The usual short heave. Did my Aldi run, and picked up a doggie calendar from The Aisle of shame. Plus meat.
I stopped into Starbucks to have a coffee and kill 20min till Aldi opened. As I was coming in, a dude walked out in shorts and flip flops. Did I mention it was 32 degrees(0C)?
Good luck on the interview, Coppertone!
My other favorite Babylon 5 line: Zathras is used to being beast of burden to other people’s needs. Very sad life… probably have very sad death, but at least there is symmetry.- Zathras
I changed my sister’s veil into a veil and skirt for Roxy:
She was bemoaning the lack of a white t-shirt. Oh well…
While I had the sewing machine out, I did some repairs for FCD. And I gave Roxy a sewing machine lesson. Plus I let her thread the elastic in the waistband of her new skirt. She’s in the basement playing with playdoh now and I’m having some Roxy-free minutes. She’s almost more work than her brother!
Speaking of whom, I don’t think I mentioned, but he had a really good first day of school. And the teacher said he stayed dry all day - asked to go potty when he needed to! This is going to be so good for him! And for me, too.
Hi all! Late morning here on a partly cloudy and 60-something day.
I’ve read all, but there’s nearly 100 posts between my last comment and here, so I’ll skip the personalized feedback and go for the generic yaays, boos, and congrats as applicable.
Been a couple days of poor sleep and general sloth here. Nothing wrong with me, just randomly out of sorts and sleepy-bored. Back to post-holiday normal and getting used to days where it’s too cool to enjoy some of my major outdoor time-wasters.
On Friday I’m taking a solo trip to Colombia for a few days. Fly to Medellin then use that as a base of operations for exploring the region. Beyond the flight down and the first night’s hotel nothing has been arranged, but I’m now building up my roster of ideas to turn into a penciled-in itinerary. Ought to be a good adventure.
When I was a kid (single-digit ages) my mum would always give me a sip of wine if I asked, and I was twelve when she said I could have the quarter-bottle of sloe gin a friend of my sister’s offered me, so alcohol wasn’t that big a deal to me. When I was in high school the drinking age in Illinois was 19 for beer and wine, 21 for anything else; ~15 miles north, in Wisconsin, it was 18 for everything. I was 17 when an friend and I started going to WI every couple/few months. None of this nonsense of going to a bar and hoping not to get carded – we went into town, found a liquor store, and went in to pick up a couple of bottles each time. I never got carded; my friend did once, but by that time he was 18.
The most exciting ads we’ve seen lately were a bunch Lady SCAdian got for condos in Lithuania.
Went to the commissary yesterday to pick up some of the half-price Xmas goodies (lebkuchen, stollen, alcoholic chocolates, &). Looked in the meat section, not planning to buy anything, and got a big surprise – London broil for 3.65* a pound? Last time I paid attention to beef prices, they were charging more than that for hamburger! Bought one, of course (my daughter has been asking for chili), along with a sirloin, a couple of t-bones, and some other things, all of which were also much cheaper than the last time I’d looked. And in the soup section, most Progresso varieties were only $.73 a tin (a few were 80); those were over $2 the last time I bought some.
Lady SCAdian talked to the car people yesterday. Seems they were told to prepare an estimate and submit it to the insurance company, but weren’t told where or to whom to submit it. A few more phone calls back and forth, and hopefully they’ll have it fixed by the end of the week.
* All right – why does putting a dollar sign in front of that 3.65 keep causing the following line to be in italics with no spaces between words?
I tried that for far too many years. I’ve got to agree with not recommending it.
I refuse to believe it! It was only a couple years ago because I’m still young. Or some shit.
I’m trying for the same. Last year was very much moving from one crisis to the next with moments of joy in between. This year is about finding peace in myself and was to show grace to myself.
As a self-proclaimed beer snob, I’m definitely going to need to check this out. Thankee, Sir!
The only way I make it through most days, honestly.
