So we don't have HBO, and we wanted to watch 'The Gilded Age',

 and Lexington Public Library only has Season Three, inexplicably. Two copies.

In case you didn't know, anyone in a contiguous county (including Fayette) can get a library card at the Jessamine County Public Library and have full borrowing rights if they're an adult. Unlike the Lexington Public Library, they still have physical CDs, older books in series, Hoopla, and Freegal music, which I miss. It fills in some of the gaps. They're at 600 South Main Street in Nicholasville, so not far away, and they also have a studio and a Library of Things, where you can check out practical things like birding backpacks and telescopes. All you need is an ID with your address on it. Their website with full details is: https://jesspublib.org/

The library, as you exit

I also found the first book in the Amelia Peabody mystery series, which I dearly love. So, unlike LPL, they keep older books in series. We've had to request books from interlibrary loan because LPL no longer has the earlier books for the series we want to get into.

Also, JCPL has access to Freegal Music, which LPL used to have. You can download a limited number of songs a week to keep.  For as long as you want. Period. I managed to get several albums that way when I used it before. So that is nice.

                                                  I'm also really excited because they have Hoopla, which allows you to check out five items per month--books, audiobooks, movies, or TV series. I plan on checking out Life is Beautiful, a 1997 movie that is very highly acclaimed that will apparently make me cry, and the dramatised audio version of Crocodile on the Sandbank once I am finished re-reading the book.

Also, some time ago, LPS got rid of all their CDs, and they had some Shinedown ones I got to listen to. I know, I can stream them. It's not quite the same. 😊 So between the two libraries, a lot of service gaps get filled.

The library card is kind of spiffy

'The Gilded Age' Season 1
 (written by the same person who
 wrote for 'Downton Abbey'

My favourite mystery series, first book

#15

Take Control of Your IBS: The Step-by-Step Guide That Acutally Works by Kirsten Jackson. Green Tree, 2024. 9781399410922.

Which means...

Tired

I spent two hours in the chair after PT put me there, which got a little uncomfortable. Part was fine. I ate both lunch and dinner there. The aide was overworked though, and it took the better part of an hour to get me to the bathroom and into the bed. I was, for the most part, understanding. I wasn't in dire need of the bathroom like earlier. But, they must be short staffed.

I did manage to get her to get my bag which allowed me to use my phone charging bank and my headband headphones, so now I can listen to some sort of music (such as Cian Ducrot), or the sixth chapter of Pox Romana by Colin Elliott. Currently it is the former.

I will say it takes a lot to move me. Take the ice off my right leg. Disconnect the two pads for the deep vein thrombosis therapy machine from my legs. Disconnect the oxygen reader. Make sure I transfer the nerve block pouch to the walker. Move the IV around the bed. Stand me to and turn me. Scooch up the bed. Sit me down. Get me in and positioned. Reattach everything. Put a sheet and blanket over me and tuck me in. My CPAP is on the table next to me, set up already. She gave my my backpack, which is also on the bed, on one side.


A few items are on the sliding table, such as the spirometer. After she leaves, a nurse comes in to give me my medicine including insulin, and I don't have enough water and the pitcher is empty. She goes to get some and I move the sliding table closer only to knock some out of my cup. It's shift change, and so she comes back with her replacement along with the replacement for the other aide and the introduce themselves and help me with the spill. So everything is good now. It's quiet (they almost all automatically close the door.) It's not quite dark. But everything's where it's supposed to be, I feel good, my DVT machine is squeezing my calves, the ice is just cool now and feels nice, and there's almost no real pain, maybe 2 at the absolute worst. Earlier today it was an 8. I'm interested in what the post-block pain will be, but still. This surgery has already made a huge difference.

I will say, Baptist has wonderful meals.

Listening to:

Pox Romana by Colin Elliott.

