How To Install Apps On Kindle Fire Without WiFi

Money history: I come from a family that has absolutely no money sense. My mom raised 3 kids as a single mom, and as a snapshot we often had power turned off for a few days or barely any food. When she eventually remarried and became a high earner, she still lived paycheck to paycheck. Money was not talked about and the example was to spend it while you had it. My dad similarly had no money sense. Both of my parents highly stressed the importance of going to college, as both didn’t finish high school. I had no support in really much of anything growing up, and figured it all out the long and hard way on my own. I did drag myself through community college to a 4 year degree at a university, but not without irresponsible loans and a late realized FAFSA error that kept me from grants for almost my entire time as a student. I didn’t start learning about money until my 30’s. I have heavily relied on online resources to educate myself and work on getting myself out of debt. I am super proud of how far I’ve come.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: $0.00 I had some from 2 different previous jobs, but cashed them out at times when I was financially strapped (before I learned about managing my money!). We are moving this coming summer into an inherited house. We will get all debt paid off within one year (except my student loans). Once that happens, our goal is to put 50% away into savings/retirement. My husband also has not contributed.
Equity if you're a homeowner: We rent. We will inherit a house next summer in the sense that we will live there for free and have any house repairs will be paid for, but we won’t own it until way in the future.
Savings account balance: $10,650 (this was $0 six years ago and about $4,000 at the beginning of Covid-19). We realized we needed an emergency fund after covid hit, and then decided to put as much as possible here towards our move. We used to have multiple savings accounts with sub-categories, but we realized by putting it all in one account we were motivated by seeing a large number grow. We still have to access it for regular things, like the vet which you will see in this diary. This works for us.
Checking account balance: $1803.18
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it): Yikes. The biggest regret of my life. I owe $9,065. My husband owes $7,318. Mine was accumulated from years of having absolutely no idea how to deal with money, not understanding saving, and basically financing my 20’s on credit. In the last three years we have paid off about $12,000 in credit card debt as we have become financially literate and started working towards financial goals. My husband’s debt was accumulated during his divorce, which was money well spent IMO!
Student loan debt (for what degree): I have $42,794 and my husband has $4,431. I have a degree in English, and he did not finish his degree. I loved earning this degree, but would 100% go back and do a STEM related degree, or a trade.
All of our finances and bills are completely shared and managed by me.
Section Two: $43,000 per year
Income Progression: I am not going to be too specific because I know a lot of people that read this sub-reddit.
2002 – 2006 $10 per hour at a box store
2006 – 2010 $29,000 per year at a small local company
2010 – 2011 $10,000 per year finishing university, lived rent free
2011 – 2015 $30,000 up to $50,000 through a salary evaluation that they did, and moving into a more client facing role that brought in more money.
2016 – 2020 $43,000 through main job and side jobs
This is really hard to explain because I have been all over the place. I used to have a much better paying job, closer to $60,000 with side job, but I went through a horrible depression and left that job. I started nannying and then house managing 5 years ago, and it was too comfortable to leave. I loved not being on a computer! Part of why I agreed to moving is to force me out of this job, that I am not happy or fulfilled in. I am actively looking for a job that is remote and I can keep when we move.
Monthly Take Home: $5,640 after all deductions
Main Job
Me: $2050 for 30 hours of work per week after basic taxes.
W: $2540, after taxes for both of us and insurance for both of us. I am honestly not sure on every single deduction, as it’s a lot, but we pay around $350 a month in insurance for the two of us.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home
I have a salaried side job that is $750 a month, and through other odds and ends I make another $300 a month on average.
Any Other Monthly Income Here
I use my sisters Hulu, my mom’s Netflix and my boss’s HBO Max. We actually do have our own free Hulu through Spotify, but hers is ad free. I pay for Amazon which my whole family uses.
Section Three: Expenses
Rent: $1730 for a 2 bedroom apartment
Storage Unit: $43
Car insurance, renters insurance and life insurance: $156
Car payment: $353 for new car, purchased certified pre-owned. The 2nd car, which I drive, was paid for in cash. It’s oooold but does the job. We owe $7829.95 on the new car, with a little less than two years left on the 1% loan we have.
Savings contribution: $1000. This varies by month and expenses that come up, but since covid it has been over $1000 a month. Before we were putting that money towards debt, but stopped to save for the move and an emergency fund.
Electric and alternating WateSeweGarbage: $200
Wifi/Cable/Security: $143
Cellphone: $110
Gym membership: Paid for by my main job
Pet expenses: recently more, $100 a month at this point
Spotify and MLB radio package: $15 per month
Debt payments: This is above the minimum on all of them
$300 Visa 1
$200 Visa 2
$100 Visa 3
$Balance Visa 4, this is a rewards card that is paid off at each pay check
$75 LOC
$320 Student loans (Me) on hold due to covid
$139 Student loans (W) on hold due to covid
Yearly Expenses:
Costco ($60 yearly)
Amazon ($120 yearly)
Oil changes ($90x 4 yearly)
Tabs ($550 yearly)
MLB subscription ($90 yearly)
NHL Subscription ($140 yearly)
Learned league ($30 yearly)
Microsoft office ($70 yearly)
Zoo membership ($110 yearly)
At the end of each day please tally up your daily expenses. Then at the end of your diary please tally up all expenses in the following categories:
Food + Drink: $261.18
Fun / Entertainment:
Home + Health: $2.82
Clothes + Beauty: $44.84
Transport: $51.02
Other: $218.93
Lastly, reflect on your diary! This week had more spending than normal due to the vet bill and the gift for my mother-in-law. That said, I am consistently disappointed in how much we are spending. I try SO HARD to spend less every month, and while we are trending way down in spending, it seems like there are always so many expenses that come up. Food also continues to be a huge expense during Covid. We enjoy cooking great meals, and it has been hard to cut back our grocery budget – which is where we spend most of our money. I also have some leftover issues from food insecurity as a kid, and I love being able to buy groceries and have options. This week was also driven up by a Saturday out, which we have only done 3 times since Covid, so I don’t feel too bad about this expense. We want to pay debt and save, but also enjoy our lives as much as possible.
On R29 people really seem to freak out when you mention your significant other a lot, but also freak out if you seem in an unhappy relationship. My husband is my best friend and I am obsessed with my cat, but I mostly left them out of this. I also ALWAYS wear a mask, use hand sanitizer, don’t go in anyone’s house ever, etc. We take Covid-19 very seriously and feel lucky to live in a state that is also taking is seriously.
Day 1: Pay Day
6:45am Wake up with my sunrise alarm clock and feel intense dread at needing to apply for a job a friend has recommended me for. This job is a stretch for me and I really don’t have the mental energy for this this morning.
7:15am: Finally roll out of bed and drink my leftover pour-over from yesterday as cold coffee with cream and eat a bowl of frosted mini wheats.
7:30am: Today is pay day so I log on to pay all my bills, which I love doing! I remember a time, not so long ago, I would just not even pay bills or put them off for as long as possible – which now seems so absurd! I look forward to pay day and knocking these things out for the month. I pay the balance on my rewards credit card, move money to savings, pay one of my visa cards, and Zelle my brother money for our phone bill. The plan is actually in my husband’s name but my brother set up his card for the automatic payments. This is fine with me since my sister never remembers to pay.
9:30am: Work, work work (while listening to podcast or audio book, always and forever).
12:00: Run to grab fish for my work family’s dinner and some hot food for my lunch from a high end grocery store. I end up getting myself some Okonomiyaki to eat for $3.99. They are also featuring lots of local restaurants and they have a famous coconut cream pie from a local place so I grab a mid-sized one to bring to a friends for her birthday today $16.99. Other grocery items go on work credit card. ($21.39)
3:30: Leave work and head home to prepare chili for dinner. I slow cooked beef chuck overnight in crushed tomatoes so it goes quickly.
5:00pm: Head to friend’s house to drop off birthday pie. Stop by the fancy pet store to get food for main side job and pick up $75 worth of cat food that goes on work card.
6:30pm: Home and eat chili with sour cream, cheddar and Budget Bytes freezer biscuits while watching the new Adam Sandler Halloween movie. I follow it up with some hot chocolate.
7:30pm: Feeling restless and decide to take a bath and listen to Crime Junkies podcast. After this I use our new Sonic massage gun on W’s back and then grab my computer and get in bed to finally apply for that job.
10:00pm: Finish up the application after a burst of creative energy and hit submit. Check email accounts for other side jobs and send some emails. Close the computer around 11pm, listen to Crime Junkies and fall asleep around midnight.
Daily Total: $21.39
Day 2:
7:45am: wake up from a dream that I had a new job working for Post Malone, but actually he and I were pulling an elaborate prank on a mutual friend. Okay? FaceTime my sister and niece to say good morning and drag myself out of bed. Drink some homemade chai I made this weekend and eat bowl of frosted mini-wheats while I chat with my sister.
8:20am: I see an email alert that my credit score has changed. Down 10 points??? Log on to see that it calculated my debt ratio while the payment on the card I use for monthly expenses was pending. So annoying. I also see that my main email account password has been published on the dark web since Monday. so I quickly log in and change passwords on multiple accounts and use the Gmail feature to do a security check. I see have 3 log ins for a chase account that I do not understand at all. I think these are from an old work credit card, but I make a note to call them.
9:15am: Leave for work with my hair looking like Legolas. Oh well.
9:30am: Arrive at work and make myself a latte and an americano for my boss on their espresso machine.
11:45am: Run to drop off an amazon return at a locker and pick up some supplies for my meeting with main side job, but the cost goes on my (other) work credit card (bill goes directly to them). Do some grocery shopping for work family and it goes on work card. I also pick up some fancy canned heirloom beans that went on sale for half off, milk and sleepy time tea for $7.25.
12:30pm: Back to work and make lunch for me and the kids.
3:30pm: Off work and head to a meeting at main side job. Drive to her house listening to Crime Junkies! I’m on a binge.
6:30pm: Leave meeting after preparing for some upcoming projects and taking about Schitt’s Creek a bunch. She also gives me a new hoodie and fancy water bottle that she doesn’t want. I see an email back from an interview I did earlier this week asking me back for a second interview next week – YAY!
6:45pm: My friend, P, just moved back to Seattle from the east coast and text me and asks me to meet up for a drink with our friend, S. I drive to the lake and meet them at an outside corner table. I don’t drink a ton so I only have one cocktail and a grilled cheese with small salad. $24.78 with 25% tip. My friend P also orders me a hot chocolate, but she covers this.
10: 30pm: Home, check emails and put out a couple fires. I take the time, now that I am on my computer, to email back the place I am interviewing to thank them for asking me back and give them my preferred times out of those they offered. It will be 2 hour zoom interview with multiple groups of their staff.
11:20pm: Lights out with Crime Junkies. I have a problem.
Daily Total: $32.03
Day 3:
7:00am: Wake up and make coffee in the Chemex. I make this every couple days and drink half fresh and hot, then save the other half to drink iced the next day. I eat oatmeal I bought at the beginning of the pandemic when I thought we should have a few shelf stable items in case we had to fully quarantine (if we had covid-19). To be clear, it was not a hoarding situation. I bought a few cans of beans, a couple things of pasta and sauce, oatmeal and a bag of rice. We have gone through all of it except the pasta sauce (since I normally make my own) and the oatmeal.
8:00am: Check work emails and do some work for my side jobs. Read Reddit for a while and finally get ready for work.
9:30am: Arrive at work and it’s busy all day.
12:30pm: Make a lunch of frozen dumplings for everyone, then take one of the kids, N, to the store with me as the kids want a treat. We grab last minute groceries for their family and Starbucks for the kids and myself. They each get a refresher and I get an iced chai with pumpkin spice foam on top and it is OUT OF THIS WORLD SO GOOD. My sister had seen this on Tik Tok and I feel blessed to know about it. This is paid for on my work card. I also need a bulk spice so I stop at the co-op and get that for work, as well as some Japanese yams, mushrooms, bulk corn meal and bulk polenta for myself. $12.87
4:00pm: Finally off work after a long afternoon. Stop at the grocery store because I forgot butter. I use the app to get some coupons so end up with regular butter, European butter, buttermilk, and klondike bars for $5.01 with a 50% off buttermilk since it expires tomorrow and a $5 credit on the app. Always check the app! $5.01
5:00pm: Home and running a meeting for a side job. There are 5 of us and it’s fun to meet some new people that I have been working with over email for months.
6:00pm: Meeting is over and start making skillet cornbread to go with the leftover chili. Usually I am on constantly listening to audio books but as you can tell I am on a podcast kick, which happens occasionally when something engages me. We eat dinner while watching Friends (the one where Joey and Rachel nearly hook up, WTF).
7:15pm: I take a long and luxurious bath.
8:30pm: Play a few rounds of a new (gifted) board game with W called Azul and we are hooked right away. The pieces are very satisfying, which will make sense if you are into board games. Do recommend.
10:00pm: Lights out.
Daily Total: $17.88
Day 4: 7:30am: I have the day off! YAY. I actually have a very abnormal amount of things going on this weekend so I still get up early because I have some stuff I want to get done today. I eat leftover cornbread for breakfast and facetime my mom and sister for about an hour while I eat, drink the cold coffee from yesterday, and check emails.
8:30am: W’s mom’s birthday is next week, and his parents are extremely generous with us, like too generous, so we try to give them nice birthday presents. I order a set of 2 olive oils from Brightland with 2 of the trendy spouts they have. Total cost is $95.98. This goes on my card for rewards, but will essentially come out of savings. $95.98
12:00pm: I spent the morning making Smitten Kitchen buttermilk biscuits (to freeze) with the buttermilk that “expires” today (it’s still fine a week later). I make half of the dough with cheddar and chives and freeze all but two. I eat one while it is piping hot, obviously. I work a little on this money diary, planning out my weekend, and watering my many, many…many plants. Head out at noon to the vet.
12:15pm: Very quick trip to the vet to get a blood draw on Z. They pick him up out of the car, I pay over the phone, and the whole thing is over in 5 minutes. Cost is $108.75. I pay with credit card for rewards, but this will come out of savings as well. $108.75
12:30pm: Home to drop off cat, and pick up a bag of Nordstrom returns for main side job. I head to the Rack to do the returns and end up doing a little shopping for myself since I am there. I get 4 Burberry lip colors for $7 each (2 for me, 1 each for my nanny kids. They love branded makeup), 2 hair clips, 1 fun headband and a pair of super cute Hudson jeans on super clearance for my niece for $4. Total cost is $44.84. I put this on my Nordstrom card and put a reminder on my calendar to make a payment in 2 days when it is no longer a pending charge. $44.84
2:00pm: W gets home from work and we talk for a while before he takes a shower and a nap. I continue to work on my side jobs.
3:15pm: I eat one of the cheddascallion biscuits from earlier with some sliced local mole salami for lunch. I text with my friend, T, about meeting up her and her husband at a brewery tomorrow and research locations with covered outdoor seating.
5:30pm: After fielding calls for a work emergency for my main side job and tidying up around the house, I go hard down a rabbit hole of FBI’s most wanted criminals on their website while drinking a Kitty Cat Blues beer. Look up and am surprised that it’s been 2 hours! Oops. Check the mail and see that my check has come from one of my side jobs. It’s for $265 which will basically cover the birthday gift and vet visit from today. Instead of going into savings like it normally would, I will deposit to checking and make an extra payment on my credit card.
6:00pm: W wakes up from his nap and we start playing our friends trivia on Twitch. In between the forms he sets up on his website I somehow manage to click a spam add and my computer starts freaking out an popping up all these warnings and freezing up. I am super pissed and spend the next hour running various scans.
7:00pm: I put frozen dumplings I made last week into the air fryer and steam some broccoli for dinner. We eat while we continue playing trivia and then do a call with W’s cousin. While on the phone we learn that he is having trouble reading small font in books (he is a person with a disability), so I tell him I will send him an e-reader that we don’t use so he can enlarge the font and get free books from the library. I set him up for a library card online and promise to set it up this weekend and send it next week. I also fill out his unemployment for the week, which I am managing for him. W cleans up while I do this.
8:30pm: I run more tests on my computer and we spend a couple hours playing Azul. I eat a Reece’s Klondike bar and drink another Kitty Kat Blues while we play. I work on this money diary a little bit and text with my best friend. We head to bed around midnight.
Daily Total: $249.57
Day 5:
8:15am: Wake up to my alarm and get ready to go a shredding event. I have a bag of our own paper items and several computers from a side job. I get ready and head out to the next city up the freeway to go to the event. The line is super long but it goes quickly. This is a free event so there is no fee.
9:30am: Meet my friend across the street at Starbucks. I get another of the iced chai pumpkin chai with the egg bites. I use points for the drink but spend $5.01 on the egg bites. We sit in the car with the windows all down and masks on when we aren’t drinking and catch up. $5.01
11:15am: Head home and stop at the Costco in this city for gas, as it is does much less volume and there is no wait. I fill up W’s car for $31.02.
12:00pm: Pick up W and head to an outdoor brewery to meet friends for lunch. We order Shake Shack ahead on the app, 2 burgers, 1 hotdog, 1 fry and 1 shake for $27.69 after a discount code I find online. We spend about 3 hours at the brewery catching up. One beer for me, four for W and one for our friend totals $52.
4:00pm: Home and facetime W’s parents for a while before I do a work zoom with a new volunteer from 6-7:45pm. I don’t love doing this on the weekend but in showing him how to do a bunch of my work, I get ahead for next week, which is fantastic. I also like making money.
8:00pm: W had walked to the local grocery store but forgot his wallet, so I meet him when my zoom is over. We get 2 delicata squash, broccoli, bananas, apples, pears, 1 cabbage, 2 russet potatoes, 1 green bell pepper, brussels sprouts, celery, 2 sweet potatoes, jalapenos, ellenos large yogurt, 6 small yogurts, cottage cheese, ground turkey, a pound of coffee, pretzels, 2 packs English muffins, cool whip, and an apple pie kit kat bar for $53.34.
8:45pm: Late dinner of lumpia that a friend dropped off for us a couple weeks and we froze. They come out perfect in the air fryer with no oil, with steamed broccoli on the side. I resist dessert after the milkshake and a tummy ache earlier. We watch American Utopia – the Spike Lee directed David Byrne concert and head to be around 12:30pm.
Daily Total: $169.06
Day 6:
9:55am: Wake up just in time to set my fantasy football lineup. This NFL season is absolutely absurd and it makes me so sad to see all these players getting injured. I start coffee and make breakfast sandwiches with the savory frozen buttermilk biscuits from earlier this week. I sauté mushrooms to go on the side. I want to listen to my podcast so I spend the morning meal prepping lunches for W – sauteed onion, Thai peppers, jalapeno, broccoli, delicata squash, and ground turkey over brown rice. I also make the Comforting Cabbage, Onion and Farro soup, from the 6 Seasons cookbook by Joshua McFadden cookbook, to have on hand this week.
4:00pm: I play Imposter with my sister and her friends while I snack on some pretzels and make myself a Frappuccino with the chai I made last weekend, some vital proteins collagen powder, maple syrup and ice. It turns out really good and helps my migraine. W walks to the store to pick up his medications ($2.82) as well as a wedge of parmesan and brown rice ($12.98). $15.80
6:00pm: I cook up two salmon fillets in the air fryer as well as some of the brussels sprouts. I freaking love our air fryer. It has 2 racks instead of a drawer and everything turns out so perfect. We top the brussels sprouts with balsamic glaze and add a bowl of the cabbage soup on the side with some freshly shaved parmesan. W watches Monsterland and I play more Imposter before getting up to sit at the desk and check emails and work on this money diary. At some point W makes air popper popcorn for us to snack on and I eat a Reece’s Klondike bar.
9:30pm: W goes to bed and I continue working on my side jobs as well as reconfiguring the Kindle for W’s cousin. I also pay the charge on my Nordstrom card. I get in bed around 11 and play Imposter before going to sleep around 12:30am. I deeply regret the afternoon chai.
Daily Total: $15.80
Day 7:
7:15am: Sleep in a little before getting up and drinking the coffee I prepared last night so I wouldn’t have to this morning. Thank you past me. I eat some homemade granola with the Ellenos yogurt – it is extremely tart and not edible this way, so I slice up one of the Japanese sweet potatoes and bake that instead. I will have to make tzatziki or bake something with the yogurt. I facetime my sister and niece while we all get ready for the day.
9:30am: Busy morning at work. At some point head out to grab them some groceries and I get 3 cans of beans, hot chili oil, a cucumber, garlic, and 3 blood oranges to bring to a friend with a bottle of champagne tonight – her 30th birthday is coming up next week. $11.13.
12:30pm: I take the kids to lunch at Chipotle. The shut down the street at this outdoor shopping center and have tables spread out under a tent, so we eat there. This cost is covered by work, but I decide to get us some Chocolate & Mochi Xiao Long Bao from Din Tai Fung to share. $8.76 with tip. I regret this purchase due to the price tag, not the taste. YUM. I also stop at Paper Source to pick up an RBG birthday card for my mother in law, and this butterfly that will fly out of the card when she opens it. $14.20. $22.96
3:30pm: Off work and stop by local co-op to purchase some pork chops for hot and sour soup tonight. I also get a tiny but of swiss cheese from the “ends” section to have with some salami when I get home. Really craving protein today!! $7.97. My gas light goes on, so I do tomorrow morning me a favor and stop for gas. $20 even and this will last me 2 weeks. $27.97
6:00pm: After charcuterie and hot and sour soup, we pack up hot chocolate and warm clothes to head to an outdoor trivia our friend is hosting. We clip some rosemary on the way out to go with the blood oranges and champagne for our friend, when we realize we don’t have a bottle of champagne. We almost always keep some on hand for gifts! We stop at a gas station and get a bottle of Cooks for $11 even (smh).
9:00pm: Our friend does a phenomenal job transforming her backyard into a socially distanced trivia oasis and I feel like I am part of an incredibly cool secret society.
11:00pm: When we get home I take a hot bath and play Among Us with my sister and then get straight to bed thinking about how old I am after a satisfying teeth brushing with a new toothbrush head.
Daily Total: $73.06
Weekly Total: $578.79

