(Old) April Showers bringing May Flowers in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Good Morning MMPers! I was so happy to see the lillies of the valley first with buds late last week and starting to open into blooms yesterday. Our lilacs are in full bloom. I sat in the backyard over the weekend enjoying the fragrance of the lilacs. One set of the azaelea bushes, the hot pink ones, is also looking gorgeous while the white azaelea bushes should come into bloom soon. So, what flowers are now blooming in your yard currently?

Went to sleep a bit early and woke up shortly after 1am for a bio break and haven’t been able to get back to sleep so thought why not get up and get the day started. Load of laundry in the washing machine and going to start WFH.

Have as great of a day as possible.

ETA: just went back and read the rest of last week’s MMP that were posted after I signed off:

{{{{{RealFish}}}}} sincerest condolences.

nellie I read your reply about the suspect cheese to my daughter and she howled with laughter. Too funny.

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Almost mornin to ya.
Trying to remember the last time I slept through the night. Its been years.
Will post more on second wakening.
:bellhop_bell:

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I’m jealous! I’ve had no luck with lilacs and I love them. Maybe I’ll try again.

One of my big white ones is past peak, the other just started. All the pink and red ones seem to be done. The purple and salmon ones out back are at peak. No tulips this year, but a bunch of iris are in bloom. And the honeysuckle is on the verge…

Another overcast/wet day in store, tho the rain is forecast for later. It’s mild out, tho, headed well into the 70s. MIL has a podiatrist appointment to get her nails trimmed, then the home aide is supposed to come. And the pellet stove and chimney are to be cleaned today. I never did finish moving the furniture back in the basement, so I’ll do that, and while down there, I think I’ll try to call my mom. I’d rather not talk to her in front of MIL since I’ll possibly say things…

Daughter messaged me yesterday asking if they can come for supper tonight - SIL wants a family dinner. I put them off till next week since too much is going on today. And that will give me time to make a big enough meatloaf for 7.

So another week begins, and it promises to be a soggy one. Two of my sisters have birthdays this week - one turning 59, the other 69, the third one turned 63 last week. What a bunch of geezers we are!!

ETA - someone asked last week about enlisting hospice assistance to convince MIL to be cautious. HAH! The hospice nurse told her flat-out to tell us every time she wants to get up so we can be with her. She ignored him just like she ignores us. I had to stop her three times yesterday from going to the kitchen alone. Worse than a toddler…

Happy Moanday!!

4

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 68 Amurrkin out and mostly cloudy with a predicted high of 85 and partly N.O.S. for the day. No biggie plans for the day so sloth, general overall uselessness, nappage, and day drinkin’ as is our wont. Sup will be “ground beast glop” and cornbread. “Groundbeast glop” is ground beast, cabbage, onions, garlic, and those spicy ‘maters in a can (Rotel?) all cooked together. I am sure there’s a better name, but we like the name so we’re stickin’ to it.

Bein’ as I live in the deep southern U.S.of A., Spring done sprung already. Stuff blooms in March and April in these parts.

{{{Real_Fish}}} I am so sorry for the loss of your dad. He, you, and the family are in my prayers.

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

Happy Moanday Y’all!

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{{{RealFIsh}}}

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Good morning, everyone.

It’s 48 degrees Fahrenheit and damp outside. It’ll be cloudy with rain showers all day, with a high temperature of 53 degrees Fahrenheit.

Normally, this would be an in-office day, and I’d be almost down to Oly town by now. However, Maisie is in her first heat, and I’m waiting on doggie diapers to arrive. Thankfully, I still had some in the house from when we had Brandi, and she became incontinent. However, the washable ones are slightly too large, and the disposable diapers are just a little small. My husband is struggling with the diaper thing, and to be honest, it’s a complete PITA to put one on her, because Buster is fussing, which makes her stress.

At any rate, I’m in for almost a month of this, and I need to make sure the pups are separated when we’re not around to watch. So, they’re sleeping in separate crates, and I have to go outside with them when they go potty, so I can keep an eye on them. Why don’t you let them potty separately? Because if I put them out alone, they stare at each other through the glass door and cry. :roll_eyes: Believe me, I’ve tried.

I figured something was up because Buster would not quit sniffing Maisie’s hiney; she was drinking a lot of water, kept licking herself “down there,” and was extra clingy. She also growled at him at one point on Friday. Saturday afternoon, I saw a single spot of blood on my kitchen mat but nothing anywhere else, so I chalked it up to a hurt paw and started looking at puppy paws.

