mindstalk: (food)
mindstalk ([personal profile] mindstalk) wrote2025-12-13 12:21 pm

Fujisawa groceries

"How can you feed yourself with a car?", some Americans and Canadians ask.

As mentioned before, a Lawson's conbini (convenience store) is directly downstairs, though that's admittedly unusual. Despite being rather small, it has milk, oranges and presumably other fruit, ham, raw pork, pasta, olive oil, udon, eggs, and frozen vegetables. This is just from popping in and out of it, without mentally cataloguing everything it does carry (thus the 'presumably'.) You could probably cook a balanced diet just from it alone, if you wanted. Read more... )

And you know? Most of all this area is detached single-family houses. Two-story, minimal yard, not that far from each other, but houses not sharing walls. Sample, sample, sample, sample, sample, even some two-story apartments/houses in the commercial zone

billroper: (Default)
billroper ([personal profile] billroper) wrote2025-12-12 09:49 pm
Entry tags:

Semester Break (Number One)

I picked up K down in Oak Brook today after she took the bus home from Ball State.

Julie still has a week of school to go.

Chaos will now begin. :)
brithistorian: (Default)
brithistorian ([personal profile] brithistorian) wrote2025-12-12 09:24 pm

A most stressful week...

This has been a super-stressful week. We had a somewhat lighter than usual round of medical appointments this week, but it was more than made up for by home repair appointments.

We had the garage door installation scheduled for Tuesday, which ended up not being completed that day, so the technician would have to come back Wednesday. Then Tuesday night I discovered that the basement drain was backing up whenever we used the washing machine, dishwasher, or kitchen sink, so I called the plumbing company for that, but they weren't able to send a plumber out until Friday afternoon.

Then Wednesday night, right after the garage door technician left, L. discovered that the washing machine was leaking (totally not related to the basement drain backing up). I tried to fix it, but ended up making it worse. So I had A. call an appliance repair service, who said they could send someone over Thursday morning.

Thursday morning the appliance repair technician came and fixed the dishwasher. Then I had to take A. to get allergy shots, then we went to Ricky's house, where I shoveled the 7-8 inches of snow we'd gotten over the previous two days. (He doesn't drive, but I had to shovel a path from the street to his door so Meals on Wheels could deliver and also to shovel his back stairs to he could let his dogs out.) I'm still sore from this.

Today I had a National Heritage Responders meeting (which went very well), then I had to wait for the plumber to arrive and fix the basement drain. We had originally had a noon to 3PM window for him to show up, which got pushed back to a 2:30PM to 4:30PM window and he ended up showing up at about 3:45PM.

All the house things have been successfully fixed, and we're planning to enjoy this weekend's cold weather from inside the house as much as possible. (It's -2°F out right now, and supposed to go down from here, then only to get as high as 0°F tomorrow, and not to get into actual positive temperatures until Sunday.) But anyway, that's why I've got a massive mental backlog of posts I want to make, and why I've got a folder in my email of comments from you that I want to respond to, and so forth. I hope you're all doing well.

Working Stories - Funny & True Stories | NotAlwaysRight.com ([syndicated profile] notalwaysworking_feed) wrote2025-12-13 01:00 am

A Berry Unfortunate Mix-Up

Posted by Not Always Right

Read A Berry Unfortunate Mix-Up

Patient: "My name is [garbled name]."
Coworker: "Um ... you said Dingleberry? Okay, what's your date of birth?"
Patient: "January 1st, 1970. Wait, what did you say my last name is?"

Read A Berry Unfortunate Mix-Up

Working Stories - Funny & True Stories | NotAlwaysRight.com ([syndicated profile] notalwaysworking_feed) wrote2025-12-12 11:00 pm

We Heard Of Fast Food, But This Is A New Level…

Posted by Not Always Right

Read We Heard Of Fast Food, But This Is A New Level…

One typical Friday, we were tossing sandwiches to the drive-thru, unbeknownst to our manager, the drive-thru person had ducked away to look at something, and without looking, sort of absently chucked a turkey club over his shoulder.

