I’m a bachelorette tomorrow so I’ll be spreading out the unassembled Gazelle fitness strider in the family room and assembling it while listening to rock ‘n’ roll. I have a list of chores, and I will attempt to reinforce those that are more onorous by using the more ejoyable ones as rewards. I need to put my Zoom reading together, but that’s probably weekend fun following tasks involving many cleaning formulas and power tools.
Just popping in to blow kisses. I’ve read all 70 new posts, commenting verbally as I went. Hopefully you all heard me. 
Evening all. Doing this from the Holiday Inn at Buenos Aires Airport, flight was early in and passport/customs was a snap (just hit it the right time) but getting the bus to the hotel was tough, the number they gave me didn’t work on my phone and fortunately some American Airlines reps helped me out (flying AA next time I go if I can). Had time for a McDonald’s dinner at the airport, so my belly is good. But 8.5 hours of flying, even in business class, is a lot longer than I remember it being.
Anyway, have a tour in the city booked tomorrow so I should be able to start taking pictures.
Have read all but brain is not in retaining mode, so hopefully will drop a note to all tomorrow.
Buenas Noches MetalMouse! Just wanted to show off my mad Spanish skillz!
Bueis Aires is a fun city, though I spent a good chunk of my time there on the path behind the Hilton looking at birds on the little waterway rather than visiting Eva Peron’s grave or the opera house.
Our breeder will have more EXPENSIVE kittens available in a month. What? It worked to get hubs vaxxed.
Hubs was also in denial about his heart issues until he went in for a stent and got a quad-bypass instead. He didn’t enjoy the experience, did not recommend to his friends, and started taking better care of himself afterwards. I sure hope your idiot doesn’t have to get kicked as hard as mine to get him to start taking care of himself.
I know, poor GG. Expecting him to smart is just really unfair. Thank goodness he has VBC to open doors for him!
I agree that the Chats shouldn’t be doing it for BIL, but, IMHO, once someone hits 30 and is still happily living at home with mom doing all the cooking and cleaning, they get used to it and won’t really know how to fend for themselves anymore.
I learned how to do laundry when I was big enough to fill the top loader by myself. Hubs was shocked when he joined the USMC at 18 and learned that he was going to have to learn how to not only wash, but IRON his uniforms unless he wanted to pay someone else to do them. I blamed MIL for that.
waves back
Your advice about tipping the budistas the amount of my old fart discount has really paid off! Today my budista “found” some online coupons so I could get a 2 for one deal on one variety and half off of another. She got tipped half of that as well. I like being popular at the weed sto!
Honestly, I think business is just really slow because New River is a little no-stoplight town and the interstate is under construction. Getting there is a mess and I’m guessing that most of the out-of-towners are going elsewhere.
Heck, the rip-off gas station that usually sells gas for at least a dollar higher than almost anywhere else in the state was only 50 cents higher today.
I like how the box says “Made with less Material”. At least you got a bunch of crinkle paper out of the deal. VBC just lurves her some crinkle paper.
Our housekeeper was here today, hurray, hurrah! The floors are shiny and the ceiling fans are dusted. The poor woman got really sick the first day of her cruise and learned to her dismay that ship’s infirmaries do not take insurance. She has to self pay >850 and then submit the bill to her insurance and hope that they will reimburse her.
I can remember driving all day long and being ready to go out as soon as we got checked in to our rooms. Now just driving four hours is nap-worthy.
When I pick up the surplus produce boxes, I am supposed to bring a signed note from LWT to be allowed to get hers. I forgot the note today. I was fully prepared to beg and plead but resigned to giving LWTs our box cause I screwed up getting hers. I didn’t have to, I told the nice volunteer that I had forgotten the note and she told me to be sure to bring it next week but I could get both boxes today. (I don’t know if my weekly cash donation had anything to do with that, I prefer to think it is because I am always nice an polite and patient and bring boxes.)
We got big bags of BIG potatoes which we thought was pretty funny because for a while we were getting big bags of tiny potatoes.
As our housekeeper was working, we went out and ran errands. One of our stops was The Honeyman because hubs wanted to start another five gallons of mead. I noticed that they had Prickly Pear taffy and made a mental note for Secret Santa. I like sending local stuff to folks.
I spend a good chunk of my time anywhere looking at the birds 
ETA: Forgot to mention that we will be eating government cheese this week! We got 2 lbs of cheddar. Ain’t nothing wrong with eating government cheese!
Most of the junior lacunae are in full butthead mode lately, but only the littlest is home tonight, so what’s shaking in SE Jawja is a payday treat dinner at the local BBQ joint that she’s wanted to try for a bit. Littlest Lacunae is a bit of a glutton (adolescence* is terrible for the grocery budget,) and even she was too full from the scrumpdillyicious meal to even consider the menu at the specialty dessert kiosk at the restaurant**. And I agree: those cheesecake slices look delicious, but I’d rather have had space in my belly or my pocket for another pork rib. Such good grub!
