About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
Read More
August 17, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 7, Day 104: I’m doing the math for next week and with the kindergarten class letting out at 12:30 for a month, I’m only going to have roughly 4 hours of kid-free time per weekday once school starts. After that month, they add one hour.
That’s a mere half of the solo silent hours I need to stay sane generally. š
And if PiC chooses to flex work more, to help out with kid stuff, that further cuts down on my solo silent time. It’ll help with the kid errands but I’m going to struggle with so little quiet time to recharge.
(Cautiously) I think I’ve finally kicked the most recent set of viruses and my mouth has also healed from the three canker sores that sprouted around the same time (could have been related). Rude, body, very rude. But finally I can take a bite of food and not be in pain all the way until the food gets past the esophagus! š
Year 7, Day 105: Both in an attempt to keep my mind busy, and to stack a few more bricks of cash against the rapidly approaching last day, I’ve been working a number of deals these past few weeks.
We opened Wells Fargo accounts for the bonus and reaped $800 for both. I’m working the Chase Ink Business card bonus now that all the approval rigamarole is done with. I saved T-Mobile Tuesday deals four weeks in a row on both our phones to earn a $5 gift card for each of us.
I’ve submitted all FSA receipts to date and my reimbursements for work expenses have been paid so I’m very nearly done with all the work related things I’ll need to wrap up.
I’m kinda drawing a blank on what I can be doing next so best to focus on hitting the minimum on the Chase card in a smart way before picking up another money project.
Year 7, Day 106: I’m using the library’s MakerSpace a lot this month: learning how to use the 3D printer, using their sewing machine while mine is in the shop, etc. I’m hoping to learn how to use their Cricut soon but that has to wait until my hands are under control. They’ve been so swollen this week that I’m up a full ring size and it’s been hard to do basic things like bend my fingers. This is like a reversion to my hands 30 years ago when my fibro first started.
We’re borrowing a lot more books and DVDs these days. Well, I am. PiC has always kept the kids stocked to the borrowing limit but we’ve only just started finding shows that we can all enjoy that isn’t just Bluey. Right now, it’s Robotech which I spotted fortuitously. We’ve finished the Mscross Saga, and have the Masters Saga and The New Generation (10? Discs). Then we’ll be on the hunt for something else. Remember a few months or so ago, SmolAc hated everything we screened because they decided all antagonists were bad and made the show bad. It’s made finding something to watch a lot more challenging.
I’d like to try Doctor Who but maybe that’s only possible if we can get the really old doctors. My theory is that the fighting in Robotech is only acceptable (to SmolAc) because it’s robots and very old graphics/ technology. Perhaps very old Doctor Who might maybe slide under their radar? If not, maybe it’s time for anime – One Piece might be acceptable. Open to suggestions for favorite anime appropriate for a 5+ year old and the rest of us!
Year 7, Day 107: My little Janome is home! It’s been serviced for $150 and is home home home. I’m hoping that the service means I won’t run into tension issues with the thread seizing up under the sewing plate again any time soon. I’ve got several bags in various stages of completion, I’d love to finish them off.
Today is a SmolAc and me day so we’ve planned for them to do some coloring, some drawing, and then we’re going to pick up our neighbor and their two big dogs for a session of ball throwing. It’ll be good for everyone. I desperately need dog time, SmolAc has been more and more interested in dogs, the dogs need the exercise, and our neighbor kid is bored so we’ll be rescuing them for a little while.
Year 7, Day 108: A discussion about blood donations in a Discord led to a mention of plasma donations (paid) and that roused my curiosity so I did a bit of searching. It looks like you can make a decent amount of money a month doing 5-8 donations but none of the many locations they have in California, across three companies, are anywhere near us. Darn. Not that I know if I COULD donate plasma but September is for learning new things!
