It’s a sweltering 20F at midday in MSP. We’re supposed to get an inch of snow today, but the sun is out so it doesn’t seem likely.
Yesterday was the annual kickoff for lobster dinner at a local high-end restaurant. My taste for seafood has waned in recent months, but the wife loves it, so off we went. It was okay, with the highlight being the lobster risotto and the no-flour chocolate cake dessert. Sadly, the cake had an adverse effect on my digestive tract, so it was a restless night full of sound and fury.
We’ve lost our maintenance guy again. This is like the fourth one to leave us since our long-time guy retired. I’m not sure what the issues are that cause this to happen. Maybe they get better offers elsewhere, or perhaps it’s because it’s a one person operation in a building with 15 floors and two sub-floors. While it’s only 60% occupied, the callouts are endless (I hear a funny squeaky noise!).
perhaps I missed it but did the previous employer get back to you about the timing of your resignation and ramifications thereof?
It was 10* when I woke up but with the sun, it’s crawled up to 22*. We’re not supposed to get measurable snow until tomorrow after 6pm.
Started watching the coverage of the funeral at 9:40. His hearse has finally arrived at Joint Base Andrews. I was wondering why it was taking so long so mapquested the National Cathedral to Joint Base Andrews and now understand that it’s quite a long trip. I, too, was wondering what the names of the various Carter children were. The only one I recognized was Amy.
We’ve had a second exterior house-painting quote (much more communicative and professional than the first, and probably more expensive). This will occasion other quotes (for example, roof ‘n’ gutter cleaning). In addition, we have some big kitchen work, flooring, and a bathroom counter to take care of, maybe a new dishwasher, a door replacement, a possible swap of fridge and pantry spaces, and garage shelving. I hope that by the end of summer we’ll have done most of these. Friends gave us a Lowe’s gift card for the holiday, so we’ll be able to put in our Victory Garden.
I have a medical appointment today. I have my typical reactive airway cough that needs a smidge of codeine to cure, and I need an alternative to Ozempic, which isn’t working and yet has lousy side effects. I’ll stop at an Asian grocery for rice crackers and maybe a jar of pickled daikon. The rest of the day is devoted to cleaning and organizing in my study in preparation for a February version of NaNoWriMo (because November is always a terrible month for me to try to write consistently).
Yesterday, I spied my poem (which won an award in the spring and was printed as bus placards) through a bus window, so that was cool.
I’m fighting with Amazon, which is gumming up on a review I’m trying to post. No one has any idea what to do about this. It’s annoying.
My lovely wife might refill our spices today, and/or may run the Roomba. I support both of these actions.
Tomorrow I’ll mail a late holiday package and pick up at our PO box (requiring stops at two different post offices). I’ll also get to one of my writing groups, which I’ve missed terribly. I’ve enjoyed traveling, but for whatever reason, a lot of it fell on the days when I have writing groups
He doesn’t do anything about it, but he does alert me.
Which for a woman living alone is quite helpful.
Last time maintenance came by, before they even came to the door, he growled at the sound of their truck, and shot off into some hidey-spot like his ass was on fire.
Now that I think on it, 90% of my feline survey sample (and that includes many past cats) just do. not. like. strange men, but will tolerate or even cautiously investigate strange women.
The outlier was Clint, who walked to the rainbow many moons ago … a 22+ lb. male Maine Coon who was convinced that every human, ever to walk the earth, was put forth simply to adore him.
He was right, too.
Maintenance or whoever would walk in & he’d fix those giant jade-green saucer eyes on 'em, PURRRRR like a diesel engine, do that “Lion in front of NYC library” stance … and absolutely expect pettin’s.
He was never disappointed.
“Can … can I pet your cat?”
“He’ll be offended if you don’t.”
Afternoon all. Off to the gym when I finish this for some walking and pedaling time. Got most of my stuff scheduled for next week, turned out I had an eye Dr. Appointment last April (would have sworn it was 2023) so will wait at least that long and maybe into 2026 for it. And the note at the Edward Jones place says closed for vacation, so sent them an e-mail and we’ll see. Air in the tires is now at 37psi so the on-board nanny computer is happy. Cheese Dogs were good but I am drinking way to much Diet Pepsi these days (3 cans already and it’s not quite 1pm) and I do need to cut back on it. Waiting to see what the weather does tomorrow, but it’s clear skies today even if the temperature is only 30F.