In the middle of the second century AD, Rome was at its prosperous and powerful apex. The emperor Marcus Aurelius reigned over a vast territory that stretched from Britain to Egypt. The Roman-made peace, or Pax Romana, seemed to be permanent. Then, apparently out of nowhere, a sudden sickness struck the legions and laid waste to cities, including Rome itself. This fast-spreading disease, known now as the Antonine plague, may have been history’s first pandemic. Soon after its arrival, the Empire began its downward trajectory toward decline and fall. In Pox Romana, historian Colin Elliott offers a comprehensive, wide-ranging account of this pivotal moment in Roman history.

Did a single disease—its origins and diagnosis still a mystery—bring Rome to its knees? Carefully examining all the available evidence, Elliott shows that Rome’s problems were more insidious. Years before the pandemic, the thin veneer of Roman peace and prosperity had begun to crack: the economy was sluggish, the military found itself bogged down in the Balkans and the Middle East, food insecurity led to riots and mass migration, and persecution of Christians intensified. The pandemic exposed the crumbling foundations of a doomed Empire. Arguing that the disease was both cause and effect of Rome’s fall, Elliott describes the plague’s “preexisting conditions”—Rome’s multiple economic, social, and environmental susceptibilities; recounts the history of the outbreak itself through the experiences of physician, victim, and political operator; and explores post-pandemic crises. The pandemic’s most transformative power, Elliott suggests, may have been its lingering presence as a threat both real and perceived.

Two more books

I finished book #6 for the year the other day, which I re-read in honour of the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs, Sadako and the Thousand Cranes by Eleanor Coerr, in one session, Today I decided to look through my Audible collection (I am not currently a member, having disentangled myself from Amazon for the most part for now at least, but I have 80 titles in my library, most of which haven't been listened to yet, so I decided that might be a good use of downtime, and today is the first day I actually had a couple of hours where I wasn't otherwise occupied.

I finished one I'd started called Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions From Tiny Mortals About Death, where mortician Caitlin Doughty answers questions submitted to her by children about death and what happens afterwards. She has a popular YouTube channel, which is very entertaining and informative. I'm happy she has narrated her own book. It's quite delightful, and I learned a lot. So it's #7 for the year. I did revise my goal from 36 to 15. I just don't think I have 36 in me. We'll see. Maybe I'll exceed 15, though, especially since I'll be counting audiobooks. Despite having trouble with audio processing, I sometimes have an easier time getting into an audiobook than a written book these days. I'm sorry to say, it's sad for a librarian to be challenged in reading books. I don't know why. I blame my ADHD.

Fourteen

14. Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna by Edith Sheffer

Yay!

So, I have had a long dearth of reading for several years now. I've skimmed books, even maybe finished a few, but nothing impressive. I find my attention has been very short--probably a consequence of my ADHD and scrolling through the internet. So this year, I've decided I want to get into it again, as I have been a librarian who no longer reads. On Goodreads, I've joined the 2024 Reading Challenge in an attempt to read more. I set a reasonable goal, of 36 books, to try for.

I am happy to report I'm ahead of schedule, having read seven books so far this year. They're all non-fiction (I'm going to shoot for both fiction and non-fiction, print/e-books, and audiobooks. We'll see how it goes.)

Here's what I have read so far:

1. Shoulder Treatment: Guide To Recover From Shoulder Surgery: Typical Shoulder Surgery Recovery Timeline by Jaime Knecht
2. An Adult with an Autism Diagnosis: A Guide for the Newly Diagnosed by Gillan Drew
3. Very Late Diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome by Philip Wylie
4. The Shoulder Patients' Handbook: The Rotator Cuff Tear Guide by Paul B. Roache
5. How to Recover from Shoulder Surgery: Safe, Effective Recovery: A Physiotherapist Shares 40 Years Experience Rehabilitating Shoulders by Bruce Paulik
6. The Ultimate Guide for Shoulder Surgery Recovery: Your Complete Guide to Recovery, Tips, Strategies, Diet and Essential Must-haves to Speed Up Shoulder Surgery Recovery Time by Morgan Gray
7. Shoulder Surgery Recovery: Over 100 Tips and Strategies to Make it Much Easier by Anne Talmage Cooksey

