Oh yeah - I forgot. The Velofix guy is upstairs tuning up my bike and replacing the rear tire.
Welp - he just finished. It’s 65º outside. I’m hittin’ the road!
I just got an email from my tax preparer, called ‘Cooking Class Client Appreciation Event’. It’s going to be a ZooMeeting on the 24th. So what will everyone be taught to cook? Shrimp & grits! *LOL* I just made that a couple of weeks ago!
Mustang here - made it to E-5 before going over to the dark side. We had a modified version of OCS, since we all knew the basics, and I guess they assumed we knew how to feed ourselves, because we never covered table manners. In fact, the majority of OCS was teaching us how to deal with the low-life enlisted folks who would be under us, causing us no end of problems… 
It was a 10-week vacation in Newport RI in the summer of '78. Good times!
I just finished cleaning all the tile floors on the main floor. FCD bought an OCedar spray mop thingie - kinda like the swiffer wet mop. It’s OK for light surface cleaning, but I still had to scrape at a couple of sticky spots, and it doesn’t do edges or corners. I had to break out a good old-fashioned scrub brush to deal with that. Still, it’s done, and judging by the filthy pad, it got up a lot of crud.
Taking a little break to let it all dry (yeah, the bathrooms are probably dry already) then I’ll put everything back together and run the vacuum thru the common areas. Get the household chores done today, because I want to spend much of the rest of the week mucking about in the yard and building the raised bed for my veggies.
Supper tonight will be baked (roasted? What’s the diff?) chicken, steamed rice, broccoli, and maybe another veggie. I knew you were all wondering… 
Meatloaf. I mixed up three pounds (2 pounds of ground beef and one pound of ground pork) a while back, and half of it has been in the freezer. I thawed it yesterday, so all I have to do is pop it into the oven after irk.
One o’ them, eh? 
In 1971 I was almost at the end of my first hitch and planning my rapid exit from E-5 pay and dealing with morons when a flier for NESEP (Naval Enlisted Scientific Education Program) caught my eye. I foolishly applied and was accepted. Unfortunately, the only avenues for a degree were either through engineering or math. I could handle the math, but the engineering courses ate my lunch, and after two and a half years, I slunk away with my tail between my legs and a hefty service obligation to fulfill.
I’ve just had a Monday interview to keep my own job. The nerves are still jangling a bit but am about to open a beer to relax as it’s nearly the end of the working day here in London. It was so weird to do it remotely - especially the minutes before the interview - taking a pre-interview pee and not having to wear uncomfortable shoes etc. I think I started badly as there were a bunch of questions I didn’t anticipate and I don’t think I answered them very well, however I got into a good rhythm by the end and had a run of answering both the question I was being asked but also covering off an answer to the next question (my boss accused me of reading her mind).
The worst thing about a restructure in Covid times isn’t the uncertainty being piled upon already existing uncertainty but the inability to all go down to the pub to gossip about the changes and have a general moan.
Later this week I may be about to put a downpayment on my first property. Could be good timing, could be terrible…
Me NESEP - Aero Engineering at Purdue. We were the first group whose tuition and books were NOT paid, but we were allowed to use our GI Bill, which I did. Plus going to college drawing E-5 pay and allowances was not a bad deal. I got out by the skin of my teeth - I went to my Aerodynamics prof and told him I had to have a D in his class to graduate. I got a D, but I’ve often wondered if I might have done better but he gave me a D because I asked for it. 
While it all eventually worked out, I was absolutely not cut out to be an officer. I couldn’t play the political games and I hated being a Branch Officer. Honestly, the only reason I applied for NESEP was the pay raise - NOT a good reason to follow a career path. But I fulfilled my 5 years, then became a side-steppin’ beach creature for the next 26 years, so it all worked out.
EvilSpaceman - interviewing for your own job has to suck swampwater big time! Fingers crossed that you nailed it.
The house is put back together and vacuumed. Chillage till it’s time to shove the chicken into the oven.
Me too.
Blackened candle wicks? Really? I have three cats. It’s been years since I’ve countenanced burning a candle even long enough to ‘blacken the wick’. Had to snuff out the smolder on one too many cat tails and have found it easier to just give up on flickering candlelight or pleasant candle scents.
Your Boo thanks you 
Me too, except it will be Thursday noon when I get my second jab of joy juice. BTW, I love that term ‘joy juice’. 50 years ago my ‘joy juice’ was something quite, quite different. YMMV.
Made me smile 
thank you.
^^This. Oh, so much this. Candles, live flowers, all sorts of stuff becomes contraindicated when your get adopted by furry people. So all of my flowers are outside, where the free-roaming felines ignore them.
Looks like we’re in for a rainy week, which is good and bad. Good in that we need the rain. Bad in that this week I actually have something going on every single day that involves leaving the house (and getting wet, most likely. And not in a fun way.) Oh, well.
Evil Spaceman - Moan all you want here. Plenty of people to have a beer with and you won’t have to worry when it’s your shout!
'Twould seem we copied it from the Europeans.
I was Metallurgical Eng. at U. of Idaho. It was all paid for, so that was a plus, but going to classes year-round really sucked. I would never have applied if my ex-wife hadn’t badgered me into it. From my pre-Navy college attempt, I knew that I had no aptitude for engineering, so I just should have said “no”. As it turned out, I think I was better off in my role as a leader and manager, but talk about being a reluctant careerist!
I don’t think we have any candles in this house. We have some at our house in the valley, but they’re tucked away in a drawer for use in am emergency only, since Wifey lit one on a bookshelf and setting the shelf above on fire some years ago. We keep a large collection of various flashlights around the house instead. Some of them actually work. I do need to try fresh batteries on the non-working ones and toss the ones that don’t work. My bad.
