Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

I recommend you do *not* start your Turkey Day with having to google, “What is the C in RICE?”*  Some dumbass tripped and fucked up her right foot last night.  (I am the dumbass.)  I don’t think I broke anything, there’s no swelling, and I have full range of motion, I just nailed the top of my foot real good somehow when I went down.

I can hobble around OK, if I have my weight on my heel it’s totally fine, and I think most of all it just stiffened up while I slept, cause the more I gently move about, the less it bothers me.  Advil, ice, and ace bandages to the rescue. 

And having most of the Thanksgiving sides as “boil water, add stuff when the turkey comes out of the oven” – very helpful today.  If we did a “everything from scratch and on your feet in the kitchen all day” event, I’d be screwed, LOL. 

Little bro had said he will help out if needed, but I should be good, cause there isn’t actually a ton of standing to be done today.

Turkey is brining.  Cheese plate will come out at noon, and everything is already sliced up, so it’s legit just putting the cheese and sausages on the plate.  Bagel Dogs at 1, and that is just “put on cookie sheet, put in oven, take out of oven.”  Turkey goes in the oven at 3, out around 7, and that is when the dance really starts – but even then, it’s only 10-15 minutes?

Honestly, if you had told me 20 years ago that I’d be doing Thanksgiving dinners and it would not only not be stressful, but I would love it?  Even with a fucked up foot?  I am not sure I would have believed you — or I would have asked if we were getting takeout, LOL.

And yes, if my foot is still bothering me tomorrow, I will go to urgent care.  Just not today.

You have a wonderful day and may all your food be awesome.

*The C is for Compression.

And holy shit it’s 11 freaking pounds. (The choices were “small”, 4-8# or “large”, 8-12# and I didn’t want to risk going with small and getting a 4 pounder. There will be enough leftovers to freeze, YAY!

Other items have been picked up at the market, and it was kinda hilarious as we’re all wandering around with our lists while also staring off into space trying to remember what “that thing” was that we’ve forgotten. I think I have everything? Might need to get a bag of ice for the brine tomorrow depending on how well the icemaker performs overnight, but I think that is it? Did have to go fancy with the toothpicks, LOL.

Mashed potato experiment is a success, done today because WE DO NOT EXPERIMENT ON THANKSGIVING. Made a small batch of instant potatoes with chicken stock instead of water – I’ve read good things, and it certainly does wonders for grits, why not mashed potatoes? And they’re really good! (Yes, we do instant potatoes here, because it’s just easier and I have attempted real mashed potatoes and it has not gone well.)

Then I assembled two more sets of shelves for the dining room – getting those for the dining room was a fucking brilliant move on my part. Got three to start with, ordered two more and lined the whole damn wall with them. They’re just the perfect height/width/depth.

And thanks to those shelves, the kitchen is now functionally ready for tomorrow!! All the paper products have a convenient home as well as other kitchen adjacent things that are no longer taking up space on the counters, WOO FREAKING HOO.

Now it’s time to go slice up some cheese and sausage and make some cheesy ranch dip and then kick back for the evening.

I am extra chipper this morning because I am off work until next Tuesday, YAY!

Many good things about being out of support, but being able to take my PTO whenever is so very nice – day before Thanksgiving is going to be a permanent thing. I don’t have a ton of prep work to do for tomorrow, but the fact that I won’t be doing it after work when all tired out – well, that’s not nothing.

The other good news is that I don’t have a ton of running around to do today – pick up the turkey (butcher shop doesn’t open until 10AM – so very reasonable) and hit the grocery store for a couple little things. Then it’s just do a quick clear up in the kitchen (yay for the shelves I got for the dining room so if nothing else, things have a place to be moved to) and slice up the cheese and sausages and make up the cheesy ranch bacon dip. Nothing egregious at all, but so much better to not be starting it at 6PM.

And I got a neat thing for the cheese plate tomorrow! In years past, I’ve just put down a cookie sheet with ice packs under it to keep things cold, and it worked OK, but I wondered if there was something better and looked around on Amazon and yes, there is something better! The ice sheet in the mat comes out and it’s flexible and rolls up so it fit easily in the freezer!

I also may have gotten a couple cute fall themed ceramic rectangular platters at the grocery store which will fit perfectly on the ice mat… (The fact that I do *not* have a ton of holiday themed ceramics is a miracle, cause I am a sucker for that cute shit.)

In what I can only describe as a moment of personal growth – I am not doing the lorazepam thing for the dentist – though it sounded great at the time, I realized I was becoming more and more uncomfortable with the entire idea (like REALLY uncomfortable) and it dawned on me that I could just…change my mind. Nitrous oxide can be a little hit or miss for me, but the devil you know and all that. AND – I didn’t even explain myself to the dentist’s office other than “I realized I’m not comfortable with it” and they were “OK, cool.” (Honestly, I blame a lack of recreational drug use in my youth, and the fact that the two times I took something before an appointment, one completely backfired and the other did nothing. Makes one a bit leery of things.)

