Mosh Glass

I am tired. It’s late. Not much happened. I bought some pies. Going to bed. Goodnight.

Quick morning because we got up late. Supposed to leave at 9 and out of bed at 810. You can imagine the rush. Coffee, breakfast, shower, dressed and gone. Out the door at 930. See, we are slow.

I washed my car last night and parked in the garage. Noted this morning, covered with ash already. Great. Another wash coming.

The air is thick with ash and smoke again today. And we have to breathe it. Probably shortening our lives. On the plus side, it’s a lot like having a snack with each breath.

We are traveling through the Suisun Marsh now. Very eerily desolate with the added smoky air. Landscape looks lunar-like and lifeless. Today no sign of the usual wildlife, mostly sea birds. All I have seen is one bird carcass. Seems like some end of the world scenario. Just lovely.

Just crossed the “Fresh Air” bridge. Seriously. A little funny.

Finally we are at the destination: Corte Madera. There is a large outdoor old style mall. It being Corte Madera, Marin County, next to Tiburon, the mall is upscale. Very. Fortunately, the rich people in this area are cheap. So lots of things on sale! Which suits us. I like cheap. Or cheaper. Or cheapest. Really, I like free.

We met Marika in the parking lot in front of Nordstrom. She is in a fine mood. The whole reason for this shopping trip is getting Marika an outfit for her upcoming interview.

We were at Nordstrom so we started the shopping there. Nordstrom was what I expect. We started in shoes. No surprise there. And Marika bought a pair. I looked at men’s shoes just to stay connected but found nothing.

The mall is not over large but hs plenty f nice places. Actually, it’s a “full price” mall, no discounters. Nordstrom and Macy’s are the only big boxes.

After leaving Nordys we decided to do the loop, shop down the north side and come back on the south side. We did not go in every store, some are pointless. Like the Tesla store. Or Peloton. No need. We stopped at Sundance (Emily’s fave) and waited for Emily to look at all. I wasn’t interested. Marika wasn’t interested. Then off to Pottery Barn, Lucky, North Face, Anthropologie, Restoration Hardware, and on. We did stop at Apple, Emily got a new i8 yesterday and having battery issues. So she spoke to the genius at Apple who told her give it back to Verizon. The battery was working that poorly. They make a bad one once in awhile.

Stopped at Tommy Bahama. I just received a fifty dollar credit from them so best to go check and see if they have anything. They didn’t as far as I was concerned. Emily came up with a few things that I said no to. I don’t spend the card just cuz I have it. I need to like what I get.

Marika suggested lunch next. Mom suggested Boudin (which is what Marika has told me she would say). Marika and I navigated through the menu and both got soup. Emily has the Asian chicken salad. We all concluded this Boudin was not near as good as the one by us in Vacaville. Too bad.

After lunch back to Nordy to use the restroom. Then off to Tommy again mostly for Emily but pretending it’s for me. Emily said now that I had thought about it I might have changed my mind. It actually means buy something and use the gift card. So I did. I have a new Tommy shirt 👕. To go with the other 50 Tommy shirts in my closet. Yes, true. But I do look fantastic in Tommy. Well, I look fantastic all the time.

Now we are headed home. Currently in the wasteland I was speaking of earlier. An hour from home. Just got through a one hour traffic jam. Cruising. Got off 37 and another major slowdown. Shit. 5 miles an hour for 15 mins. What was it? Three cars pulled over, no accident. People are truly very stupid. Very. Stupid.

Got home at a bit past 530. We had thought 4. We need to stop thinking. So, now work. Unpack and sort through the meager haul from today. I put out the garbage since Tuesday is G day. Fed the worthless animals. Like the one next to me currently occupying the small space left on the chair. Then we made dinner for ourselves. I grabbed a bottle of wine from my case. I ordered a mixed case for a flat $150 from the Bounty Hunter. The $150 is a great bargain, 10 reds and 2 whites and so far all excellent. They guarantee you will love them. Then we made meatballs with devalued eggs, fried potato patties and green beans. Dinner was excellent.

We are relaxing here after dinner and dinner dishes. Watched Jeopardy, teen version, and got all answers. Then Wheel. Boring. Now another competitive singing show. They have these shoes because there is a shortage of professional singers and they need help finding more. Right. I think the rest of the evening will be mediocre TV until bedtime. When it works you stay with it.