Read We Heard Of Fast Food, But This Is A New Level…

Sharon Lee, Writer ([syndicated profile] sharonlee_feed) wrote2025-12-12 11:03 pm

Who’s the hunter, who’s the game?

Posted by Sharon

View the pre-Sarah cat census here

Now, where were we?

Ah.

Friday.

Sarah has departed and the house is much cleaner. She reported that Firefly flirted with her to the point of offering chin to be rubbed, which is really new. Usually, Firefly booked to Steve’s office the minute the door opened for the cleaning person. Of course, that was when we had Trooper to stand between us and all invaders. Firefly had apparently settled on a soft approach to invaders (Trooper satisfied himself with Keeping A Close Eye). I did think I saw a memo come in regarding adopting Sarah, but any such Resolution needs to be unanimous, and I, at least, cannot sanction making Sarah’s cats into orphans.

Wrote a little, my intention is to write some more, but also to quit early and watch the first episode of Miss Scarlet.

After Sarah left us, I made hummus, and then I made some toast to so that I could properly sample what I had wrought — and yes I will be making that again. And when I do, I’ll be using the blender, because my food processor is just a little midgy thing, and not up to an entire can of chickpeas. Though it worked fine doing it in sections. Messy, but fine.

While I was in the kitchen, I made some cookies to address the catastrophe reported the other day.

Remaining on the to-do list, one’s duty to the cats, a brief walk, Part 2 of PT homework, eating lunch, and hitting the WIP again.

So! That’s the news from here.

What’s the news from there?
#
Well. Knocking off for the day. Didn’t get much writing done — only about 700 new words, but I did a lot of plotting and staring into space.

On the RL front, I had apparently hit the Land’s End sale hard last year. I had no idea that I had this many mock-necks. OTOH, it’s winter, so — yay! mock t-necks FTW.

I forgot to mention that I did go out to meet ‘n greet the new town manager last night, but it turns out that many people wanted to do the same thing, the new guy having grown up in Waterville and graduated from the high school and all. Long story short, his fandom turned out in such numbers that there was no place for me to park, even if I’d been willing to walk from the other side of the Concourse, which — SPOILER — I was not. So I came home. Mayhap I will write a letter after he’s officially in his office.

I see in my email queue a short story galley to proof, news of a check having landed, which should be in my account on Monday, and — oh. The library wonders if I’d like to do an Author Event in February. That might be fun.

The post office mail hasn’t been delivered yet, which is making me slightly cranky, since there’s a parcel due in that really can’t just sit out in the mailbox and freeze overnight.

My Plan for Saturday and Sunday — tomorrow and the next day — is to write, as next week is Quite Complicated, and that’s before we get to the crack o’dawn double MRI next Saturday. If I don’t check in over the next couple of days, it’s because I’m working.

And on that note — everybody have a good evening. Stay safe.

Today’s blog post title brought to you by Patty Smyth and Scandal, because I heard it yesterday as I was out and about, and it’s a decent song and Patty Smyth can really sing.  And I remember — yes, I do remember, the first time I saw the music video, and then trying to explain  — er, no — describe it to Steve.  WARNING:  If continuity errors bother you, don’t watch this video.  The Warrior

redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
Redbird ([personal profile] redbird) wrote2025-12-12 06:03 pm
Entry tags:

IRA

tl;dr still waiting for things

The latest on that inherited IRA is that I got two email messages from Fidelity today, one saying that I needed to do something [unspecified] to transfer the money from BNY, and one saying specifically that BNY had told Fidelity that they, BNY, needed to talk to me.

So, I called BNY, and after various annoyances with their phone tree, talked to someone. He told me that they had no record yet of receiving the form I sent by next-day mail, but that if the form had arrived late Wednesday they might not be scanned until late today or even Monday. Also that once the form is scanned into the BNY system, it may take a few days before they actually transfer the money into my name, which would be necessary in order to move it to Fidelity.

