What’s everyone up to that has nothing to do with politics or the state of the world?
Anybody else snuggled up in their own little chair, with their favorite baby for comfort?
Boring Week
War for Ukraine Day 1,096: The Third Year Ends & the Fourth Year BeginsReader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
People are complicated. Love is not.
Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll
A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.
“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”
Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.
Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.
Human rights are not a matter of opinion!
You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.
I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.
The willow is too close to the house.
Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.
With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.
Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.
Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.
I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.
There is no right way to do the wrong thing.
The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.
People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.
Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.
Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.
Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.
Republicans in disarray!
It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.
The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.
Melancholy Jaques
Reviewing options for medical plans when I retire, setting a retirement date, planning my cross-country baseball tour for June & July.
Wapiti
Setting up a coffee date for tomorrow w my sister. Expect it to be windy (20 mph gusts) and very light showers. I’m not sure it will be a fun walk, but maybe we just drive instead.
Jackie
I’ve been cheering on my grandson in soccer, who’s been selected to be part of a team to play in London this summer! Gooo Liam!
Gin & Tonic
Trying to plan a ski trip out west with my daughter and SIL.
gwangung
@Melancholy Jaques: Oh, hey, let’s sit together and trade notes.
Waiting until the end of June…
FelonyGovt
Getting ready for my hip replacement operation next Tuesday.
WaterGirl
@Jackie: That’s exciting!
WaterGirl
@FelonyGovt: All this time, I have been thinking “knee” and not “hip” for you. Is there a longer recovery time for hip replacement?
chemiclord
Trying to figure out how to shop my current manuscript that I started years ago about humanity recovering from billionaires nearly destroying the world.
It’s been a tough sell considering people are currently watching it happen in real time.
YY_Sima Qian
Today is my elder daughter’s birthday, & she has a large cake waiting for her when she comes back from kindergarten.
Melancholy Jaques
@gwangung:
The only date/place decided is I will be in Denver the last week of June to see the Dodgers @ Rockies. Sometime after that, I will be in Kansas City to visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum & National World War I Museum. Hope to catch a Royals game at the same time. I will be seeing some minor league games, but haven’t yet determined which ones.
Sure Lurkalot
I watched the Golden Globe animated movie winner “Flow” last week. As described on AppleTV:
No dialogue, beautiful animation, thought provoking and an enduring lesson about cooperation, kindness and grit in the face of catastrophe.
It streams free if you have a Max subscription.
Phylllis
@Melancholy Jaques: We have a mini-trip like that planned. We are going to see the Charlotte Knights in mid-June and then to Columbus GA to see their refurbished ballpark in July. They are getting the Braves Double A team after years of not having minor league baseball there.
Also, retirement both rocks and rules.
John S.
I’m snuggled up next my fur baby. I can never understand how his breed (Havanese) ever survived in Cuba. We keep his hair short with a puppy cut, and if it’s over 65 degrees, he’s panting his head off. Oh, and he loves to frolic in the snow. If you haven’t seen videos of Havanese in the snow, you’re missing out.
@WaterGirl:
I sent you a note earlier. I’m sure you’ve been getting a lot of those lately. Sorry to add to the pile.
Sure Lurkalot
@FelonyGovt: Good luck! My sister’s procedure went very well and was life changing (though unfortunately, she needs the other one done too).
WaterGirl
@chemiclord:
:: rueful chuckle ::
No One You Know
Discovering that McSweeney’s Internet Tendency had already described my plans involving the architecture of a fort made with weighted blankets. When I’m done lining it with tinfoil I should be able to survive the week, which seems to be Monday for the next four days.
Shalimar
Life sucks. Please get rid of all the people.
seaboogie
Snuggling with my large orange cat. Moved my Parkinson’s client into a truly lovely assisted living community last week and she is adapting well. Aware of the news, and also dwelling in my real day to day life which has just gotten easier with that transition. Married for six weeks now, and I love my husband and my life.
Pennsylvanian
@Shalimar: People are the problem that won’t go away.
Jay
I actually have this week and the next off. Range started last Wednesday. I was tagged to teach safety. Thursday was rifle, Friday pistol. Shot 5 with the Colt, 5 with the FN, 5 with the LMG, 5 with the Sako.
Range officer said I am “free”. don’t have to spend this week and next on the range.
