Puzzling Days in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 8c/46f with a predicted high of 10c/51f and mostly cloudy. Weather app says “It’s cloudy but it’s fucking decent outside. Is that more positive? I’m really fucking trying!”

Cookie glad you found out that the milk problem was just the thermostat and nothing more serious. Shame about the water leak though, there’s always something with that building!

2gig shame about the vigil, but you did give me a giggle.

{{{{{JtC}}}}} I am so sorry about James, I know you’ll miss him. Thank you for sharing him with us.

VanGo sounds like it was a wise move to stay out of the way and let the authorities sort it out instead.

Yesterday was a busy day, after irk I fed the cats and got myself to the gym. The spin instructor was late (traffic) and then had trouble connecting her laptop to the speakers. She started the class 15 minutes late and managed to condense 45mins into 30 so we finished on time. It was hot, sweaty work! I went home to get cleaned up, gathered up the rubbish for the bin and hauled the biiiiig bin out to the kerb for today’s collection, then added the little caddy bin as well.

I’ve been very productive this morning too, I fed the cats and cleaned litter trays, had a bath, washed and dried my hair, went out to fetch the caddy bin back and cleaned that out (there was some murky brown liquid in there, probably from the tea bags) and put it back in the porch, then a bit later I went out to get the biiiiig bin and return that to where it lives. I did do a bit of irk in between, and it’s still only 9.30am!

Today I have to make campus food for the rest of the week, and I need to use my longer lunch break to make tonight’s dinner as I’m heading off to the gym fairly early. In between, I might even do some more work…

62

Morning,

I decided to let the rats out to play on my bed last night for a bit before bedtime- they don’t jump off so it’s a nice safe place, and I have a big blanket to throw over first to cover it. Chucked the blanket on and… a big spider and a huge spider both scuttled out and ran off down the side of the mattress. Had to drag everything out and more everything to find the things and evict them… Not the ideal relaxing end to a day.

Woken up today by the ridiculous maintenance guys for the flats behind me. I really don’t know who’s deciding what they’re doing, but today they were spreading vast swathes of salt all over the outside area at the back of the flats. It looks like it’s snowed. There is not even a light frost on the forecast for the next week, but there is rain. The area is mostly used by a couple of little kids and several dogs, and has big piles of leaves because it’s sunken and there’s still plenty of leaves on the trees. I expect they will be back in a couple of days with leaf blowers to remove all the leaves, having just salted them :roll_eyes:

{{JtC}} I’m sorry about James.

On the gravestone topic, it reminded me of my great-aunts. The sisters got a burial plot to share in the graveyard used by multiple generations of that side of my family, and decided to get the stone arranged and paid for in advance to make things simpler for their kids. All very organised except… the aunt who had emigrated to Canada was concerned that even though she was the oldest, she may not have been the first to die. She therefore insisted on flying to the UK - in her 90s - and ordering the stone carved in person with her name and birthday on the top line, because she was the oldest sister, dammit, and she was gonna be listed first.

Anyway, onwards into the day. It’s a gloomy sort of drizzly day, no real plans other than defilthifying the place and maybe doing some stuff on the viva presentation and the rotten job hunting.

63

Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’.YAWN ‘Tis 66 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 79 and rain this afternoon accordin’ to TWPTB. We shall see. It’s laundry day and I can hardly contain myself. We early voted, so no trip to the polls for us. Outside of laundry it will be the usual RDOS sloth. Sup will be last night’s leftovers.

VanGo nuttin’ like neighborhod excitatement right! I am sure the cops have figured out who the car belongs to by now and questions have been asked.

JtC glad James had a good sendoff. We have prepaid funeral arrangements just to make it easier on each other and family when the time comes. Since it will be cremation, no fancy headstone, but there will be a little brass plaque thingy with name, date of birth, and date of death. My 'rents had all their arrangements prepaid and even the little brass and marble marker (not a headstone) in place in the cemetary long before they passed.

MetalMouse may one of the other brands lead you to braunschweiger enlightenment. OK, hope one of 'em meets your needs.

BrightTree since it hasn’t been linked to in a while, I give you the Mumper Recipe Blog. Lots of nummy recipes in there.

shoe good for S.M. for sayin’ that to you. Votin’ is more important!

Nuts YIKES! I would have burned the place to the ground and taken off to nuke it from outer space just to make sure there were no more spiders. Also, great story about your great aunt! Good for her to make sure her name is first. Gave me a good early mornin’ giggle!

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, well, laundry awaits. Rah.

Happy Tuesday Y’all! Amurrkin Mumpers, if you haven’t already, GO VOTE!

64

But only in a mynah way.

For the past few years, I’ve spent down time at work doing older NYT crosswords. When I finish one, I bring up the one from the previous day. Right now, I’m on The New York Times Crossword — The New York Times.