Speaking of air canisters for dusting (and I’m sure I’ll eventually figure out how to quote on this new-to-me board, but I don’t want to lose my momentum here: the parents are aging, of course, and often drive each other and their offspring insane. Dad is in the driver’s seat right now, and his latest idiosyncracy? He wants to make himself purty for his home health aide. On the one hand, it’s nice that his perfectly human vanity is encouraging him to do nice things for his spouse and caretaker, like shower without whining about the effort and making the trip all the way to the WC instead of to the bedside john. On the other hand, he wants Ma to get him some spray-on hair dye to help him look younger for the sake of his nurse, upon whom he entertains a mad crush. It’s all kind of pitifully funny, because Dad is blind, and has no idea how little hair he has to spray, unless he intends to do his ear hair and eyebrows. So I suggested to Ma that she just put a can of air on Dad’s table and let him believe that he’s dying his hairs.
Also, the Holiday Inn at Buenos Aires Airport sounds like the beginning of a terrible spy novel or a worse alibi.
*Littlest Miss is probably not the right term for the baby anymore. She’ll be 11 in a couple of weeks, and is already as tall as her next two older sisters. Still the sweetest of my children - they’re all amazing creatures, but sweet just isn’t a thing that runs in my genetics - but she gets my height and math skillz.
The BBQ joint and the dessert kiosk occupy space in the old McDonald’s building that closed 20 years ago. It’s such a good use of space, and I’m truly enjoying a municipal revitalization here that’s returning businesses and services* to the old downtown-ish corridor.
***As of a month ago, hometown now even has a city bus services, with one east-west route and one north-south. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to use the bus, but I fully intend to. It’s free for the next five months, and $1 per passenger after that. I will gladly pay more than a dollar to only have to park the pickup once! (My sweet little Subaru station wagon is on life support. Please say a prayer for the little Forester and for the mechanic that has kept her going for lo! these many years, but we may finally have to make end-of-life plans.)
Highlight what you want to quote and a little “Quote” box will appear. Click the box, hit enter and then type away
To double quote, highlight the quote AND the other part you want, the same button will appear, click and Bobs your uncle!
And I reckon that 2 asterisks must open and close a bolded section. Who knew?
And Bob’s my brother. If he were also my uncle, I’d have made some joke about Alabama!
Bob’s your auntie’s live-in lover.
Geeze…you kids never get the good jokes!
When you want to post a pic, you have to get an online hosting account. I use fliker, but that’s only because it is free and was the first one I found in my search.
Load your pic to your hosting site, then copy the addy and post it here.
The big kittah is Gormless George and the smaller stripy one is Very Bad Cat. They is buds.
As you can see, this will allow anyone who clicks on it to access your entire album, so you might want to be careful about that.
You can also use the chain on the toolbar to embed your pic, but folks can still look at your entire album when they click on the blue word.
That looks like a perfect shipment…of a cat toy, with some hooman stuff hitching a ride in one corner.
No forget the purrfect kitty sized box!
JaneFromAlabama never gets the Uncle Brother jokes… Bless her heart!
(But I’m still trying to recover the Phone Formerly Known As Mine, so I can’t share pictures yet. Imagine that the children are just the prettiest things you’ve ever seen, and the dogs? We have Oreo, the black and white “probably a hound/great Dane.” He was rescued from eating out of a friend’s trash cans a few years ago. I call him my Perfectly Adequate Dane. He has a crooked back leg from earlier trauma, he loves to ride, he’ll accidentally take your finger if you try to feed him by hand, and he’s just the sweetest big boy ever. If I’d met him before the children named him, he’d have been Trash Panda.
And Draco is a medium-ish white and brindle bulldog, another rescue. He was purchased as a “purebred pit bull” by a relative of a relative, and is entirely too sweet and stupid to be the much-maligned “pit bull.” I call him my “bottomless pit bull,” AKA Chonky McFatAss. Him’s so sweet, and so dumb, and I love him very much too.)
Both of the big sweet boys are the best foster mamas ever for the litters of kittens that get dumped at my house twice a year.
Up, caffeinated, and sheeld. Off to heave.
