Many Things and Some of it Bad

It's been a rough few days in my neck of the woods. On Thursday, we got a phone call from my grandmother's memory care letting us know that she did pass between 6am and 7am. We are just waiting for the doctor to sign off on the death certificate before we finish planning the funeral. Her death wasn't really a surprise between her dementia and her kidney disease. 

But this got me to starting think about what I need to wear in terms of clothing but I started to mostly about which perfume to wear. I have more of what I want to wear in terms of clothing. The choices are Jicky, Infusion d'Iris or De Profundis. Even though I have a mini of Calvin Klein Euphoria but I think is inappropriate even though it was my grandmother's signature perfume. 

Since I have a dentist appointment today, I decided to give Lush's Sleepy body products a go. Wanted something a little more soothing for today. With the whopping dose of lavender, I am thinking that this one can be layered with Jicky since Jicky has a huge lavender note. I figured that why not give layering a go. I haven't applied Jicky yet so I can't tell if that combo is any good. When I get around to using some Rose Jam, I can probably get away with layering it with Lyric. Eventually I will report back and see how it goes.
 

All Sorts of Things

I kept flirting with the idea of doing a post (if I hadn't already), of what I would like to see in parfum form. Not seeing Chanel no 5 parfum in stock online got me to think on that a little bit. You very rarely see parfum version of anything anymore. You might see extrait de parfum once in a while with niche but nothing else. Amouage did have the parfum version of some of their line but but that was mostly done away with and they now have the Exceptional Extrait line up. Intense version of any perfume is pretty meaningless to me. I want the ritual of a splash bottle of parfum version.

The two perfumes that I would like to see done in parfum form would be Estee Lauder Pleasures or Clinique Happy. Pleasures does come in an intense version and I haven't smelled that yet. I don't want to go back into the habit of blind buying again since I have pulled myself out of that recently. Estee Lauder and Clinique have the means to do something like this but they don't. Maybe something in the original formula doesn't translate well or they think something might not be good enough for even just a holiday run. I don't know which one I would get first if that happened because I am sure that they would be more reasonably priced that what Chanel would sell and maybe a little bit of a bigger bottle.

It looks like Andy Tauer did release another limited edition after he released Nexin. This one that he just released, was sold out when I got to the website. I wasn't looking to get a bottle, I was interested in the price, the concentration and how big the bottle was. I did notice a price increase on Andy Tauer offerings but I did notice a price hike on other perfume line ups. The price hikes on groceries is a little rough but seeing bigger price hikes on everything else sucks. I have enough perfume perfume to last a few lifetimes but I still want to try new things.

One TV show that I have watched ever since the beginning is Call the Midwife on PBS and the 15th season will drop sometime in 2026. I just found out that season 15 will be the last season and we will be getting a prequel. I am sad that Call the Midwife is ending but I did notice that the quality of the show has gone down in the past few seasons. Too many new characters were introduced and left fairly quickly with little to no explanation. I did noticed in the past season or two is that there have been a couple episodes that were very nitty gritty like in the first three seasons. I think that that should have been my first inkling that there really might not be a whole lot of time nor life for Call the Midwife. I did notice the past season when one of the main characters that has been there since the beginning was absent for a couple episodes, and she was in every episode before. So after Call the Midwife is finished, it will be mostly Grandchester and All Creatures Great and Small of my TV watching.

Starting to Get Somewhere

I am typing this on my Kindle since this is the only technology I have that is still working okay for the most part.So I view it as getting somewhere since I kind of gave up on the home computer for now. I am not so willing to even attempt trying to blog on my cellphone.

I am not fully sure on what happened with my mother and why she was having a meltdown. But she has been in the hospital since last Monday and she is coming home tomorrow. So that means that I have to get a little more serious with the cleaning right now. I am just taking a little break before I hunker down to get going on the last little bit.

 What I did was refreshed the bottles of perfume that I have sitting out. I was a little tired of looking at the bottles that I had out for weeks but not really wearing. There are some that remained. I kept Lyric because I still wear it quite often and no 5 edt and the parfum  version. I still have loads of no 5 that I really need to get working on to thin that part of my collection. What changed was I put away what I wasn't really wearing and pulled some new ones out. I pulled out some Epic and Ubar along with a bottle of no 19 edt. We are going to have loads of 90+ degree temps next week and want something a little cooler but has some kind of backbone. My bottle of Charles 62 has remained due to this be my current work go to.

One thing that I am looking forward to is either a full bottle or travel spray of something from the perfume house called Headspace. Portia from Perfume Posse was having a drawing and somehow managed to win. I am not one who wins anything in any drawing too often. I am perfectly happy with a travel spray, especially since I have never tried anything from Headspace. There are just so many perfumes houses and perfumes and I can't get to them all.

Out of Stock? And Other Things

My computer is still being an ass and I still can't get a whole lot to work on this stupid thing. Too many things get "timed out". I can't exactly do much of anything on this stupid thing, even Blogger is having a tough time. So I am a little frusterated with a few things and might have to switch to my really old and crappy laptop to get some of the results that I want in terms of blogging.

