days_unfolding

1. Hmmm, I've lived in NYC for over 25 years, and I didn't know this Book Store existed. It's on the upper east side near the MET.

"Tucked away inside the French Embassy’s Payne Whitney mansion on NYC’s Upper East Side, Albertine Books is one of New York City’s best-kept secrets—and now, it’s getting global recognition as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world by book-loving travel guide 1000 Libraries.

Walk through its grand doors and you’ll find yourself beneath a breathtaking zodiac-painted ceiling, surrounded by elegant dark wood, celestial murals, and more than 14,000 French and English titles. It’s the only bookstore in New York City dedicated entirely to French-language works and translations, making it a true cultural gem for literature lovers."

I foresee a trip to the Met, the bookstore, and a gluten free bakery with croissants in my future. All on the upper east side. Along with a foray into Central Park. It's been a long time since I've gone. I tend to spend most of my time in Brooklyn.

Note to non-New Yorkers? The City = Manhattan. Brooklyn is Brooklyn, Bronx is the Bronx, Queens is Queens, and Staten Island is Staten Island. Long Island is Long Island. Upstate - is basically everywhere NORTH of the City and the Bronx. But Manhattan to New Yorkers is referred to as simply - "the City", and everyone knows what you are talking about.

Gotta love a French Book store - I can actually read rudimentary French.

2. Saw a letter from Betrand Russell to Sir Oswald about fascism on Face Book, posted by Rahael. (It reminded me of why I liked Betrand Russel - who I read a lot of in the 1980s.)

Betrand Russell's artful letter refusing to debate British Fascist Leader Oswald Mosely

(A character based on Mosely was also featured (deservingly so) as a villain in the last season of Peaky Blinders.)

3. Apparently they are starting a Robot Taxi program in NYC this fall.
The Taxi and Limousin Commission is understandably upset about it.

" New Yorkers are about to meet a new kind of traffic jam companion: the robotaxi. Beginning in September, Waymo, the Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company, will put its self-driving cars on the streets of Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn.

Before you panic about an empty driver’s seat whizzing down Flatbush, rest assured: State law requires a trained specialist behind the wheel at all times. So yes, there will still be a human gripping the steering wheel while the car quietly does most of the thinking."

As someone who cannot drive - I find the news of self-driving vehicles kind of reassuring? On the other hand - I can already imagine the confusion of more than one person telling the car where they want to go. Not sure how that will work? Just that I'm very glad I rarely, if ever, take any sort of motorized vehicle in the city. I just do subways and walking, thank you very much.

4. Details on Depart Q S2 on Netflix.

shadowkat

I'm flirting with seeing the "Chess" revival, which has a new book by Danny Strong (yes, that Danny Strong (aka Jonathan on Buffy), starring Lea Michele. But it is pricey! Previews are $135-$449 seats. The cheap ones are $135. Ugh. No. I'll have to either do Today's Tix or TDF to do it, assuming that will work. I love the musical Chess - I saw the original cast in it in London in the 1980s, when Anthony Stewart Head subbed for his brother, who had been playing one of the lead roles. I fell in love with Anthony Stewart Head in the role - this was in 1987-88, long before the coffee commercials or Buffy. Also it was a lot cheaper. London's West End tends to be a lot cheaper than Broadway, also more interesting. I miss London, I need to visit it again some day. One of my dreams is to do a rail trip across Europe. I want to retire and wander about by train. Trains are perhaps the only source of transportation that does not result in motion sickness, and I feel safe on. I adore trains.

Work and my attempts at having some semblance of a social life, including making new friends (not necessarily in tandem), are leaving me confused and frustrated. Also a touch depressed.( Read more... )

Niece is running into issues with her thesis - she can't find an advisor to help her with it. ( Read more... )

I didn't sleep well last night - mainly because I forgot to take a shower earlier in the day, even though I had the day off. ( Read more... )

August Question a Day Memage (catching up again)

22. Do you have many lamps in your home, or do you rely on overhead lighting?

Yes, two - and they are kind of cheap craft lamps that don't have to have light bulbs replaced. I use them in case the overhead lighting goes out on me. I tend to rely on overhead lighting and natural light through my windows - I get a lot of indirect natural light, so can leave the lights off most of the time, particularly during the late spring and summer months. I have them off at 6:30 pm for example. I prefer natural light.

23. Do you own any clothing you only wear for a specific activity?

Yes, work clothes. Pajamas for sleep. And joggers or light sweats for laying about the house. Casual clothes for wandering about, not work related. I tend to compartmentalize my life.

24. Are you good at packing when you go away, or do you pack all the things ‘just in case’?

I was raised by a father who traveled constantly by airline, he was a road warrior. So I pack light and compact. With the view that I'm more than likely to bring the wrong things or forget something, but I'll survive.
I only bring a carry-on bag and a back pack, very little else. And I have a packing list.

25. If you ended up on a deserted desert island, what luxury would you want to have with you?

Hmmm...this is tough. I honestly don't know. Maybe some sort of wireless solar powered radio?

26. Do you have any tattoos?

No. The appeal is kind of lost on me?

maju

I think I'm going to have to get my own subscription to Netflix as soon as I get home, since it seems I won't be moving to Connecticut for another few months. While I'm here at my daughter's I have access to her account, but Netflix won't let me sign in from my house. While I'm here I'm taking the opportunity to watch the third season of Fisk (so good), and I'm also going to watch the final episode of Adolescence, which I was prevented from seeing when Netflix stopped allowing me to log into daughter's account remotely.

