Tag Archives: painting

Five on Friday

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, Myeloma, travel, Uncategorized by

We had the most wonderful thunderstorm and rain last night with lightning. We got a lot of rain, and the ground is pretty soaked for now. Yeah, for the rain. Although not so good, it started a lightning fire across the canyon, but I think I saw it was contained.

A low spend week for the most part. My daughter went to Costco after work for a few things, namely dishwasher pods that we needed. Plus water and just a few other things. Food came to @ $47, and then the wine I want to take to the coast was $18. It’s called Sonoma-Cutrer. I haven’t had it before, but it’s supposed to be good.

All the July bills are done, so I have August’s budget almost done. With SS decreasing, I have made a few adjustments. I think mostly it’ll be decreasing food costs and miscellaneous expenses. Most of our bills are fixed, so I can’t do anything there.

Let see, the good news is LLS opened funding for Myeloma, so I hopped on the website and was approved. I just need the doctor to fill out his form. Having that money will be a great help in paying for my insurance.

Other good news is, my kappa light chains stayed about the same, 19.8. So up from 19.6, but that’s really marginal. So good news on that front.

I had fairly good energy this week after the low with Dex. I got the living room ceiling painted. It took 2 days working for about 30 minutes each time. I also went to the paint store and bought another gallon of Simply White. Except for the bathroom, our whole house is painted that color. It makes it easy to do touch-ups and keeps the look clean and minimal.

Well, I’m off to do some tidying and put some stuff away.

Frugal Friday

Posted in budgeting, budgets, California, cancer, swimming by

I had to get gas this week so that was $53 at Costco. Not too bad. The other cars, buggie and the truck are fine so I don’t need to fill them.

I’d gone over to Wino after swimming and spent about $100. Some wine and food combined.

Yesterday after infusion, I stopped at Costco and spent more than I wanted but I’m going to move some of it over to July’s budget since things like shampoo and conditioner will last months, Qtips were on sale, and they too last about 6 months if not more, mayo was on sale and I put that in the pantry so that will last months too, flour, and a bunch of other things that will definitely be more than a months grocery shop. Maybe I’ll try and separate it out if I am sitting at my desk.

All the monthly bills are done so I have July’s budget ready. The only extra this month is the truck registration and I’ll do that next week.

Our hot weather is starting again today, so I need to close the windows and curtains. It looks to be hot till Tuesday. My son was going to come tomorrow but now with that being the hottest day he may wait till next week. We need to get the floor down so we can get the sink in so it is a bit of a hold up.

Today we’re going to try and paint some if not all of the bathroom. It just depends on how our arms hold up. Getting old, huh?? I used to paint entire rooms myself. Heck, I painted the outside of the whole house once. Not anymore. I can do a wall or two and then that’s it. I think my daughter will be my backup today. 🙂

Saturday musings…

Posted in cooking, swimming, travel, Uncategorized by

Overall, a really nice week with absolutely spectacular weather. Cool in the mornings and then lovely warm afternoons. We are seeing lot of yellows on the oak trees and shades of gold with a little red occasionally. Down at the park there are lots of trees with red,yellow, and oranges thrown in. The park has liquid ambers which do change into beautiful fall colors, chinese pistachio turns a brilliant red. I think there’s maples and a gingko tree as well. We are due for some rain possibly tomorrow even and then it looks like the storm door may open next week.

We are still planning our trip to Capitola the following week even if there’s rain. That’s one reason we bought Rubi is so we can go even if it’s rainy outside. I ordered a gas fire pit to take with us so we can have an evening fire. In Tahoe there were and even still now, no open fires even in campgrounds and no charcoal even. We saw a few RVers with the gas fire pits and they were cute. They weren’t too expensive( $140 from Amazon).

Yesterday I had to go into the dentist as I had part of a crown come off. The new dentist looked at it and took x rays and said the metal part was still in tact so it’s ok to leave at this point. I still need to replace it but I’m hoping January sometime. So that threw my day off some since it was the middle of the day. But I feel relieved it’s ok at least.

