Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave.
Feel better, swampy!
Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 14c/58f with a predicted high of 17c/62f, and cloudy. Weather app has had a look at the sky and informs me that “Mammatus clouds get their fucking name from the Latin term for man tits.” OK, that’s me told!
We have our next named storm (Babet) coming through over the next couple of days. Yesterday was very windy, I went out last night and it was heaving down. The ladies who run the pub we went to had the fires lit so it was very cosy in there. It was still bucketing down when I got home but this morning it was more of a steady fall of something slightly more than drizzle but not quite rain. Forecast is still a bit unclear about where the worst of the weather’s going to be and when, we have a mix of red and yellow weather warnings for different bits of the country. My prediction is that it will be dry-ish all day until it’s time for me to go home. Then the deluge will start.
swampy hope you are feeling better today and you managed to get some rest.
{{{{{nellie}}}}} just so you remember we’re here and we’re thinking of you.
Cookie yay for remembering to exercise!
hippie that looks like another ambitious project, I’m sure it will look beautiful when it’s done.
Yesterday was a disappointing day for irk, didn’t achieve much and had to sit through meetings that really weren’t necessary. Today I may have more of the same, not sure. One of my minions was off sick yesterday but I have a feeling she’ll try to come in today. I hope she doesn’t because the symptoms she was reporting yesterday don’t sound like they’ll be over in a day and I think she’d be better off staying at home in the warm.
My spam folder had an email telling me I had a match on Tinder. Pretty amazing, since I’m not on Tinder! And no, I don’t read my spam email, but I do skim down the list just in case something ends up in there when it shouldn’t. Mostly it’s full of "Final Notice on < property address > " or “Your order has been processed” - yeah, right. But the Tinder one caught my eye. Heck, even if I happened to be single and looking, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be online.
It’s Wiggle Giggle day and I’m pretty sure we’ll go this time. Last week, he seemed a bit under the weather, but so far this week, he’s been rip-roariing and full of energy. And once we’re done there, I need to run to Food Lion for milk and 'nanners and maybe a few more things.
I also need to dig out my small slow cooker and make the pulled poke for MIL. So not a super busy day, but not totally lazy either.
Happy Thursday!
Can you contact her preemptively, and in the course of asking how she’s feeling, urge her not to come in & share her germs?
(I see your post was from a coupla hours ago, so this might be too late anyway.)
Good morning everyone.
It’s 48F and clear outside at the moment. We’ll have mixed sun and clouds throughout the day, with the high temp of the day being around 71F.
boofae, I do not like when people bring in their snuffly germs, which is another reason I dislike going to the office. It’s “just a cold”, well yeah, but then I catch it, and I don’t want to be freakin’ miserable so keep the snotty noses, sneezes, and coughs at home, PUH-LEASE.
nellie, I am sending you more hugs. Take care of yourself.
swampy, I hope you’re feeling better today.
Yesterday was another in-office day and it was pretty busy. I got through the day and I didn’t have any crises to manage, so that was a bonus! Although I have been pretty busy this week, I haven’t had anything really major go on, so although I’m on my own, it hasn’t been too miserable. I have been working extra hard to make sure there is nothing left undone for the MPA’s return next week. I know I can’t count on her to take care of stuff that I would normally handle in my absence, but I’ve been taking care of my stuff and hers this week and killin’ it. Today is my last day until Monday after next, and I’m looking forward to the time off. I am taking my work phone so I can keep on top of the emails, at least. I am not taking my laptop.
I like peas, but only fresh or frozen. I don’t like overcooked or canned peas. That’s just gross. There is nothing else like that slightly sweet, “green” flavor. I don’t like any canned veggies, or fruit, really. Canned fruit just tastes weird, and I hate the texture. Canned veggies are just salty and mushy. I do, however, buy canned tomato paste, sauce, or stewed tomatoes when I’m in a hurry. Yes, homemade is much better, but c’mon, sometimes I just don’t have hours and hours to make a dish.
Sending yays, hugs, and boos as appropriate to all of you. I have read, but not retained enough.
Time for another cup of coffee!
Mornin’ all. Been balconatin’, caffinatin’, and readin’ for about an hour and sunrise is right now. 67/19 on the way to 85/30 under totally clear skies. Welcome to Fall, Florida style.
