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Gary checking the tyre pressure (365:076)
Gary checking the tyre pressure (365:076). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I had a busy day planned,
and so it turned out. It started with preparing the accounts paperwork for posting to the UK. We then went shopping to get food for tonight’s EFM class; it’s my turn to provide the evening meal. My original idea was to make a proper English shepherds’ pie, but the time spent struggling with the accounts yesterday had prevented me from doing my reading for tonight. Ginger was very nice and volunteered to make chicken soup while I did my reading. Before settling down to do the afore-mentioned reading I checked the air pressure in the van’s tyres, That’s the second tyre pressure checking picture I’ve taken this year.
Taking today’s shot took much longer than I anticipated because the Nikon gave up focusing again. I got round the problem by switching over to manual focus, totally un-focusing it, and then putting it back to autofocus. This worked, but of course I didn’t find out it wasn’t focusing until after I took my first set of shots, had removed the camera from the scene and chimped the pictures.
My plan was to take a ‘honest shot’ with the remote in full view as my shot for today, but I decided to go with this picture instead.
The rest of the afternoon was spent studying, and at five I went off to class. I got in shortly after nine, having stopped on the way home to fill up with exorbitantly priced fuel ($3.23 per US gallon). We watched a movie – The other Man. It’s now horribly late and I ought to stop typing and go to bed.
Today’s alternate shot
Gary checking the tyre pressure. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Petting Sprinky (365:075)
Petting Sprinky (365:075) Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today was a little frustrating.
I got my feedback on the business accounts, just a couple of simple changes to make, and then they’ll be ready to submit. That was the theory. The practice was different. Six hours later I was still struggling with the accounts software, unable to bend it to my will. I had trouble keeping track of all the different ways I tried to get the accounts package to do what it is supposed to do, and after each failed attempt I reloaded a back-up and started again.
Checking on the Internet I discovered I wasn’t alone in hitting this problem, though the solutions offered were perfunctory and used unfathomable accounting jargon that was way beyond my ken. Finally the year end figures are correct in the accounting software, though I had to resort to spreadsheets to make the changes to the figures for the submitted accounts.
Once I’d finished and sent off the amended documents for a final check back in the UK we settled down for a glass of wine, conversation, and cat petting, which is where today’s picture comes in.
Sprinky, featured in today’s picture, is one of our two Maine Coons, while a very scaredy cat she is also very friendly. Often too friendly, asking me to pet her while I’m busy with other things. Most mornings she comes and says hello before settling down to sleep the morning away at the foot of the bed.
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Something Spicy at Mama Jean’s (365:074)
Something Spicy at Mama Jean’s (365:074). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The black caterpillar thing must go.
I bought a seat belt protector for my messenger bag. The idea is to spread the load and stop the strap from sliding off my shoulder. Seeing it in this picture I think I’ll ask Ginger if she can make something a little more restrained and less conspicuous from it.
This morning I finished the business accounts and e-mailed them to the company secretary in the UK for checking. Hopefully everything is fine and I’ll be able to submit them this week in plenty of time.
After the school run Ginger and I dropped Katie off to work out at the gym while we went off and exercised my wallet in what I normally refer to as ‘Norma Jean’s’ the local grains, organic veggies and health food shop – their official moniker is ‘Mama Jean’s’ but I really can’t get on with the American ‘mama’ and ‘mom’ thing. The latter remains a word I can’t get my Brit lips around to the extent that when referring to Ginger with the kids, I resort to calling her ‘your mother’.
We must have bought at least 40lbs of various grains and dried fruits. The majority of which will go into our home made breakfast cereal, though some of it will be used for backpacking meals. Having virtually emptied the grain bins and my sneaking in a quick SP among the spices, we left Norma’s, collected Katie from the gym and finished our excursion out with shopping at Walmart.
I ought to mention that Carol gave us a dehydrator Sunday. It’s been going almost 24×7 ever since; drying out various foods to produce nutritious but light grub for our backpacks. This going to be so much better than lugging around tins or sachets of chicken and tuna.
