(Old) Going bats in the MMP

{{{oopsie}}} I have one of those anniversaries coming up this winter. Thinking about it, my dad is my oldest living relative at 86 years old.

Nice job on the big letter VanGo!

Got things done today, took Nelson to the dog park and even kicked a set of cards off, getting the cutting and inking done. When I do a series, I have envelopes for each card, with a smaller interior envelope for the small elements. Once that’s done, I assemble each one individually, adding things like ribbon, eyelets, brads and rhinestones. I’ll start the assembly part this evening.

Howdy Y’all! Mowage got accomplished. Go Me! That was followed by a shower, a sammich, then nappage. Then it was beerverages out on the back porch whilst admirin’ my handiwork. Majik intartoobz pizza and sallit got et. All in all, not a bad day. Some productivity and some major sloth. Ah the retired life!

Up from naptime, watching hockey and having a Mai Tai for Tiki Thursday.

Yeah, because you need trephination like you need a hole in the head. Hope you heal wquick!

:notes:Somebody once told me the world’s’ is gonna roll me,
I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
She was lookin’ kinda dumb with her finger and her
thumb in the shape of an L on her forehead… :notes:
Looks nifty!

Text from my sister - my mom was taken to the ER with elevated heart rate, sent there by her GP. Sure, why not that… dammit.

Waiting to hear if they’ll keep her overnight. Dammit.

{{{{FairyChats}}}}

Hugs to you and your mom Moooooom.

Oh dear. I will be thinking of y’all.

Damnit indeed. Many prayers coming your way.

Dammit, indeed.

I was awakened at insane o’clock by a thump. My first thought was the trash pandas. Wouldn’t that have been an interesting 911 call? “Oh, no! They’re in the house…Oh, sweet jeebus, they’re in the bathroom! I hear the bidet.

Speaking of which, a cold water bidet is a little too spartan for me. Even if solo synchronized swimming became an Olympic sport again and the nation begged me to enter, cold water is not getting anywhere near my whoo-ha. And I live in an apartment, so can’t get too fancy.

Thanks for the kind words about my friend. That couple is the last of Mom’s friends. Jay was also good friends with my late, great friend, Bob. He’s a Good Catholic Boy, but Bob got him to go to the casino with him every week. Bob told me, “Little by little, I’m corrupting Jay.” :slight_smile: I wish Bob had been around long enough to finish the mission.

All my parents’ generation of relatives are gone. I hate it.

I walked to the grocery store today. To state the obvious, Seattle is all hills. It was a little rough on the knee, but I made it. I took a wrong turn on the way home, so ended up doing 2.6 miles. I think uphill and downhill should translate into more miles.

Oh, and I found out that Monday is trash pick-up day, so on Sunday nights, I’ll join swampy in hauling the biiiiiig trash can all the way to the curb. :slight_smile: Of course, this is Seattle, so it’s THREE trash bins: regular garbage, recycling, and composting. I expect soon there’ll be another bin for crushed hopes and dreams. Actually, I think it’s cool that they collect compostables.

VanGo, I love the L! Way cool!

red, the cards sound like works of art. I’m impressed. My homemade cards look like they were made by a bunch of kindergartners on a rollercoaster.

Ugh. I hope you heal fast, and that the shower isn’t too dreadful.

This sounds like something that should be done in the privacy of your own home.

JtC: You are incapable of whining. You can rant and raise hell with the best of 'em, but nope, not a whiner.

Oopsie, I’m so sorry about your mom. My mom also died of sepsis. She was unconscious when I got there, but staff told us she could probably hear us. I don’t know if that’s true, but I prayed out loud so she could hear (She was a devout and joyous Catholic.). I like to think our moms could sense our presence somehow.

:alien:. I’m invaded my moving emoji’s

Oops don’t work here on the Dope​:grin::grin:

I leave you folks alone for 24 hours and 100 posts appear.

I’m sorry to hear of oopsie’s & FCM’s parental issues. This getting old stuff ain’t easy.