JoeyJoeJoe
Recently returned from a trip to Utah. Weather was too bad (blizzard, temperature was 6 degrees factoring in wind chill) to ski, but I did get to see two music acts – an organ player at the Mormon Tabernacle, and the Crash Test Dummies.
Gin & Tonic
@Shalimar: Ever read Wittgenstein’s Mistress?
FelonyGovt
@WaterGirl: Actually, I’m told recovery from hip replacement is a lot easier and quicker than from a knee replacement. Sounds counterintuitive to me, but I’m not complaining.
@Sure Lurkalot: thanks! It’s definitely time.
MobiusKlein
Hoping that Death Valley is not too hot around our planned visit there in early April. And wondering when I should take my month long sabbatical. (from an actual American Company that still offers that every 5 years. Woot. My second)
prostratedragon
Watching Twin Peaks during the season in which the original story takes place. Admiring Henry’s prodigious snuggling ability. Wondering if this could possibly be real.
danielx
Reading up on Anterior Cervical Dissection and Fusion, which I am told I will require at some point. A little quality time with a neurosurgeon….really don’t want to do it.
Tim C
We adopted two cats six months ago. Now at 8 months old they are basically velociraptors running all over the house. Also they like to paw my hand when they feel they need attention.
I love them.
mapanghimagsik
Trying to learn German. I’m up to Intermediate on the langue app, but I don’t feel Intermediate.
Doc Sardonic
@danielx: I had that surgery done a few years back. It was a bit scary but much better than the alternatives presented if I didn’t have it done. If I remember correctly, I have C3,4 and 5 fused with a plate, 6 screws and 4 spacers. Surgery wasn’t bad, but recovery was a bit tedious, I spent 11 or 12 weeks post surgery in a cervical collar. The most difficult thing was sleeping, since I am a side sleeper and that doesn’t work real well with the collar, but wedging me in place with pillows helped. If you have questions I will gladly answer them as best I can.
Melancholy Jaques
@Phylllis:
I sure hope so. I know it’s time, but I am approaching it with trepidation.
Sister Golden Bear
@MobiusKlein: During April, Death Valley is typically 90s during the day and high 50s to mid 60s at night.
Dangerman
Is Glendale Bill around? He may be busy at the House of Orange (spit; not the store, the color). Anyway, I’m sure he (and others) know the answer to my question; I think I have even figured it out but not sure.
What’s that bright star/planet/thing in the sky to the West (slightly Southwest)? Elon launch something I haven’t heard about? I’m in Loma Linda tonight. It’s a heart thing (now I see my heart specialist around Valentine’s Day; accidental, but easy to remember).
i seriously thought it was Sirius (/Alan Parsons Project) …
… but now I am fairly certain it is Venus. There is so much light pollution around here that I hit websites that talk about this or that Constellation to discern an answer but good luck around here.
It’s bright and beautiful even with all that light pollution.
Anyway, used an app called Skyview and it said Venus. It seemed certain which makes me feel certain. Still, checking with someone that knows a LOT more about topic is always a wise thing (see, heart doctor, though THAT wasn’t really a personal choice as much as a medical directive).
Thanks for any confirmation.
Glidwrith
Docked my sapling fig tree (in honor of creating “My Tiny Fruit Tree”), untangled the passion fruit vine and threaded it onto its new trellis, then sculpted the Australian lime tree sapling (ouch, inch long thorns) to something resembling symmetry. Probably need to have multiple conversations with it.
My elephant garlic bulbs are sprouting-they look like tulips, but wow are they “fragrant”!
Sister Golden Bear
I had a definitely less than pleasant session with my PT this afternoon, but the good news is that it looks like I’m finally hitting the thawing phase of frozen shoulder. But it’s scary how much strength I’ve lost from not being able to move my arm, and it’ll probably be another couple months before I can fully move it/control it again.
scav
Helped prune an apple tree and am now researching other people’s families (they did ask, so it’s not exactly historical stalking, quite). Wind’s howling out there now, so the apple may be appreciating the decreased wind resistance. Crocus and early old-school primroses have bloomed and join the snowdrops, cyclamen and hellebores. (And the shotweed, but that’s a constant.)
danielx
@Sister Golden Bear: Had rotator cuff surgery about a year ago and this evening I was finally able to lift a 12 inch cast iron skillet above my head and hold it there. Takes a while but you will get it back.