We sort of slept in today. I woke at about 230 and couldn’t sleep. Again. But an hour or so of rustling around and I slept for awhile. Then woke then slept through to 730 when some dumbass texted me and woke both of us. Like I said, sorta. Oh well. I should remind this person that tomorrow is a holiday and we may want to sleep in. So be patient.

Today is laundry and cleaning day. Yesterday was our day on the town and we have to clean the apartment once in awhile. Though I see Emily is complaining she does not feel well. That means “we” might not have the energy to go hog wild in cleaning. I really do not care either way. If I gotta clean, I clean. If not, then not. I already started laundry and cleaned the bathroom completely. Not the floor though. We do all floors on the same day. This place is tiny so nothing is a large job.

Once we are done I can’t say I have anything planned. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, I want to be sedated. Per Joey Ramone. I am sure we can figure something out, like advent shopping. I hate early Christmas but advent starts in three weeks. So now, for that, is not early. Nothing next on agenda after that. I would usually wash my car but the wind is blowing a million miles an hour and that’s painful and somewhat pointless.

I managed a little online pie shopping for fake thanksgiving this weekend. We are heading to Dads to have a pre thanksgiving celebration. He is having his own with friends on real T day. Em and I are going to Bodega with the senior Clarks. I am sure Marika and her roomie will join us there. Not sure what Michael is doing. He does not share.
But all are heading to Visalia except Marika. She has work. I talked the broken wing wonder into going to even though she is injured. Will see how that goes. Spoke to her late today, she is still on for it.

The day did not get more exciting. Sorry. We render up going shopping for groceries and some advent shopping. Hey! Got a report! Any one familiar with Cost Plus/World Market? During the Christmas season they hide golden bells throughout their stores and if you find one you get a gift certificate. I had never heard this. So today I found this out because Emily was searching around, I asked what she was looking for. And she told me. So I went off and started to search. And found one. Cuz I’m amazing. I rang the bell. Emily saw me. I cashed it in. Emily was still looking so I went back out to the sales floor. And a minute later I found another one. I said amazing. I guess people look for these all the time. I am ready to go back and do it again. I got a knack.

We went to about five different stores for advent and a couple for groceries. I don’t think we got much but we had a good time. Especially at Cost Plus.

We went home and unloaded our haul. Emily then went to do glass projects for our Christmas and for the kids in her class. I went outside to wash my car. It’s covered by ash from the recent fires. It needs a bath.

It’s now about 6 and we are watching Sixty Minutes, not bad TV.

Dinner is leftovers. Mine from Thursday Emily’s from yesterday. I also fried up some potato patties. My diet now allows one extra cup of any vegetable. I choose potato. It was awesome. Have not eaten potatoes in months.

After dinner watched bad TV. America’s Funniest Videos and the like. Just awful. We went to bed early. Going to Corte Madera to go shopping tomorrow.

Saturday morning. Tried like hell to stay in bed. But wife and animals woke me strongly so I got out of bed.

Made coffee. Made breakfast. Got an email from Marika, my stupid sister had broken her arm. She broke the humerus which is funny only was a 45 degree break, an inch from ball, clean through, not compound.

A little background. Every Friday evening for the last 20 years, my sister gets together with her female neighbors and drinks herself silly. Usually at hone. Good idea. Well, last night they went out for cocktails. Had some. Switched bars. Walking only. A few more drinks at new place. Walk to new place for more, on the way my sissy tripped and fell and caught herself with her arm on the concrete. Snap.

There you go. No one is giving her sympathy. And I was the first to use the humerus pun with her. Do I get a point for that?

We are supposed to have a pre thanksgiving dinner next weekend at dads. Now she is using her arm as an excuse to fag out on that. My god, it’s just an arm. And not even her drinking arm. I called all and I believe it’s back on. Her injury be damned.

It does make for an exciting day. Out of the ordinary.

We got ready for our day. And went to the Verizon store. Needed to get Emily’s phone on the new network. Which again took two hours. Turns out she has a special model i7. Only works on ATT. So we had to buy another phone. Then I mentioned my son’s phone is a 7. And had to call him. His is also a special7 and I have to buy a new phone for him too. Good thing I am made of money. I did get $600 trade value on the two phones. I think that’s a good thing. Emily also saw some POS home device she had to have. So now we are testing it. For $200. This is a good reason I don’t take her to the store with me. She is expensive.

