I cleaned, dusted, and vacuumed. I changed Spot’s litter box. I’m having Waffle House style tacos(peppers, onions, country ham, cheese food, Texas Pete) for brunch, and listening to my cat audibly seethe, since his kung-fu is weak.
[John Forslund]Oh man, I want wings![/John Forslund]
Because he keeps Roman towards the waterways.
O, where are you going? To Scarborough Vending Machine?
Savoury, sage, rosemary and thyme,
Remember me to buy pork lean
And buy them with six roll of dime.
That’ll just jam up the machines, silly American, but they take card.
At 12:10pm it’s sunny and 62°F here in lovely Northern Virginia. The forecasted high is only 65, so today’s weather will be much like yesterday’s…no complaints!
Today has seen intermittent tears, because it would have been Bailey’s 18th adoptiversary: in 2008 my ex and I walked into a local rescue’s adoption event to check out the puppy we’d seen online, and walked out with a 9-pound, 3-month-old ball of wiggle. She’s been gone for just over a year now, but the grief is still sharp at times[1]. I plan to do more reading this afternoon, and she haunts the main floor couch: we spent a lot of time there together over the years (I got it when she was 10). I’ll mostly be able to focus on good doggy memories today, but I’ll still need to keep tissues nearby. 
I’m looking forward to one last quiet, lazy day before a busy week starts: I’ll be in the office tomorrow and Tuesday, and both days will be nonstop with several things going on; HusbandBFF’s surgery is on Wednesday; I’ll be working at least part of the day on Thursday but remotely (HusbandBFF will be released that day so I’ll be home in case anyone needs anything); then Friday morning I’m taking my dad to an eye surgery appointment in Baltimore. He has a thing where the bottom eyelashes on one eye are growing on the inside…yep, it’s as painful as it sounds. The procedure is outpatient, and I imagine he’ll want to go to lunch afterwards. I might not get home until 2-3pm, but I’ll likely have to work at least a little while that afternoon.
Then Saturday is Halloween! 
I’ll start setting up in my driveway around mid-afternoon; I’ll plan to be ready for trick-or-treating by 6pm. I’m trying to think ahead in terms of being out there by myself for 90-120 minutes: I figure I’ll keep the garage door up and use my car’s trunk for staging (extra candy, batteries, a jacket, etc.), and I’ll make a final bathroom trip at 5:55. Luckily there’s a half-bath on the same level as the garage, so if I need to go during the rush I can do so quickly; I’ll have a “BRB/please take 2 pieces per child” sign for the table just in case. It’ll be my first time giving out candy in a few years, and my first Halloween in the new neighborhood…I’m a little psyched. 
Yikes!!
Sometimes that’s where the best acoustics are! 
You lot are a week ahead of us; our clocks don’t change until the 1st.
Pizza is one of the few foods for me where it completely doesn’t matter how recently I’ve had it…even if it was from the same place.
No comments != no one noticed.
Maybe you could stick a tiny blue ribbon on the glass pumpkin and pretend it won an award for size…?
I also still feel some lingering guilt about taking her to that final vet appointment…my brain knows it was the right thing to do for her, but my heart feels like I betrayed her. 
↩︎
Howdy Y’all! Sneakin’ in a post before I go do my Sunday group thang. Deheathenization was great this mornin’. I didn’t drop the Chalice or slosh wine on anybody, so I call it a win. We got stoner food for lunch and now OYKW is nappin’ away. Thus is the news from swampland.
MOOOOOOM you are not a bad person to get rid of extra stuff. When mom died sis told the bros and me to get what we wanted and told the same to the grandkids. Then she kept the things she wanted and sold or gave away the rest. Sis lives in the house, as was planned. Heck, a few years later, I gave away some of the things I had gotten.
BooFae y’all have such adventurous weekends! I get tired readin’ about it all. I used to be that same way, btw, with weekends hangin’ out in bars, listenin’ to music etc. Glad y’all have taxi friends to show you the way to go home. Hope the storm has died down.
MetalMouse you have well-earned a day to do you things. Happy dinin’ etc.
Nuts hope the winds have gone away by now. I agree that when days are shorter, my hibernate tendencies kick in.
