2026 Project 365 – Week Thirty

Well, I’m officially declaring Open Enrollment complete. There are still some odds and ends hanging out there, but for the most part the big scary things are done. Whew!
Sunday, July 19^th                   
Everywhere I went, I gathered food to bring home (eggs from our Associate Pastor’s chickens, tomatoes from Dad & Sue’s garden).

Monday, July 20^th                
From the socials Monday evening: So I had a hair miracle this morning & couldn’t wait to get on here & share. I was supposed to wash my hair yesterday morning (it had been a week since my last wash) but I decided to have Unselfcare Sunday & just not mess with it. I pulled it up, put on a shower cap, & took my shower. When I got out I decided I was cute & just put a clip on it & wore it to church. I never took it down & when I got up this morning it was STILL CUTE. So I wore it this way to work. People, I have still not taken it down. Dare I go for day 3?
 

Tuesday, July 21^st   
I did NOT go for day 3. I actually think I could have pulled it off, but my head was VERY TIRED of the hairband.
 

Your weekly zinnias (plus a Two Toned Pinky sighting). These are from the planters on the deck.
 

Wednesday, July 22^nd                  
I do not like carrots. 
 

Thursday, July 23^rd       
Dr. M had rice and gravy with his tomatoes & eggs (plus livermush – they were still frying it when he took the photo). 
 

That evening I had dinner with friends and got this pizza that was called The Fruit of the Woods. It had mushrooms and asparagus, but all I could taste was garlic. I mean, I like garlic, but… Also it was pouring rain when we left the restaurant. My box worked pretty well as an umbrella.
 

Friday, July 24^th   
Sign in the bathroom at my audiologist’s office. Made me laugh. 
 

Saturday, July 25^th   
Progress on my super secret project.
 

I found a rogue rudbeckia in the yard! So cute!
 

I tried adding chopped up home grown tomatoes to the “garlic clove disguised as pizza” but it only helped a little bit.
 

Today I drove to church through a thunderstorm and torrential rain. It felt a little Biblical. When the service was over the sun had come out and we had a sauna situation. But none of those things will keep me from going to my Uncle Bill’s 90^th birthday celebration here in a little bit. And in honor of that, here is a snippet from a dream I had in 2010:

I’m thankful that in my dream last night my mother seemed to be handling her incarceration in the federal pen rather well. My uncle Bill was there too. I don’t know what they did – but I suspect it has something to do with the Brookford Mafia (this is an inside joke) and I want to know where my share of the dirty money is!

Have you had any weird dreams lately? Do tell!

2026 Project 365 – Week Twenty-nine

I had another lovely Saturday at home. I did laundry, crocheted, played on my iPad, got NINE hours of sleep. I’m starting to dream of what it will be like when I retire (possibly in April, 2029 after I turn 65).
Sunday, July 12^th                   
Sunday mood (this shirt says Love your Neighbor in a bunch of languages).

Monday, July 13^th                
No photo.
 
Tuesday, July 14^th  
This, from Dr. M’s social media: The weather was drizzly and dreary in Plateau this morning. As at least some of you know, today is the 237th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in Paris (France, not Kentucky). Sadly, it is also the 10th anniversary of the morning I was summoned to HR at UU and forced to accept early retirement. Feck and alas. (Note from the Bug: “Feck and alas” is a cleaned up version of a quote from a book that was so quirky and weird and yet I loved the heck out of it. I would try to go & find out the name of it, but I think maybe only one of you would be interested (Ellen, if you ARE interested, let me know!)).
 

Wednesday, July 15^th                 
I did a zinnia ramble. I love seeing them in all their iterations. Fascinating!

 

Thursday, July 16^th      
Dr. M demonstrating that apparently neither Rhyne can park Daisy D. Ford.
 

Friday, July 17^th   
No photo.
 
Saturday, July 18^th   
I’m working on a super secret project. It’s going really well!
 

As I mentioned last week, this coming Friday is another pretty important employee benefit that I had to set up. I did my part and now I just have to see if it worked like it was supposed to. It’s a little nerve-wracking. The first check in August has ANOTHER big change that I have to set up, and then, really I promise, I will be done with all the open enrollment changes. Whew! How has your summer been going? Are you heat-dome addled too?

2026 Project 365 – Week Twenty-eight

People, I think maybe things are back to normal in the Bug household. Perhaps. I stayed home yesterday & caught up on cleaning and laundry. I walked outside precisely twice: once to get the mail, and once to empty the recycling into the bin. It was excellent.
Sunday, July 5^th                   
This photo isn’t from Sunday, but it’s the same outfit I wore to church. It was my turn to handle the “special” during the service (we take turns doing show & tell in the summer while the choir is off) and I read a poem. I reworked one I had written in 2016 which you can read here. Maybe sometime I’ll post the new version on here. We’ll see!

Monday, July 6^th                
Tell me you’re a slob without telling me you’re a slob. I’ll go first! I walked into my office Monday morning & was greeted by this evidence of Saturday’s snack. Oops.
 

Tuesday, July 7^th  
Every time I see myself in the mirror when I’m wearing this dress I go “hmmm” at the design placement.
 

Wednesday, July 8^th                  
People, it was still so hot this week. Oof. The flowers were happy, but the chickens needed to take a break!
 

And so Dr. M made a very refreshing side dish to go with dinner.
 

Thursday, July 9^th      
I just love my zinnia basket! All those different heights and flower colors make me very happy.
 
 

Friday, July 10^th   
Dr. M got me these most excellent Hurricanes earrings. I love them!
 

