days_unfolding

susandennis

Here's what my closet looks like now:

And then there is a little cove off to the side:

And here's where the current contents are housed:

It's all done and ready. I had about 5 robe hooks scattered around the closet, installed three years ago with Command strips. They were always in constant use. Every single one of them came right off with no sign they were ever there. I love Command strips.

The closet guy is supposed to get here between 9 and 11. Supposedly I can call to see where I am in the queue after 9. This company has sent me 4 emails and called leaving voice mail 4 times to remind me. I am over their aggression. I just hope the installers isn't an asshole.

I think while he is here, I'll descale the Keurig. It has been bitching about it for 6 months now. The old Keurigs had an over ride process but this one you have to physically pour the stupid water in a million times and wait for it to go though cup by cup - it's a bitch which is why I just let the flasher flash the message for 6 months. We have fine water and I don't care. But, it might be a productive way to spend time while he's working.

AND I just heard from him. Zach. Who says he'll be here by 8:45!

Woot. They say it should take about 90 minutes so I should have my new closet operational by lunchtime.

Ok. Guess I'll get ready to go out to meet him at the secret parking spot near the elevator. It is very cold out. Wonder if I have gloves?

fbhjr

( Read more )

elusivek

It was time to sort out my nails as I'm planning to work on clay at the workshop tomorrow, so I went for a manicure. That's around 5 weeks of growth.

I'm still liking what they call the cat's eyes style. It's not just a plain colour and has an interesting shine depending on which angle you look at them.

My "Car park" cats. I can touch and sometimes pick up the black and white one now. The other one though, still skittish around me, but the bloody cat would sharpen her nails on my shoes!

Just this morning, my Mom saw me taking some supplements. She said "I read an article, you're so young, you shouldn't take so many supplements."

I replied, "when I'm not taking supplements you say I should take supplements. When I'm taking supplements you say I'm taking too much supplements. Make up your mind."

She goes "I never told you to take supplements."

And that is bullshit. If you read an article and changed your mind, fine, it's fine by me, just be honest about it. Do not try to gaslight me and say you never told me to take supplements. She's been in my hair about bone and cartilage and bone supplements, and some other sharp brain thing that she's taking for SO MANY YEARS.

I've studied the supplements I'm taking and after a long time of trial and error, those are the supplements that I know work for me, so I'll continue. I don't even take that many, it just looked that many this morning because today I wanted to take some extra probiotics as I was feeling bloated and wanted to get my bowels moving.

shadowkat

I've decided the world went nuts long ago and I just happen to reside within it. It does make want to stay in my apartment and hibernate at times, like the human version of a bear. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all make like a bear and just hibernate through the winter months?

Speaking of winter - it's decided to thrust itself up the United States proverbial ass with a nasty vengeance this weekend. If you have weekend plans to travel anywhere within the US, with the possible except of the Pacific Northwest? I'd cancel them. This is a good weekend to make like a bear and hibernate. For myself? I decided to take Monday off, and canceled my Physical Therapy appointment scheduled for Monday. ( Read more... )

Overall - I think my knees are getting better? But I foresee more doctors in my future.

***

Found an article in Elephant Journal via FB - the best advice I ever saw in Ask Amy Column (kind of the modern version of Dear Abby or the print version of Am I an Asshole (spoiler? They usually are).
( gist in case you can't read it )

***

Rewatched "Him" - Buffy S7 Episode - I think 7? I can't remember the number?

It's a favorite - because I think it's hilarious, and it does a good job of satirizing/lampooning the romantic relationships/entanglements on Buffy to date. And the whole love at first sight or lust trope.

But I picked up on something that I hadn't previously - a little annoyance.

Buffy tells Dawn in Him - that her feelings for RJ aren't real. And she's rather cruel and condescending about it.

Dawn: What I feel for him is real. You don't understand -
Buffy: I think it's real for you.

It's an echo of what she said to Spike in Entropy, before he ended up sleeping with Anya.

"I think it's real for you."

Ugh. Buffy. I want to smack her. I'm not surprised both Spike and Dawn yelled at her.

days_unfolding

Oh, how stupid do people think that we are? I got a phishing email about a "Microsoft upgrade"--from an AOL email address. Right.

Overslept until 7:30 AM. Gracie did not want to come inside. I finally filled her bowl with breakfast and shook it, and she eventually came in.

I rescheduled my blood test for next week. I can’t cope with it this week. Now I can jump-start my car tonight and not have to get up early. I really want to nap over lunch, so I guess that I'll shower after work. Fed us all.

Someone (Bella?) is stealing the special unscented dish detergent that I got for the cats' dishes. One vanished, so I brought out the other one, and that vanished. She likes to hide things under the bed, so I need to get a broom to clean it out. I'm a little afraid as to what I'll find. And I need to get more and keep it under the sink. I bought a magnetic white board for the refrigerator to note down stuff for the next grocery order.