My mother is back in the hospital and this time she is in a place where the staff is better able to manage her care for the time being. I don't know how long she is going to be there or what is going to happen. So with missed time from work, things are going to be very thin for a while. But what makes a couple things easier is that the Father's Day gift has already been paid off and my dad's birthday is in August. 

You know how I wasn't exactly enthused with Cheirosa 62? Now I am smitten and I never exactly expected to be smitten with it. For what it is, I think it should be priced more like the Bath and Body Works line up. I still think that it is a little overpriced for what it is. I did break down and did get the 8 ounce bottle of the body spray and after that bottle is gone, it probably won't be replaced and I will probably be sticking to the lotion which is a little more reasonably priced. But with all of the perfume that I already have, it might be a while and I have two one ounce body sprays which will make that other bottle last a whole lot longer. If I only had a handful of perfume, that body splash would be gone pretty quick. But there have been perfumes in that past that I have either disliked or outright hated but then fell in love with it for some reason, or developed some kind of liking for it.

While I was poking around and planning my next purchase of Chanel no 5 parfum, I kept noticing that many of the major retailers that carries Chanel have been out of stock of the parfum version. In a tizzy, I go to the Chanel website and see that Chanel isn't carrying the parfum version of no 5, no 19, Coco and Coco Mademoiselle and I find that a little strange, Why would Chanel get rid of the parfum version of anything, especially no 5? No 5, along with Coco Mademoiselle are their flagship perfumes. Unless there are issues with production or shipping. I am dreading that no 5, especially in parfum form will be reformulated, even though I am not really in the market for a bottle right now. I am hoping that when Sephora has thier fall sale, it will be back in circulation but if it isn't, it won't be the end of the world. 

A Zip (Buy Now, Pay Later) Review

        My computer is still being an asshole since Windows 11 has been installed and so is my internet connection for some reason (still) and I am hoping that sometime soon things will get straightened out but today is not that day. I am still kind of new to the whole buy now pay later scene. For the longest time, I was only able to get my foot in the door with Afterpay and I have been using that for about 3 or 4 years. Thus far, it seems like Afterpay is still the easiest to get your foot in the door with. I still can't get my foot in the door with Klarna, Paypal pay in 4 or Affirm and I am okay with that.

     In the past couple months, I somehow managed to get my foot in the door with Zip and Sezzle and I was never able to beforehand. I haven't used Sezzle yet but I have used Zip. There is a reason that I am reviewing Zip today. Some of the reason why I wanted to use Zip was for the times where I need to pay my cellphone bill and didn't quite have the means to pay it. Afterpay has never let me pay my Verizon bill through them. I can buy cellphones, gift cards and giftcards if I went to Verizon through the Afterpay app but was never "allowed" to pay my cellphone bill for some reason. With Zip, I have the ability to do that.

     While it is a great thing that I can pay my cellphone bill on Zip and I am sure that I probably could pay other bills through Zip, I have only a $150 limit. To get a higher limit, I would have to pay off 5 orders. I am working on my last 2 orders to pay off and even then I wouldn't know what kind of limit I would have afterwards and it would raise my limit to probably $200. It kind of helps but it doesn't, I would rather pay my entire cellphone bill if I need to on Zip but a $340 cellphone bill is quite a bit. I have the top of the line cellphone plan and 3 brand new cellphones that I am paying on. But I have been able to pay at least part of my cellphone bill with Zip and this is mainly what I am going to be using Zip for.

     There are some big differences between Zip and Afterpay in terms of getting things. More often than not, Afterpay doesn't have a minimum threshold when using Afterpay. If I spend $15 at Ulta and use Afterpay, I am only paying $3.50 every two weeks. With Zip, the minimum threshold is $35 but the biggest thing that I have noticed with Zip, there is a $4 surcharge with every purchase that I would make and have made. Let's just say that I am a little hesitant to use Zip because I am not exactly so willing to pay an extra $4 for every purchase that I am thinking of making. So if I am making a $35 Walmart purchase, I am actually paying $4 on top of that $35. Yes, for every order, Zip tacks on an extra $4 surcharge for every order that I make using Zip. I haven't used Sezzle yet and don't know if they do the same thing. But Zip is giving me more of a credit card kind of vibe without really being a credit card.

     I am intriged though on when I pay off my two other orders on what my limit would be afterwards. I am not expecting too much of an increase. With Afterpay, the limit increases start out pretty small. When my limit was $100 and after about 6 weeks my limit was raised to $200 and was increased by $100 until I hit $1,400 and then I was looking at $250 to $500 increases in one sitting and I am thinking that Zip might be more of the same way but I haven't been using Zip that long or that often. For me, Zip does have a purpose but it's probably not going to be my primary BNPL go to, that's why I use Afterpay because I am not a fan of surcharges or added fees tacked on to my purchases. While I might be okay with having what I have with the whole BNPL, which is the fact that I have options if I need them.

