I think the State Dept just wants to shake us down for an extra $60 each to get the process expedited.
FCD just got to SC - he said there was all kinds of construction and some accidents in NC. He’s hoping to make it to GA before he stops, but who knows… Meanwhile, I need supper.
Chefguy, that recipe looks incredible. My new plan is to take that with me in an RV and drive around eating tacos.
In other (not so interesting news), the argument hath blown over for the most part. The kids are running about outside on their bikes. Today has been my daughter’s first taste of real freedom on her bike - I let the kids go to the store with some money and masks. They got a boatload of chips and drinks, came home and used the facilities then sped off to parts unknown (well, I know where they’re going but it involves crossing a busy street at a very thankfully reliable intersection, so I’ll just pretend not to know until after).
Before she left, the girl she said it was the absolute best day of her life.
And I was right. Hot damn, but that’s a tasty way to do things. Dipping the torts and then filling and frying in a dry non-stick pan is the only way to go. Also using the stew liquid as a dip is killer. I’m not a big fan of cilantro, but in this case it really complements the dish.
I enjoyed the thought of her day all the way up here (or over here, whichever I am). And I heartily endorse your parental wisdom in not ‘knowing’ where they are going until they are safely back. That adds to the fun for them and it’s SPRING! busting out all over.
Howdy Y’all! I have had adventure today! OK, adventure may not quite be the most suitable word. Groceries got procured, I went over to the church house to do church janitor Junior Warden duties and get the storage room cleared for the HVAC folks. Then back to da cave. Around three I get a call from the HVAC folks sayin’ they were on the way over to deliver stuff and get started on tearin’ out stuff. Joy. So I betake myself back over to deal. Meanwhile, a group of ladies are in the Parish Hall puttin’ Easter baskets (really nice ones, I might add) together and the Finance Committee is meetin’ in the All Saints Room, a room just off the Parish Hall. Needless to say, all that and yankin’ out old HVAC stuff made for some fun and noisy times. Fortunately the ladies and the Finance Committee were almost done, so it was not too bad. They got all the old stuff yanked out and even got the new condenser units set in place, so yay for that. On the upside, they will be finished tomorrow which is good because Firday promises to be a rainy and stormy day. Thus was my adventure. Sup ended up bein’ majik intartoobz pizza cause neither of us wanted to deal with makin’ anything.
{{{MOOOOOOM, FCD, and FCD 'rents}}} this is no fun at all. Good on FCD for headin’ on down.
{{{Taters}} just cause it looks like you could use a hug.
BooFae re performance reviews, better thee than me. I had my fill of dealin’ with that durin’ my irklife.
Mrs. L.A. had an appetiser assortment from the Thai place. I had yum neua (five stars) and one chicken satay. I have three more satays, and I’ll have my tom kha gai (three stars) tomorrow.
bob_bob, I’ve never had civet poop coffee, but the ~1# that I swept up will not go to waste. 
taters, I feel for you on the cow-orker front. I dealt with one of those for 15 years until she got fired / quit / retired. It’s nice not having to listen to her anymore.
Yay shoe!
{{{FCFamily}}}
Irked, came home, went to get my taxes done, swung through the cheap Chinese place down the street for some house special soup and an aigroll and came home. Other than doing the menu planning and making a grocery list, there’s nothing planned for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow, I get shot. 
Stay safe and healthy y’all!
Evening all. Soccer has been practiced, had 12 out of 14 kids there on short notice, so I think the parents wanted them out of the house after almost two weeks of rainy weather. Tomorrow is predicted to be very stormy, wind, hail and a tornado or two in the state, so glad I got my exercise today, looks like battening down the hatches tomorrow. Let JJ’s take care of dinner, will make it up tomorrow by eating in.
swampy, glad it all worked out and hope our Thorsday storms don’t get there to early.
{{{{Fairy Chat Family}}}}. That drive has got to be wearing; hope he stops for the night soon.
talky, glad things are settled down; and may girl-unit have many best days in her life.
OK, need to adjust heater and be thinking about bedtimes. All y’all take care.
You got me there. Thanks for the correction!
Gotta go to the store before my first meeting. And then more shopping later, now that the car’s back from the shop (short version).
Long version:
In October we changed the tires to winter tires.
In December, two days before Christmas, we got a warning light.
Forgot about it.
Went to work on January 6th and remembered the light, because it lit up again.
Took it to the shop and got the yearly service done as well.
Drove it to work once more. No light.
Four weeks in the garage.
