A spot of good news in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Saturday night, Monkey went & did it again - shot off into the darkness. All this morning & afternoon I kept calling him, but eventually, I did hafta go to work.

Burned my lunch break going home to check - nada. The whole evening, I kept thinking, "He’s done this before … " and tried to stay calm.

Got home after work - nada. My heart sank, but, "He’s done this before … " and settled down for a snack, occasionally calling his name plaintively. (My windows are open, he can hear me.) Left the door slightly open. Listening to every creak and rustle.

An HOUR after I got home, who comes hustling in the door complaining about his empty tummy.

Much snuggling ensued.

He’s glued to my leg right now, dozing. Imma duct-tape an ankle monitor onto him or something.

Anyway, with political and economic, ah, stuff looming, I thought any speck of happiness should get to breathe.

Anything teensy but happy in your life? Friend’s life? Got an onion ring in with your French fries or something?

2

First! Woot!

Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 9c/48f with a predicted high of 16c/60f and a chance of rain. Weather app says “Do you know what’s worse than fucking rain? Solving algebra problems while people are fucking kicking you.” Can’t say I’ve come across that situation before though.

shoe I’m glad to hear that Monkey came home, he just wanted to remind you how important he is!

It’s dull and dreary here, that’s about all you can say for the day. I’m logged into irk and have some bits and pieces that need to be done today. There will be grocery shopping at lunchtime, and I’m off to the gym in the evening. My turn for dinner tonight so I pulled some leftover chilli out of the freezer which will be yummy.

Teensy but happy things today? Not so far, but the day’s still young!

3

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN 'Tis 55 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 75 and sunny. High RDOS sloth is the plan of the day. No where we need or want to be which is fine by me! Sup will be hamburger steak ‘n onion gravy, smashed N.O.T., field peas with snaps, butter beans ‘n okra and cornbread muffins. This is due to a gnawin’ and a cravin’ for some down home foodstuffs.

shoe glad Monkey decided to come back home. Cats will be cats, I guess. Teensy but happy thing, let’s see… well yestiddy after church there were bagels and strawberry cream cheese in the Parish hall. That made me happy.

CupCakes belated happy Reformation Sunday! We’ll have confirmations when our Bishop shows up in February. I will be doin’ a re-affirmation as well. Sounds like that was a great service yestiddy mornin’! I was confirmed at the age of twelve. That was a million years ago! Also “A Mighty Fortress” is a fun hymn to sing.

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

Happy Moanday Y’all!

4

A chilly 40 Ferrets to start today, topping at 70, or so it is predicted. That should make for some pleasant yard work.

My little bit of happies - I found a couple of packets of hot chocolate mix in the pantry - they were sealed and still yummy and made for a loverly warm drink. I’m thinking when I do my Food Lion trek today, I shall look for more. Yum.

Once again, I forgot to refill the pellet stove hopper, so it was chilly inside when I woke. But not so chilly that the furnace kicked on - I have it set to keep us from getting frosty overnight. I have since gotten the stove up and running, and warmth is beginning to spread.

After discovering a tick (ick ick ick) snacking on my person last night, I did a bit of searching for info about ticks and lyme. Supposedly the disease risk is minimal if the critter has been feasting less than 24 hours, so here’s hoping. Plus it was so small, I can’t be sure if it was a deer tick or not. So fingers crossed. Then, of course, I was itchy all night, suspecting all sorts of critters climbing over me. I did eventually fall asleep, so there’s that.

From the last MMP:

I’ve known her bestie since the girls were in kindergarten and I met her husband shortly after they married. Bestie house-sat for us when we did our Arctic cruise, but she’s got a teaching assignment as part of her PhD studies, so she can’t stay when we do the canal, alas.

And so the day and week begins. Guess I should enjoy what little evening light we have before it goes away. Dammit. Will we ever stop this clock-change silliness??

Happy Moanday anyway!

5

Good morning everyone!

So glad to hear that Monkey has returned!

