Precocious high school hacker David Lightman breaks into WOPR in order to use the nascent artificial intelligence to write a Broadway play that is guaranteed to be a failure, knowing that with creative accounting (ie., bilking his investors) he can make more money with a massive flop than he could with a hit.
Ah, I remember that fondly everytime I see my commemorative set of Burger King WOPR movie tie-in drinking glasses.
Though I'm still surprised they weren't nearly as popular as McDonald's later Threads and Grave of the Fireflies Happy Meals.
It was John Galt who loaded people onto spacecraft that looked exactly like DC-10s and sent them to the Teegeeack volcanos.
Who is John Galt?
I'll go you one better, why is John Galt?! {sloooooowly eats another zarg-nut, fading from visual perception}
quibblemuch wrote:
Malcolm breaks the fourth wall for the final time to reveal that his father is Heisenberg.
Any Trekker worth their salt* knows that a lowly sheep farmer with terrificradiantsome pig a very clever pig would eventually invent the warp drive.
However, while Hoggett Cochrane is rightly lauded for his discoveries, only a few give credit to the man responsible for making much of life in the Federation even possible. This polymath, who went from a career as a successful Jewish dentist, to the visionary founder of a chemistry firm, to becoming a humble high school teacher, to amazing new discoveries and incredible success as a pharmaceutical entrepreneur, before starting over yet again as a quiet suburban father raising four precocious boys. Because of the rare insights gleaned from his numerous perspectives, he would eventually invent the groundbreaking device that makes teleportation feasible -- The Heisenberg Compensator.
I got a Ninja Air Fryer for Christmas. One of these days I'll get rid of the 12 year old Breville Toaster Oven sitting on my counter and set up the Ninja.
That Breville was really useful in my classroom at my old school, because I could do baking projects with the children, like making mini-muffins for snack. And when the school cook went on vacation, we would make pizzas.
If I had room for it, I'd keep both.
Are you any good with sculpting in clay, or are you friendly with someone who is good at it? You could make miniature characters, critters, and terrain for your Pathfinder games out of Sculpey (polymer clay) and then finish bake/"fire" them in your old toaster oven. You don't want to bake them off in any oven you concurrently use for food prep as polymer clay gives of toxic gases during the heating process, contaminating everything in the oven with it; the final hardened clay pieces will be inert and safe. And the toaster oven can be moved to your open back porch or into a well-ventilated garage/shed before use so the gases dissipate harmlessly outside while baking.
Last night's dinner was just tacos, nothing fancy.
Tonight was NY strip steaks, baked russets, "antioxidant mix" (carrots, broccoli, red bell pepper) sauced veg, and brown & serve rolls. This time I blade-tenderized the steaks, dry-brined them for an hour in unami mushroom seasoning, and then reverse-seared them. As the steaks were finishing up searing in the pan, I made a simple butter sauce with some more of the mushroom seasoning. Steak was very tasty, would make it again this way. Dad's verdict was "tastes good, but a little tough"... which yeah, that's what happens when you have to have it well done. I prefer to cook it just medium, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Tomorrow will probably be leftovers, Dad has half his steak still, and I can eat leftover taco.
So awhile ago I accidentally bought too many carrots, and recently despite trying to use them, I found I still had too many carrots and they were getting old. And I also recently made some homemade chicken stock (which used some but not enough of the carrots).
They seem to freeze up ok, if that's an option. Also, carrot cake?
Mom used to make bran muffins using the recipe on the box of all bran cereal. I made a variation once where I also used bananas (& honey) in the bran muffins. So, would carrot bran muffins work?
Does the Samurai air fryer make your fry-up more honorable?
They had to ban all the Samurai air fryer from our local adult continuing education annex. After a simple mistake preparing an entree in Home Ec, the teacher lost over half the class to seppuku.
Thaddeus Ross was the one who created the Village two decades earlier, as a way to escape the violence of the modern Avenger-filled world. There isn't even a Red Hulk, but his blind daughter never learns that truth.
He was so upset Rachael stayed mad at him that he eventually had a breakdown and imagined starting a chain of discount clothing stores.
Jeez, DQ. I was already pissed off about that WH malcompetance, but now I'm boiling again. I wish you any luck needed, plus all the grace and serenity to navigate this unnecessary spiteful bullpucky.