65

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Our hall bathroom has a skylight (actually a solar tube ending with a frosted cover) plus an exhaust fan. The ensuite bath has a small window directly opposite the sink, but it’s small and, being at the back, one story up from the ground. I suppose someone standing in the right spot in the back yard might glimpse the back of one’s head. But lacking a ladder ending at the window, the terlit and shower are completely out of view.

Nah - there are several not-politically-correct terms one might have used, especially if 2gig had a, shall we say unique physical feature. But way back when I met him, I thought he was pretty normal looking. :grin:

When I was 19 and enlisting in the Navy, I had to have a note from my parents saying it was OK!! 'Cause I was a girl. No such problems if I’d had external plumbing. :roll_eyes:

I wonder how crowded in-person voting will be in light of the apparently record-setting early voting that’s already occurred. We dropped our ballots in the box for our county Board of Elections and were notified a couple of days later via email that they were received.

I don’t know if I got any campaign spam calls since I don’t answer unknown numbers, but I sure got a lot of texts and emails. I hate that money drives elections to such an extent that candidates beg nationwide for contributions. The only reason I got to recognize some names were from the gazillion pleas I received from them. I’m so glad my phone plan doesn’t charge per text like the one I had back in the olden days. Regardless, I predict we’ll get a week respite before the campaigns for 2028 begin. Mark my words…

We’ve got 46 foggy Ferrets this morning with a prediction of sun and 70 as a high. I’ll start my day cleaning a section of the bedroom carpet again because Ziva didn’t like the new litter and she peed and pooped her opinion near the foot of our bed. I immediately swapped back for the old litter type and FCD said he’ll use the sawdust type in his shop for cleaning up spills.

I found out I was supposed to do a transition time for the new litter, but I don’t want to deal with it. Ziva is an old, old lady and I’ll quit making changes. Well, except for her water bowl. Overnight, she tipped over the Corelle bowl she’d been using, so I have a soggy patch to deal with after FCD gets up. I happen to have a bowl I’d made for Higgs - it’s pretty heavy, so I don’t think she can accidentally tip it.

Before I went to bed, I got out the clippers and removed a few more mats from Ziva’s coat. She looks horrible, but I think the worst of the matting has been removed. The ones that remain are small. After she’s de-matted, she’ll get an all-over trim using one of the longer-hair attachments. It won’t be as pretty as a professional grooming, but it also won’t be $200+ including sedation. She doesn’t hate it and it’s fairly easy if I give her skritches while FCD de-mats her.

I hear my sweetie up and about - guess I should shower and dress and start adulting. Happy Tuesday! Vote!

66

I do pretty well at ignoring/deleting political texts and emails. I try to limit my participation in politics to reading the voters’ guides and my parties’ endorsements, and then voting. It’s a good way to keep my sanity.

Mr. brown subscribes to the Manchester Guardian, Raw Story, and Politico. He reads every single article, the more inflammatory and derisive the better. He then tries to retail the gist of every article to me and it’s making me crazy. I have to get up and leave the room to get him to stop. I’ll be SO happy by tomorrow when the firehose stream of political crap is reduced to a trickle.

67

i voted!

i usually vote when i get home. the room was empty, and i had time before the shuttle. our condo has its own polling station. we had 3 people from the building working in the room. 3 others were from nearby. there were only 3 offices up for grabs and 2 questions. easy peasy. as our station is in the building we did not have “interference” from outsiders.

i’ll get the sticker when i get home. i like to put it on lager’s head and take a picture.

68

Good morning.

It’s 43F, dark, and cloudy. Supposedly, there are showers nearby, but they haven’t reached my house yet. There might be a rain shower in about an hour, followed by morning cloudiness, then partial cloudiness for the afternoon, with a daytime high of 53F.

Bright Tree, I got the recipe from a Mumper; I’m not sure who, so I can’t take credit. I, however, do like the medium-grain Calrose type of rice with this recipe because it becomes extra creamy, almost like risotto.

2gig, I loved that story; it’s funny how inappropriate humor can come out at sad events.

VanGo, yeah, it was probably better to let the pros handle the miscreants.

Nuts, wishing you luck and success as you hunt for a job. I hated tooting my own horn, too.

Metal Mouse, mowage was not accomplished, damn it. Mr. Taters decided he wanted to make a batch of twice-baked potatoes, and he’s the world’s messiest cook. I spent time cleaning up his messes as he progressed through the steps. :roll_eyes: I could have mowed afterward, and I regret not doing so. Present me is pretty annoyed with past me right now.

