A Chilly (Well, To Me) MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 47 Amurrkin out with a wind chill that makes it feel like 39 ferrets, and clear with a predicted high of 72 and sunny. Which leads me to the topic. This is the first of what I call cold mornin’s this Fall in these parts. I am sure others are experiencin’ cooler temps. It’s not enough to warrant turnin’ on the heat, but definitely calls for long pants and to don my fuzzy robe to step outside. We’ll have low temps in the high 40s to low 50s all week accordin’ to TWPTB.

As to life’s mundanities, tonight is men’s night over to the church house, thus steaks are marinatin’ and beer is chillin’. We shall go over early to set up as is our wont. Until then, it will be RDOS sloth as is also our wont.

So, here it is, a brand new MMP. Share your weather. Share your menus. Share what’s goin’ on with you right now. Or, just hijack away!

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.

Happy Moanday Y’all!

2

First! Woot!

Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 10c/51f with a predicted high of 12c/54f and mostly cloudy. Weather app says “Who cares about the fucking weather? When was the last time you had some fibre? Have some fucking fibre!”

It’s definitely cooler here now, I even wore a hoodie this morning on my way to work. Took it off when I got on the train though, those things are run by lizard people. The office is pleasantly warm too, but not too hot yet.

I am on campus today, I don’t normally come in on Mondays but I have a meeting to attend (and minute) so I had to be here. It does mean I get Tuesday and Wednesday working at home though, since we can swap days around for things like that. I will miss tonight’s Spin class as I won’t get home in time for it, and it’s my turn to cook too so that will take up a chunk of my evening.

It also means I’ll be confused for the rest of the week and I’ll need to keep reminding myself what day of the week it is. In other news, my work buddy turns out to be someone I know (and worked with before) so that’s good for both of us. We’re meeting up on Friday morning at one of the campus cafés for a catch-up. Looking forward to that!

3

A fuzzy robe for sure. Mine is leopard-print fleece. It’s likely to be cool and sunny today, but at the moment S-cat is under the blanket and T-cat above it and against my leg, and I’m typing under the covers, so I’m on beyond toasty.

I was awakened shortly after midnight by two great horned owls hooting to each other down the street, which is not usual here. We considered dressing and seeing if we could locate their trees, hut reason prevailed. However, I’m still awake.

I made chicken stock last night and today will skim off the schmaltz, then add fresh chicken and chopped shallots. Maybe some shiitakes.

Mostly I"ll be proofreading today; might send out a few poems to publications.

4

We’re starting with a mere 39 Ferrets, on the way to mid-60s - pretty much what the whole week promises. At least it’ll be sunny and not soggy. The only absolute on today’s agenda is meeting at the WaWa to get the skillet for my studio. It’s a double score since I don’t have to drive all the way to Solomons to get it. I may run the mower around the yard to mulch up the first round of leaves, but that will require picking up a gazillion sticks that fell in last week’s storms.

Here’s my hijack - when you are following a recipe, do you scrape all the wet ingredients out of their containers or do you just pour our whatever will come on its own and that’s all? I was watching some videos of various things being prepared, and so many people apparently don’t own scrapers. If you need a can of sweetened condensed milk, why would you leave a significant percentage of it clinging to the walls of the can? If you melt chocolate, how can you not scrape it all into the rest of the ingredients to be combined? Is it any wonder some people moan “It didn’t come out right!!!”

< deep calming breath >

We resubscribed to YouTubeTV last night because FCD was complaining about not being able to watch football or the news. I’d canceled our subscription after MIL died because we weren’t watching at all - there’s just so much to stream. Anyway, we’ll see how much we use it. I just got the sports and news package - it’s $11/mo cheaper than the package we used to have. It’s all for FCD - I still can’t watch the news without getting majorly grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

And so begins the week at FairyChatEstate. Happy Moanday!

5

Afternoon

Per the weather people, it was a bit chilly here last night; forecast was for 2C, so I thought it might wind up being the first frost, but the flowers get to live on a bit longer.

The car load of shrubbery has been disposed of; in fact I took a second load, as there was still a heap left, and it’s forecast rain later in the week. There’s still at least one more load as well.

I’m trying to get a quote for someone to come and put bird guards on the solar panels, as there are pigeons nesting under them, and that can do a fair bit of damage[1]. I knew they were around somewhere cos I could hear 'em, but didn’t figure out where until last week, cos you can only see it from juuuust the right angle. I think the babies are about ready to clear off anyway.

Anyway, I should get on with something useful. Maybe some defilthifying, maybe do some stuff on the viva presentation. I do need to ensure the ratties don’t stink too much tomorrow, as it’s round 2 of the heat pump service attempt.