There is a holdup in getting my apartment built - my daughter is waiting for a third quote because the first one was much higher than the architect had estimated and the second one was much higher again. (I'm guessing this inflation of the prices is due to you-know-who's tariffs.) Getting a quote takes weeks and weeks because the contractor has to quote individually for every single item rather than just making a blanket estimate. I can understand why, but it does make the process frustratingly slow.

fauxklore

1. Have you ever made a huge change to your hair - cut or colour? I have dyed my hair various times. The most interesting is probably the time I got magenta cellophane immediately before having new passport photos taken. Australian immigration looked at me a bit strangely a few weeks later.

2. What is one thing that happened today that you really want to remember 10 years from now? I’ve really just spent the day mostly on errandy stuff, e.g. laundry and sorting through receipts, none of which is memorable. The news is full of one Trumpist outrage after another and I’d like to think that will all be over long before 10 years from now. So, frankly, I got nothing.

3. Are you happy with my job, life, and situation? What parts are good? What parts are bad? What a badly phrased question. I’m reasonably happy with my life, but know nothing about yours. The major thing I need to work on is decluttering my living room.

4. Where would you go to relax and why? I’d love to spend a week or so at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Oregon. I’d probably choose the Agatha Christie room.

5. What trait did you admire in a relative, friend, classmate, or coworker today? I’m proud of one of my friends for writing honestly about her mental health struggles and what she’s been doing to address them.

6. What is the weather like today? How do you feel about it? I think the weather in June was hot and muggy. But the weather right now is quite pleasant, sunny with a high in the mid-70’s Fahrenheit.

7. What's the most difficult part about being you? I have high standards that I can’t always live up to.

8. Good or bad, what is your hometown best known for? Uh, there were a few couple of famous mafiosi who lived there. And also one former U.S. Senator.

9. Describe an incident at a beauty or barber shop. Does getting a chocolate pedicure at the spa at the Hotel Hershey count? Or, even better, the fish pedicure I once got?

10. What musical instrument(s) do you play or wish you could play? I took several years of piano lessons off and on. I also did two years of viola in elementary school. I’ve fooled around with various other instruments, ranging from the accordion to the tin whistle to the bowed psaltery over the years. But (to steal a joke from my Dad) my best instrument is the stereo system. I wish I could play the didgeridoo, but I've never been able to make sense of circular breathing.

11. Tell about one of your first away-from-home experiences. I went to three different summer camps. Two of them were relatively normal. The one that I went to for two summers in a row is the source of some of my best stories, since it was run by a socialist zionist organization and we had events like Capitalist Day.

12. What makes you feel safe? I guess I feel safest in familiar environments, but that includes places like home (duh!) and comfortable hotels and many major cities. Frankly, I rarely feel unsafe.

13. Have you ever been to a surprise party? Was it for you or someone else? Was it a good surprise? I don’t remember anyone ever throwing a surprise party for me, but I did go to a few surprise parties for other people when I was a teenager. The best one was for two people whose birthdays were close in time. (Their birthdays may have been the same day, but I don’t remember.) At any rate, the host told Marc it was a surprise party for Vicki and told Vicki it was a surprise party for Marc and gave them arrival times about 15 minutes apart.

14. What does abundance mean to you? Abundance is just a step beyond enough. There is a step beyond abundance that is really too much, e.g. the quantities of books and of yarn in my house.

15. Name 3 friends that shaped your childhood. My best friend for several years was Kathy, who lived down the street from me and who I spent part of nearly every day with. We spent our time listening to music, playing hopscotch, hanging out in our secret place (a clearing in the middle of an empty lot, which later became a shopping center), and memorizing things like “Jabberwocky.” I was also very close to Norman, who I shared a crayon box with in elementary school. I remember being the only girl at his birthday party one year in elementary school. And, hmm, Carol was one of the two other girls in my Hebrew school class and was the first peer who told me what getting a period was like. Her exact comment was “it’s literally a pain in the ass.”

16. If you suddenly had an extra room in your house, what would you do with it? I’d like it to be an art and music room, with a piano and shelves for my yarn stash.

17. What needs to be true for you to feel empowered to speak up in a group? I really don’t have any hesitation in speaking up in a group.

18. Describe your ideal book club. My long-standing book club works for me because: 1) we read a wide variety of books, 2) everybody actually reads the book, and 3) we talk about the book instead of just general chitchat,

19. What’s your favourite animated movie? I have a long-standing fondness for Fantasia, which I think was one of the first movies I ever saw. But I also have a soft spot in my heart for The Aristocats.

20. What’s the biggest life decision you’ve ever made? How did it affect you? Choosing to go to MIT opened up a lot of opportunities for me. I made that decision because I knew so many people who had decided to change their majors from what they originally planned and I was reasonably sure anything I chose to do would be in the math / science realm. (I’ve often joked that my brother holds the Michigan State record for changing majors.) This worked well since I had originally planned to major in chemistry and ended up in mechanical engineering. And, while I found Dartmouth very attractive, I felt that I wanted to live in a city, rather than a rural area.

21. What is your favourite vegetable? There are many vegetables I like, but I think I’ll opt for carrots, due to their versatility. I particularly like roasted carrots with a tahini glaze. But I also use carrots in stir fries and make carrot-ginger soup.

22. Which disease known to humankind do you hate the most? Explain why. I’ve lost too many people I cared about to various forms of cancer.

23. What would be your ideal birthday present, and why? I am much more about experiences than about things, so I’d suggest theatre or concert tickets.

24. This morning, when you got out of bed, you ….. Before bed tonight, you will…. These are pretty much the same every day. When I get out of bed, I do my various daily puzzles, starting with the New York Times crossword. Before I go to bed, I read for at least half an hour.

