Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

The sun is finally shining, the birds are singing, I got paid, have the day off, and all my errands for the day are done!

It’s little bro’s birthday and when I asked about what he wanted for dessert, he went with the Swiss Bakery – “some eclairs and cookies and use your best judgement.” HAHAHAHAHAHA! Like I have any good judgement or impulse control in that shop.

So, we have a fantastic variety of tea cookies, some eclairs, carrot cake and espresso cake. I love, love, LOVE that they sell cake by the slice. And for a weekday morning, it was *hopping* in there, which does my heart good – I’ve worried a lot about them getting through this pandemic. It’s one of those places that every time I walk in, I just become giddy for all the fun tasty things they have – quite literally a kid in a candy store.

And I was telling them how happy I was that they had the coconut macaroons – they make them every day, not just Christmas!!!!!

Then it was off to the butcher shop for porkchops – and I left with porkchops, BBQ, bacon, and venison summer sausage. Yeah, zero fucking impulse control, LOL.

But we’ve got a good dinner on tap and great sweets.

You have a great Friday and have some cookies!

And the Padres beat the Giants last night and oh, did I mention we’re in the playoffs?! (Yes, I did notice that I said “we” as though I am part of why they are there, LOL.)

And for the first time since freaking April, we’ve dropped to “Substantial” community Covid transmission! Let’s keep that up! I’d like to eat in a restaurant again before I turn 60! And to that lady on Twitter going, “We need to talk about people who won’t leave the house” – I don’t think you want that, because the reason a lot of folks still feel unsafe is because folks like you refused to take care of their community.

I’m leaving the house regularly, but there are still things I won’t do – and this doesn’t affect people like her in any way, shape, or form except for the fact that it reminds her that we are still in a pandemic and she doesn’t like it. I mean excuuuuuuuuuuuse me for not being all “Let’s see what long Covid is like!”

And it’s FML Wednesday, so I’m off to spend all my time in ALL THE MEETINGS.

You have a great day!

GO PADRES!!!

And apparently we didn’t actually need to win one more game as long as the Brewers lost last night and they did, so – postseason here we come!!

And I got a couple t-shirts and MLB shop is terrible and one will get here Oct 18 and the other Oct 24… Come on, y’all – you had the website updated with the postseason merch within minutes of the Brewers loss, you know the postseason comes around every year, the players had their shirts, the team store at the stadium had them – you do know there are fans *not* at the games, right?

I didn’t expect them to ship last night, but this time of year, the fulfillment staff should get bulked up because the playoffs happen every single year.

Hopefully they’re just sandbagging *hard* on estimated times and I’ll have one of them before we play and/or we don’t get knocked out immediately and we’ll still have some playing time by the time I have them.

Those kids are gonna have such a painful game tonight, cause they’re gonna be hungover as fuck.

And my ass *feels* hungover this morning despite only having one beer to celebrate last night, so this morning is gonna be a slog, but we gotta do what we gotta do.

You have a great day and I hope your team wins, too.

Which is what I did yesterday, LOL. Seriously, I just ate all day long. And it was great.

Another great thing – my Padres may very well make the playoffs!!!! Our magic number is ONE*. We have four games left and just have to win ONE to get into the wildcard.

And honestly, if you’d asked me a few weeks ago if we would make the playoffs, I would have said no – they just were not playing well at all. But damn, the game last night? Solid, clean baseball. Mike Clevenger looked fantastic – he totally shook off one run in the first inning and went 6 innings with a 66 pitch count. Our bullpen held things together just the way they should. Defensively – no mistakes, no sloppy plays. And our bats were good – can’t be upset at 5 runs.

And we have a 4PM game today, so I don’t have to go to bed halfway through it, and we could actually make the playoffs today! And yes, I will absolutely buy a postseason t-shirt if we make it.

And now, I am gonna rest up for the game. :) (Why lie to myself and say I’m gonna get things done?)

You have a restful and lovely Sunday.

