You are a very good person.
Ms. Dog and I got drenched, as it rained with gathering intensity as we clomped along. She did her dog-on-a pogo-stick when I first arrived, but she was really good as gold. Her person said I tuckered out Ms. Dog, as she can’t keep her eyes open. My work is done.
My nephew–the one with severe OCD–called while we were treading water walking. He’s the other relative with issues and nobody to talk to (except his wonderful mom), so that’s that. He’s a good guy, really, just a mess.
I toweled off and changed into jammies and am considering a medicinal brandy or something. I have my tax stuff all together, as I have an appointment at the senior center tomorrow. I’m not a senior center person, but free is free.
I laughed way too hard at this. And good on you for ordering those documents.
I can’t take credit for this, as it was Oopsie (misnomer) who did this, and I’m mighty grateful to her, too.
Coppertone, I hope you can get the internet stuff straightened out.
TIL. Thanks much!
It’s so simple, you’d think everyone would do it. I don’t know why my mom didn’t serve this, and she was southern (Italian). I’m definitely going to try this very soon.
Aw, thanks! How’s Nelson? And what’s a dongle? It sounds naughty. (“The dog bit him right on the dongle!”), but I know it’s not.
There must be an interesting story in there somewhere.
No, YOU are! 
I napped, disturbed by 1 spam call, 2 calls from the dealership($1200 to replace the broken ignition and broken door locks, and they have to order the part, which I hope comes from Korea and not China), and once by Spot doing an evil supervillain “Mwahahaha!” while sleeping next to my leg. But it is bacon cheeseburger and Old Fashioned night.
Or it turned into a Titanic reenactment cruise.
Nope. I used to use my to make accessories(including a fly boat and a Mad Max style Technica)l for my G.I. Joes/Star Wars figures.
And {{{{{**nellie}}}}
When I lived in Da Hood, and a garbage truck dumped a load of spontaneous combusted cardboard on the neighborhood street, 90% of the firemen were just standing around. It’s always better to have extra hands around when the feces hit the rotating blades.
Something like this. It might do WiFi, it might have proprietary software on it.
Sounds like the start of The Odd Couple.
ETA: partly ninja-ed by doggio. Hi stranger!!
Evening all. After some preliminary silliness I managed to get my taxes e-filed tonight. I owe them some dough (more or less as planned, but a bit more than expected) which they will e-debit on 4/15 if our government still exists and functions on that late date.
Other than that it was a day of mostly sloth and eating. BB’s birthday is later this month and I’ve planned a very long weekend in Punta Cana for us to celebrate. We’ll be staying at Barceló Bávaro Palace. I’ve stayed there before on layovers and it’s quite nice.
I also registered her with my former employer as my current main squeeze which means she can travel like I do: free of charge worldwide. Of course that got screwed up, so I had to make calls to the employee/retiree call center to un-fuxxor the goofs before I can arrange our flight to Punta Cana. Peggy in Bangalore got everything fixed just great. I hope. I don’t mind social calls on the phone, and even spent about 90 minutes today catching up w an old pilot pal. But I can come up with lots of excuses not to make even trivial business calls. I really don’t know why that’s become so aversive to me. But it has.
Once the half-done load of laundry now spinning in the washer gets transferred to the dryer it’ll be bedtime here. Tomorrow is another day of RDOS. After an early morning get up for a dermo checkup. Which presages some biopsies & acetaminophen. Oh bother.
Hi Nellie. I missed you!!!
Medicinal brandy is a fine idea. Both before and after doing taxes.
Gravy on rice is fantastic. Whether it’s chicken gravy, beef gravy, or …
A dongle is a hardware gizmo you plug into a port on your PC. It acts as a key to enable certain installed software to run. No donglee; no workee.
They date back to the early days of PCs when folks used to pirate software by copying floppies for all their friends. Or all the desks in their office. Easy to copy floppies, but hard to copy some mysterious hardware thingy that does gosh knows what.
Back in the day they plugged into your printer port with that big 1/2" x 3" “Centronics” connector. And often had a 3 or 4" cable between the two ends. Then you could plug your printer into the other end of it so the printer still worked normally. So the whole thing was a heavy floppy dangly gizmo 4-6" long that you wished you didn’t have to mess with. The name dongle was highly suggestive of other dangly bits of about the same size commonly found on IT geeks that nobody else wanted to mess with either.