Had an online chat with Comcast because they are no longer showing the relevant details of the promotional rate I wangled out of their last chat agent AND they double charged me. It looks like the double charge will be offset by next month’s billing negative $1 but I still don’t like how the site no longer shows the correct promotional rate with discount AND when the discount ends. It SHOULD be $50/month for 60 months, but their site is just blithely showing a $100 monthly rate. The chat agent kept telling me to “trust me”, that the rate is correct in the system but a) I don’t and b) there’s no reason Comcast itself would ever take “trust me” instead of cold hard proof of the agreement. So for now, I have to settle for screenshots of the chat agent assuring me that my monthly rate is $50. Doesn’t leave a good taste in my mouth but if this buys me peace for another 4.5 years on the internet front, that is good enough.
August 14, 2026
I learned how to use the library 3-D printer and successfully printed 2 train track parts! That was very satisfying, after several false starts. I even got to change out the cartridge to use the yellow filament that the kids requested for this first test run.
(more…)
August 12, 2026
Life with JB
Middle school is coming up like a freight train and it’s all we can do to keep just ahead of the cowcatcher. I’ve got the bell schedule written down and I’m working out what that means for my presumptions about my schedule. I’ll be doing an early pickup for kindergarten, and then a couple hours later doing a second pickup after middle school lets out. PiC has been organizing the walking routes for the kids and setting up walking buddies for JB. I’m not ready for any of it, nor are they, but we’ll have to ride it out no matter how we feel.
Life with Smol Acrobat
SmolAc has started eating more foods and whining less about it in recent months. They used to hate all forms of potatoes that aren’t french fries; they couldn’t handle any hint of spice; even pizza wasn’t a sure thing with them some days.
This month they willingly enjoyed a meal that they would have scorned 3 months ago: Costco tritip (the very occasional treat), a baked potatoes and roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli. 3 months ago, they would only have eaten the broccoli and whined about the rest, this month they are all of it and said it was good! They’re willing to test the seasoned and crusted tilapia, where they wouldn’t have even touched it before. It’s still too spicy for them but they keep coming back to try it now and again.
This does mean that it’s getting more expensive to feed the family. We used to get by on fish night with 3 tilapia and 2 salmon fillets. Now I think we need 6-7 total fillets for everyone to be full. It’s getting to be more than the toaster oven can handle in one go so I’ll have to plan a little more in advance. Fish nights are the easiest because prep is so fast. Someday I should learn to roast whole fish properly, they feed more people.
Pupdate
My internal debate: I don’t know if it would be responsible or irresponsible to adopt a dog while I’m out of work (financially) but when else am I going to have this much time to transition and train a newbie?
I’ve been gently perusing the available dogs at local rescues and telling myself “not before November” as a rough guideline for when we’d hopefully have settled into a new school routine for both kids and would then have the attention to pay to a newcomer. SmolAc has been asking for a dog, and it breaks my heart all over again because most recently they asked PiC: but aren’t Seamus and Sera coming back?
Have they just been quietly waiting for their dogs to come back all this time?
It might be unhelpful that I’ve kept their bed at the foot of ours all this time, I couldn’t bear to put it away, nor did I put away their bowl tray.
Precious Moments
Uncle: This costs $55. Did you save your money for this?
SmolAc: No.
Uncle: Are you going to start?
SmolAc, very solemnly: No, I only have one dollar. I cannot spend my one dollar.
*****
SmolAc Explains the Rules: you can only do tumble if you can tumble very goodly and if you can tumble very goodly then you can do backward tumble.
*****
SmolAc: Mommy, this doesn’t say Start!
Me: It does, it says “Empieza aqui!” That means Start Here in Spanish.
SmolAc: It does!? What does this say?
Me: Completado! It means Completed!
SmolAc: Oh, so it says start AND finish. Wow, you DO know a lot.
August 10, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 7, Day 97: It’s possible that mistakes were made. There was a free Gundum build and take workshop. I power walked the kids to it and we each received kits. Now they are really enjoying building little Gundam robots. SmolAc is fairly well obsessed. This is an expensive hobby! Perhaps we don’t need additional expensive hobbies right now? Buuuuut, counterpoint, despite the occasional frustrating bits where they give you microscopic stickers or plastic bits to attach to other bits, it IS a lot of fun. Which is why I wanted to go in the first place. It’s not as straightforward as LEGO, but it’s fun to have a little robot model at the end. I’ll look into getting a few more inexpensive sets. For motivation.
