Aannnnnnd absolutely the last of the Command caddies have gone up.

 

Ticked off the list: Monday I trimmed the bushes out front so Alex would scoop the debris up when he came to mow. Tuesday the A/C people came to do the annual summer service of the unit. I hate when they bring the salesguy with them. He checked out our water heater, which is, after all, fifteen years old, and was trying to sell us on a deal they had: $30/month and they install it free and do yearly service on it. He says a new unit costs $1,800. That means after sixty months it would be paid for, and then we'd still have to pay $30/month thereafter. Conceivably, then, if the new unit lasted as long as this one has, I'd be paying $5,400 for a water heater? (Of course, should the thing die anytime in that time period, we do get a new one. But mathematically it is paying extra. Deal or not?)

 

Wednesday I took the spaghetti sauce and the mashed baby vegetables (to add more vitamins to the mix) and the boneless pork ribs and made gravy. It slow-cooked for like ten hours, so it's well done! When it finished we licked it off the spoon like cake batter, it was that good. I was able to use Classico sauce again this time! Years ago that's all I used, their tomato-and-basil no-sugar added sauce for the base of my gravy, and then they started adding sugar. This was so long ago that there was no Facebook, but there were miles of complaints on their web site's feedback page. Just recently we were at Costco and noticed they started selling it with no sugar added again. Took 'em awhile to bow to pressure!

Thursday we did shopping in a great big swath: went to Publix, then I went into Kroger on my own for canned no-salt mushrooms and milk (and a couple of other things). Mushrooms have gone up 20 cents a can! We lunched at Krystal again (because it's cheap), then went to Petco to get Snowy some millet and birdseed. There were three adorable baby budgies in the display cage, all sitting on the floor. Two were mostly white, with blue markings, like Schuyler was, and one was yellow with green markings, like Bandit had been—all harlequin pieds. One white one had his head under his wing, one was falling asleep, and the yellow one was being the guard budgie. So cute with the little stripes still down on their foreheads. But budgies are now $50 each to buy!

We also went to Sprouts for the first time in ages; bought more Litehouse "salad greens" as they call them now (herbs you're supposed to add to your salad, but we put them on the meat when we roast chicken and turkey).

This week's Friday lunch du jour was at the West Cobb Diner with all three Spiveys. Brought home half my portion, as usual, and then we treated ourselves to Barnes & Noble. I finally found the new Ghost and the Haunted Portrait (it's only been out for over a week) and also a book about a road trip taken by Harry and Bess Truman after the 1952 election that looks like fun.

Saturday was Hair Day, which is always fun, then came home to unload and load the dishwasher, that insatiable beast, wash a few clothes, and vacuum the living/dining area of its weekly effluvia of dog hair and bird feathers/seed.