Tag: Peanut Butter

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Week in Review: March 22, 2026

This has been a pretty good week. Peanut Butter turned 13 on Monday. He is still pretty healthy, despite his age, which I am thankful for.

In health news, I had my three-month check-in with the orthodontist, and he was pleased at how much movement has happened with my teeth so far. He gave me trays 13-25, so I will see him again in another three months.

I got to spend time with two good friends this week. Renee came over Friday evening and we ate together and played a bit of puzzle chess and then watched a few episodes of Best Medicine. She is a fan of Doc Martin, so I wanted her to see the new American version of the show, and she liked it. Then Kim came over Saturday for lunch and a movie. We get together every other weekend and take turns hosting. We had a nice time.

I haven’t been reading as much lately as I usually do. I have only finished two books in March, both of which were mysteries. I was about 80% done with a third one and then it automatically returned to Libby and I had to put it on hold again! I am currently about 40% done with another one; this one is on my Kindle so I don’t have to worry about it going away, lol.

Michael seems to be doing pretty well at his job. He feels like he has a good handle on the daily tasks. He has had a few awkward interactions with people, but we talk through them and I try to give him suggestions on how to handle them in the future. I know I have my own share of social issues, but I do have the benefit of a few more years of experiences to draw on.

All in all, a pretty good week!

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Week in Review: February 22, 2026

Doesn’t Peanut Butter look cozy? I recently bought this self-warming pet bed and he absolutely loves it. He is definitely spending the majority of his time on it!

This has been another busy week at work, but I did take Tuesday afternoon off to take Michael for a meeting with a potential new dentist. He has to switch dentists due to a change in insurance, and we needed one who had some sedation options for when he needs work done (he is fine for a cleaning). This dentist does not offer IV sedation or nitrous oxide, but he does offer medication that the patient would take the night before and the morning of the appointment. Michael has been successful with a combination of medication and nitrous, and he decided that he is willing to try just the medication the next time the situation arises, so we went ahead and scheduled his next cleaning with this dentist.

I watched a very interesting movie this week called Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser. It takes place in Japan and is directed by Japanese director Hikari. Fraser is an American actor living in Tokyo who lands a gig with a “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. It was a bit odd at times but heartwarming.

I also watched quite a lot of Olympic figure skating this week. I thought the women did especially well, and I enjoyed a lot of their free skates. I used to watch a ton of figure skating when I was younger, but I have been out of touch except for the Olympics for a while now. I enjoy some of the other winter sports as well, but just didn’t have the time to watch them this time around.

I hope everyone had a good week!

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Catching Up – July 2025

This post is really just a list of random things that have been happening in my life over the past few weeks. But first, here is a picture of my cat Peanut Butter sleeping on my son’s backpack:

  • I got two more bookcases to store puzzles, but I built the first one and it fell apart. My fault for going cheap – Target no longer had the one I liked from them, so I got them off of Amazon. I’m going to try to build the other one and see what happens. I kept the shelves from the first one so I can have extra for the second one.
  • A couple of weeks ago, we started seeing what looked like gnats in the apartment. After some research, I found out they were drain flies. I poured boiling water down the drains and bought traps for them. I also contacted the apartment office and they added us to the Orkin list. The Orkin guy came on Friday and treated the drains, so hopefully we won’t see the bugs again!
  • I got my ears re-pierced. I originally had my ears pierced as a teenager (had to do it twice because they got infected the first time). Then a couple of years ago, I got out of the habit of wearing earrings and the holes mostly closed up. So I finally went somewhere and got them re-pierced.
  • I got my third library card. I already had ones from my local library system and from the Queer Liberation Library, but I got one from the Free Library of Pennsylvania after finding out that anyone who lives in PA can get one for free. Once I had the card, I added it to Libby and checked some of the books on my TBR. I found two dozen books that my local library either didn’t have or only had a physical copy of, so I am very happy with that.
  • One of my front teeth needs a root canal. A lot of dentists have been dropping the insurance company I have, so it has been challenging to find people for things. I did find a local endodontist, but I can’t get the rool canal until mid-August. The pain is mostly under control right now, but sometimes it does get pretty bad.
  • After the root canal, I still have one tooth that needs a filling before I can start with orthodontics. I need to talk to my dentist about that first, though. I really like her bedside manner, so to speak, but when she gives novacain, she always hits the nerve directly. She says this is the best way to do it, but it is quite painful and I have never had a dentist who did that before.
  • One piece of really great news – Michael got a job! He is a donation processor at a thrift store, and he is working twenty hours a week. He just finished his second week and is feeling pretty good about how it is going. So far, he has been learning how to sort the clothes and other donations that come in. The next thing he will learn is how to tag the clothes. He is pretty nervous about being able to do it quickly enough, but they seem like they are willing to work with him. He has had his job coach with him so far, but she will just be coming once a week now.

