First things first – wow last weekend was beautiful! We hit 70 degrees and had sun all weekend! I didn’t go hiking because I knew all of the trails would be crowded (and yes, one person died and two others had to be rescued in the gorge). Instead I went to the park, laid a blanket down on the grass, and read a book. It was a nice compromise because I had household chores to do, but wanted to be able to get outside and get some sun. I got a bonus bird sighting, a Red-breasted Sapsucker. I’ve seen them around here before, but typically I only see them and never hear them. This one was very vocal, and its call was what caught my attention. It sounded a little like an angry squirrel.
Also, just for the hell of it, last Saturday I decided to shower, put on a dress and some make-up, and leave the house. I went to my favorite dispensary and got myself a 1:1:1 THD:CBD:CBN tincture to try. The bud-tender there complimented me on the white stripes in the front of my hair at the temples. That was sweet and very flattering. Then Monday at the grocery store a woman told me the color I was wearing (lavender) was a good color on me. People are being so… nice. It’s weird.
Fall Out Boy Concert
Wow, Fall Out Boy rocks! The Moda Center was packed. I know their show in Seattle sold out, and I think Portland was damn near. They had three opening bands which took a lot of time, so the concert ended pretty late. The opening bands were alright; the first two I’d never hear of, and the third was Jimmy Eat World. Fall Out Boy was amazing. I’d never seen them in concert before and only started listening to a lot of their music the past five years or so. I always had a few of their songs on my running playlist. They had some big props and pyrotechnics and put on such a good show. Patrick Stump, the lead singer, is my favorite. ♥ He’s 5’4″, nerdy, and talented. On stage, he exudes confidence. So sexy.
Computers
The short version: In October 2025, Microsoft will discontinue support for Windows 10. Windows 11 requires a TPM chip, which neither my laptop nor desktop had because they were both 11 years old.
I’ve known this for a while now, and have just been putting off upgrading until 1) Windows 11 had enough drivers and worked out the major bugs, and 2) I could afford new hardware.
Fast forward to me getting a big tax return thanks to the Oregon Kicker check this year, and a new credit card with 50,000 bonus introductory points if I spend $2,000 in 120 days.
I bought a Lenovo Thinkbook and did what I usually do with laptops – ordered it with Windows Professional and not the most RAM or the biggest hard drive. I save money and get more years out of the machine by upgrading those later.
Then I bought a new motherboard, CPU, RAM, and a few hard drives for my desktop PC. My desktop has been a custom build since I first learned how to build computers in 2006. It says a lot about ASUS that after 11 years, the board was still going strong. So was that Intel CPU and the GSkill RAM. I don’t think I’ve ever had a PC give me zero problems over 11 years. Of course each month I did OS maintenance and every six months took it outside to open the case and dust it out. I probably could have used both the desktop and the laptop for at least another five years if it weren’t for having to upgrade Windows.
Here are my old parts (I kept the SSD and put it back in as backup storage – it was my C drive):
Old HDDs that were filling up. I replaced the two 1TB HDDs with two 2TB HDDs and put a 2TB SSD in as my C: drive. Then I took the 500 GB SSD out of the old laptop and put it in the desktop as backup storage to replace a small HDD. I also took the old 1 TB HDD that was the C: drive and formatted it and now it’s backup storage.
Here are the new parts before and after. This is my very first AMD processor! That’s only 32 GB of RAM. I can go up to 128. As with laptops, I like to start small and upgrade later.
I’m still using my 11-year-old graphics card, heh. That’s also how old that power supply is! And the case!
And yep, I still have a memory card reader and an optical drive!
Getting a new laptop and rebuilding the desktop in close succession was challenging, but it’s what I did last time, 11 years ago. I like to just get it all done and over with at once. It’s too time consuming otherwise. Now I’m good until the next minor hardware upgrade and whatever version of Windows will come next. Hopefully it’ll be another 10+ years before another rebuild.
The funnest part is giving the computer a name. I always use old lady names. I’ve gone through Wilma, Bernice, Beatrice, and Gertrude. The last desktop was Ruby, so I kept with the gemstone theme and named the new ones Pearl and Opal (still old lady names, too).
Just for fun, here are the specs – and I’m typing this post now on my newly built desktop PC, Opal:
Health
Uuuugh. Well, the latest diverticulitis flare-up has subsided. The side effects of the antibiotics lingered on in the form of an HSV-1 outbreak on my lower lip and a yeast infection. Wow, it’s a good thing I’m not dating.
