It's Wet and Wild in the MMP: old

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Good morning.

It’s 49F and super wet outside. The expected high is 50F and rain will continue to fall throughout the day. There is flooding everywhere, and areas up north got it bad in all the usual spots by the Stillaguamish river and other points around. My backyard is very, very squishy and I sit on a hill. I spent a lot time standing out in the rain with the pups so they’d do their business.

My day started before 3:00 a.m. I heard the pups moving and crying a little, so I got up and took them outside to potty. They pottied, I put them in the pen, and then I went upstairs to shower and get myself looking presentable for another workday. I came downstairs and the pups wanted out again, so I stood in the rain (again) while they did their business. Made coffee, read the news, another outside potty/play break for the pups and now they’re finally sleeping so I can enjoy my second cup of coffee in peace.

My sister is into genealogy and traced my father’s line back quite a ways, but I am unsure of how far back she has gone on my mother’s side. We have royalty on my mother’s side, but it’s many generations back. We knew this before my sister got into genealogy. I don’t really spend a lot of time talking to H about it, we rarely talk, to be honest.

My docking station was delivered sometime after midnight. It’s a good thing my front porch is covered, but even so, the box was a little damp feeling. It was supposed to be delivered sometime between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. yesterday, but of course, Amazon pulled their usual shit stating the package would be late. I pay for Prime and I’m really sick of this crap. Bah, the stupid docking station is here, and now I can plug both monitors in. I was able to hook up one of my external monitors to my laptop, by my laptop screen is tiny, and it was still useless trying to work with multiple screens yesterday.

The state electrical inspector finally showed up yesterday to inspect my new furnace and the electrical panel. Now the company that installed the furnace needs to come back out, but I doubt they will because they were supposed to show up last week and never did. I’m not going to chase them down. The furnace is working, it passed both the mechanical and electrical inspections, and I’m sick of waiting for people to come to my house to fix or inspect things.

I have a long to-do list for work for today, but I am hopeful tomorrow will be a little more quiet. I’m off on Friday, but the day will be busy: hair appointment, a trip to PetSmart to return a couple of items we didn’t need, and a couple of other errands. The pups have their first appointment with my vet on Saturday, so that day will be busy too because there will be chores to accomplish and some more shopping to do. I hope the following weekend is a little more quiet.

We haven’t had a good Chinese place out here in years. I miss good Chinese food.

Well, I should finish my coffee, and start tidying the kitchen. I’ll need to feed the pups soon too. I’m not going to wake them up to feed them, though.

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Brought back a memory of my former M-I-L, who would do that same thing. They lived up on the Iron Range and winters were reliably below freezing. She’d make a big pot of turkey soup and just stick it out on the enclosed (and unheated) porch. I remember thinking how clever that was, and what a nice lady she was.

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Morning all. Have done one of the things on my weekly agenda, checking the credit card balances on-line (I try to do that every week at least once) and they aren’t as bad as I thought, they are still within the parameters of my monthly budget…whether they will stay that way is an open question… Cooler today, 39F heading for 49F but supposed to get to near 60F tomorrow, this is a December I can manage, albeit as a harbringer of Global Warming/Climate Change it is not necessarily a good thing (/end poli-ticking). Not much else on the agenda, garbage needs to get out to the curb tonight and since it won’t move itself…

Had an uncle who did some tracing of my Mom’s family back in Germany, but his records pretty much disappeared when he passed away in the 1980’s, so no idea what he found out and no interest in ever finding out, just not an interesting topic to me…but if you enjoy it, go for it!! No horse thieves as far as I know, but some of my Mom’s German relatives did migrate here after the 1848 uprisings in Europe so their may have been sh**-stirrers somewhere in her family lineage (my Dad’s family was Irish heritage, you know there was some troublemakers there…).

Good on ya, we all should do that once in awhile.

Landmines??

JtC, cats is weird. And like you and Pilot, I know a restaurant not far from me that has changed owners and names several times. Oddest change was swampy’s favorite Buffet, Golden Corral, which was a victim here of COVID, it was shut down for about a year and re-opened as a Mexican Restaurant…

FCM, enjoy dinner and that Apple Cake does sound intriguing.