Also, very glad to hear you dad is recovering well.
(I hate typing up entries in mobile Chrome. Lost my first try with the keyboard app being stupid, had to retype.)
Tonight for dinner, I'm making baked pork chops, baked potatoes, and a veg. I'm having a cheaper cut sirloin chop for myself, and Dad is having a nicer center cut pork chop because he's pickier more discerning. I dry-brined the chops for an hour, then sprinkled both sides with Montreal seasoning & a little olive oil before going in the oven. The potatoes are just plain old russets baked in their skins. The veg is a can of seasoned pintos I'm trying with a little added bacon fat, and then reheated on the stovetop. Unless they're in chili, pintos aren't Dad's favorite, so I've also got a little single-serve 4 oz cup of green peas if he'd rather have that.
Not sure what we're having tomorrow, but it'll have to be something quick & easy after pet checking and running errands, maybe cheeseburgers?
The squirrels got crumbled-up stale sugar cookies this morning, leftover from Christmas. If I wanted to start a squirrel civil war/purge, sugar cookies would be the mechanism I'd use. They are loudly vocally chattering, their tails semaphoring like an ultra-caffeinated John Moschitta, as they zoom up and down the tree... and they're furious at each other that they've already eaten all the cookies.
On the positive side, we've now got a small circular tin. I assume I just need to leave it under my pillow for the Joann fairy to visit tonight and fill it with sewing notions.
One of these days soon, I'm going to need to focus and dig in to Ptery's Discworld. I've been meaning to for years now, but my scatterbrain struggled through The Colour of Magic (though I've heard it gets easier once he gets into his groove a few books later). I feel particularly guilty as I have experienced so little of his works, but I've read everything from Neil Gaiman, and now that his mask is off... ugh.
Been low on spoons the last several days and not sleeping well either, so dinners have been more challenging. Last night was just cheeseburgers and chips. Thankfully after dinner I had the foresight to put a couple frozen chicken breasts in the fridge to start defrosting.
I had planned on making a chicken pot pie for tonight, but the energy to make it just wasn't there. So I improvised a chicken mozzarella thing. I combined a can of diced tomatoes and half a can of tomato paste with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, dried onions, sweet paprika, salt & pepper, then poured it as the bottom layer in a buttered baking dish. I filleted both chicken breasts, sprinkled them with Montreal chicken seasoning on both sides, and placed them atop the tomatoes base. Halfway through baking, I flipped the chicken over, sprinkled with grated parm and fresh shredded mozzarella, and put it back in. No side veg, but I still had half a package of frozen cheddar biscuits, so I baked them next to the chicken. Came out pretty good all things considered, and there's leftovers for tomorrow.
I was doing well with increasing exercise and lowering salt--mostly--and the BP was going down. Then this week hit. Not going to go into details, but yeah... the week's events had a direct impact on me, and BP was up the other day (but no, I am not a federal employee). Haven't checked it today. But just trying to take care of myself as best I can.
You're definitely not the only one feeling that way, DQ. Yeah, the current "move fast, break things" dynamic now in DC is definitely stressing me and my dad too. And that's likely as much as I can say here.
DeathQuaker wrote:
At least for the time being, yes to both.
In the meanwhile, still cooking for my own dad at least once a week. He's been craving my coleslaw so made that for him to eat with some other stuff he had in the fridge. I try to keep the mayo and salt content lower and it's at least high in nutrients!
My mom instilled in me a compulsion to save plastic resealable food containers. If you have the freezer space, they are handy for freezing up meals of extra dinner portions, especially the ones that held 8 oz of pre-sliced deli meats. Once frozen, they'll keep in an insulated lunch bag from morning until lunch without needing an ice pack and reheat handily in a microwave. The best part is once you've pre-prepped them, it's easy to grab and go in the hustle before leaving for work. And if the container is irreversibly stained by tomato sauce or lost/forgotten, you didn't lose one of your good plastic containers. (You probably know all this already.)
You might also be interested in a recipe for make ahead "instant" ramen, though you'd likely have to heat them in something sturdy. Could also maybe work using fully cooked beans and/or parboiled rice too.
Breakfast this morning was a 14 oz mocha coffee and a banana, so definitely hungry by lunchtime. The plain ol' banana was perfectly ripe (bright all yellow peel just starting to get the tiny brown spots) but it was so sweet it blew out my taste buds. I'll have to go back to eating them when they are still a bit green and less sweet.