Currently reading:

1. Looking After Your Autistic Self  by Niamh Garvey
2. Autism and Asperger Syndrome in Adults by Luke Beardon
3. Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes
4. Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna (audiobook) by Edith Sheffer
5. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

So yesterday was actually pretty productive

and I'm on track for today as well. Yesterday I:

1. Went to two pharmacies and got medication for my roommate and myself.
2. Got some groceries while I was at the second to try to combine runs.
3. 'Read' for two chapters (but it was an audiobook, so I listened for about an hour, really), The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, about the 1918 flu pandemic.
4. Listened to music and perused Facebook, which probably shouldn't count as productivity, but I was up and that's what matters.
5. Organized about 60 Kindle books into categories so it isn't a terrible mess.
6. Composed a complete yet eloquent rant on Facebook concerning those who were outside of our Capitol building while the governor was announcing deaths in a huddled mass shouting for him to reopen the state and end the COVID-19 restrictions.
7. Re-watched and sang to 'Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog', which made me feel quite a bit better after that. :)

Today I woke up at 7 am because I'd set my alarm to early as I had not done my normal task of washing the percolator and its basket so my roommate could make coffee this morning. I wanted to make sure I was up before him, as when he gets up to make coffee he is usually so out of it and if the pot and basket are clean, he is too out of it to do himself. It's one of those little things I do for him each night, I just forgot to yesterday.  For those who don't understand, you try using a percolator rather than a Keurig and see how you do when you're half-awake.

So after I got that taken care of (three hours before he woke up!) I:

1. Called T-mobile to finally get my hotspot fixed, as  I knew I'd need it where I am now, away from the Wi-Fi, and it hasn't worked in months.  Apparently, there was no problem with my plan, the data, the laptop, or actual connexion.  It was connecting, just not giving me Internet.  So we went through various settings and two operators, each of whom had to call me back periodically, and I had to factory reset my phone, but it is now working.  If it hadn't, I still have my phone under insurance and they were willing to replace it. I feel good about my service; they were very helpful.  Now I just need to restore some of the stuff that was backed up and re-download some applications and I'll be good to go.  My music and everything was all on an SD card, so I didn't actually 'lose' anything.
2. I've taken my car to the shop to get the front brakes fixed.  They've needed it for a while.  My mechanic, Kenny @ Mitch's Auto, runs a small shop and I know their business has really been impacted by all this.  So I thought I'd get them fixed while I was off rather than taking it to a chain.  They've always been really great about fixing my car and not overcharging or anything like that.  I'd highly recommend them.  They're on Industry Road near the Circle in Lexington.

Other plans today: 

• I have to go back to our small independent pharmacy as my roommate was asleep when I picked up what was ready yesterday, but he had a few other things he needed.  But that's just a drive-through sort of thing.
• I'm going to take some things to my storage unit.  I have my winter clothes packed up (in one, not two totes this year), and I have a few other things that are sitting in my room right now otherwise.
• Reading some more. I'll listen to more of the Barry book, maybe while I'm waiting for the car to be finished.
• Re-install things on my phone.
• Do some more reading as far as my Kindle goes now that it's ready to go.
• Straighten up my room a little.
• Launder my masks and the clothes I have on right now and from yesterday that I went out in.
• Take some pots and put them in the shed until I'm ready to use them so they don't wind up being blown around like the other day when a couple were in the yard

I wish I was in a good place for gardening.  The soil in the yard at roommate's house really needs to be worked and amended.  I thought about getting a hanging plant yesterday when I got groceries from Kroger, but it's cool right now and we've been under frost warnings.  I'll look next time I make a trip out to the store.  But container gardening is about our only hope right now, as neither of us has much to spare in terms of getting what's needed to improve the soil.  I do have a big tub at the storage unit that might work for a tomato plant later once the frost is not an option.  I just need to drill a few holes in it, although a co-worker has my drill at the moment.

