Reading all, but very focused on tracking down people I know in Israel.
I have never worn a pair of jeans or other pants that did not need to be hemmed. There is a Vietnamese tailor at the mall that charges $10.00 a pair and I just factor that in as part of the cost. I used to hem my jeans by hand, but the 10.00 is not worth my time and hassle.
I have enough Levi 501s to get by for a few years so I have not tried to hem anything on my Bernina 335
I bought a pair of black Levi’s 505s (I usually wear 501s) that are a little too long. I should take them to the Vietnamese woman downtown to see about getting them hemmed.
Be careful, they may decide you are a candidate for the priesthood. So don’t miss any services or meetings, that’s when they decide YOUR fate for you! 
Morning all! Laundry is laundering, and I’m catching up both here and with some volunteer-related stuff. Outside it’s chilly and breezy: the weather finally feels like autumn, and I love it!
For the record: Mounds, Almond Joy, and KitKat are all worthy. 
I went to my 5-year HS reunion, but wasn’t interested in any of the others. I’m not even aware of any being held after the 20-year reunion. Likewise, I went to my 5-year college reunion but none of the subsequent ones. I went to a small private college and they started combining reunions a while back (the alumni weekends began “spotlighting” reunion-year classes), but most reunion-related activities have been on Friday nights: I live 150 miles away, and just haven’t been interested enough to make the drive and spend the night. If there had been reunion luncheons/brunches on Saturdays or Sundays I might have gone to a few more. Anyway, this year would have been my 30-year college reunion if one had been offered: instead, we learned that the school will be closing at the end of the 2023-2024 school year. Enrollment has been too low for the past several years, and the campus is being sold to a nearby university. So, there won’t be a 35-year reunion event to consider and then reject… 
I actually just had a bit of bureaucracy go smoother than expected: the uncle who died in June never updated his will after his sister (my mom) died in 2015, and it listed her as an inheritor (along with his widow). My cousin is acting as executor, because her mom has dementia. Probate needs proof that my mother is dead but won’t accept a PDF of her death certificate, and I no longer have any original hard copies, so on Wednesday I ordered a couple from VitalChek (one to send to my cousin, and one to keep just in case). The site said it could take 20-25 days to mail the certificates to me, but I got a shipping notification on Friday! They’re scheduled to arrive tomorrow (via UPS 2nd-day air). Phew! This seems to be the last piece my cousin needs, and I hated the idea of adding a month-long delay. My cousin has been dealing with so much, between suddenly having to care for her mom and handling her dad’s estate (not to mention losing her father), so I picked up a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card to stick in the envelope with the death certificate when I send it to her. She practically lives at DD; hopefully, the card will give her a smile.
Friday afternoon’s appointment at the new-to-us vet practice went well! The doc we saw is just a few years out of school, but friendly and genuinely confident – vs the defensiveness/arrogance sometimes seen in younger professionals who feel the need to prove themselves. In addition to her annual exam Bailey got bordatella, flu, and distempter/lepto shots, and is in great health except for a touch of gingivitis (but no tartar; she just had her teeth cleaned four months ago). I’ll be ordering a water additive to try and help with that. The vet also recommended trying something new for Bailey’s arthritis: the FDA recently (in May) approved a new drug called Librela, which is a “monthly injectable anti-nerve growth factor monoclonal antibody therapy for dogs with osteoarthritis pain.” After the discussing side effects and cost, I decided to go ahead with the initial injection: the vet said that 3 injections are required to start, and after the third one we’ll determine whether to continue. The monthly cost is doable, so it will just depend on whether/how much it helps Bailey. I’ll be keeping a close eye on her for possible improvement but also for possible side effects.
Yesterday morning I had a make-up personal training session at 9am, and afterwards I had just enough time to get back home, let the doggy out, take a shower, and immediately head to my 11am tattoo removal appointment. I actually arrived five minutes late, but luckily they were running a little behind as well. After that I needed some stuff from the grocery store, and decided to go to one in the same neighborhood as the tattoo removal place: I wound up running into a FB friend I hadn’t seen in person in years! So, that was kind of nice. I got home at a little after 1pm, and was fairly slothy for the rest of the day.
Today has been slow and quiet so far, but in a couple of hours I’ll be going to a bon voyage party for a singer friend who’s been hired by a cruise ship line: she’s about to go to sea for 5-6 months. I have a relative who takes a lot of cruises, and I asked him for practical gift ideas: he said that the crew members he’s talked to often say they miss certain foods they can’t get aboard, and he suggested an Amazon gift card she could use to have items/food delivered to the ship’s home port. I liked that idea, so that’s what I got her. I figure even if she doesn’t use it for that, she’ll use it for something!
