The wife had a good b-day yesterday. The niece showed up with a huge bunch of flowers, which made my offering look pretty sad. She had a call from her airline pilot niece and another niece who is caring for the wife’s sister and greetings from a number of friends on Facebook. The other two nieces couldn’t be bothered and are dead to me for reasons I won’t go into.
Partly sunny with some very impressive cumulus clouds. Today will be pretty much down time.
Nope; exempt position.
Darryl Rogers, head coach of the Michigan State Spartans (AZ State Uni, Detroit Lions, among others) called the people associated with “the other school” ie the university in Ann Arbor arrogant assholes; he wasn’t wrong about a numerous amount of them.
Had some tentative plans with daughter but after the last 10 days of leaving the house every day, some days multiple times, I need a day cocooning so I cancelled. She sent virtual hugs which brought a smile to my face. So, have been playing computer games, reading the mmp and about to relocate to the lazyboy to watch my Spartans play the Badgers. (doggio, do you still root for them?)
I don’t have any hope for a win but again I’m hoping for an injury free game. Last week was brutal; our star RB left on the second drive, 1st quarter, returned on crutches and is now out for the entire year. Our star LB also went out in the 1st quarter and is only questionable for today as well as another very good LB. There were also others injured but apparently they’ll be back today. And Nebraska’s star RB was also out of the game early; I haven’t heard if he’ll be back this season or not. Football is a brutal game and I keep thinking I should stop watching.
We called it a 9/4/5. But for me, it was a 9/5/4 because I always took the second Friday off. I took advantage of that schedule as soon as it was offered to me about, oh, gosh, 20 years ago and never looked back. I seriously considered a 10/4 several times, but stuck with the 9/4/5. For me, it almost always worked out to four-day weekends when holidays fell on Mondays, too, so that was another little perk.
Welp, I’m still goofing off on the computer. I really need to get going, but there’s no hurry.
He’s solidly established that this is home, after four years 
. He does get some roaming time, but both he and Kasya now wear electronic tracking tags along with their ID tags, and both are chipped.
Totally unrelated fact: because of its shape, Michigan is commonly nicknamed “The Mitten State.”
Left the heat set to 64F last night, thinking is wasn’t gonna get that cold, and awoke earlier to the heater running, and my phone said it was low 40s outside. So I guess I was wrong.
(Or “fucking wrong” according to somebody’s weather app.)
The lobby at 
is fully decked out for Spooky Season, and we got bright, brand-new purple lights strung up, too. There’s always 2 really pretty sugar skulls for the walls, and a plethora of dollar-store pumpkins, ghosts, spiders, etc.
S.M. maintains one big tub just for Halloween decorations, and at least two for Christmas.
Last night, one of the crew bought new “cobwebs” in bright green & we stretched them over the lights, to what I think is a delightfully colorful effect. 
Halloween decorations are so often full of blood & death … I like the fun stuff better.
Plus, the green webbing will be a surprise to S.M. (who is a firm believer in holiday decorations) and I open with her today so I get to see her reaction.
She was unhappy about the whole Car(e)less situation and clearly did not enjoy letting him go after working together since they both started over 6 years ago - although most of the younger & newer crew are openly gleeful at his dismissal - so hopefully the fun new decorations (and her day off yesterday to relax) will cheer her up a bit.
I was bad. We went to one of the casinos for breakfast, and I ordered the chicken-fried steak. With hashbrowns. The ‘steak’ was good, but then I thought, ‘This tases like a pre-breaded, frozen CFS.’ Still good, though. Since there were two CFSs on the plate (the bottom one didn’t have gravy on it), I took the second one and half of the hashbrowns home. I also ordered bacon-wrapped, cream cheese-and-smoked salmon stuffed, jalapeños. I ate one (no heat, so safe for The Missus), and packed up the other four with my leftovers. The Spousal Unit had eggs Benedict with hashbrowns, and she ordered a piece of carrot cake to go. So basically three meals, an appetiser, a dessert, and two coffees for under $78 with a $15 tip.
I going to finish my cup of El Salvadoran joe, and then go get a COVID shot, and stuff for coleslaw.
Oh, yeah. I’d sent some cameras to a guy in Illinois for servicing. I didn’t expect him to receive them until today. First thing this morning, I had an email saying they were done, with individual invoices describing the services.
I remember you mentioning he’s no longer working with you, but don’t recall details. I’d have to say either he’s a colossal screwup, a total slacker, or a major jerk if co-irkers are that happy to see him gone. You didn’t seem to have that bad an opinion of him.
Regarding tourists and toilets, many of the trains here, plus the more popular destinations have this sign in each stall: No/Yes
Today hubby got his spankin’ new prescription filled and got to try out medical-grade devil’s lettuce. Took some weeks to get everything organized, but now he’s set. Was weird being at the pharmacy and see others pick out their choices - the pharmacy doesn’t always have the same strains.