FCM, think I agree with you and FCD on the work; I often take the middle quite but almost never the cheapest.
So, have you moved your ash…?
Coppertone, I can’t seem to get through a night without a trip to the porcelain throne. Glad you’re well-rested.
rocky, nice story about the ‘secret’ room.
talkie, lots of folk would say doing that grading on Finals is ‘woke’ and ‘we never even got study guides when I was in school’; but if the kid has shown they know the work from their school year, penalizing them doesn’t seem fair either. And the Napoleonic Wars lasted from approximately 1793 to 1815 (and I didn’t peek at Wikipeia either!).
52, glad you are excited about the snow; I’ve seen enough in my lifetime, thank you. It’s all yours. And bee careful with the trash.
Sticky Buns, nice going on the weight.
Real Fish, glad the house is almost a done deal, that’ll be one major thing off your mind. Hope the college classes go well for CtE.
So it was signifying something…
shoe, great pic.
Lily, went through a lot of that house changing 3-4 years ago, it does make the house feel different and in many ways better.
Yes and no. The principal got back to me and then requested some final documentation which I sent back promptly. The actual company that I worked for has been completely silent. If they insist on collecting $1000, then I guess I’ll just be making payments…
(Don’t tell Annie I said this, but SO CUTE!!!)
That’s very cool!
Thank you!
I hope you have fun walking and pedaling, but don’t try to do them at the same time!
I just put dinner in the crock pot. Fortunately I realized that the size of pierogi container that it was calling for was about 1/2 the size of what I had before I put way, way too many pierogies in there.
Started Typing: 3:50 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 4:48 PM ET
Right now it’s 30°F, and feels like 17 with the wind chill. I thought yesterday was about as windy as it gets, but Mother Nature said “hold my beer”: today’s winds are 20-30 mph, with gusts of 40+ mph. And the gusts have been frequent enough that I notice when I don’t hear the howling.
I’ve been out of bananas for a few days and am running low on Gatorade Zero, and I’m still too lazy to free my car but the roads around here are in decent shape, so it was tempting to Instacart some stuff earlier: ultimately, though, I decided that I don’t want to be the reason someone is out driving (let alone carrying groceries) in this wind. I went back and forth with myself – Instacart/DoorDash drivers are working today regardless, they might need the money, I could just tip extra extra well – but decided to follow my personal rule of not asking anyone else to be out in weather that I wouldn’t want to be out in (it’s a pretty high bar). I can live without bananas for another day. The wind is supposed to get back to “normal” tomorrow, so I’ll get my Instacart then…and will feel better about being so lazy.
My new Lego set just got delivered (yay!), and I’m expecting a box from Chewy. I do feel bad for the UPS and FedEx drivers today, but not guilty; I have no control over the supply chain.
I posted my story on FB, and a friend my age commented, “The 24-year old coach at the gym was impressed by Drake’s relevance after 20 years. I was like—well think of Elton John or Billy Joel. They’re still after it and it’s got to be 40 or 50 years. A girl at the gym, ‘I don’t even know who those two are.’”
Oh wow, that just brought back a bunch of memories! No idea if it’s the same Trappe, but the one in PA was only 16 miles from my college and sometimes we would go to the Trappe Tavern.
OK, wow, some of that stuff looks cool! Like, I wonder if I could stop carrying a purse if I got one of their polo shirts in order to hold a pair of reading glasses and some tissues…
Nice!
Whenever I’m running behind and I hit traffic or a lot of red lights or a slowpoke or something and I start to get worked up, I try to remind myself that if I’m late it will simply be my own darn fault. And also that I’m neither Superman nor The Doctor and I can’t turn back time, so being all grumpy about it is just wasted energy.
That’s definitely a good enough reason to say no, but would it maybe help FCD to keep in mind that dogs vary? Even within a litter, one might be fine with boats while its sibling hates them; and there’s simply no way to predict.