Okay, I think I'll go ahead and post this and switch over to working on the phone.  Have a great day.

I've tried to blog using the mobile application several times lately

but it refuses to publish with an image attached no matter what I do. Maybe it's a glitch that will be fixed in an upcoming update.

Anyway, sorry I haven't physically gone to the computer and blogged instead.  I've been fairly busy as of late.

I've spent some time setting up the new phone and tablet.  The phone I've geared towards listening--things like Pandora, audiobooks, podcasts, music on the SD card, etc.  The tablet I've geared towards reading, especially Kindle and Project Gutenberg.

We haven't played the game in a while as one of the players is away visiting family in another state.  So the first weekend of this month YKWIA and I went to the Lexington Chamber Orchestra concert at Tates Creek Presbyterian Church and had a very good time.  Otherwise, it's been all about doing stuff around the house on the weekend and getting some relaxation in.  I haven't read much else, just a bit of The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, and while I had to turn in The Labyrinth of Spirits (which, as a new book, was due in 2 weeks rather than 28 days), I got it as an Audible audiobook.  Today as I was waiting at a doctor's appointment I went through the book up to where I left off.  I was on chapter 19 (21 really, as it has a prologue, etc.), which sounds great but the thing has over 700 pages and while the chapters are short, there are over 170 of them!  I'm not sure I can listen to it at work and still focus on my paperwork like I can with music, but I have a device that plugs into the car cigarette lighter that syncs up with Bluetooth to my phone that allows me to play music and answer calls even though I have an old car (18 years old!) that doesn't normally have that functionality.  I can also play the audiobook through the device.

Brenda stopped by the other day with a wonderful orchid for me.  She'd found it at Kroger for $2, in a plastic pot and finished blooming, but healthy and there are about three plants in there.  It's a type I haven't had before with a very prominent pseudobulb on the bottom with leaves coming from them.  I've seen them in the store--they have rusty, spidery, small flowers in just clusters of them, and I've really wanted them.  I'm not sure what type it is, perhaps a miniature Cattleya or Dendrobium.

Speaking of which, it's almost spring, and I read with interest that the Bluegrass Orchid Society was having their first meeting of the year tonight, with a talk on Dendrobium species and their care, but I had the doctor's appointment and then we had planned on going over to a friend's house for his birthday.  He is battling cancer, and had gone out with his brother and sister-in-law, and was just too tired to get together tonight, so we'll go see him tomorrow.  So by the time we got home, it was too late to change plans and go to the meeting.  I would have loved to have taken the new orchid, though, and get an identification, but oh, well.

I fed the animals and then YKWIA went to the computer and was watching some weird, twisted soap opera he discovered on YouTube, while I went to my room to lie down for just a bit, and the cats came with me, the one purring on my belly and the other at my feet.  I wound up falling asleep for two and a half hours.  I got up and did the dishes, plugged in the electronics to charge tonight, and then decided to write a bit.  But I can tell sleep is coming fast.  I didn't sleep the best last night, kept waking up in fact, and woke up at 4:30 am to pee and almost just got up for the day.  I toyed with the idea of going and getting another bookcase for my office since I had the appointment and therefore parking in back of the hospital, but that would have meant going to the storage unit in the dark wee hours of the night, and I thought that wouldn't be particularly prudent.  So I decided to go back to sleep, and it's good that I had the parking, as I woke up at 7:16 am, and had to be at work by 8:30 am.  I was about 15 minutes early, but if I'd had to ride the bus this morning that would not have happened.

Work has been very busy and I've done really well with productivity and while it can be frustrating, I'm plugging on.  The other day I was able to pull off a minor miracle to get a family's MRI scheduled next day, with the help of my co-worker who does the authorizations, and my boss let me come in at an ungodly hour of the morning so I could call first thing.  It was touch and go for a while (I got pulled out of a meeting because the family got there and the university had accidentally scheduled a sibling instead, so they were being told there was no appointment made).  I'm working on some difficult surgeries, and I have three denials I have to work on for a single case agreement tomorrow.  That's when you ask the insurance company to treat your out-of-network status as if it were in-network for that one case only.  I've had one other case I tried it on, and it worked, so it's worth a try, and it works better, in my opinion than an appeal.  But I don't have much experience in it.