Ugh. I have a lot of work to get done but I'm soooooo tired. Well, one thing down.

Overslept my nap at lunchtime. I really conked out.

Oliver is being a "lover boy". This will last just a few minutes until he's off doing something else. Actually, he started digging his claws in and biting me, so I dumped him off of my lap.

Finally remembered to call to get my physical therapy for my knee set up. They're scheduled out to late February. My list of health care visits is scary. I have visits on 2/20, 2/23, 2/24, 3/2, two on 3/3, 3/9, 4/14, 4/23, 4/28, and 6/9. Sheesh. I know that you have more doctor's visits as you get older, but yikes.

This weekend is going to be a zoo. I need to catch up on work, plus I have an added incentive to work on the house. That reminds me to check on the status of the steam cleaner. Still sitting.

Blasted through some stuff at work. I still have a bunch to do, but it seems more manageable now.

Okay, I found a t-shirt that I want. It has pictures of Bach, Gluck, Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart with the caption "I listen to dead people".

I’m going to stay in my pajamas and deal with the car in the morning. If I get up early enough, I could have the Kia jump-started or get the Honda to the DMV. But I don’t want to go out now.

Spent some time talking to Zara and Lily. I told them that I know that Oliver is a little shit. But he’s MY little shit.

Ooooh. Costco has some interesting groceries. I should defrost my chest freezer and order some.

Crappity crap. Oliver jumped down from the ledge over the bedroom door onto my face, claws outstretched, and cut my lip. It’s bleeding a lot, but I don’t think that it needs stitches or anything like that. I’ll have to make sure that it doesn’t get infected. I told Oliver that I was unbelievably mad at him. The plus side is that I impressed him enough that he didn’t eat Lily’s food (though he tried). Damn cat.

All the critters are fed. I need to eat, but I’m waiting for my lip to stop bleeding to eat. Maybe I’ll post first. Well, it seems to have stopped, so I’ll make some food. I ordered some Neosporin (and some other stuff) rush delivery from Walmart. At least, I’ll get the unscented dish soap for the cat dishes that either Bella or Gracie is stealing too. I got the rest of my stuff, but when I canceled the first order because I used the wrong card and pressed "reorder," it didn't copy over the dish soap.

Anyway, I'm going to post, brush my teeth, put on some Neosporin, and go to bed.

fauxklore

At least this time, I am starting my year in review while it is still January. I have an established format for that so here it goes.

I didn’t have any major household crises. I did have knee issues slowing me down much of the year, but I finally got to physical therapy which helped a lot. Overall, my life remains a schedule conflict.

Books: I read 47 books in 2025. That was 19 non-fiction and 28 fiction books, including 2 graphic books (one each of fiction and non-fiction). Also, two of the fiction books were anthologies. Favorites were The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde, David Lagercrantz’s three sequels to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, Alive by Piers Paul Read, The Third Daughter by Talia Carner, The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson, The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams, The Women by Kristen Hannah, and The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs. I reread To Kill a Mockingbird and, with all due apologies to its fans, I still detest it. I think the worst book I read in 2025, however, was Dead on Target by M.C. Beaton with R.W. Green.

I made one used bookstore run, getting rid of 16 books. I also gave away 5 books (3 to friends and 2 to members of my neighborhood book exchange) and threw one out because it was falling apart. I have at least another 56 ready to go out.

As far as book clubs, my long-standing one is falling apart, but the one that had disbanded is trying to start up again. The Travelers’ Century Club Book Club is going strong and I have become co-coordinator of that.

Ghoul Pool: I finished 7th out of 14 players with 115 points. People I scored on were Agnes Keleti, Pope Francis, William H. Webster, Sister Jean (unique), Sophie Kinsela, Sam Nujoma (unique), June Lockhart, and Tom Lehrer.

Travel: I did two international trips in 2025. I spent a little over half of June in Greece, most of it on the island of Zakynthos in the Ionian island group for a paper conservation class. And I did an around the world trip, with time spent in Taiwan (mostly Taipei) and Germany (mostly Hamburg) before taking the Queen Mary 2 to New York.

As for domestic travel, I went to Las Vegas in March for my brother’s wedding. Closer to home, I drove down to Williamsburg, Virginia for the VASA gathering in April. I met up with Flyertalk friends in Kansas City in May to eat barbecue and see a few museums. Later in May, I drove to Baltimore for Balticon (a science fiction convention). Then I flew up to Boston (well, Cambridge) for my 45th college reunion, which included my giving a TIM Talk about my travels. In July I went to Minneapolis / St. Paul for the National Puzzlers’ League con. At the beginning of August, I went to the Denver area for Geostock, which is an annual party my friends in Superior host. Later in August, I went to Fort Wayne, Indiana for an annual Jewish genealogy conference, followed by a weekend in Chicago for Sporclecon (a trivia event). Loserfest (related to the Style Invitational humor contest) was in September in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area. I also took a trip up to New York in September. And I spent a little more time in New York after my transatlantic crossing in November.

