The Gift of Life in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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This afternoon’s errands were completed successfully: after the tattoo removal appointment I went a half mile down the road to the UPS Store and mailed a copy of the new house key to my property manager (rekeying the locks is a security measure I always take when I move to a new rental), and then I finally went to the grocery store. I decided to try two wraps from the deli: turkey and cranberry sauce, and chicken caesar. I think I’ll have one for dinner this evening…maybe the chicken. :slight_smile:

I was out for less than 90 minutes and was never more than 4 miles from home, but by the time I got back the temperature display in my car had hit triple digits:

I’m pretty happy to have my car tucked back into the garage and myself tucked back into the air conditioning!

Chefguy’s art story reminds me…in late 2018 I bought my first piece of original art, a 48" x 24" painting on stretched canvas that a friend made:

I’m not much of an art person, but something about this really resonated with me – I still love it – and I always knew exactly where it would go in the new house; however, when I finally got around to hanging things last weekend I discovered that it’s a little small for this space! So, I reached out to my artist friend to see if she might have any square pieces of the same height from the same period/style in a studio somewhere (ideally two, so I can hang one on either side): next weekend I’m going to meet her to look at a few options in her storage space. I’m really hoping that I don’t have to try to make something by another artist work. :crossed_fingers:

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It’s been a bit of a day. Started out at a delightful 52Ferrets, is currently 70F and supposed to top out at 83F. Still not complaining!

Heeeeeeeeeeeee!! Our minds work in similar ways. :smiley: Your food efforts sound marvelous and I wish you lived closer.

What a pisser! I added extra bad words on your behalf!

Ever witty. :slight_smile:

Me, too. As Mumpers often say, “It’s good to be juvenile!” :smiley: We’re just doing our parts.

I’m not on Instagram, but I may have to join just to read the tales of Freddie! Sounds like something I’d thoroughly enjoy. Thanks for suggesting it. And have a wonderful time in Oldham!

Bbbooo, this brought back a memory. I remember scouring liquor stores for days looking for Chambord for a particular very involved torte I made in the mid 80s. So help me, I think I still have that bottle stashed somewhere at the back of the liquor cabinet… Bet it would be nice with some fuzzy water. Thanks!

doggio, I’m glad you’re getting a break. Stay cool, and keep an eye on Spot.

Garlic is trickier than it seems. It rewards you mightily if it likes its growing conditions, but punishes you just as hard if it doesn’t. I’m confident you’ll get it figured out, though. Just duplicate Gilroy weather as much as you can, and it will thrive. :wink:

Good luck with the rehoming of your art, cookie. It doesn’t sound fun, but it’s a necessary task. I hope the valuation goes well.

So as mentioned, the day was a little busy here. I kept waking up overnight, so at 5:30 a.m. I just called it good and got up. Puzzed and sheveled. Made potato salad. Figured out breakfast but didn’t fix it (I eat breakfast around 11:00 a.m. most days). Released the hound from his crate so I could secure said crate in the car for his trip to the vet. I let him have a good morning romp so he could get all his voiding tasks done. Did more gutter clean-out and teased him while up high on the ladder.

Today’s vet visit was for an anal gland expression – Ollie’s first since March 19th, and that’s a welcome record. The psillium husk is working! He poops like a boss. Fed him breakfast and off we went. Ollie also got a Cytopoint injection so I could take him off Zenrellia for his itchy skin. There was one stupid study that indicates vaccine effectiveness is compromised in dogs taking Zenrellia, so now every time Ollie needs a vaccination, I have to go through this medication shuffle. I could just leave him on Cytopoint and ditch the Zenrellia, but Yeeps! That stuff is so spendy.

Anyway, once finished at the vet, we headed over to the pond place to see what might be done about my leaky pond. I should have checked. Closed for the holiday. Home again, home again.

Ollie almost made it. As I was retrieving the mail, he horked up his breakfast. So I got extra laundry and cleaning tasks for my sins.

Finally got my breakfast – not so appetizing after Ollie lost his! – and figured out dinner to go with the potato salad: A grilled burger will suit.

A nap sounds perfect right now. But they never work out so I don’t even try. I can bludge with the best of them, though. :smiley:

I hope you all have good evenings ahead!

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No, it was one of those let’s just leave a couple of drops of urine here to let them know that this tree is mine leg lifts. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I went out in the afternoon heat on the Friday giant run. Mostly because the cats needed litter.
Turns out Ben and Jerry’s was on sale. Woot! This weekend sorted!

I don’t plan on leaving the building until it is time to head for the office on Monday.

