The good news is now I have a matched pair of the non-clumping, non-messy ones and after a lot of work with a dustpan, brush and trowel and the occasional application of Clorox cleaner, the balcony is usable again.
On the way home from work I stopped off at Fry's for an inexpensive laptop carrier for the work laptop, as I now use it every morning to call in from home to the daily manager's manager's meeting. I really don't need to be there, but it's only 15 minutes and it is kinda fun to use their Webex app which coordinates the phone and the laptop. I also got a spare power adapter for the laptop, one of those universal ones, which I'll keep around the apartment. And Fry's also had a nice lunch pail, I've been looking for one to replace the old workhorse I've used for the last 5 or so years. Cisco's gone to a stingy mode, pop and munchies are about 25% more expensive in the machines than retail, so I bring my own.
Thought about buying Windows 7, but thought I needed to wait till some cash transfered from my savings because yesterday EDD sent me a little slip of paper saying that I don't get any unemployment check because last week I earned too much money. This is despite the fact that I won't actually get that money till November. They don't care, unemployment stops as soon as you start working. But when I got home today, there was a check for half my usual unemployment, covering the week I was not working. So maybe tomorrow I'll get the upgrade. Or maybe tonight.
And now I have to go downstairs where I have some writing space and write out a couple of condolence cards. One of my brothers-in-laws lost his father, so I have cards for him & my sister & their son, and one for his mother. His father was 91, and in poor health for a while. He used to play trumpet in Broadway musicals, and though I only met him once, at my sister's wedding 25+ years ago, I liked him, and thought it quite a small world thing that we both played trumpet.