‘Morning all. Fun long weekend here. Saturday, Mrs Magill and I rode to the local coffee shop for breakfast, then stopped by the farmers’ market for a massive cantaloupe *, fresh apples, and (I suspect) the last of the summer corn. Squeaky and I then ran some quick errands: we picked up my race packet and a flank steak for dinner.
Sunday, I took my first crack at French baguettes. Unlike my other first attempts, it came out pretty good. I came dangerously close to eating an entire one by myself.
Monday, I ran in the Franklin Mercy 5k for our church team. I got it in 32 minutes, which is not too bad, I probably could have done better, but couldn’t catch my breath after I hit the second mile. In retrospect, maybe giving blood two weeks before the race wasn’t my best idea. Spike and Squeaky had their friends over for D&D yesterday afternoon. I felt bad that Mrs Magill had banished them to the garage… until I saw all the chip crumbs all over the easily swept floor. I was reminded, once again, as to who’s the Smart One.
No running today. I think I’ll walk the route. Lunch today will be one of the baguettes made into a steak sandwich with the leftover flank steak.†
Metal Mouse - when my father retired, my mother handed him a massive “honey-do” list. He liked to say that he just traded one boss for another, but he got to sleep with the new one.
Kropotkin - welcome to the madness. I first showed up here this past spring when my wife was sick for free therapy. These are good people here.
* - Holy crap! I spelt that correctly on my first try!
† - Thinking about lunch at 10 AM on a fast day - again, not my brightest idea.
They literally just texted me the race results:
Gun Time: 32:24
Chip Time: 31:34 - I hung out in the less crowded back wearing my mask, which did not come off until we were spread out, only to put it back on at the end.
Pace: 10:10 min/mil
Place: 457 out of 1070
Age group place: 35 out of 68
Next year, I’ll give blood the weekend after the race.
Is it Tuesday, or do “shorter” weeks seem much longer than non-holiday weeks?
The kids are where they’re supposed to be, so I can say that much (for now). The husband is…interesting. He had a minor procedure a few weeks ago, didn’t take care of it as specified by his doctor and is now suffering the consequences. Luckily it’s easy to fix by following doctor’s orders, which he has now sheepishly begun to do. I’ve managed not to say I told you so and plan to keep a lid on it, but damn, it’s hard.
The husband was raised with these practices that I tend to associate with really old British colonial or Victorian wound care and nursing practices. For example, he was taught that if you have a large open wound, you want to use dry gauze so the gauze fibers will stick inside the wound, forming some sort of infrastructure so it will heal faster. Or, if you’re sick, you need to wrap yourself in as many layers of warmth as you can so you can sweat out the fever, and keep all the windows closed because the cool air is bad for you. Anyway, I managed to put the kibosh on those practices with the kids, but the husband is a grown-ass adult. Oh, well - at least he hasn’t used the, “Well, I survived as a kid,” argument with me.
Then we’d have problems. Well, off I go to browbeat the sick and injured while working. Yay.
Today starts with my pre-procedure appointment. After that I take Pixel to the vet for a “what’s next” appointment. Then I’d like to build a shoe thingie for my closet, so I can re-arrange things a bit. I really should do a grocery order. I’ll try to get started on some annual disability paperwork, because it just arrived and I’ll freak out until it’s done.
We’re having salmon for dinner.
Happy Tuesday everyone. It feels like Monday, but nope. (Have you noticed that this year has simultaneously felt endless AND flown by.) (I can’t believe we’re at 20 years since 9/11. It’s awful.)
Hey - I have the same cooling rack as you! Four of them, in fact, for massive cookie bakeage!
My glider was delivered, probably while I was mowing because I didn’t hear the dog going crazy. It’s now assembled and sitting in the living room, tho I don’t know if that’s its permanent home. I really want it in the bedroom where the baby will sleep, but there’s not much room in there. I’ll figure something out - he’s not going to be staying here till January.
