Several things need to be done today, but so far no movement from the spouse on any of them. She tends to procrastinate, and then everything gets pushed. I absolutely HAVE to go to the grocery, as we’re doing xmas cookies tomorrow with my daughter and perhaps granddaughters.
Can you go to the grocery store on your own?
Speaking of procrastinating …
I really need to get a new rat tub set up. For some reason, sometimes, when I put something off, and it becomes more urgent, the "donwanna"s in my brain become increasingly louder.
So I’ve been doing something I guess I’ll call “practical procrastinating.”
So far, I’ve:
- put away all the clean dishes
- folded and put away the entire big hamper, not just the quilt, plus bonus clean laundry from the other hamper
- scooped the litter box
- got my Xmas box painted more
- ate some bread and a bit of the last leftovers of last night’s (quite delicious) chicken
- remembered that I scrubbed the terlet the other night, and gave myself bonus congrats for that one, cuz that’s not a chore I exactly enjoy
Today was to be cleaning day… so far I’ve done 3 loads of laundry. Perhaps my get up and go will kick in at some point.
Other than laundry, I’ve gotten the kids ornaments from the art museum, and had a brief meeting about lobby decor and condo items for next year; and had breakies out.
It is an amazingly clear warm day in phila, on my way home from the art museum, (across the street), I saw a hawk circling. It still amazes me that we have hawks and falcons in the city. What a bounce back from the ddt years.
Oh, I didn’t need any inspiration for that, I was a natural!
There, that’s the reaction I wanted, LOL!!! Happily, these are the septic guys that everyone loves, I know they will be around when we next need a pump-out.
Now I know you are making things up!!! I’m sure what you like about it is being able to sip your coffee while thinking, “Wow, I am SO glad I’m renting and don’t have to deal with people knocking my fence down ever again!!!”
Despite not being happy about the bushes being torn out, I am happy with what is happening back there. It is such an improvement from how it was. Regentrification is happening slowly, but it is here.
Hubs found a link to pics of the mobile they will be bringing in. Bliss<!-- --> | Clayton Homes
(It is amazing what sort of info you can find just by trolling around in the county webpage.)
At 765 sf, one bathroom and unfenced it will be kinda small for a family starting out, so we think we will get nice quiet retired renters back there.
She is much braver than me! Before da jungle, I was a K-mart girl all the way!
Five bucks and that’s for shake. I’m sure I could get it cheaper in the valley, but then I’d have to buy twice as much just to be able to get over driving to the valley. Or I would have to go to the needlepoint store and buy something to justify the drive…suddenly that doesn’t sound like the worse idea in the world after all.
Well, dang! I’m glad it tasted good, that’s the important part!
Oh thank goodness. Do you have a good ETA for your new contacts yet?
W00T!!! I hope it works out just how you want it to.
Good for you! You deserve some time for yourself, everyone involved are adults, it is time for them to act it and do their jobs by themselves.
It is so good that you are able to post. Of course you have no energy, you are still all full of drugs. Once they have worn off, you will start feeling more yourself. Do remember to take your pain meds as scheduled, not as needed. Your body can’t heal if it is all clinched up in pain, it needs to be able to relax to heal.
Snert!!!
FIL lived in West Virginia and they had lots of squirrels. He used scraps of stuff and MIL’s favorite colander (!) to make a squirrel catapult and spent many happy hours launching squirrels over the fence into his neighbor’s yard. The squirrels loved it, there would be a constant stream of squirrels scampering back over the fence for another turn.
This is a homophobic meme, and we don’t allow those on the board.
Refrain from such analogies in future.
No warning this time.
Of course, but she needs to go to the pharmacy, as well. It’s no big deal; I’m just cranky this morning.
Pigeons do very well in cities, and are a natural prey for hawks’n’falcons. (Sounds like a weird football joke.)
Hawks and falcons like nesting in cliffs, which tall buildings (and their accompanying pigeons) mimic quite well.
It’s the cirrrrrrclllllle of liiiiiiiife 
Glad I could help, m’dear.
I’d like to thank you for one helluva happy smile. If I remember it, I’ll carry this mental image with me today.
Crew: “What’s so funny, Shoe?”
Me: “Squirrels. And colanders.”
Crew: “God, she is so. weird.”
I’ll scootch over; there’s still a bit of room on the bench.
Alright, I’m sufficiently purtified for the day (cute pants, a touch of makeup, earrings) which likely means sweating in front of the fryers.