I’ve been having a lot of strange symptoms lately like really super intense itching in my armpits, itchy labia (with yeast infection ruled out), and I found a dark, hard, painless lump on the inside of one of my labia which I cut off. It looked very suspicious, so I’m keeping an eye on that area to see if it comes back.
I’ve been having hot flashes that last a long time and frequent and intense night sweats. I felt like my thyroid was enlarged, but I had an ultrasound of it and apparently although a bit smaller than average, it’s not abnormal. It’s not enlarged and has no nodules. So my doctor is having some hormone labs done. I’ll get the results next week. Regardless, I need to see a gynecologist because it’s most likely perimenopause and it’s getting so bad, I’m waving the proverbial white flag to hormone replacement therapy.
The thing is, I’ve been in perimenopause since at least 2017. Why is it getting worse? My appetite has decreased quite a bit too, but that might be because I haven’t been working out.
Anyway, who knows? I’ll be getting routine blood work done in June, so maybe we’ll find out more then. I also have a nodule on my left adrenal gland that was 1.5 cm when it was found. My doctor said testing for issues with that is a lot more expensive, so we’re working on ruling everything else out first. It might just be that I need to take Premarin or something.
My cat is dying. He never got over losing his partner, and he’s on his way out. He’s 14 years old and has nearly stopped eating and drinking. He vomits every day. He’s lost more than half his body weight. I’m afraid to take him to the vet… and this is going to sound terrible and maybe I am a terrible person… but it’s because I don’t want them to guilt me into expensive treatments I can’t afford. I’m racking up my own medical bills right now trying to figure out why I feel the way I do (and fix it).
Finances
I’ve been keeping an eye on my high yield savings, CDs, 401(k), Roth IRA, and brokerage accounts. I’m adding to the HYS and Fidelity accounts; not much, but it’s adding up fast with the stock market going the way it has been this year. My son has been putting $1,000 per month into savings and it was difficult at first to get him to start investing and diversifying and especially doing automatic transfers. He seemed pretty nervous about it. He’s finally all in now and is doing automatic transfers and investing. I still can’t get him used to the idea of having money in CDs, though. I keep telling him he should do that now before the Fed lowers interest rates. It sounds like beginning in June, they’ll start dropping the rate. He’s like, “Mom, I only have $10,000 in savings. That’s my emergency fund.” He has $5,000 in his Fidelity accounts and $1,000 in his credit union savings. His monthly expenses are only $700/month right now. I guess I taught him well? He just needs some time to get over that anxiety surrounding not having 100% liquidity. But he should at least get one long-term CD and one short-term one before the Fed lowers interest rates. I told him to put a little in a long-term one and a lot in a short-term one. Maybe I’ll be able to get him to do that next month.
The HOA board found out there is significant damage to the clubhouse foundation and that we have a major storm water drainage problem. They also found out the siding was placed over old wood paneling, so it’s not actually waterproof. I’m expecting either another significant increase in monthly HOA fees next year or a big annual special assessment, so I’m trying to hold onto as much money as I can.
This is also an election year, so who knows what’s going to happen with the economy. I’m afraid that if Tangerine Tyrant wins it’s going to be bad. So I’m squirreling away money into investment and retirement accounts until I see signs of badness, then I’ll SELL SELL SELL and put everything I can into savings. With the retirement accounts all I can do is sell off stocks and bonds and put the money into money market funds. One of my CDs matures in July and the other one in December, so they’ll just stay put for a while.
Work
Busy as fuck right now, especially with my boss being on vacation for two weeks. Beginning on April 1st we are required to work in the office three days a week. Boooo. On the other hand, they will be allowing us to wear jeans as long as we wear dress shirts and shoes. What’s the fucking point? We were given sit-stand desks, and I do not wish to stand for half the day in shoes that will further destroy my already destroyed feet. I’m going to wear my Altra Escalante shoes when I stand and if I have to, I’ll put on the dress shoes when I leave my cubicle.
In other news, I’m now the one holding the Volunteer Committee together. It’s kind of like that one time I ended up interim president of the Beta Pi Rho chapter of Phi Theta Kappa at PCC – way out of my comfort zone.
Dating
Nope.
This Weekend
Oil change, tire rotation, and new battery. Then a haircut. After that, possibly a swim and trip to the tanning salon. Then I’ll read a book and relax. Maybe I’ll go for a walk or two, but it’s going to be rainy.