Physical therapist nazis are the only good nazis.
cain
I’m creating a costume. I’m working to become a costumed avenger of the night.
OK maybe not.
I’m writing an open source application. I got sick of having to deal with conference organization here I wanted to move sessions around. So I’m writing a way to load up a conference schedule or write an conference schedule and then be able to move the rows around etc.
It also keeps my mind occupied while the feds have their shit show.
eclare
Henry! Getting caught up on the latest season of one of my favorite reality shows, The Traitors. I’m on episode five, no spoilers! Alan Cumming is having the time of his life.
eclare
@Jackie:
Woo-hoo! Metric football capital!
NotMax
Enjoying a warming bowl of onion soup from the big pot made over a week ago.
Yutsano
@Sure Lurkalot: Hopefully for her it’s not unfortunate. I have bilateral hip replacements and it’s a fucking miracle how much better you feel after the surgery is done. I wonder if she’ll have the same reaction after my left hip was done. I was like, “Go do the other one* now!”
*I had to wait a couple of years for that to happen as my right hip wasn’t as bad as my left one. But eventually it did decay enough.
VFX Lurker
YAAAAAAAAYYY!!!
Wishing you continued progress and full strength recovery.
Phylllis
@Melancholy Jaques: It’s a big change, and you have to give yourself time to decompress and to find new routines, both big and small. I take a 30-minute or so walk around the neighborhood every day, whether I have other plans or not, just to get moving and get out of the house for a bit.
NotMax
@Yutsano
Coming this spring on ABC, The Bionic Tubaist.
;)
Llelldorin
Made plans to get my daughter back from college at UVic when the term is over in April. That is a _pretty_ campus.
West of the Rockies
@Sure Lurkalot:
I just watched the trailer… it looks lovely.
NotMax
Peeked in at a Times Square webcam. More than enough illumination there at this time of the night to see clearly. Flags flying at half staff. Although why they’re still up at 1:30 a.m. I dunno.
otmar
I spent the weekend visiting my sister in Geneva. Yesterday, I took the train to Zürich, stopping in Bern to visit a friend.
Upcoming: 2 days of business meetings in Zürich.
FastEdD
I’m trying to learn how to use Logic Pro as a Digital Audio Workstation. I’ve been recording music since the days of reel to reel. I’m a hunt and peck kind of guy and the dog hides when I hit wrong buttons and start cussing and throwing things. I’m taking an old cassette I recorded of my band playing at the Troubadour in 1988 and bringing it back to life. With AI you can take an old mono recording and separate the tracks and it will be stereo and sound much clearer. AI may put artists out of work but it can do some cool things too.
Every couple of days I take a break and go to a Tesla dealership and give them shit.
VeniceRiley
I wake earlier in retirement than I ever did during work years. Currently snuggled on sofa with Reggie.
Wife needs a hip replacement too. Best luck on that to all! I have heard it’s easier than knees as well.
Rusty
Wednesday I’m hoping to go skiing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with 4 of my coworkers. I’m a terrible skier but I enjoy it. Thursday after work I am driving from New Hampshire to Rochester NY where my parents live. Then Friday taking them with me to Cleveland to see our third daughter’s junior conservatory recital (saxophone!). Should be a beautiful performance. All the family is coming, my wife is headed to NYC on Thursday to help her dad and his wife fly to Cleveland. I think there 13 of us altogether going. Sunday is driving all the way back to NH, dropping my parents on the way. Send prayers for the 5 hours drive each way with my 88 paranoid mother.
VeniceRiley
Did I mention Reggie is simultaneously snoring, running in his sleep, and farting? That’s what’s happening here.
Oh, and a major road north is closed almost every weekend until early may. Ugh. Side roads in these parts are not wide enough for 2 way traffic, yo.
Virginia Thibeaux
I went to band rehearsal tonight. The San Jose Metropolitan Band. We’ve a concert this Sunday.