A small spot of good news? Well, I was able to make it down the front entrance of the kitchen down the two steps when taking the trash out so I didn’t have to worry about falling on the very slippery ramp. This is excellent because I’ve ordered a non-slip runner and it won’t be here for a couple of days.

Ok, off to make breakfast for my mom. Catch y’all later!

6

Morning all. Made it through the night without Nature’s call to the toilet, so I guess that qualifies as good news (beats the heck out of a 3am wakeup). And have a plan for the morning that should take care of all my errands this morning and reward me with a delicious Jersey Mike’'s sammich for free (yay! points), so that is nice. Of course traffic and lack of things may mess it up, but I’ll stay positive for the time being. Weather is nice again, 48F now heading to 74F and no rain.

Shoe, glad Monkey has returned from his night on the town, guess he still is part tomcat…

boo fae, algebra occasionally kicked my butt, but never anyone else. Sounds like your day will mirror mine, shopping and gym, but you have too work, too… :worried:

FCM, nice find, even though I’ve never developed a taste for hot chocolate (Or hot drinks of any kind, for that matter) I know lots of people love it. Happy shopping! And hope the tick didn’t get his fill before you smacked it into oblivion.

Sticky Buns, happy not-falling! Falls are something other people can do on the Fail Army You Tube channel, not us. May the runner arrive a day early.

And closing in on 8am, so need to get properly prepared and head out on the Moanday errand run. Have a great week all.

7

Good morning. It’s Monday, and I’m up. The radio news is full of election stuff. I already voted, so that’s off my list of things to fret about. Yeah, it’s easy to say that, but I’ll fret anyway. I’m working on my second mug of coffee, the elixir of life.

FCMom, speaking of ticks, some of them are carrying Alpha-gal, which I probably have spelled wrong. It makes the victim essentially allergic to beef. Yes, beef, as in, “Where’s the beef?, Beef, it’s what’s for dinner, and You got a beef with that?” Some alpha-gal sufferers are allegedly switching to ostrich meat for their protein fix. Okay, okay, that’s enough tick talk. Ick, ick, and ick.

Breaking news! Someone dressed at Batman is in London, England solving random people’s problems. He’s fixing pot holes, providing umbrellas, and stuff like that. Who will fight crime in Gotham City while he’s gone?

Breakfast awaits. See you later.

8

I doubt it - there was no blood when FCD yanked it out. A full tick looks like a gray-ish bunny pellet and this one was still tiny and black. I just need to keep an eye on the spot for any hinky changes.

Well, that’s a bummer, tho in reality, I don’t eat a whole lot of beef. I’m good with poultry, pork, and seafood. I guess we’ll wait and see.

That’s very cool - wonder if it’ll start a trend?

My sweetie just got up, so I’ll hit the shower then head to the grocery stores.

9

Good morning. Mrs Magill enjoyed the Predators game last night. She has a tech conference in town this week. Last night and tonight are to be team building events. Tonight is supposed to be a dinner and then Honky Tonks on Broadway. Mrs Magill noped outta that one. We’d both rather have a root canal than go to Broadway at night.

This morning, after I let Chloé out of her crate (and her usual blow past Emergency Back-up Human to see Primary Human), and have her “outside time,” she ran upstairs to wake up Squeaky. I came in the bedroom, and Mrs Magill asked where she was and I told her. Mrs Magill shook her head and said, “No - it’s a late start day. If you’re gonna be a woman, you’re gonna have to do better at remembering schedules.” I proceeded to rescue Squeaky from the Tongue of Doom.

shoe - I’m glad for Monkey’s safe return. You’ve mentioned that he can slip a collar like Houdini. Is he at least chipped?

I don’t know about anything teensy but happy. Would you settle for big but happy? I finally feel good. For years, my baseline has been “not bad,” but now I feel good about myself, about where I’m going, and most of all that I get to share it with someone who gives me joy.