Summarizing my time mightily …
On Wed the rain finally quit, the sun briefly emerged before falling into the ocean, ridiculous amounts of food and booze and convos where had at several sleazy dives, then some sleeping occurred at our little boutique hotel Ten North Tamarindo Beach Hotel. Such was Wed.

Thu started sunny, nice long beach walk, breakfast at a little place run by Italian expats BUON APPETITO - Tripadvisor, then off to do a 9-stage zipline through the jungle while looking out across 10 miles of hillside, jungle, farms, and on to the sparkling sea. Then a couple hours of ATV-ing through the same jungle, out to farmland and a small town, then past expansive ranches back to the base. Great yaks with the local folks running these tours. Can recommend. The sky clouded up, it sprinkled for a few minutes, but overall the weather today as was wonderful as the weather yesterday was a PITA. Black Stallion - Eco Park & Estates. Of course last night the USB charger cable that served me faithfully for ~5 years travels died, so my phone / camera was dead throughout all this.

Back to town, a new hotel for variety sake HOTEL ARCO IRIS, a short nap, then out for more beach & only slightly wretchedly excessive multi-stopped food and drink Caprichos Restaurante, Chiringuido, and finally La Palapa Hotel as the sun once again dropped into the sea while folks on horseback came and went. The day wrapped up with a pair of fire jugglers on the sand then we wandered home. Unlike yesterday, there was a large and enthusiastic crowd of tourists, from folks far older than we to college kids. A happenin’ time for sure. One could fall in lust very easily around here.

The general idea now is to bed early-ish tonight (shortly after 8pm here now), then early up tomorrow Fri, food, then ~4 hour drive to the Arenal volcano near La Fortuna. Once there, pick a hotel then do something fun, whether horseback ride or hot springs, or nature hike or …

Prices here aren’t third world cheap, but overall we’ve been real cost-effective so far. Splurging may or may not happen. Neither of us much care what stuff costs, but neither of us needs to spend fancy to feel comfortable or fulfilled. Can, but don’t have to. It’s an easy & light in the saddle feeling.

Cheers all!

Then you should be safe because they can’t get you. :slight_smile:

Evening all. Did do some evening swimming, so having a snack or two tonight didn’t make me feel too guilty, have the tackleball game on another window so popping there and back to this message. Then will finish my internettin’ before heading off to bed.

FCM, a check made out to you is always a nice surprise. And {{{{ }}}} for you and your Mom.

Herald, take care, glad you are home.

VanGo, that’s one hell of an L…presume that is you seated upon it.

Pilot, sounds like a grand trip. Have never done a zip line but have thought about it before; now that my weight is somewhat more reasonable (not sure if 300-lb dudes can zip-line, but I bet 240lb’ers can) and if opportunity beckons…

OK, Bucs-Bills are in the last 2 minutes, so see what happens there and then off to sleepy-bye land. Take care all.

If any Mumpers have ever worked up sourdough starter, I’m going to try AGAIN. For all that I was a professional baker I have had poor luck trying to get a starter going. I could buy dehydrated starter or active starter from San Francisco, but I really want to do my own. Maybe the fifth or sixth time will be the charm.

You are very sweet, but yeah…I was getting a little whiney. Everyone has baggage, and usually those suitcases are named after family members.

I have seen evidence that unconscious people sometimes do hear and often remember what is happening around them. I’m old enough to have done enough death watches to know that the attending medical folks usually know what is happening with the loved one during their final hours.

I always make sure that the last words I say to anyone I care about when leaving (or hanging up the phone) are loving and kind, because those could really be the last words I ever say to them.

There are a few nice things about living in the land of eternal summer.

That has got to be the L-iest L I’ve ever seen. Great work!

I’m so happy you are home…is a shallow bath an option?

You don’t show us enough pictures. Nelson is always a cutie and your cards are amazing!

As well you should! Nothing makes a lawn look better than a couple of brews.

