Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

As Christmas stuff has been coming in, I’ve been parking it upstairs all in one spot (go me) and I thought I’d been checking the boxes, but I missed one and opened it up today and FML, it is not at all what I actually ordered for little bro.

And a replacement wouldn’t be here until the end of January.

And it was just a cool stocking stuffery thing, so it’s not the end of the world, but, DAMMIT.

Guess who is going to Kohls for returns today? Hopefully I can find something vaguely similar there, cause they do usually have a decent amount of stocking stuffer things.

I did at least look around to make sure there weren’t any other unopened boxes with any other surprises and it all seems OK, so at least there’s that.

But I’d just taken off my socks and put on my headphones…and I did not want to go back out into *flails arms* all that today.

Looks like 8:30 is going to be my wakeup time this week, and I love it cause I am a) waking up refreshed, naturally, and b) it feels ridiculously virtuous to wake up before my 9:30 “weekend” alarm, LOL.

And waking refreshed was extra important this morning because Starbucks mobile ordering was down system-wide this morning and I had to actually remember my order when I went in. (And of course, I have a high maintenance order…Trenta cold brew, with whole milk, and 4 pumps of caramel.)

JFC, Twitter. They’ve rescinded the link ban, and EM has put out a “should I quit?” poll, which has come out with a resounding “Get Out” result. Imagine 10 million users telling you to Fuck All The Way Off. LMAO.

I’d love to think that the users made him this miserable (and we certainly have) but I suspect that he met with his Saudi investors in Doha during the World Cup and they told him to GTFO. But, who in their right mind would take the job? I’ve unknowingly walked into some disasters, but this whole debacle has been so public and visible, I don’t even think you could trick someone into taking the job.

This week I learned something interesting – Sinex saline spray is an “over 18” purchase. Confused the hell out of the cashier, too, as she was scanning and suddenly going, “Wait, did you buy medication?” I guess cause it has some kind of propellant in it? I mean, I am kinda of addicted to being able to breathe through my nose.*

I’ve pretty much decided I’m not going to do the big bake this week – maybe some mini quick breads, but that’s it and I’ll do my part for the local economy with getting tea cookies from the Swiss Bakery. So, that trip and one more stop at the grocery store for the Entenmann’s cheese danish and we will be holiday ready! (Why not get a nice danish from the bakery? Because the danish has to be an Entenmann’s, because it just does.)

Well, we’ll be holiday ready from a fridge & pantry standpoint. The living room and kitchen both look like they’ve been hit by a tornado and I should probably do something about that before the weekend rolls around. If I sit on the couch and think really hard about it, do you think the rooms will magically clean themselves? Maybe?

I have my lovely Tody app at the ready, but I’m so behind on EVERYTHING that it’s showing 89 tasks due/overdue…so I should probably pause a bunch of those so I stop looking at it and becoming totally paralyzed trying to contemplate what to do next…

I’m still fascinated by that ADS-B Exchange flight tracker website and trying to figure out why a German military Airbus A-400 just took off from Dulles airport and is currently flying over West Virginia. (And I wonder why I don’t get other things done. BUT IT’S INTERESTING!)

So, the plan for the day is to have a bit more coffee, put on my headphones and cleaning music, and go to town around this house until I collapse.

You have a great day!!

* Three tests in the space of a week tells me it’s not covid, it’s just fucking winter, a house full of dust, and not enough humidity. I have also passed the Yankee Candle test. Protip: Don’t be dainty with it. Put a kitchen towel in your lap and squirt that stuff up your nose til it overflows. It’s just saline, it won’t hurt anything to overdo it.

and was hellbent on buying a social media site…there are some things I might do differently than a certain person is doing.

– Not pay 44B for a company with a net worth of 13B

– Double, hell, triple the Trust & Safety staff and make sure that staff is diverse AF and that marginalized communities who get a lot of harassment are actually represented there.

– Fix the verification process, not this “buy a check” bullshit.

– Ditch the Nazis. Seriously, advertisers actually like it when they don’t have to worry about promoted tweets being right next to white supremacist shit.

– Ignore the haters. Seriously, I am a billionaire, I really don’t give a shit about a reporter being critical of me.

– Let people link to whatever the fuck they want as long as it’s not actual malware or illegal shit. Cause I’m not an idiot and if I’ve made my site good, people aren’t gonna flee, and I understand that people use different social media sites for different purposes.

– Not randomly change the rules because my feelings are hurt and apply them retroactively.

