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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April 19, 2024
1. A friend gifted us a large jar of homemade salsa and it’s really good. Sometimes I get tired of eggs for breakfast but never when we have the good salsa. I don’t know what it is but it’s not the same with storebought salsa (which, to be clear, I am generally totally fine with. There’s something about the fresh salsa searing my throat that’s just right).
2. A friend gave me solid advice that my therapist later agreed with. Gold star for friend!
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April 16, 2024
Life with JB
Making “friends” for JB (adult friends with the parents because I need to vet them before I let my kid go play with their kid) is exhausting. The good ones keep moving away!
It’s been three families now and I’m starting to feel a little cursed. I can only imagine how JB’s feeling.
What’s good is the families do want to keep in touch at least for the kids’ sake. When they can, they let us know when they’re back in town to visit friends and family, so the kids get to see each other for a bit and they love it so much and it’s like they never separated. But boy do I feel for JB’s feeling of separation and frustration with the kids who remain. Most of them are drama seeking and annoying and fight with JB constantly. That was never an issue with the 3 kids they really liked, who then moved away.
JB had their eye exam this year and their eyesight is officially worse than mine. I know it’s irrational but this makes me feel like a total failure of a parent. You know, for failing to pass on my good eyesight genes. And then not for getting them outside long enough to hold off their worsening eyesight.
Life with Smol Acrobat
Throw the confetti and break out the cake, this kid is suddenly interested in using the toilet!!
All credit to PiC for consistently trying and encouraging, for some reason I have been utterly awful at encouraging them to use the toilet. I didn’t want it to become a stubbornness power struggle so I just stopped. They have gone five days in a row with no wet overnight diaper! They even used the toilet at school! They won’t be the only kindergarten kid in diapers!! Probably!
But having potty training and all the requisite accidents happening at the same time as having to replace the dead washer is not great timing. Also (TMI) not great, as soon as they switched to underwear, they also (coincidentally?) stopped pooping regularly. They’re going 4 days at a stretch. We’re trying to figure that out.
Pupdate
Not good. She’s been very very slowly responding to the combination of meds for her autoimmune problem. We’ve had to add incontinence meds, which work thankfully, so she’s on 3 medications twice a day. A big jump up from last year’s zero medications.
Then we had to do the emergency vet run because she had tons of blood in her urine along with a day of diarrhea and it could have been related to the autoimmune problem OR just a UTI. Thankfully it was just a terrible UTI that can be treated with antibiotics. Then we had a morning of vomiting so I got to worry about whether her mass had grown and caused an obstruction or if it’s some OTHER problem entirely. Luckily the vet tech reminded me that the antibiotics for the UTI are strong enough to upset a stomach that’s already on 3 other medications. We’re still recovering from that week of antibiotics. She’s losing weight, has very little appetite, has been panting with discomfort so I had to add Famotidine to her pharmaceutical regimen. It helped but this is all very rough. And too soon. She’s only 12. She needs at least 5 more years with us, but not if she’s miserable the whole time.
Her balance for this year so far: $5500.
Also, you know what’s a dangerous game to play? Leaving the dog toothpaste next to the human toothpaste. That chicken flavor is going to be a terrible surprise for someone someday. If there’s any justice, it’ll be me. Because I’m the one who keeps forgetting to move it.
Precious Moments
SA: I’m not four! I’m free! When I’m gonna turn five and den four, den I’m gonna be five and four after way-ter (later).
It’s tortured, but the logic still works?
*****
Smol Acrobat: If I eat my banana, den when I get to my home, I will get de spicy chips and I will eat dem ALL. When I get my spicy chips, you can have some ok? You an me will eat da spicy chips ALL. Wee will not have any wif you n me betuz we will eat dem ALL. OTAY mommy?
*****
Me: GRRRR. I’m so annoyed at myself. (For not thinking about ordering dinner for pick up until we were already in the car driving.)
JB: why? You already do so much.
Me: 👀
*****
Smol Acrobat working through the rules of “only Momma can open that box on the shelf”: Only you can get de box? Not me? I’m not too big anymore? But I’m growing up.
