You called it.
A nice leisurely walk into town just before sunset on a lovely afternoon, followed by a tasty bacon cheeseburger and a few Arkie Red Ales - plus one pour of tequila - had me in a happy, relaxed mood. Then came the bad news from Uber and Lyft. I did not feel like hoofing another three miles half-drunk in the dark.
(Apparently there is a taxi service in town, but I didn’t think to check that at the time, and judging by the reviews, it seems unlikely they would have even answered the phone.)
Fortunately my almost-new phone still had an almost-full charge, so my flashlight held out the whole way, allowing me to see and be seen. I just kept telling myself there’s no hurry, one step at a time, and eventually I arrived at my room without incident, tired but safe.
I think I’ll just hang out at the hotel for the rest of the trip.
oopsie, I keep forgetting to mention your centerpiece. It’s really cool! Is that from a kit, or is it your own creation?
Have you seen the TV show “LEGO Masters”? They build some absolutely amazing stuff out of those little pieces of plastic.
Started Typing: 10:33 AM ET Clicked Reply: 12:27 PM ET
Morning, all! I decided to skip both the mobile knife-sharpening and jazz jam session events. For the former, reading posts from wheelie and pilot made me realize that (a) it’s really only the scissors I want sharpened, and (b) I’d rather buy a sharpener so I can tackle all of the scissors in the house (cheaper and more convenient than the sharpening service). My no-name knife block set was probably bought at Target: while I do use the steak knives pretty regularly – on pizza, enchiladas, etc. – they’re actually still sharp enough for me (can serrated knives even be sharpened??), and I don’t use any of the others. There are a few that I’ve probably never even taken out of the block! So, I’ve added a scissors-sharpener to my Amazon wish list and will get it the next time I order from there.
For the jam session, I just don’t feel like going out this morning. It started at 10am, and only goes until 12:30pm because the venue gets a Sunday afternoon football crowd. I thought about going even up until an hour or so ago, but ultimately feel a stronger desire to have a slow/quiet morning and also catch up on some of the volunteer-related stuff I’ve been putting off (it’s going to be a busy-ish week; I’ll feel better if I do what I can today).
So, here I am.
I don’t entertain – no one is ever going to see the centerpiece in person – so guests and table space are never a factor for me. In a way it’s a good thing, because my decor (sparse as it may be) can be all about my personal taste vs function. Heh.
(I like to entertain, but my current place is way too small. Plus there’s usually 1 of me vs 2-4 others, so it’s just easier for me to go to them.)
Very cool! I am definitely a brass fan…even though it’s kind of heresy to be a jazz musician/fan who doesn’t really care for saxophones. (shhh, don’t tell anyone!)
Ooooo, I need to remember about Happy Meals! That would probably be just about right for me, too.
Although I eat more than the 8oz per meal that my bariatric center recommends, I can’t eat anywhere near as much in one sitting as I used to. It still amazes me that I can go to Panera and be perfectly full/happy with half a sandwich and an apple (vs my previous whole sandwich + a side of bread + a cookie).
Definitely not. I posted a photo of the centerpiece on my FB page this morning, and a little while ago a friend commented “I had no idea Lego made stuff like that!” The options on their web site are kind of amazing.
You misspelled “challenges.”
(Yeah, I know what you meant. Words matter, my friend.)
This centerpiece makes fall decoration #2; the other is a sign hanging on my front door that says “Welcome Fall.”
Except for holiday wreaths, I only started putting things on my front door during the pandemic. The current rotation is:
JAN - APR: Either nothing, or maybe starting in March a wreath of fake peonies.
APR - SEP/OCT: A NY Yankees sign (from opening day until their last game of the season).
SEP/OCT - THANKSGIVING: The “Welcome Fall” sign.
THANKSGIVING - NEW YEAR’S DAY: A lighted holiday wreath.
I have some Halloween decorations, but my mom’s final hospitalization/death took place in 2015 from 10/26 - 11/2 and since then it’s been hard to get in the “Halloween spirit” (so to speak) each year. Even before then, though, I think I would mostly just decorate my desk at work – and I’ve been teleworking since 2020. I do have a great motion-activated plastic pumpkin from Hallmark (the discontinued “Alive and Talkin’” one; not the current “Jabberin’ Jack” model) that I place on a table just outside the door on the Halloweens when I give out candy. Kids love it!
Like BBBoo, I have a digital NY Times subscription (plus one for the games, so I can play the Spelling Bee every day). I also have a digital Washington Post subscription. Those two are mainly how I keep up with world events these days.
Thanks! It’s definitely a set: I am nowhere near creative enough to make up my own builds.
I just started watching that show this season*! Yes, some of those builds are super impressive. The episodes are more compelling than I expected them to be…even not counting my long-time crush on host Will Arnett.
*I never built a Lego set until the jazz quartet earlier this year: I knew that eventually I also wanted the jazz club (which I don’t have yet), but had no idea I’d ever wind up with more than two sets! These things are sneakily addictive!
swampy, this link is a recording of our church service this morning. If you go to about 5:20 you will see our pastor and he’s wearing the same stole as when he went out to wave at the Phelp’s clan last week. Probably one of the reasons he ticked them off.
