Howdy Y’all! Provisions were procured, sloth was achieved, nappage accomplished, and sup got et. Then we watched To Kill A Mockingbird. OYKW had never seen the movie, but had read the book. That needed to be rectified. The book is way better.
Nuts hope the flight gets rebooked without too much bother. Glad the car was not hurt.
Pilot I have enjoyed the saga of the crane. Sorry about your friend and his wife.
{{{Sari}}} hope you are less hurty soonest.
This is my life right now, along with part-time work and helping out my friend who broke her shoulder and doing 98% of the work around the house. Today I feel very weary…but at least I’m not in constant pain like Hubs and my friend and her husband. So, I need to count my blessings. So I’m sitting and relaxing for 5 minutes with a cup of orange cappucino, now with a smile on my face.
pilot I hope that Her Ladyship is enjoying a very Happy Birthday 
Looking forward to reading about dinner at the fancy French restaurant.
Perhaps like athletes, it had a stinger. (I really don’t know exactly what that is but the announcers tend to say that players have stingers when they are hit or fall in a certain way and generally it’s their arms that seem to be semi-paralyzed for a short while)
Niner enjoy having Mom with you; she’ll likely show you a lot of love 
:
Yep. I have a lot of expressions that I use from time to time; most of them I’ve picked up from others but here’s one that I came up with myself: NOBODY GETS OUT OF LIFE ALIVE. So, it only makes sense to address end of life or extended/grave illness way before these situations exist. Pilot, you have contributed one heck of a lot of wisdom!
It was another whirlwind of a day. Up and at the Fitness Center at 6:50am to do 40 minutes/4.48 miles on the NuStep. Then drove to work and worked for 4.5 hrs. The front of the house clerks made a number of weird transactions. Had to have talks with several of them indicating their error of their ways. Then home for 10 minutes; ate the remaining 1/3 of cheeseburger left from other day and made Hubs a half Ham & Cheese sandwich. Drove him to PT office then dropped off deposit from work at Bank, went to Credit Union to cash a check, then to Kroger to pick up circular and buy a head of lettuce so I could make a salad to go with s’getti for dinner. Then back to PT office with 15 minutes to spare before Hubs was done. Could hear him from the lobby entertaining his PTherapist and the other patients and Therapists; he’s a regular Johnny Carson. But it’s good he has someone to interact with; it’s kinda lonely for him being home so much now that he’s pretty immobile.
Mowed the front lawn and 1/3 of the back lawn. Went to BFF’s to pick up the 24 pack of Ensure that she bought at Costco for Hubs. Then made dinner, et it and collapsed in front of computer. Was trying to watch some DVR’d shows but the darn squirrels must be chewing the wires again.
I think I may need a new computer. This one is looking oddly bulged near the space bar. Farts. Didn’t need a new expense right now. And I have no idea what to look for these days. Any advice would be appreciated. The biggest things I do on it are my CNC drawings and SketchUp.
My father passed when I was eighteen months old. I had no positive male role model in my formative years except the scout leaders who did their absolute best at saving me from the streets. I first read this as a sixth grader. Something in my head clicked, and Atticus Finch became the man I wanted to be, and later the father I wanted to be. I credit Ray R, Paul A, Ken M, AL P and Ken S who had a great part in teaching me how to make the positive changes I needed to see this.
An early Father’s day shout out to the men of Pack 14 and Troop 62 M.A.C. You guys. collectively, were my father.
Sorry for the emotional outburst but it needed to be said
Just another TKAMB post. This scene gets me every time:
@Kitten_Mitten: “Death; one to a customer.” is my version of the same thing. Good on ya for figuring that out.
Very glad to hear Hubs is out and entertaining the staff. That can be enormously therapeutic for him and for them.
I’m confused. The spacebar is on the keyboard, not the computer. Or is this a laptop? Laptop keyboards are replaceable and for not much money compared to the price and hassle of a new computer.
If you’re at all comfortable taking such stuff apart, search YouTube for a how-to vid on changing the keyboard for your make & model. That vid will either scare you into paying somebody else to change it, or will convince you to buy a replacement keyboard module from Amazon and change it yourself. I’ve changed both screens and keyboards in laptops several times. A tiresome half-hour task, but far from difficult given the good how-to vids out there.
Each of us are the product of those who came before.
