I cracked my daughter up today when I started singing "This is the dawning of the age of Apocalypse." I've been listening to so many parody songs about Corona virus that I am quite surprised no one has done this one.

Yesterday I sold that rabbit in the grocery store parking lot and then we went in and did a shop. I was able to find chicken so I bought 8 family size packages, 4 of legs and 4 of wings, about 3 pounds per package (bone in). We eat chicken twice a week usually so I was very happy to have that. There were no thighs though, which is my favorite, but I guess you take what you can get these days. And we found elbow macaroni, both regular and gluten free. I took 4 of the regular and one gluten free. There were about 15 boxes of regular and 2 of gluten free, but lots of spaghetti, egg noodles, and a dozen boxes of penné. I haven't been able to find any macaroni in weeks, so that made me happy, too.

I was thrilled to find a tomato sauce that was not Hunts. I've never been able to stand Hunts tomato sauce or ketchup. It's so sweet and cloying. This was the store brand but the organic version. They had 8 cans and I took them all. We use 2 cans in our macaroni so that is four meals worth. They did not have non-organic sauce that was not Hunts. They also did not have tomato paste except the most expensive kind that comes in the tubes. But I have paste. There were several cans of diced tomatoes. Nowhere near full, but way more than sauce. I still have tomatoes I canned last summer, so we don't need them. They did have several types of ketchup, too. We got 3 bottles of our preferred brand which is enough to get through the month. DH and DS use a lot of ketchup, but they may need to start cutting back.

We got enough milk for the month. I was able to get organic non-fat but DH had to go standard for his 2%. Their use by dates are May 5th. They did have the bottled milk, but they aren't accepting bottle returns until the Apocalypse is over.

They had the Laredo Stagg chili. We got all 11 cans. There was a ton of chili in the other flavors and brands. They must have just gotten a shipment in because chili has been one of the foods that have been consistently low last month, it was one of the first things to go after toilet paper, tissues, rice, and beans. DS eats a can for lunch each day when we can find it. He doesn't like any other kind of chili but homemade which I make when we can't find the can.

There is still no toilet paper, but we don't need it. I was just checking for others. I did manage to find a small box of Puffs. They had about 20 but with a limit of one or I would have gotten 2. 2 small boxes equals one big one. Still, with my skin as sensitive as it is during allergy season, I was happy to even find one. We still have 3 boxes at home, but with 3 of us with severe allergies we go through it fast and who knows when I will see it again.

I got 3 cans of chicken and stars. They had 2 flats, but I am the only one who eats it and only when I have a queasy stomach, so just wanted a couple on hand. They didn't have chicken noodle, cream of mushroom, and cream of celery, but did have one flat of tomato soup. Didn't get any of that though as I have tomato soup that I canned last summer. Just heat up and add milk. And we still have cream of mushroom for DH.

I did get some fresh fruit. I got strawberries that were in plastic containers, grapes that were pre-bagged, and some green bananas. They did have yellow ones but we still had 4 ripe ones from the last time I bought green bananas. I also got a lettuce for week one and then a cabbage for week 2 for greens and some bagged celery and bagged green onions. Normally I hate buying so much plastic, but it is a little safer now than open bins of fruit. I am using gloves, but still.

DH will likely have to go back after 2 weeks for fresh fruit and greens, but that's a quick in and out. We have enough other foods for the rest of the month, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and radishes, which last a long time. I am really hoping to stay out of the store myself until May. I am so incredibly grateful for that sale on sirloin steaks and chuck roasts in early February right before I got sick. I stocked up big time at $3.49/lb for the steaks and $3.99/lb for the roasts and we didn't eat any of it, because I was too sick to cook in February and early March and we kept getting takeout. Ah, takeout, remember that? Seems like a hundred years ago.

We have some pork, bacon, sausage, a little lamb, 2 20 pound turkeys (one is for Easter) and a 14 pound ham. I will cook that ham eventually then bag it up into portions to use in pinto bean soup. There are also two salmon that DH caught last year. So other than chicken we just didn't need to buy meat. I am a bulk buyer by nature, as I buy a lot at really good sales and then we eat off that for three months or so. I obviously can't do that now, there are limits and rightfully so, but I am so grateful I could do it then.

I have this habit of bulk purchasing because my father went on strike twice when I was a kid and because my mother had done this, we had food while my dad couldn't work at the mill. He took a job at a gas station, but that was an enormous pay cut. I have always remembered this and it came in very handy to have this habit when we lived in the mountains and going to a store was a one hour expedition just to get there. Then when DH lost his job a couple years back and couldn't find a new one for 10 months, we had plenty of food to get through it. And now this disease comes. If we go into a full lockdown until the end of April we are good. Right now we can still go to the store and the doctor and the pharmacy, but that may change if things get worse. I hope they don't, but practically, I think they will.

The garden is coming along slowly but surely. Of course we can't plant yet, but when we can I want it to be ready to go, go, go. Hopefully we can get some work done on it this weekend.

Tomorrow is payday. We still have a payday. DH still has a job. I feel so awful for those who don't, but so much gratitude that DH does. And it looks like DH is going to be getting that promotion. They have started having him sit in (on the phone) on the meetings so he can be up to speed when the other guy retires. We had thought that was going to fall through and go to someone else, but apparently that was never the case. The old guy who has the job now will be retiring in a few months and is more or less just working a little and taking his sick leave and then vacation days after that while the virus is so bad so DH is already taking over some of that work, too.

I hope all is well with everyone out there in SA land. I know not everyone is in a good situation. I wish all of you were close enough to help if it gets bad enough. All I can do is pray for you and pray for the rest of the world. Except for Adam Schiff. He can f right off.

There are now 64 cases of Covid19 in my county and 2 deaths. There are 2469 cases statewide and 123 deaths. 1277 of those cases are in King County (the county with Seattle in it) and 94 of those deaths belong to them. It is the most populous county in the state.

We found flour and bleach yesterday and those were the last holes in my pantry/cleaning cupboard so we are good for a 14 day stay at home order now. It was official at midnight. We have enough for a month without having to shop at all and it may come to that.

It is sunny today so we will be able to work on the garden. I am going to try to stay away from the news today unless DH tells me something big happens. It is making me angry.

I've started watching Legacies on Netflix. It is a spin off from The Originals, which was a spin off from The Vampire Diaries. It's a little more hokey, but I am liking it so far. I am trying to get into Parks and Recreation, but I really don't like the lead actress and my opinion of her hasn't changed with this. I also don't like the documentary format. Does that continue for the whole series, does anyone know? I like the rest of the cast. It's definitely not a show I will be able to binge watch unless it gets a whole lot better. Everyone says it is supposed to be so good, but it might turn out like Seinfeld and I just hate it.

I might bake bread today. I haven't decided if I want to do that or make pizza dough. It will be my first time making gluten free pizza dough. I hope it goes well.

My husband's cousin has a confirmed case of Covid19. She is a receptionist at a doctor's office. She's in her late 50's. She has two daughters and 3 grandchildren.

We are under a stay at home order here in Washington. We can go to the doctor, the pharmacy, and the grocery store, but that is all. We have enough food in to not have to go to the grocery store for two months if it comes down to that.

They are going to close down the airports and ground flights.

So far DH's job is secure since he can work from home and his work's clients are continuing with everything.

Pelosi is evil. That is all.

The last couple of days have been really crazy, but we are as prepared as we can be to a hunker down in place order, which could come down at any moment. Inslee seems a little hesitant to shoot that arrow, but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't happen by the end of the weekend.

The banks are closed now except for drive-thru. Toilet paper is selling for $1 a roll. I am glad we got it before this mess started. I usually stock up quite a bit every couple of months or so, as I hate going to Costco. We also have our emergency squeeze water bottles and 48 brown wash cloths, with 2 buckets with lids to fall back on if what we have is not enough. And enough laundry soap to handle doing a load of those daily.

We have locked up all our outbuildings. One of them has a big chest freezer full of food and we decided not to leave that unlocked anymore. People on our neighborhood forum are already trying to suss out who has food and toilet paper. Yeah, it might be all innocent, but it might not be, either. There's a lot of "I'll come to your house if I run out," going around that forum for the people that do say something. That's not the sort of information you give out unless you are completely anonymous and there is no way to track you. Not in a situation like this where you might be targeted for what you have. They are also asking about whether or not people are armed, so it is not just me being paranoid.

I was able to get an at home nebulizer and medicine for it for my asthma and I did my first treatment and man, it feels great to take full breaths again. My bronchials haven't been like this in months. I was even able to go outside and do a little work in the garden with my son. I mostly supervised and kept him company, but I did shovel some compost for about 20 minutes. It was light-weight stuff. I saved the heavy stuff for DS. We didn't get it done, because the timer went off for dinner to come out of the oven, but we will work some more on it tomorrow.

As for the raised beds we got one of them weeded and we will weed the long bed tomorrow and maybe get some of the soil transferred to the one we did today and then transplant all of the strawberries into it and repeat with the other green bed. It has sunk so much over the winter, it really needs to be filled up. And since we are taking out the other beds the soil has to be moved.

