Errand day

Today, I think I'm going to head out in the car and do a bunch of little things that have been on my list for a while. Nothing on the list is a must do. I do need scotch before Christmas Eve. But the rest is a major 'when.ev.er'. Today, however, seems as good as day as any to check some off the list.

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I'm conducting a trial. I'm going a week without using one of my inhalers. I suspect that it is causing me to cough a lot - kind of not what an inhaler should do. So far, I'm proving my point. 3 days in and a drastic reduction in coughing. hmmmmm Next week I'm going to try using it for several days and see if the cough comes back. I have an appointment with the cute doctor on Thursday so I want to be armed with info by then.

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My little IBM pension should kick in next Monday. It's supposed to just drop automagically into my checking account. Then on January 1, I start drawing from my investments once a month and I'll be pretty officially financially independent. I'm not fond of the term 'retired'. Plus, I might want to go back to work at some point. If the right job fell into my lap, I'd probably take it. But financially independent sounds pretentious. Jobless is wrong. Unemployed sounds a little misleading.

I need an adjective.

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Betty thinks she needs a mid-morning snack so I think I'll feed her again and then hit the road.

today's basket

done done and done

I ran out of steam before I ran out of errands but no biggie. I got done what I really wanted to get done. I got the scotch and burbon.

Washington state recently changed from state liquor stores (which, by the way, were lovely stores - way lovelier than their counterparts on the east coast) to private sales - so grocery stores and Costco can sell the stuff. This means you can get a giant bottle of the a small selection for about as much as you could before but you can pick up toilet paper at the same time. And it means that finding unpopular stuff is a bitch. Finally, we got a booze superstore from California who opened up shop and they don't have as good a variety as most of the old state stores but they do have more than Costco or Safeway.

I like Famous Grouse scotch and, if I'm having bourbon or my brother and sister-in-law are here, I need Rebel Yell Bourbon. I am not a booze hound but when I'm pouring at my house, I want what I want. And... now I have it. Probably a lifetime supply since I rarely drink it at all.

And I got a new - very cheap but exactly what I wanted - suitcase at BB&B. It's a 20"er which are hard to find with rollers unless you want a sparkly princess or superhero on the front. This one will work fine for all my travels.

And I stopped at Petco. I wanted a beta fish. And I wanted to see if they stocked the scented version of my kitty litter (they do). I decided against the fish, but I did look at the kitties they had for adoption. They all looked so sweet and cuddly. And I knew Betty would NOT be happy so I moved on. As I type this she is draped across my lap as if to say, I am all the kitty you need. And she's right.

Then home. Put stuff away, cleaned up the kitchen and now I think I'll knit some bear.

Back tracking

My main laptop is the one I upgraded to Windows 8. I like it and I see that if/when I have a touch screen and/or when I buy a new computer, it will be ok. But, the upgrade really injured my wifi. I know it sounds impossible but it happened and I could spend the next weeks and months trying to figure out how to fix it, I gave up and I'm in the process now of resetting the machine back to factory default - Windows 7.

It was very frustrating to run speedtests on my 3 year old chrome book and my phone - all on the same wifi and sitting right next to the ASUS and have the ASUS chugging along at less than half the speed. I could plug it into the network and get good speed but I don't want a cable strung across the floor - or any cable at all.

So it's a redo. So far it's been at it about 35 minutes and it looks like it's getting close. Then I'll be downloading a boatload of updates and resetting up everything. At least most of my stuff now is on Google which saves all my stuff and settings making setup easy.

Wonder if I can sell my Windows 8 key? hmmmm