My people!
Yes, yes, 100 times yes! Even worse is having to go to different doctors because different body parts keep breaking down to a point of needing specialists.
That’s a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing it. Knowing that you’ve got to face losing your dad is tough. I’m still having a hard time with it, so I know what you’re going through with that.
I get that with Hubby and I’ve only got 3 months on him. Young 'uns is right!
There’s a large part of me wishes I could do the same so I can get my living room back, but Hubby is big on keeping it up until at least Epiphany, mid-February preferred. I’m just trying to hold out a little longer without going nuts too keep Hubby happy.
We get things like this semi-regularly because Hubby is a Jr. We’re dirty hippy liberals and DIL is a staunch conservative, so the mail from the angry orange man and his ilk becomes lovely shredded paper to pack things in.
Fingers crossed and good wishes abound.
The interesting thing is that, in the kink world, this is one of the more mild kinks. But now I’ve got visions in mind regarding this particular kink and I’m not sure how hard to curse your name at the moment.
I really wish I had a dispo here in TN. The cost of trying to get gummies is not for the cash-strapped.
yanker, did Mizpullin enjoy her Scarecrow and Mrs King gift?
I think I’ll have to see if my library has a copy of this. It sounds like it’s right up my alley.
That Russian optimism.
Damn you both, now I need to calculate mine. As of today, I’ve been a Doper for 46.21% of my life. I’ll hit 50% on November 3, 2027.
BtY is similar. Not wearing shorts because he doesn’t like shorts but he will regularly go outside in January with no shirt and no shoes.
Good luck with the interview, Coppertone!!
FCM, I love the skirt! Roxy is absolutely adorable! (Then again, when is she not?) And yay for a good day for Tobias! I think it’ll be good for all involved as well.
It’s been a fairly good year so far. Best friend was here through yesterday morning and lots of board games and Doctor Who watching was had. She’ll be back up for a doctor’s appointment Friday and planning to come back again for a weekend later in the month. And she’s planning on coming up for my birthday weekend, which could get a bit full since that’s the weekend of March’s Sunday Assembly.
Yesterday was both date night with Partner and the monthly munch/get together for one of the local… sex positive… groups that I’m part of. Partner picked me up an hour early, showed me what delivering for Uber Eats was like, then headed to Ruby Tuesday for the get together. I’m starting to feel more part of the group, which is big for me. I’m finding that being part of a local community is so important to me. And this is a great community. I got plenty of hugs and had lots of good conversation. I even got some info about where to get my tattoo done and the process of having the design I’m thinking of created. It wasn’t as well attended as in times past, which was good for Partner and his neurodivergence. We ended up leaving semi-early because my back hates me sitting for any period of time.
Things are going well with Partner. Now that he’s not doing Former Delivery Job and is getting more sleep, he’s happier in general. We spent a good amount of time sorting in his car after we left the restaurant just talking and cuddling. At least until my back said, “Nope!” The primary men in my life are continuing to make me happy and I love that.
What did not make me happy, however, was my call to Physical Therapy today. On Friday, I’d scheduled several weeks worth of appointments while I was there. Apparently, they were scheduled under someone else’s account instead of mine because there was no record of them anywhere. So after having to wait on hold, I then needed to reschedule everything. The woman I spoke to was incredibly helpful and got me taken care of and confirmed. So, while it was frustrating, it all worked out in the end.
Today is a day of slothage. I’m thinking primarily reading so I don’t fisher l disturb Hubby’s meetings. I finished a graphic novel called Murder Falcoln this morning. Not sure what I’m going to grab next. Though my next task, to keep my kids happy, is to put in an order from McDonald’s for lunch that Hubby will be going out to get. Have an awesome day, all, and stay shiny!
Right after reading flyboy’s suggestion I opened up my library’s on line catalog and searched for it~they had it so I put it on hold and just an hour later got the text notice it is waiting for me on the holds shelf at my nearby library branch.