I was not going to do a big garden this year, but as I look at what is going around in the world with this virus, I have changed my mind. There may be shortages. DS promises he will help with the upkeep. I went through all of my seeds to see what I have and there is plenty there so I don't have to order any seeds.

We can start planting parsnips, carrots, and radishes as soon as we get the beds ready and I can start cabbage, kohlrabi, and broccoli in the house under the grow light. We need to order seed potatoes and I need to get some bunching onions started as well. We do need to build some kind of thing to keep the deer out. I don't want them eating any of our food this year. I think I want individual cages on each garden bed. I also worry about keeping out people if things get really bad, but what are you going to do? It's all in the back yard, it's not really easy to see from the road, especially with all the cars in the driveway.

My order of seed pods for my Aerogarden finally processed today, so hopefully that means they will actually be shipped soon. The have completely sold out of the farm units. I wish I'd jumped the gun on that like I wanted to, but I still have the Bounty and will grow my lettuce there to save bed space. It takes 9 seed pots, so we shouldn't have to buy greens at all during the late spring and summer once it gets going. I bought a total of 27 pods so I can keep it going, into the fall and winter as well.

In more personal news with my eldest sister, it turns out that while the mass was benign, the uterus itself had stage 3 cancer. Makes me really glad I had a complete hysterectomy when I was 33. So now she has to deal with going down and getting further tests to make sure it hasn't spread anywhere else in her body. I thought this was all over with and she was free and clear, but she is not. She has moved in with us for the duration. It's a full house, but it is nice to have someone else around to keep Mom distracted. She behaves herself better when my sister is here, although that may change with it becoming more permanent. Pray for my sister if you would.

Well, DH and I made it to 25 years of marriage. You know all those couples that people say it will never last about? That was never us. We were the couple people said were going to make it and I am happy that we have proved them all right. We were a good match from day one. We are best friends and the loves of each others lives. We may not be able to control what the world is currently throwing at us, but we will get through it together like we always do everything.

I still wish we hadn't had to cancel our vacation, though. Still, it wasn't worth the risk.

I called the doctor today to see about getting a home nebulizer for my asthma. I had a really bad attack the other day after walking into the grocery store and getting hit by the fumes of a leaf blower. It felt like my lungs got burned. I had to use a ton of my inhalers. And it's not like I can just go to the hospital and get one, not with the risks involved. I don't know if I will have to go the the doctor or if they will just call it in, since they really don't want people coming in unless they absolutely have to. I am waiting to hear back from them. I also called about getting new c-pap supplies.

I am glad they are finally closing the Canadian border. It should have been done 5 or 6 day ago, really. I haven't heard yet whether or not they have closed the Mexican one, but I think that they should if they haven't. No one should be coming into or out of this country right now other then truckers.

I read that they are sending out Navy hospital ships. Trump invoked a war time power of being able to tell businesses what to manufacture so hopefully we can get these medical things sorted. I always felt it was a horrible idea to manufacture most of our drugs in China. Or to make most of our medical supplies there. And now with them talking about they can just shut it down to us whenever they want to it is more evident than ever how rotten an idea it is.

I still think China is lying about how bad it is in China. And I'm pretty ticked off that China is spreading propaganda that we actually developed this virus and released it in China. No, if we had developed it, we'd have a vaccine in waiting for our own people and to come to the rescue of the rest of the world. Plus we don't do that sort of thing. Considering how many viruses come out of China over and over again, they have a lot of gall trying to blame it on us.

I don't think it is ever a good idea to rely on other countries for basic needs. The U.S. has done it for too long and know we are paying for it.

I think I will be holding on to the extra cash for now that was going to go to extra debt payment. Hopefully I won't need it for anything, but considering the crisis, I'd rather have it in the emergency fund since it is pretty low. If this passes in the next couple of weeks then it will go to debt. I will still make at least $1000 a month payment, though.

I mean, it seems like DH will just be able to work from home and we won't have any income disruption, but I just want to have that little extra bit of security right now. I'd like to keep our little section of this world from burning down around us as long as possible. We don't have to worry about it for now, though as he is on vacation pay this week even though we cancelled our trip.

Welp, it isn't just WA state military and their families, it is all military and their families who have been advised not to travel anywhere for 60 days. It's coming. I don't want to be an alarmist, but I would highly recommend if you don't have enough food in your house for 60 days, you better get on it. IT is past time. From what I have seen, the Asian markets still have lots of food because people are treating them like they are the cause of the virus. Also, I'd look at any other specialty markets like Mexican and Russian or food co-ops (the hippy dippy granola places you might not shop normally, but I do) if you can't find items in mainstream stores.

Also, realize that regular stores are changing their hours to shut down and clean and fully restock what they can and some are closing down in some places period. Stores that are changing their hours that I know of are Safeway, Fred Meyer, Kroeger, Trader Joe's, and Walmart. There are more, those are the ones I remember off the top of my head. I forgot to save the link or I'd put it here.

Deaths are at 42 in Washington state and cases are at 772. 3 of the cases are in my county. No deaths so far in my county. I really hope the mockers and the scoffers start taking this more seriously. It's going to get so much worse before it gets better.

Elective surgeries are being cancelled in Seattle area hospitals, including early stage cancer surgeries. How is that elective? Anyway, they are also saying that if you have a doctor's appointment you can only bring in one person to help you if you are weak or disabled, that if you are at the hospital you can have no visitors, unless you are a child and then one parent can stay.

I am not sure when it will hit us, but my sister has surgery scheduled to have a mass removed and a hysterectomy on the 17th, so I guess we'll see. I hope she can have it done because she has been in a lot of pain. Then again, I don't want her to catch anything there. She is eleven years older than me and is considered higher risk since she is above 60. Otherwise she has been in good health, though. Of the three of us girls she was always the healthiest. If we go into quarantine here, she's moving in.

People need to stop saying this is just another version of the flu. It bloody well isn't. People need to wake up or they are going to starve to death when this hits quarantine if the supply line shuts down. And if you think it can't, there is a city in New Jersey that has been quarantined. Others have invoked curfews. Bars are being shut down until this is over in one state. It is happening.

I wish the news media would just shut up with all their posturing, though. I am so sick unto death of them making this political. A virus is not political. The media is almost a worse plague upon us with their partisan behavior. It is not helpful, particularly now, to try to spread propaganda and fear. Stop trying to score points. They need to report the facts and keep their opinions, which generally have no basis in fact, in the toilet where they belong. On both sides. Same with the politicians who are trying to jockey for position and benefit from a crisis. Just put your heads down and do the work that the American people voted you in for. Stop trying to score points. It is loathsome. /Rant

It's getting crazy out there. Stay safe, my SA brothers and sisters. And prepare if you have not. If it all comes to nothing you won't have to shop for a long time and if it doesn't, you won't have to worry about not having food.

Edited to add: Governor Inslee is signing an executive order to close down all bars and restaurants and to limit any gatherings to 50 people or less. Frankly, they need to stop all gatherings. And close the Canadian border now. They've called out the National Guard. I saw trucks that I thought might be army earlier today. We are ready to bunker down.

We rescheduled our vacation for mid-May with the idea that it might have to be moved again, but hopefully not. DH is still taking the week off, though. We decided not to go to the library. We can still check out digital books while it is shut down. And I do have a few unread free books on my Kindle app as well as a couple books I have not read yet.

My MIL gave her granddaughter half her toilet paper, not realizing she would not be able to get more and so she was left with only 6 rolls. DH kept an eye out as he was doing several small errands today. Most places were empty, but Walgreens had 12 9 packs of Charmin, so he picked up 2 for his mother. There was a limit of 4.

While I have two and a half cases of TP for 4 people (Mom has her own), I went ahead and ordered 48 brown wash cloths and 4 squeeze bottles for my family. While I hope it doesn't come to it, we can fill the squeeze bottles with warm water and use that to wash off and the wash cloths to dry off with. We also have a case of paper towels and a couple boxes of baby wipes. We'll see how things progress. I also have two buckets with lids, one for each bathroom, that used washcloths can be stored in until we have enough to wash or run out. If it doesn't come down to that we'll have lots of brown wash cloths we can use for something else, like garage rags or if never used at all, kitchen use.

There are murmurings that we may not be allowed to travel domestically in Washington state. I saw one source saying that the DoD has started recommending no domestic travel for the military and their families here. I think civilians will be next. I have not found a second source to confirm it, though. I don't know if travel restrictions will mean staying in your house or just not leaving your city. I'm looking to see if I can find more out on it, but there might not be until tomorrow.

Last night I thawed out two packages of beef soup bones and made bone broth in the Instant Pot and today I am making a beef soup with the meat that fell off the bones, 4 stalks of celery, 1 yellow onion, 1 head of minced garlic, 4 red potatoes and 3 Russet potatoes that were starting to sprout a bit and needed using up. I dug out the sprouts and they were perfectly edible.

I seasoned it with ginger (for the health benefits), onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper and threw a couple sprigs of thyme on top (also for the health benefits) that I fished out before serving. The flavor was fantastic. Best beef soup I've ever made. I would have used carrots, but my daughter doesn't like them cooked. I am freezing the extra, which was 3 quarts of soup, in some old soup takeout containers from the Polynesian restaurant.