25. Who would you most like to be like if you could change your personality? Maybe Mallory Lewis, the daughter of Shari Lewis. She puppets Lamb Chop, so has a fun sassy alter ego.

26. What are some colors you see the most in your every day life? I’ve been using blue bed linens lately, so that should be right up there. I tend to wear a lot of black and red, so those should also be on the list. And my furniture is mostly wood, so you can throw in brown, which is a color I rarely wear.

27. What is your most prized possession? I have a necklace that my great-grandmother allegedly bought in Shanghai. I am skeptical of that story, but it’s still a necklace I like a lot.

28. What animals frighten you and why? Having grown up on Long Island, sharks are at the top of my scary list, followed by polar bears. I also tend to be leery of certain breeds of large dogs, though I’m fine with others. I suspect that dates back to a neighbor who was attacked as a child and had an ear bitten off.

29. What kind of fairytale creature would you be? I think I am well-suited to be either a fairy godmother or the wise woman who lives at the edge of the forest.

30. What is an exciting or crazy trip you have taken? Before my 40th birthday, I took a leave of absence from work and spent 6 months traveling on overland trucks through Africa, followed by taking the Saint Helena mail ship from Cape Town to the U.K.

susandennis

Today I have 3 pairs of shoes coming from Amazon. I'm hoping against hope that one of them will be comfortable enough to wear a lot. If not, I do know how to return Amazon purchases.

So last week, after aqua yoga, I sent the Fitness Director a note explaining why I wasn't going to go back (boring, cold because no movement, too much breathing, not enough stretching). She responded by asking if they class made changes would I reconsider? I told her I'd try it once.

Honestly, I could tell within the first 5 minutes that I would be a class regular again. Lots of stretching and moving. My back felt really energized and so did I. 200% better. But, of course, next Monday is Labor Day, so no class. Sigh.

This morning was the first volleyball morning that I really needed to have lights on when I got up. Nice. It's still hot out but at least it's hot for a shorter period of time.

Today is house cleaner day and also time to start making some Halloween themed dolls and creatures. Steve asked me this morning if I'd ramped that up yet and I guess now is the time.

Two ball games but the first isn't until 4.

maju

Yesterday afternoon it was "Meet Your Teacher" day at the girls' school. The school is easy walking distance away but because the girls were going to take all their new school supplies with them, their mother had to drive. However, Eden and Aria opted to walk with me. All the girls were very excited to see all the friends again, and I was very interested to see their school and their classrooms as I'd never been inside before. Strangely, some of the rooms have a/c but some don't. Aria got lucky with a/c in her room, but neither Violet nor Eden have a/c in theirs. Luckily there shouldn't be too much hot weather from now on, and I assume the whole school is heated in winter.

I was about to go out for a walk around 6:30 am yesterday when Aria appeared in my room. (Everybody else was still asleep.) When I told her I was going for a walk she dashed upstairs, threw on some clothes, came back, and declared she wanted to go with me. We went out and I assumed that she would only want to walk around the block and then I could go for a longer walk by myself, but at every corner, instead of turning toward home she said no, go that way (away from home). Eventually, after about half an hour, she suddenly decided that she wanted to go home, and somehow she got some extra energy and we were home in about ten or 15 minutes.

After breakfast I went for another walk, this time with Eden and Aria, to what they call the pond, a few blocks from their house. I get very nervous when they want me to take them there because it has fairly steep sides and no fencing or flat area along the edge of the water and it would be way too easy for someone to overbalance into the water. And both girls like to get right down to the edge of the water to try to see fish. However, nobody fell in, and anyway, all the girls can now swim and it's not very deep at the edges anyway.

Much later in the day, after dinner, I went for yet another walk, this time with Aria riding her bike. She has just recently learnt to ride without training wheels but still doesn't have perfect riding skills so that was a bit nerve wracking as well. She wanted to ride back to the pond, so we did, but this time we spent a lot of time finding black walnuts on the ground and seeing how far we could throw them into the water, and admiring the intersecting rings of ripples. That was fun.

Today it's back to school day.

denise posting in

dw_news

I'll start with the tl;dr summary to make sure everyone sees it and then explain further: As of September 1, we will temporarily be forced to block access to Dreamwidth from all IP addresses that geolocate to Mississippi for legal reasons. This block will need to continue until we either win the legal case entirely, or the district court issues another injunction preventing Mississippi from enforcing their social media age verification and parental consent law against us.

Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don't want to do this, but the legal fight we and Netchoice have been fighting for you had a temporary setback last week. We genuinely and honestly believe that we're going to win it in the end, but the Fifth Circuit appellate court said that the district judge was wrong to issue the preliminary injunction back in June that would have maintained the status quo and prevented the state from enforcing the law requiring any social media website (which is very broadly defined, and which we definitely qualify as) to deanonymize and age-verify all users and obtain parental permission from the parent of anyone under 18 who wants to open an account.

Netchoice took that appellate ruling up to the Supreme Court, who declined to overrule the Fifth Circuit with no explanation -- except for Justice Kavanaugh agreeing that we are likely to win the fight in the end, but saying that it's no big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime.

Needless to say, it's a big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime. The Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who's under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users' parents to allow them to finish creating an account. It also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn't like it -- which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn't like, you're absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don't want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can't: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity. You can read the sworn declaration I provided to the court for some examples of how unworkable these requirements are in practice. (That isn't even everything! The lawyers gave me a page limit!)