Well, my afternoon cup of Yorkshire Gold makes me happy, too. Is that more what you’re after? :grin:

fcm - Bonus treats are always nice. “What’s this in my pocket? A gold ring A pack of Skittles i picked up at a vendor table last week? Sweet!”

knots - Whenever I hear about Alpha-gal, my first thought is: “What, like Andrea Tate?”

London’s Batman is cool. I hope it becomes a trend.

10

I’m glad that the little miscreant is home and snuggling now.

My small, but happy is that I’m almost finished sorting out the stuff that has to go in the studio and cataloging my tools.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. Currently on hold with the SS administration and hope to get things sorted out with them today. Other than that, after a quick Aldi run, it’s RDOS.

Y’all have a great day

11

Good morning.

It’s 47F with a gentle fall. We’ll have morning showers, afternoon cloudiness, and evening showers, with a daytime high of 55F.

Shoe, I’m so happy Monkey made it home.

FCM, yay for happy finds. I don’t mind a spot of hot cocoa once in a great while.

Well, the YAG surgery didn’t happen. The ophthalmologist was late, and when he did the pre-exam, he told me the cloudiness was minimal, and I wouldn’t notice a difference. He offered to do the surgery anyway, but I decided that it wasn’t worth it at this point. We’ll reassess in a year. To be honest, I was just annoyed that I’d been running around for nothing and essentially wasting time. My optometrist has already sent me a note and put a prescription for readers in My Chart, but I will have her look at my eyes again because the prescription lists one eye at 20/25, and my vision is now 20/20 in one eye and 20/30 in the other. My outcome wasn’t nearly as good as my husband’s, but it’s all better than it was before the cataract surgery, so I’m not going to complain.

Anyway, after the surgery, we headed home, loaded up our overnight bag and the dogs, and drove down to my son’s place. Zeus was ecstatic to see us, and all three dogs went into zoomies. Unfortunately for Buster, he now fears my son’s stairs and refuses to go up them because they are slippery. He must have taken a bit of a tumble on the stairs because he initially went up and down them, but we heard a thump at some point, and from then on, Buster refused to go up the stairs. Fortunately, our stairs don’t scare him.

My son plans to get a stair runner and runner rugs for the kitchen and downstairs hallway, plus mats for the doors. That should help. His floor is very slippery for the dogs, and while he has an area rug in the living room and family room, the rest of the downstairs is smooth laminate wood flooring.

Anyway, we had a nice weekend hanging out together, and we got home mid-afternoon yesterday.

Since it’s raining, I won’t be mowing today. I’ll probably just do some indoor chores and catch up on Sunday night’s trash TV.

As always, please take care of yourselves.

12

As I type this, a large dog has burrowed under the covers–she likes to sleep completely under the bedclothes–and is pressed against me, snoring contentedly. That’s a spot of happiness. Of course, I’ve put off getting up for about an hour lest I disturb her.

The other night, Eddy kept scratching at the bottom shelf of my little cookbook bookcase. Nothing there but cookbooks, buddy, so knock it off. He persisted. I showed him nothing was under or next to it. More scratching. In frustration, I removed all the cookbooks from that shelf and said , “See? There’s nothing–” when I saw an ancient tennis ball that had somehow got wedged there eons ago. He celebrated by tossing it in the air several times. Lesson learned.

Remember my previous upstairs neighbor who complained my soundless ceiling fan was suddenly keeping her up all night? Well, she’s in another apartment in the complex and called me Friday to say there’s some vibration there that’s been driving her mad. It’s not human caused, and she was so miserable, she went to a hotel for a few nights. She was on the verge of tears, so I said I’d look into it.

I called her back to say it sounds like it could be hyperesthesia, a disorder in which vibrations and other sensations that our nervous system normally blocks are not filtered out and become amplified. I sent her some links to read, and she said she’s sure that’s it. Hopefully she gets medical treatment. It sounds hellish. Not sure why she didn’t research it, herself. BRB. Eddy wants help getting off the bed.

13

Morning, all. Glad cats and dogs are emplaced. I was awakened by one that then left.