Tomorrow I will make turkey soup, but will start the broth off tonight like I did with the beef. It will be the same but with a couple of white carrots, which tend to be the least sweet, and I'll add some poultry seasoning and sage (for the health benefits and the flavor), too, but leave out the ginger. DD doesn't always get her way about the carrots, because the rest of us like them. Turkey isn't as sweet as beef though and can use it.

We have a lot more beef soup bones and some lamb soup bones in the freezer in the garage. I think we will likely be on a soup kick for a while. Just because it is the most soothing food when you don't feel well and it seems to open up the sinuses to hover over a bowl of steaming brothy goodness.

Soup will definitely make the food we have stretch as it is quite filling and a big pot feeds us one night and the rest goes into the freezer to feed us for two more meals. Although DH will supplement with more protein. The rest of us don't tend to need to. We had leftover pot roast so that worked out.

I have gotten a request for ham and pinto bean soup which I have never made before, I really don't like beans, but both kids like it as their grandmother used to make it before she went off pork. I'll have to ask her if she does anything special. DD hasn't eaten beans in a couple of years and decided she wanted to test them again. They bothered her badly after her gall bladder came out. I'm not sure if there are any dry beans left in the stores, though, and maybe not even any canned, so it may be a moot point until after all this is over.

Not really much else going on. Just standing at the edge and waiting to see who falls off.

The governor finally decided to close all of the schools in Washington state. I don't think our district would have if it hadn't been taken out of their hands. I am glad it was done. If states who didn't even have any deaths were closing them, why my state, with the highest death toll in the country, took so long is beyond me.

We now have 2 cases in my county and 568 cases in the state. There have been 37 deaths. There has been a homeless man who left quarantine before he got his test results, robbed a store, and got on a bus. Apparently the security guard couldn't stop him. There was only one. Not enough resources were given to that quarantine site.

The library closes on Monday until the end of April, so DH is going to try to get over there tomorrow, turn in the books that we are done with, and check out some more. I'll give him a list of the author's I am interested in. I think they closed the library because they figured that was where parents would dump their kids all day if the schools were closed, which is not okay in regular circumstances, but especially now.

The YMCA is closing down its care program for a month. So far our gym hasn't closed, but they are wiping down machines every hour with bleach as well as shower handles, faucet handles, locker handles, and blow dryers. They have also quit selling snacks and water bottles out of their little fridge because they can't stop people from touching more than they are buying.

We are going to postpone our vacation until September. I am worried about if we go into quarantine and we are away from home and they introduce check points and won't let us travel back and we'd have no place to stay and not a lot of extra money to pay for a hotel. That is kind of the paranoid part of my brain, but guess, what? The paranoid part of my brain has been right so far on everything, so it isn't helping very much to try to call it out.

I think I've read too many books of apocalyptic fiction. Because my mind jumps to people without a place to go being put into FEMA camps and martial law as a possible future scenario. But New York has called out the National Guard and that is one step below martial law, so maybe it isn't paranoid at all.

It really depends on how fast it goes from social distancing, to soft quarantine, to hard quarantine. Look how fast it went in Italy. Look at what China did. Look at Iran. I am trying really hard to not let my mind run away with me, but you don't see what it is like here. You don't feel the tension.

For instance, yesterday there were only two checkers at the store who were for over 15 items and one lane was studiously being ignored. I looked into the short lane and saw it was the lady who likes to lick her fingers and touch her face while she checks your groceries and also licks her fingers to count out any cash change. And I was like, "Nope."

A manager came out and tried to direct people into her lane and we all were refusing to go, with variations of I'll wait. And there was a lot of tension. He was getting a little frustrated that no one wanted to move and finally someone said, "That woman is constantly licking her fingers and handling the food, the money, her face, her hair, and rubbing her eyes. It's gross and it is dangerous right now." And everyone nodded and agreed.

We were talking in line afterwards but apparently no one has reported this, but we all avoid her because of it. Plus she is really slow to check as well, but it is mostly the grossness. The manager quit bugging us then, but he didn't look happy. He also didn't go and talk to the cashier. Hopefully, he actually does.

If you sneeze or cough in the store everyone gives you worried looks and moves quite a ways away. You hear, "It's just allergies," a lot. People are pulling up their shirts over their faces to cough and sneeze so it doesn't have room to go anywhere. I haven't seen masks yet, but I expect to any day now. I am seeing a lot of people who normally are out and about with their kids not taking them places and the park parking lots are deserted when you drive by them.

People seem to have such a wariness about them, like we are all living just waiting for the hammer to drop. And maybe we are. Every day just brings more and more stress as this thing progresses. There is not a lot of chit chat going on between strangers like there used to be, unless something happens (like that manager trying to get us to go into the licky lady's lane). It's changing. It's not oppressive yet, but it is so far from the same that it is like we moved to a place where people aren't automatically pretty friendly. So far there is no open hostility.

I hope this is over soon. I just want it to be the end of April now and hopefully see the back end of this.

I'm coughing again, started last night. Headache. Chest tightness. And my temperature is starting to go up. Yeah, there's that, too.

My doctor is worried. He says one confirmed case of Covid-19 means 100's of unconfirmed cases and is frustrated by the lack of tests available. They are saying that if you have a cough or respiratory symptoms you need to triage in the parking lot by calling from your phone. They will send a nurse in proper gear out to assess you.

They prefer you go to the after hours clinic if you suspect it, though, so less people will be put at risk. Blood tests are being done with gloves, face masks, and eye protection in their attached lab for non-Covid-19 work ups. Usually it is done with just gloves. 19 people with a high probability of the disease are waiting on test results in my county, but still only 1 confirmed case in my county. 4 more died in King County.

My county is still not closing the schools even though the colleges have shut down to online classes only. They have closed all of the senior centers, though. I really just don't think people understand at the public school level how bad this is likely about to get. They have not taken the time to educate themselves. They always whine think of the children, but right now it is more like think of the inconvenience if everyone loses their babysitters. I mean they are quite literally treating the teachers like that is all they are, babysitters.

We are looking at probably a hard quarantine in some of the counties within a week according to some sources. I am reading a lot of local articles and city, county, and the state website to keep track of everything as well as listening to local radio. TV reporting is full of propaganda and agendas. Flights in and out of Washington and California may be suspended soon.

DH's work is making sure that everyone is set up to work from home, not just the main engineers and designers. They have not gone to that yet, but may have to at any time. And of course if you get sick you need to stay home.

I went to pick up milk, eggs, ice cream, carrots, and green onions today and took a stroll down the paper products aisle. It wasn't as bad as the store I was in last week, but it was pretty bad. Almost all of the name brand stuff was gone and there was a huge dent in the store brand tissues. TP only had about six packages. I then decided to look at everything else.

Eggs and butter were almost gone, except for the organic butter and pasture raised (expensive) eggs, but there was still a bit. Sour cream had a big dent in it. There was milk, but it was about 1/3 what is normally there, and most of that was organic. Still plenty of cheese and yogurt and lots of fruits and vegetables, but the convenience packs (like precut broccoli, snow peas, and cauliflower) were mostly gone. There was a full meat counter and bakery and bread aisle, and most of the frozen stuff was there except there was almost no ice cream. I ended up buying the ingredients to make ice cream instead.

There were no bags of white or brown rice but Minute rice and boxed mixes and bags of lentils were there. There were only 2 bags of mixed beans, no single variety bags of beans, a massive dent in tortillas, but still about half, half the pasta as normal, about half the canned goods as usual with empty spots in the canned beans, canned pasta sauces (though the glass jarred sauces were at about 2/3), and canned tomatoes (except the ones imported from Italy) and corn were either gone or only six or so cans of them on the shelf. There was tomato paste and canned fruit was plentiful. Bottled water was about 1/3 of normal and that was mostly the cheap brands, but it was there. It had limits on how much you could buy, though. The medicines are pretty low but nothing appeared to be out.

I think this is my last visit to a store for about 3 weeks. I got enough milk and eggs to last that and powdered of both if we run out. We are going to hunker down for the most part. DH can work from home if it comes to that.

Nationally, it's in Kansas now. The new James Bond and the live action Mulan movies have postponed their openings. Disneyland and Disney World are being shuttered for 30 days, but will continue to pay their employees. Broadway has been shut down. The NBA is on a 30 day hiatus. Did you read about that stupid basketball player deliberately touching a bunch of microphones and recorders at a press conference because he didn't believe stuff was serious and then touched everyone's lockers and bags in a locker room, coming down with the virus a few days later and infecting one (so far) of his teammates? Idiot. He should be suspended from the league or given a massive fine. He apologized today, but his career is probably in the toilet. Maybe Nike will hire him.

Mountain Rose Herbs sent out an email today. Apparently a lot of people have been ordering extra medicinal herbs. Not only are they being overwhelmed with orders, but their supply chain has been slowed and disrupted so orders will take longer to fill. Glad I got my elderberries weeks ago.

Capitol One sent out an email today urging everyone to use their online and phone options for banking.

