One of many things when you think: why I didn’t do it earlier!

The storage shelves came from our old Palatine home, and we didn’t bother to replace them “just because we can still use them,” until they started to annoy me :).

Then, I tasked Boris with finding a replacement, and then the shelves arrived, and we assembled them (and then Boris was disassembling the old ones for two more hours:))

I still need to bring back the empty boxes after we finish decorating the house for Christmas!

That was the worst experience I have had with Amazon so far.

I placed a large food order with Amazon Fresh to be delivered on Sunday. Some time ago, Amazon began severely limiting the number of delivery windows available at any given moment, making it challenging to obtain the delivery window I really needed. It so happened that I had a chance to grab a slot while I was sitting at the Portland airport lounge late on Saturday evening. I placed the order and didn’t even look at the confirmation.

It turned out that I accidentally placed it at my mom’s address; I have no idea why it happened; I do not default to her address ever, but I had such a situation specifically with Amazon Fresh several years ago when I placed an order at Anna’s address, but I cancelled it immediately. This time, I only noticed the address was incorrect when it was out for delivery.

I started the Amazon support chat, but immediately noticed that the callback was available, so I pressed that button. A CR called back, and I explained the situation, and she said she would try to contact the driver. After some time, she reported that the driver is not picking up, and asked whether I want to cancel the order. Retrospectively, that’s what I should have done, but I told her: No, do not cancel, I will walk there and pick it up.

After I hung up with her, I saw a CR chat flashing with “Are you there?” I replied that I had already been contacted by phone, and my issue was not resolved. They said: well, let me try! I repeated the same story, and they double-checked that the addresses were within a mile of each other, and typed: trying to contact the driver. Then a new message appeared: I was able to contact the driver, do not worry, your order will be at your place in 10-15 minutes!

Thirty minutes later, I received an automated Amazon message: We are sorry, but your order could not be delivered. Would you like a refund or reschedule? I clicked “reschedule” and selected the last evening slot on Monday when I would definitely be home. After the reorder went through, I saw that it was again placed at my mom’s address!!!

I contacted the customer support chat again. The CR typed: let me see what I can do, and then – sorry, I can’t cancel this order since it was already placed (???!!!), I can issue a refund, and then you can submit a new order. I asked multiple times whether it is possible to stop the order delivery, and they were like” if this address does not existm the driver will return the order,” and I kept saying that the address exists, it’s not the point. Finally, he said: OK, I will take care of that!.

I placed another order and checked that it was place at the correct address. I received it on time, but forty minutes later, I received a message that my other order was out for delivey! I still hoped that it will be “not delivered” or at least they will contact me, but at 10 PM (!!!) my mom called me: I am so sorry for disturbing you, but there are four gigantic packages by my door!

So I had to walk to my mom’s place, take the packages, quietly discard behind her building a half of the produce so that I could bring the rest home, filled in my backpack and walked back, returning home at 10-45.

And, for the record, there is no good way to complaint to Amazon customer service. I tried, but it brings me back to the same chat, and the only thing I can get is a refund, which I already got. But no one will refund me a total of 3.5 hours!

I was on and off about whether I want to have a “normal” espresso maker. For many years, I was pretty happy with my mechanical espresso machine, which my kids gave me for Christmas many years ago. I liked its authenticity and uniqueness, but at some point, two things started to bother me: it took a long time to make two espresso shots (technically, you could do two cups in parallel, but then you would need to run the machine twice in a row) and the fact that boiling water is not steam, so the espresso would end up colder than I would like, especially if you want to make cappuccino, or just two espressos.

At the same time, I didn’t want to clutter my kitchen with more appliances because I felt I already had too many, and I don’t need to make espresso at home very often. I would love to be able to make a proper cappuccino, but I knew that this requires some skills, not only the equipment. For the past two years, I have started shopping for an espresso machine several times, and each time I decided I didn’t need it. That was all, until a couple of weeks ago, when the Shopsale app threw a $35 espresso machine in my face. I could not resist. I decided I could throw it away if it doesn’t work for me.

