Howdy Y’all! Been home a while from men’s night. One must have priorities, so when we got back to da cave it was cheesecake and Netflix time. We had a good turnout and as usual solved all the world’s problems, but know no one will listen to us. Soon it shall be beddy bye time, as I need a good night’s sleep in order to be fully prepared to wage war with the doc tomorrow.
Everyone in all the icky weather, stay in, stay safe, stay warm.
Dinner was nice. A whole Branzino with cherry tomatoes and capers over rice pilaf and a wedge salad for me. Her Ladyship made do with an app of meatball sliders with marinara. She enjoyed a basil/grapefruit “martini” that did not even have the self-respect to be served in a martini glass while I had a glass of cabernet to begin and a glass of chardonnay to go with the fish. Sat outside on this warm and rather unseasonably thick evening.
I’m not sure we should keep going to this place. The food is good but every waiter says it’s their first night nd they act like it. I recognize the manager and greeter from one visit to the next, but if they can’t keep help, maybe there’s a reason.
Came home and now it’s time to hunt up some semi low-carb dessert while she watches some incomprehensible TV show and I yak you folks. I’ve got some nice cheese … hmm.
I’m sorry for all of you folks with unseasonal weather. We are suffering with unseasonal weather as well, less than an inch of rain in the last three months and now the mesquite trees are starting to grow leaves.
This is not good.
Last night I fretted all night about the children I mentioned in the last MMP. The ones who aren’t in the hospital are probably scared and worried AND they are most likely being left to their own devices because the adults are too busy dealing with work and kid in hospital to notice them.
I got up and made chocolate chip cookies and then I made some brownies. After checking my pantry, sugar cookies also happened. I didn’t trust myself to be nice when I delivered them, so I asked another neighbor to do it for me because she was going over with a casserole.
I guess the adults will eat some of the cookies, but I’m hoping the kids will get most of them.
While I am more than happy to GRRR at swampie’s doctor, I’m currently grrrring at the USPS.
None of the packages I mailed last year got lost so this year I thought I would up my game by sending Mom some smoked cheeses. I packed them into an insulated lunch bag with frozen blue ice before putting them in a cardboard box hoping they would stay cold enough to be safe when they got to Mom. I mailed them off with one day shipping on the 5th. According to the tracking, they made it to Idaho before going to Seattle and back to Phx. Today, despite it being a holiday, they made it to Flagstaff (not a whole lot of snow up there) and then disappeared.
The county doesn’t take MLK day, they take the day after Thanksgiving instead so today they sent a crew out to fix the stop sign. They didn’t have something they should have brought with them, so now they have a bunch of sawhorses with blinkers and warning signs. They tried to put them in our yard but I am a bitch so they had to put them in the unlevel easement instead.
Chicken Guy bought a new bunch of chicks about three months ago and now they are laying little tiny eggs. He gave us a bunch so I used them to make a quiche for dinner. They were good, but a super pain in the butt, I’m not used to dealing with quail sized eggs.
I think I’m going to take my crankbutt self outside and smoke while looking at the stars. I’ll come back when I’m not complaining about petty shit.
Never fear. We’ll make you an honorary member. If you need us, we’ll be at Boo’s house, wiping the frosting off our chins.
What did I miss? Is this a New Year’s resolution or something? Is it OK if I, too, say you’re a really good guy and a great neighbor?
This gave me a good laugh. Thanks!
And I just got the phone call from dear son-in-law asking if I am available to do grandma child care tomorrow as school is canceled due to the extreme cold. (They were closed today for the MLK holiday). This will make the 4th day out of the last 6 school days that have been cancelled.
Not sure whether Harriet’s little brother will join us or not~he goes to preschool at the University child development lab school and the University is always the last entity to decide.
Needing to be on duty across town, nimble and alert early in the morning has put the kibosh on my plan to binge mindless streaming long into the night (a cherished character flaw of mine). Off to excavate for suitably warm clean clothes to wear~haven’t been home enough lately to do laundry. There’s gotta be some clean long sleeved layers here somewhere….I guess, strictly speaking only the top layer needs to be clean.
Here’s hoping the air fryer sweet potato fries still happen tonight, fuel for the journey.
