(Old) Dark Skies in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
181

Good evening all. Soccer has been coached and I am wondering if I made a mistake deciding to coach 6 year olds…they can be a handful, even with two adults out there with them. But too late to back out now, so I guess I’ll adapt to their attention spans (approximately 3.5 seconds at best) eventually. 9 year olds tomorrow, which should be a little easier.

And 30 messages to catch up with…OK, deep breath and here I go…

JtC, that was quite the operation. A good reason to follow Drs. orders, however onerous they may be. As for the PT instructor, another reminder of the Car Talk Personal Trainer diary: As Read: Exercise Diary | Car Talk

doggio, you’re telling me you didn’t look inside that trunk? I don’t believe it. What’s in the box?

Bright Tree, if I ever had to recommend a single trip, cost not an worry, it would be the Galapagos. They are incredible. And looking forward to seeing a picture of the refurbished guitar in your capable hands.

shoe, that picture is…disturbing…

-raises hand-

FCM, just be happy Otis was not in hunt mode or it might have been a slightly longer walk than planned…

Coppertone, I feel for the feral cats, but the Housing people have a couple good points. Hope they can trap and spay them.

Cat Glove, I admire your persistence in catching up with the week. And what a way to remember a day! Glad daughter is doing well.

And hey, I am at the bottom of the page. Lunar eclipse should be noticeable in about a half-hour so will see if the Moon is seeable here in a bit. Don’t know if I’ll make it to 11:30pm and the full eclipse, we’ll see how it goes. Have a good evening all.

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[quote=“Aspenglow, post:281, topic:1032266”]
it will be great to hear about it when you get back!
[/quote]

[quote=“swampbear, post:251, topic:1032376”]
lookin’ forward to hearin’ all about the trip.
[/quote]

So, my plan had been to leave by noon on Sunday of our vacation week 8/16-22; we actually left at 12:30 so I count that as a win; particularly since I had to do all of the packing as Hubs was not allowed to lift anything over 10# since he had recently had cataract removal surgery.
My daughter and her girlfriend had gone up the day before so they had the chicken brining. I cooked the chicken and baked sweet potatoes while daughter prepared her broccoli flash fried with spices in olive oil dish for dinner. That evening we went to the Grand Haven City Beach and watched the sunset. I love watching the sunset over Lake Michigan. Bella was able to make friends with a few pups on the beach. Then we went to see the Musical Fountain at Lynne Sherwood Waterfront Stadium in Grand Haven. Fun!

On Monday morning Bella, daughter’s girlfriend and I went to JP Hoffmaster State Park and hiked 3.2 miles through the dunes. While I walk somewhat regularly, I’m a flatlander and the dunes gave me a workout; particularly my lungs. After lunch we all went to Kruse Park Dog Beach in Muskegon. I walked along the shore for close to a 2 mile round trip while everyone else caught some rays, floated in the water and played a type of bocce ball on the sand. On the way back to the cottage we passed Shoe’s Mr. Scrib’s but we did not stop as Monday is her normal day off. After dinner, which my daughter and her girlfriend made, we played Trivial Pursuit which Hubs won. I was in last, the sponge is full and I’ve squeezed out most of the trivia I ever knew. Then we had a fire and made s’mores.

On Tuesday morning my daughter, Bella and I went to North Ottawa Dunes Trail and hiked 2.1 miles; this was a more moderate trail; although daughter was taxed with the elevation changes. Then I made French toast with maple sausage for everyone. In the afternoon we crated Bella then went to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. Wow! Definitely worth it. The flowers and plants are spectacular and the sculptures within the gardens are something to see; particularly one called Neuron by Roxy Paine and a new one by Nick Cave called Amalgam. But the reason we went was to see the Chihuly Outdoor Exhibitions. I first saw Dale Chihuly’s work at a museum in Kalamazoo then at the Bellagio in Las Vegas then at Greenfield Village and also in the Henry Ford Museum. The outdoor exhibition is fabulous. There are 12 installations throughout the gardens. There’s also an indoor installation of 12 more pieces but we had already spent 3-1/2 hrs there and needed to hustle back to let Bella out of her crate. We dropped Hubs off then daughter, her girlfriend and I went blueberry picking. The most amazing thing happened while we were exiting the blueberry farm. A turkey family consisting of a mother, father and 9 children crossed the dirt path single file in front of my car. Daughter said it was like a clown car of turkeys. We laughed and laughed. While we were gone, Hubs marinated the ground sirloin for cheeseburgers and started a pot of water to heat for corn on the cob. We also had a cucumber and tomato salad with tzatziki dressing. It started storming after 6pm but we knew that was going to happen which is why we did outdoor activities Sunday and Monday evenings. So we played Clue which daughter’s girlfriend won then had angel food cake with a blueberry sauce that I made. Then played Trivial Pursuit which daughter and Hubs tied for the win. Then daughter and her girlfriend made a blueberry coffee cake which was for Wednesday breakfast. Whew, what a day Tuesday was.

