Thanks, all! I’m awaiting my turn in the shower, then we’ll get breakfast. That’s as far as I’ve planned. Updates as they occur! 
Hippo 
Birdies 
to 
Ewe 
FCM! May your birthday candles never sputter!
Love match. The other wife never smiles.
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 6c/43f with no predicted change, and cloudy. Weather app says “If this fucking weather was soup, it would be broccoli fart chowder with fucking corn and bacon.” It’s been grey and dismal today, plus we’ve had rain, and now we have an incoming weather warning for Storm Eowyn which hits us later today and all through tomorrow. We’re promised 90mps winds and we’ve even had a warning on campus for potential broken windows and flying vegetation! Weather like that throws the Travel Gods into a tailspin, thus I shall irk from home instead.
** Happy birthday, Moooom** 
Once again, I have spent my day so far doing things I did not mean to be involved in, and not doing the things I really should be doing. I am meant to be providing some training for a new starter tomorrow too, which I can still do from home but will require a bit of thought. Anyway, I’ll leave it up to her if she wants to go ahead tomorrow or reschedule for next week.
Taters I’m sorry you’re losing your WFH privileges but given the time you spend commuting, perhaps your bosses could be persuaded that it’s not unreasonable to do that sometimes.
nellie fingers crossed your noisy neighbour has had enough of a scare from the building manager that they decide to behave otherwise the next two complaints will not be long in coming.
swampy how will you cope, having to venture out into the snowy wastes?
Sticky Buns fingers crossed for your disability filing, I hope you get a good result this time!
Nothing much going on here, I went to the pub last night with friends which was very nice. I had a late night and an early morning, consequently I am rather tired today but will survive until hometime. Later this evening, I need to go and fetch 'im indoors from the station which means an interruption to my slothing (and Shadow’s lap time) but I will compensate with an early bedtime. I’ve already cleared working from home tomorrow so I get a Friday lie-in too!
Meh, given the ambiguity of the EO, I could perhaps luck out and get one day per pay period (two weeks) or none at all. I know my boss will work with us on one-offs (appointment day, for instance), but for now, we’re proceeding with our current status until leadership in our agency sends something out. I am management, so we’ll be the first to feel it, and then the employees. I view WFH as a privilege, and it’s certainly been better for my productivity, the environment, and my pocketbook, but if I want a paycheck, I’ll be in the office. It sucks, but I chose to take a job there, and I started when I only had one telework day, so I knew then, and I know now what I’m in for. Many people threaten to quit, but the reality for most is they won’t; they gotta eat, too. I’m not one of those people. I’ll ride it out; 41.5 years of service have taught me this will pass. Granted, it’s never been this nasty, but it’ll pass…eventually.
Finally, it’s not the telework that bums me out (much); it’s all the other EOs.
Me too, sister, me too. Books literally saved my life as a kid who was ‘different’ so I’m pretty clear on what to do and I’m too old to care what the poopy heads like that librarian think. If she wants to be a drill sergeant she ought to be in the army not in a grade school.
Today should be less taxing. Post surgical check up at the cataract surgeon’s and school pickup for Harriet then stay 5-6 hours Grandma kidlet wrangling through both of them going to sleep. Good work if you can get it.
The rest of my day will be steeling myself to not read the newspaper and stay the heck off FaceBook for my mental health. Got a new novel hot off the presses by my favorite author Craig Johnson so I’ll redirect my reading into that and then return it to the library tout suite so the next Longmire fan can distract themselves with it.
High of 26F here today, 12 ferrets now, windy so it’ll seem colder and partly cloudy but beats the Arctic cold we had the previous 4 days, I’ll take it, especially since we’ll not have the silly little spits of snow pellets we had several times yesterday. I better brew myself that 
and make sure that delicious new novel is within easy reach before the kitteh plants herself on my lap and demands I don’t move until she is darn good and ready to wake up.
Clean, clad, and, um, ok, fed (couldn’t come up with a clever 3rd word.) We had French toast in honor of swampy and his Snowmageddon…ok, not really. We just wanted it.
We’d booked the room with breakfast and here that means you get a gift card for $15 per day per person at the restaurant downstairs. That was a total of $90 for us, and it isn’t limited to breakfast. There’s $27 left on our card and we’ll use it this evening. FCD wants breakfast at Denny’s tomorrow before we leave, and coincidentally, they’re 6 blocks from here right where we turn to go home.
Not sure what we’ll do today. Some hot tub time, probably, but nothing else, especially since it’s too cold to venture out for long. So, chillage. Much chillage.
Speaking of dittoes/mimeograph/purple copies, that was one of my jobs when I worked for my dad in the early 70s. The clerks would type up the bills of lading and I’d make however many copies they needed. I wonder when they switched from mimeo to xerox to printers? I assume they still have to print, but maybe not.
