-
Happy New Year
Here we are a week into the new year and I thought an update was in order. December was a busy month as always.
On the first, the Scientist turned sixty and I took him to Penguin Island to see the little penguins, also called fairy penguins. We had a tour booked and it takes a bit over an hour to reach the launch point so drove down early on his birthday. The actual island does have lots of little penguins that come to shore at night but we saw none in the wild during the day. We did see the penguins that have had injuries or are old and live in captivity instead. They were pretty beautiful. I still find myself amazed to find penguins living in our climate since I always thought of them as being only from the cold environment of the Antarctic.
We stayed in a hotel nearby for two nights as a little getaway and had a lovely time. The second day we spent in Mandurah trying to find the giants that were created by the Danish artist, Thomas Dambo. There are six of them and one is located in Perth. We found three of them and tried really hard to reach a fourth one but took a wrong turn and missed out. This was the last one we tried and we were too tired to go back even once we realised our mistake. Our plan is to go back sometime during the year and finish up. The fifth one is meant to be discovered using clues from the other five. The giant in Perth we will see before our next visit to Mandurah. Sadly, some nasty piece of work, or perhaps nasty pieces of work burned one of the giants last month. We had already seen this one but it just makes me mad that someone would do such a thing. They plan to rebuild that one but I don’t know when that might happen.
I’ve never been on top of things when it comes to Christmas baking and usually, we’re doing some sort of cookies on Christmas Eve along with a bunch of other things. This year I started earlier and I baked quite a few treats. The first thing I did was Christmas M&M cookie bars and those came out quite well but were seriously too sweet. Still, they were well-liked by the boys and I ended up doing a second batch on Christmas Eve (which turned out a bit dry and wasn’t as good). I also tried making German lebkuchen which is a first for me. We’ve done gingerbread many times but this is a treat I remember enjoying on my visit to Nurnberg, Germany where they originated. I remember loving them and taking a bunch with me on the train ride away from there. I didn’t have any other food and I got thoroughly sick of them before I finished them. Still, I have a good memory of them. The ones I made came out okay but not as nice as the original ones. There’s dried fruit in them and I wish I had blitzed it in the food processor to make a smoother batter. I just didn’t like the texture of the pieces of fruit in them. I didn’t even realise that was a part of them until I found recipes. The glaze was okay but didn’t dry hard as I wanted. I found some store-bought ones after Christmas that had chocolate on the base and I had forgotten that. But I might try them again next year.
I also tried making shortbread and that mostly worked aside from the fact one tray got slightly scorched. They were really easy to make so I plan to try them again. I also tried making Danish butter cookies as Lego Lover likes to get the ones from the store. The batter was quite easy to make but we didn’t have a piping bag that fit the nozzle and so we were using an itty bitty one for making cookies. It was hard to do much with the tiny nozzle and the cookies were a bit thinner than they should have been. I’m not sure if I will try them again, mostly because Lego Lover didn’t seem to be interested in them. That said the taste seemed about right. I’m not a big fan of either of these as they are so rich but was glad the mixing of them turned out to be so easy.
I also found a recipe for Polish gingerbread cookies which I had not heard of before. Apparently, they are quite a big thing in the city where they originate in Poland. I made dough for these many days before Christmas, which the recipe says to leave out for at least a night or two before rolling out. I assume this is with the expectation that the weather is cool or cold so I didn’t do this but put it in the refrigerator instead. We had too many things by Christmas Eve so I didn’t bake them on Christmas, saving them for later. Instead, I made them after New Year’s Day and they came out pretty well. The best thing about them was the Scientist didn’t find them too sweet and was able to help me eat them. They are supposed to be glazed but I opted to have them plain. They were a bit dry but otherwise quite nice and not too strong with ginger like some tend to be. I cooked all these cookies in our air fryer/little oven and it was quite easy to do with the short cooking time coinciding with the time it took to roll out more cookies.
Lego Lover had his 24th birthday during this time and it mostly went okay. The main hiccup happened when one of our dogs leapt onto a couple of raisins that accidentally fell on the floor and we had to take him to the vet in the midst of the celebrations. Not that we were doing a lot that day but it was more about time than anything. The dog was fine and Lego Lover did enjoy his presents, cake and food. My MIL had made some pancake rolls filled with a meat mixture that he likes and he also had one of his favorite curries, beef rendang, for dinner. I also made waffles earlier in the day, which he thoroughly enjoyed. This is the first time for making them on his birthday. Overall he was pretty happy with things although he had some mental health issues pop up that night, as often happens on the day.
