Buncha slackers in the MMP! {OLD}

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Today my BFF brought over a left-over piece of plastic lattice that we modified to go around the base of the trunk and over the bowl. That should stop the digging for water, it didn’t seem to be chewing the tree itself.

For those who haven’t seen baby Javalina, Pilot is right, they are just as cute as can be. We have twice seen them while out hiking and promptly hiked away so fast we didn’t even take pics. We are too smart to piss off a squadron of protective grown ups.

Javalina are often called rodents or pigs, but they peccaries which are a different breed altogether. The word itself is part of our Latin American contribution to the mish-mash we call English. Back in Roman days, they would hunt pigs with javalins, hence the name.

We only live a block away from open land, so a lot of wild life comes looking for water and food. We don’t like finding roadkill deer on the corner, so we donate money to a group that hauls water out in the desert for the wildlife to drink.

Isn’t that just the smartest idea ever!

So, tell me again what does management gets paid for? Don’t they know that you shouldn’t piss off retired people, we have all of the time in the world to bitch and complain.

So, hubs likes to get up around 6 and have meat and eggs for breakfast, then like shoe will surf online for a while then grab GG for second sleep. GG loves to help him nap.

Please notice that there was no mention of him cleaning up after making breakfast…because he doesn’t do it. He’s just fine with dishes stacked up in the sink until after dinner and I hate waking up to a messy kitchen, so I’ve started prepping his food and put it on the front of the same fridge shelf I’ve been using for years.

Today he couldn’t find the container of mini-frittatas that was sitting right next to the bacon I had baked up a couple of days ago. He ate some of the bacon, so he probably moved the frittatas to get to them. He’s doing this more often lately :frowning:

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And a good afternoon to all. Dinner was provided by Logan’s Roadhouse in exchange for green pieces of paper with pictures on them, then browsed a couple of stores and came home and changed clothes for my gym workout, which added up to about 700 calories. Not a lot of soccer practice this week, with the kids on Spring Break we’ll take it easy, so more gym time for me. The lawn simply isn’t long enough to merit mowage, so I’ll hold off until Wednesday or Friday.

FCM, interesting finds, wonder if the phones still work (probably not, the batteries are likely long-dead). And I like red’s idea of donating the stationary to people who might still prefer to write stuff.

Lily, 10 years of medication? But googling what it is for, hope it has done/is doing it’s duty. And hope the leak isn’t too bad.

lucky, hope the restaurant lived up to your expectations.

I go to a ‘healthcare center’, which is a couple of Docs treating as many patients as possible. Since I’m in relatively good health and use them for my Annual checkup, it’s all good, but sometimes think that finding a ‘regular’ Doctor for my dotage might be worth the time and trouble. We’ll see.

Oopsie, glad the stress seems to be ebbing some, visiting your BFF’s undoubtedly helped, and the week to come sounds interesting. Enjoy!

Flyboy, kudos to Ms. Flyboy for being kind to our fine feathered friends.

Sari, hope the new walker works well for you; and everyone is too young for the shit…

Good on Ya!

OK, need to get some sustenance for the evening and make up my weekly planning sheet for 2-8 October. Take care all and if I don’t get back tonight, catch you on the next MMP.

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Yes. Not that you / I think the world is out to get you, but they’re all mostly doing their thing for their reasons. Just like you are. Even if their job is to help you, they’re doing the job first & the helping second.

Where it really stings to see these shortfalls is in the explicitly helping roles in the explicitly helping professions.


If you enjoy live sports, go to a game sometime and watch only the officials. They are playing a very different game than the teams, but it’s got plays and moves and coordination just like the players do. You can’t really do that watching a game on TV because the camerawork is too tight.


One of the consequences of Her Ladyship and I getting together is that we both jettisoned almost 100% of our old possessions. We own almost nothing older than our 2 years together. It all color coordinates, it all fits the space we live in because it was bought for that space, it’s all shiny new, it’s all a common décor theme, etc.

Jettisoning the old stuff was kinda difficult, but I needed to move my late first wife’s stuff out to move on with my life and moving my own stuff out to the same degree helped make that emotionally and morally tolerable. Mostly.

Congrats on 50 years; I sure wish I’d been able to do that. Real unlikely I’ve got another 48 years left to do it my second time. Heartfelt congrats to you both.


Sari: Congrats on a calm day and a new walker you mostly don’t need. Sounds like the crises of a month-ish ago are solidly behind you. Yaay!


JtC : Ouch for hubby! And for your dutiful putting-up-with.

I find that I’m often thinking of anything but what I’m doing. Modern life tries to invade your head with a distractor every second. And in that mode I’m scarily unobservant. Which is very much not my lifetime MO. I could easily imagine myself moving the [whatever random obstacle] to get to the bacon I recognize, never even considering what might be in the other container I handled.

If I can force myself to stay focused on the task immediately at hand the dumb stuff happens far less often. Is that an avenue open to him / you?


As to me…

We skipped breakfast for sloth & industry respectively, while it rained all morning.

