It’s Gordie drinking a Guinness. and it’s been my avatar since they were allowed.
Harumph.
I never thought about this being a texture thing. Hubby’s the same way, and I don’t think he even realizes how much of it is also texture. He has texture issues with other foods, so this makes sense.
All this take about firecracker plants, and I keep thinking I should see pictures of fire poker plant.
Every time I watch Ted Lasso I want Greek food. Love their Meze, which is their version of Tapas. Might actually get some today.
Nice bench! My dad built a slat sitting bench for the patio many years ago with the supports set in concrete. After 40 years they ripped it out and replaced with a low wall, so it’s nice to see someone else building one.
Untill Cupcakes came back with the description, was I was visualizing Fried Ferengi ears as elephant ear pastries.
Today is haircuts, grocery shopping (first I have to make a list), sneaker shopping, and maybe meze. I hope.
This week was, um, interesting. By Monday hubby’s bad cold had set into major coughing, necessitating stops at the pharmacy and doctor’s office. Same day, the gardener started ripping out the front planting area as part of the installation of an air-water heat pump.
Both the coughing, and the work outside, continued all week, and the coughing is better and that phase of the work is finished.
But Wednesday was a special day. One of the other managers in my department moved to another position, so that disrupts the department. And, on the same day, my manager resigned, with immediate effect. So more disruption. The last two days have been full of fall-out. Lots of discussion. Lots and lots of discussion.
It’s been really nice to come here and read all the mundanity - it’s a big slice of normality/stability that’s currently missing in my department.
Yesterday I finally sat down and started reading To Kill a Mockingbird. I’ve never read it and decided it was time, also because of the posts in mumperland.
And on that note, time to get hubby moving so we can have a relaxed breakfast before hair appointments.
Happy Saturday!
Somebody help Shoe’s terrible memory. I owe y’all a story … but eff me if I can find the post or remember what it was. Something entertaining from work? An idiot customer, most likely?
Meanwhile, I’ve gotten home, changed outta my irk clothes, and am back at the land of the half-dozen cats, plus dog.
Everybody got another minnow treat. They all luuuurves me.
… so friendly. So much fishy breath. 
Also my mother is being a complete 
so imma log off my phone now, and eat some snacks.
This one
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave.
The girl who complained about the piza, but didn’t get it free?
And this morning, it was 48 stoopit degrees when I let Higgs out. Who’s screwing with my spring??? I’d left some windows open and it was 67 in the house, which wakes a body up, even in a fuzzy robe!
The bottle of Diet Coke I pulled out of the fridge was all sucked in, and when I opened it, there was no fizz. Dammit. So down the drain it went. How weird how a few bubbles makes such a difference! Flat soda is nasty.
I need to clean the critter fountain today. Even with only 2 critters drinking from it, it still gets gross. When I first got it, the instructions said to clean it every 4 weeks. HAH! Every other week is the longest I can go, and I suppose I should do it weekly, but since I can get away with it…
Talk of graduation - Daughter’s seniors graduate next Firday. The graduating class is 3 - three - a trio. Small school, yanno. There are only 2 rising seniors, and one of those is 2 years behind on tuition (can’t believe it went that long) so there might just be 1 next year. The graduation is being held right around the corner from us, since the building they usually use is undergoing major rehab. So Daughter plans to bring her proper clothes here, tend to set up, then get cleaned up and dressed at our place, which has to be better than a restroom.
Meanwhile, I plan to enjoy my morning quiet time till I have to don proper attire and gather all the cleaning stuff we’ll be needing. Hope it warms up quickly.
Happy Saturday!!
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s a balmy 17c/63f with a predicted high of 20c/70f, and mostly sunny. Weather app says “If this weather was soup, it would be called fucking Bouillabullshit.” Weather app must be having an off day today then, it’s beautiful out there.
Went to the gym this morning as I’d booked on my usual run of classes. Got there to find The Yard area empty, and found out from the guy on reception that the class had been swapped from bootcamp to a step and weights class instead. Trotted up the stairs to join that one, confused myself mightily because I am spectacularly unco-ordinated at the best of times, but it was a laugh and noboby cares if you’re doing it right or not. Followed it with a 30-minute extreme spin class, then a 45-minute dumbbell class. When I got home, all my gym gear went straight in the washing machine…thank goodness for the express 15-minute wash cycle!
