Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis < snerk > 69! < snerk > Amurrkin out and rainy with a predicted high of 72 with rain for a while and then just cloudy. The big item on today’s agenda is deheathenization followed by first Sunday brunch. I need to warm up the corn casserole in the nukelator in a bit. I’m pretty sure I will need the extra special super secret double confession. The rest of the day shall be spent in sloth, general overall uselessness, nappage, and day drinkin’ as is our wont.
shoe yay for celebration and cake at irk!
BooFae yay on fundraisin’ efforts. Hope today’s effort is also lucrative.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then purtification for deheathenization shall commence.
It’s 42F and raining. The expected high temp is 56F, and we’ll pretty much have rain off and on all day.
I was up before 4:00 a.m. because the pups woke up and needed to go outside. At least they made it past 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. last night! Anyway, they did their business, both number one and two, and came back in for a bit before they decided they needed to potty again. So, out we went while they pottied and chased each other in the dark and lightly falling rain. I fed them earlier than I wanted to, but they were hungry. After they ate, it was time for round three of running around in the rain and potty. They are finally back inside, in their pen, taking their after-breakfast siesta.
2-gig, so nice to see you again!
FCM, I hope you hear good news about your mother today.
shoe, yay for cake and celebration! I mean, cake! And chocolate to boot! What’s not to like?!
boofae, I hope the fundraising efforts go well. I have a friend who partnered with a county animal shelter by producing calendars. All the funds from the purchase of the calendars went to the shelter. I bought one of the calendars and it’s hanging in my kitchen, ready for the new year.
I took care of most of my laundry yesterday. All I have left are sheets and towels, so other than tidying up, I don’t have much on my list to-do list. I should run the rollsuck around, too. Those dang fir tree needles keep getting tracked indoors and it’s a losing battle with the broom. It’s very tough to sweep when puppies are attacking the broom. I try to sweep the floor while they’re in the pen. I need to get a mat for outside the patio door to try and capture some of the needles before they’re tracked indoors on the mat inside the door, and then ultimately my kitchen/dining and great room floor.
red, love the little raincoat! I thought about getting something like that for Buster and Maisie.
Welp, it’s that time. Need to get some minor chores done while the pups nap.
Lately I’ve been having trouble sleeping again, getting a couple hours here & there but it’s not that long, deep, restorative sleep.
Yesterday I lay down in my car on my break - I’ll often do that for a bit to rest my body and eyes - but yesterday when my alarm went off 20 minutes later I was dead-ass asleep. Not dozing, but out cold and even drooling a bit.
Earlier while tossing and turning, I thought, “Maybe I should go sleep in my car. It’s cold and uncomfortable - seems to work!”
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off today. Cleaning and handegg on the agenda
And in honoer of The First Sunday of Advent:
“I went to a casino run by monks. It was called Gregorian Chance.”
I didn’t know what a ‘dispo’ is, but from the penultimate line in your paragraph I gather it’s a ‘dispensary’. I don’t know what people call them up here, because I don’t know anyone who uses marijuana. There are a bunch of them, though. How ironic. When I was in my early-20s I’d smoke it with my friends and be paranoid about getting caught. Now that I’m a fat, boring, old fart, I can get it anytime I want it with no worries. But I’m not interested in it anymore.
I smoked a lot of pot in my youth. My last time was a little more than twenty five years ago at a friend’s birthday party. Shortly after that my company bid for some highly confidential and security conscious customers. We all went in for fingerprinting and high level background checks. We all signed very thorough NDA agreements and part of all of this security stuff we were subject to random drug testing.
Now, more than three years after retirement all I would need to worry about is the fact that my state will be the absolute last state to legalize even medical use. The issue is really that I quit smoking tobacco a few months after my last toke. I am not sure that I could smoke just pot. The call of the Cohiba would likely reignite my nicotine addiction.
We’d have owned an unsalable expensive lot in what was purported to be a planned high end golf & lake community that was actually just some bulldozer tracks in the desert and half a dozen houses. And a still-filling lake that might be abandoned or killed by the government at any time. Or prove to be unsustainable for lack of ongoing water flow and turn back into a nearly dry creek bed. Had our lives been such that it made sense to make large mortgage payments on the land every month for about 15 years, we’d have been vindicated and our patience rewarded.