Why am I only assigned customer facing when I drag my sorry carcass in looking/feeling like dog 
going, “Whelp, clean socks and undies, best imma do today” ?!?
Okay, not always, there’s some confirmation bias going on there, but … dammit, imma at least (harmlessly) flirt with New Guy and one of the Oven Masters today. I know they’ll (harmlessly) flirt back.
These cute pants and somewhat-tasteful makeup is not going to waste, dammit.
Started Typing: 2:27 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 4:15 PM ET
First things first: belated Happy Birthday, JtC! 
And, super big huge thanks to BBBoo for dropping me a PM to catch me up on what I missed last week. 
It has been such a long week…Monday feels like much more than just four days ago!
I did wind up going to both my volunteer org’s holiday party and the holiday jazz show in DC on Monday night. Low-Key-Crush Fellow Volunteer didn’t make it to the party, so there was no reason for me to stick around…heh. I’m glad I went for the first hour, though, and got to meet/chat with some folks. And I’m really glad I went out for the music, even though 1 hr of standing at the party + 1.5 hrs of sitting on a bar stool kind of sideways (eating while also trying to look at the stage) = a sore back the next day. At the gym on Tuesday evening I had to ask my personal trainer if I could refrain from any core exercises, which I tend to also feel in my back. (Luckily I just needed another night of rest, and my back was fine by Wednesday.)
My annual performance review discussion on Tuesday went well! Yay! I was rated a 4 out of 5: most people get 3s, and hardly anyone ever gets a 5, so a 4 is really good. 
It’s nice to be appreciated and it’s great for my record (if I ever apply for another position within the company), but it will also result in my annual merit increase being a little higher than if I’d gotten a 3. Last time I also got a 4, and my increase was 3.5%; we don’t know the budget for next year’s increases yet, but I’m hoping for something similar. 
My discussions with my direct reports on Wednesday also went alright – even the one I was dreading, where I had to let one of them know that if their performance doesn’t improve soon the next step will be a performance improvement plan (aka a “PIP”; it’s a formal HR thing, and the first step toward possibly being fired). It was emotionally draining on my part, but there was no drama (phew).
In addition to my “day job” I’ve been helping with a proposal, and had a deadline yesterday morning. That’s part of what has made it feel like such a long week. I made the deadline, and at noon yesterday I had a meeting to discuss possibly also supporting another proposal short-term…and because I’m a big ol’ masochist, I said yes. I’m doing some work on that one today, but it will really ramp up over the next two weeks. Proposal A won’t seriously ramp up until January, so I should be able to manage both for the rest of the month. Luckily I have no plans for any holiday time off.
I’d intended to go out last night, after my personal training session, but by lunchtime I knew that wasn’t going to happen. 
I just couldn’t see getting home from the gym at 7pm, taking a shower, and then having the energy to turn around and go right back out.
Tonight, though, I’m going back to DC – same venue as Monday night – for more holiday jazz! The show starts at 7pm: I’ll leave the house around 5:30, and will hope to be on my favorite barstool by 6:15. I like to eat before the music starts, if I can; mostly so I can concentrate on the show, but also because being able to face the stage lets me avoid the back-twisting that happened on Monday night.
Tomorrow morning I have an appointment for an oil change and state inspection (in Virginia we have to get those annually). It’ll be my car’s first non-dealership service…they grow up so fast!! *sniff* Whenever that’s done, I’m looking forward to having absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the day/evening/night.
On Sunday I’ll be meeting some friends for lunch and a matinee of Ragtime. Should be a great afternoon.
Now, to do some catchin’ up… 
In 2014 I disconnected my Blu-ray player from the TV as an experiment, and never looked back. I got rid of it a couple years ago. But I do still have all of my discs (in a couple of big wallets vs the original cases), and I bought an inexpensive mini-player just in case I ever get the urge to watch something I own that isn’t available digitally. I haven’t bought a new disc* in at least a decade.
*DVD/Blu-ray, anyway; I still buy the occasional CD.
!
That actually did make me feel better…LOL!
One of my first cousins married a black man, and our grandfather nearly boycotted the wedding. He relented when he finally realized that his son and other grandchildren would never speak to him again if he didn’t go (and behave). Everyone was concerned about how he would react to/treat their children, but luckily somehow he managed to be a decent human being with them.
Woo hoo!!
I love it!!
So glad to see you posting!! Please be patient with yourself in terms of energy; it could take a while. I hope you get to go home on Sunday!
There’s a good chance I won’t be able to post again until the new thread, so…happy anniversary! 