Looking at this picture, and considering the only post-processing required was a tiny bit of brightening (my fault I’d left the EV set at -1/3) and a small amount of sharpening, I am once more impressed at how well (and frequently better) my little Fuji FinePix compares to my Nikon DSLR. The battery lasts a lot longer too – Which was why I didn’t have the Nikon with me. A single charge is currently lasting about 100 shots on the Nikon.
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Annual Accounts (365:073)
Annual Accounts (365:073). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today the procrastination ended.
After a slowish start, I spent most of the day working on my business accounts. Once I had started I stopped only for the school run and dinner. By ten pm I’d almost slain this particular dragon. I’ll only need a couple of hours tomorrow to iron out a couple of wrinkles.
Four years ago
Annual Returns, Accounts and Invoicing – Oh My! (365: 85) – Some things never change – Annual Accounts 2007. Copyright © 2007 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Self Portrait at Natalie Anne’s Christening (365:072)
This morning I was temporarily a Lutheran.
The only thing on the agenda today was to go to Natalie Anne’s Christening, and afterwards, take some pictures, and enjoy a get to together with Betsy, Matt, and the family.
When we got home I crammed in my Sunday nap, and since dinner I’ve been processing pictures. I think I have enough nice ones to keep me happy. There are lots more still to process, but they will have to wait for another day.
Today’s extras
Betsy and Natalie 
Natalie Anne’s Christening 
Susan and Natalie 
Katie and Natalie -
Drinking a beer at Tom & Rebbie’s (365:071)
Tonight I drank a beer or two (365:071) Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Tonight I drank a beer or two.
I spent most of the day variously doing my accounts and studiously avoiding doing my accounts. Fortunately, I had an even better distraction this evening, as we’d been invited to spend the evening with Tom, Rebbie, Dash and Leslie. Much to Tom and Dash’s relief I managed to get my self-portrait taken without involving them in the process.
I left the camera’s remote shutter release at home so this was the only picture I took, I couldn’t be bothered to get up and reset the timer for a second shot.
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New tent (365:70)
New Tent. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today, we set up our latest tent in the backyard. We’ve bought a Sierra Designs Lightning XT 1 one man tent to take one of the kids backpacking with us. It also allows one of us to go solo backpacking if we want, and I have a trip planned, hopefully later this month.
Ginger and I set it up this morning before Ginger went off with fellow Flickrite Rebbie for a girls’ day out. Once they’d gone, I re-set the tent and fixed a few problems we’d encountered, though the top of the fly at the back was still floppy. Having done that, I retrieved my pack, sleeping bag, and pad from the shed, tried the tent out for size, and took today’s picture.
The rest of the day was disappointingly unproductive. I spent a lot of time with Internet searches to try and see if there was any solution to the tent’s floppy flysheet and drew a blank. I then spent my time processing pictures and getting them ready to upload. Now I just need to finish that job and go to bed.
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Gary testing the new tent
Gary testing the new tent. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Gary crossing Woods Fork at Busiek (365:069)
Gary crossing Woods Fork at Busiek (365:069). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Time for another hike.
We’re getting ready for a longer backpacking trip, so we need to get in as much hiking as we can in preparation for several days of carrying our packs. We did a fairly short four and a half mile hike in the morning around the yellow and red trails at Busiek State Park and Wildlife Area. We used the south trail head, which appears to see very little traffic.
After the problems I had with my huaraches on Monday, I tried lacing them more tightly and they stayed in place with less slipping, again the trail was wet and very muddy in places, though this time we only had to cross the creek (Woods Fork) twice. Today’s picture shows me re-enacting my valiant first crossing of the creek. We heard the sound of falling water and left the trail to investigate, finding a very nice set of small waterfalls on a ephemeral creek about 100 feet off the trail. From there we had to do a bit of back tracking to retrieve my sunglasses, which I’d left at the creek when I took them off to set up the camera for today’s shot.
