Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off today. Morning cleaning and afternoon sloth is on the agenda. It’s currently 27 degrees Ferret Height(-2.78 Centipedes) outside, and slightly warmer inside.
< wonders where Spot is >
< bedroom door opens >
< Tuxedo is yeeted into hall way >
“DO SOMETHING WITH THIS THING!”
< door slams >
“wound my heart with a monotonous languor”
Yay!
Management distributed a long memo yesterday about the situation and what is being done. Heat came back on in late afternoon yesterday, and is still functioning this morning, so here’s hoping.
It was no worse than some of his suggestions. He wanted my team to be part of the security response with the Marines in case the locals decided to come at the compound with weapons. I told him that I thought that was likely a poor idea to expect a bunch of Seabees to have the fire discipline of the Marines. I also told him that with my skill with a rifle, any attacker who came within 500 yards was a dead man. He dropped the idea.
Prime caught up with me - but I’ve reinstated it so FCD can watch Reacher and whatever other blowing-up-stuff shows he likes.
OK, time to shower and dress - I’ve wasted enough of the morning…
Yay!!! Now I’ve got Gene Autry’s “Back in the Saddle Again” going through my head. That’s great that you have another option for going through the adaption phase before you and Ariel are reunited.
I thought one of the reasons for having cats is to blame them. Noise in the night? Cat. Something fell off the table? Cat. Fluids where there shouldn’t be fluids? Cat.
Speaking of cats, I caught one digging in my flower bed. Need to buy chicken wire to keep him from digging. We had problems with cats before, but they stopped coming around. This one’s new since last fall and we’re on his normal route. Grumble.
Went for a walk and then used a jar of Tikka Masala sauce to make chicken Tikka Masala. Not bad, but maybe I’ll try it from scratch next time. I asked hubby about suggestions for next weekend, and he said he wants something “ricotta forward”. Not sure where he’s been reading recipe reviews.
I was listening to an 80s mix playlist (not my own) and managed to Rickroll myself. Switched to a Prince playlist after that.
Made a poppyseed cake and now I should probably go do something productive.
Happy Sunday!
Mysterious forearm laceration? Cat.
Broken mouse on floor? Cat.
“I call this piece ‘Dry, Flavorless Bits Fit Only to Be Fed To Imitation Vermin’.” - Spot
You are so right. I’m sure it was Jolene, she’s into everything!
Fingers crossed!
Not his style…and he’s not fast or stealthy enough.
I’m fairly sure you are right. It’s a shame about FEMA, back when those towns in AZ got washed away, FEMA set up a webpage and kept it updated so folks would know what was going on and which areas to avoid. They also brought the Red Cross and Salvation Army. I haven’t seen or heard anything about them here.
We don’t have a lot planned today. I’ll probably do some laundry and I haven’t scrubbed down the kitchen in a couple of days so I should get that done as well. Currently I’m drinking coffee and watching Jolene run GG around the house. If we didn’t know better, we would sometimes think they were arch-enemies the way they beat on each other every morning.
Mornin’ everyone.
It’s 48F, and a light rain is falling. Our expected high temperature is 54F, with cloudiness and periods of rain that are sometimes heavy. We expect up to half an inch of rain today. Rivers are expected to rise, but I am not in an area that is affected by that.
Wetone, I’m glad you could return to the saddle again. I hope recovery continues and that, with time, you’ll be riding Ariel again.
Chef, I hope mismanagement finds a permanent solution and executes.
VanGo, Only you know the feel of management where you work, but I’ve often found that if I give them a deadline to respond and then check in with gentle reminders a couple days before end date, I get a response. I get you can’t just toss stuff, but now you can say, "hey, this stuff is taking up space that could be better utilized for X. Can you let me know by Y date what you’d like me to do with all these extra materials? I can (offer them for solutions for disposal). Paraphrased, of course; you could probably make it a little more formal.
Dicey, I have problems with two doors down neighbors. They keep a bunch of cats outside that keep reproducing and roaming the neighborhood. They crap in our gardens and lawns, and until I stopped feeding the birds, they used to try and find lunch or dinner in my backyard. I’ve seen said neighbor dumping a pile of kibble for the cats at the top of his driveway. I think it’s cruel; there are coyotes around here. Also, I don’t appreciate cat crap in my garden when I’m trying to weed. I’ve thought about chicken wire, but I have a lot of areas to cover.
I knocked out the majority of my laundry yesterday. Just sheets and towels today, so I think it’ll be a day of sloth except for the usual dishes, etc. It wasn’t a good day yesterday (I just read CBS News), and the night was pretty much sleepless. For today, I need to try and find a way to disengage.
You all take care.
Good Sunday Morning all. Up early and went over to the main Krispy Kreme shop, where they serve the glazed donuts hot from cooking and bought…well, more than I should have but fewer than I could…all have been devoured now along with a small box of Animal Crackers from Buc-ees (got some end of the season snacks for the soccer team), so I have consumed nearly 2,000 calories before 9am and outside of one banana none of it has been particularly healthy…but oh so good. Not much on the agenda, need to go over to the gym about 2:40pm to unlock it for the older kids soccer games and of course try to get some exercise in for all that sugary goodness I just consumed, but we’ll see. 35F heading to 52F later, so not to bad for the end of February.
