…and some less good news.
The weekend was busy but great.
First of all we took the dog to the vet for another blood test and the result was very good. With medication, we’ve regulated his liver, which means he doesn’t have to have another blood test now for three months. He has to have the test due to the drugs he’s on for his legs. Well, not those drugs, but the drugs that protect his stomach from those drugs. Yay!
I didn’t have to write a meal plan, because we now have a 4-week plan, which means not only is it quicker, but the poet can see at a glance too what we’ll be eating for the week. He was very excited about Saturday’s tea because it was hot dogs – one of his favourites. I still had to write a shopping list, though. So we took the dog home, I wrote the list, and off we went shopping.
We didn’t have a lot of time because it was Monkey Dust’s last gig of the year. However, the poet squeezed in a quick ice-cream-making session before our quick tea.
I took him to the drummer’s house, which is under 10 minutes from ours, so he could get in the van. But there were two WAGs with the van, and that meant the poet and the drummer had to go in the back. He gets a bit car sick, though. So he got back in the car so I could take him to the gig, and the drummer jumped in too.
Traffic was bad in town, but we got there in good time and I came home again to sit with the dog for a bit longer. Then I went and joined them at about 9pm. When I got there, I asked the drummer and the bass player to sign my lasting power of attorney again so I could send it off again after making a mistake on the original. (Me, not them.)
I took the obligatory Christmas end-of-year picture and shared it everywhere, and we came home. That means no Monkey Dust admin for me until the new year. Double Yay! One job less on a Monday.
Two jobs less, really, because those lovely people who took over the gig list have stopped sharing the reminder on a Monday and are now sharing the coming week’s gigs on a Thursday. Triple Yay! When we got back, the fence and gate between the house and garage were down. Boo! The poet made it safe but we had to supervise the dog when he went out.
Sunday we got up late because, well, gig the night before. We went out for a drive to see where we could get our Christmas tree from (same place as last year, we hoped) and to have a look at one of our favourite furniture stores. We’re ready for some new furniture in the living room so we went to have a look, but fave store isn’t doing furniture any more. Double Boo!
So we drove over to previously fave furniture store, and they’re still selling furniture (Quadruple Yay!), but they were closed on Sunday. (Triple Boo! But we don’t actually blame them.) When we got home, the poet made a fruit cake and I made a plum crumble. Tea came out of the freezer (lamb chops) so we can make room for the Christmas meat hamper we’ve ordered.
On Monday, the first thing I did was ask in our local FB forum for recommendations for a fencer. Of course, Zorro was in there, but we had three recommendations. One didn’t have any contact details. One had two phone numbers. And one had a dedicated FB page.
The fencer with the FB page was too busy to even come out before next week. The middle one came out within an hour to measure up. He’s also doing us a quote for pruning four conifers at the front of the house. If he does it, if he’s reasonable, and if he’s any good, we might ask him to do a different section of the garden at a time. It’s a lot for us to do on our own.
The poet had an unexpected day off, but we realised that he had Monday off and NOT all of next week as I originally thought. (Quadruple Boo!) This does, however, mean I won’t be having half of December off either after all, and that, of course, means I have more time to do my writing. (Quintuple Yay!)
So I decided to concentrate all of yesterday on editing… Oh, how we larfed!
I updated my ClickUp first, with the new holiday dates, and added all of my jobs between then and now. But just as I was about to start on the editing work, the poet asked if we could go and get the Christmas tree.
While we were out, we also had a quick look in the previously fave furniture shop, but they didn’t have anything suitable. The trees were rubbish. We tried another place, and they were still rubbish. But we did buy a nice pork pie, some nice ham, and some nice French bread.
We got back, had a continental lunch, and I went back to work. But when I went to start my Pomodoro on my watch, there it was gone! (The app, not the watch.) The app had completely disappeared. I spent far too many hours first trying to see if I could just reinstall it but eventually realised that the app had been removed. Whipped out from under me. Without warning.
And there, my friends, is just one reason I dislike paying willy-nilly for technology. They can whip it out from under you when you least expect it and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it.
Well, I did go and vent my fury on their review page, but my review has since disappeared. I also fired off an email to their support team. And then, of course, I had to spend a further far too many hours looking for a replacement. And there aren’t any. Other than the odd one you pay stupid amounts per month for.
This was such a good time/project management system with Pomodoro timer included that I really was considering paying for the premium version and doing away with ClickUp. I did eventually find out that Toggl Track, one of my very first time management tools, has a wearable version, but you’re restricted on how many times a day you can use it…
Unless you pay for the premium version.
Now, I’ve already had one Toggl product whipped out from under me, and while I’m hoping it’s been replaced with something new (I’ll check today), it doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. ToggleWear isn’t actually part of Toggl but it is a partner. Even so…
The editing didn’t get done yesterday. It *must* be done today. Writing didn’t get done either.
Wow, that day zigzagged all over the place!
My favorite timer is an old-school kitchen timer. I used to collect them, but most of them have died out over the years, so I’m on the hunt again.
There was one small one in the shape of a ladybug small enough to put in a purse or pocket.
Technology always fails me.
Technology is wearing me out this week. I had to just step away from it all in the end.
Yeah, my days have been so up and down just lately!