#Crafting, Phone Upgrades, #Baking, Medical Mutterings, And Workmen

For those who like to know: my March Makerly box contained a sewing kit to make a March hare wall hanging. I know I can tell you now, since I saw them announce it on Twitter last Wednesday. Anyway, I love how it said in the papers that tell you what you're making that it was a, "Completely cruelty free and vegan friendly trophy." I love that they thought about that.

Speaking of craft kits: no. I haven't finished the owl yet. I should have, but I haven't been working on it. It's kind of hard to finish something if you aren't working on it at all, as I'm sure you can appreciate. I'll get back to it soon.

In other news, the new modem for the internet arrived Tuesday some time, but we didn't set it up until the Wednesday. Although Tuesday was officially the day the system should have allowed the switch, it can be the evening before it does sometimes (in fact, officially it can be any time up until midnight of that night) so waiting until the following day gave us more chance we could guarantee they were ready, and reduced the chances we'd have to temporarily swap them back to continue going online. So, I'm not sure what time on Tuesday the system made the switch, but we had our new internet from last Wednesday, and everything went smoothly with switching it over. We unplugged the old one, plugged in the new one, and were good to go. That's what's meant to happen, so I'm glad it did. It does seem a bit faster, so that's nice. We also haven't lost connection, even during those potentially rocky first days when you sometimes - in fact, quite often - can while it adjusts and settles, which is even nicer. We're going to send the old modem back to them for recycling. They even gave us a baggy to put it in to send it back to them.

My new mobile phone arrived on Friday, like it was meant to. As I think I mentioned last week, it's a silver iPhone 6S. I need to get it a case though, since it won't fit in the one for my old phone. Anyway, it's just as well it came when it did, since my old one (the iPhone 4S) was playing up, and when I asked Kelly to help me do something with it, he said the screen was totally blank. Honestly, we're not entirely sure how it was even still talking, but we do know it's only the fact I was using Voice Over (the screen reader iPhones come with) that was enabling me to even still be using the phone at that point. So... Yeah... I cut that one pretty close, and would have been cutting it even closer still if I had to be able to see the screen to use it. I couldn't get texts for the first day I had my new phone though. Nothing wrong with the phone. We had them send out a new sim card, since the different models sometimes take different sims, and we weren't sure if my old phone's sim would work in the new one. The result being that I had to wait for the new sim to activate itself. They said it could take up to 24 hours, but is usually quicker. It wasn't quicker. It was longer. Partially my fault... I forgot to actually activate it at first. But all I could do was wait (at least, after I'd actually activated the new sim) since it would have had to be more than those 24 hours after I'd actually done the activation before they'd have looked in to it. While I waited, I got the settings all adjusted how I wanted them, grabbed my apps off the app store (since I had internet, because I could use the home internet, but didn't have service from the mobile provider) and that kind of thing. So at least the phone was good to go when it finally activated itself on Sunday afternoon. It would have been Saturday, had it not been Saturday morning before I realized I'd forgotten to go on their website to actually activate the new sim. Erm... Oops!

Anyway, speaking of Saturday: I did some more baking on Saturday. I made some brownies, which I knew Kelly really wanted me to make. He loves when I make brownies. But I also made a simple cinnamon cake, just because I felt like making one. I had Kelly take photos for those who might want to see them. They won't win prizes for presentation... Especially the brownies... But they tasted good, which is what matters most. Anyway, here they are:

(The brownies are in the first photo, and the cinnamon cake is in the second photo - both uncut).

In other news...

I'm feeling much better. I get the odd twinge of pain sometimes. But I'm not even taking Ibuprofen any more. Not even at night. I've got some on hand, just in case I need some - especially now I'm starting to do more, since it's past the six week point, so I'm allowed to - but I'm hopeful I won't need it any time soon. Doesn't hurt to have some available in case it's needed anyhow though. I almost needed some on Friday. Kelly helped me have a shower. Not easy, since we didn't want to push it with me stretching yet, and we also still don't have the shower curtain up, so he had to make sure to be careful how he directed the spray (as it is the floor got a bit of a wash too). But I haven't been able to risk climbing over the side of the bath for either a shower or a bath since before my surgery, and it was so totally worth it to feel properly clean for the first time in so many weeks!

Oh, speaking of medical stuff... We're finally making some progress with getting the council to come pick up those used needles. They have the paperwork this time, so are willing to approve a pick-up. I did have a bit of an argument with them over it though, because they wanted us to just leave the little plastic bins on the doorstep, and I refuse to do that. If they can be left in such an unsecure location, why do we need the paperwork to approve them being picked up? It's stupid! I'd have thought they'd want to make sure they changed hands securely, not leave them out there for potentially hours (they can come for them any time between 7:00am and 8:00pm, which means they could potentially be out there for more than 13 hours, assuming nobody comes and helps themselves to them in the meantime). I told them I'd be willing to leave them in our downstairs hallway, and be available from 7:00am to let them in the building to come in for them. But I'm not leaving them on the doorstep where anyone can help themselves to them. They reluctantly agreed, and are meant to be coming for them on Thursday. I don't see why they're so reluctant. Like I said, if it's so important to have proper paperwork to approve them being picked up, I'd have thought they'd want to make sure they change hands in a secure manner. I know I do. Anyway, let's hope they come pick them up on Thursday. Kelly will put them downstairs Wednesday night, so we just have to let them in the building, and in theory they don't have to come all the way upstairs, or wait while one of us goes down. But at least we'll know who's coming in to the building, so nobody can just run off with the stuff secretly.

Speaking of letting people in the building: the speaker for the buzzer thingy is still not reliable. Sometimes it works perfectly, sometimes it doesn't. The button works, so we can let people in. We can also always hear them speaking. But they don't hear us all the time. The repair guys say they'll come replace our handset, since that's probably where the issue is. They haven't had a chance yet though. They've been back out on the roof, continuing to fix that.

The weather has been a lot nicer during the past week - we even had the windows open a couple of times - and the workmen have been out there every day. They seem to be trying to do a thorough job, so it's taking a while. Let's hope they really are doing as thorough a job as they appear - and claim - to be. Let's also hope they do as thorough a job as they promise to with checking for and repairing other issues in the building once they're done with the roof. It would be nice to have it all fixed.