I have two windows in the primary suite bathroom that are on the side and end of the humongous soaking tub. The upstairs hall full bath does not have a window; neither does the downstairs powder room, but all three bathrooms have exhaust fans that are obnoxiously loud. I plan to replace them with quieter fans soon. The windows in the primary suite bath have blinds, although I don’t think anyone can see in because it’s on the second floor, and the neighbor to the side of the house has ginormous arborvitae that prevent them from seeing into our house, and the neighbors behind us have trees that would block their view. When we first moved in, that was a possibility, though.

I voted early, and thankfully, the texts and emails slowed to a trickle after my vote was counted. I am thankful to all who helped in the election process. We vote by mail here, but I used a ballot drop box. I don’t trust the postal system.

I’ve blurred the below because it discusses my feelings regarding the current state of things and how I deal with them. Fair warning.

I used to love debating politics and kept up with all the political news, but that stupid orange twatwaffle and all his minions have ruined all that. I read just enough to stay informed, but I don’t delve into it anymore. I don’t even discuss politics with family. It just distresses me, even though they all feel like me. Everything is ugly, and frankly scary. Before him, I never could have foreseen our country falling this low.

As for today, I will mow, weedwack, and use the blower. I’ll get those leaves into the yard bin, too. I also need to change the water for the birds.

Alrighty, on with the day. Please take care of yourselves.

69

Here in the USA, it is election day. I voted early in person at one of this city’s early voting sites. Did you VOTE yet? I hope so. All four of the folks in Dixville Notch, NH have already voted and turned in their total a few minutes after the polls. They do it every time for some reason. Maybe they do it for the momentary appearance in the news feed, like the Friends of Punxatawny Phil.

Outdoors, it’s 63F here in Elkhart, and the Weather Channel says it’ll get to 74F later. Open windows weather.

Shoe, you did the right thing.

One of my favorite puzzles is Rabbithole at The Atlantic site. It’s a series of questions with each answer leading to the next question, finally leading to an answer related to that day’s date in history. Tricky stuff.

Misnomer, I love David Baldacci’s work. I’m part-way through Wish You Well, a departure from his usual sort of thing.

I’ve picked up a few extra pounds, and I need to get more exercise into the daily routine.

Okay, I’m caught up, time for breakfast!

70

I’ve been ‘political’ since Reagan (‘Slay-Gun’, as I called him). I have become increasingly angry over the past quarter of a century, though I was hopeful when Obama was president. Mrs. L.A. moved in in 2010. She would become irritated that I paid so much attention to politics. ‘Old men die,’ she would say. IOW, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Now, she’s attending rallies, making signs, and mailing postcards to Texans. Seeing the vote turnout in Texas, which may be mostly Democratic voters for now, she feels like she made a difference.

ETA:

Voted the week before last. We dropped our ballots in the box at the fire station, on the way to the freeway.

71

That was me. It is a rather long story that I often recall while watching “The Music Man” and drinking whiskey. I am certain I have posted it here but maybe not:

The Music Man

One hot summer afternoon Mom and I took the bus downtown. We ate Chinese food at King Fong’s and then went to the Orpheum theater and saw a movie. We took the bus back to our neighborhood. We stopped at Goodrich Dairy store for Ice cream cones to eat on our four block walk home from the bus stop. I ordered pistachio ice cream because it sounded so exotic.

I remember this night like it was yesterday; the heat, my first Chinese restaurant, the movie and the ice cream on the short walk home. It was 64 years ago. I was nine years old, and the movie was The Music Man. I am sure y’all have seen it. To give this some context, remember Ronnie Howard as Winthrop inn the movie. He and I are the same age.

Mom passed twenty six years ago. I watch the movie every time it rolls around on TCM, remembering the taste of pistachio ice cream…….

72

Good morning, everyone! Vote. Go vote now.

I voted early. My mother was a poll worker from 1968 to 2012. If I didn’t vote, she’d haunt my ass.

I’m a little miffed. Squeaky needs a scoliosis[1] X-ray. I called the radiology office up the road, and the lady said the only place that would take walk-ins for scoliosis X-rays was in Downton Nashville. I’d rather have teeth pulled than drive up into Nashville for a five minute X-ray. I called again this morning to see if I could get an appointment at the office up the road, and was told that they do, in fact, take walk-ins. So I don’t know what the person I’d spoken with last week was smoking, but I’m not entirely sure it wasn’t crack. Mrs Magill will be taking him this afternoon.

Julia Stiles was cut last night on Dancing With the Stars, which sucks. She’d been showing improvement every week. I, personally, think that Irish model should have gone home, but can understand why the judges would send Julia home because of her cracked rib.

  1. First try! ↩︎

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Imgur

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Good morning all. Slept until near 7am so should be pretty well-rested to do nothing in particular. Do have soccer practice (the last one of the Fall) tonight under the lights and probably my usual gym time, and might even do some house-irk. Only major job is to set up an appointment with my PCP to get my prescriptions renewed, they are only one refill after 90 days so he sees me every 6 months. Not expecting any issues. Finishing off my Big Bowl O’Cereal (Rice Krispies today) as I write this. Weather is nice right now (68F heading to 76F later), but rain is due tonight and most of tomorrow.