If that’s all you are keeping cable around for, Pluto TV has a lot of that stuff free of charge.
Heaving went smoothly, even with MSG working. I was out by 11:45. Laundry is in the clothes dehydrator, I’m having bacon, eggs, and a gin&tonic. It’s rainy and coo, which is a nice change from dry and ungodly hot.
I’m suprised there isn’t an official Patron Saint of pizza. Although I’m sure St. Lawrence is the Patron Saint of Waffle House cooks.
Schrodinger’s Cat(s) are both inside and outside the box.
Some? I feel like I’m in a dipstick monsoon some days.
Too bad you didn’t do your program at UNLV. Then you could viva Las Vegas.
WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! Y’all! My DAWGS beat up on Vandy 38-14 in a game that was a lot closer in the first half. Also, I did all the cook things for tomorrow and even managed to get in a little nappage before the game. OYKW says I deserve a little extra speshul sooper sekret double confession for my first half behavior.It was the beerverages. I ain’t worried about that. Priest is also a DAWG fan, so he’ll be there with me. It’s rainin’ hard right now which makes me happy. Don’t think it will stay around long however. Now it’s time for some stoopid teevee and ice cream.
MOOOOOOM I get it with the pre-trip plannin’. I do that even if it’s just overnight. I must have my things! OK, need to remember to pack all the necessities includin’ meds. As to your sis, well, she’s old enough to plan for eventualities. Hope she decides to buck up and start.
shoe my grandmother’s yahd was full of oak trees. Fall at her house sounded like an ariel bombardment.
Taters glad you’re happy with the new doors. The fun of bein’ a RDOS is each day can be a day to do stuff, or not.
FlyBoy that poke roast sounds nummy! Gettin’ several meals out of one meal is always a win-win. No flies on the guy who serviced those cameras!
WetOne yay for new teevee. You will enjoy it once it’s set up and you get use to it. I am happy we made the decision to get a smart teevee.
Oopsie glad the backup and upgrade went smoothly. I did some stuff with my iPad on Thursday that took a bit, but I hadn’t done a backup for about three months and I knew there was an upgrade, so I let it do its thang. Hope you have had fun readin’ and Legoin’.
Cookie glad wife had a good bday.
Cat_Glove yay for a day of cocoonin’! I see the Spartans lost to Wisconsin. Sorry for that.
Nettie good to know the kittehs can’t get too far without bein’ found out.
shoe hope S.M. likes the new decorations. They sound tres cool! 
I know it was tough for her to let Car(e)less go, but she had to do what’s best for the bidness.
Dicey those are some innerestin’ signs.
doggio Jesus was not afraid to overturn tables. I am sure that’s good enough for Waffle House cooks.
At Jax, it was called 5-4-9. I worked straight 8s because it was just easier since I had a kid in school and needed to get home for her.
What are your hours supposed to be, theoretically?
We’ve both been totally useless today. Otis will be bathed tomorrow because we just didn’t feel like going today. I’m sure the weather is a big part of it - cool, overcast, rainy, just meh. And it probably didn’t help that I was awake till stoopit o’clock overnight.
Apart from making N.O.T. skins for supper and loading the dishwasher, I did nothing. Well, I did write a note to SIL about Ziva’s care. Still haven’t made the to-do list for us. Maybe after I post this.
The bone pulled right out of it. I put the meat into a metal bowl, and shredded it. I covered it with foil, and it’s keeping warm in a 210º oven.
I ain’t got acorns, but I do have walnuts. When they fall on the next door neighbor’s metal roof it sounds like a gunshot. It’s usually about a 4 week stretch of walnut season. My driveway is treacherous, the car goes “ping” from rolling over or shooting out nuts.
I have some sad news. Some of y’all know VunderBob aka his MMP nickname BBBobbio. Just a few minutes ago he reported on my book of faces page that his wife has died. She had gone to the ER and he reported a couple of hours ago that multiple organs were failin’ and that she would be receivin’ dialysis. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
Evening all and finally I am back in the MMP. Day started at 6:30am, just had time for breakfast before having to get dressed for refereeing and heading out to the fields for my 8:00am game, followed by the 9:45am game, at of course the field with the longest uphill walk to get to, so that occupied most of the morning. Then a quick trip back home to pick up a coaching shirt and over to the other fields for coaching my U10 team (we only had 6 boys make it, borrowed one from the other team and lost, 4-5). Done about 2pm so of course I changed again and went to the gym for a couple hours, because I knew if I sat at home I would be conspicuously consuming multiple calories, so did a little sweating there before coming home and predictably stuffing myself. Am sated and comfortable and don’t plan on moving much for the next several hours.
