Oh, No. No, No, No

My building got bad news today: our elevator broke, and will be down "at least a month." (The piston broke, and my guess is that it takes that long to get the parts they need.)

For those who don't know, we live on the sixth floor, so this is not good. 

My mother finds the stairs very difficult, and will be trying to minimize trips as much as possible. 

I also hate the stairs (going down, my knees hate it, and going up, pretty much all of me hates it), and I'll have to be carrying up groceries, cat litter, suitcases ... this is going to suck, basically.

I had to go out today for an appointment, and when I dragged myself back upstairs at last, I checked the weather.

I mean, yeah, it could have been raining, that would have been worse, but ... this was bad enough.

It's been two years of good times, elevator. After this, please give us years more.

Ow, Tactical Error

My doctor recently prescribed a topical treatment for my arthritis, a cream for my hands so that I could cut down on how much ibuprofen I take. How much do I take? Too much, as I tell her when she asks; I know it's too much, but otherwise I'm in pain, and no, Tylenol doesn't work.

So I've been using the cream, and yesterday I decided to cut back on the pills and see if the cream was helping enough for that. Not stop it completely, but took 3/4 of my usual. 

The answer was, that would be a big old NO. My hands hurt! I'm back to my regular dose today, and it will probably take a few days for my hands to stop hurting. 

I'm thinking that I will keep using the cream, but not mess with cutting down on the pills until after I get back from my trip. Doing it when I'm going to be hauling luggage around isn't the best idea.

Ow....

Tune in tomorrow, when I expect to be griping about how disconcerting it is to wake up to a different alarm tone. I've used the alarm on my iPad for years, but in the last few days, it has started going off too loudly. When I go to turn it down, I see the little volume bar go down, and then right back up. The thing is too close to be for me to need it loud, and waking up flailing has not started my days off well this week.

But my phone alarm doesn't have the same tone available, so we'll see how well the change works. 

Change, hmph. Not a fan.

A Vent, and Something Fun

 Okay, let me vent first. At my annual exam on Tuesday, my PCP put in the order for my regular mammogram, although I'm not due until December, and this led to the radiology place sending me both a text and an email to call and schedule it. In fact, I got both messages on Wednesday, and then again today, and thought, fine, I'll call now and make the appointment for December, just to shut them up.

I called, I had to input my date of birth and zip code, and then the message told me to make the appointment online. (Could I have stayed on the line to make it? Possibly.)

So I went to the website, of course I have to create an account, I put in my info, click the button, and ... nothing happens. It doesn't move to the next screen, it doesn't give me an error message, nothing.

Fuck'em, I'll make the appointment in six months. Grrr, though.

~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile! More fun!

I'm going on a trip this month (so excited!) and I needed to buy a new suitcase, as my old one broke last time I traveled (fortunately not until the end of the return home). As I mentioned, when we went up to the outlets last week and I got the Skechers, I also bought a suitcase, and in a first for me, it's hard-sided, not fabric. 

Which means that I can't do something I've done in the past, and use fabric paint to make my suitcase stand out as obviously-even-from-a-distance mine. (I did pick a bright color, though not the taxi-cab yellow I looked at first.) However, I was talking about it with a friend, and she said: stickers.

Ah ha!

So this is the bag:

Which, by the way, has a built-in combination lock with TSA keyhole, so I don't even have to put my own locks on it. Pretty fancy. 

It has an interior cover on one side, so you can pack both sides and still close it, and it also zips to be wider if needed.

Plus of course it moves smoothly and the handle slides up and down like a dream. Ahhh, that new-suitcase feeling.

Anyway, I pulled out my stack of stickers, and while most of them were too large (given the way the suitcase has raised and lowered bits), I found enough that fit to mark all sides.

And I do mean ALL sides:

Shoutout to Ranc's!

I did take one sticker that wouldn't fit and make it work.

Now, yes, I do know that they will get scratched and scuffed when the bag is checked. That's okay. I just like it this way. As my mother reminded me, it's what I did to my car as well.

Do you mark up your suitcases in any way? Stickers, paint, bag tag or belt? Anything?