Drove it to Burger King. Hey, look the light’s on again!
Took it to the garage. Waited, brought it back home.
Five weeks in the garage.
Dead battery. And it’s time to put the summer tires on. Had the garage pick it up and bring it back, and there’s 4 crates of empty coke bottles to take to the beverage center. So now we can go to the beverage center.
Happy Thursday!
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to…sort? Heave? Stuff pigs? The world wonders!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 61 Amurrkin out and partly cloudy with a predicted high of 88 and maybe mostly N.O.S. or mostly cloudy for the day. TWPTB are bein’ willy-nilly once again. Today 'tis back to the church house for round two of HVAC installation and round one of mowage. I have no idea how long the HVAC stuff will take but I do know I figure on mowage for three or four hours. Then on Sattidy, the rest of the mowage will take place. Tomorrow we are supposed to get what MetalMouse will get today. We shall see. Sup shall be the beastloaf, green beans, mac 'n cheese and rolls we didn’t make yestiddy. OYKW can handle it if’n I’m gone most of the day.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I must needs make myself somewhat presentable, I suppose. I needn’t look exactly acceptable to be seen in public cause of mowage, but rather be at least hygienic to start the day.
Happy Thursday Y’all!
Morning, mumpers! It’s bright and shiny outside again today, looks almost pleasant. Weather app says “It’s cloudy and you’ll fucking like it” and promises me 10C/50F up to 13C/55F, mostly cloudy. Still means it could be a good day for a short lunchtime walk.
I’ve already had one meeting this morning, got another one in half an hour, and all all-staff briefing thing this afternoon. One thing to be discussed at the afternoon meeting will be the return to campus. Chances are that buildings will start to open from 12th April (depending on our next Bumbling Buffoon review) and when the easter break finishes for students, they may be able to have some in-person teaching. That means we’ll need staff in the offices so we’ll need to work out who, when and where, and also do all the individual return meetings, document everything and work out a rota. We’ve also got two new staff who will need desk space and desktop PCs set up. More joy.
Moooom and the FC Family I’m sorry to hear about FIL and that FCD has had to rush back to FL. It sounds like they should be moving closer to moving out! Will this one be the wake-up call for them? It’s good that his brother can stay with them until FCD gets there, perhaps they can have a little family conference about it.
Our passports expire in April, we’re not bothering to renew them until there’s any likelihood we could go abroad. I doubt that will happen this year and there’s no point paying to renew a passport I’m not able to use. Frankly, until the rest of the travelling population gets vaccinated, we’re unlikely to be leaving the country. I’m not hugely bothered about that, there are plenty of places in the UK that we can visit and it’s far less hassle (for me) than going abroad. As the only driver, I very rarely get a holiday where I’m not driving almost every day (our US trips tend to be pretty long road trips) so it would be very nice for me to get a real break. Selfish, perhaps, but there are times when I do need a proper break.
talky sounds like an ideal day for everyone there, when I was a kid we used to take off on our bikes for the day too. Mum had an idea of where we’d be, we had instructions to stay together and not to go down certain routes, other than that, she didn’t want any details. We had fun, she had some peace!
Right…better get some notes together for meeting two in the daily round of fun and excitement.
FCD stopped near Savannah last night, and he crossed into FL just before 7 this morning. He should get to his folks’ place between 9 and 10. Then he can start to figure out what has to be done. I looked into flights to either Jax or Tampa, in case he needs me to join him. I hope I don’t have to, but one never knows…
Very foggy hereabouts this morning. It’s supposed to get close to 70° today, but not much chance of sun. A little later this morning, I’ll haul the sacks of manure compost from my car to the back and mix it in the 2 raised beds. That may be the extent of my gardening today. I also need to call about our truck. They haven’t been able to duplicate the vibrations or find anything wrong. Maybe it was just slightly flat-on-the-bottom tires, since it mostly sits and we did have some really cold mornings. I’ll see if my daughter will swing by after school today to take me over to the shop.
That’s the extent of today’s plans. So far.
Happy Thursday!
Just saw my blood work numbers - cholesterol shot way up, so back on the lipitor for me for sure. I’m waiting to hear from the doc, to see if she wants to change the dosage. But it looks like it’s beyond just diet and exercise, as I kinda expected. So now we know.
I am sending big hugs to you and the family, FCM. I really hope that a solution that is ideal for everyone can be found for the in-laws. Sorry too, about your bloodwork. Thank goodness for modern medicine, though.
