Monthly Archives: September 2021

End of September

Posted in Blood test, camping, cancer, cooking, decluttering, Myeloma, swimming, Walking by

It’s been a good month and ending even better that we had RAIN! It was only for a few hours the other night but everything was washed off and watered. Summer has ended I think. This morning is the first woodstove fire ( we call a twinkly) because it’s just a few small logs to take that morning chill off. The kitties aren’t too sure what is going on in that”box”. I’m sure before too long they will all be underneath it to take advantage of the warmth.

I’ve had to call the bank twice about the camping refund and there is no record of it despite rec.gov saying they did the refund. So it has to be disputed. I’m not worried about it. It’ll get resolved one way or another.

I went swimming yesterday and it was still darkish when I left. Hmm… I’ll have to see if I want to still keep going that early. The pool is fine once you’re in but it definitely is cooler outside. I walked this morning and it was cool but nice.

I made black beans yesterday and have lots to freeze for soups or a black bean chili. I’m trying to build up some easy freezer meals for the next couple of months. We had one of the enchilada meals I’d froze and it was really good although most of the sauce had been absorbed so next time I’m thinking of adding more right before I cook it.

I’m waiting for my labs to come in. I’m thinking today or tomorrow. I’ll call down to Mercy tomorrow if they don’t call me. Usually my doctor is very good about getting my results to me. I am prepared that my numbers have increased but hoping it’s not anything like a big increase then I’ll freak out. ( well ,freak then accept it).

I’ve been doing a few small projects around the house. Mainly some reorganizing of pantry stuff and stuff in the closet. I did the Goodwill run the other day with the small dresser and other misc. I already have another small pile in the car but I’ll wait till there’s more to go do it.

well, that’s a wrap for me.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, Flylady, Lake tahoe, minimalism by

Things are back to normal around here. All the camping stuff is organized back in Rubi, the linen sheets washed and put back on the bed and kitchen is tidied too.

Our weather is definitely fall like and it’s getting darker earlier in the evening and getting lighter later in the morning. We walked this morning starting at 6:08 and it was still somewhat dark so we used a flashlight. AH was there, (when is he ever not there) and didn’t have a flashlight. ( Jerk!!)

BTW, we did get the laundry room back together before we left for Tahoe. The walls are painted but the ceiling wood still needs to go up and the door isn’t up. That’s because we plan to flip it so it opens the other way that what it was doing before. It looks good. I’ll get a few pictures up this week.

We decided to do Costco this morning because of the coffee on sale( Starbucks that’s $5.00 off) and the sale ends today. We got other sale items too since that is the best way to take advantage of Costco’s prices. We were in and out in 30 minutes, so a record.

The kitties are growing and lots of fun to watch although they are little terrors when running thru the house. Little Cherry got spayed on Thursday so now they are all done. They all have such unique personalities.

All the garden stuff is winding down and we have been cleaning up the yard/garden areas. My daughter does most of it but I try and do some everyday. I must have made 8 jars of pickled jalapenos. Hey, if you haven’t tried pickled jalapenos in eggs salad , give it a try it was delicious.

Last evening we had a BBQ. The first in months with the weather so hot plus fire danger. I did some burgers, veggie burgers and chicken. I plan on using the chicken tonight in some ramen. It was fun and it was nice to sit outside with the lovely weather.

I have a load in buggie to take to the Goodwill tomorrow. Included is a small very nice old dresser that has carved acorns on the handles. I’ve loved the little dresser but now I don’t have a use for it so I’m going to pass it on to someone who has space and can use it.

This week in Flylady we’re in the living room zone. We plan to take out the window cooler and I’ll wash the windows. I might look around or take some pictures to see what can be rearranged or decluttered. BTW, one of the BEST tools to see how things are in your space is take pictures with your phone. It really is eye opening.

Frugal Friday

Posted in Blood test, California, camping, Lake tahoe, swimming, travel by

We are back home and had a great time in Tahoe. If you’re ever wanting to visit Tahoe, come in September. Most of the tourists are gone and it’s beautiful. Now some of this was due to the Caldor fire and lots of things cancelled/closed but in general September is amazing up there.

For B’s birthday lunch we went to Sprouts which is the main health food restaurant in South Lake. We both agreed it was so so. We’ve been there many times so maybe it was an off day. The sandwich was fair but not great. Oh well, we still had a lovely time and it was only $20 plus tip.