Kudos to Skechers

I’m not sure I had ever been in a Skechers store before today, but I wanted to try sneakers on, because my feet are both large (US size 10) and wide, so buying online before trying is asking for failure. We went up to the outlets, an hour away, and I started to look around. I couldn’t see anything on the boxes indicating wides, so I asked some employees how I could tell which were the wides, and they said, oh, all the wides are in that aisle over there.

Y’all. Y’ALL. I did not have to wander the entire store looking to see what styles they had in 10W, because ALL THE WIDES WERE IN ONE SPOT.

All I had to do was see what was available in 10. It was amazing. I wish every shoe store would do this.

Mind you, some of them probably wouldn’t because it would reveal how few wides they had. But anyway. I got these, and they are so comfortable. Yay, yay.

We also went into a travel store and I bought a new suitcase, then had lunch at P.F. Chang’s, went to Costco to redeem my reward certificate (that’s free money right there), and finally stopped at Norman Love to pick up some coconut macaroons.

It’s been a good day.

Naples Pride: Lots of Firsts

Mostly words first, then photo dump to finish.

I had a really good time on Saturday at Naples Pride, my first time going. I was meeting up with half a dozen people I know*, and we were in line before the gates opened (metaphorically speaking).
*I drove separately because I had a slight headache that morning, and didn't want to spoil someone else's day if I had to leave early. Didn't end up having to, though I did pop another pill during the drag show, as it was loud and had lots of flashy lights. 

Since I showed the clear bag I bought in a previous post, I want to mention that when I got to the man doing bag checks, he held it up, turned it around, and said, "I like this one, I don't even have to open it!" Which was the point of it, so yay me.

There were a lot of booths from various companies and organizations, including a couple of political candidates whose names I noted, and naturally many of the booths had not just giveaways, but rainbow ones. I picked up all sorts of stuff:

And as it was a hot day, I also bought this fan, for a whole $5, which was a life-saver; the park has a lot of trees, so the shade also helped, but the breeze was not as constant as I wanted it to be, so I made my own.

It's pretty sturdy, too, not a one-use item at all.

At one point, some of my friends and I were stopped by a reporter for the local paper, and she asked us a few questions; I didn't exactly feel prepared to articulate my thoughts, but I tried. Not sure when the last time was that I was quoted in a newspaper (if ever?), but this is a good one to have.

And it also answered a question I had had: apparently they moved it from June to April for the weather. It's true that June is mighty hot around here, but the weather on Saturday was plenty warm, too.

(The article ended by talking to "the protester" outside the event---yes, there was just one! He told the paper he felt 'threatened' by the attendees; personally, I feel threatened that he felt he had to be armed to protest. I'm glad I didn't notice that at the time, but I was pointedly looking away as I walked by him on the way out.)

So, fun! Rainbows! Happiness! Empanadas and shave ice! A few general photos:

Annnndddd the drag show! A lot of my pictures came out blurry, but oh well. There's really no conveying the experience through stills anyway.

This guy (and yes, he was introduced as "Mister" so 'guy' is right) had the most amazing light show; the part of his outfit around his waist lit and flashed, and he also had green pointer lights on his hat and wristbands, I think it was. A lot going on!

More than one performer had a costume reveal.

I believe this performer is the one who was introduced as being from Vegas, and, well...

I guess that's where she got those, then. My back hurt just looking at her move.

Just when I was wondering where the other colors of the rainbow were...

There they are!

I think this was my first time going to a drag show; at least, you would think I would remember, right? It was fun, very entertaining, and on a practical note, sitting down for an hour in the air conditioning was a very nice break! But of course the show was fun aside from that. I would go again.

And I would go to Pride again! Both for the serious, "being there as an ally to support people who are so often being treated like less-than in this country," and for the fun of going out and seeing all the rainbows and happiness. We have to find it where we can.

A Quick Ask: Baked Ziti Recipe

I went to Pride today and had a lot of fun, plenty more to come on that, but I was just reading a book that mentioned baked ziti and had a craving. Does anyone have a tried and true recipe? Not that it’s complicated, but I haven’t made it in a million years. Thanks in advance! Cat photo in payment.

Book Rec for Fantasy Book Lovers

Or maybe that should be "Book Rec for Book Lovers Who Love Fantasy"?

