1. I picked up my huge pile of holds at the library, so now I am all set for their closure during Christmas and New Year.

2. We had a nice time at Knott's today. It was very sunny but not super hot (though warmer than I would prefer for December) and we had the most delicious loaded tater tots I've ever had.

3. I got some persimmons at the farmers market today. There are a ton of stalls selling them, but the one I got from had samples out and the sample was very good, so hopefully the ones I bought will be as well! I do love persimmons.

4. Look at these sweetie boys! A lot of times when Ollie comes over for a snuggle Jasper just up and leaves, but this time he stayed an snuggled and gave Ollie some nice grooming.

1. Carla's aunt let us know to be expecting a delivery of Lou Malnati's x Portillo's Italian beef pizzas. She's ordered their frozen pizzas for us for Christmas in the past and they're really good. (Carla has had them in person, but I never have.) Apparently they were having a deal on the 4 pizza package, so that's what she got. Good thing we've been working to clean out the freezer recently and should actually have room for four frozen pizzas.

2. So glad it's the weekend!

3. Carla took the car in this morning and they were able to find that the AC system has a leak, which is causing the issue of no AC but unable to determine yet where the leak is, so they still need to keep it at least for tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be as long as last time, but at least we have the other car.

4. The Playstation Portal came today and after three separate system updates and two controller updates, I got it set up and can now play from the comfort of my desk chair. :D

5. Molly was super playful and writhing around on my rug the other day. She's usually so calm and composed, so it's super cute to watch.

1. Carla is home safe and sound. Her flight was delayed by about an hour and a half due to weather in Chicago, so what was already a late night pickup (scheduled originally for 11:30pm) ended up being truly middle of the night, and we are both pretty exhausted today, but she is home, and I was able to work from home again today, which is good because I think I got about 2.5 hours of sleep total.

2. While I was waiting to go to the airport last night and trying not to get to sleepy, I finally tried the Trader Joe's chai concentrate we'd picked up a while back. Mixed with the gingerbread oatmilk (also Trader Joe's), it tastes exactly like the gingerbread chai lattes we love from Starbucks. Cheaper to make at home, plus also they are still on strike, so we haven't been going to Starbucks.

3. I finally gave the PS5 a go! I bought Horizon Zero Dawn a week or so ago and have been meaning to give it a go, but just never found the time to go out in the living room and fire it up. (This is why I love the Switch so much, because I can play at my desk. For some reason I am really avoidant about playing games on the TV, idek.) I just played the (extremely long) intro segment so far, but I did enjoy it. Also played a bit of the free Astro game that came with the system and it's fun, too. And then I went ahead and ordered the Playstation Portal, which is a handheld accessory that allows you to play PS5 games away from the TV (you do need an actual PS5 to use it). It was even on sale!

4. I got the Thanksgiving bagel sandwich this morning for us to share. It was pretty tasty, but it had a lot of fried onions on it, which is less than ideal. I'd ask for it without them if I got it again, but since it's only going to be around a bit longer I probably just won't get it again.

5. I finished another puzzle today.



This is the puzzle we had hanging around in the closet for years and years because we wanted to be puzzle people but then we had cats and nowhere to do puzzles. But when we got the garage remodelled and had a space to do puzzles, I found it too daunting. But now I've done a lot of puzzles and felt up to the task. It was definitely a challenge, though it would have been more of one if the pieces had been more uniform. It has two main types of pieces, some more square and some long and thin, so that made it easier to figure out what went where.

6. Chloe's looking a little wild.

1. I got the Christmas cake order put in today. Also got a delicious ube boba shake while I was there.

2. I had a library book due today that I couldn't renew due to other people having holds, and managed to finish it in time to return after work this evening.

3. The light by the washing machine has been getting dim for a while, but it's a dome lamp on the ceiling and you're supposed to be able to just turn the dome and it comes loose, but it's been completely stuck. We have multiple other lamps like this in other rooms, all of which we've changed bulbs in just fine, but this one hasn't been changed since they installed it a few years ago when we got the wiring done. The area is not a separate room, just a space by the backdoor that is also open to the dining room and kitchen, so even with the light getting dim, there was enough surrounding light that it wasn't urgent to try and get it open, but it did go out for good yesterday, so today I got serious about it and while squirting WD-40 around the rim didn't do anything, my second idea of using a butter knife to try and wiggle it loose worked! Now the lightbulb is changed and the dome is back on loosely enough that this shouldn't be an issue in the future.

4. Gemma!

I headed down to Disneyland after work for one last solo trip before Carla gets back on Wednesday.

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1. I had a pretty restful day today, which was nice after two busy (if fun) days. It was pretty chilly, which I wish had been the case yesterday or Thursday, but I'll take now anyway. Tomorrow's supposed to be low 60s, too.

2. I finished another puzzle today. This was a 750 piece one but went pretty quickly as it had a lot of pattern and color differentiation.



3. Carla bought some gingerbread oatmilk recently and I had some tonight in a mug of cocoa and it goes so well together!

4. Found a hidden Molly in the curtain.

1. I had a nice morning at Disneyland today, but I am definitely glad I have two more days off to rest up! Tomorrow I am not going anywhere further than the farmers market.

2. Chloe!

1. Carla is getting snow in Wisconsin and meanwhile we had a sunny eighty-degree day here. I prefer somewhere between the two! Thankfully the weather is supposed to be cooler tomorrow and then dropping down a lot for the weekend. Hope this is the last heat spell for the fall/winter but I kind of doubt it. At least at this time of year the heat is short lived since the sun goes down early. It was nice and cool when I went for my walk this evening.

2. I decided to stop at Handel's for ice cream on my walk and they have a peppermint bark flavor for the holidays! I love peppermint ice cream so this was a must have. It was very tasty. Carla likes peppermint, too, so we'll have to get it again once she's back in town.

3. We are planning to go to Universal Studios around Christmas (well, we decided to go on Christmas actually) because that's when we're blocked out from Disneyland. Neither of us have ever been before, but we want to go to Universal Japan next year on our trip, so I'd really like to be able to compare. Plus we're not renewing our Knott's Berry Farm annual pass for next year and instead considering getting a Universal Studios one, but want to check it out first to see if we would really use it that much (the price is much cheaper than Disneyland, but not as dirt cheap as Knott's). Anyway, while I was poking around on the website to read up for our Christmas trip, I started getting more and more excited about it and decided to do a solo trip myself tomorrow! They have two day passes that get you a deal over buying the dates separately, and you can use the second ticket within 90 days of the first, so I got one to use tomorrow and then will use the other half when we go on Christmas.

4. I finished up one of the big things I was working on at work! It feels so good to have that finally done! And a lot of progress has been made on the other, to the point where we can say we have enough data to move forward by our deadline at the end of next month. There are some things on the IT side that still need to be hammered out, but I think we might not have to delay the project? Fingers crossed!

5. I didn't use a filter for this photo but the lighting made it look like a filter. Gemma loves to hide away on Carla's desk chair when it's pushed under her desk, which of course it is all the time right now since she's not home.