One thing about playing Trivial Pursuit is that a lot of times I would get questions that I had no idea what the answer was but the other 3 all knew what it was. A lot of the time I knew the answers to the questions that the others got. Kind of frustrating. There was one question that daughter’s girlfriend got that she didn’t know the answer to that Hubs, daughter and I all knew the answer to. Swampy would have known it also. The correct answer was Shrove Tuesday. I don’t remember the question.

Well, it’s 10pm and I need to complete the Friday Kroger grocery list then get to bed as BF and her daughter took the train to Chicago today to go to another BTS concert so I have to go take care of her animals by 7am tomorrow. Will try to complete the missive on the rest of the vacation tomorrow.

183

When classified information is discovered on an unclassified network, it’s called a “spill.” If you weren’t the cause of a spill but were affected by one – say, someone from outside your company emailed you a document that it turns out was marked incorrectly – your company laptop and phone get immediately confiscated by Security (to be wiped and reset), and your network account gets temporarily disabled[1]. The two co-workers you sent the file to also have to surrender their laptops and get their accounts locked…oh, and one of them is your boss. You’re told that it will take at least a week to resolve the situation (e.g., reactivate your accounts and return your laptops/phones), and this happens less than a week before a major customer briefing that all affected parties are significantly involved with. It’s a relief that you didn’t do anything wrong and aren’t in any trouble, and knowing that eight years of files and information are safely in the corporate cloud keeps you from wanting to commit hara-kiri, but the situation is a huge pain in the ass.

Ask me how I know. :roll_eyes:

That. Sounds. Awesome.

  1. if you caused the spill, other things also happen ↩︎

184

I mostly remember his disciple screaming at people outside the bookstore, by the Free Expression Tunnel. He didn’t appreciate it when I screamed, “Articulation! Articulation! I can’t understand a word you’re saying!!!”

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And I did. This one is actually a two-fer: card and bookmark.

186

It’s 10:15pm and I just peeked out my back door; about half the moon is eclipsed, so guess I’ll stay up for a little while longer and see if I can make it to totality.

Cat Glove, thanks for the vacation rundown, and I have my Friday Kroger list ready to go tomorrow too. Looking forward to part 2 of the trip.

Oopsie, never had a ‘leak’, but then I was only allowed to see "Secret’ documents (anytime I had to see ‘top secret’ information for foreign travel I had to go to a secure office with a cleared person present while I read it there). But yeah, it takes a lot to get classified errors wiped. And the pie is one of those small store-bought one but with 11 seconds in the microwave it’s pretty nice.

red. lovely craftswomanship…

And that’s all for tonight, will watch a little more of the Great Lunar Disappearing Act before bedtime beckons. Catch up with y’all on Firday.

187

Where I irk, we’re changing our core system. No parallel running. We’re on one system, then we’ll switch to the new system. We have been able to play in a sandbox, but we can’t test everything. The General Ledger codes were only moved over a couple of days ago. I can now process pre-paid Visa transfers. But we won’t be able to make credit card payments until we go live next week. Receipts? I hope we can make them. Signature pads? Haven’t heard anything. Cash boxes pop up automatically when you click Money In, but they don’t appear for Money Out. Still not sure how the cash drawers work. For example, a bundle of $5 is $500. We break down ‘straps’ of $5 bills into $100 bundles. It looks like we’ll have to count our bundles as units (i.e., four bundles would be 80 units). Oy, veh. I was just comfortable with the current system!