Nowadays they’re typically little button-thingies that plug into USB ports. (ETA: as shown in doggios pic). And are commonly used only on rather expensive special purpose software.
Good evening all. Swimming has been swum and Mickey D’s provided the evening sustenance, so not a bad day at all. Replaced the light bulbs in the library light, it was tougher since I have a recessed ceiling that’s about 11 feet off the floor and 8-foot tall bookcases right under the light, but managed to do it with only four tries and a moderate amount of cussing. Need to be up early tomorrow for an 8am appointment on my hearing aids so off to bed relatively early tonight.
FCM, yeah, most of my long-haul trips were with the US Government, so coach was the default, I did get enough Delta points from flying Atlanta-Dubai to upgrade a couple of times and now that I do long hauls maybe once every 18 months-2years, I try to budget for Business/First class. Still price shop, will be flying Virgin Atlantic this time from JFK as they had the best price. Have fun cleaning the engine room.
Well, hello nellie!! Sorry the computer was a PITA money-wise, hopefully the new setup will work for awhile. Good news on brother. As for SIL; she’s obviously had a hard time of it, but her condition makes it equally hard for those who care about her. And you are doing something real good, even if it hurts a bit.
Had the same reaction as you when I first heard it at work but pretended I knew what they were talking about and looked it up later. doggio has it pictured.
Pilot, they grabbed my tax debit today on-schedule, so when it comes to getting money I suspect they will still be efficient in that. And that looks like a great place to stay, I trust BB will be…appreciative…
No, it’s a trip my friend has done for a group of us that travel together, leaving out of Southampton, England for a 7 night cruise to Norway, Shetland Islands, and Bruges, Belgium. Also taking several extra days in London, maybe my favorite city of them all.
Knots, good luck on the mole eviction.
red, hope the flu bug isn’t catching. Sounds like you and doggio can compare work notes…
JtC, here’s hoping the best for Barkley, wherever he ends up.
flyboy, nice collection; hope others are reading them too…
And that’s all for this night. Catch y’all when I get back from the ENT office tomorrow
Thanks. Sorry there’s no banana for scale.
The customer service person made my bill,due next week 40. I didnt authorize that. For 5 gb. Heck for 50 I could get unlimited.
Its a three year old phone. The less I have to beg the better.
Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 2c/35f with a predicted high of 10c/51f, and partly cloudy. Weather app says “This might very well be fucking perfect day to shit in the yard. If you’re a fucking dog.” I am not, so I won’t.
Don’t forget you’ll also need someone to fan you, and bring cold drinks.
Not as much as we missed you! I’m glad you’re back with us, safe and well, but sorry for everything that’s been going on. I hope you’re able to forge some kind of relationship with your SIL, even if only for your brother’s sake. I am sure it will help him immensely to know that you’re talking to her regularly.
flyboy nice books! Definitely a good idea to have a copy before they’re either banned or completely rewritten.
Oopsie I hope you’re doing ok today, I agree that it is a very strange feeling but it sounds like you are already looking at things to take up your time and keep your mind occupied.
Pilot yay for free air travel! We stayed at the Barceló Hamburg a year or two ago, it was a very nice hotel. Sorry to hear about the cruise not going where it was meant to go, it does sound like the company knew it wouldn’t work out from the start and should not have kept advertising it.
Nothing much of any excitement here, except for the fact that I hauled the biiiiiiig bin out to the kerb last night and it was emptied just after 7am today. So I have been outside again to haul said biiiiiig bin back to where it usually lives.
Grocery shopping was accomplished yesterday, dinner was made and there are plenty of leftovers for the next couple of nights. Today I have a meeting to attend but don’t have to participate so I will have my camera off and will just be listening to the mucky-mucks pontificate. I have to start thinking about writing my annual staff reviews as those are due before easter and I need to give my minions at least two weeks’ warning that review meetings will be happening.
I was talking to 'im indoors about holidays for this year since the US is totally off the table. He needs to work out the holiday situation with his new place, it sounds like he accrues holiday each month, but it’s not clear whether he has to book bank holiday/public holidays off or whether those are already accounted for, and then we need to work out where we want to go. At the moment, we’re looking at a long weekend in Belgium (most likely Antwerp) in May or June. I have points in the year where it’s difficult to request time off but a couple of days shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Also, my leave year has changed and now finishes at the end of September so I have to use at least 16 days by then. First world problems, right?