Here’s the 2 old people out at the beach without even combing our hair!!!!

We went to the grocery store and bought a few groceries but that was only $27 so a frugal win. We had brought most everything we needed and the fridge is so big that we had lots of room.

We should have a refund from the days we weren’t there but I haven’t seen it so I may have to call. It should be almost half of our original fee. BTW, if you get the Senior Parks pass( thru the US FS the fees at Nevada Beach and other places that are USFS and parks it is half off. That’s probably why there are so many seniors there. I mean where else are you going to go on vacation in one of the most beautiful spots in the world for $20 a night.

This toward South Lake at @ 7am.

I think this was the worst smoke toward SL Tahoe.

I went and did my labs this morning so next week I should know how much of an increase I’ve had. I wish it would level off but unfortunately that’s not the way my pattern has been.

Tomorrow, I’m excited to get back in the pool as it’s been a week. I’ll probably only do 35 minutes since it’s back to basics again at least until next week.

So, this was a very frugal week even on vacation.

This looking directly across the lake. Emerald bay is over there somewhere.

The smoke lifted as the day went on and it cleared up by afternoon.

Lake Tahoe

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,Definitely, our favorite place on earth. In fact we both want our ashes to go out on the lake somewhere.

This is not this year but 2 years ago when there was snow on those mountains. Now there is NO snow.

The smoke is back in this morning but hopefully will blow off. Today is just around camp day. We did a lovely 2 mile walk yesterday and will do again today. I finished another Ruth Rendell book. If you’re looking for a new series her CI Wexford is superb.

We had lovely bowls of ramen with tofu for breakfast.

This looking north west up the lake. Still no snow.

Beautiful Nevada Beach

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We made it up here no problems. A smooth and comfortable ride. When we got here the campground was almost empty except in our GD spot a freeloader decided to park his tent and shit load of crap. So the camp host people had to kick him out and that took an extra 40 minutes. All good in the end and we are here.

Our spot is one of the best on the outer ring and it’s the one we always stay at if we can get it reserved. It has been windy and cool but sunny.

We are learning new things about the Rv everyday and today we used the gas water heater and that gave us nice hot water.

The fridge is awesome and we’ve had great food. it’s a big fridge which is one thing we wanted that we gave up a closet for.

My pictures aren’t uploading so I’ll add some when we get home. We stopped at Cannablue in South Lake for some gummies for B and that was fun. Traffic and South lake in general was pretty empty and places like Raley’s was not busy and had few cars in the parking lot. For people like us that dislike most other obnoxious people/traffic in general it was great.

Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer and hopefully less wind. If I didn’t need to get labs Friday we could stay longer but I need them done as it’s already 5 weeks out.

If you look all the way down you can see our RV . The rest is all empty.

Tahoe delayed…

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Just got the update from Recreation .gov that Nevada Beach will open Saturday not Friday. So I had to modify again. I’m almost thinking of just canceling the whole thing. Is it going to be worth it?? I tried calling rec.gov but the wait time was too long so I nixed that. I don’t know I guess we’ll think about it for a while today.

😦

Getting ready to go

Posted in Blood test, books, California, camping, Lake tahoe by

We are getting things ready to head up to Tahoe Friday. The damn AC in the truck has stopped working just like I said it would. It wasn’t the freon. Well, now there’s nothing we can do till next week so we might as well not get too pissed off. But I think they are trying to pull a fast one on us and now that we have the warranty they have to fix it. Still a PITA to have to drop it off and so on. But on a positive note it won’t be hot in Tahoe and we certainly are not going to need AC. As a matter of fact the mornings are going to be quite cool with a low of 28.

I have most of the food organized and a menu plan done. I’m going to hit the store tomorrow for just a few things. Overall, very simple. There’s no wood or charcoal fires allowed so no Hibachi cooking or Dutch Oven. Also, no fires at night.

I’ve got a big bag of books from the used bookstore so that should fill up my days. Plus we plan on some hiking. Nothing too strenuous just some walking. We plan to not go even into South Lake because of the fire issue. (The fire is not threatening south lake but I want to stay clear anyway.

