(Old) OK, I’ll Start the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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41F and sunny. Breakfasted, exercised and puzzled, but that’s likely it for today.

Eldest son and his family notified us yesterday that they can come visit tomorrow. Then the niece and husband come Monday. Then we’ll be meeting my deceased son’s wife and her eldest boy, and my youngest son and his lady on the 21st for lunch. DIL’s son ended up having to be recalled and deployed unexpectedly over a year ago. It will be good to welcome him home and perhaps chat a bit about his experience if he’s up for it. So lots of family activity in the near term, which is good.

Friday the 13th? I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. And my college girlfriend had the same birthday as me. Of course she was a nutjob, so there’s that bit of bad luck.

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The check engine light was on in the car, and I need to get it inspected by the end of the month, so I took my day off to bring it to my buddy’s garage. Turns out I need a new catalytic converter. Yay. If he orders it it’ll be $1400, if I order it from da jungle it’ll be 150+ labor. So guess who just sent Bezos $150?

Now I’m sitting here listening to the “shlorp shlorp” of a dog trying to get peanut butter out of a Kong. Way better than the bizarre silence of her tearing up a couch.

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I had one of those for years until last summer when Sis melted it.

Sis and SIL have both been known to repurpose odd or holey socks for teeny tiny chihuahuas.

Didn’t you just buy that car?

164

Hangin’ in there, but barely.

Friday the 13th? Well, I already have a black cat … who has figured out how to wiggle out of his Cone of Sadness. And still has to be medicated twice a day.

And tonight is Long Night.

165

Well, rat-sitter situation hopefully sorted- both people I asked said they could. One has offered before, but she was due to hand in her PhD thesis today, so I wasn’t sure if she’d have any available brainpower, but it’s done and now she does.

We actually had a nice sunny day here today, for the first time in over a month- for those who think I’ve been being dramatic, we literally had over 2 weeks with no sign of sun at all, it was in the local papers and everything.

I think I’ll pass on trying to pull a sock on a rat, I do not think they would cooperate and I quite like having fingers that haven’t been bitten to shreds. They’re not normally bitey rats, but there is a limit…

166

I picked up a rotissed chickie at Food Lion as well as some slaw. Tossed some steak fries in the air fryer and when they’re done, dinner will be served. Yes, it’s early. We’re retired, dammit!
:rofl:

And, no, I didn’t dust. But laundry is done, so there’s that.

ETA - Fed refund has been deposited!

167

I spent the morning chasing my tail after Air Canada cancelled the first leg of an international itinerary. Their links go nowhere and they’re impossible to reach. They may still owe me for seats on two flight legs, but I managed to reach a helpful person at United who rebooked both parts of the outbound flight for me, a better itinerary though slightly longer.

Now editing. I’d go for a walk, but it’s that PNW biting, wet air/rainy chill outside, even though it’s not that cold. I’ll dance in the house later instead, perhaps while holding a cat-sized weight.

168

Back from erranding. We dropped a few things off for James and got his shopping list. I always cook too much food for one meal and make full use of our big freezer so it isn’t any bother at all to make up meal sized portions to take to him. He’s already texted me with much praise for the cornbread with corn and chilis. He didn’t mention the churro beans, I hope they weren’t too spicy.

We got three days worth of fuel for the kerosene heaters which will probably sit out in the shed until we’re both gone, but it will make us feel better knowing that we have it. All of the stores had Valentines flowers up front, it entertains me to see orchids in grocery and hardware stores.

While we were at Lowes for the kerosene, I got some paint chips (which are much bigger than the ones I’ve seen in the past - I like them) and have already tossed three out. I’m really leaning towards a very pale pink for three of the walls and a dark rose for the wall with the doors and ivory trim all the way around. I’ll look at more chips before buying samples though.

Aldi had Dubai style chocolate for 3.49 a small bar. I thought about it for a minute and figured that it came out to about 19 bucks a pound, so left it on the shelf and bought some cheddar/parm cheese instead. No bread cheese :frowning:

Even if they did think it was fun, I think the socks would get chewed off in no time at all and would worry about your long-nosed kittahs getting blocked by the synthetic fibers.

This is concerning and sounds rather pricey. I hope he recovers quickly.

Will tomorrow be busy? Do people buy a lot of valentines pizza? Good luck no matter what.

It is impossible to avoid him anymore. A good half of the things I order directly from the company are “fulfilled by Amazon”.

That’s great, I know that is why you moved to the land of the ice and snow. I hope everyone has a wonderful time.

While we were traveling, George learned how to open lever handled doors. He also has a big floofy tail he waves in the air as he walks and I’ve seen him close doors with it. If George can figure it out, Spot will at the very worse possible time.

169

Yeah, about a year ago, but it’s a 2013 used car.

We just got back from the dog park where Ms Peach got to run around like a doofus. Her favorite game is to get all the other dogs to chase her. Today, nobody wanted to play, despite there being dozens of dogs–the most I’ve seen in our like 4 months of going. She did run around like a doofus for a hour and is now snoring on the couch behind me.

170

I would really like insurance to make a decision about my car.

Tonight is concert one of this concert-mad weekend. Specifically we’re doing Amadeus with live orchestra and chorus. I’ve done some live scores before; this one is interesting because unlike most of them, the music needs to coordinate exactly with the visuals of people playing on-screen, and when there are vocal soloists we’re using the movie sound, so it can’t vary at all. A few parts are really tricky. The conductor uses a specially prepared version of the movie with tempo indications playing on an iPad in front of him. Last night one of the scenes the tempo indication on the screen was slightly off so he had to figure out how to take his cues from what the actors were doing.