Writing-related tasks are on the agenda. I’ve run down the little emergency generator so we can test the new solar charging panels, but it’s cloudy thus far. We got a bit of rain, and that makes me happy.

14

Loved seeing Obama on the campaign trail yesterday. The guy has the gift of gab.

Lightly raining and 43F at 1030. We’re supposed to get heavier rain later today and tomorrow. Still no heat at our end of the building and I’ve yet to see a contractor arrive. I’ll check in with staff later on to see what the prognosis is.

The wife and I had a “what-if” talk this morning about what will happen after one of us dies. Statistics would indicate that I’ll die first, but I had to be frank with her about her big weight gain over the past year or more and her tendency to lose her balance. Obesity can mean a whole raft of troubles that can lead to long term care, so I encouraged her to start cutting back on her intake and getting more exercise. She took it in the spirit intended, so hopefully she’ll act on it.

On the bright side, I give you MISS SADIE!

And this morning at about 0730:

15

Back. I know Food Lion’s MVP program is a game of sorts. My “before” total was $91 and the “after” was $57. I know they use the info to track my purchases and target their ads accordingly. What they don’t know is that I have 2 accounts - mine and MIL’s, which I kept active. I switch from one to the other periodically and my Shop and Earn rewards respond to a week or 2 of not making any purchases by giving me better rewards to come back. And I don’t really care if they know how much peanut butter or Diet Coke I buy. I’m not sure who they could sell it to, but so what? Anyway, I’ve completed 3 of the 6 $50 total purchases on my way to the $20 coupon. Go me!

The stop at Aldi was a quickie - mainly for small tortillas and their lunch meat. The kids like roll-up sandwiches - this past weekend, Tobias ate 2 and Roxy ate 4, so I needed to restock. But it’s all been unpacked and I’m thinking about doing some garden work. Not thinking very hard, tho.

I’m going to contact Daughter’s bestie to get details about their turkey day visit. Unlike my spawn, I like to plan and organize, and in order to do that, I need to know stuff. So I hope to get some of that stuff on Outlook to assist my planning. And I think I’ll message my doc about the tick bite. I’d rather not blindly trust the info I googled.

I appear to be in a minority. I have no problem displacing a cat or dog, no matter how comfy they seem to be. I’m the Alpha in this joint!! Nor do I want to sleep with any critter other than the one I’ve married. Of course, Ziva isn’t a problem - she couldn’t get up on the bed without a step on her best day, and since we no longer have the small bench at the foot of our bed, she’s ground bound. As for Otis, I don’t want him on any furniture. The most he gets is an invite up on FCD’s lap. The floor is fine for him.

Yeah, I’m a meanie…

16

He changed his mind. Their human moms will be here at noon to pick them up. I must confess I’ll miss them (the pups).

Take away his car keys.

(Seriously, I’m glad he’s home.)

BooFae, I hope your day is freckled with spots of happiness.

FCM, hot cocoa sounds wonderful. Thanks for the reminder! I hope the tick kept his germs to himself.

Sticky, yay on getting down the stairs!

I’m flubbergusted. No hot drinks at all? Is it a Southern Boy thing?

I know you never get your info from some dubious online source. No tick talk from TikTok!

Dunno, but hope he comes to my neck of the woods. Can one order a Batman beacon from Amazon?

Uh-oh. I may be in trouble here. I was good at it when I was teaching. Since retiring, not so much.

Red, hope you got off hold. Cataloguing tools sounds satisfying. :slight_smile:

Taters, my friend had a dog who was afraid of stairs for the same reason. He wouldn’t go down to her rec room for two years. A desire for TV snacks finally overcame the understandable fear of slipping. A runner for your son’s stairs sounds like a good idea. Yay for Welcome Home zoomies!

cookie, loved both photos!

17

Two of my critters once went on a walkabout after a windy rainstorm blew the front door open one night. They did come home in short order, having decided the outdoors was no place for spoiled house cats like themselves.