– Don’t run the fucking site via polls.

For being a billionaire, Elon is an idiot.

So, this is gonna be a pinned post for a while, cause I can link to my blog from Twitter which is now banning links to any and all mainstream social media sites, and I’m probably gonna get banned soon at the rate things are going.

CafeChatNoir: My original blog, now trying to put artsy shit there.
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@cdcouture
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cafechatnoir/
Discord: https://discordapp.com/users/1434
Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/cafechatnoir

Places I’m not as active, but have accounts:

Counter Social: https://counter.social/web/accounts/134931
Post.news: https://post.news/cafechatnoir
Ello: https://ello.co/cafechatnoir

It is Sunday, December 18th and the only reason I need to leave the house again for Christmas stuff is the grocery store & bakery. I can’t remember the last time I had all the errands done this early. Go me!!

So, if you’ve followed any of the Twitter drama, you know that the guy that ran the ElonJet account got booted for “doxxing” – I follow that account over on Mastodon now and I was looking at the website he uses – ADS-B Exchange – what a neato website! Zoom out and it is insane how many airplanes are in the air at any given time, zoom in and you can watch them move around the map. Those two clusters of grey airplanes are our two airports – I can’t help but just envision a pile of aircraft there, LOL. If you zoom way in on the airports, you can see the planes on the taxiways & runways.

Yes, I am easily entertained.

And thanks to that website, we know that Elon is at the World Cup, because of course a rich asshole tech bro is at the World Cup final. Which of course begs the question – if you see him at the World Cup and tweet about it – is it doxxing? (No, it is not. Pointing out a public figure at a public event is not doxxing – potentially rude, but not doxxing.)

And of course, now I’m trying to figure out what is up with the helicopter just south of my neighborhood – did some googling of the tail number and it seems that helicopter has been used in the past to do power line inspections in other places, and where it is circling does have a bunch of high tension lines, so yeah, that would make sense.

The older I get, the more I understand why folks become plane/trainspotters and get into model trains and whatnot.

You have a lovely Sunday while I watch airplane icons, LOL.

It’s 3:15 and all the errands for the day are DONE! All my steps are in for the day.

Amazon returns at Kohls, LilyMonster presents at Felix and Oscar*, quick side trip into market next to F&O to see if I could find the good butter cookies (YES!), Trader Joe’s (in 10 minutes ON A SATURDAY!) break at home to put away TJ stuff and get the flowers in water, and then the first of what will be 3 freakin’ trips to the market this week.

If you’re wondering why I need to hit the market 3 damn times… Well, today was paper towels, toilet paper, and tissues – and that is a whole damn cartful right there. But hey, 1009 days into the fucking plague AND WE HAVE NOT RUN OUT OF PAPER GOODS YET.

Tomorrow will be eggs, cheese, hashbrowns and whatnot for brunch cause I don’t want to wait until the last minute on those. Hashbrowns go especially fast this time of year.

End of the week will be the cheese danish, cause I kinda have to wait until the last minute for that one.

But now – I am gonna sit my happy ass down and do nothing.

* Shout out to whoever said “lets layout the new store almost exactly like the old store” – I so, so appreciated it.

IT’S ME! I AM!! With a fresh haircut and color to boot.

And it was not without 15 rather stressful minutes leading up to 1PM as a Sev 1 support issue came through at 12-freaking-45 – it was something I could do nothing about, but I was cc’d on all the emails and just kept hoping no one would ask me to chime in – thankfully they did not and I escaped on time!

Off to the hairdresser with holiday goodies and I was so glad I put together a little bag for the receptionist – it occurred to me that maybe she gets forgotten and without her, no one knows what they’re doing any given day, so she is important! She seemed so surprised by it – so I’m glad I did it.

And Micha with the magic fingers who washes my hair and crochets things for me, my lord, she outdid herself with this gorgeous wrap. Not sure the photo does it justice – the colors are these lovely muted pastels which gives it an antique look, and the work itself is just so lovely. And it’s cozy soft mohair. (She seemed impressed that I knew the yarn!)

I’m trying to steel myself for going out and about… Trying to figure the “most efficient” paths around town, or at least not the absolute wrong-assed longest approach. And trying to figure out what I can do Monday/Tuesday when I’m not dealing with weekend crowds.

Remembered last night that I have three pieces of art for my brother for Christmas and I’d completely forgotten about frames. Got those measured and ordered this morning. Amazon is awful for many reasons, but they have made framing artwork far more affordable than in the old days.

