Shortly after 8:00 this evening, my Bose 700 Noise Cancellation Headphones arrived via Amazon. I’d purchase headphones along with a few other items earlier this afternoon. About six hours later, my Bose headphones arrived. Bose makes excellent products. I bought these headphones because of the sound quality when taking calls and the noise cancellation feature.

In a little over a week, I’ll be starting to work from home remotely. I’ll be making and receiving calls and participating in meetings. Therefore, I thought that it was high time that I invested in a good quality hands-free device headset that would allow me to continue working on the computer while taking calls. Once I finally narrowed it down to Bose, I watched other videos to determine which model to purchase.

Since I want to maintain a “professional” work environment while at home, I chose the Bose 700 Noise Cancellation Headphones, I live in a rural area, and our house isn’t noisy. However, I still chose these since the noise cancellation also blocks out the occasional noise I might hear from our dog Bella.

The Bose headphones are the first of a few work items that I’ve purchased for my office space. I ordered the bulk of the things today on Amazon, and as I already mentioned, the headphones were the first item that arrived. I believe I’ll be spending about $1,600 to get my designated space office-ready. The only reason that I’m investing money in the setup is that I will be participating in a few meetings weekly. Since I’ll be on video, I do want to have my space looking like an office. I already spent a little over $1000, and I have one more item to purchase; an indoor portable generator. I’m still researching that. We do have an outdoor generator; however, it’s not the type that automatically turns on once the power is out. We don’t have too many power outages; however, if we do have heavy storms (such as what we had last week), the chances of the electricity going out is high since we live in a small community surrounded by trees. Also, in our state, the phone cables and power lines are above ground.

Here in the USA, you can request electronic copies of your W2 forms (work documents) by going to the IRS website.

I had no idea you could get electronic copies, until last evening when searching the Reddit forum stumbled upon a screenshot that I’ve included below.

I already knew you could get hard copies from them. However, that takes up to 90 days to receive. You can also request to receive old copies of your W2’s by getting them from the employer. Here in the USA, they’re required to keep copies of those forms for four years. If I’d known that, yesterday morning, it would have been extremely helpful when talking with a company that needed proof of a place where I’d worked. I do keep copies of my W2 forms. However, I was at work, and I also knew for those particular years, that I would have to do some digging since I’d moved those documents.

It took a few minutes to register at the IRS website. You have to fill in personal information, and you’ll have to enter evidence to verify that you are who you claim. Identify theft is a thing after all. After jumping through those hoops I was able to access my electronic W2 forms. I especially like that all the information isn’t visible, some of the info is blurred. I was able to access files from 2011 – 2020.

From the IRS website.

How awesome is that? I was able to download the years needed, and Monday, I’ll be submitting the requested forms.

Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that my Toyota Prius is 18 years old! I bought the car used; it had two owners before me, and I believe both did a great job of keeping it clean. I like a clean car, so I do my best to keep it looking nice.

The proceeding pictures are before I cleaned my car photos. Yes, my car sure is filthy!

Before photos of my car, it’s so filthy! 🙂

Well, up front had not been touched. In the back, I’d just sprayed the seats with a cleaner and was about to steam them clean. Or that was the plan until I discovered a stain on the back seat once I’d sprayed the fabric.

Stain in the middle of the back seat.

I thought it was interesting how that stain just magically appeared when the fiber was wet.  If you look at the back seat, you’ll see a dark mark in the center of the seat. After a lot of spraying/vacuuming the area with the steamer, I was able to eliminate most of the stain, and although the carpets and seats appeared clean in my vehicle, I still was able to pull up a nice amount of dirt. That stain didn’t happen while I had the vehicle, so I imagine one of the former owners had a spill in the back seat? They might have mopped it up, and while it appeared clean on the surface as soon as the fiber became wet, voila! The stain made an appearance. I’ve been using my Shark to clean my car; however, I bought a portable car vacuum this past weekend.

VacLife Handheld vacuum

It’s the VacLife. I’m impressed that it holds a charge for longer than 10 minutes. Additionally, once I figured out how to properly place it on its base, I love it even more.

Bissell Little Green PROheat Carpet Cleaner

The wet/dry vac that I was using was the Bissell Little Green ProHeat handheld Deep Cleaner. I bought it last evening from Loews. It’s too early to give an accurate review of either item; however, I’m impressed with them thus far. Hopefully, they’ll both continue to do an excellent job. I did a lot of research before choosing both of them.

It’s been hectic (and stressful) the past several weeks, and when I feel stressed, I clean even more, and I’ll knit. Now that I think of it, I haven’t done any knitting in the past few weeks; however, I have ramped up cleaning. So our house is even cleaner than usual. I do believe I’ll take a break from that. Ok, I’ll still clean; I’ll go back to my normal level of cleaning (which still is above average, I guess) and start knitting. I have a few work-in-progress knitted items that are crying out for attention, one being a super soft woolen blanket that I started several months ago and have only knit a few rows. It’s high time I change that.

My goodness, where has the time gone? It seems like just the other day that I was bringing her home from the birthing center. Yes, I had natural childbirth, and now she’s 18. Sighs this fall, she’ll be in college.

I took the day off of work, and I left my job early yesterday to spend more time with my lovely daughter.

Twelve birthday balloons!

This morning, I purchased 12 balloons for her. Why only twelve? I wanted to get 18 today; however, 12 balloons in my little Toyota Prius were already hogging valuable viewing space. I have not bought her balloons since she was a child going to Chuck E Cheese; however, judging by the smile of delight that spread over her face when she saw the balloons. I know she was happy. Tomorrow, I’ll add six more balloons to make it 18. My daughter is low-key and rarely asks for anything. As she became older, I typically gave her money for her birthday (and she saves most of that) and some little trinkets.

Second pizza made in my 16″ Ooni Pro

What did I make for her? I made another pizza in my Ooni Pro.

I am still chuckling at the pizza shape. At least it does not look like a bicycle seat this time.

She enjoyed the pizza and had a few slices.

Tomorrow, I’ll be making Mexican food. About an hour ago, I asked her what type of dish she’d like; she said, “Something good!”

Today, I bought her a cake; we added birthday candles. Her grandparents were present, and her uncle (my brother) called, and we sang Happy Birthday. She protested that she did not want us to sing for her; however, she seemed pleased.

Happy birthday pretty princess. I love you!