(Old) Waking up to White Stuff in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 64 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 78 and partly cloudy, but it might rain in the early evenin’. Or not. TWPTB are willy-nilly today. The big item on today’s agenda is Tom’s funeral at one p.m. I will be there at noon and will serve chalice. Tom will be plopped down in the columbarium and there will be a reception afterwards. Plus setup for tomorrow will need to be done. Guess I won’t be much of a RDOS today. Any need to feed will be via forage.

{{{Nellie and daughter}}} we’re here when you need us.

BrightTree and Lily sorry about your Ducks, but, makin’ it to the semis ain’t nuttin’ to sneeze at.

Coppertone glad the heat works. Hope management takes a look at it anyway just to be sure.

Piper you have every reason to be tired. Hope today is a restful one.

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Fortunately I can mess around a while before I need to purtify and funeralize.

Happy Sattidy Y’all!

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:bottle_with_popping_cork: :birthday_cake: Happy birthday, Boo! :birthday_cake: :bottle_with_popping_cork:

Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 0c/33f with a predicted high of 2c/35f and sunny. Weather app says “Hey, sunshine, make it warmer or go fuck yourself.” Well, it’s definitely N.O.S. out there but not much sign of a thaw yet. We had frost overnight and there’s a yellow warning for ice in effect until midday.

{{{{{swampy}}}}} I’m sorry to hear about Tom.

That sounds like a good little distraction after what’s happened recently. I am continuing to seethe over here too :frowning:

Wise move, good to hear that Ms Peach survived the vet visit and is nicely chunky!

Our pets will put up with a lot if there’s fuss and treats involved :slight_smile:

metal mouse congrats on the nomination, it’s always good to be recognised for what you do, and you deserve it!

You and your daughter can have every kindly vibe I’ve got :people_hugging: :people_hugging:

Piper I’m sorry to hear about the loss of the judge, sounds like a fine person who had a very full life.

Definitely more days like this and none of those with a big “L” attached to them. Congrats on persisting with the sourdough, I’m sure you’ll work it out in the end.

Yesterday was a relatively quite irk day, a couple of things were achieved but nothing spectacular. I made chicken curry for dinner and we watched a film before I headed off to bed, and ‘im indoors continued tinkering with one of his PCs. It was dismembered and spread over the landing when I went to bed, this morning it has been reassembled and put back where it was before. I am assuming success was achieved there.

We had frost overnight and no more snow, but there’s an ice warning in place until midday. We are not quite sure what we will do today. ‘im indoors was talking about going into town and mentioned pubs…but it’s icy underfoot, and there’s a football today (12.15pm kick-off) so our usual pubs will be busy. Still undecided.

I put some colour on my hair so I’ve got another 10 minutes before it’s time to wash that off. Just enough time to make another cup of tea!

Here It Is! The MMP
203

Happy BooDay!!!

I’ll be painting boat window frames, tho it should only take about 3 hours, then I can RDOS-away the afternoon. Then tomorrow I’ll apply the final coat.

{{{Nellie and daughter}}} to infinity.

My brain went to “don’t eat yellow snow” - apparently I have the brain of a 10-y/o boy…

What color? Something wild and outrageous or some mundane normal hair shade? I say that wishing I could do something outrageous but fear of being unconventional stops me. Dammit.

It started spitting rain last night and I awoke to a steady shower. Some sort of wet precip is supposed to continue past midnight.

We had a good talk with Dave yesterday and we’ll be seeing him again on Weds to sign papers. He proposed an option we never would have considered because we didn’t know it existed. And that’s why we have a money guy. We won’t need to touch my annuity as we’d thought or the CD, which doesn’t mature for 2 more years. We won’t be getting quite as much as we’d originally targeted, but it will be enough to do what we need to do.

Then I had a look at our monthly expenses and got a rough estimate of what we spend on gas and groceries every month. It’s rough because it includes November with all the Thanksgiving shopping. I’ll allocate a bit more to our savings account, building up that accessible cushion.

Geez, it sounds like high finance, even tho it doesn’t involve thousands of dollars, tho it is a step above dividing coins in various jars. Oh, and the guy who crashed into our swim platform sent a check after I nudged FCD to nudge the guy. So that’s in the boat account and I held back the I-told-you-so to someone who was just going to blow it all off. :roll_eyes:

Apart from painting this morning, I’ll have to clean the ice maker this afternoon, plus it’s heartworm-and-flea-med day for Otis (thank goodness for Outlook reminders!!!) As you see, another day filled with excitement and, well, whatever.