The trouble with that is that you have to pay to watch stuff every month. With discs, you pay for them once and then they’re free. Mrs. L.A. just cancelled Paramount+ (which I don’t know if she knew she was paying for – we never watched it) because it’s $12/month. In a few days she’ll cancel Britbox and save $10 or whatever per month. I could do with a 1,000 disc DVD/Blu-ray changer though…
The travelers arrived safely in Avon - took almost 12 hours. I expect the return trip will be faster since he won’t have to wait for his mom to hobble to bathrooms or whatever. He plans to leave super early tomorrow.
BIL came over - he’d managed to turn off the ringer of his phone and didn’t know how to turn it back on. So I gave him a smart-phone lessons. He seemed in good spirits - maybe his caseworker has convinced him he needs to stay on his meds. Stranger things have happened.
I want ice cream, but not enough to go get some. Dammit. When will we get home replicators???
My gum felt so much better this morning that I canceled my dentist appointment. AND my new contacts came in, so that’s TWO piece of good news! And the retinal doc says the glaucoma is no worse, so I don’t have to return for six months. Yay!
I was almost late to the appointment because my daughter texted me this morning, very upset because her dad–You know what? I can’t even type it without lapsing into #2$?%*!&, so let’s just forget it, shall we?
Congrats, BooFae! That’s wonderful news!
I know I’m not the only one who thoroughly understands how aggravating that is.
I hope they respect that as much as they should and that you’re able to enjoy this wonderful, sunny day.
According to a surgeon who became very familiar with my appendix, the deep fatigue is not due to the anesthetic, which wears off completely within a day, but to the tremendous amount of energy your body needs at the cellular level as it starts to repair the damage. Makes sense, right? I hope you do get to go home on Sunday.
So 
Jane the Cane vapes mainly on the plain.
I started this post hanging out at 3:30 chugging some smoked salmon eggs benedict for lunch; it’s almost 4:30 and I just finished it.
WAIT, wait. I missed JtC’s birthday?! Happy Birthday, JtC!! I’m not as gifted a singer as swampy, but I do hope you did something absolutely delightful.
The plague has come to roost at overlyhouse. Overlygirl was sick Monday/Tuesday; the husband unit fell Wednesday/Thursday and I woke up this morning with a swollen, scratchy throat. Overlyboy is so far unscathed, but his buddy texted him last night to let him know he had the 'rona in case overlyboy started feeling gross (they sit next to each other whenever they can). We’re putting the boosters to the test early, I suppose. Gotta make sure they work.
Afternoon all. Plumbing appointment is scheduled…for January 3rd (never have house issues near the holidays), so water rationing will remain in effect. Nice thing about being a gym member (think I mentioned this) is that I can shower/shave/use the bathroom all as part of my exercise routine, so that put less of a burden on the lines. Am experimenting by running two loads of laundry and seeing what the water usage is…hopefully since the washer is not near where the leak is, I’ll only lose a small amount and get some clean clothes without going to the laundromat; we’ll see what the numbers say. Got my swimming and sauna time in, weight on the scale almost worried me, I might be losing weight too fast, so came home and had a small mid-day meal to complement the low-calorie Big Bowl O’Sallit for tonight. Otherwise a quiet evening is planned with lots of indoor soccer tomorrow.
FCM, hopeall goes well for FCD, MIL and BIL; they could use a break now and then. Glad the Christmas show was so enjoyable.
Cat Glove, sounds like you had a successful foray into ConsumerLand, and great food to finish it off.
Shoe, aching back? Wait until your my age, youngster! 
And as for the flirting, is that ‘harmless’ or ‘mostly harmless’?
cookie, hope the grocery run was completed.
JtC, here’s hoping the new neighbors are the agreeable sort.
Oopsie, welcome back and sounds like it was a hectic week for you, but yeah! on the positive performance review. Enjoy the Jazz.
nellie, great news on the gums and eyes, not so great for daughter, but I know you’re there for her and she knows it too.
That’s so…horribly funny.
Get well soon, talkie and family.
OK, need to start load #2. Take care all.
Howdy Y’all! As promised, been a day of high sloth. Lovely! Productivity did happen when I made sup, but even that was minimal as chikin nachos are pretty easy to make. We used paper plates so no mess to clean up except for a couple of forks and a spoon.
wordy hope y’all are over the plague soonest.
Hippie glad you are startin’ to be on the mend. Take it slow and easy, but you already know that.
MOOOOOM glad the show went well. I like the cocoa song!
