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!
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 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. 
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)
Hooray!
Could you be a dear and take care of the squeaky swing in the nearby playground? Thanks!
this.
Having a Wisconsin Old Fashioned, and the poke loin is in the oven.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PILOT!!!
Wally*World 