Thanks for thinking of us. So far two vamps havent gotten blood so now they are going after his hands 
Moley.
I walked out yesterday to go to Dunkin ( free coffee, app points) and theres Moley, running up to me…almost tripped over her.
I said, I’ll will be back.
So I came back and there was Ollie, the cat wrangler on the side of the building, along with girl neighbor.
Someone had stuffed junk into the cat box and it was bent.
No I didn’t see, I am never by the narrow end of the building.
I wish I lived right there so I could watch.
The guy who lives right there started banging on the window and yelling.
People say he does this a lot, cat or no cats.
We come in and can hear him down the hall.
A lady calls the police as it disturbs the unhealthy lady across from him.
He wouldn’t answer the door.
So my neighbor says you know Moleys a female?
I said, I thought so! Her face just looks it.
She said, Ollie can’t tell.
I was right after all. Glad cats don’t mind being misgendered.
So Moles got her chicken.
Can you tell by looking at a cat, not closely, what sex it is?
Morning all. Up early and immediately (well, I did put some clothes on) went to the store for the Firday shopping, got that done and am back home where it is nice and warm (31F outside right now). Nothing much else on the schedule for today, so sloth and internetting will occupy my time.
I understand (and appreciate) the concerns folks have that I don’t overdo and perhaps damage my recovery, but it’s been a week now, I have no pain or nausea and the walking pace on the treadmill is no more than normal walking pace and I take 10-15 minute breaks in-between to see if there is any discomfort. Still, may cut even that back just to be safe. We’ll see.
Delightful stories from everyone on the reading side. Knew there was a reason I associated with this lot… 
boo fae, those are hurricane-like winds in places, probably a good day not to be out. Take care.
FCM, safe journey home.
swampy, hope the funeral goes well and Doris is given the sendoff she has earned.
Sticky Buns, I forget, is this for a new tattoo or to continue to remove an old one?
OK, that’s all from N. Ali-bama at the present, take care and have a good Firday.
To be certain of gender, I’d have to inspect the rear half. Calicos are nearly always female, and about 80% of orange are male, but there’s no other color scheme that has much of a gender link (so far as I know).
You might be able to spot an unneutered tom by looking at his face (heavier jaw), but that’s iffy.
Turns out, it wasn’t needed!
Get this: I woke to the sound of a snowblower and shoveling/scraping. Finally realized it was really close to my side window. Peeked out to see two strangers freeing my car.
I threw on some sweats - maybe they’re from the management company? - but it turns out their neighbors from two doors down. ("I was immediately like, “Oh, the NICE yard.” Didn’t say it.)
Anyway, I certainly wasn’t expecting them and have no cash, but they just handwaved me away, laughing. “We’re neighbors!”
The husband helped push my car to get it the rest of the way unstuck and they’re clearing what was under it.
I’m so verklempt!!
Must’ve cashed in some serious “good karma” points.
I thanked them repeatedly and then awkwardly went back inside.
Helluva start to my morning!
I’m delighted you have neighbors like that~I do too. I call them my snow angels. I’ve never caught them at, I don’t even know for sure which neighbors they are, my sidewalks are cleared before I wake up and look outside. It’s not all bad not knowing, that way I have 3 houses on my block who might have my snow angels dwelling inside and I get to have a warm feeling about all of them. I think this kind of neighborliness is a hallmark of the Midwest and the West. I didn’t experience it in Boston or St Louis nearly so much.
Some night when you’re not having to close, bring them a piping hot box of cheese sticks or wings, knock on their door, hand it in and say “thanks for all the help digging my car out of the snow~it meant so much to me. I’m so glad we’re neighbors”.
In my case, to one of the likely suspects, I dropped off 2 6 packs of a nice craft beer made in a nearby microbrewery and profusely admired their rescued greyhound doggie.
oh dear. i hope things get better.
they had mein kampf in my school library as well. i was very interested in ww2 due to my parents and uncles being involves. i tried a few time, i couldn’t get through it.
Good vibes for JtC and Hubs today.
I wasn’t an early reader, but went from 1st grade to adult reading in under a year.