Welp, time to go get the turkey and do all the things to be ready for EAT ALL THE THINGS DAY tomorrow!

You have a great day and I hope your prep work today is easy!

So much to get caught up on around the house and so little desire to do any of it.

And I’m realizing I need to run up to the store, because it is humidifier season again and I have no vinegar for the weekly cleaning. (It was floating around in my head yesterday when I ran errands, but it never got written down, so…)

The not helpful part of my brain is just “you could do the bare minimum and that can be enough” which is 100% true, but I really should get more done than just that.

And what I am in fact doing is sitting here and overthinking all of it, when what I really need to do is just a) go to the store and get that out the way, then b) change into not-jeans, put on my headphones and tunes and just go to town on the list.

OK, time to go adult. You have a great Sunday!

And all the Turkey day shopping is done, except for the one currently unknown item I have forgotten and will be picking up at 9AM Thanksgiving day, LOL. Turkey pickup is Wednesday and it’s gonna be more expensive, but honestly, not having to go to 5 different shops like last year is so, so worth it.

And we have ALL THE CHEESES! Australian smoked cheddar, smoked gouda, garlic herb cheddar, orange & fig goat cheese, balsamic bella vitano, and garlic herb bella vitano. And for the cured meats part, we have two types of salami and Hickory Farms summer sausage, and some venison summer sausage I found at the butcher shop. And OMG, the dippy things – three mustards, maple BBQ sauce, bacon onion jam, plum chutney, and orange-fig jam, and fig preserves. Plus I will be making cheesy ranch bacon dip.

It is going to take a lot of self restraint to not break into the cheeses early. The goat cheese is a totally new one this year – could be great, could be awful, we’ll see! And if it’s awful, we have plenty of other cheese. 🥰

We also have tiny pies!!! And whipped cream and ice cream to go on top!

I’ve still got to go out and run a few more errands and then get some housework done, but I honestly just want to park myself on the sofa all day… Well, I’ll at least get the errands done, LOL.

And it wouldn’t be Caturday without Lily, who was SO VERY UPSET AND MISSED ME SO MUCH when I went for coffee this morning.

You have an awesome day.

And it’s a happy half day Friday in these parts, which means hitting the snooze button a few more times, starting a bit late (cause working 6 hours on what should be a 4 hour day is dumb) and leaving at 1PM, YAY.

And today is the big Turkey Day shop! Made far less stressful by already having the turkey breast on order from the butcher shop, whew.

Love how two days before the World Cup, FIFA & Qatar do a 180 on alcohol sales in the stadiums. Probably a healthy decision in general – but interesting that the decision was made at a point where no one can change their plans…cause you know if they’d announced this from the start, it would have affected ticket sales.

And fuck this administration for giving MBS a pass on murder.

And Twitter – somehow it is still loading this morning! I feel so bad for anyone left working there – I think the only people who haven’t bailed must be folks on visas or tied by health insurance. There are probably a few Musk bootlickers left, but I can’t imagine many. And the Tesla folks who are getting dragged into this – and I am SURE it is not at all voluntary.

I mean, if I was given the choice of a doubled workload with no remote work and three months severance – well, I’d be hitting the bricks. And apparently EM is telling folks that he “knows how to win” so they should stay and be winners – not exactly a compelling argument. Amazing how he has managed to gut the place in under a month. Idiot. People hanging up on the conference call yesterday…HAHAHAHAHAHA.

And last night some tech bro was all “Dude, me and some of the SV guys can come over and help you with your infra” – like EM got chucked out by his girlfriend and suddenly needs a truck to move his shit and a couch to sleep on.

If the site somehow limps through the weekend, the World Cup will definitely take it down. And it’s sad, because Twitter was a cool place. Imperfect and needed improvement, but it certainly didn’t deserve this.

You have a great day and go get that last tweet in while you can. :)

I don’t know about you, but it seems it’s going to be one of those weeks where I have to keep checking what day it is.

In other ways my brain has decided to fuck with me, the more I think about it (and I can’t *not* think about it) – the less comfortable I am with the whole Valium/Lorazepam thing for the dentist. Had the last time I was given a “this will help you relax” prescription not backfired, I might not be feeling this way, but it is very, very unhelpful.

Work looks to at least be nice and boring this week, since our conference is on and everyone is off doing that, yay! And I am not part of it, BIG YAY!

So, I’m going to go hopefully have a quiet day and fight my brain, LOL.

You have a great day!

Yesterday was the rescheduled Art on the Avenue and the weather was beautiful and I got in ALL MY STEPS and got some arts! A cute cat print and some ceramic dishes that are the almost exactly like the ones I got last year, and some art for my brother for Christmas! And some very yummy jambalaya from the Evening Star cafe. (And I managed to time it perfectly, there was NO LINE at their stand!)