*****
Smol Acrobat to PiC, trying to figure out breakfast: I used my words AND my talking words!
*****
Opposite day
Me after nearly getting my butt stuck on a kid’s stepstool: NOPE I don’t fit on that stool.
Smol Acrobat: you’re too big?
Me: yep, I’m too big to sit there.
Smol Acrobat: it’s ok. You’re still growing up still.
April 15, 2024
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 5, Day 12: I was in a terrible mood yesterday and woke up on the precipice of that terrible mood again today. That, my utter lack of patience for anyone’s anything, and my pain and fatigue during school dropoff when I’ve normally walked twice that distance by the time we’re done – it’s screamingly clear I’m completely at the end of my emotional and physical ropes.
Between last week (travel, Sera’s health scare, hours of catching up, Smol Acrobat suddenly deciding that they’re ready to use the toilet so we have sixteen false alarms a day, Smol Acrobat’s stomachaches that spiraled out of control last week) and the weekend (scrubbing Sera’s vomit out of the carpet, the rug, and off the floor x 4, the washing machine dying, my backup computer turned main work computer trying to die)… I need a break. But I have a full week ahead of me so there’s no room for recovery in sight.
I put myself to work on meditative tasks: washing dishes and cooking turkey for Sera in an attempt to settle my ruff.
*****
I simply don’t understand why people call it “six months of the Gaza war”. It’s a genocide, not a war. The Palestinians are not waging war. A small part of their population is committing crimes and the entire population is being held responsible for it. To quote a friend, “one side in this has the power to exterminate the other and they are using it.” Of course we all know the chaos and horror that suicide bombers can wreak and October 7 was horror upon horror. And then it was followed up by a relentless six month extermination campaign. How is that going to bring any hostages home? They’re murdering indiscriminately, children, women, men, aid workers, it doesn’t matter anymore. Israel is just on an all out destruction rampage. They even killed some of the hostages themselves: 3 hostages killed in Gaza by Israeli troops were shirtless and waving a white flag, official says.
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April 12, 2024
Howww did it get to be Friday already??
Not that I’m not grateful, I’m glad whenever any week is over, but it has certainly been A WEEK.
I’ve been hunting for a backup fancy dress for an upcoming event and friends on Discord have been so helpful!
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April 8, 2024
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 5, Day 5: Taking a moment to reflect on the fact that I really didn’t expect to still be writing my weekly posts into Year 5 of COVID and, since we’re going to apparently be living with it forever, is it time to stop tracking the days? It’s mostly a habit now, like masking, but I don’t intend to stop masking any time soon.
We’ve taken the unusual decision to take the kid on an impromptu quick trip into the wilderness (Yosemite). I have been so busy with work and Sera that I have spent exactly ten minutes discussing or thinking about it, PiC did all the planning and booking. It wouldn’t have happened without him but also without me being an active part of the planning meant lots of things were missed. Not all my fault, we always tend to forget one thing unless my list is really extensive and I’ve been working on it for months.
We forgot to pack laundry mesh bags (small deal), warm hats (eh oops), PiC’s driver’s license (big oops), boots for Sera (which she might not have even been willing to wear). We don’t even own boots for the adults. The kids had rain boots that worked for them but my feet went up a half a size each since Smol Acrobat so my warm fuzzy boots don’t fit anymore. Wonder if it’s worth getting a replacement pair sometime.
Year 5, Day 6: Oh my aching everything. What a time for a flare-up. I had lava bones all night and well into the morning. Not great. Not great at all.
While granting that none of this trip was really made for me, I’ve made the grumpy snap judgment that I am not at a stage in my life where I appreciate nature enough to trade it for inhaling this much dust, being this cold, being this cut off from Internet connectivity and functioning GPS (I cannot stress functioning GPS enough) and being an hour of twisty windy long and slow drive away from anything. The majesty of the park struck me but fades into the background of my physical discomfort and preoccupation.
We always knew my body is no longer fit for camping but assumed I’d be fine near nature in a nice enough accommodation.
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April 5, 2024
1. We’re all still functioning. Some better than others, but!
Challenges this week: everything.
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April 2, 2024
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 $464.00 in dividends in from the stocks portfolio.
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