So, I can (and probably will) call Monday to check that the form was in fact been received, but he thinks I should call later in the week, maybe Wednesday, maybe as late as Friday, and ask for my brand-new account number. Once I have that number, I have to fill out appropriate paperwork with Fidelity. *sigh*

I am both annoyed that even paying for next-day delivery, this is taking several days, and thinking that if I hadn’t paid for faster delivery I would be a few days further behind.

The man also said that once the funds are transferred, they will send me an acknowledgement by mail, including the new account number. However, waiting for that to arrive (rather than getting the information by phone) does not seem prudent, given the IRS deadline for the 2025 required minimum distribution.
rolanni: (Default)
rolanni ([personal profile] rolanni) wrote2025-12-12 06:02 pm

Who's the hunter, who's the game?

View the pre-Sarah cat census here

Now, where were we?

Ah.

Friday.

Sarah has departed and the house is much cleaner. She reported that Firefly flirted with her to the point of offering chin to be rubbed, which is really new. Usually, Firefly booked to Steve's office the minute the door opened for the cleaning person. Of course, that was when we had Trooper to stand between us and all invaders. Firefly had apparently settled on a soft approach to invaders (Trooper satisfied himself with Keeping A Close Eye). I did think I saw a memo come in regarding adopting Sarah, but any such Resolution needs to be unanimous, and I, at least, cannot sanction making Sarah's cats into orphans.

Wrote a little, my intention is to write some more, but also to quit early and watch the first episode of Miss Scarlet.

After Sarah left us, I made hummus, and then I made some toast to so that I could properly sample what I had wrought -- and yes I will be making that again. And when I do, I'll be using the blender, because my food processor is just a little midgy thing, and not up to an entire can of chickpeas. Though it worked fine doing it in sections. Messy, but fine.

While I was in the kitchen, I made some cookies to address the catastrophe reported the other day.

Remaining on the to-do list, one's duty to the cats, a brief walk, Part 2 of PT homework, eating lunch, and hitting the WIP again.

So! That's the news from here.

What's the news from there?
#
Well. Knocking off for the day. Didn't get much writing done -- only about 700 new words, but I did a lot of plotting and staring into space.

On the RL front, I had apparently hit the Land's End sale hard last year. I had no idea that I had this many mock-necks. OTOH, it's winter, so -- yay! mock t-necks FTW.

I forgot to mention that I did go out to meet 'n greet the new town manager last night, but it turns out that many people wanted to do the same thing, the new guy having grown up in Waterville and graduated from the high school and all. Long story short, his fandom turned out in such numbers that there was no place for me to park, even if I'd been willing to walk from the other side of the Concourse, which -- SPOILER -- I was not. So I came home. Mayhap I will write a letter after he's officially in his office.

I see in my email queue a short story galley to proof, news of a check having landed, which should be in my account on Monday, and -- oh. The library wonders if I'd like to do an Author Event in February. That might be fun.

The post office mail hasn't been delivered yet, which is making me slightly cranky, since there's a parcel due in that really can't just sit out in the mailbox and freeze overnight.

My Plan for Saturday and Sunday -- tomorrow and the next day -- is to write, as next week is Quite Complicated, and that's before we get to the crack o'dawn double MRI next Saturday. If I don't check in over the next couple of days, it's because I'm working.

And on that note -- everybody have a good evening. Stay safe.

Today's blog post title brought to you by Patty Smyth and Scandal, because I heard it yesterday as I was out and about, and it's a decent song and Patty Smyth can really sing.  And I remember -- yes, I do remember, the first time I saw the music video, and then trying to explain  -- er, no -- describe it to Steve.  WARNING:  If continuity errors bother you, don't watch this video.  The Warrior


Working Stories - Funny & True Stories | NotAlwaysRight.com ([syndicated profile] notalwaysworking_feed) wrote2025-12-12 09:00 pm

Willfully Ignorant About Their Own Willful Ignorance

Posted by Not Always Right

Read Willfully Ignorant About Their Own Willful Ignorance

Me: "You might want to put him on the card-only register."
Supervisor: "Why? He's been trained on cash."
Me: "Yes, but he absolutely refuses to believe $2 bills are real. It doesn't matter how many times we've told him. The last time someone tried to pay using one and he called security."

