Really not liking a flooring company showing up at the Twenties and all the door slamming associated with it. I’m sure there’ll be enough sawing and hammering, too. Can’t these people ever take a month off?! If you want all new stuff, why not just get a brand-new house somewhere? It’s 7:15 in the morning, for fuck’s sake! This project may only be a one-day ordeal, but it’s obviously going to be an all-day affair for them to be here this early. It’s the garage installation I’m really dreading! With all the damn projects they’ve done, I’m hoping they’re running out of things to upgrade. They only have so much house, after all, and so much space around it. Leave it to us to get someone this project happy right across from us. I’d want to kill them if they were next door!

Anyway, it’s obvious that they are prepping to up the value for a sale, but now? Could’ve sworn Jon said they’d be here another 10 years.

I miss the country! I know it’s not feasible for us to be out in the country with us getting older and all that but when I’m on days I miss it because of all the noise here and when I’m on nights I miss it because I usually sleep so shitty here. I’m just sick of never getting any peace unless it’s pouring!

Feeling a lot better today than yesterday. Yesterday I was a bit anxious, depressed and bored, wanting to somehow break up the monotony. That will be done this weekend. Looking forward to going out which is usually to stores or to eat.

I was going to skip my meds like I did yesterday but decided to take them and have a margarita which has the highest percentage of alcohol out of everything I’ve got if I became anxious, but it looks like it’s going to be a good day. Being Friday helps!

I’ve been sleeping better because I’m not going to bed really early in the morning when it seems to be the worst time for a light sleeper to crash in this place. The only negative to sleeping better is that I don’t usually remember my dreams. Even though most of my dreams are negative, I like dreaming because every now and then a fun one sneaks into the mix.

I’ve been having this dull, steady ache in my very lower left side right around where the ovary would be located. I’ve actually had this before a handful of times. This is the second day I’ve had it and I really hope it isn’t me ovulating or else I’ll be looking at a bleeder in another couple of weeks. Hopefully, it’s just a pulled muscle but at least Ibuprofen killed the pain.

After stepping away from my phone for a while yesterday and then checking it for messages from Aly, I found a missed call from my dentist and thought, oh no, I don’t want to have to reschedule again.

So I called there and they picked up right away. It was Jessica. I asked her about the call and she forwarded me to a woman named Stephanie. I asked if she was the new Kathleen after she told me she was going through her messages and I informed her that I’d already rescheduled, and she said she was. She sounded a lot younger than Kathleen.

Shortly after I hung up with Stephanie, I had a vision that she was about 5‘3”, chubby, has shoulder-length mostly straight blond hair, hazel eyes, and an ordinary-looking face. Well, I’ll find out in 26 days.

Now for Tom’s car plans. He decided to get the new car by the end of next month and then keep the Caddy for a month afterward just in case the new car has a problem. He’s going by when the insurance expires. It’s illegal in California to sell a car with a ‘check engine’ light on so we’ll sell it to a junkyard.

And now for my food plans. I’m not going to diet again just to lose a few lbs that come right back and feel miserable while I’m at it, so I decided to pick the lowest but still doable and reasonable calorie amount I could comfortably sustain and decided 1500 would be best. This means I’m going to use MyFitnessPal again, which I took a week or so off from, to log my food, but more so to watch my sodium and cholesterol intake than anything else.

While I was trying to get my mind off my anxiety yesterday, I was hanging out with the pigs and rats and hating the mess they still make even with the mesh wrapped around the rats’ level. Then I remembered those who use fleece liners and who claim it really makes things easier and cuts down on the smell.

So I jumped on Amazon and researched guinea pig cage liners and it seems like my big boys could definitely benefit from them and so could we. They all have great reviews and say it makes things a lot easier because all you have to do is just brush it off and shake it out every day or so and then wash them every few days to get the piss out.

When I woke up, as soon as I opened the bedroom door and stepped out into the hall, the smell of piss hit me right away, that’s how bad it is. Changing the rats once a week is fine but the pigs need to be changed every three or four days if I’m going to keep using recycled paper bedding.

I scooped up what was obviously soiled and replaced it with fresh bedding and I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow! I picked out a couple of liners for the pigs and a couple for the rats but I put the rats in the ‘save for later’ section so I can see how they do with the pigs first. The first liner arrives tomorrow.

My only concern with the rats is that they might be more likely to chew it and try to burrow underneath it as well. But the rat group I follow on Facebook that’s grossing me out with too many hairless rats lately, often talks about, makes and sells liners for rats and they don’t seem to have a problem with them.

They’re expensive at $51 each but if they make things as easier on us and as less smelly as I think they’re going to, then they’re worth every penny. If we could eliminate bedding altogether in the end, we’ll save a ton of money over time.

One of the ones I picked out for the pigs has colorful sprinkles on a pink background which is to arrive tomorrow. The second one I picked out for them has a rainbow design.

The two I hope to eventually get for the rats have colorful rows of donuts on one and the Northern Lights on the other with swirls of deep purples, blues and greens. Plus a sprinkling of white “stars.”

The only thing that may still make a mess is the hay. I’ll make a point of giving them a little at a time instead of a big bushel so less is wasted that they can kick out.

I absolutely cannot let the rats hang with the pigs anymore. Rats are constantly grooming each other in ways I never see the pigs do that it’s amazing the pigs feel so soft and clean. Anyway, I wasn’t sure if they were bullying them at first or what, but then it quickly became obvious that the rats were trying to clean the pigs, LOL. As soon as I let them up there, they went right to work on them. Well, the pigs didn’t exactly appreciate the free baths. They especially hate being touched on the ass so whenever - OMG, I had to stop for a minute because I’m laughing so hard and that’s something speech to text goes on a real WTF moment over - okay, so the rats decided the pigs needed a clean booty and then the pigs started getting all bouncy and squealy with annoyance as if to say, “Mom, get these damn pesky little flies off of us!”

Those rats were determined little boogers, alright. It may have been funny to watch but the pigs didn’t think so, so the flies were swatted back downstairs. LMAO!

The rats I’ve had over the years have been known to copy my schedule, but now I’m surprised to see my fish is doing it too. Am I just that likable? :)

I made my health blog public in case Aly wants to check it out. There really is no reason for it to be private anyway. Nothing in it has to be kept secret. She said she stopped checking out my Twitter health account when I started posting only pictures whenever I got up and also when I took my vitamins. I’m still doing that with that Twitter account but gave her the link to the health blog in case she’s interested.