You were unlucky as an infant and very lucky as a tween / teen. Nothing better than to honor those who honored you with their attention, caring, and yes, love. You’re a good man who knows the pull of the Dark Side, and yet chose the other path. Congratulations on a job well done and a life well-lived since.
Hats off to all our mentors who played a large role in making us what we are.
As to me …
On the way to our swanky Birthday dinner we strolled past the construction site. While I watched very carefully from behind to ensure Her Ladyship did not fall off her tall fancy shoes. Yeah, that’s the ticket; I was watching the sidewalk vs the shoes. 
The tower crane is gone to its very foundation, the big mobile crane is still up, presumably to be removed tomorrow, and the last bit of rooftop stuff for the other building has been or will be lifted by that tower crane in the next couple of days.
So it now occurs to me that it’s possible they’ve actually finished, or will finish tomorrow, hoisting stuff atop the other building and the mobile crane will stay here and stay erected to assist in tearing down the second tower crane starting maybe Friday. It’s a huge enough gizmo that taking it apart while needing it in place again even a workweek later is probably a money-loser.
In response to those who asked for the dinner play by play …
Swanky dinner was quite nice, and quite reasonably priced for what you get. I’d gotten intel from some friends at the condo where we used to live that it was pricy but I’d forgotten to apply a correction factor for their expectations versus my own.
The place was less fearsomely formal than I’d expected. More nouvelle cuisine with French overtones than traditional French. Snazzy but moderne interior, Predominantly, but not exclusively French wine list (20+ pages long), waitstaff in white shirts, vests, and bow ties, elegantly slender 25yo hostesses in black floor length pencil dresses slit up to their armpits, etc. By the time we were finished I’d used a mere 4 forks and 3 knives; not nearly the 12 pieces I had feared. Although we did not indulge the full 6 courses available.
Ten 4-tops in our dining room, plus a couple 6-tops, and similar in the other dining room with a handful of tables outside. Plus a bar area. Intimate but uncramped. We’d started a bit before prime time, but the place filled up as we worked through dinner. They do a good business; we saw several tables turn in our time there. And this on a Wednesday not during snow-bird season.
The clientele is mostly our age or older, but so is our zip code. Men wearing anything from formalwear to shorts under a floral collared shirt. Some ladies in pantsuits and pearls, some minidresses, and lots of 6" heels. As usual around here, this was the ruling class; nobody much cares what dinner costs.
We started with their house interpretation of a French 75 cocktail for me along with an appetizer of three large mushroom caps stuffed with shredded crabmeat and a buerre blanc sauce with a smidgen of sprouts & assorted weird baby greens for accent. Her Ladyship enjoyed a glass of good French Champagne and a fancy mixed greens salad with goat cheese, strawberries, and a strawberry vinaigrette dressing.
An epi of excellent French bread was served with a large slab of soft butter on a chilled block of stone. And yes, proper individual butter serving knives were used separately from the butter spreading knives. And sparkling water of course, kept chilled in an ice filled champagne bucket on a stand nearly. Glasses stayed refilled thanks to the waiters’ separate team of silent assistants.
Appetizers complete and after considerable debate the entrees were selected and ordered. She chose one of the specials, a pair of tempura battered soft shell crabs with various veggies & fingerling potatoes along the side. I debated the special braised short ribs or a duck l’orange, but chose the roasted herb-encrusted rack of lamb with a roast tomato/pepper confit & a roast elephant garlic head. Plus heavy-creamed mashed potatoes of course. And a burgundy herb reduction sauce. Accompanied in my case by a glass of mid-range French Burgundy while Her Ladyship slowly worked her champagne.
Entrees eventually complete (in her case half eaten & half coming home) it was time for dessert. Which she rarely indulges in, but I’d told the place this was her birthday and she was not going to skip the opportunity this time. I’d also asked for the appetizer menu, being as sweet desserts are off my diet.
After further consideration she chose an apple tart with ice cream & caramel sauce, but asked for the ice cream in a dish so she could bring half the apple tart home dry, not wet. I selected a 3-cheese plate from the app menu, which came with the traditional thin-sliced toasted baguette, quince paste, and fig jam, plus a very non-traditional rhubarb chutney that was simply fascinating. I chose a Spanish blue, a French semi-soft, and an Italian medium-hard salt-rinded cheese from the roster of about a dozen cheeses. And a fine VSOP Armagnac to keep it all company.