Year 7, Day 98: I’m resenting the hell out of the physical experience of being a woman in her mid-40s. I’m constantly sweating in temps that used to be perfectly fine, literally dripping sweat and doing that cliched mopping of my forehead. I’m a lumpy potato and despite my best efforts, nothing is comfortable. Pants, tees, skirts, nothing. Grumpy.
Also, it’s come to my attention that my older rings cannot fit my super swollen fingers anymore. They used to go through semi-regular swelling / not-swelling cycles. They’re now stuck in the swollen state.
I now have more rings I can’t wear than I can: my pretty little ring from my teen years (I only had the one), engagement ring, and two hand me down / heirloom (? I can’t tell what it’s called when an elder friend gives me stuff from their collection that they don’t use anymore). I don’t own a lot of rings but the ones I do are precious to me and this makes me sad.
Year 7, Day 99: Suddenly I have three families in my life expecting all at the same time. It’ll be their, third, second, and first, respectively, which makes part of my brain chuckle. I am a little overwhelmed thinking of all the (book and clothes) gifts I’ll need to prep. But I got to cuddle a newborn this week and omigosh that was so healing. I adore babies. Fresh little baby loaves, so tiny and squishy and cuddly and, in this case, hardly screamy at all.
I’m mentally putting together a list of all the remaining baby stuff that I should send to the expecting mothers. I’ve sent the (hopefully effective anti-nausea) ginger beer out to one of them.
SmolAc took ill this week again and I’m nursing them along again. Feels like we just did this cycle. (We did.)
Year 7, Day 100: I HAVE FINALLY DONE IT. I’ve found a shampoo and conditioner that doesn’t set off my brain’s ick! I’m putting it away for now, I’ll need to use up the other experiments first (unless I give them to everyone else whose noses are not at all sensitive) and then I can settle into using the inoffensive Dove pairing. šš
Also my sewing machine has gone into the shop for a tuneup and diagnostic ($150+). It’s started doing that KERTHUNK and then buzzzzzz instead of sewing again. The good thing is they’re not nearly as far away from us as the shop that it came from, so I won’t have to drive 100 miles round trip to get it back. I will have to drive 60 instead. šµāš« Well outside my usual acceptable distance for errands but we’re familiar with the shop for other appliance work and they’re good. Luckily, since I’m on a bit of a sewing deadline, I should be able to book time on the library’s sewing machines and keep working on my little projects. I’m also exploring the 3D printer and Cura and Thingiverse (we have about 6 print jobs I want to try already). And I’m learning how to use a Cricut. Welcome to a month of learning too many new things.
Year 7, Day 101: Well, this is crap. I’m still taking my antivirals diligently but SmolAc’s germs still got me. The throat pain is so bad that it’s referring pain right into my ear, and neither set of painkillers is doing a whole lot to reduce it. For once the acetaminophen is a little more effective at blunting the pain than the ibuprofen but that’s not saying a whole lot. Doing my best to rest between creative projects.
Sigh.
Also it’s time to start creeping up bedtimes and waking times because getting these kids up and out the door on time is going to be PAINFUL. (ESPECIALLY when I don’t want to be up myself.)
August 7, 2026
1. I’m a UBI girl and this kind of community-care income club is a really neat idea in the absence of a government-wide set up.
(more…)
August 5, 2026
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have minimal income from investing in index funds and dividend stocks (all reinvested). We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. We get a bit of income from Swagbucks, cash back sites (Rakuten, Mr.Rebates) and affiliate links to Bookshop and Amazon sometimes pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running. The sidebar has ways to support the blog and our charitable giving.
Our long term goal is to replace our day job income with passive income before my health prevents me from working. I know from my Mom’s experience that qualifying for or relying on disability is incredibly tough or near impossible here in CA. Aside from that, I aim to do my best to make the most of what we can do while we can.