Soon, dear god make it so, we will be headed to Petaluma to look at furniture. That will be fun I think. Marika saw a chair I need to have. Have been looking at it a couple years. She found it for $500 less. Regular price. Not on sale. That’s a buy signal. So in a few we will be on the way.

Turns out that’s exactly what happened. We were outta town in a few headed to Petaluma. And the traffic was non existent so we got there really quick. Some things in life work out. We first went to the furniture store Marika had mentioned. They had the chair I wanted. A very cool design. I saw it first at Resoration Hardware. Too rxpensive. That’s why when Marika found it so cheap I jumped. I bought it today. It’s for the new house. And the new me as well. Well worth the trip today.

Petaluma was a kick. Funny, I have been here many times but I guess never shopped it. The prices were reasonable and the product was as I would expect, unique and eclectic. Though it’s the prices that really surprised me. Far lower than I may have wished. That is weird.

We shopped everything we could find for about 3 hours. When I had initially purchased the chair I had sent Marika a picture of the chair to let her know I had bought it. So after that she kept texting me from work and finally at end of her day she said she would meet up.

We ended up going to an Italian place, Volpi’s, for dinner. Marika joined us about twenty minutes later. Vilpi’s is an old style Italian dinner house that’s been there about a million years. Nothing special really but it’s the type of place I enjoy. Lots of Italian specialties and a full bar (ladies welcome) which makes me happy. Any place that puts true bar first is a winner in my book.

While waiting I had an excellent barrel aged manhattan and Emily had a not very good old fashioned. Can’t always win. We also had a basket of bread.

As I mentioned, Marika joined us about twenty minutes later. No cocktail. She and I did order Cabernet, ok not great. Emily was driving. I had lamb shank and polenta, two awesome things together. Emily ravioli, very good. Marika same as me. We had a great time in a cool old joint with nice food and pleasant surroundings. and since Em and I arrived at 5 pm, it was not late.

After dinner we all took off. Marika to drive 3 minutes to her place. We got home at 8. A ok. Dogs were glad to see us. Cats were cats. Now is time for TV and another excellent old fashioned courtesy of yours truly. And it was, I did get a sip.

So now we watch truly horrible TV. Saturday night is a TV wasteland. All bad all night. I can see why TV is losing to all other forms of entertainment.

It’s getting real close to bedtime. And I don’t mind. I’m getting really tired. Time to turn off this fine infotainment. The music piece of SNL is in and it’s such shit I find it easy to depth charge this crap. Bedtime.

It’s one of those ah ha moments. It’s Saturday morning and I did not blog yesterday. I may have been really busy or I just couldn’t squeeze it in. What the hell ever. This is gonna be a Friday post and I will do my best to strike all keys firmly, like an old Royal, so all are clear and thoughts cogent. Good luck to me.

Yesterday morning Marika was home. Having spent the night. Normal morning mostly. Marika decided we should attempt the big switch this morning. That would be, going from ATT to Verizon, after 25 or 30 years at ATT. It’s a big deal. So after we got loses up we went to the Verizon store and started the process.

Turns out, not so difficult but it took an easy 2 hours. We only have 2 of 5 phones with us so he sent me home with several SIM cards for all the tablets and other phones. Besides that they had a lot of things to do that I did not understand. When finally done, we were switched. Though ATT has no idea yet. They are not worth a crap anyway.

After the big change Marika headed back to home and I went to work. Work was thrilling. I did not get there till 130. Turned out I had to leave by 430 to get to Dixon bank to get safe deposit fixed. As mentioned yesterday, the lock broke on my box and the bank did a temporary switch. I had to finish the process and they wanted me in today. I am obliging.

Went home. Went out for dinner. A fine meal, no big deal. Went home. Went to bed.

That’s it. Memory and ability to care are stopping me from memorializing the day. On to the future!

So we have a houseful. That would be daughter and grandkitty in addition to our four fur covered beasts. It’s about as houseful as we get here in the apartment. Soon, we hope, move to new place in Auburn.

Had quick contact with agent. The seller acknowledged getting the offer. Step one. Now I need seller to accept. I’m ready to go.

The weather today is not so great. Gale force winds which brings extreme fire danger. Temps are high, in 70’s. I hate the wind. Auburn is at an elevation that gets very little wind. Yay.