Seconded. 
Suddenly I feel a vague impulse to apologize to pullin…
(OMG medical errors are no laughing matter! What is wrong with you people?!)
I’m a fairly tech-savvy individual, but when I got my government-furnished equipment (GFE) laptop I could not get the webcam to work. There was audio, but the screen was black no matter what I tried. Finally I called the GFE helpdesk, figuring they’d tell me I needed a new laptop…and the very patient tech diagnosed that the webcam’s built-in privacy shutter was closed. 
Booooo about the delay. 
And holy crap about the doggy deaths! Bailey is rarely around other dogs these days, but she still got the canine flu vaccine on Friday (I got the people one on Monday). Better safe, etc.
I don’t understand how you can sleep with a comforter! In winter I usually just use a flannel top sheet with a thin cotton/acrylic blanket. On very cold nights – when it’s below 40°F and my furnace has trouble keeping up – I might replace the thin blanket with my Eddie Bauer down throw (which miraculously never overheats me), but definitely never anything as thick as a comforter. I can’t even sleep with a full set of flannel sheets (top and bottom); I get way too warm.
!
This entered my brain as a personal training session in applying cosmetics. Like were you hanging with a Mary Kay representative or an Avon lady? Do either of those even exist any longer? Since I don’t use cosmetics, I honestly have no idea. Never mind - pay no attention to my weirdness.
Then your head will probably explode when I tell you in winter I use an electric blanket under my comforter, plus I wear socks. I absolutely can’t sleep if I’m cold. I even bought some fleece jammies for our cruise, since I won’t have an electric blankie on the ship.
Lunch has been ingested and I’ve been reading because I just can’t get motivated to touch any yarn. Shame on me…
FCD has gone out to futz in his shop again. The poke roast is smelling yum. I should probably finish the two bunnies at least. I seem to have misplaced my motivation…
Yeah, that’ll happen … sometime after hell freezes over, but before useful-sized pockets become standard.
Conga-rats on acquiring a new skill!
Now, wake me back up when you’ve perfected a smoked Gouda …
I knew of their existence but never heard the actual sound before. Thanks for linking - that was really cool.
That was a particularly funny bit in an overall great story.
This is such a rare treat. It’s like Monopolyand “bank error in your favor” yeah right, when does that ever happen?
Uh oh …
Yup. Definitely a sign of the impending apocalypse.
Afternoon all. The Metro Diner didn’t have a waiting line when I arrived, so dinner has been et and is quietly (for now) digesting inside me. Decided to be slightly decadent and stopped and go a double Butter Pecan cone, may be the last of the summer season for me. Checked my Powerball and still not a winner, but apparently no one else did either, so the grand prize is going to be ridiculous. Will head out to perform mowage here in a bit, with the sun going down around 6:30pm there is no evening mow anymore. Gym is also usually on my schedule but given soccer yesterday and mowing today, might just skip it, unless I am feeling really guilty about the Ice Cream…
FCM. I have a ‘lightweight’ comforter I use from April to October and a ‘heavyweight’ one that may be coming out of storage in a couple of (days? hours?).
Oopsie, glad the paperwork get there early. Bought a gift for the kids on my soccer team, it arrived 2 days after I ordered it, so the Karma Gods must be pleased with us. Best wishes to Bailey on getting shots. And I concur with the Amazon card idea, since she’s a performer she may get better quarters but it’ll still be a cramped existence for her.
{{suzie}}, hope all your people are ok.
Cookie, enjoy the company.
OK, waiting for the dishwasher to complete it’s task then hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to Mow I go… Have a good Sunday all.
I found a little bit of motivation - I’ve organized my pantry and I tossed some stuff that got lost in the back, I cleaned and sliced some strawberries, I chunked up a monster-sized russet and tossed it in the crock pot, I made some sugar-free gelatin, and I washed and filled some storage bins with small items in the pantry as part of organizing. So go me!
I guess I can read guilt-free till supper time. The crock pot of foods is smelling pretty yummy.
Hi all! Now late afternoon it’s mostly clouded up and there’s rain over the distant Everglades. Still 89F/32C so no imminent danger of glaciation. The good news about the clouds is that means balconatin’ is back in season for a couple hours at least.