I had applied to the Lexington Public Library in February for a library programming position, but I haven't heard anything, so I'm assuming I didn't get it.  LPL does usually send an e-mail, and I haven't received that yet, but it's been a month or so since the position closed so it's not looking good. :(

Tomorrow I'm at work until 3 pm again as I have a blood draw at 4 pm.  My family doctor always does a blood draw two weeks ahead of the main appointment.  Kudos to my boss, who let me off for a total of four appointments this month, although they're all after 3:30 pm at least.  It was five but I rescheduled my appointment with the ophthalmologist to April.  My endocrinologist is next Monday; it had already been rescheduled by them from January since she wasn't going to be in that day, and when I tried to reschedule, it was going to be August!  So that one had to stay.  I need to reschedule one I missed during my bout with the respiratory virus in January, and I have made an optometrist appointment for an exam on the first weekend of April.  Yay for weekend appointments.  I'm switching dentists and need to get the ball rolling on that, too.  But all my appointments were clustering in March and so I'll wait on that till maybe May, I think.  Then I can have the second cleaning of the year in November.  I did have the DMO plan for Aetna, which paid more fully for services but had a very limited range of providers (mainly Aspen Dental).  I switched back to the PPO, which costs a little more but has many dentists so I could go to one I've been to before and liked, one that YKWIA goes to.  The reason?  Aspen called me up one day insisting I pay a bill I didn't know about before they turned me over to collections. When I asked how much I owed, it was $1.  Yes, you read that right, $1.  I paid it there over the phone, but it kind of ticked me off that they would do that, threaten to send me to collections over such a trivial amount when I'd never even been billed.  Anyway, I like Dr Kleier, although she doesn't have the later hours they did.  So I'll have to wait to go there.

Okay, I guess I should head to bed.  6 am comes early, and with the time change, it's a struggle.  Good night!

So, I've obviously been amiss at writing/blogging

I've been pretty much coming home, having a great meal, and relaxing a bit before bed, maybe listening to music, rather than getting on the computer. Sorry about that. But I've had to recharge well because we've had a lot (and I mean a lot) of patients come in this week, and it's been very, very busy. Today, though, I had an appointment and so I left at 1:30 pm. After the appointment, I made a couple of stops, came home, spent quite some time talking with a neighbour who is a co-worker's cousin and trying to organise a neighbourhood watch, and she told me about a meeting they're having on Monday nearby. Then I went in, ate a little something, and by 5 pm I was headed out to an appointment with my insurance agent, who likes his representatives to see clients at least once a year. That went well, I got a little refrigerator magnet out of it :), and then I stopped by the library to pick up a book I put on hold for YKWIA along with a couple for me.

Last night while looking up the said book on the library website, it reminded me to try using an application on my phone that they have partnered with, Libby, by Overdrive, which is a sort of one-stop shop for library e-Books and audiobooks. It was then that I discovered that there was one more, last, instalment of my beloved Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters, called The Painted Queen. It had been finished by another writer, I presume, as the credits are for both Peters and her. So I borrowed it in Kindle format. Here's hoping I have some time over the next two weeks to read it. Of course, I have all the others, mostly in paperback but the later ones are in hardback. So eventually I'll buy one.

Okay, I know it hasn't been exciting, but I really should turn in for bed. However, I may have some good news to share in the next few days, so be sure to stay tuned. Good night!