Unfortunately, the penalties for failing to comply with the Mississippi law are incredibly steep: fines of $10,000 per user from Mississippi who we don't have identity documents verifying age for, per incident -- which means every time someone from Mississippi loaded Dreamwidth, we'd potentially owe Mississippi $10,000. Even a single $10,000 fine would be rough for us, but the per-user, per-incident nature of the actual fine structure is an existential threat. And because we're part of the organization suing Mississippi over it, and were explicitly named in the now-overturned preliminary injunction, we think the risk of the state deciding to engage in retaliatory prosecution while the full legal challenge continues to work its way through the courts is a lot higher than we're comfortable with. Mississippi has been itching to issue those fines for a while, and while normally we wouldn't worry much because we're a small and obscure site, the fact that we've been yelling at them in court about the law being unconstitutional means the chance of them lumping us in with the big social media giants and trying to fine us is just too high for us to want to risk it. (The excellent lawyers we've been working with are Netchoice's lawyers, not ours!)

All of this means we've made the extremely painful decision that our only possible option for the time being is to block Mississippi IP addresses from accessing Dreamwidth, until we win the case. (And I repeat: I am absolutely incredibly confident we'll win the case. And apparently Justice Kavanaugh agrees!) I repeat: I am so, so sorry. This is the last thing we wanted to do, and I've been fighting my ass off for the last three years to prevent it. But, as everyone who follows the legal system knows, the Fifth Circuit is gonna do what it's gonna do, whether or not what they want to do has any relationship to the actual law.

We don't collect geolocation information ourselves, and we have no idea which of our users are residents of Mississippi. (We also don't want to know that, unless you choose to tell us.) Because of that, and because access to highly accurate geolocation databases is extremely expensive, our only option is to use our network provider's geolocation-based blocking to prevent connections from IP addresses they identify as being from Mississippi from even reaching Dreamwidth in the first place. I have no idea how accurate their geolocation is, and it's possible that some people not in Mississippi might also be affected by this block. (The inaccuracy of geolocation is only, like, the 27th most important reason on the list of "why this law is practically impossible for any site to comply with, much less a tiny site like us".)

If your IP address is identified as coming from Mississippi, beginning on September 1, you'll see a shorter, simpler version of this message and be unable to proceed to the site itself. If you would otherwise be affected, but you have a VPN or proxy service that masks your IP address and changes where your connection appears to come from, you won't get the block message, and you can keep using Dreamwidth the way you usually would.

On a completely unrelated note while I have you all here, have I mentioned lately that I really like ProtonVPN's service, privacy practices, and pricing? They also have a free tier available that, although limited to one device, has no ads or data caps and doesn't log your activity, unlike most of the free VPN services out there. VPNs are an excellent privacy and security tool that every user of the internet should be familiar with! We aren't affiliated with Proton and we don't get any kickbacks if you sign up with them, but I'm a satisfied customer and I wanted to take this chance to let you know that.

Again, we're so incredibly sorry to have to make this announcement, and I personally promise you that I will continue to fight this law, and all of the others like it that various states are passing, with every inch of the New Jersey-bred stubborn fightiness you've come to know and love over the last 16 years. The instant we think it's less legally risky for us to allow connections from Mississippi IP addresses, we'll undo the block and let you know.

days_unfolding

I watched a couple of the iPhone Photography videos and, wow, there are a lot of settings that I never knew about. I want to finish the videos before I go on my trip. (I read somewhere that you shouldn’t work with a DSLR until you can take great iPhone pictures. Working on it.) I ordered a bunch of books about photographic composition.

Did dishes. (My “dishes” largely consist of dog and cat food cans for recycling.) Two days in a row. Go me.

Submitted a grocery order, including the ingredients for overnight oats.

Woke up at 7 AM. It was a little chilly out. Yay! Started laundry after my shower.

Crud. Walmart didn’t have apple pie spice, so I’ll have to go to Meijer. I submitted a pickup order for after work.

It's nice and cool upstairs. Yay. Gracie is making a mess. First, she got into some wooden shims that I had for the aquarium. Now, she got into a box of pencils, but I rescued most of them. Dogs :)

I got an embroidered vest with pockets on eBay to go with my white lace top and white jeans. Speaking of which, I need to find the jeans to see if they’re the right size.

The New York Times: "COVID is spreading again this summer". But we can't get the damn shot. COVID contributed to my mom's death, so give me the fucking shot.

Picked up my groceries. They had apple pie spice, yay. Watered the outside plants. Put clothes in the dryer.

Land’s End and LL Bean have some nice tops for when I don’t want to wear t-shirts or hoodies.

I don’t know why I’m feeling cranky, but I am.

Sending the National Guard to Chicago is making me think of Kent State. Nothing good will come of it.

I don't know where the evening went. I need to feed the critters and crash.

Oh. I got a cute closeup of Gracie. (Note to self: portrait mode and telephoto). The iPhone photography course is paying off.

gilda_elise

5 Days Ago a rash of bizarre murders swept the country. Senseless. Brutal. Seemingly unconnected. . .

A cop walked into a nursing home and unloaded his weapons on elderly and staff alike. A mass of school shootings. Prison riots of unprecedented brutality. Mind-boggling acts of violence in every state.

4 Days Ago the murders increased ten-fold. . .

3 Days Ago the President addressed the nation and begged for calm and peace. . .

2 Days Ago the killers began to mobilize. . .

Yesterday all the power went out. . .

Tonight they're reading the names of those to be killed on the Emergency Broadcast System. You are listening over the battery-powered radio on your kitchen table, and they've just read yours. Your name is Jack Colclough. You have a wife, a daughter, and a young son. You live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. People are coming to your house to kill you and your family. You don't know why, but you don't have time to think about that any more. You only have time to R - U - N!

The book is basically one long chase scene (thus the title,) but it works well-which I found rather surprising. I thought I would get tired of the constant danger and tension but I didn’t. Instead, I was thoroughly engrossed.