Christmas Eve went better than usual this year and I finished all the cooking I had quite early (for me). I found a better way to make my usual veggie patties and it made things easier. I also cooked them in the air fryer which made a huge difference in time and heat in the kitchen. They cooked better and took far less time plus the lack of massive heat was a major plus. We watched Carols by Candlelight on tv, which is a yearly tradition and then we drove around looking at Christmas lights once it got dark around 8:30pm. This year we found quite a few more houses decorated than in recent years and didn’t have to travel far to find them. In fact, several lovely displays were right here in Ballajura. Once home, we watched the carols again and went to bed once they finished.
Christmas Day started early as we went to the usual Christmas breakfast held by family friends. There were quite a few people this year compared to last year. The breakfast is a traditional Sri Lankan Burgher one with breudhar (a sort of fruit bread baked in a tin shaped like a bundt cake), edam cheese and bananas plus love cake and, meringues and Sri Lankan Christmas cake. I don’t suppose this tradition will continue for too many more years as the hosts are getting older and won’t be able to carry on for too many more years. Also, the numbers are rapidly decreasing in this crowd. People don’t hang around too long at the breakfast and soon we are back home with the boys (who haven’t attended in many years).
Since most of the preparations have been done ahead of time, most of the work today is tidying up and preparing the patio for people to be here. The Scientist cooked roast beef and a turkey on our Weber kettle and Weber Q grills, which kept the kitchen a lot cooler. We were able to relax more than usual on the day. The dinner itself was nice with the food we provided and salads by others rounding out the day. Also, we had two desserts but they were both smaller which made it easier to finish. Plus a yule log that was brought unexpectedly and which was eaten only by me (slowly over many days). After dinner, we did family games inside. The Scientist and I had bought the Songpop Party game on Nintendo Switch earlier and had that set up to play. There were a few glitches with the phones added for play at times but it mostly worked and we had some fun trying to pick out songs. Then we had a board game called Decrpto that turned out to be great and even engaged one of the family who doesn’t usually actively play. We had another game purchased to play but there wasn’t time. I assume we will try that out with some of our game-playing friends. We got them at the most local game shop which is next door to the bike shop where I was getting a new tube for my bike tire that had gone flat last year. The boys aren’t big on the crowds on Christmas so were relieved when we had the house to ourselves after everyone left. That’s always a tricky part of the day for me. I like getting together with everyone but knowing how hard it is for the boys doesn’t make it easy. The family that attend is down to a minimum so hopefully, we can reach a good balance in the future.
I will also mention that Christmas is also the Scientist’s younger brother’s birthday so we did have a little celebration for that in the midst of the Christmas stuff. We almost forgot to do the cake and everyone was full but got that in just as everyone was leaving.
The Boxing Day to the eve of the NYE period was pretty low-key. There was a cricket match to watch on tv and we all had our own things to do. New Year’s Eve followed our usual routine of doing our own thing most of the evening and then getting together for the last couple of hours with chips and dip and special fizzy apple and grape drinks to celebrate. We heard lots of fireworks going off earlier in the evening but didn’t see anything. It was enough to bother the dogs just a bit. Midnight came and went and then we were off to bed and it was a near year.
Well, I think I’ve written quite a tome here but wanted to cover a lot of material in this post.
-
Awkwardness
While I was on my holiday in the US, I did a road trip and visited various friends and family along the way. This particular story relates to a visit I had while in Pennsylvania.
I spent three nights in Pennsylvania with my aunt and her husband and during that time I had a visit from my cousin. Actually, it’s my mom’s cousin but she is my age. We grew up calling her a second cousin but I’m not too clear if that’s the right terminology. My grandmother had eight younger brothers and sisters. This cousin is the daughter of the second youngest brother.
My cousin K and I made arrangements for her to visit me at my aunt’s house one afternoon. She came there with her partner, much like she did the last time I saw her. We had a pretty nice visit while there and caught up on a few things in the family. It was going okay until we started discussing her brothers. One of her brothers had been in the hospital at the time with issues that hadn’t been diagnosed at the time. We talked a bit about that and suddenly she decided to phone him and put him on to speak with me. This is where it gets awkward because I have seen cousin K2 since we were children, maybe teenagers at the oldest. There’s another brother, my cousin, K3 that is pretty much the same. So there’s nothing quite like speaking to a virtual stranger for a few minutes. We did exchange a few words and I wished him better health and all that. But it was super difficult.