People are whining about not allowing flight in and out of the EU, saying it won't help because the disease is already here. Yeah, it's here, but this isn't about keeping it out, it is about slowing it down so it doesn't get worse by spreading it around more and everyone getting sick all at once.

Even Obama is coming out to support the reason why. We need to slow it down enough that it doesn't overtax our medical system to the breaking point like in Italy. Italy is discussing leaving the elderly to die and using their hospital beds for younger people who have more time left to live, because their government healthcare system is overtaxed by the cases they have.

I feel like I am living in the start of a dystopian novel. Well, maybe I'll write one some day and have my feelings recorded here to look back on. It is scary. I am not panicking, but the feeling of unease in my stomach is not going away anymore. It is what it is. All we can do is do our best to protect ourselves and our loves ones, hope for the best, and prepare for the worst. And district ourselves with YouTube and Netflix.

As an aside I have done a book inventory to make sure there is enough reading material in the house (there is) in case we lose the internet. Now I don't think that will happen, but better entertained than bored. We also have quite a few board games and decks of cards, so I think we are good.

Life goes on.

Well, today the hospital, which is part of the network of all of our specialty doctors, sent out warning emails and so did our primary doctor's network. They are working to identify those who may have been exposed to the woman at the hospital who has Covid-19. No saying yet if my daughter and husband were, but they were there during that time period. They were in the ER and I don't know if this woman was, but I'm not sure where else she would be unless she came in via a different area or was already in the hospital.

There are so many different areas of our ER department. Illness goes one way, stitches and broken bodies go another way, psychotics and drug reactions go another. Illness is subdivided so they aren't putting people who are vomiting near people who have respiratory symptoms, that sort of thing.

King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties are all on soft quarantine and gatherings of 250 people or more have been banned for the state. King County bought a hotel as a recovery center for those who don't need to be in the hospital anymore but can't go into general population. The city it was in threw a NIMBY fit, but was overruled by a judge. And likely would have been overruled by the governor or the President if not. Small people in power don't seem to get that they will not have the authority they once did in a state of emergency. They haven't called out the national guard yet, but if soft quarantines go hard, that is very likely the next step. Other sites are being readied as well.

We still only have one confirmed case as of today in my county, but that is how it starts and I have no illusions that we won't. We are a county with an international, if small, airport. We are a county with a sea port and an oil refinery that ships everywhere. We are a county on the border of Canada. It is coming.

Universities here are switching to online only classes. Many public schools are being shut down for two weeks, some for six. Other schools are shutting down all after school activities. They are starting a vaccine study in Seattle. Our county is not closing schools, although the native school is shutting down for a day to sanitize the school. The reason the school district is giving is it would be an undue burden on parents who would have to find alternative care. They may change their tune in a week or two, though.

I'm not sure about our vacation next week. We won't be leaving the cottage and will be cooking all our meals so as to limit exposure. We may just buy some trip insurance, it's only $45, but DH sent an email to the lady who owns the place we will be staying to see what happens with a refund if full quarantine occurs. Still waiting to hear back.

We might just be able to bump the dates a month or two or something. I am sure movement between counties will be shut down if we get hard quarantines. I don't want to get stuck in the wrong county and not able to get home if stuff gets weird. But if this is all overblown, I'd still like to go. Only I'm not sure that is smart.

Life is getting complicated.

Being in the state with the highest death rate to Covid-19 has been interesting and to be truthful, worrisome. We had a diagnosis in my county today. It was someone who had gone to the hospital. My daughter went to the hospital within that period of time, with my husband. Closer every day.

There's a lot of little things that have been going on since people started dying, but those things are now becoming bigger and I think we might be looking at a hard quarantine soon in King county (they've been under a soft one). And maybe a soft one where I live soon. Fortunately DH can work from home if it comes to it.

My credit union emailed a list of assurances and rules today. They are providing hand sanitizer at every ATM and teller window. That their tellers are going to be wearing gloves (that's going to be fun to watch them try to count money with gloves on), telling sick employees to stay home, performing environmental cleaning and sanitizing high-touch locations including counter tops, ATMs and door handles, asking patrons to use pens or gloves at ATM's and to use hand sanitizer before and after using the credit union. They have never issued any such notice before, but things are getting a little scary in parts of Washington and we have community spread.

Most of the grocery stores have always had hand sanitizer wipes by the entry doors and the meat counter, but now they have it by the deli, the bakery, the pharmacy, and the freezer area. The two stores that never had hand sanitizer at least now have it by the doors.

We vote by mail in my state and for the last week they have been telling us not to lick our envelopes. Actually, they are telling us not to lick any envelopes, but to use a damp sponge to moisten it. They are telling us not to shake hands with anyone and to wash our hands after handling money or at least use sanitizer and when we can to use debit and credit cards so that you aren't having to hand something to a clerk and get back what they touched.

The CDC told our state specifically to be ready for quarantine and to prepare by stocking up on food, water, and medicine a week ago, although those that waited this long are probably out of luck on a lot of items. Our county has also encouraged stocking up. The paper aisles are empty of many supplies. The CDC has told us to get extra prescriptions right now if we can. We are also being told to avoid large gatherings of people.

I know that a lot of people are not worried about this and are brushing it off, maybe because their state has not been hit very hard or they just don't believe it. I have always believed in being prepared and this is something that saved us when DH was out of work for 10 months a couple years back. We barely had to buy food at all and it helped so much. I don't have that level of preps anymore, but we can easily get through 3 months if this turns out to be worse than currently thought.

I would encourage everyone to have at least two weeks' worth of food in the house right now beyond what you normally have. What's the worst that can happen if this doesn't hit you hard? You'll have food that you can eat and not have to go shopping as soon. And if it does hit hard, you won't have to go out during the worst of it so you can feed yourself.

The trick is to try to be prepared, but not panicked and alert, but not alarmed. Just food for thought.

I haven't been posting much at all. February was an atrocious month for my health. I had bronchitis, then influenza a, then a 3 day stomach bug (vomiting the whole time), then a sinus infection. It never stopped, just went from one thing into the next, all the while I didn't have Enbrel for 5 weeks. Getting it okayed by the new insurance was an absolute nightmare. And not because they ever planned to deny it, but because everyone involved but me kept dropping the ball.

First the receptionist did not give my new insurance information to the approval specialist and it was two weeks before I checked up on them because they said give it two weeks. Then the approval specialist quit. Then they hired a new one. From that point on I went in and plopped myself down in the waiting room once a week. Okay, two of those times was an appointment for my daughter and one for me, but still, once a week I was in there.

After five weeks without meds they finally go, "Oh, we can get you samples," so I was able to get shots again. Then on Friday the approval specialist said it had finally gone through and I should hear from the speciality pharmacy any day now. I heard from them on Tuesday, but I was out doing appointments and couldn't call back until Wednesday, but it is all set up now and my prescription should arrive next Tuesday.

I have two sample shots left, one I take tomorrow, so that will put me one up on the prescription for back up. Hopefully the company does not change insurances again, because it was horrible to be without that drug. The rheumatologist said that she'd been thinking of doing a trial of a month without the drug to make sure it was really helping and now we don't have to do that. It is definitely really helping, because those weeks I did not have it I went into a full on flare, the most painful one of my life, and it took two weeks of having it again before that went away.

In the middle of all that I was taking care of my mother after her shoulder surgery, except when I got the flu and I literally went to bed for ten days. DH and DS pitched in there. Then eldest sister got really, really sick with massive bleeding. They thought it might be cancer, but the biopsy came back clean, but she will have to have a hysterectomy due to a mass. She's 61, so it's not like she needs that.

So I have been miserable up until about four days ago. I am still sick but have been on antibiotics for six days now. And my brain is functioning again. While I was so sick I watched a lot of mindless youtube videos (mostly reddit readers) because I couldn't hold plots in my head until about two weeks ago. Not even sitcom ones. I haven't read a book in a month, but I think my brain is working enough to do that again.

I still have to take it easy because I have so little strength, but I am slowly trying to get the house back in order and make meals again.

As for finances, I have stayed on top of that. It took all my brain power, but I did. Today I worked out the March budget. There were 20 hours of overtime on this paycheck and there will be 20 hours on the next one (as projected, one week has already been worked of that, so ten down). We will be paying for our vacation with part of the OT (I did have money in savings I could use, but would rather not) tomorrow.

If all goes to plan, we will be about to pay of $2500 in debt this month. $1000 this week and $1500 the next payday. If not, $2000. We did spend a lot on takeout while I was so ill, so some of the OT is going to pay the credit card. And by part, I mean around $1000. But with DH working on so much OT, taking care of mom, taking care of his mom's stuff, take us to the doctor because I was too sick to drive, and having to do laundry and cleaning, he was far too exhausted to cook. And I literally could not get out of bed for a good chunk of time. But still, $2500. That will leave a balance of $2500.

Oh, and our back up refrigerator died on my 50th birthday on February 12th. That was fun. I was too sick to do anything for a milestone, but oh, well. We picked out a new fridge on the 16th. It was the first time I went out and it sapped all my energy for the next few days. Most people could probably get by on one fridge, but I have two tubs of dough going at any one time, and we buy in bulk, usually for a month at a time, so a case of oranges, a case of apples, 20 pounds of potatoes, 20 pounds of sweet potatoes, plus my ferments, and all of the cheese take up a lot of space. It also helps in the summer when I am harvesting a lot of veggies and might not be able to can it or blanch and freeze it on the day I harvest.

