No - only because she wouldn’t remember. She doesn’t remember from one day to the next. And I can’t write it down because she can’t see to read. So I’ll just remind her one more time and maybe stop sending a lot of food in advance and instead send a day or two at a time.
On the plus side, her neurologist yesterday said she doesn’t have Parkinson’s. Her tremors and weakness are just because, well, she’s 92 and has a variety of health issues. Probably coupled with a poor diet… Getting really old sucks sometimes.
Heard a strange buzzing outside and looked out to see a pair of snowmobiles straight up vrooming down the road like we were in the Rockies or something.
I’ve heard plow/sand/salt trucks rattling away in the distance, but none down my street yet.
Still congested and sneezing. Strongly debating asking Sweet Manager about the wisdom of simply staying home today –
– aw, shit, she’s OFF today. This complicates matters considerably.
Well, darn. I turned the water on to flush/wash things last night, then turned it off and 45 minutes later (about 9pm) turned it back on before bedtime and haven’t used it since…and the meter shows 18.5 gallons used in the last 12 hours, which means the Plumbers get to visit me again. Don’t know if it is their work or something new, but we’ll get to the bottom of it.
Have done that trip, it’s pretty pricey, but ships range from 60-100 folks and you see things you will never see anywhere else. However, it does mean transferring to/from Zodiac boats and a lot of walking on less-that-perfect paths, but still worth it.
By Jove, you’re right!
shoe, glad you love the snow, I’m quite happy with my 50’s-60’sF weather now.
OK, need to make The Call to the plumbers, since I have now broken fast and see what er can do. Have a good Thorsday all.
It rained overnight and now it’s 36 F with a NW wind of 20. A crummy day. Took Ursala Kitteh for her arthritis shot and nail trim. She is now sulking under the bed. My plan is to shop for fuds, then spend the rest of the day putzing around the house.
Today I slept in until 7:15 and looked out the window at about sunrise to see the crew maneuvering to park the boat at Bimini. Been sheveled, caffinated, and will actually tackle breakfast here in a bit. Now sitting in the breakfast place staring out the window at a low tropical island, gently swaying trees, and a dead calm transparent azure ocean. When you can clearly see the details on the bottom in water deep enough to float a cruise ship safely, you know the water is clear.
A few puffies dot the sky. Weather folks say it’s 72/22 on the way to 75/24 today.
As to yesterday …
Yesterday day was overall lazy & sane but last night got thoroughly out of control.
My day post-breakfast was sunning and yakking and lounging until early afternoon. Then it was time for appetizers for lunch; first some Greek-style octopus, then grilled chicken-kebabs and a decent Malbec. More sun, more snooze. Virgin (this cruise line) messaged all of us with a come-on for a discounted next cruise if we buy before leaving this one. Hurry, they’re going fast!
So I checked their website, and checked the travel industry insider website, and found I could buy almost this same cruise leaving in a couple weeks for about half what I paid for this one, and less than 25% of what Virgin’s “special deal just for you” would be. And get a balcony cabin to boot. Ignoring what I’ll spend drink aboard next time, I could hardly eat meals out 3x/day at home for the price of the cruise. Which is a common experience in the travel world. If you’re flexible on when, where, and which boat, you can cruise for less per day than you’d pay for a nice dinner out.
So I’ll be doing this again on Mar 1-6. Same boat, same crew. The only difference is instead to droning to Cozumel & back on days 2 - 4, we’ll drone to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and back, with day 3 onshore there instead. I always loved DR layovers when I was lucky enough to get one. Lotta stuff to do, and the airline kept us in nice resorts. Don’t know yet what shore events the boat has on tap there, but it’ll be good.
So then Amazon supplied some suitable PJs and Scarlet Night garb for that voyage. Gonna be lookin’ spiffy. Most of the stuff will be waiting in my PO box when I get home tomorrow. Modern commerce is a wonderful thing. The rest will arrive before I leave again.
Had semi-early dinner reservations at the Korean BBQ place on board. Which had gotten rave reviews from other solos in our gaggle. So I resheveled, got semi- dolled up, and headed down there.
They do it family style, 6 seats in a curved booth, and a cooking griddle in the middle. We got lucky and there were only 4 of us. Good thing; I can’t see how the table could have held 6-people’s worth of food and drink. It’s a production.
Two of my tablemates were a black couple celebrating his 60th birthday. They’d been married 25 years and had 3 grown kids. Originally from the rough part of NYC, they now live a comfy middle class life in the burbs of Atlanta. Great folks with interesting stories. The other person was, by luck, another of the solos I’d met before: a 30-yo travel agent from Newark. She’s also black, has a 9yo whose pics are adorable and who is a competitive cheerleader already. The travel agent is sort of auditing this cruise for her job. As are several other solo travel agents. Turns out the older couple had lived near where the young lady does now. And I’d stayed many nights at a hotel in the same neighborhood. We had great yaks about everything and nothing for about 3 hours.
