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We spent some time on Saturday looking at vehicles. Lloyd had a spreadsheet of different types that he’d like to look at before we decide on anything, I had a pocket full of Smarties.

Lloyd wanted me to go along, though I’m not sure why. My only requirements are: 1) the car needs to get great gas mileage and 2) I need to be able to load stuff into it and not worry about hurting it. That means a used hybrid, preferably with a hatchback. We looked at several cars without driving around in them, but most of them were sedan-style with trunks. That’s not really my speed.

In the showrooms, we sat at a couple of desks while Lloyd talked to the teenagers trying to tell us everything about cars. Lloyd did the talking while I worked REALLY hard not to fidget. (I didn’t scream once!) I just looked around at the fixtures and wondered how I could transform each space into my home, as I do in every building I enter. I also wondered how our second salesperson put so much weight on her eyelashes and was still able to look around. So much mascara……

The last place we stopped at had a 2021 Prius. Perfect! Pretty much the same car, except the interior space has less candy storage than ours. We actually did drive that one around, but no decision has been made.

The old living room rug? It’s in the guest room now. Emme is pleased.

Old crappy repugnant (Ha! That’s an autocorrected word that I’m totally leaving in.) that was in the guest room? It’s upstairs in the nook. You might remember that I tore out the carpet back when I discovered Cricket and Princess Batman had been peeing up there.

Nothing goes to waste around here.

We got the new furniture for the living room….. a year ago? Two years ago? I don’t even remember. Oh, wait. Two years ago. I love having ottomans for the side chairs, but the rug that has been in there isn’t quite big enough, and the ottomans kept getting caught and messing up the edges, like so:

As is the case with any major purchase around here, we grumbled about it for a good long time without doing anything about it.

Well, recently I was at Costco, and they have rugs. I bought one (and milk, too). Yep, a rug and a gallon of milk, as one does.

I saw in the store that it was kind of shiny, but what it had going for it is that it was cat-colored. I figured it would be just fine. Well, when I got it home I discovered it was a magic rug. When viewed from one angle, it’s a light-colored rug.

When viewed from the other? Dark colored.

See? The dark color is so good you can’t even see Wally!

So much grey, though. How did that happen?

My Dad has his laptop now, so I’ll try to post a few mildly interesting things going forward. 🙂

Lloyd went on a Sibling Trip a couple of weeks ago – they went to Houston for a renaissance festival. I’ll let that sink in for a little bit.

They all flew to Houston. Where it is a billion degrees. To dress up for a renaissance festival.

I don’t fault them at all. I was invited, but if I’m going to take any days off, it will be to go see my Dad. They had a grand time, and on his way home Lloyd sent me a photo from his layover in Houston: “Backpack makes a good dinner companion.”

Awwww….. so cute.

Recently, my class had learned about spiders (remember that there is a spider picture coming) and how jumping spiders are actually quite cute. I sent Lloyd a reply: “Backpack looks like a jumping spider.”

He said, “Great. Now I can’t unsee it.”

No. No, you can’t.

I have Parent-Teacher conferences this week starting tonight. For the most part they’re going to be fine, but – as always – there are a few children who have some special issues, and I need to find the best way to address those. Not my favorite thing to do.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I got up earlier than usual (thanks to yesterday), so I’m going to walk again. Good thing, since the Prius is in the shop. There’s some issue with the water pump? Huh, I thought that thing ran on electricity and gas…….

Dad update: There wasn’t a lot of news yesterday. Dad had some visitors, got a shower but was a little too tired for a haircut. Keren heads home today after an amazing week of keeping track of his health and helping get Dad settled, and now Mark takes up the mantle to get things situated with the house while Dad is getting stronger. I’ll say it every time – they are amazing.

Me? Good grief. Not amazing.

My old flip phone is my alarm clock. I’ve loved it because when it first goes off, it’s little enough to grab and squeeze every nine minutes for snoozing. I usually get an extra 27 minutes of sleep that way.

Today it seemed hard to get up, but I did it. It was weird, though, because a lady with a website I follow has a whole write-up about Daylight Savings Time, and how for this round it should be harder to stay up at night but easier to get up in the morning. That first part is the truth – I was ready for bed a 7 last night.

Today, though, I got up, washed my hair, got dressed, and then put on my Apple watch…… that said it was 4:50 a.m.

4:50, not 5:50. I was an hour early. No wonder I was tired…..

My flip phone is no longer connected to the towers, so it doesn’t update. That worked in my favor this time, but it’s going to be a problem in the spring.

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Update: I just wrote this post, and then my phone dinged with a text. Sorry, Deborah!

For everyone else, Lloyd and Deborah and I play Wordle and Connections each morning and send our results to each other via text. My phone mistake has now affected other people: “Lloyd! It’s five in the morning!” (He sent us his results an hour too early.)