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Oh yeah? Well, I don’t plan to leave my house again until it is time to head for the office on Tuesday!

(I work from home on Mondays and Fridays. :grin:)

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Don’t forget that on your Kindle app, you can open a book, click on the text, and an “assistive reader” option should appear on the bottom of that screen. It’s boring computer-voice, but if it’s a book where you don’t care about that or about occasional mispronunciations, it’s an easy way to be read aloud to, and cheaper than buying an audiobook.

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Howdy Y’all! I did the things over to the church house. On the way back to da cave I stopped at the good produce stand and bought a dozen ears of corn. There will be corn on the cob in addition to the other festal comestibles. However, I will cut mine off the cob as I do not like to gnaw on corn cobs. Everything got cooked and smoked. The ribs and the < snerk > BUTT! < snerk > smell soooooo good! I am also proud of the pies. The meringues would make church ladies weep with joy. Oh, and aside from everything else, I decided we need deviled aigs tomorrow. Nappage and day drinkin’ were also accomplished. A very BZZZY (for me) day today!

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Nah, you can make a functional liqueur using a good vodka or Everclear.

229

A really lot went on today and some major excitement just happened.

Only got 4 hours of sleep last night. Couldn’t get to sleep and internetted a little too long. Then
once I got up to use the facility, I couldn’t fall back to sleep so finally got up sometime after 6am and just threw on some very casual clothes. Watered the garden thoroughly. Krogered. Started making the Tuna Noodle Salad meaning I boiled the bowtie noodles and washed/vinegared all the vegetables then chopped/diced them. Put into bowl and into refrigerator to chill.

Sheveled, packed a bag, I only wore shorts, a tank top and sandals in the car, took other clothing, shoes and socks to put on where the AC was likely to make the buildings cold. Drove to daughter’s and had to give Bella about 10 minutes of rubs before daughter and I could leave. First we went to an Italian deli & cafe. I ordered the Napa Club (grilled chicken, mozzarella, bacon, avocado, mixed greens, garlic & herb aoli), while daughter ordered a Muffuletta sans cheese (fire roasted ham, capicola, genoa salami, mortadella, muffuletta; held cheese was mozzarella & provolone). The sandwiches were huge so we each ate only a half; they were absolutely delicious. She also got a Cortado which apparently is some kind of a coffee drink . I had a sip and it was very good. I also had a Joe’s Lemonade. We had a very nice relaxing visit over lunch. Oh and we split a cannoli.
One nice thing is that the parking garages were free for the holiday weekend starting today.

Then we headed to Cranbrook Art Museum. For her birthday I had bought a membership with guest pass for her. We were supposed to go on a tour of the collection in the storage area but the person who was going to be the tour guide called in sick. Not to worry, we took our time perusing the 4 separate exhibits. The first was art from the Cranbrook Collection by the Graduate Art Academy staff and alumni which included numerous mediums. The second was some thread art by some School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) staff. My daughter earned her masters from SAIC so she was familiar with the artists. The third was called Monumental Color by 3 artists: Cecily Brown, Sam Gilliam and Joan Mitchell (not to be confused with my favorite female vocalist Joni). The last exhibit we toured was a solo exhibition of the work of a recent 2023 graduate of the Academy, Akea Brionne, called A Dreaming Hour. They were multidimensional tapestries adorned with glitter, oil pastels and rhinestones; quite striking. Lastly we went outside intending to walk around the very long pool which has numerous sculptures within it but after going barely 1/8 of the way around it, we turned back as it was just too darn hot. So, we walked through the last 2 holes of the mini-putt putt course near the pool and headed to the car. Checked the temp when we got in, the car said 101 but daughter said her iWatch said 92. As we got going, car said 97.

Didn’t spend too long at daughter’s, just long enough to give Bella a treat and some rubs. When I got home, I got out a can of tuna, mayo and seasonings and added all to the pasta and veggies that I had prepared this morning. After chilling in frig, Hubs and I had it with some garlic toast; YUM!

Then the wind went wild and everything in the backyard was swaying back and forth to beat the band. Then the rain started; the wind was so fierce that the rain was coming down sideways. The power flickered on and off several times, the most it was out was for 5 minutes. Then we looked out the front window. Good size limb had sort of snapped off the tree in our boulevard, still barely attached to the tree and laying across the sidewalk. It barely missed my Little Library. Very lucky it didn’t land the other direction as it could have landed on Hubs car.