Saturday, July 11^th   
No photo, but here is my post from the socials: SHARON McMAHON has been on fire lately & since it’s been a while since I’ve gotten riled up & posted on the internet I thought I’d steal on of her recent rants. Enjoy! (Read from left to right.)
 

Last week I had asked for good vibes that employee paychecks didn’t have any issues and so far so good! I have another big employee deduction import to do this coming week for the July 24^th check, & hopefully that will go well. After that there is ONE MORE big task for the August 7^th check and then we should be good to go for a while. Which is good, because surgery is coming up quickly! I’ll bet you’re ready to be done hearing about my job for a while. I know I am! What do you have going on this coming week?

2026 Project 365 – Week Twenty-seven

I had been looking forward to this three day weekend for quite some time. I thought I would probably still work on one of the days, but that I would have at least one day to not leave my house at all. Bliss! But not bliss because it’s been in the high 90s and our house at midday is not very comfortable, so I left my house every day anyway. But on one of those days I didn’t wear makeup! So there!
Sunday, June 28^th                   
I went into the office & then to visit Sue in the hospital. I got a cute photo of my dad, but since I have an even better one of him later in the week, I’ll give you flowers instead. I’m bookending the week with photos of the zinnia pot – and on Saturday I have an extra special surprise involving that pot!

Monday, June 29^th                
This was a TRAGIC day. I had the cutest toppers all laid out to wear with this dress and then I was discombobulated getting ready for work and FORGOT THEM. My glasses were nekkid! I don’t know man. What is the world coming to. One thing that happened is that Sue checked herself out of the hospital! I had been visiting with her & then went to dad’s to make sure he was behaving (he mostly was), and while I was there she called & asked him to pick her up RIGHT NOW. So we went back up there & brought her home.
 

Tuesday, June 30^th  
Got some more Stanley Cup bling, which I promptly wore every evening & then on Friday AND Saturday.
 

Wednesday, July 1^st                 
There was oatmeal somewhere underneath those blueberries.
 

Thursday, July 2^nd     
We have a little rudbeckia (they always look so puny when they first start blooming) and more double-orange daylilies.
 

Friday, July 3^rd  
We had a gathering at Dad and Sue’s house to celebrate the 14^th anniversary of my nephew enlisting in the army. And to help him feel really celebrated, he got to spend a lot of time out in the 90-something degree heat helping my brother grill our hotdogs & hamburgers. Thanks Brandon! (For your service in general, and for that service in particular). We had a great time – and as you can tell, Sue was feeling much better.
 

Saturday, July 4^th   
I went into the office for a few hours (to beat the heat, and get some things done), and then I went by Dad & Sue’s house & serendipitously got to see my other nephew & his main squeeze.  I took no photos of any of that. Instead, I took this photo of my July calendar page & posted it on the socials with this caption: Mood. I love my country too much not to argue with her (& everyone else, apparently). Calendar by Mary Engelbreit. Spice by Penzey Spices.
 

Meanwhile, Dr. M took this lovely photo of his childhood home with this caption: Happy 250th birthday, Declaration of Independence! May your loftiest ideals continue to inspire action on behalf of those suffering abuses and usurpations at the behest of tyrants. This is the house in which I grew up, beautifully restored and flying the flags of the United States and the state of North Carolina.

Finally, here are the kinds of firecrackers that we enjoy these days.

And look! A surprise visitor!
 

Today was church and lunch with the folks, and then a very exciting baseball game (hush – baseball can be exciting!), and now I am writing this post before dinner. This week employees will get their first checks of the new fiscal year with all of their open enrollment changes on them and let us all offer up a silent (or loud!) plea that everything is all right. Amen!

2026 Project 365 – Week Twenty-six

Man, what a week. I was already exhausted from intense data entry all week & then Dad’s wife Sue fell down the basement stairs on Friday. Fortunately, she “only” has a cracked rib, a knot on her head, and a bunch of bruises. Unfortunately, she now has extreme vertigo, so they’re keeping her in the hospital until they sort that out.
Sunday, June 21^st                  
Look Ma – I ate a vegetable! It was pretty darned tasty.

Monday, June 22^nd               
I was trying to get a good photo of this “cage” I used to wear in my hair sometimes, and while this isn’t fabulous (also, I can’t really “do” my hair right now), I thought the photo in photo effect was pretty cool.
 

Tuesday, June 23^rd
There were bees ALL OVER the bee balm (I mean, what are the odds?). Also, there were chickens. Happy sigh.
 

Wednesday, June 24^th                
Stanley Cup souvenir. I’d never held a hockey puck before. Interesting!
 

Thursday, June 25^th    
Summer staples right now – cucumber tomato salad and blueberries! Not eaten together. Although maybe I should try. Hmmm…
 

Friday, June 26^th
I’ve reached the point in my life where I’ve decided that I don’t care about how my arms look in public. However, I actually didn’t spend very much time sleeveless – it was cold in the office! I was especially glad that I had a blouse with sleeves to throw on while I was at the hospital waiting while Sue was in the ER.
 

Double-orange Daylilies & Zinnias! (This is just a zinnia fan account now.)
 

Saturday, June 27^th   
I wore one of my sermon shirts to the office (I got 5 hours of good work done!) and to the hospital, where I had to get a photo of my terribly cute father.

Today was a repeat of yesterday, but I spent less time at each place. I got home around 3:30 today and have had a lovely afternoon at home. However, I just now realized that I still have clothes in the dryer. Oops – better go take care of that! Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.