Taters, the pups training of you seems to be progressing well. Glad the docking station made it, damp or not. And yeah, I’m finding out Furnace/HVAC folks are not always the most dependable and certainly not the cheapest options…

OK, need to be on with the day. Take care all and have a good Hump Day (which goes well with boning turkeys, if you know what I mean…)

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It’s called a one-bowl apple cake. Everything goes into one bowl and gets mixed together, then dumped in a greased pan to bake. I drizzled icing on it, just because.

The pasta bake is assembled and in the fridge. It’ll go in the oven later for supper. And I’ll do green beans for the side. Nice, healthy supper.

Meanwhile, Tobias and I are having basement time.

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I tried resisting but one had floral motifs like sunflowers, our state flower, and it also was supposed to support Ukraine. The other had dachshunds, and when I saw it I knew I was lost.

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a bowl!! what fun!

you can use it to hold fruit (clementines or mandarin oranges), balls of yarn, cute crocheted animals, if you put a plant into a baggy it can be housed in the bowl.

so many options!

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Supposedly it was 43 trailers and 93k packages, but it didn’t feel like it. Nothing worse than the dread of waiting for something bad to happen, and it doesn’t. :crazy_face:

I’m on Preload, so I’m staying. I’m not gonna add an hour to my commute for no reason.

That song always reminds me of the mall zombie shootout in *Night of the Comet"
“Daddy would have gotten us Uzis.”

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A really dreadful movie that I love! Some films are like that, just for fun with no redeeming qualities.

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I see nothing wrong with the occasional bit of cinematic junk food. :slight_smile:

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I took a bottle and an egg carton into the back bedroom to put them in recycling. I heard water and I thought, ‘Man, it’s really raining outside!’ I turned and I saw steam in the room. Our water heater is in there. I opened the door to the very stoutly (and ‘perfect’) closet I’d built and was sprayed with water from a cracked pipe at the top of the water heater. I wrapped it with Gorilla tape so at least it wasn’t spraying, then went out to the street to turn the water off. So we have no water in the house.

I called a plumber (different one from the one we used before), and he says he can come out and replace the water heater today. It’s going to cost $1,600 because the new heaters are all ‘smart’ heaters and are a little more expensive.

I’m still paying for the new concrete ($2,000) and the last plumbing job ($3,000) from Summer. The last plumbing job was a clogged pipe. The plumber had to dig up the clean-out that had been damaged when a tree was removed. I don’t think it should have cost three kilobucks. Hence, trying a new plumber.

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Let her see you using it while she’s visiting (key holder/place to dump change from pockets, perhaps?) and then re-gift it later once she’s gone.

Handmade stuff is an easy gift - you don’t even need to know the recipient’s shoe size or anything!

I bet that makes a pretty pie crust. I’ve always loved sunflowers.

Alright, I need to get my shit together poop in a group.

My main plans/goals for today are:

  • drop off an Amazon purchase at the UPS store to return it
  • go to a local wee lil’ Gifte Shoppe for some yet-to-be-identified items for my Secret Santa
  • toss/replace Monkey’s :poop: box

I really feel like there was a 4th item, but hell if I can remember it now.

Yesterday was a pisser. A couple of nights ago, I hit a pothole, badly, while distracted from the otherwise empty road by pretty Christmas lights. Figured I’d probably effed up the alignment or something.

Came out Monday to run some of the above mentioned errands, to a completely flat tire. Like, on the rim. Undriveable.

Stood there looking at it, thinking … “Shit, now what?”

Turns out, there’s a mobile tire repair/replacement service. I did not know this was a thing.

However, my phone is shut off. I have internet, but can’t use phone services (the wolves started howling too loudly) and I realized I don’t really call anyone besides Former G.C. and occasionally, Chinese food, so that’s just not been a priority.

So there was this whole rigamarole where I texted Sweet Manager begging her to call them for me, some back and forth ensued, and then Tuesday, a very nice man came right to my driveway and - after $$ that really wasn’t in my budget, but what could I do? - he promptly made everything better.