And I went to the Travel show in D.C. in March.

Genealogy: I didn’t have any particularly notable genealogical breakthroughs this year. I did, however, continue to be the Litvak subject matter expert for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Washington and put together a guide to using Facebook for Jewish genealogy for that group. And, as mentioned above, I went to the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies annual conference (in Fort Wayne, Indiana) in August where I: a) gave a brief presentation about how my maternal grandparents met and married and b) had time to sit down with one of my Schwartzbard cousins. I also spent some time at the very impressive Allen County Library, which has a huge genealogy collection.

Baseball: I went to see my Red Sox beat up on the Nationals on the Fourth of July, which was very enjoyable though somewhat too hot out. I also went to two minor league baseball games - the Saint Paul Saints (who lost to the Worcester Red Sox, aka WooSox) and the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Tin Caps (who beat the West Michigan White Caps). While I was in the Minneapolis area, I also saw the home plate from Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis and the red chair bolted to the wall that marks the longest home run (hit by Harmon Killebrew) at that ballpark. (Both of those are at the Mall of America.)

Also, I went to a Profs and Pints talk about The Physics of Baseball, which was both interesting and enlightening. And, as noted below, I went to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City in May.

Culture: I went to 9 musicals over the year. I also saw the Dolly Parton retrospective at the Kennedy Center, which I’m not sure how to count. Nor do I know how to count the shows I saw on the Queen Mary 2, which also included one non-musical play. My favorites were Schmigadoon (which was part of the Broadway Center Stage series at the Kennedy Center), The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical at Signature Theatre, Damn Yankees at Arena Stage, Guys and Dolls at the Shakespeare Theatre, and Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway. I also went to two operas.

If I counted correctly, I saw 9 movies on airplanes and 7 in theaters this year. Favorites were The Penguin Lessons, Conclave, Coco, Rental Family, and Song Sung Blue.

Storytelling: The biggest storytelling event of the year for me was the Women’s Storytelling Festival in March, at which I both told a story and emceed the Story Swap. (Note that the 2026 WSF is coming up March 19 through 22nd and tickets are on sale now.)

Other storytelling shows I was part of were a Better Said Than Done Mother’s Day show in Elliott City, Maryland, the Washington Folk Festival (in October) and the Artists Standing Strong Together New Year’s Eve Blowout. I also went to several story swaps (both with Voices in the Glen and with Community Storytellers in Los Angeles. And I went to a Spooky Stories swap at a library in Maryland.

In April, I not only went to the Virginia Storytelling Association (VASA) gathering in Williamsburg but presented a workshop on Storytelling Ethics there.

I continued to participate in a discussion group centered on the Grimm fairy tales. However, this has ended, due to other commitments on the part of the organizer.

Museums and Art: During my trip to Kansas City, I went to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum, the World War I Museum and an exhibit about Snoopy and the Red Baron at the Crown Center.

I’m not sure whether or not to count it, but I did go to some exhibits about the Mechanical Engineering Department when I was at my M.I.T. Reunion in June.

Also, in June, while in Zakynthos, I went to the General Archives and Historical Library of Zakynthos, the Byzantine Museum, and the Ecclesiastical Museum of the Holy Monastery of St. Dionysius.

In July, I went to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

During my September trip to the Myrtle Beach area for Loserfest, I went to Brookgreen Gardens (which has a lot of sculptures and some indoor exhibits). I also visited Atalaya Castle, the Myrtle Beach Pinball Museum, Ripley’s Aquarium, and the surprisingly impressive (albeit small) Myrtle Beach Art Museum.

Later in September, I saw some exhibits at YIVO in New York but, more significantly, went to the Frick Collection.

In October, I saw a couple of art exhibits at Glen Echo Park in Maryland.

During my trip in November, I visited the National Palace Museum in Taipei, as well as the Observation Deck at Taipei 101, and the various exhibits at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. I also went to X-Park, a large aquarium in Taiyuan. Then, in Hamburg, Germany, I visited the German Emigration Museum, the excellent Achilles-Stiftung Glass Museum, an exhibit about the fall of Communism in one of the modern art museums, and a little over half of the museums in the Composers’ Quarter.

Other Stuff:
I went to a couple of MIT Hillel’s Leading Jewish Minds talks (held on-line).