I ended up making salmon for dinner with brown rice from Trader Joe’s and a salad. I could’ve done pizza but didn’t feel like it. BTW, the rice at TJ’s in the freezer section is spectacular for quick meals. It microwaves up quite nicely. Tonight I’m baking some chicken with a side of delicata squash I bought at our local farm. I was so impressed with their hard squashes I bought 5 and I think next week I’m going to go back and buy another 6-8 so I can have a winter stash. We didn’t get any squash this year out of our garden. My daughter has Johnny’s garlic almost all planted and because we had such success with the onions in the barrels, we’re doing all the garlic in there too. I’d like to try and do some gardening in the galvanized troughs and see how that does. We do have problems with voles and earwigs that eat most anything. So this might be a good solution.

‘This week I’ve been painting the bathroom. We’ve done all the rooms this year except this one. I used the same paint which is called ‘rarified air’ and is lovely pale blue/grey. Then since I was feeling ambitious I decided to paint the claw foot tub too. It came out really nice. The original red I painted it has really stood up since it’s 26 years now since we put it in but I’ve wanted it black for a while. Eventually the tub and bathroom will be re done. But not this year. I have photos but they’re not uploading for some reason.

Monday Musings

Posted in budgeting, budgets, cooking, Flylady, home stuff, Uncategorized by

It’s cloudy today. I guess no BBQ tonight. That’s ok, I have plenty of things I can cook. Because of chickens laying so many eggs, I will make a quiche of some sort. I have the pie crust in the refrigerator chilling. I don’t know why I resist making crusts. In the food processor it took all of 2 minutes to get it to form a ball and then into the fridge.

This morning I have already done the bedroom zone, made the quiche crust, windexed the mirrors and am still needing to vacuum.

I also paid the UCD bill for April by phone. I still need to do Allstate some time this week. That’s not due till April as well but I might as well do it sooner than later. I can remember vividly when we had zero money to pay bills on time and always had to do payments. Even our property taxes we had to arrange. Grocery shopping was limited and there was NO extra money for anything. I am grateful that we can pay what we need to. There’s not a lot left over but to me that’s fine as long as the basics are paid.

My son, who spends money like crazy,:) asked for a special edition Rockstar Pendleton for his birthday so I will do that too. It’s a throw size and quite stunning in reds and blacks with men on horses riding facing forward. I guess it’s from some game he plays.

The kitchen is back together and next we will move on to the entryway and B’s cubby. The one wall was actually an outside wall so it’s the siding on the house. It’s painted in the Navajo White I used originally around the house. We’re planning to use the semi gloss on that and the other siding too. I don’t think we’ll start this week but maybe Saturday. This area was a deck that we built right after we moved and remodeled. So 26 years ago. Then at some point we closed it in as room. At some point we should make the foundation of it up to code as it is only on foundation blocks. i don’t know maybe that would work but I doubt it and it would need concrete. Well, that’s out of my zone of things to think about.

Today is our no walk day and I don’t plan on going anywhere.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Blood test, Uncategorized by

We finished painting the kitchen in the semi gloss Benjamin Moore, Simply White. I thought it had been semi gloss before but it must have just been eggshell. For our kitchen semi gloss is best as our stove hood is not the best and grease does get on surfaces. Even doing the once a month kitchen zone when I wipe all the shelves it still builds up. So that was a good choice. We’re going to add another shelf to the one wall and I just ordered the bracketts. They’re not cheap as they are hand forged but they are nice looking. Then I will put my 1 gallon Ball jars there. Things are still disorganized as a couple of shelves are still drying so I can’t put stuff back yet. But tomorrow I will.

We’re headed for a very nice week so I’m planning on a few BBQ meals on the new Weber. Since I’m doing the freezer challenge, I’ll plan on burgers and chicken at least once. I need to work on the monthly menu plan for April too.

I plan on having labs next Friday since I see my doctor on the following Wednesday. The light chain tests take 3 days minimum so I need to do it earlier than I normally do( which is Mondays). Then April will start Round 4.