* I have to take the words of Those Who Know when it comes to this time of year, because it’s gets very, “Well, we win, and this team loses, and this other team wins” and it’s more than I can keep track of without a very elaborate spreadsheet, so I just leave it to The Experts.

Saw my new buddy Willow the Swiss Mountain Dog at Starbucks again this morning. Her person popped his head out of Starbucks and asked, “Oh is she bothering you?” AS IF! Told him I’d met her last week and I wanted to think she remembered me – he said she probably did. She is such a big, sweet pupper and we had a lovely time hanging out while her person got his coffee and her pup cup.

I miss having a dog – I do not miss being in charge of a dog. Being in charge of a dog is a bit like having a toddler, whereas a cat is more like having a teenager.

The weather is a bit crap already, no rain at the moment, but cold and damp and gross, and this afternoon Ian’s leftovers will be showing up in earnest. Good weekend to hunker down and eat things with lots of melted cheese on them, tell yourself that you’re going to get things done around the house while not getting things done around the house, and general navel-gazing, which I am VERY good at.

Though Covid is apparently over (HA!), we still seem to be plagued with some supply chain issues – Lily’s prescription gooshy food is out of stock, ACK. We’ll be finding out if she likes the “Ocean Fish” flavor this coming week. (The good news is we have plenty of her dry food, so she’s certainly not going to starve.) I do appreciate that Chewy just said, “You can reply to this email with what you’d like to substitute” rather than having to call in. It’s not that they aren’t great on the phone, but an email is just quicker and easier, and I could put a link in to the food to order.

Well, I’m gonna go probably not get things done around the house and just have a restful afternoon – you have a great day and stay safe and dry.

And I don’t know about you, but the week has whipped by – and you made it, well done.

If you’re in parts of Florida that have been hit by Ian – I hope you’re safe and getting all the help you need. It’s hard to wrap my head around the photos I’ve been seeing from Ft. Myers. If you want to help, but don’t know who to give to, World Central Kitchen is always solid and they’re already there.

I’m not familiar with mutual aid societies in that area, but some searching on Twitter will probably help you find folks on the ground who live in the affected communities doing the work.

Ian has also mucked up my weekend plans, and I know I am insanely lucky that a postponed event is the only thing I have to deal with – but I’m still bummed about that.

Work has been very nice and quiet this week, which is nice. I did finish testing a feature and sent the product managers screenshots of it all and got back, “Oh wait, did we actually decide to do X? (They did.) That was a mistake.” So, that isn’t as done as I had hoped, LOL.

Really hoping this daily “what I did today/what’s on tap for tomorrow” thing I have to do for my team lead is temporary or I get used to it. It’s not hard to do it – but it is making me very self-conscious of what I choose to to work on vs just doing my thing, which is get shit done by the deadline. But if it helps the team lead get his arms around our capacity, and shows him I don’t sit around staring at the ceiling all day…

I KNOW he’s just trying to keep track of things because we have too much to do and not enough people. But my brain…whew it does still feel like, “You don’t think I’m working and have to watch me.”

Welp, time to go do the thing and document every minute, LOL. You have a great day and try not to let your boss micromanage you too much.

And it’s FML meeting Wednesday and I have just used the last of the caramel syrup for my coffee. *sob* (More should be arriving today, but I am sitting here wondering what other sweet stuff I can dump in my second cup…)

Work is trying hard to be crazy, but I am not letting it. I am still happily sending my daily updates to the team lead of “what got done today and what the plan is for tomorrow” – it’s annoying, but if it helps him get his arms around our capacity issues, so be it. Of course, I get “If it’s not too tedious can you use this format?” – this is all tedious, but it’s also just another tab in my tracking spreadsheet that I just copy and paste to the email, so yes, I can totally change the format of it, LOL.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel for the team lead cause he is drowning right now – 2 people have left the department in past couple months, and another one just announced that they’re leaving, too. And I don’t think it’s because he’s an asshole, but there is just too much work and not enough people and he’s just not good at pushing back and saying no – and that fallout lands on everyone.