‘Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.’ – Matthew 6:1
I guess I blew my chance at winning a lottery. 
Can I join the cult even if I don’t really like cake? I will bring some awesome cookies and bread? And maybe some home made butter and cream cheese for the bread?
Remember when you refused to pet the neighbor’s kitteh? The scales are balanced!!!
Can you maybe just sleep on the couch until the weather clears? I know that you are careful, but I’m starting to worry about you driving on the ice.
Are they able to keep the same cooks? That is what I would be concerned about. If the kitchen turn over is as bad as the waitstaff turn over I would start worrying about sanitation and proper food handling practices.
But Her Ladyship would probably be your canary for that sort of thing.
I have been remiss in my dog mom duties. :hangs head:
It had put down 2 more inches since I took Nelson out this afternoon. At that point, the snow was almost up to his belly. When I just took him out, he hopped into the snow to relieve himself and immediately sink up to his little pecker (poor baby). A path to his favorite tree and around it has now been cleared.
pearl, dinosaur playsets are always a good bet! Glad nevvy loved it!
Last year, Hubby’s office had the pipes above them burst during the cold snap. They were out of the office for about 5 months while they took care of fixing everything. All I keep envisioning now is one of the smart-asses in the office telling the boss is of they’d done a proper retrofit, this never would have happened!
MetalMouse, personally I think we’d have a much happier world of they had dedicated blankets and hot chocolate time.
BooFae, so far so good! Thanks!
BBBoo, we’ve got a spice cake that we’re trying to keep the kids from devouring. They’re already making heavy inroads into the eggs and milk. Teens really do have bottomless stomachs!
And speaking of cake, I too wish to join your cul… religion!
Flyboy, the thought of a fire warms me so much! We have a fireplace in the apartment but we’re not allowed to use it because of a fire in an adjacent complex many years ago. I miss fireplaces.
Easy mistake to make. I suspect I won’t know whether I’m coming or going by the end of the week. They called school for the next two days. I’d be surprised if they go back at all this week because we’re supposed to get more snow Thursday.
Yeah, I normally wouldn’t either. Every 4 or 5 years we get a heavier than normal snow. Though, according to a friend of mine, this is heavy even for those years. I wish I’d gotten back out to measure it before it got dark. I’m going to have to in the morning, just to satisfy my own curiosity.
Like there’s ever a bad time to watch Doctor Who!
Sounds like you made the right choice. Good luck when you get back on the trail!
FCM, yay for your mom being sprung!
I’m glad it wasn’t worse but still… oof!
I hadn’t thought of that. It just happened to me the first measuring device I could put my hands on. 
I was seeing that we aren’t supposed to get above freezing until Thursday, and even then only briefly and not again until Monday. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me to see a lot of things closed for several days. Right now, the temp here is 11° with a wind chill of 0°. More blankets please!
I checked on Dad earlier today. He’s staying bundled up. His heart isn’t quite keeping up. It’s 65° in the house, so chill y but not dangerous. Considering the amount of snow they have, it’ll be tough for anyone to check on him so I’ll just keep calling to make sure he’s OK until someone can check on him.
Beyond that, not much to report. Partner had to pick my meta up from the airport today. Her flight was one of the last to come in before BNA shut it down. I’m glad she was able to make it home. He and I have been chatting on and off throughout the day, trying to figure out an alternate plan for days night if Thursday gets called due to weather. Nothing has been decided yet.
The kids are happily enjoying the thought of two more days out of school. I just have to hope we can replenish eggs, milk and bread after their locust like spree.
I’ve gotten a good amount of reading done today. I’ve read/listened to James J Butcher’s Dead Man’s Hand. I’m enjoying it quite a bit. His writing reminds me of his dad’s. I also got the ebook of Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village. A quick read and incredibly fun! Thanks, Flyboy , for pointing me in that direction.
Now is time to think about reading a little more before bed. All of you in unseasonably cold weather, continue to stay safe and warm!
I don’t! Unless it was Lewis (didn’t know his name at the time) and I didn’t want him annoying Abbey and Goo. (I wasn’t mean to him or anything, and he did get some scritches when I picked him up and tried to relocate him.)
