It is freaky! After another beat, I immediately recognized my younger self in the reflection, but what a shock.
It’s funny it happened to you, too, albeit with your grandmother. 
Thanks for sharing your story – I feel better!
This specific castle was originally built in the 1400s, but the first fortress on the site goes back to the 700s, apparently.
They were impressed. SenGirl wanted to get closer but that’s probably because she hadn’t read as much about rabies in wild animals.
As we were standing around, it decided that it had places to go and critters to visit and didn’t even wait around for an invitation to tea. Some guest it turned out to be. Make a mess and without a howdoyoudo, off to find someone else to bother.
Reminds me of an ex.
SenGirl remarked several times about it so it must have made an impression.
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave. It’s 65 degree Ferret Height(18.3 Centipedes)
He spent the whole day throwing hands, so somebody must have peed in his cornflakes.
If’s she’s rich, I’m single. If she’s poor I’m single. If she has a pulse, I’m single.
[Monty Python]Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one… stayed up! And that’s what you’re gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands. [/Monty Python]
Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 18c/65f with a predicted high of 23c/73f and partly cloudy. Weather app says “My fucking joints are aching. It must mean the fucking weather’s changing for the 365th day this fucking year.”
Cervaise Wow! That is a very impressive hotel I hope it was worth the travel sickness.
I have absolutely no idea - and I have no fudge brownies to hand so I can’t test the theory!
Herald happy Doperversary
Yesterday had a quiet end, ‘im indoors made dinner so I didn’t have anything to do in the evening apart from feeding the cats and cleaning litter trays. I hauled the biiiiig bin out to the kerb for today’s collection, and it was emptied around 7am this morning. I’ve already dropped ‘im indoors at the station, I have a meeting this morning, and I have to go grocery shopping at lunchtime because there’s no food in the house!
Cervaise, that place is amazing. I’m just curious how it smells, being that old.
Doggio, Spot looks quite indignant in that picture.
Yay for the new bike, FCM! What color is it??
I had another student-free session of learning in the afternoon. And I talked to a colleague about how to engage students who aren’t there. She was very helpful. I said something dumb, though, and while she didn’t seem to mind, it’s been haunting and taunting me ever since.
Today I’ll be teaching my favorite subject of my two. I do hope that a student will show as I love, love, love me some practical life skills. Starting the morning with a meeting. I guess I’ll have to behave.
Suddenly, like Gru, I had a light bulb moment. I decided to try moving the dining room table around to see if I had room to move my work computer in that room. Amazingly, it worked! It’s like a whole different room with extra space in it. Annie and I love our new office space and because we’re spoiled, my mom is buying us another hand chair so that we have one for Annie in both the dining room and living room.
I tried to create a before and after picture of what the living room looks like, but the pictures just don’t do justice for the feeling that you get being in the new, more roomy space.
The description called it sea green. I think it’s pretty, and it’s not pink. I should get a basket to go on it. I’ve got to stop at WalMart and it’s near my Dr appt, so maybe I’ll look there.
And speaking of rearranging rooms, it reminded me of ages ago when I was big into moving furniture around (like when I was a kid.) My grandfather worked nights and slept in the back bedroom during the day. But on this particular day, he wasn’t sleeping and for whatever reason, I decided his room needed to be re-done. So I turned the bed so that the wall was now the headboard instead of the sidewall. And my grandfather later remarked how it was so much cooler in the summer - I guess it had been in a dead air space. So go me!! I bet I wasn’t 12 or 13 at the time…
Change of plans - no boat work today for me. I’d have had to leave there around noon to come home, get cleaned up, have lunch and leave in enough time to get there by 2. Instead, I’ll leave here a bit early and hit WalMart before the Dr and avoid the after-work/school rush. With luck, I’ll have time to gas up the car pre-doc, too. And sometime today, I need to hem the thrift store jeans I bought FCD. They’re 2” too long. But they were $5, so it’s hard to argue with that.
It’s looking like the Labor Day party at Mom’s probably won’t involve swimming, at least for sane people. Highs will be in the 70s - I don’t expect that to stop the assorted grands. But it’ll stop me for certain! I’m going to make some deviled eggs - just a small batch since it’s a small gathering. But that’s a chore for Saturday.
For now, Happy Tuesday!!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 65 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 86 and sunny. This is almost Fall like weather! Today is laundry day. It’s all I can do to contain myself. There will also be the usual RDOS inactivities. Sup will be leftover sketties. The sallit and garlic breadsticks will not be leftovers.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day! Rah.
