RustyRaven

Appliances Online price matching was very easy. I found a good price on Amazon but didn't want to actually shop on Amazon. A few minutes on chat and I had $180 off. Very nice.

This means I am getting the upgraded toaster oven to the one I currently have, which has air fryer mode. My old one is getting very tatty and is just a standard oven, but I use it all the time. There are very few days I don't cook something in it. I made the mistake of using a corrosive oven cleaner on it and it did not go well. It still works fine but the inner surface is now all visibly damaged.

In a plot twist Miss Meow's missing garden themed cat tower arrived this afternoon - it was actually the other (slightly more expensive) tower which the couch was sent instead of. When I went through the refund process for that one they offered me $16 to keep the couch. And the one other one has been marked down $5 since I ordered so I was able to claim that too. I've now re-ordered the right cat tree and can keep the couch legitimately.

I'm looking forward to being able to take some stuff to the new house this week, things are a bit chaotic with both packing happening and new stuff starting to come in.

Miss Meow's garden theme scratching post arrived. Except it is actually a children's foam couch ☹️

Now I have to take it back to the post office for a refund.

Edit: scrap that, I'm keeping the couch. I just had a look at what it is, and it is very similar to the foam mattress I was thinking of getting for the back of the van. And it's worth over twice as much as the cat tree. So I've just ordered another cat tree and won't return the couch.

More Edit: I just unrolled it. This thing is massive! It's basically two single mattresses on top of each other, which fold in the middle. Plus two wedge shaped cushions. It could easily be used for two single beds or one double bed.

I've been sussing out where the sewers etc. run at the new place, looks like the lines are all outside the property boundary so there should be no easemets within the yard. Which is good, I'm hoping the owner will let me create a bit of a garden including a couple of small trees. They'd be silly to say no as it would improve the property values, but there's no guarantee that they are not silly.

It is a great yard for a garden, at the moment it is just grass, but the whole lot is north facing. I'd be looking at doing the end with the outdoor area with low maintenance natives designed to attract birds, with herb & vegie garden including a lemon/lime tree at the less visible end. It will involve lots of digging, which is just what I need to improve my fitness levels. And buying a few plants etc. is probably cheaper than a qym membership.

If they decide to say no to the garden I will have to do a few things in pots instead, plus I'll do a bed or two of annual vegies and just pull it out when I leave. Either option will work ok, but I do like the idea of creating something for the future.

Mine has been very drawn out, but I had to have the tooth surgically removed first. There is also around 2.5 months wait for each appointment which makes things take longer. I think the minimum you would have after getting a referral is an initial appointment, the actual implant, final checkup with the surgeon, then getting the crown with your dentist, which would be around 6-9 months. I added in the tooth extraction, a bone graft, and a missed appointment due to Covid so it's taken about twice as long as it would have for a straightforward implant. I'll look at doing another tooth next year once this has healed and I my health insurance limits reset.

It's a little bit painful but not too bad. Having stitches in your mouth is also annoying. I've taken the day off after the graft and implant so I can mope around and be sooky, ,but it's not really necessary. The only really awful bit was the actual tooth extraction, which I took a few days off for. Then I followed up with the infected finger and Covid, so all the sickness and injury have blended together, I recommend you don't do that.

Taekwondo

The implant itself was $3k, that does not include the crown. The initial consultation was partly covered by medicare, so was not too much, and the x-rays and bone graft I had have all been bulk billed. I think the crown should be about $2k or a bit more.

My poor credit card is completely maxed out, and once it is paid off tomorrow I have more stuff to go on it. It rarely gets to the limit, but a single month with a dental implant, bond payment and a month's rent in advance on top of the normal spending certainly adds up!

Having my van means I will be able to pick up the queen size bed frame and bedside tables I've decided on, so I'll take that and whatever other odds and ends I can fit in so I can drop off at the new place when I pick up the keys on Friday. Then I have lots of measurements to take so I can plan some furniture layouts and buy a few more things. I wasn't really planning on buying as much stuff as I am, but I've realised a lot of the stuff I have is getting pretty old, and a lot of it was also "temporary" cheap stuff that has hung around too long and isn't really worth moving. Things like the cheap Kmart desk I've been using as a dressing table, which was broken and re-glued during my last move and probably won't survive another!

Edit to clarify: I'm not borrowing to afford my spending, I do have the money in another account, I just use the cards for buyer protection & points. Using credit cards to finance anything outside of a major (probably life threatening) emergency is a Very Bad Thing and will lead you to ruin.

Some years ago my dream would have been to have every cm of space under the bed usable for storage, possibly with a bookshelf headboard too. These days I'm trying to be more minimalist, plus I have more room in general, so I'm prioritising a more open design that lets my pets wander freely underneath.

Champagne for me please, and a big drink of water for the fire trucks I keep hearing drive past. I'm presuming it's my local MPs chances of keeping his seat going up in flames.

I can't say I've ever had mould on my wood furniture. I have had a metal base which was cheaply made and bent after very little use, so I'm a bit wary of metal frames. It was when I was a teenager and money was pretty tight, Mum managed to buy my sister and I new bed frames to replace the tatty second hand wood ones we'd had since we first moved into full beds, and within a year they had both broken and we ended up sleeping on matresses on the floor for a few years.

For some totally non-election related discussion: what is your preferred style of bed? I'm seeing a lot of fabric covered bed heads around, and I really don't like that idea from a cleaning/hygiene perspective.

I'm looking at a dark stained wood frame bed, a fairly minimal design with raised legs and no footboard. My current bed is nearly 30 years old, the options have changed considerably since then.