Up, caffeinted, and sheveled. Off to heave. A week of short days the rest of the week.
I don’t get 16 days worth of vacation.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 46 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 75 and cloudy for the day. I (we) have to people today, but at least with people we like. I will meet other Verger over to the church house around nine-thirty a.m. to Lent up the place. This involves movin’ all the shiny blingy stuff out so as to make it look more somber and repentant, I guess. Then I have to be back at four p.m. to assist with food prep for Shrove Tuesday pancakes. I am in charge of bacon and snausages. OYKW will help with servin’. We’ll both help with cleanup. We limit the amount of folks allowed to “help” with cookin’, servin’, and even cleanup so’s we can get it done.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, bother, I suppose I should purtify and don acceptable attire. I hesitate to call my co-parishioners the great unwashed. At least I can get nappage in today. Look for the silver linin’ I say.
Happy Tuesday! Happy Shrove Tuesday! Happy Mardi Gras!
If you want to get rid, here is some “good” advice from England
Morning all. Up early since I have a hearing appointment at 8am so have pilled myself and will have an apple before departing. Nothing much after that on the agenda, do need to stop at the gym and confirm my appointment.
Agreed to mentor a couple of youth referees this spring, I’m hitting 72 in April and while I’m doing good, how much longer I can continue is up in the air and helping new referees learn is a way to give back.
boofae, never been to Antwerp, hope your schedules work out.
swampy, happy Lenting. And they couldn’t put me in charge of the bacon and sausages because I woulod be quality control testing them too much…
And need to start getting ready, there are two schools and morning traffic between me and my appointment, so early is always better.
We just flew Virgin 1st class, (hey call it “upper class”) from LHR nonstop to MIA. 10-1/2 hours on an older A330-300.
Seats were full lie-flat pods. But an older less comfortable style than newer jets have. Food & drink were very basic compared to major carriers’ first class. FAs were great, and we both slept well enough.
I had expected better overall, but most of my issue was the seat pod & I’m a small guy. One of their newer planes would almost certainly be better.
Supposed to be on an A350-1000, but I know how things change. I’m 6’2" so hope the seat is good for sleeping.
I don’t need to replace a bulb, but the globe over the stairway light is full of bug carcasses. And it’s out of reach of someone on the landing, even with a ladder, so we’ll have to figure out something. It’s not urgent, but the stupid thing irritates me every time I look up at it.
That will be one of our stops - I went to Lerwick with my mom in 2014 - wished I’d had more time there. and after watching the series Shetland on BritBox, I wish I could vacation there for a while. It’s a beautiful group of islands.
And rub my aching feet, and massage my back… or I could just hire a flunky to do my garden work. 
I do enjoy working out there, but no more 8-hour days in the fresh air and sunshine with a trowel in hand.
Speaking of my yard, I just looked out the window and saw my naked ladies poking thru the leaves. For those with the dirtiest minds, it’s a variety of amaryllis that shows greenery in the spring, dies back, then the flowers on stalks come up in the summer - hence the name.
We had enough beef left from last night’s roast, so I’ll hack it up and make a big pot of soup - maybe beef barley?
You do honest-to-goodness reviews?? Yay, you! In all the years I worked, I had one boss, the last one, who actually sat down with me to discuss my year gone and my year coming. All the others went with generic wordage with maybe a few specifics, like the name of the projects I worked on. Only Al did a proper review. (As in ALbert, not Artificial Intelligence!!)
Back when I worked for the gummint, I was up to 30 days a year. Ya think King Elon will cut that back now? Anyway, early in my tenure I was earning half that, and with a child who had the audacity to get sick, requiring me to take off, vacations were few and far between until I could accumulate enough time. Employers don’t seem to value the importance of time off in this country. What a surprise!!
My MIL used to claim 80 was the age when everything fell apart, but I find 70 was a significant milepost. Funny, that. I don’t think I’m old till I try to be what I considered “normal” and find I can’t, at least not to the extent I used to. Or I can’t see as well to do it (like threading a needle) or I lack the manual dexterity for some things. Age is a bitch! And look at you - staying physically active and all that, and your body still wants to remind you that you’re not 30 any longer.
