# (Old) Looking ahead in the MMP **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** mmp\ **Created:** [September 7, 2026, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-looking-ahead-in-the-mmp/1032875 "2026-09-07T11:35:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 281
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-looking-ahead-in-the-mmp/1032875/281 "2026-09-13T17:08:20Z")
I saw elsewhere on the Dope that today is @LSLGuy’s birthday…he’s Just Not That Into Us anymore, but hippo birdies, **pilot**! 🎂 I’m frequently amazed by my ability to kill time on my personal computer: I’ve been up since 7am, and it’s already noon! I also logged into my work laptop (for less than 30 min) to approve timesheets and draft some emails that need to go out in the morning, but mostly I’ve just been putzing around with this and that – including emailing my property manager to ask what’s going on with the estimates for getting the deck fixed. It’s been two weeks since he said he’d be starting to schedule them, but I haven’t heard a peep from anyone yet. Today is warm and muggy, but autumn _is_ coming…I’d like to be able to use the deck sometime before the end of the year! I finished Mayor Manor yesterday afternoon. It was a fun build, with some of the usual Lego hidden stuff (like a rat eating cheese under the floorboards, which you can’t see once the floor is in place). And the minifigures have glow-in-the-dark faces! [![](https://i.ibb.co/KcnbDq6y/2026-09-12-Mayor-Manor.jpg) ](https://i.ibb.co/KcnbDq6y/2026-09-12-Mayor-Manor.jpg) After finishing the build, I read for a while: I caught up on the new issues of _Blocks_ and _New Yorker_, and finished the David Baldacci book I’d been reading. Then I killed some time cleaning up the library on my Kindle, and downloaded and began reading the sample of another Baldacci book (the first in the Sean King & Michelle Maxwell series). A new book by a different author that I’ve been looking forward to will release next month; hopefully I can continue my reading streak and finish this one by then. I also played the piano for a little while yesterday, for only the second time since moving here (three months ago). After Bailey died I got out of the habit of playing due to grief, and then I kind of disengaged from music in general for a while. It’s always in me, though, and talking with my jazz pianist friend the other week about helping me dust off my vocal repertoire seems to have been a spiritual nudge. I started taking lessons when I was 7, and there has always been a piano (or at least a keyboard) every place I’ve lived, but I stopped studying at the “intermediate” level and these days I’m a _much_ better singer than pianist. So I only play for myself. 😁 I may go through periods of not playing much – 10 years ago I bought a [hybrid Yamaha](https://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical_instruments/pianos/avantgrand/index.html) so I’d never have to get another piano tuned again – but I can’t imagine not having one around. I played through some favorites, and won’t wait so long to do that again! I’m starting to feel hungry…time for some replies, then I’ll head downstairs for lunch and more David Baldacci. 📖 > [@dogbutler](#): > > _The moment the dame stamen to my office, I knew she was trouble, probably one of Fat Tony’s girls. I slid my pistil from its holster, just in case. “Hello, my name is Audrey.”, she spoke. “Hmmm..”, I said, “my mother’s name was Audrey II.”_ 👏 > [@swampbear](#): > > I am a huge fan of _Downton Abbey_ as well. OYKW and I will rewatch the series and the movies at some point just so we can snark ourselves through it. Yep, I do not believe that could be any gayer. 😂 Have you ever seen the British show _Vicious_ (2013), with Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Derek Jacobi? If not, both seasons are on Amazon Prime\* and BritBox: “Freddie Thornhill and Stuart Bixby are an old gay couple who have been together for nearly fifty years. Their lives now revolve around entertaining their frequent guests and hurling insults at each other at every opportunity.” It’s hysterical…and it’s mildly amusing to see Iwan Rheon outside of _Game of Thrones_ (where he played Ramsay Bolton), as a pretty boy. (\*except the finale special, which is only available on BritBox) > [@Aspenglow](#): > > I slept Friday night/morning for nearly 12 hours, then got up and had a nice breakfast with a superb cup of coffee and returned to what, for me, passes for 100% Hooray! > [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > I WD-40’d the squeaky spots on his bed Could you be a dear and take care of the squeaky swing in the nearby playground? Thanks! --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-looking-ahead-in-the-mmp/1032875)._