Happy Saturday!!

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(((Nellie and daughter)))

Yesterday turned out to be pretty nice. MusicMan headed towards Columbus for his appointment and was able to meet his sons for lunch along the way! Then he made it to his appointment and unfortunately found out that he’d gotten his dates and places mixed up. However, they actually decided to see him a week early since he was there and they weren’t too busy.

Then when he got home we went to see Song Sung Blue at our little movie theater here near home. I love going there to see movies because it’s a two screen facility that keeps it real with prices and such. For instance, for two evening tickets it was $14 and two large drinks and a jumbo popcorn were $12!

But. I also love Hugh Jackman so it was a great time for that reason, too. The movie was very heavy in some parts and very lighthearted and fun in others. I’m glad we got to go.

Today I will be attacking the progress reports with full force. I had to ask for some clarification on what to do yesterday, so I didn’t get a chance to start yet. So, go team!

Happy Birthday, Boo!

205

And a good early morning all. Up about 6am to get ready for soccer, and it is still raining outside, but it’s due to leave about 9-10am so the afternoon should be dry and about 62F, but tomorrow will be noticeably chillier (45F the high). Indoor soccer will keep me amused until around 4pm, and then will return to a more slothful life.

Bright Tree, thanks, did see him out there, but I’m afraid he didn’t have much influence on the game (Indiana was a machine out there). And never give up on either the Ducks or the Bread!

Piper, sad to hear of a respected judges death, but the turnout showed how many people he had touched.

Coppertone, stay warm now.

{{{nellie}}} to share with your daughter. You take care of yourself and come on back when you can. We’ll be thinking about you.

swampy, know you’ll give Tom a good sendoff.

Hippo Birdies Two Ewes, Boo!!

boo fae, on icy ground, discrection is the better part of valour IMHO. If you do go out take care.

FCM, yay for the financial security. Happy paint day!

Sticky Buns, glad it worked out well for MusicMan and the movie, yeah, snacks at movie houses usually cost as much if not more than the movie itself. Have at those progress reports!!

And it’s 7am so I need to get dressed and packed for the day out in the indoor soccer gyms. Take care all.

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I use Schwarzkopf Live Ultra Violet on what’s normally mid-brown hair (with grey roots!) as it’s a dark purplish shade, covers well and looks really good when the light catches it :slight_smile: Nothing really wild and outrageous, just a nice deep colour.

Sounds like you and MusicMan had a really good day. I’m happy for you both!

I’m about to make a big decision on what to have for lunch. I had a talk with ‘im indoors earlier and we decided we will go into town later (after the football’s finished) and probably have dinner out so we can go out and back via Uber instead of having to walk any great distances.

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The charity is called “Every Meal” and is legit. The five of us packed over 400 meals in two hours. There are some 30,000 children in MN alone who are under-nourished.

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Good morning, everyone.

It’s 35F and a bit damp outside. The forecast calls for a sort of gray, drizzly day, with a daytime high of 48F.

Happy Birthday, Boo!

FCM, good news on the financial front. I am still in interim status for my retirement, so I don’t yet have a clear idea of how my income will look. It’s unnerving. It’s been three months since I officially retired. The real thing is that I cannot really make plans, either financial or otherwise.

Sticky Buns, that sounds like a nice day!

Nellie, sending more hugs to you and your daughter. We’re here for you when you’re ready.

I spoke to T yesterday, my former co-worker and also a friend. She caught me up a little on what is going on at my former workplace. It’s still pretty awful. We’ve made tentative plans to meet up for dinner soon, and I plan to drive down south to meet up with some work folks later this month. There is going to be a gathering at a local restaurant down there.

Cookie, wow! That is impressive. Good on you for helping out like that.

I am on the hunt for finding a good place to donate our old mountain bikes. They were rarely ridden, and all they need is a tune-up and probably new tubes because they’ve been sitting in the garage for years. They still look brand new. I want to donate to a place where they’ll do the most good. I’m not a fan of Goodwill, at least not the one near me.

Alright, I need to get the day started. I stayed in bed until 5:30, and it seems like I’m behind somehow. Take care of yourselves, please.

