I am shocked :eek: that you would consider ingesting instant NOTs, FCM. Why in our exclusive circle… What? Inclusive? Never mind.
I’m so sorry about what you’re going through, Soapy. Lots and lots of love and hugs headed your way.
Was that your reaction to the 5th grade, Sticky? Extra hugs for you too. Also some for Kanga, purely on principle.
Big earthquake in Mexico today, although not much damage, it appears. My brother had a conference call scheduled and wasn’t able to get through and then got a text (through Whatsapp, which, if you have international connections and almost any smartphone, is a MUST HAVE - free texting across multiple phone platforms) that there had been a strong earthquake. I guess it shook for about 2 minutes.
I was in a working meeting and he kept texting me with updates. Everyone is fine and phone lines are cleared up enough that we’ve both talked to Mom. She lives in an area where you almost never feel earthquakes, but was downtown running an errand and had just gotten in a taxi when the quake started. Nice taxi driver stayed calm, turned the radio on, and they waited while traffic cleared up so that he could take her home. So far, everyone we know is fine. Worst is that some pipes burst where one of my cousins works and flooded her office.
So, good news, really.
Work was long - again - should let up after next week, I hope.
Went for a long walk at the end of the day. It is SO pretty in my neighborhood right now. Everything is in bloom and everyone is out walking. Yay! Pictures forthcoming.
Although I only got out of work 30 minutes late, it still felt like a long-assed day. I came outside to rain blowing sideways and a bit slushy snow on my rig. Traffic was stupid, but I’m home now. Dinner is in the oven. I took the easy way out and made tater tot casserole.
FCM, have you seen those frozen bagged potatoes that you use for instant? Just nuke the bag, dump them in bowl, smoosh them a little, add milk and butter and mash or cream away. They’re not too bad.
I will admit to using the occasional jarred gravy. Usually, it’s Heinz chicken to accompany the cornflake breaded cutlets I get from the meat counter at Safeway. I usually prepare smashed taters with those cutlets because that’s what Mr. Tater’s like, thus the jarred gravy. Sometimes I just don’t want to deal with hassling with “real” gravy, and I can make some damn good gravy.
I submitted an application for a place! I have to send them some more info tomorrow morning.
Ground floor. Really near my friends. Near a grocery store. All utilities paid. And it’s from the 1950s and CUTE! The bathroom has pink tile! (No pink sink though. I think the sink and the toilet were replaced in the last twenty years. The tub is original though.) For a studio it’s huge. The kitchen and dining room are an actual separate room (with a second door out).
98% of Spaniards are positive for the Tuberculine test; SiL the doctor jokes that “the other 2% haven’t been tested yet”. That doesn’t mean we have tuberculosis, only that we have antibodies for it. The expectations are that, since most of the country has been exposed to Koch’s and we occasionally get an immigrant with actual TB (so, new Koch’s to join the existing country-wide pool), we’ll continue being positive for Tuberculine in the foreseeable future. There’s talks of dropping the test completely: we do it because WHO recommends it, but in our case it’s a more expensive equivalent to asking “does the patient present a torso?”
crosses fingers for the Shiny One I’m moving into my new place on Friday, it’s shared housing because I’m on a four month contract.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffienatin’. YAWN 'Tis 63 Amurrkin out with a predicted high of 84 for the day. A little bit of a cool down.
mmmmmms sorry about the tb and stoppin’ makin’ baby stuff. Hopefully you won’t have to take the meds.
ShinyCat appropriate/inappropriate appendages crossed re the apartment. Sounds like a nice place!
gt glad all your Mexico folks are ok.
Tonight I bring sammiches to the soup 'n sammich supper at the church house. I have a buncha pimento cheese made up. I shall make sammiches and cut 'em in half after irk. Actually I may just take the pimento cheese and the bread over to the church house and make 'em up there. Might be a better plan.
Ok I need me some more caffiene and rumbly tummy wants brekkie. Then, alas, irk purtification must commence. Rah.
I got my bike back yesterday, and brought it to irk today without bending any rims. The guys at the bike shop actually washed and waxed it while in their care.
I don’t eat jarred gravy. Heck, I don’t eat homemade gravy unless it has sausage in it and it’s layered over biscuits.
on the new digs, ShinyStripes.