I'm 26 years old, live in Manhattan, and make $160k as an Associate Attorney.

Title: I am 26 years old, make $160,000, live in New York City and work as an attorney (first-year associate).
Section One: Assets and Debt.
Retirement Balance: Betterment Traditional IRA: $4,862.18. This is tax-deductible because I am not yet eligible for my work’s 401k. I maxed it out in 2019 and plan to do so for 2020.
Savings account balance: Chase savings: $1,225; Ally HYSA $4,968.82
Checking account balance: $1,691.83
Credit card debt: pay off every month
Student loan debt: $99,244.53 from law school. My tuition was covered roughly 1/3 by a scholarship, 1/3 by my dad, and 1/3 by these loans. Interest rates range from 5.06% to 6.75%. (I should probably refinance now)
Betterment Investment accounts: $701.76 in a 90% stocks 10% bonds portfolio; $280.10 in an 85% bonds 15% stocks portfolio

Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $7,867.56
Gross monthly pay: $13,333.34

Deductions per month:
Taxes: $4,703.50
Dental: $42.66
Medical: $592.62
Commuter benefit: $127 (paused starting next paycheck due to pandemic)

Section Three: Expenses
Rent: $1835 for 1 room in a 3-bedroom apartment
Savings/investment contribution: around $1500-2000 per month, allocated between my various accounts. For context, I graduated law school in May and have been working since September, so I am still figuring out my financial picture/budget.
Debt payments: $1700/month to law school loans. Minimum is $1177
Electric: ~$33
Wifi: 16.33
Cellphone: on my family’s plan
Sweat app: $128.99 annually (purchased this a few days ago to keep exercising during the pandemic)
Instacart Express: $99 annually
Amazon prime: $119 annually
NuRx birth control prescription: $25 quarterly (my insurance should cover this, but I still get charged. Maybe because I order 3 packs at once? I should really look into this.)
Dollar Shave Club: $10/quarterly
Ritual (multivitamin): $30/month
Spotify: $9.99/month
Fabletics: $49/month. I almost always skip but sometimes forget. I should cancel this but you have to call in person, which makes me put it off...
Gym membership: $185/month (not being charged as my gym is closed right now)

Day 1: Sunday
8:00AM - I wake up and eat avocado toast with strawberries, and decaf coffee for breakfast
8:30AM - My mom asks if I’ll go on a walk with her (we’ve been doing this most days), but my back has seized up over night and it’s too painful. I do a gentle yoga video from SarahBethYoga on YouTube to try to loosen up my back.
9:00AM - Hang out with my mom, text my family groupchat, get sucked into a YouTube wormhole.
12:30PM - Emerge and eat leftovers from last night: pasta with marinara sauce, Beyond Beef crumbles, mushrooms and spinach
1:00PM - I came to my mom’s house for a weekend trip before CoVid got really bad, and I decided to stay here when my work announced everyone would be working remotely. Because of this I have very minimal clothes with me and have had to wash them every few days. I borrowed a bunch of old stuff from my mom, but I really need more, especially given how much I’ve been working out here. I browse online and see Nordstrom has 25% off the whole site...a few hours later I have a cart of 2 lounge shorts, a pajama set, 3 sports bras, running shorts, and bike shorts, for a total of: $278.28 (oof)
3:00PM - I spend the rest of the day being lazy and lying out by the pool. The access to outdoor space is a major benefit of being here rather than in my shoebox in NYC (which also has a very toxic roommate in it).
6:30PM - Eat dinner with my mom and stepdad. They have asparagus and fish. I am vegan so I make a cannellini bean salad and rice to replace the fish.
7:00PM - I am charged for a weekly meal planning service. I signed up for a free trial and meant to cancel but forgot...$7.99. I cancel when I see the charge.
7:30PM - Watch the first episode of Devs with my mom and stepdad, which I’ve already seen. I think it’s a little too weird for them. I watch the second episode in bed, then switch to my Kindle (currently reading the latest Jack Reacher book – my guilty pleasure), before going to sleep at 10:40
Day 1 Total: $286.27

