Just use the nickname “Facto”. Confuse everyone, even the cat.
It never hurts to grease the skids with maintenance / manager. 
That was always on the list of don’ts when I’d take Nelson in for a spa day. Once, when I scheduled a nail trim, the groomer spritzed him and I told her that she’d have to bathe him on her dime because I couldn’t be in an enclosed car with that stuff. When she tried to argue, I just told her to look at the notes on his profile. She bathed him.
Cookies and card have been delivered, cards posted (I was going to buy some Christmas stamps while there, but they didn’t have them yet) and yogurt purchased. I finished up three cards, two of which I really like (not a style that I go to a lot) and have spent the rest of the afternoon RDOSing.
Mrs. L.A. texted me today to say that she saw the pizza truck headed to Birch Bay. I checked Beach Cat Brewery’s schedule, and they had the taco truck there today. I drove down the beach on my lunch break. Yep. Taco truck. No pizza truck to be found. (They’re at Beach Cat Brewing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Another truck is parked at another place, but only on Thursdays.) So I ordered a pizza from Safari for dinner. I had two slices, preceded by a Greek salad. Mrs. L.A. liked the pizza.
I think we’re going to meet Calypso tomorrow at 16:00. But Catmom says that if we adopt him, we should wait until after our vacation. I agreed. ‘Hey, Goo and Abbey. Here’s a step-son for you. See you in a week!’
We’ve got How To Drain Your Flagon playing on Peacock.
I’m curious how much Calypso was an “impulse purchase” versus being someone to fill a long-standing and well recognized need for both of you.
I hope the pizza was good. What sort of toppings do you two prefer?
Hi folks - about 10pm as I await the eventual return of the prodigal GF from her girl party. I’d gone down to the beach at dusk and had a nice dinner of Pinot Noir & lamb chops w the usual accessories while listening to some inane chatter from my bar stoolmates. Now home and dithering.
Those days are quite long and boring if alone. I’ve had a few lately.
Good to know that Otis is about to eat FCM out of house and home.
And a good evening all. Spent some time at the gym, then walked a couple miles at the soccer park so got my exercise in. Meals were interesting, the 10am breaking fast was sammiches, then when I got home from the park walk, I had my Big Bowl of Salad and sometime after 7pm finished off the day with pancakes and bacon–so sort of a backass menu day. Beautiful weather again and the AC remained inert. Tomorrow soccer doesn’t start for me until 9am so I can sleep in a bit.
And now to read the 25 messages below. Scrolling mode activate!
Pilot, have a good weekend. And thanks for the info on the camera question, I will look for those threads and consider it.
rocky, apologies not needed, I wasn’t trying to dis you, just picky about my ships…and keep on shredding.
That’s the 6 year olds! 
FCM, nice piece of ‘patchwork’.
VanGo, you know that Ms Peach won’t give up that easily…
FCM, glad Otis is clean, now that he has been through the process hopefully the next time will be easier (and cheaper).
Oopsie, glad the house is clean; may have to look into that for my house one of these days.
Flyboy, thanks for the late-night giggle Goo’s picture gave me. It’s Centipede Cat!!
And that’s all for Firday. Will try to get something written before soccer starts tomorrow, but no promises. Have a good weekend all.
Catmom always says, ‘Don’t show me cats. I want to adopt all of them.’ So on one hand, she’s avoided impulse-adoptions for years. On the other hand, I don’t know what prompted this. I’ve wanted a kitten for Abbey, but I trusted in the Cat Distribution Network. (And I wanted a black kitten.)
Italian sausage over a bed of baby spinach, fresh garlic, parmesan and sun-dried tomato pesto topped with fresh ricotta and mozzarella. Thin crust, extra sauce, and extra ricotta.
Pan-Goo! 
Sad to hear about TriPolar. 
Up from naptime. Laundry is put away. Dinner tonight was Cajun catfish, rice, and peppers, onions and corn. And an Aviation.
Nice.
Feline Thunderdome.