Breakfast was back to usual. Back on track. I have moved to transition which means I get more calories and carbs. Actually all I get is one extra cup of any vegetable every day. But that’s a big change. I get a new add on every week for four weeks. Then I get to eat real meals after that. It’s so awesome.

Marika and I are going to the bank and maybe phone store this morning. Gotta get cash for house downpayment and still trying to unlock all phones. It’s taken two weeks so far. ATT is a bunch of cheating bastards. And not in the good way you are thinking.

Realized I have an appointment in my office at 11. Change plans. Do less now. I called client and moved it a half hour. Should be ok.

Marika and I left the house and went to Starbucks first. Her idea. After that, having realized I forgot my safe deposit key, we split up and she went to get gas and wash and I went home for key. I drove to Em’s bank to make a deposit and then to the bank. Where I met Marika in line to cash checks.

Now the fun starts. We went into the safe deposit area to access each of our boxes. I needed something and she was putting her crap in mine. Save money. This type of action inside a bank really bothers the bankers. Fuck em. We each took seperate cubby rooms to get our box opened and she passed her stuff to me over the wall. See, thats something banks hate. No cameras in here because box contents are protected. No one saw. Then we step out and tell the key gal that she was closing hers and I was returning mine to the vault. Problem, the lock on my box broke sometime after it was opened. It could not be locked. Since my stuff was in it I had to wait while they tried to repair it. 20 minutes. Now I will be late. After 20, one of the three working on it realized the box Marika closed out was available. So my crap went in there. And I was released from hell.

I went to get gas because my light came on. Always when in a hurry. Then went to office. 45 minutes late. Great. Was a new client and a referral so she really was ok with the debacle. We had a speedy conference about her deceased mother’s taxes and she was off. Nice.

Hey, just an aside. Yesterday Marika found the exact chair I was looking for in a consignment shop in Petaluma. And about $500 cheaper than in Restoration Hardware. Deal!! I want it. She called the store today, and called to tell me, they actually order them if you want one. Not really a consignment shop. But I get my chair cheap!!

Next appointment came in on heels of first. Long time client Robert. In the middle of a divorce. Still filing jointly with the ex because she is not an ex yet. We were able to catch up on things and finish one of his past due income tax returns. A good day for him.

After last appointment, nothing. Paperwork. Which you all knew. That never changes. And I can never remember what I did. Boredom does that to you.

So Marika stayed the whole day. I had thought she was leaving today. It’s more fun when she is hone. She called late in the day so I finished up and headed home.

With a refrigerator full of leftovers, Emily decided to have steak. Just like last night. I bbq’d them. They were great but I have lamb, chicken and fish leftover in the fridge. My wife just hates leftovers.

Emily got a migraine so I did all the dinner prep. And after dinner Marika and I went shopping for essentials like dog food and jello.

Now back home we are laying around. Emily is in bed asleep. She is always claiming sickness. Cryer of wolf. Marika is here watching TV. I am not watching, just typing. TV is destructive to the soul. I am going to bed.

147.6 and 149.4. Amazeballs. 151.7 153.4 last week. On the much lauded two scale system. I have reached the Holy Land. Nirvana. Final Destination (not the movie). Yes, I weighed in today and the lead in of this paragraph is current weight. Thank you, I am amazed as well. No, really you are too kind. But, yes I do look fantastic. Thank you. Stop, you’re embarrassing me. Jeesh.

I have been on a diet forever. And that’s how long it took to lose the weight. Lose it twice really. I did spend six weeks in Europe during which I ate and drank what I wanted. And gained 10 lbs. Oh well, sue me.

So, where was I. Oh yeah. Dropped all that weight. So I had a fun size Payday bar for breakfast. And a handful of chocolate covered pretzels. Then a second handful. I was doing all my usual chores while shoving he goodies in. Don’t think I just stood there and ate. I would have but I need to take care of everyone else. After all was done and all fed and coffees and lunch packed I ate some peanut butter cookies. A mans gotta eat. But that was it. I got ready and went to work.

I got all the way to he German bakery, 2 blocks. Stopped and got a pastry. Ok, that’s it. No more junk. Till later. There is a cocktail in my future. Short term future. Tonight.