Well, I did at least get home by 9 pm

My boss let me go enjoy a bit of this glorious day (78 degrees and sunny, although a bit gusty with a south wind) by letting me leave after my work was finished, so I left at 3:30 pm, went home for a bit, picked A up from a job interview, and then took him to YKWIA's.  YKWIA showed us several clips from the TV show 'Mom', which I had not seen.  Then I took A to the store, took him home, went back to YKWIA's with some things from the store, made him tea, and then came on home.  Both of them have some sort of cold.  Hopefully I won't get anything from them; I've had my crud for the season as far as I'm concerned.

Tonight we have thunderstorms; tomorrow will top out about 30 degrees cooler than today.  But it was nice while it lasted, and it looks like there will be warm weather next week, too.  My friend's croci are actually and blooming already, and I saw a beautiful tree (not close up enough to see what it was, but it had lovely white blooms) in full glory.  Hopefully it won't get caught in a freeze.  But we're not out of the woods.  We've had a blizzard in mid-March about twenty-four years ago.  I'll believe winter is over once spring really gets going, although I must admit, we haven't had much cold or snow, and the last week has been wonderful.  I actually worn skirts two days this week, and with the exception of the two days I was packing boxes, I've worn sandals.

I finished the John Scalzi book The Dispatcher and enjoyed it quite a bit.  It was only a novella, but I'm counting that as a book for my reading goal.  Zachary Quinto did an excellent job with reading the voices.  Apparently it was produced by Audible, so as far as I know, it's just an audiobook.

Now I'm listening to OneRepublic's Native album.  I'm almost finished.  But it was nice to relax a little.  I'm going to take the guys to an appointment tomorrow, but I could sleep in, as that isn't until midday.  But at the same time, I think I may go on to bed and get up early and get a few things accomplished around here.  Plus, I still need to do game notes, of course.

Okay, I'm going to head on to bed.  The album just finished playing.  Good night!

My poor neglected blog

Okay, folks, I'm really not trying to let this blog die. The holidays were insanely busy, and now I've been ill, and yesterday, when I was working on the game notes, was the first time I'd plugged the laptop into the monitor/rest of the system on the computer desk in probably six weeks. Really.

Friday I was able to go back to work at 1 pm, and I got caught up on my charge entry. One good thing about being sick with pinkeye, though, is I am temporarily being treated as a plague-bearer by friends, and so Friday night was all about listening to my audiobook and resting. Saturday I went in early to work (with permission to work on Saturday) and made up some hours and finished the policies I had to edit). I then took YKWIA to an appointment, but wasn't allowed to touch anything in his house. He rode in the back seat of the car, and when I picked him and another friend up, they remained in the back. I took the one to the Women's March here in Lexington, drove the other by the store and then home, and returned home. Again, there was plenty of 'reading', rest, and I did tackle the bathroom, including details like the shower and the hair catcher that sits in the drain that, while not bad on hair, had some soap scum on it that was preventing it from draining properly. It took an hour, but I got everything but the floor taken care of (I'll mop the kitchen and bath later, when everything else is taken care of).

Today we had planned to play the game, although the one wanted me to wear gloves, because he really did not trust the '24 hours of drop rule', so from 7:30 pm to 11 pm I did game notes. It included a lot of investigation, you see, so it took longer than normal. Then I picked up the one friend from work at 1 am (he sat in the front). This morning I was up at 7:30, although I'd planned to sleep a little later, since I didn't have to clean for the game, and went to Kroger and fortunately managed to the Stahist AD that Chinoe had not had, and some Mucinex, and that was about $30 altogether. But I feel much better than this morning. I thought I'd have to call the game off, but then my friend who is the game master called and he was not well either, and wanted to cancel, but wanted me to come over (with gloves) for a quick grocery run with my other friend who is strong and can lift big bags of dog food and large cat litter boxes. I called Brenda, left a message, and then at the appointed time went and got A and the card and we went to the grocery, brought in the stuff, and were getting ready to leave, when Brenda came driving up, having not gotten my message. After explaining to her what was going on, she turned back for home, I took A to work, and then went on home. I was kind of tired, so I ate something and laid down for what was going to be a half-hour nap that turned into two hours. I remember vaguely blessed sunshine coming in through the window (it's been grey and gloomy, with rain, for days). Now I'm up, I've fortified myself, and I have two goals tonight: to clean the kitchen thoroughly and take down the Yule tree.

