Laura

https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/144788.html

1. What do you see when you are looking out of the window closest to you?

Rain, hedges, neighbor's house, our car, sidewalk, street, vans from some construction group or other (neighbor next to us, not the house I can see across the way, is remodeling something-or-other).

2. Who was the last person coming into your room?

My oldest, on break from online school, to hang with me and the cats for a bit.

3. What is the most predominant colour around you?

If I count the generic walls and blinds and such, white. Otherwise, brown - a fair amount of natural wood and similar colorway art in the office.

4. What is right behind you?

Scott's personal computer and desk and all. Wait, no, RIGHT behind me is the air conditioner which helps keep a small room with many computers from overheating them (or us) in the summer. It's off for the season but I haven't put it away yet.

5. What is on today's calendar sheet?

NOTHING. Today is entirely routine. (Which means it includes school for the boys, housework for me, errands to run, and joy of joys - gaming night tonight with the gaming group. But none of those are a calendar entry. They're just life's routine.)

1. Do you ever wonder if the way you see things visually aren't how other people see them?

Not really; more I know. I mean, sometimes I wonder if it's more different than I realize, but I know very well just how different the world can look with and without my glasses - and I had bad vision even as a child and didn't get glasses until five or so; I imagine that affects how I process things visually, somewhat.

2. What kind of sounds are the most annoying?

Ones I have to do something about (or actively not-do something about if it's something I normally might respond to). A song I like on infinite loop is fine; "Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom." will get old fast. White-noise "rain sounds" are great, a slow and steady drip from the shower is agony.

3. When walking through a store, do you shop with your hands by touching/feeling the texture of things?

Somehow I started by envisioning running my hands over everything, which just seems weird to me. But then I thought about it. I DO use my hands to judge the ripeness of some fruits and vegetables if they otherwise look good; and I do run fingers over fabric if I'm otherwise considering a piece of clothing. So in a few cases, yes, but otherwise no.

4. If you could only smell three scents for the rest of your life, what would they be?

Are they the only things I can ever smell *when they're present*, or the only things I can smell, which I may smell if they're not? Different answers, though not much different.

Vanilla, cinnamon, and a crisp clear mint if the former. If the latter, sub out the mint for the smell of clean air after a good rain, because sometimes one needs a relaxing non-scent.

5. What sorts of things do you savor when eating them?

Sweets, especially chocolates. Tea, sometimes (sometimes it's just a warm beverage!). Steak.

https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/144035.html

https://thefridayfive.dreamwidth.org/141995.html

1. What is one food (or meal) you used to hate but now love?

Brussel sprouts! Things I did not expect to learn to like...but prepared crisp in the oven, I quite enjoy them.

2. If you had to give up one of your favorite foods (or meals) for good, what would it be, and why?

Cheese. I'm already a good part of the way there thanks to significant lactose intolerance plus a tetchy gut, and much as I hate to give it up entirely, it would probably be good for me to do so, between that and the saturated fat content.

3. Which food seems like it should be healthy and isn't, and do you eat it? Why?

Most muffins. The amount of salt, sugar, and fat in some of them is such that I might as well eat a candy bar - although muffins are better for fiber, and fruits/veg if you pick the right one. I still eat them, but sparingly. If I make my own - which requires me to be less lazy - then I can do better for salt/fat, and sugar is less of a problem for me anyway. But sometimes I just have store-bought.

4. If you were an item of food, personified, what would you be and why?

A human being, same as I am now. One who hopes, despite being edible, that no one is put in the position of the Donner party ever again.

5. You've seen tomatoes and pies used for this purpose ... now think of a more inventive item of food one could throw at someone. What is it and why would throwing it at someone be hilarious?

If you're being good-spirited, showering someone with popcorn and leaving them with it all in their hair and clothes would be funny.

If you're upset but still want the funny end of upset, a raw egg would be messy and funny, but also really annoying to the target.

Ask me for my top five favorite [blank] — any subject (but bear in mind that if I'm not comfy with it or it doesn't apply, I may get creative), and I will do my best to answer.

