Healthy Living Thread

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

I hear sirens. I hope they are coming to arrest some punk egg-tossers. And LOL it might be worth it to use a paintball gun on them.

Dee Jay, at least the Porsche and Audi dealer are close together. My dealer is 50 miles away. Bummer.

I won't say that 4-letter word. But it's coming.

Those giant slabs of tenderloin are amazing. I eat hamburger most of the time. But I do get sick of it. I bought 2 lbs of ground sirloin this morning and will fry it up tonight and freeze baggies of it for future suppers. Planning ahead.

Did the legal issue get resolved? Did someone get told to pack up and leave? Don't you LOVE coming back to work to problems. That is honestly why I still checked my work email when we were on vacation so I'd at least be prepared for the sh*t show when I went back to work.

Not much new or different at the Curbyhouse today. I worked on assorted things but quit at 8 hours. I am getting faster at stuff so that cuts my hours. What was I thinking being more efficient? I always tell people that I am inherently lazy, so I am always going to find the fastest way to do things.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Wednesday kids!

Curby, did the cops come and take those juvenile delinquents to the clink? The legal issue is now snowballing and we're likely brining in outside counsel. Ugh. LOL on being inherently lazy. But don't cut your hours too much, you need bling money!

I worked a little late yesterday and got my hair cut on the way home. She did a good job but left it a little longer than I'd like. Oh well, I guess I'll just go back sooner. Today I have to do several hours of mandatory online training. I figured I might as well do it from home. Plus, I've got a huge pile of amber glass that I washed up on Sunday and I need to get some pictures done!

In website news, I've now made two sales to the same lady who was previously an Etsy customer. Her second order she paid with paypal and it says I need to retrieve the payment but I can't figure out how. I had to make my paypal account a business account since it's linked to my store and business tax ID, but I'm kind of stuck at this point in the process. I think I'm going to have to reach out to Shopify (who might then tell me to reach out to Paypal... ) to see what to do next. It's always something!

Tonight we're meeting friends for dinner downtown at a place I've never been to. It's got to be better than the last place where we had dinner with them. If not, I'm stopping at McDonald's on the way home!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Thursday kids!

Yesterday was busy... I took pics of some of the amber glass, worked a bit, did three loads of laundry, and went to dinner with friends. I had an order to pack when we got home from the restaurant but I was TIRED so I went to bed and got up half an hour early this morning to do it. Another order came in overnight but I didn't have time to deal with that one. Maybe I'll do it at lunch before I run to the post office.

I've been trying to think of part time jobs that might fit into a semi-retired sort of lifestyle. There are both big UPS and Fed Ex distribution centers within ten miles of here. I looked on the sites and there are plenty of part time jobs for drivers, but that's not what I had in mind LOL. Anyway, that's likely not the right answer, but I'm trying to be expansive in my exploration and see if anything pops up.

Curby, I forgot to say I looked at the site for x-mas ornaments the other day (thanks for sending me that link!). The little mini snowflakes are cute but I keep hoping they'll have that set of five big ones like we got two years ago because those were fabulous -- and an amazing deal with the coupon! Let me know if you get any more notices because I must have unsubscribed from the list or the emails are going into spam.

OK, off to go talk to the project managers about a snafu from last week. Oh joy, oh joy...

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, bummer on the legal issue. Marty is having about that much fun as well. His trip to Kansas - twice - was for naught. They didn't have enough AC to keep all that equipment cool. Guess what happened? Oh oh.

Yay for making some sales on your website. I think you go in to Paypal and transfer the money to your account. I've done that a few times.

Did you get quite a bit of your hair cut off? Bet that feels quite different. The nice thing about hair, it grows back.

How was dinner the other night?

LOL to being a part time driver for Fed Ex or UPS, I'm not seeing it. Maybe you'd get a shipping discount though. I'd imagine you can find something to do part time remotely. You never know when the right opportunity will pop up. Once I started thinking about retiring, I couldn't give it up the idea.

I will keep you posted on ornaments. I was considering those 10 piece mini sets as well, but they are 1/38" inches and I envisioned leaving them on the tree by mistake. The 3 piece set were 2" ornaments. They'll have more sales.

Marty has a mini-me drive for astrophotos now. I foresee him enlarging his cement square in the middle of the back yard. I heard this heavy thing get klunked down on the front porch. Our UPS guy must hate us all the heavy crap Marty has ordered in the past few years. He tried it out with is camera last night - amongst the clouds.

I am obsessed with finding a white gold diamond heart pendant (shape not a diamond heart solitaire). I'm a sucker for hearts. I have a YG one, but want a WG one too.

I am trying to keep my hours to 8 a day, no more of those 10 hour days. I'm getting too distracted working that much. I did get my photo Christmas cards delivered yesterday and this year I wrote my Christmas poem in had it printed on the back. It's shorter than a letter format, but hey it works. I put them all in self stick envelopes last night. Ha!