With everything else that actually occurred in our lives over that time period, the odds on us doing that would have been just about zero and instead we’d have taken a hefty capital loss selling if for pennies on the dollar at the worst possible time just to get out from underneath the ongoing costs.
In happier news:
The only thing better than one ukelele video is two uke videos. You (and your crew) rock!
A great truth. And one often ignored by folks who ought to know better.
From most customer facing workers’ POVs there are two sorts of customers: Real 3D humans and cardboard cutouts. You want to be the former; the latter gets perfunctory service at best. If it’s something like a management office (or the HR department where you work), and repeated interactions are just part of reality, then you really want to to be a 3D human good person, not a 3D asshole incarnate. Lotta folks don’t get that. Which in a sense is good news because that makes it easier for irritating schlubs like me to appear to be a good person.
In other words …
They can dish it out, but they can’t take it.
So maybe next year your friends and family will all get two Christmas cards in their package. I’ve sure done exactly that a time or three: Box something up without a major important part inside .
And not without good cause!
When I lived down in the city in St. Louis ~1995-2005 they had a thriving alternative weekly dead tree newspaper. The go-to source for live entertainment listings, Dan Savage, and info on interesting local people & places. Every year they ran a local “Best of …” contest with ~20 or 30 categories. Best pizza, best bread, best coffee, best brewpub, best place for a first date, best place for taking out of town visitors with kids, etc.
Every year 7-11 won best coffee and Pizza Hut won best pizza. Not because they were good, but just because they were so ubiquitous that lots more people voted for them. The paper would also publish the runners-up of each category, and IMO the real winner was whichever non-chain place came highest. Their witheringly snarky commentary about 7-11 coffee & Pizza Hut pizza was often the high point of the whole article.
FL is that weird combo of rural backwardness and urban modernity. Beer & wine are in the groc stores with no time of day or day of week restrictions, but booze is at dedicated liquor stores. Of which there are many, many. Some of which are mega-outlets the size of a big grocery store. No big restrictions on hours or days at the booze stores either.
That is one sweet cake you got and that is one sweet crew you work with. No less than you deserve of course.
Ouch. I hate it when that happens. Was 2 or 3 days ago for me, and not quite that bad.
Here’s hoping it’s simple & easy.
And they all said it wouldn’t last. Congrats!! As I used to say to my late first wife: “40 down, 40 to go”.
The following Saturday from yours will be 2 years for Her Ladyship and I. She’s not much on special-day-of-the-year celebrations, and there happens to be a Xmas party that evening we’ll probably attend. I’ll figure out some way to commemorate the occasion anyhow. :evil_leer:
Sounds pretty much like NHS provides to you about what commercial dental insurance provides to us. Just the basics, and not much of it. All else is self-pay at full rate. 'Tis a mystery why this is so hard for societies to get right.
Between all the foul language as / after the DAWGs dropped it, and whatever else happened to console your shattered world, I bet it was epic, as will be the confession about it. Good on ya’!
Ditto kinda.
I’ve been under the no-drugs program since I turned 18 a mere forty seven years ago. I’ve been out from under that threat for almost 3 months now.
Have no interest in ever smoking / vaping pot; hate the stench from all the other smokers / vapers around here. I enjoy an occasional cigar, but always hated cigarettes. Easy to do when both parents smoked 'em everywhere all the time in the era that was normal.
Officially FL is a “medicinal cannabis only” state. So far. But like everything else in Florida, if there’s a law against it, there’s also a thriving above-ground business working around that law. So there’s not much obstacle to me getting the stuff if / when I want it. Trying edibles is on my list, but not with any great urgency.
As to me:
Once it got dark last night we ended up having a romantic “date” at the fish place across the street and some quality togetherness time afterwards. Yaay!
Up pre-dawn today intending to golf before Her Ladyship arose. It was drizzling, but the radar was favorable. Got sheveled, out, and dawdled over breakfast until the drizzle then rain moved on and the clouds started to break up. Had a decent if slightly damp practice session, back home, and now resheveled for the day.
Now at ~noon it’s mostly sunny and 85/29, which should last until sunset.
Now considering my/our afternoon plans beyond some dance practice at some point. The half-life of my muscle memory has never been spectacular, and isn’t getting better as I’ve gotten older.
Happy Sundaying to all. Tomorrow is a shiny new MMP!