It thinks heat is optional. (Everything else works; I did all the troubleshooting I'm really capable of. Running it ten minutes produces cold damp clothes, not warm damp clothes. Venting is fine. Barrel is spinning. Just no heat.) So, they'll be out Wednesday to look at it. It is, of course, just outside of warranty. Urgh. So we'll see if I need a new one or if it's cheaper to fix. (The folks coming to service it don't sell them, so if they say I'm better replacing it, I'm gonna believe them.)

Discovered broken mid-last-week, we thus had a lot of laundry. I was working with wash-and-drip-dry, but this weekend had to admit we needed to involve a laundromat.

I have a ballpark figure in my head of what laundromats cost, and it's reasonably current given that I wash our king-sized comforter at one when it needs it.

So I grabbed three rolls of quarters, and indeed, a week of laundry for a family of four (actually, a bit less because I let some of the bedding I'd normally wash weekly wait another week) ran $28 in the end. It would have been $26 if I hadn't forgotten to bring my soap, though.

And this is where I point out that there's a meme going around Facebook about an awesome program allowing kids living in poverty to bring laundry to school, and how that causes them to _spend more time in school_, in part because they have clean clothes to wear and aren't embarrassed. I mention it because every time it appears, it seems like I see judgy comments about how their parents should try to do better. Because if you're living in poverty you almost certainly do not have a washer/dryer set in your residence.

So...if you're living in poverty and having trouble making ends meet / covering rent and food / etc., you can afford an extra $20 or so every week, right? Wait a minute...no. And that's ignoring whether or not you have access to a functioning laundry that's nearby. If you don't, you also have to haul the darned stuff to wherever you can wash it. Which is fairly easy for suburban ol' me with my reliable car and money for gas, but not for people living in poverty.

So, unless they're hand-washing in their sink and drip-drying, exactly how do the people saying these things expect people living with these limitations to solve this dilemma, and why do they think not solving it indicates they don't take good enough care of their children? (And sink-washing is a quick answer to toss off, but is a lot of hard work - at the end of a long day, is it work the parent is up to? Does it mean they get less sleep than they need, or trade off helping the kids with homework? And is there enough space to drip-dry everything that was used and cleaned?)

I am, personally, so glad that program exists. If you haven't seen the articles before, one is: http://www.businessinsider.com/washing-machines-solve-schools-big-problem-2016-8

...and here's hoping I don't need a laundromat solution again next weekend, but I'm still glad I _can_ do it, if I need to.

Stress, stress, more stress, and a truly VILE cold (possibly now a truly vile sinus infection, and my doctor could not fit me in, and getting to urgent care is not really doable while on call AUGH).

However. I can let it define the week or I can argue. I've been missing a lot of gratitudes lately (over on Twitter/Facebook, and I haven't copied any here in forever I know), because of stress, and I think that is NOT helping me deal with the stress.

So. I am grateful for:

( The cut tag, which lets me not spam people's reading pages! )

Every so often I sing the praises of something, or grouch muchly about it.

Today is praise-singing. I discovered Postcardly I forget how. I got linked to it, but I don't remember if it was a friend, a post, Facebook, an ad...heck if I know! It sounded like a really neat concept: set up an account and email addresses for your destinations, email in a picture and a small amount of text, and they send a postcard to the address associated with the email you sent to. For a price, of course.

You get three free as a trial. I sent the same one - Drew on his bike - to my Aunt Sandy, Scott's Grandma Brown, and *us* so we could see it.

And I screwed it up. I used the preview and then I changed my text, knowing it would bounce it back if it was too long to fit.

It didn't bounce it back, but when I got the "what we will send" pdf, our signature line was missing. Erk! Turns out they'd just replaced the "what will fit" algorithm and it had failed to bounce it.