I need to get labs Friday so we will leave after that. Because we are trailering I suspect it’ll take a little longer than normal and we have to go slower too. As long as everything goes okay with the truck we should hit the campground by 1pm or so. September is lovely in Tahoe and it should be beautiful with nice days and cool nights. Barclay has a birthday next week so we might do a lunch out.

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, home improvement, Uncategorized by

Yesterday I chose not to go to the pool and stay home and cook. I wanted to get some freezer meals done so I have more choices when I don’t feel like cooking. So first I used my last #10 can of tomatoes and cooked up some ground beef and made a meat sauce for lasagnas. Then I used the other half of the can for sauce in the cheese lasagnas. I had decided to buy the freezer containers from amazon.

I started out making 2 cheese lasagnas, 2 meat lasagnas , and 1 cheese enchilada tray.

This week I’m in the bathroom zone. At Ikea I bought a round mirror to replace the one we’ve had in there for 25 years. I checked prices on Amazon and Ikea had the best price for this type of mirror.

Today we are doing a little painting in the laundry room. The window is in and there is still the new subfloor to put down.

We had an unfortunate negative run in with our neighbor that we want the fence built to block out his garage. So he seems to not have a job but works on old cars, that’s fine. He is often grinding or doing something making noise but it’s tolerable. Well, yesterday starting at 8 am he started air blasting an old truck. the noise was at 85 decibels which, if you look it up, is VERY loud. So I said, let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt and let it go till noon. Well, noon came and went and so the noise kept going Then he had 2 people show up doing other blasting things. I really was losing it by 4pm. So I said ok let’s wait till 5. At 5:15 I walked over to the fence behind the barn. One of the men came over and I said “you cannot be running industrial machinery all day in a residential area. I’d like to talk to the owner. He had his back to me and turned around and said ‘call the police’. I said that’s what I don’t want to do. He turned his back to me and ignored me. the other guy says, this is almost over and I said, regardless you cannot have industrial level noise in a neighborhood and it’s the owners responsibility. I was livid to say the least. I’m thinking what is with this guy. We’ve never had any encounters with him ever and he deals with me that way. So my daughter checked and we can file a noise complaint online. I really don’t want to do that but I will if it happens again. I hate conflict and am NOT good at dealing with these things really. But I will call the sheriff if it goes on again for that long.

What would you have done? and why do you think he was so belligerent to me.?

Frugal Friday( for the most part)

Posted in budgets, home improvement, Lake tahoe, swimming, Uncategorized by

I suppose the biggest save this week was shopping at Winco . I haven’t been in quite a while and ,once again, really shocked at the low prices as opposed to Safeway/BelAir.

I probably saved $50 at least on what I bought. I didn’t really go item by item but it was significant. What happened is, after swimming I decided to go over there and it wasn’t too difficult at all. Usually after my swim I come directly home. No stops. So this time I swam 35 minutes so I wasn’t too wiped out and it was perfect. Plus I was in there at 8am. So there were just a few shoppers( big bonus for me who dislikes people). All in all, I was quite pleased and will do it again, probably before we head to Tahoe ( if it is even open).

The truck AC we as fixed, we think, at no cost to us as we have the warranty. I’m still not sure it was just the freon but I’ll wait and see.

We haven’t done any take out in a while and that always saves money. Just haven’t been interested in other people’s food. Tonight is pizza night and I’ll do an Ooni. I’m down to 4 more and it’s paid for itself. If I were to order it again, I would definitely go for the gas one so if you’re thinking about an Ooni do the gas one. The pellets take more work and getting the temperature right is tricky. Not hard, you just have to keep adding the pellets at the right time.

I’m planning on going down to Ikea this morning as I have a 10% coupon I want to use. I tried to do the click and collect which is nice and easy but the item I wanted they said they couldn’t do that due to low stock. Oh well, it shows 4 in stock so I hope it’s there.

The laundry room is still torn apart but getting there. I decided to buy the less expensive window to replace the one that broke and was all fogged anyway. That hopefully will go in this weekend. I want it all done including being painted by the time we leave for Tahoe so that should give my son and B a timeline.

Happy Rosh Hashanah

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The Jewish new year started last night at sunset.

It is the Jewish New Year. We went around the table and each asked that the person on our right be inscribed in the Book of Life for another year. No we are not Jewish. Actually, we are atheists but I love many Jewish traditions so why not?

May you too be inscribed in the book of Life for another year.