Trying to figure out what I want for supper. I'm hungry. Let me see what the flavor of the day is at Culver's.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids!

Curby, you have your Christmas cards delivered already?! You're just like my clients who started buying holiday dishes in August LOL -- hats off to you folks!!! I actually THOUGHT about making a list of things to buy people the other day... does that count... ? Oh no on the not enough AC thing. I'm always amazed at how much heat equipment generates. Still no progress on transferring the payment. I think the problem is the conversion of my account to biz. If I have time I'll reach out to Shopify today and see what they have to say. Our UPS lady probably hates us too. She's no bigger than a minute and we order giant shipments of dog food from Chewy. Honestly I can't even figure out how she get it from the truck to the front porch!

Yesterday went on for.ev.er. for some reason. I did get motivated around 3 o'clock and created a quarterly certification for all my peeps. I need to look it over again and maybe I'll get it out to everyone today. Other than that, I have a meeting at ten and a bunch of amber glass still sitting on the counter to photograph.

Looking forward to the three day weekend!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I do have my cards in envelopes and I ordered Christmas stamps today. All I have to do is print labels, add notes to some of them when I am ready to send them. Those self stick envelopes are awesome. When we used to buy Christmas gifts for the entire family and co-workers / employees, I usually had my shopping done by now. And yes, making your list counts. I used to do that too.

All those receivers in a room stacked in racks do generate a lot of heat. Marty is thrilled with the set back. Nice you have a 3 day weekend.

Hopefully you get it figured out on transferring the money. I’ve got a Zelle account and Marty has Venmo is that helps. Ha Ha.

I can see the tiny UPS lady carrying a giant bag of dog food. Have the dogs adjusted to the animal head in their room yet?

Not much new with me. I got up about 6 today and was working by 7. So I finished my 8 hours at 4. Ish - since the boss has me do a few things right when I was logging off my laptop. I did make it to Culver’s in time to avoid the rush for supper. Once thing nice about the temps in the 50;s then, my flavor of the day made it home without melting.

Marty has both drives set up now taking pictures. He’s bringing one in at 10:30 though.

I got another message from my “eggers” post on Facebook with names of 2 of those punks. It’s the same name. I am sure Marty will go pay their parents a visit if we see one more egg shell in our yard. I should “egg” him on to go over there tomorrow. Boo, bad pun.

Tomorrow is Marty’s birthday. We are going out for dinner and then meeting my sister and nephew in Colorado on Sunday for dinner. Yay, no dishes this weekend.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Saturday kids!

Curby, happy birthday to Marty! Are you going to have the people at the restaurant bring him cake and embarrass him with the loud conspicuous singing of HBD? I think I figured out what to do for the Paypal transfer but the system won't allow me to make the change. I had a chat with a bot that kept asking if I wanted to report that my account had been compromised, which is NOT the case. Finally it said that someone would have to get back to me later. About six hours later I got a message saying they would have to review my questions and respond. Honestly, the time it's going to take a real live person to look at my question and tell me what to do is about 2 minutes. I really hate all this "live" chat stuff that is anything but chatting with a 'live" person. Our temps have dropped into the 50s too. I actually really like this weather! A bit more transition would have been nice though LOL; mid-week I was sleeveless, yesterday I went out in a long sleeve T-shirt with a big sweater over it and a scarf!

Yesterday I got pics done for the rest of the amber glass and washed up some things for today. I need to pack up an order of plates and drop them off at the post office on my way downtown where I'm going to meet a real estate friend of mine to talk about renting out my condo. I'm not 100% on board with selling it at this time, even though it is literally my only monthly expense and would significantly free me up financially if I did decide to walk at a moment's notice. I mean, I've got a 2.5% mortgage so I'm paying virtually nothing in interest, and I'll be done paying it off in about 10 years. Then again, I'm also not completely on board (yet) with the idea of renters due to the potential wear and tear factor, especially since I did quite a bit of renovation and it's pretty much unlived in since that point. Well see... I'm interested to see what my friend has to say. After that I think I'm going to meet up with a friend for an early dinner, and then head back to The North Estate.

It's not even six o'clock and I am AWAKE since I went to bed around nine. I did wake up twice in the night, and when five rolled around I was like, OK, this is awake For Real. Might as well get this party started!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Sunday kids!

Curby, did Marty have a good birthday?

The first half of yesterday was a whirlwind. I took some pics, packed up an order, ran to the post office, went downtown and had lunch with one of my old neighbors, met with my realtor friend, and came back up to The North Estate.

In between I went to Meijer and bought an industrial sized bottle of aspirin, which I popped like pez, because I thought I might be having a heart attack. Upon further research using my degree from GUMS (you know -- the esteemed institution Google University Medical School) I narrowed it down to tendonitis, bursitis or a rotator cuff issue, and I'm going with Door Number Three. Such a pain in the a$$ though (or a pain in the arm more accurately). I literally can't life my left arm above my shoulder.