Because the characters are in constant danger, I think a connection is made much faster than one would normally have been. I wanted Jack and his family to survive. And even though the situation between Jack and his wife is not optimal at the beginning of the book, they act like adults and put any difficulties aside in order to save their children. That was probably what I liked best about them. They’re not perfect, but they’ll do whatever they must to ensure that they and their children survive.

The reason behind the violence is never totally explained. It being a celestial event, there’s no way that they can. But even that works its way into the story, which seems to be how Crouch sets up most of his stories. And like most (if not all,) of his stories, it leans toward science fiction, but is more of a dystopian novel.

( Mount TBR 2025 Book Links 1-35 )

36. The Regulators by Richard Bachman (Pseudonym), Stephen King
37. Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn
38. The Nun's Story by Kathryn Hulme
39. The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune
40. They Thirst by Robert McCammon
41. Blue World: And Other Stories by Robert McCammon
42. Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens by David Mitchell
43. Run by Blake Crouch

Goodreads 46

susandennis

I'm still looking for my best shoes. Shoes that I can pop on any day, wear with socks and walk whereever/whenever I want that are NOT athletic shoes or sneakers. They need to fit well so I don't walk out of them and look decent (and my 'decent' gets broader and more inclusive every day). I have two pair of sandal-y shoes that I can actually wear every day all day and walk a fair bit in. I wore a pair of those the other day with socks and it worked out ok but not great.

Amazon is bringing me some more options later this week. And I still have one shoe store - the one my podiatrist recommended - that I haven't tried yet. If this week's Amazon selections don't work, I'll be heading over there to that store.

Otherwise, things are kind of on a good keel right now. I'm not on hold because of anything outside of my control - like SteveTheLawyer or the IRS. SteveTheLawyer has yet to settle the now 3.5 year old very simple trust. His last promise was to get it done by early 2025. Whatfuckingever.

The IRS still owes me money but it is clear that the chances of my living long enough to get it are growing slimmer every day. I went on their website this past weekend to check my transcript to see if there was any progress (none) and they asked me if I would take a survey. Sure. First question. Based on your visit today, how much do you trust the IRS. Hahahahaha. That was my giggle of the day.

It was a year ago that I switched financial advisors from the outfit I had used for more than 25 years to a new one. I am still delighted about that decision.

Two ballgames today - this afternoon. Aqua yoga this afternoon. I'll probably go out and puzzle some this morning and see if I can capture any hallway news.

maju

About a year ago I was telling Violet about this guy, who constructs giant trolls out of scrap materials and hides them in various places around the world, and ever since she has been fascinated and very much wanting to see at least one of them herself. It started because I was talking about some of my sisters visiting The Giants of Mandurah, just south of Perth, and I showed her photos of that. Today we have discovered that Dambo has placed three trolls in Rhode Island, which just happens to be not-too-difficult driving distance from here, so now we might be making the expedition to see them this coming weekend. My daughter, Violet, and I are all keen, because I've been very envious of my sisters who have seen the ones in Mandurah and wishing they'd been there before I moved here.

days_unfolding

I bought an iPhone Photo Mastery class because I don't want to take the DSLR with me on my trip. Plus, I can focus on finding good pictures without fiddling with the camera. I also got Urban Photography and Landscape Photography.

I bought two other bumper stickers: "Caring for other people is not political" and "Caution: driver singing".

I forgot to mention yesterday that I received my new glasses. They’re perfect. I’m saving them for when I go out. I’ll wear my cheap glasses at home. Hmm, I wonder if I should get a second pair?

I bought a PDF on dog photography, but it vanished from my phone. Crap. So I bought books on dog photography and pet photography on Thrift Books. Bella and Gracie are so striking, so I might want to shoot stock photos of them eventually. Let them earn their keep! I did get an email with the books to download after all. But I’m still glad that I ordered the Thrift Books books.

I want to start making overnight oats. I should go to Aldi tomorrow and get ingredients. Actually, I’m going to Meijer because AI suggested an apple flavoring with Apple Pie Spice.

I had problems falling asleep, so I got up and ate oatmeal. Woke up a little before 10 AM.

I think that I want to stay home today. It’s a beautiful day. I’ll get the ingredients for overnight oats tomorrow and make it on Tuesday.

I want to plant peonies and tulips in the fall, but I can do so when I get back.

My legs look like I’ve been cutting myself. Thanks, Oliver.

Gracie was blocking Lily from coming downstairs and eating. I went upstairs, picked up Lily, closed Gracie in upstairs, and put Lily on the stairs. Ugh. I was giving Gracie her meds and Bella snatched the piece of hot dog with the med in it. I banished Bella to the bathroom. Then I couldn’t find the meds, which I had put in my pocket, but they fell out. Finally, I found them. Gracie spit out the med twice, but finally swallowed it. Whew. This is hard.

I saw a top in Coldwater Creek’s catalog that I liked, but it’s over $100! For a top! Fuuuck, inflation. It would look really cute with jeans and short boots though. I looked at Coldwater Creek items on ThredUp. Didn’t find anything similar but found some nice cardigans. I found something similar on eBay and bought it for a lot less!

Nap time. I’m up now. Gracie came over and gave me a kiss, and then Bella pushed her aside and gave me a kiss. Jealousy :) Had lunch. I ate a cookie for dessert, and both Gracie and Bella jumped on my lap wanting it. I kept pushing them down and they kept jumping up.

Note to self: add my Fidelity account on Monarch Money (done). Added my mom’s car too, which is worth more than I thought.

I’m feeling tired. And crap, I didn’t take my meds, so that’s probably why. It’s too late to take them now.