Happy Tuesday Y’all!
On our morning walk, Peach was very interested in the underside of the porch. I think Brian, the stray cat, was under there and he swiped at Peach; she ran away from the porch with a whimper/growl. But I didn’t see sign of a cat.
Mornin’ all - about 0745 as I start drivelin’. Been up since 6 and the dawn has come with high thin overcast making for fuzzy but bright sun. NWS sez 78/26 on the way to 95/35 with mostly sunny & a chance of afternoon showers. Again.
Did get my car wash and mini-groc done yesterday. Dinner out was a few miles down-beach and a pleasant change of pace. Otherwise sloth was had.
Today presages the same. But with less productivity. Although my weekly load of ordinary clothes is drying right now, so I’ve already done something useful & will get those put away before leaving for breakfast and a social call at my car-pal’s shop.
As mentioned a month or so ago, my ex-wife taught online school. In her case remedial math to 20-something folks seeking credits towards a 2-year degree.
Having a live student on the session was a rare treat. The real goal of her labor was to create a good recording the students could watch / listen to later, and multiple times if needed. After all, the whole reason the kids enrolled in online school was because they did not want to be tied to a place or time.
She had also been a middle school & high school in-person-only teacher for probably 15 total years. And evidently a good one. She said that it took her quite awhile to become comfortable maintaining the necessary energy and engagement when there’s not a live audience to feed off.
The punchline being, if she were here to speak to you she’d say “Don’t be discouraged that you’re discouraged about how to make this work with no students. That’s normal and you’ll get it soon.”
Good morning all. Have broken fast and started the dishwasher, so a fairly energetic morning for yours truly. It’s 64F outside and the AC is hopefully enjoying it’s time off, we’re not supposed to even reach 80F today, so yay! for lower electric bills. It is voting day for local offices, I’ll probably go and do my civic duty even if I haven’t a clue about any of the candidates. Have a couple that based on their mailers I have received I will vote against, but nothing too major down here. Otherwise a day of sloth is planned.
JtC, we get in habits that can be hard to break, I guess that includes stitching. And I am sure the Lemon Tree is very pretty.
Sensei, interesting visitor. We had an incident at a youth soccer game Saturday, apparently a colony of wasps set up shop on one of the goals and took poorly to people hitting it with soccer balls…several folks were stung (none allergic thankfully) before they were dealt with, so while not as exciting as a fox spotting, still out of the ordinary. Enjoy camping.
I don’t think I particularly resemble any of the males on my parents side, but that just may be me. No deja vu here. No deja vu here.
Frumious, sounds like Izzy is getting the full immersion treatment to America. Good on ya.
boo fae, happy shopping day (at least until you reach the till).
Sticky Buns, I was going to ask what the good is in teaching when there are no students present, but I read Pilot’s comments and that makes sense. And sometimes rearranging stuff can have surprising results. (haven’t done much of that here in the past 10 years).
FCM, hope the Doc visit goes well.
VanGo,cats are master in not being seen; Peaches has learned a valuable lesson (or maybe there is a demon under your porch planning to steal your soul; hey, ya never know…
And that’s the morning report. More later as life transpires. Take care all.
My father used that line too!
Happy Tuesday!
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. Today’s agenda includes setting up the roku so’s I have something besides home shopping , god bothering, Vietnamese and Spanish language channels. There are a few oldies channels and NBC, but working around the apartment, I’d rather listen to something else.
Beyond that, I’ll hang things up in the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Can’t do much more in the living room until the desk gets here this evening.
Stay safe and healthy y’all!
Morning, all! Caffeination in progress. Doing the work thing. Brought some home made egg salad for lunch, which necessitated me buying some bread at my work-local supermarket. Trying out some “smooth” multigrain bread. I like the idea of multigrain, but don’t care for seeds ‘n stuff in my bread, so this is multigrain that’s just ground into the flour. I like it! It’s got a bit of sweetness, which I’m not a fan of in my breads (why does most of the store-bought bread have to have corn syrup and loads of preservatives in it?!) but it’s tolerable. Normally I buy calabrese bread from the bakery section, but that’s a bit firm for something as squishy as egg salad, which would just ooze out the other side with every bite of a firmer bread, so a nice soft bread was in order here, and this fits the bill nicely.