I didn’t crawl out of bed till nearly 7:30! I’m sure it’s largely because I had a broken night of sorts. Some time around 2, my bladder woke me and I noticed FCD wasn’t in bed. I found him in his recliner, watching videos, but he did come back shortly after, Then I woke a bit after 5 and thought about getting up. Next thing I knew, it was after 7, so yay for a mostly good sleep.
It’s supposed to be near 60° today and we’ve got plans to clean the areas of the engine room where the fuel tanks will go. I’m going to try to do most of it so FCD doesn’t have to. Being down there is torture on his legs since there’s not floor per se - just the sloped hull and a few fore-and-aft beams. I’ll let him pick the part that’ll be easier for him, whether it be “walls” or the bilge area. We need to stop and get some degreaser and some heavy-duty paper towels. We have plenty of rags, but I think the towels will be a better choice.
Aaaaaand FCD just got up and told me he’s not up to working in the boat today, so there we go. We’ll go out for lunch and buy the supplies we need for cleaning in there, but it’ll be a mostly stay-at-home day. I may get some raking done, allowing the naked ladies more sunlight.
And looking at my calendar, I’ve got a cardiologist follow-up on Moanday. Then the pellet stove guys are coming on the 13th to check it out and clean the chimney. And later this month, I get to go to the dentist. So lots of fun in March!
The fun never ends!
Happy Tuesday and Happy Mardi Gras!
Yum!
Nellie, that is a wonderful thing for you to do, but of course remember to take care of yourself and keep your boundaries that you need.
I am slowly crawling back out of the hole. I managed to eat breakfast and only got a tiny bit nauseous afterwards. Then I also managed to load the dishwasher and clothes washer. I wanted to do more, but I just didn’t have it in me.
Besides, I have to take my little pup back to the vet again today. She’s been having some kind of respiratory issue going on. I think she’s on her way to getting better, but I just want to make certain. There were a couple of days where everything I own was covered by
Yellow dog snot but we seem to be over that phase now. The good news is that she has a Paw Plan, so we get unlimited free vet visits.
Oh shoot - apologies @Misnomer!
We used to fly Virgin Atlantic’s “Upper” - the best part about it was the clubhouse at the airport! It was a nice experience the first couple of times, but the herringbone configuration of seats always made me feel slightly sick as it was an almost unnatural angle to sit. We usually describe it as almost as good as any other major carrier’s business class 
Yup…it’s all part of the job. We have a standard form to complete and to be fair, they don’t change much from year to year. I have to review the year’s objectives and see what’s been completed and what needs to be carried forward, and dream up some new ones. Then write a review of each person’s performance during the year according to five different sections covering different aspects of the job. Nothing spectacular but it’s a good chance to say nice things about my minions!
Poor Annie, I hope she’s feeling better soon and up to having some scritches and snuggles again.
And good morning all at a more decent hour for me. Had my ears checked and everything is going well, had a couple of questions that got answered fully, then home to a big bowl of cereal. Need to stop at the dry cleaners and drop off my pants, I only keep 4 pairs of slacks around these days as most of my time is in Blue Jeans or sweatpants. Also need to schedule some gym time.
Also did my good deed for the week (so I can be a miserable SOB the rest of it). Was running early to the ENT office, so I stopped at Publix to pick up a NY Times so I would have something to read while waiting. As I grabbed the last copy (they only stock 2-3 papers) a older black woman came up with the saddest look on her face looking at the paper in my hand…so what could I do, I gave it to her and picked up a USA Today instead (it has more puzzles anyway). She was quite gratified and I was reasonably happy with myself.
FCM, been there with bug-infested globes, but be careful. And yeah, the annual reviews I got, especially in my later years, were usually over with in 5-6 minutes. I use to get (after 15 years working) a total of 26 days leave per year, which was usually more than I needed.
Sticky Buns, keep on getting better, step by step. Best wishes for the pupper.
Boo Fae, have heard about the Virgin Atlantic clubs, have lots of time both in London and New York to enjoy them.
And onward into the morning.
42F this morning and expecting some heavy snow later this evening.
A busy day of cooking ahead. The wife is going to make pączki, which is Polish for jelly donuts, a traditional pre-Lent treat. Unfortunately, we both forgot that that requires deep frying, so off to the store again in a bit for oil. I’ll be making red beans and rice. Surprisingly, the local grocery had andouille sausage.
Tomorrow I’ll be making a batch of bananas Foster and we’ll have that on pancakes at some point.
Onward with the day!