IIRC, he was first arrested in 2010 for drug possession. If he’s 30 now, that would have made him 17. He’s been in trouble almost half his life. If he serves his whole prison sentence, plus the three and a half years in community custody (jail?), then he’ll be 49 when he gets out – two thirds of his life. (Granted, I don’t believe he got jail time for some of his prior convictions, and I doubt he’ll serve his full terms; but still…)
An icky dreary day. Earlier it was like a snow globe. Big fat fluffy piles of snow mixed with rain. I have a headache from the weather plus my leg aches from PT exercises. My former PT would say pain is the weakness coming out. I’m staying in, maybe a nap, decorating the tree. Chicken
alfredo spaghetti for dinner.
Since it was only drizzling, I decided to take the trash and recycling out before it started raining. Naturally, it started raining minutes after I started.
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I slept in again today (until 8am ), but it worked out because when I took Bailey outside it wasn’t raining at the time. There will be scattered showers all day, with a forecasted high of 59°F…at least I won’t have to turn on the humidifiers.
I spent the morning doing volunteer-related stuff. I sent two emails to our Secretary and a big “year end” email to my committee members (that one took a while to compose), and I updated both the member and upcoming events spreadsheets. I still owe 11 emails to people who recently either joined the branch or renewed their memberships…I really don’t feel like writing/sending those this afternoon, but I know I’m going to be slammed this week and I don’t want to put them off until next weekend (Saturday will also be busy, plus by then I’ll have 10 more emails to send). They won’t actually take very long; I just have to do them. I did feel the need for a break first, though.
You know what? I used to love Pizza Hut’s pan pizza. For a very long time it was my default Friday night pizza. Then the nearby location shut down, and I couldn’t get delivery from them anymore (and if the next nearest one had been convenient enough for takeout, they probably would have delivered to me). This was before DoorDash and Uber Eats, of course: now you can get delivery from pretty much anywhere if you’re willing to wait for it. These days eating a thick crust probably wouldn’t end well for me, but sometimes I still miss that pizza!
That said, I have a very low bar/am equal opportunity when it comes to pizza…mmm, I think I know what I’ll have for lunch today…
Did you notice what you wrote there?
I don’t get free calendars from anywhere, but also that style isn’t useful to me: I like to have a big desk calendar on the wall. Being able to glance at it takes care of random “WTF day is it” and “what day of the week is X date” needs, while Google Calendar handles all of my appointments and meetings and reminders and such.
Yay!! And chocolate cake with vanilla filling is yummy (says the woman who loves Oreos and Devil Dogs and Ho-Hos and all of the vanilla-filled chocolate things)!
HA!
(Though I always preferred the “Sex With You” song…)
OMG I hope my personal trainer never hears this…working out isn’t the same as physical therapy, but I can totally imagine him saying that!
Indeed, same here. I was off last week and allowed myself to have a crappy schedule (stay up late, sleep in late). Tomorrow’s gonna suck.
I came home late Friday night to discover my new mailbox was destroyed. Took about 5 minutes to find it happening on my security cameras. I don’t believe it was malicious but they didn’t bother stopping.
I’m on a dead end street and I am pretty sure the car looks familiar. I have a sign up suggesting they should do the right thing. We’ll see if they will.
Afternoon all. Didn’t post this morning as I slept in then tried to download my vacation pictures from my camera and phone to my computer…unsuccessfully. Kept getting a “Please update your device settings to accept media transfers”, and when I went on the internet to find out what the heck that meant, got a lot of advice that I probably didn’t need (or in some case, understood) about deleting drivers for the USB portals (which work just fine otherwise), so I’ve postponed that. Turned the water back on to use the dishwasher, usage seemed about right but I really want to give it a 12-24 hour test without using any water to see for sure if it’s there or not before spending bucks on getting a leak detector guy to come out. And just to keep life interesting, my HVAC indoor control unit seems to have gone wonky, will not run on AUTO and doesn’t seem to be warming the house to the desired temperature. Changed the batteries in the control, but it doesn’t seemed to have helped. So may have to call in some experts on that to see if I have another problem. Had planned to put away some extra cash in savings at the end of the year, now looks like it will have another use…that apartment living thing is beginning to look better and better…
On the positive side, had a beer with my steak at Texas Roadhouse and will head over to the gym to pedal off some of the calories I have consumed yesterday and today. Weather is still in the 60’sF, so at least that is in my favor.
shoe, very nice cake, hoped it tasted as good as it looked. Sleep well.