B and my daughter haven’t started building the garden shed yet so that will probably be the project for this week. Mavis over at ‘one hundred dollars a month’ blog was writing about what containers to use for gardening and she mentioned the big galvanized bins. A couple of people said they work great and there’s less bending involved. I thought I’d check out how much they are. Most of our raised beds are 2×12 boards and they do break down eventually.

Flylady zone is the bedroom. I’ll do that tomorrow.

This looking down the driveway from the barn. Our neighbors now have their tent trailer up there. The sunroom is where we have our 4pm wine and cheese and listen to jazz or NPR.

Painting and other random bits.

Posted in California, cancer, Myeloma, Uncategorized, Walking by

We were able to get the fireplace wall painted yesterday and part of the the next wall too. I still need to do the cement board behind the woodstove in high gloss. Today we’re going to paint the couch wall and around to where the bookcase is. The couch wall is fairly easy but the bookcase involves taking everything out of it and moving it so we can paint behind it.

We tried to get more paint at the Ace across from TJ’s in Roseville but they didn’t carry the eggshell only pearl which kinda looked the same but not quite. The guy was kinda rude about it but anyway I’ll check with the other Ace and then if all else fails go out to where I got the first batch. Not a big deal, it’ll just have to wait till after Dex days.

Tomorrow starts Round 3 of Velcade and that will take me thru the end of MArch. I see him again at the very end of March. I know I want to do at least 2 more Rounds but it’s possible that the 6th won’t be necessary. I guess we’ll just see.

I bought these darling 4 ounce Ball jars for my herbs. I’m switching out my old jars to these. They are really cute.

The first ones I got from Walmart but then they were sold out so I got the next box of 4 at Target.

So Cute!!!

We are supposed to get rain mixed with snow tomorrow so we’ll see how that goes.

We are walking earlier now since it’s so light out at 6am. Today we got there 5:45 am and it was pretty light out. With daylight savings this Sunday it’s my guess we’ll be out somewhat earlier as well. The white heron is hanging around the pond now and he’s quite beautiful.

It’s Taco Tuesday so I think I’m making bean tacos and I may do an Instant Pot Mexican chicken as well.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, camping, cooking, covid-19, Flylady, travel, Uncategorized by

I got my 2nd covid shot on Friday and it all went fine. It was easy in and wait 15 minutes after the shot. My arm was slightly sore but that’s it so I’m pretty jazzed.

We hit up Trader Joes and spent right around $200. That included some pantry stuff and assorted snacks and wine. It was fine till 9 am when they opened it to under 65 and then it was a madhouse so we quickly left.

Our two flowering cherry trees are in full bloom.

They are quite pretty this year. Some years because of rain or snow they don’t reach full bloom but these did. The bees are happy!

All the daffodils my daughter planted this fall are coming up too.

They are up and down the new fencing and just past our entryway driveway. Those trees on the right are our neighbors,Leo’s, so you can see how close that is to our parking area. That’s why we will want a fence there.

I’m planning on making a curry for dinner with veggies and rice. I have some broccoli that needs using and I bought some cauliflower too.

This week is the kitchen zone and I will start that tomorrow. Today I want to vacuum and do some other chores. We are headed into some rain tomorrow and for the next few days too. Monday is our no walk day so I can get a head start on the kitchen zone. Barclay is planning on starting on the LR walls painting. We figure a wall at a time or maybe a wall and a half with everything that needs moving. The bookcase wall will require all the books removed. So a bigger job than the fireplace wall which only has a Heywood Wakefield cabinet.

Still no luck getting a reservation at Nevada Beach. Now reservations are for almost the second week of September. I’ll keep trying but feel it’s probably a wash.

Kitchen zone

Posted in Blood test, books, California, cooking, covid-19, Flylady, Multiple myeloma, Myeloma by

This was a busy weekend with starting the painting.

I did the area in front of our small bathroom and the book shelves. I’m waiting to put the books back for 24 hours till I’m sure they are quite dry. This morning I did the french door to the bedroom and that’s it.

I usually do most of the zone on Sundays but since painting was involved I didn’t get to it till this morning. It wasn’t the most thorough I’ve ever done but perfectly fine for a zone cleaning. The last thing I want to do with this zone is clean out my wine crate pantry boxes and wipe them and restock. I’ll probably to that tomorrow.