Well beyond the horizon there were some puffy cumulus that were just poking up enough to see from here. Little broccoli bumps just poking out of the smooth featureless water. And right near where sunrise would be. So they got all brilliantly flame orange-rimmed against a light orange background for a couple of minutes; very pretty.
I’m a bit less than half a mile from the beach, and my view of the ocean is broken up by a couple of high rise condos between me and the shore. For the last 2 weeks-ish the sun had been rising in a gap. Today was the first day it rose entirely behind a building. Which is now becoming a dark silhouette surrounded by blazing yellow orange. It’s a condo eclipse of the sun. A few of the apartments have doors and blinds open all the way through so the bright light comes through the building in spots too. Sunrise will happen again here in a few minutes when the sun climbs above the building. And then I’ll be driven inside for sure.
In another week or so the sun will rise again out of the sea in my gap on the other side of that building. Fun to watch the tilt of Earth’s axis in action from day to day.
Back inside; the building delayed “sunrise” by 10 whole minutes.
Hot air balloons:
I never chased balloons, but when I lived at the edge of suburbia near St. Louis we often had single hot air balloons come by on quiet spring and fall mornings. Always a treat.
Albuquerque is by far the biggest balloon event in the USA, but this one in St. Louis is also pretty big: GFPBR St. Louis – Great Forest Park Balloon Race
We used to live a couple miles from the park where they launched. A couple of those years the wind was such that the whole pack would pass by our high rise. Quite the sight; they were all higher than we were, but we were high up in the tallest building nearby, so had an unobstructed view of about 270 degrees of horizon. Which was filled with nearby balloons for a few minutes.
Here’s cow hot air balloon - Google Search which has lots of pix, plus bonus pix of a giant flying udder and also a barn. Balloonists are silly.
Zoomie: congrats on a great start! And on non-yelling bosses.
Considering what you’ve said about the condition of that trailer, are you folks sure they won’t take it out and drop a new one in the spot? Whatever they do, here’s hoping it’s good for you. There’s definitely a tradeoff between how much they improve the place (or don’t) and what sort of tenants they get. You’re damned if they do and damned …
Yeah. Back in the day our habit was to buy a couple-3 bags of the stuff when it first appeared in the stores, eat all of that well before Halloween, then buy the appropriate supply just a couple days before to give to the kids. By then we were completely cheap-chocolated out, so no desire to snitch from the final supply. Didn’t worry abut sugar or calories at all back in those wonderful days of comparative youth. Sigh.
I mentioned about a week ago that I’d bought a bag of Reese’s PB pumpkins. So far I’ve had two, and not both on the same day. Yaay me. So far.
My only experience with non-factory eggs was a social group I belonged to where one person raised chickens and brought in eggs to sell on the side. A totally different experience both in the shells and in the contents. Sooo much better. He lived in a forest and his chickens ate mostly wild forage & insects. The bug-heavy high protein diet made the yolks amazingly dark & rich. Or so he said. I can vouch for dark & rich & tasty, but not for why.
Boring is nice for a change. So’s fast close.
Full tummies at no cost are also nice. Helps offset a certain Texas Roadhouse habit you’re trying to avoid. My irk was like that too. Some days they’d feed us so much you had no need to spend a nickel from wake-up to bed-time and were turning away food. Other days there was nothing to eat and almost no opportunity to get any from wake-up to bed-time. Don’t miss those latter days.
I’ve been meaning to ask, what exactly is Wiggle Giggle day? Sounds adorable whatever it is.
Good luck with MIL’s pulled poke. Gonna be excellent no doubt.
Both of these things.
If COVID did one good thing, it was habituate more people to not coming to irk while sick. Not everyone, but more people. Enjoy it while we can because within another couple / few years that habit will have died out again.
And yes, {{{Nellie}}}. Whatever it is, it’s better with friends.
As to me:
No plans for the day. Probably a beach, maybe a groc. Her Ladyship has a class at the library right at peak beach time so that will dovetail nicely.
Cheers all as we slide into the downhill part of the irkweek for those who irk the usual schedule.