Yes, it's still up, with the decorations on and everything. The wreath is still on the door, but actually two of my neighbours still have theirs up, too, so either we're all having a difficult winter, or it's more acceptable. I mean, my wreath doesn't have Santa Claus or anything like that--just greenery, fruit, and pinecones. So it's still 'wintery', I suppose. But it's all coming down tonight and getting packed away. I did manage to get around the tree and do some plant watering yesterday. Some look pretty peaked; I think I'm going to have to go through a cull. On the other hand, I've got two orchids at work getting ready to rebloom, and a whole slew of plants at work that are going to have to come home in two months, so there is that.

Okay, I'm going to go blow my nose and get some more caffeine. I think I'll start with the tree. I'll try to write later, and get in the habit of writing more. I need to pick A up at midnight, but otherwise need to get up early because I'm dropping the car off at the shop tomorrow and meeting a co-worker at 7:30 so she can be at work for an 8 am meeting. Those brakes need fixing, and it's definitely time.

PS I'm getting ready to start chapter 26 of The Cave and the Light. Only five more to go, and one is an afterword, I think, because it's only 2 or so minutes long. :)

Using my eyes to read is a little painful

So I listened to chapter 19 of 'The Cave and the Light: Plato and Aristotle and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization'  by Arthur Herman (the one on Gallileo), and then followed that up by listening to Meteora by Linkin Park (right now it's 'Breaking the Habit'), an odd combination,  I admit. One's very cerebral,  one's pure emotion. They both have their place.

A productive yet beautiful day

I don't think we quite made it into the 60s this afternoon, but it came very close, anyway. This morning I went to the pharmacy and got some medicine. Then I took a friend by his tax preparer, a woman who works out not too far from my apartment. While he was in there, I sat in the car, parked there on the street, and listened further into my audiobook. I stopped by Tire Discounters and they topped off the nitrogen in my tyres, and then we stopped over by my apartment so I could pick up something. We went back to his house, where I installed their housewarming gift (ten years late, but hey...), and then we made a grocery list, and headed over to the Euclid Kroger, where we parked on the roof and shopped, going down the escalator on the way down and the large elevator for the carts on the way back up. We put the groceries away, and then YKWIA watched some videos on YouTube and the movie we had out from the Netflix DVD queue--Inception, which I very much enjoyed. I didn't find it difficult to follow at all, and it seemed fairly consistent within itself. YKWIA and I agreed that the ending, which was deliberately shot to leave a question in the mind of the viewer, nevertheless is not ambiguous at all, given very clear clues to indicate whether the ending takes place in dream and reality. Anyway, I really liked it. The next one up is technically Lucy, but that is not actually released until Tuesday, which is the day Inception should arrive back at Netflix, so it may bump to the next one, Maleficent.

After the movie, we watched a few more YouTube videos, and then I headed home. Now I'm listening to the radio and just hanging out at home, trying to fix a sticking keyboard. (The Y and U are depressing at the same time, and sometimes the H or 7. I have an ergonomic keyboard, and unlike regular ones, apparently you can't just pop off a key to fix it. Usually the more I type, the better it gets. But I'm doing a lot of backspacing as a result.) I'm burning a lavender and cedar wood candle because my apartment smells like the cigarette that's seeping in through the bathroom somehow from upstairs. It's so strong I sprayed some lavender room and body mist in there. I hope it helps. I hate cigarette smoke. At least it's not cigar smoke. That makes me physically ill and when I'm near someone smoking a cigar I want to just puke on them. Of course, I feel the same way about people who wear strong musk perfume. :)

I also heard from my mother tonight right after the movie ended, and we chatted for awhile, mostly about our shared klutziness (she hurt a finger badly recently). I told her about my upcoming trip and a little bit about work.

