My Random Musings | Peaches Prattlings

{January 13, 2025} Passwords…the bane…

Of one’s existence. I know, I know, passwords are important, but they really are a pain in the arse!

Everything should have its own password, one or two you might be able to repeat, but definitely not advisable. For work, if you work for a corporation, you are going to have to change your password every 90 days, sometimes less! For personal, you really should change them every so often, or make them crazy hard to crack!

Some people have password generators, but who can remember that! Then some people are old school and keep their passwords on a note pad on their phones, not the best, but if your phone is password protected, you’ve added a layer there.

I use a site called Dashlane, and per Wikipedia, “Dashlane is a subscription-based password manager and digital wallet application available on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android. Dashlane uses a freemium pricing model with a subscription plan option.” I love this application! It saves all my passwords, important information, and even credit card numbers. One of the advantages is that it auto populates website and apps for me, if I give it permission. There are a bunch of these types of applications/password keepers out there, this one works for me.

Oh, and don’t get me started on multi-factor authenticators [MFA], oh brother! I have to use them for work, and promise, I know that a second layer of protection is a good thing, and it’s safer, it’s still a pain in the…

I’ll admit, I used to be one of those people who used the same password for just about everything, then I got wise and changed some, then some more, then some more. What really gets me is when I have a password I know is good, I can see it and then I go to a website I have accessed from the same device thousands of times and the site tells me it doesn’t recognize the device I am using. Seriously? Well…then I get really creative with my passwords, nothing that I could say in public, but spelled in a crazy way that will satisfy the password g-ds.

Just expressing here…I will do what I need to do to keep my information safe.

Th@nk U @nd gO0dn!te.

{January 12, 2025} Another project…complete!

We are really transforming this house into ours. I’ve shared a few things along the way, and here is the next latest and greatest!

First…do you see the floors?! The front room floor was a blond wood that seemed to have dark stripes. It was a manufactured hardwood and we loved it, well I loved it, PSM liked it, but…it was starting to show some wear and tear and we knew we were going to replace it at some point. We wish we had done it when we were renovating the kitchen, but it just wasn’t in the cards, wallet, or budget for that moment!

Well…a few months ago, it was time, so we had the same company come out, take measurements, and give us a quote. It turns out the wood that we used for the kitchen was no longer being manufactured, bummer, so we picked something that was very complimentary, and it really is almost seamless.

The other nice thing…we wouldn’t have to rip up the existing hardwoods to lay down the new floors! They could install them right on top of the current floor and there would be almost no difference in the transition. Score!

When we placed the order we were told there was be a back log and it might not be for a few months. Ok…so… a few months came and went and then it was November, they wanted to install Thanksgiving week, and since we weren’t here, we scheduled it for the first week of December.

They were there two days and it looks fabulous, like it’s always been there! What do you think?!

The next thing we did was have shelves installed. I don’t know if installed is the right word, but…these are custom shelves, JM, our fabulous carpenter/handy human being, who did a lot of work in our house custom built the shelves. He cut the wood and used our barn to prep and store the wood. By prep, I mean sand, shape, and shellac each board. I just wanted to use 3 s-words for this! ha ha.

He did an amazing job! The shelves are mounted on industrial piping, and I just bought industrial piping curtain rods, please ignore what’s there right now! I can’t tell you how many coats he put on the boards, I lost count! JM and I worked on the design, back and forth on some things and the end result is fabulous!

Then…today, we finally opened the boxes that held our books and bric-a-brac, as it were, things and books that we brought to the relationship and things and books that we bought together on many of our amazing trips. It takes work figuring out what goes where. We took a lot of time in St Louis and we took a lot of time here!

I remember someone seeing our shelves in St Louis thinking it was a Zoom background! I was flattered, who knows what people will think about these! What I love is just looking and remembering where we were when we acquired these things and all the memories they bring to the surface and I smile.

If you come visit, I’ll give you a tour!

{January 11, 2025} Seriously? A big, giant, duh! HA HA HA

Ok, so…having a moment and I cannot stop laughing!!! Let’s just say take two from my post last night!

I came up to my office to get some stuff done and I thought about the tubs of t-shirts in the wall of the closet, so I decided to figure out a way to get the shirts out, hopefully without cutting the tubs. I thought that if I get them out, I’ll just leave the tubs there.

I pull, and twist, and turn, I take the lid off, then manage to flip the tub on its side and I just pulled the shirts out, chunk by chunk. Then, just to get to the next one, I threw the shirts on the floor in a pile, knowing I would get them up when I was done.