Any word on SoapyDad?
Another foggy morning in southern Merrylande. Time to irk.
Everyone from the UK tests positive as we get the BCG however damn PHD here swears down they have never seen a reaction to the test like I had which coupled with the fact I travelled to West Africa, North Africa and a few other places with work where TB is prevalent so even though I have no active symptoms they are convinced I have it. Joy. It is this way or no Greencard. I really don’t want to be on meds for 9 months.
Mock me for my canned/jarred gravy - I don’t care! Same deal with using frozen pie crusts. I know how to do it proper from scratch, I’ve done it proper from scratch, I just don’t want to mess with doing it proper from scratch. I have nothing to prove to anyone at this stage of my life. But for the record, I’ve now made a list of folks not to invite to dinner when I intend to serve gravy. So there.
**mmmmmmmmmm **- American bureaucracy, love it or, um, deal with it because you can’t win…
Another terrible night last night - I could not fall asleep, so I ended up getting out of bed and going to the living room to watch TV till midnight. I didn’t want to keep my sweetie awake. I did manage to fall asleep till about 4:40, and again till he got up at 6, and once more till almost 8. I feel less raggedy, especially having had a bowl of cereal, but so far I have no motivation to do anything.
My plans for today involve removal of leaves from the front yard and maybe transplanting a few plants. The leaves will be mostly easy, the transplanting will depend upon my back. And the weather. And my attitude in general.
Just went to the morning pottery class I missed last week. Was slightly amusing- everyone (barring I think one woman, but she kept fairly quiet) is a total dippy hippy. It’s so hard to not laugh when someone is describing this amaaaazing ritual they were involved in yesterday, where a friend who claims to be a Celtic Shaman did an ancient Egyptian ritual by giving gold back to the earth, by burying her old earrings. ‘I never wore them anyway’.
Then someone brought the conversation round to ‘sound healing’, which two people there claimed to be able to do- one by using ‘tuning forks, but like special ones specially attuned to your energies’, the other by (his despcription) ‘basically going “Ommmmm”…’, while a third person was going ‘Oh wow, that sounds so amazing!’ I could hardly concentrate on what I was trying to model (cthulhu eggcups, if you’re wondering), and bits of brain were starting to drip out of my ears, so I left early. I don’t think I quite fit in.
I’ve no idea what I’m doing for the rest of the day, other than sniggering about hippies- but I should probably start doing something before it just evaporates same as the last few days. Probably something involving plants, it’s quite sunny.
Hope all of you have a lovely day Or a, like, amaaaazing one if you’d prefer.
**Filbert **- that hilarious!!! I’d love to know why a Celtic Shaman would do an Egyptian ritual instead of a Celtic ritual. And tuning forks?? OOOOOOOOOOOkay…
I had a flaky friend some years back who was all into the energies in her “meridians.” She was also into some weird dietary practices of food-combining, and she could go from normal to psycho in 2.3 seconds!
I would normally say I can’t imagine, but in this case I can.
Many years ago the mother of a good friend was in the hospice for the terminal stages of lung cancer. It had been suggested we drop by to pay our respects before it was too late.
Unfortunately even in the short hours before we made it she had lapsed into coma and was heavily sedated as you describe. As her family had been dealing with it for some time they were holding up. I kept it together in the room, but as I left I fell to sobbing.
Even more hugs and prayers coming. Keep one of those little couch/throw pillows handy at the office and in the car ----- nice thing to scream and cry into and not get locked up your-own-self.
Why didn’t anyone warn us raising parents was this difficult and painful?
Out of utter boredom and inertia, I decided to have Bad Chinese for lunch. ugh. Not my best decision. I’d have done better to make a cheese sammich. Oh well.
It’s still overcast and I can’t get motivated to do any yard work. I’m going to make a cucumber salad right now then decide what to do next. Maybe nap?
Same deal with using frozen pie crusts. I know how to do it proper from scratch, I’ve done it proper from scratch, I just don’t want to mess with doing it proper from scratch. I have nothing to prove to anyone at this stage of my life. But for the record, I’ve now made a list of folks not to invite to dinner when I intend to serve gravy. So there. 
And tuning forks?? OOOOOOOOOOOkay…