Read Willfully Ignorant About Their Own Willful Ignorance

Working Stories - Funny & True Stories | NotAlwaysRight.com ([syndicated profile] notalwaysworking_feed) wrote2025-12-12 06:55 pm

A Boss-Level Metaphor

Posted by Not Always Right

Read A Boss-Level Metaphor

Me: "Alright. So imagine you have your car but the gas tank is empty, okay?"
CEO: "Yeah?"
Me: "You can still sit in it, turn on the radio and listen to music, and turn the lights on, but you can't turn on the engine and drive it, yeah?"

Read A Boss-Level Metaphor

pegkerr: (Default)
pegkerr ([personal profile] pegkerr) wrote2025-12-12 01:29 pm

2025 52 Card Project: Week 49: Farewell

My work life is definitely winding down.

For the past eight and a half years, I have planned and overseen what are called Candidacy Days every other month, and we hold the candidacy annual Open House at the December meeting. I have probably arranged fifty of these meetings over that time, but this past week was my last one, and the annual Open House was my retirement party. One of my sisters, Betsy, my two daughters, my granddaughter M, and Eric were all able to attend.

People said nice things about me.

It's really starting to sink in. I have one week of work left.

Image Description: three women and one man (Peg, her former boss Bishop Ann, her present boss Bishop Jen, and her supervisor Pastor John) smile at the camera. Center: Peg and her family (Eric, sister Betsy, and her daughters Fiona and Delia) smile. Bottom: a portion of a bouquet and retirement gifts.

Farewell

49 Farewell

Click on the links to see the 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
jennlk: (Default)
jennlk ([personal profile] jennlk) wrote2025-12-12 02:00 pm

And another thing!

Last night, I ushered a really good concert at Hill Auditorium. Wow! was the general audience response. Well, except for the people who left early because it was "too loud". Um, it was Brahms, and *not* the lullaby. It is loud, and brash, and intense. And wonderfully performed by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. There was a moment of unintended levity, when the violin soloist broke a string! There was a slight break while she went backstage to restring her violin and the conductor filled in with a bit of conversation. Then she came back, and the ensemble re-started the measure before the string broke.

My earworm for the week, Livingston concert on Sunday and Brahms yesterday notwithstanding, is from Randol Bass' arrangement of the Night Before Christmas (the best narrated version I found -- other videos are either overwrought or the guy sounds like he's reading a poem, not speaking in rhythm).

And in a partial failure of my plans, I failed to buy dried apricots last week when I was at the grocer, so I have to do that today on my way home from rehearsal. Because I can't not make apricot bread. Some of the other things I can skip, but not that.... So today is laundry and start packing, although I can do some of that around the baking tomorrow. Maybe I'll sort the living room while things are baking....

(edit for grammar. why I didn't catch it when I proofread, I dunno.)
selenite0: (kids)
selenite0 ([personal profile] selenite0) wrote2025-12-12 01:07 pm
Entry tags:

Short Story: "Neighbors"

The Amish are having many more babies than our mainstream culture. Eventually they'll be the only ones left.

New story on Substack.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-12 01:26 pm

Merry Christmas for Poilievre!

I got much better at spelling his name once I realized it contains "lie".

Embattled CPC leader's Christmas card list gets one name shorter.
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2025-12-12 12:12 pm
Entry tags:

Looking Back at the Work of John Varley, 1947-2025



Where to start reading — or rereading — Varley's many series and stories.