I recently read the last book in a fantasy series of five, and it was actually my favorite of them (though of course I enjoyed them all or I would have stopped reading before this point). I'm going to write more about book five than the others, though if you decide to try them, I highly recommend starting at the beginning.

The series is called Golden Pride, by Caitlin Ricci (AZ link), and it's about a world like our own, but with shifters, specifically lions (hence the pride part)*. Book one starts when Toby, a mild-mannered librarian, stumbles into a bar that turns out to be the hangout of a pack of lions led by Knox, and things happen from there. 
*If you think this is a ridiculous concept, well, yes, sure, but it is FAR from the most ridiculous I have read. Just ask me about that one!

Each of the books covers one member of the pride, dual POV, and the last book is about Silas, a quiet booklover, and Devin. Dev also loves books, especially fantasy books, and the title-dropping the two of them do starts at once. Book recommending is practically a long language as they get to know each other, and even when they were talking about books I haven't read, I was all in.

In this scene, Toby talks books with Devin.

This author GETS IT. She is one of us. After that exchange, Silas and Devin are alone.

The banter, the book love, it was all so pleasant to read. Assuming you like MM with a fantasy element, this is a good one to pick up. Start here:

Would You Listen to This?

For some reason, this YouTube video had a link to share, but not an embed the way they usually do. But if I can convince you to click over, it's a couple of guys doing an absolutely amazing feat of memory, reciting the names of countries around the world, to music. 

My mind is blown; even though I do find things easier to remember if set to music (thank you, Schoolhouse Rock, for my knowing the preamble to the Constitution), I simply can't imagine doing that. Could you?

Comparing the Two

I took another look at the photo of Newman I posted the other day, belly up:

And thought, what does that remind me of?

Hi, Maggie! This was taken on her first full day here, after I brought her home. Same loveseat, same blanket, similar pose. Two beloved cats.

...Wait, What? I Have to BUY Soap?

I would have bet that I had blogged about this before, and yet if I did, I can't find it, so here goes. It's not a profound story or anything, but it is a story. Or a journey. Something like that.

Way back in 2016, I was washing my hands in a restaurant bathroom and thought, Hmm, this soap actually smells good. Unexpected, right? I looked at the dispenser, and it had a Safeguard logo on it. Safeguard is the bar soap my mother bought when I was a kid, so the smell of it apparently imprinted in me as a "this is what clean smells like" scent. IIRC (ten years later), I had been buying Safeguard liquid soap at some point, but they stopped making it.

So when I got home that day, I did some internet searching to see if it was available again. The answer was a qualified yes: it was on Amazon, but in quantities that were more suited for commercial use than your average home. That's silly, I'm not buying a year's supply of it, I told myself.

Except I kept thinking about it. Finally I told myself, "Why not? No, you don't need two gallons of hand soap. But can you afford the thirty-five bucks right now? Then why not, if it will make you happy?" Little pleasures, right? 

BTW, I just noticed that the container has an expiration date. Apparently I've been using expired soap, is that a thing? Because it has seemed to clean my hands as well as ever, these last nine+ years.

So here I am, in April of 2026, aka ten freaking years later, having just poured the last of it into my dispenser, and thinking, just go ahead and buy it again*. Do I need a ten-year supply of it? No. But it still makes me happy. And honestly, even at an increased cost of $47.20 (plus tax) as of today, with how long I now know it will last, that's quite a deal.
*It seems Safeguard now has a bunch of other, fancier hand soap options, in pretty bottles, but I'm going to stick with the classic. It smells like clean.

What ifs...

I wrote about this exchange in a book I read the day before I had surgery in March:

I've noticed something similar in a few other books recently, like here:

And here:

I think the universe is sending me a sign, don't you?

Kitty Belly!

 

Pavlov's Cat

In my lifetime, I have had cats of varying levels of intelligence, from the "oh sweetie, good thing you're cute" level up to the "oh, that's a little scary, how did you figure that out?" level. I would put Newman somewhere in the middle. 

One thing he has definitely put together is that if he hears the ice maker, that means I am in the kitchen, conveniently near where the food is kept. Which means that nine times out of ten, I get ice to put in my water bottle, turn around, and see something like this:

If you think you can see food in the bowl behind him, you're right, at least by my standards. By his, if you can see the bottom of the bowl, even if there's food all around the outside, it needs topping off.