12 January 2026

Barb is a computer genius. I told her I needed a new set of computer earbuds because I was using scotch tape to keep my current ones together. Barb suggested we should hook up my wireless earbuds to the computer. I looked and found that the computer has Bluetooth capability. But I couldn’t figure out how to connect the wireless earbuds. We looked at the help files, but they didn’t help. So, I gave up and went back to my wired earbuds, but Barb kept working on it. Each time she connected the wireless earbuds, my phone would play. We thought the wireless earbuds were called Mellow Pop, but actually, they were called BX17. Barb told me to disconnect the earbuds from my phone, put them in the case, and then take them out and try to connect them to the computer. But every time I took them out of the case, they reconnected to my phone. Finally, we figured out how to turn Bluetooth off on my phone. Then we could connect the earbuds to the computer. We had to try it a few times, connecting to my phone and then connecting to my computer, until we were sure we knew what we were doing. It is great not to be connected to the computer all the time. I am glad Barb didn’t give up like me. And she is definitely the computer genius in the house now.

11 January 2026

Barb uses a body pillow at night, which takes up a lot of space, leaving me sleeping on the edge of the bed. It also creates problems with the bed quilt when she rolls over, taking the body pillow with her. The quilt sometimes is all over on her side. In the morning, when Barb gets up, I take the body pillow. And sometimes the quilt is all over on my side. Today I woke up cold and couldn’t find the quilt. It had fallen on the floor.

I am editing the family diary to make a book for Laura. I hope to do one year every month. Today I finished 1993 and sent it to Laura. I told Barb I sent Laura 1993 and Barb thought I sent her $19.93.

I am the membership director for INCOSE Canada, and I am supposed to track new members and those who receive their certifications. I wrote form letters for these members using ChatGPT, and I just need to fill in their names, when they joined and when they got their certification. I was sending out the forms without reading them carefully first. On the new members' email, I invited them to our next webinar. We have monthly webinars, and I didn’t notice that the email said April instead of January. I felt so stupid. Then I sent a congratulations email to a new certified member, forgot to include the date, and the email said January XXth. I felt so stupid. But the funny thing was, he was the only person who replied and thanked me for the email. I guess he didn’t read the email carefully either.

10 January 2026

Barb went to Costco for the second day in a row. She bought a $5 bathing suit, a $5 container of chicken legs, and a $5 bag of Romaine lettuce. The man at the exit looked at her bill and said he had never seen anyone ever leave Costco with less than $20 of stuff.

Our neighbour came around to the back patio to give me a package that had been delivered to our front door, not our side door. We never use the front door and would never have seen the package. He had noticed it when he was leaving on his golf cart. I asked Barb if she had received an email saying that it had been delivered, and she said she had, but since it wasn’t at the side door, she thought it must have been delivered to the mailbox. I said, didn’t they send a picture of the package in the email? Barb said she didn’t open the email. When she did, she saw the package at our front door. Barb messaged our neighbour to thank him. She said that there is never anything delivered to our front door. But somehow the spell checker wrote that we never get any “weed” delivered to the front door.

9 January 2026

Barb gets furious at me if I leave my phone in the bedroom and then leave after she goes to bed because my notifications wake her up. Also, I was working with a lady from Mongolia, and we had meetings at midnight because of the time zone differences. Occasionally, I left my phone in the bedroom, and my alarm went off to remind me of the meeting. Barb goes to bed before me and gets up in the morning early, before her alarm goes off. Today, I was sleeping and heard an alarm go off, and it didn’t sound like my alarm. I realized that Barb had left the room and not turned off her alarm. I had to get up and turn off her alarm.

Laura took Peter to a 24-hour Denny’s for a free birthday meal. I asked Laura what she had, and Barb said you don’t know how to read because she said I said, "Why did you go to Denny’s?" and Laura had already said she went there for the free birthday meal. I said no, I didn’t ask why she went. I asked what she had. Barb went back and looked at my message and had to admit that she couldn’t read.

8 January 2026

One night after a game, the boys on the Sting were talking about what they had for dinner. When it was my turn, I said I had homemade Chinese food. All the boys were really impressed with Barb’s cooking skills. Barb made homemade Chinese food a couple of days ago, and then tonight we had leftovers. I think the next time she makes Chinese food, I will send a picture to the boys.

Our neighbours are going back to Canada soon because the wife has to have an operation on her shoulder. They are renting out their house to a friend, and the friend’s truck was parked in the driveway. Barb couldn’t believe that they would leave without saying goodbye. I said they were still there, and they had parked their SUV on the lawn in the backyard. I guess Barb didn’t believe me because tonight at bedtime she went out the bedroom door in her pyjamas to the back patio to see if she could see the SUV. When she turned around, I was standing just inside the door, completely naked. I had forgotten that the door was open and people could see me.

 

7 January 2026

 Barb said to the two guys who were playing pickleball, " We will play with Kevin and you.” The man said, "How did you remember my name?" His name is Hugh.

Barb went over to Kirvy’s house after the pool to drop off her Family Feud tickets and pick up $30. Kirvy said she was talking to her daughter about how much help Barb was yesterday during pickleball, when Barb told Kirvy what she was doing wrong, and Kirvy immediately started playing better. The daughter said, "How did Barb know?" Kirvy said, “Barb knows a lot.”

I learned a new word today, “Icing”. All of Barb’s friends are trying to get her to sign up for the Ladies’ League, but Barb told them she didn’t want to because she expected to be “iced out.” That is, when the other team wants to win, and she never gets any balls hit to her because she is stronger than her partner. The opposition picks on the weaker player and keeps the ball away from her. It makes her so mad.