The tart came as a rather large but flat disc of puff pastry thinly dusted with powdered sugar with half a baked apple sliced latitude-wise into thin slices perched atop and drizzled with some wonderful thin caramel sauce. Served on an oversized plate with a festive picture drawn in caramel, strawberry, and chocolate sauces and “Happy Birthday” inscribed below. Capped by a single half-cherry in the very center impaled by a lit birthday candle burning gaily. A genteel but heartfelt “Happy Birthday, Madam” wish from the waiter completed the picture. Tres chic. No vulgar group singing for this reserved crowd.
My cheeses and accompaniments were very nice as well. A highly varied and flavorful end to a highly flavorful meal. They stood up well to the Armagnac.
As dessert slowly wound down I ordered a double espresso to wrap the evening. A bit later we walked home in the warm gathering darkness with the sun down but the sky still light in the west. Damn she’s hawt.
A fine time and we shall return.
And now you know … the rest of the story. Good night.
So dinner was salad(homemade vinaigrette and homemade croutons), and meatballs and 3 cheese tortellini(Aldi) with tomato sauce(homemade). And fermented barley gazpacho(beer) for dessert.
Good night, and glad it was a good dinner.
Orange chicken for The Missus, and Thai BBQ Chicken for me, from the local Thai place. I didn’t use the sweet sauce. But I did eat the broccoli. Yum.
It’s OK. She has always been saccharin sweet and not someone I really liked. Didn’t dislike her but we were never friends.
I used to work with someone like that, who would pretend to be friends with you but then trash you behind your back. Life is too short to worry about people like that.
Back when I was first in Japan, one of my American friends showed me a letter from his Japanese girlfriend. They normally wrote back and forth in English, but this time, she wrote the letter in Japanese. Since I could read some, he asked me if I could understand it.
Turns out she had a Japanese boyfriend as well and this was a letter to him. My guess is that she had written two letters and then after folding them up, put them in the wrong envelope, the analog version of sending the email trashing your boss to them by mistake.
Apparently, the Japanese guy also came to the same conclusion and this turned out to be an exercise in NAND gate logic, where 1 American boyfriend + 1 Japanese boyfriend = 0 boyfriends.
Spot’s new favorite toy: an almond.
Obligatory Dunken psot.
Also, cat has gone insane with zoomies
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’.YAWN
‘Tis 68 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 87 and cloudy with a chance of rain early evenin’. Sloth and general overall uselessness are the plan of the day. Sup shall be grilled poke chops, succotash, wild rice, and rolls. Simple but tasty.
Pilot glad her ladyship and you enjoyed her birthday dinner. Your description made me wish I had been there.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then onward into the day! Rah.
Happy Thursday Y’all!
Another good sleep - why does that fill me with dread of something about to befall me?? 
I am a bit concerned - the chimney cleaners are supposed to be here today, but I never got a confirming email or a reminder phone call. If they don’t show by 10, I’ll be making a phone call. Probably should have done it earlier this week…
Daughter is dealing with bad stuff - one of their students threatened one of the teachers outside of school. I don’t know all the details but I do know she doesn’t need the stress. Makes me wonder at what point she’ll start looking for another job. She loves her school, but I don’t know if she had any idea what being head honcho would entail.
Amazingly, SIL is considering another job. The boat yard is in need of workers and they’re willing to hire totally unskilled hands and train them. He’s going to go over and talk to them. I honestly didn’t expect him to even give it a second thought, since he likes where he works, even tho it’s only part-time and requires his weekends.
Speaking of weekends, looks like we’ll spend this one moving MIL. Firday is forecast to be nice, Saturday, not so much. I’m guessing we’ll move furniture tomorrow, but it’s up to FCD and his mom. One nice thing - she’s stuck with the old apartment till the end of June, so things destined for storage at our house can be moved whenever. We can get her settled in before worrying about that stuff.
Meanwhile, a loverly bit of weather today - I may even take Tobias out into the yard if it warms early enough. Definitely a playground day. And laundry day. But first, caffeination!
Happy Thursday!!
