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
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May 7, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $659.86; Rural libraries, $321.62.
How Baby comic hits the Mom thing precisely: “mothers are under inescapable pressure to perform to impossible standards.”
It’s nice that there are still good people out there.
Speaking of good, I couldn’t read the WaPo article that Abby linked to (over my limit?) but I did find another recent article confirming the Burnell Colton and his Lower 9th Ward Market is still helping their community even though he’s not being paid, so I also sent him a check to help out. If you also want to help a helper: Burnell’s Lower 9th Ward Market, 2036 Caffin Ave, New Orleans, LA 70117
Ana’s All The Hats resonated so strongly with me.
Does everyone have a favorite period of art? I just do not.
Why we’re staying home.
Since this all started I firmly believed we need to test test test. It’s not just for statistics, it informs actions. The folks in Groningen felt the same way and it looks like this is working out well. Most crucially, I think, they actually care about saving lives which is far more than I can say for the US government: “Herd immunity can never be a public health strategy. It can never be controlled, and it means people will die, and if you are not very careful a lot of people will die,” Friedrich said.
“It’s not a law that we’re all going to get infected. It’s just the consequences of our insufficient action to protect people.”
Young Barley and Ethel
May 4, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $659.86; Rural libraries, $321.62.
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have minimal income from an investment property (which is all saved for maintenance) and investing in dividend stocks (all reinvested). We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. We get a bit of income from Swagbucks and cash back sites (Ebates, Mr.Rebates). Some posts have affiliate links that pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running and I’ve added a way to support the blog in the sidebar to the right!
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.
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Dividend income. We received $193.60 in dividends in April.
Federal taxes. I’m glad we filed on the last day of March. I know there was no rush with the deadline delay to July 15th but we were due a federal refund and I wanted our money before the virus spread brought the IRS to some kind of grinding halt. Our deposit arrived in about ten days so I stashed it immediately to pay for our CA tax bill in the summer. I’m not paying that until July. We have a little extra after we deduct our state taxes, but I consider that money already spent. I’ve been hearing reports from other bloggers that they’d filed much earlier but they were being asked for ID, birth certificates, etc, and their refunds are indefinitely held up. What gives?? What has your experience been with your tax refund?
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May 1, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $659.86; Rural libraries, $321.62.
1. Frozen Indian food trays from Trader Joe’s are a lifesaver when it’s Friday afternoon and everyone’s brain is a bucket of slugs.
2. Secret Life of Pets 2 is on Netflix! I must have known that at some point but I forgot so was quite pleased to find it the other night.
Challenges this week: I was asked to take on an incredibly difficult task and it took quite a lot of soul-searching and checking in with potential support people to help me do a good job. I think I can do it but it’s going to be painful, nerve-wracking, and I’m going to feel bad about it no matter what happens. It does help to know that I can only control my own performance and nothing I do will be a key to changing the outcome.
This wasn’t a short week but it was mostly challenges.
:: How are you keeping healthy and occupied?
April 30, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020? Current total: Lakota, $659.86; Rural libraries, $321.62.
I was very peeved to hear that, among other large companies, Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris nabbed money from the PPP when I know tons of small business owners hadn’t even had their applications considered. I’m glad to see they may be returning the funds.
Also good to see that Caltrans and BART are able to use this time to do maintenance that’s difficult to schedule or manage during normal commuting times.
Paula Pant describes her experience with COVID-19 as a healthy young person with no preexisting conditions.
Homemade banh mi recipe. I wanted to share this after making it but I looked at the ingredients and noped on out of there.
Too muchness indeed, Emily.
How Can We Stop Feeling Useless Right Now?
Ally Kirkpatrick of Old Town Books has been really active in finding creative ways to keep her bookstore afloat. We ordered from them a month ago when things started shutting down. I’m sad to see that our one local independent bookstore hasn’t done a whit of communication about how we can support them. I’d hate for them to go away but they don’t seem to have any updated social media presence in lieu of showing up at the (closed) store.