For me the meal was a great success. These folks did not have much experience with Korean cooking and found a lot of the food kinda off-putting. I imagine that happens a bunch there. I know I’d earlier yakked with a 40-ish white guy solo who had tried another of the exotic eateries here, and would have preferred a pizza or burger. Oh well, whatever floats their boat. Did I say “boat”?
Anyhow, I started with a bourbon soju cocktail akin to an Old Fashioned (Lucky #7 they call it). I have pix of all the menus I’ve been ordering off. So anyone of a foodie or drinkie bent can follow along at home once I can post the whole photo album sometime on Fri.
Then, led by our table chef we played a Korean drinking game for shots of grapefruit soju. Like drinking games the world over, it’s a think-fast game where making a mistake means you lose and must slam your shot. As folks are eliminated the action gets faster. Those 3 didn’t last long, and pretty quickly it was me and the chef. A minute later I was slamming mine. Oh well. She said she never loses and I believe it. She gets a lotta practice.
Then it was time to eat. Of course they brought each of us an array of 5 little bowls of condiments: kimchee, a Korean eggplant caponata sort of thing, bean sprouts, a vinegary potato salad, and a gingery shredded seaweed thing. Good eatin’.
Everybody ordered different things. I started with an app of Haemul Paejon: a seafood scallion “pancake” which was a fluffy very light bread-like disk about 8" in diameter loaded with diced sea critters then flash-fried to crisp the exterior. With some sesame-ginger soy dipping sauce. Yummy.
Next up was a bowl of Bibimbap: rice and stir fried veggies in a spicy broth mostly absorbed by the rice, with a poached egg chopped up in there too. A Korean classic. It’s essentially a rich paella with Korean characteristics.
Preliminaries dealt with, then it was time eat for real. I had the squid, octopus, and shrimp, as did the travel agent. So the chef poured some spiced oil onto the table griddle, then added a pile of peeled jumbo shrimp, several 5" strips of squid mantle, a handful of thumb-sized octopus tentacles, and best of all a handful of small squid tentacle sections. So they’d whacked the squid in half crosswise, leaving all the tentacles and some of the root area where they attach to the body as a unit. Each tentacle was 2-3" long and slender like a thick noodle.
The folks from Atlanta were kind of alarmed as all this hit the griddle and the squid sections started writhing around in the heat as they do. The half-critter is long dead, but the heat makes them shrink and curl unevenly, so it makes a mass of actively writhing dinner, like a big handful of 30 or 40 squirming worms. It was all the more impressive a pile because she was cooking two portions at once.
Once it was done, maybe 3-4 minutes later, the chef cut the squid mantles into bite-sized pieces then portioned it all out to both of us with some thin soy-based sauce. To be eaten along with the five condiment bowls from the git-go. Everything of course is properly eaten with chopsticks but forks and spoons were at the ready.
The Atlanta folks had chosen the BBQ beef which is a common “safe” entry point into Korean cuisine. Thin sliced beef, usually flank steak, marinated in a thick brown teriyaki-like sauce then flash fried on the grill as well. They mostly enjoyed that.
In all 'twas fine company with sweet people and good eats served flamboyantly. Then it was time for partying.
One of the events they offer is a group pub crawl around the ship led by 3 of their “cheerleaders”. it costs a bit extra, but not really any more than the drinks you’ll get. So the party part is free. So at 9pm a bunch of strangers gaggle up at the appointed drinkery. About 8 30-40-something couples, a pair of young 20-something women who are lifelong pals as were their Moms, a 40-ish solo woman, and me. So about 20 of us. Naturally they have a silly icebreaker game to play to “earn” your drink, some sort of tequila-based fruit-juice cocktail. Big too. Many instant friends.
Lather rinse repeat at 3 more bars, with 3 more games and 3 more ginormous cocktails each centered on a different booze. So by now everyone is old friends & pretty well lubricated.
Ending at the disco which is open only to us at the time. The DJ is fired up, as are the lasers, and the party is ON! Last pub crawl drinks downed, and first small group dancing done, we had the place to ourselves for another 10 (?) minutes then they opened the doors and let the rest of the boat in. By now it’s 11pm.
Soon most of our pub crawl crowd has gone, and the place is well-filled. 200 plus people, of which about 50 are dancing. Usually including me, net of slamming glasses of water to rehydrate. About 1am the 40-yo and I had had enough of the loud music, had had another non-sweet drink each, then repaired to a calmer venue for more music and yaks. She used to be a travel agent and now does generic office stuff in Tampa. But is a hard core cruiser and gave me some useful suggestions for next time on a different line. Yep, her husband is long dead too.
