(Old) A New Hope in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

Those are both excellent ideas! I would have considered giving it to one of the delivery drivers, but it is powdered so kinda impracticable for them to use.

Our housekeepers always get first dibs on our extra food so Tara has the first right of refusal for anything we want to leave our home.

I miss/don’t miss the weekly surplus produce boxes we got in AZ. While I did enjoy getting random produce and being forced to try different recipes, I don’t have enough places to give the excess to.

Plus, the current administration has cut the funding for food banks so they don’t have the trucks to take the surplus to the communities. (I have heard that the surplus food is all going to the landfills but don’t have a cite for that, just gossip.)

62

And a good late evening all. I have really got to start posting in the afternoon, over 40 messages in the last 12 hours so I’ll try to get through them all. Spent several hours at the gym, then home to change and go out to the soccer fields for a bit, then home and got 'squirrel" at the Internet so just catching up now. All shopping/prescriptions/exercise are done and also paid my annual home insurance and my down payment on my next group vacation (April 2026). Temperature is down to 71F so probably will turn the AC off and open up a couple windows to take advantage of the weather while it lasts.

And now for the long scroll…

FCM, may have asked this before but how is the Diet A&W taste, may want to change up from the Diet Pepsi/Pepsi Zero sometime in the future.

Flyboy, people knowing people you disagree with is natural, I wouldn’t worry unduly…yet. IMHO of course.

Oopsie, had a small rodent problem a couple years ago, some peanut butter, a couple of ‘non-kill’ traps and a few discreet drops miles from my house took care of that problem and haven’t had any other visitors. And glad the Lego expo was so enjoyable. We’ll be here when work lets you visit again.

loach (is that an MD500 or a Kiowa in your picture?) nice view you have there..not many Dolphin sightings around N. Ali-bama.

Pilot, I grok your dilemma, and do hope something can be worked out since it’s obvious you both care a lot about each other. Won’t add any advice since other’s much wiser in such matters of the heart than I have already commented.

JtC, never been a fan of powdered Gatorade, but I like the options you have.

Cookie, glad you had a peach of a day.

Never have used the snooze button because whenever I set my alarm (and since it has two separate alarms I set them both within 4-5 minutes of each other) I always get up 20 minutes too early.

shoe, trust the Dad call wasn’t too interesting.

nellie, hope they finally do determine the best does for you instead of using you for a test bed… Hope SIL survives the visiting.

{{Sticky Buns}} for the foot problems.

wet one, great news and I am sure that you’ll be back to riding Ariel full time shortly. And positive waves to your two friends.

swampy, stay dry. We’ve had clouds the past couple of days but not much in the way of rain.

Rilchaim (forgot your Mumper name already), she’s going to be nervous too (not to mention jet-lagged. It’ll all work out fine.

red, glad Nelson is official and ICE won’t be stalking him…

VanGo, glad you made it in the communal vehicle and look forward to your next masterpiece.

doggio, I need to start emulating Spot more…in the nappage that is, not the millipede ignoring…

And it’s closing in on 10pm so need to finish up here and head off to bed. All y’all take care.

63

I shan’t make waves where Mrs. L.A. has ‘found a home’.

She looked up the pastor of the Seattle church and said, ‘Yep. He’s MAGA.’

Our pastor seems cool. This other guy… Kills his own livestock, his kids are home-schooled… (OTOH, at least two of his (caucasian) children are adopted.) He seems a little ‘intense’.

64

For the Mumper name, Frumious was suggested.

Something I wonder about. For her first meal out, we’re taking her to one of those artisan burger joints. She looked at the website we linked and said she wants to try one of their milkshakes “like in Pulp Fiction!” Yeah, she likes Pulp Fiction, and other Tarantino flicks, but I wonder: did she see censored versions of them? Like, a tight closeup on Vincent, and we don’t see precisely what happens to Marvin? I remember long ago, someone telling me, “When Americans distribute European films, we take out a lot of the sex. When Europeans distribute our films, they cut out a lot of the violence.” Guess I’ll find out if that’s true, then or now.