(When Bailey was a puppy I’d daydream about renting an RV and traveling with her, but I realized pretty quickly that she’s simply not that kinda dog. She’s also not the affectionate lap dog I’d hoped for…and, frankly, sometimes still wish she were. She has been an object lesson in recognizing and accepting love however it is expressed. )
But more flattering…right? Because that sounds kind of awesome! Go, Taters!
We’re back from a few days’ vacation in Bodega Bay, California. We arrived on the very day that commercial crab fishing started. There was a lot of frenzied activity in the harbor as fishermen loaded crab pots into boats and put out to sea, and some seafood joints were already selling Dungeness.
We could see out over the ocean from our rental home on the hillside, and at night you could see the crabbers miles away out on the sea because they had brilliant lights. Are the lights to attract crabs, or for the purpose of illuminating the deck of the boat so the fishermen could work in the dark? I don’t know.
On the last full day we were there, I suddenly developed a nasty pain in the right hip/butt/thigh area. I’m pretty sure it’s sciatica, because I had a case of sciatica in the mid 90s and it’s in the same location, only on the other side. I don’t know what brought it on - either sleeping on a strange mattress or sitting on my butt in the car all day as we drove around sightseeing. But it’s still with me, even if moving further down my thigh, and I’m cautiously taking some prescription nsaid (Meloxicam) to try to ease it.
So true here, too. They immediately close down all schools, and the bread aisle at the store is empty. Why do people always buy bread when anticipating bad weather? I mean, buy cake!
Argh! Didn’t catch that. My MacBook Pro has oddly aggressive predictive text. Once I emailed a friend named Harriet, and the computer changed, “Harriet, you should be proud of yourself” to “Harlot, you should be proud…”. Luckily, I caught that one.
But I think you and my laptop are onto something here! “I got a bad case of Boris last fall!” Or maybe not. It’d suck to be named Boris.
I’ve just started and already have to go if I’m to get errands walked before dark. I hope to be back later.
I’ve been crocheting, and I’ve determined that at most, I’ll get 3 more blankets out of my stash. The trick is working out colors that don’t look disgusting together - I think I’ve got it. Except for the last one - that will be made up of all the scraps tied together. It will be colorful!
Supper has been ingested and the dishwasher should be about done. I shall resume my place on the recliner, hook in hand. Tomorrow is laundry, tonight is chillage.
Um. These were no good. I tried a new recipe with pierogis and bratwurst in the crockpot and they were pretty close to gross. They were cooked with chicken stock and they were almost disintegrating. Yuck.
I may try to rehabilitate them tomorrow by putting them in the oven, but for now. Ick.
Mrs. Nott is gradually taking down the tree. It’s partially delighted. There are things I cannot help her do, and this is one of them. She gets into “has to to be just right” mode and edits my every move, or waits 'til I’m not watching and changes it. It’s better to just let her do it.
I looked out all the windows, and the neighborhood is not on fire. Thank God for that! Weather-folk say there’s a big snow coming, but that’s a lot better than fire. Peedin, I’ve had gnocchi, but I’m not gnostic. Foolsguinea, I hope your CT came out okay. Last time I had one, I told relatives, “They scanned my head, but they didn’t find anything.”
We bought a hybrid a year ago, and most of the time the gas engine doesn’t even start up
unless we’ve gone over 30 miles without a plug-in. So, once every coupla weeks.
As Wheelz said, I’m temporarily awake, and, let’s face it, temporarily alive. shoe,if you keep the cardboard box intact, except for an entry port, there won’t be as much litter scattered by the critter.
Now, my humble damfool opinion about canes. I told my neuro doc about being somewhat embarrassed about using a cane. She said, “Listen, you’re a human. You’re entitled to all the room your big feet and your cane take up. If somebody else doesn’t like it, or thinks you’re faking, well, scroom!” That’s my position, now. Walk proudly with your cane. If you wanna bling it up with sparkles or LEDs, go right ahead. I just ordered a little folding spiky cane tip for icy conditions. One more thing; aluminum canes are a whole lot lighter than wooden or glass ones. Yes, you can get glass canes, and some folks fill them with sparkly stuff.
