Friday, April 20 - Massachusetts

Good evening, friends! Short post tonight so you do not think I fell off the face of the earth.

Last week was very busy, as will be the next few. I have a lot of balls in the air :)

Last Saturday I went into Boston with a friend to see the play "Shear Madness". Wow! What a riot!! Performed at the Charles Playhouse, a smallish venue. The play is a drama / murder mystery in which the audience participates. We had so much fun and laughed so hard that night. My face actually hurt from laughing so much! Loved it! We had the perfect seats - second row center stage.

Stage

Met up with my beloved sister Tuesday to visit a mutual friend who is quite ill. That was an... experience. She and I went to lunch after and split an awesome pizza (thin crust!). We needed that. And - sister time is the best :)





Chatting via text the next few days started me thinking about several things, but what bubbled up in my mind was solitude. My sister is a go/go/go type; always doing, always moving. She loves to host & plan parties. She is a lot faster than I, in more ways than one! Nothing wrong with that. I am more of a thinker I guess. Too many people, too much chatter and - yes, I will ghost.

As mentioned before, we are opposites, my sister & I. She loves to entertain. I love my solitude.

More to come this week!

Thursday, April 12 - Massachusetts

Good afternoon intrepid followers! Short-ish post today.

I am pleased to report the microwave I purchased last week was not defective after all. It turns out I was the defective one, not taking the instruction manual literally. Silly me, thinking the bullet points for the "function" buttons were just that: button A does this, button B does that. Nope. It was a "how to" written in order.

Apparently people need instructions written on a fifth-grade level now. I obviously did not pass THAT test as I must have been confused. All is well now, however :)

Still was not feeling well at the end of last/beginning of this week. I will spare you the details.

My little house is being painted inside, and I am so pleased!! The grey I chose for the Living Room has opened it up already, making it so much lighter and brigher. What a difference it has made! Here are some pix of the work in progress.

Living Room Before

Living Room After

I cannot wait until it is complete. In the meantime my abode is disrupted, of course. Moving furniture etc. out of the way for painting. Nowhere near as disrupted as it was last year at this time with all the boxes!!

Living Room After

In Progress - What a difference!

Besides the two different greys for the LR and kitchen (Bunny Gray & Iceberg, respectively), I chose the color for my laundry area and my bathroom. "Deco Rose" to cover the bubblegum pink. My Brother has expressed his dislike on that choice more than once. Here is a sample swatch. I am loving on this.

Deco Rose

As I have reminded him, more than once, this is my house and he is not entitled to input on colors! After this is done I need to tackle the bedroom. Currently it is a(nother) weird shade of green, albeit not as jarring as what was in the front rooms. I want a nice warming yellow :)

Painting continues. Garden work is also happening. My neighbor is helping me straighten out my gardens and set them to right. She and I will talk tomorrow. I have some ideas. It is the execution I need assistance with.

Tuesday, April 2 - Massachusetts

It is with heavy heart I post this evening. Yet another favored appliance has bit the dust.

My microwave chose a most inopportune moment to die. Sunday night, when I like to snug in bed early with HGTV and a nice warm dinner.

The microwave did not give even a hint of going bad.

Dead microwave

I am one small person. Thus when I cook, I make enough for about a week. I put the rest in containers to be MICROWAVED during the week. Supplemented by frozen dinners every few days to mix it up. All of this requires a working microwave oven.

Alas - it was not meant to be. The other night it just up and quit on me.

Me being me, I would have expected sparks or snaps or SOMEthing. Nope. This one just simply... quietly....  quit working. No warning.

In its favor, this WAS one of the longest-lasting microwaves I have owned. We actually bonded. I was hoping for another few good years. Not meant to be.

Today I made my way to Walmart for a replacement. I had done my due diligence with Consumer Reports, and was confident in my purchase. Only to discover upon unpacking and testing it that half the buttons on the unit I bought do not work.

I like the microwave; I am NOT happy with a faulty unit. (Another 'bad checkmark' for Walmart.) This is why I save receipts.

It will serve for a few days (the main buttons work) until my most awesome brother rescues me once again.

I have left a very long trail of appliances gone bad! Story of my life, but I do not consider it entirely my fault.

I have a theory about some of this. (I believe in conspiracy theories; they are prevelant).

And --- I do have pics of my living room and kitchen finally changing color which I will share shortly :)