Lunch was a couple thin slices of "rotisserie-seasoned" deli chicken in a toasted sourdough English muffin, a handful of cheetos, and a 4 oz cup of Noosa blueberry yogurt. Not sure I'll make to dinner without something else, but I guess we'll see.
It's my own fault, really. If I'd just had my normal big coffee and skipped breakfast as usual, I'd likely have been fine til 3 or 4 PM. But, nooooo. Instead I had half a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast with my coffee, and now I'm I was ravenous. Or maybe this morning's writing had made my one brain cell extra hungry.
Anyway, lunch was a couple English muffins, toasted, with a little mayo, stuffed with 4oz of canned mackerel to produce two muffin sandwiches. I hadn't even tried canned mackerel or canned sardines until last year, but I've discovered I love them both. These were "Mediterranean style:" boneless, skinless, packed in olive oil with little bits of olives and red bell pepper. It's a definite step up in tastiness from plain canned mackerel. I had my mini-sandwiches with a good handful of cheetos, not quite a dozen spicy pickle chips, and a glass of ice cold water (bleh, want sugar, sugaaaarrrrr). I'm now stuffed.
Not all that hungry, but needed to eat something. Rummaging through the pantry, I found three cans of namebrand chicken & rice condensed soup given to us post-Hurricane Ian. It expired back in April 2024 (Dad won't eat rice), but the can wasn't bulging and it smelled & tasted fine (and bland, as expected) when opened. So I reconstituted it with water, and while it was heating up on the stovetop, I chucked in: a half-teaspoon-ish of roasted garlic base & chicken base, a teaspoon of frozen ginger, some dried thyme & rosemary, and several grinds of black pepper. Once it came up to a simmer, I made a basic grilled cheese (American cheese singles in plastic, white bread, margarine) in a small skillet.
Nothing remarkable, but not bad, especially on a cool winter afternoon.
Late teens through early twenties Me knew that horrors would await Old Me in my later life, but she had no clue how deviously evil and psychologically devastating they'd be.
Old Me found herself surprisingly delighted over purchasing a set of really good heat-resistant silicone spatulas. I can cook with them without them melting! I can scoop out the bottoms of tall jars!!
This week, OM was literally exuberant being able to buy several new t-shirts and underwear -- not sexy, not stylish, just basic comfy clothes. They're soft! They were on super sale!! I bought enough to get free shipping!!! And even a pair of shorts!?!? Young Me loathed shorts and hated being forced to wear them in phys-ed classes; she'd rather sweat to dehydration levels than be caught in shorts elsewhere. But now, they're still unflatteringly dorky-looking on my beanpole frame, but eh, who cares.
I'm so sorry for staying away from this thread for a couple years now.
Cindy, Orthos, and others: This morning, I'm still more than a bit stunned myself after last night's results. I'm coming up empty on anything even mildly reassuring. All I can offer right now is that I hope you can all find safe paths through what will be very challenging years ahead, and don't feel bad in the slightest in doing whatever you need to do to keep yourself safe, whole, and true. You are all important, you each effect the people & world in positive ways. You matter.
Thursday night's dinner was nothing really new, just a 2-1/2 lb (beef) chuck roast from the slow-cooker with cubed russet potatoes adding in to the liquid an hour before it was done. It was the first time I in years that I didn't cheat using a packet of instant mushroom gravy, instead thickening up the seasoned liquid into a pan sauce with tempered corn starch. It tasted noticeably better than using the instant gravy would have, so I guess I'll need to make it this way now. We had it with Mom's recipe for cooked apples and some store-bought brown rolls that were on sale & had a $1 off coupon. Dad wasn't keen on the rolls, but I'm enjoying them. Last night (Friday) we had leftovers, and I warmed up a frozen pecan pie for Dad to snack on the next several days.
One of the days last week, I made county-style pork ribs (from the pork shoulder, not actual ribs) in the slow cooker. I seasoned them with a 3-in-1 beef marinade packet making the "Garlic Asian" version (the other options are "Sweet & Savory" or a "Steakhouse" versions) by adding reduced-sodium soy sauce & unsalted chicken stock. Instead of marinading and discarding the liquid, I just poured it into the slow cooker to baste the cooking pork. It came out very tasty, with the finished cooking liquid making an excellent drizzle sauce, though it'd be too intense to turn into a pan sauce or gravy over mashed potatoes.
