csziggy
csziggy's JournalWell, I couldn't take it any more. I adopted another cat on Friday
Before my current group (Lucas (brown tabby), Sabra (black), and Maya (gray), I'd had a Siamese of some sort for most of my life. My husband's long haired Siamese was put to sleep in 2006. My little lynx point died in the fall of 2019. At the time last fall when I couldn't live any longer without cats, there were no Siamese available for adoption anywhere near here.
But I kept seeing pictures of Siamese on the Reddit cat subs, and an amazing number of lynx points. Those always broke my heart because they reminded me of my little striped kitty. Every so often I'd check the local Humane Society pages of adoptable cats but the only Siamese they've had for ages is Mildred, an older FIV positive cat that does not get along with other cats. And Mildred has a permanent home at the Humane Society office so was not available for adoption.
But week before last, a new kitty showed up as available. Tofu, a lynx point kitten (now five months old), was a hard adoption. Like the two ladies we adopted last year, he is very shy so cannot go to the cat cafe where most of their adoptions take place. He was at a foster home and was very well settled there - he'd learned to play fetch!
He's younger than I really wanted - our others were adopted at one and two years of age so they are now two and three years old. I waited a week, thinking someone would adopt him and the temptation would be gone. But last Wednesday when he was still available I submitted an application for him. The nice lady at the Humane Society was ecstatic - she remembered us and remembered the two unsociable cats we had adopted. And she remembered how I had reported back on how well they settled in.
So Friday, the foster mom brought Tofu to our house. I think she wanted to make sure we had an appropriate house and would make good parents for Tofu. I think we met her standards since she left Tofu here. We had the master bedroom set up for Tofu with a new kitty bed, food, water, and a litter box.
Tofu is settling in but has not met the other cats yet. He's still adjusting to us and only just getting so he is comfortable with us. The other cats know there is a new cat in the house and are somewhat jealous. We go into the bedroom every day for a while to play with Tofu and they are locked out at night when they have been used to coming in early in the morning to demand food.
The only problem we're having is that Tofu loved to come up onto the bed at 3AM to demand pets.
So we're now a four cat household. Pictures in a few days when I remember to take the camera into the bedroom with me.
Did I make a mistake buying farmer's cheese to sub for cream cheese?
Today at the store, the cream cheese shelves were nearly empty. I'd planned to buy 16 ounces of cream cheese to make a big batch of pimento cheese. The closest thing they had was Farmer's cheese so I bought two packages of that.
I've been reading up on Farmer's cheese. I think it might work, especially if I mix some milk or something (mayo?) in to make it creamier. My recipe calls for cream cheese, a little mayonnaise, some seasonings (garlic and onion powders, mustard, paprika) cheddar cheese and pimentos. Last time I made it I didn't have enough cream cheese so added extra mayo and it turned out fine.
What do you think - will farmer's cheese work?
Finally my operation is scheduled!
I saw the surgeon in June and he said I needed surgery but had to get clearance from my cardiologist before he could do it. July and August were spent getting tested by the cardiologist and at the end of August he gave the clearance.
But the hospital was full of COVID patients so I waited a month and called back in at the beginning of October - still too many COVID patients so I called back today. FINALLY they could schedule me.
November 19th I go under the knife for the fifteenth time since 2001. 
I think I will skip Thanksgiving this year - but I will go ahead and buy a turkey to cook when I feel up to it. Usually even if I go to relatives for Turkey Day, I cook my own, cut it up, and freeze batches to have turkey later in the year. In fact tonight I had the last of the old turkey in a sandwich for dinner.
The good news is that my husband will be able to go to his family's get together if they have one. I'll be recovered enough to be left alone by then.
Got my new computer built and running!
It was a bit of a journey. Originally I ordered a computer through NewEgg.com through their PC Build Service since they offered graphics cards at a lower price that way than I could find any where else. Plus, they only charged $99.99 to actually build the thing. It's been over a decade since I built my own computer so that seemed safer.
Well I screwed up and the order got cancelled. It was completely my fault but it took NewEgg two weeks to actually process the cancellation, then another week to refund my money.
So I took my list of parts and sourced most of them from Amazon. I got the case from NewEgg since they had it cheaper. The parts trickled in between last Thursday and Sunday. Sunday afternoon I got a good start on building and got the motherboard (with RAM, NVMe M.2 SSD, and CPU installed) into the case - with the CPU cooler ready to install. My husband helped my finish it up Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday I installed Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, drivers, and some of the software. Yesterday I finished installing the rest of the software.
Today we took the two big hard drives out of the old computer and installed them into the new one. Now the new computer has a 2TB NVMe SSD for the OS and programs, the old 4TB and 6TB hard drives from the old computer with all my data, and the shiny new 12 TB drive for more data! I'm actually planning to move the data off the 4TB - it's probably 10 years old or more and I'm not sure I trust it anymore.
Plus we found out why my old computer had been shutting down randomly - the top fan was not working at all and the front fan had a desiccated frog stuck in it - I suspect the front fan is not working either after that abuse.
Claim Child Tax Credit and Missing Economic Impact Payments
Just got an email from the Social Security Administration:
Get all the benefits you’re entitled to under the law.
A new non-filer sign-up tool is available if you do not usually file a tax return to claim the Child Tax Credit (CTC), and missing Economic Impact Payments, known as stimulus payments.
Learn More!
Clear link for anyone who is suspicious: https://www.ssa.gov/coronavirus/eip/?utm_campaign=ocomm-eip-22&utm_content=t2-learn-more&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
On that page there are further links to information and to the Non-Filer Sign-Up Tool.
Since some here have not received their stimulus payments, here is a different route to get them.
Pastafarians now offer vaccine exemption letters!
Published September 14th, 2021 by Bobby Henderson
Many people have asked what is the Church’s stance on vaccinations and vaccination mandates. Many have asked if we provide exemption letters.
I find it weird that religious exemptions are an accepted thing in general, seems like it would be best to leave public health policy to the most knowledgable, not religious leadership. But if Churches must take a position on the issue …
I am happy to announce that we are offering Official letters for those Pastafarians who would like to be exempt from working in proximity to the unvaxxed.
The unvaccinated may emit harmful virus particles which are forbidden to devout Pastafarians, therefore we expect all reasonable measures to be taken to help us avoid these virus particles. Please respect our religious liberty.
More including a link to the form to customize your vaccine exemption letter: https://www.spaghettimonster.org/2021/09/vaccine-exemption-letters/
Just got this email from my dentist's office!
As some of you may have heard, we closed our office this past week due to a potential Covid exposure. Thankfully, it all turned out to be a false alarm.
The spouses of two of our employees were exposed to a Covid positive individual. Fearing that they may have become infected and exposed our employees, out of an abundance of caution, we closed the office immediately and cancelled patients for Monday and Tuesday of this coming week. Fortunately, the spouses and employees were fully vaccinated and have since tested negative with the PCR test. As a result, we will be open as usual on Monday.
The lesson we can take away from this is that the vaccine works, and we are happy to report that all our employees and doctors are fully vaccinated. If you have not done so already, we hope that you will join us and maybe help end this horrible pandemic.
It's nice to know that they are relying on science, even if we are in the capital city of Florida!
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Leon County, Florida
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