Day 2: Monday
7:00AM - Wake up, laze around for half an hour, then head to the kitchen and make avocado toast with strawberries and decaf coffee. Watch YouTube videos on my phone while I eat.
8:00AM - I get ready, which currently means changing into comfy clothes and doing my skincare (using a mix of my mom’s spares and what I brought. I brought the Ordinary hyaluronic acid, squalane, and moisturizer, May Coop Raw Sauce essence, and SPF.) My skin is loving this long period of not wearing makeup!
8:30AM - I set up at the desk in my (guest) bedroom to start work
9:30AM - I bring my laptop and cell phone to the backyard to work outside.
11:30AM - I eat 3 Cuties and a raw banana flax bar I bought last weekend
1:30PM - For lunch I eat the leftover bean salad and asparagus over lettuce
2:00PM - Continue to work outside. Snack on popcorn
5:30PM - Finish work - I was pretty productive today! I still feel too sore to work out so I volunteer to go to the grocery store. My mom offers to pay, but I want to pay to contribute towards what I’ve been eating while I’m here. I drive to Whole Foods and shop while wearing latex gloves, wiping down everything, and swerving around everyone I see. People do not understand the concept of staying 6 feet away! I buy brussels sprouts, bell peppers, 2 packs vegan sausage, seitan, veggie burgers, plastic zip bags, bread, face sunscreen (what I brought is about to run out), tahini, kale, broccoli, muesli, red lentil spaghetti, zucchini, Lara bars, a bar of dark chocolate, and spinach. Total: $104.59
6:30PM - Come back home and eat dinner. My mom and stepdad are eating fish and cauliflower. I have sautéed kale, vegan sausage, and rice, drizzled with tahini and lemon juice.
7:30PM - I notice TurboTax charged me for filing my taxes. I couldn’t use the free version because I wanted to deduct my student loan interest. But I am getting over a $5,000 refund (due to withholding as if I earned $160,000 in 2019 when I only earned ~$43,000 since I just started work in September). $174.21
8:30PM - We watch the first episode of Little Fires Everywhere (which I’ve also already seen). The parentals seem to like this show better! Success.
9:30PM - I head to bed and read my book and go to sleep.
Day 2 Total: $278.80

Day 3: Tuesday
7:00 AM - Wake up at 7, snooze til 7:30, stay on my phone until 7:45, and now I’m hurrying to start work by 8:30. I make the same breakfast I’ve been having.
8:30AM - Working. On a 3-hour conference call and starving.
12:00PM - I give in and go make lunch while the conference call plays on my phone. I throw together leftover bean salad over lettuce with olives, mustard dressing, and some torn up vegan provolone slices.
2:00PM - I’m on easy calls most of the day, which I don’t mind at all.
4:30PM - I snack on a pumpkin seed bar from “Go Raw.” I’ve never heard of these bars before but they are very filling and have great ingredients.
5:00PM - I wrap up work early to join a family Zoom call. My older sister has a baby and my older brother has a newborn, so we all oooh and aahh over them for a while.
6:00PM - After the call I do an arm workout from BBG (thanks to my new Sweat app purchase).
6:30PM - My parents and I eat dinner. I have sweet potato, broccoli and vegan sausage. Then I shower and do a short yoga video.
8:00PM - We watch the 2nd episode of Little Fires, then I do “aspirational” apartment searching on Street Easy. This is when I look at places way out of budget just for the fun of it. But then it just makes me want to overspend. I could technically afford these places, but I really need to restrain myself and direct money toward my student loan and savings instead of rent...that’s what I have to tell myself anyway.
9:45PM - I go to bed and read my book before I fall asleep.
Daily Total: $0

Day 4: Wednesday
7:00AM - Wake up, watch a YouTube workout video from bed (this makes me feel active even when I’m just lazing around in bed), then get up and have the usual breakfast while watching a fashion video. I don’t normally watch this much YouTube since I don’t normally have time!
8:30AM - Start work and feeling the hump day slump...
2:30PM - After a 3.5 hour conference call during which I had to take notes for a partner without pause, I am completely exhausted and starving. (Snacked on a Lara bar and Biena roasted chickpeas during the call. Still starving though!) I throw together random things I find in the fridge: sweet potato, broccoli, beets, some avocado, and spinach, with tahini and lemon juice.
2:45PM - One of my Nordstrom packages arrived! I immediately change into the new item: grey sweat shorts with tiny daisies printed on them.
3:00PM - After I eat I still feel wiped from the marathon call, so I set a 15 minute timer and sit in a lounge chair in the backyard doing absolutely nothing for that time (including putting my phone away). It is so wonderful to deliberately do nothing and just sit and observe the world.
3:20PM - Another Nordstrom package arrived! (I hate when they send everything in different packages though, so wasteful). It’s matching pajama shorts and tank top in a blue cloud tie-dye-ish pattern.
5:45PM - I work until 5:45 or so (sitting outside), then do a legs BBG workout.
6:30PM - I’m running late for dinner, so my mom cooks my vegan sausage for me (the store was out of all other vegan meat products – I don’t normally binge on sausage like this). But she cooks it without peeling the plastic off! Luckily I realized before I bit into that melted plastic. I cook a new sausage and eat that with sautéed kale and zucchini with my parents. Then I shower and change into my new PJs.
7:30PM - My mom leaves to get my younger sister from the airport...that’s right, my sister is flying to visit our semi-elderly mother and stepfather during a pandemic! I am not ok with the risk she is taking and exposing other people to by flying at this point in the crisis, but there’s nothing I can do. She’s been very depressed isolating away from all our family, plus she and her long-term boyfriend broke up a few days before things started getting bad. But still.
8:15PM - My sister arrives...commence social distancing.
8:30PM - We watch another episode of Little Fires (my stepdad finds an excuse to leave the room every time a sex scene starts, lol). Eventually I head to bed. I can’t fall asleep tonight, my mind is racing.
Daily Total: $0

Day 5: Thursday
7:00AM - Wake up, go back to sleep until 7:30. Get out of bed and usual morning routine. My parents and sister are heading to my parents' lakehouse for a few days. I’m not sure the WiFi there will be fast enough for my work VPN, so I’m staying here by myself until the weekend.
8:30AM - Start work, and I have almost nothing to do. I’m having such a hard time concentrating and end up wasting time on my phone. I’ve been trying to limit my time consuming stressful media on Twitter and the internet, but I fail this morning.
11:00AM - I snack on 2 Cuties and copious amounts of Triscuits with hummus
11:30AM - The pool cleaning machine is out to get me today. It squirts huge amounts of water at me three times. I set up a pillow to protect my laptop, but the rest of me gets completely soaked.
12:30PM - I seriously ate so many Triscuits. I’m not really hungry. I just slice two apples and have those with almond butter while I take notes during a conference call.
5:30PM - I don’t have enough work to do today, which I hate. I log off at 5:30. I’m feeling kind of negative and my mind is racing. I decide to have a “self care” night to get me out of this funk.
5:30-6PM - I go on a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood. I find walking pretty boring, but it’s a good way to clear my head and is good exercise. I couldn’t think of any podcasts I wanted to listen to, so I just play some music.
6:00PM - I do a 10 minute yoga stretch video. My legs are so sore from my workout yesterday. I shower (and actually wash my hair) and change into my new pajamas. I place an order for delivery from a middle eastern restaurant. I get a vegetarian platter and stuffed grape leaves ($35.24 including tip)
6:30PM - I do a 10-minute meditation from Headspace (heads up - they are offering a bunch of meditations for free right now! I access it through a family plan which my Mom purchased for our whole family to use). I scroll through Prime looking for a movie to watch. I feel like watching something mindless and fun, so I pick The Spy Who Dumped Me. I open up a bottle of wine.
7:00PM - The food arrives and the driver drops it off on the porch. Wow, I love getting delivery this way...no internal debate about whether to answer the door in no bra and my pajamas. I watch the movie while downing my wine and eating a ton of food – heaven! This movie is delightfully ridiculous.
9:00PM - I decide to watch another movie! Living it up! I almost watch Captain America: The First Avenger for the millionth time, but ultimately decide on Thor, which I’ve seen slightly less than a million times. I eat large amounts of sea salt dark chocolate and have several glasses of wine :D.
10:45PM - I’m not quite done with the movie but decide to finish it another time. I brush my teeth, go to bed and browse on my computer for a while before going to sleep. I preemptively delay my alarm until 7:30 for tomorrow. I can be so regimented with my weekday routine, so it was really nice to switch it up and just let myself indulge in “bad habits” like watching the second movie, having a lot of wine on a week night (ha, I probably only had 3 glasses), spending money on delivery, etc.
Daily Total: $35.24

Day 6: Friday
7:30AM - I wake up and am surprisingly not hung over! I do feel dehydrated though, so I drink a Gatorade from the fridge. We are out of avocados, so I put my leftover hummus, baba ganoush and tabbouleh on a slice of toast instead. I also have my decaf coffee (switching to decaf did wonders for my mental state and sleep quality).
8:00AM - I get ready and decide to actually put on some makeup today. I put on everything except foundation, so concealer, powder, blush, highlight, bronzecontour, brow pencil, mascara, and lip tint. I have a Zoom call with my college friends later, plus it’s nice to just feel put together and attractive
8:30AM - I log onto work. I have no calls scheduled today and only one real task on my to do list. I browse Twitter for the news, and come across a grocery hygiene video that I send to my family text. I decide I should do all the shopping from now on for my mom and stepdad so they don’t have to risk going into the stores. I’ll offer that to them when I see them. I also read that federal student loans may go into forbearance if the bill passes. I’m not sure what I would do – should I continue overpaying, or use this opportunity to build up my savings a little more? I have to move apartments in a few months and I’m worried I won’t have enough of an emergency fund after I pay all the deposits and buy all the furniture I need.
10:30AM - I really can’t sustain focus today. It’s true what they say about work expanding to fill up the time you have available. The problem is more work could pop up at any time so I need to get things done and not put them off. I decide to use a Pomodoro timer to help actually get something done (I use the app Focus Keeper).
11:00AM - I message with one of my law school friends for a while. I’m so bad at keeping in touch with people and didn’t realize how much I was missing non-parent interaction. We plan a video chat with another friend in a few days.
12:30PM - I think I made some kind of salad with leftovers for lunch
5:00PM - I log off work, and my college friends and I video chat on Zoom. We talk for two and a half hours! It was great to catch up on what everyone has been doing. We pretty much only see each other for bachelorette parties and weddings nowadays.
7:30PM - I roast some broccoli, beets, and brussels sprouts, and eat those with some tahini sauce and vegan sausage. I watch some TV and relax for the rest of the night. At some point I finish Thor.
Daily Total: $0

Day 7: Saturday
7:30AM - I wake up, get ready and eat breakfast, and pack up my things to head to the lakehouse. I bring all my clothes and a bunch of groceries. I start the drive by 9.
10:30AM - I get to the house and head to the porch swing to read on my Kindle. I’m really tired for some reason so I end up taking a nap on the porch. I feel like I haven’t had a nap in years.
12:00PM - I can’t remember what I ate this day, something simple from the kitchen though.
4:30PM - My mom and I start prepping our dinner for tonight, stuffed bell peppers. I make mine with seitan instead of beef. Then we go outside and play horse shoes and bocce ball with my sister. Horseshoes is an extremely difficult game! My sister destroys us both at bocce ball. (As I write this out, I realize touching all the same game equipment as her was a complete fail at social distancing.)
6:30PM - We eat dinner, and my mom and I go in the hot tub for a while after dinner
8:00AM - I shower, then read for the rest of the night. At some point I download a ton of Kindle books from Libby. The WiFi here is too slow to stream TV shows.
9:30PM - I head up to bed and go to sleep at some point.
Daily Total: $0

Weekly Total: $600.31
Food + Drink: $139.83
Fun / Entertainment: $0
Home + Health: $7.99
Clothes + Beauty: $278.28
Transport: $0
Other: $174.21

Reflection: I normally aim to only put $400 on my credit card each week (basically all discretionary spending). I’m not happy with this total, but the TurboTax charge was a one-off. The other big purchase was my Nordstrom buy. I did desperately need clothes, and the individual items were not that expensive. I do prefer to buy higher quality pieces rather than super cheap items. However, I probably should have exercised more self restraint as far as how much clothing I bought. I always feel like I’m exercising so much self control when it comes to money, but I still end up overspending. It’s something I really want to work on. (That and going back to auto-deposits in my savings accounts. I stopped this for a while in order to retroactively max out my IRA for 2019, and never set them back up again.)