Gloria DryGarden
@YY_Sima Qian: that is really sweet. Do you have different birthday traditions in Chinese culture, than the American ones you absorbed?
in Montessori school traditions, where I worked for 7 years, we do a cool different thing: the child walks around a candle with names of the months laid out in a circle around it. We sing “the earth goes around the sun.” And for the little 4 and 5 year olds, they’d stop each year, and their mom or dad, who came to school for the celebration, would tell what things they liked, then. After the walk around the circle for the final year we’d ask the child what they could do now..
it always seemed so positive and affirming for the child, the parents, and the classroom, to celebrate all their milestones and new abilities. Kindergarten is such a sweet age. Congratulations.
Gloria DryGarden
@NotMax: half staff? Oh I’m behind after a few days of off screen irl.
Gloria DryGarden
@chemiclord: perhaps that will be instructive
Gloria DryGarden
I’m looking into ways to bring down my blood pressure, which I hadn’t been worried about, but the doctor is, along with blood sugar numbers, and increase a bunch of system functions, like metabolism, sleep, and a few key organs. It’s all rather a lot to attend to.
also, garden clean up after 2 winters of not handling it. My poor tulips want their boost of bulb food, in case it might snow again to water it in.
eclare
@Gloria DryGarden:
Amlodipine works wonders on blood pressure, few side effects.
NotMax
@Gloria DryGarden
Here’s the live feed, view from West 47th Street and Broadway looking southeast
YY_Sima Qian
@Gloria DryGarden: Thank you! Nothing too special, just birthday cake & balloons. 2 weekends ago, we did hold a day camping event w/ the families of few of my elder daughter’s friends that were born w/in a few days of each other. That was fun.
I meant to also thank you for your kind words in the Ukraine thread 2 days ago. I have come to terms w/ & am now comfortable w/ the confused, blurred & conflict identities that comes w/ being cross-/bi-cultural. Indeed, I try to draw strength & wisdom from it.
There are aspects of Chinese social norms that I try to follow (such as prioritizing my children’s education), there are aspects that I reject (such as chauvinism toward ethnic minorities, skepticism toward LGTBQ, & Chinese exceptionalism), & there are those that I am aware at the intellectual level but struggle to practice (I respect elders, but I have real trouble remember being deferential to the degree expected).
If I am a white (or black, hispanic) American, I suspect my Chinese wife & in-laws would largely overlook my inability to completely assimilate & conform because the expectation would not even be there. However, because I am ethnically Han Chinese, the expectation is there.
Gloria DryGarden
@NotMax: but why? What new/ recent tragedy / loss is this for? Flags at half mast..
YY_Sima Qian
@Gloria DryGarden: BTW, Montessori kindergartens are very popular in the PRC. My wife & I are really attracted to the philosophy. We looked at putting my elder daughter in one, but ultimately we chose an “international” one w/ immersive English environment, nearby where we live.
BethanyAnne
I spent a couple of hours tonight running guildies in WoW Classic through Scarlet Monastery to get them a bit of a boost. It was fun. I’m really liking the new warlock I’m playing.
I’m also still in my first week at the new job. Working from home as a CSR. It’s exciting and fun so far. Feels good to be productive and help people again.
NotMax
@Gloria DryGarden
‘Tis a puzzlement for me too.
If only in Times Square, that’s usually marking the death of someone prominent in the world of Broadway.
Gloria DryGarden
@YY_Sima Qian: oh ouch.
since you are ethnically Han Chinese, the in laws have trouble accepting that you’re also American, and are thus living in a synthesis of several mindsets and points of view.
Plus, you maintain this big picture ability, and a broad awareness.
Nobody is going to crank you down into more narrowed and limited cultural viewpoints if they don’t fit for you.
and the wisdom you draw from being bi-cultural, you share it with us as a gift. Your perspective as an insider, from outside. And an outsider from inside, is priceless. It’s a shining golden radiant jewel, to have an “inside-outer” here with so much wide world awareness and cultural sensitivity. Woohoo. ( hope you can take a compliment, man)
maybe like a dual insider, with some outside perspective..
I hope some ancient wise Asian goddesses can protect you and ease your path in the rough spots of being unassimilated and “different”. Does lotus grow in china? The spirit of a plant like that.
(Flying dumpling monster?)
Gloria DryGarden
@YY_Sima Qian: it’s a tough choice. Maybe one year of montessori,, to absorb the flavor, philosophy, and the therapeutic math materials and project based learning. And the inclusive egalitarian qualities. Because the international angle is going to be so useful; at least she’ll understand you.