Pre-Hurricane Helene, I had picked up a refrigerated package of pre-cooked cilantro lime chicken for over half-off at Target and stuck it in the freezer. Tonight, I warmed up it in a skillet with a side of white cheddar mac & cheese from a box; the chicken came out really delicious. I was a bit disappointed that there was only 11 oz of actual chicken in the package along with the 7 oz packet of cilantro lime sauce, and while quite tasty, there's no way I could budget buying it at the regular price of nearly $10.
*staggers unsteadily back into thread wearing The Mistress' fancy thigh high boots, fishnets, and leather corset* Ugh, that Ol' Otyugh Spirit 60ABV poitín packs a wallop.
*blinks at returned Rysky* Apparently, it's hallucinogenic too. I can even see a pair of The Mistresses standing there on this accursed heaving & tilting floor.
Squirrels are like mice and rats in that they will eat bits of stale bagels, stale whole grain cheerios, stale all bran cereal, and stale raw oats that have been lurking for 2-3 years in the depths of your (my) fridge/freezer.
Squirrels are apparently like small human children in that they will happily devour and fight over (with much squeaking) sugary food, in this case 2-3 year-old stale raisin bran* from the fridge, especially the bits covered in sugar. They seem to convert it internally directly into rocket fuel.
* OK, I can't imagine little kids fighting over raisin bran.
That's not math, those aren't "great than" signs. Those are little (Florida) gator mouths, scooting after Whining Amby because the whines are noisy -2 penalties to Stealth checks.
(Dang it, I haven't been to a Waffle House since my drunken late teens-early twenties. Now I have a powerful craving for hot fresh waffles & syrup and pork sausage.)
Not to boast or salt the wounds of my fellow Floridians, but
MY HOME INTERNET IS BACK UP!!! Woo-hoo! An instant +4 bonus to my SAN checks! Now I'm going to soak my parched self into the cool waters pouring from The Series of Tubes until my brain is rehydrated and all prune-y again!
There's really too much for me to summarize, but...
Here in Lee County (Ft Myers, Cape Coral, Ft Myers Beach, Sanibel, Captiva, Pine Island) were still experiencing steady 50-65 mph winds from the Gulf 4 hours after Milton made landfall and moved inland. Property along the Gulf and on the Caloosahatchee River has seen various levels of flooding. Ft Myers Beach, Sanibel, and Captiva similarly had flooding. Downtown Fort Myers had over 5 feet of flooding, over the roads and into buildings. Reports are that most of McGregor Blvd along the river in Ft Myers has had at least some flooding, as well as western and lower- elevation parts of Cape Coral, Naples, Estero, and Marco Island. Thankfully storm surge along the Caloosahatchee and Charlotte Harbor was lower than projected.
Our power here kept flickering throughout last night but it stayed on. 200K customers (roughly 50%) in Lee County are currently without power, many reports of transformers blowing. 67% or more are without power in Charlotte County, and a million or so without in Sarasota & Tampa. In addition to the thousands of local FP&L and LCEC power restoration lineman, there are a few tens of thousands more from other states. They were camped in state before the storm, and they started power restoration efforts this morning after the sustained winds dropped. A cold front came in on Milton's heels, so high temps are in the mid 80s and humidity has dropped, so it's not bad for everyone working and cleaning up, especially those without power for air conditioning.
When the first outer bands of Milton came on shore, they spun up a dozen or so centers of atmospheric rotation across Lee, and there were at least 3-4 confirmed tornados with severe damage to several homes. Today I believe the official number was 34-36 confirmed tornados ahead and around Hurricane Milton, with four confirmed deaths from them so far. Tornadic rotation ahead of hurricanes is normal, and it's not uncommon during summer thunderstorms, but that only would spin up one, rarely two tornados; this many tornados is completely new behavior to see here.