I went to Balticon (a science fiction convention) over Memorial Day weekend. I could have put this under Books, but it’s somewhat broader than that.

As usual, I spent a lot of time doing puzzles and reading.

I played board games with two different groups of friends on-line, though not as often as I’d have liked to. Some day I may have my condo presentable enough to actually have people over for a games day.

I made a fair amount of progress on my Tunisian crochet afghan (mostly during my every other Thursday , but it is still not done, alas.

I have reached the point in my life where I go to way too many memorial services / funerals.

Goals: So, how did I do on my 2025 goals? I did do a westward circumnavigation of the world, so I get 100% on that goal. I got to 2 minor league baseball games (out of a goal of 4), so I get 50% for that. I had a goal of finishing 4 crafts projects and, while I didn’t finish any, I made enough progress on the Tunisian crochet afghan that I’ll give myself 20%. I read 47 books (out of a goal of 80) so I’ll give myself 59%. This is more subjective, but I’ll give myself a 50% on learning to read Hangul. And I did revisit my life list, with some updates. That deserves an entire post of its own. Again, this is subjective, but I’ll give myself a 60%. I made no progress on my parents’ photographs and slides, organizing genealogy files or sorting through cassette tapes. And did not go to any National Parks, so I get 0% on those 4 goals. Averaging things out, I’ll give myself a 34% for the year.

Looking over the past several years, that’s significantly better than the previous year, but is still on the low side.

2025 - 35%
2024 - 23%
2023 - 62%
2022 - 41%
2021 - 48%
2020 - 52%
2019 - 30%
2018 - 40%
2017 - 25-30%
2016 - 25%
2015 - 26%
2014 - 50%
2013 - 60%
2012 - 30%

Which brings me to goals for 2026:

Take at least 2 long distance train trips
Go to at least 4 minor league baseball games
Go to at least 3 new to me TCC countries/territories
Go to at least 3 National Parks
Become comfortable with reading Hangul (Korean writing system)
File or shred all household paperwork
Read at least 80 books, with a stretch goal of 100
Complete at least 4 crafts projects
Get rid of at least 10 LP records
Successfully complete the Stafford Challenge by writing a poem every day (Note: the 2026 challenge started on January 17th)

maju

It's much warmer today - about 6C/43F - so I actually left the house! It felt good to be outside, and I was pleased to find that although there was plenty of snow piled up alongside all the roads and paths, there was hardly any ice where I was walking. We are supposed to be inundated with snow on Sunday (along with a lot of the rest of the country) so I'm afraid there will be fresh snow on top of ice after the partial thaw today and possibly tomorrow.

susandennis

Well, it's been a good 20 minutes since my first Wegovy shot and so far, I'm not impressed. I haven't lost an ounce. Sigh. I don't feel hungry but that could be due to my just having polished off a delicious ham and cheese croissant.

Maybe I should give this more time.

I am over stressing about side effects but that's mainly from my experience with metformin. I took that for 9 months and had 9 months of diarrhea until I stopped taking it. (Yeah, I should have stopped at 1 month but I kept thinking it was psychosomatic.)

Volleyball this morning was fun. The water was like 1 degree from perfect so fine. We had 7 of the 8 regulars (Richard was at the dentist) and none of the extras. It was a good restart.

I'm doing laundry now so that most of everything will be clean and closet ready when the installers finish putting in my new closet system tomorrow.

And I want to fix up the Food and Beverage minutes while it's still fresh in my mind.

That's the agenda for today.

susandennis

OOPS! Wrote this yesterday afternoon and forgot to hit post.
------
You know that trope about old people and Werther's originals? I can tell you from experience living the the land of the olds... it is not just a trope, it is true!

Every old lady in the joint carries them in either her pocket or her purse and tries to make you take one at every turn. They are in bowls on peoples' shelves outside their door. Hazel brings me a baggie full every time she wants a favor. I don't mind them but I have much better more fun ways to waste my calories.

AND speaking of calories, Jackie (who lives down the hall) was wheeling a cart up from her car when I came back from Food and Beverage. She had been to Costco and on the top of her cart was a box of La Boulangerie Frozen Smoked Ham & Swiss Cheese Pockets! These suckers have not been in Costco for a year and now they are back!!

I had a fit and said Please may I take one to tide me over til I can get to Costco? She said Sure, take 2! I did not say no. OMG. I am so delighted. Now I have to go to Costco sometime soon,

The Food and Beverage meeting was really good. Except, my friend, Martha, who sits in the 'guest' section, would not shut up. She kept whispering to the people on either side of her. It was very annoying. But, also funny. Wonder if we did that when I sat next to her at those meetings?

