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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Thriving Thursday Week 13 - Little things edition

Have you heard about the National Association of Realtors settlement agreement related to home sellers having to pay the buyer’s agents commission? I had briefly thought darn that we had sold our house before the settlement but then happened to read an article about it being retroactive to 2020 or earlier depending on where you live as long as your home had a MLS listing! I’m going to file a claim form and see what happens.

  • We decidedly to go out at least once a week so we went to lunch at a Berkeley brewing company and had a great vegetarian Detroit style pizza. 
  • Grandparented this week by going to watch swim class Saturday and on Sunday to a violin recital with family dinner afterwards.
  • My little bits of yard work whenever the weather allows is keeping the weeds under control and me enjoying the landscaping. 2 plants have insect or disease problems so we are going to try spraying them regularly for a while. We may end up replacing them but everything else is growing well!
  • We were able to let the pup hang out in the backyard several times and he also got to go play in another dog’s backyard. He came home from his play date needing to be rinsed off but quite happy.
  • Completed an annual health questionnaire and used the $50 payment from our secondary health insurance towards an expensive prescription.
  • Set up an account to pay state estimated taxes online and avoid potential mail delays or theft (which did happen here about a month ago but not to us).
Last week’s weather reminded me of a saying I heard as a child - March comes in like lion and out like a lamb! - except it all happened in one week and was all mixed up. Still Spring is clearly moving forward with lots of new growth, butterflies and birds darting around.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Thriving Thursday Week 12 - Spring is here and so are bugs

Welcome to Spring! 

It was a nice sunny and warm week so we took a scenic drive exploring parts of Berkeley near the campus and the hills behind it. The pup loves going for rides and sat quietly on the back looking at everything with interest.

I’m seeing butterflies around as so much is blooming. It is a pretty time to take long walks or sit outside. The pup is extra eager to be outside so we have been taking him out in the yard some which he enjoys.

The little GD had to stay home from school again due to a low fever but is feeling fine. We were able to step in and provide babysitting at her house.

I made a list of all the foods we have on hand and decided to try to get creative with finding some new inexpensive dinner recipes and healthier lunches and breakfasts for me. So far I’m interested in trying a one skillet vegetarian Mexican rice casserole.

This week I discovered the hard way that in one area of the yard we have wasps or bees. One got me on the back of my neck. It hurt but fortunately no serious reaction. I was in early grade school last time I was stung when I stepped on a 🐝 barefoot which I recall being much worse.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Thriving Thursday Week 11

Happiness, Comfort & Health

  • Woohoo! I walked over 10,000 steps outdoors one day (4.1 miles for this short person) for the first time since foot surgery. I was quite pleased with myself ☺️
  • Pilates trainer is great and it is helping me feel pain free.
  • Saturday we watched our granddaughter’s swim class while visiting with the rest of the family. She came over after and we colored, chatted, ate snacks, walked the dog, and helped her find our houses on a paper map and follow the route we drive between them. Then we and the pup had dinner at their house. The baby has learned to say “hi” so we enjoyed listening to her say “hi,hi,hi!” a lot! This is the kind of time together I was hoping for by moving.

Minding our Money (and the Environment)

  • Taxes e-filed and amount owed paid! It makes me so happy to have our e-filing problems over with and no more mailing of returns.
  • We bought an indoor tv antenna and cut cable TV. Once Sonic goes live in our neighborhood in July we will switch internet to them. We took the easy but more expensive route a year ago when moving as the house was set up for cable already.

Making Home Upkeep Easier (and keeping things repaired) 

  • Weeding one day a week during this rainy season seems to be working. The landscaping redo definitely helped.
  • We learned to bring the balcony chairs in when it is very windy. They were blown over and scraped the house. Hubby used paint left in the garage to fix it.

Emergency Prep Project

  • Added to the car emergency supplies: paper maps free from AAA and 2 reflective vests. Returned the Fix-a-Flat can. It says it has to be kept outside the passenger compartment and we have a hatchback so that won’t work.