No worries. I’m a jazz fan and amateur guitar player who hates almost all jazz guitar, other than a select few like Mimi Fox or Tuck Andress. Most of them sound like lounge musicians. I like sax well enough, but not when it’s honking like a demented goose; and don’t get me started on soprano sax.
No cleaning service this week with the covid protocol in place, so I decided to vacuum out the joint. It was exhausting. The cleaning service hits exposed services, but they don’t move anything. So I vac-ed under the bed and under the living room furniture. It’s no wonder we’re always sneezing and coughing in here.
This morning the folks who own the place behind us came out and took down most of the front fence, the trailer awning and hauled the shed off. They also unhooked the furnace and it is in the middle of the back yard now.
Usually the climbing roses are full of little brown birds arguing while the quail and doves scratch around under the feeders. Our back yard usually has constant activity, but it is super quiet now.
I think they flew away from all the busyness and noise and don’t recognize the place now because they’ve lost their landmarks cause the workers have been gone for a couple of hours now.
But at least now we know that they are going to pull that firetrap out and bring something else in. We still aren’t seeing any permits online, but that doesn’t really mean much because the permit dept is always backed up.
That’s a good start!
I think our housekeeper deserves a raise.
Small town life at it’s best
Hubs was pretty bald by the time he was 25. After he got out of the Corp, he grew the fringe out into a straggly little rat tail, then gave that up and went back to shaving his head and letting his beard grow.
Safe travels.
You always make the very best plans
I have been wondering about birds up that high. Do they nest up there? If you put a bird feeder out what sort of birds would visit? Do they fly into the windows often?
It does make good sense, or at least it makes more sense than my not-great method. I’ve watched enough baking shows to get the concept but the cooks are like your experienced Dough Roller Guy and make it look easy and effortless because they’ve done it a gillion times.
Oh, the workers are back, time to relocate to the porch again. It’s starting to warm up, low 80s at 1230 so the laptop will stay inside. I always worry about water damage when I turn the misters on.
Ordinary birds are in the trees down at ground level. We’re near a heavily treed golf course, and lots of mature landscaping that’s not part of the course. So there’s lots of shrub habitat and tree habitat up to maybe 4 stories high.
My building itself has nooks and crannies infested with god damn pigeons. We even have pigeon spikes on a portion of our balcony railing. The building is pretty artfully designed, so it isn’t just a wall of identical cubicles. Instead each stack is a different shape and some sections of the building look totally unrelated the sections adjacent. By unlucky happenstance, my apartment stack has architecture especially suited to hosting f***ing pigeons. The mourning doves make a nice noise. But the rest of the hundreds-strong pigeon population I’d slaughter with less thought than I give to ants. And I try to avoid stepping on ants if I notice them.
Feeding wildlife of any sort is against the lease. And rightly so. It attracts far more shit than it does anything else.
Sunday chores are done, Sunday dinner made and et (it was tres bien, served over some couscous and a side of steamed broccoli with shredded parm) and now, I’m chilling with a small reddish dog on my lap.
Howdy Y’all! We got deheathenated and then had some really good apple cake. I wasn’t goin’ to, but the one who made it had cut a slice especially for me, so what could I do. OYKW had to get his own slice all by himself. Then we decided to go to the Pubic Sto’ near the church house to get a couple of deli sammiches to take back to da cave. Since we were there and right by the seafood, we got some shrimpies steamed up cajun style for tomorrow’s sup. I took some boneless chikin boobs outta da freezer so’s they will be thawed by mornin’. I shall hack them into strips and they will be grilled to go along with the shrimpies. Anywho, that got done, sammiches got et and then nappage was achieved. We had malaria boosters out on the back porch after nappage. Also, the biiiiiig trash can has been hauled all the way down to the road for pickup tomorrow.
CupCakes I like your Pastor. I bookmarked so I can go back and watch the service cause I do stuff like that.
MOOOOOOM glad y’all made it back. Rest up.
Pilot glad the hoarde of youngun’s had a good time at the trunk or treat. My church is doin’ that next weekend. I have politely declined to attend. Just not my thang.
JtC you know, of course, we are all anticipatin’ the goin’s on next door, right? Can’t wait to know what goes up/in there!
I skimmed and likely missed a lot. Two 12-hour days on the road in a row doth suck mightily. We had some rain each way and dealt with several traffic jams each way. But it’s done, and I hope we never have to make this trip ever again.
I’m showered and chilling, trying to wind down. Tomorrow I get to take MIL to the hospital to visit BIL. She’ll visit. I’ll wait. FCD doesn’t want to go, and I can’t say I blame him. So lucky me.
