Englishman: Good Lord! What is this?
Waitress: It’s bean soup.
Englishman: I don’t care what it’s been! What is it now?
So first I was loading 100 Middle Red because the loader overslept, then when he came in after a second text, I was on 100 Middle Blue, since the loader went home sick. I did my Senior Day shopping. $100, and I didn’t ven buy 37 dolls. 
< crosses appropriate and inappropriate apendages >
Keg and catnip party at Flyboy’s!
Bonus points if you make the Psycho screeching noises when you go at it with the knife.
Bonus points that I didn’t cut myself! All ham is packaged and in the freezer. The fire has been started in the basement - I’ll be heading down in a bit to take paintbrush in hand.
Another day on the outskirts of Mordor, according to the weather. I’m definitely planning a trip away to somewhere which has actual daylight early next year.
A guy in my very-extended lab group had his PhD viva yesterday… I left before he’d finished yesterday, but it turns out he failed it. 
Well, technically, he’s been asked to revise and resubmit after 12 months for a second try, not an outright fail, but an outright fail basically means you cheated and got caught out. This is ‘you did something, but it’s not good enough, you get one more try’…
Everyone’s pretty annoyed about it all- not at the fact that it was failed, which was pretty reasonable given how little he’s apparently done, but about how it got to that point without his supervisor raising concerns. That shouldn’t happen. It didn’t look like either him or his primary supervisor were expecting it at all, and the second supervisor (head of the department) had been basically cut out of the loop… He’d even listed himself as having a completed PhD on Linkedin already…
I’ve finally gotten around to using Flight Aware’s Flight Tracker for the first time. The Spousal Unit made it to SEA. Her flight to IAH is scheduled to take off at 11:52. Her itinerary says she’ll land at 18:20. That must be CST, since it’s less than a five-hour flight. Houston to San Salvador (tomorrow) is only a three-hour flight (less than 1,200 miles, compared to almost 1,900 miles for the SEA-IAH flight).
It just occurred to me that I’ve never seen a cat attack another cat that is defecating.
Our water was shut off at 0700 today for some repairs elsewhere in the building. It’s back on now, but low pressure so far.
Wife and I both got haircuts today. It doesn’t sound like much, but having a haircutter shop in the building is a major plus. It will be a bad day when she retires.
Big Christmas celebration dinner in the dining room this evening that we’re going to. Steak and shrimp on the menu.
My wife’s plane just crossed the Columbia River. Three and a half hours to Houston…
35,000 feet (10, 680 m) at 596 mph.
Not much exciting here. Worked and had lots of fun with Excel. Might need to learn Power BI. First I have to figure out what it is. 
Sounds like a good idea. And I know what you mean about going down lots of stairs - I’d rather go up a bunch of stairs - it might take longer, but it doesn’t have the same impact.
Yay! 
(And crossing fingers as well. 
)
Scary stuff. Have friends in La Conner and Duvall, both of which have way too much water. The videos of Snoqualmie Falls is amazing, but also frightening.
I just saw a FB post saying that the Pilot truck stop in Ferndale has been given an evacuation notice by the police. As of 13:07, they were closed.
My wife is coming up on New Mexico About two hours to go. She’s texting me that she’s bored, and her butt hurts. She’s got a window seat, so it sounds like she can’t get up and walk around.
I sent her the link to her flight on Flight Aware. She says she likes it. 
I’m going to try making this for dinner:
The chicken:
Take out [of] the fridge get room temperature for at least 20 minutes
Make sure u then pat them dry really well
Preheat oven to 425 degrees
In a bowl drizzle oil over them
Season generously with garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, Italian seasoning, parsley, a little poultry seasoning, salt & black pepper
Toss them til nicely covered
Spray baking sheet with cooking spray
Cook 12 minutes, flip , & about 12 more (depending on thickness u can use meat thermometer)
The chicken is in the oven.
I’ve just made myself a bourbon cocktail.
He did get to come today. 
Sis and he were still here when PT came in. Today, we walked to the bathroom where I got to use the actual terlit.
The results were negative.
I’m trying to get semi-comfortable in this damn bed. Not happening.
A running gag for me ( boredom strikes) is comparing the printout of the meal menu to what actually shows up. This evening, chicken and noodles were listed, but what came was baked chicken and mashed potatoes. There’s always one meal like that. 
It snowed during the night and I didn’t get to see it fall 
It was pretty when I got up, though.