Today I'm going to take more pics and pack up an order. Even through the post office isn't open tomorrow I don't like to let them build up. I had an idea that I was going to photograph quilts this weekend, but I don't think I'd be able to set them up for display because that's a much more physical event than putting glasses on the countertop, so that's just going to have to wait.

I really should run to Binny's (our local liquor super store) at some point because I am completely out of prosecco. A crisis!

Alright, off to see what the day brings!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, good lucking hearing back from the BOT world to get your money transferred. I am with you on those stupid BOT chats. They are worthless. And irritating.

Lucky for Marty, the restaurant we went to doesn't sing to people on their birthday, but they did comp a dessert for us. There's a place in town that does it so loud and proud, he'd probably divorce me if we went there.

We're back in the 70's for a few days but then that 4-letter cold white stuff is in our forecast. Ready or not ...

I get the dilemma on renting or selling your condo. Even if you rent to the best of friends, there can always be damage to your place. Interest rates have sure shot up. Marty seems heck bent on finding a semi-rural place to move to, in spite me saying while it's appealing, I don't know it's wise right now. We're financed at 2.5 and it looks like VA rates at BEST are 7.6, we'd be fine to get the best rates, but that almost doubles our mortgage payment to get something similar to what we have. I'm not willing to give up the house that "works" for something else simply because he wants fuller access to the sky to take pictures. He should know during the course of the year, he can see everything pass overhead. Wish me luck there. I even toyed with cashing in my pitiful IRA to defray the cost. It COULD be a better investment than what's happened to it in the stock market. BUT, that is a big tax hit and what if we need that money some day. Sigh.

Oh no to your arm not responding to "commands" and causing massive pain for you. LOL to GUMS. I have that degree too and think I'm quite adept at self-diagnosis. Hopefully prosecco helped and you are feeling better now. How can it hurt?

Marty did have a good birthday. We went to dinner both Saturday and Sunday. He down's a 64 ounce bone-in ribeye on Saturday and ordered his favorite pepper steak and bowl of onion soup on Sunday. We split a piece of peanut butter pie yesterday.

We drove around all sorts of rural places looking at houses. After taking the Curbymobile down too many dirt roads, I was almost having a heart attack myself, so we came home and got the pickup. I don't know if there is any stopping him on this. Aak.

I only worked a few hours this weekend. Yay me. I did my normal stuff such as house work, laundry and lifting. Marty practiced taking pictures of the sun so he'll be ready for the solar eclipse this Saturday. He also took pictures every night since it was clear.

I got contacted on FB by someone else who's had problems with those punk eggers. I got the same names, but her entire story has some fishy points. He said 911 sent a sheriff when they called, which I doubt would happen since we live in the city not country. And the sheriff said it was to zip tie them and call the police to come get them if they came back. Not sure a sheriff would say that and they'd probably be the going to jail. The kicker was, she only gave me 2 of the 3 names. I was kind of searching for them on the community FB page and found where the one kid's name she didn't give me she mentioned on the page for coming over to apologize to them for whatever thing they did to their house. And she never answered my question about what exactly did they do to your house. I still am considering call our insurance agent. You'd think they'd work closely with the police on something like this so they don't have to pay for damage caused by vandals.

Off to get something baking for supper.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Tuesday kids!

Curby, I hear ya on the appalling interest rates! Generally when rates are up prices are down -- is that the case where you are? You can always refi later. That FB thing does sound weird... Good idea to call your insurance though! I'm pretty sure I'm over my heart attack and I've been super careful for a few days now so the arm is feeling a bit better. Not perfect, but better!

The bots finally turned me over humans... and frankly I'm not sure that's an improvement. I've now uploaded my driver's license, first page of my business taxes for last year, company bank statement, and certificate of good standing from the State... and it's still not good enough. I've got paypal turned off for my store at this point and I have no intention of turning it on even if this does get resolved!

Yesterday wasn't too exciting. I took pics, had a nice nap, packed two orders, and that was about it. These three day weekends are great!

I'm only in the office today and tomorrow this week and then I take the big road trip to the east coast so I guess I better get some work done...

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I am glad to hear you are over your heart attack and are feeling better. Our GMD diplomas are paying off.

I am reading today that house prices are expected to fall, of course that means our house price will fall too. Good point about refinancing. We both keep looking in spite of me saying “I’m not sure this is a wise thing to do right now”. Our prices are 42% over the last few years. Yesterday I saw an article that listed 10 U.S. cities that will have large increases in house rates and we were #9 on the list.

What a PITA with PayPal to get your money. Good idea to not use them. Our latest IOS update from Mac won’t autofill in data all of a sudden. We out our RV insurance bill and I tried to pay it and it wouldn’t take or store my information. It’s due on the November 21st so I’m good, but still. How annoying.