Got my weary butt into the shower. I don’t feel like going outside but feel like working on the kitchen.

Oy. I went to feed the cats, but Gracie was blocking Lily upstairs. I went upstairs to bring Lily down and shut Gracie up there, but Oliver came up too. I finally was able to shut Gracie in the bedroom and fed the cats. Did I say, “Oy?”

Chaos2: I brought Zara’s food into her room, but Oliver busted in. I was trying to get him out, and Bella ate Zara’s food. I got Zara more food and was able to get Oliver and Bella out of there. Sigh.

Maybe I’m an otrovert instead of an introvert? Or both? I enjoy interacting with people one-on-one, but don’t like group activities. This is why I’m dreading joining the Unitarian church, although I think that’s the way that I need to make friends.

I'm feeling really tired and achy. I'm drinking some water to see if that helps, but I'm thinking of going to bed early and getting up early.

shadowkat

As you can tell from the photo, assuming of course anyone can actually see the photo - one never knows with these FB links (annoying I know, but there it is), I took a two mile hike Prospect Park Lake and back. People and water fowl were out in force, mainly because they can't really frolic to the beach (dangerous rip tides) and it's Sunday. Sunday is never a good day to wander about the Park. Ran across my neighbor along the way, who recently retired from Crazy Org, he's loving retirement and says his social security check and pension check are bigger than his actual pay check was. I should be fine then, since mine is railroad retirement. But I want to live at 62. He left at 66, because his wife who is 14 years younger than he is, is still working and pushed him to work a bit longer.

By the end of the hike, my stomach has having a hissy fit, and I felt out of breath, perspiring, a touch off balance. I don't want to say light headed or dizzy, just like I wanted to collapse into a heap on the sidewalk. I did not. I made it home. And drank water instead. But, it made me aware of the fact that I can't do long hikes yet, and need to build up to them. Slowly. I may start with long walks to and around Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery and my neighborhood on the weekends. And shorter walks during lunch. Also doing the eight flights of steps at 4th Avenue and 9th Street station from the R to the G/F line, except on bad weather days.
Also start doing more yoga exercises. (I don't like yoga - because I hate floor exercises - but I can probably do chair and standing yoga for a bit.)

I've requested to join "Trail Dames" on Meetups, which is a group of over 50, curvy women, who like to go hiking. It's not really safe to go hiking by yourself in the US, people do of course, but they usually know what they are doing, and don't have my health issues. Also, my cousin, who was thirty nine years of age, was killed on a solo hike. They'd found him dead on the side of the road with his head bashed in. He was an avid hiker, who did a lot of solo hikes near his home in Oregon, that had hiking trails in the backyard. It was tragic, and happened in 2022, the same year my Dad died.

Speaking of dangerous hikes. I was trolling about the internet at work one day and found a list of the most dangerous hikes, also HERE.

So, I asked my brother, an avid hiker, what his most insanely dangerous hike was - and he told me it was last week, hiking along a lake in Glacier National Park, where they came upon a mother Grizzly Bear and her cubs. The Grizzley became aware of them, they didn't sneak up on her (you never do that) and stood up on her hind legs. The walked quickly away and she pursued them for a good fifteen minutes before finally taking off into the brush. She was about fifty yards away.

Niece, also an avid hiker, most dangerous hike was probably Mount Silliman in the Sierras. Where she hiked off-trail and had to scramble up a sheer granite mountain face, with a thousand feet drop offs. It had beautiful views at the peak, but it dropped off in a 1000 foot cliff on the other side. The views were epic, but she doesn't do many dangerous hikes, preferring flora to epic views.

Epic view from Mount Silliman below:
( Read more... )
And a photo from the hike in Glacier, where alas, all the glaciers have melted long ago, along with most of the snow. Silly humans, if we'd been more careful and mindful of the environment, the glaciers would have lasted longer.
( Read more... )
Niece's need to travel overseas to Europe, ended, after she went to the Western United States and fell in love with the mountains. Our world is seriously awe inspiring. I'm in awe daily, just looking at the mountains of skyscrapers, ships, and harbor, plus lakes, trees, and bird. I would like to visit China - the pictures of China's landscapes and culture are mind-blowing.

My most dangerous hike - was most likely a tie between Barr Trial Hike on Pike's Peak with two girl-friends in undergrad (this was in the fall of 1988, I think) and a back-packing trip in Bandlier National Monument, where we hiked back country trials and ran into a black widow spider and a couple of huge raccoons. That was a wonderful trip. I did a lot of camping and hiking in my teens and early twenties, when I was in a lot better shape.

If you've made it this far? What were your most insanely dangerous hikes?

I want to visit Watkins Glenn and hike the seven waterfalls, which looks like it is right out of Lord of the Rings...but most of it is closed until the summer of 2026, so I have time.

Leaving with another pretty photo from my niece:

susandennis

I take a fair number of photos. All are automagically saved in Google Photo which is a great photo app but it has one fatal flaw. There is no way to embed a photo from Google Photo to this journal. You can link to the page but not show the photo in the entry.

You can, of course do that with Dreamwidth's Images but, honestly, as much as I love Dreamwidth, their Images situation sucks on several levels.

So I use Flickr. But Flickr's default for uploaded images was restricted to Private, it required more steps to make the images work here. So I had another app that took every photo, screenshot, video on my phone and sent them to Flockr and loaded them so they are Public. This system has worked fine for years and years. I snapped all day and then, when I'm ready to put them into an entry, they are all in Flickr ready to go.

The only flaw in that plan was that every single photo I took with my phone got loaded into Flickr viewable by everyone. I had to remember this if I took a photo of a check or a credit card or anything else sensitive. And it was hard to remember so I just rarely did that.