Also, I learned 1a.) that there exists such a thing as a lug nut key, and 2b.) where it is hidden in my car.
Having driven across the country while sleeping in my car, that ^^ might have been useful information to know earlier. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

He also told me to tell Sweet Manager that she was very nice and so easy to work with, and I was like, “Dude … that I already knew.”
But I did tell her anyway, and gave her a big hug to thank her for helping me out of yet another jam.

Alright, Monkey just defiled the already, um, busy litter box - seriously, how much can one cat poop? - so I suppose I should get on with it.

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I am so sorry, that absolutely suxxx.

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Eating would probably be good. :slight_smile:

My two seem to have excretion contests, and Buddy has been known to hop into the box and use it WHILE I’m scooping.

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And on top of the plumbing issue and waiting to pick up the motorcycle tank, it’s the busiest time of the month at irk… and I’m getting bombarded by more than the usual datalanche. And Easytrieve has been wonky lately. Many of my Sort programs have stopped working. So I have to copy the code into Notepad, copy it from Notepad (for some reason), paste it into a new program window, save it in my Test folder, compile it and make sure it works, then save it to the Production folder with a different name from the existing program, compile it, and run it. Pain in the arse. And we can’t get a new Easytrieve program because support was costing about $2,500 per year and it was discontinued when El Jefe replaced the retired Jefe.

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And it just became afternoon here, they set of the Town Siren at noon every Wednesday (why, I don’t know, but it helps me calibrate my watches/clocks). Will head off to do my swimming laps once lunch has settled in comfortably in my belly.

flyboy, as a fellow water-problem sufferer, I feel for you. Hope the plumber does a good job on the installation, my heater is in the garage and I do keep an eye on it. I’ve got a leak detection company coming tomorrow to hopefully find the leak and then I’ll go back to my plumber, they have done a good job so far and been reasonably (as reasonably as anything is these days) priced. Hope nothing else goes wrong.

shoe, glad you could get the tired repaired and that you have a manager that is working her way towards Sainthood. And I’m pretty sure I have a lug nut key, but might check just to be sure…

doggio, glad you had at least one day where Murphy didn’t visit your place.

OK, need to watch Girl With the Dogs (she’s grooming a St. Bernard today) and then prepare for my 40-50 minutes of backstroking. A good afternoon to all.

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If you’re friends with any deities, I could use the help!

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Aw, jeez, just add to the pile-on, why doncha?!?

Timely comment, too, since, I’ve added another item:

  • play with string

(Thank you so much, JtC this is an overwhelming embarrassment of riches, all neatly tucked into a box.)

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GAH! Not a needy client. I told them I’d take care of the merging and report correction with Big Multinational Credit Reporting Agency, but they just called my mobile so I had to tell them again that I’ve got it covered.

As I typed this, the plumber called and he’s on his way.

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I would really appreciate it if all embossed rolling pin talk can be dropped, I am easily bad influenced.

You are a good doggy mom!

That is horrible, I hope there isn’t too much water damage.

I know this is like locking the barn door after the horse got stolen, but I highly recommend browsing this website for suitable moisture alarms.

We have been using their alarms for over 10 years and so far they have served us very well.

I’m glad I made you smile shoe! But…I agree, eat then play. (shoe was kind enough to take my unwanted embroidery hoops off my hands so now I have more room in that bin for other stitching things that I probably don’t need either.)

Today was a surplus produce day and we got a lot of broccoli (which has been blanched and is in the freezer), a huge bag of fresh green beans (neither of us are fans, but TC friend has suggested a green bean casserole for the pot luck on Saturday so I’ll be able to use some of them for that. The rest will go to Chicken Guy and NF).

They gave us a couple of packages of nice dinner rolls which will also go to the potluck with butter and probably cream cheese because I’m a show off.

I’m keeping the personal watermelon all for us, but I’ll give the rind and half the grapes to CG for his yard flock.

Oh, I just looked out the window and saw a woodpecker at the suet feeder. Welcome back lil’ fella!

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AND THEY’RE SENDING ME MORE EMAILS!

Jiminy Christmas! I can’t fix your problem if you keep interrupting me! :angry: