I'm a weirdo

Dec. 15th, 2025 02:03 pm
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
Last night I started watching a perfectly good show. It met all my criteria, people getting killed, pretty scenery, smart police, interesting outfits... A rich guy gets killed early on. But, does he? And is he really rich? There are all sorts of interesting characters and 3 seasons. And one fatal flaw. The part of the rich guy is played by Alec Baldwin. I have never liked anything he's ever been in. I don't like him. I don't like what I read about him. And I could not gin up the enthusiasm about whether the character he played lived or died or was right or not... simply because it's Alec Baldwin. Ha. My TV standards are weird.

And in other weirdness, I have a flashlight fetish. Especially flashlights that do other things. I own a million. You can hardly be anywhere in my apartment without being in arm's reach of some sort of flashlight. I do not need any more. Does that stop me? Nope.

I bought a pack of motion sensor lights - flashlights for when I walk by a wall. AND another 3 pack of night lights that plug into the wall and can also be motion sensor or not and also can charge up your cellphone and also can be flash lights!! I should take them all back. But, of course, I will not.

I did not vacuum the car. Maybe that's what I'll do tomorrow while the housecleaner cleans.

Biggie watch

Dec. 15th, 2025 08:06 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
I keep watching waiting for him to crash and burn, but so far, no dice. He just drank a bunch of water and his still peeing. Both he and Julio are gobbling up the new food. I guess they both have gourmet pallets. The Chewy order I placed on Thursday, arrived last night. I got a notice that it was delivered so I grabbed my cart and high tailed it down to security before they had a chance to do anything with it (such as put it in another part of the complex with the, likely, boatload of other deliveries from the weekend). It was a smart move as the box was right there by the door so I don't have to wait until this afternoon or maybe tomorrow afternoon to have it delivered.

He's still looking for his Temptations. I sprinkled about 6 of the new treats over the carpet and he sniffed every one and then walked away. But, not long after that, I noticed they were gone.

My TV streaming consolidation try is over. I killed YouTube.TV and am going back to paying for individual streams. The idea of using Prime to house cheap subscriptions turned out to be a 'get what you pay for' situation. The Max/HBO shows not only have ads, but tons of ads and sliced into places where ads should not go since most of the programming was designed for no ads. PLUS not all of the catalog is available.

So I'll buy annual plans for those I care about and get that Hulo/HBO/Max bundle monthly because they don't offer it annually. And then, probably, do this whole segregation/desegregation thing again next year.

Today is Costco with Bonny. And laundry. And that's about it for plans for the day. Maybe today would be a good day to vacuum the car...

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Mr. Mercedes (Season 1)

Dec. 14th, 2025 02:06 pm
calzephyr: Scott Pilgrim generator (Default)
[personal profile] calzephyr
I thought Mr. Mercedes was going to be a solid crime thriller about a retired cop and his one unsolved case, but wow, it was so much more!

There are three seasons available on Netflix, and, TBH, after reading a synopsis of S2, I'm just going to stop and enjoy S1. S2 frankly sounds like a turd. I understand audiences often want more of the same, but sometimes a story is just fine stopping at a certain point and I don't want to feel let down.

I didn't know until about halfway through that it was based on a Stephen King work, and then some of the stuff made sense. It's a very detailed show, and I enjoyed the suspense, callbacks, and chills!

Fair warning though--there's some gross sexual abuse, and things get a little squishy in parts.



Sunday

Dec. 14th, 2025 07:58 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
Picture 6 cat treats sprinkled on the carpet and two cats sniffing and then going to to their naps. That's zero star review of the approved cat treats. Julio ate one yesterday. Biggie did, too. This morning, Biggie did his usual begging for treats so I sprinkled the 6 out on the carpet. He sniffed at them and then gave me the stink eye and wandered off.

He peed a little - a very little this morning but then hopped out of the litter box and spent five minutes actively playing with Julio. He sure does not seem in pain or even uncomfortable. Just annoyed about the treat situation.

Nothing much going on today at least that I know of. I plan to go for a swim after I finish this. And then watch my usual Sunday morning TV and maybe some puzzling.

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Bush vs. Gore vid

Dec. 14th, 2025 05:59 am
brainwane: My smiling face, including a small gold bindi (Default)
[personal profile] brainwane
Happened across this Bluesky post embedding a TikTok of a vid about Al Gore "losing" the 2000 election to George W. Bush, set to a Sabrina Carpenter song. Enjoyed and wanted to share.

Interesting things - 2025 12 14

Dec. 14th, 2025 12:06 am
gentlyepigrams: (purple chucks)
[personal profile] gentlyepigrams

Cat Attitude

Dec. 13th, 2025 05:39 pm
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
According to the vet, Biggie should be writhing in pain, not eating, not peeing. Biggie, shockingly, is not following the script. I think he's basically miffed about the lack of Temptations. But, he's also not wild about the new food. He'll eat it but he's kind of like 'where's the good stuff, woman??!!' And he's not writing, just crawling all over me so I'll get up and get him some treats.

I broke my rule and volunteered to go to Safeway and get Joan some bananas. It is the very last time. I am not doing that any more. But my mouth did not get the memo so I went and got the bananas because I told her I would. The last time.

I figured out the wifi repeater issue and my signal is really strong and I think I know how to keep it that way.

Oh and Fitbit told me I'd been over doing it and should consider a rest day - hahahaha Oh Fitbit, your algorithm is not made for old fat people but it's sweet that you try.

Now for an evening of TV and knitting.
jesse_the_k: chainmail close up (links)
[personal profile] jesse_the_k

I've observed hockey RPF fandom from an immeasurable distance, and I still got a kick out of this post:

https://marina.dreamwidth.org/1576715.html

[personal profile] marina was in hockey fandom, spent her childhood in Ukraine, knows much about filing serial numbers, and has definite opinions about vodka.

I'm reading reading reading.

Hi!

(no subject)

Dec. 13th, 2025 05:11 pm
elizilla: (Default)
[personal profile] elizilla
Carmello has discovered the litterbox. There was much rejoicing. We no longer have to push him out the door. Which is good since he very much resists going. He has also discovered that when company comes, he can hide upstairs or in the basement, he doesn’t have to dart out and run under the porch. And he has realized that the other floors are great for playing tag with Clara. It is super cute.

I took another fall this morning. Managed to get up without calling 911. Yay! I am not banged up, either, just tired. I should sleep well tonight.

Saturday

Dec. 13th, 2025 11:21 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
Volleyball this morning. There were a lot of people and I play on the edge so balls don't get to me frequently which is fine. Today, I spent all of my non-ball time doing various water aerobics. It was great. I did a lot of in place high knee kick marching and twisting and stretching. Made the whole thing more fun.

Elbow coffee was a small crowd. John and Hazel are getting older very quickly. They keep getting locked out of their apartment - forgetting or losing keys. Bonny took them down on Wednesday and they got two new keys. Yesterday morning, when I got back from the pool they were in the hallway waiting for security to let them in because they had forgotten their keys. Today they missed elbow coffee because they had a conference call - their credit union, their son and them. Because they say, the credit union keeps scamming them. The good news is that they are here and not out there on their own.

Biggie does NOT like the new treats. Not one bit. But they both like both the wet food and the dry.

I have a dead wifi spot in my bedroom and I have a wifi extender. I can see that the extender is improving the signal very much but I can't convince my phone to use the extended signal. This will be my project this aft.

Bonny's out of vodka so 'you want to make a Costco run on Monday?' Sure, says I. I'm very low on coffee.

And that's about it for the hot news here. We are, today, a dry day between rains. Still really grateful to live on a hill.

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Issaquah made the NZ news!

Dec. 12th, 2025 12:51 pm
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
I just got a link about our floods that actually does mention Issaquah from my friend Scott in New Zealand. He was quite amazed as am I.

I did pop into the vet and, turns out, they do carry the smaller bags of kibble and they had plenty and they had treats which are not Temptations but Biggie won't turn 'em down. Chewy is really dragging its feet over this order which is very non-Chewy like. But, I have enough for the weekend and I'll just go back on Monday and pick up some cans if I need to. The vet is very quick and easy to get to with very easy parking.

Timber Ridge does this Christmas Gala thing every year which is lovely if that's your cuppa. They open up all the dining rooms and spread out with all kinds of food and drink and it's a big party. If all you want is dinner, you are kind of SOL. I went the first year with a bunch of people and it was fine. Last year I just wanted food and it was a PIA. So this year, I'm just pretending all the dining opportunities are closed. My freezer is packed to the gills and I will not starve.

I noticed this morning that the inside of my car is disgustingly filthy. Well, not quite that bad but still it needs some love. I thought to myself I should be sure and get it cleaned up before my brother comes in a month. Then I thought hmmmmm I could put this on his Todo list!! hahaha nah. We have a very excellent strong vacuum system just around the corner from my parking space. I just need to roll it over there and do the deed. It's a very small car - so a very small job.

Now it is 1 pm and I have not even watched Jeopardy yet. I hate to get behind schedule!

Famously wet

Dec. 12th, 2025 08:22 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
Timber Ridge - the place where I live - is in a small kind of bedroom community of Seattle called Issaquah. Issaquah has a population of about 40,000. It's been raining here in the Pacific Northwest. A lot. But, Timber Ridge is on a hill. And, yesterday, I went to the vet's and back and only saw large puddles.

But, last night, I was watching the national news on ABC when all of a sudden they were showing a national news guy standing in water reporting that Issaquah Creek (which runs through the town) had overflowed its banks and folks downtown had been asked to evacuate! Then I saw several photos of places very nearby that I know well that had replaced their parking lots with deep rushing water.

So wild to be so close and so surprised. I do feel isolated here in the cult but I thought that was my imagination. Turns out, nope.

Thinking back yesterday, the vet did ask me if I had had trouble getting there and I just kind of brushed it off as weird. Sorry, Dr. Vet.

So now I'm high and dry as usual but also way grateful.

Biggie seems fine. Normal. Yesterday morning when I got up, I gave him gabapentin which the vet techs really appreciate as he is not very fond of stuff they do to him. Usually, it just makes him a giant stuffy after about 2 hours and he stays that way for the rest of the day. Yesterday, he never really settled down. He was staggering when he walked so I know he had it in his system but he was feisty as ever and the tech did report he was not happy with their working on him. Last night all he wanted was to sit on my lap which is not handy or usual but fine. This morning he seems back to usual. And is still peeing just fine. And eating fine and now waiting for his morning Temptations. Sorry, buddy.

Chewy is being a little slow to fill the order for his new food and it's beginning to piss me off. They need approval from the vet which they got yesterday. And I uploaded again this morning. And still the order says 'pending approval'. Even if they ship it today and it arrives this weekend, it will still be Monday or Tuesday before it gets up here. Maybe I'll go back to the vets and buy some there to tide over. The problem is they only sell 7 lb bags of the kibble. I don't want to store that much. Plus I have 4 pounds being delivered from Chewy. Ok. am in chat with Chewy now...

Hazel stopped by last night. She had somehow gotten her tablet into safe mode. Easy fix. She plays solitaire on it a lot. It's one of the few things left that she can see enough to do. Then she asked me if I'd come help John with his computer. I used to do this quite a bit BUT then their son took over and I was happy to relinquish. I do not know where son is now but Hazel said they had gotten scammed by BECU and gotten it all fixed but then it happened again yesterday. The way she was saying it did not make sense but that's Hazel for you. I told her that no, I would not be able to help. I learned my lesson with Myrna's computer and Myrna's son. She assured me that this was different. But, touching someone's banking on a computer leads to nothing good. I told her to contact Brandon or Michael (our two IT guys) and they would help him. She was ok with that and I was so relieved.

Someone (son?, Timber Ridge?) tried to talk Hazel to moving into Assisted Living. John is still living in the nursing wing. She refused. But she really needs it. She keeps locking herself out of her apartment - multiple times a day. Now they apparently are having banking issues.

While I have sympathy, their problems are not mine to fix. And my trying will only make things worse. I learned my lesson the hard way. But, at least I learned it.

Ok Chewy was able to remove the 4 lb bag from my order so I'll go to the vet's today and buy some there.

But, after I swim. My leg does not hurt today so I need to get back to walking. Walking to the pool counts.

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Bladder Rocks

Dec. 11th, 2025 11:28 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
Yep, that's Biggie's Latest Adventure. The vet did an ultra sound and you can see one big one. She was surprised that Biggie didn't have any symptoms. It should be painful but while he considered it an indignity and annoyance to go the vet, he's not showing any signs of pain. But taking him off the medicine and back on to Very Expensive Prescription Food turned out to be the best option. We go back in 4 weeks and do another ultra sound. Unless he shows distress or can't pee and then we go back immediately. And, even if all goes smoothly for 4 weeks, if the rock is still there, probably surgery. Again.

Both Biggie and Julio like the expensive food, very much. so there's that. Do not tell Biggie, tho. but Temptations are a thing of the past. As are lickables. I bagged up the food and treats. I'll take them to the cat food bank.

The vet gave me some food samples. And I stashed some cans away when I switched them last year. So I've got enough on hand til the Chewy order gets here. I hope. All I've got now is canned stuff. No kibble, no treats but, hopefully, the Chewy order will be here soon.

Why in the heck did I not remember to get some grated parmesan when I went to the store to get the grated cheddar??

Also today I have a pain in the leg. It's in the middle of the thigh of my left leg. The right leg is usually the one that hurts. And this is a very weird pain plus a fair amount of weakness. The chairs at the vets are all really low to the ground and I was not sure I'd ever be able to get out of them once I sat down. It feels like if someone were to massage my thigh really hard, it would fix it. Hopefully it will fix itself today. I can at least walk around the halls here safely as they all have nice railings.

I was downstairs yesterday before the festivities but they had already lined up all the chairs. It was a weird sight.

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It looked very different and couple of hours later. It was really fun to watch the parade. The employees dressed up either in costume or in really nice non-work clothes and they merrily high 5'd the old people. And, according to accounts, had a marvelous time. Very fun.

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The Timber Ridge dog park is like a dog pond today but the rain has kind of stopped a little. All around us there are massive floods. The interstate is closed just north of here due to a giant mudslide. We're breaking water records all around.

I need to get a load of laundry started.

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Christmas Preparations

Dec. 10th, 2025 07:03 pm
lovelyangel: (Shana Christmas)
[personal profile] lovelyangel
Staged for Christmas Packaging and Mailing
Staged for Christmas Packaging and Mailing

It’s a mere two weeks before Christmas, and I’m behind schedule. Today I printed 50 copies of my annual newsletter. Also, today, 23 photo calendars were delivered to my house. Yesterday, I received my Christmas postage stamps – and I updated, reorganized, and printed mailing labels. The only thing that was on time was four boxes of UNICEF Christmas cards, which I ordered a couple of months ago to take advantage of a free shipping offer.

This year I was able to reduce my photo calendar count by two. That was almost enough to compensate for higher printing costs. I used to be able to count on a 50% discount from Zazzle, but in the last maybe 10 years, I could get only a 40% discount. This year I watched and waited but was never offered more than a 30% discount. Net cost is rising everywhere, it seems. Their largest discount is usually offered between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and I waited until then to place my print order – and that’s why calendar delivery was so late this year.

Interesting change – historically the calendars have been individually wrapped in clear plastic and then shrink-wrapped into bundles of five calendars. This year, the calendars were stacked unprotected and shipped loose. More cost savings, I assume. Packing wasn’t sufficient, and it’s surprising there wasn’t any damage. But everything arrived intact – and less plastic is a good thing.

So I got $600 worth of calendars for $420. Add $20 for shipping and handling. Deduct $60 for calendar royalties from 2024. It comes out to about $16.50 per calendar – which actually isn’t terrible.

The hard part now is writing 45 cards and packaging 20 calendars. That’s what I get for doing old Boomer type things. But theoretically I have the time now to do it. (Ha!) If only I weren’t also working on the house... and finances... and volunteer work. First world problems, indeed.
gentlyepigrams: (music - classical)
[personal profile] gentlyepigrams
Books
The Glassmaker, by Tracy Chevalier. Lit fic about a woman born in late Renaissance/early modern Murano and her family of glassmakers. They and their contacts magically live into the present through unexamined time skips (no other magic is involved). Interesting family and historical drama and obviously reasonably well studied but although it was good it was super light as a read.
It Doesn't Have to Hurt: Your Smart Guide to a Pain-Free Life, by Sanjay Gupta M.D. This was more interesting and potentially useful than I expected. Some of it is directed to people with different pain problems but some of it is useful for folks like me who have demonstrated physical causes for pain. I may have to buy a physical copy to mark up and perform some of the exercises.

Music
Víkingur Ólafsson, Opus 109 (Beethoven | Bach | Schubert). I'm not as familiar with the Beethoven and Schubert but I love his Bach, always.

Legs and back

Dec. 10th, 2025 08:16 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
My legs and my back are very whiny these days. There are three things causing this. 1. I'm old. 2. I'm fat. and 3. I'm lazy. The first one is absolutely not fixable. The second one is fixable but the sacrifice is not worth the fix to me. I'm not at all interested in changing the way I eat or what I eat.

But, there's a slim chance I could make inroads on the third one. Godknows I have the resources right here at my finger tips. My swimming laps is not really worth that much. I don't use my legs much at all and I don't swim fast enough or tight enough to even move the needle on the cardio scale. It's better than sitting on the couch but only marginally. I need to walk and stretch and walk and stretch. There are miles of weather controlled, flat walking trails literally outside my door. There is an entire gym of fancy equipment a short walk away.

Yesterday, I conscientiously walked away more than usual. I made extra trips downstairs to the lobby area and went the long way round on a few of them. I clocked maybe a third more steps than usual. Today the plan is to spend 30 minutes in the gym. 15 on the elliptical and 15 on one of the bikes (which are more chairs with pedals). I'm convinced I have the motivation to do this today. Tomorrow it may be gone but today, I'm going to do it.

This afternoon is the employee Christmas party. As is the Timber Ridge tradition, the employees gather in the back dining room by department groups. The residents line up on either side of the hallway between that dining room and the large meeting room. Then the employees parade through the cheering residents. It sounds cheesy and it is but also a big crowd pleaser with employees and with residents. Of course the employees get the afternoon off, a big party with music and dancing, a box of homemade Christmas cookies and... a cash bonus. So they are looking forward to it the most.

I woke up at 2 and had a bit of a problem getting back to sleep but then did and slept right through to 7 which is way late for me so now it's 9 and I have yet to even get out of my PJs. So I'm going to do that now!


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gentlyepigrams: (*sigh*)
[personal profile] gentlyepigrams
We had the mold guy in last week to look at the drywall behind the dishwasher. Turns out it does have mold but it's very mild and only a very little over baseline. Still, it has to be remediated and we now have a plan and dates. The two weeks after Christmas will be mold remediation.

If things go as planned, we'll have the fridge, pantry, and stove/microwave available. We also have a sink in our wet bar but it'll be hard to wash anything of any size. I foresee a lot of plastic cutlery in my future. It also means we'll need to clean out the rest of the cupboards, though I don't think Michael has really thought about that, and a lot of decisions about what stays and what goes.

They'll have to tape off part of the breakfast area but we don't use that anyway and we'll still have access to laundry (and the cats to the Litter Robot, which is the important part). They estimate two weeks and it's going to run us about $7000 on top of the $1500 for the initial report.

Home ownership is not for the faint of heart or budget.

Apple $16K

Dec. 9th, 2025 05:17 pm
lovelyangel: (Eve Angel)
[personal profile] lovelyangel
My Original 1 Share of Apple
My Original 1 Share of Apple

I haven’t exactly been paying attention. However, a week ago (December 2), Apple stock closed at $286.19. At that price, the single share of Apple that I bought in 2002 for $28 (now 56 shares due to stock splits) was worth a hair over $16,000. Since then, price has dropped a little. Heck, last month I received my quarterly dividend from Apple for that my share(s) – it was $14.56 – more than half of what I paid for the single share. It’s still pretty crazy.

Previous Posts
Oct 2024 ($13,000)
Dec 2021 ($10,000)
Nov 2021 ($9,000)
Jan 2021 ($8,000)
Sep 2020 ($7,500)
Aug 2020 ($7,048)
Aug 2020 ($6,964)
Aug 2020 ($6,600)
Aug 2020 ($6,300)
Aug 2020 ($6,100)
Jul 2020 ($5,950)
Jul 2020 ($5,500)
Jun 2020 ($5,100)
Dec 2019 ($4,100)
Sep 2018 ($3,186)
May 2018 ($2,573)
Aug 2017 ($2,200)
Sep 2015 ($1,600)
Jun 2014 ($1,400)
Mar 2012 ($1,200)
Dec 2010 ($640)
Oct 2010 ($600)
Jan 2006 ($200)

If you're required to deploy AI

Dec. 9th, 2025 10:48 am
jesse_the_k: USB jump drive pointing into my left ear (JK data in ear)
[personal profile] jesse_the_k

...here's an excellent use-case: feed your strong passphrase text as a prompt to an image generator

from the passphrase string "fabulous tattoo Harvey", Reddit user u/waydomatic and ChatGPT made this cheerful example )

The LLM thinks Harvey is a muscular white guy wearing a skimpy purple Speedo; arms, shoulder and upper chest covered in rose tattoos. He flexes his right arm and flashes a big white smile under his handlebar mustache. Of course he's wearing a rose crown.

Saving the generated image would certainly be more secure than writing down the password.

Timing

Dec. 9th, 2025 09:23 am
susandennis: (Default)
[personal profile] susandennis
On Thursday, Biggie has a vet appointment at 9:30. Volleyball ended at the regular time this morning (8) and I stopped and picked up mail on my way home and then had coffee and breakfast and farted around on a few websites and then got up to look for my earbuds then back down again for more internetting and now it is 9:25. So... I think, Thursday, I'll have ample time to get there without being rushed or late.

I still haven't found the ear buds. I've had them out and charged them up within the last couple of months but even in the case, the damn things are so small, they can easily hide nearly anywhere. I guess a grid search will have to happen today.

And I'm going out. Shredded cheese and Amazon returns.

Amazon Prime video lets you add subscriptions to other streaming services. Initially, I thought this was cool. Especially when Apple+ won't let me sign on, much less give them money. I was able to see all the Apple+ I wanted via Prime. So, when the black Friday sales hit, I grabbed some deals. Turns out not to be the great deal in all cases. The HBO/Max you get via Amazon Prime is NOT their entire catalog. That was a bit of a blow. Ditto with AMC+. On the up side, both are monthly so I can cancel any time but still. Had I known, I'd have gotten the HBO/Max special via their website where you do get everything they offer. AMC+ doesn't matter. There's only one 6 episode show I wanted to see - "The Assassin". I'll watch it and cancel the subscription and know better next time.

Today is cookie day. Every year volunteer bakers all over Timber Ridge make all kinds of cookies and take them down to the meeting room. Then they are distributed into boxes with each box getting about a dozen and a half home baked cookies. They will be handed out to each employee tomorrow at the Employee Christmas Party. I signed up to help put cookies in boxes. I also volunteered to help dispose of any that get broken. I'm a giver.

But, I'd better get dressed first.

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