Yesterday, she got up from one of the dog beds, and I saw blood spots on the bed and the blanket adjacent to the bed. I immediately went and found the doggy diapers.

Anyway, I plan to get her spayed as soon as I reasonably can. I’ll call the vet to find out, but after looking online, it looks like I need to wait three months. I really hope not, but we’ll see what the vet tells me. I need to wait until Buster is at least a year old to get him neutered. I was really hoping Maisie’s first heat wouldn’t happen until she was at least a year old. The reason to wait for a year for large breed dogs is to allow for skeletal maturity, but I might have to get Buster taken care of sooner too. Maybe the ideal thing would be to get them done at the same time so that they’re both sort of down at the same time and I don’t have to worry about one or the other doing something to the other to harm recovery.

I took the weekend to just sort of decompress. I didn’t make it to any nursery, but then again, it was pretty soggy. I did manage to run the weed whacker around the yard but didn’t get to mow.

I didn’t spend much time on the computer over the weekend, so I am sending my yays, hugs, and boos to all as appropriate.

fishy, I am truly sorry about your father.

Alrighty, I need that second cup of coffee. Take care.

7

Morning all. Woke up to rain but it is due to move out of the area this morning and we should have a clear day in the 80’s here. But rain is in the schedule for most of the week (on and off) so soccer will be a daily check of the field status. Have to do some banking today and the sammich pickup from Jersey MIke’s, and hopefully some swimming, but otherwise not an active day.

{{{{Real Fish}}}}, I am sorry he is gone, you knew it was coming and sooner rather than later, but it is still a blow when you get the word. My deepest condolences to you and yours.

Taters, hope the ‘doggie problems’ don’t get away from you, sounds like you have it well under control.

Take care now.

8

So there are quite a few household ceiling fans in the building, which work about as well as Shaggy does. Except the one that decided some time over the weekend to heave itself downward, and crash on to the dumping station where I would have been standing, if it had happened during work

But other than that, a much less chaotic day than Saturday.
Also, someone apparently shotgunned a Four Loko in the parking lot after I went to work,

Mostly weeds, and trees.

So I shouldn’t invite you over for shrimp scampi and biscuits? :wink:

{{{{Fishy}}}}

You needed that.

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Because you would say ‘prawn scampi’?

Here, Shrimp are shrimp. If they’re big, they’re ‘jumbo shrimp’. Or ‘prawns’. Actually, shrimp and prawns are different animals

I rarely see langoustines at the supermarket, and virtually never at a restaurant. Since it’s not available, scampi made with shrimp is the default and thus ‘shrimp scampi’ is redundant. So I just call it ‘scampi’. I don’t fry the shrimps (coated in breadcrumbs, or 'fried in breadcrumbs).

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It looks to be warm and no rain today. I wish the building hadn’t shut the heat off yet. Its off all summer, heat and a/c cannot be usable at the same time.
Caked, coffee’d, off to grocery.

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I tried to log onto my irk computer at 0600, and Microsoft Remote Desktop said, ‘I don’t wanna.’ Of course I was able to log into FortiClient VPN. I went to my Outlook email in Safari and it was working. So there must have been a power outage at the orifice over the eekend. I emailed a cow-orker who gets in early, and she went down to the basement to turn on my confuser. Now I can irk.

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MIL has spent most of today so far in bed - she’s not feeling well. Pellet stove guy is here doing his cleaning thing. I got the basement put back together, plus I dropped a fluorescent tube in my laundry room, so I had the fun of cleaning that up.

After the stove cleaner leaves, I need to clean the basement stove and replace some broken fire bricks. I may hang out down there a while. It’s a comfy place now that we’ve sent most of the kids’ stuff to their house. Now if we could just rehome the two queen beds…

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Happy retirement anniversary to me. Two years already. It’s been both fun and not fun, but at least I don’t have to get up and go into work.

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A sunny morning in MSP, which will likely turn to some rain later today. A contractor was removing a dead tree from the property this morning. There are a couple more that need to go, as well, but I’m guessing it’s an expensive endeavor. Hope they replant.

Skipped exercise after a poor night’s sleep. I made the mistake of eating some ice cream last night. Someday I’ll learn.

Avocado toast and tea for breakfast, which was a nice change from the usual eggs.

Realized yesterday that I never cancelled the AT&T service for my ancient (in computer years) iPad. It’s only $13, but we never use it. I used to take it with us on extended RV trips and use it for route-finding, but since the RV is no longer with us, and cells perform the same function, there’s no need for it. It’s a 2010 version, so I’ll likely just toss it in the dumpster, as there’s no resale value.