I did all my tax stuff today - all the stuff I can do so far and made a list of the stuff I need - really only 3 things. I got everything loaded up to the CPA's site and now I wait.

Oh and I made back all the money I lost yesterday. Thanks to Trump's backing off of Graceland. (joke!!)

days_unfolding

My phone finally charged, but I’m not sure what I did with its case. But I was doing laundry, and my washer isn’t spinning. Sigh. I wrung some stuff out and put it in the dryer. I’m not going to shower tomorrow because I had all this stuff to do today and I took a shower late. I looked up the error codes and it’s a drain-related issue.

Overslept and got up at 7 AM. So much for getting the car registered.

Had a dental appointment. I thought that it was for the implant but it was just a cleaning. I now have a date for the implant, 2/5. I'm planning to take a sick day that day. My boss has had an implant, and she said that was a good idea.

I almost forgot that I had piano class after work, so no jump-starting the car tonight. We worked on an simplified excerpt of Chopin's Impromptu Op.66 in C#, and I fell in love with it (although it was difficult to play). So I ordered a CD with the whole piece on it. I haven't listened much to Chopin. (My teacher gives us pieces with a range of difficulties, and I always tackle the harder ones. Maybe that's why she likes me. Or maybe it’s because I can read music.) I bought a couple of sheet music books with simplified Chopin for beginning piano players.

I booked a French lesson for next week because I should get cracking on it. (I'll be wandering around by myself in Paris.) I hope that she will teach me "tourist French". We'll see. She emphasizes speaking, which is good. I have an online French class that I need to also get cracking on. The good thing is that I remember a fair amount of it (I took French from junior high through part of college) when I review. I need to pick up Italian sometime, but one step at a time.

The BBC had an article about menengiç, which is a Turkish drink similar to coffee but made with pistachios. I ordered some to try. I love pistachios.

I need to get to bed soon because I want to try to get the car's registration taken care of, and it's already late.

shadowkat

So, I'm scrolling through my Dreamwidth Correspondence List, and finding all sorts of interesting things!

* Disney attempts to create a fun marketing meme only to delete it when it goes unexpectedly wrong..except you can't easily delete things on the internet

"Social media changed the marketing game forever. Nowadays, brands gain popularity and "street cred" by engaging with folks in comment sections and through relatable posts. It's estimated that when brands reply to comments on Threads, it boosts their engagement by 42%.

However, some posts on social media can turn against big brands, and that's exactly what recently happened to Disney. "Share a Disney quote that sums up how you're feeling right now!" they prompted their fans. But they got a little more than they anticipated: people really let them know how they were feeling, especially about the social and political state of the country. [Americans aren't happy campers, needless to say.]

And, in a moment of poor judgment, they deleted the thread, resulting in a "Streisand effect": instead of going away, the screenshots from the thread went viral."

* Donate what you can - Cross Stitch Patterns to Support Minnesota Non-Profits and Mutual Aid

"As a crafter, I believe in 'craftivism' - a form of activism that uses craft to convey political or social messages. Not only that, but during times of hardship, trauma, and chaos, craft, art, and joy is a form of resistance.

Patterns are created using Floss Cross and manual adjustments - NO AI ART HERE.

The idea is this - FREE cross stitch (alpha) patterns. They can be used for cross stitch, needlepoint, and more. My only ask is that you read about and check out the links I have posted to various Minneapolis/Twin Cities/Minnesota nonprofits and mutual aids and donate if and where you can, whether it be monetarily or by sharing and amplifying these organizations."

[I'm not really a crafter - I am more of a fine artist - so I'm just sharing it with you. Well unless you can poorly knitted scarves, blankets and hats (some unfinished) - crafting, in which case yes.]

* Lore Olympus Will Be Amazon Prime Video's next Animated Show

Webtoon's hit Greek myth romance is getting animated courtesy of Prime Video and the Jim Henson Company.

[Jim Henson Company? Interesting.]

I'd rather they made the Buffy Comics into an animated series, particularly the Last Slayer (which I adored) about a 50 something Buffy and Spike hooking up, and training Willow/Tara's daughter after both died, in an AU version of the verse. But that's just me.

maju

A while ago my daughter told me about an upcoming show called "Riot Women" about a bunch of menopausal/post menopausal women who start a rock band in order to compete in a talent show. At the time I couldn't find it available anywhere to stream in the US so I kind of gave up on being able to see it. However, this morning I opened up Britbox for the first time in a while and there it was as a recently acquired show. I've started watching the first episode and it has gripped me. Unfortunately it seems that there are only 6 episodes.

susandennis

maju

I've decided to keep using H&R Block for my taxes for the sake of continuity and so as not to have to transfer all my information to someone else. I have a new tax preparer (someone who also lives in Connecticut) but presumably he will have access to my previous years' returns. Anyway, I have uploaded the two income statements I already have, but I'm waiting for two or three more. My Social Security statement won't be available until the end of January and my Schwab statement won't be available until the end of February, which is annoying, but it's still well before the middle of April, and I should have another one from my inherited life insurance policy but I have no idea when that will be available. 2025 was relatively uncomplicated financially compared to 2024, but 2026 might be complicated by the sale of my house in Maryland. However, I don't have to think about that right now. (I'll be very happy when it does sell and I don't have to keep paying the utilities though.)