I get the shirts from the two tubs and one was full of race shirts, road races I have done and the other was full t-shirts and pieces of t-shirts that I had already prepped to be made into a blanket. I look past the two I just emptied and it looks like there’s another! What?! Seriously?!

Then…I see another and then I see one of the snow people I put out at the holidays, then I look a little further…it is not a hole in the closet…it is one of our attics! What?! HA HA HA. Let me explain…we have one attic that is above our bedroom, you know…normal attic above the house. This attic, however, is not…I can’t remember if I took you on a tour of the house when we moved, but it’s on the same level as the 2nd story of the house, it’s basically above the living room!

You access it through a door that you pull down in the hallway and when you pull it down, those you can see into the space. It’s not big enough to walk around, but it’s not a crawl space! The door has wooden rungs or steps you walk up to get into the attic.

And there you have it…this was not a case of tubs falling out of the attic, they are still sitting in the attic! Well…now…I don’t have to go looking for those two tubs for the t-shirt quilt pieces! O M G!

Even better…meanwhile…as I’m doing something, I turn around and what do I see, but Bee doing her circles to make herself comfortable in the new pile of t-shirts that she must think is another bed. She does that when she gets on the bed, circles it, I don’t know, 50 times, and then settles in for a nap. Just look at her!

She circled, settled in, but doesn’t she look so confused?!

And then we had to circle again!

I couldn’t not stop laughing when I was telling PSM what happened! Just proves what he always tells me…I’m not wrapped right! And who am I to argue with the man!? sigh… HA HA HA

{January 10, 2025} What is that…in the wall?!

I went into the closet in my office to pull out some things, there is a hole in one of the walls, that’s nothing new, it’s something on the list of things that needs to get repaired, but it’s not a deal breaker at the moment, so to speak.

When we were having the HVAC system put in, they had to go through the wall in my office, don’t ask, I don’t remember exactly what was going on there. Well…they put a square piece of plastic, just to cover the hole, that’s great, until it’s not.

Well…I went into the closet, as I said, pulled my stuff out, and as I did, the plastic sheeting came down and I looked in the hole and there were…2 tubs. These are 2 plastic bins of what looked like clothing, what?! We think that when we had the attic spray foamed that these 2 bins were a casualty and fell through the attic floor, not exactly how else they would get there!

At first I thought they belonged to the previous home owners, but nope, my stuff. How I can tell…there is a post it, it says t-shirt quilt, and definitely in my handwriting! The big question…how am I getting them out of there? Might be cutting through the bins!

Was it fate? I was actually thinking about pulling out my bins for the t-shirt quilt so I could cut them up and prep them to be stitched into a quilt. I wonder… because after I do that, I call SDL’s mom, B, also known as mom-mom, to help me craft this quilt. I promise, I’ll share pics when it’s done!

Everything happens for a reason, right? But seriously… bins in the wall?

And before I bid you a fond goodnight, I have to wish my brother-in-law, ACS, the happiest of happy birthdays!

{January 9, 2025} OneDrive Memories

Do you use OneDrive Memories? Well… do you use OneDrive, or Microsoft 365? Is that a better question? Either way, not sure if you use it, but as you can tell… I do.

One of the things that I enjoy is when it pops up on my laptop, lower right corner, and I click on it, I never know what I’m going to get. Ooh, I just thought of something! I could do a post a day of what’s in my OneDrive Memories, that would be cool. Thinking…thinking…

Well…while I decide on that one, and by the way, I had a whole different topic I was going to talk about tonight and got waylaid by my memories, ha ha, that was just funny to me. I have to file the lottery thoughts to another day. Back to OneDrive.

Two years ago today, I was flying back from a three week trip to England. I spent a week with my dad, then Paul arrived and it was the three of us for 2 days, then my sister’s family arrived and we spent a few days together, then PSM and I went off and spent a week in London/Wales/Bristol, then I was on my own, went to Liverpool for a few days, back to London to attend RuPaul’s DragCon UK and on Sunday/Monday I was flying back to the US from a whirlwind trip!

Three years ago, I was with my friend CGS, and have a pic of her four kids, wow! I just texted her with the pic, I apologized for the late text, but I couldn’t help but share the love! That’s one of the things I love to do, when some memories pop up, I take a pic with my phone and text it to the people who are in it and I get to share something special with them, makes me so very happy.

Four years ago, KFN sent a pic ‘How to spot a biker chick’ and it’s a pick of the top of a pair of Chuck Taylor ‘Converse All Stars’ with black clutch marks on the left toe…and I sent him a pic of my chucks that look exactly like that! There’s also a few pics of PSM with Bee and Ruby, awe.