You did have a nice long weekend and a short week. Sweet. I worked 8 hours and ran to the store at about 10. I was starving when I got home so ate my lunch early. I was messing with trying to pay that insurance bill when Marty sent me a text that his Tuesday night crew wasn’t coming in to the gym so we went out for supper. We went to the steak house that has those ice cream “bear balls” and I remembered to take a picture of it before we dove in our with spoons. That and the wine was delicious.

Laters,
Curby

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Well, we are getting snowflakes falling from the sky tonight and hurricane force winds. Winter is back.

Not much exciting going on here today. Worked, drove around a bit with Marty and looked forward to the weekend.

Hope you are having fun, Dee Jay.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Curby, that dessert looks FABULOUS! If I had something like that at a restaurant near me I'd eat it wayyyyy too much! There you go using that four letter word again. Haven't I told you about that?! No idea what going on with Paypal... I don't have the energy to log on and see...

I am exhausted! Thursday I was wide awake a little after four so I got up and headed out, pulling out of the driveway at about ten to five. The drive to Maryland was about eleven and a half hours... eleven of actual driving, getting gas, etc.... and half an hour to "discuss things" with State Trooper McNab in Bumfvck, Indiana. Oops. Fortunately he let me off with a warning. That night my friend and I went to a local place for dinner, and then on Friday we did some antiquing. Saturday was the party, which came off great despite the rain, but they have a barn on the property and there was another big tent up so it was ok. Yesterday I headed to Pittsburgh and visited with my brother, his girlfriend, and my niece. We had a late lunch at Dave and Busters and finally I headed out with the plan of stopping somewhere at a hotel about half way, but I made the executive decision to just nap at rest stops along the way. That was an adventure! The first time I stopped I got in the back seat and slept pretty good, but only for a little while because someone pulled into the the parking lot with a whole bunch of loud annoying music. I tried again a couple hours later, but thought I could just recline my seat and sleep in the front. It was a bust, and eventually I got in the back, but couldn't get comfortable. Finally I stopped a third time and had some real sleep, again in the back seat, and then powered through getting to The North Estate around seven am. Crawling into bed was glorious! Around noon I got up and started packing the six orders that I'd accumulated, two of which were pretty big, and I got those to the post office around 4:30. Liam grabbed us KFC for dinner, and I lounged on the couch for a while, but now I'm in bed. I've got my alarm set a little early because a small order came in a little bit ago but I don't have the energy to do anything about it and I'll try to get it out in the morning. My nails look about as bad as they ever have... but they will just have to make it another day and hopefully I'll do them tomorrow.

I didn't pick up much on the shopping front, just two sets of glasses for inventory and a couple of cool glasses to keep for myself, but that's OK. The important part was having a good time with my friends and seeing my brother, et. al.

Tomorrow, back to the grind... !

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Welcome back, Dee Jay. Your drive home sounds like a long trip. Nice you were able to drive away without a ticket. Nice to catch up with some friends and your brother. I bet it felt good to crawl back in your own bed. I’ve tried sleeping in my car before, it’s not fun. It was at some star party. I finally gave up and drove home at about 3 a.m. Probably not one of my brighter ideas.

Yes, that four letter word is coming. We are back in the 70’s in the day but it sure doesn’t feel like it with our hurricane force winds.

We toured many houses this weekend. Marty especially likes one place north of here. In fact, it’s right down the street from that restaurant and BAR where we get that ice cream ball. Oh Oh. I do think reality set in though on buying a new house right now. We’ll see what happens. House rates are going down a bit around here but interest rates are going up. The place we both like is a bit larger than what we have - so much for downsizing. And the basement is only framed in so far. It’s on 5 acres and has great horizons for Marty’s observatory. I’d lose my office though. We have 2 guest bedrooms upstairs now and a den. The new place has only the 2 guest bedrooms. Marty’s office is downstairs so we’d have to at least get the bathroom and bedroom built out in the basement.

On top of that lingering in the background, the guy who owns the building where Marty’s gym is located is trying to get him to buy it. Sounds suspicious as heck to me. It has four or five sections to rent (depending on If someone does a double which Marty is doing). The guy lives in Arizona and here and had a guy that did maintenance and collected checks, etc. He passed away in the spring. The owner has been wanting to sell for a while but keeps doing it as contract for deed. What he wants is 320,000 over market value as assessed by the county. He’d reduce that to only 220,000 over market value and then after telling Marty expenses versus rent there is no profit. Plus, when would Marty have time to be a landlord, fix things, etc. Plus, the building is not well maintained and pretty old. It was built in the 70’s or so. I told Marty and he came the same conclusion I bet it wouldn’t meet code on many fronts so a bank wouldn’t finance it and there’s no way it would be assessed at that amount.