I've decided to start making my egg muffin things for lunches again. I've mostly been eating dinner leftovers for lunch since I've been here, which is fine, but I would like to not have to rely on leftovers always being available. My daughter tells me that Aria is very anxious to help me (mainly by beating the eggs I guess) so I'm planning to make them on Saturday morning. She keeps asking her mother when I'm going to make them, but her mother is not going to tell her until she wakes up on Saturday morning because otherwise, to quote her mother, she will probably be down in the basement in my bed prying my eyes open at 4:30 am on Saturday and telling me it's time to cook.

susandennis

I keep a daily spreadsheet of the total of my investments. It has a line chart which for the past year has looked exactly like a cartoon of a line chart - up and down and up and down and ... Yesterday, I lost a fuck ton of money. But, over the past month, I have actually made more than I lost yesterday. I'm old enough now to know that I have enough to live on even if I live way too long. So now, it's just kind of side show to watch rather than anything to stress over which is a wonderful situation to be in. But, still, up and down and up and down.

My Wegovy is in Seattle and will be here this morning but I've decided to wait until tomorrow for the first dose. If it comes monthly on Wednesdays, and they wait until the last one to send it, having a spare day might relieve some of the Will It Get Here In Time???? stress. And, I don't want to take the first dose just before a volleyball day. In case there is a reaction.

So... yes... the pool is fixed. It's open. It should be fully heated by Friday but we are playing tomorrow. I need to find my pool shoes. I put all my shoes in grocery bags to move them out of the closet for Friday's closet project. I do hope I left them on top of one of the bags.

Today is the first public Food & Beverage Committee meeting of the year. Harriet is all atwitter. But, it will be fine. I have copies of the minutes and agenda and tent cards for the table. All you have to do is send a PDF to the front desk and tell them what you want and they do it lickity split. I sent them two PDFs yesterday and asked for 30 copies each and I swear I got the 'pick them up at your convenience' email before mine was even sent!

I ran the dishwasher last night and it ran perfectly. Thanks, Daniel. He did have two active supervisors.

The internet got wonky last night - in and out - on and off. So finally, I fired up my phone's hot spot and watched TV on my laptop - like a teenager! ha!! It was fine. I do need to charge up my spares. I have some old Chromebooks that I keep because they are not dead yet. They are no longer supported by Google but they are still alive. They do not have great batteries so I need to just keep them charged up. I have a spot to do that out of the way and I need to set it up today to get ready for the next wifi outage. Although, it's been a good long while between outages. When I first moved in, they were fairly frequent but not so much any more, happily.

Ok. Time to take a shower and get dressed.

days_unfolding

Woke up at 7:15 AM after hitting snooze on my alarm for a while. I forgot to put my faucets on dripping, but they didn’t freeze. Apparently, I slept through a minor earthquake (3.5).

I want Oliver corralled when I try to get the dogs in. Oliver and Lily took the bait and went down in the basement. The dogs don’t want to come in yet even though it’s freaking cold. They still don’t want to come in. So much for my shower this morning. They finally came in. Silly dogs. They don't appear to have icicles hanging off of them :) It's cold upstairs, so I'm blasting my space heater.

I'm thinking that I want a nap over lunch, so I guess that I'll take a quick shower after work.

My Dad's response about whether we are heading into a recession:

Based on what I'm seeing about the economy it's quite likely. Recessions/Depressions are caused by economic sector imbalances. New upcoming sectors need to do a lot of hiring. To get the manpower they bid up what people are being paid, this causes a migration from "old" sectors to "new" sectors (and inflation). Companies in old sectors which are marginal (not very profitable) tend to fail because losing employees pushes them over the edge. Things begin to settle down, and the new sectors find that they overhired and lay off the extra people, which causes unemployment to spike more. The unemployed default on loans, adding to defaults of the old failing companies. This causes problems in the financial sector, resulting in failures. The failures result in not enough financing being available, which causes interest rates to rise. That in turn causes additional failures in various economic sectors.

The magnitude of the out of balances determines whether the result is a recession (mild) or a depression (severe).

I have found a set of cheaper skin care that might be good: Clinique. I'll give it a try. I ordered their cleanser and eye cream. I have a lot of moisturizer to use up before ordering theirs.