@Taters, thanks for sharing that. I’m going to give it a try for Ollie. Anything that might help my poor little itchy biscuit. 
metal mouse, my parents had the same problems with water leaks under their slab at their former home. It was a massive PITA and very expensive to regularly repair. I’m so sorry you have likewise been plagued by it. I will hope that your difficulties with it are behind you for good!
flyboy, congrats for Calypso! Can’t wait to see the new pics once he’s in his new abode. And I love the new mutant cat pic!
boofae, sorry you had such an annoying day. I hope the weekend makes up for it.
cookie, what a PITA about another hacked credit card. One thing I did was to dedicate one credit card solely to auto billings and never use it for anything else. Fingers crossed, I haven’t had one hacked for a long time. (Probably just jinxed it.) I hope it’s not too much of a hassle to get everything straightened out – but of course it will be. 
pilot, hope that GF’s girls lighten up on you, and good for her for standing up on your behalf. I don’t blame you for hating the draaaaaaama.
You’re pretty good at both.
FCM, very avant-garde scrap yarn throw! Nice to think how it will keep you warm this winter. Now that Otis is cleaned up from his special grooming session, I’m sure he’ll be easier to keep up.
Sneaky you, VanGo! I bought a new sofa shortly after Ollie joined my household and I made sure it was low enough that squeaky balls couldn’t get under it, < Muttley laff > Before that, he had me doing the same sofa calisthenics that Peach was putting you through. Good solution!
oopsie, ugh for dealing with automated “help.” Is there anything more frustrating? Thanks for the tip about responding with wanting to talk with a person. I may be going through it next week with them, too. Better explained further on. It’s so good of you to help with WifeBFF’s dialysis when the time comes. But when we love our friends like family, it’s just what we do, isn’t it?
swampy, I wish I’d had your day. But no.
Today I was determined to get a working adult cell phone. I’d already ordered and received an unlocked phone that will do what I want it to do. My plan was to subscribe to a service that, even though it won’t work where I live, I can now use with my fast wi-fi from home most of the time.
I won’t bore you all with how long it took to get the new phone carrier service (Verizon) set up. I could write a novel. In the end, it was accomplished and I sped off to join a friend for lunch. Phone worked fine, I sent my very first ever text to my pal and watched it find several available networks at or near the restaurant we were in. I didn’t join any of them, though.
So I was all excited to get home and let it find my network and use it with my wi-fi.
But it didn’t. Find my network. Every time I ask it to turn on WiFi, I get a response: “Unable to activate WiFi calling at this time. Please try again later.” Ok, yes, yes, but why? Just a hint!!
I’m sure I’ll get it sorted at some point, but it was kind of the turd cherry on top of a sewage sundae of a day. Can anything just work?
Has anyone heard from shoe? It seems a long while since she posted. I hope she is doing ok.
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave. It’s my Firday(and hockey night!)
{{{GoooooOOOOooooooOOOOOooOOOooooooooooooo}}}
Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 10c/49f with a predicted high of 14c/56f and cloudy. Weather app says “It sure likes like all of the fucking clouds are trying to ratfuck your day.” I disagree, overcast and cloudy makes for perfect driving conditions for me, and I have a 2.5hr drive down to south Wales this morning.
Mine would either deny everything or give in to bribes if there’s Dreamies involved!
Kind of I did what I thought was right and copied some of the details from another dept’s online module pages so if they don’t like it, that’s just tough.
Things got kind of resolved in the end. Facilities missed the deadline to order water from our supplier but they managed to find me one bottle for the machine so I had a tea supply all afternoon. As for management, we haven’t had any for a while due to sickness and holiday absence so I ended up making my own decisions as usual, and everyone else can live with it. If they aren’t going to tell me what to do and how to do it, I’ll work it out for myself. The whole task was a university-wide change to our virtual learning site information on assessments, so everyone’s doing it but it appears we’re not quite doing the same thing. I followed the example of the person in the meeting who had the most to say/ask about it, and copied what they’d done on their pages
Very sneaky! How long will it take her to come up with another one?
I hope she’s not too sozzled by the time she gets back! With luck, all she had was fun, and she didn’t spend all night having to defend your honour.
Yesterday ended well, I nipped over to my friends’ house after work to feed the ferret, who was far more alert and sprightly than he was on Wednesday. I was lucky with the buses in both directions, and got home in good time. Pleasant evening, and a relatively early night.
Today we are off to a music festival in south Wales, which promises to be fun. The drama has already started….most of the headline band arrived yesterday. This morning, Joe (who suffers with anxiety) was in the carpark raging at Carl, who had mislaid the keys for the van. Joe threatened to go home (not sure how, no van keys and he’s got no shoes on), every second word he shouted at Carl had some variation of “fuck” in it, and Carl was trying to drag him off for a coffee instead. And Phil hasn’t turned up yet. Phil has an excuse, his second child was born a couple of weeks ago and he’s staying at home with wife, baby and other child until he needs to leave for the venue. Also yesterday, someone parked a campervan in the venue’s carpark and prevented the beer delivery from getting through. Luckily that was resolved, and hopefully Carl will find the van keys.