FCM, hope Mom is home and doing better. I started working for the US Government in 1985 too, but in April. And happy (early, don’t believe in waiting for the last minute ) Anniversary-to-come!
boo fae, glad the fundraising went well.
Taters, sounds like the pups training is going well…on both sides…
Have never smoked in my life, neither tobacco or the Wildwood weed, kinda late to start now.
Ah, the Riverfront Times. Went on a number of dates arranged from their ‘personal’ columns, back when writing letters to a PO box was in fashion. Oh, and…
Interesting that you used that acronym, since IMO’s Pizza was/is a big deal in St. Louis.
2gig, hope the folks see the sign and do replace the box. Had mine knocked off by the garbage truck once, city never admitted fault to me.
OK, I will get out and go to the gym and not laze around the house. Take care all.
Finally conked out for a few healing hours, but man, this shit’s gotta stop. I haven’t even gotten dressed for work yet and I already feel worn out & run down.
Nukulated a Rice-a-Roni cup in hopes that it settles my understandably pissed off stomach and provides a tiny bit of energy. Nibbling that now, and just took some anti-inflammatory supplements … let’s hope it all stays down.
Got a dusting of snow in the wee hours but nothing too bad.
Catch y’all after we close, or on the next thread. Cheers!
“Pain is the sensation of weakness leaving the body” is bog-standard weightlifter lore. Anyone who works as a personal trainer will have heard it and may well own a few t-shirts with that on it. Here’s about 50 variations at Amazon: Amazon.com : pain is weakness leaving the body t shirt. It’s typical ironhead swaggering bunkum, but it resonates with those folks and is not entirely without basis in reality.
When I had a condo with dual identical HVACs with dual fancy computerized remote control thermostats, one of them kept going stupid every couple of months while the other was as reliable as a rock. Which offered me the rare chance as a DIY homeowner to have both an experiment and a control. Science!
In my case “going stupid” meant the display was normal, you could tap the screen wherever and do whatever just like always, it correctly displayed the current mode, temperature setting and actual current temp, but it totally would not make anything happen at the furnace end. No fan, no heat, no AC, no nuthin’. The HVAC itself was dead as could be.
IME … unsnapping the thermostat control head from the baseplate on the wall, pulling all its batteries, cycling the circuit breaker for the corresponding HVAC unit, then reinstalling the thermostat batteries then reattaching it to the wall baseplate was a sure fire fix. Vexing, but not difficult. And free.
I suggest you give it a whirl. Can’t hurt, might help. My units kept the settings memory alive even with the batteries out for long enough to fiddle with the circuit breakers down the hall then reinstall them. I hope yours does too.
Yes, the once-mighty RFT. Gosh I miss those days and that rag. I was already married then, so never tried the personals. But they were fun to read. I recall the hue and cry when that feature was nixed.
D’oh! I had totally mind-blocked IMO’s. Another blast from the past.
For those not familiar with life in the Lou, “St. Louis-style” pizza is simply appalling unless you grew up eating it. IMO’s (pronounced ee-MOE’s) was the big local chain of iconic St. Louis-style pizza.
It is to barf for. Unless you grew up there, in which case it is manna. The crust is very, very thin and crispy cracker-like. Almost like lavosh. The red sauce is thin and sweet enough to use as pancake topping or serve over ice cream. And the cheese cheez is a ghastly local invention called Provel cheese - Wikipedia pronounced “pro-VELL”. Imagine shredded white Velveeta that when melted becomes a mass of super-stringy super-stretchy Dr. Suess Oobleck stuff that sticks to everything (even your teeth!) and tastes like nothing but synthetic petroleum oils.
The locals love that shit. It’s a right of passage for newbies to the City to be taken out by their new local friends to try it. I eventually forgave them, but only after we’d gone to many of the other wonderful places and eaten other wonderful things St. Louis is rightly famous for. BBQ ribs among many others.
Ours got hit twice - we’re pretty sure it was the speed demon down the road, coming around the corner too wide and too fast. We should have called the sheriff, but didn’t. It’s been a while, so either he grew up, moved out, or both. Meanwhile, some jerkwad (probably a kid) snapped the flag off the side, so we can’t signal that something is in for pickup. I think we need a new mailbox. Dammit.