First this morning I had to go get my labs for Wednesday’s shot. He added in the IgG test which can be a myeloma indicator. Last time it came back normal so that’s good. Then my covid shot is Friday so I’ll have a day to recuperate and mostly get thru the dex.

I bought a new cookbook. Mark Bittman’s ‘Dinner for Everyone”. It seems pretty good with each recipe having an easy adaptation, a vegan one, and then a fancy one. I may try something tonight as I try and do 2-3 new recipes in my monthly menu plan.

We’re heading into some very wintery weather by Friday. Rain and lots of snow in the Sierras. We still need so no complaining.

Simple Sunday

Posted in cooking, Flylady, Myeloma, reading, simple foods, Uncategorized, Walking by

Things are quiet around here.

The big storm is over and now it’s just cloudy, no rain. Today, I plan on tidying up the entry zones and my office area(done!). This time of year the entry zone is really just sweeping and removing any debris or stuff lying around.

We had a nice Sunday walk. Jerk walker was still there but then left as we started our second round. We’ve missed him for the most part as he must be getting there earlier but today, being Sunday, he was later.

I’ve almost finished reupholstering the dining room Heywood chairs. I have one left. Using a drop cloth as the fabric is economical and I actually love the look of the cotton. Next time I will need to replace the foam cushions but that’s a few years away at this point.

I plan on starting my painting project this week. Since I can’t really paint for long periods with my rib issues(arms raised and using a roller), I figured I’ll use the Flylady method and do it in 15 minute intervals. I’m still debating using the Behr white I have or wait till I have Benjamin Moore‘s Simple White. I think I’ll do the ceiling in front of the bathroom door with the Behr and then decide whether to keep going. I did read about a paint called, Farrow and Ball that sounds like a really nice paint with great coverage. I plan on checking it out this week.

Yesterday I made another NYT recipe called https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021839-potato-cheddar-soup-with-quick-pickled-jalapenos. I made it my Staub, of course, and it was really good. Somehow the sprinkling of jalapenos really did uplift the soup. There’s enough left over for lunch today. I plan on making meatballs for dinner and maybe put them in sauce and bake. Not sure yet if that’s how I’ll do it since then B wouldn’t be able to eat the pasta bake. So I guess I’ll just leave them on the side.

My order from King Arthur Flour showed up and I made one of the scone mixes. It was White Chocolate cranberry scones. They were a big hit. Perhaps a little expensive for a mix ( 7.99) but it made 8 large scones so basically $1.00 a scone. I think overall it was worth it.

For Christmas my son had gotten me an Easton press of “ Robinson Crusoe” . I’ve read it before many years ago, but it is very entertaining and well written.

Simple Sunday

Posted in Flylady, home improvement, Uncategorized by

A nice morning even though there is a little smoke lingering. It is cooler than it’s been. The week ahead looks to be in the low ’90’s so warm but not unusual for this time of year.

This week I have no appts so I may plan on doing some painting. The kitchen cabinets need a touch-up and I have the paint for that. I may plan to go down to Roseville to the Benjamin Moore store to get the white.  I’d like to get the front room painted and maybe the kitchen. Having the same color makes it easy to do and repainting is mostly a breeze. ( well, sort of, as I can’t do the ceilings but I can paint the walls.

This week Flylady has 2 zones. The living room and then the entryway. Yesterday, I wrangled the couch covers off and washed them. My daughter put most of it back on as my hands have trouble stretching the main cover. ( I guess an arthritic thing going on). The entryways need sweeping and a general tidy up.  So I’ll plan on that later in the week.

B took a huge load to the local garbage transfer station and that was great to get rid of stuff that was just hanging around like old fencing. I asked him to load the old van with the thrift store stuff and I can do that this week too. We have a digital piano that needs to go and it is too big to fit in my VW.

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Here are the two ‘old’ ones celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe it’s been 50 years. Lots of laughter, fun, some tears but not too many and lots of great adventures.  I guess getting married at 18 and 20 worked out for us but I’m guessing we are the exception.