This morning just as I was leaving for the beach Her Ladyship emerged from bed unexpectedly early. So I launched my laundry (it waits until she’s awake due to the noise) then departed anyhow. Bought gas, more Powerball (cue “But that trick never works. This time for sure!”), then off to the hot sand & warm water for awhile. Suitably solar-recharged it’s back home, late breakfast, then admin & reading. Dinner ought to be last night’s leftovers for both of us.
For all you ladies’ edifications, the size control in men’s clothing is better, but not much better. We don’t have (as much) vanity sizing, but 3 pairs of the same item from the same store in the same waist & inseam can be significantly bigger in waist, shorter in inseam, or even a whole different shape and amount of leg or seat room. Gaah!
Hooray for Cookie getting family over. Hope the elder sprog isn’t spending all your tuition money on beer.
FCM awesome job on the shelving & sharp stuff. You didn’t mention any spontaneous amputations, so I’m guessing that came out OK. Sorry FCD hit the wall on pain & energy.
Honey, them ain’t hot flashes. Them’s Power Surges! You jes’ ride them beauties on to victory & conquest!
The old saying about politics and negotiations: if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.
Ouch! What a bummer. At least the campus sounds like it’ll be staying a university, not bulldozed for a shopping mall or yet more soulless tickytack suburbia.
Hooray for prompt bureaucracy though. I think a lot of businesses and government agencies really pushed out their performance promises during the worst of COVID, and rightly so. But they’re sure taking their time going back to promising their old service standards now. Like the old 6’ distance signs you still see here and there, leaving the “expect a 25 day delay” sign up just makes their life sooo much easier.
Kinda like trying to find a restaurant where they once again have salt and pepper on every table every time.
Yaay for new vet success!
That’s me. We refrigerate the house to a frost-bite inducing 75F. I sleep under 2 blankets and usually a long sleeve t-shirt & shorts. I need to keep my head under the covers to be warm enough. I often shiver myself to sleep if I stay up too late and my internal furnace goes dormant before I get into the bed and warm it up.
Her Ladyship, who is slightly less lean than I am, but much smaller and hence more surface area vs. volume, sleeps with no blankets on her side, sleeps on top of the lightweight sheets in a cute but flimsy no-warmth cami, and beefs about the stifling heat a lot.
We are an odd couple.
Hmm. The flavors I pick all say “guilt-free” right on the box. Gotta squint sometimes to see it, but it’s there. You must have an over-active guilt gland. Seriously, if this is end-of-season, go forth and enjoy!
I remember the first year I really lived in a place with cold winters. I was in my mid 30s. Sometime in the Fall we decided to make an ice cream cone run after dinner. Of we launch to the local outdoor ice creamery / soda fountain. The previous weekend was end-of-season for them and they were boarded up until Spring. Until that instant the idea that anyplace would be closed for the winter had never occurred to me. Of course all the various brands of outdoor ice cream places all had the same schedule, so we wuz screwed. We vowed never again to miss the last week of ice cream.
Correction: you found a years’ worth of motivation. For an ordinary mortal. I remain in awe.
I coulda done the spud in the pot for dinner, but the rest is inconcievable.
LSLGuy I’ve had hot flashes for over 20 years. I am not amused.
Had a good ride on Ariel. She is spicy with the cooler weather. Went to the fancy fuds store and splurged on dry rub back ribs. Two left over for lunch tomorrow.
That’s usually my method of dismount. 
I’ll likely add the quilt to my bed next weekend.
Nelson has alternated between barking at the kids across the fence playing soccer and being a lap doggy. The kids who used to play moved over the summer, but now, there are some more. I’ve thrown balls back across the fence the last couple of days and this afternoon, one of them hollered over to please throw the one on my patio back when I took Nelson out. I just like t see kids playing outside.
Eating Sunday dinner (chicken Cacciatore with a side of steamed broccoli with some parm grated over it) and watching a documentary of the history of the city of Vilna (sometimes in Poland, sometimes in another country). My great grandparents, along with my 2 year old granddad immigrated from there in 1905. It’s interesting.
Howdy Y’all! We deheathenated and the place is still standin’ so there’s that, I reckon. Then it was back to da cave for leftover pizza and nappage. Day drinkin’ was also accomplished. The biiiiiig trash can has been hauled all the way down to the road for pickup tomorrow as well. Now we be chillin’. Thus has it been on Sunday.
