It’s 3:25pm ET and I just came inside from looking at the ~88% eclipsed sun, and I’m gonna say that was kind of neat. It’s definitely darker than usual out there, but if I didn’t know better I’d think it was just going to rain. What’s a little weird is the general darkness combined with random patches of bright sunlight through the clouds (it’s only partly cloudy, and they’re moving pretty quickly). Putting the glasses on and looking up to see a crescent sun was a little cooler than I expected. Not cool enough to spend more than a few minutes out there, but worth the effort to get up from my desk and go outside.
I remember noticing that way back when! I had classical voice training in high school (and again many years later); I was somewhere between a lyric soprano and a coloratura mezzo-soprano. For the past 15 years I’ve been a jazz vocalist, and I recently started working with a classically trained vocal coach who broke it to me that these days I’m likely more of an alto/low contralto. (I enjoy going to Messiah sing-a-longs every December, but it may be time to learn the alto part…sigh.) Anyway, every time I see your username I think “What the fach?!?” Because I have the sense of humor of an 11-year-old boy.
BMCRA removed the OFAC risk alert from my employer’s credit report. It really wasn’t a good look to have a potential terrorist link on a credit report for a credit reporting company. I’m amazed that the U.S. Treasury Department actually returned my phone call a bit over a week ago (telling me to contact BMCRA), and that BMCRA actually did something about it.
I had to get eggs and bread from the supermarket the other day. While I was there, I noticed a pound and a half of bulk chorizo in the Buy It Before It Rots bin. I cooked some of it up this morning, and made a frittata.
I was in the car driving home and managed to get home sans rapture. Though it was kind of an eerie drive. We only got 99% of totality, not the full enchiladas. Though enchiladas sound delightful right now.
The weekend was really busy, mostly because my genius self got over her skis in meal prep - I decided to make a few elaborate dishes that I really wanted but don’t usually have time to make during the week. Unfortunately, I failed to plan well enough and underestimated how my family could decimate any quantity of food I keep in the house. So now I’m making soup out of the remains of some roasted chicken, for which I needed to fight my husband because he got snacky.
As a complete tangent, I found out the hard way that we REALLY need to clean our carpet. One of the things we kept from my mom was a spot cleaner for carpet - it’s one of those little machines with brushes that extend from the bottom that cleans the bejeezus out of any carpet stains. Suffice to say that we now have six or seven little bright, white circles on our carpet from the spot bot, surrounded by upsettingly dingy carpet. I have two problems with this - the obvious is that we need to clean the carpet far better than we had been before (steam cleaning annually). The less obvious that I’ve been complaining about for years is what evil, awful human being decided white carpet was remotely appropriate in a dining room??
I loathe installed carpet, in any form. A bitch to keep clean, an ever bigger bitch to GET clean (should something happen) and looks good 5% of the time in return for 200% work.
That faux “wood” snap-in stuff?
Thank the gods in which I don’t believe for that human ingenuity.
Everything I whined about ^^ but inverted. SO much easier to clean, and you don’t have to strategically place furniture to hide THAT weird stain.
Philly got cloudy right at the wrong time. Every now and then there would be a cloud break or thin and you could see it. Now that it is over it is back to bright and sunny.
100% agree - I share your hatred of carpet, and once we finish up a couple of other projects 'round the house, we’re going to be replacing ALL our carpet upstairs with the faux “wood,” with the exception of our front hall, which will be tiled.
Howdy Y’all! We’re still here. No apocalypse. No rapture. No Eldritch Horrors. I am almost disappointed. It got a little dim here and kinda looked like early mornin’ for about an hour(ish) which was kinda neat. We made an eclipse cocktail that consisted of orange soda (actually went and bought two sixteen ounce orange sodas just for this) with dark rum on top and an orange slice for garnish. We sipped upon them whilst sittin’ on the back porch whilst it got a little darker. Then we made and et sup. Nappage was accomplished. I figured if’n the apocalypse was gonna happen it might be nice to go in my sleep.