My cousin K and I spoke a bit more and then she decided I needed to speak to her other brother and put me on to him too. Another awkward conversation followed. It was slightly less awkward since he wasn’t in the hospital but it was a strange conversation.
I love my cousin but I guess this is part of her character and she is totally clueless about the situation she put us in. My guess is the brothers have been put in this situation many times before.
Fast-forward a few months and I see my cousin has posted on her Facebook account that her brother has lung and brain cancer. :( She and I aren’t close but I was watching for an update on her brother. I had kind of thought that whatever issue that had existed had resolved. Apparently not. I can’t imagine a double diagnosis like that has even a hopeful prognosis. I know brain cancer is particularly difficult to treat in a lot of patients. Knowing that he is unlikely to survive this makes me really sad. And partly sad for the fact I don’t really know him. Not that it’s possible to know all those in your family, especially when there are large families involved.
A couple of days after that post, she posted her other brother had gotten married. She also put up a bunch of photos of the bride and groom. Mostly there were photos of the bride’s family. There was one with my cousin and her brother with his bride and one of her partner, I think (It was a blurry photo). All the rest were of the bride’s family and friends. Maybe my aunt and uncle weren’t there due to the health issues of the other brother? I think this was the cousin’s first marriage and I hope it’s a happy and long-lasting marriage.
-
Uncertainty
It was announced on Thursday that our state borders won’t be opening on February fifth after all. I’m not terribly surprised but there is no new goal in sight currently. My travel plans have reached some snags and they might turn out to be rather expensive. At the moment there’s not so much of an issue in traveling to the US but getting back into Western Australia is. There’s a cap of 40 arrivals per day internationally, based on hotel quarantine limits. The problem I have with this is there’s a totally different rule for people traveling from within Australia. I could return through another capital city in Australia, spend two weeks and then come home to quarantine at home instead. I’d have to change my ticket but it could be done. It’s still two months from travel so I won’t make any decisions yet as it can all change so quickly.
We now have omicron spreading locally so I am curious to see how things will play out here. Yesterday there were 24 local cases but today it was only thirteen. Today’s cases are almost all related to one cluster through close contacts and householders and I think many are already isolating. Interestingly, exposure sites have mostly been in the southern suburbs and not many are anywhere near us. Still, I think it’s unlikely we will be able to wipe this out locally like other strains. So it’s a watch-and-wait situation for the time being.
Meanwhile, my dad ended up at the ER again recently due to really high blood pressure and struggles with a bladder infection. That trip didn’t go well with his bp supposedly being normal even though it was something like 196/89 before they left home. After that, he was left waiting for hours and got agitated enough that my mom took him home, where his bp was still quite high but better than it had been earlier.
-
Endings
It’s now the final day of the year so I suppose it makes sense to make this my last post for the year. I got the news early yesterday that my aunt has died. My grandma was the oldest of nine kids and Aunt P was one of four sisters. She was the last sister remaining. Now it’s just the two youngest sons left in the family, and both are close in age to my mom. Growing up, Aunt P was one of a couple from that family that I saw most often. Her daughter is just a few months older than me and I had sleepovers at the house many times when we were in Pennsylvania. Aunt P was one of those larger-than-life people, loud and brash but a lot of fun. I remember her for an unending number of crochet projects over the years. It seemed she was often with a crochet hook in her hand when I was at her house. I also remember her presence at so many family get-togethers and she loved to play cards and she also smoked all the time. The last time I saw her properly was when I was home with Lego Lover in 2010. We stopped by her house with my mom and grandma and had a good visit. Lego Lover found her very overwhelming, though, and stayed in the car most of the time even though Aunt P tried to persuade him to come inside.
For the past several years, Aunt P has been living with Alzheimer’s, one of the cruelest of ailments. Since the pandemic began, she’s been mostly locked inside the care home where she lived and her kids weren’t able to visit for over a year. The best they could do is see her through a window. I assume things have improved in that area because my cousin and her brothers were with her the last few days of her life. I’m so glad they had that opportunity. I suspect for my cousins, it’s more of a relief than anything. After all, Aunt P has just not been the same in recent years. When I last saw her in 2017, the person I remembered seemed to have disappeared.
So this is an ending and a goodbye to Aunt P and this year.