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And a good late afternoon all. Dishes have washed themselves in the dishwasher and been put away and sweating at the gym is complete, so time for internettin’ and sloth is upon me…outside of fixing some dinner in a bit. Clear, blue-sky day and 65 ferret heights, so pretty good for February.

red, I usually get it all my Alabama taxes back, since Ali-bama doesn’t tax retirement programs like mine and the amount I collect from Annuities and other items don’t add up to enough to pay tax on. Been trying to get the Annuity companies to quit deducing State tax, so far it has not happened so I’ll keep trying.

flyboy, I buy the Wal-Mart Kroger varieties of spatula, but may take a flyer on that one, I like the looks of it.

doggio, sounds like playing package tetris is a chief skill there at Brown.

VanGo, that is a not-inconsequential amount of money, you did the right thing even if you had to hold your nose doing it.

shoe, May the Long Night not be too interesting…

Nut, hooray for the rat-sitters and yes, blue skies and sunshine are a nice change.

lily, keep after Air Canada, I’ve heard stories about them (not flattering ones) so stay after them.

JtC, I think the Sherwin Williams website has their paints and will display them in a room setting on your computer, so if you have a good one (and with Hubs game-playing, I suspect you do) that might be an option. If you’re using another type of paint, check their website I suspect they may do the same.

Pavo, hope the concert goes well and that you really rock them…

And that’s all for now. More (or less) later.

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She needs to play with Nelson! He loves to chase the dog who is chasing the ball (I think it’s his 1/4 Corgi herding ancestry manifesting itself).

Got one leg of a pair of PJs hemmed today. Supper was a garden salad and tuna fish on whole wheat toast. Other than that, the usual RDOS.

173

It’s a good thing you’re not having Beans. :grinning_cat_with_smiling_eyes:

It sure has help up well for many years.

I have different spatulas for different things. This one is the one I always use, for my non-stick pans. I have two metal ones I use inside. One is narrower than the Oxo one, and the edge is slightly rounded. I use that one a lot (but not on non-stick, obviously). The other is a larger Colman flat-nosed one that tends to be used on cast-iron. Then there’s the long metal one for the barbie, and some plastic ones from the '70s and '80s. I don’t use those.

174

I use Oxo silicone spatulas. No plastics that will get heated, even briefly, in my kitchen.

175

Howdy Y’all! Lots of kitchen domesticity this mornin’, but it all got done. Go Us! We FaceTimed JDD and Partner to invite them to feast with us tomorrow and they said sure. Turkey, dressin’ and cheesecake are hard to turn down. Plus we’ll foist some leftovers off on them. I should be home before noon so we can drink some champagne before we eat. OYKW will look after the turkey and shove other stuff in the oven when it’s time. He is a very capable cook. I do most of it just cause. Majik intartoobz pizza and sallit were consumed for sup.

176

Putting the cream on my back has lessened the pain quite well.
Had a salad for supper.
Funny thing, I was scooping some ice cream into my bowl when it accidentally went flying. Right into the small garbage pail. Couldn’t do that again!

177

Up from naptime. Well, the “up” part was delayed due to somebody using me a a stand to clean his genitals. But now I’m having a Puritan, baked salmon, brown and wild rice with morels and green beans for dinner.

Did you put leaded gas in it or something?

Normally I associate “schlorp schlorp” with licking something else(See above).

Just remember if you hear a weird noise, don’t go off by yourself to investigate. Send one of the drama teens. :wink:

Well he’s already very good at sneaking unnoticed into open closets and getting shut in Cask of Amontillado style.

Well, the drivers love me because I’m good at Tetris-ing, reading load charts, and have CDO. Some of my cow-orkers had never seen a box before getting hired as a loader. :zany_face:

I have Tar-Jay silicone tools.

SWISH! :rofl:
Glad the back hurts less.

178

9pm but I’ll do the late-night final now since I signed up to referee a game at 8am, so the alarm will be going off early (and I have a new alarm clock to try, it promises to be loud–we’ll see). Have done little of use since my last update and not planning on any further activity.

swampy, enjoy the fine dining tomorrow.

Coppertone, it is amazing that things (when we drop/throw them) end up in places we couldn’t have put them if we tried 100 times.

And will take a look at silicon spatulas sometime…

That’s all folks, will try to write tomorrow somewhere between or after all the soccer (referee 8am/9am, coach 11am and 1pm). Have a good weekend all.

179

You are correct on all counts, but paint colors on a monitor don’t really show how they will look on a wall. That’s why I will buy pint sample sizes of the paint I’m almost sure about and cover a few feet of wall to be sure that I’m not going to change my mind in a month.

I am super picky about this sort of thing but the results are always worth it IMHO.

Nods in agreement.

I hope you have a great time! Get some cherries and make a heart shape on the cheese cake for valentines day.

I’ve put the big pot of grass down on the floor for the cats to graze and they both seem to be enjoying it. It is now living under the grow lights I have for the lemon tree and hopefully nokitty will pull the plants out of the dirt and scatter them around the house.

180

The shifting daylight can also change your perception of a paint color, so JTC as usual has excellent advice.

Alright, y’all, I am wiped out. Hope we all get some good sleep.