Made it all the way to work without another junk pitstop. I am strong willed, right?

Worked all day. Again. Boring, isn’t it? Every day it’s wash, rinse, repeat. Sucks had a client stop in to get a tax election prepared and filed. That was a blast. Not. Nice guy. I went to the bank to deposit some checks and it was closed for lunch. They actually close at lunchtime. From 1 – 2. Does anyone know of a bank that does that? I hate them. Flamed them on Yelp. Went back an hour later and they were done eating.

Back to work. I did the dance of the wild realtor. Our agent is getting the offer in today. I had to work with lending to get written pre qual. Done. Had to go back and forth with agent via docu sign to get offer finished. Done. Agent sent it to the other agents broker to take care of. Sellers agent went to New Zealand a couple days ago. But, done. Now we wait. I hope not long. I’m ready to move. In before Christmas, we hope.

Still working here. Funnest part of the day. Because it’s close to quitting time. Of course, I could just get up and leave. I do own this pile of wonderfulness. And a wonderful pile it is. It’s 430. Do a few things and hit the road. Ok. Did nothing. Had a conversation with some employees. Now gonna leave. Happy time!!!

Drive home traffic was bad. Very bad. Slow. And plenty stupid drivers. Which is not new.

Marika called. We had a nice discussion about dinner. Where to go or should we bring home? Or make dinner? Or go out for drinks. Or whatever. We ended up deciding to go to Winters and eat at the Buckhorn. Which seems to always be a good choice. Since today was off diet day o ordered a cocktail. Ate a whole bunch of warm sourdough with butter. Nice. Had a potato with dinner, first one in a year. So filling I couldn’t eat the whole thing. A hunk of halibut and some green beans. Mostly a diet dinner except for the booze and bread. We did not have dessert.

After dinner we walked up the street to Turkovich for our wine club pick up. We got the wine and had a few samples as well. And a taste of the dessert there. I really don’t like their wines but what the hell they are the local winery. We did not stay long. Emily left first, worried about the dogs. We have two cars here. Marika and I left a few minutes later. Drive home from there is under ten minutes.

Time for bad TV and some ice cream. With fudge sauce. Not good ice cream but I don’t care. After all this I gotta get some sleep.

Remember yesterday? Offer day? Well, no offer going in yet. Sellers agent on vacay for 11 more days. 11 more days of torture and waiting which are the same. 11 more days of worry we won’t get the house. 11 more days of worry we will get the house. 11 more agonizing days of being unsure of everything. 11 more days of looking at listings “just in case” even though I don’t want to look. I have picked the girl. Now time to dance with her. I hate how this is working out.

Woke up an hour early, daylight savings crap, again this morning. Laid awake listening to the dogs snore, the cat snapper, the wife snore, the clock tick, damn this place is noisy. Finally got up. Screw it.

Does everyone know what happens in my morning already? Good. No need for a repeat story now. One new thing, I used the new “bread” to make Emily’s lunch. It’s made with cauliflower so it’s basically a zero carb alternative to bread. We have been making our own for at least a year. Including making pizza size cauliflower crust. For homemade pizza. And, just gotta day, cauliflower bread is better than any crust or bread. Seems weird but I say you gotta try it before you reject it out of hand. Especially the pizza. It’s shockingly good. So, back to where I was, Emily got a bbq chicken sandwich on cauliflower bread. I will wait for end of day for the report.

Emily is out of the house to work. I have been working (texts, emails, etc) and now getting blog started. Very important to blog while all is fresh in the head. My brain goes stale quickly. I am not sure if that’s good or bad. May be neither. But, fresh is good for displaying my my lack of knowledge and ignorance in greater detail. That’s important.

Time to review emails on the computer, accounts I don’t access with my phone. I do this so I can tell people hey I don’t have access to email, when they call. Gives me an excuse to ignore them and not do work when I’m out and about. That’s a good thing.

Hey something funny just happened. I jumped up to unstick Roomba from a corner. Not that. But my right foot had gone to sleep while sitting and I didn’t notice. So I managed to go splat in a rather painful way when I attempted my first step. Left tripped on dead right foot and bang. Nothing broken. Left big toe in some pain. What fun. I would say be more careful but who knew that could happen?

Off to shower and get ready. Ok, I’m ready. Off to work. What fun. Another day at work. I love my work. If by love you mean dislike.