So, the excitement was that I couldn’t let that lie there restricting passage past our house. So, I got a saw out of the garage and went to work. I had sawed close to halfway through the limb when a neighbor pulled over to the curb, hopped out and asked if I wanted help. Not really but he was so eager so I gave him the saw. He finished sawing through and pulled the limb over to the curb; that’s one thing I couldn’t have done, that sucker was at least 12’ long and has a lot of branches branching off it. Alls well that ends well.

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perhaps geography wasn’t your best subject. :grin:

taters if it was me, I’d go with the raised air mattresses for the grandkids. They’ll really like them and you’re not stuck with them after they go like you would be with trundle daybeds which don’t sound all that comfortable. Are the grandkids of an age where you could explain to them that if there are shenanigans and they end up permanently deflating them, that they’ll be sleeping on the floor?

I’m only to post 211 but my eyelids are getting very heavy and I don’t want to end up faceplanting on the keyboard so I’ll say Good Night, Sleep Tight, Have Pleasant Dreams!

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Wow, you are quite the person of action. It would have taken me much longer to realize that “something should be done” than you. I probably wouldn’t have thought to do something until I saw someone unable to pass.

So it looks like I am going to have to go across the street for an hour tomorrow. I’ve tried to beg off because I don’t want to eat in front of people yet but Harry is really insistent. I will go and visit, drink a drink and then have Hubs bring me home again. He can stay and bring me a plate when he comes home.

“We” made potato salad today. He did all the actual work, I just told him what to do and when. James will be there so we can trade books.

Looking forward/not looking forward.

It is quiet here. I’m so happy we aren’t listening to explosions and gunshots like we endured every year in AZ. You can buy big variety boxes of all sorts of bangers legally out here but happily it stays blessedly quiet.

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Peace has returned to FairyChatEstate. Daughter and her crew were here for almost 5 hours. We ate, she gave SIL a haircut, then he showered and we just hung out till it was dark enough to do the sparklers/fireworks. Things that fly are illegal in Merrylande, but these were all ground based, even tho they shot sparkles in the air and some even had little explosive bits shooting up. I had a bucket of water standing by for the empty boxes/tubes just in case. Nothing was burned down, so there’s that.

The rest of tonight is for chillage. Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but it’ll involve staying home. And as it’s 10-ish, I think I’ll mosey back to my comfy sleep chamber.

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A front with rain has taken the temp down from 92 to 73.
Saw a bonus on my Meijers perks-spend $5 a day at shop and scan and get 5,000 points, which lets you get anything in the store thats $5.
I thought wow, I can do this every day and get $100 worth of stuff.
Well, terms and conditions say Limit 15,000 points.

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Ooooohhhhh, naughty!

Yikes.

:four_leaf_clover:

Management - knowing we would be suh-lammmmmed - treated us to sammiches from a local place (Fatty Lumpkins) and I just love that one small local food biz is supporting another small local food biz.

The guy showed up at the drive-thru window around half an hour before we opened, and at first everyone was like, “Who the fuck does this asshole think he is, trying to order already … OH you brought us food, well, okay! Hello, friend!”

Also, it was one of the teenager’s birthday yesterday - shit, I just realized he’s probably not a teen anymore - anyway the manager who made me cupcakes for my birthday ALSO made him carrot cake AND red velvet cupcakes today, and let’s just say I had dessert first.

… ah, the BIG boomers are starting up. I saw some of the pretty sparkly kind on the horizon earlier, but it sounds like the big artillery is firing now.

Monkey isn’t scared of the noise, but is pouting because I’m still keeping him inside for safety sake.

I think I’ll patriotically microwave a mug of tea, just cuz I’m a rebel like that.

Not really, it’s still hotter than Satan’s armpit. But come mid October … { shakes fist in England’s general direction }

Hey, map directions for me!

235

Up from naptime. Having a Monte Cassino with Mexican Fish Stew. Spot is having dry flavorless bits and water. Watching F1 FP1.
Cute: Snuggling on the couch with your cat.
Not so cute: He reaches up and starts rolling your eyeball around in its socket like a Centipede trackball.

At least you’re not Dopey or Sneezy. :wink:

{{{{JtC}}}}

Ms. Peach feel like sharing? :zany_face:

The Heat Index tomorrow is supposed to be 112, so I ain’t going nowhere. And Spot will keep an eye on me.

East is just the long way around(via Ceylon)

Was it Hobbit quality and quantity?