Gloria DryGarden
@NotMax: got my hopes up for a sec, that maybe some personage or other had reached an effective and beneficial demise.
ah well.
YY_Sima Qian
@Gloria DryGarden: You are far too kind! I am just trying to make my way through life like everyone else.
Aziz, light!
I’ll spend three hours today in the gym rehabbing last summer’s right shoulder replacement. My replaced left shoulder is frozen, awaiting new assessment, then gradual thawing by my PT. At least I hope so.
Knees, hips, no biggie. Shoulders, yikes!
Planning a visit in March to the Escalante River backcountry in southern Utah. We hope to hike in some slot canyons. I understand we need to keep an eye on the weather so as not to be drowned by a flash flood.
lowtechcyclist
@Dangerman:
It’s Venus. It’s been about the brightest I can remember it for the past few weeks. It’s up there in the west for a few hours every evening after sunset.
YY_Sima Qian
@Gloria DryGarden: Everyone, myself included, expected my daughters to pick up English very easily. Turns out, not so simple.
Even if I speak to my daughters exclusively in English, my wife, my in-laws, my parents, & our nanny would still speak to them in Chinese, the conversations we have w/ each other (that they listen in on) are also in Chinese. Realistically, maybe 10% of the conversation they hear on a day to day basis (before my elder daughter started going to the “international” kindergarten) is in English. I also used to travel a lot for business, which further reduced the time I could spend w/ my then single daughter.
I also noticed that my elder daughter would refuse to talk to me in English even when she was capable of simple conversation, & I couldn’t understand why. Then the kindergarten teacher told us that my English fluency was actually the problem. To my older daughter, struggling to learn English, I represented to her an unclimbable mountain that she could never summit, so it was easy for her to get discouraged & give up. The teacher had seen it in other kids whose parents speak English well. Sure enough, my elder daughter loved to teach my Chinese in-laws English, even though her command of English was still relatively limited.
She is just getting over that learning hump now, & now she loves to devour English (& Chinese) children’s books, & listen to English audios of children’s stories.
YY_Sima Qian
@Gloria DryGarden: The eastern & central part of Hubei Province, where I live, is formed by flat flood plains of the Yangtze River, dotted by many lakes & ponds, very amenable to growing lotus. Lotus roots, stems & seeds form key ingredients to the local cuisine.
To your point, I do indeed draw inspiration from the lotus, which traditional Chinese literatis saw as the truest representation of the scholar gentleman, undaunted by authority, untempted by corruption, uninterested in frivolities.
予独爱莲之出淤泥而不染,
濯清涟而不妖,
中通外直,不蔓不枝,
香远益清,
亭亭净植,
可远观而不可亵玩焉.
But I will only love the lotus flower that emerges from the mud unsullied,
and passes through clean water with dignity.
Its hollow stem is pin-straight,
and it does not crawl like vines nor grow unsightly branches,
and the farther its sweet scent spreads, the fresher its aroma becomes.
Clean and regal, it stands tall in the water. It is to be admired from afar, and never up close.
It plays to my vanities (& that of many others), I suppose.
lowtechcyclist
My neighborhood voted last night to set up a special tax district for installing a sewer system. We’re on septic systems now, but they’re failing. Fortunately, there’s a sewage treatment plant nearby that has enough extra capacity that we can hook into it. So that’s my big exciting news.
Debbie(Aussie)
@seaboogie: Congratulations!
kalakal
Looking forward to retirement. Spending more time on playing/practising music and art.
Trying to decide with Mrs kalakal where we want to spend our declining years
YY_Sima Qian
@YY_Sima Qian:
@Gloria DryGarden:
Here is a better translation of the Song Dynasty essay in the form of “ancient prose”, On Loving the Lotus, in its entirety:
Tom Levenson
@FelonyGovt: Dead thread, I know, but I had my hip replaced in January and it’s been an easy road back so far. I hope your experience is as good or better.
UncleEbeneezer
@Sister Golden Bear: Sorry to hear about the frozen shoulder. My wife had that and it took a while to clear up but then slowly did. Such a bizarre syndrome. But from what I understand, like a stiff neck, really debilitating. Glad to hear you are making progress.
Gloria DryGarden
@seaboogie: so sweet