Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

I know I’ve learned a few things.

Like, hiring a mercenary army doesn’t guarantee that they won’t turn on you later. Who knew? And the civilians in Rostov have a damn amazing “not my circus, not my monkeys” vibe. Though I am 100% certain there are a handful of middle aged men there watching going, “Yeah, I wouldn’t have done it that way…”

Though someone compared Wagner going into Rostov like Blackwater taking over San Diego. Not really – they took over the SMD HQ. It was a very tight, specific objective, they weren’t trying to “take the entire city” – so, yeah, that analysis bugged me.

And bored rich people are a fucking menace, but we knew that already. I did not realize that the entire “ocean exploration” industry is basically completely unregulated.

A lot of folks complaining about the US news media being shit given the coverage of the Titan submersible vs. the migrant boat that sank off Greece. I have 3 letters for you: BBC. They’re not perfect, but their international coverage is way better that what I’ve seen from US outlets in general.

And bonkers as the world may be, it still spins on its axis and the marketing still needs to be done, the house tidied, and I’ve not won the lottery yet to have other people do it for me – so, it’s time to tend to all that.

You have a fantastic day and try not to stay glued to the news for too much of the day.

Got my shrimp tempura fix on Friday – my brother & I were the only ones in the place other than two folks picking up their lunch orders. So glad they’ve weathered the ongoing pandemic – they kept the dining room totally closed for way longer than anyone around here and have cut their hours a bit, but they’ve got very loyal customers. And one more than one occasion, I’ve popped in for a pickup and they’ve got the to-go bags lined up on the counter.

And between yesterday and today, I’ve walked almost 10 miles, woot! And I’ve got the tan lines on my feet to prove it, LOL. And yet again, it’s been VERY obvious how much exercise/fresh air/sun elevates my mood, and frankly, it’s annoying. I should get this level of feeling great from having my ass parked on the couch watching Instagram reels.

And everything around the house that needs to be done is done. And all just in time for the afternoon Padres game!

And I still have tomorrow off, too. I may actually go into the workweek feeling properly rested for once.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

It’s Friday! You made it! Excellent job, everyone!

I need to start with a message for manufacturers of windshield wiper fluid. IT. MUST. BE. BLUE. Make the labels different, whatever, but THE LIQUID MUST BE BLUE, DAMMIT.

Yesterday, the low wiper fluid light came on in the car* while I was on the way to the market. No problem, they sell it there. Get to little auto supply aisle and all they had was “extreme cold wiper fluid” and IT IS RED. Like, even after reading the label multiple times, my brain wouldn’t agree this was wiper fluid. Like “HAHAHAHA, nice try, I know that’s not real wiper fluid!” (They also had a disturbingly large supply of de-icing materials given that it’s June.)

Hit the gas station this morning, they had the correct blue stuff. BUT THEY ALSO HAD GREEN STUFF. Like, what the fuck? STOP DOING THAT.

I have today off today, and the “it is Friday, not Saturday” challenge has already started – went to get coffee, saw recycling bin at curb and thought “fuck me, was that sitting out all day yesterday?”

Big plans for the day is that my brother and I may go get a sit down lunch at our local Chinese/Japanese spot. I have so missed the shrimp tempura bento lunch special – you can get it to go, but tempura just doesn’t travel well. It’s usually pretty empty in there for lunch hours, so we’re thinking it could be OK. (But prepared to pivot if needed.)

But other than that, I think I’m gonna enjoy my day off with a whole lotta nothing.

You have a great day!

* Love that little feature on my car, even if it did scare the hell out of me the first time it came on.

Found out someone I know through work unexpectedly passed away this weekend. Folks at her company were in shock, as was everyone at my company when they told us. She was only a few years older than I am – not a youngster, but hardly old by any means. I worked with her pretty regularly, and I know she worked so much and so hard for that company, and was just a freakin’ force of nature – and now she’s gone, and I keep wondering what she thought she still had time to do once she was done working for a living. She went to Cape Cod every year – I don’t know if she got there this year or not.

Another reminder that life is fucking short.

Buy that hat.
Drink from the fancy glasses and use the good china, just because.
Go to that museum exhibit.
Take that trip.
Wear that pretty necklace to Starbucks, even if it is with jeans and a t-shirt.
Order dessert.
Use all your damn PTO.
Go to BOTH DAYS of the 2 day arts & crafts festival.