Darn Near Perfect -- Almost Perfect, Part II

Slither Philosophy. Please Read.

The DUETB School of Slither Thought
There are many styles of Slither play, and in this manifesto of sorts, I am attempting to posit the six major factors that contribute to Slither wholeness. It was inspired by previous posts by players such as ReadTommy'sMonstrous that have attempted to do something similar. Now, it doesn't mean that in order to be a 'good' player you must possess all of these attributes in equal amounts, in fact, the opposite is true! The purpose of laying out these details is so that we as a community can have a level field with which to debate about Slither. Who knows, perhaps, or perhaps not, we can decide what truly is the best style.
Each person's idea of what makes a good Slither player is due to what balance of these attributes they themselves possess or wish to possess, and thus think others should as well. I am not saying that there is any one perfect type of Slither player, and have yet to fully decide what my ideal play style is.
The following is by no means a complete list and in fact I look forward to your feedback on what I need to add/delete/combine. My end goal is to have a criteria with which to judge Slither playing. It is not a tutorial on how you should play Slither (JS I meant to do that has a great one here), but rather a way of categorizing play styles. Here are the six pillars of Slither play according to the DUETB SST:

Kill skill.

This one is fairly straightforward, but can be further divided into sub-categories. Keep in mind that each of these factors relates in another sense to some of the other points, e.g. strategy of killing vs strategy of staying alive, so each of these are strictly as they relate to killing. The first one is:
MANEUVERING in both tight spaces and in larger battles. This includes how good physically you are at controlling a snake, i.e. hand eye coordination with a mouse, mastery of the various mobile controls.
STRATEGY which includes baiting, controlled boosting, and clever positioning of your snake. An aspect of this is slightly different than maneuvering as in not "can I pull off that maneuver" but "do I even know what maneuver to pull off?" Strategy also includes spatial snake awareness, which basically means, what is the 'hitbox' for the snake?" This depends on your size, and on if you're boosting or not, and whether or not you are turning. Strategy is huge in Slither, and leads into the similar but slightly more nuanced idea of
SLITHER AS A MIND GAME. I won't go into much detail, see u/f__JPUX__f post, but basically it means how well you can anticipate your opponents moves. Slither is like chess, it is good to be a couple moves ahead. That leads me to the last kill skill related sub point
REACTION, which, as we will see in point 3, is more important for traditional players than modders, but even with zoom the majority of kills require quick reactions and are often down to the wire.

Ability to stay alive.

The first aspect is STRATEGY OF SELF PRESERVATION. With this one I ask questions such as am I a cautious player? Am I going to risk my life for that pile of shiny dots? Do I prefer the exciting life of the middle or the safety of the outer rim? Do I run from other players or always seek to engage? Are you a player like Tommy who will literally decide whether to stay or go based on the size and direction of the snake he encounters? Or are you like me who will be first place and die trying to kill a 1K snake? (Oh well...)
MANEUVERING AND REACTION skills. This means, am I able to squeeze between those two snakes to get to the clear? Can I juke that one snake to form a protective Kiosk to decide my next move? Also, basic controls come into the equation once again, and if you lose your nerve often then you will die often. One thing I would include in this is how good am I at something I call "running on empty" which is when you are at 10 mass how long can you boost on just the trails and random dots around you, either to travel, evade, or make an kill when spawning in front of a big snake.
Now for the part everyone is going to hate me for, but read my disclaimer and you will see why I am including this. Like it or not, KIOSKING is a very real Slither skill, and one, as I have recently come to realize is actually very difficult. I (along with most of the BATs) hate Kiosking. I just can't do it. Whenever I try, which is only I am trying to stay big for a leaderboard takeover, I have to put it in bot mode or donate, or else I will die of boredom. However, follow my logic here. If kiosking is something that a person like me literally can't possibly do, but another can do successfully and grind out some big scores into the process, it MUST be a skill. Never mind the straightlining feature, kiosking IS and always will be a part of Slither. That being said, I still will always respect a person who can reach 50k w/o kiosking more that someone who must. However, that is my OPINION, and is a result of my application of this metric.

Reliance on mods and other "unfair" tactics.

This point includes bots (storms), zoom, graphics and server change mods, as well as so called 'camouflage skins.' I won't go into a ton of detail because that would be beating a dead horse. My point is that like it or not, just as with kiosking, these tactics are a part of the game. Anyone who comes out and says "ooh you no skill mod dog scab cheater etc." is denying the nature of this game we play. Until the devs decide what they want to do with the game, mods exist and will be used by players. That being said, anyone who goes out and says "well mods (zoom in particular) don't REALLY give anyone an advantage, I just use it because I don't like being blind" is kidding themselves. The fact of the matter is, you have a COMPETITIVE advantage over the other player. How big is that advantage? That's your opinion. The facts are that mods, and let's face it even bot storms, are NOT going away anytime soon. Only once everyone admits said facts then can we RESPECTFULLY debate on whether Ateam Ace's 200K+ runs with mods on a loaded server with teaming and friend feeding are better than Phil's incredible bot server grind high scores. I will get into more of this later, and hopefully in the comments if y'all are accepting what I am saying. Speaking of teaming, the next factor that affects playing style is

Reliance on teaming.

This post is not a defense of teams, because whether or not teams are 'good' or 'fair' is solely one's opinion. This explains why most other posts on this subject, which are attempts to convince others of your own position, have disintegrated into spiteful words. I am a BAT gang member and proud of it! It doesn't alter that the following are facts that I think everyone who agrees with the DUETB SST (which keep in mind does not favor teaming one way or another and is merely a metric by which to judge skill) should accept.
EVERYONE TEAMS whether they are even aware of it or not. Hypothetical scenario: Ace and Tommy are dropped into a bot server as 10, 50, or even 100k snakes. Unless either does something stupid, they are going to sit there until the end of time. Enter the rest of the A-Team. They quickly form smaller circles to force Tommy's kiosk down then Ace completes the wrap. Sound unfair? Think about it. The same is bound to happen to any large snake in any server, whether or not an organized team comes after it. Two random snakes could force the larger one into a boost race until BAM! along comes another tiny and then the big guy is dead. That is a perfect example of ORGANIC TEAMING. The difference between this and CLAN TEAMING is that clans would not start fighting each other over the mass, but the small snakes would. You might be thinking "Hey TrollBro, you said earlier EVERYONE teams! I have never been in either of those situations, I just play in the middle where everything is crazy and there are no teams. Ergo, a counter example, your assertion is false. QED :) " Ah, but I have not told you about the last kind of teaming. You said you just played for the hectic middle, and don't consciously team with ANY snakes. Well let's think about that sick kill you made on the 15k snake the other day. True, if you had sat there passively he probably wouldn't have died, so therefore no other teammate was helping you, right? No, likely the only reason you got that kill, is because mr. 15k was running from another snake, and you just completed the kill. That is what teams do, and is what you did, even if you weren't aware of the other snake. The DUETB SST believes that Slither was designed on the principle of taking advantage of other people's kills (eating their food) and their advances on other snakes (darting in for the kill on a panicked snake). This is what makes the whole "my kill my food" indignation a whole load of nonsense. What CLANS do, and probably what makes everyone so mad, is ARTIFICIALLY (as in go against natural instincts) decide to not share food, for the vested interest of both getting bigger, and move on to the the next kill, instead of fighting or disbanding.
All this ignores the purely social aspect of teaming, as well as protection and defense which are natural next steps from Clan teaming. These are big reasons that might influence a player to join a clan.
Now that teaming has been defined, it is what is a player's reliance on teaming, organic clan etc... that is one of my metrics. Is the only reason you even got to 100k is because your clan was protecting, feeding, assisting in kills, etc? Many have made the point that [Having something in these brackets] makes a difference in the mind game aspect of slither. Tommy has claimed that a kill Ace made on him doesn't count because Tommy was looking over his shoulder the entire time for the rest of the A-Team, for example. And finally, can you even play without a team? Are you a chronic team drifter, even wearing multiple tags at once, and can't bear to play solo? Do you change your IGN to something else when your fireteam backup isn't around so as not to draw a target on your back? All these are valid questions and are the reason why RELIANCE ON TEAMING is a good metric to ascertain a player's skill.

Equipment and Lag.

This one is fairly straightforward. I saw a huge jump in performance when I switched to Galaxy Note 10+ after over a year of grinding on an old kindle fire tablet (that was before I had ever experienced mods too). When on the NTL on my desktop I score higher plugged into ethernet than when over wifi, even if speeds (roughly 60 mbps over 5 ghz signal in immediate proximity to the router) are identical. When the FPS drops I play worse. Even the difference between the 66 and the 206 servers is about 100 ms of ping on a good day according to the NTL mod, which indeed affects gameplay.
The reason why lag is a metric is because when Ace (man he is just so full of examples) comes down on a laggy Friday night and kicks my butt during Slitherdome with a ton of geographical lag, I respect him more than when someone else does. Lag, just like anything else people complain about in Slither, is a part of the game, and the ability to cope is a skill in and of itself.

Ability to keep the game fun, lighthearted, and competitive.

This more directly relates to IGNs than anything else. Are random Trump names all you can come up with? Do you spend your days scheming about how to cleverly trick the games built in censoring feature? It seems like a good 25% of the IGNs out there are foul. Yes, it exists for a reason folks, and the DUETB SST believes it is to limit the amount of unchecked aggression that circulates via this video game. Oh, wait, what? Yes, indeed folks, at the end of the day this is a GAME. I respect a person who can come up with lighthearted and teasing IGNs much more than the trolls who feel the need to hate constantly. I guess the real question here is:
DoUEvenTrollBro?

Application: My personal play style, both with mods and without, is heavy on kill skill, with no all that much interest in staying alive for long amounts of time. You could say I like to growing, but not necessarily staying big. I am a clan player on the 104, but a solo player on mobile on the 66. I, as demonstrated by my IGN, always try to keep the game fun. You can see the story behind it here.
Sorry this was so long but I felt the need to get it out there. Let me know what you think of this system, and if you have any questions. Oh, and hey to all the players on this sub that have joined since I last posted, as well as the veterans, I enjoy playing with you!