(Hubs thinks he’s getting too fat because of his beer making hobby and has moved on to Gin. We have many juniper bushes growing wild out thisaway, I don’t know why he’s wasting money ordering juniper berries online.)

As a good tree hugger, I try to compost. I have a rolling compost bin and dutifully feed the bin suitable kitchen waste and straw or dry leaves. I’ve never been able to keep it moist enough to properly compost due to the lack of bulk.

A common community compost pile would be so nice because then everyone would help generate the amounts of plant mass to make it work.

Today TC friend told me that she has 25 cats. We once had 12 cats in a place much bigger than hers and that was just barely manageable, no wonder she is always so grateful when I give her kibble or litter. I love cats, and understand the desire to save the “ugly” ones, but she really needs to learn how to say “No.”

TC also thinks we are old and need to build up our ankles and calves so gave us TWO more moves and smiles while telling us that we would feel it tomorrow. Ha HA! I fooled her, I’m feeling it tonight!

NF is talking about getting a rescue dog so she would be forced to get off her butt and walk several times a day. She has been practicing walking on the hills and gullies around her place and has been looking at rescue pics.

GG’s breeder had several dogs in the house, so GG learned about dogs back when he was just a little jerkface. It will be interesting to see how GG reacts to seeing a dog in his house now. (We will have to lock VBC in the bedroom with some catnip because she wasn’t very nice to the last canine visitor we had.)

Do not use organic flour. It is processed differently than regular flour and kills the good wild bacteria you want. Use a small jar to help the process heat up. Be sure the jar is clean, but don’t sterilize it. Star-san is a no-no in this process. You are not making cheese, you are trying to domesticate some wild bacteria and they get spooked off by too much clean.

Have patience. Fermentation takes way too much hands-off time, but the process has worked for centuries.

Good luck…and let me tell you that it will probably be like me not being able to make a cheddar. Once you’ve got it, you will be all :scream:

Changes subject to a different food. The intertubes told me to spray olive oil on cut avocados to stop them from browning. This morning I cut a quarter of a ripe avocado and sprayed olive oil on the cut edges, put it in a sealed container and back in the fridge. I noticed it again (looking as fresh as if I had just cut it) around 1400 and sliced off another wedge that I shared with hubs. It was just as nice as a newly sliced fruit, so I sprayed the fresh cut again.

I just looked and it is still nice and green, not turning brownish like it does with lemon so I think this is an intertubes win for us.

Next Imma trying the highlighter on the windows to stop the birds from flying into them trick.

The birds fly into my stitching room window enough to distress me. Well, actually once is enough when it comes to hurting wildlife, but once a week tells me that I have to do something about it.

I’ve tried decals and hanging mirrors with no success, but the intertubes say that using a chartreuse (fancypants word for dayglow yellow) highlighter to make a grid on windows will be pretty unnoticeable to humans but will be warn birds off.

I just happen to have a yellow highlighter, so scribbled on my window. If I can’t see it in the daylight, I will do a proper grid and hope to never hear another bird hit the window. I will also have to tell our housekeeper because she does the windows twice a year and will want to know what’s going on with my window and the french doors.

I always thought chartreuse was a shade of green?

I had to look it up when I read that tip.

“Appropriately named for its resemblance to the French liqueur, chartreuse is a yellow green color that sits between yellow and green in the color wheel. Its hex code is #DFFF00. Chartreuse is a vivid color that combines the vitality of green with the energy and optimism of yellow.”

Of course, you need to remember that my eyes are not good but when I look at the color chart, I see my yellow highlighter.

I’m often wrong and this could very well be one of those times. I do hope I’m right because birds are too fragile to be flying into glass and this would be such an easy way to stop it from happen.

Anyhow, back to you. What’s happening on the home front? No new wet patches I hope? Have the kitties forgiven you for the horrible disruption in their lives?

No new known plumbing issues, the cats and bird are at least somewhat settling down, there are boxes everywhere still from having to empty more than half the apartment during repairs, and my temp gig ended unexpectedly a couple of days ago (no explanation given).