Lately, I've had occasion where I really needed to do just that. So this morning, I looked into how to switch it all around and I discovered that Flickr now allows your to 'share' photos as Public by default. So I can now upload easily OR not and keep them private and still have a backup copy on Google Photos (which is all private).

Cool!

Also, the Mariners catcher, who happens to be a very cool guy who's from Culawee, NC - a fabulous little mountain town, just tied the record for homers by a catcher in a single season. Then, two innings later, he breaks that record. And the game is only in the 3rd inning!

Here's the test photo.

maju

I'm in Connecticut after an uneventful but tiring drive. I stopped a couple of times for a quick break, but I was still very tired by the time I arrived. Traffic was mostly fine except for a slow few miles about 20 miles from here. I left just before 6:30 am and arrived here at 12:15 pm.

It's been quite a rambunctious afternoon, but now the girls are off getting a "back to school" haircut so I"ve got maybe an hour of quiet. They were all very excited to be able to open their boxes of school supplies after I arrived; these had been delivered a while ago but their mother told the girls they couldn't open them until I got here.

Violet, at almost ten, now wears shoes only one size smaller than mine (I wear size 10), and is about up to my ears. She's grown quite a lot since I saw her in April.

susandennis

Every once in a while, I find a mindless phone/computer/tablet game that sucks me in and won't let go. Most of the time, I can amuse myself by one game of majong solitaire and a couple of rounds of spider a day. And I can go years without getting sucked into anything more. But, not, apparently this year. I'm deeply, madly, irrevocably sucked into this stupid tile matching game. I cannot quit playing it and just that fact is driving me nuts. I will not be controlled by a game, except when I am. Sigh.

Last year, when I was having to feed the cats that overly pricey cat prescription food, I bought it mostly from Chewy. Amazon would run out and/or fiddle with their delivery processes and the stuff was so expensive it easily cleared Chewy's free shipping hurdle. But, then, when we got to go back to cheap stuff, that free shipping hurdle became an issue. And I get 5% back off Amazon purchases. And toilet paper, toothpaste, kleenex, cat stuff... subscribe and save. And I let Chewy go. Really out of laziness. They each have about the same number of items on the 'Pro' list - where one is good, the other is not - and not too much on the 'Con'. So Amazon wins because I'm lazy.

But, then yesterday. They sent my brother flowers and a lovely note.

I immediately cancelled all my Amazon subscribe and saves and set up everything for autoship on Chewy. We are now, officially, Chewy all the way. No regrets. No second thoughts. Flowers. They sent flowers.

Yesterday, I ran into Hazel and her son and his wife in the hallway on their way down to get something notarized. BUT I'm a notary until the 3rd of November. So I did it. Hazel has never liked her daughter in law and now I get it. She was all consumed with setting up Hazels sad old Samsung tablet with audio books. Except. Hazel will never be able to use them and won't enjoy audio books at all. But there was no dissuading her. Also, she had no idea what she was doing. I showed her how to log in and why it was set up with no password and no credit card (so Hazel can click on anything she wants and not get charged). She had no idea how to overcome that obstacle so I just left her to it.

They left and Hazel sat down to chat with me. It was nice. She said she had been stopping at Joan's every day to report which I know Joan just loves and it's so nice of Hazel to do. She said that Dick and Jan (who barely even know her) had been popping their heads in every night to check on her. She said that John was ready to die and hopes it is soon. And noted that it probably will be since he's not eating. She said she was so grateful for this time that they have now. We've just been talking and reminiscing and visiting and it's really been nice. We haven't even had the TV on. She's very calm and cool and together about it all.

I was going to get up and swim this morning but, when I got up, I remembered why I stopped doing laps in the mornings. The fucking sun. There is a 20 foot floor to ceiling wall of windows at the pool and they face east. The glare is exacerbated by the water. Dark goggles help but not much. It's just not fun. I could go later but even now I already for 5,769 reasons why not. Sigh. So I'll do aqua yoga at least one more time tomorrow.

Biggie is not a lap cat. He wants to be on my lap but will not settle. He walks back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. I give him 3 times and then put him on the ground. Once in a while, he tries to sneak on. Very very very slowly, he starts with one paw and then just as slowly, he adds another. It cracks me up. He did it just now so he's now standing on my lap with his belly on my arms while I type. Oh Biggie, you are a weirdo.

I have a podiatrist appointment this week but I am to cancel it if everything is working. Both issues are clearly better. The peeling hard skin feet with ugly ass nails is totally on the mend. The nails will take 6 months or so to get 100% but they are on the way for sure. The other - the nerve thing - I'm not sure about. It's way better but still twinges now and then. But, I think I'm going to cancel for now and then go back if it gets worse.

The Phils play at 10:30 and the Mariners at 1. And there will be laundry doings. And probably some puzzling.

bill_schubert

Our doorbell rang yesterday and I checked to see someone leaving flowers on our doorstep. It was such a simple arrangement I thought it might be our neighbor with whom we sometimes randomly trade such things.

But it was not so. It was a delivery from Chewy.

Late last week I went onto the site and in the profiles told them that Zoe was gone. And cancelled all the autoshipments.

And yesterday we got flowers.

Compassionate capitalism.

days_unfolding

I’m going to need to bring some change for buses/subway on my NYC trip. I think that I’ll go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the day that I get off the cruise ship. I’ll drop off my luggage at the hotel and then go out. Hmm, now I’m wondering if I should stay near Times Square on the part of the trip after the cruise because a lot of what I want to see is on the southern side of the island. New plan: go see the High Line on the day that I get off of the ship. And the library. The International Institute of Photography is closed on Tuesdays, so I can’t go that day. Maybe I’ll go check out the Strand bookstore.