If you’re wondering, “why get the exact same sauce dishes” – there may have been a cat that broke one of them last fall…

At some point, I’m going to have to head over to that neighborhood and just peruse all the shops and restaurants when there isn’t a whole street festival happening. It’s a very cool spot and walkable and neat and of course, unaffordable for actual living, LOL.

Watching Twitter slowly fall apart because the code base isn’t being properly maintained anymore, well – it’s kinda sad. Contractors are now getting fired with no warning and even their managers don’t know until they can’t find them. Little things are breaking. Advertisers are rightfully fleeing.

Folks are looking for a Twitter clone and it just doesn’t exist. The closest is Counter Social since it’s all in one place, but it’s not getting any traction. Mastodon has been pretty good for me, but there is no place for sex workers, and folks from marginalized communities are having troubles, so it does have its own issues.

But I’m also seeing people who joined M and just want it to magically be like Twitter and are almost looking for reasons to hate it. “It’s boring” – from someone who was constantly harassed on Twitter… “I can’t find my community” – signed up 2 days prior. “It’s just silos” – well, sure, if you somehow never look outside your own instance. (And if you don’t want to go outside your instance, that’s fine, too!)

For me, I’m not looking for any single community on Mastodon, because I also wasn’t part of any one community on Twitter. My follows in both spots are all over the place – on M I follow folks from over 30 different instances. And I started with people from Twitter and as they have boosted other people, I’ve found new folks to follow. (Including the husband of someone I went to high school with!)

And at least one person I follow gets it – he’s flat out said, “We can do the same thing here as Twitter – it’s gonna take a little work, but we can do it.”

And if you’re still looking at Mastodon but are worried about picking a shitty instance, you can take a look at the feed of that server and get an idea of what is going on there. For Mastodon.Social (my server) it’s https://mastodon.social/public/local – in some instances it’s just the instance.name/public – but it’s a way to see what’s being posted and decide if it will work for you. And if it’s garbage, you’ll probably see right away.

Mastodon.social has been working fine for me, because it’s all over the place just like my Twitter feed was – but I’m still following lots of folks outside that instance and I’m not feeling “siloed” at all.

I have blocked a handful of folks – not because I’ve gotten any harassment, but when I see someone in the replies of folks I follow and I think “well, that’s kinda dickish” – I just block immediately.

On the whole, it is still very quiet – I’m only following 172 people vs. the over 2K on Twitter, but the quiet is pretty nice. And right now it’s a lot of cat pictures (yay, interwebs!) and folks slowly dipping their toes in and a lot of “wow, it’s very calm here” – and that’s fine. And maybe my feed will never be the shitshow that my Twitter feed has become over the years, and that’s not a bad thing.

And the thing is – very, very few people had an instant community when they stumbled onto Twitter – it’s not going to happen overnight anywhere else either.

First one to diagnose me with TMJ and I’ll be getting an orthotic* for it. He had me hold my hands on the side of my jaw so I could feel how the jaw joint is basically all fucked up (been that way as long as I can remember) and then had me move my jaw in a different way so it didn’t do the clanking that it does and apparently that is what it’s supposed to be like all the time.

And that my friends, is what is and has been fucking up my teeth for most of my life. And no one else was arsed to do something about it, cause, IDK, I guess it guarantees return visits…

But legit the horror on his face as he asked, “OK, you feel your jaw doing that? [Yes] And that’s just…normal for you? [Yup] And it’s not painful? [Nope] Are you one of those people who can’t feel pain?” [Definitely not]

I’m gonna have to have some work done, but it’s definitely cheaper than my last dentist and we’re gonna be trying Valium the night before & Lorazepam the morning of to tackle the anxiety. Given all the various and sundry warnings about it that I had to sign, I asked the gentleman who basically runs everything how bad was this gonna fuck me up, and it seems it’s just like being drunk, so at least that is something I have experience with. And honestly, I’ve often thought it would be ideal to just get hammered before a dental appointment.

And it does make me remember that in my much younger years, there was one time I pounded a rum & coke at lunch before an appointment, and I sailed through it…so, this might work.

Still pissed about decades of dentists ignoring the TMJ, tho.

*Don’t call it a night guard! It does something different! But you do wear it at night! LOL.

To any Vets out there reading – thank you, and thanks for the day off! And I’m sorry you were probably very misused by our government at some point or another.

As for me, I’m Covid negative again so I can make my dentist appointment with my new in-network dentist this afternoon. I hate having to break in a new guy, but my last dentist was just getting too damn expensive, and at least being in-network, there are some constraints on how much they can charge. (Back when I first started seeing my old dentist, the insurance I had was better for out of network. Not so much now – probably should have made the change 4 years ago, LOL.)

An on that exciting note, I gotta go jump in the shower and get ready to go, wheeeeee.