This weekend I finally unpacked it, read instructions, and set it up. At first, I experimented in the dining room, but I quickly realized it was not a great idea. Fortunately, this appliance is really small, so I was able to put it on a kitchen shelf (and moved the ROK to my home museum shelf side by side to the old German meat grinder). It produces an amazing espresso. I still need to work on making a cappuccino, but even the first attempt wasn’t a complete failure!

It was a long and painful project two years ago, but after a lot of struggle, my balcony lights were up. I was happy since then, until a couple of months ago, the light bulbs started to burn out one after another, and soon, there were three burned-out light bulbs.

It didn’t look pretty, and I didn’t have enough light on the balcony. The reason I couldn’t replace them was the same as why I didn’t put them on in the first place: they are too high, and I am afraid of height, especially when I am on the third-and-a-half floor!

Every day, I was telling myself that I would take the largest ladder out and try, and every day I was like, “let’s do it tomorrow.” I started to think that hanging the lights up was a bad idea, since I will never be able to replace the bulbs myself. I even started to discuss with Boris what could be an alternative: how I can hang up the lights lower, should I buy some poles, or buy some floor lights.

Finally, today, when I came home early enough and didn’t have to run anywhere, I took out my tallest ladder and unfolded it on the balcony. To my surprise, I realized that I can easily reach at least one of the light bulbs. I unscrewed it and went to check whether I might have some replacement bulbs. And voila – I found a box with five replacement bulbs! (I am sure they were left from when this handyman who installed the lights in the first place).

The first bulb was easy. The second was still reachable, and I even had the courage to unscrew the bulb with two hands, and srew in the new one. The other two looked scarier, and I was afraid to let the second hand go off the holder. With the third one, I let the other hand go for just a second, and with the last one, I didn’t dare, so I did everything with the right hand, holding the socket with two fingers and rotating the light bulb with the other two.

And I am proud of myself beyond any imagination!!!

On Friday, I went downstairs to the gym for a workout. I started with the TRX when all of a sudden, I felt something pushing my feet. Increadibly puzzled, I looked down and saw the water coming from the drain! It was not the first time we had water in the gym. In fact, I believe it was the third time after a major remodeling (after a really big flooding!), and all these times, the drain worked properly, and the water would go back almost immediately. It’s just the first time I saw the whole process 🙂

When I bought this apartment, I had to fix many things just to move in. I had a limited budget and limited time, so I decided that the floors could wait. Retrospectively, if I had known back then how fast I could get the floors fixed, I might have reconsidered, but it probably won’t fit my budget anyway.

Then I was busy with other things, and didn’t have mental energy to start this project, until finally I realized I can’t look at the floors with so many bald spots anymore. I call the person who did all my painting jobs for the past three years, and he connected me to a partnering business. They did an absolutely miraculous job!

We agreed that they will work during the week I will be in Montreal. They had to move the furniture twice, and let the floor dry in between. I wanted to keep the same color, but stain the floors instead of painting, and they did exactly that! The color is just like it was, but now I can see the wood structure. The whole apartment looks so new, just “out of the box.”

Also, they actually finished a day earlier, because they wanted to make sure everything is done before I arrive. The put a couple of furniture pieces in the wrong places, but when I mentioned that, tw people came the next morning and put everything back. And I can’t stop admiring my floors 🙂

It was not even funny. Or it was.

Everything in this house is too high for me, including the shelves, and sometimes, when I try to put things on the shelves, something falls off. This time, it was a glass from the lower shelf. I didn’t have time to catch it, and I was expecting the burst of small glass pieces when it would hit the granite countertop. Instead, something else happened.

I didn’t hear the glass breaking, but suddenly, I saw the whole countertop covered with tea! When the glass was falling down, it hit a teapot spout on its way down, and sliced it off! I should have taken a picture, because it was a remarkably clear cut, but I didn’t, so you have to trust me!

Here is a replacement; as usual, nicer than the old one 🙂