Hey, you’re getting the seafood you wanted!
I’m hereabouts, but something posted earlier set off something I hadn’t realized I hadn’t even known, let alone processed, about Other Shoe’s last few months, and I’m kinda shut down a bit.
I’ll wave from western Mitten State at y’all for a bit.
… 'supposed to maybe snow here overnight? And get down into the 'teens tonight? Dafuq.
ETA: hoping @Buttercup_Smith and a few other missed ones are poking around out there.
Good… I’m gonna say morning!
Most days, I’m up an hour or even two before the rest of the family, and I treasure that quiet time after the cats are fed. I got up really late this morning, but it feels earlier because everyone else also got up later than usual, so I got time alone anyway.
I think I may have perfected my blueberry lemon scone recipe! It started with an online recipe and me changing a few things, and now it’s different enough that I consider it my own. Now I just need to make it a hundred times so it’s second nature.
We got a UPS delivery this morning from a different driver than usual. After I took the box from him, I noticed a weird but familiar unpleasant smell. It took me a while to realize it’s Axe body spray and my sweatshirt was reeking of it. So I’ve changed clothes, washed my hands with Dawn, cut the box down while wearing gloves, and put it out in the recycling. My house still smells faintly of middle-school boy, and I’m reminiscing fondly about the Health teacher who used to incorporate teaching kids about not using perfume instead of deodorant into her lesson plans.
Maybe I’ll bake another scone to correct the scent of the house.
I’m afraid the reference is lost on me; I’ve never seen even one episode.
big bang theory:
the elevator was out of order for 9 ish years, after an experiment caused an explosion.
Started Typing: 1:42 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 2:14 PM ET
It’s been grey and rainy all day, but the wet stuff is supposed to end at around 3pm. Here’s hoping (
), because I’ll be loading a big Rubbermaid container and a folding wagon into my car about an hour later and heading to a volunteer-related event. I’ll knock off work at around 3:30, to change and take care of the doggy before loading the car and heading out; I should be home before 9pm. I have another event tomorrow that I’ll need to leave for ~12 hours later, but at least that one will be just setting up an info table; then I get to attend the event (vs staying at the table the whole time). Maybe I’ll even get to flirt a little with Cute Fellow Volunteer, who told me he’ll be there.
Last night I finally started working on my first jigsaw puzzle. Upon opening the box I realized that perhaps starting with 1000 pieces wasn’t super smart. 
It’s going to be very different from building a Lego set; I won’t have as much patience, and assembly sessions (for lack of a better term) will be shorter. I should be able to work on it again tomorrow night…we’ll see how this goes!
It’s been quite a while since anyone has been able to verify this, but I’ve been told that I both snore and talk in my sleep…and when I talk, I mumble. 
I re-read your post three times…did I miss a link to pictures??
Probably, and it might have if I’d kept it up, but unfortunately I can’t afford any PT for her at the moment.
I have two work laptops – one from my company and one from my customer – set up next to each other and connected to docking stations, and one Logitech keyboard and mouse that connect to both and switch between them (and could also be used with a third device). They each have to be switched individually*, and more than a few times I’ve switched the mouse but not the keyboard and accidentally deleted something. When that happens in Outlook and I can’t “undo,” the items are almost always in the “Archive” folder…to the point where I’ve added it to my favorites, for easier retrieval.
(*It’s still way better than having separate keyboards and mice.)
Have I mentioned that I am a world-class professional scone-taster? I offer a steep discount to my fellow Mumpers!
It’s a moral imperative.
It blowed up good!
I’m in the middle of my afternoon slump so not processing a lot, but hey, I made it to 3pm working. I’ve been practicing getting to work right away in the mornings and so far so good. Haven’t been able to walk because I injured my ankle. But still meditating.
I am going to attend a Zen Buddhist service this Sunday. Despite my social anxiety I am looking forward to it. Their website suggests a good vibe. It’s hard to find community as a Buddhist, at least the kind I’ve been wanting, but this place has round the clock events and I think might be a good fit. They give a 30 minute dharma talk after meditation and then everyone has tea. Doesn’t that sound nice? We’ll see how it goes.