Not a complete disaster, there are enough people there who know how to break into an old transit van, and enough kind-hearted musicians who would happily lend them whatever kit they need. The show will go on, and Joe will calm down once he’s been fed and topped up with coffee Fun times!
Wow. Miss a day, miss 100+ posts.
I did skim, but did not retain much other than pilot not wanting to be the cause of GF drama, rightfully so. Also oopsie not having to worry about having a window open. Good, but sad.
I technically had yesterday off, but I spent about 5 hours writing IEPs. Depending on what MusicMan has going on today, I might spend another 5 or so hours trying to get ahead on the next set of IEPs.
Currently the poodle and I are just hanging out, though. I’m actually listening to her making weird noises, not quite snoring, but maybe it is.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 60 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 77 and sunny. My DAWGS play the Auburn kitties at three-thirty this afternoon. I think we will go to the little bar up the road for burgers and beerverages at lunch to take care of today’s main need to feed. Nappage and day drinkin’ shall be worked into the agenda as well.
Several of us appear to have had sucktastic days recently. May today be a good day for everyone.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.
Happy Sattidy Y’all!
He freaked when they turned on the nail grinder and Michelle (our favorite groomer) had to comfort him while the other groomer did his nails. He was OK with the bath and most of the haircut, but I guess the noise of the grinder was too much. Here’s hoping now that he’s experienced everything, he’ll be better next time.
Higgs always had long nails - guess we didn’t get them trimmed often enough - so we’d hear her click-click-click across the tile floor. Not so with Otis. He’s always in stealth mode!
After a particularly trying auto servicing, I sent a bunch of cookies to our car guy and his crew. They accepted the bribe! I should do it again - I like baking but since we’re trying to watch what we eat…
FCD will be going down to the boat to do some last-second things before the generator is installed (this coming week, fingers crossed…) He’s also taking the camera so he can get pics. I have absolutely nothing planned, and since rain is in the forecast, I doubt I’ll make any plans. We’ll just see how the day develops. No walkies today, tho. Not in the rain.
I need to remember, next time I walk Otis, to wear decent walking shoes. Last time I wore a pair with no arch support or cushioning to speak of and now I’m dealing with shin splints. Dammit. I’ve got 2 good pair, but I put on the crappiest shoes I owned that day. Not my smartest move.
So, Happy Saturday!!
Good morning all. Got up at 7am thinking I would have to referee a game at 8am, but another ref volunteered late last night, so don’t have anything going until 9:30am (I am then busy until 2pm, but will manage). Weather looks great, 55F now but heading to 78F this afternoon. Other than coaching/refereeing nothing else is planned for the day. Have broken fast so ready to go.
Bright Tree, I may have another problem with it 
but am waiting until soccer is over (and maybe into the spring) before getting it worked (having a ‘key’ to shut it off and on as needed is a big help). Wondering what it would cost to have it all rerouted through the ceiling…
And nice to know wasn’t the last Luddite to get a smart phone…which apparently ain’t all that smart. Hope Verizon can help.
Boo fae, glad things are working out at work, enjoy the music festival and hope the drama gets resolved peacefully. But:
Now THAT was a disaster in the making!!
Have a good weekend all.
Mornin’ all! About 0830 on a warm, gray, and almost foggy morning. Or at least it was almost foggy when I got up an hour ago; by now it seems to have lifted. No sign of the sun burning through anywhere yet though.
My big activity yesterday was overcoming my superpower (procrastination) and altering my reservations for the Antarctica cruise to include GF, rather than BB. Heck, I bought that cruise so long ago I hadn’t even known BB at the time; I bought it as a solo, but expecting to somehow fill the second slot before I departed.
I also arranged the air travel part for both of us from here to the tippy end of South America and back. It being 4+ months from now feels to me like an eternity into the future. But air travel (and hotels) were already partly constrained by seat availability. Evidently a lot more people plan their major globe-spanning excursions farther in the future than I think to do. If it was up to me, we’d all decide on Tuesday whether to leave on Thursday.