So over the course of the week, I’ve got Amazon returns, need to go venture north to the indie pet supply store for the LilyMonster, Trader Joe’s for Christmas Eve goodies, market for Christmas brunch and regular stuff, maybe get some cards out, and wrap presents.

I still haven’t decided if I’m gonna bake here or do my part to support the local bakery and their amazing tea cookies this year, but I am leaning heavily towards the bakery, cause, a) tired and b) coconut macaroons.

Just did a freezer clear out for TJ’s and brunch stuff – no one is gonna eat those freezer burned bagels, LOL and now there is space and I don’t have to try to eat ALL THE STOUFFERS in the next two days.

And in looking to see if I remembered right that there is a Kohls for Amazon returns up north closer to TJ’s and the pet shop – I discovered that a) yes there is and b) the pet shop moved – right across from said Kohls! So… looks like it’s gonna be a go up north day today after all since I can get it all done in one loop. And it’s probably gonna be a madhouse everywhere – but it will be good to have all that out of the way right now.

And FML, despite getting up at 8:30, it is somehow noon.

OK, deep cleansing breaths, N95 at the ready, and off we go!!

You have a great Saturday!!

*bounce*bounce*bounce*

And the sun is actually supposed to return today, YAY! And I slept in a bit and get out of work early, YAY!

So, a few months back, I was hearing from management, “oh, raises will be much better this year!” and today is our weekly-ish department meeting, seems the budget isn’t even for 4%. I’m not surprised, but this is such a dumb place to get stingy – since March 2020, the CPI is up 15%… Just dumb.

Have also noticed there has been no weird gifty thing this year from corporate, nor any little merch storefront from the department. Would I prefer a gift card? Yes. But making the gesture does count for something. (I did get a nice Christmas card & gift card from my immediate boss, which I do genuinely appreciate.)

It’s petty to care either way, but it makes me feel a bit “work to the rule” today and as such, my work laptop will not open until 9AM. (She says with Teams open in another tab just in case, LOL.)

Switching focus here like the undiagnosed ADHD gal I am – holy shit, Twitter. My god, Elon Musk is a pathetic manchild. Suspended a bunch of journalists who report on him, then nuked all the Spaces last night where they were appropriately roasting him, ran two polls asking when they should be allowed back, both overwhelmingly “NOW” and is blocking links to Mastodon instances – by Monday he’s gonna shut down the whole site to keep folks from talking about him. Dude needs a LOT of therapy. (Also, he didn’t get doxxed, no matter how many times he says it.)

If I’m on the Board of Directors for SpaceX or Tesla…well, I’m making some phone calls to my colleagues about permanently booting him given this absolutely batshit public behavior.

Once I am finally on PTO, I have a list a mile long of shit to get done this weekend. I’m shooting to have all Christmas stuff finished this weekend, because I want to be able to relax and split the rest of my time just enjoying the week off and getting caught back up on non-holiday things around the house. (Another list that is a mile long…)

Well, time to go put forth 4 hours of effort and THEN START MY VACATION!

You have a great Friday!

Love it when companies say “we can schedule a window of a few days when this item arrives” and things show up a full week before the window. I know shipping is all messed up still, and early is better than late, but honestly, just don’t offer the service for the time being.

And it’s an FML meeting Wednesday, wheeeeee.

And they’re calling for an ice storm tonight – which at least on that front, I don’t have to leave the house tomorrow. But I do need to hit the market at lunch cause we’re low on milk, hopefully it won’t be a madhouse.

CDC is apparently saying it’s time to mask up again. Good luck with that. Those of us that didn’t stop will keep on, and it won’t be enough and I doubt the rest will come back around to it. (And my company has dropped all mitigation worldwide. And folks wonder why I skipped the holiday luncheon and office happy hour.)

I am very low on Christmas cheer this year. Maybe I’m just tired and need my vacation time to get here. (2 1/2 days!)

Just gotta get to the weekend.

And then I can nap. I’m OK right now, but a certain kitty woke me up at 4AM. And again at 5AM. I suspect I’ll be dragging hard by lunchtime.

The weekend, while far too short, was at least long enough that I didn’t think about work at all, and I have zero idea what on earth I’m working on today. So, that’s something, right?

And we get paid and it’s a half day Friday week, so that’s nice, too.

And somehow I’ve been up for an hour and it’s time to go do the thing to make the money to get through this capitalist hellscape!

You have a good day!