They pulled my request out of the queue (after confirming I wanted them to, not before!), and reset my free trial so I could try again and hadn't lost my three free postcards. They were quite friendly and helpful about it, and while it took a couple days to fully reset, a) this was entirely my fault for not previewing again first, and b) I did it on either Friday night or Saturday, so I think it's reasonable that they might not get to it immediately anyway.

I will preview properly what I send in the future...every little change. Because I *will* be sending in the future. The service, in the face of what was my screwup, was excellent - and I wasn't even a paying customer at that time! And the postcard was nice. Solid postcard-level paper weight, good image quality, text properly rendered.

I'm sold! On everything except sending things in without using the preview address....

Um. I may have let these go too long. On the other hand, seeing a two-month span, I'm struck by two things:

1. More days with more than one gratitude posted/sent. This is becoming a habit of thinking - yay!

2. Ian has progressed from an itty bitty baby who needed support to sit, to sitting unassisted, to pushing himself to sitting. From struggling to commando-crawl (and failing) to crawling, to (just this weekend) pulling himself to *standing*. From eating no table food to eating a wide variety of foods.

( May 21-31 )

( June )

( July 1-16 )

Because it's been a while.

( Cut because, well, it's been a while, some have seen them, and hello lots of little bursts of text! )

Today: take the cars down and get the car seats inspected. (Drew's had to be moved out of center position to side, and Ian's placed on the other side.) My car had already had the seats placed; Drew rode in Scott's car, where his seat was in its prior spot, with the intent that Scott would move the seats when we got there.

Clinic started at 9. We arrived about 9:10 or 9:15. As soon as I saw the number of cars, I knew we were going to be there even longer than I've expected. Scott was more surprised than I was; I haven't gone to a clinic before, only gone and had it done at Segal's (a lovely local store, now closed, that did a LOT of inspections/installations, by way of drawing people with kids into their store; we bought the Britax seats Drew uses there).

Scott shifted the seats in his car, then sighed and acknowledged that Ian's car seat base was going to take a noodle to do properly - and we hadn't one with us. Hopefully they'd have one, if not, at least Drew's seat could be inspected and confirmed. As it happened, they did have them - good, as to get Ian's seat *ideally* angled (as opposed to 'okay' angled but not ideal for a newborn) in my car *also* needed a noodle.

The inspector was impressed with the Britax installations, though. Not just correct - when you test side-to-side movement along the bottom back line, it's not supposed to be more than one inch - Scott, having put that seat in MOST firmly, had achieved something closer to 1/16 of an inch of movement. I was amused. It probably owes something to the fact that if I can feel it move much, I worry - Scott installed it to "soothe Laura" specs! :) Hehe.

It was 10:50 when we got out, all car seats properly installed and ready to go. (We still need to check on side airbags, though, in Scott's car, as far as Ian's seat in particular. [Edited to add: side curtain airbags in the back only, up at head height; manual indicates no concern.] Mine hasn't got them, so they are not a risk.)

From there, we took a VERY restless VERY hungry Drew to Olive Garden and had a lovely early lunch. I wish I could always get a waitress as good as the one we had this time (and yes, we tipped accordingly, she was EXCELLENT). I had soup and salad, because it's what I was in the mood for and their soup is tasty. They nicely gave me oil and vinegar (which I ignored) with my salad instead of the usual dressing, as I'm now avoiding almost all dairy. I did take a pill and have some of the garlic breadsticks, though. Small amounts of butter are worth it.

(Why am I avoiding almost all dairy? Because I've hit the part of pregnancy, finally, where the 'right' number of pills is almost impossible to guess for any significant amount of dairy. Alas.)

From there, Scott and Drew went for a short walk and then headed home (hoping Drew would fall asleep and nap, which did not in fact happen, though he's now playing quietly and resting a bit), and I went to the library (to pick up held books) and bank (just before they closed, but I got the paper I needed out of the box, yay!). I was very amused, given our differing errands, to literally pull into the driveway right behind him (close enough that I watched him turn in, never mind close enough that his car was still on when I did).

They were quick errands. And everything got done. Well, shopping's still on the list, but it was an "after-nap" part of the list anyway, so.