CupCakes and Pilot I have always known I did not want to be a Priest or a Deacon. I don’t like most people that much and that’s two areas, especially for Priests, where one cannot get away from people easily. I don’t mind bein’ a lay leader, however. People are always tellin’ the other Verger and me how much they appreciate us steppin’ up while we’ve been sans full-time Priest. However, I will be extremely happy when we have a Priest again. I am crossin’ appropriate/inappropriate appendages for that to happen shortly after the first of the new year.
doggio hope it’s not to long before doggy-doption happens.
red My next to youngest niece is a graduate of Purdue and has explained to me that because of that I can’t like Notre Dame. I have to do what she says cause she’s my niece. My other three nieces boss me around like that, as well.
Why do guys do this? I mean, I know you are pretty hawt looking, but still…can’t they tell that you are WORKING and have better things to do than listen to some rando sleaze over your eyes.
I only lost about a hundred a month by retiring, but it comes in smaller payments more often and it just seems to be much more than a hundred missing. But like you, it all goes into the bank and we pay our card off monthly so it all works.
I refuse to hem jeans. I wouldn’t do it when I had access to a good sewing machine, I’m certainly not going to do it by hand now. Like hippy, I consider the cost of paying someone else to do it into the cost of the jeans.
I sure get that, like FCM, it’s been hard for us to get used to tapping into money we have been saving all of our lives.
Collapses onto fainting couch, swooning over the idea of all that traffic!
We keep complaining that our small town is getting too big too fast, LOL!
It is fun, but sometimes in a train wreck sort of way. I would be miserable living the sort of life you and BooFae have, soooo many people crowded together so close and so much noise. I kinda squinch while reading because it is so horrible but I just can’t stand to look away.
You would probably be ripping your hair out with boredom in less than a day out here. Unless you were visiting me, I can be pretty entertaining for a while, so it would take a day or so before the ripping hair out started but it would happen I am sure.
Thank you! And Thanks to everyone for the congrats. I’m pretty happy. The cheese I opened yesterday was pretty akin to the mild cheddar you get at the grocery store. Soft texture and fairly bland in taste. A 6 month old cheddar should be harder and sharper with a much better mouth feel. It should take about a year for proper sharp crumbly cheddar, but I won’t be able to wait that long.
Oh and please don’t ask if it is done yet because I am the sort who ruins good cheeses because I have to see what is happening behind the wax. When I was a kid, I’d pull plants up because I wanted to see what the roots were doing. 
Thanks! I’m REALLY looking forward to playing with spores and molds.
Yeah, no top shelf booze on your dime!!!
I’m hoping you had a good visit 
I’ve been thinking about candy bars due to this thread and yes I did love them as a kid, but then I started smoking weed. It would spike my blood sugar and give me the super munchies and all candy was fair game. Then my blood sugar would go the other way and I’d go to sleep which was a total waste of good weed and a Saturday night.
And then sometimes I’d wake up with a sugar hangover which was one of the worse things eveh. It didn’t take many sugar hangovers for the candy aversion to sink in and now I just can’t bring myself to eat a whole candy bar at once.
I am so happy for you. Having a good vet is so important and I hope the shots help.
I know that I see Avon ladies advertise on Nextdoor, so it must still be around. No idea about Mary Kay.
Humpf. Cold smoking cheese is an already well honed skill and Gouda will be one of the first fungus cheese I try.
But thanks for the reminder, I think I’ll cut half of the wheel into wedges and smoke them tomorrow. I can do that while fussing around with the cheese press.
Snert. You are so typical it isn’t funny. People fall in love and talk about what is important in a marriage but nobody ever talks about comfortable temps but that’s something that almost everyone complains about.
Hubs keeps the temp at 76 when I’m home and I live in sweaters, sweats and Uggs. Unless we go out, then I bring a jacket as well because Arizona is home of death by air conditioning.
I love my weighted blanket, but have to add a comforter under the quilt in the winter. We both have our own heaters under our mattresses, he’s never even plugged his heater in and mine gets used as needed.
That sucks. I’m sure you’ve had your thyroid checked, but if not, maybe you should. I can always tell when I need my meds adjusted because my internal thermostat gets flakey.
After yesterday’s cheese excitement, we made plans to go to the good dairy in Prescott for more milk. We figured that as long as we were making the drive, we should go to the craft fair in Prescott Valley and get a late lunch/early Mexican dinner.
This morning, I watched the storms move in and we figured that many of the craft fair vendors would have packed it up but we haven’t seen rain for a while and that would be worth the drive, so we still went.
It was a wonderful rain and it cooled down so much that I put my jacket on at the fair. As usual for craft fairs, it was filled with pretty things that we don’t need, have no use for and no place to store but I still wanted because they were shiny!
We did pretty good, I restrained myself and we got out with a jar of watermelon jam, a jar of salsa and a bar of pig fat soap. We’ve never used pig fat soap before, so that’s a new thing.