We took care of some stuff for MIL and BIL. Had lunch at Red Robin. Tomorrow, MIL goes to the hospital for various tests on her kidneys - FCD fears the worst. I don’t think he’s wrong.
My bro picked up my mom first thing this morning. I’ll call her in a bit. My sibs believe she shouldn’t be driving any longer and I tend to agree. But they’re the ones who have to deal with it.
She’s just concerned about you getting enough exercise.
When I saw the “Hold my pint”, I thought the pic was going to be of the Bentley flying through the air at the Rainbow Bridge.
Didn’t know you were from Alpena. Used to skate at the fairgrounds in speedskating meets.
I’m with Elmer. I wouldn’t mind if he would start with the ones around where my daughter lives in Chicago.
{{{FCFamily}}} Unfortunately in the dictionary under Murphy’s Law for 2023 there is a pic of your family; I’m so sorry that you’ve had to deal with all of this in such a short time .
Basically, yes, dust but particularly germs. I’m not a big cleaner, well, I’ve rarely been a big cleaner, but now I will have to be as deep, regular cleaning of living space is required including that everything in all rooms be dusted very regularly, that the kitchen and bathrooms be disinfected, all floors mopped, windows washed and drapes washed, this all needs to be done once a week at a minimum. Additionally, the car will need to be cleaned and dusted each week. I need to find a professional who can clean the air ducts. There’s more but you get the drift. (Thanks VERY much for the prayers and hopes!)
I like it; I really like it. My employer started issuing stinkin’ badges after 9/11. I have always hated having to wear a badge. Also, you all know where stinkin’ badges comes from, don’t you? Originally from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, novel and movie. Later it was in an episode of The Monkees and then in Blazing Saddles “Badges? We don’t need to stinking badges”. A local DJ included it in his tag line.
flyboy I didn’t know that your bike was stolen. That sucks! Hope the repair isn’t too challenging.
oh my, he’s handsome in his ducky slicker. I’d like to get something like that for Bella.
That is so cool! And good for employee morale.
As for me, alarm went off at 6am so I could shower, dress, use electric rollers on hair, as I was lectoring at the 8am mass this morning. Afterward made self omelette w/ red pepper, mini cherry tomatoes that finally turned red (picked about 3 weeks ago), fresh parsley & green onion from garden (still growing) and covered with muenster and sharp cheddar. Side of bacon and buttered toast. Then when Hubs got up made him the same omelette minus the tomato (since it’s bad for his diverticulits) with side of black forest ham and buttered asiago bagel. Been catching up on the last 80+ posts from this week and just about there. Next I’ll watch Downtown Abbey 2nd season, last episode (Matthew proposes to Mary). Not sure if I’ll return to church this evening for the lighting of the Advent tree then evening prayer.
Was in St Louie in 2005 for the Final Four; had fun, although the game ended with tears for me; darn stinking cheating UNC.
perhaps you might consider watching Dancing With The Stars for some pointers. The finale of this season is Tuesday 8pm ABC.
My fingers are still crossed for your mom. FCstrong textM. I hope MIL stays comfortable and gets no more bad news. And I love the love story of you and FCD.
Flyboy, I’m thrilled I can buy hard liquor at the grocery store. In Wyoming, no alcohol was sold in grocery stores, though some convenience stores carried beer and wine. For hard liquor, you had to go to a liquor store. Oh, and in Wyoming, a restaurant could not have a bar within sight of the seating area so kids wouldn’t see the cocktails being made. It’s like hiding the facts of life and hoping kids think that poof! A baby could appear out of thin air.
shoe, now you have proof positive that they love you at the pizza place–not as much as we love you HERE, of course, but we can’t give you anything but virtual cake slices.
Good grief you people have been busy. I couldn’t bring myself to read 70 posts, but well done to all who did well and condolences for those who didn’t.
Just finished making our THIRD batch of Chex mix. Pretty sure this will be it for the season. Gotta get going on the cookies soon. We’re headed for another Christmas music thing this evening. At least all the decos are up. One good thing about an apartment is there’s no outside lighting to deal with.
I’ve sure done exactly that a time or three: Box something up without a major important part inside 
.
), but it worked out because when I took Bailey outside it wasn’t raining at the time. There will be scattered showers all day, with a forecasted high of 59°F…at least I won’t have to turn on the humidifiers.