Don’t wait.

This is how the next month looks:

4 day workweek.
4 day workweek.
4 day workweek. (3 full, 2 half, one of which is a dentist appointment, but still, not working!)
2 day workweek.
THE BEACH!!

17th-21st of July is gonna suuuuuuck, LOL. But next 4 weeks leading up to the beach is gonna be sooooo much easier just having that extra time to get things ready around the house and whatnot, and just good for my “I love my job but hate working” brain.

And I just took a quick look at my email and IT tried to phish me and failed! 1. From “my boss” but using his government name that he doesn’t use. The email addresses me by my government name that I don’t use. Says he’s “on the way to the office” – we work remotely. Wants to talk about a “customer complaint” with a “complaint form” pdf link. We don’t have those. The return address was probably wrong, too, but I submitted it as a phishing attempt before I even got that far. HA! NICE TRY, IT!

Oh, and sexpest and general all around POS Berlusconi has kicked it. Grim Reaper is still looking for Kissinger in that claw machine…

And this goober this morning – I didn’t even hit the snooze button once this morning and she wasn’t prepared for it and was still snoozing, and some hunting for the kitty had to happen. She was somewhere in the office – only saw her as she came strolling out into the hall going, “Oh, are we up now?”

Realizing I probably missed the window for walking today – it’s nice now, but I also have to start working, like, now – and it’s supposed to be stormy the rest of the day. Looks like a yoga day.

I hope you have a Monday that doesn’t suck!

Very pretty day today with an AQI of 103/Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups. Sad thing is, I don’t know if that is still wildfire remnants or if that is just normal for my area at this time of year. I’m embarrassed at how little attention I pay to the AQI on a day to day basis – we have a handful of orange/red days any given summer and they are good about announcing it on the radio and I just think “well, no running for me today!” (I do not run anymore.) So I really have no idea what is normal or not.

My lord, this has been a barrage of a news week. TFG indicted, bunch of assholes kicked the bucket, I’m sure a bunch of other stuff I missed or have already forgotten, and just now – Nicola Sturgeon taken into custody for questioning with regards to SNP finances. And for every right winger who was screaming the past 4 days “WHAT IF IT WAS A LEFTY?” Well, if she fucked around with SNP money, it’s time to find out.

Got a bunch of little things I need to tend to around the house today, and I am in full “don’t wanna” mode. BUT I WILL AT LEAST GET ALL THE LITTLE THINGS DONE, DAMMIT! I have split my Tody list into two parts – one for daily/critical little things and then another for all the deep cleaning type stuff. Cause the deep cleaning list is miles and miles long and I found when I had it all in one list, I’d get completely overwhelmed and just shut down and not get anything done at all.

I’m still shit at housekeeping, but by splitting it out, I can actually get the daily/critical stuff done on a fairly consistent basis. And since the Big Clear Out, I’ve actually been maintaining things well enough that if we need a repair person in the house, THEY CAN JUST COME ON IN. Depending on what they’d have to work on, I’d need maybe 15 minutes to make sure the area is clear for them to work. AND THAT IS FREAKING AMAZING FOR ME.

And no small part of that is the Roombas. Gotta keep crap up off the floor so they can run and I AM DOING THAT EVERY DAMN DAY!!

So, today’s plan is work through the daily list and then depending on how much “go” I still have left, hit up something on the long list. And now that work is calming down again, I need to make a more concerted effort to hit one or two things on the long list after work, too. But that is a challenge for tomorrow.

You have a wonderful Sunday and I hope you have nice weather with a good AQI.

It’s a lovely sunny day here with an AQI of 69. Niiiiiiiiiice. And hella better than the 300+ we saw on Thursday. I don’t know how the folks on the West Coast handle this – just two days of that weird apocalyptic haze and it seriously fucked with my head.

I was at the farmers market bright and early and THEY STILL HAD THE SAVORY STRUDELS!! Got a spinach-feta, and “loaded potato” – potato, cheese & bacon. YUM! Plus all the salad stuffs and that great ginger lemonade. Excellent way to get the day started.