The rest of today’s plan is to go into town for lunch at the Good Chinese Place, do errands, and come home for some quality slothage. It’s not my turn to cook tonight, and we bought limes the other day so there will be margaritas later.
Lucky congrats to you and MrBrown on retirement, I hope he enjoys it and doesn’t feel the “loss” of work too much.
metal mouse yes, we are very well connected by train, especially in England. I use two trains to get to work every time I go to campus (and two back again, obviously!), neither would count as a particularly long journey but my daily commute time is still around 1.5hrs. We have multiple rail unions, they are all striking about pay and pensions, adverse changes to working conditions, and what they fear will be unsafe practices. Currently trains have a driver and a second person who fulfils the train manager/clippie/guard/conductor role. That’s a position the rail operators want to get rid of in order to save money. The unions aren’t happy because that person is the one who stands on the platform to check the doors are closed properly, nobody’s hanging out of a door or window, and it’s safe for the train to depart. This is particularly important at a lot of smaller stations where they do not have dedicated platform staff to safely dispatch trains.
swampy enjoy the cee-mint pond time with JDD and the crowd!
flyboy nice table! Perhaps it was a labour of love, and I hope Mrs LA appreciates what you’ve created for her.
Right…'im indoors has finally got himself out of bed. I’d better go and make him a cup of tea. Made one earlier for him when I got back from the gym, but he didn’t surface so I had to drink his as well as mine 
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 56 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 78 and N.O.S. for the day. Again, decidedly cool for this time of year in these parts. High sloth and general overall uselessness shall rule the day. Any need to feed today will be via forage as we have plenty of sammich makin’s, chips and so forth. OYKW is goin’ to make the cheesecake for Moanday’s festivities at some point today. Thus, he will be more productive than me today.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy, Then, onward into the day! Rah.
Happy Sattidy Y’all!
Flyboy that table is far nicer than the mission requires. Good on ya for greatly exceeding expectations.
At the risk of stating the obvious, are you double-damn sure this isn’t COVID?
The nice part about lots of discussion is that no work gets done. The bad part about lots of discussion is that no work gets done.
Perhaps you can turn into your own manager as part of this reshuffle? I know that whenever I’m put in charge of myself I get especially glowing employee reviews.
As to me:
Awoke naturally about 30 minutes before my oh-stupid-thirty alarm, so no point in trying to go to sleep again. Good news is that means I can cancel the alarm before it sounds and slink out of bed without disturbing Her Ladyship.
Decided to hustle, skip breakfast at home, and get to irk early, so as to get breakfast there. Traffic was nil; I roared down the highway at dawn with the top down, wind whipping, and at 72F, the car heater putting out a bit of warmth to keep the chill away.
Just finished a lovely Latin-style steak & eggs breakfast and too much café con leche. Work commences in about 10 minutes just across the hall from where I’m lingering with y’all.
Enjoy your Saturday!!
Nope. Also:
- It presented differently than COVID (we both had confirmed cases in August).
- There’s no requirement to test for COVID.
- The symptoms are/were consistent with a cold.
- He worked from home all week - yesterday was his first day out since Saturday.
- I never got any symptoms.
My manager’s predecessor got fired - this one was given the chance to resign. I’m keeping my head down.
Decided to forego the shopping extravaganza, except for stopping at two grocery stores, both here in town. Did clean some of the glass panels of the winter garden, but the others have to wait until tomorrow - today is another summer day (predicted high is 22c/72f), so the water on the glass was drying pretty fast.
Made hamburger patties for tonight’s dinner, but for now I think I’ll go back to my book, while hubby does the vacuuming and mows the lawn.
Already there! Hah! And my wish list is getting longer by the day. 
← closest to one-eye I could find. I look like this trying to do close-up tasks.
I joined Prime a few days ago, to get the streaming. I’m still unsure what else comes with it, but thank you for the audiobook info. I’ll look into it today – I haven’t explored it much beyond rummaging through the videos.
Sorry to get behind, but it’s been “a week”. [sigh]
Last exam at eye-doc concluded it ain’t gonna get better by itself. There may be tiny improvements but it won’t be useful without more procedures. I’m stuck with near-blindness in the left eye until the surgeon decides what to do next. He’s being very helpful and this isn’t to avoid me, but he must wait until all the swelling/pressure/healing is over before measuring for whatever “fix” is in store. I was really grumpy at first, but it appears everyone’s ready and willing to repair this, we just have to wait until things are settled.