We stopped for a bite of lunch and a short rest on a lovely gravel bank near our second Wood’s Fork crossing, where Ginger looked for fossils.
Once back to the car, we had to dash into Springfield, pick-up kids, return the rental car, pick up the van, and I went off to my class. It would have been an excellent night at class only partway through I realised that I’d read the wrong lesson the previous night. That’ll teach me to do my work late in the evening, though the van breaking down did throw me out a bit I should have double-checked the lesson.
Today’s alternate shot & extras
The trails at Busiek are typical of the rough trails that can be found in the Ozarks, lots of loose sharp rocks. As horses use the trails at Busiek they are rougher than they’d be if there was foot traffic only. It’s not a problem, but it certainly makes the trails more challenging. 
Ephemeral creek and falls at Busiek 
Ginger checking out the creek 
Woods Fork, Busiek State Park and Wildlife Area -
Price Cutter parking lot (365:068)
Today the van broke down.
We spent the morning looking at places on Google Earth checking past and future hikes and other interesting things. Eventually, the chores of the day called and we went out to deal with a whole host of minor commissions before I settled down to do my coursework.
That was the plan. It came unstuck as soon as I turned the ignition key on the van. The starter pre-engage solenoid jammed. I tried looking under the bonnet to find the starter motor, an almost impossible job on a modern vehicle. I couldn’t see it let alone hit it to release the solenoid. After about twenty attempts it clicked over and we managed to get the van going. The only problem was we didn’t dare turn it off again until we could get to the repair shop, which would have to wait until after we picked the kids up from school, in two and a half hours’ time.
We called ahead and booked the van in for repairs and to have its regular service completed at the same time (which includes changing the front brake pads and milling the rotors – ouch!). We also booked a hire car so we could get to Church for the Ash Wednesday service, the kids to school, and us out on a planned hike tomorrow. I then spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the van in various parking lots with the engine running while Ginger crossed as many of the items off our to-do list as was practical. It was while I and the van were sitting idling away our time that I took today’s picture.
After collecting the big kids from school, I dropped Ginger off at the car rental and took the van in. I was expecting the starter to work perfectly once it reached the safety of the repair shop, but it failed straight away which was a relief. The good news was that the starter motor is covered under the van’s warranty. The bad news was, so is the A/C condenser and door lock actuator we’d already had fixed. That’ll teach us not to re-read the small print.
The evening’s Ash Wednesday service at church was over by around eight pm, after which I had to do my coursework – planned for the afternoon. I managed to finish all the reading by around half ten. That was quite a day.
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Pancake supper at Christ Episcopal Church, Springfield Missouri (365:067)
It’s Shrove Tuesday – Time for Pancake supper. Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It’s Shrove Tuesday – Time for Pancake supper.
We had a quiet day and shortly after picking the kids up from school headed down to Church as Alek and I were helping in the kitchen. Tickets to the pancake supper are sold as a fund raiser for the youth choir. Traditionally supper is prepared by the dads of the choristers and youth, while the choir does all the serving. Alek took over my job of batter mixing, and I helped serve. Ginger helped too, taking tickets and money on the door.
There was an excellent turnout, lots of sausage and pancakes were eaten. Between serving and clearing up I took a few pictures including today’s self portrait. In the background you can see the guys working away at the grill making pancakes.
today’s alternate shot & some favourites from the Pancake Supper
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Lunch at Busiek (365:066)
Today we went on a re-run of last week’s hike at Busiek.
We wanted to do some gear testing; Ginger had made some adjustments to her shoes and I wanted to try out my huaraches. We’d made up the day hike packing list, so nothing, including checking the calendar was forgotten! We had a good hike and got round the 5.75 miles (15,500 steps according to my pedometer) in about the same time as last week, even though this time Ginger elected to remove her shoes for the creek crossings; about six in total. With the huaraches I could just walk straight through. The trekking poles (forgotten last week) worked really well and seemed to speed us through some of the wetter and more rugged patches.