We had fun on Saturday watching the solar eclipse. Marty got some great pictures of it. We had some friends over that day. Just been working this week. I spent all day and most of yesterday getting a video done and posted. I still have two more to go this week. They should go quicker that this one. I bet three hours at least were spent discussing how to properly pronounce this constellation I did the video on. Like Marty said, these names are from ancient Latin, Greek and Roman, no one alive today know exactly how they pronounced it. After hearing so many suggestions and listening to audio on line, I don’t think I can pronounce it correctly anyway. I am glad I am getting faster at recording audio. One time, I had the audio done and imported to the video and I skipped a scene so had to do it again. I tried just that one section but the audio never sounds exactly the same.

The Martymobile is at Ford getting repaired so I’ll be #Curbynocar for a few days. Hopefully the parts do come in on Friday.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Wednesday kids!

Curby, best not to rush into a new house decision (but I'm sure I don't have to tell you that!). Rut ro on the building Marty's landlord wants him to buy. So many red flags there... Is Marty's truck just in for regular stuff or did he have an "encounter" with something?

Yesterday was a slog. I was so tired by mid-afternoon I could have put my head down on my desk an slept! When I got home Liam put steaks on the grille and I packed up three orders, one of which was a punch bowl and twelve cups. I've only got one punch bowl left (with no cups) and THAT'S IT for punch bowls!

Today I NEED to get some stuff done. Unfortunately I'm not going to enjoy any of it LOL. Alright, off to make a spreadsheet...

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Thursday kids!

Yesterday I worked so hard in the afternoon they should pay me double! I got rolling along the path of something I've needed to do for a while, so I'm happy about that.

Only one small sale yesterday and it was easy to pack, and after dinner I did not much of anything and went to bed early.

Today... just like yesterday, LOL. Off I go!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, I agree there are MANY red flags on that guy wanting Marty to buy the building. I'm not sure where Marty is on the house hunting though. Reality is rough sometimes. His truck has a rattle when it starts, they know what it is and should have parts in tomorrow. He has a cracked valve stem cover that needs replaced as well. It's seeping oil around that. He isn't complaining driving my car around.

I hope you are rested up by now. Yay for down to one punch bowl. I bet those are a PITA to pack up. My mom had one, I think one of my nephews ended up with it when we cleaned out the house. Or my "Karen" sister packed it off and had her son-in-law sell it on Craig's List.

You must have rocked through your spreadsheet and yes they should pay you double for your efforts.

As for me, I have been stressing and worrying about this potential move. First, thinking of all the things we'd have to do. If we downsize, which makes sense, we'd have to get rid of a LOT things. Not one of the places we looked at has a nice flat banister for most of my teddy bears to hang out on, that's a must for me. I talked to our tax lady yesterday too. She advised against buying now as well. Let's hope that tampers the looking for awhile. And speaking of taxes, looks like Marty is making a profit this year. That'll rear it's ugly head come tax season.

I've been working on videos more than anything this week. I did a video on a constellation that lead to about a three hour discussion on how to pronounce the darn thing. As Marty pointed out, don't those names come down from ancient Greek and Latin? So, who knows how they really pronounced it. I got so confused, I don't think I could pronounce it right days later. My next video I wisely picked something I KNOW how to pronounce. I think anyway.

It warmed up here a bit but those hurricane force winds are screeching outside right now.

Laters,
#curbynocar

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids!

Curby, I'm right there with you stressing about the idea of a move. The idea of getting everything out of my place is almost enough to give up the idea of renting or selling it! So you're down a punch bowl? I know what Santa can bring you! Would you like the ladle with it or should I leave that out of the box? LOL on the pronunciation. I took Latin in high school and we used to have this argument all the time!

Yesterday I got SUPER motivated and started cranking stuff out right and left! I was even here until about eight. Today I'd normally work from home but the stuff I'm doing is just easier here with two big screens and the ability to print if I need to.

Alright, management meeting in 12 minutes so I better get going.

 

[marcy]

HI Kids!

Dee Jay, I get the thought of cleaning out your place might be enough it leave it right where it is. I shudder to think of downsizing too. Our main floor is over 2100 sq feet and the basement is the same footage with about 65% of it finished and the unfinished area has "stuff". We shouldn't need any new furniture anyway. Ha Ha. But honestly, this is a big house for 2 people.

Too funny and no I don't need a punch bowl. I use jumbo size wine glasses instead of those tiny little tea cups. Thanks anyway.

I bet there is no right or wrong way to pronounce something in Latin, who is alive to correct you?

It sounds like you are knocking stuff out at work. Having a printer handy is convenient. How was the management meetings. I don't miss things like that. Ours is a wifi one that sometimes loses it's mind. But overall, it comes back okay if I shut it off and turn it back on. It's right by me in the den.

