It’s been an interesting week at the Manor.

Last week I get a call that there’s some suspicious activity on The Wife’s debit card. I look at the transaction. It’s not something I recognize. Go to ask The Wife, but she’s in a meeting. In an abundance of caution, I tell the bot that we didn’t authorize it. They cancel her debit card. The Wife gets off the phone. Yeah, it was the payment for one of our streaming services. They upped the price, which is why it didn’t match what I had on our budget. Oh well.

Then the cats gave us more fun. EBC and Colonel have been sparring partners since we merged clowders five years ago. This has resulted in EBC picking up some injuries that need tending – and occasional vet visits. This time, The Wife found what looked like bite marks on EBC’s chin. WTF? Some drainage and anti-biotic ointment did some good, but not enough. Vet time. Good news – it wasn’t a bite. Bad news – some other type of infection. A shot of antibiotic seems to have helped, but EBC was a bit wonky for the next day or so.

Saturday, The Wife and I decided to do a couples day. We went to the Dali Museum up in St. Pete. They have this new Dali 360 presentation, which was really nifty. I would highly recommend it. Then we went through the main museum. Interesting bit of trivia we picked up from one of the volunteers. Because the museum is on the water, they keep all of the art on the top floor. You know, in case of storm surge. The only downside was when we tried to become members. Their promotional materials stressed that we could apply our day’s admission against the cost of membership. It would help if any of their staff could have actually done that. We’ll still likely become members because it gets us free admission to a few other things around here that we’ve been planning to go to. Afterwards, The Wife and I went to the Rosemary and Thyme in Sarasota. It’s one of our favorite restaurants. During the summer season, they run a fixed price menu, which is always good.

Sunday we had our first cold front come through – which meant the morning were cool enough for The Wife to use the retractable screen we had installed on the front door back in March. The cats, of course, found that fascinating. The Wife went over to SIL’s place to provide some instruction due to SIL receiving a brand-new Cricut for her birthday. MIL and I later her joined her, with a bag of airsofts I divested from my collection for BIL.

The Wife and I also started binging through Ashoka. I already agreed that I would have to explain a lot, since The Wife did not see Star Wars Rebels. However, the shifts in continuity elicited a comment that we needed to rewatch everything chronologically. Um, okay. That’s a lot of stuff, but I’ll suffer through it.

Tuesday was the rescheduled party to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our Toastmasters club. Part of that was a fundraiser where you paid to taste and judge brownies brought in by some of the club members. The Wife – at my prompting – brought orange-chocolate brownies.

Last week, I got the call offering me a new position. The job is pretty much what I’m already doing, but with an expanded scope. Plus, I’m going to be essentially building a program up. It’s going to be interesting work. Even better, they don’t have physical space for me, so I get to continue my full-time telework. However, the transition looks like it’s going to make a hectic month. Particularly as I try to figure out who can absorb my duties. Particularly since my team is losing another senior person at the same time. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Over the weekend, The Wife, MIL, Mom, The Brother, and me drove down to see family in Okeechobee. We don’t get down there as much as we would like, but we have some relatives on my dad’s side we like chatting with and visiting. We had to go a different route than normal, which meant going through Yeehaw Junction. The Wife hadn’t been that way, and hadn’t seen the Desert Inn. It’s pretty much dilapidated these days, but I have memories of waiting in that parking lot with a broken down van. Anyways, we had a good visit with lunch at a local place called Lightsey’s. If you’re in Okeechobee, it’s a great spot for fish.