  1. pigeons can nest all year, if you weren’t aware ↩︎

6

Looks to be a mid 50s-low 60s kind of day. Had a vague sense of the trash truck rattling by, so I’ll retrieve the bin later, but for now I’m enjoying a brief bio-break with you fine folks before rolling over & hopefully going the heck back to sleep.

You make it sound like a kid reading by flashlight after bedtime.

7

There’s a frost warning here until 9:00am, so if you have miles to go and miles to go, you might have to scrape your car’s windshield. It’s 35F now, but later today it’ll be 70F, which is shirtsleeves weather.

FCMom, well of course you’d scrape out the can. However, if you’re making a how-to video, you might edit out the part where you say, “and scrapey, scrapey, scrapey.”

Yesterday’s NASCAR race was nicely entertaining. It was not a demolition derby. It wasn’t one guy leading from start to finish. It was won by Tyler Reddick, IIRC, who hadn’t won for a while.

I might polish my various belt buckles today. I might get a haircut. There is a small list of mighta-gonnas. Of course, I might do none of them.

I saw pix of a grand-nephew’s birthday cake, made to look like The Bride of Frankenstein. That’s some clever cake-making.

8

Yes, I scrape everything out. That’s what silicone spatulas are for!

I was going to make ham and mushroom omelettes for breakfast, but when I checked the cold cut drawer just now, it looks like someone ate that little piece of ham I was saving for just this purpose. Well, it’s just mushroom omelettes now, and I’d better not hear any complaints.

JTC, I see you are having questions about how to deal with dahlia tubers for the winter. I have the same questions, as my dahlia is dying back a bit, but there are still a few little buds which may or may not become flowers before all is said and done. But when the plant is truly died off, I’ll dig up the tuber (or tubers? I don’t know yet if they multiply underground) and place it in a cardboard box together with a handful or two of sawdust. That’s the way the tuber came to me last spring, so I suppose that’s how I’ll store it over the winter. That’s after putting the box in the fridge for three months, which I read just now I ought to do because I live in warm California.

I ordered two more tubers from Swan Island Dahlias, one colossal showy blood red one, and one smaller “pom-pom” white one. I read that the pom-pom type are the better choice for cut flowers, as they last longer. My existing dinner-plate dahlia made gorgeous flowers, but once cut, the blooms only lasted a day or two in a vase. I’ll have to get two more big planter pots for the two new dahlias before next summer.

9

Good morning.

It’s 47F and mostly cloudy. We’ll go to partly cloudy skies, then a few-hour window of mostly sunny skies, back to partly cloudy skies by late afternoon, and a daytime high of 62F.

FCM, I am a scraper and get every last drop or bit of the required ingredients.

teela, my dinner plate dahlia lasted longer if I changed the vase water every day, especially when it was warm.

JtC, I’m very sorry about James.

I need to air up the Jeep’s tires today. I had to plug in my air/jump machine to charge it before I could do so. That thing was daid, daid, daid, so it took a minute to charge up. Once I do that, I can drop off our ballots, since we didn’t do that the other day. I may or may not go to Costco. It’ll depend on the time of day.

Other than that, it’s trash TV catch-up, washing the dog blankets, and probably more raking in the yard since the yard waste bin goes down tonight. In other words, nothing exciting is going on here.

For now, though, I’ll look at unattainable real estate (those interest rates are killers), question the choices people made when designing some of them, and then finish loading the dishwasher. I’m already more than halfway through my second cup of coffee, so it might be a three-cup day.

Please take care of yourselves.

10

Good morning! I spent a screenless Sunday, and there is a lot on the old MMP to catch up on. I went to bed last night at reasonable time, so I’m feeling refreshed. The temps were in the forties this morning, so I actually had to turn on the heat. Now the house smells like burning vent dust.

We found out yesterday our friend who owns the café is retiring, so we spent the morning there celebrating and thanking her. She sold the business to a local group with the condition that they continue as the original brand, and continue to serve the community. Time will tell. We will miss her. Our children grew up together.

I spent the afternoon re-reading the Silmarillion. This time I have The Atlas of Middle-Earth. I aways have a hard time with the geography of First Age Middle-Earth. Hopefully, the Atlas will assist. Meanwhile, Mrs Magill started her Woobles set and crocheted a little, blue penguin. Chloé thinks it should be hers. Mrs Magill disagrees.

I felt odd yesterday. The only way I could describe it was “girly.” I don’t know if I can describe it, but that word popped in my head, and it felt like the right adjective for how I was feeling. Things - they are a-changin’.

