Today got off to a good start – I got two notifications from UPS:

• my new Mac mini had finally departed from Hong Kong (where it had spent three days lazing about)
• Diane’s new MacBook Air was going to be delivered today

The doorbell rang at 10:30; it was the UPS driver with Diane’s computer, and we spent much of the day migrating the data and apps from her old computer to the new one and cleaning up the small problems that happened along the way (BackBlaze is still confused). It is significantly faster than her old laptop, and, as advertised, silent.

Lunch was another new recipe from the Merc, Soy, Balsamic, and Sriracha Chicken Stir-Fry, which called for blanching the vegetables and meat, something I’d never done before. The preparation was fairly easy, and the results were quite tasty, but while I was cleaning up afterwards, the sink started to back up. Running the garbage disposer didn’t help much – in fact, the water started backing up into the other basin in the sink.

I went online and found instructions on how to clear a blocked disposer, but that wasn’t the problem. I considered trying to take off the trap under the sink to see if I could fix it – and then I had a sudden bout of sanity and called our plumber instead. He asked me to go outside and see if I could find a cleanout (I couldn’t), but I happened to look in the utility sink in the garage and saw that it was nearly filled with dirty water.

Clearly, something is clogged up downstream of the kitchen sink – the plumber will be paying us a visit soon.

But that wasn’t even the most distressing thing that happened today – one of our trivia friends has tested positive for COVID-19, thanks to a co-worker who didn’t follow anything approaching reasonable mask practices, coughed all over the office kitchen, and was carrying the virus. So far, she says she’s feeling OK, and we hope it continues that way.

Today marked my third visit to the ophthalmologist this year – happily, this was a planned visit for a refraction, not an emergency trip. He didn’t even dilate my eyes, which made for a much more pleasant experience for the rest of the day. My prescription changed more than usual in the past year – even the astigmatism correction changed – but I didn’t want to wait around for the optician, so I’ll have to go back or try somewhere else. I hear good things about Costco Optical, but I’m not sure I want to be in a Costco for the next few months!

This afternoon, we walked to Starbucks for our annual December mochas; I ordered in advance on the app, of course, but we had to wait ten minutes after the “promised” time to receive the drinks. They weren’t terribly impressive, nor very hot – I could have gone back to complain, but I didn’t bother. Buying the two mochas brought my Starbucks card down below the $10 level that qualifies me to have the balance refunded, but to do so online requires having the account number and the PIN – I can get the account number from the Starbucks app, but the PIN is on the original card, which is long gone. I’m sure I’ll visit a Starbucks once we start traveling again, so I guess I’ll leave it alone for now.