Afternoon, mumpers! It’s 14c/57f with a predicted high of 15c/59f and isolated showers. Weather app says “Rain is annoying. It’s almost as annoying as listening to your fucking coworkers chew.” It must have realised that it’s lunchtime and there are two people in my block of four desks currently scoffing their lunch! It might also have noticed the mahooooosive black clouds outside…
Mooom sounds like MIL’s next chapter is getting off to a good start if you’re able to move her in at the weekend. If she’s got her current place for a while yet, you can move things at a more leisurely pace too, save you having to cram everything in at once. Bad news about Daughter’s school problems though, that is going to be tough on her. Yay for SIL too!
Taters yes, Rental Cat came out of hiding eventually, I think she found her way into the wardrobe and made herself comfortable in there for a while. She’s been a bit more adventurous during the day and came out to get some food, and use the scratching posts. She posed long enough for a quick pic, which I’ve sent to her fosterer so he knows she’s ok.
Sensei not the best thing to happen but now you know how the land lies…
I have read but retained little because I’m tired. I was out late last night (don’t judge, there was Nepalese curry involved!) and up early this morning. Fortunately I have nothing much to do tonight and dinner is already decided (leftover chilli that got pulled out of the freezer first thing). Possibly an early night for me, and I get a bonus working from home Friday as the train operators are all on strike.
The planets are aligning for me, I wanted to be at home early tomorrow as we’re off to a VIP event which means being fed, sheveled and out of the house by 5.30pm (that’s before the time I usually get home from campus). This way I get to finish irk at 4pm and will have time to do what needs to be done before we hot-foot it up the road to our event. Yay!
Morning all. Up about 6am, still looking wet outside and more storms are forecast for this afternoon/evening so soccer practice may not happen. Will try to get over to the gym sometime today and do my pedaling, but nothing much else on the agenda. Only getting to 81F today, so may give the A/C some time off before the June hot season starts.
boo fae, happy VIP’ing this weekend.
FCM, I’m guessing the student is old enough that the threat needs to be taken seriously…stressful but I’m sure she’ll deal with it fine. Hope MIL move goes without a hitch.
Sensei, interesting story. Mine is one of my own making, I sent an e-mail back home when I was working in Abu Dhabi that was mildly unflattering to the UAE Air Force (nothing too rude, just indicating that we had a lot of equipment breakdowns in less than diplomatic terms). So of course that message wound up attached to a comminication about a week later to the UAE High Command, who were…displeased. Had Colonels lined up to chew my ass out. Apologized profusely and often and survived it, but learned to always be diplomatic on my communications, because you never know who is going to read them…
Hippie, a heartfelt and touching post. I must admit I have never seen To Kill a Mockingbird all the way through (have seen bits and pieces), but the scene you mention is still a stopper.
Pilot, quite a night out on the town for you and Missus.
Cat Glove, sounds like a busy day, you could be a logistician with such planning skills.
OK, need to break fast and do the morning internettin’. All y’all have a good Thorsday.
Saccharin sweet is usually a viper behind the mask. Well done.
Well said. Never multi-task two very incompatible tasks. Like juggling chainsaws and koosh balls, a moment’s confusion has lifelong consequences.
Having separate text conversations going with a couple of friends and your SO late at night after drinking is another set-up to screw up. Don’t. Just don’t.
That is such a huge benefit. Having moved myself once and my new wife twice in the last ~18 months, paying for the overlap month(s) is money very well spent if you can spare it.
We’re all not in college anymore where moving is small amounts of stuff hauled by strong young folks who can put in 16 hour days several days in a row and survive the effort unscathed.
As to me. …
Its almost 2 hours after sunrise, I’ve been balconating for about an hour now, and the sun sparkles nicely upon a calm sea with clear skies. Temp now is 80F/26C on the way up to 86F/30C. Warm air and a cooling breeze. It’s early enough that traffic isn’t beastly noisy. Yet.
Her Ladyship will be up soon and off to attend a follow-up appointment with her doc for her recent infection. So I shall do solo slothage. Once she returns mutual slothage shall ensue with perchance a groc run. Today is day 2 of my “weekend”, and tomorrow is day 1 of 3 on-call irk days. The early omens are that I shall skate on Fri and work Sat-Sun. The weather today and early Fri will be nice, but the weekend promises the usual scattered thunderstorms that often gum up our works.
With luck I’ll retrieve my car on Fri or maybe even this afternoon. The good news is that once the part arrives, the installation is a matter of 20 minute’s labor.
Happy Thors-day to all. Cheers!