All of this is happening in area where many people are still attempting to rebuild from the flooding and wind damage of Hurricane Ian two years ago, and the flooding from Hurricane Helene just two weeks ago. Most of the hardest hit people from Milton, Helene, and Ian are fixed-income retirees and poor/working class folk living in non-elevated homes built in the 1960s & 70s. While some wind damage mitigation can be retrofitted (hurricane clips, roofing meeting the new building codes, storm shutters), flood damage is significantly more expensive to mitigate. Elevating an old cinderblock home is rarely feasible, especially for those living in them; similarly, a full demolition & rebuild on pilings or higher foundation is prohibitively expensive. And home insurance for many is becoming a financial hardship. {Angry politics & insurance ranting deleted}
Both of the housecats were a bit freaked out -- especially the one that showed up right after Hurricane Ian and probably rode out that hurricane by himself -- but them seem relaxed now. Our local grocery stores are reopening, gas is available, but there are too many people on the roads just out gawking at the damage. I can't shouldn't complain, but our home Internet went out at 3AM, and I'm burning though my budget cell plan's data and local cellular connectivity is frequently overloaded right now. Whine, whine, whine
Milton officially made landfall as of 8:30PM Eastern at Siesta Key (Sarasota) as a mid-Cat 3. Storm surge will continue to rise with flooding through midnight.
Thanks for the thread, WE Ray. Hope you and your loved ones are settling in, and that you all can ride out the storm safely. After the loss of life and massive devastation from Helene, I'm still (unrealistically) hoping Milton won't be as bad as projected.
My Dad and I are about 75-80 miles south of Sarasota in Lee County, so we're expecting to be hit by tropical storm to Cat 1 force winds and rain. We're not far from the Caloosahatchee River, so we're most concerned about the projected storm surge levels and possibly a tornado. My brother's home will sadly very likely be flooded again similar to how they were during Hurricane Ian two years ago; they moved everything they could as high as possible and thankfully evacuated south to a friend's house in inland Estero early Monday. Most everyone else I know either lived inland or were able to evacuate inland. Local officials all seem to be competently executing plans (and unlike others in Tallahassee, ignoring opportunities to politically grandstand) to keep people and infrastructure as safe as possible. Local shelters are all open with room available. Residents and visitors alike seem to be taking warnings very seriously and getting out of the way, as evidenced by slow-moving heavy traffic heading south I75 and heading east across Alligator Alley.
For all the Paizoians in Florida, hope you and yours stay safe. I'll try to pop in here again post-landfall as soon as I'm able.
Edit: We expect to lose power, cable/DSL Internet, and possibly cell service for some extended duration. For anyone interested in staying informed about Charlotte and Lee counties (south of Tampa & Sarasota/Hillsborough county), you can probably check in with the WINK (CBS) and WBBH (NBC) local news stations feeds on Youtube. Info from them will be much more accurate than trying to sift through all the deliberate misinformation being pumped out on Facebook and Xitter.
Soon-to-be Hurricane Helene will pass well offshore west of us here, though we'll see a good bit of wind and rain, and maybe short power outages, on Thursday as it moves past. Dad & I are well-prepared and alert but not worried, and we'll be fine. Dad may even be secretly hoping for a power outage as an excuse to crack open a can of doctor-forbidden Spam.
Please be safe. Helene is no joke.
TriOmegaZero wrote:
Our Florida restaurants are closed for the storm. Hoping everyone there stays safe.
DeathQuaker wrote:
Yes, indeed, I hope you stay safe. I know you know what you're doing, but I expect we will worry nonetheless. :)
Thanks for the well wishes. My immediately family and I came out fine from Helene, just a mild annoyance for us. So much devastation and death for so very many others though. There were a lot of coastal areas from Naples northward that got flooded, Punta Gorda was particularly bad. My brother & his wife's home far inland isn't far from the Caloosahatchee river, and the water rose over the banks, over their road, and crept up to the foundation of their house before it started to recede; they lost almost everything in their house from Hurricane Ian, so they were understandably a bit freaked out.
But this looks like the new normal. Milton is now teed up to hit us sometime Wednesday. We'll probably have a better estimate how bad on Monday as the forecast cone gets more precise from updated data. Ugh.
Nothing ambitious dinner-wise. Wednesday dinner was chicken noodle soup from a jar & grilled cheese, Thursday dinner was frozen pizza, and last night was beans & ham for Dad.
I've never considered cubing (as opposed to halving/quartering, depending on size) potatoes to make mash, but it makes sense - they'd cook quicker, and the mashing part would be easier.
