We just found out that high temps and high winds are forecast for Portland over the next few days. That means extreme fire danger, including for the city, with the possibility of power outages from downed trees. I just put five gallons of water in the downstairs freezer, which will hopefully keep the stuff in there at least cold in the event of no AC. Otherwise, we’re going to be barbecuing a lot. Sheesh, what a year.
Easily the most epic birthday card I have ever seen. Wow, just wow! I’m that happy that @EmilyG was born too. (My birthday is January 10th, if you want to write that down. Not gonna tell you what year).
Your Atarax sleeping plan seems reasonable. I like everybody being intentional with meds and you’re so right about needing to sleep. Every day it’s Goal #1 for me.
Enjoy that kiddo for me. My 3yo grandgirl is off vacationing (utterly socially distanced camping road trip). The nerve of her parents taking my Hattie out of the state! There might be moose and trout🐟fishing, she’s pretty excited about that.
When I do that I have to open three windows, one for each 
or else there are nasty loud squabbles.
We are having our first ‘fall is a’ coming folks day here’. I love it when that happens.
Your doggies are way too splendid not to get them away from ruffians who bite.
Happy 
Birthday to you 
Countless are called for!
.
I worry about you folks out there. Stay safe. It must be bad-the smoke has made it all the way to Nebraska. Hunker down and stay indoors.
I love hanging clothes on the line, haven’t done it for 55+ year but as a girl I made a game out of hanging things just right, like a game of Tetris. Kids today don’t have a clue. Few things as nice as laying your head down on a pillowcase that just came off the line earlier that day-the scent is like nothing else.
I thought I was the only one who had a previous owner like that. Bizarre things and mostly all broken.
I vote for one piece of cake for each Mumper and I like gluten free just fine.
My microwave and stove specialize in that. Bon Ami and Bar Keeper’s Friend are essential. Of course doing it more often would be a good idea in my case, but unlikely to happen. Wish there was a Teflon for great kitchen. One of you MMP engineers out there, please get right on that.
An eternal battle for me. I can’t seem to get over having been a poor kid-but my new roommate is helping me be brave and throw stuff the heck out. It is a good feeling when I can bring myself to do it and I never seem to miss the stuff once I ditch it. Hmmm, must be a sign I should keep doing it, but not today. It’s Labour Day and I have to get the 
s out.
Above mentioned grandgirl is near Estes for the week. Looking forward to the pictures. Hoping there isn’t a bear in any of ‘em.
You are a genuinely good friend. The good karma will come back to you.
Hope you get a good party and cake or 
. Congrats.
Boo off to a FaceTime visit with a newish friend-we’re both a little stir crazy. She has 3 swell doggies so I’ll get some virtual doggie time.
FCD wants pizza for supper, so I placed an order. Do any of you know if there’s any trick to making up pizza dough and freezing it for later? My bread machine recipe makes up a very tasty dough, but I don’t always know 2 hours ahead that I’ll want pizza. I suppose I could Google it.
Daughter has taken Roxy home. SIL is packing the truck with yet more stuff, and he’ll soon be gone. Peace shall reign again! Laundry is in, but not yet put away. It’ll be done before bedtime since all 3 baskets are on the bed.
I expect to sleep well tonight. I’s tahred!
On sunny days here, I lay my pillows out in the sunshine all day and they keep the sunshine smell for several days on my bed.
Yeah, you can freeze dough without a problem. Let it rise, knock in down, and wrap it in cling wrap or stick it in a freezer bag. After you thaw it, let it rise again, but not too much.
That’s good. You know we, or I, at least, was standing by prepared to tell you just where to put them otherwise.
Cookie, hope the docs can get your wife sorted and it’s nothing too troublesome.
Oh, the White River fire has been 60% contained, last time I checked, and they’re just doing cleanup around the edges now. It got to within 8 miles of our house, so was pretty worrying for a while.
Wifey wants her bird feeder on the deck so’s we can see it from the house. I may have to drill a hole for the pole. 
It’s not like the deck can look any worse than it does already. I have plans to someday replace all the deck boards. The substructure is in fine shape, but the idjits put the decking boards on wrong and they’re rotting. See, they have theses ‘V’ shaped grooves down the middle to help prevent warping. The grooved side is supposed to go down. Well they installed them grooved side up and when it rained the water stood in the grooves and rotted the wood. I’d like to put down synthetic boards, like TrexTM, but the joists are 24" on center and TrexTM and the like are thin and require joists no more than 16" apart, IIRC. ^le sigh^. Well, it’s not gonna happen this year anyway. I have plenty of time to decide.
Later.
9 of those days are work days. Friday, September 18 I am finished
Evening all. Pretty much a nothing-doing day, did avoid nappage by watching soccer on the TV, but didn’t venture outside since there was no mail today. Just read my computer notes (post-it notes attached to my monitor) and Purple Heart will be here tomorrow, so I need to get the stuff I save for them in a bag and out before 9am tomorrow.
hippie, congrats on being a short-timer, you’ll breeze through the rest of the days.
Cookie, hope the power stays on. And that wife-unit does well with the tests.
And need to call Brother here in a bit. He never calls, I have to do the legwork, but he’s all the family I have left so I’m staying in touch whether he likes it or not. That and the Southwest Chief going through Ft. Madison, Iowa are the highlights for the evening.
All y’all take care.
I was born in Dubuque and grew up in Cedar Rapids. We’re practically siblings. Or cousins at a minimum.
cookie, a peanut butter and spam sandwich? :d&r:
I hope that everything turns up OK for your wife.
Stay safe silenus, sunny, shady and the rest of the west coast Mumpers.