We did get one with an ice maker and filtered water, so we can stop buying ice and we don't have to have a filter on the kitchen sink anymore or two gallons of water taking up space in the main fridge. I can see everything now and we can have meal prep in the main fridge. It is nice. But man, refrigerators are expensive now. This one didn't even have all the bells and whistles, it was just a simple side by side. The really fancy ones, what I all my dream fridges, are over $3K.

It cost $1100, but would have cost $1500 if it hadn't been on a President's Day sale. It could have been cheaper with out the ice maker and water in the door, but only by $200. MIL paid for it. We didn't ask her to, but apparently she'd been spending a lot of money on SIL's family so far this year and wanted to even it up. She wouldn't have even known about it, but since she called me on my birthday I mentioned it and that we were going to look at Habitat for Humanity's store where we got our last back up fridge for $25. And she said, "Oh, just get a new one, I'll pay for it."

I did go around with her about that for a bit because I had done some online research before I talked to her and I knew how much they were and that's when she told me how much she spent on SIL and her kids and grandkids and I stopped hemming and hawing and accepted the offer. She said we could spend up to $5K if I wanted. I don't think I could ever do that on an appliance. Maybe for a stove, washer, and dryers, too! No, if we ever get the dream fridge we are paying for it ourselves.

Anyway, that is why I have been so quiet for the last several weeks. Now if you all could pray for me that I can beat this darn set of illnesses down, not contract Covid-19 (killed 10 people here so far), and be able to go on our vacation in a week and a half for our 25th wedding anniversary, I would really, really appreciate it. I can be sick there, too, but I really would like to be able to enjoy the seaside.

...but I woke up with this awful chest cough that set in in the middle of the night. Guess DH and I won't be going out to celebrate after all. But I bought ribeyes a couple of days ago on sale, and DS will cook them, throw baked potatoes in the instant pot, and open a can of green beans to nuke, so I will still get my dinner cooked by someone else, which is all I really wanted. I might have to eat it in bed, but so be it. And DS is making these really good gluten free brownies instead of cake.

Things are going a lot better with my mom today. I am hoping that means the end of all the horrible, emotionally and physically exhausting days! She apologized for being so cranky and for taking me for granted. That was nice to hear, but honestly I am so used to it now I simply vent here and move on.

I took DD to physical therapy and then I went to take a three page approval thing my insurance needs to my rheumatologist's office to have them fill out and fax in, but no one was there. There was an open sign on the door and it was office hours, but the office was dark and locked. I'll call tomorrow and make sure someone is there.

Then I went over to the foot and ankle clinic which is just across the parking lot to try to get an itemized receipt for the down payment for the orthotics that the FSA wanted (it had one thing missing from the receipt I had), but the bookkeeper had just stepped out, so the receptionist left a detailed note and she was to print it out when she came back so that I could have it in the morning. So that's another trip to the two doctor's offices tomorrow, but I have nothing else on the agenda.

DD had a very tough time at PT today. The pool has a limit of four people in it at once and she had a scheduled therapy session, but they also have drop in hours for people who have finished therapy but pay an extra fee each month to come in, but they have to get out if a session is scheduled and it is overlimit. Well, at one point there were seven other people in the pool (all women between 60 and 80, they actually said their ages in the course of their conversation) besides DD and her assistant therapist. She was getting crowded back into a corner even though she was on one of the underwater treadmills. She came close to having a panic attack. She has a hard time speaking up for herself due to her panic disorder.

I guess the therapist didn't speak up at all to tell the extra women to get out of the pool, either. My daughter had a hard time even hearing because the other women were being so loud. The therapist did tell them to get back a couple of times, but they crowded in again. DD felt cornered. According to DD they were making statements that were racist, homophobic, transphobic, as well as nasty talk about young people and entitlement while shooting dirty looks at her (they really didn't like having to move for a young person), and vicious political talk (not sure which side, don't care) all at top volume. DD has a very short haircut (her hair actually hurts her when it is over an inch long) and a very androgynous appearance due to her body type and the swollen steroid face so I am sure they were making assumptions. It has happened on more occasions than I can count and she has been mistaken for a boy wearing girl's clothes as well.

It was inappropriate talk for where they were. As much as I support freedom of speech there is a time and a place to show your nastiness and a medical facility where people are in pain is not that place. You need to be conscious of other people, especially in a place that echoes every word said like the pool area. I seriously can't believe people talk that way in public. What happened to kindness and behaving yourself in public?

When she came out and told me about it on the way home, I called and reported it. I didn't act mad, just wanted them to know what had happened. I'm not usually one to rock the boat, but I will stand up for myself and my kids strongly in situations like this. The woman I reported it to said I should also call the head of the physical therapy department and tell him everything I told her and that what happened to her today was not okay. I left a voice mail and supposedly I should hear back tomorrow. We'll see.

Hopefully they have a way of tracking the women. I'm sure there is a sign in sheet or check in or something. Then they can talk to them and tell them not to act that way there in the future. Whether they will listen or not is up to them, but I do believe they should at least be spoken to. If I had been there, I would have said something directly. More importantly, I hope it will at least result in an enforcement of the pool limit. If there had only been the two other people in there with them like there was supposed to be, I don't think they would have gotten so out of hand.

It has been a rough week. Mom had her surgery last Tuesday and they sent her home Wednesday night. It was far too early for them to send her home. Not only was she incoherent, she was combative, and couldn't walk without starting to fall over. I about yanked my shoulder out of the socket catching her from falling.

Unfortunately they did not take me seriously at the hospital the night before when I told them how bad it would be if they sent her home early. If there is a next time I am going to the pre-op appointment and making it very clear that this is not okay. This has happened every time, it is just a little better if she is in the hospital those first three days.

She was also trying to manipulate everyone into giving her too many pills. Not the painkillers, but her diazepam (which is Valium). She took 6 in one day by getting my husband and son to give her two (that's her dose) when I had already given her two. She was beyond incoherent that day. I instituted a write down everything time and date pad so that can't happen again. I had asked DH to do that from the start, but he had not (I was still in massive pain, so didn't do it myself at that point).

She did not regain her ability to speak in complete sentences until yesterday. She's still a little slow, but at least now she is making sense most of the time, about 80 percent, which is where she normally is nowadays. She was able to walk without help on Saturday.

DH did take off Thursday and Friday, but he had to go back to work today. There is overtime being offered again this week (he couldn't get any last week because of helping me with Mom and needing take sick leave). It wasn't an easy day as she wanted a shower, which took an hour to do, but she was very cooperative. It is just hard to give a shower to someone else, even with a bench seat and a detachable sprayer. Easier than without one. She needed it though. It had been a week (she had to wait that long).

She still isn't wanting to eat much, but I got her to eat Jello (3 times) and a cheeseburger (she had some frozen) and some milk. Not the best of nutrition, but it is better than nothing.

I am starting to feel better now that I had an Embrel shot again. It was getting really bad with the pain without it. If I had any doubt it was helping before this, it is totally gone now. Things still aren't worked out completely with my shots, but on Thursday the doctor gave me two shots to take home, so I took one that day and I have one more, and if it takes longer than that to get my prescription moving, than I can get more. According to my doctor, everything has been approved with the new insurance since last week, but I have not heard anything from the pharmacy yet about the shot.

DH is going to see if he can't move things along for me as I don't have time to be on the phone right now between taking care of Mom and shuttling DD to appointments. I can get more samples if I need to, but I sure wish they would have told me that before I went 4 weeks without.

I am still not sure if we will be able to leave Mom long enough on Wednesday for DH and me to go out for my birthday, but I hope so. I so need to get away for a couple of hours and just not have to focus on anyone else.

Mom made it through surgery with flying colors as she always does. I went up and saw her for about half an hour and she was eating and alert. I didn't stay longer, though, because she was very tired. She wasn't in any pain because the nerve block hadn't worn off yet. I'm sure tomorrow will be a lot harder.

It snowed today for about 4 hours. Ugh. Now it is sleeting though, so I am sure it will be gone by morning. At least I hope so.

I made it about halfway through the SOTU speech, but will save the rest for tomorrow. I'm going to hit the bed early tonight. I've never actually listened to one of these before for any president. Dude can talk. Watched a bit of the senate today, too. Dudes can talk. Lots of talk, talk, talk.

The last week was hard on retirement, but the IRA has almost completely rebounded this week and I'm still ahead on the 401K, so the total balance is still higher than it was the last time I reported in, but I probably won't put the balance until after the addition of payday, which is Friday, so won't see it hit until Monday. I hope it keeps going back up.

I need to get bread baked tomorrow. And maybe hamburger buns, too. I also have to take DD to the neurologist. It's just for her 3 month migraine check. Her meds aren't quite cutting it, so we may have to adjust. One of these days we'll get it right. We have a lot of appointments this week and Mom will be coming home during some point. DH is working late again tonight. It's 10 p.m. and he is still there. He doesn't want to take more sick leave than he has to.