65

OH-6 Cayuse. Looks like it might be the YOH-6A picture that Wiki has. :slight_smile:

66

Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Vacation Day Three. No plans other than to minister to Spot. It’s 69 degrees Ferret Height(Nice)/20 Centipedes. There will be rain in the afternoon.

67

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 73 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 86 with rain/tstorms/apocalypse all day. It’s laundry day. I am absolutely giddy. This will also be another day of high RDOS inactivities as the plan is to stay inside and dry. Sup will be pot roast with little N.O.T. and carrots, baby lima beans and rolls. The slow cooker will do most of the work.

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.

Happy Tuesday Y’all!

68

Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 18c/64f with a predicted high of 20c/67f and mostly cloudy. Weather app says “Suck it, fucking clouds. Fucking suck it!” Weather app seems somewhat annoyed today, but I have patches of blue sky and there’s been some sun. Windows are open at the front of the house but not the back. The idiot next door has some building work going on and there’s an anglegrinder in use.

That sounds very messy indeed, I wonder if you could persuade Mrs LA to consider a different church?

Are you feeling ok? Should we call the doctor for you? :slight_smile:

How fabulous! I hope you get to see some whales too!

Better to have that discussion sooner rather than later. Something like that will fester for you and make you begrudge everything that happens in her life when it happens without you, but she will have no idea that’s how you feel if you don’t talk to her about it. Good luck!

Sending positive thoughts to both of your friends, and to you since being there for them takes a lot too.

‘im indoors refers to that kind of thing as “orphanage grade”

Sticky Buns I hope your foot starts to co-operate soon!

Frumious I’m sure Izzy will love her time with you and your family, it will be a cultural change for her but she’s young enough to accept that other people aren’t like her folks at home.

Yesterday went well, irk got done and I went to the gym afterwards to burn 667 cals on the cross-trainer before I even considered throwing any weights around. Came home for a shower, put my gym stuff in the wash, fed the cats and made myself a pan-fried salmon fillet for dinner accompanied by a mahoooosive salad. Then gathered up the recycling and hauled the biiiiig recycling bin out to the kerb for today’s collection.

The binmen came along at 7am, so I got up shortly afterwards and started the morning round of cat duties. Went out to haul the biiiiig bin back to where it lives for the rest of its time, had some breakfast and logged into irk. No big drama so far today, but there’s still a few hours to go. Team manager is off sick again and apparently that means I’m in charge!

So far today, I have baked some chicken in a spice bag and portioned that out for campus lunches. I have a bag of frozen mixed veggies that I’ll cook later and distribute that between the tubs of chicken so that will be half the campus food prep done. Then I only need to do three tubs of breakfast oats. After that, I have a pile of t-shirts that need ironing. They’re not badly creased but they need a bit of tidying up. Shouldn’t take too long, and I will be done by the time the cats tell me it’s dinner time.

69

She’s got to know that she’ll be in a different place with different practices - she may well be looking forward to that. Were I in your place, I wouldn’t change my lifestyle to match hers.

We’ve been satisfied with them. Super plus tissues and TP are pretty far down on my grocery list - I’m OK with generics/store brands. Plus I understand the plush ones are not recommended for septic systems.

I think the only things I iron (apart from seams when I sew) are curtains when they’ve been laundered. The tablecloths get folded into the cabinet and I’ll shake them out before they go on the table. I don’t get excited about the folds. When I was a kid, Mom taught me to iron on handkerchiefs and pillowcases, but we don’t own any snotrags and I just fold pillowcases, as they get wrinkled on the first use.

I don’t think either of us own any garments that need to be ironed. It’s not my most hated chore, but it’s not one that’s required very often anyway.

I don’t drink it - not a fan of root beer - but FCD really likes it. He also used to really like Barq’s (in the days before he drank diet soda) and I assume he’d like their sugar-free, but Food Lion doesn’t carry it.

We have yet to close up the house. Along with not paying for a/c, I like having fresh air, tho with the smoke from the wildfires blowing in this general direction, that may not last. We are on the outer fringes of where they predict might be affected, so maybe not an issue.

Today is my neurologist appointment. It’s been 14 months since my seizure adventure with no repeats or even hints of repeats. I doubt she’ll stop my meds, but maybe she’ll lower the dosage. When I saw her last year, I asked about it and she said if I actually don’t need it, the meds won’t have an adverse effect. Seems strange to me but she’s the expert, right? Anyway. that’s on tap at 11:15.