More or less home. I dropped my sweetie off to retrieve his wheels and I’m waiting in line at the drive-thru carwash. Lots of crud on my poor Sonata. Next stop will be CVS for our meds, then a pass thru for a McLunch before heading to the house. Then LAUNDRY!! Rah.
Basically, moral support. A good ear if he wants to rant, time to himself if he would rather pound / shred it out in the music room or get into a video game, etc.
Sending good vibes to you and hubs JtC.
Ouch! I hate it when they have to do that. Anywhere they drill insert a needle is close to a bone.
Calicos / torties are females who only get one copy of the red gene, whereas orange females get two copies. The reason that there are so many more orange males is that the red gene is carried on the X chromosome. Kind of like how hemophilia is inherited in humans.
OMG! You really lucked out on the neighbor front with those two.
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, bed stripped / made, apartment mostly cleaneded (fixing to sweep / mop / vacuum), menu planned, grocery list made and will go Krogering in a bit.
I felt so disappointed when I walked Nelson this morning. It warmed up yesterday afternoon and TWPTB predicted a decent day today, but, noooooooo, we’re back below freezing and it won’t get much warmer. Yesterday was just a tease.
Stay safe and healthy y’all!
Early start because of all the MLK Day and SNOWPOCALYPSE backlog, and it still took forever. I picked up some catfish for dinner. But laundry is in the dryer, now it’s naptime.
Points failure? Does that train run off the engine of a '62 Dodge Dart or something?
Well, if I flip Spot over, I can see his shrunken nutsack, and get some interesting lacerations in the process.
{{{{JtC and Hubs}}}}
They successfully stented him, but hes having a hard time waking up.
I have a frozen cottage pie thingie in the oven, and Monkey is sullenly going in&out&in&out of the snow.
Oh!! I just remembered, the nice coffee shop by work has weekly specials, and FriYay is mochas - my favorite! - AND I pass them on the way to pick up Special Co-worker anyway.
Must leave house early today!! 
Monkey just ran in to stare at me, and cronch ice from betwixt his toes.
(Don’t worry, I don’t have any de-icer chemicals out there.)
I desperately need to replace his 
box; would be good to do that before leaving. Also hafta feed the ratties and give 'em all lotsa water; damn thirsty little buggers.
That is an excellent suggestion. Thank you for putting the idea into my brain.
Someone here a little while back sent me a surprise package including candy buttons (those blobs of colorful sugar on strips of paper) which absolutely tickled my mid-80s childhood nostalgia.
I’m looking forward to trying them, but I doubt I’d get through a whole package myself, so I’ve been saving them.
They were sent right before Christmas, when the world was awash in good cheer, and many sweets.
But I knew someday in mid January (before the Valentines sweets arrive) there would be some cold, gloomy night. No twinkly lights anymore. No fun presents or Secret Santa surprises.
Anyway, tonight is that night. It’s cold, there’s bills to be paid, and I received a wonderful surprise to start my day.
This is the best way I can think of to pay that happiness forward just the tiniest bit.
Sending as much good karma and positivity your way as I possibly can.
Me too!
Me three!
Started Typing: 2:47 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 4:15 PM ET
I had every intention of being chatty with y’all this week, but while I was drafting Tuesday’s post one of our team leads asked for assistance with a SharePoint site reorg. Stupid day job. 
Between that and a particularly thorny procurement situation, I’ve had no real downtime until today: I finished the site changes this morning, and the other issue is currently out of my hands. The procurement thing has been extremely frustrating, but I enjoyed the SharePoint work: I like organizing things, and making sites easier for people to actually use. Anyway, now I’m ~180 posts behind and I decided there’s no way I’m going to even skim all of that: so, I’m only catching up on today’s posts. Yays/boos/hugs as needed!
I’m another member of the “early reader” club: I don’t remember learning to read, or reading at any particular age, but my mom used to love to tell people that when I was in kindergarten I would go to a 2nd-grade classroom for reading. I’ve always had a facility with words (oral and written) and was always in advanced English and writing classes. Both parents were big readers…but they also both had math degrees, and no one’s quite sure what happened to me in that regard! 