I put together a photo gallery video this morning and now will go do some real work. It's warm but windy here again. We are going to look at 2 houses tomorrow. Smaller than ours but one is on 7 acres of land.

Laters,
Curby

Marty's photo from last night. It's the Heart and Soul nebula.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Saturday kids!

Curby, that photo is fabulous and eerie all at the same time! Sister #1 texted me a time lapse pic she took of the eclipse. I'll send it to you, it's pretty cool! Those little punch cups crack me up. I mean... REALLY?!

I'm having a very unmotivated day. By dinner yesterday I had three orders to pack up... and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I went to bed early and spent half the night with my brain whirring whirring whirring. Argh. This morning I packed up the easiest of the orders and zipped to the post office before the local auction started. There were a couple of things as the auction, but definitely nothing worth waiting for, so I ran by an estate sale where I got nothing, came home and packed up the other two orders and took them to the post office. Since them I've been doing not much of anything. I really need to get off the couch here in a minute and at least take a shower and do some cleaning up. Plus, I have to queue up some things so I can take listing photos tomorrow since I was gone last week.

My job has got me going in circles. I'm actually really enjoying my work right now, but the new president of the division is a giant PITA. There's an IRS rule that if you leave a job in the year you turn 55 you can access the 401(k) money (only from that employer) without additional tax penalty. Unfortunately that won't be until 2025 and I want to bail in early 2024. I keep telling myself I can do anything for one more year... but... but... but!

My "wallet" seems to be MIA. It's actually a hot pink jewelry pouch that's only big enough for my credit cards and cash, and I realized today I haven't seen it since I got back from my trip last week. Efforts to find it have so far been unsuccessful and I need to dig a bit deeper. I had $500 in cash that I took out for my trip and all my credit cards except for my Am Ex, which is in the back of my phone case with my wallet. I really hate when I do stupid sh!t like this.

Alright, time to get this show on the road! Off to shower and maybe do some day drinking because, yanno, that solves everything!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Sunday kids!

Curby, I just texted you #1's picture.

I'm happy to report my wallet showed up! It was actually in the bottom of my giant purse, and I SWEAR I looked in there like ten times... but there it was LOL.

My productivity picked up a little last night. I washed up some stuff for pics today, did a slew of laundry, and tried to go to Costco. I say "tried" because I got there right as they were rolling down the gate. For some reason I had in my head they closed at 8:30... but nope! It's 6:30. Oh well, I'll make it there eventually.

This morning I photographed listings, continued down the laundry path, and now I'm having a little internet break before I go down into the basement to pack a small order and then clean the whole area up because things have gotten pretty out of control down there. Between the new delivery of boxes, a latest pick-up of bubble wrap, and general chaos it's become a "situation!"

The big goal for tonight involves doing my nails. Do I have high aspirations or what?!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, what a relief you found your wallet. I hate when I do dumb stuff and it seems like I do them far too often.

Glad to hear you are enjoying your work and wow what a deal about taking out your 401K from an employer at 55 without penalty. Grab it while you can. I figure taxes will continue to rise so may as well cash in things now. And phooey to the new president being a PITA. Isn’t that the way it goes, there’s always someone to deal with.

Doing your nails is an accomplishment. I need to do mine. I at least got the old polish off yesterday. That bruise is slowly moving up my finger. I wonder how long I’ll have it?

I did see some of your new items in Instagram. Some cool glasses. Glad those sales are steady. Are they coming off your website?

We spent the weekend looking a houses then going back that evening to look at the skies. One area is about 15-20 miles out of town and then down miles of dirt roads. Not Porsche friendly in my mind. The one house that had everything we’d want - other than the master bedroom being too small for our bedroom set turned out to be right across from a neighbor with unshielded really bright lights. And it’s by a sea of those giant windmills with flashing red lights. In the same area is a really nice house, slightly smaller than our current one and it had everything except the walk out basement. It is even at the end of a cul-de-sac and we’d be the only house there. Skies were dark but it is closer to all the blinking red lights. I’d adjust, but don’t know if I want to be that far from town in the winter.

Then heading back to the other side of town, the same issue with a neighbor and tons of bright outdoor lights. Plus, no walkout basement and it’s so remote there’d be a problem getting high speed internet. The house was overall very nice and I liked they didn’t waste space in the master bath with a tub. Neither of us take baths so I liked having more room elsewhere.

There wasn’t anything out north that was new to look at this weekend.

Marty is also considering buying a lot. He keeps picking ones that the lots around it are empty now. I pointed out you have no idea what neighbors would put in. He’s like a dog with a bone on this. We also cruised through areas about 20 miles north of town, again down dirt roads. I told him I’d get lost trying to find my way home out there. Maybe, that’s a plus for Marty to pick that area.