-
Stuff
I am still keeping up with exercise to some degree. That isn’t translating to any weight loss as yet and it also isn’t translating to increased muscle mass. I am a bit stuck on that part because I know I have built up muscle but to stay the same that would mean I’d have to lose muscle somewhere else and I don’t think that’s happening. That said, I am not sure how much stock to take in the scales that do all these fancy computations on the body. I am finding it’s been a struggle to get through exercise sessions lately. Usually, I will start feeling better after going for a while and the rest comes more easily. Not the case recently though.
I don’t think I mentioned here yet that my dad went home just before Thanksgiving and is doing okay. It seems he is suffering a bit of confusion since the second stroke but other issues don’t seem to have changed a lot. I did speak with him a few days ago and had a slightly longer conversation. Still quite brief but he was able to get more out on that occasion.
Game Fanatic has been trying to get hold of a Playstation 5 for some time and the pickings have been limited since its release whenever it was. Then EB Games said they had some available for pre-order last month and I rushed there to get an order in to find out they had sold out. I was put on a waitlist in case more units arrived than predicted. These units were supposed to come fairly soon after the orders were taken but I didn’t hear anything further. So I stopped in one day last week to check on the status. It turns out they were still working on calling people about orders and I was able to collect mine after all. So Game Fanatic now has the monster-sized machine which blocks our tv and was able to add a couple of items to his limited Christmas list.
The Scientist hasn’t had any real holiday from work in ages. I don’t count the time taken off when he had surgery earlier this year. As of tomorrow, he’s off until early January. Here’s hoping the time off allows him to recharge a bit for next year. Also, the Scientist had a birthday last week and he’s now started his last year of his 50s. I took him out for lunch at a Thai/fusion restaurant where they had robots to deliver meals to tables and it was a good meal. Then we went to Holey Moley to do mini mini-golf and a game of bowling, both of which were lots of fun for us.
We still don’t have any definite dates on our borders opening here in WA but it feels like it’s getting close to reality now. I have been playing around with dates for travel for next year and it seems like it might be okay in the second quarter barring any delays from newer variants.
-
Good results
I saw my doctor today to discuss the results of the procedures on the weekend and the ultrasound I had a bit further back. I already knew everything looks good visually from the gastroscopy and colonoscopy. The biopsies came back all good too. So it doesn’t seem like there’s any bleeding there. I will follow up with the specialist who may end up having me swallow one of those capsule camera thingies that goes all the way through to check things out. Apparently what was done only goes so far each way and there’s still an area that isn’t viewed. I’m of a mind that maybe I am just not eating enough meat. I did switch iron supplements and that’s a lot easier to tolerate so I might be okay to go daily with that. I still have a bunch of blood tests to do before the end of the month and I will see the doctor once more in early December to discuss those results. I’m allowing at least a week as some of those tests take more time to process. Or at least they once did.
My ultrasound was to check my liver due to inconsistent liver tests. They are only off by a little but seem to go normal and then not normal. The last abdominal ultrasound showed I had fatty liver disease so I kind of figured that might be an issue. But this also came back completely normal. So I guess I am doing something right. It’s quite a relief because I was imagining all sorts of issues.
My dad is still in the hospital and seems to be doing well aside from the fact he wants to go home and they aren’t ready to release him. Also, the hospital has some staff shortages so that nurses are delivering meals and sometimes they are quite late. And my dad hasn’t had a shower in five days. He’s finding it very upsetting. I think he’s pretty much at the same level as before the blood clot so I guess it was caught really early. I really hope he is home by Thanksgiving as I suspect he will become quite agitated if still stuck there.
My hayfever is much better than it was on the weekend. Switching back to loratadine has definitely helped although I’m still having a few more symptoms than usual. Still, it’s a lot easier to live with than feeling totally run down and miserable like I did on Sunday.
-
“Fun” week
I think I mentioned recently I was referred to have a gastroscopy and colonoscopy. Well, today was the day and it’s now over. I’ve had a colonoscopy once before and the prep was awful but it worked. This time I had to do a special diet for several days and didn’t use the prep until 6 pm yesterday. It was slow to work and I was up most of the night and still wasn’t ready when I arrived this morning. I ended up with some extra help times two and finally was fit to go through it. The prep solution was truly vile and I had to be up at 4:30 am to do the second dose. How I finished without vomiting I don’t know. I definitely gagged after every mouthful. Anyway, it’s all over and done and I’ve been home, had an afternoon nap and it’s now about bedtime where I hopefully will actually sleep. I told my family over chat I think I slept more during the procedure than during the entire night before. LOL
Don’t have all results but the colonoscopy was perfectly fine with no issues. Nothing was noted on gastroscopy either but she did take tissue for three biopsies. I will get results through my regular doctor at some point. The point of all this was to look for reasons for iron deficiency that are not diet-related. What was rather neat in the report is there are photos done from the procedures, I definitely didn’t have that on the previous one.