I never really thought about it much, just that's what I watched Mom do to boil potatoes, so that's how I learned to do it. Mashed potatoes and "brown gravy"* maybe the first thing Mom taught me to make. I don't really cube the potatoes so much as cut them into ~3/4" chunks all roughly the same size so they all cook at the same rate. They're usually done after a good 20-25 minute stovetop boil in salted water, then can be made into mashed** or buttered potatoes (after draining off the water, add a few tbsp of butter, salt, and ground pepper, stir gently to coat, and serve immediately). I've tried boiling smaller-sized chunks, but then the russets tend to fall apart while boiling and I lose too much draining them in the sink. Red potatoes and similar waxier potatoes would probably hold up a lot better, but I don't keep other potatoes on hand as I have a hard enough time just going through a 5 lb bag of russets before the starch turns into sugar (I have to keep raw potatoes in the fridge) or they get mushy.
*: Mom's & Grandmom's "brown gravy" isn't what everyone else calls brown gravy. It's instead a gravy with a roux of bacon drippings and flour cooked to caramel-brown, then slowly stir in the milk; it's very close to the sausage gravy you'd have over (American) biscuits.
**: Mom's & Grandmom technically didn't mash their potatoes either (or put them through a ricer). Instead they always used a hand mixer, so it's actually whipped potatoes.
DeathQuaker wrote:
I made really great polenta and braised tomatoes and peppers Weds and then got insanely busy yesterday and today and now due to other obligations won't have a chabce to eat the rest until Sunday night. You think it might be alright or should I chuck it? I was gonna make shakshuka with the leftover sauce and fry the polenta as a side.
I think your polenta & roasted veg is probably fine for a couple days in the fridge, but if it was me, I'd stuff them in the freezer until Sunday morning.
DeathQuaker wrote:
Woo! So glad you have not yet been carted off.
Have you ever tried blending minced mushroom into ground meat to lower the fat/calorie content? I believe its 1 part mushroom to two or three parts meat. It tastes good to me the few times I've tasted it. The idea is it sustains a savory flavor and moisture so it doesn't taste fakey. Would be particularly good for ground turkey with lower fat content because it would keep it moist.
Yeah, I like to sneak in mushrooms into gravies and ground meat by rough chopping them, then using the little food processor to turn them into a minced paste. They do add a good boost of umami and probably a bit of nutrition, but I have to hide them as Dad hates the texture of cooked mushrooms. The problem is I skipped picking them up in the store because they weren't on sale when I went over the last couple months, and they fell off my mental shopping list so I stopped adding them to my actual shopping lists. Also, I've been fully converted to Better than Bouillon pastes, and they have a good umami boost from the meat and yeast extracts in them. But I need to start getting mushrooms again.
Weirdly, I now also want to try using crushed Wheaties cereal in ground turkey and ground chicken.
In case you were ever curious, an escaped baby duck has a surprising vertical leap, runs only slightly slower than a gazelle, and has the escape artist skills of Houdini.
As always, panic and adrenaline will wake you up better than several cups of coffee.
Tonight was just leftover spaghetti & meatballs for Dad, and a small peanut butter sandwich for me. I don't have an appetite but I need to eat something. I'll probably go grocery shopping tomorrow and overhaul my meal planning to account for more meal prep & cooking from scratch.
Family drama:
After recent interactions with my sis the last several weeks that escalated again tonight, I just...
I'm doing the best I can with my limited mental & financial resources, and I was already on empty helping Dad care for Mom before she passed. Whatever energy I can find in a day, 99% of it goes into looking after Dad (and the two not-mine cats). But sis is now making it her priority to muscle in and try to micromanage Dad & me both, and deliberately maneuvering herself between us, especially when it comes to managing his health. I'm tired of her accusations that I'm both incompetent and lazy, and that I don't care enough about Dad. I'm tired of trying to manage her frustration and anger and fears while getting next to nothing back, and trying not to push her buttons while ignoring when she mashes mine. I'm tired of conversations where as I speak, I can watch as her gears turn in real time to weaponize my words against me, and somehow I'm the one picking a fight or being a b**** "pissy" ("Oh, you knew what I meant.") when I'm honestly seeking clarification and specifics; I like precision, I like granularity, I need lists to function. I'm tired of every conversation I have with her always becoming how I am disappointing in various ways, how my worsening depression & anxiety aren't real, that my worsening arthritis and vengeful uterus and exhaustion aren't real, and how I'm always not meeting her ever-changing expectations. Pushing back even lightly now just turns it into yet another fight that she needs to win, and fighting (or "winning" the fight) doesn't do anything to resolve the challenges or help Dad.
And sweet Jesu, I'm exhausted of being asked to explain and justify to her every food choice, every budget consideration, every moment of my time in a day.
Dad has vocally been fine with me and my levels of care, and has been telling me that I should continue to stick with what I've been doing. He's been pretty even-keeled and slow to take offense, but even he is now expressing that she's coming up against his limits with her. I need her knowledge and experience with the medical system to care for Dad, and even if I could cut her out of the loop, I don't want to I shouldn't.
I've known for a while now that when Dad eventually passes and the estate is settled (thank heavens for his will and the trust he & Mom set up), that although I love her, I was going to need to go no contact with her for several months. As of this evening, I am so f'ing done with her (and her MAGA cultist husband) that I could make that no contact permanent, gleefully pack up a UHaul to several states away, and never look back. The relationship feels broken now in a way it never was before, and the only thing the bothers me is knowing that I should care about the connection when I don't anymore.
China becomes second nation to plant flag on the Moon
Well, that's a lot of effort to fail. What were you thinking, China? You can't just plant a flag and think you're done. You've got to water it and tend to it. Did you even amend the moon soil first? How are you going to stop space bugs from eating it? You planted your flag on the dark side, for heaven's sake! It's not a mushroom, how is it going to grow in the dark?! Sheesh.
Tuesday dinner was just tomato soup from a can and grilled cheese sandwiches.
Wednesday dinner was fried tilapia (instead of the usual baked in parchment version) with baked potatoes and applesauce. Twice-dredged the fish in flour with cornstarch mixed in, and they came out light & crunchy.
Thursday dinner was baked pork chops, buttered honey carrots, and rolls.
Last night's dinner was meatloaf, fresh mashed potatoes, milk gravy, and leftover rolls. The meatloaf was a cheat-y version to see if I could come up with a quicker version kinda like what Mom would have made. (Most of her tested true recipes on notecards were lost somehow.) Wasn't really that much quicker, but I did figure out how to quickly caramelize onions (a little baking powder to lower pH to brown quicker, pinch of sugar to help caramelize, and a few splashes of water to deglaze pan). Meatloaf was pretty tasty. I forgot to use oats instead of bread crumbs, maybe next time. Tonight will be leftovers. Still haven't attempted döner-seasoned meatloaf, having trouble locally-sourcing a few of the spices needed.
Very sad news today indeed. I never met him beyond a few short interactions on the web, but he seemed like a good-humored decent fellow. My sincere condolences to his family, friends, & the FaWTLies. I hope little Spooky was waiting for the PMG to guide him on their next planar adventure.
Very sad news today indeed. I never met him beyond a few short interactions on the web, but he seemed like a good-humored decent fellow. My sincere condolences to his family, friends, & the FaWTLies. I hope little Spooky was waiting for the PMG to guide him on their next planar adventure.
I am angry at my brain throughout this thread for repeatedly misreading "Ponyfinder" as "Pugfinder". I am very disappointed that there is neither a pug (dog)-centric version nor a pugwampi-centric version of Pathfinder.
You are thinking of Pugmire, a different game.
No, Pugmire is my sprawling Longmiresmut fanfiction set in Golarion with a lesbian gremlin gunslinger version of Vic Moretti as the protagonist.
I am angry at my brain throughout this thread for repeatedly misreading "Ponyfinder" as "Pugfinder". I am very disappointed that there is neither a pug (dog)-centric version nor a pugwampi-centric version of Pathfinder.
Dinner last night (Monday) was a take & bake pepperoni & sausage pizza from Aldi. I did my usual obsessive-compulsive thing of removing all the meat toppings, adding extra Italian seasoning + teeny drizzle olive oil + 4 oz more fresh-shredded mozzarella, then re-topped (pepperoni circumference wall to prevent the cheese burning, then sausage & leftover pepperoni evenly scattered across the rest) and baked.
Tonight will be leftovers. Tomorrow will be busy, so dinner will be something quick. Sloppy joes and french fries?