Nannies working during the coronavirus. This article leads me to conclude that most rich people are monsters. Good grief.
A good thing about sharing your giving: stats!
Sadly, true
Quarantined Stuntpeople having fun
April 27, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Weeks 5 and 6 of shutdown in the Bay Area.
This is a record of our weekdays. Video calls with other kids have been spectacularly Not Fun.
Week 5, Day 1: Most of the time, I’m dropping quick money updates in PiC’s ear. He may listen, he may not, but he knows I’ve got it. Things are exceptionally topsy turvy because he actually asked for a check in on our finances. Since I’m obsessively on top of them, it was easy to give him the birds’ eye view. Basically: we’re on the right track, we have a plan, I tweaked it a bit, but as long as we keep our jobs and incomes, we will be ok. We stash lots of cash in case of job loss, but you know I’m going to worry if we do lose a job. It’s how I’m built.
Jenny got me thinking about the Dragonbox apps as way to incorporate math for the kiddo. I would have to find my iPad and charger though. 😬
PiC has me concerned about his job security. I don’t want to have to add worrying about his job on top of my not sleeping, and my extra heavy workload. I just do not want one more thing on this plate please and thank you. I last resolved to go limp on this one and I am very bad at it.
Week 5, Day 2: This was a particularly grumpy day. JB was defiant and rude and frankly bratty most of the day, and simply could not deal.
I was not in the best form myself and my patience wore thin by the time I hit the 6th repetition of simple instructions that they refused to follow. Thank goodness for the one day of warm sun to at least somewhat offset the high level of grouch of the day.
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April 24, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
1. JB is at their best after rest time. My fatigue was up one day after they’d had rest so they came in to give me a hug, tuck me in, and said, let me know if you need anything!
They came to check on me and update me twice more in the next couple of hours while I rested.
2. My friends are all over the map, have been for the past 20 years, and so we’ve gotten pretty good at long distance support. I am so grateful that my friends are just in my pocket if I ever need them.
3. My toes are ice blocks every night and it takes me hours of shivering in my bed to get warm. I can’t sleep with ice toes.
I could not take one more night of this and ordered myself a $20 sherpa fleece blanket to lay on top of. It is a perfect cloud of warmth and fuzziness and I am extremely happy to be warm at night. Now I wish I could fashion a robe out of this blanket and stay in it all week!
Challenges this week: I think I’m getting even more introverted as a result of all these conference calls. I normally avoid them like the plague, I speak to no humans for 8 hours a day and then only to my family afterward.
4. PiC had his heart set on a specific bike for JB who has outgrown their free hand me down. He found it at Costco for $30 less and no shipping costs than the original shop. I still think he should have checked around for a hand me down but we also aren’t in a position to be checking out used goods. (This is the trade-off of not having school to go to: JB normally has access to all kinds of physical exercise equipment and we didn’t have to spend money on it at home. Now we do because they need a lot of physical activity and there are limited safe ways to get it.)
5. When PiC made it to the grocery store and he managed to get most of what we needed and mostly on sale. No strawberries, but blackberries and raspberries were on sale.
6. I had to pick up some educational supplies for JB’s lessons. I added some craft supplies to the pile since we never really had a lot of those things on hand for arts and crafts. I’m grateful for the $25 gift card that we received a few years back for their use!
:: How are you keeping healthy and occupied?
April 23, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
I’ve been wary of this happening: SO A TOXIC PERSON TRIED TO CONTACT YOU DURING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
I’m not an HSP but I too am slowly cracking under the pressure of so much noise and disruption.
I have been telling PiC that I want to shave my head for months, I’m tired of long hair, short hair, shedding hair, hair clogging the drains, all the hair! This is extremely tempting.
Equine names
Man forced to quarantine in ghost town with gruesome past. I’m tickled by this article but also by the fact that the category in the upper left corner is “living.”
Nicole and Maggie help you out with the yeast shortage problem. With science.
The Bitches break down the 1.5 TRILLION dollar injection to the banks. Now I realize I also didn’t understand what happened there at all.
Thank your mouser!