I’m off today, so it’s just been breakfast and a few errands. I have a dietitian appointment in half an hour and a counseling appointment later. All I have on the calendar besides irk is a trunk-or-treat on Thursday and a wedding on Saturday. A nice, slow week.

18

Well, a spot of bad news; the two places I go for my Oscar Mayer braunschweiger fix did not have any in stock, so it’s either late in delivering or they have stopped carrying it, which leaves me 2-3 lunches a week to replace (which I can do, but annoying). On the good news front everything else was taken care of and the Envy apples were large and fresh and 8 of them are in my kitchen.

Knots, we still have another week’s worth of election stuff on TV/Radio/etc to endure. So tired of the ads… And yay! for London Batman.

Mollie, Mrs. Magill speaks truth (as far as a old bachelor knows). And a song for your mood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5TqIdff_DQ

Taters, it’s sort of frustrating when you build yourself up for an event and at the last minute they say “Oh, nevermind.”. Hope Buster gets over his fear of stairs at Son’s.

Nellie, dogs sniff a lot and know things. And hope neighbor takes your advice, it really does sound hellish, as you say.

cookie, hope wife listens. My brother is very obese and sits most of the day (to be fair, he had a hip replacement a few years ago than restricts him) and I do worry about him, but trying to talk to him will just make him furious (he goes from 0 to fury in seconds). Meanwhile I keep a calorie count and visit the gym so I don’t end up that way (I hope). And some levely pics, Ms. Sadie looks quite comfortable.

FCM, get the same thing at Kroger, they mail me coupons every few weeks and almost all are targeted on stuff I buy there regularly. And concur about messaging Doc, better to be safe than sorry.

nellie, no, it’s been my habit since my earliest years. Why, I do not know. Te only hot beverage I’ve ever drank and enjoyed some was ‘chai’ or hot, very sweet tea when I was in the UAE, and it would have been impolite to refuse.

Rockin’, smart felines you have. They know where their bread is buttered and their litter is dry. Enjoy the RDOS week.

And out of posts. Probably will browse the internet some more and then head over to the gym, the Burger-and-Fries tonight will be courtesy of Sonic and according to their guides they pack in a lot of calories, so need to prepare. Have a good day all.

19

Afternoon.

Viva talk attended, assorted booze 'n chocolate distributed and - as I suspected- my presence seems to have slightly given everyone a kick up the arse in organising mine. I have at least a provisional date finally, but unfortunately not until December 9th. This not only means I’ll have another month to have weird stress dreams, but probably means one of my irk friends won’t be able to come because she’ll be working overseas on a project, and the friend who is already overseas who was planning on coming won’t be able to either, because he’ll be in the wrong continent. Flying over from Spain to the UK for a couple of days is doable, but not from Bolivia.

On the plus side, it is a slightly narratively satisfying date; it will be exactly 10 years and 1 day since I originally sent an email, on a bit of a whim, inquiring if my qualifications would be acceptable to enrol in an undergrad degree. I got a bit carried away.

20

So Senior Clerk, MSG, J, and C are all on vacation this week, so the new guy gets to cover everything at once. That would be me. I found this out when the Preload manager called me in at 0320. I wasn’t as horrible as it could have bee, since today was Monday. I was out by 1045. I filled up Carmen, and did my Aldi run. I found Pork belly, Bacon, Pepper, and Onion breakfast pizza in The Cooler of Shame, so I grabbed one.

They had a workman come look at the sliding glass door where it rained, and Spot stayed in the living room and hated, instead of hiding and hating. His antipersonal skills are improving.

Glad Mondy came home.

Yay!

That’s better than sleeping through the Call of Nature.

Sure, you can’t have too big of a happy.

:beating_heart:

I always got sleep howling, and brawls with the cat.

Gordie would go down stairs, but not up. But he wasn’t right in the head. Hope Buster gets over his fear.

A bit? That’s Siege of Troy level. But Viva Nut!