I am trying to deepen my spiritual practice in general as it seems the natural next step from resuming meditation. I’m reading the classic Suzuki essays and listening to some podcasts of Zen teachers. It’s a nice way to relax. Yeah, yeah, deepening spiritual understanding and all that, but seriously it’s just a nice way to spend down time. I’ve been trying to only do one thing at a time today. So I just sat and listened. It was practically a meditation in and of itself.
I’m beginning to accept that work isn’t going to slow down for me, probably ever again - or at least not as often as it did before this promotion. I can make peace with that. I’m taking on new responsibilities, also I started looking at my task list in Outlook (as opposed to just my “TO DO” Inbox) and damn - there are a lot of things I just haven’t been doing because they don’t have a deadline. Well, starting this week that is changing, I don’t really have the luxury of ignoring non-urgent things anymore, because the tasks without deadlines are now really important.
I bought a new journal on a lark, it’s called Goal Crazy and people keep saying it will change my life, so we’ll see. I’m about to go do that now.
I take joy in very simple things these days. I bought a glass water bottle with a 16oz capacity. It delivers clean, fresh water and because it’s small, I have to go refill frequently, ensuring I am not sitting down for too long. Good investment. Simple joy.
My son had therapy all day on Wednesday and Thursday (he’s off school this week) and he had FIFTEEN potty successes (per day!) and zero accidents! Seemed like those full days were what he needed to really get it to sink in. Starting today they are expanding to 25 minute intervals instead of 20.
We have a lot to be thankful for.
I use search when I inadvertently drop an email into a mystery folder. Just set the search scope to “current mailbox”.
ETA: I see you found it. Rearranging folders by accident is doubly annoying.
Smart move. Healthy too.
At my condo we were on 3. I was up & down those stairs umpteen times per day. The only time I used the elevator was when I had a cartload of stuff. I’d climb the stairs with 8 or more shopping bags hanging off my arms. Although that’s not a great idea as we get older; need one unencumbered arm for the railings.
At the apartment I shared w HL we were on 8. I never got any stair exercise. Oops.
The new apartment building I’m eyeing is 8 stories but with a 6 story garage. So I could get an apartment on a low floor and often climb the stairs, get an apt on 7 or 8 and always need to climb at least to/from where I park, or pick a middle floor and park on that level and never get any exercise. Decisions, decisions.
What is this “turn” of which you speak? The whole point of a laundromat is you can do all 3 or 12 or however many loads at once. And the big dryers can dry 2 or even 3 washer loads at once. Can be a great way to dig out of the blizzard of laundry after houseguests leave or whatever.
In the pro flying biz we call that “balancing fluids”.
No you did not. I wrote badly. I meant that I have pix of these things and when I get them uploaded you’ll be able to see the difference.
I have them uploaded now and here’s the link: LSLGuy in Grand Cayman - Google Drive.
ETA: as of now = 4PM eastern I have all the still pix and all but one vid uploaded. By 6pm eastern the last vid should be up.
I did not take very many pix; there wasn’t as much interesting to look at as on the boat. I have a water-protective bag for my phone, but use that to prtect it from splashes. Taking the phone into the ocean to take fish or stingray or starfish pictures seemed a poor risk/reward ratio. Although plenty of my boat-mates did that with no protective covers at all. Seems … unwise.
Hooray for flirting w cute co-volunteer this weekend.
Yes. Add my hugs to the hug soup. That’s like stone soup, where everyone brings a small ingredient and we get a shared meal. If everyone brings a hug, Shoe will have a good hugfest.
Spicy: congrats on a new organization tool and double congrats on so much concentrated potty success. Very soon that whole vexing stage should be behind you.
As to me:
I got some more sun in the light breeze, did some due diligence on the new apartment building, caught up the week’s admin, and was generally lazy until it was time to go to the airport. Got that done in fine uncrowded style and am now somewhere over Cuba on the way to MIA. My rowmate and I have an unused center seat between us.
We should be early enough that I can catch an earlier train than expected. Life is good.
Are you familiar with the Jigidi website? Free jigsaw puzzles from easy to difficult, submitted by members. And all the pieces are right-side up from the get-go.
Mea culpa. I didn’t explain that I brought the clothes home from the laundromat and used my own dryer to dry them, not the laundromat’s.
Laundry is done, nurse visit was good, OT and PT will come some time next week. I’ve been to Aldi and to MIL’s apartment to bring the rest of the perishables over that I forgot the other day, We just finished supper - yeah, we eat early.