We didn’t do date night tonight. I made myself a cheeseburger (⅓ pound beef, 1 slice sharp cheddar, Dijon mustard and mayonnaise on low-carb bread), and I put some of the fried zucchini I made on the weekend into the toaster oven. I also cooked two hot links, three eggs, some tomato, and a little red pepper that I don’t know what it is (but it isn’t hot) for breakfast burritos. I guess I have at least three breakfasts worth. Good thing, too. I have to be at irk, logged in, and ready for a Teams meeting for training on another aspect of the new system at 08:00. Normal starting time is 08:45. I get in early and log on, make coffee, do some General Ledger stuff, process money orders (if any), and unlock the front door. Since the meeting runs until 09:00, I won’t be able to do any of that until we’re open. But at least it will only take a couple of minutes for me to make breakfast. I don’t know if I’ll have my walk.

Time for bed.

188

There should be laws.

{ dances in living room }

You wanna guess the sound I made when I walked in?

{ waves }

Turkey parade!

189

What name exactly am I to search for? Mollie Magill still gets me the Nebraska college girl. I’m friends with fcm and hippy if they have tips for me.

190

When my current travail (trochanteric bursitis, osteoarthritis and iliotibial band syndrome) improves I am really going to let loose about that. As if Wednesday I hadn’t told him he had a bit of sadist in him and I wasn’t kidding.

That percussion gun he works over my left leg from hip to knee puts the Iron Maiden to shame. It’s all I can do to not slap it away. Some whimpers of pain do escape my clenched jaw.

Supposedly those ailments are overuse injuries, which is ironic considering the only activities I overuse are my library card and indulging three grandchildren and one imperious Siamese cat. Wednesday I picked up a nifty folding cane and a spiffy bright red walker from the medical equipment store so I can stagger, winching mightily and gasping in pain, from my car into my grandkids house.

I musta angered the gods.

191

Lunac eclipse, or at least partially.

Swung by the Gettin’ Sto’ and said to the couple outside, “Look! Look up. It’s an eclipse!”

Him: “Whut?”

Her: “It was a full moon a while ago. See?”

Him: { zero interest }

Attempts were made.

192

Me too. A specific weirdo with the initials CJ Z.

193

Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave. It’s currently 70 degrees Ferret Height(21.111 Centipedes).

:heart:

Cool. I had the Canada goose parade last month.

I’ll keep an ion it.

194

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 74 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of ONLY 85 (BRRR!) with rain this afternoon and evenin’. I have a busy, for me, mornin’ into early afternoon ahead. I shall take care of candle and other duties over to the church house and then have an appointment for a “wellness exam” at eleven-fifteen a.m. I detest those things. I fail to see their usefulness beyond givin’ the doc’s office a reason to build Medicare for sump’n. When that is done, I will pick up lunch for us from Bojangle’s, bein’ as I shall be nearby there. That will take care of today’s main need to feed. I should be home ahead of the rain, so there’s that I guess. The rest of the day will be spent in high RDOS sloth for sure.

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I suppose I must purtify and don attire acceptable for bein’ amongst the great unwashed. However, I will say that most of the folk that will be in the doc’s office will be amongst the few washed. Bojangle’s may be a tossup.

Happy Firday Y’all!

195

Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 20c/68f with a predicted high of 21c/70f and cloudy. Weather app says “This is fucking marathon weather, except running fucking sucks.”

Mollie I sent you friend request too :slight_smile:

Taters I’m sorry you couldn’t get the eye fixing yet, patience is a tough friend sometimes.

Moooom love the pic of you and Otis on the boat - it was kind of him to let you share his seat.

Cookie I saw what you did there :slight_smile: And now you’ve got doggio started…

Take your pick - everloving, effing…whatever!

Oopsie it is a great relief to know it’s not your own oopsie there, but very frustrating to have been caught up in it.

{{{{{BBBoo}}}}}

Yesterday was a busy but somewhat frustrating day due to students not doing what they should do when they are supposed to do it. I’ve managed to process the majority of my stragglers so they’re out of the way now, the only ones left are the really tricky ones.