Sounds like an ambulance chaser got a hold of them, hoping for an insurance settlement payout.

The word you’re looking for is “voluntold.” As in, “I was voluntold to chaperone the band kids during band camp lunch.”


Not scraping is just not logical.

11

Good morning and thanks for the kind words. James has been very lonesome since his wife died (in the same car accident that took his legs) so it wasn’t a surprise to hear him talking like that.

I’m reading today that Meta shut down all mentions of No Kings because they thought it was a bot attack.

Do Not Panic! Keep calm and carry on!

Seriously, this isn’t a big deal. I used to get sued all the time, its scary at first but then it just gets boring. You are just the agent of the soccer league and their lawyers are going to do all of the talking for you. Your pockets aren’t deep enough for the ambulance chaser to care about.

You will probably be disposed (likely over the phone) and you will be told to not talk about this to anyone, especially the opposing team or their agents. So…be quiet about it, even here. I would even suggest you get mod help to delete your posts about it here, discovery can be brutal and they routinely check social media.

I hope the changes keep making you happy, cause that’s the most important part here.

Yes and thank you for your knowledge too. My dahlia came blooming in a pot and Harry says his wife made him bring all her pots into the garage every winter so I guess that was my plan too. Except if we put it in the unheated brick shed, it will freeze and if we put it in the storage room, it will be with the water heater and it never gets more than ten degrees cooler than the house temp.

I didn’t know about pom-poms lasting longer but will look for them this spring. I’m really happy with how the one I have did and plan to get more.

Speaking of Harry, his raven is at the french doors. That means Harry’s on his way, ttyl.

12

Morning all. Up about 7:30am and am slowly starting to get organized for the week, gym, soccer, shopping and other fun activities will probably keep me fairly busy. Paid my credit card bill (due the 21st) so that is done, need to check if there was any other charges from direct deposit billings. Otherwise I will dress appropriately and make my shop-n-sammich run here in a little bit.

Weather-wise we went from highs reaching 90F last Tuesday to a low of 42F last night, and the Weather Wizards say the highest we’ll get is 74F this week, with lows in the 40’s, so definitely Fall has arrived in N. Ali-bama. got the space heater on in my computer room, but haven’t turn the heat on quite yet, it’s still 70/71F indoors and I’m comfortable with that.

boo fae, I ate a banana this morning so that 2g of fiber so far today. The Ham-n-Cheese sub I’ll be consuming in a couple hours has 38g, so that will do just fine. Good luck with remembering the changes in your schedule and yay! for a likeable work buddy.

FCM, may skillet acquisition go without a hitch. And since I seldom do any recipes, can’t really answer your question, but I do try to get everything out of the microwave packages…

Nut, good luck in the anti-pigeon guards. They can find other people to annoy.

Taters, with the cold weather I probably need to check my tire air levels and get them pumped up.

Mollie, lad your friend feels she can retire comfortably, but it just won’t be quite the same, will it, without her?

Thanks for the advice. Keeping calm, have sent the paperwork to the appropriate AYSO folks. And Mollie, the paper work was boilerplate stuff (even I, not a lawyer, could see that) and was from one of those ‘billboard’ Lawyers, so I think you’re right.

And JtC, lips are sealed from now on. Good idea about the Mods, I’ll try that.

That’s all for now. Back when the Jersey Mike’s #3 is resting comfortably in my belly.

13

My Jeep tells me. It even tells me how many PSI I have left in each tire. Since your vehicle is pretty new, I would expect you to have a low-air warning, too.

I looked at some real estate, but I’m bored with it now. I did see a house that sits far too close to the cliff overlooking Budd Inlet, Eld Inlet, Dana Passage, Olympic Mountains, Squaxin & many other Islands for my comfort. You can clearly see the cliff has been eroding for years. They want 1.35 mil for the place. The view is stunning, but I’d never pay for a house that close to a cliff.

I think I’ll watch some trash TV now so I can enjoy it in peace.

14

a good weekend, shopped, tidied, set for halloween.

what is with october?! for some reason i keep jumping ahead a week and this makes the month seem really long. i keep thinking this weekend is halloween. then i realize, that is another week away.

that abbey is amazing! how on earth! a simple cheery blossom branch nearly sent me over the edge.

15

:roll_eyes:

The pigeon netting company I contacted have refused to give a quote because ‘there’s an occupied nest which would be illegal to remove’, and suggested I wait until after the breeding season. I clearly said in the email that the baby pidges are on the edge of leaving, probably in the next few days. They’re already fully feathered and wandering round outside the nest, there’s no way the company would actually send anyone out before they leave. Also, pigeons don’t have a breeding season in the UK, they can nest at any time of year, so there’s no guarantee they won’t just make another nest anyway.