I am a 31 year old RN making $54,181.92 in rural MN

Combined ~$85k gross. Lots of changes since my last diary! I'm still long winded!
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: $2,178.34 - 6.5%. Employer will put in 7.5%, vested at 5 years. B and I work at the same place, I'm guessing his balance is around $30k as he's vested.
Equity: I live with my fiance B. His 2 bed/1 bath house was paid off before we started dating. I'd say about $25k equity. VLCOL area.
Savings account balance: $517 in a HYSA.
Z's expense account: $245. I randomly put chunks of my child support in here to pay for school lunch and pictures, extracurriculars, co-pays, etc.
Wedding fund: $0, I just paid the deposit for our photographer ($400) and bought save the dates ($133).
Checking account balance: $1,831.04
Credit card debt: $4,055.62. Down $700 from my last diary when I was too scared to add the numbers up. I will hopefully be able to pay most of this off with my tax return.
Student loan debt: $30,287.51 for my LPN program and ADN, still in my grace period from my attempt at my BSN last fall. I should be paying my interest but alas, I'm not.
Clinic bill: $990.89. Somehow they got my old insurance company to cover my CT, so this is the remaining balance.
Section Two: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: $2300 for me. Just got a raise to $28.11 base and the shift differential was increased a bit. B brings home ~$1500 depending on how his on-call weeks fall. We are both hourly and get that sweet, sweet extra check 2x/year (looking at you January). We have separate accounts.
Side gig: B is a volunteer firefighter and gets paid once a year in November. The amount depends on the number of calls he responds to. Last year it was about $1250 and he used it for Christmas spending. I pick up some OT here and there.
Any Other Monthly Income: $531 child support
Section Three: Expenses
Pre-Tax Deductions
Health insurance: $514/month for Z and myself (plus $1200/year deductible).
Vision and dental: $81.54/month for Z and myself.
FSA: $140/month. I'm able to flex daycare as well as health care costs. Will be adjusted in January to about $250/month and I'm going to cry when I see my paychecks.
Monthly Expenses
Rent/mortgage: B's house is paid off. My daughter Z lives with us the majority of the time, and B's stepson E is here every other weekend.
Home insurance: $127, B pays. It's combined with his car insurance.
Savings contribution: I aim for $200 into the wedding fund, $150 into the emergency fund. I haven't put anything in since September since I'm paying to get out of my old house (ending contracts, dumpster fees, final bill payments).
Debt payments: credit cards - $170, clinic bill - $100. B throws money towards a snowblower he bought last month on a 0% interest promo, his only debt right now. Amount owed is $1600 - it's a pretty sweet machine.
Donations: ad hoc throughout the year, most ends up going to the kids' schools.
Electric: Between $60-160 depending on the season, B pays. I will cover more day to day expenses in the summer to make up for it.
Natural gas: $56, B pays.
Watesewegarbage: ~$60, B pays.
School lunch: $46. I pay.
Daycare: $29/week school year rate. I reimburse myself from my FSA.
Groceries: Around $400 for all of us. B and I trade off.
Wifi: $75, B pays.
Bed payment: $140/month, 4 months left. I paid half up front and financed the rest. I pay.
Car payment: $405.27 for my car. B's car and truck are paid off.
Cellphone: $275. 4 unlimited lines, 3 phone payments (ouch we're dumb), and $8/month for Z's new tablet. I went through our bill line by line and was shocked at how much I was paying for stuff we didn't need, like visual voicemail and high tier insurance, so I cut it way back. I pay.
Subscriptions: $84 for Netflix, Hulu Live, Apple storage for Z, Pandora Premium (couldn't give up my playlists) and Dollar Shave Club. I pay and share.
Prescriptions: $14 out of my FSA.
Eyelash extensions: $120
Amazon subscribe and save: It varies, but ~$40 for energy drinks and OTC meds every month. Other stuff like paper products, furnace filters and litter genie refills as needed. I pay.
Other Expenses
Property Taxes: $507/year. B pays.
Amazon Prime: $59/year, still on my student email. I pay and share with B.
Pet expenses: 3 dogs and 1 cat combined! $33.49/month dog food. $28.60/every 3 months cat food & litter (all through Chewy). $240/year for doggie haircuts. I pay for all this, plus my animals' shots as needed. B pays for his dog's shots and treats/toys. We keep going back and forth on pet insurance, although I know we should just get it.
Car insurance: $258.50 every Feb/August for my car.
Car registration: $293/year, also due in Feb.
Z's extracurriculars (dance and taekwondo): ~$600/year, depending on costume/shoe costs. I pay.
Day 1: Saturday 10/26
12 AM: I still don't sleep at night, even on my days (nights?) off. I spend time online designing our wedding and reception invitations, updating our wedding website and searching for a bakery. I'm quite pleased with my progress. We have a reception venue, DJ, photographer, officiant and are doing our own food. Just need desserts and a ceremony space.
3 AM: Titanic is on! I've seen it approximately 187 times and still cry every time Rose lets Jack go. I put on some nail polish strips (yes they are Color Street, please don't kill me) and make a bag of popcorn. Kick myself for the popcorn because I'm supposed to be IF.
6:30 AM: Head downstairs to sleep. Spoiler alert: I don't. B wakes up at 7:30, gets a few minutes of cuddles and goes upstairs. Dink around on social media for a while and drink almost my entire 40 oz water bottle. Why am I always so thirsty when I go to bed? Make a mental note to track my water intake.
10:05 AM: The dogs are barking frantically at the air. B lets them out to play in the yard for a while. Bed payment comes out of my account. I eventually fall asleep.
3:15 PM: B comes down to wake me up. We are going to see one of my favorite local bands at the casino and staying overnight. It's a Halloween party and I can't wait to see the crazy costumes. We had a garage sale last month and hoarded some of that money for this weekend. I pack a few things in the overnight bag and trudge upstairs for a body shower. I clean my eyelashes with special foam soap and wash my face with Cerave Hydrating face wash in the shower. Get out to brush and seal my eyelashes, put some hydrocortisone on my eyelids to fend off my eczema, and apply COSRX BHA Blackhead Power Liquid to the rest of my face. Still don't wear makeup. Brush my teeth and spritz on Poison Girl by Dior perfume. Look at me with the grown up products! I refresh my waves with a DIY spray bottle of LA Looks Gel and water and I'm ready to go. Somehow, B is not despite being up since 7:30. 🙄
4:30 PM: We put the dogs in the garage and head to my old house to put my couch and recliner on the curb since it's a surprisingly nice day, 62°. Fingers crossed someone picks them up. We stop for beer (B pays $29.15) and fill up my car with gas ($28, I pay). I send an e-gift card ($40) to a coworker for her baby shower gift and drink a Monster Zero Ultra during the ride.
5:45 PM: Check into the hotel. I pre-paid in July so no charge today. Break my fast with a Redd's - I fully intend to overindulge tonight.
6:45 PM: Head down to the casino restaurant for supper. I get breaded shrimp, B orders boneless wings. We both drink water to prep for the long night. $30 with tip, B pays since I got the hotel. One of my CNAs messages me about getting their asses chewed in report. Sigh.
8:00 PM: Slot machine time!! I lose $40, go figure. We meet up with a bunch of friends from work and get ready for the show.
10:30 PM: I am front row center with the band. I love these guys! They play covers but dang, they are talented. I scream my head off, take tons of Snapchats, dance with my friends and drink too many beers. Best costume: Big Bird, who sheds yellow feathers all over the dance floor.
Daily total: $108
Day 2: Sunday 10/29
1:00 AM: Show is over and I am officially tipsy. B manages to get me up to our room after I win back $20 on the slots. Our best man randomly stops up for a beer. I have the good sense to rinse off the sweat and apply a vitamin C cream to my face. Adult time ensues, and we pass out around 3:30.
8:18 AM: I'm up! We spent $60 on beers and tips last night. My throat is killing me from all the yelling. We cuddle for a while and talk about how much I needed a night out. I've been stressed lately between fighting with my mom about wedding planning, finances and feeling a lack of respect at my job. B assures me for the 15th time that he's fine with our money set up, and I finally break down and text my boss. I brush my teeth and we check out of the hotel.
9:45 AM: I feel like garbage so obviously I need McDonald's breakfast. ($6.19) Stop to make sure my tires are aired up properly and finish the journey home. PSA: temp changes dramatically affect your tire pressure. Take care of your tires.
10:20 AM: The dogs are very happy to see us. Our incredibly nice neighbor lets them out when we are gone. We play in the yard for a while, then I unpack our bag and start some laundry. B makes a pizza for himself.
12:30 PM: My eyelids are twitching which means my body is tired. Bring my youngest dog to bed and have a very nice nap after catching up on some Money Diaries and chugging more water.
4:45 PM: The dogs are once again barking frantically and the next thing I know, Z is in my bed! Her grandma brought her home, what a gem. It was Z's cousin T's birthday today, so Z got up at 5:30 to make and serve T breakfast in bed with grandma's help. Z is such a sweet kid. She tells me she wants purple eyeliner for Halloween; she's going as Elsa. I need to replace mine anyways so I find a set with 3 colors on Amazon and pull the trigger on a purple sweater that's been in my cart since August. ($50.58) She watches YouTube videos on her iPad while I scroll the interwebs.
5:30 PM: B makes supper. He fries some burgers and makes French fries in the air fryer. After we eat, we settle into the living room and watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Sundays are family movie night in our house, but we're all too tired to start anything else. Z is out by 8 which is early even for her 6 year old standards. B turns on the World Series and I fall asleep immediately.
10:15 PM: The dogs want to go out, so I oblige. Throw the ball for our lab a few times, but it's 34° so the little dogs don't last long. B wakes up from his recliner nap and goes down to bed. I turn on HGTV for beach night. I'm so jealous of all these people living on the ocean. My fav CNA texts me about her night at work. I'm immediately frustrated at the way she's being treated but I try to calm her down. She contemplates requesting a meeting with the boss, and I encourage her to do so.
Daily total: $116.77
Day 3: Monday 10/28
12:30 AM: My schedule changed last month to every Tu-W-Th, but this week I work M-Tu-W so I can take Z trick or treating. So I stay up watching HGTV and texting with the girls at work.
2:36 AM: I don't hear B come upstairs and I scream when he says "boo!" He drinks a glass of milk and goes back down to bed. I make popcorn and start reading a random YA book that was free on my Kindle app. I can't really do anything around the house when I stay up because Z's bedroom is right off the living room, and our bedroom is in the basement along with the washer and dryer. The floors are creaky in too many spots and B is a light sleeper. I mostly cuddle with the dogs.
4:00 AM: Decide to lay in bed and keep reading. I have to kick the cat out of my spot and she's meowing in protest. B's alarm goes off at 4:45 and I fall asleep shortly after he goes to work.
7:20 AM: Now it's my alarm going off. Z is already awake so I ask her to get ready for school. She argues with me every morning because "school is boring mom!!" Only 7 months left until summer break... I stop at the old house to turn on the heat so the pipes don't burst, and drop Z off at school. Nobody picked up the couch, dang it.
8:15 AM: The cell phone and Hulu withdrawals hit my account, and I spend a few minutes categorizing transactions in my bank app. Pick up around the house a bit and Swiffer up dog hair. It's amazing how much our lab sheds.
11:00 AM: I'm back in bed with my Kindle book. Eventually fall asleep.
5:15 PM: My alarm goes off. I send a message to Z and make sure she's home (she is). We got her set up with Messenger for Kids a few weeks ago and she's obsessed. I get dressed for work, brush my teeth, put some dry shampoo on my roots and some BHA on my face. Grab last night's leftovers and out the door I go. My CNAs are so happy to see me. Drink my Monster during report per usual.
9:45 PM: 6-10 is always the busiest part of our shift, but tonight goes smoothly knock wood. I even remembered to get my votes in on DWTS. Wtf is Spicer still doing there?! I heat up my two burger patties with cheese (no bun), grab a yogurt and some carrots for dinner. I do OMAD on work days. I've lost 18 pounds so far!
Daily total: $0
Day 4: Tuesday 10/29
1:30 AM: THE COMPUTERS ARE BEING SO SLOW AND I WANT TO DIE.
2:01 AM: The entire system is down now. FML.
2:56 AM: We talk about a tattoo my coworker wants to get on her ass. Apparently a local tattoo shop is running a Halloween special this weekend. She's 20 and it shows, but I love her to pieces. She recently went through a health scare with a tumor in her humerus, but it's thankfully benign and I'm glad to have her back at work.
4:10 AM: The computer system is finally back up so I finish my charting. Check out the web for stamps for wedding stuff. I find a deal on eBay and order 400. ($163.96) The first part of my child support is deposited so I move some money into Z's account and round up my savings to $600.
5:30 AM: We still have the same morning routine: B brings Z to work with him, and I drop her off at daycare when I get done with work. It was a great shift tonight!
6:30 AM: Z has a complete breakdown at daycare when I drop her off, which is very unlike her. I think she's used to spending Monday evenings with me and is thrown off this week. She's always a little attached when she comes back from her dad's. I get home to shower and wash my hair, which is my least favorite chore. I wash with Shea Moisture Coconut and Hibiscus shampoo, condition with Suave Essentials Coconut conditioner and brush it with the conditioner in. Put in some smoothing cream, gel and toss it in a tee shirt. My hair is to the middle of my back, so this is a freaking workout. Use the Vit C cream on my face again. Let the dogs out and put them away in the garage before I go downstairs to read and fall asleep around 11. B comes home on his lunch break every day and lets the pups out.
5:00 PM: I'm up. Normal pre-work drill. B says that one of the girls from work wants the couch, so we go to load it up and it's already gone!! Thank goodness. I drop Z off at taekwondo and head to work.
6:30 PM: Boss is still here so we have a good chat which results in me crying in his office. Embarrassing… Drink my Monster and get working.
10:17 PM: Another decent evening. I didn't bring any leftovers so I raid the kitchen and make myself a taco salad with lettuce, black olives, tomatoes, cheese, ground beef and sour cream. Yum.
Daily total: $163.96
Day 5: Wednesday 10/30
2:21 AM: Is there something in the water this week? Busier than last night, but still have plenty of downtime. I decide to stay on Reddit so I'm not tempted to shop for more wedding stuff.
3:29 AM: I hit up Amazon for some dry mouth lozenges for one of my residents. I generally do not make special purchases like this. ($6.78) My coworker mentions she needs a new TV and she's in luck, because B and I have too many now that we live together.
6:30 AM: I drop Z off at daycare without any issues and meet my coworker at my old house. She picks a 43 inch smart TV and I make $125! Head home for my abbreviated morning (night?!) routine: rinse face, vit C cream, brush teeth. My oldest dog is acting crazy so I give her some extra attention. Head to my eyelash appointment at 7:30 ($25 + $5 tip, budgeted above).
8:11 AM: I'm in bed with the cat. No place I'd rather be, it's 21° this morning. Browse Reddit for a while, then read until I fall asleep around 10.
4:00 PM: Same shit, different day. I'm up a little earlier because Z has started going to her dad's on Wednesdays. I work and B has dart league every week. Our save the dates were delivered and I'm so happy with them! I pick Z up at 4:30, hand my monthly check over to daycare and then drive Z to her dad's. Trip takes about 45 minutes total. Today was Z's last day of school for the week, so her stepmom will bring her home sometime in the morning.
5:44 PM: The Humane Society where I adopted my cat is asking for donations of Snuggle Safe heat pads. I order one on Amazon and have it shipped straight to them. ($32.34) I try to send items to them 3-4 times a year. Kiss B goodbye as we both head out the door.
11:00 PM: Holy crap it's been busy. Finally get to sit down and attempt to catch up on my charting, which takes about 30 minutes longer than normal tonight.
Daily total: $39.12
Day 6: Thursday 10/31
12:30 AM: B is done with darts and brings me THE BEST steak cubes at work. I'm starving and still pretty busy so I wolf them down along with as much water as my stomach can hold.
2:39 AM: Finally a breather. I address save the dates and have a major hand cramp when I'm done. I gotta figure out a way to print these for our invitations.
4:03 AM: My FSA reimbursement comes through. I leave it in my checking to cover the daycare payment I just dropped off.
6:30 AM: I'm free!! Best part of my job is the 3 day work weeks. Go home, body shower, brush my teeth and let the dogs out. It's 16° this morning so none of them want to play. Ha. I am also exhausted from not getting my 8 hours of sleep all week, but it's been so hard to wind down after work lately. I cuddle with the dogs for a while and go down to bed to read. B took the day off, and having him in bed with me during the week is strange. I finally fall asleep around 11:30.
4:03 PM: Z comes down in her Elsa costume and demands that I do her eyeliner. She's pumped for trick or treating. I brush my teeth and throw on jeans and a tee shirt.
4:45 PM: Time to head out. We hit a couple businesses and go up to our work where they serve free supper every Halloween. We get hot dogs, chips and a cookie each. Then we walk the neighborhood around my dad's place. We stop at a family friend's house, and she comments on my weight loss. Score! The scale is hard for me to believe since my clothes still fit the same. I sneak a couple swigs of Fireball while we walk because it's 37° and I'm cold. Z ends up with 2 full buckets of candy.
7:00 PM: We're home just in time for Grey's Anatomy! I'm really not enjoying this season but after 14 years of watching this show, it's hard to stop.
8:05 PM: Z gets herself ready for bed and I tuck her in. She's beat. I watch a couple episodes of The Simpsons' Treehouse of Terror marathon.
Daily total: $0
Day 7: Friday 11/1
1:24 AM: Next thing I know, the dogs are barking to go outside. B and I both fell asleep in the living room. I take care of the dogs and make some popcorn before stealing some Kit Kats out of Z's Halloween haul.
3:00 AM: I go downstairs to read as usual, but I'm out by 3:30.
11:36 AM: Y'all, I was tired. 12 total hours of sleep later and I'm feeling much better. The stamps arrived so I finish our save the dates. B goes to get groceries and pick up E, since he has an early out from school today. Z is still laying in bed 🤣
1:30 PM: Z's dance teachers send out emails regarding costume prices. Our total will be $164 this year, and I have plenty in Z's expense account to cover it. They'll charge my card later this month. I spend some time in my bank app categorizing transactions and moving money around. My account rounds up all my transactions to the next dollar and puts that money into my savings account, and $12.14 was moved this week. I sign up for Disney Plus and update my subscriptions expense to $92. Text with my bestie about wedding planning and my work wife about random stuff.
2:10 PM: E is home! B bought about $200 worth of groceries and random house stuff: fancy frozen pizzas, popcorn, cheese, chicken patties, bread, sandwich meat, milk, cereal, tortillas, black olives, onion rings, tater tots, freezer bags, paper plates, Little Debbie snacks, cold medicine for E, deodorant, body wash, a carbon monoxide detector, dog treats, and I don't even know what else. I'll get the next big haul. He also bought razors and tells me the handle on his DSC one broke, so I go online and order a couple replacements since our next box doesn't come for 6 weeks. ($18.49) My no-spend day is shot, so I order vape juice since it's on sale. ($47.57) I'm 4 months cigarette free and didn't include that little detail in my last diary.
2:46 PM: B gets a fire page. It's a possible gas leak so it should be a quick one. They usually just sit around until the gas company shows up. I hang out with the kids and E catches me up on his week.
4:00 PM: B is home. No gas leak, just overly concerned neighbors. E turns on season 2 of Stranger Things and we make the frozen pizzas for supper.
7:00 PM: E requests to play board games. My allergies are acting up so I don't join. I feel guilty but my headache praises me. We tend to get rowdy on game night. It's also a hair wash night but I can't be bothered.
9:35 PM: Tuck Z into bed and she's asleep almost immediately. The rest of us aren't too far behind her. E lets the dogs out and I fill up my water bottle. I'm in bed reading at 10.
Daily total: $66.06
Weekly Total: $493.91 I AM SHOOK
Ending checking account balance: $1421.96
Food + Drink: $6.19
Fun + Entertainment: $100
Home + Health: $18.49
Clothes + Beauty: $50.58
Transport: $28
Gifts + Donations: $79.12
Other (vaping and stamps): $211.53
Lastly, reflect on your diary!
I purposely chose this week because I knew it would be busy. Going to the casino and staying overnight was a rare treat, although that little trip was kinda 'free' since we used the garage sale money. I also don't buy $165 worth of stamps every week. shrug
I opened a Simple account in August and it has changed my life. It automatically creates envelopes for my money so I'm never concerned about paying my monthly/recurring expenses. All these sinking funds and savings goals are new to me and I'm so proud of myself for setting even this small amount aside. I have never earned interest on my money before.
November will be the last month I pay for my old house. I didn't include the expenses because they are already set aside. Breaking the contract for deed was awkward but necessary. I broke down over the summer when I was getting $200 electric bills and it was still 76° in my house, along with my contract holder seemingly stalking me. I'll be moving any extra money first to my CCs then student loans. If I don't muck up, I can be debt free in about 3-4 years. Thankfully, B is totally on board with this. We are also cash-flowing our wedding, aiming for a $5k budget. B covers most of the bills and I pay for most wedding stuff, and it works for us.