More yaks, met another 5o-ish big black gal rockin out to the jazz while her husband slept in their cabin, and eventually about 3am the music wrapped, the convo ran dry, and we all found our ways to our respective berths. Or at least I did; they might still be wandering the ship in a stupor for all I know.
They say that “That which does not kill you makes you stronger.” At this rate I’m getting strong fast.
Today I may just snooze in the sun on the ship. There’s not much real here on this tiny island. The cruise line build a compound consisting of a beach area with food & drink a half mile down the road, and provides a van service to there for the folks who want to go. Though one could walk it easily enough. I have as good a beach at home; I’d think I’d rather avoid getting sand in all my stuff.
So another day of abjectly useless fun and wretched excess. This time tomorrow the last passengers will be just off the boat, the staff will be furiously squaring stuff away, then 4 hours later they’ll start boarding and tomorrow night the boat leaves to do it again.
As to y’all …
IOW
Mooo-oo-oom, you’re ruining my lii-iiiife!!
So classic. IANA parent but IMO you played that with great skill. Well done!
Glad the show was good.
Yes, Sorry I mised commenting. Happy Anniversary!!! 34 years together is an achievement in so many ways.
Yaay!
You truly are older than dirt! That was a clever kid; I can see why you treasure the story. Especially since you were what, 40, when he (99% sure it’s “he”) did it?
Me three, although by now the deed ought to be mostly done. Ought. If they’re on time. Hah.
Good morning. I’m having serious issues with task initiation this week. I said I won’t check my phone until noon, that oughtta solve it – but I found other ways to waste time. Spent the morning cross stitching (I’m having fun! Yay! It gets funner as you add more color.) I made time for that - not a problem. Then I moved to my computer and immediately got sucked into a rabbit hole of organizing my finances. I recently rolled over some investment accounts to be managed by my bank, so I had to make sure they were all square in my online bank profile and remove the old accounts from YNAB where I track them. I then tried for the better part of a half hour to link my son’s 529 plan to my bank’s account summary. No dice.
Things are happening at work that deeply concern me, but I have deadlines to worry about, and I think I’m probably not going to get the data I requested for this application on time, because a new crisis has risen up to take its place. The last couple of days I’ve just had a feeling of unease about my job, which is probably why I’ve been avoiding it. This isn’t really the time to talk about it with my boss, but maybe next week.
Sooo… heightened anxiety… trying not to panic. Or at least to be an objective observer while I panic.
That’s what I’ve been doing! Glad to hear it’s the right thing (left thing.)
Way to make your case! I’m really glad you were heard.
Spouse Weasel. It used to be Sr. Weasel (as in Señor) but someone here came up with something better.
shoe, that pizza Sweet Manager made looks delicious.
I’ve thought it was Thursday since Tuesday but now that it’s actually Thursday it feels more like Wednesday. And we’re going from mid 50sF today to snowy 30sF tomorrow. Go figure. I’ve got a pork butt out and sitting on the counter. I plan to chuck it into the smoker outside and just let it go for the majority of the workday. I love that damn smoker - I got it for cheap and it was more than worth every penny. It’s essentially a huge outdoor slowcooker, and nothing that comes out of it tastes like stew (have you ever noticed that food even in the squeakiest clean slow cooker tastes somewhat similar unless super strongly spiced…anyone?).
In other news, overlygirl has stopped sulking. It took about 36 hours, but a lot of it was embarrassment on her part. And yes, I am a life ruiner - that’s my job!
Visited with MIL a bit and arranged to take her grocery shopping on Sunday. It’s a good thing I checked her pantry - she had spaghetti on her list. She has 5 boxes of spaghetti already… then there are the 3 cans of cream of mushroom soup and 3 cans of baked beans. And for someone who claimed she doesn’t cook, she has a lot of stuff on her list that needs to be cooked.
I’m making bean soup for supper, with extras to go to MIL tomorrow. And, of course, I forgot to get the spuds on our way home. Dammit. FCD is taking his car for service this afternoon, so I’ll run to Food Lion then.
Glad you had a fun time. As I tell my son on the mornings he cries about getting out of bed: “I, too, do not want to be up this early. Waking up is hard. But we just gotta do it.”
This is what a 2-y/o learns in a Montessori pre school - using a tool to sort items by color!
I suppose I should have included a cuteness warning. OMG - I am such a grandmother!!!
She may be unaware of just how very many more convenient items are available in these here modern times.
Does she enjoy the whole cooking process, or is it just an accustomed chore? If she could live off re-heating the many leftovers you make, plus an occasional TV dinner - those have the advantage of being boldly labeled so maybe easier for her to see what’s what - that might make her life easier.