Vacation and Technology

       Right now, my internet connection is being a jerk along with this huge computer update. It was decided that we needed to switch to Windows 11 since apparently Windows 10 won't be supported too much longer. So it's been a rough few days trying to get things to work let alone properly. Having a hard time trying to upload pictures to stick on here but I am not going to worry about that right this second. Then I am trying to get used to the Samsung Galaxy update and I am not liking it too much. I just don't like slow internet along with system updates. I am just sick and tired of things getting "timed out".

     So far I am day 6 of my first vacation of the year. Yesterday was my mother's birthday and we went out to dinner. Wednesday was marked by one doctor's appointment and I had another one today. But I did manage to go to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. This was the first time that I have been in there since before the pandemic. It took them 4 years to remodel the whole thing. It looks nice enough but there seems to be less stuff on display. No Balto display, no shrunken head display and there seemed to be much less. But then again, I didn't spend a whole lot of time there. There were too many schools trying to get one last field trip in before summer vacation. It seemed that nobody was paying a whole lot of attention to these kids and I was constantly tripping over groups of 10 year olds with no situational awareness. I am hoping that I will be able to go back with far fewer people and more time on my hands. That pesky doctor's appointment said that I couldn't spend a whole lot of time there. In a way, I was a little more hoping that I would go to the art museum and I think that it might have been a little quieter with less kids running around. With every field trip that I ever took as a kid, nobody was turned loose, we all had to stay with our group. Maybe standards have been relaxed.

     Right now, I seem to be beefing with Ulta right now. A couple years ago, I had ordered a bigger bottle of Chanel no 5 edp or Eau Premiere and was sent some kind of celebrity scent. I was not thrilled with that one and it was a massive pain in the ass to fix. And I thought that that was going to be a simple mistake. A month ago I had placed an order and when it showed up, I was missing a couple lip liners and I just decided that I was just going to be refunded. I just didn't want the hassle. On Sunday, I had placed an order for smaller bottle of Coco Mademoiselle Intense and some Lush bath and body stuff and paid with a good chunk of points that I have accumulated. When I got my order, I was a little surprised to find that I was missing the Rose Jam body wash and somehow ended up with a purple eyeliner. I was a whole lot less amused this time around. I don't wear eyeliner and if I did, it wouldn't purple and it was a NYX eyeliner. Since when does a NYX eyeliner cost a shade over $12? And how can one confuse eyeliner and bodywash? For a while the Ulta reps couldn't find my order and when they did, I had said that I have been a loyal customer for 8 years and I have noticed a decline in getting what I have ordered and when I get it. I hate complaining about stuff like this but when these mistakes are becoming more frequent, I think that this is a training problem. And the training problem rests at the feet of corporate suits as I always think it does and some of the blame rests at the manager's feet. I had the choice of either getting my points back or they send me the bottle of Rose Jam and I chose the Rose Jam. After all is said and done, I still have $80 in rewards points but I will wait for when Ulta has a really good point multiplier going on before I go and make another order since I will probably need more lotion and face cream.

Bath Stuff and Bad News

 Well, there has been some pretty bad news on the mom front. The hospital finally got around to doing the tests that they needed to do. The tests have determined that my mother has dementia. I am thinking that it's probably in the moderate stage. Mom hasn't been released yet and at first they were talking on releasing her tomorrow but now they seem to be going for Wednesday. I am just waiting for them to push it back further, so I don't know when she is coming home. At this point, we don't know what kinds of services she needs or anything. I know that my dad wants to keep her home as long as he can. So I think that my father is starting to get a lot of things in order and see what exactly needs to be done. I am not fully sure that we would be able to keep my mother at home for very long. In some ways, I do hope that my sister comes out, even if it is a week, to help us get a few things set up. Mom's dementia could progress slowly or quickly and my mother is about to turn 70 next week, so she is kind of on the young side of all of this. It's just a lot to take in at this point. So I have been trying to clean up the house a little more and use up some candles to try and save my sanity. In the past 2 weeks, I have used up 3 candles.

I know this is a rip off from March's post over at Perfume Posse butI don't often talk about bath stuff but something kind of funny did happen. Some time last year, I had bought the Drunk Elephant Sweet Pitti deoderant and I started to use it about 2 weeks ago when I ran out of my other deoderant. For the first couple days, everything seemed to be fine until about 3 or 4 days ago. I noticed a smell while I was at work. Since I work at a grocery store, sometimes you can get just random bad smells and I didn't think anything of it. Then when I was at work the next day, it was the same thing. Then after I took a shower the next day and put on my deoderant, I realized that smell was me. Well it was the deoderant and I had to take a look at it. The Sweet Pitti doesn't have baking soda or aluminum in it. When one works in the bakery, it can get really hot and humid and that means that I sweat. I don't want to be wafting onions in the bakery. The smell of rising bread and cookies is what most people should be smelling when they enter the bakery. But that doesn't stop me from wearing perfume while I am at work.