It’s overcast and while we were promised rain, that’s no longer in the forecast. But the temps are supposed to remain in the low 80s daytime/60s at night. I may mow today since I didn’t yesterday. We’ll see. I’ll try to arrange for a visit from the landscape folks to have a look at our hill. Other than that, no real plans.

FCD has been bugging me about a dog. He really, really wants one and I really, really don’t. Every dog we’ve had became my responsibility since I get up first. And I was always the one to notice when the dog wanted out. And on top of that, he’s been talking Irish Wolfhound or Great Dane or some other huge dog. I absolutely refuse to spend thousands at a breeder. If I do relent, it will be for a shelter or rescue critter. But honestly, I don’t see that happening. I don’t want the expense, I don’t want the mess, and I don’t want to have to get care for a critter if we travel. FCD seems to think we can take a dog with us on our boat. I’m pretty sure expecting a dog to not poo or pee for 10 hours or more is unrealistic as well as cruel.

Anyway, the man is making me crazy. < deep calming breath >

And so it begins. Happy Tuesday!!

70

UP with the sun. Just wanted to let you all know that Sadie found the peach box.

71

From last night - Baby Chef:

Imgur

Eggs with bacon, sausage, and cheese.

72

Awwww! I thought I started cooking early, but he has me beat.

73

He and his sister both love kitchen time. So we know they won’t starve when they eventually move out on their own!

74

Good morning!

It’s 59°F and mostly cloudy. We might see some sun this morning, but more clouds are expected to drift in for the afternoon. Smoke season has also started, but the majority of the smoke is drifting in from the Olympic Peninsula from the Bear Gulch fire. Our expected daytime high is around 80°F. Rain is supposed to move in after midnight tonight, and I’m grateful for that. It hasn’t rained for a very long while, and we could use it.

Pilot, adding my voice to the chorus concerning talking out the issue.

Nellie, I did release ladybugs earlier in the season. They hung around for a couple of weeks, but eventually, they disappeared. Any that remained are well hidden, and I haven’t seen any ladybugs for sale at the nurseries lately.

Sticky Buns, I hope your foot is doing better today.

Frumious, I think part of the idea of the exchange program is for the students to experience the culture, so I wouldn’t go too far out of my way to change things. I understand wanting her to feel comfortable, but it’s all about learning your culture.

Wet One, yay for taking a ride on your own. Sounds like you’re getting there!

FCM, cute pic! Get them started early with the cooking!

I earned my RDOS cred yesterday. I didn’t do anything useful other than take care of the pups and load the dishwasher. I did check my email to see that my former agency’s HR office received my scanned form with wet signature over the weekend, and they did. Talk about a cluster. When I filled out my retirement paperwork, I was assured my eAuth signature was fine. On Saturday, I received an email stating they needed my SF 52 with a wet signature, or OPM would not accept it. My printer was out of ink, so I had to obtain ink. Anyway, I got that all sorted on Sunday morning. I found it a bit annoying, especially considering all this stuff was submitted in APRIL.

Well, it’s time for more coffee, then a shower, then off to take care of chores and whatnot. I was thinking of visiting my former office today, too. We shall see.

75

Insanely busy.

The house project is aggravating.

We have been working with a consultant and he’s one of these classical old fashioned, stereotypical Japan businessmen.

He is too opinionated about things that SenWife and I should be making the decisions about.

For example, we want a half bathroom installed on the second floor where the kids’ bedrooms will be and I want it one size and he insists on another, just because.

He has his opinions and doesn’t ask about many things that designers usually ask about.

The other thing that is really annoying is that he’s the kind that can’t talk to foreigners. It’s especially prevalent among older Japanese who grew up before there were many of us here and few spoke Japanese.

He looks at SenWife almost the entire time we are meeting. He asks questions while looking at her. Of course, she has no idea what he’s talking about because she doesn’t know anything about remodeling while I’ve personally helped remodel a couple of places and worked with contractors to have other places done.

So I answer his question and have one for him. Rather than answer me, he looks at her again.