Of course, if she’d miss the routine of cooking, then don’t deprive her of something she enjoys. But otherwise … this might be a time for the big Easy button, as Pilot put it.
In rattie news, we officially have mobile bebehs. I saw two, each smaller than my thumb joint, energetically grooming themselves and scampering about.
Eyes weren’t even open a few days ago, and they’ve already got better hygiene and exercise habits than some grown-ass humans I know.
It’s funny; rodents get a bad rep for being filthy, but they’re more fastidious than your average cat if you watch 'em closely enough. Always cleaning their fur and whiskers.
Alright, that’s enough procrastinatin’. I have put on pants fuzzy pajamas, and will shortly don boots and venture forth with a shovel to see if imma be able to drive myself in to work today.
Things are very slightly thawing/dripping, so I haz some hopefulness.
The road’s already totally clear - it’s just a matter of getting out of the driveway. (As for back into it … imma probably just park on the street tonight.)
That cuteness warning was needed! What an adorable boy!
And I should know, also being the grandma of nearly such cuteness. It makes up for being so old and gray-I’ve figured out what really matters and it ain’t fame or glory!
Isn’t Montessori wonderful? Both of my grandkidlets did (one still is doing) Montessori preschool and it gets them off to such a great start for school and reading readiness. The 6yo arrived in kindergarten reading and doing math, with really good learning skills and classroom readiness (independence and self-direction).
Well, supposed to get paid for 4 hours of training tomorrow. I hope I can count on her, I didn’t clock or log in or anything.
Shes not giving me more hours so today I went somewhere for a go-see ( interview) and, as always happens, I got hired right there.
Any time a boss has said they’ll let me know, its always a no.
Its an easier commute, bus lets me off at the door and theres a shelter to wait in for the ride home.
Its a food place but very small.
She claims she no longer likes to cook, but she won’t give it up. I’d gladly get her meals for every day, and she is grateful when I send her food, but she can’t seem to get out of the habit.
It is great, but then when Roxy got to regular public kindergarten, she was really disappointed to learn that they don’t do Science at that level. Thankfully, she has a former-teacher for a mom, and tons of science books at her level, so her interest should continue to be engaged.
Bean soup is in its last stages of cooking. FCD just left to get his car serviced. Time for more knitting!
I’m sorry not to respond in the last few weeks–very busy and just get overwhelmed by finding hundreds of posts and can only spot-check the threads. I know I’m missing a lot. My love to all of you.
Jeez, that wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. It’s all half-melted, so it was trivially easy to clear two tracks, in roughly parallel lanes, for my car.
Not that I needed them, not right now at least (I’m confident even my FWD subcompact could get out) but it’s supposed to be COLD tonight, and all that slush is probably gonna re-freeze into nice, slick ice.
Better to have a pair of tire-ready tracks clear down to the concrete, now, so I can pull in later tonight.
Can you juggle both?
Usually - but not always - the easiest way is to pull that off is to personally, just by yourself for yourself, assign X availability for one place (whenever they’d likely need you more - say, MWF mornings) and tell them that, and then let the other place know you have very flexible, open availability TThSatSun afternoons (again, just an example) so they can schedule accordingly AND not conflict with each other.
P.S. “We’ll let you know” is pretty much the grown-up version of “go ask your mother” e.g. “no, but I don’t feel like telling you that myself in person.”
Yeesh. Hectic morning. First, I’m getting ambiguous autoreplies from Bid Multinational Credit Reporting Company. ‘File transfer successful’ followed by ‘Failed transfer’. Interestingly, I didn’t get the ‘Failed’ email for the last file. Adding to the confusion is that they’re going to a new protocol at the end of June. It makes me wonder if something is amiss with their conversion.
Then there’s a client looking for a credit report. I checked BMCRC’s database, and it looks like the company is mis-merged with a company in a different state that has a similar name. (Happens all the time.) I submitted a correction request, but it takes them a week to do anything. In the meantime, the client doesn’t get a credit report so the credit applicant will have to wait.
Then there’s a company that wants to ‘resume’ sending their data. The last time they sent data was up to 17 years ago, with a different member ID, and a company that had been sold like four times over the years. I don’t know whether they want to load data to our database, or to BMCRC’s, or both. If it’s just us, I only need a form saying they want to load to us. If BMCRC, there’s an Agreement and another form to fill out in addition to the first one.
And yeah, it’s still the first half of the month, so I’m inundated.
11:30, and it’s about lunchtime. I mashed up an avocado on two pieces of toast for breakfast. I might pop a hatch chile-and-provolone patty into the toaster oven, and toast a keto hamburger bun.