It’s story and game time for toddlers. They march around, maybe jump or dance, do some group games, have a story, then they bring out a bin of toys and they have free play for about 15 minutes. Then we go home. Short and sweet, except when I have to get on the floor…
Morning all. A fairly comfortable night, woke about 3:30am to what seemed to be a light in the window and had to get up to check it (it was nothing, probably more imagination than anything), then back to sleep until 7:30. 50/50 chance of rain today, so soccer practice may not occur, will just have to see what happens. 59F heading for 71F so temperature-wise it will be a good day. Outside of the daily gym trip and soccer, not much else on the agenda; have already paid the monthly credit card bills first thing this morning and will have to get the garbage and recycle cans back in the garage once they are emptied, but that’s about it.
vroom, glad the work is going pretty well at the start, hope the clients stay nice. And as for warm winters, I lived in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates for 4 years and winter there was when the temperature got below 75F. I’d be out in shirtsleeves and the Arab population would have heavy jackets on…
In my defense, I do like celery, carrots, corn (on the cob especially), lettuce, tomatoes and on occasion broccoli.
JtC, I fear that any chocolate, be it high or low priced, is not safe from me. Fortunately I bought two bags so should have enough left for the kids. And interesting as to diet and egg color. Hope the javalinas get properly hydrated.
boo fae, I’d say stay dry, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Hope the sickie stayed home as others have suggested.
shoe, slow days are nice, but hopefully not to many slow days in a row (got to keep your hours up to afford that Roadhouse).
Taters, glad work is going well. Enjoy your time off, I suspect it will be…interesting…when you come back.
Pilot, have never lived in a high-rise or around a bunch of high-rises, but that is an interesting perspective of the sunrise, thank you for that. And I lived in Florissant, MO north of St. Louis until 1987 and don’t remember the balloon event…my loss.
FCM, know what you mean about getting on the floor, which I can manage…getting back up again is the real adventure…
OK, onward into the day. A happy Thorsday to all.
It’s b-a-a-a-ck! Four cases of covid in the building, including one of the staff. All activities are cancelled, including exercise (grumble). Luckily, we don’t mingle much nor eat in the dining room. Tested negative this morning. The fates continue to plot against my knee. On top of which, the newspaper forgot to include the section with the crossword puzzles. When does my agony end?
Hash browns and over easy eggs this morning, along with a sliced up Cortland apple. I ordered an electric water kettle after the wife tried to melt a pot on the stove a few days ago while heating water for tea. She has an alarming habit of putting something on to heat or in the toaster to brown and then walking away to fuss around on the computer. It’s worth the $30 to keep from having the FD show up at the door.
Cross-stitch FTW!
Some of it was my own food - black bean soup, random candies, a mini bag of doritos - but my manager had to make a produce run, mostly lettuce and tomato for our subs, and on a whim picked up a tray of mixed fruit for us. So healthy!
… she also started up the Halloween candy run, which knowing this crew will entail many, many more bags before it’s all over. She knows how to bribe motivate her employees.
Speaking of beans and fruit (and beans being the musical fruit!) here’s a fun riddle:
If a Shoe farts in a noisy kitchen with powerful exhaust fans, and whoever is idling at the drive-thru is smogging us all out with a heady combo of diesel and pot fumes, does the fart even matter?
Treated myself to a McD breakfast bagel. Yeah, yeah, I know; they’re not exactly haute cuisine. Barely counts as a bagel, really. But just like those greasy “taco” abominations at Jack in the Box (ye gods, I miss those things) sometimes familiar crap just hits the spot.
Supervised my furry delinquent for a brief jingle-bell outing, and he’s now enjoying his gooshy-food while I have a hot cuppa post greasy breakfast. I tossed some peanuts out while he was glaring at the drizzle, so the blue jay brigade is entertaining me by doing their flashy, noisy thing.
I’m owed a few more hours of sleep, and the gray, drippy weather is certainly conducive.
Speaking of sleep, here’s the furry delinquent from his most recent photo shoot. (I’d draped a blanket over the chair so it could finish drying, and, well … cat ensued.)
He looks like his front leg is broken, but that’s actually his back leg. He also sometimes sleeps in what I call “the sploot” which looks like a drunk 20-year-old desperately clutching the bathroom floor to keep from falling off.
Title says “splotches” because I didn’t notice autocorrect. The proper word is “sploot.”