Apartment Home Automation Conversion

[JVerse] Haven - 02

Author’s Note: The hive mind has spoken. Behold Part 2.
As always, thanks are due to Hambone3110 and his Deathworlders universe. This is a continuation of a story beginning towards the end of the five-part chapter 40, ‘War On Two Worlds’. Any errata is entirely my own (and this time I’ll try not to mix up main story-line character names….).
First Chapter | Next Chapter
My wiki
Date Point: 14Y 5D AV….early
Peterson Residence, Folctha, Cimbrean
Mornings were something that Gillian had never really had a problem with. In Tucson, the latitude meant that their range of daylight hours didn’t vary as much as places further north, and she’d never had a problem bouncing out of bed as soon as the sun was coming up. She was like her mom that way - Clara also had a fine internal clock and only slept in when she’d been up most of the night. Even the move to Cimbrean with its longer day and night hadn’t really slowed either of them down. They’d both adjusted handily.
Together, they were the bane of Samuel Peterson’s love of sleeping in, a fact that he privately found both endearing and immensely irritating.
The flip side of that, he reflected to himself while sipping his third cup of Earl Grey and watching the sun come up through the high windows of his study, was that both of them were also typically able to sleep on time and didn’t have the insomnia he’d battled for most of his adult life. Nights like last night were...not the stuff of nightmares, they were the stuff of wakefulness. No matter how hard he’d tried to get some sleep, it had eluded him until he’d given up entirely and gotten back up. Knowing that in a few short hours his busy, buzzing eleven year old daughter and a nine-year-old Gaoian were going to be (probably) literally bouncing off the walls hadn’t helped at all.
Uncharacteristically, the sun was nearly a finger-width above the horizon before he heard the first stirrings of life from inside Gillian’s room. He realized belatedly that he had not gotten anything going for breakfast yet, and rose from his very comfortable chair to make his way downstairs to the kitchen.
Crepes, he thought to himself. That’s a good thing to make a new best friend with, and we have everything. Suiting intent to action, he retrieved several bowls and assorted implements of destruction and set about making a mess. A sudden flash of inspiration hit him, and instead of cream cheese, he set out some nava paste that was supposed to have a subtle sweetness to it.
On reflection he added the strawberries that they’d picked from their backyard greenhouse two days before. The Gaoian condiment had been Clara’s idea, and she’d been bugging him to find a way to sneak it into something without Gillian noticing - she had a tendency to be stubborn about food, but was typically okay if she decided she liked it without knowing what it was first. Having an actual Gaoian at their table to try it was a bonus.
“Okay, Google,” he addressed his phone, sitting on top of the microwave where he’d left it the night before, forgotten in the hubbub. “Play Pink Floyd’s ‘Momentary Lapse of Reason’ album from Amazon Music.”
”Okay. Playing Pink Floyd ‘Momentary Lapse of Reason’.” came the reply. A moment later, his favorite Floyd album started up, the sounds of David Gilmour rowing a boat on the Thames over synthesizers softly setting an introspective, creative mood.
He started a cast iron pan heating on the induction stove, and began to whip up the batter.
Upstairs, Gillian lay under her blanket, quite awake. Normally she would have bounced out of bed, but...her new friend Liina was asleep and had moved during the night to lay across her legs. She wasn’t sure if this was like cat rules, where one didn’t move from under a sleeping cat unless the house was on fire, but it seemed like it.
When she had awoken, at the first peek of the sun on the horizon through her window, she had realized that Liina probably hadn’t had a safe place to sleep in a while, and was probably really tired, and she didn’t want to wake her up.
But she did need to pee, and it was getting worse. She heard Papa get up and start bustling around in the kitchen, and heard what he called his thinking music start. About halfway through “On The Turning Away”, as if in answer to her increasingly desperate prayers, Liina groaned, stretched out to an impossible length, and sat up. She blinked a few times at the unfamiliar settings. Gillian sat up too.
“You’re awake,” she said. It sounded stupid as soon as she said it.
“I’m alive,” Liina said reflectively. She sniffed at the unfamiliar scent wafting its way under the door. “What is that?”
“I dunno. Papa is making breakfast downstairs I think. I’m ‘posed to be quiet when I get up, because Mama is probably still sleeping. She had to work last night, that’s why she wasn’t here when you got here last night.” She stood up and stretched. “I have to pee really bad.”
“I’ll wait for you downstairs,” Liina said, one ear twitching to catch the fascinating sounds coming from the kitchen.
“Okay! I’ll be down in a minute.” Gillian got up and was just putting her hand on the door when Liina spoke again.
“Gillian?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
Gillian beamed a big smile, forgetting completely to keep her lips together, and went to do her morning ablutions. Liina padded down the stairs to the dining table, and sat, unsure of what to do next. Samuel looked over at her from the counter as he rapidly sliced strawberries, a taktaktaktaktaktak from the knife on the cutting board making an odd counterpoint to the music coming from behind him
“Good morning,” he said, smiling a little.
“Good morning,” she replied. “What...is the music you’re listening to? I like it.”
“This? This is a band called Pink Floyd, and this is their album from...1987, I think, by our reckoning. Pre-contact, of course. Human music made some big changes after meeting the rest of the galaxy,” he chuckled. “It’s one of my favorite albums.”
“It’s...very different than our music,” she said. “What are the instruments they’re using? I’ve never heard anything like that.”
“That’s an electric guitar, honey. It...um….it uses several long strings that are different thicknesses and tightened differently to make different sounds, and then the signals are passed through electronic processing to make what you’re hearing. The bass guitar, the low notes, is similar.”
The song they were listening to wound down, and another started, a single guitar chord modulating into another, then another. Liina listened, and then her ears went back as first lower notes joined in, and then drums, and a man began singing.
The sweet smell of a great sorrow lies over the land, Plumes of smoke rise and merge into the leaden sky, A man lies and dreams of green fields and rivers, But awakes to a morning with no reason for waking.
Samuel suddenly realized what song he was listening to and spun. “Okay Google. Stop playback, play Pentatonix ‘Deluxe Edition’.”
”Okay, playing Pentatonix ‘Deluxe Edition’.” his phone replied, and a moment later something considerably more upbeat filled the kitchen. At the table behind him, Liina whimpered, her ears wilted back against her skull and lost in her own internal trauma. She curled up under the lip of the table on the chair. Samuel came out of the kitchen and slid the chair out, putting one hand on her shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Liina. I had forgotten what the song at the end of that album was, and how it might affect you,” he said softly. “You’re safe here.”
“What’s going on?” Gillian asked from the base of the stairs, having come down while he was distracted.
“I had music playing that made Liina sad, Peanut,” Samuel said. “Totally my fault. I’m sorry, honey, it’s okay.” He shot Gillian a look, as she rounded the table and sat down next to Liina. “Can you sit with her, Peanut? I’ll finish making some breakfast, and I think we need more hot chocolate.”
“Yes, Papa,” she replied. She put a hesitant hand on Liina’s head, scratching the Gaoian’s ears awkwardly, aware that she wasn’t a dog or a cat, but a person, and yet it felt really natural. Evidently Liina felt the same way, because she slowly stopped shuddering, and her head eventually came up, nose twitching as it caught the approach of another pair of mugs filled with steaming hot chocolate.
“That song...was horrible,” Liina finally managed in her little voice. Samuel winced, his back to them as he poured a ladeful of batter onto the oiled pan with a sssssssss.
“Definitely not the best choice for today, I agree. I’m sorry. I should have thought about it - that band has a lot of military imagery in their music, because their fathers fought in one of the biggest planetary wars humanity has ever had. Millions died. They’re dedicated to keeping the memory of that alive in some ways, I think hoping it’ll never happen again.”
“It always happens again,” Liina replied in a tone far too adult for her years. “I didn’t understand that before. I hadn’t even gotten to that section of our history yet, when…”
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Gillian said. “Papa said I’m not s’posed to ask you questions about it, but I can listen if you feel like talking about it.”
“I don’t,” Liina said a little fiercely, which was spoiled only a little by her gulping some of the hot chocolate. “This is amazing.”
“You like hot chocolate, huh?” Samuel asked.
“I’ve smelled it before, but the Mothers never let us have any. They said it was a grownup drink. I think it was just because they didn’t have enough for everyone.” Liina chittered a little.
The front door opened, throwing a long line of sunlight across the living room, and a surprisingly dry Clara came in, already unbuckling her equipment belt with a relieved sigh.
“Mama! Look who’s here! Her name is Liina, and she’s a Gaoian, and she said she doesn’t like barbecue sauce at all, ‘cause it hurts her face, but she likes hot chocolate and we’re having crepes, Papa is making them, and Liina is staying in my room..,” Gillian blurted out in one breathless run-on, getting up and flying across the room to give her mother a fierce hug.
“I see that. Okay, let go of me now, Peanut, let me get my boots off and change before you give me the executive summary of your evening, okay?” Clara took her cap off and tousled sweaty hair with her other hand. “I’m gonna go take a shower, honey.”
“Sounds like a plan. Don’t be long, or you aren’t gonna get any of these.” He gestured with a spatula to a growing plate full of golden crepes and a bowl of cut strawberries.
“I’ll be back down in a minute.” She came over to the table and draped her waterproof work coat over one chair, setting her hat on the table next to it. “Liina, is it?”
“Yes, Mother,” Liina replied automatically.
“I need to go clean up. I’m hot, sweaty, and tired, and I’m sure I smell dreadful. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll greet you properly, okay?” Clara said with a smile.
Liina duck-nodded, saying nothing. Clara disappeared into the upstairs, and they heard the shower start up almost immediately, the sounds of bathing and Electric Light Orchestra wafting down from inside the closed bathroom. Gillian looked at her, realizing that the tilt of her ears was a humorous one.
“What?” Gillian whispered, leaning over.
“Nothing.”
“No, what?”
“Well. I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“But?”
“But she did smell pretty…” Liina trailed off, and she and Gillian shared a giggling fit.
“Awful?”
“I don’t know. You all smell pretty different to me. She smelled like she had been sitting somewhere hot and sweating, and like something else, I don’t know.”
“Probably coffee. Mama only really drinks that when she’s at work.” On that note, her father set down a plate in front of each of them, with three rolled crepes stuffed with something pinkish and pasty-looking, and drowning in strawberries, with a big dollop of whipped cream over the top. Liina’s ears went up in shock.
“Pancakes!” she blurted out. “Um…..” she looked at Samuel, up the stairs at the closed bathroom door, at Gillian, and everywhere except the plate of food in front of her.
“Is that okay? I thought it sounded good, and we had everything we needed for it,” Samuel said.
Liina’s ears did a complicated little dance atop her head, and she cast around for something to say. She was saved by Gillian, who was already a third of the way into the first one and as usual couldn’t wait to keep talking through a mouthful.
“Papa makes them all the time, but usually they’re, like, the flat ones in a stack, and these are all rolly...what do you call them...crepes, right? Best breakfast ever, better even than cereal and cartoons.”
“I wasn’t sure if this was a special event. The Mothers have pancakes for special times, and they’re always laughing when they make them.” Liina took an exploratory bite of the unfamiliar pastry with the bright red berries. Her eyes rolled back as she savored it, her ears splaying back and forth as she worked out the smells and tastes, then her eyes opened.
“Is that...nava paste in these?” she asked.
Samuel grinned. “Indeed it is, young lady. And by the look of things, it agrees with Gillian too.” Gillian paused mid-bite, fork in the air halfway to her mouth with a dripping glob of crepe, filling, and several berries suspended.
“Wait. This isn’t cream cheese?” She looked down at it. “What’s nava paste?”
“It’s a Gaoian treat, Peanut. You liked it just fine a minute ago. Finish your plate.” Samuel went back to the kitchen and dished up two more plates, busying himself pouring two more mugs of hot chocolate and adding something from a bottle on the top shelf to both. At the table, Gillian thought about it, then shrugged and continued eating, although a little more slowly. Liina dug in, enjoying the sweetness of the berries, the subtle flavor of the nava with its slight bitter aftertaste, and the crunch of the crepes that were just a little bit crispy over the soft fluffy inside.
Clara came back downstairs in flannel pajamas with a fluffy robe over the top, hair still damp from her shower, and sat down just as Samuel plopped a plate and mug in front of her. She took a long sniff of the mug, held in both hands, and gave her husband a grateful look. She rolled her head side to side, stretching things out and took a long sip of the hot beverage.
“Oooooooooh….I needed that,” she said. “What a night. And speaking of nights....I’m very glad to meet you, Liina, and you’re very welcome here.”
“Thank you, Mother Clara,” Liina piped. Both adults smiled.
“Are you girls finished?” Samuel asked. Their plates were clean, and Liina visibly restrained herself from picking her plate up and licking it. “Okay. Dishes in the sink please, and you’re excused.”
Gillian and Liina moved as one to the kitchen, neatly piling their dishes and mugs in the sink, then looked at each other.
“What do we do now?” Liina asked quietly.
“I know! Come on, let’s go upstairs! I have stuff we can play with, c’mon!” With that, the two raced upstairs. Liina dropped to fourpaw on the way up the stairs and beat Gillian handily, taking the steps three at a time. There was a shriek of delighted laughter, and then the playroom door closed with them on the other side of it, and the house was again mostly quiet.
Back at the table below, the adults shared a relieved and tired sigh. Clara sipped her hot chocolate and looked at her husband with one eyebrow raised.
“How much brandy did you put in this?” she asked archly.
“Enough. I could tell you needed that when you walked in the door,” he grinned. “Tell Mike he scared the piss out of me, coming to the door like that, will you?”
“I’m sorry. I didn't get a chance to tell you. Last night was crazy. The Airborne troops on Gao started mass evacuations yesterday afternoon, and everywhere we could think of to put them was full almost immediately. There’ll be a refugee camp outside town in the next couple of days, you watch.”
“How bad is it?” he asked.
“It’s pretty bad. The SOR base is totally locked down, of course, no word in or out, but the messages that SEC keeps sending back through to Colonial Security get worse and worse, what Chief Ares shares with us anyway. I don’t blame them a bit for wanting to get their females and cubs out while they can, with their genetics the way they are. It’s the only way they’ll avoid extinction.” She took a bite of a crepe finally, and mmmmm-ed with appreciation. “Hey, the nava paste in that is really good. Sweet and kinda...nutty.”
“Yeah, I thought so. Did you see Gillian’s face when I told her it wasn’t cream cheese?” He laughed. “Honestly, I kinda like it better than the cream cheese, and it’s got a way better protein content with a lot less fat.” They ate quietly for a moment, savoring a reprieve from the constant chatter and questions that were the norm at the table.