Good times!
Good morning all, just finished my Big Bowl O’Cereal with an apple so my healthy eating for the day has been accomplished… About 25F outside heading to 47F later, so definitely on the right track. Nothing much on the agenda for today, need to do some research and planning for the June trip to England/Cruise to Norway adventure, will have several days pre-cruise in London and need to plan that out.
Did do some online checking (googled it) and the consensus is that going to the sauna post-operative is not a good idea, so I will forbear doing that until I see the surgeon for my follow-up on 4 Feb.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FCM!!!/ May this year be a little less…interesting…than the one you just went through.
VanGO, that story with the wax made me wince; but as a soccer ref of 30 years standing, I wouldn’t let you play with a shinguard on your arm.
Taters, hope once the EO have stopped flowing, things can be worked out with the higher-ups so that, you know, actual work can be done once again. Best wishes and glad I am retired now.
swampy, getting the rolls before making the insides of the sammiches shows advance planning and an incentive to get the major project done–maybe you should apply for a job with this Administration, they seem like they might need those talents… 
boo fae, hope the storms don’t rage too fiercely.
And that’s all the early reportage I have. On to internettin’ the rest of the morning away. Take care all.
happy birthday fcm! sounds like you are off to a good start.
can’t believe it is still just thursday.
one night on the shuttle someone mentioned that they were going to laurel hill cemetery for an event. she told me that there is a laurel hill podcast called “all bones considered”. sooooooo many episodes about the cemetery and the people buried there. it is still a working cemetery. good historical podcast. just fascinating bios.
i’ve taken tours there and it is an amazing spot. part of it is in phila proper, west laurel hill is technically in bala cynwyd.
it is national pie day, should that help y’all decide today’s menu.
I was on the 200 Sort Table the day. Medium-ish long day.
Belt: < does not run >
Me: Do we have a hook up here?"
Dude: “naw, it proably because of the stuf on the other end.”
Me: < flings bag, knocking 1st bag off of belt sensor >
Belt: < runs >
Dude: “Damn.”
Does this mean a Witch King is gonna get shanked?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FCM!!!
The only difficulty I ever had with librarians was in first or second grade (don’t remember which), when there was a little difficulty convincing the school librarian that I really could read the book I wanted to check out – the edition Amazon are currently selling 310 pages, though that includes an introduction by the current editor and almost 100 illustrations that I don’t remember being in the original – but my teacher weighed in on my side so she finally gave in and let me check it out.
I was reading Heyerdahl’s Aku Aku, Ceram’s Gods, Graves and Scholars: The Story of Archaeology, and Kramer’s History Begins at Sumer at 7. Fortunately, I didn’t have to rely on the public library, which refused to let me check out a book on pond life from the Adult section. We moved to a more progressive community that didn’t have Child and Adult sections. However, my 4th grade teacher called my parents in to report that I had a learning disability because there was more than a 2-grade discrepancy between my reading and math scores on some standardized instrument. My math score was at the 4th grade level (which is surprising, because my previous school was far behind my new community in math instruction), but my reading score was 12th grade (as high as the test went, I assume), so that was an 8-year discrepancy. My father, who at that time did this sort of assessment for schools in a different county, patiently explained that it was only a learning disability by that instrument if the lower score was also 2 years below grade level, but the teacher couldn’t get it. This demonstrates who among us had a learning problem.
Happy Thorsday!
Happy Birthday FCM!
It is 20, feels like 20, degrees outside.
The sun is shining, the garage door is still working, so it’s a good day.
Today’s high will be in the 30s and the temps are warming up.
It’s supposed to be in the 50s next Wednesday.
It will be nice while it lasts.
My son got off at 3am because he had 4 hours of unused sick leave that he was going to lose. I have never heard of a company that does that. He was called into the office, handed the forms, and told he could leave at 3.
Other than irk, not much on the agenda for today. I need to order groceries, but I think it can wait for a warmer day.
I need to load the dishwasher, and the never-ending laundry to be put away.
We’ll need to plan a dump day as trash is not going to be picked up today, for the third week in a row.
When my son was giving me a hard time with school, I sat him down and we had a talk.
I said, you know how I go to work every day, so we have money for food, and a place to live. That is my job. Your job is to go to school and learn. When you don’t do your job, that affects how I do my job, because I have to take time away from my job to make sure you are doing yours. It’s not fair to me to have to take responsibiliity for what you should be doing, and it affects how much money we have for food and rent.
I don’t like going to work anymore than you like going to school, but that is how it is.
It sunk in and it worked.
However, he is still balking at getting his license, so I am not the best person to give parenting advice. That is what worked for the school problem though.
Very cool/pretty pillows, Sticky
We went to Denny’s for burgers for lunch. Now we’re back. While we were out, housekeeping came thru, so our trash has been emptied and we have fresh towels. Yay!