Did get a note from AT&T, they apologized for the internet outage and will credit my account the munificent sum of $2.33 sometime in the next couple of bills.
boo fae, free music and good food; sounds like a great way to spend a Saturday.
FCM, I can remember my first house, even the address (137 Third Street). We had indoor pumbing, but my dad’s folks down the road still used an outhouse when I was little, remember using it once or twice but not often as I was terrified of spiders and outhouses tend to attract them, IIRC…
shoe, sweet dreams.
Cookie, hope the heat stays on this time. And thanks for the story, all that said we folks associated with the Embassy always respected the Marines assigned us (plus they ran a damn good bar…)
And I just learned that a cubic centimeter is the same amount as a milliliter. Never know that…
Press on with your Sunday, all.
It’s a fairly late Easter this year.
Me too. Ziva has lived here for a shade over 16 years and she’ll be 17 in June. When Taz was still alive, she used to hang with him, at least in the early days. Then she retreated to under the bed or behind the couch. I was the only one who could pet her, and only under her terms.
But Taz is no longer with us and since MIL has died, all of a sudden, she yells for attention - at least in our bedroom. She’ll let me pick her up - she’ll let FCD pick her up - to put her on the bed. She demands skritches and/or brushing. She even let Roxy pet her once. Weird.
She still spends most of her time under the bed. She’ll come to me when I’m in my recliner for skritches (but no picking up) and she won’t go to FCD when he’s in his recliner not 8’ away from me. Cats - go figure…
Anyway, I showered, dressed and went out to help tidy the shop a bit. I used the shop vac to suck up some aluminum chips, but until he’s done making parts, the clean-up will be limited to areas where he walks. The mess under and behind the machines will stay messy till all manufacturing is done.
Then I went to Aldi before it got too stupid, altho it was still a challenge, what with the stockers blocking aisles. But I got most of what I wanted. Now, well, I’ll figure something out.
What was the little nook about 5 pictures in?
Happy Sunday!
I was awakened around 0200 for the third night in a row by a cat in heat making her calls on my patio, near my bedroom window. She may well have been there earlier in the week, but on irkdays, I’m up at that time and taking Nelson out. I don’t know who she belongs to, or even what she looks like, but I’ll be glad once her season is over.
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted, dinner in the crock and fixing to do KP / Sunday chores. Other than that, it will be a day of sloth.
Stay safe and healthy y’all!
Only got 2 hrs of sleep last night; not exactly sure why, wonder if it was because of engaging with news yesterday. Like taters I need to disengage.
Checked in with daughter this morning. She’s really tired with not much appetite but she was able to hold down applesauce and saltines late afternoon yesterday. She thinks it’s one of the flus. She’ll zoom church today.
I was supposed to lector at 10am mass but I’m extra paranoid with her catching a bug; they’re floating around out there. So, I opted to send out a request for a sub and will go to 6pm mass where there are very few attendees and it’s a pretty darn big church; leads to social distancing at least 10+ feet away from anyone else.
Watched a lot of the 4 Continents Figure Skating championship yesterday. Americans came in 2nd in Ice Dance, 4th in Pairs, 7th & 8th in Mens. I only watched the Womens’ Short Program yesterday, will watch their free skate today. American women, Alyssa Liu, Brady Tennell and Stephanie ?? (not sure of last name) were in the top 5 after the Short.
I got eight hours. About 02:20 I heard a ‘Yo-yo-yo-yo’ cat sound. I got out of bed and found Abbey puking in the living room. We thought Goo was the one horking before, but I caught Abbey in the act. Went back to bed, then got up five minutes later to urinate.
It didn’t exist when my grandparents owned the place, but it’s under stairs, so I’m guessing someone made storage space there. A big cabinet TV used to sit there.
And it didn’t have any exposed brick.
It is going to get up to 65F/18C today, so I will be taking advantage and opening some windows to air out the house. The cats will be most pleased - Oliver kept trying to get me to open a window last week when it was freezing cold.
After futzing around with the washing machine, I think the drain line is clogged. I’ll text my landlord this afternoon, and she usually gets someone out pretty quick. And oh man am I going to be so disappointed if I have to work from home an extra day this week to be here to let the plumber or handyman she sends. And depending on who she sends I might have them look at a couple of small things that haven’t been worth bringing up on their own.
flyboy the sound that gets every cat owner flying up out of bed…
JtC so where’s the pic of this “pressed flower” that your ghostie left for you?
Nine o’clock, and I’ve broken fast. Almost over-medium egg, medium cheddar, and Tapatio burrito in a low-carb tortilla. I prefer over-easy eggs, but cooked it longer because I didn’t want to drip the yolk out
We’re back home after a nice hike on a trail, and then breakfast at Stacks afterwards.