Yeah, if you don’t say we’re nice too, I’m gonna have to come right over there and… Uh…
Give you some nice chocolates or something?
The juggling club I used to go to is starting up again this evening. It lost the venue last year, so it’s a new venue, new night of the week, but hopefully the same people.
I should go make something decent to eat first, but I can’t be bothered. I think it might be a ‘something on toast’ evening. I wonder if I have any beans… I’d better try and eat up what I have to hand if I might be moving so soon. I don’t know if I have to move in on the ‘moving date’- which is this Sunday- or if that’s just the first day the room’s available. It’s a house on campus, not standard halls, so it may not be so tightly organised.
Freeday I grilled a couple of rib-eye steaks and corn onna cob. We had the leftovers Saturday.
Shaturday SWMBO said I needed to paint the woodshed I’d built. (She seemed to have forgotten that she said she’d do it.) After that I started chopping up those logs from the termite-ridden tree we’d had cut down. I think I’ve already said this, but there was like a central trunk with a new trunk wrapped two-thirds of the way around it. The termites mostly concentrated their efforts in the joint. I used wedges and a sledge hammer to break out the termite wood. I cut up the good wood and stacked it in the shed. Mrs. L.A. occupied herself by burning a large pile scrap lumber, remnants of a fence, etc. in the fire pit. That took most of the day. Oh, and I fell and hit a rib on something. Made for a rotten night’s sleep the last few nights.
Stunday we got eight landscaping bricks for the fire pit because the one’s I’d arranged over a decade ago were broken. I stacked them on the lower ring, and now Mrs. L.A. wants to get eight more to complete the circle. I grilled quarter-pound Hebrew National hot dogs for dinner. Mrs. L.A. bought buns, and I decided I’d had enough exercise to consume carbohydrates. I had some copycat Tommy’s chili in the freezer (actually, it tastes more like Wienerschnitzel) and our hot dogs became chili-cheese dogs.
Moanday I was back to wood-chopping. I’d stacked the termite wood near the log pile. After I decided I’d had enough chopping, I loaded the termite wood into the three wheelbarrow loads and took it across the street to give away. As I brought out the third load a guy in a large pickup pulled over to get what was there. I didn’t bother dumping the wheelbarrow; he just loaded from there. In the meantime, an older neighbour pulled over to get a chair we’d put out that Mrs. L.A. didn’t want anymore. I put it in her SUV for her.
Dinner was BBQ chicken, so it was one of the few times I get to use my meat cleaver. (Other times are when we have crab.) More corn onna cob, and they were huge! I chopped the chicken breasts in half, and only ate one half. With the corn, I was stuffed.
Good evening from another summer day. In September. According to the forecast, we might have these temperatures for another two weeks.
Not warm enough for the tomato plants, which still have plenty of fruit, but are withering away.
My dad sent me a recipe for Italian Prune Tart aka Marian Burros Plum Torte (from the Seattle Times), so I thought I’d try that. But the Italian prunes at the store didn’t look very good, so I decided to try a different plum.
They are yummy! And aren’t sold much in the U.S. Don’t know why I haven’t tried them before.
Just have to wait for the Tart/Torte/Cake to bake, and hopefully eat some before it’s time for bed.
Work was reading and writing lots of words without much talking. We got a delivery from Ikea this morning at 7:30 which means my husband no longer has a huge printer on his desk. And he got a lot of other things organized.
Still work to do in that room, but there’s a definite improvement.
Lunch was Skillet Ravioli Lasagna, which worked out well, but needed a bit more spices. Hubby was happy, which is good, since we’ll be having it two more times. Next time, though, I’m adding some fennel seeds and cayenne for a bit of interest.
And FCM, I want a glider. Or a rocking chair. I miss having a chair that just sits or rolls.
sigh
The annoyances, they never end.
Got an email from the new mortgage company that they are missing a form.