I sorted dirty from clean clothes - dirties all in one bag. Tonight I’ll get most of our stuff packed so we can leave early. FCD is antsy about getting his car back. And I need to run my car thru a car wash - it’s salty. This has been a nice break, but I think I’m ready to sleep in my own bed. Plus warmer weather is in store starting Moanday. Yay, again!
Wishing the Happiest of Birthdays to Fairy Chat Mom!!!
gee, hate to ask what the first dumbest injury ever was.
Although we get the newspaper delivered 3 days a week, I rarely look at it and I’m not on FaceBook. However, I do use the News ap on my phone and have taken to primarily just skimming the headlines on any political news and just reading basically sports stories. Our daughter recently installed threads on my phone and this morning I was dismayed to read that our neighbors to the north are threatening to stop selling electricity to the Mitten State if the pathological narcissist at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave goes ahead with implementing 25% tariffs on Feb 1.
sounds interesting. I see he’s written a series. Do you recommend starting with first book or can a new reader to the series just jump in anywhere in the series?
It’s 25* and snowing again. I may have to go out for a walk in these beautiful 
and be like Linus.
Two vowels short of being a sauce.
An outing today to the Minnesota Institute of Art (MIA). They had a display of the works of Otto Dix, who was a German painter. He did a lot of impressionistic depictions of the horrors of WWI. I’m gonna have dreams.
6F as I write this at 1300 today. Warmers doings on the way, possibly even breaking through freezing.
20 novels, 3 novellas, one collection of short stories:
The same characters are in the novels over the entire spans of their lives, which is the best part for me, getting to know those characters and watching those relationships evolve and drive the plots is great fun. It isn’t necessary to read them in order. I’d read the first one you can get your hands on, get attached to the main characters and gradually kinda sort of read them in an generalized earlier to later fashion, but no need to be absolute about it.
Tooth and Claw is his new release which I started this morning. It’s a novella, so shorter. His next full novel is due out in May of ‘26, which should give you a chance to read the earlier ones and get fully hooked on the characters and their friendships. The Wyoming settings are appealing too.
If you watched the Longmire series that was streamed, you met a lot of the main characters but not all and the series changed the timelines quite a bit so you won’t have spoiled anything. The series tarted up a fair bit of the plots, soap opera-ed it as tv always does. The books are more literary with the characters and we know a lots more of their back stories and interior motivations than can be developed in movies or tv. The books have more clever repartee and wit, the series has more cleavage and blood spatters.
We need a Mumper Zoom book club.
Oh my goodness, I cannot imagine. School shootings are so terrible, and to have one so close…
Seriously, 
I had NO IDEA palm trees went anywhere near that far north!!
Ugh I had a school librarian like that too. My mom went and complained rather sternly to the administration about how a parent has ultimate control over what’s appropriate for a child and not the librarian. I then got to check out whatever I wanted and my book limit was bumped to 4 so I didn’t have to go to the library every day for new books! Maybe a similar intervention would help your granddaughter?
Happy birthday FCM!
That sounds miserable (and I really hope you meant mph and not mps )
This has been a long week, for many of the same reasons that’s been alluded to up thread, though I am not a federal worker and not yet directly impacted. It almost seems like it should already be February with how long this week has drug itself along…
At least the weather will be fairly pleasant - mid 50s and sunny.
I took a hot shower in preparation of going to Rite-Aid for a fresh COVID test. As it happens, had three or four test kits that don’t expire until June 2025. I’ve just tested me, and it came back negative. 
So, just a cold.
ETA: A quart of beef broth is just under two coffee cups. (I roll big joints. I like big cups.)
BBBoo, I think I’ve been under a rock - I didn’t realize you’d had your surgery already. I’m glad it all went well, but glad you managed to get to some side streets and safety with the dawn.
JaneDoe, that pup is beautiful!
I’m just catching up with my MMP, so my retention today is minimal. The weekend/week has been interesting. I did go to overlygirl’s tournament, but made sure my knee was amply rested and well taken care of. There were other parents available to drive when needed, which was really kind of them since it was our first travel tournament together. Overlyboy is now safely ensconced at college. Oh, yeah, and the executive orders being issued recently are demolishing a lot of what I do and how I think about the world around me. So, there’s that. But…moving on from my existential crisis.
I had my MRI this morning. I’m not a tech or a doctor, but reading the results, it would seem my knee is not broken, but I do have a cyst on the joint with some swelling. Or at least that’s how I’m taking, “No evidence of fracture, but ganglion cyst present,” or some such. Whatever it is, I’ll take it. I’m just waiting to hear from the doc before I go do anything crazy, like run on the damn thing or do squats. If that’s the greatest of my concerns today, it is a wonderful day.
Bleh, more work.