Speaking of Wifey; the new gallery sold another of her paintings yesterday. Maybe she’s pricing them too low.
I’m (nominally) left handed, and I don’t usually shift my fork about at all. I usually keep my knife in my right hand unless I’m dealing with a particularly tough hunk of something and want my knife in my left, but I will normally keep my weapons of destruction in whatever hand I start out with. However, most Murikans do do the shifty-handy thing.
Me: “Why don’t you just learn to use your other hand too?”
Them: “Piss off, Jerk!”
We’ve had a mob of Red-winged Blackbirds move in on our feeders lately. Eventually the finches, who are smaller but much more numerous, will get fed up with the bigger birds and gang up on them. It’s interesting to watch.
Dinner tonight will be some kind of italian-y pasta. We have some bell peppers we want to use before we lose them, and a couple of Italian sausages. So there we go.
Stay safe out there.
OMG!! Amazing news!! The RoxStar actually asked TWICE to use the potty!!! Dare we hope that she’s finally decided she doesn’t like wearing soggy and/or poopy diapers? We’ve tried various ways over the last year or so to get her out of diapers, but she was never interested. Not even when bribed with chocolate!!
Daughter felt like as soon as she decided she was ready, she’d be potty trained. I couldn’t offer any help because I was working full time and the day care teachers got my kid out of diapers. Her pediatrician wasn’t concerned so we didn’t push too hard - just the occasional suggestion. But now, maybe??? MAYBE???
Yeah, it doesn’t take a lot to get me all wound up. 
Afternoon all. Lots of soccer stuff to do, mostly answering parents (and coaches) questions and getting my things organized. About 1pm local I got my Girls 10U team roster, considering my first practice is scheduled for 5:30pm today, it was a bit of a close call, but we’ll see how many kids I get (if they are as tired as I am of being cooped up, they’ll harass their parents into bringing them).
Supposed to get into the 70’s later this week, but it’ll be going into the 50’s as soon as the sun goes down, so need to dress for that.
FCM, she asked, but did she use it? Progress!! And nice cleaning report, my corners don’t get much cleaning out of me. Congrats on the hair removal.
Bumba, maybe she’s pricing just what the market demands. Good on her anyway. And like you I eat left-handed, so shifting the fork is something I’ve never had to consider.
Never was in the service so never got offered the chance for Engineering; which I wouldn’t have taken anyway, my math was never that strong. Good on all of you that did try it.
Evil Spaceman, hard to imagine interviewing for your job. Hope the inquisitors remember the good stuff and forget the halting start.
Magic, have a good bike ride and the kids will be back to acting like kids in, oh, about 5 minutes…
flyboy, I am not sure I understood everything, but I do speak fluent frustration. Hang in there and may Murphy become confused looking for your door.
talkie, I have a quote, purportedly by Mark Twain, hanging in my house that goes “At fourteen my old man (sub mother) was so ignorant I could barely stand to have him around. At twenty-one I was amazed at how much the old man (mother) had learned in seven years.” IOW, ya can’t win–you can just try your best.
Cookie, hooray for having a washer and a vaccine on consecutive Wednesdays, May both brighten your weeks.
OK, need to start dressing properly to greet 8-10 7,8, and 9 year olds on the soccer field. And I volunteer for this…
Howdy Y’all! I have been dealin’ with HVAC stuff off and on all day. The ones at the church house are bein’ serviced today. It’s the usual routine contracted for service, so no need for me to be around or pretty much even know it’s happenin’. Except, today I get a call from the tech to ask why one of the units is shut off. OOPS! That was my bad as the dang thing kept cyclin’ on and off, so I shut it off since the area it heats/cools was not bein’ used anyway and ‘tis one of the units we shall discuss replacin’ tonight. So I explain why and ask him to take a look to see what’s happenin’ just for fun. The reason is not good. It needs a new condenser coil and other stuff to the tune of almost $7800. The estimates I have to replace the unit altogether is 10k. He has several other questions as well, but I could answer all those, so there’s that. See how much fun I have as church janitor Junior Warden!
Also, I somehow managed to block EYP’s phone number on my phone. I found out cause he emailed me to tell me he was tryin’ to call but couldn’t. I checked my contact info on him, and sure 'nuff I somehow has blocked his number. DUH! Maybe I should never be left unsupervised.
Plus also, we decided to do a late N.O.L./early sup at the not too shabby Chinese hog trough buffet place. We hadn’t been in a while cause we got kinda tired of it due to the fact it always has the same ol’ stuff. Today, it was not bad. I’m sure that’s cause we hadn’t been in a while. Anywho, beastloaf is on hold until tomorrow.
Shortly, I shall don proper attire (woe and bother!) and head on over to the church house.
I have candles stuffed in various drawers throughout da cave to use as light in case of emergency. I don’t put my elbows on the table, and I don’t go through the cut and switch bother. Also, I am a lefty and eat left handed. Well, I use a utensil in my left hand to bring comestibles to my mouth. I don’t just dip my left hand in the food. That would be messy, especially for soup.
After the tree missed everything, a cousin suggested I buy a lottery ticket. I got one of each. I checked them today and won… Nothing.
Finished off the menudo for lunch, went to Rite-Aid to pick up a prescription, bought a couple of nice rib-eye steaks for sometime this week, put the meatloaf into the loaf pan, showered and shaved, did my laundry, and worked at my job! I think I’ll crunch data for another hour and then go home (move to the other side of the couch).
Napped, tok Gordie out for some sun. Making mushroom Swiss burgers for dinner tonight.
MMMMMMmmmmmmm
: crosses fingers :
: and opens virtual pub for a toast :
Ah wow I’m salivating!
haaya y’all i had pizza for supper.
this cier is good. I had 4 cans of cider in the fridge and I"m drinking one. yay!