209

Three sets of weather within 24 hours. The final is happening now. My favorite, a wintery mix. Rain mixed with snow. This morning I am watching a webinar on horses with separation anxiety. Ariel doesn’t have it but it’s something to add to my arsenal of horse stuff. Bears v Packers tonight. At home.

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Good vibes sent your way!

Happy birthday BBBoo!

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. I didn’t sleep well for most of last night, so once I got to sleep, I slept an hour later. I have my second new project going in the studio since I’ve been home. They’re cards mostly for donation.

211

Cornmeal pancakes this morning. Damn, those are so freaking good! It’s hard not to over-indulge.

A day (weekend, really) of rest for us, although I need to go pick up some bacon. We’re planning to undecorate today and tomorrow. The wife always resists this part of the holidays, but you have to move on at some point, right?

Sadie is in her Special Secret Hiding Place, where she’ll likely spend the day. She’s basically a lump under a blanket on top of her tower, so not very secret.

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At the gym awaiting my 11am referee appointment. Still a bit rainy out but no deluge. After this I’ll have about an hour to catch my breath and then go coach the 7-year olds and then ref another game after that. So at least I am getting out of the house.

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We used to think we had good plans. Then we sat down with Dave and we came to realize that we were actually clueless. Like we thought it’d be a good idea to use my TSP to pay off our mortgage. He explained why it would be smarter to put it in the annuity funds, and he was right. The annuity payout is higher than our mortgage payment, which puts us ahead by a bunch! So we might be S-M-R-T about engineering stuff, but when it comes to money, not so much…

Have you considered selling them then donating the proceeds to the cause of your choice? Just a thought.

Home from boat painting. It took me a bit over two anna half hours to actually paint. There was some prep time plus a stop at McD’s on the way for some fortifying Diet Coke. :grin: Since returning, I’ve unloaded the dishwasher and I’ve put the ice maker in its clean cycle. The vinegar is circulating now, then I’ll drain it and flush it with clean water.

Speaking of water, boy howdy is it raining! The space between buildings that I had to traverse to get to the boat was full of standing water - apparently the drains were clogged. And the rain gauge puddle in our driveway is maxed. FCD offered to take my icky paint brushes to the shop and clean them since he had to go out there anyway. So I’ve changed from my painting grubbies to jeans and a clean shirt and slippers instead of shoes. Comfy time!!

It feels like Sunday, but I know it’s not. Weird.

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BooFae, I know for sure I’m from a different era. You dye your hair dark purple, and you say, “Nothing really wild and outrageous…” You rock, girrl!

Lots of good vibes on the way to Nellie.

Oooo, Cookie, I can taste those cornmeal pancakes!

215

Howdy Y’all! Tom got a big send off. The funeral was well attended and most everyone took Communion. I feel like I walked at least three miles back and forth the rail. I even remembered the Lutheran words to say when I offered the chalice: “The blood of Christ shed for you.” There was discussion of that between the other chalice person and me. She insisted that it’s the same phrase as the Episcopal phrase. I looked it up and showed her. To my credit I did not say neener, neener, neener. The reception after was nice. The family used the best local caterer. Thus, we kinda had sup as there was much good stuff to scarf down. Tom liked PBR, so we drank PBR in his honor.

And now this…

< AHEM > CLEARIN’ THROAT < AHEM >

HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAY DEEEAAARRR BBBBBBBBBOOOOOO!!!
HAAAPPPYYY BIIIRRRTTTHHHDDDAAAY TOOOOOO YOUUUUUU!!!

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Happy BooDay!!

The weather is still cold and yuck here, still a bit icy. They handle it a bit better up here than in England. As well as the big road gritters (many of which have names) there are little mini-gritters which do the pavement (sidewalk I guess to you lot), and I finally got one passing the house to de-slippify outside my house. They do the bit by the shops first, my road is a bit of a small quiet one, but they made it at last! Just in time for the heavy rain forecast overnight. Oh well.

My main mission for the day was getting some more bedding for the rats- I got some from a horsey shop, and it’s a massive awkward 20kg bag, which was an adventure wrestling it into the car- and get my spare room set up more as an office, as well as a plant 'n rat room, as I expect to be working from home a lot more when I’m writing up. I have a desk, but I want to get a decent monitor and suchlike set up.