***
Dividend income. We received $255 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.
Litter watch. 28 stray litter receipts this month resulted in $1.425 in Fetch (1 receipt was a big winner at 86.8 cents). Lots of receipt (and non) litter was properly disposed of.
Evidation. I finally earned 10K points and redeemed it for a $10 gift card to pay for future home maintenance. We need to re-grout and re-caulk all the things. The counter is reset to 63 points (earned since redemption).
(more…)
August 3, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area
Year 7, Day 90: Hm. It’s possible the depression-like feeling of the past weeks was the physical and emotional fatigue. I’ve had both kids sick, one after the other. I’m trying to fight off some virus myself, anxiety nightmares have been coming back. Particularly with the relatives we’re going to be seeing soon, I had a night of remembering all the mean petty things they said that stuck in my craw over the years and that sucked.
I’ve been worn down to a nub and it took a while to realize it.
I’m spending a few days with Mama and it’s starting to heal me inside and out. The exhaustion sore throat finally resolved after being with her two days and my pain levels plummeted after that.
Year 7, Day 91: We took the kids for a pool day that ran a bit long. As we get older I’m much more mindful of sun damage and skin cancer risks for all so I’ve been putting the kids in long sleeve rash guards for an extra layer of protection. No one is good at reapplying sunblock after the initial round, sometimes we lose track of time. I’d bought my first UPF long sleeve rash guard on clearance last year when I needed to hit a free shipping minimum at Lands End and quietly wondered if I was wasting my $20.
SmolAc was unexpectedly enthusiastic about “swimming” (paddling in a life vest) laps so we let them go til we needed to stop them before they crashed. They’ve never done this much in the water and tend to run until all steam is gone and then have an emotional crash. After the few extra hours, the kids are fine and not burned. My neck and legs are a little bit burned and PiC’s torso is lobster red. I didn’t sunbathe, I only laid in the sun for a bit to dry off after toweling off but that was enough to toast my legs. Rash guard – definitely not a waste of money.
Year 7, Day 92: It’s been months plural since I slammed on the brakes at work, giving it my least effort for weeks. I’m just now starting to feel what might be little bits of my brain come back.
A couple months ago, I started trying to learn Morse code to make my brain do something fun and interesting but there simply wasn’t enough operating power left. I never got past learning E / I / S / H. I didn’t want to move to the next set of letters until I could successfully record a full lesson without mistakes. But today I’ve picked out a few letters to memorize and it’s feeling like they’re sticking in a way that I could not force before. I won’t say my brain is back but I’d forgotten what it felt like to encode and access new information. This much (little) is a win.
Year 7, Day 93: I only became aware of Descendants in the past 3 years but it baffles me. It’s massively overwrought, the costuming, the characters, the make up, but it’s very popular with a lot of kids and adults. Meanwhile dozens of genuinely good shows (like Julie and the Phantoms for that age group) are cancelled after one season. Netflix frustrates me!
Ok in hindsight I think it’s because I missed the obsession with High School Musical and the like back in the 2010s that I don’t get it.
And I had given up on the Chase Ink Business card so of course it’s NOW been approved (after far too much time and energy and after I needed it for large purchases) š¤¦š»āāļø. They are so annoying.
Year 7, Day 94: Here’s me up at 2 am needing to strategize whether we may have enough stock to offer in our craft fair application and needing to make a spreadsheet about it.
Out of the 11 different craft categories I’m envisioning, we have some stock for 5. The other 6 are question marks whether we’ll be able to make them in time and in sufficient quantities to sell for a 6 hour show. We’ve only ever tabled at small 2 hour community affairs. This is much bigger and if we don’t have enough to offer, our application won’t be approved.
I’m also considering inviting a friend to join us, in inventory if not in person, they could supply one of the 11 crafts that we don’t have time to master and make ourselves.
This could be fun if I wasn’t so stressed about all the moving parts and the application and running out of time to get the pieces together for the moving parts!