2019… pics of an overcast sky with a rainbow coming through, from our lanai off the back of our house. And lastly…2016, pics of us with my sister’s family at PSM’s family’s celebrating my b-i-l, ACS’, birthday, which is tomorrow. Our nephew, JM, and nieces, EJS, and MGS were soooo little! That was just before PSM left for Hawai’i, he was starting work a week later, and I officially moved towards the end of that year, wow…

I’m sitting here, just smiling, thinking of all the random memories that pop up, taking me back, making me smile, marveling at how time flies and how good my life truly is, and it is. Who knows… maybe a memory with you will come up and I’ll text it to you, be on the lookout!

{January 8, 2025} Birthday messages!

I love when my friends and family have birthdays and apparently, they love that I love it too. Ok, the reason I am saying this is I started making birthday videos for people and they love it, some have even come to expect it and if I’m late… uh oh!

I don’t even know when or how it started, but it did and I’ve had so much fun over the years! I take a video of me singing happy birthday to the person. Sometimes I do it early for people, maybe somewhere I’ve been traveling, for example, last year, I made a few while I was snorkeling/swimming in the waters of Jost Van Dyke, the British Virgin Islands, and by last year, I meant in December 2023 for birthdays coming up in 2024.

This year, or last year, well, last week, I was in Hawai’i and recorded a few for this year. I even did one or two while I was riding on my motorcycle! NO! I am not holding the phone! It’s in a phone holder on the bike, I flip the camera and press record, then start singing. Now… those are harder to hear, I’m as loud as I can be, but…the bike and the wind are louder, imagine that!

My singing is not great, I put on voices and accents, and I absolutely love doing it. And as I make friends and family, or make friends my family, my record collection, so to speak, grows and grows, I think I get sillier and sillier, but it seems to work for me!

The year started off with our niece, MM, I was so excited, I sent it the day before her birthday! I sent one to a friend yesterday, HH, who is celebrating in London, then today, my cousin MS celebrating with her daughter in Barcelona, a friend LJ, who happens to be in Puerto Rico celebrating, and then SMB, who is 16, not in a foreign land, but… drumroll please…got her license today! That is a great way to celebrate a birthday!

And if you’re celebrating a birthday today, tomorrow, this month, or…whenever you celebrate, I wish you all the best, and a very happy birthday to you…happy birthday to you…happy birthday dear….youuuuu…happy birthday to you!

{January 7, 2025} I have the travel bug, I know it, I knew it, and I reinforced it!

You know I used to travel for work, I would share some of my exploits with you, 12 years of being a road warrior, 12 years on the road 100%, then covid hit and that changed and I rolled with the punches. I didn’t go exactly willingly, but I went, because that was the way it was going to be.

I knew I had the travel bug when PSM and I met, I was traveling, then I got on a project in Boston, I wouldn’t be too far from where he lived, and we thought, this will be great, we’ll see each other during the week, yeah…right…well that didn’t happen, traffic in Boston was against that! But…we saw each other every weekend and that was great…we went to the mountains, we did things, we explored, but I wasn’t getting on a plane, and I discovered…I needed to get on a plane every week or every other week at least. Ok, discovery…

Then…we moved to Hawai’i and I was only coming home once a month for the weekend, sometimes a week, but mostly just a weekend, that was hard, but we managed. One advantage, I was able to travel to other places, since I couldn’t fly home, they would still pay for me to fly places for the weekend. I remember landing in Chicago, after being on a 7/8 hour flight from Amsterdam, going through customs wondering where I was going next, and that spoke volumes!

Then covid hit, grounded, everyone on my team thought this would be great! I won’t have to dress for work, I can do meetings in my jammies, well… that wasn’t for me, but the plus side… PSM and I got to find out what it was like to really live together, full time, 100% and it was great! I wanted to travel, of course, but this was quality time. Then… I got back on the road, 2022, I spent in Boston on another project, coming home every other weekend, not great, but we made it work.

I got on another project after that, it lasted a minute, not as long as it should have, I was back on the road, then not…but…it allowed me to be there for the contractors when we moved to PA and take a 3-week motorcycle trip across country, all wonderful. I’ve been on my current contract for over a year now and it’s been great. You know I love training, I really enjoy the people I am working with, but I’m remote on this contract…if I had all the money in the world, wait, I wouldn’t be working if I had all the money in the world, or at least not working for someone else, ha ha, but if I had the money, I might travel to different locations to work, because working remotely…home is where the wifi is!

But… I have digressed a lot… the point of this post…I realized I have the travel bug because while we were flying back to the mainland, a 5+ hour flight, then a second 5 hour flight, all I kept thinking was…where are we going next? When I was flying back from London in November, where am I flying next? No, I don’t want to be a flight attendant, lord love ’em, not for me, but I definitely need/want to be on the road again.