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{{{{Real_Fish}}}} Knowing it was coming doesn’t make the loss easier. I hope having us around helps a little bit.

Taters, I didn’t know that about large-breed dogs. Dealing with heat cycles and keeping the siblings apart sounds like an incredible PITA!

CatGlove, I’m with swampy on the spring thing. The cherry and apple trees are done blooming, and the wild longheaded poppies are mid-cycle - they start blooming in April, each flower lasts about one day, and they’re done by the end of May. The climbing rose I planted last June started blooming impressively a couple of weeks ago, and now the blooms are drying up and I’m realizing it’s going to be quite a chore to deadhead the whole bush. The overgrown rose bush that was here when we moved into the house 23 years ago is also blooming, and it’ll keep doing that all summer. There’s also a honeysuckle of the same vintage, and it just started to bloom yesterday.

We have two types of native globe mallows and a cultivated variety, and they’re starting to bloom. The cultivated one is white and the natives are orange and pink. We have seven desert willows ranging in size from two inches tall to ten feet, but they haven’t started blooming yet, and I’m waiting for the trumpet vine to go.

I’ve been spending two or three hours a day out in the yard weeding and raking and pruning and generally trying to impose a little order on the chaos. I put out five bags for the green waste pickup last Tuesday and I have three more for this week. Then I’ll need to either compost yard waste or save it in bags for the fall pickup if I want to keep it out of the landfill.

We had some second-hand drama last week. A friend of my daughter’s is at the beginning of what’s shaping up to be an ugly divorce, and we had to go into emergency mode to help him basically flee after his wife made some ugly threats. In fact, we’re babysitting right now while he’s visiting a lawyer to see about getting a restraining order. Have 10-year-olds always been this active, or am I just getting old? (I know, I know.)

Good luck to all for the coming week!

16

Missred, my maternal grandfather came from a small town near Lvov. When he left it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, now Ukrainian. Grandmother was from northeast Russia. They met in philly, they would have never met in the original countries.

True pisces, I am very sorry, may his memory be eternal.

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Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 16c/62f with no predicted change and cloudy. Weather app says
“Fuck those happy clouds.” It’s cloudy now but it was loey and sunny earlier.

Today is a public holiday here so no work for me. I was up early to do feline tums and bums, then went to the gym. I did a 45 minute dumbbell class then burned another 650 cals on the cross-trainer. Stopped off at the supermarket on the way home to get some chicken boobies and extea salad veggies.

When I got home, I baked the chicken in a herby mix while I got cleaned up. Lunch was chicken salad, and then I settled in for an afternoon of sloth.

'im indoors is making dinner tonight, and I am working from for a couple of days. It’s been a very restful few hours!

18

Howdy, all. The summer semester starts today for me! All asynchronous as I mentioned before, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

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Ours are petering out. I cut some to enjoy inside, and they aren’t as smelly as before. Supposedly lilacs should be pruned immediately after blooming, so I’ve marked my calendar for May 24th to do the pruning.

I have a few tulips which are still blooming, plus bleeding hearts. Tree peony is done - not many blooms, plus it snowed right after it started blooming.

{{{{RealFish}}}} I’m so sorry about your dad. If I could, I’d give you one of my :spoon: to help.

Hubby grew up with honeysuckle and really misses smelling it in summer while driving with the windows down. There’s some sort of honeysuckle here, but it doesn’t last as long, and you’re lucky to find it.

Taters, I had no idea that dogs (well, bitches) actually bled when they are in heat. How old are they?

doggio, glad you didn’t get fanned. Seems like such things shouldn’t happen.

New floor is laid. Tomorrow it’ll get sealed in the morning. Then the guy has to come back in the afternoon to see if he needs to put on another coat. Then it has to sit for at least 48 hours, preferably longer.

I’m hoping we can keep the windows and doors closed on the rooms, so we we can leave the house. Guess I’ll figure that out tomorrow.

Now for a lazy evening. It’s been raining on and off all day. Tomorrow’s forecast is for just “on” all day. That’s good - I like getting rain on work days.

Mappy Honday!

(just going with the typos :slight_smile: )

20

Happy MMP day!

I had the consultation with my Urologist this morning. I do not need surgery. My treatment will consist of external beam radiation and hormone therapy, This is the least invasive treatment available. This is terrific news. I was really afraid of the side effects of the prostate removal