MIL is still convinced she’ll be going back to her apartment. She thinks exercise will make her heart better. I’m pretty sure there aren’t any exercises that will fix bad valves. FCD tries to tell her this, but she’s in denial. Maybe the OT or PT will get her to see the light. Plus she’ll be seeing her GP next week - maybe another dose of reality.
Weather tomorrow is supposed to be miserable. I’m thinking I might try to put my studio in order. I need to get my kiln exhaust line fixed so I can get back to pottery-ing. It’s been years.
For now, tho, the recliner beckons.
Howdy Y’all! The things got done.I can’t believe this happened, but I talked OYKW into sharin’ a Margherita pizza at Newk’s. I had the lobster bisque and he had the tomato basil soup. He has never ever agreed to a pizza without at least two kinds of meat toppin’s. It’s a Lenten miracle I say! Anywho, ‘twas really good and we were both stuffded, so nappage was needed upon arrival to da cave. It rained a bit this mornin’ but turned into a nice kinda N.O.S. afternoon, so we had bourbon and ginger ales out beside the cee-mint pond. Now 'tis time for Netflix and chill. Popcorn calls as well.
🫶🏻🫂🫶🏻🫂🫶🏻🫂
We call it that in the pro night nurse business too.
Now that you point it out both pilots and nurses spend a lot of time tracking and documenting intake and output….
Ahhh…popcorn🍿
I am feeling pretty merry because I got my hair trimmed and splurged on a deep conditioning treatment. I walked three miles.
Holy frick. I’m going to have to split this into two posts because there are so many posts to respond to.
Aw, she’s such a sweet pupper, and your love for her comes through all your posts. You said she rebounded later, so I hope she’ll have more good days than bad.
Yes! This. My mom, who had never liked sweets, developed a fondness for chocolate in her late 80s… The staff at her independent living facility would set aside a piece of chocolate cake for her, then serve it the way she liked it: drowned in chocolate syrup. A big breakfast for her was a hard boiled egg and a few spoonfuls of yogurt. She usually skipped lunch and would slog through a tiny dinner. Chocolate kept her alive.
Bring on the ice cream, I say!
My kids revolted against Barq’s. It was A&W all the way. My paternal grandfather used to make his own root beer. This was in the early 20th century. (My grandfather was born during the Civil War, a fact which boggled my students’ minds and had them regarding me suspiciously for signs of formaldehyde and crypt dust.)
This made me laugh. Thank you!
/Nellie puzzles out the logistics, realizing it’s been awhile since she read the Kama Sutra./
Yep. The way I remember is the H stands for Happy, L stands for Lousy.
When you’ve lost a partner, sometimes things that you never realized before about them will come to you.
I’ve seen her (and bumba ) on the book of faces recently, so they’re still on this side of the grass. 
The apartment is reasonably clean, laundry done and groceries bought. The highlight of the day was a MarketPlace buy. It was a lot of papercrafting stuff for $25. I asked the seller when I responded to the ad if it included everything pictured and he assured me that it did.
When I picked the lot up, there was about $200 worth of stuff that was brand new in the package. I asked him again and he said that he priced it to sell. His mom had had en eBay business and he was trying to sell everything off from her storage unit since her demise. He said that his GF had admonished him for underpricing stuff, but, as he said, he wasn’t going to mess around for 5 years trying to get market prices from it and all the while paying for the storage unit. Makes sense and I was delighted.
I got the title page for the Valentine’s wedding done and even managed to fix a pork chop with sauteed apples and onions, a baked sweet potato with sour cream and garam masala, plus a nice spinach / mandarin salad for supper. I’s stuffed and getting ready to do more work on the album.
Evening all. Volunteered to help set up the gym for indoor soccer tomorrow, mostly putting stuff away and setting up the goals, which took the bulk of the time and effort. SO added 90 minutes of modest exercise to the mile of swimming and the morning laundry which made for a fairly active day for me. Tomorrow is the last day for indoor soccer, then we have a couple weeks off and start the Spring season around 15 March, so that will keep me busy for several more months.
Flyboy, glad it showed up.
Coppertone, I lived in N. Ohio the first 27 years of my life, can remember some Thanksgiving snow storms and shoveling driveways in March, so I know what you mean.
shoe {{ hugs }} because I think you need a couple.
I’ve probably watched 8-10 entire episodes in my life, but I thought everyone knew about that elevator…rocky described the situation.