As for personal trips, that involve flying…I have one planned with SDL in April and one with PSM planned for July…it’s January, April is just around the corner and will be here before we know it, who knows what’s going to happen between now and then, but whatever is in the cards for me… I’m ready!

Up…Up…And Away!

{January 6, 2025} Brrrr…who turned up the AC?!

Two days ago we were on the beach, snorkeling, swimming with honu and today…I was using a snow thrower to clear off the driveway! What?!

We left the Big Island on Saturday night, it was a balmy 80 degrees out, we flew through Phoenix, 45 degrees! as we walked through the jet bridge. We landed in Newark, it was about 30 when dad picked us up! What?! Brrrrr…drove home, it was about 23 when we pulled into the driveway at home. Seriously?! A lot of people on our flights were worried if they would make their connections, the winter weather heading in.

This morning…woke up to a covered backyard, house, street, it was white out and it kept coming…it wasn’t too bad when PSM left for work, then about 1130a, I decided to go out and throw a little snow! If you recall, last year, we bought a snow thrower, not a snow blower, it literally throws the snow, very cool! Well, I put on my cuddle dud layer, fleece on top, snow boots, ski jacket, and headed to the barn to blow the 4 inches of snow so it would not be difficult when PSM came home or when I went to get the dogs.

I made a first pass, took about 40 minutes, not too shabby, then I put the snow thrower away, turned around, and there was a new layer of snow on top of what I just did! Oh brother! But… it wasn’t too bad, even if it left another layer, we were in a good place.

Later, I looked out the window and the area near the barn, you couldn’t tell it had snowed! All melted from the ground, what?! The driveway still had some snow. We were in business.

Then…it started snowing again…it wasn’t bad when I went to pick the pups up, but definitely not top down weather, sorry Ruby! Easy driving and PSM took it easy going to the office and coming home. And… guess what…it’s still going! Looks like I have a morning activity tomorrow!

Walking in a winter wonderland…may I just have the sand instead?!

{November 13, 2024} November 13…11:40a…A day that changed our lives!

Mid-January 2015, PSM and I exchanged our first email. And so it began…

Throughout the week, we sent each other hello and nice to meet you emails, which morphed into getting to know you, which morphed into science-y pick up lines, I knew he was a bio-chemist by trade, so I started looking for science related pick-up lines, and lord love him, he thought they were hysterical!

Now…ask me what some of them mean, and you will get a blank stare, I still don’t understand some of them! Zippers, chromosomes, “Hey, want to swap oxidation numbers?” Huh? He laughed, and that’s all that matters!

He started sending me computer pick up lines, he knew I was a software trainer. “You’ve stolen the ASCII to my heart.” HA HA HA. See what I mean!

During our email exchange we learned about each other, little things, one or two things I already knew, from the people who introduced us, but I slowly learned a little more, then he did something no guy had ever done, he came up with six ideas for a first date! What guy does that? Well, as I found out, my guy!

We decided on an Irish pub for our first date, which appealed to me immensly, I had just gotten back from Ireland recently, and if you know me, even before I went to Ireland, I have loved all things Ireland! I once stood next to a family at Disneyworld just to listen to them talk to each other! Love!

We decided on a date and January 30th, PSM picked me up for our first date. January 2015 was the year that…no one went to school, work, or got on a plane every Monday that month because it wouldn’t stop snowing!

He picked me up and we went to a local Irish pub, not far from my sister’s house, we had a lovely time, shut the place down, we did, from just talking and learning about each other!

He took me back to my sister’s house, where I was living at the time, we parted company and wanted to see each other again, so we did. About a week later, he joined my sister and brother-in-law, myself, and another couple at her synagoge for some awful mystery dinner theater, it was fabulous! He wore a suit! So cute!

After the performance, we went to an Irish pub, go figure, for a nightcap of hot tea, we were a couple of wild childs! ha ha! While we were there, we talked about another date and I asked when he was going to take me skiiing, well…funny I should ask that. And the following weekend, which…just happened to be Valentine’s Day weekend, he took me to his ski house in Lincoln, NH! Not bad for a third date!

April, he came with my family to Atlantis, in the Bahamas, that’s a huge step! October of that same year, we took a 3-week trip to Europe, we were trying to decide if we wanted to go to Malaysia or Europe. There was a half marathon in Lisbon, Potugal, so…let’s go to Europe! Why not do a half marathon the day after we land?! We traveled to Portugal, Spain, France, and Hungary. This was when we figured out we could travel well together!