Spent my day…. working. Surprise. I did get a call from a client who wanted to meet up at end of day to go over the tax plan his dad had setup. He has been trying to finish up the plan. Requires specialized insurance. His dad hired an idiot who placed him in an unworkable policy, plan-wise. Not sure what we need to talk about. Except the insurance, which is a thinly funded term policy and total crap. But gives the agent a big commission. Not such an idiot.

So anyway, worked all day. Then came The Meeting. Which was an interesting event. Frank, the patriarch, whose health is failing, used his walker to arrive. He has lost 30 lbs. His middle aged son who is taking over the business. Me. Hal my associate in charge of all things insurance. And the idiot insurance agent Frank hired, Steve Bertino. Moron.

Thanks to Steve we basically had a 45 minute brawl over why Steve the idiots policy choice is not workable. What fun. Steve yelled a lot. I did not add to the heat and stayed quiet. Or spoke quietly. Frank sat and did not move or talk. Hal tried in vain to get Steve to not be stupid. I could see that was pointless. So with nothing really finalized, we adjourned. And I went to the carniceria. Which is a good end to a bad day. Arrachera combo, costillos con nopales.

Also had a chance to call our agent. She is working the other agent problem. Other being still out of town. She made valiant attempts to contact her. Tomorrow she goes to the broker to get this thing moving. Yay. In new house by Christmas.

Now I sit here, days end, typing. And watching anything but election results. Mostly reruns of bad comedy. Election results are worthless. And they annoy me. Obviously Emily too. So we get Tim Allen on TV. Which is funny.

So I blog and watch TV. Seems fine. Gonna go to bed soon. None of these things annoy me. Happy things.

I have a daylight savings hangover. I woke at 4am and could not sleep. I fell asleep again just before the alarm went off. Love it.

This morning lots goin down. Not just breakfast. I have a dr appointment at 830, and it’s a 20 mile drive. You know what that means. It means I will be driving very fast if I am not out the door by 8am. Even then, I will need to make good time (speed).

Well, go figure. I was done with all morning duties by quarter after 7. I can be fast. Went to shower. Got dressed. Ate brekkies. And, wait for it, left by 8am. I am surprised too.

I made Davis and the dr office with two minutes to spare. I need to buy a lottery ticket, I think.

Dr Thomson was in fine form. And we had a nice chat about things happening, as we always do. I got to keep everyone Up to date, including the doc. He does not read my blog at least as far as I know.

After the doc, I drove down Russell Blvd, toward 113. I stopped at the University Mall and parked. At which point I made three overlong phone calls. One to my agent, Kary for an update. We are still on for offer, but now at least she has all info. Then on the horn to Karstin, the loan broker of all brokers. My go to gal for the last twenty years. Trust her with my life. And she already has the loan package ready. I sent it last night. I love her. She can make anything work, almost. If she says it’s gonna happen it happens. She amazes. And she is super hot and blonde. That’s not important but damn, is she blessed or what? Last call, to Dad, to discuss what’s going on. He has to be up to date too. He may live here one day.

Into the breech, walked the one, to Starbucks. Large ice coffee, room for cream. In Starbuckese that obviously meant don’t leave any room for anything. Cuz thats what I got. But I can deal. They can’t make me cry, did the usual and dumped some in the garbage. Don’t you wonder how full those cans get? I saw three more dumps while I was doctoring mine. Or maybe a new drink, garbage can brew. Sounds yummy.

Back to the bat car, and off, except not, made two more calls. Then off. To the office. I got there very early and no one noticed. Something special happened and no one takes the time to care. Normal.

Today I have no appointments until the end of the day. So I just work all day. Doing what you may ask? Well, I am asking the same question. It’s 9 pm and I have already forgotten what I accomplished. Sad. Except for a couple things.

Associate Hal stopped by. What e went over the clients plan we are working on at this moment. I had to call the attorney. I also got a call from them, totally unrelated to mine. Funny lots of things are coming up. Mostly since client is paying the attorney the $60k in legal fees that kicks this all off, tomorrow. Which means I get paid for my plan design services as well. Not $60k. Not hardly. But I get fees.

Best news of all, I got two brand new iPhone XRs from Hal. He has a friend that gets them cheap and I got worked into that plan as well. Nice. When we switch providers in a week, I will be using the new phone. Should be a blast. My old i6 is a POS. This is looking like a good day.