Our place had a wood-burning stove insert in the fireplace when my friend bought the house. He looked at the costs of fixing the chimney liner vs. installing a propane furnace, and went for the latter. The original insert didn’t have a window. I bought an EPA-rated one that does have a window, so we can have a cheery fire to look at as well as the heat.
I saw @LSLGuy response to my question about @VOW in the other thread.
I’ll ask again here. Has anyone heard from her? I realize she hasn’t posted since Nov.2023.
But she communicated with a few people off board. Me included. And I’ve not heard from her.
That’s what I was asking.
Oh, you were NOT mean at all. He was being a sweetie and you wanted him away from your catio because your feline overlords were not best pleased, so you moved him without the cuddles he clearly thought he should be getting.
No, I would never imagine you being mean to any critter or person without very good reason…and not even then.
You’re already in~by virtue of being a founding member of the Bad Ass Girls. And I like good bread and butter as much as bakery with frosting. Plus, you’re quite the hand with cookies.
Last week we did that three nights, had me stay over and go home after the snowfall paused and in daylight. It’s only 5 miles, virtually all on well plowed city arterials. Harriet and I have a queen bed with an electric blanket to share and she thinks it is a big treat to cuddle with grandma. Grandma thinks the same. This time the school district didn’t decide until hours after dark so driving over in the dark was less appealing than striking out in the morning. If I was clever I should throw a set of clean clothes and my medicines in my bag of books in case they call off school Wednesday too. Snow is forecast for Wednesday night, Thursday and Thursday night and we’ve already got a lot on the ground that isn’t going anywhere in these polar temps.
At least my loyal, unassuming Civic has started every time without hesitation and the library has set me up well with books from my holds list the one day last week I went anywhere other than grandma day care. I have enough coffee in the house to last til spring, first things first after all-
and 
. Moxie wishes to interrupt to ask about the supply of kitty kibble….I’ve assured her there’s a two month supply of kibble in chewy boxes squirreled away in the spare room, alongside the tp and Kleenex.
I’m not really sure who she is, but if nobody has answered you here, maybe you might want to start a thread about it in the main feed? She isn’t a Mumper as far as I know, so you might get better results posting your question where she posts?
Oh. I’m sorry. I thought she was a mumper. Excuse my rudeness.
Y’all carry on.
I never said you were rude, I just said you might be posting in the wrong place. I am sorry if I hurt your feelings, it won’t happen again.
It’s fine by me, but I’m just an acolyte. You’d better ask Boo…and Dear Leader. OR you could lead your own splinter group. Heck, I’d join! Oops. I said that out loud. You may not hear from me for a while.
Not rudeness. You’re a concerned and loyal friend. I hope she’s OK. I know you two have been good friends for quite awhile. My fingers are crossed!
Up, caffeinated, off to heave.
Are fries a different denomination of your sweets cult? Or a heresy. I myself could live on good bread.
Morning, mumpers! It’s a toasty -1c/30f with a predicted high of 1c/34f and partly cloudy. Weather app says “The sun is fucking worthless today. Thanks for the light, asshole. How about some fucking heat?” Very true, it’s sunny out there but very cold. I know because yesterday evening I hauled the biiiiiiiig bin out for collection this morning, and I’ve just been out to haul it back in again.
Mooooom glad to hear your mum’s been freed and is on her way home, that will be a weight of everyone’s shoulders.
Swampy I don’t envy your doc’s office today when they get the full force of a grumpy old man!
BBBoo do you accept furriners into your cult? Anything that involves both cake and fries sounds ideal to me. Just as long as you’re not going to debate the correct way to put stuff on scones. There’s only one way to do it right, and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees.
JtC you are very kind to bake cookies for those kids. It’s hard not to want to help the kids, but at the same time to not help the parents
BatBoy good for you! Telling the toxic boss to naff off sounds like the perfect end to a horrible day. Nobody should be treated like that in front of other people, or even in private. I hope that boss gets a roasting from HR.
Well, nothing exciting in my so far and no inbox disasters to be dealt with yet. I have more VLE updates to do so I can get on with those in peace. Might go to the gym at lunchtime, might not. Might do a Rockfit session here later, might not. Got to do grocery shopping tonight but that won’t take too long, and we have leftover chilli in the fridge for dinner. Better get another mug of tea and brave the work stuff…