And the super friendly dude at the bread stall loved my sunflower market bag, and flipped when I pulled out the matching wallet – connected to the bag handle with the matching lanyard. :-D I am so glad that when I saw that pattern I just said, “Yes, I’m getting ALL OF IT” – it’s silly, but it makes me smile every time.

And I broke out of Wait Mode for my hair appointment later and hit the market for ALL THE PAPER PRODUCTS! Now, I know when you buy a larger size of something, the unit price is usually lower. What I can’t quite wrap my head around was the fact that a 12 pack of toilet paper was $25 and a 16 pack was $21. Regular price, not a sale, same size rolls and everything. Well, we have 16 rolls of toilet paper.

And I also made the mistake of not eating before going and we may have far more cold cuts than we actually needed, but SAMMICHES!!

Saw my acupuncturist this week. Told her “I think I’m feeling loose & relaxed, but I don’t know if it’s real or just way better in comparison to how tense I was two weeks ago.” Folks, it was real, and I mentioned getting out to the arts festival over the weekend with all the fresh air, exercise, shiny things to look at, and wine – and she said, “Well, you should do that every weekend!” IT’S LIKE I HAVE A PRESCRIPTION FOR STREET FAIRS NOW!

Though, I am kinda happy I don’t have anything going on this weekend other than a hair appointment this afternoon. I’ve had something going on every weekend for the last 3 weekends.

But before I do anything else, I gotta go eat so I’m not starving through my hair appointment.

You have a fantastic day!!

I don’t know how Monday got here so quickly, but not being able to fall asleep for a very long time last night was probably a contributor.

Had a great weekend, tho – I did go back to the arts fair for a second day, and found the two items I’d been looking for, AND A HAT!

Looks like a relatively quiet day on tap – mostly trying to figure out some client issues for a change in an app that I wasn’t involved in testing. Just in what I’ve seen so far – I don’t know how this passed testing and made it out to clients. I am trying not to scream from the rooftops, “I DIDN’T TEST THIS, IF IT’S FUCKED UP, THAT’S NOT MY FAULT, I WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT!”

Like what little I’ve seen so far (and it’s very little because I’ve been having to tell support that they have to Get Me Data to be able to try and recreate the problem) – I don’t know how on earth this passed any testing. Like, AT ALL. The whole thing is very What The Fuck.

But the good(?) news is that because I am caught up on everything else for the moment(!!!) – I can dedicate as much time as I need to it today, which doesn’t usually happen.

You have as quiet a day as you possibly can – let’s ease into this workweek, OK?

I mean, that .1% chance I wouldn’t really would have only happened if a hurricane hit or something along those lines.

So, right now I’m sitting here with my coffee, double checking when things open (don’t want to get there before the wine bar opens, LOL) and trying to remember where that one stall was with the two pieces of art is. And hoping no one else bought them. (That would suuuuuck if either is gone, but especially if the one my brother was looking at is gone.)

I do have to show off one of the prints I got from Hometown Go – yes, the moment I saw the Stucky print, I had to have it. (I don’t know why the background looks all wonky in the photo.)

I’m just so damn happy the weather has finally turned and it is summer and there are fun outside things to do.

Have a great day and get outside for a few minutes if you can!

An afternoon in the fresh air and sunshine at the local arts and crafts festival with a wee bit of day drinking, followed by an excellent nap – is a pretty great way to spend a sunny Saturday.

99.9% sure I am gonna go back tomorrow, cause a) it’s just fun, b) wine bar with patio seating, c) piece of slightly pricey art that I still very much want even after thinking on it, and d) another piece from the same stall my brother had his eye on. (Will I be able wait to give it to him for his birthday? We shall see.)

But today, got some fun art prints, a very sparkly Christmas decoration, a cute Christmas ornament, a cool assed steampunk kitty sticker, a pretty little coffee cup, and a bunch of “reusable paper towels” aka, cute flannel napkins with kitty prints, and flowers, and bees!

Did I need any of these items? No. Do they all make me smile and happy to know some east coast artists will be able to eat and make more art? HELLS, YES.

Seriously, it was a very, very good time, and HOW DARE FRESH AIR AND EXERCISE BE SO DAMN GOOD FOR MY MOOD? It’s almost insulting. I mean, the wine and shrimp egg rolls didn’t hurt at all, but it was another example of how I am so very, very solar powered. We didn’t have any blizzards this winter, but the grey seemed to go on for so long.