We thoroughly enjoyed having a real dinner last night and agree that BigY’s fish sandwiches are outstanding, even worthy of their boast “the best in New England”.

Their onion rings are excellent as well, old Salisbury Beach style.

Productive meeting with Andi yesterday and didn’t do much after that besides laundry.

Gave Jet some real dog food last night and this morning; he seems happy with it, poor fellow is probably sick of mush.

I am so tired of too-warm weather. Looks like another weekend of 85 degrees.

We attended a collaboration with Tanglewood Music Center and Fresh Grass at Studio 9, a self-described “experiment with spatial audio”.

Yesterday Ron finished mowing the back yard.

We skipped the North Adams Downtown Celebration. From the photos, I don’t think we would have found much to interest us. It looked like a nice event for families with children, though.

We also missed the South Williamstown cookout earlier this week.

Ron did buy tickets to a concert this Saturday at Studio 9, so we are not entirely hermit-like.

Day started with a white wash. Put everything away by about 1:30.

In the meantime, I donated blood and went to Stop & Shop. Ron had whole bean coffee to return and we picked up a few groceries. Ran and unpacked the dishwasher while we were gone.

Ordered supplies from Health New England’s OTC provider.

Changed Jett’s post-surgery appointment to Sunday afternoon.

91 degrees and Ron, who could not donate blood because he is still anemic, is doing the lawn.

August has barely started and we are already behind the curve budget-wise.

We’ve paid for two unplanned home maintenance tasks, both of which were necessary and fairly priced, but still a drain on resources.

Jett needed almost $1,400 of dental surgery. Again, necessary but not covered by insurance so we’re out of pocket for the full amount.

I got a notice today that we were charged almost $80 for a subscription to The Atlantic. Fortunately, I was able to cancel it immediately and did receive confirmation of refunds.

We’re limited in the “fun” things we could do this month but as it happens, there are very few that we’d want to pay for anyway.

We had tacos for lunch. Found a package of chopped, flavored tofu in the pantry; Ron heated it in the big frying pan. Later I steamed a bunch of swiss chard.

Ron did a shop but couldn’t find ground Major Dix so I went to BigY and brought home two 10 ounce packages on sale.

Ron made brownies and corn bread. Both turned out perfectly and are delicious!

I sauteed beans, yellow squash, scallions, tomatoes and a green pepper. Gorgeous.

Jett had his last dose of pain med and antibiotic this morning. No more indulging him with fancy food.

Worked on another report for Remedy. This will be a cool one, an age distribution by cohorts.

Ron did a transfer station run with trash, recyclables and compostables.

I did my drawing thing at the Clark and met with Andi to review progress and get more ideas for reports. Asked Microsoft for clarification on their nonprofit program rejection.

An appliance repair person fixed the dishwasher. He replaced two missing brackets. He also pointed out the horrible way it was installed. Another cluster-f.

Froze the soup in two containers from Dollar General, left a serving for tomorrow.

Good appointment today, we covered a good amount of ground. Evidently the radiologist detected what looks like pneumonia in one of Ron’s lungs, which could account for why he’s been feeling “punk”. We have a prescription to pick up at Walmart. His Primary will set up referrals to the orthopedists in Williamstown for his right hip and knee and a memory clinic in Pittsfield.

I continued to debug the app for Remedy. Plan is to meet tomorrow at noon, after my drawing session at The Clark.

Talked with a couple of appliance repair people today about re-anchoring the dishwasher. We’re expecting one of them tomorrow late afternoon. Thought about contacting Liberty Home Guard, our home warranty company, but they charge $70 just to set up a visit. I’m not even sure our problem is covered.

Jett was horrible today, refused to eat for the longest time so didn’t get his meds until after 11 am. He ran around when the children next door were out playing but eventually did come in when I called him.

Did a free shop at BigY on the way back from Ron’s appointment. It was free because the Wellness card covered it! I made a broccoli/zucchini quiche for supper that went over well.

The Night Out events took place yesterday from 4 to 7, but around the time they were scheduled to end, there was a gigantic rain storm. Hope everyone made it to their cars.

I made soup from a package of 15 beans that I soaked all day, water, two cups of veg broth, a can of tomatoes and vegetables: celery, carrots, onion, a couple of parsnips and a head of cabbage.

Jett refused to eat his food last night, had some this morning.

A contractor installed a pulley system in the garage. It works beautifully. Ron explored the loft for the first time and of course was highly critical, claimed it can’t be used as is, which is ridiculous.

Big wash day. Jett drooled a bit after his surgery so I washed the spread and the mattress cover along with changing the sheets.

We are into day 2 of Jett’s postop, and he’s doing very well.

He ran a bit this morning after breakfast to get his bowels moving.

Didn’t do much yesterday besides tend to Jett. Figured out a way to make his food easy to chew and found a couple of soft sock “balls” for him to chase. Wrapping his meds in peanut butter works.

Steamed seven ears of corn; Ron ate five.

Did a little testing of the inventory application. Hope to put it on the Dell this week so Andi can try it out when she gets back to work.

We were very late to hear a jazz combo at Studio 9. Will keep my eyes out for future events in their courtyard. Afterwards, we went to Tractor Supply for another tomato cage, this for the Brandywines on the deck.

I found a cage in the old shed to support the flowers on the pathetic two-fer hydrangea. We have enough wire cloth for cages for the other two, more robust plants.

Picked up Jett’s trumps, fed him. He’s bouncing around again, pretty much back to his old self.

Dog Day for Jett, he had his teeth cleaned and extracted.

Dog Day for me because I was sick from 3:30 am with severe stomach pain and diarrhea. Might have been food poisoning.

Ron was great, sort of. He drove to the vet hospital but didn’t check on how I was doing so stayed there from 8 to 10 or so, waiting for Jett to be finished.

It hadn’t occurred to me to tell him it was going to be all day and no one at the hospital noticed he was sitting there all that time.

I was in a lot of pain but on the way home – a much nicer route than the one we’ve been taking – I was able to fall asleep on the back seat.

Ron drove us to the Harper Center to pick up our lunches then to my meeting at Remedy Hall. Unfortunately, we were too late for the meeting.

We had a lot of rain yesterday, and the gardens and planters are showing good results. Especially pleased with the new garden by the driveway. The donations – daffs and daylilies – are sprouting new growth. The hydrangeas and lilac are definitely holding their own.

The lilies in the back are blooming and gorgeous. Several tomatoes on the Brandywines.

Saw a hummingbird feeding at the hosta flowers next to the deck!

AI has been a huge help in writing the inventory application for Remedy.

We picked up Jett at 5. He was groggy, didn’t feel like eating, but he did jump into bed with us. Quiet night.

Gorgeous ride back from the vet’s. Stopped for corn at Ioka Valley Farm. Better price than at the Williamstown farmstand.