knock, knock... Zappos, you home?

I have been wearing opened toed sandals all summer. Finally yesterday, I decided I was tired of seen my gross old lady toes. I dislike messing with my feet or having anybody mess with my feet so I wash them in the shower and otherwise do no maintenance and they are old and ugly. This morning I swapped out my sandals for Crocs only to discover that my swollen foot is not happy about no sandals and my other foot has grown bigger, too. Hmmm This could be an issue if/when the heat leaves.

But, turns out, it was only a first thing in the morning problem. I just tried on every shoe I own and they all fit fine. Even the Crocs, which this morning were tight, are ok now.

So my massive shoe shop has now turned into a search for one pair of closed toed bigger shoes that I can easily slip in and out of when I go to the gym in the morning. Totally doeable. I wish Merrill made fun colors.

Seattle is getting ready to ban plastic straws and plastic utensils. Several years ago styrofoam containers and free shopping bags bit the dust. I got a paper straw in my bloody mary the other night at the ballpark. It was weird but doable. I hate the styrofoam replacements. I was hoping they would improve but nope. Food sticks to them if you leave in there for any time at all. Oh well.

In between sewing stuff, I've been taking fabric scraps and sewing them together into larger squares. I'm not entirely sure what I am going to do with those squares but yesterday, on Instagram, I found out my random squares of leftovers are called Crumb Blocks! That tickles me. But what I really find funny is that there are tons and tons of YouTube tutorials on how to make these Crumb Blocks. ??? If you have fabric scraps, clearly you are a sewer. If you are a sewer, making a block of fabric scrips it a no brainer. Who the hell needs a tutorial? Plus they are long. I think I'm going to make some You Tube Tutorials. How to pour a glass of water from the tap. How to change a roll of toilet paper. How to fluff a couch pillow. On second thought...

The air is way better. My app said the air quality before swimming this morning was 50. Already (8am) it's 56. Way better than the 9 of a couple of days ago. And it's only supposed to get up to 70 degrees today. I believe... I hope... we've turned a corner here.

I should get the next installment of my mystery knit project sometime this morning. I'm caught up and ready.

I also plan to go out today. Maybe a stroll up the street. Maybe more. Who knows?

I'm considering dropping one of my swim days. Either Saturday or Sunday. They pool does not open on those days until 8 am. By the time I swim and shower an dress and get into the car it's nearly 9:30 which feels like I've wasted the day. I could have gotten up and gotten dressed and gone out to brunch. Maybe even take the bus over to another part of town for brunch and a stroll around. I could do that after my swim but it never feels like a fun thing to do then. So maybe I cut out Sundays. Or not. Really I just wish someone would open their pool earlier on weekends.

I think my hopes for a pool down the street have been dashed. Originally when they started building the new hotel/office complex two blocks from here they said it would include a gym with a lap pool. But, now, it looks like the pool and fitness area will be part of the Embassy/Hilton hotel and so mostly likely not open to the public at all. Poop on a stick.

And finally, continuing in random mode, my fingernails are growing long and strong again. For the past couple of years, they have been weak with splits and breaks coming easily and often. Fingernails are the canary for lots of body issues like kidney, liver, etc. I figure stuff was just breaking down and my nails were the first to go. Whatever.

But, in the past few months they stopped breaking and splitting and now they are nearly too long as in, I need to cut these suckers down before I hurt somebody... like me. Guess my body parts decided not to give up the ghost quite yet.

My tweets

• Thu, 16:42: I've got something blocking my online access... https://t.co/XVrFwoeKMc https://t.co/NTcEj3rNS2
• Fri, 08:32: Everybody - but especially women over 40 - need to watch @BaronessIFC . It's hilarious & OMG so many hidden truths. They nail it every time.

So, Susan... What are your most prized possessions?

I actually peeked at this question a day ago and so have been thinking about it. Plus with people evacuating their homes across the country this Fall, it's given me excellent fodder to a similar but different-ish variation.

Turns out, as much as I love my stuff. And I do love my stuff a whole lot, there's actually very little that falls into prized. When I think of prized possessions, I think of those things that, if they went away, could not be replaced.

• My blind teddy bear, James, who is, like me, 68 years old.


• My pencil drawing of a wild haired man that was drawn on the back of a temporary license plate by my prisoner friend, Carl (from college days)


• There is other special non-replaceable artwork that I have and do prize.

But, basically, that's it. Everything else is either digitized and saved elsewhere (photographs) or totally, fairly easily, replaceable.

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You have 30-60 minutes to leave your house maybe forever, what do you take? And I'm going to assume, it's in my Smart car that I'm leaving.

2 pairs of pants, 2 tops, coat, 1 pair of shoes, pills, inhaler, toothbrush, hair brush, purse & house cash (a stash I keep for emergencies). Catfood, litterbox, cat carrier, cat. My phone/charger, laptop/charger/a bunch of external batteries, my external hard drive that is not backed up to Google. My house papers (deed and stuff), and birth certificate.

Then if more time/room - my windows laptop/charger, one of the fleece blankets and that small pillow, a cardigan and some socks. My backup phone/charger and maybe my one good tablet/keyboard and/or my Fire tablet that has LTE with sim. And some snacks.

Today is lime green

I enjoy what they call adult coloring. I have for a long time. I used to have a piece of software that made a black outline of photographs and I used to use it to make pages to color before they came out with all the cool stuff they have now.

But, these days, being retired and all, I have discovered that I just don't have any time for it. haha. Really. There's always something that needs to be knit or sewn or a computer game that needs to be played. It's just too much to dig out the pens and stuff. Plus the clutter.

I do miss it, though so I have a new plan. I bought a spiral bound calendar (2018)/notepad/coloring book. It fits nicely here on the side table or my new desk. And it has a ton of pages with room for notes and stuff that needs to be jotted down - like stitch counts for instance.

At least to start, I'm limiting myself to a 12 pack of colored pens. And the plan is to take it one pen a day. Every morning, I'll swap out yesterday's color for today's. Yesterday's was blue, today's is green. I can skip around and color in any page or doodle I want and make notes where ever. No being tied to the calendar format. I think it's going to be fun.