The dogs understand the word “nap”. I told Oliver that I was going to take a nap, and the dogs headed to the bedroom. Had a nice nap.

Off of work. Showered, but it’s 6:30 PM, and I just let the dogs out, and I need to feed everyone. Instead of getting the Kia jump-started, I’m going to get up early and get the registration tag for the Honda, and stop at the Post Office to mail my check.

When I think about earthquakes, I think of the “Pretty Big One,” the Loma Prieta quake when I was living in California. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it led to some national broadcasts about it at the time. Art Agnos was the mayor of San Francisco then, and I looked him up. That led to a 30-year retrospective of the quake that I want to watch.

That also reminded me that I didn’t realize that the quake was national news when it happened. I guess that I was in shock. When I got home, our cable was out, so I was listening to the radio. I got a station out of Santa Cruz, and it made the damage sound pretty bad (as it was there). Then the national news came on, and they made it sound like the entire Bay Area was in ruins, and it was only then that I started to call my parents to let them know that I was okay. I couldn’t get through to them for a couple of days.

I did watch the 30-year retrospective of the quake. It was quite good. P.S. I'm glad that Bookshop Santa Cruz is still going strong. That's a great store.

Somehow my phone's USB port got water in it, and it's telling me to let it dry before charging it. That's a problem because I use it as an alarm. I just set up my Sharper Image travel alarm to use. I hope that it will wake me up.

I need to get up early to get the car's registration renewed and my check mailed. So I'm going to go to bed soon.

shadowkat

It was bitterly cold today. In the teens (F) with windchills factoring in the single digits (F) this morning, and got up to the twenties by midday.
Tomorrow it may make it to 30 F degrees - which as I told Breaking Bad this morning is relatively balmy. If we make to the 40s, so New Yorkers may start wearing shorts.

My living room overhead (ceiling) light has gone out. So I'm using the lights in my window (the tree and the snowflake lights), along with the little planet light (my niece gave me for Xmas one year), and two small desk lamps. The Super's wife popped by just as I was departing the shower to attempt to change the light bulb in the living room - but alas she needs tools - so her husband (whose not feeling well or under the weather) may have to do it after all.

Knees hurt today - it's the commute. The steps, and the walking through the bitter cold. And work was a mixed bag. I ran into folks from Jamaica (aka the head honchos behind all my project managers) and the negative energy emanating from them - made me physically ill. It took me two hours to recover. Thank god, I'm in Manhattan now and not in Jamaica, Queens, and far away from them. The folks I'm sitting near including Breaking Bad don't have that type of energy.

***

I'm following the news but out of the corner of my eye? I'm kind of giving it the side-eye? Or through my fingers, like I'm watching a horror film? Told mother that I wanted to be in galaxy far far away, albeit not the Star Wars galaxy. I might be willing to tough it out in the Star Trek verse, but not the Star Wars one. Nor would I want to be in BSG, Farscape, or Doctor Who's verses. Definitely not Tolkien's. No, I think the only one I could survive in would be Star Trek's. (Which is ironic, considering I was afraid of Star Trek at the age of 9.)

Also conversations on Lord of the Rings popped up.

Would I go on an adventure with Gandalf? No way in hell. I would run in the opposite direction if I saw Gandalf coming my way, and possibly try to hide (assuming one can hide from a Wizard). Gandalf has a tendency to send you off on a journey, abandon you to your own devices half way through, and forget about you.

***

Buffy and Angel Rewatch.

I'm enjoying Buffy S7 at the moment more than Angel S4, although Angel S4 is a mixed bag? Everyone works but Cordelia and Connor - who clearly are miserable. Writing those two characters out at the end of S4, and replacing them with Spike was a stroke of genius. I know folks liked them? But I'm finding both to be annoying. (And apparently the actors weren't overly thrilled portraying them at that point either.)

Buffy S7 - I'm really enjoying. It's spending more time on the supporting characters. Also "Selfless" (Episode 5) - the Anya centric episode is fantastic and among the best of the series. ( Read more... )
God, I love this show. It is by far my favorite television series.

susandennis

1. Uncustables do not suck. I had a honey and peanut butter one yesterday and enjoyed it thoroughly. Tasty, easy, and just the right amount to polish off between here and the pool. A very good option!

2. You know how when people die and you go through their stuff and find random bits of change? Well, I'm not dead yet, but I just went into the fabulous storage area to find paper clips and discovered $98.76 in change and a spare mail key!! On the down side, sorry, bro. On the up side, my storage area shelves are now my happy place.