I’m planning mapo tofu for lunch, and I have all the ingredients on hand. I use a sauce pouch sold by a Japanese company, House Foods, for the sauce. It’s tastier than anything I can make and it’s so very easy. Mapo tofu is about the one Chinese dish I can make at home that tastes as good as or better than that which we could get at a Chinese restaurant.
Before that, some pulling of the burgeoning weeds in the planters. A couple of inches of rain in early February and now lots of warm sun is making them go crazy.
Another advantage of the Saskatchewan winter! short growing season for weeds.
Started Typing: 10:45 AM ET
Clicked Reply: 12:46 PM ET
Happy Sunday morning, all! It’s mostly sunny and currently 43°F, on its way to 49. Not bad at all. And temps this week will hit the low 60s, which makes me not even care about the rain in Thursday’s forecast. 
Yesterday afternoon I briefly went to a Lego thing. A couple I know who are into designing their own sets – they enter them in competitions and display them at exhibitions – recently started a side business where they design small sets and organize Sat/Sun afternoon events at local bars where everyone builds them at the same time (the ticket price includes one drink). There is one design each month, at 2-3 locations. I went to one in November with my “nephew,” and it was fun enough. I didn’t care for the December or January sets, but this month’s is a dog sled that I think is cute – however, my friends needed a bit of a break, so this month they had just the one event and it was at a Lego reseller: you could stop by any time, and either build the set in the store or take it home with instructions. I opted for the latter. I grabbed my set and instructions and did some browsing, and chatted a bit with each half of the couple; I was probably there for less than an hour.
Next month’s build is a stone cottage, with optional leprechaun, pot of gold, and rainbow – which, of course, I’m getting. It’s adorable, plus I’m half Irish and I like the idea of having a St. Paddy’s Day set. I’ll eventually take it apart and store it, but will put it together again every March. The event at the location closest to me is a week from today. I’ll be going alone this time, and will just have to find some random people with a space at their table to introduce myself to.
I went to Trader Joe’s on the way home yesterday. There’s one super close to my house, but I rarely go because their bakery and snacks are just too tempting – and the parking lot is a disaster even when it isn’t busy. Yesterday, though, I felt like getting some TJ’s treats (and a few of their frozen items) so I braved the parking and crowd. I’m looking forward to having either a few mini pizzas or a cheesburger slider for lunch.
Today’s plans are a mix of sloth and Lego. I haven’t put the dog sled together yet: when I got home, I wanted to keep working on the TIE interceptor (I’m about halfway through those bags). I’ll probably build it today.
Lego time is about to become even more important to me as a form of therapy: my contract has to lay off 10% of our staff (about a dozen people), per our customer’s direction. They’ve really been scrambling with everything that’s been happening to the feds in the past month, and it was only a matter of time before something trickled down to us. The cuts will be effective in April, and this week all of the managers have to start filling out the corporate forms related to reductions in force (RIFs). I have two direct reports, and one of them will be affected. 
It is so hard to not say something to him. I know I have to wait at least until all of the corporate processing is done and he’s officially on a list, but once that’s done I’ll ask HR if I’m allowed to give him any kind of heads up. But we also had a RIF 5 years ago, and I had to lay off three employees that time: I’m pretty sure I wasn’t allowed to say anything until the official notifications went out (affected employees got two weeks of notice, plus a severance package). The next several weeks will NOT be fun.
Of course I can’t know for sure, but I’m 99% sure that I won’t be laid off myself: I’m a program lead and folks at my level aren’t being targeted, no one else on the contract does what I do, and after my direct report is laid off I’ll be the only tech writer.
Yes, polycarbonate or acrylic or something would have been much better! But could small clear mounting putty dots (like these) on the jar rims work? I have a crystal figurine collection: the location of the curio cabinet makes it subject to vibration when I walk past, and two of the figurines were constantly in danger of “dancing” right off the shelf. I got these dots, and they work perfectly. They likely won’t keep someone determined from lifting a jar, but could prevent accidents/deter casual attempts. (These were the smallest clear ones I could easily find, but maybe you could find smaller ones if needed.)
Oh, excellent! 
OMG, I hadn’t thought about Marillion in ages!! This prompted me to go to YouTube and listen to “Kayleigh” for the first time in almost 40 years…such memories! 
I just bought the MP3. I know Fish’s show was only a side note in your main story (free shows! so cool!), but thank you so much for mentioning it! I’m feeling old but happy! 
I love that show.
Never gonna give him up! 
I fear this will happen to my daughter - she’s not been on the job for a year yet, so pretty low on the totem pole…
Not me. Too glib and too many explosions, gunfights, and suchlike. But he mostly watches it in his office and if he happens to turn it on in the living room, I have a tablet to entertain me.
I just finished making up several snack bags of nuts for him. He can’t be bothered to look up the serving sizes on the packages - to him one bag of pistachios is one serving. So he’s now got pistachios, peanuts, and almonds in convenient baggies. I’ll limit him to 2 per day. The object is to get more fiber and less sugar and calories into his diet. We’ll see how this works.
It irritates me that he won’t learn portion control for himself, but it’s a battle not worth fighting. I know that much about him after 41 years…