I keep a spreadsheet with my various accounts and passwords and sometimes I even remember to update it! But I know what you mean. Luckily, I have several go-to words that are obscure enough to be pretty secure. And sometimes I use the all-vowels-are-CAPS trick.
FCD just came home - off to find out what’s going on with him.
Time for me to drag myself off to do some more adulting to straighten out the mess caused by the fraudulent charge on one of my accounts. Got the change reversed but had to close that card, order a new card with a different number, now must watch the mail like a hawk for the new card to arrive.
The icky, oh-so-annoying part I’m dreading is having to redo all the auto-bill pays that were on that account. I had semi-intentionally put the piddling little ones there like Apple monthly charges for extra storage, Netflix, Paramount+ streaming, etc and now those need dealing with. Always such a joy with automated ‘customer service’. Somehow screaming into the phone “human being” never seems to get me to the right dept. grrrrr….
I have 6 days to straighten this out before my mortgage payment better be there to be paid out automatically
It doesn’t help that I can’t figure out how the card got comprised in the first place. Skimmed a week ago when I bought gas? The clerk at the drive through window when my grand daughter and I got ice cream cones on the way home from school? Some hacker/phisher 3 continents away just stringing together random account numbers and trying their luck?
If it is a card skimmer at a gas station I’ll have to start carrying $60 bucks in cash all the time and walking in and leaving that with the clerk, walking back out to pump the gas, walking back in to get the change, walking back out to the car, all while dragging a portable oxygen concentrator and trailing oxygen tubing. Such fun in the Midwestern winters.
The last da*n thing I want to do is change all the passwords on everything. I can barely struggle through user names and passwords as it is.
I need a butler.
Thank you for listening to my cranky TED talk.
Now let’s get down to building some Southern flying squirrel nesting boxes for our yards-we all deserve some fun. Especially fluorescent pink flying fun.
last night the cats got a bathroom update. both cats got new littler boxes. they have been anointed so all is well.
lager’s is a bit too big so i will have to get him another one. i got a triangle shaped one for him as it fits in a corner. it bumps up against the water heater and i really don’t want him to wee on that.
koritza got a new planter litter container. https://www.coziwow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CW12U0644zt-Paco2000x20007.jpg
her’s goes on top of a bookcase so lager can’t attack her while she goes.
they also got a nice new stainless steel water fountain. both approved that.
lager ended up in time out 3 times last night. poor dude. he is acting out about the vet visit. hopefully he won’t have to go back too soon.
jtc, love the pic of gg and jolene. that pic really tells the story. gg looks like he is saying “my girl” jolene looks like she is saying “all mine, everything is all mine”.
welcome home, angel of the lord!
Reasonable heaving, apart from Dispatch adding 3 routes to 100 North at like 0600. I did my Senior Day shopping, got beer, coffee beans, and a bag of used apples. I bought a bottle of shampoo, which should last me 2-3 years. Good thing, because it’s increasingly hard to find one that doesn’t make my head smell like a fruit bat puked on it.
Is that the British version of “herding cats”?
“I identify with betta fish, because I am also beautiful and want to fight everyone.”
< waves from N.C. >
Read much, retained little - but I did want to drop in to say hi since I’ve been largely absent.
I did not get the job I’d applied for earlier, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. After the interviews I went through, I had seriously considered rescinding my application; as luck would have it, I didn’t have to.
Not a ton else going on in overlyworld, though I did complete a walking half marathon over the weekend, which was fun. My daughter is somehow being scouted for volleyball clubs and our workplace has begun the dreaded Big Brother Badge Swipe Monitoring to “help managers encourage employees to understand the importance of purposeful presence.” What was funny was this was communicated to us by a bunch of senior leadership on video from their home offices. Asshats. Oh, well - I can kick and scream but I like money, so I shall comply.
Anyways, I hope all is well for all the Dopers - hugs to all of you who need them.
BTDT at least 3 times, and it doth sucketh mightily! I finally got smart and made a list of the accounts and when they’re due, just in case there was a gap between due date and getting the new card. I’d just substitute my debit card to cover it, then put it on the new account when I got it. Yeah, I’m a pro at that crap! 
We’re pretty sure that’s where 2 of ours were taken - we were on the road, not at our regular stations. But who knows - thieves are sneaky bastards.
I do so hate scented products - especially laundry products. Whatever it is they use, it certainly doesn’t smell like a mountain breeze to me! I stick with perfume-free, dye-free detergents. And we use Pantene shampoo - it doesn’t seem to be perfumed.
FCD came home early so I did some erranding. Then I had lunch. Now, finally, I’ll get back to my crocheting. I hope. Lots can happen between this desk and my recliner… 
Really been enjoying the fall weather on my walks. Google Maps says I’m going 1.2 miles. It’s a bit more than that, actually. Hoping to keep this up until snowy sidewalks make it too difficult.