Today, I spent most of the day doing a photo gallery video. My boss.- who is quite nice - constantly changes her mind or forgets what she said because last week, she spent over an hour with me and the other lady making those galleries going over how she wants them. It was completely opposite what she said she wanted before that. So I did up my gallery per latest instructions and nope, she wanted something else. In fact, it’s the exact way I did mine a few weeks ago. Oh well. I get paid by the hour.

I was signing off at 5 and checked my email to see the local paper was asking when I was going to send them my November article. So I spent the new few hours writing that up for them. Luckily, my day job makes it way easier for me to know what current events are going on so I got through that rather quickly. I even pulled up some of the script from one of my recent videos to fill in my article.

We have some of that 4-letter white stuff in our forecast. Phooey.

We did get Marty’s pickup back on Saturday. Ten minutes down the road Saturday night and his check engine light came on. So we took it back this morning. This was funny, Marty sends me a text from the gym about 8:15 that he was taking his pickup out to Ford. He did not say to come get him. I figured he was just going to wait for them to check the error message and let me know if he needs a ride. So about 30 minutes later I get a text asking if he should start walking? I said on my way, but to be fair you didn’t ask me to come get you. Ha ha.

Laters,
Curby

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

So, we’ve looked at so many houses and lots I can’t keep them straight. Then go back at night to “see” how dark the skies are there. Of course, there’s been a bright moon out at night this week, so it’s not a fair test. Of course, the further from town we get, the darker the skies. The drawback there, further from civilization, questionable in some places if you can get high-speed internet. Definitely I can’t get Door Dash deliveries. And then there’s the pesky current interest rates.

Been working on videos a lot this week and trying to cut back a bit on my hours. Keeping it generally at eight hours a day. Yay.

Here’s what I just brewed up for lunch tomorrow. It’ll be ready at noon.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids!

Curby, is that LASAGNE?! If so, I'll be right over! Looking at places way out does definitely change what you have easy access to, food delivery being a big one. Even where Liam is we have limited options in terms of who will deliver, and we're not even really that far from anything. We had a two day sales meeting (Tues/Wed) and I thought of you when the mortgage people were up on the stage talking about the challenge of the current interest rate environment. They did say one thing that resonated with me though: "You can't refinance the price." So even if you buy something now, hopefully the price of the house/lot will be lower since prices and rates (generally!) have an inverse relationship, but you can always deal with the rate later. Of course you and I know that, but for some reason hearing it put that way stuck with me. Is Marty's truck all fixed now?

It's been a busy week! After the two day sales meeting I came downtown on Wednesday night, went to a chief compliance officer meeting on Thursday and then stopped to see people at my old company), and today I'm in the downtown office. Talking to my old boss yesterday I floated the idea of taking me on as a remote consultant come next March or so, doing time consuming things that the guy to took my job would love to get off his plate. He was pretty amenable to it! The wild card is that I need my condo to be sold because I wouldn't be comfortable walking away from a regular paycheck if I still had a mortgage/taxes/assessments. So fingers crossed in a big big way on that happening!

I got a quasi "bad" review on Etsy this morning... A lady convinced me to separate some teacups from a teapot that I was originally selling as a set (which I was willing to do only because the spout of the teapot had a chip in it) and she then after she got them she said the colors on the cups weren't as vibrant as she was led to believe (she actually said the "photo was enhanced"). I do my best to match the colors of things in my pictures to what I actually see IRL, but I can only do so much. Whatever. I was pretty disappointed, but I guess if that's the only issue like that I've had in almost 1400 sales I'm probably doing OK.

Alright, off to see what the afternoon brings!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Saturday kids!

We are having a fall infestation of box elder bugs (at least that's what I think they're called... they're kind of like lightening bugs but they don't light up). I think we've got more inside now that we do outside, and one of them was In Bed With Me at 4 o'clock this morning. Well after squealing and springing out of bed, heart racing, I was UP for the day. So I came downstairs where Liam had fallen asleep on the couch last night watching some scary movie and had him make me coffee while I lounged around on the couch for a while, an eye peeled for bugs the whole time. Eventually he headed to an auction about 45 minutes north and I went down into the basement to pack orders. I was about half way through packing the last one when he called and said I better get up there, so I bolted to the post office and headed down the highway, back seat filled with boxes and paper. Yet another carload of glass has left someone else's life and entered mine LOL.

We had pizza for an early and I cleaned up the kitchen a bit in anticipation of taking pictures tomorrow, but frankly I'm a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of inventory I've got right now. I really need to take about a month off to get caught up!

No big plans for tomorrow, but I do have to get BR washed and put into storage for the season.

There was a showing at my place today and the agent said it went well, but I don't get overly excited about stuff like this. Fingers crossed of course, but we'll see!