Often I have to explain to her what he means. That still doesn’t stop him.

The final straw happened on Monday.

Because of the tsunami last week, I started to think much more carefully about earthquakes.

Japanese building codes were radically changed in 1981 to make houses stronger to increase survivable of earthquakes.

The consultant was dismissive of my concerns and Japanesesplained why I shouldn’t worry my pretty head.

So, I’ve cancelled the meeting for tomorrow and we will have to pause the project.

It’s frustrating.

76

How adorable!

It sounds like you may have to look for another consultant, sensai.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. After that, I’ll get sheveled to go back to the PCP for my gimp tag paperirk. Then I’ll go across the street from the office to visit a former neighbor in the horsepistol. We were neighbors for ~10 years and he’s not had a good last couple of years. He just had another stroke and he’s way too young for having had multiples (67, but hard lifestyle).

Stay safe and healthy y’all!

77

I won’t even mention it. She’ll come to her own conclusions and make her own decisions. I’m only there because it’s important to her that I go with her.

As it is, I’ve never heard the pastor say anything political, other than to acknowledge that politics are an issue in the country, and that people, regardless of their political beliefs, should worship Christ. Since all four of his kids are of colour, and since the fellowship supports missions in South America (he’s gone to Peru a couple of times since we’ve been attending) and Asia, and since he seems an intelligent guy, he doesn’t seem to be a Trump supporter.

As for my wife and decisions. She finally got me to go to church with her a two or three years ago, to a different church she’d found. The pastor [NB: Different church, different pastor] talked about how Biden was destroying the country. My wife was like, ‘Oh, great. I finally get you to go to church with me, and that happens. I never went back. She kept going until she was groped by an old man (in front of an usher), but the old man was excused because he had Alzheimer’s or something. Then she never went back. The one we’re going to now is closer, smaller, and nicer.

78

Chocolate crinkle cookies made you are the NUMMIEST.

79

Morning all. Have broken fast with pancakes and bacon with an apple to finish things off, so belly is happy. Cloudy but only 68F outside and only getting to 82F later so will keep giving the AC some time off until it does warm up some. Soccer for the 7 year olds is on the agenda for 6pm-7:15pm tonight, expecting a madhouse but hopefully the parents and other coaches will be there to help. Outside of that nothing much on the agenda.

Frumious, agree with the others, part of her adventure is finding out things.

loach, thanks for the info. I worked with Apache and Blackhawks when I worked for the DoD, all them little helicopters look alike to me… :wink: :grin:

boo fae, most housework noise we usually get is when someone replaces a roof, but it’s usually pretty quiet here. Hope they finish up soon.

FCM, sounds like whatever got you that time might have been a one-off, hopefully the dosage can be lowered. And yeah, given your respective ages, getting a big dog now is not the best idea; maybe compromise (if in the end you must get one) with something mid-sized, a Basset might work out. And Toby’s pic is great!

Cookie, good for Sadie…was there any doubt?

Taters, the bureau-crazy earns it’s name..

Sensei, if there are other contractors available, I would consider them, I can forsee a lot of conflict in this situation. Your call.

red, best wishes to your one-time neighbor; I’ve been so happy that so far nothing serious has beset me.

And onward into 2sDay. Can hear some pounding outside, boofae, so may have jinxed myself above, will have to take a look-see. Take care all.

80

Last week was quite blurfy, I did that spiral of not eating, so I didn’t feel well, so I definitely had no appetite, then I was really blurfy, etc.

Yesterday, I got me a breakfast sammich, ate the whole thing … and took a nap. Picked up “beige food” from the nearby diner for dinner … and slept soundly.

It was glorious, although absolutely zero vegetables were involved. I did take a multivitamin, for the record.

But seriously, actually having an appetite and acting on it was a big improvement.

I did change the sheets (go me!) and take a long shower, so sliding into bed last night was even more relaxing. Oh, @JaneDoe42 your suggestion to use a large flat sheet instead of fussing with a fitted sheet has, so far, been working out quite well, so THANK YOU for the notion.

Now Monkey wants him some snuggle time, so if y’all will excuse me, I have a handsome gentleman on my bed.