Shouldn’t surprise the librarians there who know me quite well when I pick it up~95% of the books I check out are mysteries.
Now the hold-your-Mumper-breath suspense begins: will Boo triumph over inertia and sloth, put on pants and leave the house today to pick up her library books? Not even the shadow knows.
There is a Discourse feature for displaying fancy mathematical formulas. Which feature is triggered beginning with a $ and covering all the text to the next $ in the same paragraph. Like this: x=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^{2}-4ac}}{2a}
If there’s only one $ in any paragraph, that is treated as a plain old dollar sign, not a math formula trigger. You had a $ in front of your $3.65 London Broil and in front of your $.73 soup so it figured everything in the middle was math. The triggering feature has a couple bugs as well so sometimes it triggers wrongly or doesn’t when it should.
Why isn’t it triggering for me just above? Because I typed \$ and a \ in front of any of the control codes means "skip all the magic; I just want to display that symbol, but not display the \ that signals ‘ignore the magic’ ".
Just like **Bob** isn’t bold and *Sam* isn’t italic. That’s because I put \s in front of each *. Including this last one. So that signals I want an asterisk, not bold or italics.
So whenever I use a $ or an * in prose, I put a \ in front of it to forestall computer stupidity.
Wow. You make a good teacher; that was clear, detailed without being overwhelming, and very helpful.
Big trick for me will be remembering it!
We got sleet in the early morning but it’s warmed up just enough (mid 30s) to have melted.
Gonna be just below freezing at night for the foreseeable future. Roads’ll be slick.
All y’all lamenting the end of pretty decorations … we had something similar at work. Everyone missed the pretty lights.
I said something about how maybe we should have MOAR PRETTY LIGHTS for Valentines Day or something, and then, a minute later (we were slow) I checked Amazon.
Showed Sweet Manager some of the available options.
… we have some red heart-shaped lights and a string of pink mini lights on order now!
She was like, “Ooh, we should do green lights for St. Patrick! And 4th of July!” and I pointed out that we already have blue lights … with the red ones, that’s pretty 4th of July-ish right there!
Started Typing: 2:34 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 3:08 PM ET
Great stories, shoe! And cool about keeping the workplace lightfest going!
This coming July I’ll have been a Doper for 37.7% of my life. At that time I’ll also have been a Virginia resident for 49% of my life…which hurts my head a little, because the first 51% was spent living in 5 states (CA, NJ, TX, PA, and MD) and 2 foreign countries (Germany and England). When I moved here I never imagined that I’d stay for so long (I’m on my 8th address in this state, but still!).
Sooooo…you know how I said I wouldn’t finish the Lego jazz club yesterday? Turns out pilot was correct!
When I build the Fender Strat this weekend, it will go below the club and I’ll move Fallingwater and the Eiffel Tower to the bottom shelf. The dried flowers centerpiece is currently on an acrylic riser: I’ll move the centerpiece to under it, and put Fallingwater on the riser (the Eiffel Tower will likely need to go behind them). Also, I plan to get a lazy susan for under the jazz club so I can occasionally look at the detail on the sides/back.
A loan? Really? My CU’s overdraft protection is via my savings account. I guess the idea is that you’ll pay off the loan in full right away, thereby avoiding interest, but I don’t know why they wouldn’t just use your savings…?
Oh, I’m already doing it. That stuff has been part of my job duties for a couple of years now. But there’s no “official” DPM role on the program, so it wouldn’t be a promotion/raise type of thing. Being able to list that role would just help whenever the time comes to find a new job (hopefully not for another 5-6 years ).
That is so cool! And OMG she’s gotten so big!!
Sounds like fun! How’d you pick Colombia?
LOL!
I don’t see one…is today your birthday or Doperversary?
They’re all I originally discussed with Sweet Manager (since she’ll be paying me back) but I’ve seen all-red lights before, especially around Christmas, and the effect is usually less festive/romantic, and more … Satanic.
