Why “pee ew"?
Is September a smelly month?
I assume it’s a reference to:
And the “pee-ew” is a rhyming pun, as in saying it “stinks” in the slang term; as in it’s bad and therefore we will rant about it. I thought it was pretty clever.
I’d like to tryto substituting NA gin for about half of the regular gin in a martini, with the objective of creating a martini that still tastes good but has only about as much booze as a standard shot or glass of wine. For those who don’t know, a typical martini is like two of those at least.
I’m generally skeptical of NA booze but suspect that the concept might work better with gin, given that the botanical flavor elements could compensate for the lack of ethanol bite.
Ah, now it makes sense, and it was clever. I didn’t know about the song.
My official major rant for the month follows. The refrigerator repair guy was just here, arriving in a Tesla Model S, if you please! He was a really nice young guy who appeared to be the sole proprietor of his own business, but he was the bearer of bad news. The fridge compressor is failing and rapidly going south. A new compressor plus labour would actually cost more than some of the cheaper refrigerators. Or for about $300 or $400 more than the cost of a new compressor for a 17-year-old fridge, I could get a fairly upscale brand new one.
He was definitely not pushing repair services and even gave me a big break on the price of the visit and diagnosis. His only suggestion was a temporary workaround with a gadget that artificially cycled the compressor to help keep it cool, but he said it was a flaky fix, wouldn’t last long, and sometimes doesn’t help at all. IOW, he was clearly saying “you need a new fridge”.
So I have a three-part plan. Tonight, (1) drink a vat of rum. Tomorrow, (2) go shopping for a new fridge, then (3) return home and have another vat of rum.
It’s barely cold enough to be useful, but could fail catastrophically any time so I have to be careful to keep the contents to an absolute minimum until the new one is delivered. I suspect I will have a lot of garbage at the next pickup in the form of wasted thrown-out food. Some friends of mine had a total compressor failure on a fairly new high-end fridge, but they were rich enough to have two fridges so were barely inconvenienced.
I need this expense like a fucking hole in the head, plus, I’m not sure if I’ve unblocked the A/C primary drain valve as it hasn’t needed to run in the past few days. That may be another fun expense.
I just cancelled my Washington Post subscription. I love the news & some of the columnists, but the editorials are just getting ridiculously right-wing, and even a rather dim child could see through the rhetoric. I don’t mind being challenged by conservative thinkers, but I resent being manipulated by Conservative propaganda.
The rant is that I’ll miss my newspaper. Taking suggestions for a good US daily that covers news but does NOT kiss Republican ass, and ideally expects their readers to read at above a fourth-grade level.
I’m guessing that explains all the damn fur I’m growing lately. (Yep, I’ve asked my doctor about it; she says I don’t need to worry until my cycle gets out of whack, and that she’s seen way more hair on other women my age.)
I recently subscribed to the New York Times and The Economist. The New York times is fine. It’s my daily, really beats Google News Feed, and keeps me out of trouble when I’m on my phone. I stay in the know about stuff. Pretty aggressively anti-Trump, but business friendly, because, you know, New York. I’ve appreciated the Gaza coverage because it’s not something I knew much about. Possibly worth it for the games alone.
Every once in a while I strap on my readin’ dress and pick a couple Economist articles to read. They are definitely better written than the New York Times, but they cover subjects that make me feel like an ignorant buffoon, because I in fact know nothing about economics. And that’s good for the soul. And over time, things start to gel. I now have a passing familiarity with the drama surrounding the federal reserve, and I read a good article about what might happen to the UN. I feel stupid while reading it but feel a little bit smarter when I’m done.
Those are the paid subs. I also subscribe to the free 1440 digest which is news stripped of bias as much as possible and delivered in a mix of good and bad and neutral, so you’re not missing the top stories but you’re also reading about things that are kinda off the beaten path, too. There are always links to explore more. And they have subject specific newsletters too, like one focused on the arts, another on economics, etc.
So that’s me.
I really like the economist, it does a good job of global reporting. Of course it is UK centric, but there is lots of other stuff to read. Articles are usually in depth, though usually with opinion. I think it is pretty centrst honestly and if anything a long term market economics bias.
Saw the doctor last month, who asked if my cycle was irregular. I have an IUD and don’t actually menstruate so I don’t know, but I’m coughmidfourtiescough so now I get to have a blood test and I don’t actually know what else at the follow up. I indend to use an IUD forever or at least until pregnancy is deemed impossible.
I was also asked if my sleep was irregular. I’ve been a chronic Insomniac since puberty. Is it the same irregular or different irregular is the type of questioning and analysis that keeps me up at night.
Work rant: I need a time machine to get everything done. I’m so tired and the stress also keeps me awake. A couple more weeks and things should calm down. I hope.
There WAS a good regional brewpub chain; opened the first one in '96; had mid-teens # of locations…until Wed when they abruptly didn’t open ANY of then. RIP, IH
Last Monday I finally got around to the unpleasant task of obtaining a poop sample for a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) similar to Cologuard, and dropping it in the mailbox (in its proper sealed container and envelope, thank you for asking). This is a screening test for colorectal cancer. Normally what happens is a couple of weeks later you get a letter saying that you tested negative.