At 5, client Greg finally showed. He drives in from SF every day and gets to town late. He got here at 430. I had to reprocess his tax return to a paper file since his wife lost her efile PIN and can’t manage to call the irs and get a new one. They can’t efile without it. Pain in the ass clients. And he’s a Dodger fan. Loser. Oh, wait, Dodgers are losers so their fans are too. Lol.

We also discussed the insurance policy his dad is trying to put in place on his tax plan. Against our advice. He is going to send me an illustration later tonight. Seems dad did not want to pay the price necessary, for him too high, for the required policy needed to complete the tax plan. Instead he hired a complete moron to get him insurance. I have little faith in his guy to get it done correctly. Not all insurance policies are the same. We parted company after trading insults about our favorite baseball teams.

I finished up some work quickly and headed home. This time remembering all the things I was sposed to take with me. Traffic was light and I again made good time.

Emily had dinner ready by the time I arrived. Nice. This is why I married her. And she’s hot. Another good reason. She chopped some of the left over lamb, respiced it and fried it warm. Made a tzatziki sauce and put it in pitas for dinner. I also had some of the lamb on the side. Very good. Friend Cissie showed us this recipe. She makes it better but this was good.

Not much doing after dinner. Bad TV. Emily went to bed before nine and I shut the TV off. So quiet, so nice. I finished up blogging. Had some cherry jello. Put up with the cat being in my face. A pleasant evening.

Time for bed children.

On Tuesday California gets to vote on whether to get rid of daylight savings time. I already voted absentee. I said get rid of it. I hate the way they screw with my circadian rhythms. Government can not control time.

Today, Sunday, is the day the hour back hits. That’s because last night we turned the clock back. It doesn’t do much for you the night before.

So, Sunday morning, we are heading up the hill, yet again, to see another house. Even though we already have one we want to make an offer on. Our agent came up with this new one she thought was so spectacular we had to see it.

The arm went off at 630, the appointed hour to get out of bed. Emily realized first, we forgot to move the clock back. We get another hour sleep! No, I am not sorry for my vote.

I couldn’t sleep anyway. Extra hour be damned.

We managed to get up, get ready, get our crap in the car and get to Auburn in time to view the other house. I am amazed.

The other house. Agent advertised this one as better in all respects over the one we chose to make an offer on. It’s also almost $200K more. So I want to see $200K more on the amenities. We spent an hour going through the new prospect. The kitchen, as advertised, was amazing. The best part of the house. The rest of the house, good to very good. There was a very nice pool. With the usual nice concrete decking and outdoor area for grilling. Nice but not excellent. There was a barn which with some improvements could hold three cars and maybe two workshops. And that’s it. I see it as $200k for a pool and a slightly nicer kitchen.

So we made the big decision. Stick with Ellen Ct and make an offer. Should go in to the seller tomorrow. Of course, her agent is on vacay so it could be a week before we get a response. We like the house, and seller pulled it off the market. She made an exception for us. Seems positive.

We discussed with agent and headed down the hill. Again. We had decided in advance to do a little shopping on the way home. Advent is upon us and we would prefer being ready for it rather than the alternative. So we stopped at a couple different stores and found a few things. Nothing crazy but we are now a few days into advent so we were able to buy a few days.

For those of you unfamiliar with advent, you get a small gift every day of December leading up to Christmas. So twenty four gifts. We do this for the kids and each other. And it’s plenty of work. And you have to be done by the first of December, at the least. So em and I both spend a lot of time each year on this. We are crazy, as you have already ascertained.

After the stops in Rocklin? we toodled on toward home. The siren song of shopping would not quit. So we stopped in Woodland for our weekly grocery stop. Why Woodland? It was on the way home. Nothing special, just convenient.

Back home, the big unload. Then I cranked up the bbq and got the leg of lamb ready. Dropped it on the grill at about 250 with some hickory smoke. Should be ready in 3 hours.

Over the next three hours we sat around. By that I mean Emily cleaned the house and I did laundry. And washed my car. Watched a little good TV (and you thought it was always bad) and that’s about it.

Dinner was excellent. A bottle of Pinot, some spicy curry cauliflower and the lanb. Just great. Now we sit and watch the awful TV portion of the evening. It comes by every night. Kinda sad.