3. Daniel - the very best of our maintenance guys - just came in to check my dishwasher door situation. He thinks he might have to replace the door. He did not take it off but took pix and went to find a part. He left his cart outside my door so I'm thinking this will happen soon.

maju

Violet has had a resurgence of interest in knitting and it seems she practiced enough in my absence to now have a good grasp of the mechanics of the knit stitch. She has had to start a new project, because the one she started some time ago accidentally went through the wash and ended up extremely felted. It was a rather fuzzy yarn and hard to knit with, so I was happy to start her off with some smoother yarn that she had chosen for herself at Michael's (I think) and hadn't used yet. So far the little practice piece she is working on has no holes and no extra stitches and is looking good.

There has been a lot of activity in the basement over the last few days. My son in law decided to move his piano away from the part of the basement where I sleep, but his chosen spot (and really the only other place in the house as it's currently set up where there is room for a piano) was just a tiny bit too narrow for the piano. He worked out that if he took the quarter round molding off the parts of the wall on each side of the space the piano would just fit, so he did that this morning but then discovered that the one convenient power point is behind a large shoe rack that's right beside the piano, and there isn't enough clearance to insert a power cable (making the power point very not-convenient). There are at least three double power points in the part of the basement where I sleep, but only the one at the other end where the piano now is, because it's set up as a storage area. There is, however, a power point halfway along the hallway between the two areas, so I'm thinking my son in law will have to run a long extension cord from there to the piano.

While he was thinking about the piano placement, he and my daughter also decided that maybe they could reposition the corner couch that's near my bed, and put it over where the piano used to be. Unfortunately they didn't ask my opinion first (I was upstairs doing something else while this was going on) and when I saw the new layout I didn't really like it, so they ended up moving the couch back.

susandennis

When I signed up for Wegovy at NovoCare I was asked to pick a date - I picked the first available date - Wednesday, the 21st - tomorrow. I thought I was picking a delivery date. I'm guessing now, I was picking a date for the fun of it. Reddit research now shows that NovoCare will send my prescription to Centerwell who will text me to set up an account (which will likely get fucked up because I used to have Humana and they used Centerwell so I have a non-working account there). Then Centerwell, will send me the goods.

I was looking forward to Wednesday. Now I'm hoping I get the shit in my lifetime. Sigh.

Oh well. This is one sure way of avoiding nasty side effects.

I can just now see the work of loud landscapers of yesterday and they did a fabulous job! Everything looks so tidy. Soon they will be planting the flowers they put in every year. 'They' are the resident volunteers.

Today is housecleaning day, Tomorrow is Food & Beverage meeting day, Thursday is volleyball?, Friday is Closet Day.

Yesterday I was looking up shit on the internet. Every search was investigated by AI and it was driving me nuts. I just wanted the URL of this one company. I did not want its history! I just wanted to know this one thing, I did not want a Ted Talk! Then... I remembered. A while back I was so proud of myself when I engineered my default search tool to be AI! ha. That was a short love affair. I switched it to Google and calm came over the waters. Now I get AI only when I want it. Thankyou, me

Jim Across The Hall has now taken to throwing his garbage into the plastic milk carton that is specifically for glass wine bottles (we do way more trash separation here than is necessary but that's another rant). He's been having trash issues for a while. Bonny went in a couple of weeks ago and showed him what not to do. It did not stick. I do not want to be scraping tomato slices off the floor and the first time Joan slips on one, it ain't going to be pretty.

So I sent an email to the person who manages the carers who come see to him twice a day. She got right back to me and said she would let the carers know to make sure he's not taking out his own trash. She got back to me so fast, that it made me think she was glad to have more evidence that he cannot live in the independent living community any more. His career told me yesterday that he now goes to bed at 4 right after the second carer leaves for the day. I am grateful every day that at least he gets dressed before he comes out.

The door at the end of my hall goes right into Assisted Living which goes right into the Nursing and Memory Care wings. It's also a short cut down to the main lobby/dining rooms/etc. They put a note on that door yesterday that they had a confirmed case of RSV and precautions now required. Happily, I do not have to go through that door but, sometimes, Jim takes that route. I hope his carers steer him clear of it.

Well, I'll be damned. Reddit was wrong! Or, more accurately, my mileage varied. I just got a text from NovoCare with a FedEx tracking number! No delivery date but it's FedEx Overnight Service. So... looks like my Wegovy will be here tomorrow.

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January 2026

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Reading

Closet Ready

Strange Dreams

Manicure day

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Damn It, Oliver. You Hurt Me.

2025 - Year in Review

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So far...

drive bys

Dentist, Piano Class, and French Lessons

Interesting Tid-Bits from my DW Correspondence List

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Up and down and up and down

Earthquakes and Recessions

Tuesday is cold but...watching Buffy and Angel to comfort itself

Three Random drive bys

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Not so fast there, fatty

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January 2026

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