Oopsie, hope the volunteering went well. I’ve got a 500-piece jigsaw for Xmas, still haven’t opened it since I don’t really have a good place for it.
Spicy, hoped the Zen will help your outlook, I’m not particularly spiritual, but respect those that are and it sounds like you are going about it the right way. And congrats to Wee Weasel, as I age having 15 potty successes is a big deal.
Pilot, nice pics, you are really getting into this retirement thing.
red, sounds like you did very well for your money; wonder if he has some other stuff you can use.
OK, that’s all from Casa Rat tonight. Take care all.
Happy Friday!
Nice morning at the park except for the ground being soggy from all the rain yesterday and last night.
The gang got a couple of good runs in, but the GR were still wound up all day. I think they wanted to stay outside more, but they didn’t like the wet grass.
Misiu is such a wimp. Humpy went after him today and all he does is drop to the ground and roll onto his back. He has no fight in him at all.
Pilot, I am definitely a worrier. I haven’t always been this way. I used to be the calm person who kept her head when everybody else was falling apart. Worries rolled off my back, when things went wrong, I figured out a way to make it work.
I don’t know what changed.
There are times I look back on my life and think, ‘girl, you are damn lucky to be alive’.
It’s nice that you enjoy traveling. I never did, but I like hearing about other’s travels.
I think my parents ruined it for me. They liked to travel, but they always wanted to cram in as much stuff as possible, so it felt like we were always rushing from one place to the next.
It felt more like a chore than having fun.
I have a lot of catching up to do, but it won’t happen tonight.
Sometimes I think I am the only person in the world who doesn’t like GS cookies.
If I remember correctly, Gordon Ramsey doesn’t like them either.
Ooopsie, when Ripple was having trouble getting in and out of the truck, I found some steps at da jungle, I think they are called spa steps. It’s just two steps, and they aren’t too heavy. I don’t know what you drive though, they might be too big to carry around with you.
I have a lot of catching up to do around the house too.
I’m really mad at myself for forgetting to check my scripts with CVS today. I checked tonight and two are on hold because they need my doctor’s approval, even though the doctor called them in last Friday.
Now I have to wait until the office opens on Moonday.
Such a pain in the ass.
I napped. I had a
Boulevardier, salmon, wild rice blend, and cauliflower .
I’m watching F1: Drive To Survive:
Lance Stroll: < has wrist surgery >
Lando Norris: “Can you wank yet?”
It’s route bid time, so you may have a new usual driver shortly.
{{{{{shoe}}}}}
{{{{FairyChats}}}}
Murphy was in charge tonight.
The dough roller machine broke, so Sweet Manager had to drive out to our sister franchise for friggin’ pizza crusts. We were up to an hour wait at that point.
But before all that, someone - not me - managed to hand out three goddamn pizzas to the wrong person, which set off a train of fiascos resulting in multiple mistakes, re-makes, and duplicates. Eventually Sweet Manager was so flustered and discombobulated that even she started making mistakes, which is kinda one of those “is the apocalypse happening?” kind of things.
When she announced that she was driving out for dough, I gently offered to go - so the crew would have adult supervision, which we all clearly needed today - and she nearly snapped at me that she HAD to go.
I completely understood. (Zero hard feelings. I don’t know how she held it together as well as she did.)
It didn’t help the low-on-dough situation that we kept fucking up orders left and right, and OF COURSE half of Muskegon walked in to order at the same time right as everything was going to hell.
Not gonna lie, I really wish I’d had an edible before my shift, cuz tonight sucked.
Always makes time go by more pleasantly.
I imagine anything with “zen” in the name should be good for your anxiety.
I hope you find yourself a community with them.
Congrats to him!
I hope the lengthier intervals went well.
I love that story.
And thank you to you, and all the other Mumpers, for the hugfest.
I will say this in favor of work today: I was definitely distracted out of my own personal stuff.
I don’t really see the urgency in raining on her parade, so to speak. If that’s what literally and metaphorically gets her out of bed … why disabuse her of the notion?
Did you do fun glazes? What kinda things did you used to make?
… and you made ME laugh, so thank YOU!!
Niiiiiiiiiice.
Okay, I need to decompress, and rustle up some food that isn’t yet another fucked-up pizza.
… and right on cue, guess who hopped into my lap?