HTF do they know? Out of all those hundreds of forms?
I’m pretty sure I remember signing it, so I’m going to go look through my copies of the forms.
So, they want me to print it out, sign it, send them a picture of the signed form, then send the form to them with a preprinted fedex label.
Good thing I asked in advance, because my son also needs to sign it, even though there is no place for him to sign.
In the meantime, the old mortgage company wants to know when I am paying them.
Does anybody do anything right anymore?
In the minor annoyance, but still an annoyance.
When I bought my house, everything was on legal sized paper. They crammed all of them into a too small folder, but at least they were consistent.
When I refinanced the first time, everything was on regular sized paper. Perfect size to put into a notebook.
This stack of papers is mixed, some are legal sized, some aren’t.
No neat way to store them.
One form was printed on one page, with our signatures on the next. So, a page with just signatures. I questioned it, seems stupid to me, and I didn’t like the idea of my signature being on a blank page. The notary said he has to print them as they come to him and he questioned that page as well, that it should have been on legal sized paper so our signatures would be at the bottom. The mortgage company told him, print them the way they come. I probably should have drawn a big X across the page.
I told the mortgage company it isn’t happening today.
Irk is being irksome, and I’m not going to try to deal with other stuff while I’m irking.
There is no way I’m skipping the plunge, I look forward to it all year.
Just finished building a chicken-grape-craisin-pecan salad with tarragon in the dressing, which got me to thinking about the late Mumper @tarragon918. I looked in the In Memoriam thread - she died in May of '15. We’ve lost too many Mumpers.
So, the rest of you - stay healthy and don’t die. That’s the main Mumper rule. Don’t make me give you The LookTM!!
Anyway, that salad will be for supper tonight, and many lunches for many days to come. It was a pretty big chicken.
Sari, the paperirk never ends…hang in there, and I concur with you, signing a blank sheet with only your signatures on us does not sound like a good practice.
flyboy, hope the woodshed is termite-proof, since the little buggers will be needing a new home now…and maybe we need to change your name to Paul Bunyan…
Nut, we all know British people are nice…a little eccentric, but nice…
talky, you might remind your husband of the death rate during Victorian times…hopefully he’ll take care of himself now.
Wizard, I’d be lucky to run a .05k; great time anyway. And since I don’t have a wife, I must needs make my own lists…which I can then safely ignore…and the bread looks real good.
Call me dense (but don’t call me Shirley), but I don’t get the relationship.
Sari, if I’m ever in the neighborhood, I’ll take you up on that.
Four loads of laundry done and dried, still need to do some of the folding, nappage completed so now it’s about 2 hours to soccer practice. Need to come up with some drills for the boys to keep them active for 90 minutes. It’s 85F now, but supposed to be cooler by the weekend…we’ll see.
Christ, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. Spike’s school had to be evacuated due to a gas leak in a chemistry lab, so they’re all hanging out in the football stadium for the busses to arrive and for dismissal time for the drivers, walkers, et al. The high school and middle school share the same bus (they’re right across the street from each other). Squeaky just called. The bus picked everyone up all right, but then ran out of gas a hundred yards down the road. While I was writing this, the transportation office just sent out an automated notice that a replacement bus is on the way.
Ran out of gas?? You’d think something like that would be on the driver’s checklist.
FCD has a meeting on Thurs afternoon, so I’ll have to drive him there and wait to bring him home. Rah. It’s a design review, so he can’t just blow it off. So I have that to look forward to.
Howdy Y’all! We laundered, chowed down at the hog trough Golden Corral, and achieved nappage. Once again we managed a balance of activity and sloth. I am beginnin’ to fear we shall lose our status as sloths and layabouts if this keeps up! Anywho, all is well in swampland.
ace, the deep dental clean leaves one sore AF (not like the pain of a toothache, but just ouchy sore), hence the numbing stuff.