Looking Back at the Work of John Varley, 1947-2025
Working Stories - Funny & True Stories | NotAlwaysRight.com ([syndicated profile] notalwaysworking_feed) wrote2025-12-12 05:00 pm

No Cart Blanche

Posted by Not Always Right

Read No Cart Blanche

Attendant: "Hi! What are you doing?"
Me: "Checking out?"
Attendant: "Do you need two carts?"
Me: "Well, there isn’t enough room to keep all the bags there, and I don’t want to put things back in the cart while I’m still scanning."

Read No Cart Blanche

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johnridley ([personal profile] johnridley) wrote2025-12-12 11:33 am

Latest stuff

I've made good progress on cleaning my room. Heck I can walk through it without stepping over stuff.
I'm also keeping up the pace on scanning old negatives and slides, and tossing them into a box for disposal when they're scanned. There's quite a heap over there in the corner but I'll get through it eventually. I have plans to rearrange slightly when that space is available.

We're going to NC next week. There's a slight urge to bring a small telescope, but honestly I won't have a chance to use it even if I did have it with me so there's not much point. We will be busy the whole time I'm sure. Maybe binoculars...

I chose South Lyon again as the Tuba Christmas event to go to, but when I got there, it was cancelled due to building issues. So an hour driving the truck for no reason.

Yesterday I redid the salt level sensor I built for the water softener a couple of years back. It has been working but not reliably - it stops reporting every day or three at random and needs to be reset, which kind of defeats the purpose. I didn't change the design or parts or anything, I just re-imaged with a 3 year newer version of ESPHome, and I hope that bugs have been fixed such that it doesn't have those problems anymore. Only time will tell.

The weather the last few days has been not the best. It snowed a bunch (maybe 6 inches?) then warmed up to 35, the snow turned to sticky gunk, then it rained but not enough to clear the snow, then it froze hard. In the middle there we tried to clear the snow. That did lead to the rain freezing to a hard cover, but at least it has a chance of clearing in the driveway next time there's good sun or above freezing weather. I find that if the driveway and the road in front of our house is good, I can safely ride a motorcycle, other than a few places where they have gravel parking lots (share house for instance) - they will still be icy.

I went to the gym yesterday and did not do so well. In hindsight I guess it could be because of the platelet donation the previous day, but it also could be that it had been 4 or 5 days since the last upper body day. I need to not take that long of a break. I dropped back to 4 days a week in the gym on the recommendation of the app I'm using, partly because December is busy enough that shooting for 5 days a week is difficult some weeks, but I'm planning to go back to 5 days when we get back from NC.

I got my old/experimental 3D printer back on its feet. It's still not printing quite as well as the Creality right out of the box but I'm getting it better. The last thing I did was to have it re-home the Z axis after warmup - if it homed cold then heated up, the print bed was too high and the head was dragging on the bed. Apparently the bed swells enough during heating to make a significant difference, because adding that final Z home just before printing fixed that issue.

I'm also in the process of trying to clean up the video and stuff on my storage devices. I'm recoding the archival copies of full runs of TV shows and stuff into x.265 - it saves space, sometimes a lot of space - I've seen 2GB video files go down to 500MB and still look about as good.

I'm currently powering through DS9 - I haven't seen all the shows, probably about half across the whole run, maybe less. First season was all re-watches but it's been so long that I needed it. I'm also behind on Strange New Worlds and Discovery. Discovery I honestly don't like all that much, and I'm afraid I'm in the "I think I'm just going to forget this series ever happened" camp to some extent. Or treat it as a non-canon type thing.
Related Stories - Funny & True Stories | NotAlwaysRight.com ([syndicated profile] notalwaysrelated_feed) wrote2025-12-12 03:30 pm

Ink-redibly Bad Idea

Posted by Not Always Right

Read Ink-redibly Bad Idea

Recently, her friend's mother has gotten a tattoo involving the mother's and daughter's first initials, and this is her latest pitch.
Thirteen-Year-Old: "Look at what Mrs. [Neighbor] got! It's so cool! You should get one like that!"
My older daughter interrupts.
Sixteen-Year-Old: "She can't do that."

Read Ink-redibly Bad Idea