January was a tough month and I am happy to see the back of it. I still don't have my Embrel shots coming because of the doctor's office dropping the ball, so I've had a lot of pain for the month of Jan. I lost 12 pounds, I had a nasty stomach virus and a nasty sinus infection, not at the same time, went off gluten, and I tried to do an eat from the pantry challenge and mostly succeeded. I did buy a few things, but most of the money I saved went into buying bulk meat for the freezer, $3.49/lb chuck roast and $1.99/lb boneless skinless chicken thighs. Tonight we are getting takeout for the first time in ages.

My mom's surgery is on the fourth and we are hoping they will keep her in the hospital until Friday, but she might be coming home sooner than that. DH is taking some sick leave, but the bulk of taking care of Mom will still fall on me and my son. This should be her last surgery. I did locate my power of attorney, her living will, and the actual will a couple of weeks ago, so I have all the paperwork I need should something go wrong. She also added me to her bank account so I can do that if needed.

I am not looking forward to February either, although I will have some time off on the 12th as DH and I are going out to dinner for my 50th birthday. I really wish I was on my shot. This is just going to be such an overwhelming time for me and to have it be in pain because I don't have my meds is just stressing me out.

We've got our vacation set up for mid-March for our 25th wedding anniversary now and I will likely need it very much after caring for Mom and shuttling her around everywhere. She will be allowed to drive by then so will be able to do for herself again at that point.

I know I just need to take a deep breath and calm down and make sure that whatever I do during this month that I make an effort to do my exercises, try to find time to destress, and continue to eat as healthy as I can. Oh, and get good sleep. Last time my mom had surgery it ended up with me falling off the good eating wagon and I gained back all the weight I had lost. I do not want that to happen again. I worked hard to be here and I want to keep seeing the scale going down. It's going to take a lot of focus. Hopefully I can maintain that.

I hate it when USPS flat out lies about attempting to deliver a package. Got an email 10 minutes after their supposed attempt to deliver. There are five people at home. Our road is free of ice. The driveway and sidewalk are shoveled. There was one person sitting in the room attached to the front door. The front curtains were still opened and you could see the person who was sitting there. It was obvious people were home from the three vehicles in the driveway. The door bell never rang and no one knocked. No attempt was made to deliver this package. This is not the first time this has happened, either. I hate when stuff comes by USPS because they are just such liars. I know the truth. They over-committed someone to deliver and had too much stuff and ran out of time. It's like they think we are stupid.

My sister (who is 61, I'm 11 1/2 years younger) hurt herself on the job a while back and can no longer lift the elderly out of their beds or help load them into vehicles for transport. Right now she's going through a thing where the doctor evaluates her for whether or not she can resume this duty or not. Sister says not. If the doctor says she can and they make her, her condition is going to get worse. This is one of those work claim doctors, not one that you know and trust, and those always seem to be slanted towards the employer and not the employee.

If she can't do the job anymore, she'll be let go, in which case she will have to move in here. She'll be okay when she turns 62 next September and can start drawing social security, but until then, things will be difficult. Even a job at McDonald's requires you to lift 40 pounds.

So we have started cleaning out the upstairs. There are two rooms up there, plus a storage room, and two closets, and they are pretty roomy, but they are chock full of junk. The goal is to get one room cleaned out more quickly so if she suddenly can't make rent she has somewhere to go, and then work a little more slowly on the other one. They need to be cleaned out anyway. Mom has a lot of junk up there that she just doesn't need. Extra furniture and just boxes full of junk and stuff she has been storing for my niece and my nephew that should have gone to their homes long ago as they are 38 and 40 respectively.

But there's also a lot of stuff from my grandma who died when I was 27. And there's still a lot of my dad's old clothes and he's been gone for years. And by old, I don't even mean the clothes he wore, I mean clothes from when he was in high school or young adulthood (like suits) that he wouldn't have even been able to get into for a couple of decades before he died. There are also dresses my mom has from when I was a kid that she would have to lose 100 pounds to wear and are hopelessly outdated. I know where I get the pack rat gene from.

I think, honestly, that my sister might move in when she retires anyway. Which is good, because it means when we move out, Mom won't be alone. I really don't think she should be alone anymore. She says she's fine, but she's not. She's forgetful. Not dementia, yet, but sometimes she makes me wonder. She's mostly careless forgetful.

I don't know if sister will contribute to expenses or not, but I don't really care. Even if she is still working her income is not great. Above minimum wage by a few dollars. We don't mind covering that if that is what she needs. You take care of family, you know? I know they will go up if she lives here, though, because the upstairs isn't serviced by the gas furnace and she would have to use electric heat during the cold months, which are many here.

She's easy enough to get along with and she and Mom get on well, so I think it would be good for both of them if she comes.

For the last 24 hours Norton wouldn't even show me this site existed, then when it showed the website again it blocked it, calling it dangerous. I finally had to go in and turn off the safe search to not have the message come up every time I tried to go to a new page and to post. I tried to go to the forums, but it won't let me post there at all. The new topic button does nothing when I push on it.

Norton is saying the threat from here is phishing and that the owners have to do something about it before they will relist it as a safe site, but I can't even contact them because the new topic thread won't open for me, nor the contact info. Is this happening to anyone else who has Norton? It seems like many of you were able to post just fine yesterday. Can someone contact James with this info? I am hoping he will see this post, but he doesn't always see the blogs.

I got a call from the gastro doc's office today. DD had her second MRI with a different contrast last Wednesday. The results came in on Friday. Well, they called me today and said they wanted her to see the doctor. She usually just sees the P.A. But they wanted her to see the actual doctor and they wanted her to see him tomorrow.

I am trying to not freak out. It is seriously hard to even get an appointment with just the PA, like six weeks out usually, so I was surprised they were able to do this so fast. It makes me worry that her tumor has grown. Maybe he just wants to schedule a biopsy or maybe he wants to do surgery. I don't know. She's been in a lot of pain in that area lately though.

I would just like them to take it off her liver. Preferably by the end of the year so that it is completely covered since we hit our out of pocket max back in June or thereabouts. If it is in Jan we will have to come up with $4500 for the deductible and out of pocket max. We will have about $2000 by then, unless MIL gives us more money. We would have more if it weren't for the glasses for three of us and the dental work for three members of this household who don't take care of their teeth like I do.

The new lenses for DD and myself came in today. We had problems with the coating coming off in patches, so they sent for new ones and then just popped them into our frames when we went in today to get them.

I got summoned for jury duty. This is (I think) the 20th time in 30 years. My doctor is writing an excuse and will have it for me tomorrow. I have numerous health issues that will prevent me from serving, plus I'm practically a full time caregiver for my disabled daughter and I do not need this right now when we're going through this liver tumor thing.

I wish they would quit putting me in the pool. I have known people who are in their 70's and 80's who have never once been summoned. I have always listed my illnesses and disabilities. They should keep them on file and realize I am not a good candidate. They always accept the doctor's excuse.

If I was able, I would love to serve, but as it is, it would cause so much pain to sit for that long without moving and I would have to be on painkillers and muscle relaxants, which would keep me unfocused. Not a prime jurist at all.

Can you all comment on this entry so that we can get it up high into the most talked about entries category so that more people will see it and be able to know what is going on?

I did ask on the forums if we were going to get the last chunk of our blog archives back and the answer is no. SA got hacked and the data was deleted. Here is what James had to say:

What happened was we got hacked - someone broke in to the server and deleted the data. The only viable backup we had was from April, so...I'm really, really sorry about this, I think that work is probably gone.

My tech guy will be undergoing some retraining as a result of this debacle. Apologies again. I know your work is valuable and your time is important.

So I would recommend that you spend some time backing up your entire blog. This could happen again.

I spent about an hour today working on backing up my blog entries. So far I have April of 2006 copied into Word. I am doing them individually instead of pasting the whole month archive page since it runs backwards. It's a little more tedious that way, but then when I find another blog platform to copy them to, it will be a lot easier for me.

Laura (Keeping it Frugal) has a post called Whew! if you haven't seen it. Comment on there if you want to join her new forum as a meeting place for us if the blogs go down again.

The last time I posted was on the 6th. 13 days later and I am still sick, though on the upswing. This thing has kicked my butt so hard. I've lost 15 pounds on the too sick to eat diet. The first week I was sleeping about 22 hours a day. Then days 8 through 10 I was sleeping about 18 hours a day. Now I am sleeping about 15 hours a day. I've been able to sit upright for a couple hours a day for the last 3 days. I still have a cough, but it is in my throat and that stupid runny nose this whole time.

I am trying to eat now, but it is still a lot of work. I am trying to get in at least one meal a day, but I am just not that interested in food. Eating should not be such a chore. This illness is worse than the one in October that threw me down so hard. I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I wish I wasn't just so exhausted. It's viral so there is nothing I can do but treat the symptoms.

It has been really nice outside the last two days, in the high 60's, and I would love to be able to get out into the garden, but even folding a basket of towels winds me. Getting my hands in the dirt always makes me feel recharged, but I think I have to have at least a quarter of a charge in the first place, so it will have to wait.