Nice. Monarch Money emails you when you’ve exceeded your budget. It emailed me about the tree removal because I don’t have a home improvement budget item.

Gracie woke me up at 7 AM. And promptly peed on the dog bed, sigh. I’ll have to clean it.

Gave Gracie her med in a hot dog and she gobbled it right up. Fed us all. Gracie was expecting me to go upstairs and work. I explained to her that it’s the weekend. Bella is already napping.

I was wondering if the fall COVID shot will be available before I go on my cruise, but there’s no date yet.

I ordered a “My dog thinks I’m cool” t-shirt, and “who rescued whom” and “dog is my co-pilot” bumper stickers.

Napped. Had lunch with two highly interested dogs. No, you can’t have my food.

I’m tired. I’m thinking of taking another nap after my trial singing lesson.

Gracie was barking at Oliver. My Apple Watch popped up a “loud environment” notification. Got that right!

Had my trial singing lesson. She said that my pitches were right on target, but she wants to work on my breathing support. I liked her and think that she will be helpful. I booked lessons with her up to the time that I'll be gone in September. Then I'll "subscribe" to the time after I get back.

I bought a Nikon DSLR camera. (I think that my last camera wound up in the estate sale at my mom's house by mistake.) Once I get it, I'll enroll in the "Mastering Your Digital SLR or Mirrorless Camera" class. I also bought a book with exercises.

I’m looking for a navy cargo vest but having no luck. Okay, it just occurred to me to try eBay and I found one. I live in cargo vests. Pockets!

Gracie and Bella are barking at something. I said to Bella, “Yeah, you’re a brave watchdog unless something is scary, and then you hide behind Mom. You are so not a watchdog.”

Overslept my nap. Took the dogs out, and I need to sit for a moment before starting the feeding process. Oliver is in my face.

I’m still tired. I’m thinking of going to bed after I feed the critters and do some dishes. Ugh. Fed the cats, but Gracie was barking at them, which upset Lily and she wouldn’t eat. I shut Gracie is the bathroom, protesting, while I fed Zara and gave them more food.

I really want to book the trip but should wait until Gracie is clear of Giardia. I’m feeling impatient.

I did dishes. I'm trying to set up a habit to do them every day. I set a habit tracker on my phone.

Now I think that it's bedtime.

bill_schubert

Browser or Chromebox or mesh network or modem or Spectrum.

I feel like I've been down this road before.

I've not been satisfied with the performance of my Chromebox but turns out it might not be the box. No idea what to think as I seem to remember everything worked just fine when I had it on my PC with Win 10 but it is NOT fine now. And I've got numbers to prove it. I've got a faucet from Spectrum that should be flowing at 400Mbps. That's more than four times what I need and I'd slow it down a lot if it would save me money but faster is apparently better and what everyone wants. It is all about 4K. Whatever.

What I get when I run a speed test is about 58Mbps. Talking with Specrum they said their end was fine but they could not even run a test it was so bad. They did, of course, blame the modem. It is not theirs. I've got the one that I had plugged in and a spare. Neither seems to work. But sometime in the recent past Spectrum started giving out free modems. And if I have theirs then they can see everything that is going on and should be pretty willing to help.

So I went to the Specrum store, or tried to, to get my free modem. Google maps has the Spectrum store located in the middle of a Burlington store:

Everything says that is where the store is. And the location is part of one of those annoyingly scenic shopping centers where you can not see any of the stores as they all face different ways and the traffic is so bad that you have to sit for 10 minutes at every intersection while people try to figure out where they want to go and how to get there and you end up just randomly driving around trying to see a Specturm sign.

I had a guy from Missouri pick up on the phone (no way to call the store, of course) when I happened to see a sign pointing to my right and, voila, there was the store.

I went in and signed up at the kiosk. Eleven people ahead of me and two people working there. I signed up again for an appointment tomorrow at 1:40 and left. At least I can find it tomorrow. I could have had them ship me one but I didn't want to wait.

I'm hoping that the modem will fix things. If not I think that it is the chrome book. Eero is the least likely as I just replaced the gateway router for that and I suspect it is fine.

Meanwhile, Dana's wedding dress came in the mail. It is lovely and she will accessorize it after a few weeks of obsessing about it and it will be very nice. It was only about $80 and she will likely never wear it again. It was made in Italy after she ordered it. One of those deals the Chinese invented where they collect a batch of orders and then make the dresses. It came in the mail today.

This was the last significant piece in the wedding puzzle and we're still six+ weeks out. Whew.

maju

I woke up about half an hour before my alarm this morning which was annoying but not horrible since I'd slept pretty well.

Between the time I got up and the time I left for parkrun (almost four hours) I was feeling very anxious about the trip tomorrow, but since I got home I feel slightly more relaxed. Almost everything is packed; just the last minute things are left and can't be packed until tomorrow morning. It's supposed to be fairly warm tomorrow but partly cloudy. I guess I'll be using the a/c in the car. I believe I've got plenty of time to watch relaxing shows online for the rest of the afternoon.

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Tuesday is managing somehow to hang in there - and memage

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June 2025 Blog Prompts

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Mississippi legal challenge: beginning 1 September, we will need to geoblock Mississippi IPs

Cranky Day

Run by Blake Crouch

The shoe hunt continues

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"Otrovert"?

Most Dangerous Hikes, and walk to a lake...

A new day for pix with more details than anyone but me could ever care about

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Tile matching is killing me

Chewy

Trial Singing Lesson

Where's the bottleneck

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