My huaraches were fine generally, but they didn’t work very well when climbing up steep wet trails, the foot-bed got very slippery, and while my feet didn’t come out of them, it wasn’t very comfortable either. We’ve some ideas for changing the material of the foot-bed that might help. I was surprised that my feet stayed warm except when crossing the creeks. The temperature today was around 46°F (8°C), it might look a lot warmer in this picture but I’m wearing a base layer and took my hat off. I’ve learned via a lot of post processing that wearing a hat for these pictures can cast quite a shadow, so, when I remember, I take it off.
While on the trail I took a picture of an abandoned liquid nitrogen tank which at some point was a railroad truck. We’ve worked this out from some faint markings on the outside. There are two of them, the ends have been cut off, and one has come to rest in Camp Creek. We can’t find any records of a railroad going through here. The tanks are very big and we’ve no idea how they came to be stuck out here in the middle of nowhere.
Back at the parking lot we took advantage of the shooting range being closed to have a look around. The fact that it was considered necessary to put up a ‘No shooting at Post’ sign was vaguely amusing, but unfortunately they need another sign saying ‘No shooting at trash cans’ as well
I took today’s picture of Ginger and I after our first crossing of Camp Creek while we stopped for lunch.
Today’s alternate shots & extras
Gary and Ginger being nauseating at Busiek 
Gary and Ginger on the orange trail at Busiek State Park 
Camp Creek in Busiek State Park and Wildlife area 
No Shooting at Post (Note the bullet holes in the trash cans) -
Doing the dishes (365:065)
Doing the dishes (365:065). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. A fairly typical Sunday.
Up at Seven, in church by half eight, and back out around eleven forty or so. We stopped to do some grocery shopping on the way home, and by one pm it was Sunday nap time (and yes that is frequently an euphemism). I didn’t surface until gone five, it was a tiring week.
After dinner I washed dishes, which reminds me I must check the kids rooms for glasses, and then processed my pictures. That’s it. The weekend is almost over.
I took a picture at church of my coffee and donut, but it was a bit plain, I could have at least taken a bite out of the donut before I took the picture. Thinking about it I came up what I hope might be a better angle. I’ll have to try that next week. I’m back in Church at least three more times this week so I expect there may be a couple more daily pictures taken there before next Sunday.
Today’s alternate shot
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Late night browsing (365:064)
Late night browsing (365:064)Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today was a lazy Saturday.
It was cold outside so we spent the day lounging around in the warm.
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Jim & Carol — Breakfast at Aunt Martha’s Pancake House
Last Sunday, we drove past Aunt Martha’s coming back from installing the house sign, and Jim said he’d never been there. When we learned they had to be in Springfield early today, we told them not to eat a hearty breakfast before coming and took them to breakfast at Aunt Martha’s. That’s where I took today’s picture of Ginger and me.
I took some pictures of Jim and Carol, though neither of them like my photographic attentions with the camera, which is a shame. Chimping the first set of pictures I took, I knew I needed to make major changes to the camera settings to get the results I wanted. By the time I’d set the camera up for a second run Jim was getting fairly tired of my picture taking – in the nicest possible way, but enough to spoil the poses. I ended up having to try and rescue the earlier shots in post processing. I’m quite pleased with the results, it’s just a shame I couldn’t get the camera setup right for the first few pictures.
The picture taking conditions at Aunt Martha’s can be quite challenging, bright background lighting, dim internal lighting, and today they had the shades half drawn which cast a nasty yellow tinge onto the pictures. Normally I’ll go straight to black and white when faced with such variable lighting conditions, but Ginger wanted colour pictures of her parents, and how could I turn her down? I will admit I did do a fair bit of grumbling and moaning about the amount of processing required.
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Breakfast at Aunt Martha’s Pancake House (365:063)
Breakfast at Aunt Martha’s Pancake House (365:063). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Last Sunday, we drove past Aunt Martha’s coming back from installing the house sign, and Jim said he’d never been there. When we learned they had to be in Springfield early today, we told them not to eat a hearty breakfast before coming and took them to breakfast at Aunt Martha’s. That’s where I took today’s picture of Ginger and me.