Cheesy croissant sandwiches this morning.
Helped a woman down the hall with her heat. I heard her complaining to someone on the elevator that she was “dying” in there and her dog was sick. When I walked it, it must have been 95F in there. She didn’t understand how the heating system works here, a problem that a lot of people seem to have. It’s a single loop system, which means you either have heat or you have AC, but you can’t have both. She had her thermostat turned up to max and her fan set to high. Also, she couldn’t open the window because of expansion, swelling, etc. So I shut off her heat and wrestled the window open. She was practically in tears.
Too late to edit, so here I am again.
I’m looking for a good garlic butter recipe. I figure someone here would be willing to share. Googling yields way too many, very different recipes. I was just going to mix garlic powder with butter, but that doesn’t seem right. So I turn to my fellow Mumpers for guidance.
Thanks!
Pretty much it. Just make sure your garlic powder isn’t five years old. If you want a fresher taste, then use a garlic press with fresh garlic. I’d also add herbs of some sort, like chopped parsley or cilantro. After you mix everything together, lay down a sheet of cling wrap, form the butter into a log and refrigerate it. I know this isn’t at all specific, but tastes differ. Experiment with smaller amounts to figure our what you like.
Well, I got the fluorescent bulbs out of the fixture, turned them into the Home Depot (the service desk said they didn’t take them, but one of the floor guys caught me and took them to the back). Bought the news ones and…after 40 minutes and two tutorials on-line I still can’t get them to fit in the sockets and I’ve contacted Handyman Services because I’d rather spend $60-80 now than wreck things and pay a lot more later. So kitchen will be a dark place for awhile… Did get the dishwasher underway so that much has been accomplished.
cookie, good on ya for helping a person in need; of course, if the word gets around you may have more ‘customers’.
BBBoo, you and FCM got me to check my cards just now (all good).
talkie, best wishes to daughter and to you for the 13+ mile walk.
And just waiting for the Handyman to call back.
Are they bulbs or tubes? Some modern bulbs are bi-pins with a locking feature to keep them in place. Tubes are usually single or double pin, and can be a PITA to put in if you’re not experienced at it.
Awww…I can probably use some of Spot’s supervision too if the two of you are a package deal. Plus your cocktail mixing skilz of course.
@calling our @swampbear and @purplehorseshoe. In my garlic bread making days I cheated-softened some butter and mixed in a heaping spoon of that already peeled and minced tiny garlic you can buy cheaply in a little jar at the grocery store. Spread that on good, crusty bread sliced thick and into the oven. The good, crusty bread sliced thick is important, as is real butter and slather it on. Some people also add shredded cheese but my mother’s people are rock-ribbed Congregationalists out of Portland Maine and they didn’t go in for that kind of frivolous frippery. Me? I’m just lazy about peeling and mincing real garlic and I’m happy to get it out of a little jar or tube.
That’s the item and it is a PITA.
It was one of my least favorite chores as an electrician.
You can fight it!
So… Have you had this happen before?
Congratulations! That’s my dream to do someday.
That was so nice of you!
I am back from seeing the ortho guy. First of all, let me say that he was absolutely wonderful. He was compassionate, caring, and thorough in his explanations. Unfortunately, given when he said, I’m not sure why I’ve been given all of this run around. In plain terms, my knee is bone on bone. My weight is too high to safely replace my knee. There are no kinds of effective shots that can be done because I am bipolar. Going on a ‘diet’ is not a magic fix that is easily done. Because I have BED, dieting is contraindicated. Where does this leave me? I’m not sure yet. I am going to try a compounded version of a GLP-1 and see what happens there. Otherwise, I just don’t know yet.
Within a few seconds of me seeing the fraudulent charge on my screen I thought of you. I recognized the signs from your tales of having it happen to you. An “oh, sh*t, now it’s happening to me, too!” may have slipped out.
If mine was card skimming it happened in town at a gas station. I haven’t used an ATM in years. I just won’t go back to that gas station again, that’s for sure.
At least I knew what to do after reading FCM’s experiences and yes, they are nasty, sneaky bastards.
Sound like she is one of those folks who believe that if they set thermostat to 90 instead of 72 it will get warmer faster. IME those folks never learn.
My thermostat is a digital one, new with my furnace replacement a year ago, just the most basic Honeywell. I have to juggle between heat, cool or off, I can’t just set a desired temperature and the system will make it so. Some days, like now, I’m flipping back forth in the course of a single day, heat, off, cool, off, then back to heat at night. All on a little digital screen, with little poorly labeled buttons, on a box mounted a little too high on the wall by a workman who was almost a foot taller than me, so a little step stool has to be used for each of those flips heat-cool-off-low-high-auto fan.