So I drop this thing in the mailbox on Monday, and Thursday night I learn that the ape-men at Canada Post have once again gone on strike, effective Friday. I’ve been accused of being anti-union but I absolutely am not, except with regard to certain specific arrogant unions that have way too much power and absolutely no accountablity, and chief among them is CUPW – the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, who are so arrogant and depraved that their union leader once languished in jail for some time for blatantly defying emergency back-to-work legislation.
I hope my poop sample made it to the lab in time. But I will definitely not be getting any results back in the mail, because there ain’t no mail. I hate those CUPW fuckers with the heat of a thousand suns. With so much electronic commerce now going on, they’re much less relevant than before, but just as fucking totally self-serving and irresponsible.
The new fridge has been purchased, arriving next Friday. Meanwhile the old one is managing to keep somewhat cool by running 24x7. I’ve now got it hooked up to a power strip so I can shut it off once in a while to keep the compressor from overheating. Hopefully I can coax it into another week of survival. I’m trying to minimize the amount of stuff still in there, and a lot of it will end up being thrown out. The Great Transition from an old fridge to the new one is a kind of life-defining experience! Like, “hey, WTF is this, and why has it been in the freezer so long?” It’s almost as traumatic as moving, which is something I’ve hated all my life, even when moving to an obviously better place.
I know this isn’t as important as a medical test, but I want to order some fabric from Canada, and they’re not currently shipping to the US because of the strike. I hope it’s over soon.
I don’t know where else to put this, but I finished my novel. It took at least 11 years to write. There were breaks here and there, but not long ones (okay one long one when I had a kid.) I kept going back to the MS to fix things, and realizing they didn’t need fixing anymore, and then that was pretty much it.
Now I don’t know what the hell to do with myself. I have spent most evenings the last ten years sitting in bed messing around with my manuscript. Is this how parents feel when their kids move out?
It may be a while. You might ask them to ship by courier.
On a different subject, my Ukrainian handymen (actually renovators, and are tied up on a big project right now) sent one of their sidekicks to do the smoke detector installs and light bulb replacements. Yet another Ukrainian, of course! And man, I love to watch people who are good at what they do. This guy rewired three smoke detector outlets with new adapters, installed and tested the new smoke+CO detectors, and replaced the bulbs in three ceiling fixtures, all in less than about 25 minutes. I am now smoke-detected and all my ceiling light fixtures work!
The next challenge will be to see how long these “rated for enclosed fixtures” MaxLite bulbs last.
My fave restaurant salad is Panera’s poppy seed berry salad. Alas it is only available “seasonally”, which typically means the warmer spring and summer months. Since the berries in question can be had at the grocery store in the cooler months, never understood why they take it off at all.
Anyway, I knew its disappearance from local menus was imminent, but assumed they would have chosen a logical date, such as oh I don’t know, the equinox (22nd) or the 1st of October…
Went there today, saw it wasn’t on the board, and asked the clerk when it was taken off. She said this past Wednesday, the 24th.
On top of that their entire menu all got price increases across the board, in this case $1.50 for each half salad that I got on their 2-for-1 “special”…
Right before bed, kiddo shyly told us he needed us to sign a paper from school because he’d gotten in trouble. I asked what happened, and apparently during recess he and his friends were coming up with silly names for body parts that they aren’t aware of names for, like the skin between thumb and index finger, or specifically the skin on your elbow. Silly preteen stuff.
Apparently one thing got named “weinus” which was the height of humour, but a teacher overheard them and they all got in trouble for making inappropriate jokes.
I signed the paper, because I respect the school has this boundary and he needs to learn to respect that, but I also find it absolutely hilarious (I keep thinking of Friends and Chandler’s job reviewing the WENUS) and I don’t think there’s anything inappropriate whatsoever about the word penis (or vulva, labia clitoris, testicles, etc).
I’m not doing out any punishment for this, his level of concern and shame at having “gotten in trouble” is much more than the level of actual inappropriateness in my opinion.
And now, because we are dying of curiosity:
The skin between the thumb and index finger is known as the purlicue in everyday language, while the medical term for this area is the thenar web space.
The skin on the outside of the elbow is known as olecranal skin, but the popular slang term for the loose skin under the elbow joint is the wenis (or weenis). While “wenis” is a widely recognized slang term, it is not a formal medical name.
Actually, turns out this is an actual slang term!
I can’t wait to tell my son tomorrow the he wasn’t actually wrong.
Send him to school tomorrow with the information that the area behind the knee is known as the popliteal. Make sure he learns the spelling.
You’ll thank me later.
My Ukrainians are beginning to piss me off. Sure, the head honcho sent over an expert electrician just to rewire and install new smoke detectors and replace a few light bulbs because I can no longer safely get up on a ladder. And he cheerfully left without payment knowing that I was gonna faithfully pay the Big Boss via electronic funds transfer. But Jesus H fucking Christ, almost $400 after tax for 25 minutes of work? He says he only hires the best, which I’m sure is true, but if I just need a ride to the corner store, it doesn’t have to be in a Rolls Royce!