So I’m hoping the pink lights shown above will “soften” the effect.
14.5ft 40LED Valentines Day Decorations String Lights, Heart Shape Hanging Garland Valentines Day Decor for Indoor Outdoor Home Room Party Wedding https://a.co/d/5oFAbUM
Have some pigs in blankets (Lil Smokies - the non-cheez kind) wrapped in puff pastry, cookin’ up now.
Our holiday party is next Monday, and I’d floated the idea of making Jell-O jigglers.
(Don’t judge! I wanted something easy to eat out-of-hand, since the party will be at a bowling alley, and that would appeal to a broad range of folks - this is a mixer with the crew from one or two other locations - plus I figured they’d look colorful and festive.)
But now I’m wondering … should I bring piggies instead?
… or - god help me - both?
I can sneeze out piggies in my sleep, but I haven’t made jigglers in at least a decade.
(When I mentioned Jello, my Sweet Manager was like, “Ooh, Jello shots?” and I indicated that this idea was not entirely unwelcome and certainly not off the table.
My guess would be that savings account balances might fluctuate, whereas a loan option you’ve had for decades and never used will always be available. FWIW, I did pay it off just now.
And as long as I was logged on, I saw that (as predicted) my mortgage is now under ten kilobucks ($9,991). Fourteen more months, ignoring interest!
24th Doperversary.
Shoe: My wife put up a string of mini-lights around the front door and front window. She has them set to Autumn colour in Autumn, and Christmas colours for Christmas and New Years. Now she has them set to white. She usually takes them down eventually.
Roxy is back with her mom and I picked up a rotissed chickie for supper, along with a pack of sour cream and chives instant smashed (DO NOT JUDGE ME!!) and a sack o’salad. Making supper will consist of boiling water and mixing in milk and spud flakes. Easy peasy!
And that will conclude the second day in a row that I’ve not eaten crap. Go me!!!
Well then Happy Doperversary, flyboy! I still don’t see cake next to your name, though…(anyone else, is it just me??)
Bobot’s mention of “Dry January” reminds me that I don’t think I shared this: 1.5 weeks ago I had alcohol for the first time since my Nov 2021 gastric bypass! Alcohol isn’t prohibited for bariatric surgery patients, but we are cautioned that our tolerances will be much lower than before (due to our reconstructed innards) – and, also, there’s a possibility that a breathalyzer will show us as being more inebriated than we actually are. I was never a big drinker and don’t keep alcohol at home, and hadn’t really had an opportunity/enough desire to experiment with my new tolerance level. But when I went to dinner with my three oldest friends before Christmas, I met up with one of them an hour before everyone else got there: I decided there’d be plenty of (a) time and (b) food before I’d be going anywhere, and I had a glass of red wine! I would have preferred a beer, but carbonation is prohibited and I’m not quite ready to go there yet (I haven’t had anything carbonated in two years). I drank slowly and wound up not even finishing the glass, but didn’t notice anything crazy in terms of my tolerance (the giant soft pretzel sticks and half a chicken caesar wrap definitely helped). So, there will be more wine in my future! Woo hoo!
Unlike FCM, I’ve decided that I will eat crap for dinner: I’m getting a KFC chicken pot pie (and two biscuits) delivered.
I lurves them! But the only KFC in our county closed a few months ago. It shared a building with a Taco Bell, but when they remodeled TB, KFC disappeared. Oh well, there’s a deli closer to us that makes really good fried chicken, and I’m not a big fried chicken fan, so that says something!
FCD had 2 wings and I had half a breast, so there’s lots of chicken left over. I see chicken salad and maybe a pot pie in our future.
and leave the house today to pick up her library books? Not even the shadow knows.
And cool about keeping the workplace lightfest going!
).
Fourteen more months, ignoring interest!
I still don’t see cake next to your name, though…(anyone else, is it just me??)