January 2016 came, and PSM moved to Hawai’i for work, I started moving my things slowly, I had just signed a year’s lease for my apartment in Boston, I was traveling for work, and I would be there full time, well, my stuff would be! by the time my lease was up.

January 29th, I surprised PSM in Hawai’i for the weekend, that was awesome! He was definitely surpirsed! Then throughout the year, I traveled to Hawai’i, PSM came back to the mainland, we were definitely dating long distance!

Our next big trip came in November 2016, we did a 2 week trip, this time to Iceland, Copenhagen, and Sweden. We were hoping to see the Northern Lights in Iceland, but wouldn’t you know it… we had cloud cover and rain all week, but what an amazing trip!

Then… we go to Copenhagen and wondered what that big glowing yellow ball in the sky was… yup, you guessed it, the sun! We did some touring around, then on Sunday, November 13th, we went to the Round Tower, yes it’s called the Round Tower!

We walked up the steps, those long, wide steps that horses would walk up into the castles. PSM is not a fan of heights, so he stuck to the walls, and when we came to the top, he hung back while I went out and toured the top of the Round Tower.

I was walking the perimeter, came back to where I started, turned, and there was PSM! On one knee!! Yes! On one knee… at the top of a tower!

He said some wonderful things… you can’t expect me to remember what they were! lol, I was being proposed to! I know they were wonderful because whatever he said…I said yes, of course!

We waited a few hours, until our families were up and called them, did a conference call from Denmark! Who can say that?! Engaged at the top of a tower and made a conference call from Denmark! One amazing moment after another!

Where was he keeping the ring?! We were together the whole time, I never saw the box! Was it in his pocket the whole time? He traveled from Hawai’i to Boston to Iceland with it in his pocket! And a funny part…I had gotten a manicure before we left! I had no idea it was going to happen, but I was ready, just in case, go figure!

We spent the rest of the trip as an engaged couple! I kept staring at my hand and my…fiancé! Yes, my fiancé! Has a nice ring to it…

And then we were back in the states, it was the week of Thanksgiving, we met with different friends and family at different events and I would casually throw my left hand out, I know…way subtle JJ! And…I had something, new, fabulous, and wonderful to be thankful for this year!

And that…my friends, is the story of how I was proposed to at the top of a tower in Denmark. Not too shabby. Happy engagement anniversary PSM. I love you lots.

{November 5, 2024} Today I voted! What’s your super power?!

I know I’m no super hero, but do I have super powers? You bet I do! [And i think I may have used the same post title in the past, who cares!] And you do too! We have the power to make a change, to make a difference!

No, I am not going to tell you who I voted for, it’s honestly no one’s business but my own. Besides, I don’t want to sway you one way or the other, if we’re friends, you might know who I voted for, and if you don’t, I’m ok with that. It’s funny, I have a Facebook account, but I’m rarely on it, but…when I was on it, more actively, you could probably tell, just by some of the posts I liked, what I thought.

We got up, normal time, 6am, although, truth be told, I was up about 430am, par for the course, but we were up at 6am, got ready and headed out the door at 630am. The best part about where we live, at least for today, we hare less than a quarter mile from our voting place, loverly! When we lived in St Louis, we were less than half a mile, we’ve been lucky.

We decided to drive, just in case it was cold, one of us could sit in the truck, take turns staying warm. Luckily, there were spots in front, and when we got there, there were only about 15 people in line. Nice! As the morning progressed, well, the time between 630am, when we arrived and 7am, when they opened the doors, the line got bigger and bigger. By the time they opened the door, the line was around the building, very glad we got there when we did.

We walked in, they verified our IDs/addresses, gave us slips of paper, then we walked to the next table, got our paper ballots, and someone showed us where to sit. The setup was tables and chairs, with white trifolds creating a barrier between you and the people next to you. Each side of the barrier has an American flag and the word Vote on it, and there was a manilla folder taped to the desk/table, to ensure your pen marks would take on the ballot.

Once you completed filling in the little circles, kind of like a statewide exam from when we were in school, you take your paper to a BMD, Ballot Marking Device, a machine you slide your paper ballot into and it tracks your vote.

Then…once you feed your ballot to the machine, you get the coveted I Voted sticker! That sticker is now attached to my tablet cover, I voited!

No matter which way you face, lean, think, or vote, it’s important that we get out there and do just that, vote, make our voices heard. Whether the side we want wins or loses, we voted, our voices were heard, we counted, and that’s what matter, we spoke up and said something. Ever since I was old enough to vote, I made sure that I was able to, and I’m so very glad I have that opportunity.

Did you vote? I sure did, and that’s my super power. What’s yours?!

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