CupCakes I shall consult my church lady cookbooks for a good lane cake recipe. I know there are some good ones. I love lane cake but have never attempted to make one.
Its in the low 60s now and the community Christmas parade will be passing by around 1745. I am going to fix a warming mug of mulled mead and bundle up to go out and watch it go by. I’ll try to remember to take some pics this year, usually I’m too busy waving at everyone to think about it. Of course, the mug of mulled mead isn’t going to help me remember…but its cold out there!
OK, now you done flung a cravin’ on me.
The apartment is clean, laundry done, groceries bought and supper et (a salad and two Nashville Hotttt chicken tenders on flatbread). I’ll surf for another few minutes before cooking up the cheese grits and putting them in the casserole dish to be baked in the morning.
Well, that was fun. My pics are most of blurry lights, but I did recognize friends. Besides the fire trucks, there were 23 trucks and what not pulling highly decorated trailers.
Now I need some more mulled mead to warm back up cause it dropped to under 60 since my last post.
No doubt! I hope everything goes as planned and you have a great time!
What is he going to do when everyone is gone? (You two on your cruise and MIL out of area is what I’m referring to.) His case worker can only do so much.
I sure do wish dad was around to tell me one of his stories now. I’m really sad that I was too impatient to realize what a gift he was giving me before it was too late.
I did not know that, but it sure does make sense. Thanks for fighting my ignorance so kindly.
LOVE IT!!!
I am so sorry. I hope it is over quickly and with no long term effects. Try to rest when you can.
DANG! Even with the gym, what a PITA! Can you fill your tub with water for middle of the night terlet flushing?
So I noticed that a couple of folks looked at the pics of the incoming trailer. Lately I’ve been seeing kitchen sinks facing the dining or living room and not looking out a window. I’m so used to always having my sink facing a window that I’m not sure that I’d like an arrangement like that.
What do you folks think? Is this a new trend or are the builders just being too cheap to put in a kitchen window?
The new place moving in only has four windows which I wouldn’t like anyway, but would certainly make it easier to keep cool in the summer.
Overnight heaving was light. Senoir clerk was out, so I covered the 200 Slide for most of the morning. They cancelled the overnights for the people doing doubles, apparently the volume and the Seasonal Blueberry turnover is low enough they don’t need the permanent people to get massive OT. I picked up Roomie at 5. So it’s good there’s no extra work tonight, because I didn’t get much sleep waiting for the call. but I got cioppino and a Royal Hawaiian to hold me till second nap time.
Glad you alive, and hope you feel better quickly.
“Computer…infinite martinis”
But glad FCD made it safe.
You’re always welcome to vent to us (or in the Pit, if you gotta whip out the REAL naughty words) or we can get together a shipment of pointy spiders, rats, and glitter for revenge …
Please never ever stop being you.
Now, I’ve chugged beer, and I’ve eaten smoked salmon, and I’ve eaten eggs benedict, but chugging the two is a new one to me.
Did your buddies hold you upside down while yelling, “Chug, chug!”?
Utterly harmless. Neither is really my type - they’re just both good crew members and fun to work with - but if things get a bit zesty late at night after the lobby is closed to customers who might overhear … meh? {shrug}
Nothing overt, and absolutely nothing explicit. That would take all the fun out of it, plus guaranteed management (including Sweet Manager) would bring things to a screeching halt anyway.
Just innuendo.
Ex: the other day, Oven Master and I were doing the “hey, how’s your day going?” thing. He said he was okay, he’d give his day a C- barely passing grade …
" … but I’d take a 69."
“But, sir, that’s a failing grade!” (pretending to clutch pearls)
Utterly deadpan: “That’s okay. I’d accept it.”
Stuff like that.
So my instincts about today were correct - a bit of fryer duty, but mostly working the line, I think I rang up two customers the whole night - and OMG things were … not great. We were short handed for the first coupla hours (scheduled as such, nobody was late, but it still sucked ass) and one of the crew has been sick for days and bless her was moving at about the speed of cold molasses. I don’t fault her, but it still made for a slog of a Friday dinner rush.
Plus it was Christmas music night, and Jeebus I cannot stand any more overwrought renditions of … well, all of them.
TL/DR: we were so busy, nobody had time to flirt.
Okay, Monkey has gone from “snuggle buddy” to “bored jerkface” and I need to throw this last chicken boobie into the oven (apparently it ain’t gonna cook itself, like, WTF even is this dystopian hellhole in which we live today) so imma let y’all go.
Oh, and @TruePisces my bestie and I both luuurrrrrrved that shirt!