Awwww. That’s just like the late Nelly K. Beagle:
There’s a whole lot more to BIL’s story than I’ve shared. He was married at one point to a textbook sociopath who literally called us one day and said “You need to come get him.” She honest-to-goodness patted him on the head like a puppy! And there were the couple who used him and left him in bankruptcy - I believe he also ended up in jail at one point. FCD said he was suicidal as a teen. So we’re not talking about a typical 63-y/o with some issues. This one has subscriptions by the score, but he was enabled by parents who, I believe, felt overly guilty about their youngest son having problems. And there’s other stuff besides this. Anyway, FCD has said (we shall see if it happens) that’s he’s done with his brother. He’ll dole out the monthly allowance according to his mother’s wishes, but unless BIL asks for help, he’s on his own.
Poor RoxStar is still fevered. SIL will be bringing them over earlier today, then calling the doc’s office from here. He’s got an appt of his own at 9, so it’s to be determined if I’ll be taking her or if Daughter will meet us at the Dr’s office (which is maybe a mile from her school.) Regardless, it’s going to be in interesting day.
And it started with me walking into the door frame when heading into the bathroom. It was dark (duh) because I didn’t want to wake FCD. I expect to grow a goose egg on the side of my forehead before too long. Sheesh. Not even going to wonder what the rest of the day will bring. I do hope Tobias doesn’t catch whatever his sister has…
FCD takes his mom today to get her pacemaker checked. He was fortunate yesterday to run into a very helpful lady at SS - so all of that is theoretically taken care of. His mom should start receiving his dad’s SS in place of hers. And tomorrow morning, she heads west with her sister and BIL for a couple of weeks in frosty Indianapolis. And shortly after she gets back, she’ll be flying to Texas to see her middle son. Maybe in April we can get her into a new routine here - maybe the other apartment will be available by then. (Which means 5 seniors have to move or die… kinda gruesome to wish for that.)
Thus beginneth my day. Is it too early for day drinking??
Happy Thursday!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 59 Amurrkin out and cloudy/foggy with a predicted high of 71 with rain predicted for late this afternoon into tomorrow mornin’. No biggie plans for the day. We may or may not go get coiffed. Sup shall be majik intartoobz pizza and sallit just cause.
Peaches can’t wait until you figure out how to do pics so we can see pics of your sweet doggy boys! Glad y’all enjoyed the bbq place. Sounds good!
JtC ain’t nuttin’ wrong with guvmint cheese!
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.
Happy Thursday Y’all!
Good morning, everyone.
It’s currently a brisk 27 degrees with an expected high of 50 and mostly cloudy skies. Rain is supposed to move in starting tomorrow afternoon.
FCM, I’m sorry to hear that Roxy is still sick. I hope she starts feeling better soonest, and, that no one else gets it. Kids man, they’re germ vectors.
Metal Mouse, I hope things are still going well with the trip. I’m not one for cruises, but the one you’re taking is one I would consider.
I have read everything but retained very little. I was up at 3:00 am and am just dragging due to a serious lack of sleep since the weekend. Unfortunately, I have to work, and they would frown at me taking a nap on the clock.
I had to go to the office yesterday to make up for missing Monday, but I’m back to working from home today with the best office mate in the world, Polar. I have determined that I am moving offices at the office though. The new deputy is right next to my office. The walls are thin, but even worse, he likes to have Teams meetings via speakerphone. It’s loud and obnoxious because I get a double dose; through the walls and through the door. Before you ask, I did ask if I could close his door yesterday during one of his interminable meetings, but two hours later, he promptly forgot. So, before this becomes a “thing”, I’m just going to move. I plan to do it next week. I will miss getting a bit of daylight through the gap in the cube walls outside my office, but I can’t do this anymore, and I’m not going to put in earbuds every time he has a meeting. He has back-to-back meetings and they drag on forever. I also shouldn’t have to shut my door, and thus the perception of my availability to staff because he is having meetings.
We’re dealing with both a hiring pause and a staffing crisis at work. We had a meeting yesterday with higher-ups to discuss ceilings and work around to the pause. It didn’t go the way the SD wanted, and I could tell she was pretty upset. In my humble opinion, the alternatives filling some of the priority vacancies, merely cause other gaps in staffing (internal competition or temporary promotion) because we can’t backfill behind the gaps those would leave. The lack of staff in one of the programs is causing considerable burnout and frustration, along with a considerable backlog in processing some very, very important work. Sigh…Congress loves to dish out money for programs, but not the staff to make the work happen. It’s very frustrating.
Next week we’re having a five-hour leadership meeting which includes almost three hours of training on some dashboards. I already know how to use it, I would much rather have what they call an explorer license and not just pull down pretty pics from the site. I want to see the data behind the numbers anyway. That’s just how I’m built.
Well, I suppose I should finish my coffee and run the dishwasher.
I hope you all have a good day!
In the parking lot with Tobias. Roxy is in with her mom. I think someone just filled his diaper…
Then he set off the car alarm…
Oh gosh. I’ve been so inactive. I’m so so sorry. 