Ryan

1. I have recently ordered multiple things off Amazon that are not at all urgent, and they're offering good rewards for getting them delivered after Christmas rather than before (most have been 7% cash back but the most recent one was a $2 ebook credit). So now I have a ton of stuff arriving on the 27th. D:

2. I finally got all of Alex's books repacked into nice boxes and stacked on the new shelves I put in the shed. It's looking so much more organized. I ordered two more sets of shelves (one of the above-mentioned purchases) so then there will be three sets on each wall, which will mean plenty of space for long-term storage as well as things like toilet paper and paper towels, which we buy from Costco and they come in huge packages that are too big to store the whole thing in the house.

3. I love getting these shots of Gemma looking out the window.

I thought today would be less crowded than Monday because all three lower level passholders are blocked out, but it was super crowded. D: Still not as bad as Monday (especially because Monday was unfortunately timed with the parade, which makes things cloggier), but not great.

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1. It's the weekend! I had a pretty productive day today and finished up what I was working on earlier than anticipated, so I just ended up going home early (around 2:30), which was nice.

2. It was warm and sunny when I took a walk after work, but it's very overcast and chilly this evening, and we're supposed to have cooler weather for a bit. Tomorrow says it will be overcast all day, which would be nice as we are planning to be at Disneyland and I don't want it to be too sunny.

3. We got burritos and tacos for dinner. Very tasty! Not agreeing with my stomach too well tonight, but worth it.

4. Look at this sleepy boy!

1. Today was the last day of the heat spell. Whenever it's hot this time of year, it's always a very dry heat, and I do prefer dry heat, but ugh, too dry today. My eyes were stinging really bad this afternoon (and still a bit now). It seems the weather will still be warmer than I prefer for December for the rest of the ten day forecast, but at least it won't be hot. :-/

2. The car is still in the shop. The issue is that while they know something in the AC system is leaking, they can't find the leak, despite having used various methods. Carla spoke to the guy today and he said they're getting in some sort of specialized equipment tomorrow, so it may be fixed by the end of the day? We'll see. She did ask if we can go by and get some stuff out of the car and he said any time, so I'm going to drop her off there tomorrow before going to work so she can get my Disney backpack which has the sip and savor pass in it, so we've got that for Saturday if the car isn't ready yet.

3. I had a work from home day today. Tomorrow and Friday I've got to go in for sure as I have stuff to do in our system that is difficult to do remotely (it can only be accessed from within our network and that requires me to remote into a pc at work and just adds extra hassle), but the main thing on my to-do list today (aside from meetings) was just checking stuff in excel, so no need to go in, which was nice.

4. Molly!

1. Carla made pesto and we had cheese ravioli with pesto for dinner. Since it's homemade, we can make it without garlic, and IMO, it tastes perfectly fine without. The ravioli were just Trader Joe's fresh ones where you just boil them for a few minutes, so it was super easy to put together. And delicious!

2. Another puzzle done. This one was fun, but went pretty fast. I'm definitely starting to feel like the 500 piece ones are less of a challenge (but still enjoyable to do).



I have a few 500 piece Christmas/winter ones that I'm going to do next, but then I think I'll tackle one of the 1000 piece ones and see how that goes.

3. Chloe! She is very much making use of the warming bed lately.

We went down to Disneyland for dinner tonight. I very foolishly did not get my Disney backpack out of the other car before we took it in for repairs, so I don't have the sip and savor pass for the Festival of Holidays booths, and decided on Disneyland rather than DCA, but that ended up being a bit of a mistake as we got there right before the parade started and the park was suuuuuper crowded because the lower two levels of passholders only have a few more days before being blocked out for the rest of the year.

( Despite the parade crowds, we still had a good time )

1. I picked up my huge pile of holds at the library, so now I am all set for their closure during Christmas and New Year.

2. We had a nice time at Knott's today. It was very sunny but not super hot (though warmer than I would prefer for December) and we had the most delicious loaded tater tots I've ever had.

3. I got some persimmons at the farmers market today. There are a ton of stalls selling them, but the one I got from had samples out and the sample was very good, so hopefully the ones I bought will be as well! I do love persimmons.

4. Look at these sweetie boys! A lot of times when Ollie comes over for a snuggle Jasper just up and leaves, but this time he stayed an snuggled and gave Ollie some nice grooming.