After lunch we went to the dairy and bought five gallons of pasteurized milk. (that was the mistake I’d been making all those years, four gallons wasn’t enough volume but I didn’t want to start using more because that would mean using two burners and a super big vat and standing on a step stool to stir.) Hard lesson learned!
The milk has been gently heated and is ripening now. I’m hoping to get it in the press by 10 and I’ll know how I did tomorrow when I open the press tomorrow. I’ll either despair and rend my clothing or take pics and brag but it will get waxed and put in the cave for 6 months.
I watched handegg. I napped. Spot walked across my head, which visually is like the Star Destroyer entrance scene in Star Wars: A New Hope(complete with ventral dome. ) I took out trash and recycling, Having poke loin and a Wisconsin Old Fashioned.
I like it warm, and in winter I sleep with a sheet and comforter(no socks, though. Roommate likes it really dark and cold. I may be living with 6 cave salamanders in a human suit.
Me: “I never felt like being a priest”
Entire Roman Catholic Hierarchy: < Giant Sigh of Relief >
You have cheese, cats, and beer. How bad could it be?
You forgot the magic weed!
Man, the poor guy on fryer was in the weeds tonight. My manager marveled that we needed all 3 fryers tonight (a Sunday! Usually quiet-ish…) when even last night (Saturday! Usually packed!) we did fine with just two.
Same - thx for the reminder.
Monkey has a brand-new 
box, too, since it’s a convenient night to rid myself of the old, ah, stuff.
It rained earlier and has been doing that off-and-on sprinkling thing since then. But he insisted on going out, so his jingle-bell-y (and quite damp) ass has been running in & out a bit.
About to fire up the oven and bake (roast?) a chicken thigh or two. I have everything else for spring rolls & I’ve had a cravin’ for them (odd considering they’re usually a hot weather thing) but what Shoe wants, *Shoe gets for herself.
Rice paper wrappers, cilantro (don’t hate!) and butter lettuce, plus a peanut butter/hoisin sauce concoction with plenty of garlic. Just need DA MEAT!
… and I may throw a roll or two in the oven, while I’m at it.
It’s like the most basic, coarse filter ever: if you’re so boundary-challenged that you think a woman is gonna, I dunno, clock out and run right out that door, telling her boss over her shoulder, “Sorry, but I found the luurve of myyyy liiiife!” as her voice fades into the distance… yeah, buddy, that’s a solid “nope” here.
Same mentality as guys who honk at women walking on the sidewalk. What am I gonna do, sprint after your pickup truck?
There’s always Sephora, at the mall. They’ll slather your face with all kinds of shit.
ORLY
{ invites self over shamelessly to eat own body weight in smoked cheeses }
I’d love to know how you do it, if it’s not a sooper sekrit speshul thing …
Just out of my own sheer curiosity, as someone who enjoys stuffing smoked cheese down her normally-not-enthusiastic piehole.
Don’t forget the Devil’s Lettuce.
ETA: ninja’d! (Typical stoner, always too late.)
Well, I’m not much into weed. But as a Wisconsin boy, beer and cheese will be bring me to your yard.
Myyyy … beer cheese brings all the boys to the yard
And they’re more … Midwestern than yours
Damn right, Wisconsin boys 
I’ve never actually had the stuff (yet) but I am amenable to trying the experience:
Super Easy Beer Cheese Dip - The Recipe Critic https://therecipecritic.com/beer-cheese-dip/
Oh, you silly! I have no secrets because I’m usually too stoned to lie!
Do you know those broiler pans that comes with every oven? The set with the grease catcher part and the slotted pan that goes on top? You will need one of them that fits in your smoker. I like apple wood but a lot of people like maple or even mesquite. It depends on the taste you want.
Fill the bottom pan with water and put it in the freezer the night before. When the smoker is going, put the pan together and spread the room temp. cheese chunks out so there is a lot of air room and put everything as far away from the heat source as possible. (we have an offset smoker which is really helpful for this)
Cheese melts at 90F so you need to keep your smoker as cool as possible. It would be super helpful to have two frozen pans so you could change pans out while flipping the cheese every 15 minutes or so, but it is cooler where you live so might not be necessary there.
I like really smoky cheese, so mine goes for at least two hours but everything will depend on the temp because if the cheese starts feeling melty, that’s when it comes out. I don’t smoke much cheese or salmon during the summer, it’s too hard to keep the smoker cool enough.
It is a little tricky, but once you get it, it is like cooking a perfect pizza!