I have wrestled with fluorescents like that at my previous house. Yikes! If 2 were burned out I learned to buy at least three because I would inevitably break at least one trying to put them in. I’m glad I don’t have any in my current house but then I barely have electricity in this house. I sure do love the new LED lightbulbs in my few ceiling fixtures though-they last forever once in, cost so much less to run and it’s years before I have to haul the stepladder out to replace them. In fact I think my children have declared that I’m no longer allowed on stepladders but so far so good. Plus what my bossy kids don’t see or hear about doesn’t worry them. The LED bulbs cost a bit more but worth every penny.
We went down to Westport Monday, to see the lighthouse. Unfortunately it was closed for the season. We went into the port proper, stopping at the Blue Buoy restaurant. The Spousal Unit ordered a Dungeness crab-and-cheddar melt, and I had a Dungeness crab-and-cheddar omelette, plus four sausage links. Prices for the crab dishes were not on the menu. We did see a clear plastic standing frame at the end of the table after we ordered. The omelette was $29. 
I don’t know how much the sandwich was, but the total with two coffees came to over $75.
After eating, we looked through the candy/gift shop next door. Mrs. L.A. got the biggest chocolate ‘turtle’ I’ve ever seen. We went out to the museum, but it wasn’t open. They did have whale skeletons behind glass outside, though. We walked out onto the docs and I shot some 35mm colour film of a gang of sea lions hanging out on them. I hope the film turns out.
Tuesday we stayed close, going down to Pacific Beach State Park to look for sand dollars. Didn’t find any. (Did I already say that? I think so. Anyway…) We drove around looking at houses, went to a pizza place, and made an early day.
Yesterday we headed up to Neah Bay to see the Cape Flatter Light. Long-ass drive. We drove through Forks, but we didn’t see any vampires. We did see a sign styled after a forest fire danger sign that said ‘Vampire Threat Level’, and the pointer was pointing to ‘High’. Along the way north, we saw the Destruction Island Light and I tried to get a shot of it. Wish I had a longer zoom.
We made it up to Neah Bay and got dinged $20 to see the lighthouse because the trail is on Makah Nation land and our Discover Pass doesn’t work there. I thought we’d drive up to a parking area and go into the lightnbouse. Wrong. There was a rather strenuous trail to get out there – especially with my knees. Turns out the lighthouse is on an island, and the tower was half hidden by trees. Oh, well. At least I made it.
Today is another lazy day. No idea what we’re doing. We’re going home tomorrow morning, so we’ll be back with the cats in the evening. 
Got my flu shot 2 hours ago and my arm is already hurting. Can’t raise it past shoulder level. Oh well, it will be fine tomorrow. Sadly, it seems Ursala Kitteh’s UTI isn’t fully gone. We have to deal with pills again.
for you and Ursala
Good on you for getting that flu shot too!
Acquisitions have been, uh, acquired, and Monkey’s 
box cleaned. In between …
… I did achieve an hour or two of strange dreams. Y’all will SO hear about the giant order (maybe … that’s Long Night, so no real promises once I get home; I may crash immediately, or be up for hours) and since I’ve slept under the blankies & they seemed fine, and I’m currently wearing the bathrobe that was in with them - I need to get going within half an hour but am not quite emotionally ready for pants - and all seems well in that dept.
Is it password protected?
Say (not yell) “customer service.” You may hafta repeat yourself, but - depending on how their phone tree is set up - they may patch you through.
That’s a recipe for a very expensive and painful fall.
I’d get a rechargeable swipeable-at-the-pump gift card you can load up with as much - or as little - as you need.
I think VISA has those?
When people ask why I prefer sweating my ass off in a pizza kitchen instead of going back to the relatively fancier office jobs I used to be qualified for (some of my skillz have rusted and/or been replaced) I think about crap like this.
Detergent was one of the “really need to stop putting off” purchases, and the level of fake nauseous scent to “we charge more for NOT putting in more chemicals!” was … dismal.
The whole aisle smelled like artificial scents and petrochemicals. How people associate that shit with “cleanliness” is beyond me.
She had the heat turned up but didn’t know why it was too warm in her home?
Nice of ya to help.
Definitely use fresh powder, and as far as herbs, I recommend … no, not that … was gonna say chives. The onion-y-ness compliments the garlic.
Time for an ostentatious candelabra!
This (or the squeeze stuff in a tube) is also good.
Well … shit.
Alright, time to yank on pants and do it all again. At least I don’t hafta budget Wally World time, and even have a pair of fresh chicken pinwheel sandwich wrap thingies to bring with me - probably one for today & one for tomorrow, knowing me.
S.M. and usual backup manager are both off today, so we have backup-backup in charge.
She’s perfectly capable, but she’s elderly and doesn’t move that fast.
I understand, but there’s often a bit more propping-up to do, if that makes sense.
Usual backup manager has the energy of an ADHD squirrel but can (usually) keep it focused, meaning tasks get done often before I even notice they need doin’ .. and S.M. runs that shit like a well-oiled engine.
Sigh. It’s gonna be a late close.
