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1. I walked up to Whole Foods tonight and dropped off my Amazon return and got an email saying the money was credited back to my account while I was on the walk home.

2. I did two store visits in Orange County today and Carla came with me and went shopping (one of the stores is right next to a Book Off) while I worked, so we could just go straight to Disneyland on the way home. We haven't been doing midweek trips as much this year, but a friend of hers is in town for work and this was the best time to meet up. (But since the Food and Wine Festival just started, there's a ton of new menu items to try, so it works out in that regard as well.)

3. Tomorrow I am just doing a store visit at the store near home and then WFH in the afternoon for meetings, so no long drives, which will be nice (especially with gas prices as they are, though I do get reimbursed for the store visits).

4. The weather was about 15 degrees cooler today than yesterday at home and around 20 degrees cooler down in OC. Much nicer than yesterday!

5. Molly has been really into the old cardboard cat house lately for some reason.

We went down to DCA again today for dinner to meet up with a friend of Carla's who's in town for work but also spending all his downtime at Disneyland.

Since we'd just been to the park a couple days ago and also had had kind of a long day today before getting to the park, we didn't really do much other than have dinner and chat, and then walk around the park and chat, but it was a nice visit.

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1. We went to Best Buy this morning to look at mice in person and I ended up getting a different Logitec one, the MX Master 3S, which fits almost as well in my hand as the Microsoft Sculpt. I set up a return for the other one to Amazon. I do like some things about it, but it felt at the same time too small and too large, and while I didn't have wrist pain after I got used to it more, it just never felt comfortable. I do like that this new one, like the one I'm returning, is bluetooth rather than USB, especially since apparently it was the USB dongle that was causing my PC's sleep issues with the Sculpt (all these years I had no idea!).

2. It was so hot today. Not the hottest we've ever had, but record setting for early March, and it just felt awful. Like that baking desert feel whenever you step outside. I'm so glad we didn't have anything that required being outdoors during the day today, just errands in the car in the morning. I did take a short midday walk, trying to stick to the shadiest streets, but even then I couldn't stay out for long. Tomorrow is supposed to be about 15 degrees cooler, so fingers crossed.

3. Despite the heat, I made Japanese curry for dinner and it turned out delicious. I found a bag of frozen kabocha in the freezer the other day so I put some of that in as well, and that gave it a little something extra, even though I didn't feel like frying croquettes with it as I'd originally planned, or doing fried eggs over top like I sometimes do.

4. This pic was taken the other day. Not even Chloe wanted to be under the blankets today!

Recently Finished
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
Non-fiction account of an investigator who was the model for many early fictional detectives, and the case which brought him to the public's notice. This was really interesting and well-told. I listened to it as an audiobook and liked the narrator as well.

The Monsters of Chavez Ravine
Set in LA in the early 50s when the city is trying to force people out of the Chavez Ravine area so they can raze the houses and gentrify the area. The MC's dad is among the few holdouts, and when she goes to check on him, she finds that there are all sorts of monsters terrorizing the residents, which turns out to be part of a supernatural plot by one of the guys leading the push to clear out the area. It was an interesting idea, but the execution and writing was just okay.

Murder by Moonrise
Third book in the Dr Julia Lewis murder mystery series. They changed the narrator for the audiobook, which I would normally not be pleased with, since I like consistency, but the new narrator is Marian Hussey, who is the narrator for another series I like, and I like her narration a lot. I can't remember a thing about the previous narrator, so it's overall a positive change.

Fuck Off Squad
Short graphic novel about a group of three college-aged friends and their romantic relationships. It's cute. Reminds me a lot of Scott Pilgrim in tone and style.

Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir
The author is a trans woman, but she's written this semi-memoir using a cis female protagonist in her place. I thought it was an interesting way of doing things, and enjoyed it a lot.

Sou Iu Ie no Ko no Hanashi vol. 2

1. We had a nice morning at DCA. It's the first weekend of the Food and Wine Festival, so there's all sorts of exciting new menu items and everything we had today was delicious.

2. We have Verizon for our phones and until recently had Frontier for internet, but it seems Frontier has been bought up by Verizon, which is funny because we used to have Verizon until they sold our area off to Frontier or something idk. Anyway, I've been getting messages from Verizon saying that if I combine my internet and phone accounts I can save money and I just hadn't gotten around to it, but today they sent a flier in the mail, too, so I finally went and did that and now I will save $15 a month.

3. Multiple supermarkets near us still have McConnel's peppermint ice cream in stock, even though it's a seasonal flavor, so we keep buying it. I'm sure it won't last that much longer, but we're enjoying it while it's still here. It's so good!

4. Got some super cute pics of Gemma last night.

Yesterday was the first day of the Food and Wine Festival at DCA and there are some really tasty-looking items on the menu this year.

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1. It is once again the weekend and I am once again very glad for it. It's felt like a long week.

2. We're getting pizza for dinner tonight. Nothing fancy, just Dominos, but I do like Dominos (especially their pan pizza crust - so cheesy).

3. I'm maybe getting used to the new mouse? At least I don't seem to be getting any wrist pain today. Still unsure if I want to keep it, but I'm going to go to Best Buy this weekend and actually try out some mice in person and see if I can find anything that is a better fit. I actually need to get a new work mouse, too, so if I find something I like better than the Lift, I might just order that for work and swap them so I have the better one at home idk. (Depends on if I can get a full refund from Amazon or if they're only going to give me partial since it's used and not defective.)