In the meantime, I’ve been gradually “pushing the envelope” and trying more and more stuff (with careful supervision sometimes). I used various power tools (chainsaws and fun stuff!) to carve away some rotten portions of a shed roof a few days ago. With mizPullin’s help I replaced a structural beam (2X8) and repaired everything. Yesterday I got on the freeway for the first time (actually the first time I’ve driven the truck in weeks). Everything went well, but there are some non-intuitive problems when driving with one eye. My nose prevents glancing to the left to see the mirror when changing lanes. I have to turn my entire head to see that mirror, which is hard to get used to. But I’m getting accustomed to it as safely as I can.
It’ll probably be mid-July before I can get “fixed”, due to waiting and scheduling and healing and stuff, so I’m determined to get back to normal as best I can.
Back to normal mumpering: Today is 70F outside and forecast dry and 86 today. No big plans other than minor house taskage. Several boards on our upstairs deck are bending in the heat, so I may get motivated to replace them. Or not. I will definitely root around Amazon to find my new audiobook privileges, and maybe thaw a brisket for smoking this weekend.
I’m sleeping a lot and having really weird dreams during this. I wonder if it’s due to the cocktail of meds I’m taking? Last night I dreamed Dolly Parton won the democratic nomination and got pissed at Trump running his mouth during the debates – and she walked across the stage and slapped him so hard he fell down. I’ll be sad when these prescriptions run out.
Hope everyone has a good rest-of-week. Will try to keep up better (I have some decent glasses now which make it easier to read)
flyboy, that is a lovely table!
Sorry everyone! I’m soooo busy between teaching and raising kids. Because my wife’s job gets really busy, it’s like I’m a single father about 1/3 of the time and there is so much to do.
We had a flower festival at my kids’ school today. Really beautiful. They did a Maypole dance that SenBoy participated and SenGirl played the recorder.
I’ve got a new class. Two wild boys, maybe 10 and 7? The younger one may have ADHD and I’m teaching them online. Before I would go crazy trying to teach kids with ADHD, but that’s what experience does, I guess. The older brother has selective mutism and just can’t talk at times. He was really hesitant at first, but is getting better.
I’ve just had them twice but apparently that’s one more than most of the other teachers she’s tried in the past. Apparently, I have developed more patience as I go along.
Well, tomorrow is another long day! Have a fun one, all!
This is quite lovely!
I did a huge bunch of laundry yesterday. I started at 3 pm and kept going until after 10pm. Today’s plan is to pile everything thing from all the closets, drawers and the bunches of laundry on the bed and Marie condo the pile.
Another wild time here at the rocking zone.
That would be unimaginably awesome.
Okay, that was funny.
Ah, yes.
I was on fryers so didn’t witness this firsthand, but oh, boy, I heard about it.
There was a ruckus across the kitchen up at the window and I saw my manager hustle over there, out of the corner of my eye.
The following is what I was told:
Idjit customer was complaining that her pizza was stuck to the cardboard round upon which it’s served. Which it was not.
Manager proceeded to gently shake the pizza to ensure that it wasn’t stuck. Which it was not. (This is just sliding it a half inch or so - we do this all the time to re-center them.)
Idjit demanded the “stuck” pizza be remade. Manager - quite rightly, from all accounts - assured her that the pizza is perfect.
(At this point, the guy who made the damn thing is starting to get offended. He was like, “That friggin’ pizza was gorgeous!”)
Idjit escalates. (That means starting to yell and curse.)
Manager - still holding her pizza, which has got to be getting cold by now - holds her ground. Will refund money, or give back her pizza. But she’s sick of this woman’s nonsense, and will. not. remake. (and waste meat, cheese, etc.) this lovely but now forlorn little pizza.
Idjit demands her dinner back. Manager politely hands it back over to her.
Idjit THROWS THE PIZZA OUT HER WINDOW and drives off. Leaving what now amounts to garbage, all over the drive-thru.
No refund. No food.
… but the local seagulls lost their minds until someone could be sent out to clean up the mess.
What was she thinking?!? Charitably, perhaps she was very hangry. Still no excuse.
Good morning all. Didn’t feel like I had slept that much, so was surprised when I turned and saw the clock at 8am. So up and more or less functional, looks like a clear day and 77F, so may get out to the gym to make up the swimming-n-sauna I missed yesterday, and maybe a little shopping/browsing. House need a good Hoovering, might be today or tomorrow.
rocky, had to look up Marie Kondo, I am afraid that she would run from my house screaming…
Shoe, thanks for the story, still think you should be writing for Not Always Right.