I took some pictures of Jim and Carol, though neither of them like my photographic attentions with the camera, which is a shame. Chimping the first set of pictures I took, I knew I needed to make major changes to the camera settings to get the results I wanted. By the time I’d set the camera up for a second run Jim was getting fairly tired of my picture taking – in the nicest possible way, but enough to spoil the poses. I ended up having to try and rescue the earlier shots in post processing. I’m quite pleased with the results, it’s just a shame I couldn’t get the camera setup right for the first few pictures.
The picture taking conditions at Aunt Martha’s can be quite challenging, bright background lighting, dim internal lighting, and today they had the shades half drawn which cast a nasty yellow tinge onto the pictures. Normally I’ll go straight to black and white when faced with such variable lighting conditions, but Ginger wanted colour pictures of her parents, and how could I turn her down? I will admit I did do a fair bit of grumbling and moaning about the amount of processing required.
Other excitement for the day included a trip to Walmart to get prints of the house sign pictures for Jim – I was quite impressed with the quality ‘off the shelf’ as it were. Harbor Freight to take advantage of their ‘Dollar days’ sale. I spent less than $10 and got a load of useful bits and pieces. All cheap and nasty stuff but it’ll do for my purposes. After dropping Jim and Carol back at their car (in for repairs) we spent a bit of time in Dynamic Earth checking out some odds and ends of gear we need for our next back packing trip; we’re hoping to try going out for over a week during the spring break. We managed to come away without spending a lot (always a danger in that sort of store). Though we did get some waterproof paper for printing maps on and Ginger bought a Platy bottle, not bad considering we went in to look at sleeping bag liners and single person backpacking tents.
I fitted a new blade in my scroll saw and made Mark V Huaraches. I think I’ve finally got the shape of the footbed right. Now I can’t wait to try ’em out.
Tonight we watched Revolutionary Road. Very uncomfortable viewing.
Today’s extras
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I’ve found another wall (365:062)
I’ve found another wall (365:062). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It’s amazing how quickly I forget what we did on any given day.
Which is all the more reason to keep up this photographic record going. We definitely went to WalMart, because I have pictures. Much to Ginger’s disgust I started trying to take an SP in what she subsequently described as ‘the busiest aisle in the store.’ On chimping the pics I knew there was something wrong (I’d forgotten to reset the focus point) and they all looked blurry. As it turned out one was fine, though Ginger was obviously not pleased, so much so I finished up cropping her out. Had I known, that picture would have done for the day.
I just remembered! I spent most of the afternoon studying, and in the evening attended my class. I really shouldn’t have forgotten that, as class was excellent as usual.
Thinking I hadn’t got a picture I set about finding another place for last minute portraits, and found a spot complete with blanket box.
Blanket boxes featured in quite a few of my first 365 project and other pictures. You can stand on them, sit on them, lay on and over them in various states of dress and undress; including wearing a dress. One of my ‘Blanket box’ pictures ended up as a pencil drawing. I was given a copy of that picture, which I must get framed, by my friends for a leaving present when I left the UK. I’d love to see the kids’ faces if we were ever to put it up in the front room. As this project is a daily record rather than an attempt at producing creative pictures I don’t think we’ll be seeing any blanket box used in quite the same way during this project.
Anyway, I took today’s picture sitting on a blanket box in the hall.
Tonight we watched Salt a reasonable action romp. Shame I worked out the plot about a quarter of the way in.
Today’s alternate shots
Gary shopping in Walmart 
I rather liked this one. -
At the end of the day (365:061)
At the end of the day (365:061). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today was a quiet day.
Which is another way of saying I can’t really remember what we did. I spent the day in general pottering around, recovering, and processing pictures from yesterday’s hike. We went to Youth Group and KfC in the evening. I held out on taking a picture with the plan of getting one at KfC, but no real opportunities materialized.
Back home we relaxed by listening to CDs, lit a couple of candles, some incense, and partook of a wee dram.