More cookies have been made, Harry has been by to do quality testing and likes my current recipe. His church usually does a xmas dinner for members, but this year they are opening the doors and actively inviting all of their neighbors. (we have been invited, excuses have been made.)
Hubs has been rather grumpy today. Diablo was supposed to drop an expansion today (well, Tuesday and then it got moved to today) but instead of normal drop time it will load at 2330. They are announcing it at a game award thing on the west coast so all of us east coasters are just SOL.
I do have sympathy for him, he was looking forward to it and it got pulled away without warning.
So besides baking cookies, I’ve been learning about Ladybugs. When I brought my lemon tree in for the winter, it had aphids. I treated them with Neem oil which kinda worked but Jolene insists on chomping on the bottom leaves and I didn’t want her eating neem oil even thought it says it is pet safe.
So I’ve resorted to washing the leaves with castile soap instead and that is not as much fun as it sounds. Last week a Ladybug came in with one of us and I found it a window. I put it on my tree and it has been doing its job so well that I’m worried about it getting enough to eat.
According to the interwebs, Ladybugs will drink sugar water (50/50 percent solution on a ball of cotton) if the bugs run out and…well…I never once thought that I’d end up with a pet Ladybug. Thank goodness our fuzzbutts are rather lazy hunters who don’t know that bugs are fud, so they aren’t stalking the tree for a snack.
Have your fuzzbutts noticed that she’s gone? It’s always taken ours a day or so before they realized that something was wrong.
Doesn’t your water being off do something not fun with your heat? I hope you stayed warm and enjoyed your dinner.
But did you buy any pencils?
I highly suspect they will like the card with money better
We don’t have a usual FedEx guy anymore. UPS guy’s brother (the one the FedEx guy shot in the back) encouraged him to move to Cleveland OH for a better job and now we just have random people driving by and hiding packages. No xmas tip for them!
I hope all went well and that tomorrow your son will be able to eat what he wants.
Not yet. Findus will sleep in her room with the door closed, so he’ll be alone tonight. 
I’d leave the door open, but I don’t want to be awakened in the middle of the night if he ventures out, and Goo goes to intercept him.
Mrs. L.A. landed in Houston about 45 minutes ago.
Up from naptime, drinking a Jungle Bird and watching hockey. Dinner tonight is Smoked Paprika Chicken, cheesy potato rounds, and green beans, peppers, and onions.
No one likes it when the shit hits the feline.
Maybe he assumed he’d get a PhD by osmosis by being around you and the lab group?
“He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.” -HHGTTG
Have you named her yet?
I’m hoping Santa brings me one.
Separate systems, apparently, so we were warm. Dinner was good. Steak and shrimp with a salad and mashed potato. For a tiny kitchen, Le can sure turn out the food.
Howdy Y’all! Didn’t take care of candle duty today so will have to tomorrow. We went to our favorite Waffle House (What? It’s the fancy one where they wipe down the counter and tables twice a week.) which is not near the church house. Then we went on a ramble down some back roads that took us near to large and in charge Montezuma, Jawja. We remembered that there is a Mennonite settlement there that has a restaurant. A mental note has been made to go there sometime in the near future. I went once years ago and OYKW has never been. Nappage and day drinkin’ were also accomplished.
red yay for Nelson visit, no kidney infection and gettin’ to walk to and use a real terlet! Progress!
JtC I think McBeth would be a good name for your ladybug. Ladybug McBeth! Or maybe Johnson. Ladybug Johnson!
FlyBoy glad the missus made the first leg of her journey successfully.
Cookie the dinner sounds nummy. A friend of mine lives in a Walkin’ Dead Manor that does pretty good food. Of course, for the amount he pays each month, they should.
CatMom texted that there was a baby two rows ahead of her. She said it smelled like poo. (She also said it was cute.) I remarked that it must be very smelly to be smelled two rows away. She said it smelled like Findus. (Findus does tend to fart.)
Technically two legs.
The chicken thighs were good. (Yes, I ate them both.) They would have benefitted with some sort of sauce. The FB page that shared it was Italians who love Food, so I think a marinara topped with freshly-grated Parmigiano Reggiano would have been good.
To each their own. I would MUCH rather hear “Last Christmas” than endure Mariah Carey’s screechy yowling at dog-and-bat-scaring pitches and eight notes per syllable that make it nearly impossible to decipher lyrics. Not that she cares about the lyrics if they get in the way of her gimmicky showoffery.
Can’t be as bad as what Kasya can do to the litterbox.
I do wish Buddy would quit corrupting his little sister. DH found her cruising the kitchen counter a little while ago.