The school is for grades 6-12, so yeah…
OK, not looking for a diagnosis, but anecdotes would be potentially helpful - I have an appt with my Dr in a couple of weeks:
When I’ve been sitting a long time - let’s say planted in my recliner for 2 or more hours while reading - my left hip pains me a LOT when I stand. I have to get up, then just stand a few seconds before I can start walking - after a few steps, I’m fine. Sitting for shorter periods isn’t an issue - I can generally get up and go. So, is this just because I’m getting old, or should I fear orthopedic surgery on my hip? I swear, this getting old crap is, well, getting old…
Yeah, rounding up friends to help for beer and pizza is no longer an option. On the other hand, we own a 2-wheel dolly and a couple of furniture dollies, and the apartment building has a nice, big elevator, so no rasslin’ mattresses up the stairs. Honestly, I’m a tad more concerned about the stuff we’ll be moving to our basement - her dining room set and a couple of recliners at least. But we can pace ourselves with those.
OK, time to get the laundry started. You people need to quit distracting me!!!
Mornin’ all.
It’s currently 48 degrees, dark, and mostly clear. The expected high is around 75; the day will contain varying degrees of clear to cloudy skies.
Sensei, I’ve been on the receiving end of that a few times myself. Always disappointing, but again, you know where you stand.
FCM, how stressful for your daughter and scary for the teacher who received the threat. I would think that would mean expulsion for the student.
Pilot, glad you and the Lady enjoyed your night out.
I had another long day yesterday that was made longer by the fact the MPA was out due to the birth of a grandchild, or is it a great-grandchild? I can’t keep the kids and stepkids straight. I have a feeling she will try and take today and tomorrow off, which I get, but it puts a kink in some things that need to be accomplished, stuff I told her to take care of last week and the week before and still isn’t done. It’s gotten old. However, maybe she’ll surprise me and be back at work.
I am supposed to be off tomorrow, but I think I will have to wait and see how things shake out with the MPA. On the other hand, part of me doesn’t really care, and that’s a bad sign. When I start disconnecting, it’s time for me to move on. The problem is that there isn’t a lot out there right now. There is a position in Seattle I could apply for, but I really don’t want a commute to Seattle. That would be an incredibly long day and add expenses to the budget. I don’t seen the point in jumping to just anything; I am going to be selective.
Yeah, when/if I move, I’ll be hiring movers, and that’s after doing another purge. I am not moving crap from one place to another. Ideally, I’d move the bedroom furniture, television stand, TV, computers, work desk, clothes, photographs, art, and kitchen stuff. The rest would go and would be replaced by new things.
Need to finish my coffee and load the dishwasher, so I guess I better do that before I start my workday.
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. It’s grocery shopping day, along with the hourly cat pettings.
Chewing doesn’t bother me, but if you’ve ever mindlessly crinkled a cellophane bag around me, be assured I have fantasized about you being lit on fire, and thrown in a wood chipper. 
FCM, eek for daughter. But being able to stretch out a move is helpful, if you don’t use movers.
At the risk of an impolitic question, why are you doing that?
She won’t need them ever again. Unless your basement is fully climate controlled, the furniture will become moldy and/or the wood swell or shrink pretty soon, thereby wrecking the furniture.
IMO/IME basements are where stuff goes to die; stored unused “just in case I need it” until it rusts, molds, rots, or is damaged by vermin. And there it sits until you yourself move out, whether dead or alive.
I’ve certainly done my share of keeping excess stuff in my basement far too long. Now not having a basement is very freeing; there is zero temptation to fill the damn thing with stuff that would be better disposed now.
The other trap is holding stuff for other people until they’re ready t take it. That is a total screw-up.
My new wife was bad about that with her two kids who did a lot of moving around after college. She kept waiting “until they were settled”, while living in ever smaller quarters that soon resembled a rented storage unit for the kids’ stuff more than it resembled a residence for her. That finally came to a head (before I got much involved thank goodness). When all was said and done, the kids took 1/3rd of what had been stored and the rest was unsentimentally jettisoned. After 10+ years of her lugging it around through move after move uselessly. Don’t do that. Just don’t.
Modern young folks, even, or perhaps especially, successful ones, don’t become “settled” until very late in life, if ever. If somebody wants the stuff, they can bloody well take it from MIL’s old residence now, not “later” from your basement. Because “later” will almost never come.