And oh yeah, need to get out and vote. Voting Democrat in Ali-bama is usually a forlorn hope, but there are possibilities this year and a couple State Amendments I want to vote against.

And now to the evening (and morning/afternoon for our European MMP’ers) news (time is relative)…

Bright Tree, thank you and I’ll make reports on the Braunschweiger, probably will start with the Jones Farm brand tomorrow. And I’m looking at around 75-76 years old (I’m 73 now) to leave my house and find independent senior living, but nothing firm yet. And it took many dollars at the Kroger to get that much of a discount, the next time won’t be quite as garish.

Brilliant! Actually laughed out loud when I read it.

JtC, glad you guys could play dog rescuer.

red, haven’t gotten many calls or texts, but the commercials both on TV and my Facebook have begun to irritate. Expect dozens of signs outside the voting place today.

Don’t think I’ve ever met another dog named Tina since then; interesting that so many Mumpers have memories (well, at least one).

boo fae, I’m tired just reading your list, been a full morning.

Nut, spiders in the bed are the stuff of my nightmares…glad you could find them. As for the salting, doesn’t make sense to me unless you’re living in Carthage…

FCM, I’m wondering too, most elections I can walk in and out in 10 minutes or less, but I do recall 2020 the lines in the morning were snaked around the church and it took nearly an hour to vote. Looking to go about 10am, the before-work and during-lunch people will not be there so hopefully can do it without much fuss. Happy de-matting!

Lucky, just be glad Mr. Brown doesn’t read the political comments and links here in the Straight Dope, or you’d have to murder him in self-defense…

rocky, congrats on getting the voting done.

Taters, lawn will wait, kitchen messes won’t. You’ll git’er done.

Hippie, ** I think I remember you posting that story before, but like The Music Man it bears repeating.

Mollie, hope Squeaky’s back turns out to be fine.

Flyboy, I will, I will!!

Enough said, need to check the webcomics and do a few house things, then off to cast my ballot. A good 2sDay to you all.

75

I voted last week. I always vote early. When I was in grammar school, our school was a polling place so we got election day off. Very cool. The school across from me is my official polling place but the kids don’t get the day off.

JtC I’m sorry about James. Sounds like he had a good sendoff.

Yesterday I took down all the Halloween decorations except for the cat ghost light. I put up the mini Christmas tree in my bedroom. This morning I hauled out the Thanksgiving/autumn decos. I love all the fall holidays and I’m ready for Christmas so I’m blending it all. Yeah, you blend.

Hippie I’ve never had pistachio ice cream, but I love The Music Man and know the entire score.

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Nelson’s water bowl is a double cappuccino cup of restaurant china. It was heavy enough that he wasn’t accidentally upsetting it when he was a wee puppy.

:heart:

My mom worked the polls when I was a kid too. Between that and getting a look at the copy of my great grandmother’s voter registration from when women won the right, I get my happy @$$ out to vote (I voted last week) lest they haunt me.

Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. Today is doctor day. Keep appendages crossed that I get this cussed pic line out.

Y’all have a great day!

77

I remember that night…

78

Good luck!

79

Things went smoothly today. Turns out not leaving chunks of the building under or un staffed gets the job done. Too bad Corporate value profit margin over efficiency. I was out by 0930, stopped and got cupcakes since it’s Roomie’s birthday. It’s been 25 years since I had a bathroom window.

Ramses II would tip his headdress at this level of pettiness and one upmanship.

:+1:

I want to nab one of the local “Vote Clark” ones, since that’s my last name.

Maybe the maintenace guy is a direct descendant of Cato The Elder. Back yard delenda est

My Christmas decorations are my Halloween decorations with a “Bah, humbug” Santa hat on the skull, and the anatomically incorrect pig skeleton is holding a Christmas ornament instead of a rubber rat.

< crosses appropriate and inappropriate appendages >

80

Well, the plan to do not much except fiddle with the viva presentation failed on two counts; first, I decided to have a trip to the local goood bookshop to get my small nieces some new books. Second, I got home, went to log in and… I’ve been booted out the IT system. Hopefully one of my supervisors should be able to get it unlocked, because I can’t access anything, and I kinda need to.

Their official instructions to get the account unlocked are to contact the IT support via the internal system, which I’m blocked from, or to go in person, which I can’t do, because I no longer have an ID badge to access the building. If I don’t get a reply tomorrow morning I’ll have to go round in person, before someone gets overexcited and actually wipes the account.

You’d think they’d leave it until after the viva, wouldn’t you? The uni gives me access for a year after the graduation!