Then we went out to have a nice outdoor lunch in the bright sunshine near the mall. Where I tested my new credit card. And even was able to use their website successfully afterwards to check. Yaay me.

Along the way there my car complained that it wanted coolant. Not a crisis; modern cars don’t wait until it’s a disaster to warn you of problems. So we had lunch, drove home, then I left the car to cool for a couple hours.

OTOH, the arrangement of filler ports under the hood was utterly unintuitive, and I used to be an auto mechanic. The owner’s manual helpfully suggested that only the dealership should add coolant because of the risk of burns. “No user serviceable parts inside” is pretty much their attitude to the engine compartment. Geez, what has the world come to?

Eventually I decoded enough of the foreign hieroglyphics to figure out the right fill port. You can do an astonishing amount of expensive damage very quickly getting that wrong, so best to be absolutely positively certain. No steam explosions or boiling occurred and all is well again in motoringland.

During the wait for the car to cool I was balconatin’ in the heat & sun until the sunshine turned mostly liquid accompanied by lightning and thunder. Now it’s merely gray out there as advanced slothery continues and dusk bears down yet again.

Cheers all!

Tomorrow is a new MMP. I wonder if FCM can resurrect her attempt from earlier this week?

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If only I could remember what it was…

Soup was yum! I’ll gave some for lunch tomorrow. FCD is enjoying the Dallas game. I think I’ll sort some more papers.

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But admittedly, not original. :slight_smile:

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Back when I was a food stamp worker, I had 47 minutes to do a complete food stamp interview from start to finish and at 50 minutes a supervisor would start interrupting me to tell me that I’m out of time and need to wrap it up.

“I’m so sorry new food stamp recipient. I know the process is confusing and that you had no idea what to bring or do and really do need some hand holding…our time is up, here is a notice of what to bring when you come back, no food stamps for you today, goodbye.”

For the most part, I enjoyed the job because getting paid to give food to people is like a dream job for someone like me. It was the management bullshit that caused me to quit an hour into my day a few months pre-retirement.

I was speaking with a newly widowed woman in her '70’s. She had never worked outside of the home and her husband of 50+ years had paid all of the bills. She was so confused and needed so much help and I was so sick of the bullshit that after the third message from a sup, I told them that I was quitting after I finished the case. That shocked them into silence and I was packing up my personal stuff before lunch.

The lady left with her food stamps and part B medical approved and a much clearer understanding of the process. I also helped guide her to other resources and get her a 10 percent discount on her electric bill while moving that over to her name.

Walking out early cost me around 3 bucks a month in state retirement. I have no regrets.

I’m quite sure that is what happened. He said he looked for the frittatas, couldn’t find them so fried some eggs and warmed the bacon in the microwave.

I’m going to have to be sure to not only serve him a bit of the food I have made (so he KNOWS there are cooked sausages in the fridge), but to also show him the clear plastic container with lid open and closed to help jog his pre-coffee memory.

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Ouch! That last paragraph is bad. I do not envy you the road ahead.

A challenge I have which you two do not is Her Ladyship has a very different way of packaging leftovers than I do. She puts things into containers I’d never use for that purpose. And I’m still learning her policies. Which seem to me more haphazard than she’d ever admit to; they’re perfectly logical and implemented with absolute 100% zero-defect consistency in her telling.

So unless I pull them all out and open them all up, I really can’t predict whether e.g. mashed potatoes will be in a rectangular container, a round small one or a tall square one.

You two at least have the advantage of many, many years in common.

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Oh gosh, that would really trigger my CDO! All of our storage containers are clear plastic squares, some of which are just bigger than others. They stack neatly and I can use them to freeze stuff, then pop out the nice even square of food to vacuum seal and reuse the container.

It is possible he will come back, the brain fog got really bad after he got Covid the second time, but he was coming back just when he caught it the third time. A few days ago he was able to open the safe without cussing and that hasn’t happened for at least a year.

We have worked hard for most of those years to be able to enjoy many, many more together post retirement. I’m going to be sooo pissed at him if he doesn’t make it to 80 without going to a care facility.

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I knew a javalina looked like a small pig. The name that throws me off is Nutria. It sounds like it should be a cereal or protein bar.

Then again, I think Merrick Garland sounds like an investment firm or pharmaceutical company.

Nellie, I heard trekking poles are better than a cane because you will stand straighter using them. I have some and they came with different tips for different terrains. My only problem with them is you can’t carry anything while using them.

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Before 5:00AM I still consider time to be of the day before. So I did only one thing of importance today and that is to deheathenate.

And that was difficult because beginning at 1:00AM I got up to watch two movies on TCM. The first was the original 1954 Godzilla. Not the round eye version with Perry Mason but the true Japanese version, with subtitles in English. I’ve seen it before but this version is shown less than the Western version. It was followed by, (English title) Godzilla Raids again, the immediate sequel. I’ve only seen that one once. It was still a black and while film, with subtitles.