So it’s already almost the end of sunlight on a gorgeous Sunday. I made it through my first week at work. I did well. I even had a customer give my trainer a bit of a bollocking because she was urging me to finish the call even though we didn’t have the customer’s request correct. I took the time to get it right and she got booed. It did not endear me to her. But I don’t care. I told her that I would get faster, and if the supervisor had a problem with my work speed, she would let me know. Yesterday and today, I’ve been running errands, appreciating beautiful leaves and tree shapes, and doing housecleaning. That’s how a weekend should go. Yay, I’m finding my feet again.
Now for dinner and an early evening so I can do it all again. Enjoy your evening, too.
Thank you! I am missing my kitties very much this weekend. I needed that.
Guilty as charged. Because racecars make me happy.
I’m with you there. But I have never, ever even tried a lard crust. My mother taught me how to make a Mazola crust and I used that for years. Now, depending on the audience and what I have available (including time) I will use butter or oil. But I want to try making meat pies so I think I will have to learn the lard crust too, just so I can get a sturdy crust.
red, good luck with the lipstick removal. Or just wear the damaged goods on Halloween and add fake blood where necessary.
Oh, right, I forgot about pigeons. If we had pigeons out here I wouldn’t feed the birds either.
Do you see hawks? I’ve been told that Redtails get along very will in cities with tall buildings because they think city pigeons are easy pickins. Coyotes and rats also thrive where humans are and Redtails will eat rats when they can get them as well.
This. I agree with the sharpening advice, sharp knives rock.
A while back there was a disabled Vet who would run out of beer money at the end of the month so would roll his cart of knife sharpening stones and grinders to the corner market to make a few bucks. Everyone loved him, he did a fantastic job.
Then one day some whiney-assed flatlander got frightened by an old guy in a wheelchair sitting outside a store while sharpening a butcher knife and called the cops who gave the knife sharpening guy a warning about needing to get a permit and pay taxes.
And that boys and girls is why we can’t have nice things.
VBC curls up next to my pillow and starts to purr softly when I start moving. When I open my eyes, she starts purring louder than a lion would if they could purr. She also makes sure that I always have a piggy or sock monkey close to hand for when I need one.
You don’t have to be an old fart to order off the senior part of the menu. The portion sizes are smaller, but the food is more adult than the kids meals.
I didn’t notice that part, I’ll go back and look. I like him because he seems to like to piss off haters.
Welcome home FCM. Rest well and take a book with you to the hospital. VBC is still throwing Draco off the bed and I’m really trying to convince GG to bring it back up with him. He carries his furry balls around, Draco shouldn’t be a problem.
Well, of course! That’s why I am observing so closely. I noticed that they also took all of the skirting off, so I think today’s work involved taking all of that metal to the recycling place in the valley. All they did when they came back was to clean up a few things while a forgotten cordless drill was retrieved.
Some of the birds have found their way home, but not all of them. I haven’t seen any doves all day and they are regular visitors.
You sound so much happier, I’m so glad this is working out.
Evening all. Soccer game refereeing is all done, all three games went off without any problems, they were all close (1-0, 3-2 and 0-0) and the kids really tried hard. Temps were in the 70’s, so I got a lot of fresh air and running (mostly fast walking) in for 2+ hours. Have finished the Lean Cuisine Fettuchini Alfredo for dinner and will now sloth my way through the evening until bedtime.
Pilot, thanks for the clarification, but I still maintain she’s a saint and you’re not half-bad yourself. And we don’t have too many pigeons out here in suburbia land, it’s mostly squirrels that seem to be everywhere.
Awwww,shucks, folks, now I feel self-conscious. Just trying to get though life.
I’ve thought about a digital edition, but I’m still old-fashioned enough that I like to have actual newsprint in (and on) my hands. Eventally I’ll come around.
Wheelie, glad you got out and even more glad you got back.
Oopsie, sometimes a quiet Sunday is a good thing too.
Cupcakes, I am not a religious person at all, but I think I’d like your pastor.
JtC, hope the birdies come back.
FCM, welcome home and don’t worry about recounting things now, next week’s MMP is right around the corner. Rest up.
vroom, glad things are looking up!
Ok, need to finish up the weekend internetting, give brother a call, and in general slouch toward the new week. Take care all and I’ll catch you on the next MMP.
I kept meaning to come back to this with a link. I used virgin olive oil in the first batch of cookies I made because we don’t use vegetable oil often and what we had smelled pretty old. I liked how the olive oil helped the moisture content so have continued to use it.
Mom taught me how to make an expanding lattice pie crust way back when. I have only tried to do real lattice crusts twice and both times were not that successful.
Thank you, that was a very interesting rabbit hole
Hoomans almost wiped them out back in the 1960s, it is proper and right that we do what we can for them now.
Granite Dells is a really popular rock climbing destination and we can tell when the eagles are nesting because that’s when the Dells become female (no nuts hanging off them). The return of the eagles is front page news and breathlessly announced on the local radio. I think they usually have nest cams up in the spring but haven’t looked recently.
– so guests and table space are never a factor for me. In a way it’s a good thing, because my decor (sparse as it may be) can be all about my personal taste vs function. Heh.