I was mopping up some month end personal finances yesterday and noticed that my paychecks had not decreased since changing positions. I wanted to wait until today when I could pull up my pay stubs to check, and sure enough, I’m still being paid my old rate. I spoke with one of the others who got the shaft and she found the same thing. Methinks they may decide that keeping our old rate of pay is cheaper than an age discrimination lawsuit. As long as they want to keep the pay up, I’ll stay in the easy position rather than change jobs.
On that front, two of my former cow-orkers came to me today (they had moved up several years back) and wanted to know WTF was going on. One of them is the Director of Operations right hand person and the other works for the senior quality manager. They’re having issues with not getting any answers except stocking error for any of the variances. I pointed them in the direction of the cycle counters being instructed to ignore work process and doing all counts from a cherry picker and not doing the required audits on the second and third counts. I have a feeling that my old supe and manager are going to be tackled on two fronts Oh, well, self inflicted.
Home from the plunge. Not many people this year.
Echo showed her ass before we even got to the pool by trying to fight with another dog. In all fairness though, the other dog got into several little incidents. Not really a bad dog, just young and a little too aggressive in play. Then she went after a GSD that came too close to me. All evening long dogs were coming over to play and she was fine. GSD walks up and she goes off.
I got Ripple in the pool; Echo wasn’t having it.
Both are wiped out, as am I.
The day started well enough: I left the house on time and got the abdominal ultrasound done with no issues, and was back home and online before 9:45am — almost an hour sooner than expected. But then I worked for nine hours. And I have to get up early (for me) again tomorrow: it’s my in-office day, I’ll be in meetings or training from 8:30-4:00, and I need to take Bailey to doggy daycare before I go to work because the cleaning ladies will be here tomorrow. So, it’ll be another day of getting out of the house as close to 7:30am as I can.
By comparison, most days my alarm doesn’t even start going off until 7:30am.
Soccer has been practiced, all 12 boys were in attendance and reasonably well-behaved (for a group of 10/11 year olds). Temperatures were a little cooler and there was some cloud cover, so I’m not quite as burned out as usual. Underwear remains to be folded and jeans to be hung, but otherwise should be a quite night.
red, does the word schadenfreude ring any bells?? Nice to have friends in high places…and full paychecks.
OK, Mac-N-Cheese has been consumed so slothage may commence. All y’all take care.
We got a brief but intense storm cell this afternoon. Reports of hail nearby, including possibly some big 'uns (baseball size? I heard rumors) but fortunately, right where I am, it was simply pouring buckets and blustering high winds for a bit.
In FUN NEWS a friend of mine from high school (jesus, we’ve known each other over a quarter century!) who does a ton of crafting stuff sent me some random embroidery threads and projects, and the box arrived today.
I cross-stitch, but have never done “proper” embroidery before.
I … might … tackle some of the beginning projects. Especially once winter comes on & it gets dark at, like, 3 p.m.
More interesting to me, she included threads in a lot of fun colors, including ones I’m not usually drawn to … but could immediately visualize nifty new projects as I sorted through the box.
Pulling me out of my artistic comfort zone, a bit.
She also included so. many. hoops.
Which means I can indulge in one of my favorite vices: starting a craft project & then setting it aside halfway through, to “finish later.”
I … want to understand. But I do not understand.
That’s fucked up. Sorry, that’s not very Mumper of me, but it’s my honest reaction.
Do they not have the annoying-but-sometimes-lifesaving little beeping gas light on school busses, like they do on my friggin’ Honda?
Uh…
I spoke with one of the others who got the shaft and she found the same thing. Methinks they may decide that keeping our old rate of pay is cheaper than an age discrimination lawsuit. As long as they want to keep the pay up, I’ll stay in the easy position rather than change jobs.
I have a feeling that my old supe and manager are going to be tackled on two fronts 
Oh, well, self inflicted.
Nice to have friends in high places…and full paychecks.
But I do not understand.