“So, um…” Samuel asked, once he had finished his. “What’s next? Where do we go from here? Is there like, a foster care system or worker or something that’s going to come visit us, or what?”
“Mmm…” Clara replied around a mouthful, waving her fork at him. “So, what we were told is that the Clan of Females will oversee things, and they’ll send a Mother around to check on us, check on Liina, and be available for anything. We’re being encouraged to integrate her fully. She’s going to be with us for a long time, Sam. This isn’t a short term thing. They may never be able to take her back.”
“Did they tell you...you know...anything about what happened to her? When Mike brought her here, she was filthy from head to toe, fur matted, covered in blood, ash, dirt, and God only knows what else. Wasn’t until I got her mostly clean that she started talking at all.”
“Only a bare minimum. I know she was from a small commune that got totally wiped out. They had a dossier on what they found when they found her there, but she was the only survivor, I know that much.”
“Who would...well, I guess we know who, huh?”
“Honest to God space monsters, Sam.” She scooted her chair back and took her plate over to the sink. “You know, sometimes, I want to take writers for shows like Star Trek with their optimism and naive writing, and plant a boot in their ass. This is how it really is, motherfuckers!” She pantomimed kicking someone with one slipper-clad foot.
“She’s a sweet kid,” Samuel said, draining his mug and putting his dishes in the sink with hers. “She and Gillian get along pretty well, looks like. Thank God.” He looked at her. “You look pretty wiped out. Why don’t you go upstairs and get some rest? You know. Sleep?”
Clara yawned and nodded. “You better get some rest too, mister. Scuttlebutt says the Governor-General is going to have some work for you, when they end up doing a refugee camp. Somebody’s gonna have to survey it out.”
“I’ll stay up with the kids and clean up. Go to bed.” He kissed her forehead. “Go on. Git.”
“Yes, sir,” she said with a mock salute, waggling her hips at him on her way out of the kitchen. “Don’t let me sleep more than six hours, and wake me if anything important happens.”
“Okay, fine, fine. You know I’m not gonna.” She paused halfway up the stairs.
“I’m serious, Sam. If anything important happens, you need to wake me up.” He pointed up in the general direction of the bedroom.
“Git!”
“Fine!” She mock-pouted, and made like she was going to stomp up the stairs, blew him a kiss, and disappeared into the bedroom. He heard the door close, and the distant rustle of the blankets as she plopped into their bed and turned on the white noise machine. Turning and surveying the kitchen that really had been clean just an hour before, he pursed his lips and sighed.
This called for some cleaning music.
“Okay, Google. Play Queen ‘A Night At The Opera’.”
Gaoian fingers, Gillian and Liina discovered, weren’t quite as long or nimble as human ones. Playing cat’s cradle in any of its infinite incarnations between four hands was, therefore, not happening. Liina did manage a credible attempt at using a yo-yo, however, and when Gillian dragged out her massive organizer full of Legos...that was that. They were both hooked.
It helped that Gillian’s father had been a Lego nut for years, and she had inherited both his love of them and the toys themselves, and had expanded on his already-large collection with the sets that had sprung up post-First Contact. Models of actual ships abounded, and most of the Dominion races had smaller sets of their own with suitable figurines. The Gaoian ones, naturally, were some of the more popular - the visit of two notable Gaoians to Earth a couple of years before had shot a dose of adrenaline into things. Now, Lego had expanded their robotics and playsets to include miniaturized capacitors, third-generation field emitters, and other similar advances, and the actual robotics kits had gotten increasingly sophisticated along with it.
Liina’s fingers, while shorter than Gillian’s, had one massive advantage in dealing with stuck Legos, and that was that she had sharp, curved claws at the end of each finger. Getting them apart, the bane of every hobby builder, was little more than the flick of a claw for her. Gillian had been trying to work out the suspensor module on a simple flying platform as a proof of concept of sorts; she knew it could be done, and didn’t want to read the instructions on how to do it, because figuring it out was, like, half the fun.
“Can I try?” she asked, unable to restrain her need to fix it and make it work.
“Sure,” Gillian said, handing it over. Liina looked it over, cocking her head a little to get a better look.
“Can...I….” she gestured with it a little, indicating she wanted to take it apart again.
“Go for it. I can’t get it to work right, and I don’t want to look at the dumb instructions,” Gillian pouted a little. “Stupid things are written for little kids in pictures. Papa says I’m smart. I should be able to figure out a dumb Lego set, right?”
“Well, if you haven’t done it before,” Liina started. Her fingers tweaked things this way and that, removed a couple of unnecessary connecting pieces, and reconnected the capacitor to the emitter with a color-coded line that snapped together. “I haven’t seen these before, but they’re...actually better in some ways than the stuff I had on Gao.”
“Really?” Gillian asked. “I thought you guys were, like, way ahead of us and stuff.”
“We’ve been space-faring for a lot longer, and our computers are more advanced, but…” she held up the now-working toy, the power conduit lit up in a soft blue. “These are way more basic, but you can make way more stuff with it, I think. And everything is compatible with everything else. It’s amazing.”
“Hey, it works!” Gillian said. “Here, hang on.” She pulled her tablet out, fired up the app, and connected the flier to the app via the house Wifi. “What should we name it?”
“Name it? What do you mean?” Liina asked. Her ears had a perplexed tilt to them.
“Our first ship. Flying thing. Whatever. It needs a name,” Gillian persisted.
“Airborne,” Liina said without hesitation. The fact that she used the word in English wasn’t lost on Gillian, but she wisely said nothing.
“Okay!” Gillian tapped at her tablet and held it up. “There. See? It has a name now. What should we make it do? I have some other pieces and stuff, I think the capacitor has enough power to run them too.” She left the little thing hovering in the middle of the room, and pulled out a smaller case with a locking clasp on it.
“What’s that?” asked Liina
“Look!” was the reply, as Gillian unfastened the clasp and opened the case. Within, sitting nested in foam covered dividers were several little blocky looking electronic things. Gillian pried one of them out and held it up. “This one’s a camera. See? The little connector thingy is here, and then..,” she paused, hunting around a little, then pried another one out that was about the same size. “This one’s a controller and antenna. We can make a drone and spy on things, and be secret agents!”
Imagination kindled, they brought the little flying platform down, turned the field emitters off, and set about connecting everything together. Liina found her new friend’s enthusiasm infectious. Gillian got her connectors turned around as they added parts, which Liina corrected.
“No, this one goes here, see? That’s the port for...right.”
“Ohhhh, so then this one...I see it. I can’t get that, my finger’s too big. Thanks!”
“We need...um...one of these for that connector?”
“Yup. ...that down….and...wait, hang on. That doesn’t look right.”
Liina made a growly noise of frustration. “No, it doesn’t. What if…” she trailed off, sticking a finger into the maze of blocky plastic parts and unhooking the troublesome bit. “Here. This.”
“Ohhhh….hey, you’re really good at this.” They shared a chittering giggle. The final part went into place with an audible snap. Liina went to touch the ‘on’ switch, but Gillian put a hand out.
“Hang on. Papa says I’m always s’posed to, ‘check the circuit to make sure there isn’t a short’. That means I’m s’posed to do this.” She held up the tablet and hit an icon that Liina had no difficulty identifying as a stylized gear with a magnifying glass over it. She couldn’t read the label on it, but it was obviously a diagnostic function of some kind; Domain user interfaces were similarly simplistic and intuitive. Some things were the same everywhere.
The tablet had a green status bar that filled quickly. It made a soft ping noise, and displayed a big green check mark in the middle of the screen. Gillian waved at their creation, and Liina pushed the button that engaged the power again. It lit up again, the power conduits glowing a soft blue again, and lifted off the ground perhaps two hand-spans in the air, just hanging there on invisible strings of electromagnetic wizardry. Gillian clapped her hands in excitement, and Liina stared at it with big shining excited eyes.
“Okay. Let’s see if it’ll connect to the camera.” Gillian turned the Bluetooth on her tablet on, set it to search for active devices, and a moment later, their little drone’s name Airborne came up. She selected it, and they synced easily, with a tiny blue light on the drone lighting up to show that it was receiving. She clapped her hands with excitement again. “It’s working! Omigosh, it’s working, now what are we gonna do with it?”
She looked up at Liina. “Here. I’ll pull up the controller app, and you pilot it around!” She tapped away at it, and presently another utility launched, and the girls found themselves looking at a view on the tablet of themselves looking at the tablet. It was a little dizzying.
Liina’s ears had taken on a mischievous set. “Let’s spy on your Father,” she said with what was unmistakably a smirk. Gillian nodded excitedly.
“Do it! Here, I’ll get the door. Shhhhh…” She opened the door, and the little device floated out onto the landing, wobbled up and down a bit as Liina experimented with the controls. She quickly got the hang of it - they were designed to be easy to use - and floated it out above the living room to spy on Papa below. Gillian pushed the door most of the way shut so as not to give the game away.
Below, Papa had finished the kitchen and was sitting drinking something hot in his big chair, and frowning at something on his own tablet that wasn’t in the camera’s view. He tapped at it, and then did that finger-pinch thing to zoom in, and sat reading. Gillian giggled a little, and Liina looked at her inquisitively.
“He always does that thing when he’s reading something he doesn’t agree with. Mama always asks him if someone is ‘wrong on the Internet’, ‘cause usually he starts looking really grumpy and types really hard on his keyboard.” Liina giggled back. They both looked at the screen in time to see something outside pass by one of the windows, followed by a ding of the doorbell. Papa got up out of his chair, and opened the door. The girls watched through the camera and audio feed intently.
”Oh! Hi!” he said below. ”I was expecting someone from the Commune, but I didn’t think it’d be this morning. Come in, please.”
”Thank you, Mr Peterson,” said the person at the door in unaccented English, who, stepping inside, proved to be a slender silverfur Female. ”I’m Leya.”
”Call me Samuel, please. Let me run upstairs and get my wife up. She had to work last night, and was pretty tired when she came in this morning. I’ll be back in a moment - please, have a seat.” Papa came up the stairs two at a time, and the girls busied themselves looking at anything other than the video feed on the tablet. As soon as he had gone past the door, Liina quickly tapped on the controls and had the drone silently hover near the ceiling where the chandelier provided a little cover from anyone looking up.
In her parents’ bedroom, Gillian heard her mother groan and roll her way out of bed. A moment later, both adults came padding on slippered feet past her playroom door and down the stairs. She and Liina watched and listened through the tablet’s feed as the adults sat at the table.
”I apologize for dropping in without calling first,” began Leya. ”I’m trying to get to as many of the placements this morning as I can to follow up. Chief Ares was most helpful in that regard. I suppose I should ask if you have any questions. I’m sure you do.”
Papa and Mama looked at one another, and then at their guest. ”I don’t think I do, really. We understand what’s at stake, and although we don’t know much of what’s happening to your people, we want to help in any way we can. Taking Liina in was the least we could do,” Papa said finally.
”And you understand, I’m a Colonial Security Officer,” said Mama. ”I...was helping your first wave of refugees come in most of last night, actually. If their condition is anything to go by, then your ki...cubs...need us. We couldn’t possibly say no.”
Leya made an almost human gesture and rubbed the space between her own eyes with finger and thumb. ”You have no idea what this means to us. Personally, although I’ve never had a cub, I’ve always loved them and hope to someday. Right now the Sisters and Mothers at the Commune are literally hip deep in cubs, and we’ve put as many of them at the Interfaith Center, the school gymnasium, and the Thing as we can.”
”No idea how long she will need to be with us, then?” Mama asked.
”I’m afraid not. It may be a month or two before we even figure out what we’re doing for those coming through. The Mother-Supreme hasn’t sent out anything. If she’s even still alive. I heard she got attacked in the first wave and most of her Guard-Sisters were killed.”
”Do we forward questions, if we have them, to you?” Papa asked.
”Yes. Here is my local net ID,” she said, handing a card over. Papa took it and held onto it between his fingers. ”I should meet her before I go.”
”That’s a good idea,” Papa said. He raised his voice. “Gillian! Liina! Come downstairs please.”
Gillian and Liina exchanged a look, and Liina set the tablet down carefully behind the door where a quick look into the room wouldn’t make it too obvious they’d been watching. They got up and sidled out the door and down the stairs.
Leya stood as they came down the stairs. Liina all but ran to her, keening the whole way, and they stood embracing one another desperately for a long minute. Gillian continued to the table and stood with her mother’s arm around her waist, leaning into her. Eventually, the two Gaoians separated, with Leya holding Liina’s head between her paws.
“You’re so brave,” she said. “I read the report from the humans that found you. You did what was most important, little one. You survived.”
“Yes, Mother,” Liina choked out.
“I don’t know when you’ll be able to come back to the Commune, Liina,” Leya continued, bending down and looking her in the eye. “You’re safe here with the humans. Just like when Sister Xiu came to live with us and we protected her, all those years ago, you and so many others will be taking refuge with them.”
“Yes, Mother,” Liina said. “Were any of my creche...saved, Mother?”
A great sorrow filled Leya’s eyes. “No, Liina. You were the only one they found alive.”
Liina gulped some air. “I didn’t think so. I tried sav..saving Gemma and Navi, but they were t...too little and they couldn’t get aw..away in time.” She continued keening and buried her head into Leya’s chest. Gillian broke free of her mother’s grasp and circled around to hold her new friend in her arms too. They stood, unmoving and tears being soaked up by fur and clothing alike, for some time.
Eventually, Leya broke the embrace and stepped back. She leaned down again to look Liina in the eyes. “I have other cubs I have to go see now, Liina, and a lot of them have been through really similar things as you. When we have time, we’ll get as many of you together as we can.”
Liina nodded, still snuffling and trying not to whimper too loudly. Gillian moved around to her side and just hugged her gently. Leya straightened and looked back to the adults.
“Please contact me if you need anything that we can provide. I’ll be working on setting up communication, but more than that I just don’t know right now. As soon as I do, I’ll send word,” she said.
“Thank you for coming, Leya,” Papa said. She went out, and he shut the door behind her. Liina’s sniffling came slowly to an end, and the three humans traded looks of helplessness.
“Come on,” Gillian said finally. “I want to change and go play outside for a while.”
Liina wiped her nose with the back of one paw. “I’m not...sure I’m up for much playing.”
“Then let’s just go outside, and if we don’t feel like playing, we’ll do something else. I don’t want to be inside anymore today.”
“I don’t really need to change…” Liina said, looking back and forth from herself to Gillian. “But I guess you do. Okay.”
The two new friends walked back up the stairs at a considerably more sedate pace than the previous time, with arms around each other.