Here It Is! The MMP
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Since our cruise next January departs from San Diego and since I was stationed there from '74-'76, we’re going to plan on playing tourist for a couple-three days before the ship sails. And since I was bored this afternoon, I was looking at some things we might like to do so I could figure out how much time to allot. Especially since there are places that I never visited when I was living there because there was plenty of time to see it, right??? Yeah. :roll_eyes:

Top of the list is the Midway, and being veterans, we’ll get reduced tickets, so yay. I also want to go to Point Loma, and to Coronado to see if I recognize anything from half a century ago. I know my apartment no longer exists from Street View. And San Diego has a very famous zoo, so I looked into that.

Not gonna happen. Not when tickets are $73 online/$78 at the gate. EACH. Kids under 12 are a whopping $63/$68, so a family of 4, with pre-teen kids would pay a minimum of $272 just to get in!! I hate to think what a drink or an ice cream cone costs.

Anyway, it’s looking like we’ll allow 2 days for sightseeing, but it’s still way too early to make any reservations or concrete plans. But definitely no zoo. Nor will we be staying at the Hotel Del Coronado - not when the cheap rooms are over $400 per night. Nope.

The rain continues - it’s just ick and unpleasant out there. FCD had the last of the chili from the freezer and I made a grilled cheese sammich. We’re both disinclined to do anything else tonight. So lazy shall reign.

218

It is a cold rainy day in philly. Soaking rain. Sadly, again, no snow. No luck with the kindle. I asked at the 2 stores nearest where I last used the kindle. No one turned in a kindle.

I wouldn’t have gone out, but I wanted to check the 2 nearest store just in case. I should have worn wellies. My feet were soaked.

Swamp bear, sometimes it is easier to be involved in the funeral than just hanging out next to a coffin/urn. When my mum passed, I did the readings and sang in the choir.

Nellie, I’m sorry to hear of your daughter’s troubles.

219

Well, so far the year is off to a swimming start. Most of this burden falls on my wife, but, you know, sickness and health and all that.

Most of this started last year, when a bunch of health problems led her to find new doctors and seek some real answers. One of those answers was atypical endometrial hyperplasia, a pre-cancerous condition. The other issue was blood pressure, which landed her in the ER in December.

This week she had a meeting with a gynecological oncologist (which is a scary word) who told her the best course is a hysterectomy. That’s what she expected, but we didn’t have a definitive answer. Honestly, that’s fine. We never used the damn thing anyway and it’s caused her nothing but trouble, so good riddance. Still, it’s surgery, there’s a recovery period, and it’s just a complication in her life. She has to deal with FMLA and all sorts of administrative things.

In the mean time, she had a couple of stress tests to investigate the blood pressure issue. The second one, with imaging, revealed two possible findings: a possible “apical defect, mild intensity, fixed, consistent with infarct”; and a borderline low “ejection fraction”, which indicated that her left ventricle is possibly slightly lazy or something.

So yesterday we met with a cardiologist. After taking her history, he’s pretty convinced that the results are spurious; the stress test is notoriously inaccurate in those two areas, and the areas it’s good at are fine. But they need to be sure, so now she has a cardiac catheterization scheduled. If they don’t find anything, great, but if they find blockage they’ll stent the artery, which will require her to be on blood thinners for a while, which may complicate the hysterectomy. Which, because it’s to address a pre-cancerous condition, shouldn’t be put off too long.

Most likely everything will be fine. But having a meeting with an oncologist and a cardiologist in one week is a little much.

In other news, on Tuesday we had our annual furnace tune-up, where we found out our furnace is trying to kill us (holes in the heat exchanger). Faced with the choice between doing piecemeal repairs on a 22-year-old system and just replaing the whole thing, we went with the latter. So now we’re another $15000 in debt.

This was my week off…

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I was doing the 100/200 Slide today. Except for when I was on the 200 Sort Table. Because they didn’t bring in loaders till an hour after sort start, to keep hours down. so the cages filled, up the table filled, up and the belt stopped. Also, today’s giant spill was a 5 gallon bucket of detergent. So that was fun rewrapping. I only took a short nap, so I can watch the Panther’s first playoff game in years. Rams got the ball back on a punt when the Panthers guy had the ball bounce off his frickin’ mask. < headdesk >

:bottle_with_popping_cork: :birthday_cake: :partying_face:HAPPY BIRTHDAY BBBOO!!!:partying_face: :birthday_cake: :bottle_with_popping_cork:

In a jar?

You and MusicMan needed that.

Out loud. :wink:

Oy. {{{{Pavo and Wife}}}}