1. Carla's aunt let us know to be expecting a delivery of Lou Malnati's x Portillo's Italian beef pizzas. She's ordered their frozen pizzas for us for Christmas in the past and they're really good. (Carla has had them in person, but I never have.) Apparently they were having a deal on the 4 pizza package, so that's what she got. Good thing we've been working to clean out the freezer recently and should actually have room for four frozen pizzas.

2. So glad it's the weekend!

3. Carla took the car in this morning and they were able to find that the AC system has a leak, which is causing the issue of no AC but unable to determine yet where the leak is, so they still need to keep it at least for tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be as long as last time, but at least we have the other car.

4. The Playstation Portal came today and after three separate system updates and two controller updates, I got it set up and can now play from the comfort of my desk chair. :D

5. Molly was super playful and writhing around on my rug the other day. She's usually so calm and composed, so it's super cute to watch.

1. Carla is home safe and sound. Her flight was delayed by about an hour and a half due to weather in Chicago, so what was already a late night pickup (scheduled originally for 11:30pm) ended up being truly middle of the night, and we are both pretty exhausted today, but she is home, and I was able to work from home again today, which is good because I think I got about 2.5 hours of sleep total.

2. While I was waiting to go to the airport last night and trying not to get to sleepy, I finally tried the Trader Joe's chai concentrate we'd picked up a while back. Mixed with the gingerbread oatmilk (also Trader Joe's), it tastes exactly like the gingerbread chai lattes we love from Starbucks. Cheaper to make at home, plus also they are still on strike, so we haven't been going to Starbucks.

3. I finally gave the PS5 a go! I bought Horizon Zero Dawn a week or so ago and have been meaning to give it a go, but just never found the time to go out in the living room and fire it up. (This is why I love the Switch so much, because I can play at my desk. For some reason I am really avoidant about playing games on the TV, idek.) I just played the (extremely long) intro segment so far, but I did enjoy it. Also played a bit of the free Astro game that came with the system and it's fun, too. And then I went ahead and ordered the Playstation Portal, which is a handheld accessory that allows you to play PS5 games away from the TV (you do need an actual PS5 to use it). It was even on sale!

4. I got the Thanksgiving bagel sandwich this morning for us to share. It was pretty tasty, but it had a lot of fried onions on it, which is less than ideal. I'd ask for it without them if I got it again, but since it's only going to be around a bit longer I probably just won't get it again.

5. I finished another puzzle today.



This is the puzzle we had hanging around in the closet for years and years because we wanted to be puzzle people but then we had cats and nowhere to do puzzles. But when we got the garage remodelled and had a space to do puzzles, I found it too daunting. But now I've done a lot of puzzles and felt up to the task. It was definitely a challenge, though it would have been more of one if the pieces had been more uniform. It has two main types of pieces, some more square and some long and thin, so that made it easier to figure out what went where.

6. Chloe's looking a little wild.

1. I stopped in the bagel shop on my walk this morning because I saw through the door that they have a new white chocolate peppermint latte and that was irresistible! I also got a pumpkin sandwich cookie (cream cheese frosting inside) and that was also very tasty. And on the menu they have a Thanksgiving sandwich, so I asked the guy at the counter how long they would have it for and he said this week and maybe next week, so since Carla will be home tomorrow (picking her up at the airport later tonight), I'm going to get us that for breakfast.

2. I got an email today from the library saying they will be closed for the weeks of Christmas and New Year, so I went and put a bunch of books on hold so I can have plenty of books to tide me through. Not that I don't have a bunch of books at home or ebooks and such, but I always like to have a physical library book going as well.

3. When I got home from my walk this morning there was a strong cat pee smell in the living room, which is a bad sign since there are no litterboxes in that room. I managed to pin it down to the warming bed by the front window. Nothing was wet or even damp, but it definitely smelled like pee. I think someone sat on it with a damp butt and the warming function enhanced the smell. D: But using enzyme spray and running it through the wash seems to have gotten the smell out, except for the foam siding, which can't be washed and had to be thrown away. So now it is a warming cushion instead. After I did that wash, I noticed the smell seemed to have also seeped into the drapes that hang right next to it, so I had to wash those, too, and ended up just working from home today because of too much laundry lol. Thankfully I did not have anything pressing that required going into the office.

4. Look at this guy!