Temps here have finally started to warm up! The early part of the week saw highs in the teens and lows in the single digits, with wind chills in the negatives: I started running the oil heater in my home office 24/7, because Bailey’s bed is in here and this room gets really cold at night. It’s cold during the day, too, and I already run the heater whenever I’m sitting in here, but on Monday night before I went to bed I stopped in here and got down on the floor to give her some goodnight kisses and I was stunned by how cold both she and the dog bed were. I turned the heater on then, and haven’t turned it off yet. My gas bill is already going to be ridiculous; may as well jack up the electric bill, too. I’m not letting my 16-year-old, arthritic dog be that cold.
Happily, our daytime highs are back above freezing – and it’s about to get downright warm, with a forecasted high of 53°F (and “mostly sunny”) on Wednesday! 
I’ll be able to turn the heater off in a couple of days.
I haven’t left my house much all month – I think just three times – but I’ll rejoin civilization this weekend: there’s a small local Lego show tomorrow afternoon that I’m tentatively planning to check out, and on Sunday I have a ticket for the early show at Blues Alley to see Freda Payne (of 1970’s “Band of Gold”). All of the musicians in her band are local, and friends of mine; I’m looking forward to seeing/hearing everyone.
Speaking of Lego, the small Books Are My Passion set arrived on Tuesday: I put it together that evening, in less than an hour. 
A picture of the completed set and current photos of all three displays are in my Lego photo album, for those who might be interested. At this point, I truly don’t know what will be next. Possibly a custom set next month, at another “Bricks 'n Brews” event: their February build is a dog sled team, and it looks kinda cute. But, if I do go to tomorrow’s Lego show, there’s a fair chance I might be inspired to do some Lego shopping afterwards. 
That made me laugh out loud!
Here’s a joke for ya:
Q: How many straight church organists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Both of them.
(Told to me many years ago by my father, who is both gay and a longtime church organist!)
I haven’t been able to watch any of it yet, but I have a reminder set for tonight’s Championship Women’s Free Skate. I’m hoping to catch some of this weekend’s events, too. 
Reminds me of when I got my wolf tattoo: my friend kept making me laugh, and I told her to stop otherwise I’d wind up with a mutant wolf – which made the tattoo artist laugh.
Yay! You deserve a good turn. 
Welcome back!
Me, four, with the karma/positivity! 
I had a hard time waking up after my bariatric surgery (my first/only time under general anesthesia), and my mom used to always really struggle with it (to the point where she opted out out of some procedures that might have helped her, because she became afraid of never waking up). My earliest post-op memory is of some poor/wonderful nurse forcing me to dance with him in the hallway in an effort to get me to shake off the effects of the anesthesia: I kept falling asleep on my feet, mid-shuffle. Heh.
Good thoughts headed to JtC’s husband.
shoe that’s fantastic; they were paying it forward.
Have you had a chance to see the results of the Short Program? I was very happy with/for the person who had the highest rated Short Program. I was sorry for the person who came in 3rd; I really thought she would be first.
Linens laundered and hung up, Krogered, started to shovel but the shovel was beyond use so made Hubs get his outerwear back on and went to Home Depot. $29.95 plus 6% tax later and I was back shoveling the sidewalk, front walk up to house and down to curb, porch and steps and driveway approach. Then I gave up, I’ll have to shovel the driveway tomorrow. Came in and made a big mug of hot chocolate.
JtC Have kept your Hubs, the medical team and you in my 
Afternoon all. Have been a perfect sloth all day, moving from computer to TV to bathroom (I P a lot) and except for fixing BLT’s for lunch, have done nothing constructive since the Firday shopping. Did make a financial appointment for Monday to add in a new investment and have a dental checkup scheduled Tuesday, but that’s for next week. Coaching soccer tomorrow at 5pm and don’t think I’ll be out of the house much before then. Nearly 40F so not too bad, but still not tempted to go out for very long.
shoe, I have a couple of neighbors like that, in return I move their trash bin back to the side of their house when I go out to get mine; just little things neighbors do. And I like BBBoo’s suggestion.
{{JtC}}. Hope Hubs has awakened. Whatever they use now for surgery, it knocked .me out before I even was aware of it and didn’t wake up until later in post-op.
Welcome Home, FairyChats.
And time for Pardon the Interruption, my one must-see TV of the day. Take care all.