4. Jasper looks like he's seen some shit.

1. Well, I was expecting to just WFH and go to the nearby store for a bit, but I got a message in the morning that the person I wanted to talk to at the store had called out sick, so I ended up going to Gardena instead, which worked out as I did have a meeting in the afternoon and some stuff to do that was easier to do from the office than from home.

2. Yet another Santa Ana is blowing through and the weather is suuuuuper dry. I do prefer dry to humid, but I wish we would get more of something in between. The high temps for this weekend's accompanying hot spell are not supposed to be as high as last weekend's, though, so that's good.

3. Carla got the most amazing picture of Ollie yesterday. Look at that little mouth!!

1. Did another store visit today. I hadn't been to this store for quite some time (I think not since the summer) so it was nice to have an opportunity to check it out again, and just in general to get out of the office and do something different. Tomorrow I plan to do a store visit, too, but just the store down the street from me, so at least there won't be a long drive involved.

2. Carla made miso marinated salmon for dinner tonight, which we haven't had in ages. I forgot how good it is!

3. Carla got some Brooks shoes a few months ago and has really been enjoying them and then it turns out that they occasionally release Disney collabs, and their most recent ones include Rapunzel themed ones. Rapunzel is one of her favorite Disney characters and pink and purple are some of her favorite colors. Plus they actually have them in larger sizes, which is so rare for cute shoes like these. They were released to buy in person at the runDisney event in Disney World this past weekend and just finally showed up on the website today and she was able to order some. And in this instance having larger feet actually worked in her favor, since a lot of the smaller sizes were sold out already.

4. The other day after I got the new shelf set up in the garage, Carla put a couple Star Wars legos on it, and then decided she wanted it to be a Star Wars themed shelf (I was already thinking we should organize some of the lego displays since right now they're just sort of wherever we had space at the time they were built, rather than displayed thematically, so that works out perfectly). It's still in progress, but I think it looks pretty nice. (And I really do love that shelf.)

5. Tuxie's been enjoying the long grass we have after all the rain last month.

1. My old Microsoft Sculpt mouse was showing a lot of wear so I decided to check out other mice to see if there's some currently in production ergonomic mouse I could switch to instead, since the Sculpt has not been made for many years and I just have to buy whatever ones second hand sellers are still selling, and the price keeps going up and up. I decided to try the Logitech Lift, but I'm not sure it's right for me. The fit in my hand is so weird and just from using it a little tonight, I'm getting pain in my wrist, elbow, and shoulder. Not sure if getting used to it will fix that, but I'll try it at least one more day and see. The good news is that by switching mice I found what was preventing my PC from properly going into sleep mode! Apparently it was the Sculpt mouse! As soon as I switch the new mouse, it went to sleep after being idle for a few minutes. Before, it would act like it was going to sleep, but pop the screen back on immediately. Carla found some threads about this issue on reddit, so if I do go back to the Sculpt, hopefully I can fix the sleep issue.

If anyone has recs for ergo mice similar to the Sculpt in shape, let me know! It seems most ergo mice are more like the Lift in shape.

2. Molly looks so majestic!

1. Even though the only caffeine I had yesterday was in the morning, I had so much trouble sleeping, so I'm feeling pretty tired tonight. I am hoping that I will be able to get to sleep easily because of that. Fingers crossed!

2. I'm going to be making some store visits over the next few weeks to talk to the store managers and accounting staff about the upcoming new system and to see what current accounting practices are at each store to see what they need to prepare for, since the new system will have some big changes for invoice processing. I went to two stores today and am also kind of feeling worn out from so much talking, not just the lack of sleep, but it was nice to do something other than WFH or in the office.

3. The weather is much nicer today than it has been the past few days.

4. Chloe also approves of the new lounger but it's not as good as the ratty cardboard box next to it.

1. This morning we walked to a new (in our area; I guess they have a couple other locations in LA) cafe that is queer owned and run. They had a really good breakfast burrito, mid donut, and decent matcha latte. It's a little far for a casual walk for Carla, so I'm not sure how often we'd go, but I'm glad to try it out. We also stopped at the Italian deli on the way home and got sandwiches for lunch.

2. Even though our Japan trip will be longer than last time, I want to pack lighter, at least in some regards. I've also been thinking about getting a crossbody bag to use on a daily basis while there instead of my little backpack I use at Disneyland, because the backpack hurts my back between my shoulderblades, and I don't have that issue with a crossbody bag. So first I was thinking about just getting a smallish bag to replace the little backpack, and then was thinking about getting a slightly bigger bag to use on the plane so it could fit my ipad (the largest item I'd want on the plane) because the laptop bag I used last time was such overkill (just used it because it was something we already had at home). But after looking at bags, I found one that I think would be good to use on a daily basis and would be big enough for the flight. It arrived today and I tried it out and my ipad fits, and everything I'd want to have accessible on the plane fits without being overloaded, and it seems comfortable for daily use! I've also decided to use the smaller suitcase backpack that Carla recently got for my main bag, and she'll use one of the bigger bags we both used last time.

3. Finished up a puzzle today. This is the second side of the double sided Disney cats/dogs puzzle that I did a couple months ago.

4. After skipping a few months of flea prevention medication for the cats during the winter, we decided to start them on it again this month and I was able to get all five cats in one day. Usually Gemma is so suspicious that if I don't get her first, it might take a few days before she lowers her guard enough that I can get her.

shut up and let me see your jazz hands

kiss me you animal

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