Take it easy on your remaining workdays hippy!
I got things done this morning and took off for Cookeville (a bit over an hour northeast of me, halfway to Knoxville) for a FB Marketplace buy. She wasn’t where she said she would be. 
Ticked me off, it did. At least it was a pretty drive home. On the way up, I followed GoogleMaps, which took me about 50 miles on I40 east. I hate taking that, as every jackass towing a trailer will pull into the left lane doing 62 mph and into traffic doing 75. I wish those !@#$ers would learn to drive or stay off the freeway.
The power’s gone out. Expected repair time is 17:30 – so another hour. Xfinity has a battery in their box. I have the generator running for cable and Internet. Corn’s on the barbie, soon to be followed by a couple of rib-eye steaks.
Well, to be honest, I watch trains via Virtual Railfan on youtube. Haven’t been within 150 miles of the place ever (did drive through Dubuque once or twice)
A nitpick: An interstate, such as I40 East, is built primarily with federal tax dollars and those trailer pullers have as much right to be there as anyone else, as long as they are going the posted minimum speed, which is most usually 40mph, IME. States vary as to the maximum, but those trailered vehicles have equal right to be there, they don’t have to take other roads for the convenience of others, they paid just as much for it.
Freeways are a different beast, not necessarily federal. The words aren’t interchangeable across the board. Freeways can be ‘controlled access’ which often limits commercial/trailered vehicles.
That said, ideally slower trailered vehicles should always try to stay out of the highest speed lane, if they can. They may have reasons to be there which may not be obvious. Again, it’s their right to, up to the max speed limit and above the minimum limit.
Dang! Let’s be friends anyway.
I have wonderful memories of The Sunset Limited and live now in the town the Burlington Northern built. Good train-watching here, even if it is sitting at an in-town grade crossing as a mile long coal car goes by.
Nothing quite that exotic, although it would be a good combo. I eat hot dogs with peanut butter and sriracha on top. Hot, sweet, salty and smokey: try it, you’ll like it.
My breakfast sandwich is a toasted Thomas English muffin, buttered and with a smear of mayo, then a strip of bacon or two, and an over easy egg. I top the egg with sriracha. Wonderful flavor combination, and you sop up the leaked yolk with the sandwich. I’ve been eating one nearly every day for three weeks and still not tired of them.
@Stainless_Steel_ Rat
And spent college summers and a year afterwards in Omaha, origin point of the Union Pacific. Great train watching there also.
made burgers, smoked paprika potato wedges, and corn with cajun style compound butter. Back to work in the A.M.
Congrats!
I have no cake, gluten free or otherwise. But I will eat coffee ice cream in your honor.
Howdy Y’all! We et sup, I hauled the biiiiiiiiiiig trash can all the way down to the road for pickup tomorrow, and we have stared at Netflix. OYKW is still starin’, I got tired of starin’. So all is well.
Cookie hope all is well with Mrs. Cookie.
Hippie yay for countdown to retirement. Retirement is the best!
Boo I was in Cedar Rapids once for irk. I flew in there on a Sattidy. Ok, a plane flew me there. I stayed at a hotel where all the visitin’ teams that play Iowa U stay. Un beknownst to me, Iowa and Iowa State were playin’ football that night in Ames. That’s the setup for my tale. I get to the hotel, check in, and head up to my room to unpack stuff. The hotel has a neat little bar/pub, so I decided to go down there for a burger and a beer, with the idea of headin’ back to the room afterward. Well, as I mentioned, there was the football game. It was just startin’ when I went in. The place was kinda packed with some locals watchin’ the game, which was cool. Also, there was a weddin’ reception goin’ on in the hotel. I learned the place does a lot of those. So, I’m there and kinda get into the game, so I decided to stay and watch. I’m sittin’ at a little table all by myself, when this guy comes in from the reception to sneak a peak at the game. He ordered a pitcher of beer, and asked me if he could sit a few minutes to watch before he had to get back. No problem says I. He watches for a bit, then heads back leavin’ the pitcher. He said he’d be back shortly. I asked the bartender if he could keep the pitcher cold until he got back, and he took the pitcher. The guy comes back. I see him at the bar and was about to tell him the bartender had his pitcher, but before I could he had ordered another pitcher. He comes over (hey, we’re friends now) and sits down. I told him the bartender had put back his first pitcher for him. Another friend of his comes in, they both drink a couple mugs of beer and then leave to get back to the reception, leavin’ the rest of that pitcher. I asked the bartender if he could put that pitcher back as well as I was sure he’d show back up. Sure enough he did and was about to order another pitcher but this time he saw me wave him over so came over to the table. I told him he had a part of two pitchers put back. The bartender sees him and brings those two pitchers over. The guy said to me he thought I’d drink on the pitcher when he left so he was leavin’ there for that. I thanked him but told him I’d had three beers earlier and that was enough for me and that I was just hangin’ around cause I’d gotten interested in the game. He leaves in a few after finishin’ up one of the pitchers. This time the pitcher he left just stayed on the table. Shortly thereafter he and a couple of his friends came back in and finished that one off as well as another. I was highly entertained by them and the game. Felt right at home! The place also had a pretty good champagne brunch on Sunday mornin’. Anywho, that’s my tale of my experience in Cedar Rapids. I think the hotel was a Sheraton.
End of long aimless ramble.
I can hear it coming. “I’ll eat 3 scoops of butter pecan ice cream in your honor”. Would that be @Stainless_Steel_Rat or @swampbear? Fess up, whoever it is.
Was there a wedding related brawl? We had that in Pittsburgh(Ruble missed that part) 