Mollie of course Chloé must have her chikin tribute!
Coppertone bacon and N.O.T. I could see, but not the sauerkraut. Then again, sauerkraut does awful things to my digestive system. Things nobody should ever be subjected to hearin’ or smellin’.
{{{Oopsie}}}
{{{{Oopsie}}}}
Are you sure you really want to know?
Good answer!
The bacon and potatoes sound good, but I’m not sure about the sauerkraut. . . .
That sounds good. Extremely good.
{ twitches with feline curiosity }
PM sent.
Now will you send it to me please? Smirk, smirk.
Heh. Curiosity satisfied.
SQUIRREL!
Fine. Find me a card that rhymes with “thyme” and I’ll rewrite.
{{{{Oopsie}}}}
I think barely half the log chunks got split and it’s probably a year’s worth for all we use the basement. It’s pretty wet wood, but we’ve still got wood from last year, so we’re good. Neighbor will take all the rest to his yard to be split and stacked, and he said we could come get some if we ran out. That’s nice of him.
And Daughter and her spawn just left a bit ago. Quiet reigns - yay! Otis and Trevor ran around and rassled and I expect both will sleep really well tonight, I know I will - moving and stacking all the firewood really done wore me out, and that’s after I planted a bunch of lilies (which damned Trevor decided to lie upon.)
Since FCD and Tobias are November babies and FCD is hitting the big 70 while Tobias hits the little 5, we’ll do a joint b-day party for them. It’ll just be family.
However, Daughter’s bestie (the one who lives in Akron) will be coming here with her husband to do Thanksgiving with us. So I now need to plan a meal for 8. Daughter will do some sides. I’ll do the birds and some sides. And Daughter’s friends will be staying with us.
Now it’s time for chillage.
I took my iPod out of the Prius this morning, as it needs to go to the shop to see if they can stop the catalytic converter shield from rattling. We left for church 15 or 20 minutes later. A mole trap that had not been tripped when I went to get the iPod, was tripped when we came outside. I have two Gopher Hawks in the front yard, and so far this year, they’ve each killed two moles. After church we dropped the Prius at the shop, and then I disposed of the mole corpse and reset the trap.
Had a good brunch with the niece and her husband. I ordered the restaurant’s version of biscuits and gravy. The gravy, while it had a lot of sausage, was oddly bland. But the biscuit, which was layered with a good smokey ham slice and sauteed leeks, made up for it.
{{{oopsie}}}
Thanks to all for the doggy empathy; I know that several of you understand all too well!
I nuked a chicken pot pie for lunch (last one in the freezer; maybe I’ll go to Safeway after work tomorrow), and sat and read on the haunted couch until it got too warm for comfort. The living room gets the afternoon soon, and there’s a point every day when the entire couch is in direct sunlight: I’d enjoyed having my feet (then feet and legs) in the sun, but when it hit my torso it quickly became too hot. I wanted to keep reading, so I relocated to the TV room. It gets chilly down here, but I turned on the oil heater and pulled on some thick socks and was soon quite comfy.
I also opened the vertical blinds in front of the sliding glass door, to get more (indirect) daylight for as long as possible. That was kind of nice. I’m not usually down here when the sun is up, and I always close them at night because I don’t care for the mirror effect when it’s dark outside and light inside; the blinds are kind of a pain in the ass, so I tend to just keep them closed. If I ever look into room-darkening blinds for the master bedroom and replacement miniblinds for the window down here, I might also look into replacement vertical blinds (I daydream about being able to use a remote control!). Any/all of that will have to wait until well into 2027, though, when my bank account has recovered from December’s trip to LA.
I read for long enough to finish the David Baldacci book[1] and start the latest Inspector Gamache novel, but now I’m ready for popcorn and some TV. Oh, and I need to do laundry. The bag is already down here with me so I’ll get the washer going first, then I’ll go upstairs and nuke the PopSecret Homestyle.