It wouldn’t annoy me that much, but the email further went on to say that I should contact ‘my local branch of the RSPCB’ to see if this is something they can help with.

There’s a few issues with this.

The RSPCB is the Rajhastan pollution control board, who are not noted for having local branches in Scotland or for being overly concerned about Scottish pigeon nests.

What they’ve probably done is conflate the charities RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) who run bird reserves and do bird conservation, and the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) who do a small amount of wildlife rescue, but are mainly concerned with people mistreating domestic animals.

I’ve had dealings with both, and neither of these organisations have anything to do with feral pigeon nests or their removal, and suggesting I contact them is literally just suggesting I waste both their time and my own. The correct contact, if one was needed, which it isn’t, because just leaving it a couple of days would be fine, would be a licensed pest control person.

I’m fighting the temptation to send an extremely snarky response, but I think I’ll just contact someone else. I need to head out to the shops anyway, so I’ll go do that first.

16

Yes. Not doing so is not only a waste of food, but it creates stinkier trash. And what you said about the recipe turning out right.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. Since I didn’t fill up the gas tank yesterday, I’ll do that on the way to Aldi today. After that, it’s RDOS.

Y’all have a great day!

17

49 fairy tights at 1030. We’re supposed to get into the 70s this week, which is nice. Perhaps a bit of rain at week’s end.

Finally got a decent avocado from the grocery, so we had that on a bagel this morning, along with some scrambled.

Had a good visit from the daughter yesterday. She got her feet tangled up in her sheets and took a bad fall onto her bedside table a few weeks ago, cracking two ribs and bruising two others. Made tomato soup and grilled cheese for comfort food for her. I shredded cheddar, butter kase, and smoked gouda for the sandwiches. Toasted on medium-low to give the cheese a chance to melt without over-browning the bread.

We learned from a niece that the wife’s sister took a fall. Broke her hip and took a nasty whack to the head and will need surgery. She’s 85. A cautionary tale for us from two directions.

18

As it should be! My late MIL was of the “eh, close enough” school of emptying cans/jars. I’d never encountered such a thing - my mom taught us to get every itty bit.

Ah yes, judging questionable choices of total strangers… I’ve seen some doozies myself, both in ads and in person when we’ve been house-shopping. I can ignore hideous furniture and even paint choices, but we looked at one house where the plans had been modified so that the steps leading up from the split foyer were very steep. I’m pretty sure they were just on the edge of code. And we’ll not get into placing a soaking tub in the bedroom.

I looked this up - how can they call then learn-to-crochet kits? I’ve made a lot of little crocheted thingies and even with my decades of experience, they were a **(@$#&%& to make. You learn with granny squares and dishcloths, dammit! :face_with_steam_from_nose:

:rofl:

BIL is so paranoid about his credit card (long story about a couple that took advantage of his trusting nature, forcing him deep into debt and bankruptcy) that he goes on line and pays his VISA the instant he uses it. So he’ll buy groceries, then log on and transfer the money immediately from checking to VISA. We gave up trying to convince him he didn’t have to do that. (I get the feeling I’ve mentioned this before…)

:rofl:

I made a quick run to Aldi (well, drive, as I don’t run) and got the few items I needed. I don’t think I mentioned (did I?) that the Food Lion website is down. Apparently they and several other grocery chains use the same company to host their sites and it was hacked or something. So I can’t track my Shop-and-Earn awards, which will lose me a few bucks till they’re back. Not a huge deal, just an annoyance. At least they came up with a workaround to post the weekly ad.

Just boiled some eggs and they’re in cold water at the moment. Shortly, I’ll peel them and decide whether they’ll be deviled, saladed, or left whole till I decide otherwise. Whole it is!

19

It started out with both terminals on the 300 Slide not working. But TSG fixed them,and the day went smoothly. It was light volume, I was done and out by 0830. I gassed up Carmen, got her some new wiper blades, did my Aldi run, and hit total wine for some Vermouth. Now I’ve had my dry, flavorless bits and it’s naptime.

David Icke agrees. :wink:

I’m a scraper.

Bathtime?

Buy and holding onto real estate in Beleriand is an example of sunk cost fallacy.

Did you accidentally move in next to Odin?

I topped mine up last Wednesday, and still got a low pressure warning this morning.

Or a sack of baby pigeons.

20

Interestingly, a lot of Appalachian folktales, do feature Odin often testing Jack. Yes - that Jack.