Yesterday had a fair amount of frustration, disappointment, sad and fail in it. It was a rare bad day but today will ensure that rare stays rare. I will insist on it.

It wasn't all bad. Every year for the past decade +, my friend, Scott, has sent me a calendar from New Zealand. They are all big beautiful wall calendars. I have a spot where I hang each one and toss it when the next year's arrives. I used to not appreciate them as much as I do now. His calendar came yesterday and he's broken the bank. It's one I will never ever toss. It's a masterpiece.

He took 13 photos - from their trip here last Summer and from New Zealand and made a calendar just for me. I love sheep so here's the cover.



And look at January!!! This is at Timber Ridge's front door taken just before they left.



The other months are full of fun stops they made like the Corn Palace. It's just a masterpiece. December is a beautiful iconic shot of their town. The whole thing is just a delight. I love it

I did end up going to Fred Meyers yesterday. It's a very large store. It's a huge grocery store but also a huge everything store - clothes, shoes, kitchen, bedding, etc. It's on the other side of town from here and kind of an ordeal since it is so big. Lots of people from here shop there, just not me. They do have stuff that other places don't so it was interesting and GREAT for steps. (And my leg that has been really bothering me, did not. so yeah.)

Among other things, I picked up a package of Boston Creme Pie poptart pastries. The woman in front of me in the checkout line had a fit when she saw them. She checked out, paid for her stuff, and then went back to get them. I had very low expectations. But, I tried one last night and, dang, it was delish!!



But, check out the price difference between QFC and Fred Meyer! They are both owned by Kroger. QFC is very near here so it's where I always go. I would not have been surprised by a small price difference but this difference is sure not small. Wild.

Today, an 'executive' of LCS which is the company that owns/runs Timber Ridge is coming to discuss continuing care here. I just went to the LCS website to see if I could get some dets on him. The website has photos and bios of about 35 executives. The guy coming today didn't make the cut. His title is Vice President/Senior Director of Operations Management. So... apparently he's all title and no clout.

The promise here is continued care. You live here independently, then, when needed, you move to assisted care and then, when needed you move to nursing care and then you die. It's pretty straightforward EXCEPT there are often no nursing beds available when needed and NEVER enough assisted living apartments. And, no room to build more. So all these old people are looking ahead and getting very twitchy. It's been the top concern here since I moved in. So the company is sending this guy with the title to soothe the natives. I might go.

Ooops I just realized that I don't have enough time to go if I swim first. Oh well, they are having two sessions so I'll just swim now and go to the second one. I sure don't care enough to give up my swim.

Seems like it was just yesterday I was pointing out that I need to get control over those things that annoy me and not let them annoy me. FAIL. Volleyball. Martha's husband, Richard, pointed out last week that when the right mix of people are playing, it is such fun. And when there is a spoiler in the bunch, it is just not. Fun. We have a spoiler. And it's not even the asshole. Or the woman who shreds my hand with her long nails. So... yeah... we have multiple people who work hard to ensure it is not as fun as it could be. And this morning I let it work on me. My bad. But...

Old people.

I think maybe I need a change of scenery. Even if brief. So I will go out and do my Amazon return. Maybe at lunch. Or maybe when the house cleaner comes this afternoon.

Oh remember the soy sauce situation? Well, I bought another bottle, filled up my little soy sauce jar and went to put the rest in the cabinet where it belongs. But it was a tight squeeze because... there was a nearly full bottle of soy sauce already there!! WTF?

So, now, whenever I get on my high horse about being sharper than all these old people around here, I hope someone just says to me "soy sauce." Myrna would have. God, I miss her.

Ok, I think I'll go out now. Before my leg gets too tired from the day as it is want to do lately. And, I think I'm going to go to Fred Meyer. It's always such a chore because it is so huge but they have different stuff and I want different stuff and need a change of grocery scenery.

So off I go.

The Great British Bake off set the rules. And many others followed - often quite successfully. There's the glass blowing show, the face painting show, the potters show. One of the best is the Great British Sewing Bee has done it very successfully for a bunch of seasons.

They all have required key ingredients: Two judges, one or two hosts, two or three different kinds of projects - short, long and different - all required to be completed in a very short amount of time. And contestants who make a mistake and cry and say they are going to leave... One contestant wins each week and one contestant is kicked off the show.

It was time for the perfect parody and now we have it.

It's only on BBC 4 but someone finally uploaded (YouTube) an episode of Game of Wool - or as it should have been called The Great British Wool off. I just watched it. As a show to highlight a craft (or crafts, as they hit on knitting and crochet) and those who are very good about it, it's quite the failure. But, as a parady of all those other shows, it's perfection.

Timed knitting or crocheting is as successful as slow drag racing. But this show makes fun of every single element of its predecessors. Beautifully.

I'm really appreciating this eggshell topper on my bed. It's just the loveliest feeling of cozy. Weird and wild. I'm so glad I didn't go full new mattress. I did wake up this morning with a very sore leg - it was part of my dream. But, once I quit lying on it, it healed up nicely. I've been up an hour now and it has totally forgiven me.

I got the highest sleep scores I have ever seen from Fitbit. 87!!

This is one of the first non-rainy days we've had in a while. The sun is out. Hopefully, I can just drop the blinds in the pool and not have to fight the glare.

I have an Amazon return that I might take today. I bought a Fire TV stick to see if it's gotten any better or the years. The Prime app on Roku has been annoying me and I'm using it more so I figured a Fire stick might ease the issue. It didn't. Plus, while the Roku Prime app can be slow, the same app on Amazon's fire stick did not even work some of the time. Plus, another remote. Not worth it. So I popped onto to Amazon to start the return. And, I got an interesting offer. I selected 'no longer needed' as my reason and filled in that it did not work as desired in the comments. No, don't want to interact with a technician. Then I got a box saying that if I just wanted to keep it, they would give me a discount! The thing cost me $32 in total. They offered me $5 off. Yeah, nope. I've had them tell me to just keep the item. But, I've never had a price reduction offer before.

There is a new puzzle started in the elbow and TV to watch and creatures to knit. So that's my plan for today. After I do my swim.

Volleyball hours have changed. We used to play 2 hours. But now we are going to start 30 minutes later on Tuesdays and Thursdays and end 30 minutes earlier on Saturdays. I like the 2 hours but apparently, others do not. Whatever. I can sleep in.

Today I need to remember to do pills. Put them in my sun-sat boxes I do 4 months at a time and it's time. I put them out on the bathroom counter the other day so I remember and I'm tired of looking at them.

Elbow coffee this morning.

And my back stretches. My back is way better but my leg is still cranky. Its cranky is coming from my spine. So back stretches.

In the olden days, when I would put on something with pockets, a dress, top, jacket, it wasn't odd at all to find money in the pocket. Most often, a nicely washed dollar bill or, if times were fat, a five dollar bill.

These days, I put on a top with something in the pocket and it's a very nicely washed wad of kleenex. Every time. It's why I always buy Kleenex instead of off brand or another brand. All the others seem to shred in the wash. Not Kleenex. I should do an old lady commercial.

Time for elbow coffee.