I ran out of my supply of loratadine (Claritin) this week and forgot to get more so I have been using Fexo tabs that other family members use and I don’t think they work as well even though they are more potent. Since I’ve been home today I’ve developed an allergy attack condition which is the worst I’ve suffered so far this season.
Also related is that we reached the government safety net on prescriptions and it seems we are due a refund. Once a family spends a certain amount, medication prices are reduced for the rest of the year and we got there early this year. I have to go sign a form at the pharmacy to get the refund into our bank account.
In other news, my dad is in the hospital again. He went to the doctor about one issue and somehow they found out he had a large clot in his brain. He was rushed to the ER and they did a procedure to break it up and he’s recovering at the moment. I suspect he will go home sometime today. I don’t know if anything happened regarding the other issue but so glad his doctor picked up the issue. I don’t think he would have survived another massive stroke. I guess this was considered a stroke but they got to it early enough that he may have avoided any notable additional damage to the previous one. This brings back the idea of travelling home but I’m not rushing any decisions. It’s not like I can get flights out all that easily yet anyway. And getting back to Western Australia will be difficult before the state border is open to international travel again (which might not be until January or February based on current estimates on vaccination rates reaching 90%).
My exercise routine has suffered considerably this week. I haven’t been to the gym since Monday although I did get exercise on Tuesday and Wednesday. I plan to go tomorrow and do a decent workout. I suspect it’s going to be a struggle after several days but it’s got to be done. :)
That’s probably all for now so I will finish up and get to bed for a decent sleep.
-
And just like that September is long over and it’s almost halfway through October. I had actually started a post several days ago but it’s now a bit too dated.
Obviously time is just kicking along and life is happening. I’m still keeping up with my exercise and have been attending regular fitness classes. I have taken a liking to one that incorporates tai chi, pilates and yoga that happens each Wednesday. I also like doing a spin bike class although I probably will avoid the Wednesday class since it’s a bit much exercise. The other class is pretty full on and I got quite a workout this morning. Yesterday was even worse as I did my clinical pilates and a weights workout before 1.5 hours of tai chi last night. That won’t be usual but I was off schedule due to missing exercise one day on the weekend.
My foot/toes are still healing, I guess. I noticed I get bruises on my toes with minimal activity and that’s frustrating. My foot was feeling a lot better yesterday but this morning it was sore and I noticed one of the injured toes was bruised and then there’s a bruise on a toe on the other foot, totally unrelated. Not sure what that’s about so I guess it’s something to bring up next doctor visit.
Otherwise my body is feeling pretty good and my efforts to work on core exercise seems to be paying off a bit. I just need to stick to it more. I have a plank exercise at the gym that goes for 40 second intervals but was able to increase to a minute when I was there yesterday. I do a modified version to avoid stressing my toes.
Our weather has been off kilter again with cooler temperatures than usual for October. That’s due to change tomorrow with a major increase to higher than usual, I think. I guess nothing is typical in these times and I hear similar anecdotes from my mom about what’s happening in Texas…although her theories on reasons don’t quite gel with mine.
My dad is doing well with his speech therapy and I spoke to him briefly this morning and he was able to get through a lot more talk than he has on previous conversations. He goes three times a week for that so hopefully that continues to make a difference. He is doing really well with occupational therapy and was talking about dropping those sessions due to the co-pay required for each visit. I’m going to provide some funds to help ensure he can stick with it.
I think I had more to say but now I’m drawing a blank so will stop now so I can post this finally. :)
-
Springy
Spring is moving along and trees and plants are in bloom in a big way. We are lucky to have blooms all through the year but there’s just something about seeing so much new life around. I got out into the yard today and did some more mowing. We managed to get a couple more batteries to use with the mower but I think I may have overdone it today as the mower wouldn’t restart with a change of batteries. Or maybe the batteries had lost charge. I’m hoping that’s the case and it all works next time. There’s a lot more mowing to do and lots of tall grass and weeds to get rid of. Will need to use the line trimmer for some of it and the rest might just require lots of pulling of grass.