So my sleep schedule was all screwed up, and I yawned a lot during church. Then I intended to crochet this afternoon but couldn’t concentrate. I napped and now feel completely awake, which doesn’t bode well for tomorrow.

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Interruptions all the time

and may I add Fuck Maryland Unemployment Website!

We are going to have to call them tomorrow and that will probably take hours and a multitude of cuss words.

Thank you for the suggestion of bed rails. It’s something to look into, JtC
Maybe you can get your Hubbie to take a few online cognitive tests and see how he does. I have been worried about my brain for quite a while and was pleasantly surprised when I scored a 96, which is considered above average.
I thought about taking a few more, then decided, no, why press my luck?

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That’s a really cool idea.

This was very helpful; thank you. I’d heard about a Michigan-Michigan game, and although I vaguely gathered that it was something related to sports, it just sounded … incestuous.

So … how was it?

Heh, I’m the opposite. The kiev is tasty, but the hamminess of the cordon blue version is very comforting somehow.

That’s hilarious!

God, I love taxonomy sometimes. Who says scientists don’t have a sense of humor?

I know exactly how you feel. Don’t get me wrong; I miss him & there’s a lot of big hurts and ragged trauma. By comparison, it’s such a piddly little thing … but yeah, whenever I see someone post “Congrats to Meemaw and Pop-Pop for 50 gazillion years together!” or whatever, it stings.

That’s not to diminish my happiness for susan and her lovely wife. Just trying to express sympathy (empathy? I get 'em mixed up) for pilot.

She seems too classy to re-use Cool Whip tubs, but that’s what I first thought of.

Would masking tape and a Sharpie to make temporary labels be just completely off the table?

I LOL’d.

Before I left Dallas, one of my little craft-y hobbies was making candles. Nothing fancy, just re-melting excess wax into fresh molds. It was fun to play around with making striped layers of different colors and stuff.

I’m getting vaguely burned out on cross-stitch and need something else creative. Winter is coming. I have a bunch of half-burned candles.

… aaaaannnnd I may or may not have ordered some fresh wicks. Which may or may not have arrived today.

I hit the Dollar Sto’ before work to look for a cheapie little saucepot to use as a dedicated candle melter but found none. I think I may bestir myself to Wally World tonight, since I’m off work early as a mo-fo, rather than wait till tomorrow and potentially waste time looking in several places just to save a couple bucks.

Plus, that way, I can start tonight. Delayed gratification? Pfft.

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I have a thrift store crock pot dedicated to melting cheese wax. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m pretty lazy and pushing a button on a crock pot is easier than melting wax with a double boiler. Using a pan directly on the heat would take far too much attention for me!

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It is impossible for me to relax with a dirty dish in the house

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I’m OK if they are in the dishwasher, but the counters must be wiped down and the sinks must be clean. I clean as I go when cooking and usually get the counters wiped while waiting on the finished product. Hubs has a whole different way of doing that sort of thing which why I am the one who cleans the kitchen and he is in charge of the garbage.

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I worked for MSU for a year while I lived in East Lansing for three years. The statue of the Spartan would have to be watched as the Weasels from Ann Arbor would try to spray the feet blue and yellow. It was wearing down the toes.

Here in my home of Kansas we do have KSU and U of K. It’s a pretty big rivalry as well.

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I cleaned, I napped, I watched handegg. Dinner was meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and a Wisconsin Old Fashioned.
Also, I found out Woody the terrier passed a month ago. :frowning: He was a sweet dog, when he and Gordie weren’t going Hatfield and McCoys on each other.

It’s triggering mine from here. < eye twitch >

As a Wisconsin boy, I echo Mercutio and say “A plague on both your houses”:wink: (Although the current Hurricanes hockey coach went to Michigan State)

Kardböärdøe, by IKEA

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Dinner was BLTs, using home-grown tomatoes from one of Wifey, RN’s patients.

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That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while. Kudos.

Sorry.

Köødoez.

Update: I poked through my cabinets and found the crappy saucepan I used as a survival pot while I was moving/living in a FOAF attic/unpacking.
It lacks a pour spout, but has a tiny pout on the lip. (Best way to describe it.) Should work.

Meanwhile, I had already decided I’d get some chicken thighs while I was out, and, well, I didn’t have any other dinner ideas and I’d already put on pants like some peasant, so :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: it, off to Meijer I bestirred myself.

Now I’m eating pudding specifically because I recall the container made a terrific candle mold, Monkey will get canned gooshy-food because a small tin can is both the ideal size AND safe (as opposed to glass, which is pretty but has a minor tendency to shatter violently) and the madness has begun anew.

Also, a chicken thigh is baking atop an incredibly fragrant pile of onion quarters. Once I check the progress, garlic will be introduced to the party.

I really wanna make chicken soup/broth with the rest of the thighs, but it was almost 80 friggin’ degrees today (in October! in Michigan!) and I just dunno. Seems too hot still.

… but … I want soup.

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Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave.

Then make soup! Culinary Anarchy reigns!