I work with submariners. I can guess well enough. 
there’s one more remaining in the King & Maxwell series: both protagonists have started to annoy me, but I’m invested now and went ahead and bought the last one to read at some point ↩︎
Our service was good today. We old folks still call it confirmation although officially it’s now called affirmation of baptism. Three young people were confirmed. Music was good and I was very moved. All three are good people, as I guess I can’t call them kids now, as they are full members of the congregation. It was also Reformation Sunday, so of course we sang “A Mighty Fortress”. It’s been fifty seven years since I went through it.
Weather has been so great here. Tomorrow I need to get out and do more weeding in the building planting area. If I force myself awake soon enough I won’t put it off.
I am still missing my Mauser, little things like dropping popcorn on the floor. I never had to pick it up as Mauser would get there first.
Having a Wisconsin Old Fashioned, poke loin, baked sweet N.O.T., and cheesy broccoli. Spot has been insane today(and the full moon isn’t till tomorrow)
Handegg:
Wolfpack: Loses to Stanford, coach is sacked on Saturday
Panthers: lose 43-13(Tampa scores a touchdown off of a blocked extra point kick)
Packers: Goes for it on 4th down, fails, misses a last minute FG, Lions nail the last second FG.
At least my hockey team is not harshing my mellow.
Also, Kimi Antonelli won the F1 race in Austin today, so he should win the championship in Mexico and legally celebrate with the champagne. 
I do not think they understand the assignment.
I miss having Gordie as kitchen floor cleaning staff.
And yet, Mission Accomplished. 
Dinner has been dined. A couple/few weeks ago I bought a couple of one-pound salmon filets, reduced to $5.40 each, at Fred Meyers. We had one last week or the week before that, and I made the other one tonight. Same way as last time, with Trader Joe’s Vegan Kale Pesto, minced garlic, salted butter, and a bit of kosher salt; baked in the oven at 400º Ferret Height for 25 minutes. There was a bored board meeting at irk last week, and I brought some leftover corn/mild green chile/red bell pepper/black bean medley home on Friday. We had that with it. Mrs. L.A. wants to know where it came from, so that we can go there for dinner sometime.
We’re watching The Canterville Ghost (1944) with Margaret O’Brien and Charles Laughton. It’s a very cute movie, so I recorded it from TCM last time it was on.
Evening all and time for the last late-night final this week. Dined at Metro Diner (my waitress was a parent of one of my previous soccer players) and then went to the gym and walked miles at 10-11 degrees incline at about 3.5mph, while watching the Browns improbably win again while losing weight. Then home and did a couple small chores, solved the 7-digit Ken-Ken (usually takes me several tries over a couple of days) and watched Real Madrid beat Barcelona, but nothing to spectacular and looking to turn in early as tomorrow morning may have me out on a Brauschweiger run, mailing a package, and the usual shop-n-sammich routine.
Now to scroll, scroll, scroll the thread, gently down the screen…
Nut, we’ll ‘fall back’ an hour next Sunday the 31st, so like you darkness will be falling around 5pm.
Mollie, I see that Chloé has you both well-trained… And I can see your point on the lights and timings, just never have put any up so never had to think about it that way.
So we’re cold as ice?
FCM, I may have some stuff from my parents around, I do have some pictures of them hung around the place, but nothing I dote on.
Oopsie, a {hug} for Bailey’s memories. And hope the week goes well for you, even as hectic as it promises to be, never heard of ingrown eyelashes and really don’t want to know about them (as a personal experience).
doggio, is that the famous Onan of myth and legend?
FCM, so you have extra wood for the winter and neighbor gets to feel good about themselves helping out–a win-win day in my book. And nice of you to take in Daughter’s bestie and hubs–have you ever met them before?
Flyboy, had to google Gopher Hawk, I thought you had brought the animal kingdom into the fray, but I guess it’s them name of the tool. Wonder when the gophers will finally realize that this is a bad place to live.
Cupcakes, good to see you back around these parts (seems to my admittedly faulty memory that’s in it’s been a little while. Conga-rats to the confirmed and the singing.
And it’s 9pm, I still have a couple You Tubes to finish watching, and then off to bed. Y’all take care and I’ll see you on the next MMP.
That’s medium squirrel. Onan is much larger. Little squirrel has a mangy tail, and there is Chip Monk