Tonight, I make fries supreme for the wifey, and a nacho plate for me, to use up some of that leftover burrito meat and the half can of refried beans
Now that’s a tip I can use, especially since I just bought more of it. I’ll have to give that a try; not sure yet what I’m doing with the ground I just bought — maybe burgers, more burritos, meat sauce, whatever — but whatever it is, I’m gonna give this a shot, thank you!
Finding Wagyu is pretty hard around here, and it’s absurdly expensive, certainly for my budget. I’m sure it’s more tender than the ending of a Hallmark movie, but yeah, that’s because it’s more marbled than a Turkish bathhouse, with a higher fat content than Trump’s head.
I’m full of similes today.
That reminds me of a TikTok/YouTube video I saw a while back.
I’d love to! Except we don’t really keep petty cash around these days. Used to whenever we’d have walk-ins (we’re not a retail outlet, but occasionally people would walk in for something thinking we were, so we’d try to oblige. These days now if that happens we need a credit card or nothing.)
His plan is to hit blue states/cities first, because retribution. California, DC, Chicago, and New York (NYC specifically) are on the agenda for now, probably one or two others I may have forgotten, and definitely more to come. He’s trying to soften people up to the idea of domestic military occupation preparatory to a full-on dictatorship. It’s … not going down well. Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson is already working with the Illinois governor and Cook County to pursue every legal avenue to keep Trump’s machinations out of the state, and NYC … well, that’s probably the worst place for Trump to try and occupy. New Yorkers do NOT put up with that kind of nonsense.
Great googly moogly! You stayed at a castle! That’s, like, a bucket list item of mine.
Made it down to Burien in 2:07. Amazing! Clocked in 20 minutes early.
Good morning, all. It’s another beautiful day in paradise. High should be around 80F. I have fed and watered the neighbor’s cats, made coffee for my friend, and we now commence our third day of intensive writing in different rooms. The general plan is a bookstore visit, long walk, and several hours of writing. I finished the first draft of the 12th of 14 chapters last night; today, I’ll catch up my journal briefly and shift to adding notes and corrections to those 12 chapters so my friend can read it this week.
Breakfast burritos this morning.
As part of my personal “legacy project”, I spent time this morning updating information on the family tree. Named our niece as the person to have control of the website in the event of my demise. I mentioned before that I was going through photos. One of the documents I have is my mother’s application in 1943 to go to Alaska to visit her husband during the war, who was working there on wartime projects. It’s similar to a passport application, including a fingerprint and a photo. The photo has long been detached from the document, as the glue dried out and degraded over the years. This morning, my wife was looking at this and noted that the photo was missing. Panic ensued. Found it and reattached it using carpet tape. Disaster averted.
Landscaping efforts are underway on the paving project today.
Mornin’ all.
It’s 73°F and sunny, with an expected high temperature of 90°F. So, another hot one, but this the last full day of the heat warning/advisory. Yesterday had been upgraded to an extreme heat warning. Whatever, it was hot and I’m over it. It’s supposed to cool down to the 80s starting tomorrow, and I’m grateful.
Another restless night, so I opted to try to sleep longer. I stayed in bed until just before 7:00, got up, took a shower, and went straight out front to water my posies and the lawn. One of my pots of posies that sits on the front porch got fried yesterday. I gave it a full soak this morning and pulled it further under the roof of the porch. I don’t know if it’ll recover, but if it doesn’t, that’s okay too.
I’m currently drinking my first cup of coffee, and when I’m done with the second cup, I’ll go out back and water everything there.
Cervaise, wow, what stunning accommodations!
Other than watering plants, I don’t have anything on the agenda. I may go out and about, but I think I’ll wait until tomorrow when it’ll be cooler outside.
Alrighty, I think I’d better get going. Take care, stay healthy, and stay cool!
So I was clerking the Irreg belt today, with occasion trips to Secondary Sort. Apart from the obligatory Home Despot damage, there was a beige ceramic dental pump thingie. I stopped at Teeter and bought a Hatch chili, and a couple of lottery tickets.
At least Annie is ready for the pop quiz.
Maybe you could start a 3rd career as a Feng Shui consultant?
The Invisible Mole People?
Sokath, his eyes uncovered! Thanks for the 411.
Glad you found the photo. I still have my Dad’s WWII ration book. So if y’all need and extra pound of sugar for the month, let me know.
Alphabetize your spices?
Yeah, I get the feeling that this is fairly rare. I only found one extant copy on the internet, and I read that Bob Hope had to have one to go entertain the troops in Alaska. Other than that one copy, I’ve never seen another, although they must exist. I’m debating whether to leave it to one of my kids or to see if a museum wants it.