In her telling it went perfectly. Everybody stayed on topic and they had a small enough contingent that the worst of the group dynamics never had a chance to get going. The fact it was loud as hell where they were sitting helped.
She wandered in at the expected time (place closes at 11 and is right nearby my place). Then our reunion Fri night went very nicely thank you. It had been just ages ( = Monday morning) since we’d last seen each other.
As is typical, here this morning I’m up an hour now and she’s still hard asleep. Given how bright it isn’t outside, she’ll be able to sleep in a bit extra and I expect she’ll emerge in another 90-ish minutes. We’ll see. Poor dear does more, and more vexing, work in a day than I do in two weeks; no wonder she’s perennially exhausted.
Anyhow, she’ll be here until noonish Sunday, so today (Saturday) shall be a day of joint sloth and rejuvenation, along with some heart-pounding exercise of some nature.
Every time I think I might have some refined taste in something, you casually describe just how fantastically wide and flavorful and healthful your diet is. Both eating out and home-cooked. I stand in awe. That does sound fantastic.
I have a similar reaction to doggio’s cooking and especially his cocktails.
At the risk of saying the obvious, connecting to your home wifi to e.g. use the browser to reach Google, is a prerequisite for the phone using the wifi as a means to do phone calls, i.e. “Wifi Calling”.
If that’s OK, then my next thought is that your internet provider is blocking the internet “channels” needed for wifi calling. That might be something to do with the configuration of your local router or might be at their end.
This! And good luck to the Dawgs!
Hope everyone in the northeast does well with the impending big storm. Should be exciting for folks living on/ near the beaches or up in the first line of hills / mountains.
Cheers!
Afternoon all.
It’s a nice sunny autumn day, not warm but decent. I’ve spent a few hours doing some proper adulting- cleaning the fridge, taking glass to the recycling (only the end of the street, but I’m lazy, so I’ve been putting it off) and generally reducing the filth.
I’m thinking some slothage sounds really nice about now.
Countering that is the knowledge that there probably won’t be many nice days to do the copious stuff that still needs doing in the garden, plus the ratties need a full clean out.
Pilot I always found that kinda funny people’s planning differences- my own parents share your views. It’s not at all unusual to get a message from them saying they’ve decided to go away for a month to somewhere in another hemisphere.
They normally book the first few days hotel in advance, then wing it for the rest of the trip based on what seems likema good plan. I was quite old before I realised other people considered holidays a time to relax, and had a full itinerary worked out in advance, rather than being complete chaos.
My mother’s sister, on the other hand, before she became almost housebound, would have the whole trip planned in detail, even though she went to the same places repeatedly and never further than Ireland.
Both of them credit my Grandpa’s holidaying style for their attitudes. Hey, no-one actually died on any…
Our Antarctica cruise was booked more than a year in advance - far enough out that we couldn’t make airline reservations. Yeah, I’m a planner… Tho not as much as one friend of ours. He laid our our vacation almost to the minute. We, of course, totally ignored what he’d planned. It was Key West, fercryinoutloud! He was an interesting dude.
BTW, shoe was on FB yesterday, according to my account, so she’s still got a working clicking finger!
Aw, shucks! I try to eat healthfully, but I could do better. Safari makes good pizzas. The ‘Landmark’, which we had last night, is especially good.
Very cool.
Kitty! 
Oh man. I was reading above about soup, and then you had to mention loaded potato soup. I only have potatoes for mashing, and I don’t have bacon. Guess I’ll have to make do with mashed potatoes.
I saw some flyers about missing cats. I was really wondering why people even mention the names, especially when they write, “doesn’t respond to the name”.
Survived the first week back to work. Most evenings when I got home I was too tired to even look at my laptop, so just watched television. Still got lots of Brooklyn 99 to watch, if I so desire.
Walked 7.5 km to town and had a pulled pork sandwich, sweet potato fries and my first alcohol (beer) since before my surgery. After I got home I made rice pudding and now I’m holding down the couch. There are some complaining muscles, and I’m fairly certain I will sleep good tonight.
As the temperature’s cooling down, there were people eating fondue outside. Bit too warm, in my opinion, and I’m not yet ready for the heaviness of all that cheese.
Hubby’s doing laundry (2nd of 3 loads is in the washer) and we want to plan a vacation for November. Looking at flights and hotels is so time-consuming, but at least it’s simple - no trying to meet up with others, or a cruise. Just the two of us.
Happy Saturday!