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Since the Google Play Store, as well as App Store, has a limited number of games that you can play without WiFi, so finding some entirely “No WiFi Games” becomes tough. To help you choose the best “no WiFi games” for you, I have put together this list of best free No WiFi Games that you can play without WiFi. How to Install Google Play on an Older Kindle Fire . If you own an older Amazon tablet or if the steps above don't work for you, then you must root your device before you can install Google Play. You need a Windows PC and a USB cable like the one included with your tablet to do this. The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet is a Wi-Fi ONLY tablet. Please Note to the other part of your question: ALL apps require Wi-Fi connection in order to operate properly. So you CANNOT use apps without Wi-Fi connection. 35 Fun Mobile Games You Can Play Without WiFi [August 2020] Robert Hayes July 31, 2020 . TechJunkie's Fast Answer. Check out the 35 games you can play without WiFi! ... FF Tactics is a tactical role-playing game similar to Nintendo’s Fire Emblem series, first released to the United States in 1998 on the original PlayStation. Candy Gummy Bears 2018 - Match 3 Puzzle Games Free! Play the Legend of Yummy Candy Blast Mania (Top free match three games in Candy Land Board Game For Kindle Fire) I can only play games on my Kindle fire if I am go on the internet. Previously I was able to play them with no internet connection. I have never had the Kindle connected to the internet because I do not have WiFi Top 5 things to do with an old Kindle Fire. There are some new Kindle tablets in town, but that doesn't mean the old Fire is extinguished. Here are the Top 5 ways to put your old Kindle Fire to ... The feature is now available for all of the latest kindle models and can be used by anyone that has a SIM card. However if you have a problem or few when it comes to utilizing the feature, here are ways that you can use internet on the Kindle Fire tablets, without a Wi-Fi connection. How to Get Internet on Kindle Fire Without Wi-Fi 1. Yes, WiFi networks cover almost all corners nowadays, and even if you are out of the WiFi zone in your home, you can still get access to WiFi in places such as McDonalds, Pizzahut, etc. However, there will always be the exceptions. Try to imagine having a Kindle Fire HD tablet, but you are temporarily out of range of a WiFi connection. If you haven’t already bought it, you can buy Kindle Wi-fi+3G version. This works on whispernet and work pretty much anywhere. You don’t need a separate Internet ...

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How To Install Apps On Kindle Fire Without WiFi

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A good story of using Kindle Fire Kids Edition with 4 year olds

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