I had an uneventful night, got home and did evening chores, then had some sofa time with Blossom then Cherry, and 'im indoors provided dinner. I even got a relatively early night. Up with the lark this morning though. I have got quite a bit done today, I also had a meeting with non-troublesome minion to tell him about the proposed changes to our admin structure as he’ll be on holiday next week when we break it to the rest of the team. He took it very well and has already asked some very good questions.

My turn to make dinner tonight, it’s going to be chicken curry as I’ve got mushrooms and spinach to use up. Probably a film night for us, and hopefully not too late a night for me as I have stuff to do on Saturday. Not the stuff I’d planned to be doing, but now other stuff has got in there instead.

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Luckily, I outweigh him so he couldn’t have dragged me far!

No worries - it’s probably on Truth Social, too - you can download it from there! :wink: But, yeah, colossal PITA! In my last Fed job, we could get into all kinds of trouble if we brought a phone into the building. Such a different climate.

Purdue had Brother Jed when I was there. He stood in the rectangle formed by all the science and engineering buildings and he got the reception and regard you might expect from such students. Luckily, the Aero building wasn’t there, so I was mostly able to avoid the rantings.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Stuff can happen - better to catch it early than late. Sheesh! Dunno about your doc, but mine asks a whole series of questions that are charting the progress of aging, making sure I’m not possibly ignoring something I shouldn’t. I swear, you sound as bad as FCD - dare I suggest it’s a guy thing? Just let your doc take care of your damn self! :stuck_out_tongue:

Starting the day with 70 Ferrets and a slight chance of rain, as we creep back towards the 90s next week. Dammit. It’s laundry day and probably something else needs doing that I’ll figure out eventually.

I completely forgot about the eclipse, not that I’d have made it, considering my fatigue and the fact that I slept with Mel. When we lived in FL when Daughter was a preteen and had a telescope, we saw a really impressive eclipse one night. I remember the blood red moon! But I didn’t remember anything from last night, which is good. I needed the sleep.

Speaking of cruises, we’re going to book an Alaska cruise in 2028 - I just need to verify that the deposit is refundable, since it’s pretty far out and the deposit is significant.

Other than that, just another day in paradise. Happy Last Firday in August!

197

That’s a pressing issue.

198

Cat_Glove, the Trivial Pursuit card says, “It’s 12:02am, Wednesday in Shreveport. What was yesterday?”

I missed the eclipse for several reasons. Mosquitoes are one. The trees around my house that obscure the sky are another. And lastly, standing upright while looking up, even with a cane is something the Parkinson’e Disease makes perilous. So, I didn’t go out last night to watch it get darker.

It’s almost 8:30am, and I’m going to go find breakfast.

199

Good Friday Morning!

Mollie I sent you a request just a few minutes ago. I’m one of those hyphenated last name people given that I didn’t get married for the first time until I was 41 and I didn’t want to give up my first last name.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and compliments on my house. We really think it’s awesome and very, very us.

Yesterday I had a new friend over and we made silly clay stuff and sloppy joes. Today I have to get some actual work done to prepare for seeing my new students soon. Speaking ok, I’m gonna go jump in now. Catch you guys later!

200

Good morning.

It’s 58F and somewhat cloudy outside. The sun rose about seven minutes ago. Today calls for morning and early-afternoon clouds, partial clearing late afternoon, and a daytime high of 72F. There is a very slight chance of a little overnight rain.

Cat_Glove, your vacation sounds lovely.

FCM, I loved the pic of you and Otis on the boat.

Oopsie, I’m glad the boo-boo wasn’t yours, and yes, definitely a PITA. Hopefully, they’ll be able to clear things up sooner than expected.

I, too, missed the partial eclipse. It completely slipped my mind.

I didn’t leave the house again after returning from the eye appointment. I fully intended to, but I just lost my get-up-and-go and stuck around here.

I don’t plan to go anywhere today, so it’ll be the usual house tidying, along with some dusting and roll-sucking. I’ll have to water the posies today since they didn’t receive any water yesterday.

I also need to get my granddaughter’s birthday presents ordered today, period. I’ve been looking off and on, but I need to get it done so they arrive in Missouri somewhat close to her birthday.

Alrighty, I best get crack-a-lackin’. Please take care of yourselves.