Oopsie in my defense, I was on my first cup of coffee when I made the OP. Also, I ain’t clever. Don’t blame you for cancelin’ on the event. She sounds like too much of a piece of work to deal with, IMO.
Wheelie glad y’all had a good time and some good eats. I am also not among the super rich, so never had such stuff durin’ my yoot either. However, once while in kolledge, a group of us po’ folk did go to the restaurant on top of the Hyatt Regency in Etlanner and have appetizers and drinks. The restaurant revolved. We felt so couth and sophisticated!
shoe yay for the box of nifty stuff. I say either call or text to say thanks, whichever would be less of a PITA for you.
JtC glad it was worth it! Seein’ a total eclipse is kinda cool. No surprise VanGo’s eclipse viewers were the hit of the day.
Talky I went and took a pack of chikin tenders outta da freezer for enchiladas tomorrow right after you mentioned enchiladas. We do like us some chikin enchiladas and haven’t made 'em in a while. You figured out tomorrow’s sup for me! Also, for you as well, Legend
shoe durin’ the great cave remodel of 2018, we got rid of all carpet and put down vinyl plank. So easy to clean and still looks really good.
My lovey wife likes wall to wall carpet, so that’s what we have on the bedroom level. There’s low-quality fake wood in the living room, which we might replace with hardwood or engineered hardwood at some point, or we might spend the money on a vacation instead.
Is there someone local who does lawns? Now may be the time to avail yourself of their services.
Re the great carpet debate: I’d prefer no carpet as well. However, apartments at my income level tend to have contracter beige wall to wall. I’d love to get rid of the vacuum altogether and just use a broom and mop for clean up.
Irked, came home, walked the dog, got on the horn to the dealership and found out that my car is done! I need to take a couple of hours off tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon to go get it. Yay! Back in the grey ghost again. (and heated seats!)
I went out on my balcony just before eclipse time and stayed out for 10 minutes. I honestly saw zero difference. I thought it would at least look like heavier cloud cover but nope. In 2017, it looked like evening, and the birds stopped singing. Not today.
Aren’t you getting pretty hot?
They were so cool, I knew people would envy JtC and IL!
Now see, I’m the opposite. I mean, I LOVE hardwood floors, but the second house we owned had a huge living room (We’re talkin’ 20’ x 30’) with hardwood floors, and we had two dogs and two kids, one a toddler. We also lived in dusty Wyoming. I’d sweep and mop, and it would look clean for about 20 minutes. Then the herd of dust bunnies would hop back in, and it looked like a ghost town saloon again. (Wow, what a mixed metaphor!)
That is so cool! You and OYKW really know how to mark an occasion.
Cookie, I hope your wife listens to you and that her pain diminishes.
I have to go out and find a stick to tie George the Hyacinth to. He’s so tall (19.5") that he’s falling over. Either that or he’s gotten into the tequila again.
Dinner accomplished by five. We had grilled Easter ham & Swiss sandwiches. I made Mrs. L.A.'s on sourdough, and mine was on Sara Lee Delightful multi-grain. Hers was bigger. She got the last two slices of sandwich dills, and I had a small avocado with mayo. It needed to ripen a couple more days.
It’s definitely darker than usual out there, but if I didn’t know better I’d think it was just going to rain. What’s a little weird is the general darkness combined with random patches of bright sunlight through the clouds (it’s only partly cloudy, and they’re moving pretty quickly). Putting the glasses on and looking up to see a crescent sun was a little cooler than I expected. Not cool enough to spend more than a few minutes out there, but worth the effort to get up from my desk and go outside.
I had classical voice training in high school (and again many years later); I was somewhere between a lyric soprano and a coloratura mezzo-soprano. For the past 15 years I’ve been a jazz vocalist, and I recently started working with a classically trained vocal coach who broke it to me that these days I’m likely more of an alto/low contralto. (I enjoy going to Messiah sing-a-longs every December, but it may be time to learn the alto part…sigh.) Anyway, every time I see your username I think “What the fach?!?” Because I have the sense of humor of an 11-year-old boy. 