It is hard to believe a little over a week ago we had snow. There is pollen all over the car windows. The purple crocus have been up for about four days and today I saw my first yellow hyacinth. I see the tulip leaves pushing their way out of the soil, too.

I managed to get all the bills paid two days ago when I could think enough to write out checks. The day before that DH took me to the grocery store, but I had to use my inhaler halfway through. Normally I wouldn't have gone, but we were out of so many things and DH doesn't shop well on his own. He comes back with things we don't need and that are junky. We only did the one store, because I had no stamina.

We have been getting a lot of take out. I guess it was good that we had the tax return to spend. I just haven't been able to cook much at all. I hate that we spent all that money on it, but so be it. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

What has been really nice during this time is that I have not had an RA flare up. Usually when I get sick I have one, but I guess my body decided it was only going to deal with one thing at a time this time around. It may be just a coincidence, but I also stopped eating a food that had nitrites and nitrates in it when I got sick and haven't had swelling symptoms at all since. I am too afraid to try that food and test it out, because I really don't want to swell and be in pain. It's not worth the chance.

So that's why I've been so quiet. I really wasn't on the computer much, other than I had audio stories playing when I was awake. I was too sick to watch anything and too sick to read, but listening to stories I could handle. I do bless all the people on youtube who tell stories, especially the ones who do voices and add music and make it interesting. Hopefully as I get stronger, I can get back to my normal life again.

I should have posted this the other day, but I have been dragging and the extent of my online activity has been on the level of watching videos of a cat singing the Game of Thrones theme song on youtube or the like. Yeah, that's where my intellectual capacity has been at. So not a lot of brain power going on.

Anyway, the raise for DH is official and all of the paperwork has now been signed. It won't be on the next paycheck, but will be on the last one of March. He's officially told the other place he won't be working for them.

On the bad side, the alternator is going out in the truck so we are going to have to get that fixed to the tune of around $600. I have $250 in the car maintenance fund. They had said it was going at the oil change DH had last week and today when DH pulled in the driveway it was really straining. Hopefully we can get it to the dealership without having to call a tow truck.

They made it sound like it would probably last six months, but we don't think so after today. It also needs the air filter, the cabin filter, the spark plugs, and the brake fluid replaced and we have decided to do all of that. So we will dip into the EF for this for the rest of the money. I had been planning to use the tax refund when it came, but I don't think it will be here in time now. But we will reimburse the EF when the tax refund comes. Sadly, it will probably use up the entire tax refund. But at least we will break even.

I will start saving $100 a month instead of $50 a month to the car maintenance fund for the next two months, just to build that back up again. Or maybe keep it at that level. The truck is a 2007 and there may be some other issues coming up. A belt or a fuel pump or something, though as of now those things are fine according to the mechanic.

I worry less about the van. It is a 2011 and we haven't hit 45,000 miles on it yet, but it will be needing an oil change shortly and I would like to eventually get the dent pulled out that DH put in it a couple years ago.

DH's current job has offered him more money and a more secure position to stay. He'll have to run the numbers tonight when he gets home from work. It isn't as much pay as what the other job is offering, but current job matches 5% in the 401K, not just 3%, has a Christmas cash bonus, a Christmas 401K bonus contribution, company stock, and the insurance is better. Plus he'd be home. This just got interesting.

DH took a new job today. It's back on the slope. After taxes and after airfare, we'd be bringing home $30K more a year. Yes, that's net. The 401K is not as good a match (but we'll contribute 7% instead of 5% to make up for it) and the insurance costs more (but pretax), but the difference in income more than makes up for that.

DH and I talked it over for several hours yesterday. His current job is getting iffy, because after the election last year one of the refineries pulled out of a couple of jobs and that means less work for his company. We feared this was going to happen because it does every time democrats get control of either the Senate or the House, and it is even worse when they also have the presidency, which they may again in two years.

I think it is a little ridiculous though, because they don't have control of both, so they'll never pass anything in the next two years, but the oil companies always seem to get fearful when the dems start getting any control. Usually because they raise taxes on the industry, already the highest taxed industry in America AND all developing nations, and try to shut down new exploration the second they get full control and put in all sorts of punitive regulations. They don't want to invest only for it to be shelved in a couple of years and have it taxed so much the project is no longer tenable.

But anyway, because the current job is getting iffy on work, and because this job pays so much more, we decided he would take it. It is a two year contract. We'll be out of debt in a year and have our six month emergency fund in place by the end of the second year and maybe some saved for a down payment.

He starts on March 18th. I told him to at least wait until March before he lets his current work know and I hope he listens to me. I'd really like him to wait until two weeks before to give notice as I don't want to try to go without pay for more than 2 weeks if they decide to let him go early. My hope is he can work right on up to the 15th. We only have $3000 in the EF, so it would be very tight. I am going to go down to a bare bones budget between now and when the new job starts and save as much as I can. We will have to pay for a Cobra for the month of April, but I believe the new insurance should start in May.

The first pay cycle will be larger because he will have 3 days of training on it before he starts his 3 and 3 hitch. I hate 3 and 3 so much as compared to 2 and 2, but it means less airline tickets a year.

It will be hard to go back to this again, but it puts our future back on track. It will be annoying to have to do a 6 week budget cycle instead of a 4 week budget cycle, but I managed before and I can manage again. And it is worth it for the amount we'll be able to speed ahead on our goals.

I just hope that after the two years are over there will be work that is easy to find, hopefully slope work. If not, I guess we'll have the fully funded EF and unemployment again (which is enough to cover insurance premiums, but that's it).

Despite the fact that it has been since July, it still feels strange to not get paid weekly. I mean, we budget for two weeks and it isn't like anything needs to be done during that time period after the bills are paid, but maybe that is the problem. I am so used to being hands-on on a weekly basis and now it is like it is set for cruise control and I'm there, but there is nothing for me to do unless I see an accident coming up ahead.

DH and I have started watching the Financial Peace University videos. We had started a while back and then life got busy. We decided to restart from the beginning and I am glad we did, because they have completely revamped the presentation. And what's really neat is that DH knows one of the guys in the video doing the testimonials. He worked with him up in Alaska.

We took a big step and cut up all but one credit card. DH is cancelling them, too, but the idea of cutting them up just seems so huge and something we have really both been resisting. We are keeping the one for auto pays, as I've had them double charge too often. Yes, they fix it in a couple of days, but if you double charge on a debit card and there isn't enough money to cover that, you get fees and it is such a mess to sort out even when it isn't your error. I feel more secure having the auto pays on a credit card for that reason.

Now you could say that we could just keep extra in the checking account, but we run a zero based budget, so that makes it difficult, as we don't keep a huge cushion in there. I know we can do it, but I'm just not sure we are 100% there yet. There is also the fact that with the debit card they can put a hold on your account. A hold on a credit card with a huge limit is not that big a deal, but a hold on money in your checking account is.

I know that I am justifying. I just think that when we only use it for travelling and auto pays and it is paid in fully each month, and we are as disciplined as we are, we can handle it. One day when we have enough money to have a large cushion again, we can go fully to debit, but that will not be until after the loan is paid off and we've saved at least 3 months of expenses. We will get there, but we are not there yet.

Personally, I want to do the part where you stop all retirement contributions until you are out of debt, because I think we'd be out of debt by the end of the year that way, but DH is against it. He's the one who wanted to do Dave Ramsey in the first place, but he doesn't actually want to "do" Dave Ramsey. Just the parts he agrees with. I get all his arguments, I agree they make sense logically, but I just want to be out of debt.

I don't mind doing retirement while saving up the full EF, but I want to be done with this debt. It frustrates me, because I feel like if you are only doing things halfway, it'll take twice as long, if not three times as long. I am so tempted to call Dave's show and ask him what to do about this. Of course he'll tell me to get rid of that last card, but he'll also tell DH to knuckle under to the plan. I think maybe some straight-talking from the man himself is in order. Or maybe I'll just email him.

We have been debt snowballing for as long as I've been blogging here. Not on the Dave Ramsey plan, just debt snowballing. And having a small EF. And it worked, but I don't think it worked as well as it could have if we'd been all in and had refused to take on any more debt (like the car purchases we made along the way). And we still aren't all in. We're 3/4 of the way in. Well, I'm 3/4 of the way in. DH is 1/2 of the way in. And while he is more of the free-spirit than I am financially, he still qualified as a nerd on the financial nerd vs. free spirit test. One more point and he'd have been a free spirit, though. I only had one free spirit point and seven nerd points.

In other news, I signed up for my Enbrel co-pay card. It should be here in a couple of days and then I can call the mail-order pharmacy and get the shots shipped to me. I am really hoping this will help me function better on a day to day basis. I'm not thrilled with the side effects of the drug, but the side effects of RA are at this point making it worth taking the risk to see if it helps. It may not even help.

In other, other news, the Girl Scouts are out with their super aggressive cookie sales and behaving as badly as ever at a store near you. I will be so glad when cookie season is over. Meanwhile, I will shop in the mornings instead of the afternoons, and see about making a small contribution to Campfire USA. I've never had a kid from there block the doors, grab my cart, and shout that I had to buy their cookies because they were almost at their goal. No, entitled munchkin, I do not.