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Well, I’m back. Made it to the gym and got soccer watched and calories burned and still got home before the thunder-boomers hit, so I consider the day a success. Been watching the World Cup at home for longer than I expected (Cape Verde came this close to the upset of the Century) and now it’s after 9pm and will be off to bed in a short time. The rain has cooled us down some, ‘only’ 74F at 9pm, but the heat will be back on tomorrow.

Only 26 messages behind (I’ve got to find time to post in the afternoon). So heading into scroll mode in 3..2..1..

Taters, glad the first paint job got done fairly easily, hopefully the rest will fall in line.

red, never had an air mattress so I can offer no advice.

FCM, you can wash your dog for less than it costs me, a 85% bald guy, to get a haircut. Not a bad deal at all. Same with the shopping bill, picking up 8 apples these days gets near that $16 price all by itself.

Good old ‘terms and conditions’, damn them..

Oopsie, best wishes to your BFF’s. I set my thermometer at either 76F or 77F to keep the bills reasonable. Happy Lego’ing!

Hearing the first firework booms now, guess the city is going ahead with the display despite the afternoon rainstorm.

Doggio, glad you survived another week at the Asylum…

JtC, a little garlic is better than none at all. And patience is a virtue…but then again, your a self-described floozy so virtue is something not in the discussion… :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: Hope your visit with Harry helps keep the grumps away.

Cookie, hope the valuation is pleasing to your ears (and your finances).

Oopsie, that’s pretty hot. I’ve gotten close to that when my car’s been in the gym parking lot for 3 hours or so, but the AC is pretty efficient. Good luck on the picture-hunting.

CatGlove, haven’t been in an art museum in a long time, might have to make some time for one. And sounds like you had a storm like we’ve been having near me (haven’t seen one like yours yet, but some areas 15 or so miles away got hit). No falling trees here.

shoe, Fatty Lumpkin’s is a great name for a sammich place.

But Doc has made her Grumpy…

And the City Fireworks have crescendo-ed and fallen silent and it’s moving toward 10pm, so I think I will head off to Slumberland shortly. See y’all on the 4th.

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You guys just wait until I can wave my cane around in the air again! You’ve got some serious cane waving and stomping coming then.

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I’m not sure what their current exhibits are, but the Frist is quite interesting and not too far away.

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Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 74 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 94 and sunny, but becomin’ partly cloudy mid afternoon(ish) with an ever so slight chance of rain around that time. We shall see. Six of us will gather to frolick at the cee-mint pond around elevenish this mornin’ until well, we get tired of it I reckon. Then we shall feast. Ribs will be slowly heated up in our enormous slow cooker/oven thingy (it holds sixteen quarts and gets used to make big batches of soups and stews) cause it does not heat da cave up. Beans, however, will get baked in the oven. The corn on a cob also needs to cook on the stove top, so the kitchen will get heated up anyway. We’re aimin’ to feast maybe around three p.m. Boiled peanuts are bein’ brought for us to snack on around the cee-mint pond. YUM! I ended up makin’ four lemon pies yestiddy, two for today (plus some leftover for OYKW and I) and two to take tomorrow. Should be a fun day and I am lookin’ forward to just chillin’ with some homies here at da cave. There were some fireworks last night but they were over by ten p.m. Let us hope for the same today.

Also, geography? We don’t need no stinkin’ geography! :face_with_tongue: What? I head out in a general direction and eventually get there.

Cat_Glove glad you had a fun day even if it ended with an adventure you did not want. Good that you had a nice neighbor to help.

JtC I agree with you. I would not be in a real social mood myself. Sounds like you have a good plan to go put in an appearance and then leave.

shoe a sammich from a place named Fatty Lumpkin’s could not be anything but good!

Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I suppose I should make myself reasonably presentable to entertain. OK, reasonably presentable bein’ a bathin’ suit, tshirt and flip flops.

Happy Sattidy Y’all! Happy Independence Day Amurrkin Mumpers! May the fun be plentiful and the fireworks be not too bad.

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Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 18c/64f with a predicted high of 19c/66f and mostly cloudy. Weather app says “All the clouds can go and fuck all the way off.”

Yesterday was fun, we made it to Oldham mid-afternoon and two of our friends were already here. We had a nice catch-up while we waited for the other two, then Ubered ourselves to the music festival venue. Exchanged tickets for weekend passes, then wandered through to the outdoor stage for the opening band. It was close to midnight when we got back, the guys went off in search of kebabs and the girls had a cup of tea and went to bed.

We met up for breakfast and now we’re chilling until it’s time to go out. A friend of ours who lives in the area is taking part in a local event in the city centre so we will pop along and see her before our musical shenanigans get started

Happy Treason Day, ungrateful Colonials!