Sunday, March 10, 2024

The phone charger is working - slowly

We tried a different cord and it will charge an iPhone slowly. And I was wrong, it is a 12 volt charger. We will keep experimenting and order a charger that is supposed to be fast.

Friday, March 8, 2024

Charging an iPhone in old car? Help!

Another Update: According to Google and Apple I need a 12V charger and ours is 6. Also according to Google car lighters are 12V so we will be ordering a new charger and see what happens. As Mona said in her comment, I have been joking that we should just by a new car with all the current bells and whistles!

Update: I checked to see if my Kindle would charge and it does so it seems only Apple products aren’t charging. Perhaps I need an iPhone specific plug in charger?

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We have an older car with no UBS port so can only use a phone charger plugged into the cigarette lighter as far as I know. The charger we have doesn’t work now that we have iPhones. 

I don’t know if the problem is the charger, lighter connection, or car/phone incompatibility. I suppose we could carry a rechargeable charging pack but that kind of defeats the purpose.

Anyone have recommendations on a lighter plug in charger to try? Any other ideas?

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Thriving Thursday Week 10

Happiness, Comfort & Health

Homemade Pumpkin pecan muffins made with yogurt instead of oil made us both happy and provided a stash for the freezer. Each fall I buy 10 to 12 cans of Trader Joe’s pumpkin while it is in stock as they have a great price. Do love pumpkin muffins!

The pup got his every 2 months bath and haircut. He is so excited to be at the groomer’s that he brought smiles to all the bystanders’ faces as we struggled to get him into their leash and out of his harness while he just wanted to give the groomer kisses. 

And some good news about the flu. Apparently the pandemic made one B flu strain disappear for the past 4 years so it will be dropped from next year’s vaccine which means more doses can be produced as the formula is simpler. That means more doses worldwide. Flu vaccine

Minding our Money (and the Environment)

Balanced the books for February and am quite happy I moved a lot of our savings into CDs while the rates are up.

Entered the data for our taxes using TurboTax. I still need to double check everything and finish. It took me quite a while because selling a house added complexity and required searching for old paperwork. We owe quite a bit as it was Hubby’s first full year receiving Social Security in addition to his pension and I forgot to increase our estimated tax payments. 

Making Home Upkeep Easier (and keeping things in good repair)

Hubby did use Superglue borrowed from our son to fix some cabinet veneer that had come loose in the rarely used 2nd bathroom. Not the best cabinet but it serves its purpose.

Emergency Prep Project

We finally checked emergency supplies we had in our car against a list we made for car breakdowns. A gallon of water plus a few additional things are back in our car and we ordered a small first aid kit, fix a flat canister, & 2 reflective vests. I will type up a list of what is kept in the car and put on the calendar to check batteries and expiration dates as appropriate.

Next step is to plan several evacuation routes. The city has one I need to print out and I ordered local, area, and state paper maps from AAA in case phones aren’t working. 

Then we need to put together Go Bags for each of us and for the dog for if we have a to evacuate quickly for wildfires. After that is adding to our earthquake/power outage/shelter in place supplies especially more water, coverings for broken windows and lighting.

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Tax Return Headaches!

Once again I am doing our taxes myself using TurboTax. Why do I do this to myself 😤

The hardest part was finding the info I needed from purchasing our former house and figuring out what I could enter. Once the return is done I need to go back and make sure I have clear documentation in the file to support what I did.

We are going to owe $$ as it is the first year Hubby had Social Security for a full year and we don’t have taxes withheld but rather pay estimated taxes. I dropped the ball on increasing the estimated payments in all the moving chaos.

So far I have done two 2 hour sessions and now it says it is time to review it. Since I have an headache after each two hour session the review will have to wait for another day! 

We will sit down together and do the review.

Any predictions on whether or not trying to submit electronically will work this time after not working the last 2 years? I’m not holding my breath!

Do you do your own and hire someone?

Thriving Thursday Week 13 - Little things edition

Have you heard about the National Association of Realtors settlement agreement related to home sellers having to pay the buyer’s agents comm...