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and, well up. That’s all I got to say about that. ‘Tis 66 Amurrkin out and N.O.S. with a predicted high of 75 and N.O.S. for the day. Thanks for all the well wishes. I am slowly returnin’ to the land of the livin’. I predict today to be a day of gettin’ over it all with intermittent nappage. I et some peanut butter on toast, the first thing I’ve eaten since a piece of dry toast yestiddy. So, things are lookin’ up maybe? I took some homemade chikin noodle soup outta da freezer to eat later should the urge arise. Poor OYKW has been left to his own devices to feed himself. However, he looks none the worse for wear.
Yeah. Although I’ve done similar a time or three over the years myself. Computers are attractive nuisances like that.
As aged MIL got older and more forgetful we got her a coffee maker where the warming plate timed out and an electric water kettle with the same feature. A nice thing about toasters, toaster ovens, and microwaves is they’re inherently timer-based. None I know of will run indefinitely. At worst she’d come back to cold toast or soup an hour (or day!) later.
Fortunately we never had to disable MIL’s range; she became happier with microwave & toaster oven and just stopped using the range. Or so she said.
Another closely related issue was to ensure the fridge and freezer doors both had a strong tendency to swing shut. Too easy to give it a gentle push towards closed (or not), turn your back, and never notice the door was ajar until tomorrow.
Sorry about the COVID resurgence. Here’s hoping you can keep the knee moving on your own; you certainly have the personal discipline and motivation to succeed at it. Unlike me of late. I gotta get back on the exercise wagon.
I ate an awful lot of original Egg McMuffins at airport McD’s well before sunrise. Their English muffins are decent, but their bagels are shite.
There is a reason black cats are considered Evil. One look at that face and we can see the mischief written all over. 
So yesterday was utter chaos again, I got covered in yellow toner dust, and the FT sups waited till everybody left to bring me 5 carts of damages and rewraps. Today was slightly better. One thing we have is the “Fraud Intercept” department, that will reroute packages containing counterfeit stuff or illegally purchased stuff to the cornfield Kansas City. TIL that there such a thing as counterfeit ramen noodles 
Also, I prefer frozen or fresh veggies, but canned LeSuer peas aren’t bad(and of course canned tomato products).
Ah. I had an image of Tobais running around with this in his mouth:
< skritches sleeping Monkey >
Wish I could say the same. Even before she left Fl, she was forgetting pots on the stove or falling asleep while cooking. Not sure that we can do anything about it. Last time it happened, someone on staff came racing to her apt, so I suspect she’s not the only one to do that.
Wiggle Giggle was cut short for no particular reason. New volunteer who wanted to be done I guess. It did give me an extra 5 minutes to shop.
After lunch while Tobias played in the truck, I cleaned behind both truck seats. Lots of trash that missed the trash can, but it’s tidy now.
MIL’s poke is smelling yum. I’ll shred it and bag it when I get back from getting Roxy. Not sure what we’re having for supper. Maybe eggs?
Started Typing: 2:00 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 3:12 PM ET
The rest of yesterday went alright. 
My property manager’s brother (PMB) wound up coming back at right around 6pm: despite having the windows open for several hours the walls weren’t quite dry yet, but he used a heat gun for a bit and threw another coat of drywall on both spots. At his suggestion I set up a fan in one room (with the smallest repair) to blow on the wall overnight, and my oil radiator in the other room (and closed that door). He was done in less than an hour, and I spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Bailey and watching TV. PMB says he’s coming back today, but doesn’t know when – but he knows that I have to leave at 5pm (to go to the gym), so the window is rapidly closing.
Speaking of the gym, I managed to forget to update my credit card info with them after the recent compromise/replacement! 
The monthly membership fee gets withdrawn from my checking account, but the monthly personal training charge goes on my credit card. I just got a friendly email from the fitness director; I’ll update that info with my trainer this evening. This morning I also got a friendly email from Hulu: I could swear I updated them when I got the new card, but apparently not. I switched them to PayPal, and my entertainment options remain unrestricted. Phew. 
Today’s lunch was (partly) disappointing: the Gala apple was yummy, but I tried a Lean Cuisine chicken enchilada for the first time and it neither smelled nor tasted good. Bleh. 