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Day hike – with creeks (365:060)
Today was a nice day for a hike.
This morning we drove down to Busiek and hiked the white and orange trails, about five and three-quarter miles with a couple of two hundred foot ascents. It was muddy and most of the creeks and a lot of the trails had water in them, which meant we had to be inventive in finding way across without getting wet; until we had to cross Camp Creek that is. It was too wide to jump and there weren’t any stepping stones. Ginger cleverly had flip-flops and a microfibre towel for just this eventuality. I managed barefoot.
I took today’s picture while we were sitting having a rest while drying our feet and enjoying the sunshine. On our way back we decided it would slow us down too much getting out of our shoes and then getting dried at each crossing, especially as we needed to cross the creek about four times. We just walked straight through, the advantage of wool socks is that they soon warm up even when sopping wet. We completed the trail quite quickly, something we’ve been regretting since as we’ve quite a few aches. One wonders when this will get easier.
Somehow we bodged all our preparations and forgot to take lunch, my driving license and ID, map, hiking poles, bags to put wet things in, and worst of all we forgot the kids got out of school early! The kids got themselves home okay, we’ll be working on a packing list for day hikes which will include the item ‘Check calendar’.
Back in Springfield I took Lanie to Bass Pro shopping for fishing lures and a storage box for Ginger’s kayak. We found some very pretty lures that Lanie assured me fish would find very enticing. We also found, but didn’t buy some shocking pink worms, I called ‘Hello Kitty’ worms.
I finished the day making another pair of huaraches (that’ll be the mark IVs) concentrating on trying to get the foot-bed the right shape. Having tried them for a couple of days I can say with confidence that there will be a Mark V. Finally I fitted a jamming cleat on my kayak to keep the anchor traveler in place.
Tonight we watched Up. I surprised myself by finding it quite charming.
Today’s alternate shots & extras
Wide creek equals wet feet 
Drilling the holes for the anchor traveler jamming cleat on my kayak 
Kayak hoist 
Shocking pink worms 
Crossing a creek on the white trail at Busiek 
Ephemeral Creek on the white trail in Busiek State Forest and Wildlife area 
Ozarks’ skies -
February summary
It’s been a mixed month; it started with a death and a birth, which just goes to show that life goes on.For some reason we’ve not had much opportunity to get out and about this month; we visited some flea markets, went for a hike in the snow and went backpacking for a couple of days, celebrating our second wedding anniversary in the process.
This month I’ve added eighteen black and white pictures, and just after day fifty began to get a bit disillusioned with the whole project. There are two pictures showing just my hand, one picture of me holding a baby (I think that’s a first for my 365 days projects). There’s a mirror shot (one of two pictures taken in the car), the cats only manage to sneak into one picture, which is surprising, and we managed to get nauseating in Walmart on Saint Valentine’s day. Somehow I managed to fit in five hiking / backpacking related pictures,
1. Snow day, 2. There’s an icicle in my beard, 3. One door opens as another closes, 4. At the Antique Mall, 5. Gary and Ginger on a snowy Sac River Trail, 6. After the Super Bowl, 7. Sometimes one pair of glasses just isn’t enough., 8. Happy Gary enjoying a blog-day, 9. A beer and a movie, 10. Thursday studies, 11. Morning rituals, 12. A brief visit to the workshop, 13. Gary and Ginger at the Church’s Annual Meeting, 14. Gary and Ginger being nauseating in Walmart on Saint Valentine’s Day, 15. Last thing on a Tuesday night, 16. Burning incense, 17. Afternoon school run, 18. Packing my backpack, 19. Wedding anniversary backpacking at Devils Backbone Wilderness, 20. Morning coffee in Mary Hollow – Devils Backbone Wilderness, 21. Wedding anniversary backpacking at Devils Backbone Wilderness, 22. High School parking lot, 23. Life can be like that, 24. Thursday, 25. Stacking the dishwasher, 26. Last thing, 27. Checking the weather, 28. A final check before closing my machine for the day
