dirty words

I've known something has been up with my car's blower system since last year, but have done the cheaper fixes up until now. UNfortunately, summer is wandering in full-bore with its sticky, humid weather. And look. I am a goddamn delicate flower. I went most of my childhood and early adulthood and ALL of my adult working life in places without decent temperature regulation. All I have to show for it is a predisposition to heat exhaustion and dehydration.

I can and HAVE dealt with shittily hot weather my whole life, but the one area where I am not a massive 'do our part to help the environment' hippie rah-rah lady is when it comes to AC in the summer in areas where I pay the bills.

All this to say, I'm gonna go spend $500 to get my blower and AC fixed in my car tomorrow because WE ARE NOT DOING SUMMER WITHOUT IT. I mean, at least this car has cloth seats and not leather because I don't want to do THAT again, but still!

Anywho, shockingly, I've had this car for almost a decade and it's still cheerfully doing its thing. We'll find out how much they're going to make fun of me for not driving my car enough some time tomorrow.

Extra upside: tomorrow's day 2 of street cleaning, so I can just go drop the damn car in the shop lot and not have to try and find a new parking spot. \o/

I have four things that I want to accomplish this weekend.

1. Regular errands (laundry, buying cat food, house chores)
2. Buy herbs and potting soil (parsley, basil, mint)
3. Plant herbs and re-pot some of the sanseveria.
4. Pick up my book from the library!

Note: I cleared out the planters! I did not obtain plant matter, but I am now ready!

I kind of want to go to a farmer's market, but my local one isn't till next week, so. *shrug emoji* Still, I need to get the herbs in so that I can make some salads. I have chives (bless them) and green onions already, but alliums are hearty boys and I think we're finally in the warmer weather enough to get the more delicate ones in.

The sanseveria repotting is desperately needed both at home and at work. I'm not sure my work plants even have dirt left in their pots at this point. I feel vaguely bad at how poorly I treat them, but omfg they need to stop growing, dammit.

I'm also off to experience something I haven't done in years! Namely, pick up a book I put on hold through CPL. Now, I am Ms. Library Power User, but I rarely use my local branch. Partially because I remain angry at its stupid design, but also because I am a lazy person who's lazy and I usually just order stuff delivered to my desk. HOWEVER, due to the weird state of audiobooks (app-based purchasing is rage-inducing for me, personally) I've been trying to check out and request books on CD as much as I can. AND, in a weird twist of something, CPL owns one of the only books on CD of a history the rice of micro-brewing. I tried to ILL it, but it's so limitedly owned, it was easier just to put it on hold at the branch three blocks from my house. Anywho, excited to listen to a book on the history of how microbrewing came back into popularity! Because lbr, people been microbrewing beer since it was invented.

I'm also very proud of myself that I've returned everything that I ordered through ILL in the last couple months. All my cds, books, and dvds are checked in and off my record. The last one I have is a book for my book club that I have yet to start. Whomp, whomp. I have been awful at actually finishing book club books this year.

Note: I also really am craving Taiwanese beef noodle soup, but not sure I want to trek out to Schaumburg for the one I like. I probably should as the place I like to buy rice is out that way, but. UUUUGH, DRIVING.

Apparently, there's a hot dog festival not that far from my house this weekend. I'll see how the tummy is, but I'm interested in going. If just because I've been craving pierogi. Which, although the vendor list does not include Pierogi House or Pierogi World, there is a higher chance of those tents being there than there is of me walking over.

Hard reminder: I prefer my pierogi with BOTH apple sauce AND sour cream. Because I'm a gluttonous heathen, apparently. It's also how I prefer to sauce my latkes and other potato pancakes.

I also absolutely have to do a bunch of laundry this weekend. Wink's health is... well. She's lost a lot of weight and there are a bunch of rugs that need to get washed because she's been horking stuff up.

I've upped my brushing game and am transitioning her over to kitten food to see if I can fatten her up a bit. That said, I know that she's winding down. She's currently fine! But I can see that turning hard in the near future. Her 8th gotcha day is July 17 and she was ~7/8 when I got her. Girl is in great shape for a 15/16yo lady, but despite good bloodwork ($600 worth of it), it's clear there's a change in her coat and/or musculature.

I'm sad, but so grateful to this cat. She remains an absolute sweetheart and is one of the social and sweet cats (to humans) I've ever been around. She and Tea have been an absolute bulwark of mental health support for me over the last decade and I will miss her like crazy. But! She's still here and face-butting me for snacks, so I'm not going to borrow trouble. Just feed her lots of snacks that I inevitably have to wash rugs to clean up.

I have no idea how, but I ended up with food poisoning on Monday. I have been ~unwell~ for the last couple days and the only reason I'm in to work today is because I have zero PTO left. Honestly, I just want to crawl under a blanket and snuggle with the girls.

Legitimately, I woke up this morning with both cats curled up next to me (head for Tea, hip for Wink) so you KNOW I am not doing great.

Otherwise, I had a nice birthday weekend! Morton Arboretum was lovely and I do want to go back. The Children's Garden is absolutely wonderful and if anyone local has kids/friends with kids, it's a fantastic outing. I'm definitely going back for walking on my own. Mom's great (she got me a hat!) but not really much of a distance walker these days.