It was worth a shot, though, to possibly expand my freezer’s repertoire. Happily, I still have several tried-and-true El Monterey beef enchiladas standing by.
Whenever PMB comes back, I plan to float the idea of maybe not painting the wall in the home office. He already told me that he might not be able to find a perfect color match, plus whenever I move out they’ll have to repaint the whole interior anyway, and since the desk will be in front of the repair I really won’t care if it’s painted. And, I’d like to be able to move the desk back into place sooner rather than later. I also kind of don’t care whether the patch in the third bedroom gets painted; I may suggest skipping the whole paint thing entirely. That area will be more visible, though, so I’ll let him do it if he wants. (I mean, I’ll let him do both if he wants, since it’s not my house, but…you know what I mean!)
If I can still be friends with you after you categorized sweet potato pie as a “fruit pie,” you can forgive MetalMouse for not liking peas.
Same! I do a quick scan just in case, then delete everything.
I keep thinking about jumping back into the online dating thing, but it will not be Tinder!
(Apparently singles over 50 have the best luck with Match, so when the time comes I’ll start there; I figure I’ll also set up an OKCupid profile, just because that’s what I’ve used before and it can’t hurt.)
For me, McD’s breakfast has always been a sausage biscuit and hash browns. Soooo yummmmy. I don’t think I’ve gone to a McD’s since my bariatric surgery (almost two years ago)…the time may be nigh!
(Not bragging/being holier-than-thou: I’ve been to other fast food joints, just not McD’s…yet.)
I’m failing to imagine what that might be…they look like ramen but are actually gluten free??
I dunno, you can add at least a 50% markup to anything labeled “gluten free.”
Oh, I forgot! Quick funny story time, while I snarf down my pot pie. I wasn’t there, but heard … repeatedly …
Guy comes in, saying his pizza was messed up. Manager asks if he has it with him. (We do need you to return the food, if you want a refund/remake. For what I hope are obvious reasons.)
He says, “No.” Goes on to say what was supposed to be on the pizza, says he picked it up “11:45 a.m. for lunchtime.”
Manager says, “I’m sorry, what time?”
He’s adamant. Got the pizza HERE at 11:45. Repeats himself, even.
Manager telling us the story was like, “I’ve never been so happy to tell someone we open at 4 p.m.”
I’ve had a very frustrating week - mostly centered around first world problems - but I’m a goddamned funk. So in about ten minutes I’m taking off for a mini-road trip. I’m heading off to Crater Lake. I’ve lived in Oregon for more than a year now and I’ve never been. I should be there in about four hours. See you there if you want to join me.
Crater Lake is good for the soul. You’ll be very glad you went. Good luck recharging.
Never been to Crater Lake, J-Bats, but it’s definitely on my to-do list (at this rate I’m going to have to live to 124…). Sometimes a road trip is just what you need.
Shoe, interesting that the place you work isn’t open for any lunch-time business. Great story. And nice picture.
Oopsie, you do know your board messages (at least on my computer) is showing when you started and completed your reply? Hope PMB gets there in time.
doggio, well, the big question is, do you look good in yellow toner dust??
Cookie, continued good health to you and the Missus. And no crosswords… 
Well, got ready to go to the gym, drove over there, and…discovered I had forgot to put my gym shorts on, so just came on back home. To make up for it I have signed up to referee 7 soccer games Friday through Sunday, the U9’s are having a tournament and I’ll keep busy chasing them. Will try not to forget my gym shorts for that occasion…
Need to get stuff ready; I told my 12U team I would bring a "box with many things’ with me today, stuff I’ve gotten on my many trips/vacations, mostly tourist stuff but it should get a few ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the boys. With nearly 2 months of practicing in, not much new I can teach them in an hour, so have a little fun instead.
Onward into the day. Take care all.
Yes! I started adding that info at the top of my posts: it always take me at least an hour to draft one, and if I start one with “it’s X degrees at Y time” I always feel the need to update that info right before I click “reply.” I’d also change “good morning” greetings if I didn’t click “reply” until the afternoon, etc. I’m sure no one else gives a good g-d about this stuff, but I figured I’d start including the “started typing/clicked reply” info. It actually helps me do way less self-editing. 
I hope it doesn’t annoy anyone, though!