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Catching Up – February 2025

Peanut Butter likes to hang out with me while I am working (my desk is in my bedroom). He has taken to jumping up on my desk lately, but often he gets comfortable on my bed. He will turn 12 next month and thankfully is in good health.

Lately I have been spending quite a bit of time helping to plan the 2025 Autism Mother to Mother Luncheon. I am coordinating the registration committee. Online registration for the event opened yesterday, and we have had almost 70 moms sign up already! We can accommodate 100, so we still have a few spots left. I am also working on all the handouts, such as the program, name tags, etc.

I am not super involved in fundraising since it is not one of my strengths, but I did get a gift basket donated by my hairstylist for the raffle we are holding at the event. Here’s a picture of it:

My friend Kim and I have been spending our weekly Saturday lunch and movie get togethers going through the Good Witch movies. We have finished all the ones that took place before the TV show started, so now I am watching the show on my own and we are watching the additional movies together where they fit in the timeline.

For Christmas, I had given Kim a t-shirt that mashes together the Bennet sisters from Pride & Prejudice with the Abbey Road album cover from the Beatles. She wore it yesterday so I was able to get a shot of it:

I have really been enjoying the women’s table group at church. We meet every other Wednesday evening and share a meal and discussion about the recent Sunday sermons. The idea popped into my head a few days ago to suggest that we open the group to non-binary people and, when I suggested it to the group, they all seemed to like the idea. Our leader is going to talk to the pastor who oversees the groups and let her decide the best way to communicate it. I am really happy that they liked the idea.

March is going to be a very busy month with the luncheon planning ramping up and lots of appointments for both me and Michael. Work has also been quite busy with lots of overtime needed to keep up. I’m hoping to be able to still carve out some time to relax and recharge by myself.

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A Short History of Peanut Butter

PB1 (2018_06_05 17_42_18 UTC)I have posted so many times about our puppy that I thought it would only be fair to post something about our cat, Peanut Butter.  We got Peanut Butter as a kitten, and he recently turned 7 years old.  Here’s a photo of him from when we first met him at my coworker’s mom’s house.  My son Michael and I fell in love with him right away.

We brainstormed names for quite a while until we came up with Peanut Butter.  I think it suits him very well!

PB2 (2018_06_05 17_42_18 UTC)When we brought him home to our apartment, he hid in the bathroom behind the toilet for several hours.  Soon enough, he was making himself at home climbing up the bookcases to sit on the very top and destroying the blinds so he could sit on the window ledge and look out.  Of course, he also loved to snuggle with us.

From the beginning, he actually liked the cat bed I got him.  You can see in these two pictures from 2013 and 2019 how much he has grown.

 

Unfortunately, I had to put the cat bed away recently because Baxter started destroying it.  Peanut Butter now splits his time between lounging on our bed and hanging out on top of the cat tree in the family room.  He doesn’t get to spend as much time cuddling with us because Baxter wants to play with him and chase him when he is within reach. That is definitely something I want to work on when we get back into training with Baxter.

 

I’ll leave you with a final shot of Peanut Butter posing for the camera on our loveseat.  He is such a handsome and loving cat, and I am so thankful to have him in our lives.

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