My exercise program is going fine for the moment. With my membership, I have access to fitness classes, gym, and pool. I haven’t used the pool yet but will soon. Last week I finally tried out a spin class at another location. They don’t offer this at our local gym but it’s only a ten-minute drive to one that does. I arrived slightly late as there was some event going on and parking was difficult. The class itself was okay but it’s always hard to start late. Anyway, I did another spin class today and it was pretty tough. It was a different teacher and a more rigorous workout so I am a bit sore tonight. On top of that, I had a clinical pilates class this afternoon and I was so sore that my legs were trying to protest quite a bit. Normally we have tai chi on Tuesdays but we are on term break this week and next. I had wanted to try out the yoga class locally but was a bit too sore to attempt it. I will plan to do it next week, which should work since there’s no pilates.
I’ve been reading a lot of books on Netgalley this year but have had to cut back on requests because I am too far behind schedule. I enjoy reading the books but it gets a bit unmanageable when you have too many waiting to be read and reviewed. I had over twenty at one point and now it’s down to seven. Plus there are a few that I’m still waiting to hear whether they’ve been approved. I’m expecting to get one or two approved close to release dates, which is kind of annoying. One was requested in March and is due to be published in November so it’s going tricky if approval does come through.
Today both the boys had their first COVID vaccines. They opened up vaccines for their age group last month and initially we couldn’t go through the gp. I had made other arrangements but then found the gp is doing them. The old appointments were canceled and I keep getting reminders to make an appointment again. I need to see if there’s any place where we can indicate we got a vaccine elsewhere. The second vaccine is in three weeks, which lands the day after Game Fanatic’s birthday. Well, it’s due on his birthday but I decided to go for the day after so it’s three weeks and a day.
We are thinking more seriously about getting a new vehicle. We have our sights set on a Rav4 Hybrid so now it’s a matter of checking them out and test drives and all that stuff. We’ve had our current car for twelve and a half years and it’s starting to cost a bit more money. So upgrading makes a bit of sense at this point.
-
A few things
Just a little update from my last post. I’ve been going to the gym for over a week now. In fact, I went eight days straight with no break. Yesterday I didn’t go because I had a clinical pilates class with the physiotherapist and tai chi on. I’m glad I missed it yesterday because my muscles were pretty weary by the time I did the pilates and 1.5 hours of tai chi (which includes fan class). Today I took the day off from exercise and tomorrow I go back and do my weights routine. I’m trying to make that an every third day routine with cardio workouts the other days. I do the pilates every second week as it’s expensive but helpful and my insurance ran out on it months ago and the tai chi is only during school terms (two-week break coming up). I’m hoping to do a bit of swimming instead of the cardio soon.
My dad is doing well at the moment. He had his 80th birthday on Sunday and it was a low-key kind of day. He started occupational therapy on Monday and today he starts his speech (moved up a couple of times). The speech is what he needs most as he struggles to communicate. That said, he’s much improved since just after his stroke.
I finally contacted the clinic where I was referred to about osteoporosis and it turns out I just have to wait to hear from them. This is part of the public hospital system and they send out appointments. I’m hoping I don’t have a long wait and I hope I get an appointment time that can fit into my work schedule. I am a bit embarrassed to say I had a bit of an accident at the gym on the weekend when I stepped off a machine and tripped over the one next to it. I had forgotten how far off the ground it was and my balance was way off…and this is the sort of thing I need to be careful about with my bone health. I’ve got a bit of a bruise on my shin now but it’s nothing terrible.
I managed to move up the boys’ Covid vaccinations by a couple of weeks by getting appointments at the gp office. Previously I couldn’t book them in as the allowance didn’t cover their age group yet. But yesterday I checked and was able to get them set up and then I cancelled the other ones. This will be a lot more convenient and easier for the boys too.
I’m trying to decide whether to upgrade my phone now that the new iPhones are coming out. I’m a bit annoyed they haven’t brought back the fingerprint scan as the face login doesn’t work in the dark and with a mask on (I can overcome the mask issue with my watch though). It’s not that I don’t like the face login but it’s not really enough on its own. That might be a deal-breaker as this was something that has been mentioned as a change. My phone is only two years old so it’s not an immediate need. I am, however, considering the new Apple Watch since it’s supposed to be a major update this year.
I didn’t mention this earlier but we got a Roborock vacuum a couple of months ago and the Scientist takes great delight in it. He had a great time programming it to vacuum in certain rooms. It’s not set up to clean the entire house but it is taking care of several rooms now. The only snag is the fact our carpet is really old and it keeps unravelling so that the vacuum gets caught in it regularly.
Well this ended up longer than I expected…