Tomorrow we're not playing the Call of Cthulhu game because Brenda has a Society for Creative Anachronism Shire function instead. But I'm going over later than normal to my friends' house and doing the normal housework and then I think YKWIA has some things in mind to do, but I haven't been let in on the plan yet.

I don't have anything particularly exciting lined up this week at work or after. There's class on Wednesday, of course. The week after I'm off work for Presidents' Day, class, and a doctor's appointment.

Okay, I think I'll work on something for awhile, then maybe do some reading or book-listening before bed. I have several 14-day books due on Monday, non-fiction ones, and I'd like to go through them before I return them. Good night, if I don't write again tonight.

I was listening earlier to a really good audiobook on my phone that I checked out from the library

called The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. I'm in chapter three and am considering buying the book itself, as I really like the writing and the story so far. I think I may listen for a little while longer before I go to sleep.

Trying out

Digital audiobooks from the Lexington Public Library via the One Click eAudio Book application.  I've checked out Susan Wittig Albert's Tale of Hill Top Farm, the first in her mystery series with Beatrix Potter as the protagonist. The audio has skipped a couple of times in the first chapter,  but is otherwise clear.  I'm not using Wi-Fi,  so that may be the reason. Generally it is set to do so,  but I changed the settings because I don't have home Wi-Fi at the moment,  and my phone data plan is unlimited. I'll let you know what I think when I've gotten further into the story. But it is nice to have a free audiobook on my phone for 20 days.

Just spent an hour

trying to download a library audiobook via OneClickDigital, Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Terror, only to find that neither the manager for the computer nor the Android application could transfer or otherwise download the files necessary, and in the end I had to do it manually, unzipping .mp3 files and transferring them to the root area of the phone's system and then playing through the normal Music application that comes with Android rather than the OneClickDigital one. Not sure what the problem was, or whether this, being an out-of-copyright book (although perhaps the recording is not), it worked rather than a more recent book which is sure to have Digital Rights Management. At least I finally got it onto the device and where I could listen to it; it'll be nice to have at work or tomorrow when I'm doing some housework. Of course, I was doing this instead of doing the game notes, and although we are not playing I should really do them. I think I'll get up early tomorrow and do them, or at least get a substantial start on them. In the meantime I have requested a book for a friend from the Interlibrary Loan Department of the public library (that's two under my name now that I have pending, one for me, one for him), caught up with the news, listened to some music, and generally had a quiet evening. Tomorrow is cleaning the guys' house, watching Suddenly, Last Summer with them (based on the Tennessee Williams' play), and hopefully working on my house a bit, as well, because I'm afraid it really needs a good straightening up. I have stuff everywhere, from laundry, to recyclables, to stuff that needs to be just thrown away. It's not conducive to doing anything productive, and I have game notes and two book reviews still waiting to be done. Anyway, have a good night. I'm going to turn in for the night. Hope your weekend is going well.

Sorry I didn't post last night

Yesterday was a library day. I catalogued at my library, then went over to the Eagle Creek branch and picked up two DVDs that were part of what I checked out but had somehow become separated. The staff had called me the day before to alert me, which was nice. I thought I had somehow missed volume one and two on the shelf.

I downloaded an update for something on my tablet via Wifi and then went home. Then I had the bright idea to download the Overdrive application for audio- and e-books. That went fine, but then I found out our audiobooks are actually done through OneClickDigital now. So I went through the directions to download an audiobook. I managed to check one out, but I couldn't get it to play in the computer or transfer to a device, so I canceled the checkout. I suspect it works fine with Apple devices, as iTunes kept coming up in the background and freezing things up until I changed the settings. Of course, I spent more than an hour doing this, so I was frustrated and grumpy when I went to bed. If anyone knows how to do this for Android, let me know. The directions from the company were not particularly helpful, and unlike Overdrive's old setup, I didn't see a list of compatible or incompatible devices.