This was a pretty good dramedy. It was written, directed, and acted in by Ricky Gervais (the mastermind behind The (original) Office). In it, the main character mourns the loss of his wife, who died from cancer. You get an insight into their lives though vidoes that were recorded when she was still alive. I usually don’t like British stuff, but I made an exception for this show.
My rating: 3.5/5
Not a sponsored post, unfortunately. If only I had a readership base greater in number than single digits…
I heard about this website through a few e-newsletters that I subscribe to. I thought it sounded too good to be true, but after doing some research, it sounded legit, so I signed up last week. The premise is that you get cash back when you shop. Not sure if it’s required, but I installed their browser extension, which reminds me when I’m on a site that qualifies for cash back. They also have coupon codes on their site. I’m not sure how effective they are since I am new to this, but it’ll be nice to have another resource for those. Seeing that I do almost all of my shopping online, I figure this will net me some decent spending money (in addition to my credit card cash back). Oh, and there’s also some way you can shop in store and still get the benefits, but I haven’t looked into that.
If you’re interested and sign up using my referral code, we’ll both get a $30 cash back bonus if you make qualifying purchases totalling $30 within 90 days of signing up. This offer is good through the end of March.
I bought a new throw rug for the living room last summer. Tilly kept peeing on it so I had to remove it from the room. But the second to the last time she did it, I didn’t catch it (it was a shag rug so you couldn’t tell unless you looked at the bottom or stepped on it) and it started to dry. After cleaning it, I could still smell it despite using Resolve, an upholstery cleaner, and an enzymatic cleaner on the spot. I decided to give cleaning it one last try (with a different enzymatic cleaner) before throwing it away. This cleaner came with an LED black light, which helped me pinpoint the issue. The good news was all of my other cleanings worked–I couldn’t see anything except for the one spot. I tried the cleaner on it, but I don’t know if it worked. It was pretty perfumy, so I’m letting that dissipate before I give it another sniff test. I will report my results once the experiment has concluded.
But all of that was just setup for what I am about to reveal next. I started shining the light in different areas of the house and apparently my house needs to be sterlized or maybe demolished and rebuilt. I’m still up in the air which way to go on that. It’s especially bad around the toilet. One thing is for sure, from now on, all men are going to need to pee outside.
Twenty-one years later…the trim project in my house is finally done. We removed the trim in the living room, dining room, and hall when installing laminate flooring the year Jake was born. In retrospect, that was a horrible idea–we should have just painted it. Anyway, the hall was the last area that needed done. Brian promised he would do it and he finally came through with the trim last week. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but all of the pieces had to be cut to custom widths due to the layout of the doors, and I did not have the equipment to do that sort of thing. Anyway, I finished and installed it over the weekend and am so happy it is finally done!
Or should we call it 2020, part 2? It was a weird year, for sure, but I haven’t done one of these in a while, so here goes…
I guess the biggest thing for me was being in a relationship for 6 months. It was the first one since my divorce, so that was something. It was definitely fun while it lasted–too bad it couldn’t have lasted longer. Dating at this age is the pits, so I’m not looking forward to doing that again. I’m back on a few online dating apps and I’ve already gone through the available lists of candidates, so let’s hope some new people sign up. Ugh.
On the pet front, early in the year, we lost Buster. He was a difficult dog, but full of personality. We still miss him. Later in the year, we got Tilly. Tilly is definitely something else. Haha. She’s practially a senior (6.5 years), but due to her prior living arrangements, she isn’t housetrained (she’ll go outside if you let her out, but won’t tell you she has to go out, so there’s the occasional accident). Also, she likes to chew stuff up. That makes two dogs and two cats, though Jake will be taking one of each when he moves out, so I’ll be back to normal pet levels at that point.
In entertainment news, despite the ongoing pandemic, 2021 actually had some (live) entertainment. I caught a little bit of Thunder in the Valley, but not as much as I would have liked. There was also the Flood City Music Festival and a really great blues show (featuring Joe Louis Walker) in late fall at the Oilhouse. Speaking of music, I got turned on to Beth Hart early in the year and haven’t stopped listening since.
Jake and I went to see two stand-up comedy shows–Jim Gaffigan and Sebastian Maniscalco. Both were hysterically funny.
I read a bunch of books, fiction and otherwise. My favorite had to be Joyland by Stephen King. He’s just so good. Always. The Daily Stoic was my favorite non-fiction read.
I watched a bunch of movies, too. My favorites were Free Guy, A Quiet Place Part II, and Don’t Look Up.
As far as TV goes, the best thing I watched was Homeland. In fact, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever watched.
Jake and I also went on a relaxing cabin vacation again this year.
I continued to make progress with the house. The biggest project was wrapping up the library. Finally. As far as cosmetic things go, I painted the front door and installed a new handle/doorknob and a smart deadbolt. Also, I paid someone to refinish my bathtub. Outside, I paid someone to remove Jake’s playhouse from the back yard. I also took out my strawberry bed because the wood was rotting. So there are two less things to mow around in the back yard now! I spent a lot of time at the office (pretty much every Sunday morning). We had the basement drywalled last spring and I took on the painting duties, which I finished up in December.
Oh, and I volunteered 85 hours at the Humane Society! This year’s goal: 100. I probably could have hit that last year, but the dog area was closed for over a month due to a kennel cough outbreak.
I can’t say I’m looking forward to 2020, part 3, but we’ll see what the year brings.