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, the lasagna was delicious. It ended up being seven of us, but there were two pieces left. It's funny, I am seeing real estate and rates stories everywhere, and most of them are positive. We were going to look at 4 house about 12 miles north of town yesterday, but the realtor was still tied up with her earlier clients and it was in the teens here so I suggested next weekend. After breakfast today, we drove by some places just a few miles north of us that have high-speed internet. They are a bit pricier, but they have finished basements which would end up costing us more anyway. I keep saying we can afford it but should we is another question.

How rotten to get a semi-bad review on Etsy. Some people do just like to complain.

That would be cool to get a part time job as a remote consultant with your old company. I like to think that things will work out as they should. Good luck selling your place.

OMG to the boxelder bugs getting in the house and how rude to snuggle up with you in bed. I'd be screaming too. That's another reason I am not anxious to move out of town, more bugs. I HATE miller moths.

Yay for more glassware lined up for washing and photographing. You'll be busy through Christmas.

We had about 5 inches of snow and it's frigid cold here. I spent most of my weekend polishing off a new book. I lifted this morning and doing my Sunday house chores. The thrillometer isn't registering any activity.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Monday kids!

Curby, good idea to consider the houses that might cost a little more up front, but not really once you take into account what you'd have to do to a place that wasn't as finished to start with. We didn't have snow last night, but my car was frosty this morning! I put BR into storage and for some reason didn't pull the Audi into the garage when we got back. Well I paid for that on the ride to work, and given it only takes me about ten mins to get here that's hardly enough time to even warm up my buns on the seat heater LOL. Bugs of all kinds creep me out, but the ones that end up in BED with me are in a classification of their own!

Yesterday I got done quite a but more than I'd expected to on the photography front, especially since I had to wash a bunch of stuff along the way. The kitchen looked like a tornado went thorough though by the time I was done, and I still have some props to stow away.

We had KFC for dinner and I wrapped up a couple of orders, including another set of Christmas plates. God bless those holiday shoppers!

I've been keeping track of my sales as year-over year I'm only up about $843 on Etsy (that number will hopefully improve a little since it's not technically the end of October yet), but I'm up $3278 total if I take Ebay and my own website into account, both of which I started doing this year. Now if I can only get out of the year without adding any more inventory to the mountain I've already got. (Fat chance ha!)

Alright, off to a meeting in a few mins and I need to read the materials.

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

Dee Jay, darn to having a frosty car. I love those heated seats and steering wheels though. Our snow mostly melted today but it was still cold and windy. And it's good that BR is put away until those sunny days return. I used to do that with my 66 Mustang.

No new house discussion today, but my cleaning lady who lives about 30 miles out of town, filled me in on the hardships of rural living, but she didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.

Stupid bugs.

Your sales will probably really pick up with the upcoming holidays. Yay for showing a profit. Marty is more than double that with his gym. It'll probably nail us on taxes though. He is worried he is going to have to move soon. At least, he has no plan to buy the building.

I spent most of my day on videos and edited a few articles. I need to go get some fruit, milk and bread but have no desires to venture out in the cold and wind. Guess it'll be necessary tomorrow. Phooey.

I have 3 giant bags of candy to hand out for Halloween. I bet it's gone in under 2 hours. We will see.

Laters,
Curby

 

[marcy]

Hi Kids!

I should have gone to the store today, but didn’t want to venture out in the wind and cold. It’ll be a long winter without food.

I blew through 3 giant bags of Halloween candy in less than 2 hours last night. I saved about 2 dozen M&M mini bags. The last few years I keep handing it out until it’s gone and never fails, when I think I’m on the last group, 2 dozen more come walking up the driveway. I put them in the freezer. They’ll be good ice cream toppers.

I got another video done today. They are sure taking a lot of my time.

Laters,
Curby

 

[Dee*Jay]

Happy Friday kids!

Curby, have you made it to the store yet? If not... grocery stores deliver LOL. We avoided the whole Halloween candy thing. Buuuuutttt then we went to Costco and bought a tub of dark chocolate covered caramels, which Liam and I pretty much finished in two days. Oops. Any more discussion on the move? My mortgage guy had a meme up today that said marry the house but date the rate. Ha!

This week has been a whirlwind; I don't even know where to start. Tuesday I worked from home and then hid out at a restaurant and Costco to avoid the trick or treaters. Wednesday I went into the office, but bolted home at lunch to pack a big order, then we went to dinner with friends about 45 minutes south. Yesterday I worked from home again, and then drove downtown so I could be here today for the HVAC guy (who was due a hour and twenty minutes ago... ). Liam is at the airport picking up two of his friends who are flying in for the Northwestern game tomorrow, and he going to drop them downtown and then head here to the condo. Dinner with them tonight and no idea beyond that for the weekend.

HVAC guy just left. HOLY SH!T. The pan for my A/C is original and the way the units are built into the ceiling some MAJOR surgery has to be done to access and replace them. SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS. No. Joke. I need a drink. ACK!!!!!