I’m just trying to not let it fall too much on me. But, hey, it does provide a smidge of job security I suppose.

Well, time to go tap dance around the “can this be done by Friday” question in the meetings. (The answer is yes if nothing goes wrong. HAHAHAHA.)

You have a great day!

And I had the same pharmacist that did my first shingles vaccine and she was awesome again. Dragged my brother along and he was first and I kinda yelled across the screen “you want the bivalent” and she said “Oh, are y’all together, you can come back and watch me make him cry.” ROFL. (We were both very brave.)

I told Lily she was on recovery duty and she is taking it seriously and is in my lap as I write this, and I’ve switched to drafting it on my phone. Good kitty. 😻

The rest of the day is 100% guilt free R&R. Got the bare minimum housework out of the way this morning and Lily and I are gonna snooze our way through the afternoon.

You have a lovely afternoon, and check out booster availability around you.

My car has a tire pressure sensor system built into the dash display and it’s a feature I really like – it’s nice to be able to just check the PSI on all tires right in the drivers seat. It’s how I learned that the front right tire is consistently 1-2 PSI lower than the rest, and I figured out why – that tire sits in the shadiest spot in the carport where the car is parked.

So, I had an OH SHIT moment when I turned on the car this morning and got a DANGER WILL ROBINSON, LOW TIRE PRESSURE alert. Then I took a deep breath and thought about it for a moment – lows in the 40s last night – looked at the tire display – front right at 29 PSI, the rest at 30/31. OK, not a flat, probably not even a slow leak, just the shady tire and a chilly night. Figured 30 PSI must be the trigger.

Picked up the coffee and went to put gas in the car – shady tire up to 30 from driving, the rest at 31/32. OK, good, but the alert hasn’t turned off, and the gas station in question had no working air machine. Normally I get the car washed when I fill it up, but my brain was way too “Must. Deal. With. Tire. Pressure” for that. So off to another station with air just to get all four even.

Get to next station, get change for air machine because of course it’s 50 cents and I have no quarters. Then have to ask a kind gentleman who was using the machine ahead of me if he could get the damn valve cap off – it even took him some time, so I didn’t feel bad that it was stubborn for me.

By now, three tires were at 32, and I got the remaining one up to 32 as well – and boy did my brain love that symmetry!! AND – the car can sense when you’ve actually put air in the tire and the alert turned off!!

So, I drove home feeling very relieved and generally pleased with myself and of course I had to check the display again when I pulled into the driveway.

OH, COME ON, IT WAS PERFECT NOT EVEN 10 MINUTES EARLIER!

But I’ll certainly take shady tire going from 32 to 33 after a bit of driving than going from 32 back to 29. BUT STILL, I HAD THEM ALL EVEN.

It’s like Mother Nature flipped a switch and it’s suddenly properly fall out there. Perfect jeans and hoodie weather and it should be a fantastic day to be down on the river for the arts & crafts fair tomorrow.

I have scored another negative Covid test this morning, so I am good for my haircut today and fair tomorrow! And despite school starting up again, our county case counts are still dropping! I’m still getting my updated booster on Sunday, but this is good.

Still crazy that since I got the first round of Covid shots, we’ve only had 68 days when we were in a low/moderate transmission status in the county – and that is with 77.9% of everyone in the county being fully vaccinated. I will forever and ever be salty over the fact that transmission prevention wasn’t a bigger part of vaccine development given that all structural mitigations were dropped the second they became widely available.

And I still LOVE how the CDC is talking out both side of its face saying our “Community Levels” are “Low” because hey, you can get a hospital bed with no problem, but our “Community Transmission” is HIGH. Those fuckers really forgot that the last C means Control.

But, I’ll just keep working around it as best I can. Got myself the BIG box o’ N95’s so I don’t feel like I have to ration them and can dump them as soon as the elastics get too stretchy, and I still use them anytime I’m indoors. Take out & patio seating. Outdoor fairs!

I just really miss eating inside in restaurants, and we don’t have much patio time left this season.

You have a great Friday and keep being safe.