I got the shower and tub cleaned today. I still need to do the sliding doors and the little shelves, though, but I will do those when I shower. It's easier. I used Barkeeper's Friend. It is amazing. We are keeping up with the kitchen so far and not letting it devolve into chaos again. Tomorrow's goal is to clean off the top of the bathroom vanity, clean the bathroom sink, and sweep the bathroom floor. Well, that's my goal.

DH's goal is to get the little section between the fridge and the cabinets cleaned out and to clean behind the fridge. And then if either one of us still has energy to take care of the armchair that has turned into a catch-all. We will get organized this year if it kills us.

Yesterday was payday and it was the day of our big two week grocery shop. We got started late. Really late. Normally I hate to do things in the late afternoon and evening because the traffic is nasty and the stores are packed. But due to one thing after the other, we didn't make it to do the banking until 4:00.

I noticed how light the traffic was on the way to credit union #1. As we pulled in, there was only one car in drive-thru, but two lanes open so I was able to pull right up and get my cash out and be on our way. It has never been dead like that on a Friday afternoon before.

Then we went to CU #2, which is where I have my medical fund. I keep it separate from regular banking so there is no crossover. It's a little extra running, but it is worth it to me to have the accounts physically separated. So I had to go in, because for some reason they had a $1000 hold on my account and have done for three weeks. Ever since I cashed that big $5000 check from MIL. It should have come off over two weeks ago. They had some kind of glitch. So the teller took it off.

But anyway, we walk in and there is no one visible. This place is always bustling at 4:30 on a Friday. There are several desks that usually have people at them and you can usually see people in the back offices. As we came forward we could see one teller who had been blocked by a pillar and one person at a desk behind a large potted plant, and then a little further there were a couple of women in a walled off office. But at first glance it was like someone had come and abducted all the people.

Back on the road there was still no traffic. We went to store #1, got a front space for parking, in a lot that was 1/3 full. Got in, didn't have to navigate around a ton of people, walked right up to an empty cashier. We were in and out in 15 minutes. This never happens at this time. We hit Safeway right at 5. I kept waiting for a massive traffic back up, but nothing. The lot was only half full and again we got in and out, even with a lot of stuff, quickly. Now normally at 5:30 it takes about 20 minutes to get out of their parking lot. It is usually just atrocious.

We made it to the Food Co-op by 6. No one in the parking lot. Maybe 10 cars when it is usually wall to wall. Only needed 3 things and we were on to Costco. The huge main road was not back upped even a little. Now the Costco parking lot was quite full, but even so, we got a spot right up near the building. A few rows from the door, but still right up front.

We were in and out in another 20 minutes. Never happens. Not ever. Then on to Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's is usually worse than Costco on a Friday, but we were riding the luck. Again, parking right up front and less than 30 minutes in the store.

It took me a while to realize what was even going on. A lot people hadn't been shopping or on the roads to go shopping because they hadn't been getting their paychecks. That has to be it. It is the only thing I can think of that would have made it so easy to travel and shop yesterday. But it felt like a complete Twilight Zone experience.

I did spend right up to my new $500 budget, but I got some really great deals on meat and vegetables. DS and I will be doing more cooking lessons this week and we are both going to be eating a lot more healthy. Some of our go to products have started incorporating soy. These were some of the last few convenience items we were buying, so now we are eliminating the altogether. Sad, but necessary.

I am going to teach him how to make fruit bars and granola bars this week, since they now have soy. They are easy enough to make and then he will have a few safe snack foods on hand. We did find a granola cereal, though, without almonds. It uses pecans instead. I was happy about that. I don't eat granola often because it is not that healthy with the sugar content. This uses maple sugar. Sugar is sugar, so I still won't eat it much, but a little once in a while.

Does anyone have a good club cracker recipe? That's what has soy in it now. I'll take plain, but if there is a multi-grain one, that would be awesome. Just no soy. Even the TJ multi-grain crackers have soy. Soy, last time I checked, is not a grain.

I've got my counters completely cleared off now. I wiped down all the appliances and the knife block. I am just waiting for my husband to get back home so he clean the last two inches in the corner that my fingers are not long enough to reach. There is also a spider there, so there's that. Then everything can go into place and we are going to keep it nice and uncluttered from now on. At least, that is the hope.

I got the pasta shelf and the Asian cooking shelf wiped down and got rid of some soy sauce that was in the back. There were two open bottles, so I dumped those and recycled them. I found out I have more sesame oil and hoison sauce than I thought, so won't need to buy those for a while, but am low on rice vinegar. I don't use it often, though, so probably won't buy more until I run out. I need to get oyster sauce next payday, but I'm good on mirin and coconut aminos for a while yet.

I also found the parts to my Kitchen Aid spice grinder that were missing because someone put them away wrong. I like that one for the heavy duty spices like cloves, fennel seeds, cardamom, star anise, and cinnamon sticks and things that scratch because it has a stainless steel chamber and doesn't throw stuff against the lid.

I also found the other spice grinder dedicated to grinding peppers only. If I try to grind anything else in it, it flavors it with pepper flavors. Not fun when you've been making homemade cayenne powder or chili powder. I found the top to the third spice grinder that I use for herbs, but am not sure where the bottom is. Maybe one of the drawers I haven't gotten to yet. I have 3 more drawers to clean out and reorganize. I'll do that tomorrow. Then all the cabinet doors need to be wiped down and the sink and back splash washed down. Then the kitchen should be done.

I threw out the old can opener. We bought a new one a year ago that does the safe rim, instead of the sharp rim. The cutter part was kind of bent out of shape and wasn't opening right anyway, so I don't even know why it was still around. Oh, and I found the toaster tongs. They make it so much easier to get English muffins out of the toaster.

I've only got two more days of Prednisone left, so hopefully I can finish what I want to get done in that time. I know I will crash back down as soon as I go off it, so I am taking advantage of it while I've got it. There are some more shelves that could do with some organizing that are not in the kitchen, but have excess kitchen stuff on them and I hope to get to that tomorrow, too.

I should be exhausted after the last two days, but I'm not. Prednisone is a wonderful invention. I wish I could feel like this all the time. After I am done with my antibiotics, I am going to get my cortisol levels tested. I think there is something wrong with them if steroids will make me feel decent and functional again. I do have a lot of the same symptoms as my daughter when it comes to adrenal issues, so it is worth getting it checked out.

The last several days have been pretty awful and not just because of my cold, although that was bad, too. My ears blocked up on the 12th and only cleared this morning. If I thought I was dizzy and the world was spinning before, every time I tried to pop my ears it also felt like I was on a sail boat in rough water. I have had spinning before, but never up and down dizziness. I had to just close my eyes and sit still for several minutes and wait for it to stop. It is nice to be able to hear properly again. I'm still not over this thing, but it is down to a runny nose now and tiredness now, which is a huge improvement.

The bad part, financially is two-fold. One, someone used DH's Best Buy account to order a laptop. They swamped his email with Russian subscriptions to try to hide the message from Best Buy, but DH has it set up so that certain emails always go to the top. It was ordered by some guy named Todd Peterson in Oregon. DH was able to cancel it and changed the password on his Best Buy account. They had charged it to a credit card number that looked familiar, but wasn't one of our current credit card numbers. I think it might have been one of our numbers before we were issued new cards with new numbers due to identity theft six months ago. If so, I'm not sure how he managed to even order it. Anyway, it got taken care of it, but it was worrying.

Then we found out DH's Paypal account had been hacked. Someone changed the main email on it to a different one, but left his as a secondary. They also changed the language to Spanish. They had also withdrawn $1000 from our checking account, which I normally would have caught much sooner, but I've been sick and doing the bare minimum with finances. Fortunately the money was still sitting there in his account and once he was able to get into it and change it back into English he deleted that foreign e-mail and changed his password, set it so his phone had to be texted for anything on the account could be changed again, and deleted all cards or checking accounts from Paypal.

I went on to Paypal for myself and everything looked fine for me. As with all instances of identity theft so far, they have had to do with DH's info. I changed my password just to be on the safe side and set it up with my phone to be texted if anyone tried to change anything and then DH transferred the $1000 to me and I transferred it back to our checking account. Hopefully it will be there on Monday. Fortunately we had enough money in the account to cover everything we had paid out. I will be making it a priority to be checking our checking accounts every few days now, even when I feel like death.

So while it was a major hassle, at least no money was permanently stolen from us. The third thing that happened is the new computer DH bought is not working after a week. He bought it directly from HP and it quit functioning a week in. He decided to do a reset to factory settings and it erased the drive. So he's been trying to get HP support, but they have very limited hours and no one is there on weekends. Seems like a poor way to run a business in this day and age. He is going to send it back and either get his money back or get a new one.

I am hoping they will just give him a new one. I was worried about him buying it from them direct instead of through Best Buy, where we at least have Geek Squad protection. Of course, that was before the Best Buy hack. He did it because he could get a better computer that way for the same money. Not better if it doesn't work.

I hope this is the last we see of this nonsense, but I realize we may very well be dealing with this for some time. Stupid companies that can't protect our information. That $1000 could have caused a world of hurt if we'd lost it.