Sensei, glad you have the patience with difficult kids. Hope it pays off.
Yanker, sounds like you’re learning to manage with the bad eye, hope they can correct it so you have a nice summer.
Dicey, sounds like a bit of a FUBAR in the making at work; hope things straighten out soon, that can really do in employee morale, IMHO.
Pilot, safe flying and a nice trip. When airline folks tell me to 'have a nice trip" I usually tell them “I will as long as the pilot has one.”
Boo fae, thanks for the notes on the labor problems; I tend to be with the train personnel, you can cut back too far, which sounds like what management is doing.
Me too. Although Cupcakes item sounds pretty good too.
OK, need to break fast and check my You Tube channels (as I’ve said before, I’m subscribed to way to many of them) then onward into the day. Happy Sattiday all.
Interesting. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the fire poker plant before. I can see why it could also be called a firecracker.
flyboy really like the slat table! Great job!!
me too.
boofae what a taxing workout. whew. good for you. 
I find it hard to believe that anyone of sound rational mind would think it’s a good idea to operate a train with only a driver. Go Unions.
yanker Good for you for making best of sichiashun. Loved your dream!!!
I refuse to look up Marie Kondo. Based on what I have picked up from various mumpers posts about her, I KNOW she would run from my house screaming.
After everything that went on this week, I was so tired, I could barely make dinner yesterday (spaghetti and salad). Unfortunately Hubs didn’t mention he wanted 'sgetti until late-afternoon which made it more difficult as I had to then defrost some ground beef and a jar of sauce. I went to bed almost immediately after dinner, didn’t even eat any dessert. Woke up shortly after midnight and wasn’t able to get back to sleep until sometime after 4, then rewoke about 6:15ish, if memory serves. But I’ve had breakfast (wish I could have had the Latin-style steak & eggs that pilot had) and mumped during breakfast and so now am ready to attack the day which includes work, workout, working on garden. I’m feeling quite bad about the garden as Hubs always had the veggies planted within the week after Mother’s Day and I’m not sure I’ll get them planted by Mem Day. I need to channel Moooooom’s energy level.
Happy Saturday to all. 
Happy Saturday!
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP (got sidetracked with surfing). Not much shaking at CasaRoja today. I’ll go pick up a couple of prescriptions and get gas. Other than that, I’ll putter around on the patio and mess around in the studio.
Stay safe and healthy y’all!
Marie kondo would not run screaming! She loves creating order out of disorder.
I would run screaming if there were insects.
Harry Potter movie marathon on USA network so I shall be sorting while watching.
Thank you, everybody!
I wouldn’t call it ‘great’, but I think it’s pretty good for a first attempt. I might just make a coffee table and apply the lessons I learned on the potting bench. (Like using better, straighter wood for the slats.)
That really loud, contented sigh everyone heard ~5 hours ago was me waking up and realizing that it’s finally Saturday morning and a 3-day weekend. 
At just after noon it’s 73°F and sunny, with a forecasted high of 75. Like FCM, my morning temps have been running in the 50s: I turn the home office space heater on when the day starts, and by lunchtime it’s off and the windows are open. Lately the house has been just warm enough at night that I want the a/c on so I can sleep comfortably with the windows closed (the birds are freaking loud before dawn!), but I don’t expect to need to turn it back on for the next several days. It’ll warm up again on Thursday/Friday.
Lunch is in the oven: today I’ll be having some generic steak hors d’oeuvres. Usually I find this particular store’s generic items to be either too sweet or too salty, but I recently took a chance on these “fiesta steak bite” thingies and they’re pretty tasty! I’m looking forward to them, plus a banana and some apple slices.
Last night I finished The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime, and started watching The Big Door Prize on AppleTV+ (I’ve been a fan of Chris O’Dowd since The IT Crowd). I only got two episodes in, but I like it enough to keep going…after a pause, though, because right before I went to bed I learned that S3 of The Parisian Agency (a Parisian family sells high-end real estate) is available on Netflix. Yay! I’ll watch a couple episodes of that while I eat lunch, then spend some time working on my Van Gogh LEGO set.
(Life in the fast lane, bay-bee!! 
)
I’m gonna go with “she wasn’t.” Wow.
But shall you be sorted? 