Now to catch up with the 30+ messages since my last missive…
Flyboy, that was a cute gift for the Missus. And pretty smart ordering. And sounds like camera guy is very competent or very shoddy, guess you’ll know soon enough.
CatGlove, never been to a “Senior” activity so far, but that time will come. Sounds like fun was had and enjoy the Nutcracker. I’m shooting for 90 years but won’t argue if I make it to 102 and can still sing.
shoe, sounds like nobody starves at your workplace…and the decorations sound nice–how soon does the Xmas stuff go up? 
Nettie, it obviously takes some planning to keep cats where you want them.
boo fae, never heard of keema, looked it up and it looks pretty good. Hope the rest of the day went well.
That is one picture in my head I can do without, thank you…
swampy, Dawgs seem to be on a roll. Buckeyes had to work a little harder but prevailed. Nebraska won too, so I suspect I’ll see BBBoo’s post a little later in my scrolling.
FCM, family is what we get. Best wishes to your Mom.
And my condolences and best wishes to BBBobbio. Losing a partner is hard anytime, for it to happen that quickly is tragic.
Taters, hope the doggie door performs as expected.
But where’s the fun in that?
wet one, enjoy the new TV, I think I’ve had mine for about 8-9 years now and no plans to replace it anytime soon (and like you, I had the pros hook things up).
Oopsie, going down to 67F tonight, may shut off the AC and let nature keep me cool tonight. Hope you had a restful reading day.
Nut, good luck in finding a rodent wrangler; after the hard work the past few months, a little trip may do a lot of good.
Cookie, nieces are nicest…at least some of them are.
Dicey, those train WC signs are…interesting and certainly explicit enough, but I bet some people still don’t get it…
And that’s got me more or less up to date. Take care all and if I don’t get back, catch y’all tomorrow.
But … no gravy on your leftovers? 
Well, that’s prolly cuz I didn’t really give details…
He used to be punctual and dressed fairly okay, but for the last several months has been intermittently - and increasingly often - late, and has sometimes had some(times rather significant) B.O. issues. He’s gotta walk roughly 45 min to get to work, but he - not us - hafta take that into account.
He was also abusing the earbud privilege. On the one hand, ALL the younger crew are absolutely terrible about this. On the other hand, we shouldn’t have to yell your name repeatedly to get your attention to ask a simple question, let alone to alert you in a small kitchen full of hot, sharp, and/or quickly-moving things.
He honestly had his good qualities, plus teenagers can spot weaknesses a mile away. I’m sure @nelliebly has some stories from the trenches to back me up on that assertion.
Somewhere, a dominatrix cracked her whip, and then went, “Oh .. uh, nv/m.”
That one can join the party, too. We’ll take all the patron saints we can get!
Ariel has entered the chat. 
I really like your approach towards religion.
Is this kinda like how Europeans and 'Murricans write dates all differently from each other?
BTW, for you folks with wandering critters…
Hahaha. Monkey, you best BEHAVE!
Oh, my goodness. Thank you for letting us know, and I will send some healing thoughts for him towards the stars tonight.
It’s a shitty road to walk, being the one left behind.
RIGHT after Thanksgiving.
That’s also the “all clear” for streaming Christmas carols. { whimper }
No kidding.
S.M. brought in another round of “my mom made too much goulash” and it got pounced on so fast, I didn’t even get any!
That’s okay, they were all closers and needed sustenance. Meanwhile, I was out at 8 p.m. which is RIDICULOUS for a Saturday. Heck, they started breaks around 6 today - sometimes even the early-outs don’t get their breaks started till 8ish if we’re slammed, which puts closers at having “lunch” after 9:30.
But we were really slow today, and I’m starting to suspect the economic grind is starting to bite even our regulars.
Or … or … or EVERYONE but me can show up super-late for their respective shifts. I thought poor S.M. was gonna absolutely lose her shit.
So we had a grindingly slow start to open, as crew gradually hiccupped into the building .. and then once everyone finally put in an appearance, we kept tripping over each other with not much to do.
Worst of both worlds.
On a better note, after 4-and-change years working , I finally got to use my Dickey BBQ experience!
Kind of!
I’ve set up rib orders, I’ve packaged rib orders, I’ve bagged prepped ribs to go into the 
freezer 
but tonight, for oddly the first time, I prepped them from start (raw) thru the seasoning process, to be ready for tomorrow’s smoker.
Alternate Manager made an offhand comment about some people being squeamish about raw meat.
I didn’t say “Bless your heart” but the thought was there.
Meh. I can make gravy.
And sheer luck at times.
I’m sorry to hear about bobbio’s wife. My condolences.
I played with classic colors for this evening’s card.