Well, I knew signing on to my work computer would bring me woe, and it did. I need to have my quarterly accomplishments to my boss by TODAY and yesterday brought me all sorts of fresh hell with regard to fires; must-have NOWs, and just plain work. I have to get these accomplishments done before COB tomorrow. I had planned on just working on the things yesterday evening, and I did work for 1.5 hours beyond my norm, but I was just done. I didn’t even get to start working on the accomplishments until 4:30 and I’m usually off at 4:00. It’s not like it’s a full-on rating, but it is a quarterly review, so I need to get some good stuff in there. I hope today is a much better day.
It’s wet outside; I know this because Polar is damp. I have no idea what the weather is supposed to be for today or the weekend.
Tomorrow will be filled with paying bills, errands, and maybe (depending on my knee) getting some miles in. Definitely not 10, but some. I need to get some exercise!
Wait, you dye the innards?! How, please and thanks?
Also, since you seem trustworthy, what’s in YOUR deviled egg filling recipe? (Asking, uh, for a friend.)
Oooooh, big spender. Big spender!
(Oh, so that’s how you do a strikethru?? Must try out, posthaste.)
Word on the street the IRS website is that any unreceived stimulus $ will materialize in the form of a tax refund.
This is me, not holding my breath or feeling particularly optimistic about that one.
I’m so sorry. We all - including you - saw this coming a mile away. Doesn’t make the inevitable any less unpleasant.
My very best wishes to all y’all.
What, the “putting on jammies” part? Yeah, me neither .. but that’s not any of y’all’s business.
I see my dinner invitation was lost in the mail. I shall beat my man-servant soundly for this transgression!
D’awwww.
Hens cackling and accountants grumbling. I can hear them from here! 
Here’s how to color the boiled whites. As for the filling, I use a glop of mayo, a smaller bloop of yellow mustard, some onion salt, and some pickle relish. Or in response to special requests, I do this. I don’t like the special request recipe, but lots of other folks do.
Dr’s office called - they want me to go back on half the statin dosage I was on and get retested in 3 months. So we’ll see how that goes. My bad cholesterol is supposed to stay under 100, but it was at 143, so, better living thru chemistry.
And now, to boil some eggs.
Mrs Magill got her chemo pump put in yesterday. She’s feeling okay. She was able to keep her breakfast down… mostly. I just finished making some (low sugar) boiled custard for her. My sister practically lived on it when she had her chemo a couple of years ago. I think Mrs Magill has been thankful for my sister’s support.
The doctor approved the In-laws’ visit, so they should be down for Holy Week and Easter. I’m hoping my FIL will be okay with the Episcopal service over YouTube, rather than the in person Catholic service. I don’t think they’re using masks at the local Catholic church.
Raining and thundering here in Middle Tennessee. Usually, I would say we need the rain, but we don’t. We really, really don’t.
Stay safe and dry, folks.
Morning all. Woke to rain at 7am and it’s still raining outside…and according to the weather reports, the really bad weather will be this afternoon. So need to get out and do some banking here shortly and then bunker up.
Wizard, glad Mrs. Wizard’s parents can come to help, and what is wrong with that parish anyway–even in N. Ali-bama the churches know better…
FCM, hope FCD doesn’t find things to bad; and enjoy the statin…
Taters, take your time and things will get done. As for your quarterlies, just do what I always did: Bulls***.
This talk of passports made me dig mine out, turns out I’m good until 2026, which since I still haven’t acquired a “Star ID” license yet, I may need it for domestic travel too.
OK, need to get minimally dressed and off to the bank (since I do my transactions from the remote window, dressage is not that important…). Take care all.
Unfortunately, it’s worse than he expected and his mom has dug in her heels worse than ever. He said when he got there, his dad was lying in bed and he looked like a corpse. He can no longer walk, even with a walker. And apparently getting medical appointments there is insane - it’s as if the doctors schedule appointments weeks and months out, hoping the patients will die in the interim.
I googled available resources in their county and sent the info to FCD but I don’t expect it’ll do much good. In my totally unprofessional opinion, I think FIL is just tired and probably just wants to die, and MIL refuses to even consider that. She thinks all he needs is back surgery and everything will be fine - as if anyone would operate on him and as if back surgery has anything to do with Parkinson’s or dementia. She’s desperate and she can’t think straight, nor will she consider that she’s wrong. I feel so sorry for my husband having to deal with this. And I feel helpless to to anything - even offer advice.
It would be a blessing if FIL just went to sleep and didn’t wake up…