds of rice, a can of low sodium pasta sauce, 1 can no salt corn, 1 can low sodium Campbell's soup (120 mg per serving which comes close to the 110 mg per serving of another soup I like). And a tiny loaf of whole wheat bread which I froze for later. I passed on the 1,000 tiny packets of various fruit jelly from Borgor Knig, but I did pick up the 5% juice pink lemonade bottle.

Got over to Da Store. Someone kindly left (selfishly) one of the shopping carts out in the parking lot (which you're REALLY not supposed to do) and with 100% reading for the battery. It ran fine though it has a sticky thing when turning to the right. Saved me some walking!

I've learned to not go to produce & bread right off the bat and leave picking up the heavy stuff (milk, pop, and other drinks) for last. Get to the cereal aisle and there's a whole swath of the cereal shelves just fricken EMPTY. Was there a recall? I bought a box of Confetti Cheerios (among the cereal I got) but the cashier forgot to remove the coupon... But it's still good until November & on other products.

So last time the Anthem food program card doesn't pay for "Frozen, processed meats" like morning sausage patties. It needs to be freshly packed meat. So I found a 2 pound chicken tenders package for $8.82. So the rest of the purchase with the card is thusly: 1 gallon milk, 1 package Queso shredded, 3 loaves bread, 1 big jar of peanut butter. The total came to $25.01. Perfect!

One thing I finally remembered to look for was the Kinder Bueno ice cream thingy because Cyana heard about them & asked her mom to get a box... (There's also a Gnutella ice cream thingy.) And I rarely buy these things, so why not. But at the price for a box of 4? I won't buy them again. 

 

I've been wanting to replace my little frying pan for sausage patties & eggs because the non stick surface is coming off & over by the bread they had them hanging up! But man, $7.88? Were they always that price? And I see while Green Peppers are below $1 each, the $2.97 apples are $3.74 now...

Saw some curious packs of Matcha whatever it was in the baking aisle... but at $19 a tiny pack? GTFO with that! I bet I could get it for pennies on the dollar elsewhere online!

That one Monster High doll still on the shelf next to the other empty spaces has yet to go on sale... the one I want but nobody seems to be buying her. I see Playmates has brought out Winx dolls based on the Fletnix showing (which nobody watches) and they're not only ugly but wearing ... shorts? oh no. oh no no no no NO no. But hey at least there's a magic item which I have no idea what it is. I guess Nickelodeon should be the Spongebob Channel now because that seems to be the only thing they run.

And another thing not on the cat food shelf was Friskies Turkey Paté. It was simply not there as was most single can paté. I guess if I wanted it, I'd have to buy a multi-can pack.

ALSO WHEN DID WALFART ALLIANCE START USING DIGITAL PRICE TAGS??? I will be writing to my Ohio legislature reps to make sure Ohio passes a law banning Dynamic Pricing practices. IE These tags can be changed on the fly "based on demand" at any given moment to rip off people. I heard about this and a month ago those things weren't there!

I managed to make it in, tried to get some sleep but Poofball kept meowing at me until I threw down some "Happy Powder" after which he seems to have relaxed. Excuse me as I take the rest of this week to recharge.

Baked & stuffed Portobello mushroom caps

 

Supper tonight was 2 large Portabello mushroom caps I got from the marked down produce area yesterday while getting things. I didn't want to make these into Mushroom Burgers because I reserve bread for meat. I wanted a baked, stuffed mushroom dish. And after consulting 2 recipes, I put 1 together & got this. Rice & cheese with sauteed diced onion in oil & a bit of garlic with some thyme for color, Parmesan & blue cheese & shredded Queso mixed in & on top, and a sprinkle of Paprika for color. Bake for 25 minutes at 400F.  The mushroom added a nice flavor note.

 

 

 

May the 4th was almost with me

May 4th - about as perfect a day for getting refills & payments & doing what I needed to do as it can get. Temperatures were not too cold but not too hot, making wearing a long sleeve shirt perfect. Sunny, blue skies, a few road crews out doing their things, hitting green lights when I needed to... Driving not too fast but then I had one guy in front of me for most of my travel towards Minerva slowing me down. Minor annoyance as I was not in a hurry. I managed to get outside my building around 11:15, made a loop around to toss my garbage & cat poop, and was actually early.

Get to the credit union - nobody else in the parking area. Nobody in front of me making me have to stand longer than I would like. Got my money, counted it back to avoid having to be called to find out if I was given more money than I should have... Walked back to my vehicle which started up at the building just fine and continued to work.

Was going to call Mike to have him meet me at Disney Drug Mart but waited until I was there & before I went in to call him. Got his voicemail annoyingly, so being May the 4th, I couldn't resist. Didn't return my call while there...

Dropped off my 2 refills which I had prepared a month ago! Got payments, lotteries not worth playing. Shopped for mostly non-food items which I always got at DDM... I should have waited for a steno tablet at Walfart because I ended up getting a Shrinkflated 80 sheet tablet when mine was 100. Floor cleaner, air time card, body spray, dry cat food & stick margarine which Walfart was oddly out of stock, grabbed a marked down pack of Portobello mushroom caps, marked down chocolate doughnut holes, and a 99 cent clearanced Swiss chocolate cake mix. Green peppers were above $1 each here as well (why are these not sold by weight?), passed on a bag of apples, snacks, and any additional drink (cider or pop). Also noticed Disney Drug Mart no longer has bagged Malt-o-meal cereals...

Refills were $1.60, paid for my stuff, got some gas, and drove over to Mike's place to see if he was there and got his return call just as I was looking for a place to park. So everything up to now timed out perfectly. Handed him the 2 cables he needed to charge his phone, identified the Micro USB port on a rechargeable light he bought. As I drove on, he called me while I was doing so and I never answer my phone while driving. Called him back when I got parked to find out what it was about. Funniest thing is he thought I was going to go in, get that cable he could use, and drive back to Minerva, then back to the building. "Mike, I'm done! What I was going to do, I've done it. I'm going inside and collapsing on my bed." I was able to return to my spot & I'm NOT leaving it.

That would have been entirely true if wasn't for getting officialness on my rent money order receipt & getting in & putting things away I discovered my wallet wasn't in my pants pocket. Ah. I had heard something fall on the floor in the vehicle as I grabbed the backpack.

So after I got the cold stuff put away, I did collapse onto my bed, took something of a nap, dosed myself more acetaminophen, waited until 6 p.m. & dragged myself out again & got into my vehicle & saw my wallet right where I expected it. Bonus for my efforts was a bottle of Newman's Own poppy seed salad dressing & a box of Jewish Matzo crackers on the donation table. Those particular crackers are 0 Sodium & therefore great with tomato soup & keep a long time.

And for that extra effort, I'm paying the price of lingering body pain the next day. Acetaminophen takes the edge off but I'm still sleepy.